An Open Letter to Caroline Kennedy

Dear Caroline,

I hope you don’t mind if I call you “Caroline,” but I feel like I’ve known you all my life. I’m only a few years older than you are and I remember you when you were riding your little pony–Macaroni. I thought that was such a great name and I loved horses, too, although I never really had much of a chance to ride one except for one time at a little animal park once when I got to sit on a big horse, which was pretty frightening!

Caroline, early on you seemed to have taken after both your father and mother. You interned for your uncle Senator Ted Kennedy, then worked for awhile at the The Daily News in New York (your mother was a roving photo/interviewer for a newspaper once) and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (we all know how culturally-oriented your mother was).

Caroline, I’ve really admired how you’ve grown up and raise a family, and have watched you represent the Kennedy family at events like the funerals of Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, and Lady Bird Johnson, as well as that miserable, rainy day in November 2004 when the Clinton Presidential Center was dedicated.

But until now, the thing I remember the most about your public life is your many appearances when you first book came out in 1990, the one co-authored with Ellen Alderman, called “In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action.” I remember it got rave reviews, as did the next book on civil liberties which you wrote with Alderman in 1995 titled “The Right to Privacy.”

You’ve seemed to gravitate more to the political world as you’ve gotten older, although some of your activities may be less known to the general public than your writing. You’re the current President of the Kennedy Library Foundation, a director of both the Commission on Presidential Debates and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and also an adviser to the Harvard Institute of Politics, a living memorial your father. A bit of your mother’s love of culture, however, is still evident as you serve as the Honorary Chairman of the American Ballet Theatre.

And, of course, I remember the sad time during your brother’s death. You know, Caroline, I remember the night JFK, Jr.’s plane went down just as vividly as the day your father was assassinated. I was in 8th grade passing between classes the day your father was killed. And the night your brother’s plane disappeared, I remember going outside and standing on the patio looking up at the stars simply too stunned to do anything other than praying out loud that he and his wife and sister-in-law would be found alive. And I can’t imagine how you endured the aftermath when you had to negotiate a settlement with his wife’s family.

Caroline, when you decided become more publicly active in a presidential campaign than ever before by endorsing Barack Obama I was truly surprised. Surprised at how strong your endorsement was and how actively you began to make appearances on his behalf.

Needless to say, when you wrote your piece that appeared in the New York Times on January 27, 2008 entitled “A President Like My Father,” in which you said that “qualities of leadership, character and judgment play a larger role than usual” this election season and that Obama had “demonstrated” these qualities, I was somewhat bemused. You also wrote that:

Senator Obama is running a dignified and honest campaign. He has spoken eloquently about the role of faith in his life, and opened a window into his character in two compelling books. And when it comes to judgment, Barack Obama made the right call on the most important issue of our time by opposing the war in Iraq from the beginning.

Caroline, were those your words then, and, if so, do you still think the same things today?

I don’t think I have to go into much detail about what has ensued since January. Gestures, words, supporters…tolerance of sexist comments and often Obama’s own misogynistic gestures. His use of race to divide the party. (Yes, Caroline, it was Michelle Obama who, just prior to the horrible South Carolina primary, warned that blacks would be “waking up” and we saw how this was accomplished with leaked memos and turning Bill and Hillary Clinton into racists). His operatives threatening some of the old guards of the civil rights movement like John Lewis over their support of Hillary Clinton even as he skipped the memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr. on the 40th anniversary of his death. Civil liberties–his voting for the FISA bill? His backtracking on Iraq. Trivializing the “mental distress” of some women in late pregnancy. And the most recent situation with Bernie Mac and his comments about women and how Obama essentially let them pass. And let’s not forget how the Democratic Party enabled the disenfranchisement of voters both in Florida and Michigan, through actions at caucuses, and at the RBC meeting at the end of May. Caroline, have you embraced the “Chicago Way,” which probably helped your father win the 1960 election and has come to the fore this election cycle?

Have you talked to your cousin, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., lately? He never was swayed by Obama. He recognized, apparently, how Obama was using the Kennedy mystique even as he brushed aside the ’60’s. And do you recall the Reno-Gazette Journal interview where Obama praised the politics of Ronald Reagan and put-down Bill Clinton at the same time? Caroline, this interview in the Reno-Gazette Journal came BEFORE you wrote your New York Times piece. Didn’t you take time to reflect on what was going on before it was published?

I know you are one of the founders of the Profiles in Courage Award. According to the site:

The Profile in Courage Award seeks to make Americans aware of the conscientious and courageous acts of their public servants, and to encourage elected officials to choose principles over partisanship – to do what is right, rather than what is expedient.

The award is presented annually to a public official or officials at the federal, state or local level whose actions best demonstrate the qualities of politically courageous leadership in the spirit of Profiles in Courage.

Caroline, can you honestly say that Obama has demonstrated the type of “politically courageous leadership” that this award is supposed to represent? His history of missed and “present” votes alone should make you question Obama’s “leadership” qualities, not to mention how he rewrote his nuclear safety bill to accommodate Republicans to the ire of his own constituents. (Some may view the list of recipients as being a “mixed bag,” by the way…so maybe this award itself has been lowering the bar at times? I guess it’s all in the eye of the beholder…)

You’ve published a book called “Profiles in Courage for Our Time” which focuses on some of the award recipients, but it seems that it is really a collection of essays written by others, including well-known media types like Albert R. Hunt, Bob Woodward, Ron Suskin, and E.J. Dionne. Although Ted Sorenson has admitted in May of this year that he actually did most of the actual writing of your father’s own book “Profiles in Courage,” the two had a close working relationship up until JFK was assassinated and the words in the book were, in the words of one reviewer, “If his active service to Kennedy is now concluded, we are still left with the inescapable sense that the words that the two men crafted together — however one divides the credit — will live on.” (A brief discussion about the eight Senators profiled in the book is here.)

Caroline, perhaps it is now time to commit an act of courage on your own. Would you consider retracting your endorsement of Barack Obama considering what has transpired over the last few months? Please do consider it. By doing so, you would acknowledge the concerns of many courageous people among the grassroots who are speaking out against a pre-ordained coronation of Obama and who want 18 million voters to be heard. People who want women and the old guard of civil rights leaders to be respected.

Thanks for reading this,

GRL