When I was a law professor, I spent years studying why middle class families were going broke. I went into this area of study believing the hype – that people who were declaring bankruptcy must be gaming the system and going on too many shopping sprees at the mall.
My academic research showed that three things caused more than 90% of bankruptcies: A serious medical problem, a job loss, or a family breakup. These were good people who worked hard, played by the rules – and, for most of this, a twist of bad luck had turned their financial lives upside-down.
So, in the 1990s, when the big credit card companies tried to make it harder for working families to straighten out their lives using bankruptcy, I was determined to fight back. And that’s how I came to meet Senator Ted Kennedy.
I told the story in Springfield a few months ago. Take a look:
Senator Kennedy led the charge to stop that bad bankruptcy bill for ten years. It wasn’t something that made headlines, and it wasn’t something he got a lot of praise for – after all, there aren’t any lobbying groups or high-dollar PACs for people who are about to go bankrupt. He did it because it was the right thing to do.
And then five years ago today, we lost our champion Senator Ted Kennedy. Not a day goes by that we don’t miss his passion, his enthusiasm, and – most of all – his commitment to working families.
After all these years, I still have a voicemail saved from Senator Kennedy about our work together on consumer issues. Every once in a while, I listen to it just to hear his voice. I wish I could thank him one last time. I wish I could tell him that I’m doing my best to honor his memory, and to do what Senator Kennedy taught all of us to do: to fight for the millions of hard-working families who are counting on us.
In truth, it’s not possible to fill “Ted Kennedy’s Seat,” but your tireless work more than honors it’s tradition of service.
For so many years, with one brief sad exception, it’s occupant has been a champion of “the people.”
It lives on in all of us who loved him. And you, Senator, are his fighting legacy; strong, fearless, brilliant.
The crooks on Wall Street and their seditious right-wing
Republican tools tremble at the mention of your name. The good people of Main Street have taken you to their heart as their modern day Robin Hood. You are our champion.
Strength and Honor,
Fred Rich LaRiccia
(intern to the greatest Senator in US history and loyal soldier in the People’s army of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the ‘Lioness of the Senate’.)