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It was just announced on American TV that Senator Ted Kennedy, the surviving scion of a star-crossed family dynasty,  the “last lion of the U.S. Senate”, and the most enduring political figure in the US, has malignant brain tumor. The TV is doing nonstop review of the senator’s public life for the past 46 years and out pouring of supports are coming in from everywhere and everyone in the country. For Asian Americans, he is best known for his 1965 landmark immigration legislation which equalized immigration quota among nations and ethnicities (before that only 105 Chinese can get green card per year anywhere and everywhere in the world. After 1965, each region has quota of 25000 per year – Taiwan, Hongkong, mainland China, etc..)  Majority of the Chinese Americans currently extant owe this debt of gratitude to Kennedy. As a resident of Massachusetts, I wish the best for him and his family.

Similar brain tumor patients better known to my colleagues and Chinese friends are control theorists, Richard Bellman of dynamic programming fame and  former UC Berkeley chancellor, Chang-lin Tien

Another  sad piece of news in a depressing week.

(Note added 5.20.08 9:50 pm EST  For more detail report see

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90645054&ft=1&f=1001

Note added Marvch 4, 2009. The Prime Minister of England, Mr. Gordon Brown, in the address to a joint joint session of US Congress today revealed that Mr. Kennedy will be knighted by Queen Elizabeth. Thus, he will be Sir Edward Kennedy in England even though he is forbidden to hold such titles in the US.

 

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