These words came to mind Saturday as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was laid to rest. The words, of course, were uttered by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton on President Abraham Lincoln's death.
Ted Kennedy wasn't a president, but he and his legacy belong to the ages - to those too young to remember the lives and accomplishments of his brothers, President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and to those even too young to fully appreciate this Kennedy's accomplishments. And they belong to the generations who will follow and whose lives will also benefit in untold ways from his years of work and service.
I marvel at the myriad ways that Senator Kennedy touched my life over the years, even though I met him personally only once: at a reception honoring him for sponsoring and shepherding the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987. Among other things, the law protects women from discrimination in education institutions and provides increased athletic opportunities for women in colleges and universities across the country.
The Equal Pay Act allowed me as a woman to work in the same field as a man and be paid the same wage. And while Kennedy's direct involvement in this law is muted, his efforts throughout the years strengthened employment laws in pay, promotions and hiring practices that baned discrimination based on gender, race, national origin, age and disability.
Then there is CETA: The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, signed into law in 1978. The Act provided opportunities for vocational training in state programs across the country and gave a hand up to those, like me, who wanted to learn valuable skills and earn a livable wage. Such opportunities are quintessential Ted Kennedy. And it was through CETA that I had the opportunity to learn machinist and tool-and-die skills, to enter a drafting and design program where I studied tool design technology, and to be eventually hired by the Boeing Company, where I designed the fixtures and "tools" used to build and assemble the 757 and 767 aircraft.
Thanks to another of Kennedy's accomplishments, sexual harassment in the workplace became illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. As a result I did not have to endure the sexual insults and innuendo of male colleagues and supervisors while I worked at Boeing and was able to legally challenge a coworker at Boeing who threatened my job and my life without reprisal.
I also enjoyed the right to union representation in my workplace, a cause Sen. Kennedy not only championed, but expanded and strengthened during his life. The law gave and me - and my colleagues - the legal right to bargain with Boeing over our wages and our benefits. These included annual cost-of-living raises to keep pace with the rising costs of food, housing and transportation, wage increases based on both length of service and ability, paid vacation, sick leave and holidays, and company-paid health insurance.
In 1993 when I found myself unable to work full-time after I was diagnosed with clinical depression, I applied for and was granted Social Security Disability benefits and eventually Medicare health coverage. Ted Kennedy's involvement in passing Medicare is well-known, but he also worked to strengthen and expand Social Security coverage to include disabled individuals who find themselves unable to work, either temporarily or permanently.
Then in 1996, as I struggled for a way to reengage in the world, I discovered the Rehabilitation Services Administration. RSA is an agency within the Education Department that oversees and administers grant programs that help individuals with physical or mental disabilities obtain employment and live more independent lives. RSA provides such supports as counseling, medical and psychological services, and job training and education opportunities.
RSA supports and grants provided me the opportunity to return to school and obtain my college degree so I could move forward in my life.
Last is the Mental Health Parity Act of 2007 - one of Kennedy's final and signature accomplishments. The law ensures that mental health expenses, such as psychological counseling services, addiction treatment and hospitalization, to name a few, are treated the same by insurance companies as physical illnesses, with respect to coverage and reimbursement.
These are the ways that Sen. Kennedy's lifelong commitment to social and economic justice have touched my life. When I look at the things he did to make life better for so many, including me, it is so much more than a long list of accomplishments, for his work - the causes he championed and the laws he crafted - helped lift me up and give me hope in a more promising and productive future, especially during a long period that seemed hopeless and futile.
Like so many others whose lives he touched and changed, I can imagine what my life would have been without these helping hands - harsher, darker, and certainly without hope for a better future.
Thank you, Senator Kennedy, for all that you did. Rest in peace. Now you belong to the ages.