The following line was part of a joke that recently came to me. It isn’t the first time this, and similar pieces have come to me in recent months. I have been quiet about how offensive such things are to me but I grow tired of liberal silence over such excesses while the right wing floods us with it’s prepackaged propaganda everywhere you turn. Here is a line that appeared in the “joke”.

 “Ted Kennedy is a fat, good-for-nothing, left wing liberal drunk who doesn’t know how to drive”

 I grow tired of the constant right wing harping on the excesses and failures of this man who was arguably one of the most significant political figures of our time. We are all turned off by some of his failures but I am turned on by what he has accomplished. Little is ever said by the right wing about Kennedy’s accomplishments. No politician in recent history has done as much to make congress work as Ted Kennedy. When I am regularly reminded of the ancient Chappaquiddick incident, I have to wonder if any of these people know how long ago that was? It was a disaster. Kennedy, however, went on beyond that (something not many could have accomplished) to become a truly great man. There are few if any great men or women who do not have regrettable pages in their pasts. That these people became notable is a testimony to character that is rare in public life.

 The man just died. Dragging up every detail of his failures to the exclusion of his successes is a lying and deceitful tactic. If you don’t agree with liberal policies, and many do not, then talk about alternatives and show how they will work. Drawing caricatures and then making fun of them as though they represent anything real is dishonest and brings nothing to the table that might somehow produce something good for the people of this country.

 Don’t say it was just a joke. It happens all too often to be just a joke. It offends me. It should offend you. I want to believe that at some level, it does.

 I’m Jerry Henderson