Ted Kennedy and Mary-Jo Kopechne. What Really Happened at Chappaquiddick?
Posted on Sunday, May 18, 2008Ted Kennedy might die soon.
What happened, Ted?
If you’re asking who the hell Ted Kennedy is, then you probably belong to Generation Meh, as one contributor here describes it, and you deserve no further waste of our attention. If, on the other hand, you remember Ted Kennedy, or know all about him, then you’ll be aware that this man has contributed greatly to the uneasy peace we experience on this island. You’ll also know that he has been what we Irish like to think of as a great friend to this country, in our Catholic-Israeli kind of way.
Ted, what the hell were you thinking?
If, like me, you belong to a generation whose parents believed Ted’s brother, President John F Kennedy, was a fucking saint, then you’ll be transfixed as you watch this last survivor of Camelot enter his final struggle.
What, Ted? What the fuck went on?
I can’t deny it, this guy seems to have batted on our behalf all his life, and yet, because I’m of that generation, every time I see Ted Kennedy on the TV, I want to know the answer to the question that’s bothered me since I was a kid. I want to ask him, Ted, what exactly happened to Mary-Jo Kopechne?
Isn’t it terrible? What kind of Irishman am I who would question this peerless icon of Irish-Americanism, this man who has challenged the war-mongering idiot Bush, who has tirelessly spoken out on behalf of our people? What a churlish, ungrateful Irishman I am.
And yet. No matter what this man has achieved in the course of his life, there’s always Chappaquiddick. I can’t shake it off, no matter how I try. I just want to ask him the questions: Ted, what happened on that bridge? Did the car really go into the water by accident? Did Mary-Jo really drown?
I can’t help it, but then again, I’m a bad man. A bad, ungrateful man.
Ted, did you really try to save Mary-Jo or did you just swim the fuck away? And why, Ted? Why did you just swim away and leave Mary-Jo to drown?
Senator Edward Kennedy has been lionised in Ireland as a great friend of this country, and so he has been. But the question remains: what really happened at Chappaquiddick?
What happened, Ted? Why did you just swim away?
Why does this matter? It just does, all right?
It just does.
Stumble it!
May 18th, 2008
The Mary-Jo Kopechne incident is not the only criminal and misogynist doings that Kennedy was guilty of. He may be a great elected official, but as a man, he was cruel to women.
May 18th, 2008
Here he is just another drunk from Boston. Unfortunately he has ridden the coat tails of his family name and influence to remain in the Senate for all these years. Whatever good he has done for Ireland is more than offset by the harm he has caused here by being one of the most socialist members of the Senate we have.
A friend of mine had a bumper sticker that says, “My guns have killed fewer people than Ted Kennedys car”.
May 18th, 2008
Bock, you gotta see the irony, and remember, Americans don’t ‘do’ irony very well, the irony appreciation gene is missing over there.
Kennedy, the swimmer -gets a STROKE’…;-)
Nuts
May 18th, 2008
Rhea: That’s where I’m going with this. Are people able to separate the man’s character from his achievements?
Brian: Exactly. It’s good to take the guns out of Ireland but bad to take them out of America.
Nut: That’s a cruel thing to say. Cruel.
May 18th, 2008
Simple. He swam away, concocting his story, confident that the MSM, or anyone else, could be bullied, bribed, or blackmailed. He was right.
It’s only a sin if one gets caught.
That he held such power for so long is largely attributable to his being the last of that generation of Kennedys, none of whom had any talent for keeping it in their knickers, but were lionized all the same. We just know more about him, in real time, than we knew about the others.
May 19th, 2008
You’re right, Bock.
It does matter.
May 19th, 2008
I don’t reckon he’ll ever give up these answers. The Kennedy brand wouldn’t allow it.
May 19th, 2008
They say Robert was the best of them but maybe he was a threatening old-school MCP as well. Take a while for Joe’s dodgy gangster rum-smuggling gene to thin out.
May 19th, 2008
SeaDreams: I’d still like clarity. Perhaps he used his power wisely despite his past.
Medbh: Yes. However, it’s still an interesting variation on the old ad hominem problem.
ProblemSam: He’ll never give up the information, but people can form their own views on it. The best we can hope for now is a consensus on the balance of probability.
Conan: They’re a very flawed family, which is hardly surprising with old Joe’s genes involved. But, while they might have been ludicrously venerated, they aren’t totally evil either, and that’s what makes them interesting.
May 19th, 2008
They are an interesting family, but the men in particular seem to have that womanizing, alcoholic genetic tendency down pat. They also seem to have that murdering gene down as well (Ted, and the two cousins - the FL one, and the CT one too).
May 19th, 2008
JFK’s family: a great friend to this country, in our Catholic-Israeli kind of way.
You just summed up my father’s attitude perfectly. I wonder what he really thought about the Mary-Jo Kopechne episode. Or even if he cared. Things like that were never mentioned in Catholic-Israeli households when I was a child.
May 20th, 2008
Right: now I feel rather badly, since he has a cancerous brain tumor. But on the other hand, I believe that you do pay for your sins, in this life or the next…..
May 20th, 2008
If it’s true it’s true. Why regret saying it?
May 23rd, 2008
I have to admit that I have grown up annoyed at the American press which constantly tells us how much we owe to the Kennedies.
Personally, I never understood why the young woman’s family stopped an autopsy from being performed on their daughter. Or why they weren’t angrier that Ted called lawyers instead of the police to the scene of an accident. That has never made sense to me.
I have to admit its hard to get passed the image of a young woman waiting in vain as the air is used up in the sunken car.
May 28th, 2008
As far as having the murder gene, the nephew in CT. was trough marrage (Ethels bros son),
and the one in Fl. was a rapest.
September 10th, 2008
Ted Kennedy was and is nothing but a spoiled brat brought up by drunks and moonshine peddlers who believed that his kind are something special, something above all others. Of course when you believe this garbage you’re going to get into trouble.
September 10th, 2008
Well, the man is 76 years of age and unless you’re 77 or more, you’re not really in a position to call him a brat, spoiled or otherwise.
If you are 77, I congratulate you on continuing to keep up with events via the internet.