INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC
Milestones
An interactive timeline of Edward M. Kennedy’s life and career.
By Carl Hulse
Librado Romero/The New York Times Senator
Edward M. Kennedy with his wife, Joan, after testifying about the 1969
car accident in Chappaquiddick, Mass., that killed Mary Jo Kopechne.In a memoir being published posthumously, Senator Edward M. Kennedy talks remorsefully about the car accident that claimed the life of Mary Jo Kopechne – a turn of events many consider a chief reason that he was never able to mount a successful bid for the presidency.
G. Paul Burnett/The New York TimesWriting in his book “True Compass,” which is scheduled to be published on Sept. 14, Mr. Kennedy, who died a week ago, described his actions in the 1969 accident as “inexcusable” and said that at the time he was afraid, overwhelmed “and made terrible decisions.”
Mr. Kennedy said he had to live with the guilt of his actions for four decades but that Ms. Kopechne’s family had to endure worse. “Atonement is a process that never ends,” he writes.
In the 532-page book, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Kennedy also said he has always accepted the official findings of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, an event that he said left family members fearing for the emotional health of his brother, Robert F. Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy that he often thought of one brother’s deep grief over the loss of another and said it “veered close to being a tragedy within a tragedy.”
Senator Kennedy said he had a full briefing by Earl Warren, the chief justice, on the commission’s investigation into the Nov. 22, 1963, shooting in Dallas. He pronounced himself convinced that the Warren Commission got it right and said he was “satisfied then, and satisfied now.”
Mr. Kennedy’s book provides unique details about life in America’s famous political family and covers the remarkable career that was celebrated last week in a series of memorials before his burial near his two brothers in Arlington National Cemetery. It provides his personal account of being stricken by the brain cancer that took his life and his decision to battle the disease as aggressively as he could. And he talks openly and regretfully about “self-destructive drinking,” especially after his brother Robert’s death.
The book, published by Twelve, a division of the Hachette book group, was originally scheduled to be published in 2010 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the election of President Kennedy but was moved up due to his illness. Much of the book, written with a collaborator, was based on contemporaneous notes taken by Mr. Kennedy over the years as well as hours of recordings for an oral history project.
In the memoir, Mr. Kennedy also suggests that his brother the president was growing uneasy about events in Vietnam and was increasingly convinced that the conflict could not be resolved militarily. He said his brother’s “antenna” was up and surmises that the president was on his way to finding that way out. “He just never got the chance.”
Mr. Kennedy tells of a secret meeting in the spring of 1967 between President Lyndon B. Johnson and Robert Kennedy, whose increasingly outspoken criticism of the war in Southeast Asia was becoming a political threat to Mr. Johnson. According to the book, Robert Kennedy proposed that Mr. Johnson gave him authority to personally negotiate a peace treaty in Vietnam. This, implicitly, would have kept Mr. Kennedy out of the 1968 race for the Democratic nomination, a prospect that Mr. Johnson had come to worry greatly about.
“If the president had accepted his offer,” the book says, “Bobby certainly would have been too immersed in the peace process to become involved in presidential primary.” Mr. Johnson could not take the offer at face value, concerned that Robert Kennedy had ulterior motives.
In explaining why he decided to run for the presidency in 1980, Mr. Kennedy explained how he was motivated in part because of his differences with then President Jimmy Carter. Among other things, he was frustrated by Mr. Carter’s incremental approach to providing universal health care coverage, saying the president’s go-slow approach was “squandering a real opportunity to get something done.” He described Mr. Carter as a “difficult man to convince – of anything.” He described their relationship as “unhealthy.” And after Mr. Carter’s famous “malaise speech,” the senator wrote, he concluded that Mr. Carter held an “inherently different view of America from mine.”
Mr. Kennedy recounts attending a dinner with Bill Clinton shortly after he was elected president in 1992 at the Washington home of Katharine Graham, the publisher of the Washington Post. According to Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Clinton said at the time that if he did not get national health insurance through Congress, he should not be president.
Stephen Crowley/The New York Times Mr. Kennedy, and his wife, Victoria, were on Capitol Hill in November.Mr. Kennedy expressed great disappointment at the ultimate failure of health care to pass during that period, though he did not place the blame for it on Mr. Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who oversaw the effort for Mr. Clinton.
Mr. Kennedy said he called Mr. Clinton immediately after he appeared on television to confess his affair with Monica Lewinsky, reassuring Mr. Clinton he would stand by the president during this difficult period.
In the midst of recounting this anecdote, Mr. Kennedy took a break to offer his views on the scrutinizing of the private lives of public officials, something to which he clearly was quite familiar. Mr. Kennedy said he had no quarrel with such inquiries.
“But do I think it tells the whole story of character? No I truly do not,” he wrote.
Mr. Kennedy notes that he had never dwelled on the reversals of his life, legislative defeats or causes unfilled and discusses how he came to endorse Barack Obama during the presidential primaries despite his close relationships with other candidates. He said he was able to persevere through his own personal faith.
“I have fallen short in my life, but my faith has always brought me home,” he said.this is so adorable. I could watch it over and over.
Faith is father's refuge when death takes his son
Pastor turns grief into an altar call
By Harriet Vaughan
THE TENNESSEAN
LEIPER'S FORK COMMUNITY — There was live music, about 2,000 people in the building and 4,700 more watching live online.
There was climactic energy in the building that spilled out into the parking lot where extra speakers were set up.
Steve Berger, Grace Chapel Church's senior pastor, entered the sanctuary in jeans, greeting those awaiting his arrival at the door with hugs and high-fives. The church band, equipped with guitar players and celebrity singers Alison Krauss and Michael McDonald, took center stage.
This might sound like a church musical concert or a big Sunday service, but it was not. It was the Aug. 18 home going celebration, a memorial service for Berger's 19-year-old son, Josiah Berger, who died just days before.
'Prayer warriors' fill hospital
Berger was driving along Del Rio Pike on Aug. 11 when police say he lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a tree. He was taken to Vanderbilt Medical Center, where he would spend the next four days on life support. Hundreds of friends, family members and church members crowded the hospital halls. Police were called in to help manage the large waves of visitors. Prayer circles formed in a large waiting room nearby.
While Berger's family stayed around the clock, prayer warriors, as they're now being called, also stood by. Despite their prayers for a miracle, Berger did not recover. He passed away Aug. 14, on his 19th birthday. His organs and tissues were donated to 77 people. Five of them had been on their deathbed before receiving the transplants.
"I can't wait to meet them. I want to hear my son's heart beating in someone's chest. That's what I want," Steve Berger said.
"I want to bless them and I want to hold them and love them. I want to make sure they know whose heart they got. That's what I want."
Berger said that in a private moment, turning red in the face and choking on tears. It took a while before intense sadness would show. It was a somewhat rare moment for Berger, whose public response to his son's shocking death had been considerably unorthodox.
During the service he shared jokes, laughter and at one point stood on his chair, raised his arms and yelled to a cheering crowd. Not what you would expect from a grieving father who planned to drive his son to his first day of college the next morning.
But if you ask Berger, he'll tell you he's laid out on the floor many times shedding uncontrollable tears and has had sleepless nights since Josiah's death. He'll tell you how his family has joined hands, prayed together and
wept together behind the private walls of their home in one of the darkest moments of their lives. But then he'll tell you about the inexplicable joy and peace that has settled in and has turned their grief into a testimony and opportunity to help others.
"There were times in the first few days where it's shocking, where it's reeling and it's surreal and you can't imagine that this is happening, but I have 25 years of passionately following Christ in my heart," Berger said.
"So, I know where to go. I know who to cry out to. I know where to run. I know he's my strong tower. I know he's my shepherd. I know that he's my banner of hope. I know that he's my strength. I know that he's my deliverer. I know he's my healer. So because I know him, when I need what I need, I know where to go."
Sadness unleashes joy
Close friends and church members were taking Berger's lead.
"It's a combination of grief and celebration. It's miraculous. We're celebrating that Josiah is not here with us and is in heaven, but we will miss him," said Dave Krikac, church elder and longtime family friend.
The nearly 2,000 attendees to Josiah's memorial service joined with Berger on the lighter moments and points of celebration. Krikac says they were able to because of the Berger family's example of grief management and the fact that Josiah continues to live on through those who now have life because of his death.
"The specific miracle that we were praying for was not answered, but other miracles were answered and they continue to be answered. Those five families — one man was praying for a heart and another vital organ to sustain his life. That prayer was answered that day. Can you imagine the prayers that those families were praying for that day? Those miracles came that day."
Berger says another miracle came out of Josiah's death.
During Josiah's memorial service Berger asked those in the crowd wanting to turn their lives over to Christ to stand. Nearly 100 people stood up and answered the altar call.
"It says that his destiny was very pricey. It says that he lived his life in such a way to draw this amount of people and to have their hearts touched and prepared by his life so that when the invitation was given to know the Christ that he knew, their hearts would be ready," Berger said.
"I want people to know Jesus, and if somehow my son's going to heaven can help them know Christ, then it's all worth it. It's all worth it. My son would bear the pain and I will bear the pain if just a regular old dad who loved his boy can see someone come to Christ because of his death. That means everything to me."
Interesting.
Updated April 2009
Mythbusting at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center
STATEMENT: EMAIL HOAX REGARDING CANCER
Information falsely attributed to Johns Hopkins called, "CANCER UPDATE FROM JOHN HOPKINS" describes properties of cancer cells and suggests ways of preventing cancer. Johns Hopkins did not publish the information, which often is an email attachment, nor do we endorse its contents. The email also contains an incorrect spelling of our institution as "John" Hopkins; whereas, the correct spelling is "Johns" Hopkins. For more information about cancer, please read the information on our web site or visit the National Cancer Institute's web site at www.cancer.gov. Please help combat the spread of this hoax by letting others know of this statement.
Another hoax email that has been circulating since 2004 regarding plastic containers, bottles, wrap claiming that heat releases dioxins which cause cancer also was not published by Johns Hopkins. More information from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The Truth about the “Cancer Update” Email
It has become such a problem, that the National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, and individual cancer centers like the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have posted warnings on their Web sites. Emails offering easy remedies for avoiding and curing cancer are the latest Web-influenced trend. To gain credibility, the anonymous authors falsely attribute their work to respected research institutions like Johns Hopkins. This is the case with the so-called “Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins.”
The gist of this viral email is that cancer therapies of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy do not work against the disease and people should instead choose a variety of dietary strategies.
Traditional therapies, such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, work. The evidence is the millions of cancer survivors in the United States today who are alive because of these therapies. We recognize that treatments don’t work in every patient, or sometimes work for awhile and then stop working, and there are some cancers that are more difficult to cure than others. These problems are the focus of ongoing cancer research.
We’ll go through each statement in the email hoax and provide real responses from Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center experts.
Email hoax contentions #1 and 2: Everyone Has Cancer Cells
Cancer is a genetic disease resulting from a variety of mutations and alterations either inherited from our parents or, more commonly, acquired over time due to environmental exposures and behaviors, such as smoking and poor diet. These alterations turn off important cell growth regulators allowing cells to continually divide unchecked, explains Luis Diaz, a clinician-scientist in Ludwig Center for Cancer Genetics. This type of cell is called a malignant or cancer cell. Among the trillions of cells in the human body, inevitably everyone has some abnormal or atypical cells that possess some of the characteristics of cancer cells, most resolve themselves and never result in cancer, says Diaz.
There is no single or standard test for cancer. There are ways to screen for certain cancers with tests such as colonoscopy for colon cancer, mammography for breast cancer, PSA for prostate cancer, and the Pap smear for cervical cancer, and these tests can detect cancers in a very early and curable stage. For many cancers, there currently are no screening tests, and they are diagnosed when they begin to cause symptoms.
Diaz and other Kimmel Cancer Center researchers are working on new tests that detect abnormal DNA shed by cancer cells into blood and body fluids and have the ability to find cancers before they cause any symptoms. Approaches like this could lead to a broad-based screening test for cancer.
Tests like these also are being used to detect cancer recurrences and malignant cells left behind following surgery, and can find cancers that are not detectable under the microscope or in x-rays.
Other researchers are studying cancer stem cells. They are stealth cells that make up just a tiny fraction of a tumor. While small in number, investigators believe they may be the cells that drive certain cancers and lead to cancer recurrence. Therapies that target these cells are now being tested in clinical trials.
A team of our breast cancer researchers has developed a method that could make it possible to detect breast cancer from the DNA contained in a single drop of blood.
But, while evasive cancer cells are a challenge and the focus of ongoing research, it does not mean, as the email contends, that all patients, even those treated successfully for cancer, have cancers-in-waiting—undetectable but still there. People are treated and completely cured of cancer everyday.
Email hoax contention #3: A Strong Immune System Destroys Cancer
When it comes to cancer and the immune system, it is not a matter of strong or weak as the fictional report contends, but rather an issue of recognition. The immune system simply does not recognize cancer. In its complexity, the cancer cell has learned to disguise itself to the immune system as a normal cell. Infected cells send out danger signals setting the immune system in action. Cancer cells do not, explains Elizabeth Jaffee, co-director of cancer immunology and leading expert on cancer and the immune system. By deciphering the methods cancer cells use to make them invisible to the immune system, Jaffee and team have developed cancer vaccines that have successfully triggered immune reactions against prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, leukemia, and multiple myeloma.
Email hoax contention #4 and #5: Cancer is caused by Nutritional Deficiencies and Supplements Will Correct Them
Dietary habits and lifestyle choices, such as smoking, contribute to the development of many human cancers, says Kimmel Cancer Center director William Nelson. Our experts recommend a balanced diet (see response #11) as a way of reducing cancer risk. In terms of supplements, Nelson points out that while they may help mediate vitamin deficiencies, taking doses above what the body needs provides no added benefit.
Email hoax contentions #6, 7, 8, 9, and 10: Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy Harms Normal Cells. Surgery Causes Cancer to Spread
Chemotherapy and radiation therapy kills cancer cells with remarkable selectivity, says Nelson. There are some temporary and reversible side effects common to cancer therapies, including hair loss and low blood counts. Limiting and managing these side effects is an integral part of treatment.
Surgery is the first line of treatment for many types of cancer. It does not cause cancer to spread. Cancers spread to other tissues and organs as a tumor progresses and cancer cells break away from the original tumor and travel through the bloodstream to other body sites.
Email hoax contentions #11, 12, 13, and 14: Cancers Feed on Certain Foods
The premise is that cancer cells feed on certain foods, and if a person refrains from eating these foods, the cancer will die. According to our experts, a poor diet and obesity associated with a poor diet is a risk factor for the development of cancer. However, there is no evidence that certain foods alter the environment of an existing cancer, at the cellular level, and cause it to either die or grow.
While there is such a thing as tumors that produce mucus, the mucus made by a tumor does not result from drinking milk. And, eating less meat, while a good choice for cancer prevention, does not free up enzymes to attack cancer cells, explains cancer prevention and control expert Elizabeth Platz.
Moderation is key, says Platz. As part of a balanced diet, sugar, salt, milk, coffee, tea, meat, and chocolate—the foods the “Update” calls into question—are all safe choices, she says. The real concern with many of these, particularly sugar, is that it adds calories to a diet and can lead to obesity, and obesity is a major risk factor for cancer. A balanced nutritious diet, healthy weight, physical activity, and avoiding alcoholic drinks may prevent as many as 1/3 of all cancers. Platz recommends eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables per day and limiting red and processed meats, like hot dogs.
Several Johns Hopkins experts participated in the World Cancer
Research Fund - American Institute for Cancer Research report Food,
Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global
Perspective, published in November 2007, which is considered by cancer
prevention experts to be an authoritative source of information on
diet, physical activity and cancer. Their recommendations for cancer
prevention and for good health in general are:
1. Be as lean as possible without becoming underweight.
2. Be physically active for at least 30 minutes every day.
3. Avoid
sugary drinks. Limit consumption of energy-dense foods (particularly
processed foods high in added sugar, or low in fiber, or high in fat).
4. Eat more of a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains and legumes such as beans.
5. Limit consumption of red meats (such as beef, pork and lamb) and avoid processed meats.
6. If consumed at all, limit alcoholic drinks to 2 for men and 1 for women a day.
7. Limit consumption of salty foods and foods processed with salt (sodium).
8. Don't use supplements to protect against cancer.
Our
experts recommend that people meet their nutritional needs through
their food choices. While vitamin supplements can be helpful in people
with nutritional deficiencies, evidence suggests that supplementation
above what the body can use provides no added health benefit.
Email hoax contention #15: Cancer is a Disease of Mind, Body, and Spirit
Cancer is a disease caused by genetic alterations. Many times, these alterations occur through our own behaviors—cigarette smoking, a poor and unbalanced diet, virus exposures, and sunburns, says cancer prevention and control expert John Groopman.
How stress, faith, and other factors influence this is largely unknown. We would like people to be happy, loving, and stress free, simply because it is a nice way to live and can contribute to an overall feeling of well being, says Platz. There is no evidence, however, that a person prevents or causes cancer based on his or her state of mind.
Still, we understand that a cancer diagnosis can make patients and families feel stressed and anxious, and these are not pleasant feelings. So, we offer extensive patient and family services, including a cancer counseling center, pain and palliative care program, chaplain services and a meditation chapel, an image recovery center, and the Art of Healing art and music program.
Email hoax contention #16: Oxygen Kills Cancer Cells
Platz recommends regular exercise as a part of any healthy lifestyle, but says there is no evidence that breathing deeply or receiving oxygen therapy prevents cancer.
On its Web site, the American Cancer Society includes the following statement about oxygen therapy, “Available scientific evidence does not support claims that putting oxygen-releasing chemicals into a person's body is effective in treating cancer. It may even be dangerous. There have been reports of patient deaths from this method.” Read more
Please pass this information on to family and friends.
Questions?
Contact: Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center
Office of Public Affairs
410-955-1287
The most commonly felt effects of physical withdrawal from
tobacco smoking are feelings of anger, depression, anxiety and
restlessness. A chain smoker’s body experiences sharply rising and
falling levels of nicotine on a daily basis. In the withdrawal stage,
these cycles are coming to an end. Over years, the nicotine literally
takes control of about 200 neurochemicals in the brain. The brain is
slowly regaining control of these. This causes the intense emotional
effects mentioned above.
Within the first 72 hours of withdrawal, if a user abstains totally from nicotine, they will begin to feel the gradual effects of recovery. The brain is now getting used to being lavished with nicotine-free oxygen.
During the early stages of withdrawal, time seems to drag endlessly. The first few weeks are interminable. It is important not to let this overshadow the greater purpose and really keep going with a positive attitude. One may experience an unbearable craving to grab a cigarette. During such an episode, it helps to take a look at the clock and actually time the duration of the ‘attack’. It will likely last no longer that 3 minutes, although it may seem endless this helps to gain perspective.
Most nicotine addicts complain of not being able to concentrate like before during the first few days of withdrawal. However, concentration levels begin to return to normal within two weeks.

In their smoking days, most nicotine addicts could skip a meal without feeling the hunger pangs. This was because nicotine triggered the process of releasing stored fats and sugars in our blood stream. This ends when nicotine intake stops. Hence, in order to prevent falling blood sugar levels, it is important not to skip meals.
Nicotine is a powerful stimulant. Our body needs time and a great deal of effort to learn to live without it. It is natural to feel tired, drained out and fatigued during the first few days.

Normal sleep patterns get disrupted during withdrawal. One might find oneself sleeping comparatively less. It takes a couple of weeks for regular sleep patterns to establish.
Other common symptoms of physical withdrawal are tightness in the chest, slight sore throat, coughing with mucus, bad breath and headaches.
"It ain't bestiality if there ain't a human involved, that is just...nature."'
"You know how many times I wanted to go down to Merlot's to drink myself silly and find some dumb redneck to take to my bed, but no, I had to take care of YOU!"
"You think Sam could turn into a chicken and lay his own egg? Wouldn't that be weird eating something that just came out of you?"
"yeah, well I do. I work out like a mother f*****, and I watch a lot of porn to learn stuff. what else?"
"Did you know your boyfriend hit me over the head with a 52 inch plasma television earlier tonight? Everyone says they're so thin and light, but let me tell you, when wielded properly, they're quite a weapon."
"Now Jesus and I agree to see other people that doesn't mean we don't still talk from time to time."
Sookie: "He's your maker, isn't he?"
Eric: "Don't use words you don't
understand."
Sookie: "You have a lot of love for him."
Eric: "Don't use words I don't
understand."
Open yourself to the potential
in this moment.
Let go of how you think
it should look.
Let go of how you think
it should feel.
Let go of trying to control
what is happening
Just let go....
Now, you've created the space
for magic to occur.
Now, you've opened the door
so that the mysterious may rush in.
Now, you've made room in your heart
for passion.