Victoria Kennedy’s Behind-the-Scenes Tour of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute
— -- Anyone can now experience the challenge of life as a U.S. senator.
The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate opens to the public this week in Boston, following a public dedication Monday attended by President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden as well as a bipartisan contingent of Capitol Hill colleagues of former Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, who died of brain cancer in 2009 after serving nearly 47 years as the "Liberal Lion" of the Senate.
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"Ted understood that the only point of running for office was to get something done. Not to posture. Not to sit there worrying about the next election or the polls. To take risk," President Obama said at the dedication. "There are Republicans here today for a reason – because they knew Ted as somebody who bridged the partisan divide over and over and over."
Victoria Kennedy, co-founder of the Institute that bears her late husband's name, gave ABC News' David Wright a behind-the-scenes tour last week, explaining her husband's vision for the institute, which was first discussed over a family dinner in 2002.
"Teddy said everybody knows about the presidency because there are presidential libraries, but the truth is that nobody understands or knows anything about the Senate. And he'd get that mischievous look in his eye and say, 'We're in Article 1 of the Constitution,'" Victoria Kennedy said. "And he was such a man of the Senate, loved it so much, he wanted people to feel that same way."
"He also thought about that next generation of men and women who would serve in the Senate, and he wanted them to get inspired to get into the public sphere," Kennedy added.
The institute, located next to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, features a full-scale replica of the U.S. Senate chamber, as well as a recreation of Kennedy's Capitol Hill office filled with Kennedy family mementos.
But more than a museum, the Kennedy Institute is a high-tech civics class, using touch tablets to guide visitors through interactive exhibits on the history and functioning of the Senate. Student groups can participate in longer sessions in the replica Senate chamber, debating and voting on a legislative issue of the day, such as comprehensive immigration reform.
"What we're hearing from teachers is the whole way back from school, it's not like any other field trip, they're talking about the issues," Victoria Kennedy said. "They're engaged talking about what they just experienced, they want to come back and be senators again."
