The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    For Jack, Bobby, Eunice and now Teddy

    By Ripper on Wed, 08/26/2009 - 5:28am |
    Few addresses in American oratory have struck me as deeply as Sen. Edward Kennedy's eulogy for his brother Bobby. When he spoke of his beloved brother, he was speaking for all of us who were twice heartbroken by the assassination of a Kennedy. Yet none of us can guess the pain he felt delivering those words, those syllables of memory that choked his voice and turned to bitter ashes in his mouth. To hear those words is to hear his heart shattering.

    I can think of no words more appropriate, no moment more deeply revealing of Teddy's soul than his own words at the moment of his own inescapably public grief. His outpouring of love in the face of death is what I remember most. A love not just for his slain brothers, but for all of us whose health and wellbeing became his life's tireless work.

    Thank you, Teddy, and Godspeed now. Let out the sail. Jack, Bobby and Eunice are waiting to embrace you on that distant shore.