Kennedy name tough to live up to

It seems safe to say that if Edward M. Kennedy had been born into an ordinary American family, rather than a wealthy, glamorous one, he would probably have lived more of an ordinary life. But whatever else he was — or was not — Ted Kennedy was no ordinary American, nor was he an ordinary politician. One Kennedy biographer, Joe McGinnis, wrote that the youngest and last of the Kennedy brothers emerged as a “curiously tragic figure,” one who was pushed, however unwilling or unprepared, into the public spotlight. But McGinnis also said that “it is impossible not to admire him for his sheer ability to survive.” I have to agree. Kennedy, who died last week after losing a 15-month battle with brain cancer, represented perhaps the final chapter of a family and an era beset by one tragedy after another. Indeed, whether you loved him or hated him, Kennedy’s passing marked “a piece of the American landscape that’s gone,” according to radio talk show host Mark Simone. The age of “vigah,” so often used to characterize the presidency of older brother John F. Kennedy, was gone forever after both John and Bobby Kennedy were slain so many years ago, yet with Ted still around, a piece of that era remained nonetheless. But unlike his older brothers, Teddy Kennedy, almost in spite of himself, was able to go on living, getting one chance after another to finally get it right — and perhaps he finally did. His ideology differed greatly from that of Jack, although his personal life was very similar. Tragically, his behavior during and after the Chappaquiddick episode in July 1969 never seemed to include a sincere public apology for what he had done, something many Americans never forgave him for. Because of this and several other things, Ted Kennedy cannot ever be labeled as a hero, which Jack was and which Bobby might have become to some. Nor does he deserve to be. But personally, while his political ideology also differs very significantly from mine, I cannot hate his memory, for later in his life, having gone on to an apparently successful second marriage, Kennedy seemed to finally get it right, at least as far as personal behavior was concerned. Granted, had almost anyone else done what he did that dark night on Martha’s Vineyard, harsher legal treatment almost certainly would have occurred. But then again, very few would have gotten so many chances to finally get it right. May he rest in peace, and may this country always do as Ted Kennedy tried to: keep on persevering.