THE PLANK AUGUST 29, 2009
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Mike, you make a good point about Obama’s smart decision not to try to impose any symbolism on Kennedy’s death in his eulogy today. The timing of the loss lurked underneath nearly every discussion of Kennedy’s legacy this week, but using it as a rallying cry to pass health care reform at his funeral would be too easy to decry as a craven attempt by Obama to make political gains on his death. What I liked most about Obama’s eulogy was his quotation of William Wordsworth’s “Character of the Happy Warrior”:
As he told us, “…[I]ndividual faults and frailties are no excuse to give in – and no exemption from the common obligation to give of ourselves.” Indeed, Ted was the “Happy Warrior” that the poet William Wordsworth spoke of when he wrote:
As tempted more; more able to endure,
As more exposed to suffering and distress;
Thence, also, more alive to tenderness.
Wordsworth wrote the poem on the occasion of the death of Lord Nelson, the British Royal Navy hero who won the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, before dying of injuries he sustained during the fight. In the poem, Wordsworth outlines the virtues of his patriotic ideal; a man who overcomes hardship and devotes his life to achieving greatness, guided by an ever-present moral compass. But Wordsworth didn’t think Nelson was quite worthy of the lines he wrote, because his “public life was stained with one great crime” (probably either his brutal treatment of the rebels in Naples in 1799 or his well-known affair). There are, of course, similarities with Kennedy’s own legacy, but I can’t think of better words to describe his character than those penned by Wordsworth.
5 comments
Why is it so amazing that Obama didn't use Kennedy's funeral to plug health care? Seriously, isn't that sort of the basic level of politeness and common sense?
- acria multa
August 29, 2009 at 5:38pm
I'm looking at the "More Articles On" line of links at the bottom of the post and see "Minox GT-E 35mm Film Camera". Huh? What does a spy camera have to do with what was written?
- tnmats
August 29, 2009 at 7:47pm
Perhaps the most important similarity with Wordsworth's subject is this: Though Nelson was lost at Trafalgar, victory was won. One hopes that history will be repeated.
- Crock1701
August 30, 2009 at 2:25am
It is always a lot easier to be "happy warrior" when you are wealthy enough that nothing tangible will be lost if you keep going down to defeat in waging the battles. And even in waging the occasional war. This takes nothing away from Ted Kennedy though because I have never doubted the sincerity of his committment to help win the battle for those who have never mattered all that much to the folks who think them up in Washington, fund them on Wall Street and analyze and dissect them in the media. Working class folks like me, for instance. My point however has never been to judge these players as an ethicist might. Instead, my aim is more to situate points of view subjunctively in existential vantage points. We can discuss and debate Ted Kennedy's warrior persona as he fought tooth and nail to bring folks like me into greater focus over the decades. But there is really no way for me to understand literally how he understood me anymore than there is a way you can understand literally how I understand him. We all see these enormously complex and circuitous relationships from all the aggregated experiences and relationships we bring into the value judgments we make about health care or any other passion of the late Edward Kennedy. george walton [d/a]
- iambiguous
August 30, 2009 at 4:09pm
For those who know of the film 'Waking Ned Devine', the following needs no explanation.
"Michael O'Sullivan was my great friend. But I don't ever remember telling him that. The words that are spoken at a funeral are spoken too late for the man who is dead. What a wonderful thing it would be to visit your own funeral. To sit at the front and hear what was said, maybe say a few things yourself. Michael and I grew old together. But at times, when we laughed, we grew young. If he was here now, if he could hear what I say, I'd congratulate him on being a great man, and thank him for being a friend."
But I guarantee if you rent it once you'll end up seeing it again...
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- michael
August 30, 2009 at 5:00pm