CHANGE OF PACE

Ted Kennedy died, hopefully it is the end of a family curse, they say. We hear voices from different corners of the forum ie those who want to cannonize him for all his good and those who will not let the world forget his bad. I am not in any position to take sides, the only points I want to make are : firstly, he died so let history judge him and secondly, for reasons good or bad he has served his country for over half a century. That alone, to me, has put him on the right side of my balance sheet. Always philosophical, the Chinese describe individuals who dedicated their lives to an institution, be it public or private, 'as people who are at the very least laborious, even though they may not all be glorious, in their achievements'. I admire the way his family rallies behind his passing, as they 'prepare themselves to send him on to his next voyage'. How poetic! All of us in the mid 50s to mid 60s grew up with the Kennedy curse, especially when we were in college in America. I hope this spells the end of that curse. The Kennedy family - or for that matter any family that lived through such an overkill of tragedies - deserves the chance to stand up again. Ted Kennedy is now at a place where there is eternal peace, a place we all want to end up, one day. Pray for him.