The Wit and Wisdom of Ted Kennedy - Bill Adler [10]
—Remarks in opposition to a proposed
Constitutional amendment on the definition of
marriage, September 4, 2003
It’s fundamentally wrong to discriminate against gays and lesbians by denying them the many benefits and protections that the laws of the state provide for married couples. Being part of a family is a basic right. It means having loved ones with whom to build a future, to share life’s joys and tears. It means having the right to be treated fairly by the tax code, to visit loved ones in the hospital, and to receive health benefits, family leave benefits, and survivor benefits. I urge my colleagues to reject efforts to write that kind of bigotry into federal law.
—Statement on equal rights for
gays and lesbians, April 13, 2005
As far back as Justinian’s Rome, criminal codes have been symbols of justice, examples of society’s commitment to the principles of fairness. In this respect, the current federal criminal code is a disgrace. Congresses over the years have enacted some three thousand criminal laws, piling one on top of another until we have a structure that looks more like a Rube Goldberg contraption than a comprehensive criminal code.
—Speech, January, 19, 1978
We [in Congress] enacted the landmark Americans With Disabilities Act, bringing comprehensive protection for the rights of forty-three million Americans. Because of that law, fellow citizens across the country are finally learning that “disabled” does not mean “unable.”
—Remarks on civil rights legislation,
October 22, 1993
Today we seek to take the next step on this journey of justice by banning discrimination based on sexual orientation. … We know we cannot change attitudes overnight. But the great lesson of American history is that changes in the law are an essential step in breaking down barriers of bigotry, exposing prejudice for what it is, and building a strong and fair nation.
—Statement on the Employment
Non-Discrimination Act of 1995
ON LEADERSHIP
AND COURAGE
ONE OF TED KENNEDY’S FORMATIVE EXPERIENCES WAS his meeting with the king and queen of England, who came to pay a call on his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, the newly appointed Ambassador to the Court of St. James, in the year before England’s entry into World War II. Kennedy recalled having to be “gussied up” for the occasion. He was six years old. He had already met the young princess Elizabeth at Windsor Castle on a previous occasion. This marked the beginning of a lifetime of getting to know world leaders. There is hardly an important figure on the world scene in the past 60 years that Ted Kennedy has not met at one time or another. He spoke with Nelson Mandela just four days after his release from his 27-year imprisonment in South Africa; he has met with the heads of the world’s great religions from the Pope to the Dalai Lama. Safe to say, then, that this was a man who knew leadership when he saw it. And often in his speeches he would cite examples of leadership, both from those he knew well and from those renowned in history.
But he was just as quick to recognize and pay tribute to the extraordinary leadership and courage of those whose names remain obscure. His 1999 eulogy for six firefighters from Worcester, Massachusetts, who gave their lives to save others, is as moving as any praise of Nobel Peace Prize winners.
He has also recognized the courage of lone dissenters, steadfast individuals who refuse to bow to the pressure of dictators or bureaucracies abroad, just as he has stood up for whistleblowers at home, people who refuse to bow to political pressure or self-interest to keep on doing what conscience tells them is right. At times Senator Kennedy has occupied this role himself. When the pundits of the media