The Wit and Wisdom of Ted Kennedy (7 page)

—Statement on the Ready to Learn,
Ready to Teach Act of 2001, March 22, 2001

The most important relationship in children's lives is the one with their parents. It is absolutely essential to a child's future that the parent-child relationship be as positive as possible. Without a close, dependable relationship, a child's potential can be severely and permanently impaired. It's essential to provide high quality education and support not only for children, but also for their parents.

There are few better ways to show children you care than to take the time each day to read with them. When children have books and adults who read to them an early age, they acquire better language skills and learn to love and appreciate books.

—White House Summit on
Early Childhood Cognitive Development,
July 26, 2001

We want every child to be welcomed into a loving home, and to be part of the American Dream. This fundamental vision is at the heart of who we are as Democrats, and we must do everything in our power to make it a reality.

—Address at the National Press Club,
Washington, DC, January 12, 2005

ISSUES OF GLOBAL IMPACT:
THE ENVIRONMENT, WAR, NATIONAL
SECURITY, AND PUBLIC SAFETY

T
AKE ANY ISSUE OF GLOBAL IMPACT AND RESEARCH
T
ED
Kennedy's position on it. It doesn't matter what it is—whether it's something that's long been on the public radar, like the environment, or some obscure trade issue, like changing tariffs on imported shoes—and somewhere in the vast body of the Senator's speeches and writings, you will find he took a stand on it. And not just a pro forma stand, a nod to the conventional wisdom on the subject, but much more: He put his topnotch staff to work and thoroughly researched the issue. His positions never seemed hastily thrown together or done as a “You support my issue and I'll support yours” favor to a fellow politician. When you read a policy statement, you find that the facts are right, the implications are thought through, and the position based on logic—although it may well be argued with passion.

What kinds of issues merit this attention? Here's a very abridged list: energy conservation, environmental protection, combating the spread of terrorism, nuclear arms control, gun control, equity in global trade, charting a path to peace in the Middle East, dealing with Iran, the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, ethnic slaughter in Darfur, human rights in China, the push for democracy in the former Soviet republics, and the global fight against AIDS.

We know we have shortchanged the Senator by the brevity of this list but we know that to do him full justice would use up a lot more paper—and that brings up yet another cause dear to his heart: saving trees.

People are beginning to realize that we are a part of nature, not outside it. We are beginning to understand that instead of conquering nature, we must live in harmony with it.

—Speech, January 3, 1970

Our fragile planet is not a Republican or Democratic or American community. It is a world community, and we forget that truth at our very, very great peril.

—Address at the National Press Club,
Washington, DC, January 12, 2005

It's better to send in the Peace Corps than the Marine Corps.

—Quoted in “Famous Sayings”
compiled by
Wordpress.com

National security begins at home. It begins on the streets and sidewalks of our cities. It begins in the small towns and villages of our country. It begins on the farms in our rural areas. These are the places where the first two hundred years of our nation were decided. And these are the places where the fate of America is going to be decided in the third century of our history.

—Speech, March 1, 1976

There is no priority for this nation higher than guaranteeing our national security and safety. Without an effective military force, and without a worldwide understanding that we have the unwavering will to use this force when our national interests are in danger, we unnecessarily place our way of life in peril.

—Speech, June 3, 1969

As we seek to improve the world in which we live and to secure its people against the scourge of war and want, we must understand that peace is not a final victory but a continual effort.

—Speech, December 2, 1975

For half a century, our policy has been to do everything we possibly can to prevent nuclear war. And so far, we've succeeded. The hard-liners say things are different today. A nuclear war won't be so bad if we just make the nukes a little smaller. We'll call them mini-nukes. They're not real nukes. A little nuclear war's O.K. That's nonsense. Nuclear war is nuclear war is nuclear war. We don't want it anywhere, anytime, anyplace. Make no mistake. A mini-nuke is still a nuke.

Is half a Hiroshima O.K.? Is a quarter of a Hiroshima O.K.? Is a little mushroom cloud O.K.? That's absurd.

—Pressing for the continuation of the ban
on low-yield nuclear weapons,
May 20, 2003

The American people do not accept a chessboard view of the world, based only on power politics. Our policy must have a surer foundation, grounded in our basic humanitarian values as a nation.

—Speech, May 27, 1976

We learned a generation ago that the two broad oceans offer no real military security. Now we are learning that our economy is also not isolated from the harsh winds of change that are sweeping the world. American jobs, American prices, and American incomes are vitally affected by what happens abroad.

—Speech, February 17, 1975

Like December 7, 1941, September 11, 2001 will be remembered as a day that will live in infamy. Just as the Pearl Harbor attack galvanized the American people in their resolve to prevail in the war against fascism and tyranny, I am confident that yesterday's attack on the American people will galvanize our citizens and strengthen our spirit to prevail in the ongoing war against global terrorism. It is tragic that these criminals were able to succeed in carrying out the most brutal terrorist attack in history on American soil. I pledge to work with the President, the Congress, and the families of the victims to seek answers to the many questions that exist, and to do all we can to strengthen the security of our people and to prevent such atrocities in the future. The American flag flies high today, and so does our commitment to our ideals here at home and all around the world.

—Statement on the Terrorist Attacks in
New York and Washington, DC,
September 12, 2001

The life-and-death issue of war and peace is too important to be left to politics. And I disagree with those who suggest that this fateful issue cannot or should not be contested vigorously, publicly, and all across America. When it is the people's sons and daughters who will risk and even lose their lives, then the people should hear and be heard, speak and be listened to.

—Remarks on September 27, 2002,
during the build-up before
the U.S. invasion of Iraq

The armed services continue to be a critical and worthwhile career for America's young men and women. If anything, it is now even more important for people of high caliber, committed to the nation's future, to serve in the armed forces.

—Speech, February 17, 1975

The coldly premeditated nature of preventive attacks and preventive wars makes them anathema to well-established international principles against aggression. Pearl Harbor has been rightfully recorded in history as an act of dishonorable treachery.

—Response to the Bush Doctrine
of Pre-emptive Attack,
October 7, 2002

The Administration's doctrine is a call for 21st century American imperialism that no other nation can or should accept. It is the antithesis of all that America has worked so hard to achieve in international relations since the end of World War II. This is not just an academic debate. There are important real-world consequences. A shift in our policy toward preventive war would reinforce the perception of America as a “bully” in the Middle East, and would fuel anti-American sentiment throughout the Islamic world and beyond. It would also send a signal to governments the world over that the rules of aggression have changed for them too, which could increase the risk of conflict between countries such as Russia and Georgia, India and Pakistan, and China and Taiwan.

—Response to the Bush Doctrine
of Pre-emptive Attack,
October 7, 2002

Based on some estimates, guns are statistically like rats: They outnumber our population. Not surprisingly, our output of ammunition for civilian firearms almost staggers the imagination. American industry outdoes all other nations in the production of bullets. … All of those bullets could not only wipe out the world's entire human population but destroy much of the world's wildlife as well.

—Address to the Businessmen's Executive
Movement for Peace in Vietnam,
February 17, 1971

America has a massive gun problem. The crisis is especially serious for children. In one year, firearms killed no children in Japan, 19 in Great Britain, 109 in France, 153 in Canada, and 5,285 children in the United States. For every child in the United States killed with a gun, four more are wounded. The overall rate of firearm-related deaths for American children is nearly twelve times greater than in twenty-five other industrial countries. Yet, the nation's response to this death toll has been minimal, and little has changed in our approach to regulating guns since 1973.

—Remarks in opposition to legal immunity
for the gun industry, February 25, 2004

How ironic that many of the same individuals who are fighting to repeal federal support for higher education are also fighting to repeal the assault weapons ban and make those deadly weapons available on the streets and neighborhoods of cities across America. Do they think we have too many college students in our communities but not enough guns? We have often heard that the pen is mightier than the sword. I guess they now feel that the pen is more dangerous than a semiautomatic machine gun.

—Statement to the College Democrats
of America, 1995

Terrorists are exploiting weaknesses and loopholes in the nation's gun laws. A terrorist manual found in Kabul instructed members of al Qaeda on how to purchase firearms legally in the United States. A member of the terrorist group Hezbollah was recently convicted in Detroit of weapons charges and conspiracy to ship weapons and ammunition to Lebanon; he had purchased many of the weapons at gun shows in Michigan. In 1999, a member of the Irish Republican Army spent more than $18,000 in South Florida purchasing dozens of handguns, rifles, and ammunition, which he then attempted to ship to Ireland. That same year, only a lack of cash prevented two domestic terrorists from purchasing a grenade launcher at a gun show, for the purpose of blowing up two large propane tanks in suburban Sacramento.

Enough is enough.

It is also essential to do all we can to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists. To achieve this goal, we should require background checks for all firearm purchases. … The “gun show loophole,” however, makes a mockery of other restrictions by allowing terrorists and other criminals to make illegal firearm purchases at gun shows—no questions asked. It is long past time that we close it.

—Statement on the release of a report on
guns and terror by the Brady Campaign,
December 19, 2001

The city of Hiroshima stands as more than a monument to massive death and destruction. It stands as a living testament to the necessity for progress toward nuclear disarmament.

—Speech, January 11, 1978

The sad reality is that the course, the pace, and the objectives of arms control policies have been more influenced by the arms producers than by the arms controllers.

—Speech, December 2, 1975

Tragically, the world's oldest civilization and the world's most modern civilization, the world's most populous nation and the world's richest and most powerful nation, glare at each other across the abyss of nuclear war. We should proclaim our willingness to adopt a new policy toward China, a policy of peace, today's reality, that encourages tomorrow's possibility.

—Statement to National Committee on
United States-China Relations,
New York City, March 20, 1969

Time and time again, it has been the people of Israel who have shown the courage, the genius, and the determination to give substance to their dreams. Coming together from their roots in a dozen nations, they have vindicated the faith of their forebears. They are part of the biblical prophecy, the prophecy that “I will bring them out from the peoples, and will gather them out of the countries, and will bring them to their own land.”

—Speech, January 13, 1975

The policy failure in Iran was massive, ranging from our intelligence to our commerce, diplomacy, and strategy. As a result, we lost major opportunities for modernization, moderation, and stability in the region. In vain, despite the lessons of Vietnam, we poured virtually unlimited supplies of arms into Iran, in the hope that bombs and tanks and planes could somehow ensure the flow of oil to American homes and factories.