BUD BREWER
One Man's Opinion
The Canonization of a Senator
Mary Jo Kopechne, 29 years of age, was an enthusiastic campaign worker and one of 6 political female members of a group campaigning for Bobby Kennedy. They were called “The Boiler Room Girls”. “On July 18, 1969 she and her cohorts attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts in their honor. It was the fourth such reunion of the Robert Kennedy campaign workers.
Kopechne reportedly left the party at 11:15 p.m. with Robert’s brother Ted Kennedy, after he — according to his own account — offered to drive her to catch the last ferry back to Edgartown, where she was staying. She did not tell her close friends at the party that she was leaving and she left her purse and keys behind.
Kennedy stated he made a wrong turn on the way and came upon a narrow, unlit bridge without guardrails. Kennedy drove the 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 off the bridge and it overturned in the water. Kennedy extricated himself from the submerged car but left Kopechne to die, after what Kennedy said were several diving attempts to free her.
Kennedy contacted several aides that night, but failed to report the incident to the authorities until the car and Kopechne’s body were discovered the next morning. Kopechne’s parents said that they learned of their daughter’s death from Ted Kennedy himself, before he reported his involvement to the authorities, but that they learned Kennedy had been the driver only from wire press releases some time later.
A week after the incident, Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury. He received a two month suspended sentence. On a national television broadcast that night, Kennedy later said he was not driving under the influence of alcohol nor had he engaged in any immoral conduct with Kopechne.
Questions remained about Kennedy’s timeline of events that night, about his actions after the accident, and the quality of the investigation and whether official deference was given to a powerful politician and family. The events surrounding Kopechne’s death damaged Kennedy’s reputation and are regarded as a major reason that he was never able to mount a successful campaign for President.”
Today the Nation’s Political elite participated in a media driven and intensely covered funeral Mass for Senator Ted Kennedy at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston, Massachusetts. The presence and words by Cardinal Sean P O’Malley of Boston and the principal Celebrant, Rev. John J. Monan, a Jesuit Priest, suggest the possibility that Senator Ted will indeed be canonized as a Saint by the Catholic Church. While this gathering of all those important people who run our government and serve our faith was presented as a tribute to the Senator’s service to mankind, I believe that it in fact was more likely an act of forgiveness for his cowardly behavior involving the death of Miss Kopechne. In addition, however, it was recognition that neither his behavior that caused his own dismissal from Harvard, nor his excessive use of alcohol which led to the failure of his marriage and may have contributed to the death of a young lady should be used to form the basis of his legacy.
Somehow, I find it difficult to join our leaders in their admiration of this gentleman.