| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Obits- |
| Ted Kennedy's death heralds Camelot's end |
| 2009-08-27 |
| With Sen. Ted Kennedy dead at 77, the political iconographers on Wednesday were working feverishly, like alchemists over a fire. The Kennedy legacy has always been about American royalty and the appetites of kings and the use of myth, and that myth was always Camelot, those shining knights and the idealistic boy who drew the sword from the stone. With the death of the Massachusetts Democrat, finally, mercifully, let's let Camelot go. The iconographers on the political right, including some who call themselves Christians, were busy damning his soul to hell for walking away from that crash at Chappaquiddick 40 years ago. He let young Mary Jo Kopechne drown in the Oldsmobile, her body twisting to find pockets of air in that submerged car as he made it to shore, then waited hours to sober up, put his clout together and save his political career. Some critics hated him for his politics. Others hated him because his only punishment for Chappaquiddick was that he couldn't be president and so was sentenced to the job of senator for life. Most were upset that the media canonized him as a liberal lion and used Camelot to shield him. It doesn't really matter now. But can you call yourself a Christian and hope that a man's soul be damned? On Wednesday, many on the political left -- including some made visibly uncomfortable with any talk of souls -- busily ignored Mary Jo, just as they've always ignored her. But they grabbed onto Camelot for one last ride, and used a dead Kennedy to push for nationalized health care. "They'll use him for sympathy points on the health care thing," a national Democrat told me on Wednesday. "How far they'll use him I don't know. But they'll use him." With so much Kennedy adulation and hatred in the air, I had the good fortune to read what his sister-in-law once said about myth and history and Camelot. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy ignited the Camelot myth in Life magazine just one week after the assassination of her husband, President John F. Kennedy. To graft Camelot and the Kennedys in the American mind, she needed a partner and chose pro-Kennedy journalist Theodore H. White. After that interview, the idealism of the boy king who drew the sword from the stone was permanently ceded to the Kennedys, first to John in death, then to his brother Robert, who was later assassinated. But it protected Ted Kennedy the best. Camelot was so powerful that even before Ted Kennedy's death, there were clumsy attempts to graft it onto our current president from Chicago. Invariably they'll try again. What worried Jacqueline Kennedy in 1963 were the historians. She asked White to rescue her late husband from all those "bitter people" who'd write the histories. She beat them to it with Camelot. According to White's notes of the interview, Mrs. Kennedy repeated again and again how she and her husband loved the musical "Camelot." She said the president especially loved one of the songs. "I'd get out of bed at night and play it for him, when it was so cold getting out of bed ... on a Victrola, 10 years old -- and the song he loved most came at the very end of this record, the last side of Camelot, sad Camelot, 'Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot.' "There will never be another Camelot again," Mrs. Kennedy told White. White got the message. He understood her gracious command. And so did the editors of Life. It was the Kennedys and Camelot. It's been that way ever since. You'll see what's left of Camelot in the news coverage of the senator's funeral over the weekend. It's all been ground together, through the alchemy of modern American politics. And if there is a Kennedy legacy, it's not his political philosophy so much as the bizarre American yearning for royalty and myth. During her interview with White, Mrs. Kennedy also spoke of drama and history in those moments before photographers made the iconic pictures on the day the president was assassinated. "Everybody kept saying to me to put a cold towel around my head and wipe the blood off. Later I saw myself in the mirror, my whole face spattered with blood and hair. ... I wiped it off with Kleenex. ... History! ... I thought, no one really wants me there. Then one second later, I thought, why did I wash the blood off? I should have left it there. Let them see what they've done. "If I'd just had the blood and caked hair when they took the picture. ... Then later I said to Bobby -- what's the line between history and drama? I should have kept the blood on." That line between history and drama for the Kennedys was never very thick, like the line between American realism and our yearning for royalty, and for comforting political myths. jskass@tribune.com |
| Posted by:mom |
| #13 Not sure If you're still around Rambler, but I say beta male based on this definition from Urban Dictionary. An unremarkable, careful man who avoids risk and confrontation. Beta males lack the physical presence, charisma and confidence of the Alpha male. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2009-08-27 23:10 |
| #12 but the concept of Hell's a useful one. Maybe time to bring up an email that is doing the rounds. The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid term. The answer by one student was so 'profound' that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well : Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)? Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following: First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added. This gives two possibilities: 1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose. 2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over. So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, 'It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,' and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct...leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting 'Oh my God.' THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+. |
| Posted by: tipper 2009-08-27 21:01 |
| #11 Jim Treacher said that "if they bring up Camelot, we get to bring up the 'lady in the lake'". |
| Posted by: WTF 2009-08-27 20:15 |
| #10 Ted ran for President in spite of MJK. Even the donks weren't dumb enough to nominate him. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2009-08-27 19:35 |
| #9 Actually, he was the delta male. Joe Jr was the alpha - groomed to be president, until he volunteered for a dangerous mission (to counter the publicity that JFK got for saving his men on PT109) and ended up getting blown up in the process. JFK stepped up and became president. Bobby was running for president when he was assassinated. Ted would have run for president except for Mary Jo Kopechne. |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2009-08-27 19:22 |
| #8 Meh. He was the families beta male. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2009-08-27 17:44 |
| #7 On second thought, let's not go to Camelot. It is a silly place. |
| Posted by: Mike 2009-08-27 15:19 |
| #6 Well put, Mitch. Though I'd leave out the "talented" part.... |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-08-27 14:39 |
| #5 Yeah, I don't claim to be a Christian, but the concept of Hell's a useful one. Perhaps self-described Christians ought to reclaim it. Modern Christianity need more fire-and-brimstone Kierkegaardian fear-and-trembling, if you ask me. It's all watered down turn-the-other-cheek milquetoast blatherskitery and *understanding* and I rather feel like I want to hurl. Teddy Kennedy's greatest curse was that no-one around him was willing to subject him to judgment, and thus he never knew shame. Throughout his adult life, he was talented swine, gifted and cosseted and monstrous. |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2009-08-27 13:53 |
| #4 "If Ted Kennedy drove a Volkswagen, he'd be President today," |
| Posted by: tipper 2009-08-27 11:48 |
| #3 http://www.theonion.com/content/from_print/kennedy_curse_claims_life_of |
| Posted by: DoDo 2009-08-27 11:35 |
| #2 He was less than he should have been. However, no good comes from any Senator until he stops running for President. We may owe MaryJo more than we know. |
| Posted by: whatadeal 2009-08-27 11:21 |
| #1 Offshore windmills anyone? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-08-27 09:44 |