A Right Not A Privilege

Over the years I’ve often heard it asked as to one’s whereabouts when you heard that President Kennedy had been shot. I was as a skinny young kid watching the small and grainy black & white TV screen in our den in Levittown. In the days that followed I was moved by the sad cadence of the unfolding story as the country took in the gravity of that unalterable moment. And when Bobby Kennedy was shot in Los Angeles, I was also at home in the same den as the crushing news of the end to the candidacy and life of my first political hero was broadcast. It was the first presidential campaign I had ever worked on and I was at home awaiting the results of the Los Angeles primary and dreaming my young idealistic dreams. Those early voices that I’d heard for hope were gone.

And I will always remember where I was today when I learned that Ted Kennedy had died. Maybe it was because he succumbed to the same disease that had taken my Mother’s life and I empathized with his family for what I know was a long and difficult struggle watching their hero diminish. But more probably it’s because I’m mature enough now to truly understand the courage and work that it takes to make hope & dreams a reality and the historic crossroads we are at for affecting healthcare reform for the generations to come.

For decades, Ted Kennedy represented a clear and passionate voice for quality and affordable healthcare for every American. We are all living this same moment in a common place with the same challenges in front of us. We can decide now to remember this day as a time we altered our path to push for what we know to be a right and not a privilege in helping our fellow man. We can remember this moment as a time where new voices rose up to make a difference. Where new men and women assumed the mantels of the lions who had brought society so far.

I hope that I will always remember where I was when I got the inevitable news of Senator Kennedy’s death sitting with my small bowl of fruit in pajamas watching the morning news before rushing off into the dawns gleam. I hope I remember that I helped to make a difference for those less fortunate because I had been lucky in life and know in my heart that good healthcare is a right and not a privilege for all. Here, now and always.

Where were you?