My One Enounter with Ted Kennedy

It was the summer of 2006 and I was interning in Congressman Marion Berry's (1^st District-Arkansas) office in Washington D.C. I had just finished my junior year of college where I was majoring in history. I had already spent almost two weeks roaming the halls of power in the Rayburn House Office Building when I found out that Ted Kennedy had a speaking engagement scheduled for several interns. Despite the fact that I was interning in a Democrat's office, I was a Republican history major who really did not know history like I should have. With that being said one can understand why I really did not have a lot of interest in hearing Senator Kennedy speak that day.

As I made my way from the Rayburn House Office Building to the United States Capitol and eventually to the Dirksen Senate Office Building where Senator Kennedy would give his speech I was amazed at how pristine the senate office building was. I mean our U.S. Congressman work in poverty compared to our U.S. Senators. Everything about our 100 senator's working arrangement was amazing. I will come back to this point a little later.

I eventually found the room where Senator Kennedy would be speaking and when I arrived all of the interns in the room had a group picture made with the Senator. After the picture some of the interns spoke with Senator Kennedy but I simply sauntered toward the back of the room to find a seat. A few minutes later Senator Kennedy began speaking and I noticed that people near the front of the room were kind of laughing and bending over to look at something. I wondered what was going on and to my amazement two Portuguese Water Dogs came strutting around the corner. These dogs had no leashes on them. There was nobody in particular watching these dogs. These two dogs were simply wandering around the room investigating the crowd that had come to hear their master speak. To go back to the point I made earlier, the Dirksen Senate Office Building was absolutely immaculate. Until I saw the two dogs I was not even sure that germs existed in the atmosphere of the building. In that moment I wandered to myself and I would tell my dad later that surely the only man in America with enough power to bring his dogs to work with him to the United States Senate had to be Ted Kennedy. I thought even President Bush would not be allowed to bring his dogs into one of the office buildings of our United States Senate. After hearing Senator Kennedy speak it was easy to understand how so many people came to admire him throughout his years of public service. He was articulate and his speech was inspiring and I will never forget the moment I saw his two unleashed dogs round the corner as they roamed the halls of the United States Senate.