WORLD NEWS TRUST: The Bridge from Camelot (Mary Lyon)

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Mary Lyon, From The Left -- World News Trust

Jackie Kennedy planted that seed, sadly, after the fact, when talking with writer Theodore H. White -- in a quest to characterize her late husband's White House years -- casting them in some larger, grander, more transcendent image that would influence our thinking of the all-too-brief Kennedy Administration. Soon enough, the ink dried and the concrete hardened on that tribute and we'd all come to think of that era as Camelot. It was a magnificent state of affairs that existed in this country for that "one brief shining moment." Thankfully we still have a link to it.

Unfortunately, we're now reminded that this link is a fragile one. The news of Senator Ted Kennedy's illness is troubling and unsettling. He's everybody's "Uncle Ted" by now, whether you agree with him or not. And you don't have to be a member of the extended Kennedy clan to think that of him.

We're lucky, as Democrats, that we've had him as a leading light of our party for so long. We're lucky as Americans. He's our link to a past when everything seemed renewed, refreshed, and all things seemed possible. Granted, those memories are now tinted by time's passage, and some of us who are old enough to recall that era personally may also be old enough to be frayed a little around the edges. Yes, we're remembering just the good things. Yes, we choose to accentuate the positive. I'd note with gratitude that some of the stuff conservatives like to honk about, regarding the bumps on the road Kennedy has traveled, has courteously been downplayed.

Frankly, I hope they still have Ted Kennedy to kick around for a long time. It troubled me to hear of the seizure, the brain tumor, the continued hospitalization. We just got over something similar with Tim Johnson of South Dakota. We need our "Last Liberal Lion." We need what he says, what he does, what he stands for, what he represents. We're not through with you yet, either, Mr. Senator. Not by a long shot.

Ted Kennedy has kept the torch burning for decades now, and sometimes it has seemed as though he was the only one standing by it and refusing to abandon it. That's why we need him. Because the liberal ideals that he works so hard to strengthen and enlarge are more urgently needed now than ever before. Amidst all the media attention on his career, his health, and his many friends and well-wishers, we're seeing a flashback of what a Ted Kennedy means to America. We view him in file footage from mere days ago, in a Senate hearing room, advocating for improvement and expansion of health care coverage to those who have none. We've seen him constantly pushing on behalf of those whose lives have been lived far outside the luxury and privilege into which he was born. We've watched him give his legendary familial blessing to Barack Obama, in effect, designating the Illinois presidential hopeful as a direct heir.

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http://www.worldnewstrust.com/wnt-reports/commentary/the-bridge-from-camelot-mary-lyon.html

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1. Its also a shame Paul Wellstone is not around

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4. Damn! Is THAT ever true!!!

I will never forget that horrible day shortly before Halloween. And then we also found out that Dumbledore died (actor Richard Harris) and the two of those events felt like a sucker-punch from HELL - as we were going into the 2002 election. AWFUL. I felt like we'd just been hit by a lightening bolt from below - like Lord Voldemort was going to triumph. Of course, that had happened two years earlier, sad to say.

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2. A Kick For Mary

: )

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3. This made Huffington Post straight away, too. MOST eye-opening: you should see

the comments.

MAN, LOTS of people won't ever get over Chappaquiddick.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-lyon/the-bridge-from-camelot_b_102741.html