Tuesday is the special election for Ted Kennedy’s open U.S. Senate seat, and with it rides the fate of health care reform: the 60th vote.

I urge you to book an extra 30 minutes Tuesday morning to go to your polling place and vote for Democrat Martha Coakley:

Your voting location:

http://www.wheredoivotema.com/bal/myelectioninfo.php

Tons of my friends have the dreaded “pre-existing condition”. I have one. Someone in your family has one. If Coakley loses and health reform fails, it may be decades before discrimination based on pre-existing conditions can be fixed.

The bill isn’t perfect. But it lowers costs in the long-run, cares for the most vulnerable, and ensures coverage for millions of Americans.

Vote Coakley on Tuesday to pass these needed reforms.

Andrew

PS Forward this note to your friends throughout Massachusetts.

Both grew up in New England, and both weren’t exactly sure why they reacted so. Kennedy had just always been there, they said.

I’m many years too young to remember Chappaquiddick, though my introduction to Ted Kennedy was ultimately through Joyce Carol Oates’ novella Black Water, a reimagining of that event. After living in Boston for seven years, though, I’ve found his presence is everywhere. Everywhere. This death is a loss in so many senses here—of suddenly not finding something that was always there, of there being a hole, of not knowing your way, and having no words. The whole place and its people are at a loss.

My sincere hope is that this focus on Kennedy, the long-time Senator and champion of the underprivileged—despite or because of his own privilege—enhances a clear focus on his last crusade, namely, health care. There would be no greater tribute to a conflicted man than to take the most conflicted issue of our time, one that he took on as his legacy, and sort it out.

Godspeed.