Deep into night, memories carry throngs to wake

[babylonsister]

Deep into night, memories carry throngs to wake

Thousands lined up at the JFK Library and Museum during the wake for Senator Edward M. Kennedy yesterday. Along with the curious were people whose lives Kennedy had touched. Thousands lined up at the JFK Library and Museum during the wake for Senator Edward M. Kennedy yesterday. Along with the curious were people whose lives Kennedy had touched. (Photos By John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)

By Stephanie Ebbert and David Filipov
Globe Staff / August 28, 2009


They hailed from Wisconsin and Ukraine, from New Jersey and Brookline. They were tourists fresh off Duck Boats and veterans with still-vivid memories of Da Nang; recent immigrants and lifelong Bostonians; graying professionals and kids in Crocs. They spoke Italian and Russian, Arabic and Hindi, Spanish and English of every standard and accent.

They came in droves last night to pay their final respects to Senator Edward M. Kennedy as his body lay in repose within a flag-draped coffin at the center of an elegant, high-ceilinged room at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, hard by the sea in Dorchester.

As dusk settled at 7 p.m., the line looped for hundreds upon hundreds of yards, with thousands upon thousands of people, each one seeming to carry the memory of an encounter, or even just a moment, with the man whose life they had come to celebrate. By midnight, police officials estimated that 6,000 people remained in line, and that although everyone would be able to get inside, the viewing would end around 2 this morning.

Whether they had met him or not, virtually everyone professed a personal connection to Kennedy and his famous family.

“I just had to be here,’’ said Lessie McMillan, 54, who had driven from Hackensack, N.J., to attend the public wake. “The Kennedys - they were always involved with the civil rights movement, and anything that happened to them we felt happened to our family.’’

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http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/08/28/memories_carry_multitudes_to_wake_at_library/

[PerfectSage]

1. In honour of Ted, I will quote My favourite quote from Lao Tzu. Have a good afterlife Teddy.

Arms, however beautiful, are instruments
of ill omen, hateful to all creatures.
Those who know the way of life do not
wish to employ them.
The superior man prefers his higher
nature, but in time of war, will call upon
his lower nature.
Weapons are an instrument of ill omen,
and not the instruments of the superior
man, until he has no choice but to employ
them.
Peace is what he prizes; victory through
forces of arms is to him undesirable.
To consider armed victory desirable
would be to delight in killing men, and
he who delights in killing men will not
prevail on the world.
To celebrate when man’s higher nature
comes forth is the prized position; when
his lower nature comes forth is time for
mourning.
The commander’s second has his place
in man’s higher nature; the commanding
general has his place assigned to man’s
lower nature; his place assigned to him
as if to a funeral.
He who has killed multitudes of men
should weep for them; and the victor in
battle has his place accorded as in a
funeral.