Kennedy’s environmental policy attack gets mixed reaction from Wilkes crowd (RFK Jr Speech)

“(The speech) was a completely inappropriate anti-Bush diatribe.” Paul Gallagher of Dallas, after wife’s graduation

WILKES-BARRE (PA)-- In a commencement speech Saturday to the graduating class of Wilkes University, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sought to link environmental threats to threats to democracy.

In the speech before a crowd of approximately 3,500, the architect of the New York City Watershed Agreement, environmental lawyer and environmental author, spoke critically of the Bush administration. Kennedy said the administration promoted 400 major environmental rollbacks during its last term to deliberately “eviscerate” 30 years of environmental law.

The Bush administration’s policies allow coal burning power plants to continue to burn coal, which causes increased instances of asthma and high levels of toxic mercury in freshwater sources, said Kennedy, adding that mercury contamination can cause autism, blindness and mental retardation.

Meanwhile, he said, many of the heads of environmental agencies in the Bush administration are run by representatives or former representatives of the industries that pollute the worst.

“The head of public lands is a mining industry lobbyist who believes that public lands are unconstitutional,” said Kennedy, who initially struggled to speak through what he called a touch of laryngitis.

“It is the polluters who are running the agencies that are supposed to protect us from pollution.”

Kennedy, who was given the honorary degree Doctor of Laws at the ceremony, also blamed problems in the environment on what he called an indolent, negligent press that doesn’t properly cover issues and the current administration.

At the end of his speech, Kennedy, who said he hoped to be heard in a nonpartisan light, earned a partial standing ovation; nearly all of the graduates stood, but many in the audience remained seated.

“I thought (the speech) was a completely inappropriate anti-Bush diatribe. It had nothing to do with sending these graduates on their way,” said Paul Gallagher, a businessperson from Dallas who was watching his wife graduate with a master’s in special education.

“He looked at everything going on with the asthma. A lot of my family members have it. It’s a good issue,” said Sherry Weitz, a printer. Her father, brother and sister suffer from the debilitating lung affliction, she said.

In other graduation news, Lindsey Lee Wotanis, a summa cum laude graduate, was the first student in 26 years to earn both the Mable Scott Wandell award for highest academic average and the Alumni Award for Leadership. Wotanis, from Dickson City, earned a 3.97 grade point average and a degree in communication studies, with a minor in business. She will pursue a master’s in rhetoric at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh.

Kristopher Smith, who graduated summa cum laude with a 3.95 grade point average, received the Sterling Leroy Wandell Award. He graduates with a degree in computer science and a minor in art.

Two cadets, Joshua N. Hall and James M. Lemoncelli Jr., earned appointments to the Armed Forces Reserve. The appointments were an appropriate event, because Saturday was Armed Forces Day. Hall will be stationed in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and Lemoncelli will go to Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas.

So much for the Dims being for "working families", I'm sure that the good people of WV would like to hear that their savior's nephew is advocating shutting down the mines.

Ok, granted, I do not have a copy of RFK Jr's remarks, but I noticed the glaring absence of something.

Ok, you don't like coal sir? So what is your alternative to supplying electric power to America?

(tick tock tick tock tick tock DING)

Yes? It's coming, I can just feel it, he is going to answer here in just a minute...</Sarcasm>

Hello Jr. There IS no alternative to coal fired Power Plants. That's why we use them. THAT is why the administration has loosened some restrictions and promoted the research and development of "CLEAN COAL". Our economy DEMANDS cheep power with the current price of oil, and Coal is it. Not only that, it is already in place and supplying power that is otherwise impossible to produce. You idiots won't relax the regulations and lawsuits that prevent us from building more NEWER AND MORE EFFICIENT Power plants, so we are stuck with what we have. Of course Nuclear Power just scares the nads out if ya, and you won't let us build any of those either, though the technology exists to prevent Love canals and Chernobyl's. The US NAVY does it on Submarines and Aircraft Carriers every day with NO incidents at all EVER.

There is NO alternative unless you want to retool all those existing power plants to burn Oil. Oops, perhaps not such a good idea eh?

I know! How about we take all those illegal immigrants and put them on treadmills and bikes, wire em up, pay em more than min. wage and make em run for our power? "Work it, WORK IT! Come on Jose, you wimp, RUN you illegal bugger!! 5000 more miles we give you a green card!"</Sarcasm>

Bitch all you like you trust fund baby, but until you can come up with a VIABLE alternative (rather than just whining and bemoaning things that are not only essential for the smooth running of the entire economy {affordable sources of energy}, but also impossible to change at the moment with current technology), SHUT THE HELL UP!

President Bush has the right of it. Look into alternatives to get us collectively off Oil and Coal, put tons of $$ into that, and eventually, long term, you WILL get a solution. Until then, there is NOTHING else to be done about it.

Jr., if you want to champion the cause of eliminating pollution, then get on the boat to FINDING a solution rather than crying your ass off, screaming that the sky is falling. You are doing NOTHING to change anything. You just look like the whiner you were raised to be.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.