Senator Edward Kennedy dies

It was not unexpected, by him or by others, as he was gravely ill with brain cancer. One only hopes he was spared too much excruciating pain at the end. Whatever else the Kennedys were they were fighters for things. Getting their own way, helping others, pursuing women (or men), siding with terrorists, posing with peacemakers, lying about life, telling the unbridled truth. In a nutshell they were extreme versions of the complexity of human nature. Temptations came their way and were hardly rebuffed. They were either embraced or avoided.

Edward Kennedy had the misfortune to have had a father who felt it was the ideal aspiration for Irish immigrants to ascend to the heights of American society come what may. So the notion of a Kennedy Dynasty was foisted on the American people. John Kennedy was portrayed as a saint ready to save his people, Robert (aka Bobby) was brutally martyred and Teddy was the willing supplicant, keen to take up the torch of liberty. All that went adrift with Chappaquiddick, as it came to be called. Ted Kennedy was driving a young woman named Mary Jo Kopechne from his Martha's Vineyard compound and drove off a bridge into a pond. Kopechne drowned, Kennedy swam to safety and left the scene of the accident.

At the time his future seemed one of literally being a washed up politician. However, as we know he came back and doggedly rebuilt his life. He left behind, apparently, some arrogant beliefs and became a politician of stature. I well remember the Kennedys causing people to have violently opposing views about them. But whatever we thought or think of them, they certainly left their mark.