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View Full Version : Kennedy gave boys a life lesson they値l never forget


Alonzo
05-28-2008, 05:10 AM
Thought I'd post this in to show people the kind of person he is:

A senator’s pearls of wisdom mean more today for two Malden brothers who earned Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s respect years ago after they returned a diamond ring they found to its rightful owner.

Brian and Christopher Larson, 6 and 4 years old in 1998, credit Kennedy for honoring their honesty after the ring’s owner rewarded them with a measly $5 each way back when.

After reading about the boys in the Herald, the Bay State’s senior senator invited the lads to lunch to personally lionize them for their honest actions.

“He talked to us about school and was really warm and receptive,” said Brian, now an honor student in 10th grade at Malden Catholic.

According to the boys’ father, Kevin Larson, Kennedy had lunch waiting and made the two small heroes his top priority for the day.

“We went to Sen. Kennedy’s office, where these high-powered lobbyists were waiting, and a first- grader and a kindergartener walked right past them,” Larson said.

It was during that meeting that young Brian struck a deal. If Brian could remain on the honor roll throughout his school career, then Kennedy would agree to write him a recommendation letter for college.

Now, more than a decade later, Brian is a stellar student, studying Chinese and preparing to apply to Harvard and Yale during his senior year at Malden Catholic.

One would think that Brian would be gearing up to finally claim his letter after years of hard work, but his thoughts are with Kennedy following the senator’s devastating brain cancer diagnosis.

“My entire family wishes him well and hopes he can recover,” said Brian, who says that Kennedy left him with more than just the possibility of a letter.

“As long as you do the right thing you will go far in life,” said Brian. “That was a major lesson I learned and I will always carry that with me throughout my life.”

http://multimedia.heraldinteractive.com/images/4eeb4b3b1f_larson2_05272008.jpg


http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1096592

micfranklin
05-28-2008, 01:46 PM
What a touching moment.

Wndrtch
05-28-2008, 04:51 PM
“We went to Sen. Kennedy’s office, where these high-powered lobbyists were waiting..."

I thought only John McCain met with lobbyists? :ponder:

Elrathin
05-28-2008, 04:55 PM
I thought only John McCain met with lobbyists? :ponder:

Who said that? Oh yeah, NOONE.

Buck Laser
05-28-2008, 06:25 PM
Who said that? Oh yeah, NOONE.
Leave it to a right winger to inject politics into a non-political story.

Wndrtch
05-28-2008, 06:58 PM
Leave it to a right winger to inject politics into a non-political story.

Ok, you're right, I'll take that back. I won't talk politics here.

So, did he teach these kids anything else, like the value in not leaving a woman to drown to death?

Maybe swimming lesssons?

Alonzo
05-28-2008, 07:25 PM
Many people overlook who kennedy really is and seem to want to define him by one night. Yes, he made a horrible decision and has admitted to that. Yes, he was punished lightly. But he's done a lot of good, he's helped to find cures for cancer through legislation he's passed, he's worked across the aisle to achieve other legislation to benefit the American people. And, on an individual level, he's touched people like he did with these two boys.

Wndrtch
05-28-2008, 07:45 PM
Many people overlook who kennedy really is and seem to want to define him by one night. Yes, he made a horrible decision and has admitted to that. Yes, he was punished lightly. But he's done a lot of good, he's helped to find cures for cancer through legislation he's passed, he's worked across the aisle to achieve other legislation to benefit the American people. And, on an individual level, he's touched people like he did with these two boys.


So, just because Kennedy did SOME good things, that should negate the fact that he killed a woman through neglagence, and never "owned it"?

Richard Nixon did a lot of good work too. Should he have been let off the hook because of them?

What about Al Capone? He gave big bucks to charities and was a favorite socialite in Chicago.

GHJ
05-28-2008, 08:36 PM
Many people overlook who kennedy really is and seem to want to define him by one night. Yes, he made a horrible decision and has admitted to that. Yes, he was punished lightly. But he's done a lot of good, he's helped to find cures for cancer through legislation he's passed, he's worked across the aisle to achieve other legislation to benefit the American people. And, on an individual level, he's touched people like he did with these two boys.

BUT, he NEVER apologized to Mary Jo Kopechne's parents for causing her death.

It would take a big man to do that. Apparently Ted is big in girth only.

Trish
05-28-2008, 08:38 PM
So, just because Kennedy did SOME good things, that should negate the fact that he killed a woman through neglagence, and never "owned it"?

Richard Nixon did a lot of good work too. Should he have been let off the hook because of them?

What about Al Capone? He gave big bucks to charities and was a favorite socialite in Chicago.

Very few people are all bad or all good. I think that's the point Zo was making. Just as one shouldn't ignore a person's wrongdoing, even that of a Senator, one shouldn't ignore or dismiss the good things they do either. All of us, every last one of us, have good and bad within us. Taking the time to make a difference in two little boys' lives was a good thing, all on its own. No, it doesn't negate what he's done wrong - but it DOES matter just the same - especially to those 2 little boys.

I think Gibran said it best in The Prophet:

"Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world.


But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you,


So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also."



In other words - we are all just as capable as any one else of both noble deeds and grave wrongs. Senator Kennedy shouldn't be assessed solely by his wrongs - his noble deeds count too.