My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.
Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.
As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him:
"Some men see things as they are and say why.
I dream things that never were and say why not."
Spoken by Edward M. Kennedy
This speech is important because it was to console the world as we said goodbye to Robert F. Kennedy. I find it interesting because it tells about who Robert F. Kennedy was and what he tried to do during his lifetime.
There is a lot of emotion in this speech because it was given at the service for Robert F. Kennedy by his brother. The tone is somber.
Words that could be emphasized are death, life, good and decent, wrong, right, suffering, heal, war, stop, loved, pray, wish, all the world, touched, why, why not.
It is a sad speech because we lost a great man, but it is also inspiring. It makes people want to live like Robert F. Kennedy and be the kind of person that he was.
Edward M. Kennedy is the youngest of nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, and is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Virginia Law School. Kennedy lives in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, with his wife Victoria Reggie Kennedy. Together, they have five children – Kara, Edward Jr., and Patrick Kennedy, and Curran and Caroline Raclin. They also have four grandchildren. Kennedy is currently the Chairman on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in the Senate. He also serves on the Armed Services Committee where he is the senior Democrat on the Seapower Subcommittee. He is also a member of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee and the Congressional Friends of Ireland, and a trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Senator Edward M. Kennedy has represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate for forty-six years. He was elected in 1962 to finish the final two years of the Senate term of his brother, Senator John F. Kennedy, who was elected President in 1960. Since then, Kennedy has been re-elected to seven full terms, and is now the second most senior member of the Senate. Throughout his career, Kennedy has fought for issues that benefit the citizens of Massachusetts and the nation. His effort to make quality health care accessible and affordable to every American is a battle that Kennedy has been waging ever since he arrived in the Senate. In addition, Kennedy is active on a wide range of other issues, including education reform and immigration reform, raising the minimum wage, defending the rights of workers and their families, strengthening civil rights, assisting individuals with disabilities, fighting for cleaner water and cleaner air, and protecting and strengthening Social Security and Medicare.
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