White received a gracious letter from Kennedy, thanking him for his support but saying nothing about a presidential run.
Four months later, the issue was moot. Leaving a late-night party for staffers, Kennedy drove his car off an unrailed bridge on Chappaquiddick Island and landed upside down on the water. Kennedy escaped but not his passenger, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, a former aide to his brother.
Kennedy’s lawyers said he hadn’t been drinking that night and that he was in too much shock to report the incident until the following morning, “but it just never added up, even for staunch supporters like me,” White said.
Despite his disappointment, White feels Kennedy went a long way toward redeeming himself from that tragic night by his tireless work in the Senate — a career of five decades that ended with his death from brain cancer late Tuesday, Aug. 25.
“He was the voice of the common people,” White said.
Dayton City Commissioner Nan Whaley, who grew up both a Catholic and a Democrat, said Teddy was an icon in their Indiana home. “He was one of those guys who always championed Democratic values — someone who believes health care is a right, not a privilege,” she said.
For good or ill, Kennedy’s legacy has touched nearly every aspect of American life. He was a force behind the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Freedom of Information Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, family leave legislation, the COBRA system for portable health insurance and, most recently, the No Child Left Behind Act.
Despite its lack of funding, No Child Left Behind has improved schools across the country with its vision “to make sure that we have an educational system that is able to help each child, regardless of socio-economic circumstances, achieve his or her potential,” said Tom Lasley, dean of the school of education and allied professions at the University of Dayton.
Its emphasis on accountability has improved school performance, especially in Ohio’s urban areas, Lasley said. Only Cleveland and Dayton failed this year to move beyond the Academic Watch rating, he said, “and even there test scores show very positive signs.”
Perhaps because of his reputation for drinking, bolstered by the jokes of late-night talk show comedians, few people outside Congress knew how hard Ted Kennedy worked, said former U.S. Rep. Tony Hall of Dayton.
“I had a couple of people from my office who thought about working for Ted Kennedy because he was always in the middle of important things, but they didn’t want to work six days a week,” Hall said. “He required his staff to work that hard because he worked that hard, and his staff admired him for it.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2437 or jdebrosse@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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