RIP Sen. Edward M. Kennedy

The Kennedy's are an interesting family that has always intrigued me. The heroic war stories, the old family money, the scandals, the tragic --oft times mysterious-- deaths, the impressive public service that seemed to be ordained for so many of them. Well, the youngest son's funeral was today. I watched it from start to finish and even shed a few tears.

Growing up in a Republican family, it was inbred in me to hate anything and anyone from the Democratic party. While I respect the reasons my parents had to believe their ideologies, and the need they felt to raise us kids to adopt the same, I often feel a certain lacking in regards to the things I was shielded against growing up in that environment. One of those was an almost automatic distaste for the womanizing, drunkard, ugly Democratic Senator from Massachusetts. It took me being out of my parents house almost ten years to even do any research into what the man actually stood for and what types of agenda's he fought for as a public servant.

Now I refuse to allow this post to get ugly with political commentary on red versus blue, and issue versus retort. I respect each of you for what you believe even while knowing not all of it can be true or right just as I know everything I believe can't be all true or right. It's what makes this country so unique. I'm not asking any of you to say that Teddy Kennedy was a saint and a gentleman, nor am I inferring I think likewise either. But he was an honorable senator who for almost five decades fought for what he believed in, and will go down in history as arguably the most politically successful Kennedy of them all.

My fellow Irish-American, I tip my hat to you. You served our country well and I am proud to have been alive in your lifetime to see your work and hear your voice. May God give peace and rest to your soul and to the family you have left behind. Amen.