About two weeks ago I had an exciting opportunity at school. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came to Loyola to speak with students, staff and faculty about the environment. As a college Democrat, this was an event I had known about for the last year, and when the President and executive board of our organization announced that there were opportunities to show Mr. Kennedy around campus I jumped at the opportunity.
On Wednesday October 26th, Mr. Kennedy arrived at Loyola in the late afternoon. His first stop of the day was a tour of our biodiesel lab. Several other students and I represented different Loyola organizations while the student managers of the lab showed Mr. Kennedy around and showed off our green technology (we make the fuel that is used for our campus to campus shuttle service and we are eventually going to make all the soap for the university.) These students and I then accompanied Mr. Kennedy to a private Q&A session. There was a dinner that certain students (obviously I should have changed my major for the day) were able to attend, but in the evening I joined several hundred members of the Loyola community for his speech in Mundelein Auditorium and the book signing that followed.
I did not really know what to expect. I had read most of his book, Crimes Against Nature (which I have since finished), I knew of his work as an environmental activist, and like everyone else, I knew that he was a Kennedy. Every introduction of the day focused on how it was such an honor to have him at Loyola and how the Kennedy family was a symbol of American democracy, yet I did not quite grasp the meaning of that until I heard him speak.
Mr. Kennedy spoke about holding those who pollute our environment accountable for their actions. At Pace University, he oversees ten law students who work on suits against these offenders. Mr. Kennedy mentioned personally suing individuals, corporations, and other governments over the years. After discussing his work, Mr. Kennedy opened the floor for questions. It was interesting to note that the questions, the original subject matter focusing on the scientific aspect of environmentalism, quickly turned to corporations, media, and the occupy wall street movement and their relation to the environment. Mr. Kennedy willingly answered these questions, stating that he believed corporations were good for America, but that they should not run government and that American and corporations do not have the same wants and interests. He noted that even when it appears that the two do there is usually an ulterior motive. An example he cited was Walmart. He is of the belief that in the case of Hurricane Katrina, Walmart did not bring water to Katrina victims out of the kindness of its big multinational corporation heart, but to increase stockholder value. When a communications student asked him how to go about increasing public awareness about environmental issues without reverting to fear tactics, the sharp witted Kennedy replied, “I think you should always tell the truth.” Mr. Kennedy’s liberal slant was very evident, but it did not affect the content of his answers or his speech. He has studied and advocated for the environment for years so when he told the room about how five multinational corporations, or “five guys” (not just the name of a Roger’s Park burger joint my Loyola friends), control all billboards, eighty percent of radio, and fourteen thousand channels, and that these corporations actively work against the good of our planet, few wanted to or could argue with the points he made.
Mr. Kennedy spoke about coal, mountain top removal, tap water, and plastic as well. While he offered satisfactory answers for most, he like any speaker remained vague when confronted with an issue he was not particularly passionate about or certain of. At one point in the night he turned a discussion on bottled water into a discussion on health care (which I didn’t mind, but it was not exactly related to the overall theme of the night), he noted the need to recover plastics but ended that discussion calling it a “complicated issue,” and deferred to others of political stature, saying that Hillary Clinton would have a lot to say on the Keystone issue.
Overall though, the night did focus primarily on the environment (though I did not mind the slyly inserted wise cracks about FOX news). He said Loyola had a special energy, and that he would like to work with our university on bigger environmental issues. He seemed impressed with our university and our green initiatives, and I am happy to say that liberal or conservative, we were equally impressed with him.
