Different Worlds

I attended a funeral today, and watched part of another on television. One was for a famous man from a famous family. The other was for a young man with one of the most common last names in the country. Yet in their own ways, both left the world a better place than it was when they arrived in it.

Edward M. Kennedy served in the US Senate 47 years.

Donovan X. Jones lived 21 years.

Kennedy graduated from Harvard and the UVa School of Law.

Jones would have graduated this spring from Clemson.

Kennedy leaves behind a lengthy record of work on civil rights, health care reform, education reform, immigration reform, foreign policy, and many other issues important to life in these United States. I'm not going to recount them all here. You can go to just about any web site and find it. He was admired and reviled in multiple circles, but few will debate the impact he had on this nation.

Jones left behind a lengthy record too, which I will recount because rest assured, no one but his close family and friends will be able to find it a month from now.

He was a member of the Kingsbury Road Church of Christ, where he served as co-chair of the youth group, Sunday Bible class, the Bible camp, the Lord's Table, Scripture readings and inter-congregational Bible bowls.

In high school he was named most outstanding student; class salutatorian (earned the class rank of two out of 482 students); scored 1,500 on the SAT college entrance exam; earned the international baccalaureate diploma; and was inducted into the Sumter High School Academic Hall of Fame. He was the number one ranked player on the 2005 SHS Varsity Tennis Team, selected by tennis coaches to the all region team and the USA Team Tennis State Tournament Champion in 2004. He was selected as a Clemson National Scholar (a full six-year academic scholarship), National Merit Scholar, Coca-Cola Scholar, National Honor Society Scholar, Robert C. Byrd Scholar and Palmetto Fellows Scholar.

At Clemson University, he continued his record as an excellent student. He was a member of the Calhoun Honors College; a Dixon Fellow; a member of the student senate and business manager of THE TIGER student newspaper; the Clemson Language Partner Program; was a member of Alpha Phi Omega (my own fraternity), Alpha Lambda Delta, and Delta Sigma Pi; and he participated in the Clemson Study Abroad Program last spring, where he studied in Alicante, Spain. He took advantage of other educational opportunities in Alaska, England, France, Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands -- all while maintaining a 3.9 GPA.

In the community, he was an organizer of the county-wide Palmetto Tennis Tournament and Youth Day; worked with a team of students to build a Habitat for Humanity home; and tutored Spanish-speaking students in English in the evening at the community library.

I have no doubt Edward Kennedy and Donovan Jones are sharing a table engaged in a great debate on the topics that interest us most.

It's a shame they can't have that conversation where the rest of us can listen. And learn.