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logomachy--1. A dispute
about words. 2. A dispute carried on in words only; a battle of words.
logomachon--1. One who argues about words.
2. A word warrior.
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2009-08-26
The Vile Legacy of Ted Kennedy
At http://www.tedkennedy.org/ we are asked to share our memories of Ted Kennedy. Here is what I shared:
Sen. Kennedy leaves behind a legacy of shame and irresponsibility, of always taking the easy, expedient way, from his cheating in college and his self-indulgence at Chappaquiddick to his abandonment of babes in the womb and his defaming and bullying of designated victims of his political colleagues. Although his Catholic upbringing is often cited as though that nominal and residual affiliation were informative and meaningful, the connection was only an embarrassment and scandal to the Church. Not once in his life did he ever defend a Catholic principle or even the Church itself from assault by its public enemies. One wonders what his sister Eunice thought of his fervent enthusiasm to spread abortion into every hospital and clinic in this country. One wonders what his brothers would have thought.
I remember watching him in 1972 chair a committee hearing on amnesty for draft dodgers. A witness from the Vietnam Veterans for a Just peace rebuked him for abandoning the cause of freedom in South Vietnam that his brother—and he at one time—had championed. Was it Emerson, Sen. Kennedy replied, who said "consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds"? Actually, Emerson said “a foolish consistency". The self-serving misquote is of a piece with the essential falsity of his character.
That falsity was further revealed in the way he dealt with his guilt—his inappropriate guilt—that his inherited affluence gave him advantages that other lacked. He sacrificed nothing to improve the lot and fortune of others. Instead he basked in the plaudits of the wicked for using his political influence to promote social schemes that debased their targets, impoverished the public forced to fund them, and corrupted the Constitutional character of our Republic. He justified himself by “trying to help people”, but whatever his averred intentions, in fact he devastated four generations of the black community, killed 45 million unborn infants, weakened our national security, and in innumerable ways assaulted the character of the American people by tempting where he did not force them to be less responsible for themselves, their families, and their communities.
We cannot know the state of another person's soul, but we can be sure that in whatever state of grace that Edward Kennedy died, the legacy of his political life is such that he shall regret it for all eternity.
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