This One is For Ted..

About a year ago, Senator Ted Kennedy was struggling and slowly succumbing to a brain tumor. "The Lion of the Senate" had spent 37 years in U.S. Senate working for people in Massachusetts and across the country. He would take up the mantle for various causes throughout his tenure, but one would become his lifelong cause: health care reform. He was in the U.S. Senate when Medicare was passed. He was in the U.S. Senate when SCHIP was passed. Through it all, health care for not just the elderly, but for everyone who wanted it was his goal. Presidents Nixon and Clinton were the two closest during his time to getting something passed in the wake of the work of President Lyndon Johnson. He stood behind then-candidate Obama in 2008 because of a combination of the hope he saw in his similarity to his older brother, John Kennedy, and the hope he saw in a man that might be the one who finally brought health care reform across the finish line. Unfortunately, Senator Kennedy passed away late last August. With his death, a hole was left in the U.S. Senate and he died without seeing the completion of his last objective. Six months later; Senator Kennedy, your lifelong cause has finally crossed the finish line. What used to be a privilege is now a right.

To celebrate this monumental achievement in our history, I went back and reread the letter that Senator Kennedy wrote President Obama last year while the debate over health care was waging. Below is that letter:

May 12, 2009

Dear Mr. President,

I wanted to write a few final words to you to express my gratitude for your repeated personal kindnesses to me – and one last time, to salute your leadership in giving our country back its future and its truth.

On a personal level, you and Michelle reached out to Vicki, to our family and me in so many different ways. You helped to make these difficult months a happy time in my life.

You also made it a time of hope for me and for our country.

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 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.

There will be struggles – there always have been – and they are already underway again. But as we moved forward in these months, I learned that you will not yield to calls to retreat - that you will stay with the cause until it is won. I saw your conviction that the time is now and witnessed your unwavering commitment and understanding that health care is a decisive issue for our future prosperity. But you have also reminded all of us that it concerns more than material things; that 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.

And so because of your vision and resolve, I came to believe that soon, very soon, affordable health coverage will be available to all, in an America where the state of a family's health will never again depend on the amount of a family's wealth. And 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.

In closing, let me say again how proud I was to be part of your campaign- and proud as well to play a part in the early months of a new era of high purpose and achievement. I entered public life with a young President who inspired a generation and the world. It gives me great hope that as I leave, another young President inspires another generation and once more on America's behalf inspires the entire world.

So, I wrote this to thank you one last time as a friend- and to stand with you one last time for change and the America we can become.

At the Denver Convention where you were nominated, I said the dream lives on.

And I finished this letter with unshakable faith that the dream will be fulfilled for this generation, and preserved and enlarged for generations to come.

With deep respect and abiding affection,
[Ted]


Some might not have always agreed with Senator Kennedy. Some might not have always liked Senator Kennedy. But there must a respect level amongst both sides of the aisle for the perseverance he had throughout his career and even in his final days to continue to fight for causes worth fighting for. You can tell that the dream about to be fulfilled gave his extra motivation not to slow down as he became sicker. You can tell that the possibility of finally having health care reform pass was enough to give him solace as he knew his days were numbered.

So, Senator Ted Kennedy...this one is for you. You never gave up and the dream lives on long after you have left.