by Christopher Hessman
You will never understand the Kennedys until you understand their obsession with controlling their legacy, making absolutely sure they have the last word on every aspect of their lives, particularly the public services on which they base their utility and credibility.
This is why they are so keen on building... because in the long run building and controlling the edifices and complexes they create about themselves enables them to control their legacy. Whatever anyone says or writes about them, the Kennedys themselves will have the chance to rebut, to shape, and to control to the furthest extent what people know and think about them.
In short, like the Caesars of Rome, their focus is on eternity... that is why they write in marble and why the faithful gathered in Dorchester, Massachusetts April 8, 2011 for the ground breaking of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate.
Not the institution they wanted, not the place they wanted.
To begin with, the Kennedys wanted President John F. Kennedy's presidential library to be in Cambridge, as snug as possible to Harvard. There was a site they wanted, and it is easy to see why they wanted it. It was a splendid site right across from the Harvard Business School, on the river Charles on the street named in 1805 for Massachusetts governor James Bowdoin. Traditionalists (and people who were not enamored of the family Kennedy) opposed the change. But changing the name of that street had a precedent. Bowdoin Street had originally been called Middlecott Street from as early as 1750; now it was changed to John F. Kennedy Street, and so for the moment it remains.
In the process, Harvard's officials got a glaring indication of what the Kennedys wanted... a Kennedy theme park that would overshadow the world's greatest university.
This is not what Harvard wanted from anyone, and it is certainly not what they wanted from the Kennedys, a family with which Harvard had always had, shall we say, an equivocal relationship. The negotiations went on for years and were "frank" as they say in diplomatic parlance; in other words, behind closed doors the discussions were blunt, candid, revealing.
In the end, a compromise came about. The Kennedy name went on an institute for the study of politics. The beautiful site on the Charles is now a quiet park, where several of JFK's signature remarks and observations are chiseled in stone and under a fountain where it is a pleasure to sit on a hot summer day.
The Kennedy Institute itself is a refuge for retired (often defeated) politicians who come, after clobbering their way into office, to tell us that comity, amity, togetherness and brotherly love are the way to go; that rancor, negativity and distortion have no place in the American way of life and government..
Then, if they get the chance, they go back into the fray, raising funds to clobber their opponents better and more effectively than these opponents clobber them. It is very much the American way, the hypocrisy so ingrained in our national way of politics and governance we never see it at all. It is just the way things are.
The greatest irony.
As for JFK's presidential library and museum it went to Dorchester, Massachusetts, an event of great irony. The Kennedys, like every upwardly mobile Irish family, left Dorchester the minute they could; always wanting to be from Dorchester, not in it. Now they were linked to the place forever. In such ways do the gods of great Olympus amuse themselves.
Now they add another level of irony in the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. First because this is hardly the institution the Kennedys really wanted. Had there been justice in American politics, Edward M. Kennedy would have his own presidential library.
But EMK muffed his chance to be president, losing at the hands of Jimmy Carter, of all people, a man who never connected with the American people, losing big to Ronald Reagan, a man who did.
Kennedy kept his Senate seat for his entire life... but for him it was always a destination, never a launching pad to the bigger office at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. It must have rankled once upon a time, but he got used to it. Still, he wanted something that was as close to presidential as you could get. And his Institute for the United States Senate was the result.
First off, like JFK's library it is located in the wrong place. If it was necessary at all, it should have been in Washington DC. Moreover, it shouldn't have particularly focused on EMK but clearly on the institution of the Senate itself, with Kennedy and his famous brothers a part but only a minor part of the story. Again, the Kennedys have seized an institution and linked themselves forever with it. Harvard officials could tell you what that is all about.
The institute and its ground breaking.
As its prospectus says, "The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate is dedicated to educating the public about our government, invigorating public discourse, encouraging participatory democracy, and inspiring the next generation of citizens and leaders to engage in the public square. The Institute will be a dynamic center of non-partisan learning and engagement that takes advantage of cutting-edge technology to provide each visitor and other participants with a unique and information rich, personalized experience that will bring history alive."
Perhaps.
But the very ground breaking showed something quite different. At the place where the new 40,000 square foot institute will stand, the shards of Camelot gathered, to inaugurate, for probably the last time, a named Kennedy monument. The usual suspects were there, lead by Kennedy's widow Victoria Reggie Kennedy, always decent, well-spoken, likable.
But two figures were particularly notable for very different reasons.
As they toasted non-partisanship and all the rest, Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, Democrat, decided to take this of all moments to chide the Tea Party movement, then engaged in taking charge of the national budget crisis. His excellency wouldn't bite his tongue, saying
"Decades of poisonous rhetoric about how government is bad, taxes are bad, and greed is good has begun to jeopardize the can-do spirit of this country. My greatest disappointment with the conservative movement, so-called, is that it is sapping the optimism out of our country." And so right from the get-go, to the astonishment of the audience, the bitterness that is American politics was present, prominent, ingrained, intractable.
But the real winner of the day was Senator Scott Brown, the Republican who, to the consternation of the Democratic establishment, turned the"Kennedy seat" into the People's Seat by a magic all his own. "I told you I'd come," he said. "A little surprise to everybody, isn't it?" In those few words, he showed just why he's such a strong contender for re-election next year in this overwhelmingly Democratic state... and why there was such a feeling of pathos and the past about this event, yet another indication the Kennedys are about yesterday, not tomorrow.
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About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. He is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Christopher Hessman http://ProvenAutomatedBiz.com. Check out Six Figure RENEGADE -> http://www.ProvenAutomatedBiz.com/?rd=ah1KoXDx
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