Senate remembers Kennedy

[babylonsister]

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/57673-senate-remembers-kennedy

Senate remembers Kennedy
By J. Taylor Rushing - 09/08/09 02:17 PM ET


The Senate wasted no time on Tuesday commemorating the loss of perhaps its most storied member, observing a moment of silence at 2 p.m. in honor of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) convened the Senate after a month- long break, during which Kennedy died on Aug. 25 after a 15-month-long battle with brain cancer. Reid said the break was a time of "passion and profound sadness," referring to Kennedy's death as well as sometimes-boisterous town hall debates on health reform.

During the moment of silence, a group of tourists in the upper gallery remained quiet, as did reporters, Senate staffers, aides and attendants. The only other senator in the chamber, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), stood silently as well, head bowed and hands clasped.

As is Senate custom, Kennedy's desk at the rear of the chamber was covered in black cloth, a vase of white flowers and a copy of his favorite poem, Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken."

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Not only a member ,but Champion for Mankind , a true Loss.

[horseshoecrab]

2. I am reduced again to tears

The thought of this man and the atonement he undertook every single day still brings me to tears. How many of us could even consider taking that road for the rest of our lives?

Ted Kennedy accomplished an incalculable amount for all of us. So many people were comforted personally by his presence and involvement in their lives, others were comforted by the reality of the fruits of legislation. It's truly mind boggling.

He was a wonderful man and I honestly believe that his name will live forever.


horseshoecrab

[Octafish]

3. The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

- Robert Frost