The Wit and Wisdom of Ted Kennedy - Bill Adler [3]
—Fourth of July address, Wakefield, MA, 1970
[We] are … good neighbors. The settlers traveled to the West in wagon trains because they knew that the survival of their families depended on strong communities working together for the common good. They lived by the Golden Rule not only as a moral mandate, but as a necessity. That is our American heritage. Neighbor helping neighbor. All of us contributing to our communities and to our nation to make them stronger.
—Speech, March 14, 2005
No nation is guaranteed a position of lasting prosperity and security. We have to work for it. We have to fight for it. We have to sacrifice for it. We have a choice. We can continue to be buffeted by the harsh winds of a shrinking world. Or we can think anew, and guide the currents of globalization with a new progressive vision that strengthens America and equips our citizens to move confidently to the future.
—Address at the National Press Club,
Washington, DC, January 12, 2005
The Bible gives us an excellent ancient example of power, justice and love coming together in the course of human events. That example is God’s work on behalf of the Israelites while they were in bondage, during 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, and in the midst of their many battles for independence. This same God inspired Dr. [Martin Luther] King to boldly proclaim the vision of a new America, undivided by race, religion, or gender—an America where the ingenuity, creativity and industry of African-Americans is welcomed—an America built on the principles of one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
—Remarks on Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday,
Peoples Congregational United Church of Christ,
January 14, 2001
This November the torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans, so with Barack Obama and for you and for me, our country will be committed to his cause. The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on.
—Speech at the Democratic National Convention,
August 25, 2008
ON DEFINING MOMENTS IN
OUR HISTORY
EARLY ON IN OUR TASK OF CATALOGUING SENATOR Kennedy’s writings and speeches, we began to see a clear and consistent pattern emerge: each was imbued with a deep appreciation of history. For every event he has commemorated, for every policy advocated or opposed, he notes much more than its impact on our present lives but takes care to measure its place in the tapestry of our times, its ties to the past and its significance for our future.
We see this in his congratulatory remarks upon the election of the first African-American president, Barack Obama, as well as in his somber reflections on the day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It’s there, too, in his measured words of resistance to the Bush Administration’s drumbeat toward war in Iraq.
Far more often than the standard politician, Senator Kennedy draws upon the wisdom of past leaders and the lessons of the historical record to present his understanding of a challenge or crisis in the here-and-now. We did a quick experiment to prove the point, choosing twenty speeches and policy statements at random, and found not a single one lacking a reference to the roots of the issue under consideration or a citation of the work of a historian of the subject, or the insight of a leader who had dealt with the issue before. In a few cases, the citation was to something said by his brother Jack or Bobby, for it is clear that Ted Kennedy’s appreciation for the role of history is due in no small measure to having grown up in a family whose children were imbued from their earliest years with a sense of our history and their places in it.
With Barack Obama we will close the book on the old politics of race against race, gender against gender, ethnic group against ethnic group, and straight against gay.
—Endorsement of Senator Barack Obama
for president, American University,
January 2008
Yesterday’s [September 11] terrorist