Ted Kennedy Time to pay the fiddler

Why does everyone want to only remember the good things about a person when they die?Is it because that's how we hope to be remembered?Well sorry Ted that's not how I remember it and I'm not talking politics,I'm talking about his culpability in the death of Mary jo Kopechne www.nndb.com...

Near midnight on Chappaquiddick Island, a possibly drunk and definitely married Senator Ted Kennedy takes a right turn instead of a left. His car winds up skidding off Dike Bridge and is quickly submerged upside-down in salty Poucha Pond. His passenger, RFK office secretary Mary Jo Kopechne, is knocked into the back seat. Kennedy swims to safety, whereupon he fails to rescue his companion or even simply report the incident to authorities until the following morning.

This is how I'll remember Ted Kennedy,and I say good riddance to bad luggage.Pay up Ted!

I see your point, i upset a few people a while ago when it was proposed that they were going to erect a statue of the English footballer George Best.

Ok fair enough i'm not a football fan, but i commented on the fact that whilst he was this great bloke in many peoples eyes, he was also an alcoholic wife beater, so why waste good bronze on someone like that?

The alcoholism i can leave alone, because i know many people can fall prey to that for all kinds of reasons, but the wife beating? No excuse.

I also said i hope the paedophile Gary Glitter wouldn't be remembered as a great guy just because he made a few records.

That again upset people.

So like i said, i do see your point here. I don't know a lot about Ted Kennedy, but he's a politician for christs sake, he can't be all good like the media are portraying.

All that said though, whilst i'm not a religious man, he who is without sin cast the first stone and all that jazz.

I've done a few things in my life that i'm not proud of, but i like to think i won't be remembered for those few crap times.

So yeah, maybe it's like you say, it's because WE don't want to be remembered in a bad light.

CX.

He was a public figure and therefore his 'legacy' will be debated in public.
A funeral or a 'memorial' thread would not be the right place to debate that.
A 'legacy' thread would be fair game.
As for him 'paying the fiddler', I'll let God decide what to do with Sen. Kennedy.
As for me, I'm just glad his puppet-boy, Kerry, didn't get in the White House.

piper, or pieper. not fiddler. stop getting off on your imagined moral superiority. most of you werent alive when Ted ran for Pres. God I'd hate if Strom were still alive.

R.I.P. Ted, I'll have a makers Mark on the rocks with you in heaven or hell

the reason people tend not to speak ill of the dead is that they are either beyond your judgment or beyond caring about your judgment so people remember the good in a person that has just passed and let the bad be remembered by history or die with them.
.
the only people that might suffer from harsh words now are his grieving family/friends and there isn't any need for them to suffer more.

Originally posted by genius/idoit
This is how I'll remember Ted Kennedy,and I say good riddance to bad luggage.Pay up Ted!

I love it when people go into "Holier than thou" overdrive! You are sinless, perfect in every regard and a virtual saint. We need more people like you on this board.

Originally posted by genius/idoit
Why does everyone want to only remember the good things about a person when they die?Is it because that's how we hope to be remembered?Well sorry Ted that's not how I remember it and I'm not talking politics,I'm talking about his culpability in the death of Mary jo Kopechne www.nndb.com...

Near midnight on Chappaquiddick Island, a possibly drunk and definitely married Senator Ted Kennedy takes a right turn instead of a left. His car winds up skidding off Dike Bridge and is quickly submerged upside-down in salty Poucha Pond. His passenger, RFK office secretary Mary Jo Kopechne, is knocked into the back seat. Kennedy swims to safety, whereupon he fails to rescue his companion or even simply report the incident to authorities until the following morning.

This is how I'll remember Ted Kennedy,and I say good riddance to bad luggage.Pay up Ted!

i totally agree with you here. the guy was a murderer and got away with it because his last name was kennedy... now he knows if theres an after lifeor not.. weird..

reply to post by buddhasystem


well I haven't claimed to be sinless and I'm pretty sure I haven't KILLED anyone but hey thanks for making this about me.

reply to post by pieman


That makes sense and my condolences go out to the family

[ill-mannered comments removed]

Of course she wouldn't have drowned a air pocket gave her 15 too 25 minuets of air although in a drunk stupor he walked past numerous houses and one fire station went home to bed and her body was recovered long before he notified the authorities of the accident.





ABOUT ATS: General ATS discussion etiquette

[edit on 26-8-2009 by 12m8keall2c]

Man's dead.

Try to show the same respect that you would for any other politician.


At least wait a little bit before starting trash talk.

Ten or twenty minutes ought to do it.

[edit on 113131p://f13Wednesday by badgerprints]

reply to post by buddhasystem


There's a big difference between someone who is not sinless.. and someone who leaves a young woman to drown and goes home to sleep his drunk off while his family went about the business of covering things up.

As far as I'm concerned, he's earned every utterance of "Good riddance" that news of his death evokes.

Yes, Sen. Kennedy was responsible for another's death. And I didn't like his political views.

I Can not judge him and condemn him to hell as I have sinned and will sin more.

It seems logical that he suffered much through his life with all the tragedy in his family.

His last days of life must have been pure hell.

I'll let God decide what to do with Teddy's soul.

reply to post by genius/idoit

You mention Kennedy's 'Chappaquiddick incident' as an example of why he may wish he had a suit of 'asbestos clothing' to wear in the 'Great Beyond' ...

I have heard it mentioned that Ted Kennedy may have had certain 'powerful enemies' ... *ahem* ...

Being of a 'conspiratorial mind' myself, I think it's entirely within the 'realm of possibility' that young Teddy may have had a 'little help' in navigating his car off that bridge and into the Chappaquiddick river on that night so many decades ago ...

But, as often is the case with these kinds of things, we'll probably never know.

I for one tend to give him the 'benefit of the doubt' ...

Rest in peace Senator Kennedy ( and the best of luck during your 'initial interview' with St. Peter at the Pearly Gates ! ) ...

reply to post by genius/idoit

Why does everyone want to only remember the good things about a person when they die?

I would ask why is it some want to remember only the mistakes and the wrongs?

Ted Kennedy, despite my dislike for his politics, was not just Chappaquiddic, nor was he just his work in the Senate...he was a human, complete with all the foibles that come with it.

Let's just back off a step, or three...there's time enough and to spare to excoriate him, or his policies and actions at a later date. Let his family mourn in peace, they've buried enough sons in the public eye, why not give them this one son in private?

reply to post by seagull


I can assure you I will have no say in how his death and subsequent matters are dealt with.I felt in lieu of the MSM handling of the matter of his death someone should remember him for who he was.I wonder how the Kopechnes would feel about all the praise he's receiving?
Has anyone ever heard the saying;
you can build a thousand bridges and they will never call you a bridge builder
you kill one innocent girl while your drunk driving and your a murderer

reply to post by genius/idoit


Trust me there are more than enough people who remember the events of his life... I'm one of them.

As I said, there will be time enough and to spare to desect his life, both the good and the bad at a later date. Give his family the grace to mourn before excoriating him.

reply to post by seagull

As I said, there will be time enough and to spare to desect his life, both the good and the bad at a later date. Give his family the grace to mourn before excoriating him.

I think you just wanted to use the word excoriating(nice word though)

I think everyone knows that he was responsible for that womans death, that's not the same as saying he "killed her".

If I wanted to be repugnant and without class, I could say that The woman brought it on herself. She was drinking too, she knew he was drinking, she got into the car knowing he had been drinking. Stuff about personal responsibility, y'know.

Kennedy also did some significant good for many people, in addition to being largely responsible for bringing about Medicare and the Civil Rights act.

So, yes, several decades ago he was responsible for the death of a woman, but it's also true that he is directly or indirectly responsible for the elderly receiving medical treatment, and Black Americans being able to sit anywhere on the bus.

A debate like this, could go on and on forever, but it neither dignifies the person being discussed, nor the people in the discussion.

Speaking ill of the dead can only bring pain to the living.

reply to post by uaocteaou


I wonder if that would hold up in a court of law or how you would feel if it was your sister left to drown in that car?Oh yeah medicare is great(can you say bankrupt?)this guy was a waste of air when he was alive now he"ll be a waste of airtime.