After hearing my complaints, my mother (being my mother) said, "write Senator Kennedy", the way a friend might tell you to get your oldest brother if that bully keeps bothering you. I told her, I can't write Senator Kennedy. That's would be like calling the Queen of England over some disputed parking tickets, or so I thought. My mother then broke it down. She told me that he was MY senator, and it was his responsibility to get letters from people like you, and respond to them.
People like me? My mother must have heard my thought, for she continued, "just tell him you were in the Army." "But I'm no longer in the Army," I replied. What I would remember later was that Sen. Kennedy's oldest brother had fought and died in World War II. My mother wasn't trying to get me to game the system, she was just trying to get into my skull that I was relevant enough to write a letter to the Sen. Kennedy, and expect, if not demand a response.
I wrote the best letter I knew how to write, and I endorsed it with my military rank, grade, and status. I figured it would get to his office and go right into the circular file. After all, you called Sen. Kennedy when you needed the Charles River parted and Jesus wasn't available because he was doing his fishes and loaves thing on the Boston Common.
A few weeks later, I got a response on letterhead. I almost passed out. I showed my mother the letter, and she smirked with a, told you, look in her eyes. When she actually read the letter, she was disappointed. An aid on his behalf said, basically, that the dear Senator's hands were tied on my issue. I was still on, Senator Kennedy's office REPLIED to my letter. It changed my perspective our political system. That We The People stuff...actually meant something. Oddly enough, my dad's detente with the INS mysterious resolved itself, and he received his green card a couple of months later.
I saw Senator Kennedy for the first, last, and only time as a guest of a friend to his naturalization ceremony. True to form, Sen. Kennedy had arranges thing so the decommissioning of the USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier, and the ceremony could be held on the same weekend. So, I got to not only get a first look at the carrier before the general population, but got to hear Sen. Kennedy speak at the ceremony.
He waxed eloquently about all of us being a nation of immigrants regardless of how many generations removed, and how it was the engine of the United States. I wanted to talk to Sen. Kennedy, but I thought the men and women in uniform ought to have first dibs. Plus, I was grossly late for work. What was a near hurricane gale outside was contrasted by the warmth of the lion's roar inside.
Senator Ted Kennedy's legacy to me is best captured in his quote:
"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."
No comments:
Post a Comment