What Did Ted Kennedy Do for You, an Ordinary American?

It's a natural part of the grieving process, to tick off the accomplishments of a deceased loved one. We remember them through rose colored glasses. While we may acknowledge that they had a few faults, we search for the greatness in them, those specific traits and memories that immortalize them in our time of honor. Thus it has been for generation and rightly so. We honor our fallen dead, our beloved friends and family and our cherished icons.

But few men or women have impacted us as personally and deeply as Senator Edward Kennedy, the youngest of four powerful and charismatic brothers, each who died in service to their country.

In the coming days our nation will lay a national hero to rest with all the pomp and circumstance due him. But what did Ted Kennedy do for me, some will ask with scorn, choosing to remember his terrible tragedies. They'll even mock him, remembering Chappaquidick and the unanswered questions there instead of the redemptive work that he engaged in for the rest of his life after that terrible tragedy.

We should not gloss over the faults of our public icons, but when we place them in light of the rest of his life, our country would be a vastly different place without the leadership and courage of Senator Ted Kennedy of the Kennedy hall of fame family. Whatever Rose and Joe Kennedy did, they have created a legacy that will stand the test of time, giving into public service their most cherished resources, their sons and daughters.

But again, what exactly did Ted Kennedy do for you, the ordinary American citizen?

Title 9 Girls Sports Money

First of all, through his efforts your daughter or granddaughter or perhaps even you are able to play on a more level playing sports field because of Title 9, which made it necessary for schools to allocate funds to girls sports teams. I was a highly talented competitive runner and tennis player when I was in high school. Yet, there were no sports teams at my little school for girls in 1968. I was relegated to playing with the boys whenever I could, to hone my tennis schools.

I ran for the sheer enjoyment of it, but there was no track teams anywhere in our region of the state of Indiana in 1968, so no scholarship funds came by way even though my gym teacher and a coach clocked me at record breaking times in the 60 yard dash. My daughter played on a state winning softball team because of Ted Kennedy. Universities created sports programs for girls and awarded scholarship money because of Ted Kennedy and Title 9.

Sarah Palin should thank him for her right to play basketball in Alaska.

Medicare

If you are a senior and receive Medicare you can bow down and thank the corpse of Ted Kennedy, because it was his dream and his efforts working across the aisle that brought Medicaire to fruition and to the help of aging, sick old folks! His compassion for the sick, the poor and least of us reflected his Catholic upbringing, his desire to serve God and his family.

His compassion was real not a fake political ploy. He earned it with the tears of grief he shed with the death of each of his famous brothers before him and with each he vowed to fight on.

Protestors against health coverage for every American should thank him for the Medicare they use as seniors.

Civil Rights Legislation

If you worked as I did in the 60's and 70's in the civil rights activism, then you know the voice and power of Ted Kennedy in the Senate brought civil rights legislation to fruition. He led the fight there for LBJ. He may have come to the Senate on his brother John's coattails, but he made his mark. He fought the good fight for those citizens of America who were deemed unworthy, the wrong color, the wrong side of the tracks. He came from wealth and power yet risked assassination to serve his country.

Cobra Insurance

If you have lost a job or changed jobs and had a pre-existing health condition that your new insurance wouldn't cover, then you can thank Senator Ted Kennedy for the rights you have under COBRA to keep your insurance. Before him and this legislation, you were tough out of luck on the healthcare front. But you see, Ted Kennedy walked the walk of his faith, and he knew the government could be key in helping it's citizens and yes, leveling the playing field, demanding equality of care and of rights

. He believed that healthcare that kept you alive was a basic right. He knew that for eons, the rich could afford health care and the poor just died young and unhealthy. He wanted to change that, to make sure that children had the care they needed to grow up and change the world as his father had and as he and his brothers had.

In his 47 years in the Senate, the Liberal Lion put through 2,500 bills and they are law in our land today with their focus on healthcare, civil rights, education and immigration.

The Protection and Advocacy for Mentally Ill Individuals Act of 1986

The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990. Don't you like knowing what's in your food that you eat? Every time you pick up a box in the store and read the label, thank Ted Kennedy.

The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act of 1990. Remember this young man and the tragedy of his life. Thank Ted Kennedy for keeping you safe from infection by AIDs in your workplace, at hospitals, through tainted blood sources.

Local health clinics are a key component to providing basic health services in our poorer communities. Than Ted Kennedy for that with the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994.

CHIP or Children's Health Insurance Program provides basic healthcare services to very poor children. Ted Kennedy loved family and children and he knew he wanted every American child to have good health care, despite the poverty of their circumstances or their families. He was like that. He chose caring for the sick and the poor over waging wars. He believed your government of freely elected representatives could do good work and those of us who wear the bleeding heart liberal label embrace his work as representing us, over fifty percent of the American population who know that corporate capitalism is not the capitalism that our forefathers supported. It's mercenary and profiteering of the worst kind. Modern robber barons intent on greed and control.

Working for a fair wageIf you make at least $7.00 an hour in minimum wage, you can thank Ted Kennedy for that payraise from the miserly $5.15 it was before he led the fight to raise it in 2007. You try living on $5.00 an hour, 200.00 a week before taxes.

Do you get a pension, thank Ted Kennedy for the Pensions Protection Act of 2006.

Do you or a loved one have a major disability? Thank Ted Kennedy for the Disabilities Act of 1990 which prohibits discrimination which protects them in employment, communications, public accommodations and governmental activities.

The list goes on, for 2500 pieces of major legislation. I salute and thank Ted Kennedy as an American whose life has been made better in countless ways due to his work. Now the challenge to each of us as liberal progressive Americans is to continue to battle to see his life long dream come to past. He dreamed of an America where everyone could drink from the fountain of prosperity and hope. He dreamed of an America where healthcare was a basic right not a privilege reserved for the wealthy and powerful.

Now, those of you who rail against the government and label Ted Kennedy with scorn for his lifetime of work, which of the above pieces of legislation would you like to do away with? All of it? What would America be like without any of it? I wouldn't want to know. He made us better, stronger, healthier, fairer in our treatment of each other. He demanded we do more.

"the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die." Senator Ted Kennedy.

Resources:

Betty Malone's brain and memories

To read more about Ted Kennedy's life work:

http://hr.cch.com/news/employment/082609a.