Drea Knufken
Edward Moore “Ted” Kennedy died of brain cancer yesterday, leaving a 47-year political career in his wake. Here are 5 famous Ted Kennedy quotes to remember the veteran politician by:
1. For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.
(Concession speech in campaign for nomination as the Democratic Presidential candidate against incumbent Jimmy Carter, 1980).
2. We cannot simply speak out against an escalation of troops in Iraq, we must act to prevent it…There can be no doubt that the Constitution gives Congress the authority to decide whether to fund military action, and Congress can demand a justification from the president for such action before it appropriates the funds to carry it out.
(Remarks to the National Press Club (9 January 2007))
3. But don’t you realize, that’s where I sail.
(On the Cape Wind Project, as quoted in Cape Wind : Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics, and the Battle for Our Energy Future on Nantucket Sound (2007) by Wendy Williams and Robert Whitcomb)
4. What we have in the United States is not so much a health-care system as a disease-care system.
5. The more our feelings diverge, the more deeply felt they are, the greater is our obligation to grant the sincerity and essential decency of our fellow citizens on the other side. . . .
In short, I hope for an America where neither “fundamentalist” nor “humanist” will be a dirty word, but a fair description of the different ways in which people of good will look at life and into their own souls.
I hope for an America where no president, no public official, no individual will ever be deemed a greater or lesser American because of religious doubt — or religious belief.
I hope for an America where the power of faith will always burn brightly, but where no modern inquisition of any kind will ever light the fires of fear, coercion, or angry division.
I hope for an America where we can all contend freely and vigorously, but where we will treasure and guard those standards of civility which alone make this nation safe for both democracy and diversity.
