For all my paranoia, magical thinking, hypochondria, superstitions, etc., I have never once believed there is actually a Kennedy curse.
Yes, the family lost perhaps their best and brightest son (Joe) in WWII. So did lots of families. Joe Kennedy had volunteered for a dangerous mission. He knew the risks.
The fact that two more sons were assassinated is statistically improbable, considering that many political families have never suffered one assassination. But it's not completely from left field.
A series of misfortunes that followed were largely, in my (admittedly non-expert) opinion, due to their lifestyles and the opportunities created for them by money.
Several Kennedys have died in plane crashes over the years; one when plane travel was still relatively young as a means of transportation, and another who chose to fly in bad weather, with a broken leg and limited experience as a pilot. Another was killed while recklessly playing football (and videotaping it) while skiing down a mountain.
And with all the controversy and tragedy surrounding a family, not to mention their propensity for risk-taking and life in the limelight, is it any surprise that many of them abused alcohol and drugs?
But what really bugs me is this idea that Ted Kennedy's recent (and devastating) diagnosis of a malignant brain tumor is another addition to the "Kennedy curse" list. Ted Kennedy is 76 years old. It's not ancient by any means, but it is old. It is a time in life when many, many people receive terminal diagnoses. Kennedy has cancer because, like everyone else in the Kennedy clan, he's human--something too many people forget of America's iconic first family.
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4 comments:
I agree. I'd say there must be a couple of families in Africa with worse curses than the Kennedys.
Very nicely put. People tend to lose their perspective (and then again some are just stupid). Remember when Princess Di and Mother Theresa died at right around the same time. Someone actually said to me that Mother Theresa's death was a real tragedy and that Di's was not. I tried to explain that the definition of tragedy was to be killed at a young age in a violent senseless way, while dying in your sleep as an extremely elderly person who has done so much good in the world is actually the opposite of tragic. She didn't get it.
Yeah, I agree with you Carli. Nicely put.
Our world has a void that we love to fill with sensationalism. The irrational is fine if it scratches the itch it would seem.
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