By Mike Tully

(Note: Mike Tully is Emil’s Liberal Former Co-Host from the old Sunday show and former Inside Track Columnist. He wrote this guest piece in memory of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy)

Night falls each and every day, but some nights darkness falls harder than others. How it must have crashed on Hyannis Port the night Ted Kennedy died. People come and go, leaders and the rest of us, heroes and the misbegotten, the brilliant and the bastards, and the stars arc as they always do, the sun returns as it always does, and the planets endure. But sometimes there is a wobble in the great armature of the Universe, a catch in the wind, and even the tides seem to pause. That only happens sometimes.

Humanity aches for greatness. Every child needs an adult to admire, as does every adult. We build what we know of ourselves on lessons and imitation, as society stirs the alchemy of admiration and denunciation of those who lead and inspire us, who challenge and offend us, who stimulate and disappoint us, and who stay with us or leave us. Some we touch and some we know from afar. Distance doesn’t matter if they touch our hearts, for good or ill. Occasionally one of them torches millions of souls, but that only happens sometimes.

We who are the spawn of the Great War hardly understand our role in our own times. The ground has shifted under us since birth. As soon as we disengaged from cartoons and cowboys our country disengaged from reason. The pin dislodged from the hinge of security in November of 1963 and destiny’s door has waved madly ever since. Dallas was followed by Memphis, which was followed by Los Angeles, which was followed by Watergate, and all the while we seasoned an obscure Southeast Asian nation with the salt of our blood. That’s how things happen sometimes.

The late folksinger and songwriter John Stewart said that travelling with Robert F. Kennedy was “like being with a panther in a hurricane.” He was the troubadour of Bobby Kennedy’s campaign and strummed and sang sadly on his beloved Panther’s last train ride. When Bobby Kennedy was killed the stain of John F. Kennedy’s assassination had barely set and the terrible echoes from the balcony of the Lorraine Motel still rang upon the land. Edward Kennedy was little more than a comforting afterthought, a relic and memento of what might have been. Great men are obscured by events sometimes.

the

Landscapes are more profoundly shaped by erosion than earthquakes. A violent upheaval lifted the plateau where the Grand Canyon sits, but a patient river cut the magnificent gorge. The shapes and contours of canyon country are not carved by lightning and chisels, but by relentless winds. When rocks are cut and fragmented by trees, it’s because the trees are more stubborn than the rocks. Winds and roots are softer and more ephemeral than granite, but they will eventually fracture the rocks, although it will take some time.

How could the least of the noble brothers become the span that links the Greatest Generation with the Millenials? What god or demon ordained that such a flawed individual, stained with scandal, sadness, and tragedy, would become the embodiment of liberalism and progressive politics who managed to reach across the partisan divide to enlist political opponents to the causes he believed in? Such a result requires both god and demon. They can work in concert, but it only happens sometimes.

It’s natural to lament that Ted Kennedy died with work unfinished, but how could he not? Such a man could never die satisfied. There are people starving in the world today, children suffering, women being horrifically abused, and powerful men – it seems they are always men - are using their power to snuff the spark of human potential. Race and socioeconomic status remain the predictors of academic success in our country. Cruel and misconceived policies inflate the wealth of the fractional wealthiest to the detriment of the lesser well-off. Reason is repeatedly eclipsed by anger and hatred and civilized discourse is more elusive than ever. While Americans lay claim to common values, they fail to realize their political opponents share many of the same values and denounce each other while brandishing slogans and firearms. That’s how it goes sometimes.

In the coming days Ted Kennedy will be eulogized and remembered by allies and opponents and all will speak of him with sincerity and affection. His accomplishments will be inventoried and many will speak of his place in history, his flaws, his achievements and his tragedies. All the while, a newly minted angel, with a white mane and a rakish halo, will smile upon them. They will finish his job, he says to himself. It will just take some time.

© 2009 by Mike Tully