The Kennedy family has put up a beautiful website about the Senator's life and about the events and arrangements leading up to his burial in Arlington National Cemetery. There are also tributes and a place where people can add their own thoughts or stories. I just shared this on that website and I would like to share it here:
In 1960 I was five years old but it wasn't too many years later, around the time I was 11 or 12, a year or so before becoming Bar Mitzvah, that I was already becoming quite politically aware and even involved.
And I grew up in Massachusetts in a Democratic family.
My political, social and perhaps even moral development was impacted and influenced by the Kennedys. And that is the kind of impact and influence that Senator Kennedy has exercised over his 47 year career in public life. That is for me his legacy and message.
By what he has done, by what he has fought for and by how he has fought those fights Senator Kennedy has helped us learn about fairness, justice and human dignity. And even after his most vulnerable and dark moment of human failings, Chappaquiddick, we have seen how he dedicated most of the rest of his life to repairing the negative karma he knew was his.
That's a sign of the most humble sort of greatness we can strive for as human beings. That's what Senator Kennedy's life, and his sickness and how he marched towards death, will mean to me. He was a great man and his absence would have been felt at any time. He will be even more sorely missed today, in a time when there are so few men like him in positions of leadership.
An Irish blessing:
May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
And rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.
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