In death do us part company
WASHINGTON — Reaction to Sen. Ted Kennedy’s death suggests that there really are two Americas.
One side sees in Kennedy a liberal lion who fought for the greater good, the other sees a sinner lionized by the morally blind.
How can one man be viewed so differently? Is there no objective truth, or is all truth filtered through one’s own projection of reality? Such, perhaps, is the dilemma in a secularized world bereft of common reference points. You got your gig; I got mine.
Even before Kennedy’s motorcade had come to a stop in front of the JFK Library Thursday, conservatives were busy circulating an old GQ profile written by Michael Kelly, the beloved columnist and Atlantic editor who died in Iraq. Kelly painted a complicated portrait of a flawed man, but what stood out most were Kennedy’s less-attractive behaviors, especially toward women.
While the Left remembers Kennedy for his fight for the common man, the Right remembers him as responsible for the death of Mary Jo Kopechne 40 years ago. Nothing about Kennedy’s decades of public service could erase the shadow of that early morning when Kennedy drove his car off a bridge in Chappaquiddick and abandoned the scene, leaving his passenger to drown.
Thus, the tone on the right side of the blogosphere is rather Old Testament, with many expressing delight in the thought that the senator’s final judgment will not be light. Elsewhere, Kennedy fans have exploited the propitious timing of his exit. MoveOn.org urged health care reformers to “re-commit ourselves to achieving the thing that mattered most” to Kennedy.
Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, the senior Senate Democrat, has called for passage of reform in honor of Kennedy “as a tribute to his commitment to his ideals.” Timing is everything in death as in life, apparently. Indeed, if Pat Robertson and other religious icons of the Right were instead liberal, they might be tempted to say that God wants health care reform.
Just as August’s less-than-august health care melees were morphing from shoutfests to fisticuffs, someone changed the channel. Nothing like the gimlet gaze of death to drop the volume and still the masses. Hysteria quickly turns to ruminations on mortality, and perspective is restored. Might we now infer that God is a pro-universal health care liberal?
The answer depends on whether one is the sort to interpret tragedies, deaths and disasters as divine intervention—and whether one’s God is compassionate or judgmental. And, of course, it depends on one’s politics. God, you may have heard, is a conservative, though his son had some decidedly liberal tendencies.
For reasons that shall be explained in the hereafter, conservatives are more likely to see the hand of God in matters both mundane and sublime. If one were of such mind, is it not possible to believe that Kennedy’s exit was timed to prod America to Do The Right Thing and pass health care reform? Conspiracy theories have been built on much less, and belief in miracles precludes belief in coincidence. Or, does God only act in conservative interests?
A Pat Robertson-type, who (in this fantasy) considers universal health care an act of Christian duty, arguably might view a final curtain on Camelot as a divinely inspired, albeit sad-for-the-family, intervention. Not only could Kennedy’s death be viewed as a clarion call for a providential idea, but on a more practical level, the media would forget all about town halls rather than miss the final episode of America’s dynasty.
There’s always the possibility that conservatives are right and God was removing the single icon whose presence lent energy to legislation that would vastly increase government power in the private sector. Or—and this gets my vote—God is too busy building a better human in a saner galaxy to concern himself with us. Couldn’t blame him.
One can’t help wondering, nonetheless, how those same Old Testament celebrants would have treated Kennedy had he, as recompense for his sins, embarked on a crusade against abortion and same-sex marriage instead of for universal health care. My modest guess is that they would have found a way to forgive him and insisted that a man’s worst moment is not the sum of his life.
Kennedy’s life was indeed a mixed sack of good works and sometimes-deplorable behavior. A charitable person would hope that he found peace at the end of his life. An observant person might note, without pleasure, that even in death, it’s all politics.
Kathleen Parker is a columnist for the Orlando Sentinel. Her e-mail address is kathleenparker@washpost.com.
Sep 3, 2009 at 2:36 a.m.
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I guess it depends upon your source(s). "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."
[1855 H. G. Bohn Hand-Book of Proverbs 514]
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I Googled earlier results without "The road to" as part of the quote, but my first exposure to the quote was the version with the road, and to me it just sounds better than the earlier versions without the road [St. Francis de sales, Letter lxxiv.] le proverbe tiré de notre saint Bernard, ‘L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés ou désirs’, the proverb taken from our St. Bernard, ‘Hell is full of good intentions or desires.’
Aug 31, 2009 at 8:39 a.m.
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Actually the correct quote is "Hell is paved with good intentions". I'm not sure what the road to Hell is paved with, certainly do not care to find out, but do hear that there's no stop signs and no speed limit after a season ticket on a one-way ride. ;-)
Aug 30, 2009 at 11:15 p.m.
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Thank goodness the great name of Sen. Ted Kennedy and his legacy of progressive change will go on throughout the future far longer than the national stagnation encouraged by proartist!
Aug 30, 2009 at 11:12 p.m.
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proartist...you forgot to add this one to your list:
RLUIPA.... co sponsored by
Ted Kennedy and Orin Hatch.
Selective memory have we?
Aug 30, 2009 at 6:31 p.m.
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"I'm for against improving education..."
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I meant "I'm for improving education", but erred while editing my text to make my message stop showing the "3000 character limit" error while trying to post it.
Aug 30, 2009 at 6:27 p.m.
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Proartist, I don't dispute the intent of many of the laws, bills and acts you listed, but I suspect Kennedy's motives for the bills was more about spin doctoring and the allusion of noblesse oblige by the alcoholic son of a wealthy, powerful, family to justify his Senate seat, than about his personal compassion for downtrodden Americans or the billions of non-Americans trying to get into the U.S.
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As for the resulting legislations, there have been unintended consequences with some of them. 3 examples:
The Refugee Act of 1980 has cost me more in taxes, rather than benefited me.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1...
The Immigration Act of 1990 increased immigration and created exceptions to the English testing process of the Naturalization Act of 1906. The "Kennedy mindset" is contributing to the process of making the United States a third world country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration...
No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has been a mixed bag of results. I'm for against improving education, but "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions" and expecting a Senator who wouldn't refuse to vote for bills that increase the Federal deficit and forcing inadequately funded mandates on the states is not my idea of improvements.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Child_Le...
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I'm not sure how you equate a request not to "play legislative hopscotch" next to the Grand Canyon of health care funding while blindfolded as stagnation, but if you want some meaningful health care reform, here are two suggestions for a start:
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1. Paperwork reduction and common sense billing. Work on reducing the mounds of paperwork that go along with health care in this country. A lot of it is due to the C.Y.A. factor as a result of big jury trial rewards for mistakes, malpractice and stupidity.
2. Change the punishment system from monetary penalties to incarceration. If an intoxicated ER doctor amputates your left foot when it is your right foot that has gangrene, he should lose his license and be put in jail, not just fined so his malpractice insurance go up, which he will handle by raising his fees. If an ER doctor kills you accidentally nicks your aorta due to fatigue while operating on your crushed chest after an auto accident because he's been on duty for 19 consecutive hours due to mandatory overtime, throw the hospital administrator in jail.
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Putting the perpetrators in jail for willful negligence or criminal behavior will give the health care industry much more self-policing than giving them big fines which they just pass on to the consumers. Juries should consider the financial costs to victims of medical mistakes and malpractice, but use license revocation and incarceration as penalties for the offenders, not grant punitive damage fines which are passed directly to the consumers, along with more CYA paperwork.
Aug 30, 2009 at 2:52 p.m.
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Kennedy's history as a U.S. Senator was built one vote, one bill, and one act at a time. I guess janesvillecomments never benefited, in any way, from the astounding legacy of Kennedy's work which, in part, included:
* Civil Rights Act of 1964
* Immigration Act of 1965
* Voting Rights Act Extension of 1970
* Women, Infants, and Children Nutrition Program of 1972 (WIC)
* Civil Rights Commission Act Amendments of 1978
* Refugee Act of 1980
* Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1982
* Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987
* Immigration Act of 1990
* Civil Rights Act of 1991
* Violence Against Women Act of 1994
* No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
* Bioterrorism Preparedness Act of 2002
* Enhanced Border Security and Visa Reform Act of 2002
* Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007
* Civil Rights Act of 2008
* Medical Device Amendments of 1976
* Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) of 1985
* Protection and Advocacy for Mentally Ill Individuals Act of 1986
* Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990
* Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
* Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act of 1990 (Ryan White CARE Act)
* National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act of 1993
* Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994
* Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA)
* Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act of 1997
* Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 1997
* Healthcare Research and Quality Act of 1999
* Children's Health Act of 2000
* Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education Act of 2001
* Project BioShield Act of 2003
* Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act of 2005
* Family Opportunity Act of 2006
* Minority Health Improvement and Health Disparity Elimination Act of 2006
* FDA Amendments Act of 2007
* Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008
Thanks goodness the great name of Sen. Ted Kennedy and his legacy of progressive change will go on throughout the future far longer than the national stagnation encouraged by janesvillecomments!
Aug 30, 2009 at 2:37 p.m.
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Praise him to High Heavens, if that floats your boat - there are people in this country who worship movie stars, rock music legends, financiers, why should dissolute politicians be exempt? - but don't use his death as an excuse to ram an unworkable abortion of a national health care plan through Congress.
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If there is a Christian God, it's pretty evident He or She hasn't spent much time in the Capitol building or the White House in the last few decades (to be fair to other mythologies, we might argue that Bacchus and Loki have been covering His shifts there). If you have absolute power in the universe, you don't have to worry about who picks up the check when the party is over. Most politicians, it seems, aspire to be God-like in this respect. Aside from their moral turpitude, a majority of politicians - in both parties - at the Federal level, and in the case of Wisconsin, the State level, have been derelict in their primary duty of balancing the government budget.
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Back in Junior High School, we were shown pictures of people in Germany using wheelbarrows to take enough money to the bakery to buy a loaf of bread. That was when I could go to Howard Took's Soda Fountain and get a Coke for 15 cents and a ham sandwich for 35 cents. With the deficits racked up by Bush and Obama, I wouldn't be surprised if America suffers hyper-inflation before the collapse of our economy and government.
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Teddy Kennedy didn't do the American people any favors. I hope the voters won't allow his death to be an excuse for Obama to accelerate the collapse of our economy.
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