Ted Kennedy has died.
It wasn't until I started to think about what I know, and started to hear reports of his private actions as a senator that I realized he was a great man. I mentioned this at work and was immediately told of all the bad things that he had admittedly done. This lead to an interesting discussion about the difference between good and great.
A good person does many things that are admirable and few that lessen their value in the view of others. Mother Theresa is the consummate good person. A great person is, to me, one who has made mistakes, acknowledges those mistakes, then overcomes not only the consequences of those mistakes, but adapts themselves to become as good a person as possible. The great person may never be "good" because, his mistakes, as in Ted Kennedy's case, may haunt them the for rest of their lives. The great, though, accepts the ghost of the past, and fights to show that even the fallen can change the world.
Ted Kennedy was a great man. Let us remember how he fell from grace and how he worked to redeem his name.
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