Kennedy legacy proves government can be 'here to help'

Today's lowering of Ted Kennedy's casket into a grave near his brothers and the eternal flame at Arlington National Cemetery should cast a light on the Kennedy philosophy that government is a tool we the people can use to make lives better.

How refreshing. How optimistic. How American.

So many Americans today embrace the discouraging and cynical sentiment best expressed by Ronald Reagan, who once told us: "The nine most-terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.'"

I am glad we had government workers who rushed into the World Trade Centers on Sept. 11, 2001, in the ultimate expression of "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help." I'm glad the Feds monitor our airports.

Just as some people holler about how they don't want "my tax dollars" funding abortions for poor women or flu shots for a child whose parents entered our country without the proper paperwork, I'm not thrilled about my tax dollars funding torture, elevating terrorist threats for political reasons or starting an unnecessary war. But that doesn't mean I want to do away with military socialism and hire capitalistic mercenaries from the Xe Services formerly known as Blackwater to handle my national security and international interests.

I am glad, not terrified, as I sent my kids to school this week and put their futures in the hands of public school teachers from the government who are here to help. My taxes are high, but I'd certainly pay more, and my property values would plummet, if the government said my only option was to hire private, nonsocialist teachers to provide my three sons with a total of 39 years of K-12 education.

I suppose those Americans who abhor the thought of socialized medicine will fund their own flu research and embrace the freedom of not having government bureaucrats tell them what flu shots they need and where to get them. After all, their bodies are their bodies and big government shouldn't tell Americans what to do with their bodies, unless a person needs an abortion or wants to marry somebody of the same gender.

With friends, neighbors and co-workers losing their jobs, I'm glad the government is here to help with unemployment benefits.

I'm thankful Kennedy sponsored laws that made our federal government expand and protect voting rights, crack down on discrimination, regulate workplace safety, protect Americans with disabilities and give people the right to take time off work to care for a sick child or aging parent.

Whenever we get floods or tornadoes, I'd rather have federal emergency folks show up in the suburbs, instead of not showing up.

I like the socialized medicine that last week provided a new knee for my mom, who reminded me that, during our family vacation to Washington in 1971, she made all of us Republican-born kids shake hands with Kennedy after she spotted him in a Capitol hallway. I also like the idea that Social Security means her income during this recession isn't solely dependent on her stock portfolio.

The U.S. Postal Service is the poster boy for incompetent government programs, but it seemed like a good deal this month when I scrawled a message on a vacation postcard and hired a government worker to pick it up and deliver it three days later to the front door of someone 1,100 miles away, all for 28 cents.

I like government, especially when it shows up as we the people coming together to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

Kennedy's example should renew that spirit. As he once said, "For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die."