RFK Fires Up Salt Lake City Greenies

By Amy Seigel, 12-06-06

Well, it seems that Salt Lake City’s most recent environmental debacle—naming it’s basketball arena after a company responsible for disposing of nuclear waste—didn’t stop Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from making Salt Lake’s Westminster College the site of a very rousing evening of environmental campaigning. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that in a speech this past Sunday evening, an impassioned RFK told his supporters that although he had always endeavored to stay out of the political arena, the Bush administration’s environmental policies have forced him to have second thoughts about the prospect of running for office. “I feel like somebody's stolen my country,” Kennedy told an audience of 300 on Sunday night.

Kennedy's lecture, “A Contract with Our Future,” was aimed at discussing “the important role that our natural surroundings play in our work, our health and our identity as Americans.” In keeping with this topic, Kennedy was quick to enumerate the many ways in which the current administration is neglecting the value of our natural resources. Kennedy, who is an environmental lawyer and the president of the Waterkeeper Alliance (an international network of water resource advocates), told his supporters that (amongst other things) the 400 rollbacks of environmental rules by the White House in the past six years makes the Bush administration “the worst environmental administration that we have ever had.”

While a large portion of RFK’s lecture was loaded with criticism of both the Bush administration’s environmental policies and “a negligent and indolent press” responsible for focusing more on such frivolities as Tom Cruises’ marriage than on such serious issues as global warming, the evening wasn’t all doom and gloom. Kennedy argued emphatically for the importance of environmental stewardship, and applauded the efforts of such grassroots organizations as the Great Salt Lakekeeper, the Utah member of Kennedy’s Waterkeeper Alliance. Furthermore, Kennedy dismissed the idea of environmentalism and capitalism as incompatible ideologies. “In 100 percent of the situations, good environmental policy is identical to good economic policy,” said Kennedy. He added that environmental protection is, in fact, “an investment in our infrastructure.”

And just in case you needed a more spiritual reason to go green, Kennedy concluded his lecture by evoking the religious significance of the wilderness. He told his audience that “we know our creator best by immersing ourselves in his creation.” Kennedy went on to note that the central figure in many major religions—from Jesus to Mohammed to Joseph Smith—have a “central epiphany [that] always happens in the wilderness.” And there you have it: good for the environment, good for the soul.
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