The LuLac Edition #932, Sept. 6th, 2009

PHOTO INDEX: THE THINKER.

DIFFERING VIEWS

Today I am going to give you two points of view on the late Ted Kennedy. The first was a letter to the editor that pretty much outraged me. It is a perfect example of the blind hatred, vitriol and ignorance that any one in public service gets these days living or dead. I chose not to include the name of the person who wrote it and sent to the Citizen's Voice because why reward stupidity. The other is a column written last week by former State Represetative Kevin Blaum. Interesting comparison and contrast:

Editor:
Now that Ted Kennedy has finally died, it's time now for the Democrats and the liberal news media to canonize this alcoholic womanizing coward to the level of sainthood.
This guy was nothing but a spineless loudmouth flaming liberal who should have spent 20 years behind bars for running from the scene of an accident he caused that took the life of Mary Jo Kopechne in 1969. Will any of the newspapers or media mention this? No!
Anybody else, including every reader of this letter, would have done serious time, but not the Kennedys. Good old Teddy boy ran from the scene that left Mary Jo fighting for her life. Then spineless Ted hid in the bushes frozen with fear of being caught with her so he watched as she slowly drowned. Then the quivering whiskey soaked jellyfish denied for two days that he was even there.
Unfortunately this young girl put her trust in this low-life self-centered coward and he ended up killing her,
Maybe the liberal media should spend the next few days reflecting on young Mary Jo Kopechne's destroyed life and apologize to her family instead of hailing this drunken fool's booze drenched scandal ridden political career. Thank God for our country this mud slinging tequila worm never bought his way into the White House.
Rest in peace Mary Jo, the coward alcoholic that took your future, your hopes and your dreams the man who ruined your family and murdered your young life finally has to answer for his.

DECADES AGO, a senator from Massachusetts had the radical idea that people who lost their jobs should not be forced to lose their health care. He believed your children should not automatically lose their health insurance simply because they were no longer full-time students covered by most group health plans.
His proposal was roundly criticized and called “liberal.” Undeterred, he fought hard. His idea, his creation, was slipped into Title X of the 1985 Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. You call it COBRA. It has helped millions of American families and no one calls it “liberal” anymore. The man who dreamed it up and got President Reagan to sign it is widely believed to be the greatest U.S. senator ever, Ted Kennedy.
A member of the Senate for nearly a half century, Edward Moore Kennedy worked with 10 presidents in 24 sessions of the U.S. Congress and is the third longest-serving senator in our nation’s history.
Elected to the Senate in 1962, he first introduced a universal health care bill in 1970.
Here was a man who never had to worry about health insurance or what it might cost. Yet, with fewer employers providing it, he worried about health insurance for your children and your grandchildren. He wondered who will cover them when you’re gone and how will they ever afford it.
Today his idea is front and center. It is a sad irony that Kennedy is not here to push it across the finish line, and should it get there, he will not be present to vote “Aye.”
Kennedy also fought for landmark legislation to be administered by the Office of Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal aid.” Kennedy got President Nixon to sign it. It is known as the 1972 U.S. Educational Amendments. You probably know it as Title IX.
The impact of Title IX upon women’s sports is well known. But as a result of Title IX, women who received 9 percent of all medical degrees in 1972 today earn well over 40 percent of them. In 1972, women received 7 percent of law degrees; today it’s more than 45 percent. In 1972, women received 20 percent of all doctorates; today it hovers around 50 percent.
Kennedy also was not afraid to take on issues he knew to be hopeless. He had a knack for winning even when he lost. In 2002 there were only 23 Senate votes against the Iraq War. Kennedy called his vote in the negative “the best vote” he ever cast in the Senate.
Sen. Kennedy also fought for JFK’s Civil Rights Act in 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Americans with Disabilities Act, increases in the minimum wage, family leave, funding to combat HIV and AIDS, campaign finance reform, Medicare prescriptions, OSHA, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and so much more.
Former Senate Republican leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, a friend of Kennedy’s, called his passing “a loss for all mankind.” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, refers to Kennedy as “my treasured friend.”
It is said that Sen. Kennedy, the man Republicans loved to publicly pillory, was, in reality, much beloved by his Republican and Democratic colleagues alike. If there were more private cooperation like that and less public posturing, perhaps Sen. Kennedy’s sensible dream could soon become law.
Like Kennedy’s COBRA, President Obama’s Public Health Care Option, once enacted, will be little more than common sense.

Kevin Blaum

See the difference between the two is that one is just filled with vile and hate, the other thoughtful facts. Freedom of speech doesn't mean everybody should listen or take it seriously. Opinion #1 is a perfect example.