{"id":1534,"date":"2008-05-20T16:03:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-20T16:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/05\/thinking-of-ted-kennedy\/"},"modified":"2011-11-01T15:13:11","modified_gmt":"2011-11-01T19:13:11","slug":"thinking-of-ted-kennedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/05\/thinking-of-ted-kennedy.html","title":{"rendered":"Thinking of Ted Kennedy"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_niPwTW3rBbU\/SDMw-T6EXZI\/AAAAAAAAA94\/AIzmNXEqYV8\/s1600-h\/kennedybrothers.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;float: left;cursor: pointer\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_niPwTW3rBbU\/SDMw-T6EXZI\/AAAAAAAAA94\/AIzmNXEqYV8\/s400\/kennedybrothers.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\"><\/a>Ted Kennedy has always been for me living evidence of the grace that can transform human lives.<\/p>\n<p>I think there have rarely been such callow and obviously unsuitable inheritors of great mantles as Ted Kennedy. Born to live in the shadow of his older brothers, it took tragic deaths to change things. His first steps did not bode well; he demonstrated an unbounded selfishness and carelessness that actual led to the loss of human life.<\/p>\n<p>And yet he persevered.<\/p>\n<p>And he grew.<\/p>\n<p>And he changed. A party boy for way too long, he nonetheless also became a fierce advocate for racial justice, economic justice, for the poor, the disabled, the downtrodden. Those who would otherwise not have a voice, he provided it. And he backed that voice with muscle.<\/p>\n<p>Over the years he has become one of the most important figures in the history of the American senate.<\/p>\n<p>Now he lies gravely ill. On television commentators have to constantly correct themselves as they slip into the past tense when speaking of him. Senator Robert Byrd wept. Only Chris Dodd made no such slip, fierce in his devotion for his old friend and colleague\u2026<\/p>\n<p>I won\u2019t make the mistake of using the past tense here.<\/p>\n<p>He has proven to be a fighter.<\/p>\n<p>And may his fight continue.<\/p>\n<p>God bless you, Ted Kennedy, American hero\u2026<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/33904114-5259567605079896744?l=monkeymindonline.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ted Kennedy has always been for me living evidence of the grace that can transform human lives. I think there have rarely been such callow and obviously unsuitable inheritors of great mantles as Ted Kennedy. Born to live in the shadow of his older brothers, it took tragic deaths to change things. His first steps [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Thinking of Ted Kennedy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ted Kennedy has always been for me living evidence of the grace that can transform human lives.I think there have rarely been such callow and obviously\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/05\/thinking-of-ted-kennedy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thinking of Ted Kennedy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ted Kennedy has always been for me living evidence of the grace that can transform human lives.I think there have rarely been such callow and obviously\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/05\/thinking-of-ted-kennedy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Monkey Mind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/james.ford.1029\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-05-20T16:03:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-11-01T19:13:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_niPwTW3rBbU\/SDMw-T6EXZI\/AAAAAAAAA94\/AIzmNXEqYV8\/s400\/kennedybrothers.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Ford\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Ford\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/05\/thinking-of-ted-kennedy.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/05\/thinking-of-ted-kennedy.html\",\"name\":\"Thinking of Ted Kennedy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-05-20T16:03:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-11-01T19:13:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/3f37f475fb5078d1e7faa93a63a0fddb\"},\"description\":\"Ted Kennedy has always been for me living evidence of the grace that can transform human lives.I think there have rarely been such callow and obviously\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/05\/thinking-of-ted-kennedy.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/05\/thinking-of-ted-kennedy.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/05\/thinking-of-ted-kennedy.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Thinking of Ted Kennedy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/\",\"name\":\"Monkey Mind\",\"description\":\"Easily distracted...\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/3f37f475fb5078d1e7faa93a63a0fddb\",\"name\":\"James Ford\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa18971b225a3bb79f0c4c381a5fae20?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa18971b225a3bb79f0c4c381a5fae20?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James Ford\"},\"description\":\"James Ishmael Ford is a writer and spiritual director. 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