Posted on 08/29/2009 2:01:07 PM PDT by kristinn
Two kinds of people reacted to news of Ted Kennedy’s death last week. The first — not all liberals, either — spoke of Kennedy’s hard work in the United States Senate, his dream of universal healthcare, his commitment to working people, civil rights and equality.
This “most imperfect man,” wrote analyst William Bradley, was also a powerful advocate for progressive principles. Barack Obama predictably (though accurately) observed that “for America, he was a defender of a dream.” In another variation on the visionary theme, Joe Biden said of his old friend, “He was never small.”
The other kind of reaction to Kennedy’s death could be summed up in one word: “Chappaquiddick.”
Not “vision” or “health-care reform,” not “peacemaking” or even “Camelot.” Just the controversial 40-year-old event, the ugliest single moment from the late senator’s 77 years on Earth, nearly 47 of them in public service. The small souls who spend their days hanging out in discussion forums at Free Republic, one of the U.S ultra-right’s more popular online homes, greeted news of Kennedy’s death characteristically, flinging around words like “traitor,” “coward,” “disgrace”— and, yes, references to the 1969 event. Chappaquiddick minds in a narrow, ungenerous world.
But the Chappaquiddick faction is not limited to either the United States or the senior senator from Massachusetts. It’s a state of mind, a summation of everything that is small and cribbed and contemptible — not unlike the sour (and embarrassing) one-line statement of perfunctory condolence on Wednesday from our own prime minister.
Chappaquiddick-type people possess a meanness of spirit that goes beyond simple politics. They’re responsible for a creeping diminution of vision and values. In Canada, which used to appreciate largeness of soul, they even have a government platform, thanks to Stephen Harper and company.
Consider the dramatic case of Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr, picked up by the U.S. military in Afghanistan at 15, or child-soldier age. When Harper’s government announced last week it would appeal — again — a ruling that it demand the Canadian-born Khadr’s repatriation, lawyer Dennis Edney said he wasn’t surprised. “We are used to this mean-spirited approach.”
But this government’s disgraceful stand on Khadr — the only Western detainee still in Guantanamo — is just part of it. The limited worldview, the impulse toward whatever is most ungenerous, is how it operates.
SNIP
Haha! WELL SAID! LOL!
Chappaquiddick-type = Canadian label thrown on American
patriots who would willingly pull an injured woman
from a sinking car, in which she will otherwise suffocate
Janice Kennedy = supporter of any murderer who would leave
an injured woman in the sinking car. She claims that any
such rescue would be “meanness of spirit”.
The Ottawa Citizen — Agrees with Janice Kennedy.
Better to let the victim die, in pain, slowly,
shriveling, even though she could have been rescued.
Personally, I have the vapors.
“hard work”?? These politicians have cushy lives, especially Kennedys
I guess Mary Jo was just having a bad day.
People need to pay attention to attitudes such as these, because they highlight the typical liberal conceit.
Namely, it doesn’t matter how big a scumbag I am, because I do so many good works. Nevermind that my good works mostly involve taking money from hard-working people and giving it to layabouts.
“Chappaquiddick-type people possess a meanness of spirit that goes beyond simple politics”
So, Janice Kennedy, have you ever put your imaginative ability to work, thinking about what it’s like being left trapped in a submerged automobile?
What kind of “meanness of spirit” do you think you would be thinking about as you choked in your last breaths waiting to die over a period of hours?
Will you please think about that before writing any more articles?
I love how their ‘truth’ is that Mary Jo Kopechne drowned when she in fact suffocated and was alive for some time before dying while Ted didn’t so much as report it for 9 hrs! That is really what is so evil about that.
Troubled? How about troubleSOME!
Miss Kennedy's classically liberal self-righteous condemnation of all with values that differ from her "enlightened" view upon her high horse is a "state of mind" as well.
It's a worldview that is polluted as result of having grown out of the swamp that results from losing respect for the sanctity of life.
The fact that the views she curses are beyond her comprehension is not surprising.
In order to rationalize her embracing of liberal ideology, a key foundational stone of which is justifying the killing of thousands of innocent babies every sing day requires such twisted logic to preserve her sanity and self-preservation.
Otherwise she would never be able to look in a mirror without revulsion.
“public service” again. what a joke.
“The amazing thing is their level of surety in their delusions....”
The Great Ronaldus Magnus used to observe about the left...”its not that their so ignorant...but just that so much of what they know simply isn’t true”
Golly Gee, I’ve been extra charitable and tried to say the nicest things I could think of!
Anyone else would just now getting out of Jail,I do not consider the Kennedy's anything but corrupt trash who destroyed this country.
Being directly responsible for someone’s death a long time ago is OK.
See, death over time is less meaningful.
And the millions of dead babies, Vietnamese and Iron Curtain citizens — just statistics. Also meaningless.
In her article title, “Getting Mean and Distinctly Ugly”; Janice Kennedy inadvertantly defines herself in five words.
Her last article is a mean and distinctly ugly slam at Sarah Palin...
http://www2.canada.com/ottawacitizen/columnists/story.html?id=f537f4c4-bae1-4eb2-8455-6658502ab7b5
Bridgers?
And yet they get so hoity toity about Harper not pressuring the US to give them back a terrorist. (Knowing Obama he’ll probably give the terrorist back anyhow.)
Exactly how does a person say and or write that with a straight face! LOL!
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