Keep It Moving: A Tribute to Senator Ted Kennedy and Eunice Kennedy Shriver

BY SUSIE WILSON

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

SEX MATTERS

Sadly, it is time again for the world to mourn the loss of another member of one of the most illustrious political families in American history: the Kennedys. Senator Ted Kennedy's death from brain cancer last week at age 77 has brought an immense outpouring of grief, praise, love, and respect for his 46-year career in public service.

It mirrored a similar outpouring of affection and gratitude for his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who died at age 88 a scant two weeks ago. I have been particularly affected by the loss of these magnificent public servants, because I had the honor of knowing both of them in the early 1960s. Having the chance to know them and their two elder brothers, John and Robert, shaped my husband's and my lives, values, and ideals.

Knowing the Kennedys led to my deep commitment to understand poverty and the children and families who grow up in such circumstances and to advocate for its elimination. A chance question brought me to advocacy for school sexuality education programs, and I rationalized the change of direction in my work as a vehicle for primarily helping young, poor women avoid too early pregnancy, which keeps most of them mired in poverty and its shackles.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "We make our own eternity." Ted and Eunice's extraordinary contributions to the well being of humanity assure them their own eternities. I am comforted by this thought, although I shall miss knowing that each is alive and working in his and her own distinct venue for the common good.

My husband and I first met Ted and Eunice in early 1960 after the election of their elder brother, Jack, to the presidency. My husband had taken a leave of absence from his job as bureau chief of the Washington, D.C., office of LIFE magazine to join Senator Kennedy's campaign for the presidency as Assistant Press Secretary.

After the election – we were both at the press headquarters in Hyannis Port, MA, during the long night when the election hung in the balance – my husband was appointed Deputy Director of the United States Information Agency. As we socialized with Bobby and Ethel Kennedy on a regular basis, we got to know Ted and Eunice and their families.

Eunice first introduced me to the cause that she championed all her long life: ensuring the human rights and well-being of developmentally challenged children and young people; I should say with some definite embarrassment that I knew practically nothing about this group, or their abilities when I first met her.

She asked me to help her organize a benefit for the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, which focused on the prevention of what was then referred to as mental retardation. The foundation began in 1946 as a memorial to Eunice's oldest brother, who was killed in World War II. I readily agreed to help her. It was a pretty easy job, as I remember, because having the President and First Lady as the honorary chairman and chairwoman of the event - the opening of a musical comedy, Mr. President, followed by a dinner dance at the British Embassy - guaranteed its success and raised a lot of money for the worthy cause.

I remember the first summer following the benefit when Eunice ran a day camp for mentally challenged children at her Maryland estate, Timberlawn. For years, Camp Shriver provided physical activity for developmentally challenged children, who were ignored by other summer programs, because few thought that these children could do organized athletics.

The camp became the model for the Special Olympics. This amazing organization is now an international movement helping millions of developmentally challenged children participate and compete in athletic games that are similar to the quadrennial Olympic Games. The 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games drew 7,000 athletes to China, where they were welcomed by its president and a crowd of 80,000.

My story about Senator Ted Kennedy is more personal. When our second daughter was 11 years old, the lump in the middle bone of her left hand was diagnosed as a hand tumor.

Hand tumors, my husband and I were told reassuringly, were never malignant. But when the pathologist in New York read the slides from the biopsy, he said that he thought there were malignant cells present. This led to a series of consultations with medical professionals about next steps, all of which filled us with anxiety and dread.

Then one morning the telephone rang, and I heard my husband talking to Teddy Kennedy. Four years earlier, his own son, Teddy, Jr., had lost a leg to a malignant bone tumor. Thoughtfully and with much kindness, Ted gave Don the names of the doctors who had treated his child. One of them suggested that we send the slides of our daughter's tumor to a pathologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, for a second opinion.

We followed this advice and this eminent physician, deeply respected by his colleagues, assured us that the tumor was not malignant. Everyone agreed that the bone with the tumor and her ring finger should be removed from the hand, but the fear of further treatments and consequences of the cancer spreading was lifted.

Our daughter is now 42, with children of her own; whenever I look at her left hand, I think of Teddy Kennedy and his kindness to us. I realize anew that anyone who had worked for his brother had become part of his extended family.

When the news came of the diagnosis of Teddy's malignant brain tumor, I wrote to him saying that I wished I could give him the name of a doctor who would save his life, as he had provided us with the name of someone who had brought us relief and peace of mind.

Among Senator Kennedy's great accomplishments were his dedication to women's equality and his constant, strong support for their reproductive health care and rights. Throughout his career, he remained true to his liberal beliefs and stalwart in fighting for abortion rights and coverage of contraception in health insurance plans, and standing strong against federal funding of abstinence-only-until-marriage sexuality education programs, which censor much-need health information.

His sister, on the other hand, was a champion for the pro-life cause. I think her beliefs stemmed from her strong Catholic faith and commitment to the developmentally challenged.

Some are unable, for a variety of reasons, to raise a child with these challenges, and they might indeed choose to terminate the pregnancy. Knowing the abilities of these children and fighting always for their rights could lead to strong feelings about abortion. I have heard Eunice speak out against contraception, and I believe she would have supported abstinence-only-until-marriage education, again because of her religious faith.

That two devoted family members, Teddy and Eunice, could hold such different views about choice and abortion and still love and respect each other gives me hope that that we can draw a lesson from their behavior: to respect the right of someone who holds views very different from our own.

Often during the commentary about Teddy's life and work, I heard people say, "He did not demonize his opponents." This is a lesson that I promise him I will try to put into practice every day and pass along to my grandchildren.

I drew another lesson from a story from the homily told at Eunice's funeral. The priest recounted that during the wedding ceremony of Eunice's daughter, Maria, to Arnold Schwarzenegger, at which he was officiating, he saw Eunice signaling him from the first row where she was sitting. He realized she was sending him a message and silently mouthing the phrase, "Keep it moving ... keep it moving."

Perhaps the best tribute to both Senator Kennedy and Eunice Kennedy Shriver would be for people like me, who had the honor of knowing them, to "keep it moving."

For him, "keep it moving" would mean fighting for universal health care, "the cause of my life," he wrote in an essay that ran in the July 27, 2009, issue of Newsweek magazine. For her, "keep it moving" would be treasuring and ensuring the rights of the developmentally challenged.

In the spirit of Ted Kennedy and Eunice Kennedy Shriver, what does "keep it moving" mean to you?

Susie Wilson, former executive coordinator of the Network for Family Life Education at Rutgers University's Center for Applied and Professional Psychology (now renamed Answer), is a national leader in the fight for effective sexuality and HIV/AIDS education and for prevention of adolescent pregnancy. She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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