E-mail a friendTed Kennedy, Jr.
airdate September 16, 2009
Since losing one of his legs to bone cancer at age 12, Ted Kennedy, Jr. has devoted his life to work as an advocate for the disabled. Son of the late Massachusetts senator and a lawyer by training, he's co-founder and president of the New York City-based Marwood Group, which offers healthcare advisory and financial services, and is on the board of the American Association of People with Disabilities. He's also served as a teaching fellow on disability policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
The late Massachusetts senator's son discusses how his father always fought for the underdog. (2:17)
Full interview. (23:53)
Ted Kennedy, Jr.
Tavis: Ted Kennedy Jr. is the cofounder and president of the Marwood Group, a healthcare advisory and financial services firm. He's also a long-time advocate for the disabled. His passion for the issue stems from his own experience with disability at the age of 12 - he lost his leg to cancer. Just one of the many subjects in the much-talked-about new memoir from his late father.
The book is called "True Compass: A Memoir." Ted Kennedy Jr. joins us tonight from Arlington, Virginia. Ted, an honor to have you on this program, sir.
Ted Kennedy, Jr.: Thanks for having me on the show, Tavis.
Tavis: Let me start by saying what so many others have said - millions of others have said, but my first chance to say it to you face-to-face: Your tribute to your father at that service was inspiring and empowering and altogether uplifting, so just thank you for your remembrances and for the way you presented it. I was moved to tears, as I know millions of others were, so thank you for sharing about your father in the way you did.
Kennedy: Well, thank you, Tavis. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, is memorialize my dad, who I loved so much, such a huge figure in my life. And how you define somebody in five or 10 minutes, it was one of the hardest things that I've had to do.
When I got emotional, I was - of course I'm sad for my father's passing but I'm just filled with gratitude, Tavis, about all the different things that my father, gifts that he's given to me.
Tavis: Again, it was a great tribute and I, again, just wanted you to know how much I appreciated it.
Let me start with for me the obvious. How does one wear the garment Ted Kennedy Jr.? How do you wear that name?
Kennedy: Well, as I said in my eulogy, it hasn't always been easy to have the name Ted Kennedy Jr. but I've never been more proud of it than I am today. Growing up in a political family, you know, Tavis, it's not easy to have the scrutiny, the press, the time away that it takes to be involved in public life. It is a very grueling business. But I saw how much satisfaction that my father got from the job.
It has its benefits and its - it has its good things and its bad things. Obviously I'm very proud of my family's legacy, so having that last name is something that's made me very proud. But at the same time I think people can pre-judge who you are, what you think, or may have already formed an opinion about me because they have an opinion about my family.
And of course my dad and his brothers before him have made some pretty controversial political decisions in their lives, and so not everyone is happy. My dad has been on the liberal part of the Democratic Party for 50 years and not everyone we know is a liberal Democrat out there.
So my father has been the lightning rod for a lot of conservatives and other people who just don't share his political philosophy and at times those statements, those criticisms have been personal and I would be lying to you, Tavis, if I told you that those sometimes didn't hurt my feelings personally, even though I know he was, of course, a political being.
Tavis: And yet after having seen for all the years you've been living what your dad had to endure as a politician on the left in the spotlight, you have not altogether ruled out running for public office yourself.
Kennedy: Well, Tavis, I've - I think there are a lot of different ways to help people, and of course growing up in the Kennedy family, we all think one day or another about political life for ourselves or at some point in the future.
But I think that perhaps I will go down that road, but you know what? It's too soon to say. I don't want to be a surrogate for my dad or a carbon copy of my dad. If and when I do go into public office, seek public office, it'll be with my own ideas, my own experiences, and my own expertise in the different areas of healthcare and also disability law and policy that really is the subject of my life's work.
But what I think is great is this book that my father wrote. "True Compass" has just been such a gift to me. He talks about all the different political incidents that he's been involved with his whole life. He bares his soul and it's an incredibly spiritual book. It's an incredibly inspirational book. And that's why I wanted to come on this show and let your viewers know how much they would get out of learning more about my dad through this book.
Tavis: One of the things that you learn in the book - those of us who have followed your family's legacy have heard these stories, but he, again, given the chance to write the first memoir ever written by a member of the Kennedy family, talks about the competition within the family. How much does competition inside the Kennedy family - how much has that led to the Kennedys being the kind of public servants that we've seen them become over the years?
Kennedy: Well, Tavis, we love competition and I think our dinner table conversations are like a "Jeopardy" game. You have to be - the stakes are high. (Laughter) If you want to enter a conversation on healthcare, on foreign affairs, domestic affairs, you have to have your facts straight.
So I think all of us were competitive intellectually, of course on the legendary football field in front of my dad's home on Cape Cod. But I think yes, we've always been competitive, but I think we love and adore one another and in this book, "True Compass," that my dad just completed writing, literally he got a copy of this book the morning that he died. He was just shown a copy of this book; it was literally hot off the press.
You see a family that was incredibly close-knit, incredibly supportive. So yes, while we were competitive with one another, we loved each other and we - incredibly mutual supportive of one another.
Tavis: What do you make of the fact, and he talks about it in the book; I'll get your take and you can share your father's take, because again, he talks about this in the new book, "True Compass." What do you make and what did he make of the fact that he was the one that got to live into old age, to be able - you think about it, I've said it twice but it bears repeating.
Of all of the Kennedy members, all the members of that Kennedy family, he is the only one that lived long enough to be able to write a memoir about his life. What do you make of that?
Kennedy: Well, I feel fortunate that I had my dad as long as I did. I'm 47 years old and today I'm meeting people all the time who come up and share with me how they lost a parent at age five, age 10. So I feel really grateful that I had this wonderful man in my life this whole time, and of course I see my cousins' experience and it - my dad was not just a father to me, of course; he was a dad to all of my cousins who had lost their fathers as well.
So I think he - I was actually surprised, Tavis, when he told me he wanted to write a memoir. I have to say I was a little surprised because so many books had been written about the Kennedys and he then told me that he had been taking these contemporaneous notes for over 50 years. I knew he took notes. I didn't know the amount of notes that he took, almost on a daily basis.
So he felt like he really had a story to tell, and it was his story. And so much has been said about the Kennedys, he wanted to say his piece, not just about the family but so many political events that he'd been involved with over so many years with so many different presidents and other political leaders.
Tavis: Your dad talks so openly and honestly in the book about his ups and downs. As his son, the one that bears his name, in fact, when your father was going through these more tumultuous periods in his life, how did you navigate your way through that?
He's your father and you love him, but clearly, you see he's struggling with drinking and other things. How did you handle that?
Kennedy: Well, I think as a child you first worship your parent, and then as you get older you kind of see them as a human being. At least that's what happened to me. I knew that my father was a human being and had his strengths and weaknesses just like everybody else, and I think in this book he wants to be remembered as a human being and not idealized like his brothers were idealized.
And I think that that's the powerful story, Tavis, because here's a man who's been through so much, who yes, had some - had his shortcomings in his life, had his triumphs in his life, but who worked hard each and every day. And I think what his credo really is is perseverance. You like him or not, I think his lesson really is you try hard. Yes, you make mistakes along the way - we're all human beings - but you get up the next morning and you try to do better, and you try to do better, and lo and behold after 47 years you can actually accomplish something.
That was really what my father's life - he admired people who worked hard, and my dad worked so hard. He was up even on his vacations, he was up at 6:30 every morning and that was one of the things that he really felt he wanted to give back.
So yes, it was at times hard, as his son, to see him criticized or to see him in the emotional agony that I saw him on many occasions, but it led me to really respect him even more.
Tavis: What did you make of it, and how did you process the way he handled - and this is my word, not yours - but the pressure, the responsibility that he had, given that he was the last one. How do you think he wore that garment?
Kennedy: Well, he had a huge sense of - when he was 37, okay, now, I'm 47. When he was 37 he became the head of our family and that's really an awesome responsibility to have at that age. But he really - he was a people person. You can tell. You see the news clips of him even at the Senate when he's shouting at the top of his lungs.
He would throw his arm right around Strom Thurmond or Orrin Hatch or John McCain at the end of the debate and say, "Did you really mean to say those mean things about me just a few minutes ago? (Laughter) And he just never took it personally, do you see what I'm saying, Tavis?
Tavis: Sure, sure, sure.
Kennedy: The same is true in our family life, so you asked me a second ago - he loved being around kids, playing football, going on our camping trips where we would spend the night in a tent in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts. Nothing fancy, hot dogs on the grill, but that's what he really loved. So yes, there was a big responsibility, but at the same time I think he loved every moment of it.
Tavis: I know there are some sacred moments that you want to keep to yourself, obviously, but to the extent you can, share with me the conversations you had with your father when he knew he was battling this cancer and the hope that he had that he could beat it given that he had two kids, a daughter and a son, one of whom I'm talking to right now, who had beaten cancer? I have to believe that he felt that he could beat it too.
Kennedy: Well, I think my dad, when he was diagnosed a year ago last May, Tavis, I think he was a realist. He knew the odds of this diagnosis. At the same time, he always wanted to keep hope. He was an eternal optimist. But what's important is that he lived every single day of the last year and a half to the fullest, and yes, he knew about his impending death, he knew he had a terminal illness, but it's what we do with our lives at that moment that is really the testament of a person.
He lived. He was able to see Barack Obama be inaugurated as the president of the United States. He got to go speak at the convention. He got to throw out the first pitch of the Boston Red Sox. He got to write his political memoirs. He got to really enjoy the accolades, not just from his friends in the Democratic Party but, as you know, from many of his sometime-political adversaries in the Republican Party with testaments of admiration and respect.
So I'm so grateful, Tavis, that my dad was able to experience all of this, and of course in the meanwhile he passed mental health parity legislation, he got public service, President Obama expanded AmeriCorps and named the bill after my dad.
So there were actually incredibly legislative achievements that he was able to achieve, even though he wasn't on the floor of the Senate every single day. So that's what I'm really grateful about.
Tavis: Given all his years of service, and we talked earlier in this conversation, Ted, about the liberal nature of his politics, and for me, that's not a dirty word - we talked about the liberal nature of his politics and yet there aren't a whole bunch of folk in the U.S. Senate, not a whole lot in the House, for that matter, but certainly not in the U.S. Senate.
Are there persons who we can point to in the Kennedy ilk of being unabashed, unafraid about calling themselves liberals or calling themselves progressives and fighting for an agenda that considers every day the least among us? What do you make of the fact that for all that he gave, we don't have a bunch of people like him to point to?
Kennedy: Well, Tavis, first of all, I do think there are a lot of incredible members of Congress and in the Senate and in state houses all over the country who are willing to take the risky stance. My dad was for working on immigration bill. He was considered about issues like prison rape. What about things like gun control, where he would get 15 votes? He didn't care whether a position was politically popular.
But I think he just tried to work on what he thought was the right thing to do, and I think you see he came from maybe a different political time, Tavis, where in the early 1960s where just could form - developing personal relationships with people like Senator Simpson and Laxalt and Hatch and Warner and these Republicans who were his friends.
Honestly, he was friends with these members and I think that's gone, Tavis. I think that in this highly charged political environment that we live in today people don't have time to build and develop these personal relationships. Plus I think my father knew that he had a constituency that would back him up - teachers, labor, the African American community.
So many communities out there, so that when he did have to make a tough stand or a tough vote he didn't have to worry about what would happen to him every six years when he came - when he had to run for reelection. He knew that his friends would be there supporting him every step of the way. That allowed him to take these risky political stances.
Tavis: To your point now, what do you make of the fact and what's your sense of what he made of the fact that he was so highly regarded inside of the African American community?
Kennedy: Well, I think my dad always felt for people who've been left out and for people who've been treated unfairly. Whether it's been the African American experience in this country, the issues that I work on, the civil rights movement for people with disabilities, as I mentioned before, refugees, my father was always for the underdog and he always stood up for - he felt honestly like he had a moral obligation to stand up in the face of injustice in this world.
I think that African Americans know. They know who their political friends are, they experience, it's fresh in our country's memory. Let's face it - 1964 was not that long ago, Tavis.
Tavis: Yeah, exactly.
Kennedy: And he was so proud, so proud of where our country had recently come as a nation, being able to elect Barack Obama as president of the United States. I think he could have died right at that moment and been the happiest man alive, honestly, because he saw the potential.
I'm not trying to say that there aren't problems that still exist, Tavis, there are - you and I know that. But I think he really was proud that a lot of progress has been made. So obviously it's not just my dad.
My Uncle Bobby and my Uncle Jack, longstanding - in fact, my father's first speech in the Senate was on civil rights and the Voting Rights Act and the poll tax and fighting for all those things that a lot of African Americans who are born today may not really understand the extent to which many states were trying to deprive them of their right to vote by taxing them and others. It's an incredible - you know that history. But it's important to remind people of that history so it never happens again.
Tavis: I've got just a few minutes left with you. I want to squeeze in a few more topics right quick.
Kennedy: You got it.
Tavis: Number one, your father makes no bones about it - he closes his book basically by saying that if we're going to remember him in any way, let's remember him connected to passing healthcare. He talks about that in the book, says it very clearly, and that's what you've dedicated your life to, working on behalf of the disabled and trying to get some healthcare for everybody in America. Talk to me now that he is gone about where you think this debate is headed on healthcare.
Kennedy: Well, I think that if he were here it wouldn't be so tentative now in Washington, D.C. because I think he was the master of bipartisan compromise and the legislative process.
But that said I think we are on the cusp of passing universal reform. What that exactly means, Tavis, I don't know, but I think the president made a beautiful case for it the other night in front of the joint session of Congress. I think that we will have healthcare reform in this country. My father always believed that healthcare is a right and not a privilege of the lucky few.
So I think he is - I know he wanted to get more involved in this debate and I grieve for that, that he is not here to see this thing through. But I do believe that it will happen with or without him.
Tavis: Before I let you go, two other things right quick. We've referenced it, but tell me specifically about Marwood, about the work that you do.
Kennedy: Well, I'm a healthcare regulatory attorney in addition to being a civil rights activist for people with disabilities, and my company, we provide regulatory reimbursement analyses in the healthcare sector. I work with a number of different hospitals, home care agencies, healthcare investors. It's based in New York, we have an office in Washington, D.C., and that's what I try to do, is make this whole process more understandable to people.
Tavis: What are the stakes specifically for you in seeing that this healthcare legislation gets passed?
Kennedy: I just have a personal - my personal viewpoint is that we need universal healthcare. Not just as something that's the moral thing to do, but as a taxpayer, quite honestly. We're paying for healthcare as it is. It's just coming in the form of uncompensated care and coming out - the people who have insurance are cross-subsidizing those that don't.
So I just think it's time to reform the system. It'll make our country stronger. We have the greatest healthcare system in the world. We just need to build on a process that makes it fair and accessible to everyone.
Tavis: Finally, because, to your earlier point, there've been so many books written about the Kennedy family, what's your sense of what's in this text that the reader learns about Edward M. Kennedy that we don't already know, since so much has been said about him over the years?
Kennedy: Well, I think when I was reading this book - and I was nervous about opening this book because I (laughter) - honestly, I read it, started reading it like three days after he died, and I didn't know really what to expect because although I knew some of the stories I hadn't read the whole book. But I felt like my dad was really speaking to me, and what comes across, Tavis, is my father's spirituality.
Now, I grew up in a Catholic family and Catholics don't really talk about the bible, they don't talk about their spirituality, but what you really come across is an incredibly spiritual person, so that's point number one.
Point number two is that my father had deep emotions and I think he had to hold it together, of course, because we were all standing on his shoulders for so many years. And I think he was finally able to kind of let it out. So those are the two things that I think readers will be most surprised about when they read "True Compass."
Tavis: The new book is called, as Ted just said, "True Compass: Edward M. Kennedy, a Memoir," by his late, great father, United States Senator Ted Kennedy.
Ted Kennedy Jr., an honor to have you on the program. Thanks for your work and thanks for the time to talk to you. I appreciate it.
Kennedy: Thanks very much - thanks for having me, Tavis.
Back to September 16, 2009