Honoring Edward Kennedy's Legacy

alternet.org — At the end of the day, Ted Kennedy's view was that nobody should be left behind whether it was in health care, whether it was education, whether it was poverty in America. Ted Kennedy devoted his lifetime to protecting those most in need, and tens of millions of Americans have been the beneficiaries. His absence from the Senate leaves an enormous void. His colleagues and the nation will miss him greatly.

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dailykos.com — No, mere words cannot honor Ted Kennedy's memory. To pretend otherwise would be to cheapen his legacy, to lie about who Ted Kennedy really was. He was a fiercely ideological public servant. His commitment to that New Deal social compact defined him, and made him relevant to you and me. His actions, not his words, were what marked him as the greatest Senator of his era. To attempt to honor Ted Kennedy without striving to further his life's work is simply impossible.

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huffingtonpost.com — Watching the snippets of Ted Kennedy's speeches playing again and again on cable and online reminds us of something that else that has died in America: the national conversation about what the Bible calls "the least among us." It's been missing for a while. Kennedy's passing reminds us how much we need to revive it — and make it central to the political debate.

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news.newamericamedia.org — Massachusetts has a relatively small black population, just 7 percent, yet Ted Kennedy acted as if winning the black vote was the key to electoral success. Like his brother John F. Kennedy, who submitted the original Civil Rights Act, Ted realized that America could not fulfill its promise as long as it treated Blacks as second-class citizens.

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prospect.org — Ted Kennedy was never afraid to seize the chance to further his vision of a just society.

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huffingtonpost.com — The decision facing America is whether — at long last — we will inscribe into our law the principle that health care is a human right — that everyone among us deserves health care simply because we are all human beings. Ted Kennedy believed that to his core. It was his life's passion. It would be fitting if his passing itself served to refocus the health care debate on the moral principle that lies at its center. It would be his last great contribution to the struggle that more than any other defined his 47-year career in the Senate — the battle to make health care for all a reality in America.

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prospect.org — Kennedy was the champion of the uninsured, the undocumented, and the forgotten.

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robertreich.blogspot.com — America has had a few precious individuals who are both passionate about social justice and also understand deep in their bones its practical meaning. And we have had a few who possess great political shrewdness and can make the clunky machinery of democratic governance actually work. But I have known but one person who combined all these traits and abilities. His passing is an inestimable loss.

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voices.washingtonpost.com — "This is the cause of my life," Ted Kennedy wrote. "For four decades I have carried this cause — from the floor of the United States Senate to every part of this country. It has never been merely a question of policy; it goes to the heart of my belief in a just society." Kennedy was talking about health care. But then, Kennedy was always talking about health care.

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thenation.com — Born of privilege, and yet absorbed with the fate of those in need, Sen. Ted Kennedy's intense commitment to progressive ideals represented the best of the Kennedys.

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