Chappaquiddick 40 Years and 1 Month Ago.

Why is it that so many people speak so glowingly of those who weren't someone deserving kind words once they die? Someone can be a drug addled pedophile, who was obviously insane, but when he dies after a lifetime of drug abuse we mourn and place him on a pedestal. Then treat him to a hero worship frenzied media fest as we did with Jackson. Today, Ted Kennedy, a man who you would have to really dig deep to find a redeeming moment in his life, is now a hero.

Why are we not honest enough in our society to not change our opinion of someone once they die? To lionize "The Lion of the Senate" and to not be honest about the damage that Kennedy caused, is hypocrisy. His Immigration and Nationalization Act of 1965 has been a disaster to our nation. It has been the main cause of changing us from the great melting pot that was part of the basis of our national success and turned it into a giant tossed salad. Before this bill when our families immigrated here, we learned the language, learned the customs, and became Americans, not some form of hyphenated Americans. To show you how wrong he was, or how he misled us here his own words from the floor of the Senate:

Kennedy, speaking of the effects of the act, said, "First, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same.... Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset.... Contrary to the charges in some quarters, [the bill] will not inundate America with immigrants from any one country or area, or the most populated and deprived nations of Africa and Asia.... In the final analysis, the ethnic pattern of immigration under the proposed measure is not expected to change as sharply as the critics seem to think.... The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs."

The Act resulted in a flood of new immigration, with Immigration doubled between 1965 and 1970 and doubled again between 1970 and 1990.

As a person, Kennedy was a philandering, drunken, lout whose most famous Oopsie happened at Chappaquiddick one night after drinking he took Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign worker out for a drive. His testimony of giving her a ride home holds no bearing on the truth, he took the keys from his chauffeur, she told no one she was leaving with Kennedy, and left her purse and keys at the party. One might assume that they didn't want Kennedy's wife to know about this outing. Unfortunately for Kopechne, Kennedy was drunk and lost control of the car and it plunged into the water. He then got out of the car and left her there to die. He walked by 5 homes that he could have stopped and called for help, then swam across the 500 foot channel to his hotel room changed out his wet clothes and slept off his drunk. It wasn't until the next morning when two of his aids forced him to call the police did he at 8 am. She died at his hands 40 years ago last month.

In April of 91, Ted Kennedy's nephew William, rapped a woman at the Kennedy compound in Palm Beach. Kennedy was on the property at the time, there is no proof that he knew anything about it at the time, but it did appear that he tried to use his influence to protect his nephew from the consequences. However, the Kennedy aura was so diminished by then, William did have to face prosecution for his crime.

The kindest thing that I can say about Ted Kennedy's life and long time in the Senate is that he was strongly responsible for me to leave the democrat party. In our family John Kennedy was an icon. In my grandma's family room there were three portraits on the wall. One was The Sacred Heart, one was the Pope, and the other was John F. Kennedy. However, after Bobby was killed, all we were left with was the ne'er do well screw up brother, anyone who remembers JFK, and RFK, would remember that "Teddy" was a very poor example of the Kennedy boys, kind of like a Leave it to Beaver reject.

Once again, I am sorry for the loss of a family member to his family, and a friend to his friends. But America would have been much better off had it been he that was stuck under that bridge in July of 1969. Maybe the idea of naming this Socialized Health Plan after Ted Kennedy would in fact be fitting. With this bill, Americans will find themselves treated with all the respect that these young women in this story were treated by Kennedy and his nephew.