In Memoriam: Ted Kennedy

It is truly the end of an era that has lasted 60 years. Ted Kennedy is gone.

He was the last of the four brothers and the only one to die of natural causes. He was a powerhouse of a man- able to compromise yet still hold to his principles. He was a man with more than his share of tragedy and trouble- some admittedly of his own making. Yet he kept going. He was a man of wealth and status who knew that these did not entitle him to leisure but to service.

For many in my generation his death marks the end of our history of politics. He may have been the last of the larger-than-life Senators of American history. He was the target of rage and ridicule yet did not allow that to keep him from working across party lines whether in Massachusetts where he worked with Republican Mitt Romney to get a health care bill or the Senate where his back-room negotiations were common. He was a "Liberal Democrat" who knew how to talk to "Conservative Republicans."

But that day is over. The deep partisan divides of today were no doubt quite painful to him. We may never know, of course, how he was working behind the scenes in these past years to get things done. I am sure, however, that he was doing just that on both sides of the aisle.

This is not the time to analyze the why and wherefore of his life or to look into the psychology of a man so powerful yet so driven to do what was roght. Rather it is a moment to pause and recognize the passing of a giant of a man whose greatness represented an era that has perhaps now past.

He was the last of his kind of politician.