A Time When All Good Men are Gone

By David Glenn Cox

The Native Americans warned of a time when all good men are gone, and with the death of Edward Kennedy this prophecy seems to be coming closer to fulfillment. Who now will stand with Kennedy’s principles? Who will stand and vote no to war as Kennedy did in 2003, when popular opinion cries out that we must?

Kennedy was fortunate to have lived in a safe state, a state that he loved and a state that loved him back. He had the burden and good fortune to be born into a wealthy family. It was a family of brothers who were all bright stars in their own right, leaving young Edward struggling just to have his own light be seen.

Joe was the oldest, the biggest, the toughest, and perhaps the bravest. John was the brightest with the sharpest mind and a great orator. Robert held the most passion for life with the soul of a poet that cried out for the poor and abused among us. A young Edward watched their lives extinguished, each in its turn. Those of us who are older understand the pain of losing parents and then siblings. But young Edward lost them to war and to peace, for advocating peace when reactionary forces wanted more war.

That is a hard burden to bear; that is a hard thing to come to grips with, having two of your brothers murdered before your eyes. It should be easy enough to understand how you might lose your center under those conditions. It shall also be understood then how much courage it took to pick up his fallen brothers’ standard and fight again for peace and for the poor and for the disadvantaged.

What we have lost we will not recoup, the voice of reason over sophistry. The voice of clarity over rhetoric and the voice of principle over partisanship. While the forces of reaction demonized his very name to fill their campaign coffers, Kennedy remained civil and managed to place accomplishment over personal rancor.

But because of my age and my station my mind always returns first to his brothers and what this country lost, both in actuality and in possibility.

“The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers, which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment. That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control. And no official of my Administration, whether his rank is high or low, civilian or military, should interpret my words here tonight as an excuse to censor the news, to stifle dissent, to cover up our mistakes or to withhold from the press and the public the facts they deserve to know.”
(John Kennedy) April 27, 1961

“Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice for his fellow human beings, and he died because of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black—considering the evidence there evidently is that there were white people who were responsible—you can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization—black people amongst black, white people amongst white, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love.

"For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man. But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to go beyond these rather difficult times.

"My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: ’In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.’ What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.”
(Robert Kennedy) April 4, 1968

So, at least for me I will always remember Edward as the fourth brother, and this should not be seen as any sign of disrespect. Those brothers were Edward’s role models; he knew them and loved them and understood them far better than I ever could begin to. Just as Joe died on a mission in Europe, Edwards’s mission was different from his brothers’. Rather than leading the charge from the White House he held the fort and fought its battles there. He never abandoned his post when the cause seemed hopeless and never lowered his standard even in defeat.

It is easy for the brave soldier to pick up laurels when the battle is won, but it is quite another form of courage to hold on to your redoubt when alone in enemy territory surrounded by foes, and to hold it against all comers and to never give in.

The Native Americans have another saying, "When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice."