Mary Jo Took One For the Team

Good Grief.

Well at least this takes the discussion of Mary Jo Kopechne out of the truther/birther/deather/tenther realm of oddball progressive/radical discussion points.

Melissa Lafsky in a post on HuffPo wonders what Mary Jo would have thought of Ted Kennedy's career after Chappequidick.

...for the most part, we realize that there are few lives on which we can slap a "Good" or "Evil" label and expect it to be accurate.

Which, let's face it, is one of the reasons the Ted Kennedy story is so fascinating. The huge achievements, weighed against the huge sins. 

She says Mary Jo is more than something a bombthrower would toss:

Mary Jo wasn't a right-wing talking point or a negative campaign slogan. She was a dedicated civil rights activist and political talent with a bright future -- granted, whenever someone dies young, people sermonize about how he had a "bright future" ahead of him -- but she actually did.

The clincher is this:

We don't know how much Kennedy was affected by her death, or what she'd have thought about arguably being a catalyst for the most successful Senate career in history. What we don't know, as always, could fill a Metrodome.

Still, ignorance doesn't preclude a right to wonder. So it doesn't automatically make someone (aka, me) a Limbaugh-loving, aerial-wolf-hunting NRA troll for asking what Mary Jo Kopechne would have had to say about Ted's death, and what she'd have thought of the life and career that are being (rightfully) heralded.

Who knows -- maybe she'd feel it was worth it.

Tweet this post…Your followers will thank you!