KENNEDY.

Senator Edward Kennedy's passing hit many of us like a hard stone on Wednesday morning, when the news came out. It was not just right to receive that kind of news about a man who was "The Rock" of American politics for quite a long time. So, the whole country should be in mourning with the Kennedy family for a man who was everything to each and every one of us; first, a brother, followed by a dear husband, a glorious Uncle and an ardent friend.

To many, he was only a politician; but to his children and other relatives, he stood out as a citadel of courage, to be able to withstand all the tragedies that had befallen their famous family.

Socially, and politically too, there was no necessity for the Kennedys to side with the poor and the down trodden; but as if it was embedded in their character, probably, from their upbringing and training of strict parents, to see and recognize what need was; even though it did not touch them in any way; to be compassionate and to position themselves to help those who were in awful need.

John, the President, showed it; Robert, the next senior to "Ted" (as Edward was commonly called) revealed it; and he Edward himself demonstrated that nature of innate concern for the needy, wherever and whenever he found the opportunity to redress it.

As a stalwart politician, he championed many social causes that were not regarded as the responsibility of a person whose background was as opulent as his was; health care, Vietnam, Iraq, food for the elderly, and many other such programs. His time in Congress as a Senator was never wasted, for he was on his feet for most of the time, fighting to correct the incorrigible; and even not stopping there, but reforming them to benefit those not of his own kind, but for those who were neglected by the system generally, but hardly congenially, referred to as society.

It is needless to say that "Ted" Kennedy will be missed, not just by his colleagues in The Congress of the United States of America, but just as his brothers, by "we the people".