http://russellmckinney.com/2009/11/06/ted-kennedy-leadership/ Straight Talk About God and Life Fri, 25 May 2012 05:20:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://russellmckinney.com/2009/11/06/ted-kennedy-leadership/comment-page-1/#comment-180 Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:08:05 +0000 http://russellmckinney.com/?p=1426#comment-180 Chuck,
I’m like you in that I don’t want to see anyone die without Christ. When I get to heaven, if I find that Ted Kennedy is there, I’ll be overjoyed. I do think the man accomplished some good as a politician, and I do think there was a genuine concern for the poor and underprivileged, a concern that is typically not found in the wealthy. I don’t think I would have gone the “spiritual slingshot” route (lol), but it sounds like you certainly made a gospel point with Ted. I applaud you for such evangelistic zeal.

]]> http://russellmckinney.com/2009/11/06/ted-kennedy-leadership/comment-page-1/#comment-179 Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:38:10 +0000 http://russellmckinney.com/?p=1426#comment-179 I met Ted Kennedy in a most inauspicious way. It was 1973. I heard he was landing soon at the Youngstown,Ohio airport. I wanted to see my second Kennedy in person. I had refused to shake the outstretched hand of JFK during the run for the White House in 1960. After all, my parents were Republicans! I arrived just in time as Teddy’s jet landed. I was standing in the front row as he exited the plane. It was strangely quiet. So I decided to use my “spiritual slingshot” to make things interesting. I raised my briefcase with its “Guess Who’s Coming Again” bumper sticker and held it nice and steady as Teddy came down the row. He came to me, stopped, and read it to himself. I then turned it over, and there was my, “He Loves You This Much,” sticker. He read that, too. I was just beginning to feel so proud of myself when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, without warning, came the goons of the Secret Service. I was thrown against a wall and frisked. Despite my protests, like “What in the ….are you doing?,” I was dragged kicking and screaming into a warehouse and brow beaten for several minutes. Like-”Who do you think you are?” I replied, “I asked you first.” Seems the jist was I had no right to do what I was doing, which was never defined. They finally let me go, uncuffing me. Ted’s posse had left in a motorcade and I left, befuddled and dazed, to go back to work in my little Mazda. Pride goes before the fall. I’ve never told this story before.

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