Death of Ted Kennedy A Lesson in Politics

Posted on | August 26, 2009 | No Comments

Mary Ann Miller

Ted Kennedy’s passing takes me back to an important political lesson I learned when his brother Bobby died.

I was 10, and just becoming aware of political leanings.  Although it was certainly not the hot topic on the playground, we would occasionally taunt each other with whose candidate was better, all of our opinions formed by things we had heard at home.

My parents were staunch Democrats, but they were not fans of Bobby Kennedy.  In fact, I had the feeling that the world as we knew it would come to an end if Kennedy became President. 

And then he was killed.  And my parents were stunned.

At first I was puzzled.  It didn’t make sense to me that my parents would be so upset over the death of someone they so avidly opposed.  But then I realized that they could separate the politics from the person; that they could completely disagree with someone without actually hating them.

As we consider the end of a generation in an iconic family and listen to the accolades to Ted Kennedy from both allies and adversaries, let’s reaffirm a commitment to civil discourse, to arguing issues and not personalities, to disagreement not brawls.

Mary Ann Miller is the President/CEO of the Tempe Chamber of Commerce

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