The hopes and dreams of millions of citizens are riding on our leadership.

Sometimes a party must sail against the wind. We cannot afford to drift or lie at anchor. We cannot heed the call of those who say it is time to furl the sail.

We know that some things in America today are wrong. It is wrong that prices are rising as rapidly as they are.

But it is also wrong that millions of our fellow citizens are out of work. ...

There could be few more divisive issues for America and for our party than a Democratic policy of drastic slashes in the federal budget at the expense ot the elderly, the poor, the black, the sick, the cities and the unemployed.

There must be sacrifice if we are to bring the economy back to health. But the burden must be fairly shared by all. We cannot accept a policy that asks greater sacrifice from labor than from business. We cannot accept a policy that cuts spending to the bone in areas like jobs and health, but allows billions of dollars in wasteful spending for tax subsidies to continue, and adds even greater fat and waste through inflationary spending for defense.

...One of the most shameful things about modern America is that in our unbelievably rich land, the quality of health care available to many of our people is unbelievably poor, and the cost is unbelievably high.

That is why national health insurance is the great unfinished business on the agenda of the Democratic Party. Our party gave Social Security to the nation in the 1930's. We gave Medicare to the nation in the 1960's. ...

One of the saddest ironies in the worldwide movement for social justice in the twentieth century is that America now stands virtually alone in the international community on national health insurance. It seems that every nation is out of step but Uncle Sam. With the sole exception of South Africa, no other industrial naticn in the world leaves its citizens in fear ot financial ruin because of illness. ...

We've got national health-insurance for the rich, who deduct the cost of major illness on their income tax returns. And the richer you are, the higher the percentage of your health bill you can charge to the IRS.

We've got national health insurance for members of the Senate and House of Representatives. They give their speeches and cast their votes in Congress. And then they go out to Walter Reed Army Hospital or Bethesda Naval Hospital for the free medical and dental care that Uncle Sam provides.

That isn't fair. If national health insurance is good enough for the wealthy and good enough for Congress, then it is good enough for every American citizen in every city, town and village and on every farm throughout this land.

There are some who say we cannot afford national health insurance. They say it has become an early casualty of the war against inflation. But the truth is, we cannot afford not to have national health insurance. ...

The average worker is lucky if his paycheck barely holds its own against inflation. Yet the cost of health in recent years has been rising twice as rapidly as the Consumer Price Index. There is not enough money to go around. Something has to give. And it is often the family's budget tor health that is the first to go.

Only through national health insurance can we achieve the effective controls on costs that will bring inflation down and bring adequate health care within financial reach of every citizen. ...

Together, we can lift that financial burden from all the families of America. Through national health insurance, we can provide a decent health care system for the benefit of the people of this land. We can make health care a basic right for all, not just an expensive privilege for the few.

But to achieve the reform, we need, we must have genuine leadership by the Democratic Party. We are heirs of a great tradition in American public life. Our party took up the cause of jobs for the unemployed in the Great Depression. Our party took up the cause of civil rights for black and brown Americans, and the cause of equal rights for women in America and the people of the District of Columbia.

In that same tradition of leadership, it is time for the Democratic Party now to take up the cause of health. (Edward Kennedy)

He attended the Democratic National Convention in Denver last year, though already weakened by the cancer that would take his life today. These are excerpts of that August 2008 convention speech:

"For me this is a season of hope - new hope for a justice and fair prosperity for the many, and not just for the few - new hope.

And this is the cause of my life - new hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American - north, south, east, west, young, old - will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege. ... (Edward Kennedy)

Senator Kennedy gave a stirring speech earlier this year, urging us all to join him in his fight for health care justice:

This is the cause of my life. It is a key reason that I defied my illness last summer to speak at the Democratic convention in Denver — to support Barack Obama, but also to make sure, as I said, "that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American...will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not just a privilege." For four decades I have carried this cause — from the floor of the United States Senate to every part of this country. It has never been merely a question of policy; it goes to the heart of my belief in a just society. Now the issue has more meaning for me — and more urgency — than ever before. But it's always been deeply personal, because the importance of health care has been a recurrent lesson throughout most of my 77 years. (Edward Kennedy)

He called health care “the cause of my life,” and succeeded in bringing quality and affordable health care for countless Americans, including children, seniors and Americans with disabilities. Until the end he was working tirelessly to achieve historic national health reform so that all Americans could have access to affordable health care. He believed in the Public Option. Ultimately, he wanted to see the nation embrace and install universal health care, through a single payer system.

As we mourn his death and celebrate his life, I am hopeful that we will all commit to pick up the torch he has offered us - and see to it that his goal of health care for all is realized.

If anybody wants to know how to help or to carry that torch, the Activist's Guide to Health Care Reform gives great guidance.

The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on. (Edward Kennedy)