Rosemary Kennedy, R.I.P.

In 2001, Senator Ted Kennedy was honored by the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society for his efforts to advance legislation that benefits people with psychiatric illnesses. Said Kennedy at the time: “Mental health policy has a special meaning for me and the whole Kennedy family.”

Damn straight.

Last Friday, Ted’s sister Rosemary died at age 86. Back in 1941, when she was only 23, Rosemary had been lobotomized by authorization of her father Joseph, without her consent and without the knowledge of her mother Rose. Why? According to yesterday’s obit for Rosemary in the New York Times, Rosemary “had taken to sneaking out of the convent where she was staying at the time” and “there was a dread fear of pregnancy, disease, and disgrace.” After the lobotomy, Rosemary was “reduced to an infantlike state, mumbling words and sitting for hours, staring at walls.” Wrote Thomas DiLorenzo yesterday on the LewRockwell.com blog: “...the Kennedy family made as much political hay of [Rosemary’s] situation as it could, founding the Special Olympics in her honor. I’m sure she would have been very happy about that, if only she could have comprehended it. I wonder what kind of lesson this event taught the young Kennedy boys about how they should treat the women in their lives?”

Further quoting DiLorenzo: “There is no better example of how corrupt and dishonest the ‘mainstream media’ are than how it never misses a chance to refer to the Kennedy family as ‘America’s royalty’ or ‘America’s first family.’ ”

Of course, anyone who has done even the slightest research on the Kennedys knows that Rosemary’s story is just one of many horrors in this family closet.