Ted Kennedy

and people are calling him a hero some hero.

The story…

On the night of July 18, 1969, Ted Kennedy left a party on Martha’s Vineyard’s Chappaquiddick Island with 28 year old Mary Jo Kopechne when Kennedy drove off Dike Bridge into Poucha Pond. Ted Kennedy escaped the vehicle in the water and swam to safety, but Kopechne died in the submerged car. Kennedy left the scene of the accident and did not call authorities until after Kopechne’s body was discovered the following day. Kennedy would eventually turn himself in and get a slap on the wrist.

On July 25, Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was given a sentence of two months in jail, suspended. That night, Kennedy gave a national broadcast in which he said, “I regard as indefensible the fact that I did not report the accident to the police immediately,” but denied driving under the influence of alcohol and denied any immoral conduct between him and Kopechne.

Sorry mikeh …I don’t think it would have played out the same for you (or me, or anybody else)…we all would be doing some hard time, I’m afraid…Hell, you wouldn’t do as good as this, on a DUI, where nobody got hurt.

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That happened in 1969…the car drove off a bridge

He didn’t kill her - it was an accident…all he did was leave the scene of an accident.

You’re implying that people are calling him a hero because of the accident, and the insinuation doesn’t hold up very long under scrutiny. The accident was regrettable, and no one is lauding him for his role in it, but neither are people condemning him. He was tried as justly as anyone ever is in the US and was given his punishment. God knows that if I were in the same situation, I could see things playing out very similarly.

What people are praising is a half century spent serving the public. Considering the criticism, fair and unfair, that is heaped upon public servants, from the Bushes to the Kennedys and all points in between, anyone who can withstand that level of abuse and still devote themselves to something they believe in is admirable, no matter whether or not I agree with their policies or the regrettable decisions made in their personal lives.

All he did was swim 500 ft to avoid any run in with the law, and when asked why he fled he told authorities that he was distressed? So distressed that he had the composure to swim 500ft to avoid authority? Because he was A Kennedy he was “tried as justly as anyone ever is the United States.” Awesome! Having said that, I am sure he has asked Jesus Christ for forgiveness, in which case, I will see you in heaven Ted!!!