How is it that some families, like the Kennedys, have three (3) sons buried at Arlington National Cemetery, the most famous cemetery in America while other families’ sons are incarcerated in famous American prisons?
What is it that makes some families excel and others go to hell?
It’s not always money or prestige, either. Some famous families have kids who don’t do well and some poor, unconnected families have kids who become president. Does anyone have that winning/losing recipe or equation?
I looked at the people who turned out to pay tribute to Senator Ted Kennedy and they came from all walks of life, all races, all colors, and all parties. Isn’t that amazing? Boston is still a rather socially segregated city. Whites go to white events – blacks go to black events, etc…but everybody turned out for Kennedy.
I guess that’s because he included everybody. And that is a telling aspect of his legacy!
And now we focus on a rarity in Massachusetts politics: an open Senate seat – the first time that’s happened in 25 years.
Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, just this afternoon, (Aug. 31, 2009) announced that the special election to replace Senator Ted Kennedy will be held January 19. The primary will be on December 08.
I guess it’s too late to include it on the September 22 primary for city council and mayor. That would ensure a huge turnout, but I guess that’s too much trouble for Massachusetts. It’s probably cheaper to have two primaries!
Notice how we botched the Big Dig (3.5 miles under Boston/Charles River) while the 31-mile undersea Channel Tunnel (Chunnel) connecting France and England is fine?
According to information I dug up online, The Chunnel is the longest undersea portion of any tunnel in the world. It took about 6-years: Work began in 1988; the tunnel began operating in 1994. Cost about 10-million British Pounds (inflation-adjusted to 2007) with an 80-percent cost overrun.
Boston’s leaky Big Dig, on the other hand, was estimated in 1985 at nearly 3-billion-dollars (6-billion adjusted for inflation as of 2006). As of 2006, we’d spent over 14-billion in federal and state tax dollars. Some estimates put the cost, including interest, at 22-billion-dollars. Roughly two Chunnels! We probably have an 800-percent cost overrun by now!!
Notice, too, how our Mass Transit, the MBTA or “T” is 8-billion dollars in debt but we buy some million-dollar trolleys that break down? Or how everybody in New York, even visitors, somehow know they have to pay to get on trains and buses there, but up here we think we are supposed to ride free?
I have no ideas at all on a Kennedy replacement– I can’t see anybody stepping into Kennedy’s shoes and hitting the ground running. (I’m not saying no-one can do it – I’m just saying I can’t see anybody who’s floating at the top, unless governor Patrick takes a shot, and he’s unlikely to).
Other Kennedy family names are being bandied about – the one I like is Ted Kennedy’s grandson, Edward Moore Kennedy III, the cute little kid who announced his plan to become the Senator of Massachusetts when he turns 45.
Does he know that from now on everywhere he goes with a girl, he needs a chaperone?
He may be just 11-years old, but I already see the Kennedy aura surrounding that kid. I think the Kennedy Mystique will skip a generation and manifest itself in the grandkids. You watch!
However, until the Kennedy family steps forward and says they are NOT interested in that seat, nobody is stepping forward to publicly show their hand. I guess they’re remembering what happened in New York when Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, JFK’s daughter made a play for Hillary Clinton’s vacant senate seat, (Jan. 2009).
Nobody wants to become the next David Paterson, the hapless governor of New York who ran afoul of the Kennedys with the way he handled that vacancy. I don’t blame Patterson, but someone needs to be blamed. And we can’t blame Caroline, now can we?
So I’m waiting, you are waiting, the country is waiting, the world is probably waiting to see which Kennedy, if any, will step up to the plate – and more importantly, if someone does, will anybody have the guts to run against that person?!
The only disappointing news (to me) is that Former Mass. Governor Mitt Romney says, yes says…He won’t be running for the late senator’s seat. I wanted him to run so he could add another convincing loss to his resume.
That man is not true to his convictions. He has ah-ha moments/epiphanies whenever the sun comes out! As a candidate for governor of Massachusetts, he was pro-choice. He gets on a plane, flies to a republican convention as a candidate for president and suddenly all those liberals in MA who support abortion rights are what he hates most about America.
Definitely, he is no Kennedy!!
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