Well, that was fodder for tears in my coffee this morning. All you fools out there, go ahead and chant Chappaquiddick as many times as it takes to get it out of your system and then let's get real.
Edward Kennedy, Senator from Massachusetts, fought for the benefit of every person on this big blue marble we call home. He fought for the benefit of his friends and his foes, rich and poor, sick and well, angry and calm, wise and dumb, regardless of race, creed, colour, gender, sexual orientation, occupation, faith, or lack thereof.
I had the good fortune of talking with Senator Kennedy on the day that the Defense Of Marriage Act won and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act lost as he left the Senate chamber to have lunch beneath the congress. I bemoaned the unfortunate backward vote that increased discrimination and decreased the freedoms of 7% of the American population as Teddy stopped to chat with me for a moment in his frustrating and busy day.
Ted's reply to my complaint was to reassure me by stating that: "Movement forward, Peter, is always in fits and starts." He continued: "When we sought to pass the Voting Rights Act in the 60s, it took many failures to reach our success, but we reached it because we never ceased striving."
The Senate Lion went on: "The debate and vote on the Senate floor today was disappointment to many, yet I consider it a victory that the conversation is engaged, and mark my words that whether it happens in four or forty years, our gay brothers and sisters will eventually be counted as whole citizens just as our fellow travelers of colour are, by statute at least, equal under the law. The battle is engaged and we will continue until it is won."
I thank the universe for Teddy and his sort, of which I count myself as one, because in spite of a population that often appears ungrateful, unworthy, and unthinking, he and we continue to strive for a world where access to care and opportunity are equal for all who seek them; where even those who haven't a dime or discipline might be treated as whole persons deserving of our nation's good will. We live, travail, and hope for a world that lives in joy rather than avarice and we work to create a world based not on sickness and war but rather a world based upon peace and health.
Let us now find the way to provide one more brick in the foundation of such a world by adding the simple choice of Medicare For All to our Federal Code of Law that we may begin the journey to a system where profit motive has no place in ministration to the sick and infirm.
Please call, write, email, and talk face to face with your legislator and the White House and demand not just a public option, not state by state co-ops, but Medicare For All. It takes all of two pages of legislation and a strong dose of righteous political will. Let us find the strength to do this so that we may stop hemorrhaging in our economy due to the selfish motives of those who would deny safe haven, healing, and economic security to their fellow Americans in the name of capital gain for the few.
May all the world find harmony and well being in mind, body, and spirit. May dear Ted Kennedy have a safe journey to the home of his choosing. May his long fight for universal health-care coverage come to fruit now rather than in a distant tomorrow.
Thank-you Teddy! The world is a better place because you lived. Thank-you so very much. We will keep up the good fight.
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