Brother Gregory "The Bunker Letters": #29 "Memories Of Ted..."

Dear Don1001,

For some unknown reason, while watching Fox News last night I had a bad Acid/mescaline flashback that took me back to the late Spring of 68 when I was a fresh faced kid of 12 and I got to spend the afternoon with Ted Kennedy as he and his entourage went through the hills of Southern Indiana. My uncle was key member of group of Democrats that could help Indiana go for his brother Bobby in the upcoming Presidential race. So little brother Ted was sent to shore up support and reinforce the “brand”. This was very large, since Ted was JFK’s brother and in Southern Indiana, John Kennedy was a saint, literally. The Southern Indiana area that I lived in was predominately Catholic, so Ted was royalty. And I got a couple of minutes to talk with Ted during a break. At that time, actually talking with Ted was a big deal. If my memory serves me, I asked him if he liked his job. Ted said it was all he’d known and it was pretty cool, and then I got a personalized autograph picture. That beautiful Spring afternoon was almost all movement, and except for a small lunch break and a couple of hiccups in the itinerary; it was rush, rush, rush. I would have rather played basketball or hung out with the guys, but it seemed important to my parents that I be in the presence of a Kennedy, for a couple of hours. Plus when I got home, I did get a little envy from the other kids, but this lasted for maybe a day or two. Then the autographed picture went up on my bedroom wall and life resumed. Then a year or so later on July 18^th, Ted drowned Mary Jo, and cynicism became a constant friend, the picture went into the flames. At 13, all my heroes had died figuratively and literally. But this was just as well, because later on, when I occasionally worked around the so-called world leaders, there was no disappointment, no illusions, there had been none to lose. When I think back about that moment in time when Ted really was a boy prince and I looked into the prism of reality as a child, I realize that reality can be a Bitch. And maybe that's why the people of America still cling to their heroes or wait for a new one, embracing fantasy, while rejecting the reality. And that reality is that there aren’t any heroes now and there were very few in the past. The majority the “great” figures of history, were simple people caught up in great events and then didn’t “flake-out”. Let’s face it; if you were in the room when the Declaration of Independence was signed, historically you got “props” if even you were just delivering the beer. Now that your gone Ted, I miss you. That sounds weird and probably is, but our feelings about the past are seldom rational and usually nostalgic. The Kennedy legacy is like a low budget Cable Reality Show that America feels guilty about watching and enjoying because we know that the whole love affair just reinforces how superficial we are as a people. We would have rather leaders look good than be good. Karma-wise I think this whole episode was balanced out by working with Pope John Paul II, but that Don, is another story.

Wrestling with Kant, Brother Gregory