EDWARD MOORE KENNEDY

AT LONG LAST the Senate of the United States of America is rid of a politician who was an immense threat to the Republic. Senator Edward M. Kennedy died - finally - of brain cancer the other day (we don't care to mark the date).

Although we do indeed sympathize with the immediate family - we have ourselves sustained loss of loved ones recently - Senator Kennedy was, to put it mildly, a detriment to our Constitutional Republic. It is tragic that it took death to dislodge him from the Senate, but it was necessary and America has been thereby blessed.

We are sure that there are those of you who will cry boo-hoo and deride us, citing Kennedy's "pristine intentions" and "dedication to the little guy". Well the intentions were quite noble and so were the goals, but Ted Kennedy proposed (and too often suceeded in) using the force of government to force everyone to give as much as Ted deemed needful to whatever cause he deemed deserving, whether those so robbed agreed or not. Ted was exactly the type of moneyed "rich man" he derided and insisted on taxing to death in the name of the poor; yet he held onto his own riches quite closely.

Ted Kennedy would give a needy man the shirt off our back.

There are many commentators who remark about their fantasies of punishments God will now inflict on Kennedy. For our part we believe that God alone has the authority to judge eternally. We and all of us have ample reason to believe thusly, lest it be us standing before Him. So we shall not speculate here on the present state of Ted Kennedy's soul; and in fact we hope he is safe in the arms of the Lord. Those who wish eternal torment in Hell upon someone, no matter how evil, do so because they do not know what exactly that entails. If anyone were able to experience a sample of it, they would never again say, "go to Hell" to another human being ever again. To those who feel this way we reccommend they look into every instance where God has shown Himself to man in the Bible. The very realization of the viewer's own unworthiness would prove fatal. The best among us has no more standing on his own merits with God than the worst among us; and we all are infected with the same eternally fatal disease. Without forgiveness from God, Mother Teresa and Adolf Hitler would share one fate. It is not here we write of Ted Kennedy's final judgment.

HOWEVER we DO judge Ted Kennedy's effect and influence on this Republic. Long story short: Ted Kennedy is dead. May God continue to bless these United States.