We are all made in the image of God, says Kennedy.

Question: How have your family’s fortunes influenced your worldview?

Ted Kennedy: Well I’ve been faced both adversity and also I’ve witnessed great success in the times, particularly with my brothers’ sort of achievement.

I think this is the values of our country and society that we’re fighting for, and I see people who struggle very hard to try and make a difference in the nation which inspires me. I think there’s a real recognition that with our democracy, we have no guarantee as a nation that we’re going to have future prosperity. We have no guarantee as a nation we’re going to have future security. And we have no guarantee as a nation we’re going to have future hope, and opportunity, and progress.

Those values have to be fought for every single day, and I think that’s a responsibility of citizenship. I’ve been very blessed by the opportunity of being in the United States Senate and having an opportunity to fight for those; but I have enormous respect for everyone that is out there – that school teacher, that law enforcement, that legal defender, that healthcare worker trying to give healthcare, trying to give education; trying to bring the bring the Constitution to people who didn’t know that they had Constitutional rights and liberties.

It’s important to be involved and engaged, and I think there’s satisfaction. There’s disappointments that come with it, but there’s a good deal of satisfaction as well.

Recorded on: September 14, 2007