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August 29, 2009
The Joy and Nobility of Politics
Here is my favorite paragraph from President Obama's eulogy for Ted Kennedy,
We can still hear his voice bellowing through the Senate chamber, face reddened, fist pounding the podium, a veritable force of nature, in support of health care or workers' rights or civil rights. And yet, while his causes became deeply personal, his disagreements never did. While he was seen by his fiercest critics as a partisan lightning rod, that is not the prism through which Ted Kennedy saw the world, nor was it the prism through which his colleagues saw him. He was a product of an age when the joy and nobility of politics prevented differences of party and philosophy from becoming barriers to cooperation and mutual respect - a time when adversaries still saw each other as patriots.
Our causes can and should be deeply personal but meaningful debate always stops when our disagreements are also personal.
Posted by Duane Smith at August 29, 2009 3:45 PM | Read more on Current Events |
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Comments
A profound comment, and one that hopefully causes everyone a bit of self-reflection. Thanks for posting it.
Posted by: Daniel O. McClellan at August 29, 2009 4:52 PM
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