Posted on 05/14/2005 6:47:02 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
OAKLAND — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ramped up the star-power quotient at the annual benefit dinner for the Neighborhood Law Corps Foundation in downtown Oakland. It didn't matter that his fiery and sometimes funny keynote speech Thursday night had little to do with Oakland and everything to do with bashing President Bush, the president's environmental policies and the president's penchant for installing polluting industry donors to lead sensitive federal environmental agencies. Oh, and the press for ignoring it all.
Still, what came through in Kennedy's speech was loud and clear: Get involved, speak up and make a difference in your community, your state and your world.
And that particular message fit in nicely with the mission of the community law corps, brainchild of City Attorney John Russo.
The corps sends three energetic new lawyers out into Oakland's communities to work with neighbors and merchants to find creative ways to resolve nagging problems that impact their quality of life, whether it be blight, crime or environmentalcontamination.
Among other things, the corps persuaded 100 liquor store owners to sign a "good neighbor" pledge to close earlier and stop selling fortified malt liquor. Their actions have helped force a notorious slumlord in the Fruitvale district to fix up a blighted apartment building.
They worked with neighbors and police to convince one liquor store owner in East Oakland to stop selling booze and reopen as a neighborhood market, and they worked with residents and police to close a West Oakland liquor store whose clientele terrorized the neighbors.
Kennedy, president of Waterkeeper Alliance, environmental lawyer and author who has successfully sued timber companies, mining companies and chemical companies for polluting and decimating rivers, mountains and forests, lauded the law corps' commitment to community, and the people who support the effort.
"That's what we are here for, to try and build communities," he said. "It's America's historic mission to build communities that are models ... for the rest of the world ... and to refine and fine-tune it to give our children healthy (and dignified) places to live," he said.
Kennedy said three of his children suffer from asthma, an affliction that has hit children in poor areas, including in Oakland, particularly hard.
But he also said that children throughout the country — rich and poor — are suffering the ill effects of polluted rivers and bays, whether from acid rain in the Adirondacks or mercury contamination in San Francisco Bay, because the fish from both are not safe to eat.
"Every (person) in Oakland should have the right to go down to the bay to fish ... for striped bass and come home and feed it to their family with pride and with the security it's not poisoning them," he said. "Every one has the right to use those resources, and nobody can use them in a way that will diminish or injure their use or enjoyment by others."
Kennedy said he had himself tested for mercury and was told his body contained double the amount considered safe.
"My doctor told me if a woman had that level her child would have cognitive impairment, brain damage," Kennedy said. The doctor told him an exposed child could lose as much as 5 to 7 points from his IQ.
Although those problems did not happen overnight, Kennedy accused the Bush administration of singlehandedly rolling back hard-fought environmental laws designed to clean the air and water and protect people from toxic contamination.
"The administration accuses us of being radical tree huggers, but there is nothing radical about (wanting) clean air or water for our communities," he said.
Or safe streets free from blight and crime, all of which is the focus of the law corps. The program has three active attorneys and a full-time director, with a goal of growing to 14 attorneys, enough to place two in each City Council district. The lawyers commit to a two-year term of community service, at a very unlawyerly salary.
The program is administered by the City Attorney's office but is not funded by the city and relies on sponsor support. Proceeds went to the Neighborhood Law Corps. For more information, go to www.oaklandcityattorney.org/neighbor.html.
Not a Kennedy.
:p
Spoiled rich kids like Kennedy care more about the environment than they do about the economy.
I don't think Robert Jr. is the victim of too much mercury, but rather too much secular humanism and junk science. He should learn to protect himself!
Sounds like it was about 50 to 70 points in Bobby Junior's case.
Sounds to me like he is back on drugs.
"The corps sends three energetic new lawyers out into Oakland's communities to work with neighbors and merchants to find creative ways to resolve nagging problems that impact their quality of life, whether it be blight, crime or environmental contamination."
The biggest "nagging problem" is the family represented by the speaker.
GAG...
Isn't he one of JFK, Jr. poster-boys for bad behavior?
You know, the one who dumped his wife and kids, demanded and annulment so he could marry the chick he was cheating with? What a guy.
Bush is shipping all the smokestack industries over to China and India. We're importing illegal immigrants by the millions to strip asbestos out of our buildings. Now we are shipping our white collar jobs overseas. What more do the socialists want? Complete collapse?
Speaking of illegals, I am now seeing those working for landscapers who are more and more using the gasoline back pack blowers to sweep an area. Now they are cleaning the streets in front of the properties. They create dust storms. The idiots wallow in the dust without masks. Why do I think my taxes will go to big legal claims to pay for lung diseases caused by these imbeciles and the stingy republicans who hire them.
I'd like to see Robert Kennedy Jr. strapped to a windmill blade on Martha's Vineyard forced to inhale the exhaust from 100 Hummers while he watches rich Republicans dump raw sewage into the ocean.
And this is important, how?
I'd like to see you tripping on a banana peel because violence is funny, especially for people who say stupid things.
I wonder how much pollution Kennedy has created flying around the country telling all "the little people" that they should not waste our natural resources or pollute our environment ?
I bet it is much much more than the average citizen.
He should cut down on shark, swordfish, and Tuna steaks.
No, that was his older brother, Joe Kennedy II. Bobby was just a drug addict, although I understand he has reformed.
No, the problems didn't happen overnight, but many of the laws did.
Bush DID roll back many laws signed as executive orders that
>>(a) were not legislated (or hard fought) by representatives of the people, and
>>(b) were LITERALLY signed by Clinton before he left office, creating standards that he wanted Bush's administration to "live with" that he chose not to for 8 years of his own administration.
He was on Cavuto this AM and I thought exactly the same thing.
Either that, or his brain damage from drug use must be permanent.
Disconnected commie-lib talking points that didn't even make any sense. Gawd, it was awful.
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