[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 145 (Thursday, October 8, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2486]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


        HONORING THE LIFE AND WORKS OF SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, October 7, 2009

  Ms. ESHOO. Madam Speaker, ``Be not afraid of greatness: some are born 
great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 
'em.''--William Shakespeare, ``The Twelfth Night.''
  It is with a sense of proud sadness and deep gratitude that I am 
blessed to offer a few words about a man who was born to greatness, had 
it thrust upon him and achieved greatness--because, in the end, he was 
not afraid.
  It is with an array of inexpressible emotions that I am blessed to 
call him an inspiration, mentor, and most valued friend.
  To be Ted Kennedy's friend was to be wrapped in a special embrace, a 
golden aura of generosity and thoughtfulness, compassion and 
comradeship. It simply felt good to be around him.
  I believe the highest praise bestowed on anyone is that he made the 
people around him better. This he did by calling all of us to the 
better angels of our nature.
  It is said that to whom much is given, much is expected. No one 
expected more of himself than did Ted Kennedy, and no one gave more of 
himself to others.
  No one bore greater burdens--some of them the result of cataclysmic 
events that damaged not only our nation, but hurt him deeply and in 
ways that would have paralyzed any of us.
  He carried on, shouldering the future of a young and sprawling family 
and the continuing hopes and dreams of our nation.
  In a speech in August of 1968, mere weeks after the death of his 
brother Bobby, Teddy said:
  ``There is no safety in hiding. Like my brothers before me, I pick up 
a fallen standard. Sustained by the memory of our priceless years 
together, I shall try to carry forward that special commitment to 
justice, excellence and courage that distinguished their lives.''
  We met in 1978 in San Francisco when I was little more than a laborer 
in the vineyards of California Democratic politics. In 1979, I joined 
his campaign for president and was appointed to his state steering 
committee.
  I soon found myself involved in decisions about who to seat at the 
1980 Democratic Convention and in strategic discussions about how we 
might win the nomination against a sitting president.
  In this way, he lifted the fortunes and the sights of so many, 
allowing us to find new challenges, to seek out new responsibilities 
and to broaden our own understanding of what we could do, who we could 
be and how we could help him achieve an America of justice, excellence 
and courage.
  It was at the convention, of course, that he gave what is widely 
regarded as his greatest single speech. The speech concluded with those 
words that have continued to ring out through the decades: ``The work 
goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall 
never die.''
  Conventions have become pre-packaged events with carefully staged 
``spontaneous'' demonstrations of affection and support. At the 1980 
convention, we were outsiders, there against the wishes of an incumbent 
president whose strategists controlled all the machinery of convention-
like hoopla.
  So, for an hour, we clapped and cheered, we cried and we chanted 
``Kennedy, Kennedy.''
  In retrospect, we were enthralled not by the end of a campaign but by 
the promise of future fights and the certainty that our cause would go 
forward, as would our work on behalf of the downtrodden and the 
disaffected.
  He said in 1985, with yet another presidential election stirring, 
``The pursuit of the presidency is not my life. Public service is.''
  He loved to be of service and he reveled in all that it meant, taking 
joy in those things that would have seemed small and inconsequential to 
him--and spreading joy.
  In 1986, while serving as a member of the San Mateo County Board of 
Supervisors, I was elected to the position of chairman of the Board. 
The title was nice, but it was antiquated and was a vestige of an era 
when only men served in office. I asked the county counsel to take the 
necessary steps to change the title to president of the Board.
  It became a national news story that appeared in the Wall Street 
Journal, an article that included the headline: ``Eshoo to become 
president.''
  Teddy sent me a telegram that read: ``I always wanted to be 
president, but I'm glad you got there first.''
  No one bore greater burdens--some of them self-inflicted. He faced 
them unflinchingly and with the hope that he would do better. In a 
scandal-besieged era, he was, again, an example to us of how to live in 
the public eye with humility, with humanity and with yet another kind 
of courage.
  He said: ``I recognize my own shortcomings--the faults in the conduct 
of my private life. I realize that I alone am responsible for them, and 
I am the one who must confront them. I believe that each of us as 
individuals must not only struggle to make a better world, but to make 
ourselves better, too.''
  When others would have scrambled for the safety of obscurity, he 
stood at the helm and sailed the storms.
  He was flawed but in a way that makes his virtues stand even taller, 
for in our midst was a man who never thought of himself as a saint, but 
believed that the least among us deserve the greatest blessings this 
nation can bestow.
  He was generous. He was thoughtful. He was passionate. He was 
courageous beyond measure.
  And so it is fitting that his last large moment on the national stage 
should be filled with hope. This is how he lived his life. This is the 
gift he gave to us.
  At his final Democratic convention, he harkened to his own past to 
paint an enduring vision of a better tomorrow that is uniquely Teddy:
  ``The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives 
on.''
  So, we are saddened at his passing and in the knowledge we will never 
see his like again and that we will never be warmed by the sun in quite 
the same way.
  But we are filled with the promise he believed and that he gave us, 
ready to do battle in his name and to extract a measure of joy from 
life, as he would do.
  And we are comforted in the knowledge that he is with his family and 
his legions of friends and that he is at peace. May God grant this 
peace to Vicki, his great love, his precious children and his entire 
family.
  As John Bunyan wrote in ``Pilgrim's Progress'':
  ``When the day that he must go hence was come, many accompanied him 
to the riverside, into which as he went, he said, `Death, where is thy 
sting?' And as he went down deeper, he said, `Grave, where is thy 
victory?' So he passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on 
the other side.''

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