Senator Kennedy, Thank You

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2008/05/senator_kennedy.html

By Kenneth Burt Posted on May 20, 2008

The breaking news about Senator Kennedy’s medical condition has provoked a flood of memories, many of them deeply personal.

I was one of Kennedy’s youngest delegates to the 1980 Democratic National Convention. For an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, it was a life-altering experience.

The convention experience was amplified by traveling to New York with Dolores Huerta, as I was a staffer that summer for the United Farm Workers. I still have the blue and white Kennedy button I wore with the UFW’s Aztec eagle.

Kennedy’s speech electrified Madison Square Gardens. As he talked about the “sailing against wind,” my mind was filled with promise of liberalism to create a more just society. The fact that we came up short in the delegate count only proved that victory is not certain, that the progress often requires a lifetime’s commitment.

Senator Kennedy has certainly dedicated his life to advancing the common good, whether it was advocating for universal health care, the minimum wage, or comprehensive immigration reform.

The last time I saw the senator was in 2004, at yet another Democratic National Convention, where he joined the California delegates in Boston for breakfast. Kennedy brought down the house when he sang “Jalisco,” accompanied by Mariachis, in his Boston-accented Spanish.

FULL story at link.