Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Speech on repeat


(I found the speech after it was mentioned in the news, following the announcement of Ted Kennedy's brain tumor diagnosis. I keep on listening to it...figured "Why not?" post it...)


"Some men see things as they are and say, 'Why?'
I dream things that never were and say, 'Why not?'"

(Edward Kennedy, quoting Robert Kennedy)

9 comments:

Mimi said...

Now what's the whole story with the Kennedy family? Being cursed? The Rebbe?

Anonymous said...

Random- today I am teaching the lead up to World War Two and America's part ( or lack of)... So I came across the Kennedy's- they were anti-communist as well as anti-semitic and thought Hitler as to be some sort of saving grace.
There is some sort of strange curse- supposedly but every community chooses their Rebbe- to have muttered it... I have not found a source-yet.

Chana said...

Ya, my boss said he heard about the curse when he was a boy and the way he heard it then, it was a Satmar rebbe.

Anonymous said...

The curse story is urban legend - the Frierdiker Rebbe, the Satmar Rov, and R' Aharon Kotler are all said to be responsible. It never happened; they did not need the curse of a tzaddik to merit the onesh they got for their rishus.

Regardless, whichever way you slice it, the Kennedys are reshoim gmurim, even if they did have good speechwriters thanks to their ill gotten wealth (Joe Kennedy, he should rot where it's hot, was a bootlegger and stock market manipulator and a Nazi sympathizer besides).

I understand that Ted Kennedy has asked to be buried in the water under the bridge at Chappaquiddick.

Anonymous said...

Also, the curse was supposedly that Joe Kennedy YMS would bury all of his sons (at least that's the version I heard, which had the curser meeting Kennedy YMS on a ship and asking him why he did not do anything to help the Jews in Europe).

Oh, and now I remember - add R' Yisroel Jacobson to the list of maledictors! That is actually the "official" Chabad version.

Anonymous said...

The idea that Yisroel Jacobson 'gave' the curse was mentioned in a book . . . It used to be up on wikipedia, but they since took it off. I mentioned it some time back, so it can be found here.

Anonymous said...

Here is one for the record:

Max Kennedy's wife Vicki is Jewish.

Matthew Maxwell Taylor Kennedy
Born January 11, 1965 (age 43)
New York, New York
Education Harvard University
University of Virginia School of Law
Moses Brown School, Providence Rhode Island
Occupation lawyer
Spouse Victoria Anne Stauss
Children Matthew Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, Jr., Caroline Summer Rose Kennedy, and Noah Isabella Rose Kennedy
Parents Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel
Matthew Maxwell Taylor Kennedy (born January 11, 1965), also known as Max Kennedy, was born in New York, New York. He is the ninth child of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy. He graduated with honors from Harvard University and majored in American history. He married Victoria Anne Stauss (b. February 10, 1964)[1] on July 13, 1991 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Both he and his wife graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1992.
They have three children: Matthew Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, Jr., born September 18, 1993, Caroline Summer Rose Kennedy, born December 29, 1994, and Noah Isabella Rose Kennedy, born July 9, 1998 in Hyannis, Massachusetts.
He began his law career in July 1992 by serving for three years as an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia. He co-founded the Urban Ecology Institute at Boston College, where he taught in the Biology and English Departments.
In a campaign covered by Boston media and the New York Times, Kennedy briefly considered running for the house seat vacated by Democrat Joe Moakley in 2001, but he bowed out before declaring his candidacy after a shaky start. He is currently writing a history of the Second World War in the Pacific for Simon & Schuster. His wife Vicki was a Cabot Fellow and taught for several years as a Fellow at Harvard College. Vicki is now teaching at Loyola Marymount.
He wrote the book called Make Gentle the Life of This World : The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy and the Words That Inspired Him. More than anything, Maxwell Kennedy is a father and husband.

Recently Max Kennedy was in Los Angeles at a benefit concert where a friend of mine, one of the stage managers, overheard him speaking about the Saudi's attitude towards the West and Jews in particular. My friend, Jewish herself, in defense of our people joined in on the conversation. To her surprise Max turned to her and said, "My wife is Jewish! I am furious with the way they are spoken of, anti- semitism, anti-Israel is wrong...he then went on to say that they celebrate all the Jewish holidays at home."

Anonymous said...

I do not think the generation of Kennedys after Joe YMS, to say nothing of the generations after that, were or are anti-Semites. However, the Kennedy politicans who have departed and those who are still among us, as well as the one who is on his way to departure, were are just corrupt and immoral to the core in both their public and private lives.

In other words, they are the antithesis of whom we should support given the Rebbe's emphasis on the 7 Mitzvos Bnei Noach and on the US as a malchus shel chessed.

They did have some great sound bites, though..like I am a jelly doughnut (Ich bin ein Berliner).

Anonymous said...

ha i had a post about that once