Kennedy speaks on environment

By AMY OAKES
Collegian Staff Writer

Living with a legacy can be difficult but forging your own identity can be even harder. Yet despite being able to live off a famous name, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is making his mark as an environmentalist determined to preserve the earth.

About 733 people filled Schwab Auditorium last night and heard Kennedy talk about his efforts to save the environment as well as the importance of saving the earth.

Marci Gleason (freshman-pyschology) said she came to the speech because Kennedy is a well-known personality. But, she added, people probably were drawn to his message.

"I don't think many people would take time out of their schedules because of his name," Gleason said.

Kennedy, who has been speaking to college audiences for the last year and a half, said he knows that he is speaking to a younger generation because the audience members no longer call him his father's son or his uncle's nephew. Rather he is called Arnold Schwarzeneggar's cousin.

Kennedy is a senior staff attorney at the National Resource Defense Council where his primary client is the Hudson River Fishermen's Association, an environmental watchdog that patrols the Hudson River.

Kennedy said his main litigation services for the patrol group are done by his law students at Pace University in New York. By a special court order, Kennedy's students are allowed to practice law under his supervision.

"Largely because of this kind of litigation, the Hudson today is one of the richest water bodies on earth," he said.

On a larger scale, Kennedy said it was important to not only become involved in environmental issues locally, but nationally as well. "We protect the environment not for the sake of animals, we protect it for our own sake and for the sake of our children," he said.

Kennedy said there are many reasons to protect the environment. He cited the cultural and political institutions that have grown from the environment. Literature is full of explanations of people's relationship with nature, he said.

Kennedy said saving the environment will require a change in attitude because America's political and corporate systems look for short term solutions without regard to the future. Kennedy attacked the Republican's "Contract With America" because of a proposed law that he said will destroy environmental legislation.

"It will literally dismantle all the major environmental legislation that we have in this country," he said.

Kennedy said although the bill does not mention the environment, it does mention private property rights, which would give people the power to use their property to harm other people's land. People could use their property to put a pipeline in a public waterway, he said.

"No one has the right to diminish land," Kennedy said.

Kennedy, who called his speech a "series of digressions," ended with a question and answer session.

Bryan Frantz (senior-environmental engineering) said he agreed with what Kennedy said. "He's a well-respected individual," he said, adding that he doesn't really agree with the Republican agenda anyway.

The speech was sponsored by Colloquy, which also received support from Eco-Action and the AT&T Leadership Speaker Fund.

"We try to cover a wide variety and we haven't covered any environmental issues for a while, we thought it would be a good time," said Colloquy President Starr Peoples.