Like many others in Massachusetts and elsewhere, I’m thinking of Teddy Kennedy this week.  As a physician, I admire his unwavering stance on our duty to provide good-quality healthcare to every American. As a long-time constituent, I am deeply grateful for the decades of service he offered our state.

But as I think about Teddy, I realize it is his bravery strikes me the most.  His life and demons were always on display for the world to dissect, and were picked at mercilessly by his many enemies and detractors.  And yet he never hid from public exposure.  Instead, he took unpopular positions and championed them loudly and forcefully.

Teddy vocally opposed the Iraq war at a time when it was unpopular to do so.  He fought for legislation on behalf of poor and underprivileged people in the face of a national drumbeat to cut government programs.  And he went to his grave battling for good, comprehensive healthcare for all, impervious to the politics of distortion and scare tactics.

Teddy was a cynosure of classical liberalism, unapologetic and relentless.  The public stage will miss him.