# RIP Mary Jo Kopechne

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [August 26, 2009, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788 "2009-08-26T17:20:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 22

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**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788/22 "2009-08-26T17:48:14Z")

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OK, **mswas** , you asked for my opinion on this in the other thread, and here it is.

First, let me repeat [what i’ve said before](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=4550311&highlight=kennedy#post4550311) about the Chappaquiddick incident:

> [@I Pit Michael Skakel](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-michael-skakel/229070/42):
>
> I didn’t enter this thread intending to rally to the defence of Ted Kennedy. Despite the fact that i quite like his politics, i do believe that his behaviour on that night in Chappaquiddick was, as best, strange and irresponsible, and at worst illegal and reprehensible. I don’t really know enough about what went on to reach a definite conclusion. I just think it’s rather silly and unproductive to launch into rampant speculation along the lines of “he _must_ have been drunk; how else can we explain his actions,” or “it must be a cover-up, because he’s a Kennedy.”

That’s pretty much what i still believe.

But, more than that, i was reacting to your disingenuous opening to your earlier thread, in which you said:

> [@mswas](#):
>
> I don’t hate Ted Kennedy or think that this defines him…

But for you, it clearly does pretty much define him, considering that’s about all you have to say about him on the occasion of his death. That’s your right, of course, but it would be more honest not to preface your comments with disingenuous crap like that. Saying you don’t hate someone, and then calling him a murderer, doesn’t really add up most of the time.

Also, in the recent ATMB thread, you said:

> [@Why was MSWAS warned?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781/19):
>
> So being sad about Mary Jo Kopechne is a delusion now? And people say that _I_ am condescending.
> 
> It’s interesting and very telling to me that caring about Mary Jo Kopechne is ‘stupid’.
> 
> The woman is about to be completely forgotten by history. That’s not sad to you?

To be quite honest, i literally do not believe that you care about Mary Jo Kopechne, nor that you are actually sad about her. The idea that you are sad about the death, over 40 years ago, of a woman you never met is completely preposterous, and leads me to believe that you’re simply posturing.

As for the idea that she’s about to be “forgotten by history,” please spare us the melodrama. The Chappaquiddick incident, all by itself, probably prevented Ted Kennedy from becoming president. Even leaving that aside, it’s become a part of our cultural history. And as long as obsessives like you continue your histrionics over it, that’s unlikely to change.

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