Kerry Kennedy, daughter of the late Attorney General and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, came to Notre Dame Wednesday to speak in an open lecture titled “Speaking Truth to Power” as part of the Transformational Leaders Program.
Maria McKenna, faculty director of the AnBryce Scholars Institute and the Transformational Leaders Program, introduced Kerry Kennedy, noting her many accomplishments as president of the Robert and Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center, chair of Amnesty International, a human rights activist and lawyer.
McKenna further noted that Kerry Kennedy works as a lawyer on various issues, including child labor, women’s rights, disappearances, Indigenous rights and freedom of expression. She has received awards from various leaders, including the President of Poland, for her work in the Polish Solidarity Movement.
Kerry Kennedy is the seventh of 11 children of Robert and Ethel Kennedy. Speaking with The Observer after her lecture, Kerry Kennedy noted that it was “wonderful” to be in a family with her 10 brothers and sisters and many animals.
“My parents didn’t separate their home life from daddy’s work life, so we were always going to the Justice Department or the U.S. Senate or campaigning with him,” Kennedy said. Growing up, she had the opportunity to speak with and meet various activists whom her father would bring home.
Beginning her lecture, Kerry Kennedy noted that the January commencement speaker in 1950, her uncle, then Congressman, and future President John F. Kennedy, spoke with students about the “growing threat to freedom at home and abroad, and the corresponding duty of every graduate and every citizen, to meet the challenge with intelligence.”
Paraphrasing her uncle, Kerry Kennedy continued, “Never before in our history has there been a greater need for people of integrity and courage in public service. The battle is on all fronts. Even words like ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ have been captured by those who do us harm.”
She said that today’s challenges are just as perilous and that these words are still true today, highlighting challenges of nuclear annihilation, climate change, global pandemics, artificial intelligence and democratic institutions.
“The present conflict between the United States and Iran threatens in equal measure the nation’s liberty and the world’s stability,” Kerry Kennedy said. “This war waged in the name of national security is achieving its opposite, a more insecure nation, and in fact, a more dangerous world. Indeed, never before in our history has there been a greater need for people of integrity and courage in the public life.”
Comparing President Xi Jinping of China, President Putin of Russia and President Trump, she called them all, “autocrats determined to exploit state power to enrich themselves.”
She continued to note the national divide, which she said is the worst it has been since the 1960s, and called for the need for people to cooperate and work together. Recalling her father’s 1968 presidential campaign, Kerry Kennedy noted how her father stood up for the United States and “ran towards the flames,” especially noting his work during the 1968 riots in Washington, D.C.
“The current administration has taken a torch to our Constitution. It’s hell-bent on destroying the cherished institutions of our democracy,” she said.
Drawing parallels between the 1960s and today, she continued, “This is the most corrupt and openly corrupt government in our nation’s history. The Trump administration has decimated the democratic norms that save our republic.”
She then recounted a story about Digna Ochoa, a former nun and human rights activist in Mexico, who once defended a man who was ‘disappeared’ by the Mexican police force and how she forced her way into his room to have the opportunity to speak with him.
She continued that Ochoa once said the emotion she felt was anger. Addressing the audience, Kerry Kennedy said this emotion of anger can be what leads revolutionary change but also bravery in communion with love, which leads to change.
Speaking with The Observer, Kerry Kennedy noted that while anger is not the right emotion to describe how she feels, she hopes that people will see each other with dignity. She also said she believes her father, Robert Kennedy, would be in agreement with much of what she said in regard to division and working to uphold democratic norms.
One piece of advice that Kerry Kennedy said she told her daughters is, “You’re in college for four years, learn how to write.” Writing, she continued, is something that is necessary for going through life. She also suggested that each student should read poetry.
Kerry Kennedy said she is inspired by the “great people” whom she has had the opportunity to work with.
“Every day, I’m working with the Nelson Mandelas and the Martin Luther Kings of their communities. They’re in every community of this country, so if you want to be inspired, seek them out and find a way to be with them,” she said.
Kerry Kennedy then addressed her presence at the White House Correspondents Dinner, where an armed intruder attempted to enter the event.
“I was with nine journalists from the Boston Globe, none of whom I’ve ever met before,” Kerry Kennedy said. She noted that she was with Rep. Jamie Raskin when the shots were fired.
“Then someone started yelling, ‘Get down, get down, get down,’ and everybody just flew onto the floor like a human mosaic. My legs were across some United States Senator. I still don’t know who it was. My head was on the lap of a Boston Globe reporter whom I had just met, and Jamie Raskin flew on top of me as a human shield, and he just kept saying, ‘It’s ok, it’s OK, it’s OK.’”
These “incredible people,” Kerry Kennedy said, also inspire her.
In regard to further questions about the correspondence dinner after the lecture, Kerry Kennedy said to refer back to her previously released statement.
Concluding her presentation, she invited members of the audience to participate in a dance symbolizing the rain for women farmers.
Speaking after the lecture, she added simply that her one piece of advice to Notre Dame students is “Get involved.”
