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Profiles in Courage
Aug. 26th, 2008 11:05 amYesterday night, Ted Kennedy spoke at the Democratic Convention.
That in itself is amazing. This is a man who has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, who is undergoing chemotherapy, and whose doctor told him not to attend because he was likely to get sick due to his compromised immune system. He came anyway.
His speech was just eight minutes long, but it was moving. Teddy spoke of passing on the torch to the next generation of politicians, saying that "The world begins anew." And it does. It begins anew every day with every birth bringing new life into the world, with every death extinguishing the same.
I am amazed, impressed, and humbled by this man's ability to look beyond his own death, by his desire to serve his country one last time by electing a man that he believes in, a man who might bring this country back from the path of destruction that it has been set upon for the last eight years. Teddy promised to be at Obama's inauguration in January, but that may well be a promise that he can't keep.
That he would place his health--and ultimately the short time he has left--in danger to try and elect a man to a presidency that he will never see shows the best in what a politician can be.
That in itself is amazing. This is a man who has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, who is undergoing chemotherapy, and whose doctor told him not to attend because he was likely to get sick due to his compromised immune system. He came anyway.
His speech was just eight minutes long, but it was moving. Teddy spoke of passing on the torch to the next generation of politicians, saying that "The world begins anew." And it does. It begins anew every day with every birth bringing new life into the world, with every death extinguishing the same.
I am amazed, impressed, and humbled by this man's ability to look beyond his own death, by his desire to serve his country one last time by electing a man that he believes in, a man who might bring this country back from the path of destruction that it has been set upon for the last eight years. Teddy promised to be at Obama's inauguration in January, but that may well be a promise that he can't keep.
That he would place his health--and ultimately the short time he has left--in danger to try and elect a man to a presidency that he will never see shows the best in what a politician can be.