and he sang as he lived his life and as he did everything else. there's a song that i sang for him at one of his birthdays quite a few years ago, and i can't sing it now without thinking of him. it is about an impossible dream or somebody who dreams the impossible to make it possible -- make the impossible possible. the quest is what's important. and i have to say now that senator kennedy and this song will forever share a very special place in my heart. >> ♪ to dream impossible dream to fight the unbeatable flow to bear with unbearable sorrow

to go where the brave dare not go to ride the unrideable -- to right the unrightable wrong to love pure from afar to try when your arms are too weary to reach the unreachable star this is my quest to follow that star no matter how hopeless no matter how far to fight for the right without question or pause to be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause

and i know i can only be true to this glorious quest that my heart will lie peaceful and calm when i'm laid to my rest and the world will be better for it that one man scorned and covered in scars still with his courage to reach the unreachable star this is my quest to follow that star no matter how hopeless

no matter how far to fight for the rights without question or pause to be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause and i know thine only be true to this glorious quest that my heart will lie peaceful and calm when i'm laid to my rest and the world will be better for this that one man scorned and covered with scarce scorned and covered with scars

still with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable star ♪

>> senator kennedy's grandfather watched over the city many years ago. the senator enjoyed working in friendly and warm relationship, the incumbent mayor of the city of boston, we welcome him this evening. >> thank you, paul. don't ask me to sing. i got thrown out of the choir in the eighth grade and haven't sang since. ted kennedy was my friend.

i feel tremendous sadness today but also a sense of pride. the history books will show that boston wasn't just a cradle of liberty, it took care of its champions, too, senator edward m. kennedy was born here. the man in the senate came from boston where he now rests. angela and i together with all bostonians are mourning a native son. some of our neighbors have met ted, their immigrants, their

ports, they're educated in our schools, they stepped foot on the greenway, they knew his work. our thoughts and prayers are with vickie and the entire kennedy family. his imprint across the city is indelible. the kennedy institute is a lasting legacy of the kennedys from boston. i hate to say in these tough financial times but we need to buy some more red paint to extend the freedom trail. i had the privilege to serve in the office of teddy's grandfather once held. he had a good laugh at teddy and me sitting together at fenway park. teddy called me up one day and

said, let's go to the ball game next week. on a very cold night we decided to go. i said, teddy, i'll see you upstairs to watch in the box. he insisted we stay out of the sky box so to be with the people. about the fourth or fifth inning, senator kennedy finally leaned over to me and said, mayor, i love the people but it's freezing my bottom off. i'll always be thankful he worked so hard to bring the democratic national convention to boston. yes, it put our city on display to the world but also because it gave senator kennedy and me reason to spend so much time together. we worked hard and relentlessly.

we had tremendous fun doing it. we played so much good cop, bad cop. i couldn't remember sometimes what role i was supposed to play. you know, senator kennedy would say to a person, john, i'd like to see a million and a half dollars from you folks. about a half-hour later, a person would call me up and say, does he really mean that? if he gives us a million we'll be happy. he did that so often to raise the money at the democratic national convention. i know that one of the great highlights of his career, addressing that convention. today teddy called boston a place where every street is his home, that's truly the old north church. it's true now of all the places senator kennedy walked. we followed our steps to

equality and opportunity. teddy was always out front on the issues. it's something i admired and tried to emulate. sometimes it got us into trouble. several years ago at the beginning of the green revolution, we were supposed to attend a green event together. i'd been driving around a compact hybrid, i complained all the time was tiny. well, our staff thought -- staff always gets you in trouble. staff thought it would be good for teddy and i to ride to the event together in my hybrid. we're both small guys, by the way. of course it's really too small for me and certainly too small for the two of us. like two overgrown peas in a pod. we sought alternate

transportation but never stopped fighting for progress together. on the occasion of teddy's 70th birthday, i made him an honorary harbormaster. i mention because i'm thinking about him that day makes me smile. the senator took it a bit too seriously but the senator actually tried to direct traffic on boston harbor. i also think of it as a role suited to him, the harbormaster to guardian. he watched over the tired and weary and one out. that was ted kennedy. when the phone rings, i'll miss teddy's voice on the end of the line. when debates rage, i'm sad he

won't echo the well of the senate. but the sounds of school kids accepting diplomas and immigrants taking that citizenship oath, neighbors offering neighbors a helping hand will forever hear his call for justice. i'll always hear the familiar tones of a loyal friend. i also would like to say that we created the health academy at the city of washington, one of our pilot schools is dedicated to health care. i sent a letter to the board of trustees the other day and we're going to name that school after edward m. kennedy because that school -- all they come is -- all they do is train kids to get to the health care field. we know teddy, how much he loved health care and how he believe in it and led the

charge. shortly we will have reforms in health care. but ted kennedy, i want to make sure that school in boston reminds everybody how hard teddy fought for those things. vickie and family, thanks, thank you for who you are. thank you. >> john culver was a harvard classmate of senator kennedy's, football teammate, worked in his senate office, moved back home to iowa, served in the congress of the united states, and then the senate of the united states. great friend for a long time,

john culver. >> thank you very much, paul. to vickie who as orrin hatch said was the love of ted's life. to his sister jean smith who always told me that she was ted's favorite sister. [laughter] >> and to all the children, ted's children, vickie's children, and all the extended kennedy family, in a real sense everyone here in the room who i think feels very strongly part of that extraordinary family. it was in the winter, i believe, of 1975 and ted called me and said i'd like you to

come up to boston with me and they suggested several sites for the john f. kennedy museum and library and i'd like you to come along, so i did. i remember it was a winter day, rather cold and overcast and there was snow on the ground. and when we came to this particular place and looked across dorchester bay and saw boston, saw the water, ted turned to me and he said, you know, i think jack would like this place. and of course it wasn't many years later that this library was built and i think we all agree, jack would really like this place.

but also i was reminded again as i came here to the library of that little sailboat out front, the ventura, which joe kennedy talked about. and i have a fond memory, i guess it's a fond memory of the ventura and myself. and it was when ted and i were one time in summer school in 1953 at harvard, and ted said to me one day, you know, why don't you come with me this weekend, i'm going down to the cape, it's a lot of fun. there's going to be a sailboat race called the nantucket regetta, it's a lot of fun. i want you to come down and be part of my crew on the sailboat race. and i said, ted, i'm sure that's an honor to be invited to be on your crew in a sailboat race but i've never been on a sailboat.

i think i've seen a picture of a sailboat. [laughter] >> i said, i come from iowa. and the only boat i ever saw were barges on the mississippi river. [laughter] >> we said there's nothing to it. he said there's nothing to it. how many times have we all heard ted say "there's nothing to it." at that time we were both young, i didn't quite understand that comment as i grew to understand later. i said ok. so he got in the car and ted and i were driving down to the cape. and he turned on the car radio and we were enjoying the trip listening to some music. and this was on friday afternoon and suddenly the radio broadcast was interrupted with a bulletin and the bulletin said serious storm warnings. and it said danger at sea. don't anyone go out in the

ocean. [laughter] >> and i said, well, ted, i guess the sailboat trip's off. he said, there's nothing to it. [laughter] >> and i said, the fellow on the radio thought there was something -- [laughter] >> he said, there's nothing to it. so i said, i think he must know what he's doing, you know. he lives down there. [laughter] >> and i've never been on the ocean. so when we got down to the house, when we got down to the kennedy house, it was about 3:00, 4:00 in the afternoon. and there were dark, black storm clouds gathering, but i said, ted, it looks kind of scary. he said, nothing to it. so i said, well, i'm hungry. he said, i'm hungry, too. so it was about 3:00 and we'd

missed lunch and we went in and went right to the kitchen where i often went with him when we were down there, right to the kitchen. and the cook was still there and he said, i'm just finishing up here but i have some leftover salmon salads, mixed salmon salad and i could make you boys some sandwiches if you'd like. and i thought -- we both thought that was a good idea. so we didn't have a lot of time. so i only had two salmon salad sandwiches. [laughter] >> and i had a quart of milwaukee -- a quart of milk with it. i would have had more but we didn't have time. so ted says come on, we've got

to get going now. so now it's about 4:00. so we get out and in those days they didn't have all the fancy docks and everything, even around the family compound, just kind of a beach as i remember. and he said, we've got to get in the boat. i said ok and i looked out on the horizon looking for this boat. i said, where's the boat? he said, there's the boat. well, if any of you have seen the maya out front, that's the boat. it's exactly 20 -- i mean -- excuse me. not the maya, the ventura. you've seen that little boat out front. that's the boat i'm talking about. that's the boat he pointed out that said we were going on a sailboat race with. and it's 26 feet long. and ted and i both weighed at the time over 200 pounds. we were both over six feet tall. and i said -- he said that's it, that's the boat, let's get

it out in the water. so i did what i could to help get it out in the water but the water at that time, there were huge waves now, there was thunder, there was lightning. the sky was black. and i could hardly get in the boat. it was bouncing so much. and he's at the, i guess the tiller something. [laughter] >> and suddenly, suddenly i realized this friend of mine that i thought i knew quite well started screaming at me, shouting at me. i was terrified. and after a while i was more terrified of him than the storm. and i didn't know this man. and so he kept screaming at me that the spinnaker, the jib,

port side, secure that, you know, whatever. and you know, ted's not always easy to understand when you know what he's talking about. and here over the roar -- with the incredible roar of the ocean, we're being bounced all over. and so i'm just hanging on for dear life. and we only got about 200 miracle yards out and i lost the sandwiches. and i thought i was going to die. and i'd never been so miserable. i'm hanging over the side of the boat and he's screaming at me. i mean, do you think he said hey, i'm sorry, do you feel

bad? forget it. and so somehow, somehow i pulled myself together, somehow we righted this boat in this incredible storm, really unbelievable. i'm still scared thinking about it. so we finally, finally get all the way over to nantucket. it's 11:00 at night. and i'm saying to ted, well, which motel do we stay in? and ted said we're not staying in a motel. i said we aren't? we're all wet, we're all cold. no. where are we staying, teddy? we're staying on the boat. [laughter] >> so i mean, i realized then i was with something out of captain ahab of "moby dick." so believe it or not, believe it or not, there were four cushions and they were of course all wet and everything,

but there are four cushions and he took two. i wanted to take three but he took two. i took two. there were three inches of water, cold sea water, seaweed, everything. we pull the beat up -- boat up on the beach and that's where we spent the night. well, it's a lot of fun so far. so the next day, the next day we got up and we needed a third man on our crew, ted said. i didn't have any idea what we needed. i knew i needed a lot more than one more man. and so we go walking down nantucket and sure enough there's this poor little guy who was a salesman at the andover shop in cambridge. and ted went up to him and said, would you like to go sailing with us today? and the poor kid said yeah, yeah, i'd like to. we shanghai-ed and took him, just like i was. he pulled him on the boat and

me on the boat and off we go for the races. and so the races start, i guess, and from that point on all i remember is ted yelling, yelling, yelling about me to get up on the right side front of the boat or the left side and he always claims when i was to rotate with the other little guy that i said you heard him, get up there. and of course it was really my turn to go up. so anyway, somehow this race was mercifully over. i didn't see anything except this cold water coming pouring on me, sunburned, a t-shirt. it was a nightmare. and i didn't even see any other boats but we kept going around and around and around. so finally, finally, finally this thing was mercifully over. and ted seemed satisfied. i had no idea. probably i was satisfied i lived through it. but i looked out and there was like a mirage.

here's this great big yacht and it was the honeyfitz. and ted sort of wanted to surprise me. he knew, we all know how much fun ted has making his friends uncomfortable at times. and so he hadn't told me, but ambassador kennedy had come out to watch the race and had brought three or four of his friends along and they were out there in the big yacht named after ted's grandfather. and it looked like the -- i never saw anything that looked so good to me but that boat, he said now we're going to get aboard the boat and we're going to, you know, they're going to tow the ventura back behind the boat. i thought my god, this is ok. so we come alongside the honeyfitz. and i remember, i'm like eddie

ricenbacher of the south pacific, been on the boat starving to death in the water, cold, cold, miserable. and i remember ambassador kennedy had a mega phone. and he leaned over the side of the boat and he said good race, good race teddy, but i got some bad news for you. the captain says the sea is far too rough to tow you boys back in that boat so you'll have to sail back. [laughter] >> i mean, i couldn't believe my ears. i wanted to jump out of the boat, take my chances they might pick me up. so anyway, anyway, he said, i have something for you here in this container, hot clam chowder, hot, vacuum packed and he's lowering it over a rope and teddy always claimed that i grabbed it and tore the rope off and ripped off the top without opening it, just tore the top.

and then proceeded to chug-a-lug the whole canteen about this much and the only thing i missed is what went down my t-shirt and i said boy, that was good. teddy said what about me, i'm supposed to have some of that. well, i don't think it was entirely true that i drank all of it but he drank most of it. [laughter] >> narpe, they pull the rope up and we're on our own again. i mean, 24 hours on this boat. and so now we head back home, i guess. fortunately the trip back wasn't all that bad after what i'd been through and it was fairly calm. but we now get within sight of the house probably about a half mile away and i think we'll be in a hot shower in no time. suddenly the ship stopped, the boat just stopped and no wind.

we weren't moving. i could see the house. i didn't know how we were going to get there. it was too far to swim. and i said, what do you do now? he said, we get out of the boat. i said, we get out of the boat? yeah. and he said one of us has got to push and the other pull the rope ahead of the boat. you can't believe it, can you? i couldn't believe it. so after 24 hours on this boat, now it's 11:00, midnight, something, we climb out of that boat into the water. and he's pulling and i'm pushing. and after a while we finally make it to shore. when we were back in summer school it was a whole week before i could get the sea about weed taste out of my mouth. but you know, in the following years, i was fortunate to take many, many sailboat trips with ted. not only around hyannis and the

islands but also to maine and also to the caribbean and the greek islands. and those were some of the most memorable, really truly enjoyable and pleasureable memories that i could ever enjoy. always full of fun, always full of joy and full of laughter. and ted was awfully good about it. i never learned how to sail but teddy always gave me a pass on those voyages and for that i'm always grateful and for those memories. smooth sailing, teddy. thank you. [applause] . [applause]

>> if the sides aren't too sore for laughter, the boston community choir. ♪ ♪

>> ♪ just a closer walk with thee just a closer walk with thee just a closer walk with thee if you please just a closer walk with thee walking close to me walking close to thee daily walking close to thee daily daily daily

walking with thee ♪ i i am weak but thou art strong jesus keep me from all wrong i'll i'll be satisfied as long yes i will as i stand take my hand lead me just a closer walk with thee just a closer walk with thee just a closer walk with thee

just a closer walk with thee thank you jesus if you please grant it jesus if you please daily walking close to thee daily walking close to thee daily walking close to thee daily daily daily lord let it be ♪ >> ♪ through this world of toils and snares if i falter lord who cares

walk with me my burdens share none but thee 4 dear lord none but thee ♪ >> ♪ just a closer walk with thee just a closer walk with thee just a closer walk with thee granted jesus if you please grant it joseous if you please grant it jesus if you please daily walking close to thee daily walking close to thee daily walking close to thee

daily daily daily daily force let it be >> ♪ when my feeble life is oer and this time on earth is no more you know he can guide he will guide us safely home let it be lord please lead me to the kingdom ♪ >> ♪ just a closer walk with thee

just a closer walk with thee just a closer walk with thee grant it jesus if you please grant it jesus if you please grant it jesus if you please daily walking close to thee daily walking close to thee gorsegorse daily walking close to thee daily daily daily lord let it be just a closer walk with thee just a closer walk with thee just a closer walk with thee just a closer walk with thee grant it jetionous grant it jesus if you please grant it jesus

if you please grant it jesus daily walking close to thee daily walking close to thee daily walking close to thee daily daily daily daily ♪ >> ♪ daily walking >> ♪ daily >> ♪ daily >> ♪ daily ♪ lord let it be ♪

♪ >> ♪ daily >> ♪ daily >> ♪ daily >> ♪ lord let it be

>> ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming a good friend of senator kennedy and of all of ours, the vice president of the united states, joe biden. >> thank you so much, vickie and all the children. john used to regale us like that all the time much in the senate dining room. and john's acting like teddy always took advantage of him. you should have seen it when they both teamed up on somebody else. [laughter] >> john and i remember talking about angola once and you and teddy were working out a deal with some of our more

conservative friends and agreed on a particular course of action, and i was along with your colleague with dick clark, you and dick and teddy, myself and teddy's office as a young senator we talked about how we'd approach the issue on the floor and teddy said we've got to do this and i said, well, that's not what we said. we told these guys we were going to do that. and teddy very politely, teddy jr. tried to tell me, no, he -- and this went on for a few minutes and finally john in a roaring voice said, biden, what the hell do you think this is, boys state? that was my introduction to the squeeze of kennedy and culver, what the hell do you think this is, boys state? you know, i know we're all here to celebrate, celebrate the life of an incredible man but i

want to first say to the whole kennedy clan, i want to give thanks, thanks for your father, thanks to your husband, thanks for your uncle, thanks for your brother, who in an astonishingly and unexpected way ended up playing an important part in every critical moment of my adult life. it was laterally an accident of history. but he crept into my heart and before i knew it, he owned a piece of it. today i was thinking about teddy was -- i wouldn't be standing here if it were not for teddy kennedy and wouldn't be standing here as vice president of the united states and wouldn't be a united states senator if it not for teddy

kennedy. he was the catalyst for my improbable win as a 29-year-old kid running for the senate in a year when senator mcgovern only got 34%, 35% of the vote in my state. i was running against a fellow who was extremely popular, the incumbent senator. and although surprised the hell out of people and became -- we were coming astonishingly close, we needed something else and out of the blue, literally, about eight days before the election, teddy kennedy showed up, and he showed up in a neighborhood that we referred to as little italy in wilmington, delaware, and drew a crowd, it was actually dinner of a couple thousand people. and a community that would vote

nationally for the democrats but on all of the statewide offices always voted republican, including for the senate and the house seats. i ended up winning that neighborhood. i ended up winning the election by 21 -- excuse me, 3,100 votes. and although i don't know for certain, it seems highly unlikely i would have ever won if it were not for your father energizing people the way he did at the very end. i remember what he said. he stood there and at the end of the speech ended it saying, i have only one problem with joe biden, i think he's a little too young to be a senator. [laughter] >> and literally the next day "the wall street journal" played it straight, "kennedy says biden too young for the united states senate." but seven weeks later when my wife and daughter were killed in an automobile accident and my two boys were very badly injured and hospitalized, one of them is with me today, hunter, the other in iraq, i

got a call from your dad. and i didn't know your dad too well. i mean, i just met him that one time. here i was an irish catholic kid from scranton, pennsylvania, who only thought of teddy kennedy and the entire kennedy family in sort of a distant terms, hushed tones, and here he was on the phone. and you know, he was on the phone but he called me in that hospital almost every day, and about every other day i turned around, literally, vickie, and there was another specialist from boston, massachusetts, one of your great hospitals, sitting next to me. i never asked for and didn't know i needed but i needed.

he was the prod who convinced me to go to the senate because i had told my governor after that election, the governor-elect to be precise, my brother did, that we were going to appoint someone else, i didn't want to go to the senate. and it was your brother who came to see me to tell me, to my deceased wife and children to at least be sworn in and stay at least six months. and when i got to the senate, you'd literally come by once or twice a week to my office in the middle of the afternoon and i didn't want to be there, i wanted to get the hell home. i didn't want to be around. and john, he took me for the first time i ever went to the senate gym. he'd come by and take me to the

senate gym. i'll never forget the first time he took me. i hadn't met any of these famous players. i got sworn in late compared to the other senators. i'll never forget walking into the senate gym and him introducing me to senator jack javits and warren magnasun who were stark naked when i met him. i remember, my god, senator, how are you? but he never -- he sort of took on the role of being my older brother. he just was there all the time. and i never asked and i never could really understand, to tell you the truth at first. i didn't understand why he was going out of his way for me this way. he got me on the committees that i ended up chairing. he -- and he was sort of my tutor, for exposing this kid

from scranton to a world that i had never seen and didn't fully understand. i used to go home every night in the beginning. i went home every night for 36 years. i went home every night as soon as the senate was out. and i never once accepted any invitation in washington, not out of a desire not to be in washington, i just wanted to get home. after one afternoon teddy came to my office and said, grow, look, i've got to give you a piece of advice. i got a call from pamela, this is the fourth invitation you've gotten from governor harriman to come to one of his dinners. i didn't know enough to know that was a big deal. i really didn't, honest to god i didn't. he said, joe, you've got to go. you've got to go. it just doesn't look -- i'll go with you. i'll never forget going into his home in georgetown and sitting and he was sitting in a armchair -- excuse me, a winged

chair and i was on a couch next to the chair nearest edward and teddy next to me and henry kissinger was across from me and paul warrenky, both arms control experts and i was this 30-year-old kid and harriman had a way of including everyone in the conversation. they were talking about a complicated arms control agreement, and this discussion was going on and all of a sudden harriman looked at me and said, joe, what do the young people think about this? [laughter] >> i didn't know what the hell to say, john. i was squared to death. i didn't want to make a fool of me. here i was a united states senator. so i reached over and picked an object up off the coffee table. and i was nervous and i was flipping it back and forth in my hands, i guess, as i answered the question. and i noticed everyone stiffened up when i was talking.

and the butler came in and said time for dinner and everybody immediately got up and bolted for the dinner table. and your dad grabbed my arm and said damn it, put that thing down, that costs more than your house. i was flipping a faberge egg in my hands. so the sophisticated kid from delaware. [laughter] >> it seemed like every single thing i did he was there. when my character was under attack, i sat with the committee and said maybe i shouldn't chair this committee until this gets settled and your father stood up and said no. you stay right where you are. and i said well, let me explain. and he said before 10 of my colleagues, he said, we know you. you don't have to explain a single thing. and walked out of the conference room and we walked

back into the hearing. you have no idea what that meant to me at that moment. because my character had never, ever been questioned. you know, i was sitting in wilmington, delaware, after recuperating for six months after a cranial injury and up my dusty driveway comes a cab and out jumps teddy kennedy and he had a great big -- turns out to be a picture frame under his arm. there's about 2 1/2, three feet, and i was sitting by a pole and he walked over and he said, where can i change? and he had a bathing suit with him. he put on his bathing suit and came back out and he said, i want to give you this. he gave me this picture of a big irish stag. and he said to my irish

chairman, come back, i need you. he sat there for six hours with me. got back and called a cab, got back in the train and went back. you know, for 36 years, i had the privilege of every single solitary day going to work every morning with teddy kennedy. i had the privilege for 36 years to witness history. i had the privilege the last 20 of those years to sit literally next to him every single day. and in the process, he had an incredible impact on me and i noticed everyone around him. he'd constantly renewed my faith and optimism in the possible. i never once saw your father with a defeatist attitude. i never saw him petty. i never saw him act in a small way. and as a consequence, he made

us all bigger, both his friends, his allies, and his foes. his dignity, his lack of vitriol, his lack of pettiness forced some of the less generous members of our community to act bigger than they were. he was remarkable to watch. people say we all have our theories of why teddy was so successful as a legislator. i think one of them was people didn't want to look small in front of him. even the people who were small. the astounding thing to me after 36 years of having as a consequence of gest as my mother would say, living long,

i've gotten to meet almost every major political figure in the world and that's not hyperbole, it's literally true. and your father was one of the few who i ever met that at the end of the day he was never about him, it was always about you. a truly remarkable character trait, so many others when it got down to the end it was about them, not about others. with teddy, it was never, ever about him. the interesting thing to me is that i think the legacy of teddy kennedy is presumptuous to say this because who am i to judge, but i think the legacy of teddy kennedy can be measured in no small part as a consequence of how we in america look at one another.

how blacks look at whites, how gays look at straits, how straits look at gays. how we literally look at one another, and in turn how we look at ourselves. because when you were with him you had to measure yourself against him and it always required you to be larger than you were inclined to be. you know, his death was not unlike his life, as we all know, overcoming pain and loss with the sense of dignity and pride that is amazing. he met his death in the same brave generous terms that he lived his life. archie ingersoll could have

been thinking about your father when he wrote, when the will defies fear, when duty throws the gauntlet down to fate, when honor scorns compromise with death, this is heroism. your father was a historic figure. he was a heroic figure beyond that. i will remember and celebrate his life every single time i see a young adolescent kid coping rather than cowering from having to make a decision about his sexuality. i'll celebrate your father every single time i see my granddaughter stand up with those boys and smack something over the second baseman's head. i'll think of your father every time a woman stands up and

demands and is granted exactly what she's entitled to. i'll think of your father every time i see an individual walk out of recovery and start a new life, start over again. and vickie, i'll think of you every time i recall those words of christopher marlow who said, come live with me and be my love and we all the pleasures prove. it's exactly what the two of you did and everyone can see it. the pundits are writing and, and they mean well by it, that this is the end of an era, that this is the end of the kennedy era. but i watched at eunice's

funeral, and i invite everyone to look around this room today and take a look at this incredible family. take a look -- i mean it. [applause] >> take a look -- take a look at this generation of kennedys. it possesses more talent, more commitment, more grit, more grace than any family i've ever seen. so when they say -- and they say that this is the new -- the end of the kennedy era, i want you to know i realize your parents collectively left america a lot more than this great library, a lot more than landmark legislation, a lot

more than inspirational leadership, they left us you. as maybe your pop would say, because of you, the dream still lives. thank you for the honor for allowing me to be with you. . .