The country sends its condolences to the Kennedy family, as the last of the three prominent Kennedy lions passes from the American political scene. I have special empathy with the Kennedy family, since my mother — an appellate justice — also died prematurely from a cancerous brain tumor; the hope that a family invests in all sorts of cutting-edge treatments, the courage a patient shows in undergoing them, and the nefarious nature of such an insidious disease in the end become heart-rending — and overwhelming. At times such as these, it matters little that many of us disagreed with much of the vision of Ted Kennedy — nil nisi bonum de mortuis dicere. He had an incredible near-half-century run in the Senate, suffered terribly from the loss of his three brothers, and was a powerful and deeply sincere advocate for liberal causes respected by his peers of both parties. Requiescat in pacem.