By Andrea Cleghorn
On a dazzling Indian summer Wednesday afternoon in Bedford this week, some of the glitter and magic of the of the Kennedy mystique returned in the form of Sen. Edward Kennedy’s widow, Victoria Reggie Kennedy. She came to First Parish at the request of Alma and Brian Hart to tell about the 2015 opening of the Sen. Edward M. Kennedy Institute of the Senate of which she is a founder.
Sen. Edward Kennedy came to the church on the Common many times before his death five years ago, and his wife Vicki often came with him, most recently in support of the Harts’ campaign to armor all military vehicles used by servicemen after their son John, the first Bedford resident to be killed in Iraq, died when his vehicle (without armor) was blown up..
Brian Hart `talked at length about his and Alma’s long association and friendship with Ted Kennedy that began around the collaboration in getting armor for vehicles in Iraq and in succeeding wars.
Speaking as a former Kennedy aide and current president of the Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing support to the families who lost members of their families since 2001, Lieutenant Governor candidate Steve Kerrigan commented that he was impressed with the Harts’ commitment and the work that they did with the Senator
Recalling the collaboration needed to get the armor bill passed, Kerrigan noted, “I learned everything about public service and commitment from Ted Kennedy. He didn’t do it by himself. In the case of arming vehicles he did it with the people who stepped up, who spoke out, as the Harts did. He once said ‘A lot of great things can happen if nobody cares who gets the credit.’”
In introducing Vicki Kennedy Kerrigan commented, “When I heard about the Institute years ago I was jealous and excited. I would have loved to have had that experience, to have the Senate come to life, right before you. To be a part of it, to experience what they experienced….I would not be standing here today if it weren’t for Ted Kennedy.”
The Senator Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate – “It’s a mouthful, isn’t it?” – Vicki Kennedy said, explaining that she had hoped to be in Bedford last year ago to give this news, but her father was very ill then and he lost his life in that illness.
She said the Institute was something the Senator started talking about 12 years ago. It was not something that happened out of nowhere. “Teddy had been in the Senate 40 years at that point,” she recalled. “We started talking about what he wanted his legacy in the Senate to be, though of course then he thought he would be in the Senate 40 more years.
“Teddy wanted young people to love the Senate as much as he did,” said Kennedy. She then told her husband’s story about visiting his brother, the then newly-elected Congressman John F. Kennedy, as a 14-year-old, in Washington for the first time for his swearing-in in January. “Congressman Kennedy took Ted to the House, the Supreme Court Building, showed him the Library of Congress, the Senate.
“And this 14-year-old boy, Teddy, was wide-eyed — an extremely excited young teenager. His older brother John looked at him and said, ‘It’s great that you’re excited about these buildings, but take an interest in what happens inside.’”
According to Vicki Kennedy, Ted took the advice to heart. She felt that the visit was a turning point for him, when he came to care about what was happening inside those buildings.
The Institute, which will be a replica of the U.S. Senate Chamber, is set on the UMass Boston campus adjacent to the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum. It will be totally interactive, giving visitors the chance to “become” senators for a day.
Victoria Kennedy says the replica of the chamber will give visitors a better sense of the work of the Senate by giving them the experience of debating, negotiating and voting on legislation. Hand-held devices can enrich the experience by bringing in other resources, though docents are on hand to answer questions and provide explanations.
All the years they were married, she was not allowed on the floor of the Senate Chamber. “Steve [Kerrigan] over here could because he was on staff! I could only watch from the gallery. But think of the greats who came before. Teddy used to say if people were in that place they would start to understand how the Constitutional responsibility, being in the Senate changes you. At some point you realize you are part of something bigger than yourself. He wanted young people to have that sense of what it represented.”
She explained how they held a competition to choose internationally-aclaimed architect Rafael Viñoly, they selected the location, then determined the advanced technology and the C-SPAN feed that will keep the visitor’s experience from getting stale. “It is fast-paced, it is all interactive. And people can learn the process of getting a law passed. On a hand-held they will have the chance to hear and actual issue being debated.”
Right now groups of 100 students, 7th– to 12th-graders from the Northeast and Midwest, will have the chance to go through the process. They will be prepped by their teachers, so by the time they get there they will have some familiarity with the process. Once at the Institute, they will talk to each other face-to-face, they will learn to negotiate, and they will have to find common ground.
According to Kennedy, the members of the Senate are “thrilled” and the former members of the Senate “are even more thrilled.”
There will also be a reproduction of Kennedy’s office, right down to the desk, the sofas. “Not the dogs; I couldn’t bring myself to do taxidermy,” Kennedy quipped.
Kennedy said her favorite quote of her late husband’s came from the Democratic National Convention of 2008: “We are Americans, this is what we do. We reach the moon, we’ve scaled the heights. I know it, I’ve seen it, I’ve lived it and we can do it again.”
Referring to the new venture, she said, “We’re ecstatic about this. At this time in our history when there’s so much dysfunction and people aren’t talking to each other it’s important – not for the sake of history but for the sake of the present and the future. We have to look at what we did [finding common ground] so we can do it again.”
To learn more about the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, visit www.emkinstitute.org/
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