Senator Edward Kennedy Remembered

Senator Kennedy always made me cry from pride and hope. Perhaps because he was a lion, and courage makes me cry.

Joe Hill, labor activist convicted of murder, on the day before his execution made a suggestion to his supporters: "Don't Mourn, organize!"

This would be an appropriate way to remember Ted Kennedy. Senator Edward Kennedy did this after burying his 3 brothers who all died serving this country. In his honor, we will do this to help to get the first American health care reform bill passed with a public option.

We can't talk about someone who lived so much of his life in the US Senate without a good by from an old friend, Vice President Joe Biden. In the following video he explains that with Ted as a colleague, idealism was infectious and most recently, they had more hope and faith than they did when they were young.



At this time, when most lawmakers are beholden to fundraisers and their funders, Senator Edward Kennedy was fortunate to come from family wealth. This enabled him to stand tall, and sometimes to stand alone or almost so as when he voted against funds for the war in Iraq. Senator Kennedy never forgot that he was a liberal and that his party was the party of working families rather than the home of lobbyists.

The millions of dollars spent by insurers,and hospitals have already defeated any chance for single payer, but perhaps Senator Kennedy's memory will help to empower the supporters of the public option.

This is a nice 8:22 minute video of Teddy sailing with his family, and about him as spoken by many of his friends from the Senate.



Now, what can an individual do in these last few days before the lawmakers come back?

1. Learn about the law from the Whitehouse: http://bit.ly/bYAu5
2. Sign the petition by Schumer/Leahy/Durbin http://www.citizensforapublicoption.com/ This is at 96,571 and it would be far more effective if we pushed it over 1 million. -- Send it to everyone you know! Let's see how fast we can build these numbers.
3. Call or write to your Congressional Representatives, and your Senators, several times is fine. They are being bombarded, I promise you, by the right wingers who have been fed a stinking sack of poop that they believe is truth. We have to let them know that we are out here, and we are reasonable, and we are watching. https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml Put in your information, and the name of your rep will come up with telephone numbers. Click on the name, and you will get a form for writing an email. http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm This is the Senate site, and you can contact your Senators from here.
4. Repeat as often as possible....