Indulgence and Privilege

           For decades the media has romanticized the Kennedy family and their legacy, even to the point of anointing them “Camelot” and “American’s royalty.”  With the death of Edward Kennedy, we see again the fawning admiration.  While Edward “Ted” Kennedy was a well educated, intelligent man, I would not want my children to emulate him.  When I look upon the man who was often called the Lion of the Senate, I see a deeply flawed person.  His drinking was on a scale that lent truth to the stereotype of the Irish.  At least one tabloid called him the “Palm Beach boozer.”  Scandal, such as the Patrick Kennedy rape case, often lingered in the background.     

            And those who seek to laud his greatness should never forget his supreme failure.  On the night of July 18, 1969 he drove off a bridge and left his passenger 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne alive in the submerged car.  Ten hours later, after the discovery of the sunken vehicle, he called police.  Bob Weir, writing in The American Thinker, provides significant details.  The diver who found the abandoned woman reported that her body was curled up in a spot where, he believed, that an air bubble must have formed. The diver further stated that she may have survived "for at least two hours down there," and that if the authorities had been called promptly, "there is a strong possibility that she would have been alive on removal from the submerged car."  What did Ted Kennedy do during those then hours?

            Edward Kennedy led a life marked by over indulgence and privilege.  Only in the last few years did he approach the maturity and the greatness of his older brothers.