[Vision2020] Kennedy Made a Difference (Bob Schieffer)

[Tom Hansen]

"Kennedy Made a Difference"
By Bob Schieffer

As I watched Ted Kennedy's funeral yesterday, I thought of a book I read
last week called "The Art of Racing in the Rain," in which the protagonist
observes that no race has ever been won on the first turn, but many have
ended there.

Ted Kennedy crashed and crashed again during the early turns of his life,
but somehow he kept on going through the sorrows and tragedies over which
he had no control - and the self-destructiveness over which he did.

And in the final laps, he won.

His children loved him, his contemporaries - even those who often opposed
him - admired him, and those whose causes he championed, thanked him.

To what else can a man aspire?

His personal friend and sometime political foe, the longtime Republican
leader Bob Dole, told me the day Kennedy died that what impressed him was
"the Kennedy boys could have gone through life and never worked a day,"
but all of them did.

The thousands of laws that he authored changed the lives of millions who
were less fortunate, a legacy few could match.

In a sense he was the classic American hero - the imperfect man who was
sorely tested and yet in that testing found a way to overcome personal
flaws and go on to accomplish great things.

You didn't have to agree with his politics to appreciate what he achieved.

Ted Kennedy made a difference.

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"Headed Home"
Written in trbute to Senator Edward Kennedy by Orrin Hatch (R-UT)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr5oyEDGYkw

"Through the darkness
We can find a pathway
That will take us half way
To the stars.

Through the rain and fog
We can find a clear day
Shoo the shadows and doubts away
And touch the legacy that is ours.

Yours and mine
And our children's
For all time.

Just honor him
Honor him
And every fear
Will be a thing of the past.

America, America
We're headed home
We're headed home
At last.

Just honor him
Honor him
And on the reefs of despair
We shall not crash.

America
America
We're sailing home
Sailing home
America
America
We're headed home
Headed home
At last."

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown