By Lillian Syren, Culture Columnist
On February 10th, a rally was held for the up-and-coming presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in downtown Grand Rapids. The event took place at the Saint Cecilia Music Center, a modestly sized auditorium with beautiful architecture and stunning interior design. An hour before the rally started, every parking lot within a mile radius was full. People were lined up outside the building, stretching out down the block. The auditorium filled almost instantly, but that did not discourage supporters from lining up on the sides and in the aisles and standing during RFK Jr.’s speech. Formerly a member of the Democrat party, RFK Jr. pulled out at the end of last year and decided to join the independent party, his reasoning being that he wanted to be independent of things like military contractors, wealthy donors, Wall Street, big polluters, corporations, and the two dominating political parties themselves, in order to “enact bold policies that are outside the partisan conversation.”
He began by expressing his condemnation for the forever chemicals that are harming America’s water and food, as well as the horrible ingredients in daily food that are causing obesity, diabetes, reproductive harm, and a plethora of other biological tragedies. He cited that in his uncle JFK’s presidency, 13% of children were obese—now, it’s 50% of children, and “it’s not because all of a sudden America got lazy,” he added. “It’s because we’re being poisoned.” After describing the horrors of these biohazards in our food, he reaffirmed his position of litigating against these in his campaign.
After explaining the deplorable state of food, he went on to say that simply flooding an economy with cash to fake a strong economy has only hurt us. “Our taxes,” he said, “are no longer going towards public safety or schools. They are going to our ever-increasing debt.” He described the debt as something that the older generation will eventually pass on to their children, an utterly despicable thing to hand down.
He then went on to talk about the tragedy of America’s democracy, and how every day we move farther and farther away from what a good democracy is. He told a story about how he and his father, a year after JFK was assassinated, went to Poland and other countries in Europe. At that time, the U.S. was regarded as the democratic superpower, a moral authority, and he and his father were welcomed with open arms. Now, the U.S. is anything but that: a shrinking democracy with an unspeakable amount of blood on the government’s hands. The image of America has been turned into violence, he argued, saying that “People shouldn’t think of a man with a gun when they think of the U.S.”. He emphasized the element of non-violence, saying that a major part of his campaign revolves around keeping the U.S. out of wars, especially because we have too many problems to count in our own backyard. We have no grounds to send billions of dollars to foreign countries when our own people are homeless, starving, unable to afford houses, maintain jobs, and overall survive in the “American Dream.”
His final message was that he hoped to fight and win fairly, even though it has been very difficult for him to move forward with his campaign, especially with having been denied Secret Service Protection and ballot access in many states. He ended by emphasizing his mission to restore pride in American citizens’ hearts to be a U.S. citizen and combat the corrupt government that has plagued us for too long.
The Saint 