One Tragic Day

I was reading yesterday some of the comments made under an article in the Portland Press Herald about Senator Kennedy passing away. Among the many condolences and fond memories and caring postings were the postings against Senator Kennedy. Of course, Chappaquiddick was mentioned. I knew it was inevitable but I was hoping that people would be kind and just mention the good things and try to avoid dredging up the bad things.

Everyone, no matter who they are, public or private, famous or anonymous, old or young, male or female, EVERYONE makes mistakes. The kind of mistakes where one bad decision leads to another bad decision and so on and so forth until it is just a HUGE mistake. Thankfully most people’s bad decisions don’t lead to someone getting hurt or dying. But it does happen. If you are a private, anonymous person, unless someone dies or is hurt, the general public doesn’t find out about your mistakes and you just can bear the shame and humiliation in private. If the general public does find out, hopefully it will be a minor blip on the radar of public attention and then it will go away and you can go back to bearing the shame and humiliation in private.

But, if you are a public figure and you make a mistake, it may never go away. Someone gets drunk and goes on a tirade and it is forever mentioned in articles about him. Someone else gets caught shoplifting and not matter what she does in the future, it will be forever mentioned about her. The press just won’t let anyone forget about the mistakes famous people make because it sells. It’s titillating gossip and it sells magazines and newspapers.

Yes, it was tragic that Mary Jo Kopechne died. Yes, he should have reported the accident right away. No one really knows what precisely happened in the car except for Mary Jo and Senator Kennedy. Were they arguing? Was he drunk? Did she die right away when the car hit the water? What went through his mind when he pulled himself out of the water? Or for the hours afterwards when he didn’t call the police? No one knows and no one ever will.

It was a HUGE mistake on his part. There is no denying that. But how about a little perspective. Ted Kennedy lived 28,289 days on this earth. He did a lot of good things as senator. He changed a number of people’s lives for the better. He changed people’s lives in ways they may not even realize even as they sit around and gripe about that one day in his life. One day when he made a HUGE mistake. One day that would haunt him forever. One day out of over 28,000 days.

How about this…why don’t we try forgiveness? Why don’t we celebrate the life of a man who did wonderful things in this world when he really could have sat back and enjoyed the privileged life to which he was born? Why don’t we let go of that one day and celebrate the other 28, 288 days of his life? Mary Jo is in heaven and who would want to deny her that? Now Senator Kennedy is in heaven and at peace. Let’s remember that and remember him for the wonderful things he did. Let’s let go of that one tragic day.