The Wit and Wisdom of Ted Kennedy

by Bill Adler

  —Speech, June 30, 1977

  For decades the labor movement has stood as a bulwark for freedom and democracy against tyranny around the world. The labor movement was essential in making America a strong society. Its advocacy of progressive legislation has brought immense benefits to all Americans, whether or not they have a union card.

  —Statement on the North American Free Trade

  Agreement, November 20, 1993

  HEALTH CARE:

  SENATOR KENNEDY’S

  LAST GREAT CHALLENGE

  FINDING A WAY TO PROVIDE ALL AMERICANS WITH ACCESS to high quality health care has been something Ted Kennedy advocated from his very first term in the U.S. Senate in 1962. As the years went by and each proposal to accomplish the goal met with defeat, his determination increased. But the cause was still one among many; it did not become the central crusade of his life until 1973, when his twelve-year-old son Teddy, Jr. was stricken with cancer.

  All at once he was plunged into a world of life-or-death medical decisions, grueling treatment schedules, and countless hours spent in waiting rooms with other parents of young cancer patients. He was there as a parent, not a politician, but the sounds and scenes in those waiting rooms stayed with him as no fact-finding tour or hearings on the state of health care could ever have done. Teddy, Jr. was fortunate to be admitted into an experimental treatment program that was highly promising for children with his form of cancer—at a cost of three thousand dollars per treatment. Three times per week for two years. While the protocol was still in the clinical trial phase, the government paid the bill; however, once the treatment was proven effective, the families were made to pick up the costs. In most cases their private insurance companies simply refused to pay.

  So he saw many of these parents, who by this time he had come to know quite well, taking out second mortgages, or even forced to sell their homes. Some lost their jobs—and their health insurance—due to the time spent shuttling a sick child back and forth to the hospital for treatment. Bankruptcy and financial ruin loomed for people just like him, parents willing to do anything to save a child’s life, but unlike him in their middle-class resources. From that point on, “the battle [for health care] had my complete attention.”

  And that is the way it remained to the last day of his life.

  While I will not see the victory, I was able to look forward and know that we will—yes, we will—fulfill the promise of health care in America as a right and not a privilege.

  —Letter to President Obama, May 12, 2009

  What we face is, above all, a moral issue; that at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country.

  —Letter to President Obama, May 12, 2009.

  These were the lines directly quoted by

  the President in his address to the nation

  on health care reform, September 10, 2009

  For me this is a season of hope, new hope for a justice and fair prosperity for the many, and not just for the few—new hope. And this is the cause of my life—new hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American—North, South, East, West, young, old—will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege.

  —Democratic National Convention,

  August 12, 1980

  Thirty-one years ago this summer, Dr. Martin Luther King led the March on Washington to demand basic human rights for all Americans. Today we have the chance to fulfill another part of that dream, by making health care a basic right.

  —Statement on health care reform, July 28, 1994

  If we deny the finest health care to any citizens, we deny the value of their lives. They become slaves of unnecessary suffering and disability. The promise of a beautiful society acquires a hollow ring. The American dream becomes a nightmare.

  —Speech, October 5, 1975

  What we have today in the United States is not so much a health-care system as a disease-care system.

  —Remarks on health care, May 31, 1994

  America doesn’t need a double standard on health care: one for those who can afford it and another for those who can’t.

  —Speech, February 1, 1976

  A world that is spending $300 billion a year for arms can spend a little more for health. And it may well be that what we do in health will be as important to world peace and cooperation in the long run as what we achieve in arms control, and at a tiny fraction of the cost.

  —Speech, May 6, 1977

  Too many elderly Americans today must choose between food on the table and the medicine they need to stay healthy or to treat their illnesses. Too many seniors take half the pills their doctor prescribes, or don’t even fill needed prescriptions—because they cannot afford the high cost of prescription drugs. Too many seniors are paying twice as much as they should for the drugs they need, because they are forced to pay full price, while almost everyone with a private insurance policy benefits from negotiated discounts. Too many seniors are ending up hospitalized—at immense costs to Medicare—because they aren’t receiving the drugs they need at all, or can’t afford to take them correctly. Pharmaceutical products are increasingly the source of miracle cures for a host of dread diseases, but senior citizens are being left out and left behind because Congress fails to act.

  —Statement at Senate Finance Committee

  Hearings on Prescription Drug Coverage

  for Seniors, March 29, 2000

  Medicare is a specific contract between the people and their government. It says, “Work hard, pay into the trust fund during your working years, and you will have health security in your retirement years.” Today’s elderly kept their part of the bargain. They fought in World War II and Korea. They got up every morning, went to work, played by the rules, raised their families. Their hard work laid the foundation for the prosperity our country enjoys today. But our country’s promise to them is being broken today and every day, because Medicare does not cover prescription drugs . … It is time to honor that promise.

  —Statement at Senate Finance Committee

  Hearings on Prescription Drug Coverage

  for Seniors, March 29, 2000

  Medicare and Social Security are two of the most successful programs ever enacted. They are a solemn commitment to all Americans—North, South, East, and West—that if they contribute to trust funds during their working years, they will have financial security and health security in their golden years.

  —Speech on the 30th Anniversary of Medicare,

  July 25, 1995

  In any given year, one-third of the uninsured go without needed medical care. Eight million uninsured Americans fail to take medication their doctors prescribe because they cannot afford to fill the prescription. Four hundred thousand children suffering from asthma never see a doctor. Five hundred thousand children with recurrent earaches never see a doctor. Thirty-two thousand Americans with heart disease go without life-saving and life-enhancing bypass surgery or angioplasty—because they are uninsured. Twenty-seven thousand uninsured women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. They are twice as likely as insured women not to receive medical treatment until their cancer has already spread in their bodies.

  The chilling bottom line is that eighty-three thousand Americans die every year because they have no insurance. Being uninsured is the seventh leading cause of death in America. Our failure to provide health insurance for every citizen kills more people than kidney disease, liver disease, and AIDS combined.

  —Statement on “President Bush’s Fantasy Budget,”

  February 21, 2001

  Nurses are the backbone of an effective health care system. We cannot have a quality health care system without quality care by nurses.

  —Statement urging the passage of the Nurse

  Reinvestment Act, July 22, 2002

  With the sole exception of South Africa, no other industrialized nation in the world leaves its citizens in fear
of financial ruin because of illness.

  —Senate speech, December 9, 1978

  As the crisis continues, it becomes more and more difficult for anyone to pretend that AIDS is someone else’s problem. There are few of us who do not know someone who is either infected or affected by AIDS. In a very real way, we are all living with AIDS.

  —Statement, May 14, 1996

  One of our greatest fears as human beings is that one day we’ll learn that we—or a loved one—have cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, Parkinson’s, or any of a number of dread and deadly diseases. But every day, thousands of Americans are stunned by that bad news. The phone rings. The doctor is on the line. And lives are changed forever by the awful news.

  Stem cell research holds the greatest promise of hope for the millions of Americans who face these diseases. Research on these tiny cells may mean that the next time a doctor gives the bad news of horrible disease, the doctor can also say that these diseases are now curable.

  —Statement at hearing on stem cell research,

  September 5, 2001

  Access to mental health services is one of the most important civil rights issues facing the nation. For too long, persons living with mental disorders have suffered discriminatory treatment at all levels of society. They have been forced to pay more for the services they need and to worry about their job security if their employer finds out about their condition. Sadly, in America today, patients with biochemical problems in their liver are treated with more compassion than those with biochemical problems in their brain. That kind of discriminatory treatment must end. No one questions the need for affordable treatment of physical illnesses. But those who suffer from mental illnesses face serious barriers in obtaining the services they need at prices they can afford. Like those suffering from physical illnesses, persons with mental disorders deserve quality care. Failure to obtain treatment can mean years of shattered dreams and unfulfilled potential. Americans with mental illness deserve health and happiness too—just as do those with physical illness.

  —Remarks on the Mental Health Equitable Treatment

  Act, November 29, 2001

  When I thought of all the years, all the battles, and all the memories of my long public life, I felt confident in these closing days that while I will not be there when it happens, you [President Obama] will be the President who at long last signs into law the health care reform that is the great unfinished business of our society. For me, this cause stretched across decades; it has been disappointed, but never finally defeated. It was the cause of my life. And in the past year, the prospect of victory sustained me—and the work of achieving it summoned my energy and determination.

  —Letter to President Obama, May 12, 2009

  IN LIGHTER MOMENTS

  TED KENNEDY LOVED TO LAUGH. SO MANY OF THE speakers who paid him tribute at his memorial service recalled times spent with him, laughing. That hearty, booming, generous laugh that his friends so loved to hear. He loved a good joke or funny story, and of course, like any good Irish politician, he could spin a fine yarn. His humor was never mean-spirited; he was often self-deprecating, always quick to laugh at his own foibles and quirks.

  Of course, he found it easy enough to poke fun at the Republicans, too: They gave him plenty of good shots. Many of us remember how he used the opportunity at his speech at the Democratic National Convention of 1988. Then-Vice President George Bush was the Republican nominee. Reagan was finishing up his second term, leaving office as the public was still wondering who did what in the Iran-Contra arms-trading deal. Bush claimed not to have known what was going on. “Where was George?” Kennedy asked the thousands of assembled delegates. He came up with more examples of the Vice President’s absence while scandals were breaking out in the Reagan administration, one after the other. “Where was George?” Kennedy asked again, and this time the crowd chanted along with him. Then he was on a roll: He’d name a Reagan era policy mess, and the crowd would roar, “Where was George?” He had the rhythm down pat and the crowd chanting, clapping, and laughing along with him.

  While the mood was light and the crowd played along, behind the laughter there was a question worth thinking about. Why wasn’t the Vice President involved in each of the policy matters that affected so many millions of Americans? While Kennedy made his point with humor, at the core of the question was a concern that still resonated after the laughter was gone.

  That was often the case with even his lightest remarks: that you knew he cared. When he heard that North Carolina Senator (and arch-conservative) Jesse Helms, scheduled to undergo heart surgery, had quipped beforehand, “It’s no piece of cake, but it sure beats listening to Ted Kennedy on the Senate floor,” he sent him this get-well note: “I would be happy to send you tapes of my recent Senate speeches if that will help your speedy recovery.”

  If, as the old saw has it, laughter is the best medicine, then Ted Kennedy was a wonderfully skilled healer.

  We have learned that it is important to take issues seriously, but never to take ourselves too seriously.

  —Speech at Harvard, December 2008

  Well, here I don’t go again.

  —Remark on announcing that he is not

  running for president in 1988

  Finally, after all of these years, when someone says, “Who does that damn Kennedy think he is,” there’s only a one in three chance they’re talking about me.

  —Remark following the election of his son Patrick

  to Congress, joining nephew Joseph Kennedy II.

  Frankly, I don’t mind not being president. I just mind that someone else is.

  —Speech at the Washington Gridiron Club dinner,

  March 1986

  They [the Moral Majority] seem to think it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a Kennedy to come to the campus of Liberty Baptist College.

  —Speech at Liberty Baptist College,

  October 3, 1983

  She’s a wonderful, wonderful person, and we’re looking to a happy and wonderful night … er, life.

  —Comment about Victoria Reggie,

  to whom he had just become engaged

  Well, I learned to lose, and for a Kennedy, that’s hard.

  —Answer to the question of what he’d learned from

  his failed run for the Democratic nomination

  for President in 1980

  It’s a privilege to be here tonight among friends. It isn’t always that way. Not long ago, I was addressing a group, and shortly after I started speaking, a heckler in the audience jumped to his feet and shouted: “Senator Kennedy is a horse’s rear end.” I’m paraphrasing slightly. Right away, members of the audience rushed to my defense. They threw the heckler out, and told him never to come back. So I said to the chairman of the event, “I had no idea this was Kennedy country.” And the chairman said, “It isn’t. It’s horse country.”

  —Remarks at the American Constitution Society

  Conference, September 25, 2002

  It’s a frequent joke in Democratic circles, as you may have heard, that for Republicans, life begins at conception and ends at birth. We know it’s not true, and it’s certainly not true for education.

  —Commencement address at Springfield College,

  May 14, 2006

  On hearing that Arnold Schwarzenegger, the husband of his niece Marie Shriver, and a lone Republican in a family of Democrats, was going to run for governor of California:

  He’s a brilliant actor, but what makes Republicans think he could do well in politics? Of course, it’s hard to argue with Arnold when you’re hanging upside down by the ankles.

  —2003

  Though very near the end of his life himself, Ted Kennedy found time to call Senator Chris Dodd, who was recuperating from prostate surgery. Kennedy told him:

  Well, between going through prostate cancer surgery and going to town hall meetings [on the Obama health care plan], you made a great choice!

  —Recounted by Senat
or Dodd at the memorial

  service for Ted Kennedy, August 28, 2009

  Speak of a vision, work hard, and get a good road map of Iowa.

  —Quip when asked his advice for candidates for

  president, as quoted in Newsweek, July 13, 1987

  Upon hearing his father, Joseph Kennedy, Sr., the newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain, repeatedly addressed as “Your Excellency,” then-six-year-old Teddy Kennedy asked:

  “Is that your new name, Daddy?”

  —As reported in The Daily Mail,

  March 17, 1938

  PERSONAL REFLECTIONS

  GROWING UP KENNEDY MEANS GROWING UP IN AN atmosphere of high achievement, expectation of public service, and unquestioning devotion to family, faith, and country. Both parents made these demands of their children, but the patriarch of the family, Joseph P. Kennedy, had another expectation that he made explicit: Kennedys do not complain. They never whine. “There’s no crying in this house,” he decreed.

  All nine of his children were taught this lesson but those who survived to bring up their own families came to break away from this stoic creed. Suffering in silence, as many can testify, can be damaging to the soul. There’s something to be said for finding ways to acknowledge the hurts and losses of life and to reflect on the meaning of painful events, and then share those reflections with those whose love and understanding can be counted on. It’s not weakness to seek out a trusted soul under these circumstance; on the contrary, it can be a great source of strength.

  But that’s not the way Ted Kennedy had been brought up to think, and so, as he suffered loss after loss—with each sibling’s early death, with his son Teddy, Jr.’s battle with cancer, and throughout so many other tragedies and sorrows—he simply pushed himself on, working more, attending more events, and yes, drinking too much and partying too hard. His first marriage broke down as a result. It was not until he met the woman who would become his second wife—Victoria Reggie—that he found a way to get off that dangerous road. She introduced him to the value of looking honestly at oneself, of grappling with his own painful emotions. She opened him up to himself.