Reply #65: I was a freshman in college in November of 1963 -

[Tangerine LaBamba]

I was in South America when MLK, Jr. was murdered, and I had just landed in Miami for a short trip home when RFK was shot. I stayed in the airport for the whole night, until the news came that he had died.

Life-changing, yet. Transformational, yes.

I remember being at a classmate's uncle's vacation home in Rockaway when Teddy was in that plane crash, and I remember the conversation we had about a contract being out on the Kennedy brothers.

But, Chappaquiddick was not a big deal for me, not like the murders. To put it coldly, Kopechne had no meaning for me, an unfortunate girl who died, but no one who might have influenced my life. Plus, I was launching my own life, and the selfishness of the young can carry them a long way.

We have all made terrible mistakes, and I daresay none of us wants those mistakes periodically splashed across the front pages of web sites, newspapers, anyplace.

I'm not sure I agree that it's a worthy topic. It's certainly gossip fodder, and continues to be used by the rightwingnuts to prove how evil the Kennedys are/were. But significant? To Ted Kennedy and his family, of course. To the Kopechne family, absolutely. But, to the Americans story, I'm not sure it makes any kind of contribution. I don't know that it kept Teddy from running for President, because I vividly recall his being asked why he wanted to run, and he was stuck for an answer. I think he found his niche in the Senate, and did a splendid job there.

It's always a worthy topic to discuss, absolutely. We of that generation have a quite different set of perspectives on all of it, and, while I wish it had turned out so very differently, it's never boring..............

To us, all of us:

:toast: