Mrs. "van" & the Kennedys

 

June 24, 2005

 

            There once was a very ancient woman who had a house on the other side of the bay from Chappaquidick.  I will not tell you her name for fear some leftist would try to find her family and do something disgraceful.  Suffice to say that she had an old family New York City "van" in her name and she had long left the north for her sumptuous digs in Frogmore.

 

            I had perchance to meet Mrs. "van" at the Medical University of South Carolina Hospital where money or need got you a room.  She had both.  I happen to be lay-reading for the, now errant, Episcopal church and she was on my list of Episcopalians to visit and deliver the sacrament.   She was the last person on my list as her name began with the "van,"  and I was tired.  We got to talking, Mrs. "van" and I.

 

            She asked me what I did and if I liked being on TV and doing news.  I told her it was fun, but hard to be private.  I asked her what her favorite books were, and she told me anything by C. S. Lewis.  She had not read the Great Divorce.  I had not read the Lion the Witch & etc.  We vowed to read the other's book.

 

            We got to talking about her life as a young mother  with her fine, strong sons and beautiful daughter, and how she never had to worry about crime because even the poor people had morals back then.  No-one had told them that it was their right to steal.  But she did have one worry.  She was afraid that her children might date a Kennedy.

 

            At the time, I could not conceive of a Kennedy being anything but delivered straight from heaven.  How could anyone so sweet be so cruel about such an outstanding family? 

 

And it was the only time in our acquaintance that I ever heard her voice go taught with disgust.  Her eyes winced into slits.  He breathing increased and her words became ponderous.

 

"Never," she said as if handing down the Ten Commandments, "NEVER trust a Kennedy."

 

I was completely astonished.  If there had been an exploding bomb in the next bed over, I would not have heard it.  Stunned.  I would have been a good substitute for sea-peat, my brain was so engulfed by her words.

 

What had these Kennedy people done to her to make her so upset.

 

"They are pure trash," she said.  "Oh, I know they are practically worshipped in the homes of some of the Southies (a word I did not know at the time - means people from South Boston) !  But I know  them. As day knows night, I know the Kennedys and they are outright trash!"

 

I asked the usual "find the bigot" questions

- was it because they were Roman Catholics - no.

- was it because they were from new money - no.

- was it because the patriarch, Joe Kennedy, was mixed up with the mob - nope.

 

"They do not keep their word to strangers," said Mrs. "van."

 

Cross Fade to the Present Day

 

The Supreme Court has just ruled that you don't really own your land.  That anything called a local government can take your land and sell it to a private investor, if THEY think it's OK.

 

Never mind that it is a complete misinterpretation of the constitution - they've been doing that for years.  Sometimes it comes out OK, like the civil rights movement.  Sometimes it turns out horrid, like the Elian Gonzales thing.

 

But whose fault is it that they decided this way?  Can you guess?  No, he's not from the same family.  But the irony is stultifying.  It rolls over you like steamy air in a laundry.

 

The Supreme court of these United States of America has lied to strangers.  And you and I are the strangers.  For we are certainly not citizens of the country we thought we were - with a constitution which swore our land was our own.

 

And who was the turncoat who helped them lie to strangers?  The "swing" vote?  Well, his name is not Schwartz.

 

Dick Anderson