Chronicles of Chaos
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is impressive. He’s down to earth, knows a ton and most important, assimilates all these facts and histories into a coherent lecture that makes me want to be a better American.
The better American sounds kind of bs but the point, his point, is that we have a responsibility in our democracy to pay attention and participate.
The pay attention part is to sift through the news to find the true, important stories (Kennedy, “We are the most entertained and least informed public”).
The participate part is to vote, and get involved–locally and nationally. Join an environmental group (Kennedy is the president of the Waterkeeper Alliance and a senior attorney at the NRDC), run for a local office.
Kennedy also described how Bush has eviscerated the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, Superfund and 30 years of environmental legislation by both Democrat and Republican governments.
The details are ugly and disturbing–appointing political lobbiests to run government agencies, rewriting laws protecting our water and air when judges enforce them, suing state governments when they try to protect themselves with environmental laws the federal government should be enforcing.
Many of the specifics are in Kennedy’s book Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy
Now I want to know.
Not so I can be incredibly angry and sad (which drives the not wanting to know), but so I can understand what must change.
Kennedy just interviewed Robyn of Allergy Kids on his radio show. He’s inspiring, I agree.
Yes, angry and sad. And what must change.
Now it is on our watch.
Thanks for the motivation.