Thank you for writing this, and beautifully put, too. I have above my desk as I write a poster of JFK and Bobby in the Oval Office; the Kennedys were, are, my father's heroes too, and growing up in Massachusetts, Teddy loomed large for me all my life. Very, very sad news. Again, though: thank you.
 

i wish this were my story, but i thought you'd get a kick out of it anyway. my friend and former roommate James moved to Washington D.C. and was interning in Senator Kennedy's office. He was rushing around one day with a stack of papers, trying to get from one side of the building to the other when a door randomly opened in his path...and he ran smack dab into Kennedy, sending them both sprawling.

James: "Oh God, Senator, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"

Kennedy: "I'm fine, son. If more people moved like you around here, we might actually get something done."

That always cracked me up and colored my view of this great and flawed giant. Thought it might bring a smile to your face as well.
 

Damn.
 

I didn't think much of it when I first heard the news that he'd been brought to the hospital after a seizure: he's aging, not in the best shape and seizures happen for all kinds of reasons. But then I walked into the kitchen at work on Monday and his condition was getting blanket coverage on the news stations. I grabbed onto a chair with one hand and covered my gaping mouth with the other as I felt a little unsteady on my feet.

He's the only Kennedy brother that anyone of our generation has a living connection to, and the family was always a large presence in my home as well. My mother still gets teary when talking about Jack and Bobby and while she reveres Ted for all the work he's done she's also a bit angry at the human mistakes he's made that forever kept him out of the White House and the good he might have been able to do from within it. Unfortunately, now that JFK Jr. is gone, doesn't inspire politically the way the older generation did.

I was equally as stunned at reading the front-page headline of the Post the next morning: "Kennedy is Dying." True? Maybe, but unnecessary all the same. Talk about a kick in the gut.

Senator Kennedy's absence is already being felt on the floor of the Senate and the idea that he may never be able to return is just too much to contemplate at the moment.

It's funny the things - and people - we never realized we felt so passionately about until news like this hits us in unexpected ways.

What an amazing man, and how much better the world has been for having him in it with the strength to carry the legacy of this great family on his shoulders. He never gives up, never backs down and doesn't care what side of the aisle someone is standing on if the fight they are fighting is the right one.

In a political season that has been so focused on the battle between "change" and "experience" he is an example of a politician who demonstrates that it's possible to embody both.