Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks on campus
Tall trees, clear water, green grass, fresh air - these were the things Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked the audience to
remember when he stood on the stage of Lovett Auditorium Feb. 28, to deliver the Presidential Lecture.
As chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper and president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, Kennedy's
work revolved around the environmental issues faced by the United States, Latin America and Canada . He played
a vital role in the expansion of Riverkeeper, an independent group monitoring
the ecological state of the Hudson River. His diligence and determination in the
restoration and protection of the Hudson River led to his being named one of Time
magazine's "Heroes for the Planet."
Kennedy began his speech with a story about Crontonville, N.Y., a small town that
experienced the profound effects of the pollution of the Hudson River, including
unsafe drinking water and contaminated fish . It was there that Riverkeeper was
originally established in the late 1960s. Kennedy joined the movement, driven by his
desire to end what he called "crimes against nature."
"Nature is the infrastructure of our communities," Kennedy said at the lecture. "It
is a source of values, virtues and the character of our people. We want to make a
better place for future generations, as past generations have done for us."
Kennedy discussed the actions of the presidential administration in regard to
environmental issues facing the United States . While he claimed to support both
political parties, he said the current administration was the worst the nation had
seen. He argued polluters were put in charge of groups meant to protect the
people from the effects of river and air contamination, which led to increased corruption of the main purposes of
the agencies and resulting in a "revolving door of plunder."
Kennedy then switched the focus of his lecture to the media and its effects on the way information was presented
to the American people. He discussed three requirements of the Fairness Doctrine, abolished by the Federal
Communications Commission in 1987, that would have altered the way media was presented, including the level
of public import of the information, the presentation of both sides of an argument and the avoiding of corporate
consolidation. Kennedy pointed this out as a danger in that democracy could not last with an uninformed public.
"The news is not meant for entertainment," Kennedy said. "Due to the doctrine's abolishment, five major
corporations control the media, and their only obligation is to the shareholders. Five guys decide what we hear on
the news, and you can't get foreign news in this country unless you turn to BBe. We're supposed to be leaders of
the free world, but we don 't know what's going on in the free world. Americans are the best entertained and least
informed people in the world."
Jessica Forbes, a senior from Louisville, found Kennedy's discussion of the media interesting and agreed that the
public was often misinformed.
"The idea that many people in our society are getting their news from talk radio or some of the big-name news
sources on TV is a little disturbing," Forbes said . "They are getting information, in many cases, that is heavily biased
toward the right and taking it as fact."
Kennedy returned to the topic of pollution and environmental issues, discussing the coal-burning power plants
and their role in what he called a "pediatric asthma epidemic." He attributed this to the persistent violations of the
Clean Air Act by certain states and again referenced the lack of attention paid to the issue by the media.
"This should be the headline on the front page of every newspaper in the nation," Kennedy said, "but you won't
hear about it in American newspapers."
Kyrie Mclemore, a junior from Clarksville, Tenn., agreed with Kennedy on the importance of spreading the word
about pollution and said she believed the topic was very relevant for society.
"Pollution is a major concern for the future, not just for a political platform," Mclemore said. "The future looks
much better with clean drinking water, clean air and less pollution all around ."
Kennedy further discussed the roles of big corporations in the pollution and contamination of the environment
and their lack of concern for what the American people wanted. He said corporations had a tendency to shift cleanup costs to the public because they were not allowed to do philanthropic deeds, as it could be seen as wasting
corporate profits and the companies could have been sued by shareholders .
Kennedy concluded his lecture by urging the audience to recognize nature enriches the economy as well as
human desires. He referenced Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, Moses, Buddha and Aesop as revolutionaries who went
into nature for their discoveries and said philosophers had long been telling politicians not to be ashamed of having
a connection with nature.
"We don't know Michelangelo by reading his biography," Kennedy said. "We know him by looking at the Sistine
Chapel. I don't want my kids to grow up in a world where we've paved over nature." Kelsey Quade