Patrick Kennedy greets local Democrats.

Last night, at a dinner at the Newport Marriott, the Newport Democratic City Committee presented retiring Congressman Patrick Kennedy with their "Democrat of the Year" award, and he took the opportunity to preview some his plans post-Washington.

The evening began with a round of celebrations and thanks from virtually every Rhode Island Democratic figure, including notes from Sen. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, and remarks by Rep. Jim Langevin, Lt. Gov Elizabeth Roberts, and Providence Mayor (and now endorsed candidate for Kenney's seat) David Cicilline.

But the real excitement of the evening was hearing Kennedy speak, and he was in outstanding form, delivering a barn-burner of a speech focusing on what he sees as the next scientific frontier: brain injury research.

Kennedy noted the enormous number of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with either obvious or latent brain injuries, and said that some the current policies and practices were shamefully lacking. He lamented the fact that it took a recent change in policy to allow the President to send notes of condolence to the families of soldiers who committed suicide, saying it represented a holdover of the stigma of mental illness he had fought for years in his work on mental health parity legislation.

He noted that these veterans would be at greater risk for a variety of debilitating brain conditions in years to come, and argued that the US should commit to a research program on brain injuries the same way the country aimed for the Moon in the 1960s. Explicitly invoking the 40th anniversary of his uncle's challenge in 1960, Kennedy called for a program to explore "inner space" and the "galaxy of neurons." Within ten years, he said, we should aim to restore the kind of traumatic brain injuries our veterans live with every day.

Kennedy argued that it is, in many ways, a social justice issue. "Who of us would want to change places with them," he said, referring to brain-injured veterns in language that echoed JFK's Civil Rights address of June, 1963.

And I will confess that for me, the most exciting idea is a plan to finally put science and technology front and center again after years of marginalization. Kennedy described it with language both evocative and urgent, noting that for the complex biomedical issues our veterans — and our whole population — are facing, "The guys with the lab coats are the first responders now, kicking in the doors."

Awesome.

Thank you, Rep. Kennedy, for everything you've done on mental health and so many other issues, and best of luck with this next chapter.