The Ted who Roared for Justice (open thread)

It's hard to believe that Ted Kennedy finally passed away last night. This was a senator that who for personal bad or for good, he did what he could for his state, and in many instances for all of us. Getting minimum wage raised, SCHIP, educational issues etc.

VOTUS Joe Biden, while attending a meeting at the Dept of Energy shared these reflections :

When Biden was a 29-year-old novice running for the Senate, Kennedy came to Delaware to campaign for him, corralling votes in Little Italy, where Biden said they rarely voted for a Democrat.

As a new senator, Biden lost his wife and daughter in a car accident that left his two sons clinging to life in a hospital. Biden said Kennedy called every day and often sent help. “I’d turn around and there’d be a specialist from Massachusetts, some doc I never even asked for,” the vice president recalled.

Mostly, Biden said, he “restored my sense of idealism and my faith in the possibilities of what this country could do.”

Wiping tears from his eyes, Biden said Kennedy’s love of country and public service was “infectious when you were with him … you could just see it in nature of the debate. … He was never defeatist, he was never petty, he was never small.” In the process, said the vice president, “he made everybody he worked with bigger, both his adversaries and his allies.”



Video courtesy of Politico.

Share your thoughts about Ted Kennedy in the comments. I have two memories I wish to share, but have to locate transcripts or videos or both first.

Note from Howard Dean: the Kennedy family has a condolences and memories online book set up.

Saying Adieu to Our Mattie

Mattie was one of our two Aussie Shepherds. She was a kind dog, and she was a speed demon at running in her younger years.

About 4 months ago, we noticed that Mattie was not herself. She wasn't as energetic nor as happy to see us. We also noticed that she was having bladder trouble.

In past month, we noticed that she could not walk very well, and was falling down frequently. She had scraped her nose. She had an infection, and it was discovered she had not only liver problems, she had hip dysplasia, a common disease amongst older dogs.

This week, we observed that Mattie wouldn't sleep in her crate, and when she did, she soiled the bedding. She couldn't turn around to her comfort in the crate, so she slept outside of it, and she was incontinent. We made an appointment for Friday morning. But this morning, I noticed she couldn't climb the steps of our patio deck; she would fall down, and she had too much trouble getting up. She also wouldn't eat.

So, we got an appointment with our vet this afternoon to confirm our thoughts of timing. Our vet was amazing. She hugged me and said that Mr. Benny and I were doing the loving thing by our Mattie as Mattie was ready to go. Our instincts were right. We said good bye to our Mattie at 5:05 this afternoon, and by 5:07, she was permanently asleep. We sat on a blanket with her and petted her while she went to sleep. It was the first time I had seen a pet be put down, and it was done with dignity, without pain.

I thank Pam Spaulding of Pam's House Blend for preparing me for the experience as she and her spouse had to put their dog down 3 weeks ago today. We chatted about it via IM in a social network, and she explained how the euthanization process is conducted. It was exactly the way it happened to our pet.

The picture shown here was taken a couple of weeks before Mattie's 12th birthday in May. She was a lovely dog. As we don't have human children, our pets are like kids to us.

Mattie's survivor family members are her sister, Sydney, who was from the same litter, two cats, Elmora and Benson, and of course, her humans.

Sometimes I wonder why humans aren't allowed to make similar decisions except life support devices, but that's another story.

Saturday I'm off to see my ma in Texas. I think it will be good therapy for her and me.

TIA for your moral support BW readers during our time of grief.

Update: Right now, Mr. Benny and I are listening to Dvorak's 9th Symphony, The New World, and the 2nd movement, "Going Home". Seems fitting for our Mattie.

Blogger Leroy Sievers Succombs to His Cancer

I was listening to ABC's "This Week" and learned that Leroy Sievers passed away. Sievers worked for ABC News for many years, and in the past 4 years, he had a blog for NPR entitled "My Cancer."

Here's the statement from the blog yesterday:

Dear friends:

I'm so sorry to bring you this news. Leroy passed away last night. It happened very quickly.

You will hear from Laurie later. In the meantime, please let me tell you something all of you already know, how much this blog and all your comments have meant to Leroy. He felt all the affection and good wishes and strength you sent him every day. He told us that of the many things he had accomplished, he was proudest of My Cancer. The connection he felt with all of you made such a difference in his life.

--Maeve McGoran

Many of you probably remember that Elizabeth Edwards and Leroy appeared with Ted Koppel twice: last year on the Discovery Channel, and about a month ago on NPR, when they were both looking at their lives over the past year. As I expected, Elizabeth Edwards posted a comment on My Cancer last night:

Leroy has died. That great big man with a voice that could curl itself around you like fingers and comfort you is gone. Our blessing is that we felt that comfort. Our pain is for those like Laurie closest to him and for Leroy himself, who had so much more life in him than he was allowed. We put aside our private pains today, and we think about the gift that he was, and the gift that he will continue to be. I for one will always hear the timber in his voice as the soothing promise that we can face whatever comes if we remind ourselves not to be so afraid that it falls short of perfect.
In my last short words to him, I read the lyrics to something Leonard Cohen wrote, something someone sent to me when I discovered my cancer had never left.

Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.

To the light that was and is Leroy.

Sent by Elizabeth Edwards | 6:29 PM ET | 08-16-2008

My thoughts and prayers go to the Sievers family for their loss, and my heart is with Elizabeth Edwards.

Elizabeth Edwards' Thoughts on Tony Snow's Passing

Elizabeth penned a column for Newsweek that was published on its website this afternoon. Elizabeth shares her vulnerability with readers with this way (just as she did last week on Talk of the Nation:

And when he died, I cried. I know I cried not just for him, but-filled with fear-for myself as well. The diagnoses of our cancer recurrences ("recurrences" being one of those misnomers we simply endure) tumbled out upon one another by days, and I felt-and feel- connected to a man who loved what I loved, although we came to nearly every argument from opposite corners of the ring.

Last week-when Tony was still alive and I was not so afraid-I rode my bicycle in a small Fourth of July parade at the beach to which we have gone for close to two decades. When I got to the celebration and stepped off the bicycle, an older man approached me. I hope you are doing well, he said, and then he added-oddly, it is more often the case that people do feel obliged to confess the gap between us-"although we don't agree on much of anything." I thanked him for his good wishes and then I added-as I often do-"and I suspect we agree on more than you think.

In tying the piece together, about two very different people politically, Elizabeth finds the common ground:

Tony Snow has died. And lots of people who valued the same things Tony did-a family well-loved and work well-done-have died and will die of colon cancer, those who have preceded Tony and those who will follow him. Can't we start with something easy on which we can agree? That no one should die of a disease we can find and stop? And when we agree-and agree to do something about it-then we can move on toward those fault lines, like Tony, not taking no for an answer.

Elizabeth's transparency is something we all could use a little more of, and she was the perfect person to convey her thoughts about Snow's passing.

(h/t Oklahoma Voter)

RIP, Tony Snow.

Prayers for Elizabeth Anania and Her Family

I just heard a few minutes ago that Elizabeth Edwards' father, Vince Anania, passed away last night. From the Winston-Salem News:

Vincent Joseph Anania, the father-in-law of former Democratic presidential contender John Edwards, has died of heart failure, Elizabeth Edwards said Sunday.

Anania, 87, died in Chapel Hill Saturday, Mrs. Edwards said in a statement.

Anania, who was born on April 22, 1920, in Marianna, Pa., was the first in his family to be born in the United States, Mrs. Edwards said. He was raised in Brownsville, Pa., and attended the University of Pittsburgh. He later attended the U.S. Naval Academy, where he played football and was selected as an All-American in lacrosse, she said.

What a nice family he had.

Anania is survived by his wife of 60 years, Elizabeth Thweatt Anania; his children, Elizabeth Anania Edwards, Vincent Joseph Anania, Jr. and Nancy Thweatt Anania; seven grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and two sisters.

Funeral arrangements are incomplete, but Mrs. Edwards said Anania will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that gifts be made to the Wade Edwards Foundation, which runs an after-school learning center in his grandson's name.

Seems fitting that the Ananias would choose to have donations to help the next generations, and for everyone to have the same chance as they did and still do.

Blessings to the Anania family and the Edwards' family during this time of shadows.

Update from EE at the Daily Kos:

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2008/3/2/183422/0983/102#c102

You are all dear to post such sweet notes. My father will be missed by all of us, and in particular by John, who stayed with Dad the night before he died, talking to him all night and alerting the rest of us that the end was near. They had a special bond.

It was wonderful to be able to tell him that we loved him, to sing his favorite songs and tell stories about the moments we remembered, about the splendid and silly pieces of his life. And it was a reminder that none of us should wait until the hours are numbered to tell those around us how much they mean to us.

Thank you. From John and Elizabeth and from our families. We are deeply touched. And thanks those of you who chose to donate to the Wade Edwards Learning Lab in his name. Your gift will help a young person.

Thank you EE for knowing always we are reaching out to you.

Saving Graces: Angels Were Looking Out for this Baby

My fellow blogger Iddybud penned a post entitled "Angels among us" about a baby that was thrown out of train and survived.

In the midst of the tornado rubble that inspectors were going through in Tennessee yesterday, they found an eleven month old baby. At first, they thought it was a doll, then they did the following:

So when two rescuers came upon a baby, they thought he was a doll.

Then he moved.

"We grabbed hold of his neck (to take a pulse) and he took a breath of air and started crying," said David Harmon, a firefighter from a nearby county who was combing the field for tornado victims.

His momma, only 24 years old died in the same field where he was found, a few hundred yards away. No telling what she did to protect her child but couldn't save herself.

Maybe there were angels for Kyson.

Kyson is pictured with his grandma, Kay Stowell. No doubt there is joy and sorrow in the Stowell household for the days to come. But amazing strength that he made it. I bet Iddybud and Elizabeth Edwards would love to hold that child and give their empathy and comfort to that family, but there were so many who lost their families and friends that night.

My condolences to all of the families who lost loved ones in those terrible storms on Tuesday night. But in the Elizabeth Edwards tradition, I say Kerri Stowell's name so that her child will remember his lost momma's name too.

Update: Kyson got his angels, with these beautiful voices:



Seems fitting.

And So It Goes, Kurt Vonnegut

My alert from the NYT:

Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like "Slaughterhouse-Five," "Cat's Cradle"and "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" caught the nity and cruelty of Germany.”

Good night, Kurt, you writer of Indianapolis. We will miss you.

Elizabeth Edwards seemed to know Vonnegut's writing in our exchange nearly a year ago:

Benny:
Greetings!

benny:
Hello, Mrs. Edwards

benny:
Nice to see you here

jproano:
I had a dear friend tell me that JRE was great in Brussels. His speech on NATO was very well received.

16:50

benny:
I really like this chat room, Mrs. Edwards

Elizabeth Edwards:
"Greetings" is the message from Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut, wasn't it? The message that all the earth's history was designed to help convey.