The Kennedys
Interesting insight into the (ab)use power of this family. From
No Watermelons
bq.
Boys will be boys but....
...no girl of Joe Kennedy's had better act like her male relatives.
bq. Kathleen Kennedy was Joe Kennedy's oldest daughter. Legend has it that she was mentally disabled, so Daddy had her lobotomized when she was 23. She died this past week at 86.
bq. Was she mentally disabled? Perhaps no more so than any of her siblings.
she was able to attend school and travel Europe without a chaperone. But she was sneaking out at night and returning to her convent school disheveled and drunk, the nuns feared she was picking up men and more, and she threw temper tantrums. Heavens, Joe Kennedy couldn't let anyone disgrace the family! If that meant that
Rosemary would wind up in an infantlike state, mumbling words and sitting for hours staring at walls, well....I won't accuse even Joe Kennedy of expecting that outcome, but it was an awfully heavy-handed way to respond in any case.
bq. Her troubles are over now finally, and she lives on as the inspiration for the Special Olympics.
Sad. And you look at people like Ted and wonder why they still consume oxygen. The family's two bright stars died early and we are left with the dregs...
Posted by DaveH at January 11, 2005 5:52 PM