Sen. Kennedy pushed for the country’s betterment

By David Doerge

I was recently asked to write about the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, whom I met when I worked on the Senate Armed Services Committee for then-Sen. John Culver, D–Iowa.

At first I wondered what I could possibly add to the elegant eulogies, the detailed news reports of his life, the accounting of his many accomplishments in the Senate and beyond, airing of his inspiring oratory and his caring heart as he worked across political boundaries to help the poor, improve the schools and ensure health care for all Americans. I didn't want to write something just because I happened to know and work briefly with Sen. Kennedy three decades ago.

But, I remembered, here was a man who influenced my world view in that time, and I knew I wanted to pay some form of homage.

Today, it is far too easy to think in black and white terms. We are inundated with provocation and sensation by the media to raise their ratings, and by our elected officials to achieve or remain in office. The parties and the people are alienated and the extremes seem to set the agenda for important decisions. Politics is littered with unfortunate mischaracterizations if not outright lies designed to instill false fears or some other oversimplified emotion in the public to achieve privileged political ends.

So, what does this have to do with knowing Sen. Kennedy for a brief time?

He was larger than life in those days. The first time we walked over to his office to discuss a piece of defense legislation, I was very excited and a bit intimidated. I was going to meet with a living political icon. I was getting the chance to see the backstage of the “Kennedy mystique.” I knew, we all knew then, about the trials of the Kennedy family, and the unseemly personal incidents in Sen. Kennedy's life.

I wondered how such heartfelt loss, often cruel vilification and the unending grind of public service would shape this important man. I expected cynicism and a cunning, hard-boiled politician.

What I found was a man who had endured a life that would break most people, but a man who never complained and never explained. I learned from Sen. Kennedy that no one is just one thing, one persona defined by one characteristic, one achievement, or one mistake.

I doubt if the senator would have remembered me, but I know he would have never ignored me. He didn't believe in treating people as a means to an end and it allowed him an elegance and civility in dealing with all points on the political spectrum and to focus on the issues and not the personalities of his adversaries.

He embodied an ever-thinning strand in our political history when our elected officials knew that cooperation for the good of the country was not defeat or weakness, but the essence of a pluralistic democracy. I learned that genuinely working for something larger than yourself sustains the faith necessary to endure when you should quit, persevere when you have failed, and to be generous when you succeed.

Sen. Kennedy inspired us, regardless of political identity or position, to pursue a nation that would be, in the words of Lincoln, “again touched ... by the better angels of our nature.”

That's what I remember, and now there it is again, as it always has been, for all to see.

David Doerge, associate professor of political science, has been with Mount Mercy College since 2001. He has held various positions assisting Congress including the Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus and the Senate Armed Services Committee. Doerge has worked extensively with the United Nations and is also an academic council member of the Council on Foreign Relations.