紀念愛得華肯尼迪(悼辭)

他關心什麽？那要有一本書才能列完。但是他指出了什麽對美國最好，什麽對我們大家最好 - 他高瞻遠矚：

8226; 他關注民權-未完成的美國事務。他促成更新了1968年的約翰遜總統選舉權法案。並阻止了裏根總統在1982年試圖瓦解這個法案。他主導並通過了1968年的公平房地產法，為所有人廢除歧視通道。
8226; 他關注司法不公，關注的範圍跨越國界：他反對南非種族隔離，引導了關押曼德拉監獄外麵的非法抗議，他提出禁止美國在南非投資。他成功阻止了向智力的獨裁政府皮納切克出售武器，而這個獨裁政府正是由美國扶持的。
8226; 他廣泛關注美國濫用權力：他在1967年初為反越戰呐喊，稱越戰是“怪異的暴行”。他極力反對伊拉克戰爭，這個由憤世嫉俗的謊言導致的戰爭 - “對這個誤導的戰爭，我投了反對票。而這一票是我從1962年當參議員以來最有價值的一票。”
8226; 他關注平和公證地解決糾紛。他促成了北愛爾蘭和平協議成功簽署。

他關注社會司法公證，在本土創造機會：

8226; 他支持平等權力修正案。
8226; 他起草了1990年殘疾人法案，要求雇主和公共設施為殘疾人提供方便。
8226; 他支持合法安全墮胎的權力。
8226; 他和參議員馬侃共同發起了2007年移民改革法案，該法案給當前滯留美國的一千兩百萬或兩千萬非法移民提供合法身份和走向公民之路。雖然由於共和黨阻礙議案，這個法案沒有通過，但是他希望他在任時再次提出。
8226; 他倡議建立老年人福利基金 - 把飯端到輪椅上。
8226; 他支持婚姻平等權益。
8226; 他一生致力與公共教育，並尋求支持。
8226; 他負責提高最低工資，支持工會和勞工尊嚴 - 當學生為哈佛員工呼籲生活費時，他電話告知哈佛校長學生們是正確的。
8226; 從1974年起他致力於全民醫療保險 - 在這方麵他是我們的先驅。

出生於富裕的政治世家，他仕途順利。但是他以自己為起點，逆行而上，他成為他那個時代最偉大的參議員。

直到今天，我們許多人與他誌同道合，我們懷念他。我們懷念他的雄辯。我們懷念他的正義公平，同情心和幽默。我們懷念他的博愛。

現在他成為我們曆史的一部分 - 他的一生奉獻給我們大家。一個值得懷念的一生，一個有價值的一生，一個有理想的一生。而我們要努力實現這個理想。

東部一小鎮民主黨支部

Edward M. Kennedy in Memoriam

What did he care about? It would take a book to list it all.
But he spoke for what is best in America -- what is best in us
all -- and his vision was broad:

* He cared about civil rights as the still unfinished
business of America. He was instrumental in renewing the
Lyndon Johnson Voting Rights Act in 1968, and in preventing
Ronald Reagan from watering it down in 1982. He was a key
player in passing the Fair Housing Law of 1968 to unlock
the doors of discrimination once and for all.

* He cared about injustice abroad: He opposed South African
apartheid, leading an illegal protest outside the prison
where Nelson Mandela was held, and initiating a ban on
American investments in South Africa. He won a ban on arms
sales to the U.S.-sponsored Pinochet dictatorship in Chile.

* He cared about abuse of American power abroad: He vocally
opposed the war in Vietnam beginning in 1967, calling it a
monstrous outrage. He had the courage to oppose the
cynical lies used to promote the war in Iraq -- My vote
against this misbegotten war is the best vote I have cast
in the United States Senate since I was elected in 1962.

* He cared about peaceful and fair resolutions of conflict.
He played a key role in the success of the Northern Ireland
peace agreement.

* He cared about social justice and fairness and creating
opportunity at home:

** He supported the Equal Rights Amendment.

** He wrote the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act,
requiring employers and public facilities to make
reasonable accommodations for the disabled.

** He supported the right of access to legal and safe
abortions.

** He co-sponsored with Sen. McCain the Immigration Reform
Act of 2007 that would have provided legal status and a
path to citizenship for the 12 to 20 million illegal
immigrants currently in the U.S. The bill failed in
the face of a Republican filibuster, but he had hoped
to bring it up again in the current session.

** He was instrumental in funding Meals on Wheels for the
elderly.

** He was a proponent of marriage equality.

** Throughout his career he focused on public education,
and the need to support it.

** He was responsible for raising the minimum wage, and he
supported unions and the dignity of labor -- when
students were demanding a living wage for Harvard
employees, he called up the then president of Harvard
and told him that the students were right.

** Since 1974 he worked for universal health care -- he
was way ahead of many of us on this.

Born to wealth and a politically influential family, he could
easily have fallen into a shallow get-along/go- along political
career. But he took what he started out with, with all its
contradictory aspects, and became the greatest United States
Senator of his day.

Of *our* day. Many of us are his contemporaries, and we miss
him. We miss his eloquence. We miss his sense of justice and
fairness and compassion and humor. We miss his humanity.

He\'s part of our history now -- his life belongs to us all. A
life to remember. A life of values that we can take as our own.
A life of ideals that we can strive to bring to reality.

Democratic Town Committee