I hear his heartbeat i look him in both eyes on what they see well, when he is old enough i will show him america and he will rise ride on the wheels of a dream we will go downtown and see the people and we will travel on from there to california, who knows where we will ride on the wheels of a dream. Yes, the wheels are turning for us now any man can get where he wants to is the fires up his soul we will come to your men, who will stand up and give us our dues where that is more than promising, where it must be true our country that lets a man like me raise a child, build our life with you with you beyond that road beyond that lifetime that car filled with hope i will always believe with the promise of happiness and the freedom he lived to know he traveled with ahead held high our son will ride on the wheels of a dream [applause] ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States mrs. Michelle obama. [applause] mr. President , mr. Mrs. Obama, mr. Vice president , governor baker, senators mccain, worn, and markey, mayor walsh, and dr. G mccormick, keith motley, cardinal omalley, to all of the senators, members and elected officials that joined us today the childrens choir, stokes mitchell, friends on behalf of ted sister jean ted junior, patrick and amy patrick and caroline, and the entire kennedy family, standing beside me literally and in spirit, we are honored and grateful you all could be here. 36 years ago, my husband came here to dedicate the president ial library nextdoor. Speaking about the older brother who he loved and admired so deeply, teddy called the moment it nation, a happy run to view the moment a nation a happy rendezvous. Thetoday, the same as true for all of us who loved Edward M Kennedy. It seems like only yesterday, i was standing with teddy on the seventh floor of the jfk library, looking down on the plot of land where this institute now stands. It was an empty lowlying fields, but he had a vision that something extraordinary could rise from it. As we looked out that window, teddy pointed to a little pine tree and said to me, thats where the institute is going to be. We stood there for a moment thinking what it would look like. And institute with a fullscale recreation of the u. S. Senate right here in boston. The city of his birth. That he loves so much. Now, thanks to the heroic efforts of so many incredible people, that chamber and this institute stand exactly where teddy dream they would. As was terris wish, this institute is not about one man. It is about the nearly 2000 men and women who have served in the United States senate since it first convened. Its about those who might be inspired to serve and it in the future. If they only knew more about the Important Role of the senate in our democracy. Teddy used to say, everyone knows about the presidency. We have president ial libraries. But, they dont know so much about the senate, and the legislative process. Then he would smile that famous smile of his and say with more than a little hint of mischief, after all, we are in article one of the constitution. [applause] teddy loved the United States senate. He loved the history and the Great Centers of the past. And he loved the great senators he served with. He loved the building. He loved the senate chamber. Most of all, he loved the difference the senate could make. Securing americans rights, helping them get health care or jobs, strengthening American Leadership in the world. Sure, the senate has seen its share of disagreements sometimes sharp ones. But, as teddy understood, that was part of the process. Our founders never intended legislating to be easy. It required hard work. As all of us who knew teddy understand, he worked hard at it. He believed that the United States senate had the power to change lives. The lives of people in this country. The lives of people around the world. He served in the United States senate for nearly 47 years. He noticed something during that time. When you became a senator something changed inside of you. Maybe not the first year, or the second, maybe not even in the third year, but at some point, almost always, something happened. You start to think about more than yourself. You start to think about the country. Teddy wanted to build a place where everyone could feel the same way. A place where all of us could start thinking about our country. The institute you seatse today is a realization of that dream. Just as teddy approach politics differently, he wanted to approach the institute and a completely fresh and unique way. We have a totally handson, interactive visitor experience. It is an experience. Visitors interact not only with the exhibits, but with each other. We are using the best technology , wallingford urging facetoface interaction and negotiation. It is an entirely new model of Civic Engagement. At the center of it all is that magnificent, fullscale recreation of the senate chamber. That recreation was so important to teddy. He believed in the majesty of the place. At its power to inspire. He felt that no experience as a senator would be complete without understanding the awe you felt walking into that chamber. As student groups have visited in the last few months, we have seen that in action. There will be a buzz in the hallways, talk about issues. As soon as they walk through those double doors, a hush comes over them. They seem to know instinctively that they are in a very special place. In that space, they will try to pass the compromise of 1850, or hash out Immigration Reform, or some issue that is not even on the agenda yet. When they do, they will learn a lot more about which senator was responsible for what bill. Iwe hope they will also learn that this by our disagreements, if we sit down and listen to each other perhaps then we can find Common Ground. Perhaps then, together, we can make incredible progress. Teddy hoped that everyone who came to this institute would realize that politics and he called it politics was a noble profession. Even if it is messy. Even if it is hard. Teddy what people, young people in particular, to rise above and move beyond reports of gridlock and poll numbers, and become active participants in our democracy. Whether that means serving in the senate or on the school board, or just voting without fail. Because of far as teddy was concerned, if we all did our part theres nothing we could accomplish. We are americans, he said. This is what we do. We reached the moon. We scale the heights. I know it. Ive seen it. Ive lived it, and we can do it again. The Edward M Kennedy institute is going to inspire us to do it again. Teddy actually spoke those works in 2008 at the Democratic National convention. Despite his own illness, he was looking to the future. He was looking forward to speaking on behalf of of a dear friend, the then junior senator from illinois, a legislator that teddy had recruited to his senate co committee, and there was no higher compliment than that. It is my high honor to introduce a man that my husband loved and admired though much, he gave him a puppy. [applause] amanda understands the power and promise of our democracy. A man who stood up and fought for, and at long last, signed a bill and shining in law, what teddy call because of his life, health care for all americans. [applause] and a man that was also a u. S. Senator, ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States, barack obama. [applause] president obama thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Please, have a seat. Thank you so much. To vicki, ted, Patrick Caroline , ambassador smith, members of the kennedy family, thank you so much for inviting me to speak today. Your eminence, colonel malley, Vice President biden governor baker, mary walsh, members of congress, past and present, and pretty much every elected official in massachusetts. [laughter] it is an honor to be at this dedication with you. Boston, i know that Michele Knight have joined our prayers with yours over the past few days for a hero, it john monahan, who was shot in the line of duty on friday night. [applause] i mention him because last year the white house, the Vice President and i had the chance to honor him as one of americas top cops for riskying his life to save another officer. Im told that the officer is awake and talking. We wish him a full and speedy recovery. [applause] i also want to single out someone who very much wanted to be here, just as he was for nearly 25 days as he represented this commonwealth along with head in the senate, and that is secretary of state john kerry. [applause] many of you know, john is an europe with our allies and partners leading the negotiations with iran and the World Community and standing up for principle that ted and his president kennedy leaves in so strongly. Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. [applause] finally, in his first years in the senate, ted dispatched a young aid. The sale was simple. I want to give a special shout out to his extraordinary loyal staff. 50 years later, a family nearly 1000 strong. We are proud of you. [applause] of course many of you now work with me. [laughter] enjoy today because we have to get back to work. [laughter] distinguished guests fellow citizens, and 1958, ted kennedy was the young man working to reelect his brother, jack, to the United States senate. On election night, the two toasted one another. Heres to 1960, mr. President ted said, if you could make it. With his quick irish wit jack returned the toast, heres to the 1952 senator, if you can make it. They both made it. Today, they are together again for a rest at arlington. Their legacies are as alive as ever, together here in boston. The john f. Kennedy library next door is the symbol of american idealism. The Edward M Kennedy institute for the u. S. Senate as a living example of the hard, frustrating neverending, but critical work required to make that idealism real. What more fitting tribute . What better testament to the life of ted kennedy . Then displays left for generations of americans. A monument not to himself, but to what we, the people, have the power to do together. Any of us who have had the privilege asserted in the senate know that its impossible not to share ted to all for the history swirling around it. And awe instilled in him by his brother jack. Ted waited more than 10 years to deliver his first speech on the floor. That is no longer the custom. [laughter] its good to see so h here. I gave a speech only because he felt there was a topic, the civil rights act, the that demanded it. Nevertheless, he spoke with humility, aware, as he put it, that a freshman senator should be seen, not heard should learn, not teach. Some of us i admit, have not always heated that lesson. Fortunately, we had ted to show us the roads anyway. No one made the senate, live like ted kennedy come alive like ted kennedy. Rarely was he more animated than when he led you through the living museums. He could and he would tell you everything that there was to know about all of it. [laughter] and then, there were more fonder moments. I still remember the first time i pulled open the jeweler of my desk drawer of my desk. Each senator is assigned a desk, and there is a tradition of carving the names of those are used to before. Those names in my desk included have to and baker simon wellstone, and robert f kennedy. The senate was a place where you instantly pulled yourself up a little straighter. Where you tried to act a little better. Being a senator changes a person, ted wrote in his memoirs. As vicki said, it may take a year, two years, or three years but it always happens. It fills you with a heightened sense of purpose. Thats the magic of the senate. Thats the essence of what it can be. Who, but ted kennedy, and his family would create a full scale replica of the chamber and open it to everyone . We live in a time of such great cynicism about all of our institutions. We are cynical about government, and washington most of all. Its hard for our children to see in such a noisy pursuits of our politics. The possibilities of our democracy. Our capacity together to do good things. This place can help change things. It can help like the fire of imagination imagine a gaggle of school kids turning always into classrooms. To sign an issue, and have the responsibility to solve it. Imagine their moral universe expanding as they hear about the momentous battle raged in that chamber and how it echoes throughout todays society. Questions of war and peace. The tangled bargains between north and south. Federal and state. The original sins of slavery and prejudice. Unfinished battle for opportunity and equality. Imagine the shift in what is possible. The first time they see a video of senators who look like they do. Men and women. Black and white. Latinos. Asian americans. Those born to great wealth, but also those born in incredibly modest means. Imagine what a child feels the first time she steps on that flora, before she is old enough to be senator. Before she is told what she can do. Before she is told whom she cannot talk to or work with. What she feels when she said that one of those desks. What happens when it is her turn to stand and speak. On behalf of something she cares about, and cast a vote, and have a sense of purpose. Maybe not just for kids. What if we all carried ourselves that way . What if our politics, our democracy was elevated as purposeful as she imagines it to be right here. At the end of his life, ted reflected on how congress has changed over time. Those who served earlier had the same conversation. It is a more diverse, accurate reflection of america than it used to be. That is a grand thing. A great achievement. Ted grieved the loss of camaraderie and collegiality. I think he regretted the arguments now made two cameras, instead of colleagues, directed at a narrow base instead of the body politic of the whole. The outside influences of money and special interest, and how it all leaves more americans to turn away in disgust, and simply, choose to not exercise their right to vote. Since this is a joyous occasion, this is not the time for me to suggest a slew of new ideas for refeorm, although i do have some. [laughter] maybe i will just mention one. What if we carried ourselves more like ted kennedy . What if we work to follow his example a little bit harder . To his harshest critics who saw him as nothing more than a partisan lightning rod that may sound fullest, but there are republicans here today for a reason. They know who ted kennedy was. Its not because they share teds ideology or his business position, but they know ted is somebody who bridge the partisan divide over and over again with genuine affection in an era when bipartisanship has become so rare. They knew him as someone who kept his word. They knew him as somebody who was willing to take half a loaf and entered the anger of his own supporters to get something done. They knew him as somebody who was not afraid. And fear so permeates our politics. People fight to get in the senate, and then they are afraid. We fight to get these positions and then they dont want to do anything with them. Ted understood the only point of running for office is to get something done. Not to posture. Not to sit there, worrying about the next election, or the polls. To take risks. He understood the difference is a party or philosophy could not become areas to cooperation or respect. He could howl like a force of nature will try to figure out which chart to pull up next. [laughter] but in his personal dealings he answered edwin randolphs call to keep the senate place to restrain, if possible, the fury of the. The theory of democracy. I did not know ted as well as some of the speakers here today, but he was my friend. I go him a lot. And as far as i could tell, it was never ideology that compelled him. Except in so far as his ideology said he should help people. That he should have a life of purpose. That he should be empathetic. His tireless this, his restlessness, they were rooted in his experience. He was a member of a gold star family. At 30 62 of his brothers were stolen from him in the most tragic public of ways. At 41 here nearly lost a beloved child to cancer. That made suffering something he knew. And it made him more alive to the suffering of others. While his son was sleeping after treatment, he would wander the halls of the hospital, meeting other parents keeping vigil over their own children. Parents terrified of what would happen when they could not afford the next treatment. Parents working out but they could sell or borrow or mortgage just to make it a few more months. And then if they had to, harder with god for the rest. They are in a quiet night, working people with modest means. Bringing conveying their immediate sense of helplessness. Their pain was his. As much as they might be separated by wealth and fame those families would be at the heart of his passions, despite just like the young immigrant , he would see himself in that child. They were his cause. The sick child who could not see a doctor. The young soldier sent into battle without armor. The citizen denied her rights because of what she looked like where she came from or who she loves. He quietly attended as many military funerals in massachusetts as he could for those who fell in iraq and afghanistan. He called and wrote each one of the 177 families who lost a loved one on 9 11. And he took them sailing and he played with their children. Not just in the days after, but every year after. His lifes work was not to champion those with wealth or power or connections. They already had enough representation. It was to give voice to the people who wrote and called from every state, desperate for someone who might listen and help. It was about what he could do for others. Thats why he would take his hearings to hospitals and rural towns in inner cities, pushing people out of his come their comfort zones, including his colleagues, because he had pushed himself out of his comfort zone. He tried to instill in his colleagues that same sense of empathy. Even if they called him as wondered, wrong at the top of his lungs. Even if they might disagree with him 99 of the time. Because who knew what might happen that other 1 . Orrin hatch was sent to washington in part because he promised to fight ted kennedy. And they fought a lot. One was a conservative mormon from utah the other one was well, ted kennedy. [laughter] but once they got to know one another, they discovered certain things in common. Faith. A soft spot for health care. Very fine singing voic