Reply #51: It wasn't just those assassinations though,

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it was the dozens of civil rights workers, Malcolm X, Kent State and Jackson State, the riots, the war, unending years of violence and hatred that ran raw. For me it was Medgar Evers and Kent State that cut deepest and I can't tell you why. For a good friend of mine, a radical progressive if you've ever met one, it was the attempt on George Wallace of all people who made him weep the bitterest tears he said, because "I expected as much with the others, but when Wallace was shot I knew there was a deeper level of evil in the country that I hadn't seen."

There was also a keen sense of betrayal, that the promises of the country were not only not being kept, there was never any intention by those in power to keep them. Maybe that was just a whole generation maturing at once, or a turning away form the naivete of the WWII generation.

It wasn't just a "national headline" sort of battle -it ran deeply person and within most families, from the kindly uncle you just found out was a klansman, the childhood friend who stayed pro-war, the nasty arguments at holidays, or the daughter who was banished from the family for dating the wrong guy. It all cut deep.

I think though that like any kind of civil war, it can only go on for so long before you need to find some kind of peace (or to raise a family as so many did).

Let it be said though that Ted Kennedy, even though many said at the time he should retire to quiet anonymity for the sake of his family, did not rest, did not give up, did not sell out. He was always there, picking up the pieces, carrying on. He did it for his family and he did it for all of us.