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At the Summit:
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RFK on fire
Robert Kennedy Jr.
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by Cathleen Sullivan
RFK was on fire today.
The session hall was packed with members eager to hear this highly acclaimed, Sierra Club-award winning speaker. He delivered a message about the profound need to restore American democracy—not just to save the environment, not just to stop corporate polluters, but to save the very essence of our country. His talk was replete with striking examples of Bush administration crimes, media inadequacy, and the environmental degradation that has resulted. But he also sketched out an alternative vision of hope, pride in our country, morality and faith that brought folks to their feet in explosions of applause more than once.
Our democracy is threatened by a "negligent and indolent media" that does not serve the public interest. The vast majority of Americans share the same beliefs, basic morals, and values, but half of us suffer from an "information deficit." He emphasized that there could be "no stronger advocate for free market capitalism" than he was, but that we do not have free market capitalism here—we have "corporate crony capitalism." Pollution is always a direct result of a subsidy. Free market capitalism working properly would force corporations to pay the true cost of bringing their product to the marketplace and could truly work as a tool to equitably distribute resources and wealth in society. He argued that corporations are not evil but in fact, "great," but that they should not play a role in our political system. They are amoral, their goals are very different from those of our government: to build a better and stronger America. It is illegal for a corporation to do something philanthropic; their shareholders could sue.
Since the inception of our nation, our presidents have warned us of the risk of domination by corporate profit. Only a vibrant democracy, created by an informed and activist public citizenry and a vigorous and independent press willing to speak truth to power, can bring this into existence.
He concluded by drawing a moving and captivating picture of the deep human need and passion for wilderness: the fact that all religious parables are rooted in nature, the fact that nature is the critical defining element of America.
The resounding applause at the end confirmed that he had touched a chord in all of us, and gave us a story and a moral vision to guide our activism. -- 09/10/2005 Sat |
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