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"Kennedy Echoes Call for Public
Service"
Harvard
Law Record - March 11, 1994 - Pages 1, 10
By Robert Weissman
reprinted by permission
Imploring young people to get involved in the political process, U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II spoke to a crowd of about 100 in Austin North Monday afternoon.
"This nation of yours desperately needs you," he told the audience at the event, sponsored by the HLS Forum, the HLS Democrats and the Harvard College Democrats. "We need people who have no agenda other than doing what is in the best interest of the country."
Kennedy warned that decisions made now will dramatically limit policy options and opportunities in the decades to come. "People are taking terrible advantage of the fact that you are not at the table" and are not involved in the decision-making process, he said.
Kennedy pointed to under-investment in education and especially the growing federal budget deficit as examples of how the young and future generations are being exploited by those now in power.
"We're spending your dollars -- when you get to the point where you can determine how money is spent in America, you'll have little choice," he said. "You will hardly be able to spend a nickel on the social programs we need to compete."
In his brief remarks, Kennedy said the two major problems facing the country are unemployment and a breakdown of the nation's social fabric.
He noted the wave of recent mass layoffs from big corporations, and he worried that "the very same companies that seem to lay off workers seem to have their stock go up on Wall Street."
At the same time, he said, "people can be shot down for absolutely nothing." Statistics that indicate social decay, Kennedy said, include: 26 percent of children under the age of 6 live in poverty; gunshots are the leading cause of death among high school teens; and half of inner- city children do not graduate from high school.
The problems seem connected by an "abandonment of a certain sense of responsibility," he added. As a result, he said, "People are asking, 'What the hell is going on in America?' and 'How can this happened in this country?'"
A question and answer period after Kennedy's remarks was marked by strident criticism from one man over Kennedy's refusal to publicly debate the issue of how his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, was killed.
Kennedy, who appeared upset by the verbal attack, responded, "On this issue, I am not going to have a public debate." He and his family have chosen to deal with the assassinations of John Kennedy and of his father, Robert Kennedy, by moving on with their lives, he said, and not to buy "pursuing every allegation out there."
When the man persisted with his complaint, the crowd hissed. To applause from the crowd, Kennedy said, "I am sick to death of you harassing me on this issue," and the exchange ended.
Kennedy also addressed a wide variety of other issues during the question- and-answer period:
He defended his vote in favor of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
He advocated a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution as the only way to force Congress to make tough budget-cutting decisions.
He said that the Clinton health care plan is in trouble. As active citizen support for the plan has waned, he said, "the balance of power has shifted to the titans of the health care industry -- the doctors, hospitals and health insurers." The health insurance industry has already contributed more than $50 million to members of Congress this year, and will have a controlling influence over the outcome of the Clinton plan unless citizens are energized.
He voiced strong support for federal regulation of the insurance industry and condemned insurance company practices for their effect on poor people and people of color. "The two biggest buildings in my district are the Prudential and Hancock buildings, but within the shadow of those buildings, you can't buy insurance if you are black, brown or yellow", he said. But he added that his reform efforts have virtually no chance of success in the near term.
He offered general support for the Clinton welfare reform program, the core elements of which he described as a guarantee of a job paying $23,000 a year, full health-care coverage and child care. However, he said that some people will simply need government support no matter what sort of guarantees are made, and that "we should just take care of them."
He pleaded for middle- and upper-class people to take a compassionate view of crime and other severe social problems present in many poor communities. Some HLS students might have ended up as street criminals had opportunities been foreclosed to them in the same way they are to many poor young people, he said, adding, "We can't deal with this issue by talking about 'those people,' because of those people are all of us."