Ted Kennedy was one of the precious few in Washington who opposed the immoral, brutal Iraq war. He was truly special to us for his lifelong stand on peace, rights and justice.
In 2004 and 2005, when the immigration reform movement reached its peak and stormed America, some of us activists working on the ground traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet Sen. Edward Kennedy. At that time, several Congressional measures including a bipartisan bill authored by Sen. Kennedy on the Democratic side and Sen. John McCain on the Republican side were gathering steam. Important constituencies such as organized labor, the Church and grassroots rights and justice groups came out to support the Kennedy-McCain legislation.
Later, however, Sen. McCain withdrew his critical support from the bill to cajole the right wing into re-inflating his then-faltering presidential campaign. And by doing so, he took away the sail from a most urgent, humane reform movements that would save lives and dignity of millions of poor, undocumented immigrant workers, families and children, and bring them out to light. Conservative John McCain's politically expedient flip-flop sent the "illegal" immigrants back to the dark days of forced-labor, detention, deportation, hopelessness and misery.
But Sen. Kennedy, in spite of his failing health, did not give up on his crusade to pass the comprehensive reform act. Although, in 2007 and 2008, in the face of the fiercest campaign of anti-immigrant forces in Congress and on corporate media -- powers looking for opportunities to exploit on the "they steal our jobs" propaganda against Barack Obama's candidacy -- Kennedy shifted his focus on another watershed effort: the health care reform. One of the greatest and astute statesmen in modern American history, even called so by his staunchest critics, Sen. Kennedy threw his weight as the lead liberal icon and family prestige behind the health care initiatives, thereby garnering new momentum for a first-time and black Illinois senator aspiring to become the next U.S. president. And did his game plan work!
Looking back, without the pivotal, early, enthusiastic support from Sen. Kennedy, President Barack Obama would still be called Sen. Obama, notwithstanding his millions of miracle workers -- both on the ground and online -- sweating out passionately all across the country. Without that precipitous moment when Sen. Kennedy came out strongly to endorse the Obama candidacy, in all likelihood, liberal-brand media and other big Democratic sponsors would rally around Sen. Hillary Clinton, who even less than two years ago was all but certain to clinch the Democratic nomination. Even die-hard believers like us hesitated to believe then that a black man could be the next U.S. president. Miracles happen, only with the best possible mentors found at the best possible time.
When Sen. Kennedy announced a couple of years ago that he would step down from Congressional Judiciary Committee and give up his gavel as chairman of the immigration subcommittee, he said: “I remain deeply committed to civil rights, equal opportunities and immigration reform, and I will always be involved in those important debates and discussions.”
Kennedy-bashing conservatives knew it. Anti-immigrant, anti-healthcare-reform, anti-Obama forces grudgingly admitted the towering influence Sen. Kennedy had on American politics for decades. Said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, “Kennedy for forty years has been the engine driving immigration legislation in Congress.”
New-immigrant citizens working to pass a comprehensive reform, we felt his commitment and passion for the cause at our Washington meetings.
We also saw the same intensity of dedication to the cause when he re-energized his long, hard campaign for a comprehensive health care reform. Time magazine wrote, "No one in Congress, after all, has put more into the cause of health reform than committee chairman Ted Kennedy, who introduced his first national health-insurance bill all the way back in 1970. But Kennedy...has been away from Washington for most of this year — and it shows in the chaos that surrounds the panel as it begins to try to turn his long-held dream of universal health coverage into reality."
Sen. Kennedy's ability to get things done even on business-as-usual Capitol Hill was magical. Sen. Tom Harkin, another progressive icon of American politics, once said, "As we always say around here, if you want to get a bill through, give it to Kennedy. He just knows how to get the deals and get everybody working together."
I have no doubt in my mind that with a few more active months in hand, Sen. Kennedy would be there, wave his magic wand, and get that health care reform bill through. At this time of purposefully-propagated confusion, chaos and exclusion of facts, President Obama would sorely miss his support. We the activists on the ground would miss him dearly.
Sen. Edward Kennedy had three last wishes, one of which has come true. Can we bring the other two to reality? America's poor immigrants and America's sick citizens look up to that fulfillment of their dreams.
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