By Eric Levenson and Meagan McGinnes
Boston.com Staff | 03.30.15 | 4:21 PM
“Welcome to Kennedy country.”
So said Boston Mayor Marty Walsh toward the beginning of a series of speeches at UMass Boston as part of the opening ceremony of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate (EMK Institute).
Kennedy may have passed away six years ago, but judging by speeches from a who’s who of today’s political leaders, the “Lion of the Senate” remains the chamber’s platonic ideal.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
“It was one of the great pleasures of my life to hear Ted Kennedy,” President Barack Obama said on Monday. He praised Kennedy as “someone who kept his word” and “who was willing to take half a loaf, and endured the anger of his own supporters to get something done.”
“He was my friend,” Obama said. “I owe him a lot.”
Obama was one of a number of speakers — Vice President Joe Biden, Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, Governor Charlie Baker, and Mayor Walsh — on hand for the opening of the Institute.
The $78-million Institute will feature a number of exhibits dedicated to Kennedy and the Senate itself, including a near-duplication of Kennedy’s Senate office.
At times, the ceremony felt like a second memorial service to Kennedy, who died in 2009 from brain cancer. Speakers traded stories about Kennedy’s passion, his respect for the institution of government, and his almost half-century of Senate leadership.
“Ted waited a whole year before making a speech on the Senate floor. That’s no longer the custom,” said Obama, who was endorsed by Kennedy during his 2008 presidential run as a first-term Senator. “Some of us, I’ll admit, have not heeded that lesson.”
Kennedy’s widow, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, introduced Obama as “a man my husband loved so much, he gave him a puppy.” (Obama’s dog, Bo, was a gift from Kennedy.)
Baker told the crowd he once spoke with Kennedy on health care issues and was struck by his ability to forge personal connections.
“Relationship, trust, follow-through,” Baker said. “That embodies what Senator Kennedy was all about.”
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Above all, the speakers lauded his ability to form friendships and relationships with his colleagues.
“All politics is personal. No one in my life understood that better than Ted Kennedy,” Biden said. “He reached out to everyone. [He was] always building and maintaining personal relationships and trust, even with those with whom he had profound disagreements.”
“I miss him, I miss his company,” Arizona Sen. John McCain said. He recalled a vigorous yelling match between the two of them, which ended with Kennedy’s arm wrapped around McCain’s shoulder. “I miss fighting with him, to be honest.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who now holds the seat Kennedy held for so long, said she met Kennedy in 1998 to garner his support against what she saw as credit card companies taking advantage of the middle class. At the time, she said, she had little knowledge of politics.
After a long discussion, Kennedy promised to lead the fight against those companies. Warren said she came out of that meeting, put her head against the wall, and cried.
“Senator Kennedy changed my life that day,” Warren said. “I felt clean.”
AP/Steven Senne
Amid the fanfare for Kennedy, the Institute’s opening was the real focus of the day. Warren and others said they hoped the Institute would inspire a new generation of people passionate about public service.
“[It’s] a place designed with one of the loftiest goals possible,” Warren said. “To inspire.”
The interactive museum is located on Columbia Point in Dorchester, next to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. The Institute allows all of its visitors to become “senators for a day,” according to the Boston Globe.They are given a Google tablet upon arrival to guide them through their tour. After taking a selfie with the tablet, guests learn about issues being debated that day in the Senate. Once they learn more about the issue throughout their visit, they can then “vote” on it in the facsimile Senate chamber.
“We live in a time of such great cynicism of all our institutions,” Obama said. “This place can help change that. It can help light the fire of imagination.”
The EMK Institute opens to the public on Tuesday, March 31.
Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://ift.tt/1BYmpwK
0 comments:
Post a Comment