Sen. Kennedy Laid To Rest In Arlington National Cemetery - PHOTOS and Personal Reflection

Hissyspit

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Sat Aug-29-09 07:39 PM
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Sen. Kennedy Laid To Rest In Arlington National Cemetery - PHOTOS and Personal Reflection

Edited on Sat Aug-29-09 08:31 PM by Hissyspit

I am feeling a number of parallels in experience and emotion now, as we collectively as Democratic Underground and the nation view on television the coverage of the interment of Sen. Edward Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery at sunset on a Saturday in 2009. Just visiting Arlington a week ago, I had my chance to see for the first time my father's headstone, the first chance since the funeral was held back in January.(It takes a while to construct and install the marker.)

My father, a veteran of Vietnam - two tours and two wounds - and a staunch if not quite rabid right-winger (he asssisted Cheney's campaign in 2004) died in November of last year of lung cancer - cancer brought on possibly by exposure to Agent Orange or to years of cigarette smoking or both. His funeral took place days before the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States and I spent a week in D.C. attending both the burial of my father, seeing Dad's friends and many of my relatives for the first time in a long time - a friend of mine from Baltimore came down and attended as well - and the inauguration of a new Democratic President, the President who my Dad would NOT have voted for, but did not live to see become President, a Presidency which marked symbolically the end of the horror of the Bush era within days of each other. Last week, as I left a small stone from the cemetery grounds on the top of my father's marker, I could hear the northern Virginia cicadas chattering. I hear them again now busy marking the late summer coming emanating from the cemetery landscape through MSNBC's live cable news coverage.

It was my father, along with my mother, who in 1971, first took me, a nine-year-old who found himself uprooted again by the military, this time to reside by the center of power where so much of historic weight was occurring, to the cemetery to visit the Tomb of the Unknown, and there I, as well, saw the eternal flame that Jacqueline Kennedy chose to mark the grave of a Kennedy brother and President of the United States. Because of the order in which those who are laid to rest in Arlington are placed in the cemetery grounds, my father was buried next to very recently interred soldiers who had died in Iraq, some of whose names I recognized from the news reports I had posted here. The ceremony was a mixture of moving symbolism, and prosaic reality. The single bugler, the presentation of the flag to dad's second wife, who then gave it to my sister, as arranged by my father without my sister's fore-knowledge, the horse-drawn caisson, the gun salute, the cold, the mud, the tensions among relatives.

My sister at my Dad's funeral.

It is with memories of this that I watch the Kennedy family lay to rest the last of the brothers, someone who served in the Army, visited Vietnam during the war, who spoke out against Vietnam and Iraq - someone who my father did not agree with, it is not too hyperbolic to say, on almost anything. They both lay in Arlington and I will go to visit them both, all of them, every time I have the chance.

The funeral procession of Sen. Edward Kennedy crosses the Memorial Bridge as it heads to Arlington National Cemetery from Washington, the Lincoln Memorial is in the background in Arlington, Va. Saturday Aug. 29, 2009. Kennedy died late Tuesday of brain cancer at the age of 77. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

The flag-draped coffin of Sen. Edward Kennedy is taken from a hearse at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. Saturday Aug. 29, 2009. Kennedy died late Tuesday of brain cancer at the age of 77. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

The flag-draped coffin of Sen. Edward Kennedy is carried by a joint service military honor guard at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. Saturday Aug. 29, 2009. Kennedy died late Tuesday of brain cancer at the age of 77. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

The coffin of U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy is removed from the hearse at Arlington National Cemetery for burial in Arlington, Virginia, August 29, 2009. Kennedy died late Tuesday after a battle with cancer. REUTERS/Jim Young (UNITED STATES POLITICS OBITUARY)

An internment service for U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy is held during his burial at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, August 29, 2009. Kennedy died late Tuesday after a battle with cancer. REUTERS/Jim Bourg (UNITED STATES POLITICS OBITUARY)

The Kennedy family gathers around the grave site as an Honor Guard carries the casket of Sen. Ted Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Va. on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009. Kennedy's remains will be buried alongside his slain brothers, John and Robert. (AP Photo/Doug Mills, Pool)

Military pallbearers carry the casket of U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy as his wife Victoria Reggie Kennedy (3rd from R) and her son Curran Raclin look on at the grave side during the burial service for Senator Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, August 29, 2009. Kennedy died late Tuesday after a battle with cancer. REUTERS/Jim Bourg (UNITED STATES POLITICS OBITUARY)

Kara Kennedy (C) stands behind the casket of her father during the burial service for U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, August 29, 2009. Kennedy died late Tuesday after a battle with cancer. REUTERS/Jim Bourg (UNITED STATES POLITICS OBITUARY)

Military pallbearers hold a flag above the casket of U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy as his wife Vicki Reggie Kennedy (R) looks on at the grave side during the burial service for U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, August 29, 2009. Kennedy died late Tuesday after a battle with cancer. REUTERS/Jim Young (UNITED STATES POLITICS OBITUARY)

A bugler plays during the burial service for U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, August 29, 2009. Kennedy died late Tuesday after a battle with cancer. REUTERS/Jim Young (UNITED STATES POLITICS OBITUARY)

Family members gather at the coffin of Sen. Edward Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009. Kennedy, 77, died Tuesday, Aug. 25 more than a year after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. (AP Photo/Doug Mills, Pool)

Edward Kennedy III (C) cries over the casket of his grandfather, U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, August 29, 2009. Kennedy died late Tuesday after a battle with cancer. REUTERS/Jim Young (UNITED STATES POLITICS OBITUARY)

Edward Kennedy III (C) cries over the casket of his grandfather U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, August 29, 2009. Kennedy died late Tuesday after a battle with cancer. REUTERS/Jim Young (UNITED STATES POLITICS OBITUARY IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Mourners gather at the coffin of Sen. Edward Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009. Kennedy, 77, died Tuesday, Aug. 25 more than a year after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

A bugler plays taps during the burial service for U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, August 29, 2009. Kennedy died late Tuesday after a battle with cancer. REUTERS/Jim Bourg (UNITED STATES POLITICS OBITUARY)