| Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. | |
|---|---|
Robert Kennedy, Jr. at Ralph Lauren's 40th Anniversary in September 2007 |
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| Born | Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr. January 17, 1954 Washington, D.C., United States |
| Education | BA in American History and Literature (Harvard University) JD (University of Virginia School of Law) LLM (Pace University School of Law) |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Spouse | Emily Ruth Black (1982-1994 div.) Mary Richardson (1994-2010 div.) |
| Children | Six children |
| Parents | Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel |
Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr. (born January 17, 1954) is an American radio host, activist, and attorney specializing in environmental law. He is the third of eleven children born to Ethel Skakel Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy and is the nephew of John F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy. Kennedy co-hosts Ring of Fire, a nationally syndicated American radio program.
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After obtaining his high school diploma from Pomfret School, Kennedy continued his studies at Harvard University and the London School of Economics, graduating from Harvard College in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts in American History and Literature. He then obtained a law degree from the University of Virginia and a Master of Laws degree from Pace University.[1]
Kennedy married Emily Ruth Black (b. October 15, 1957)[2] on April 3, 1982, in Bloomington, Indiana; she is the daughter of Thomas Black and Helen Armstrong. They have two children. They divorced on March 25, 1994, in the Dominican Republic. He married Mary Richardson (b. 1960) on April 15, 1994, on board a research vessel along the Hudson River. They have four children. On May 12, 2010, Kennedy filed for divorce from his wife of 16 years just three days before Mary Kennedy was charged with drunken driving.[3]
In 1983, he was arrested in a Rapid City, South Dakota, airport for heroin possession. A search of his carry-on bag uncovered 183 milligrams of the drug.[4] Upon entering a plea of guilty, Kennedy, then 29-years-old and a first time offender, was sentenced to two years probation, periodic tests for drug use, treatment by joining Narcotics Anonymous, and 1,500 hours of community service by Presiding Judge Marshall P. Young.[4] After the court was satisfied with Kennedy's compliance with the sentence, it ordered that Kennedy's record regarding the offense was to be sealed and expunged.
In April 2001, Kennedy was arrested for trespassing at Camp Garcia, the United States Navy training facility on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. Kennedy and others were protesting the use of two-thirds of the island for training. The trespassing incident forced the suspension of live-fire exercises for almost 3 hours. Despite the best efforts of his counsel, former Governor of New York Mario Cuomo, on July 18, 2001, Kennedy was sentenced to 30 days in jail by Judge Hector Laffitte.[5][6]
In 1984, Kennedy joined the Riverkeeper organization to satisfy the 1,500 hours community service to which he was sentenced. He worked with the group to sue alleged polluters of the Hudson River. After his 1,500 hours were complete, the group hired Kennedy as its chief attorney.[7] Riverkeeper was founded in 1966 by a group of fishermen and residents from New York.[8]
Kennedy also founded and is the current chairman of the umbrella organization Waterkeeper Alliance,[9] which connects and supports local waterkeeper groups. Today there are 191 waterkeeper programs worldwide operating under the trademarked "Riverkeeper", "Lakekeeper", "Baykeeper", or "Coastkeeper" names.[10]
Since 1987 Kennedy has served as a Clinical Professor of Environmental Law and co-director of the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic[11] at Pace University School of Law. The clinic allows second and third year law students to try cases against alleged Hudson River polluters. Kennedy also serves as a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council,[12] a non-profit organization based in New York which works to expand environmental laws and restrict land use.
Earlier in his career, Kennedy served as assistant district attorney in New York County.[13]
In 1998, Kennedy, Chris Bartle and John Hoving created a bottled water company that donates all of its profits to Waterkeeper Alliance.[14] They named their Manhattan based company Tear of the Clouds LLC., after the lake of the same name, the source of the Hudson River in the Adirondack Mountains.[15] Their product is bottled under the name Keeper Springs.[16] Kennedy previously co-hosted Ring of Fire on Air America Radio with Mike Papantonio,[17] even though he says he suffers from spasmodic dysphonia,[18] a disorder that makes speech difficult and causes the voice to sound quavery.
Kennedy has written two books and several articles on environmental issues. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, The Nation, Outside magazine, The Village Voice and many more. Since May 2005 he's been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post, a blog run by Arianna Huffington.[19]
An outspoken opponent of vaccination, in June 2005 Kennedy authored an article in Rolling Stone and Salon.com alleging a government conspiracy to cover up connections between the vaccine preservative thimerosal and childhood autism.[20] The article contained a number of factual errors, leading Salon.com to issue five corrections and ultimately to retract the article completely on January 16, 2011. The retraction was motivated by accumulating evidence of errors and scientific fraud underlying the vaccine-autism claim.[21] Previous to this retraction, sometime in 2010, Rolling Stone had also quietly deleted Kennedy's article from their archives without explanation.[22][23] As of January 2011[update], the original, uncorrected, version of the article was still posted on Kennedy’s website, including his factual errors which Salon had corrected.[23]
In a December 16, 2005, editorial for the New York Times, Kennedy argued, "As an environmentalist, I support wind power, including wind power on the high seas. I am also involved in siting wind farms in appropriate landscapes, of which there are many. But I do believe that some places should be off limits to any sort of industrial development. I wouldn't build a wind farm in Yosemite National Park. Nor would I build one on Nantucket Sound, which is exactly what the company Energy Management is trying to do with its Cape Wind project."[24] This position angered some environmentalists.[25]
In 2005 Kennedy was criticized for hypocrisy because he receives royalty payments for participation in two family-owned oil drilling companies, and also for using private jets while lecturing about the perils of global warming.[26]
In an article in the June 5, 2006, issue of Rolling Stone entitled "Was the 2004 Election Stolen?",[27] Kennedy comes to the conclusion that the Republican Party stole the 2004 American presidential election. Farhad Manjoo, Technology staff writer for Slate.com, has criticized Kennedy's interpretation and methodology.[28] Kennedy responded to Manjoo's criticisms in detail.[29]
On July 7, 2007, Kennedy appeared in New Jersey at the Live Earth event. His speech challenged the public to question the implied position of the energy industry that economic and environmental policies are mutually exclusive. He referred to several media personalities (Glenn Beck, John Stossel, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh among them) as "flat-Earthers", and "traitors".[30] Kennedy's speech concludes with the statement "And I will see all of you on the barricades." He is a self-described pro-life supporter.[31] Kennedy also sits on the board of directors of the Food Allergy Initiative.[32]
In 2009 Kennedy collaborated on an article entitled, "The Energy of Bobby Kennedy, Jr"[33] for the debut summer issue of Above magazine, an ecological magazine based in London.
In May 2010 Kennedy was named one of Time.com's "Heroes for the Planet" for his success in helping Riverkeeper to restore the Hudson River.[34] In 2005, he argued for a link between global warming and Hurricane Katrina in an editorial for the Huffington Post.[35]
In June 2011, Kennedy will appear at select screenings of The Last Mountain produced by Bill Haney, and co-written by Haney and Peter Rhodes. The film depicts a battle in Appalachia between a local community and a large fossil fuel company over coal exploration.
In late 2007, Robert[36] and his sisters Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Kerry Kennedy[37] announced that they would be endorsing Hillary Clinton.
In response to subsequent endorsements by Caroline Kennedy, Ted Kennedy and Patrick J. Kennedy for Barack Obama, Robert, Kathleen, and Kerry wrote in a January 29, 2008, editorial:
Kennedy was also featured in an ad campaign for Clinton alongside the grandson of Cesar Chavez.[39] In October 2008, on the Etown radio program where he received their E-chievement Award and was interviewed, he cited the need to elect Barack Obama.[40]
In a January 2007 interview in O, The Oprah Magazine, Kennedy hinted that he might run for the position of United States Senator from New York, if Hillary Clinton were to win the 2008 Presidential election.[41] The Senate seat formerly held by Clinton is the same seat to which RFK Jr.'s father Robert F. Kennedy was elected in 1964. Kennedy announced on December 2, 2008, however, that he was not interested in taking Clinton's seat.[42]
Kennedy is a licensed master falconer and former president of the New York State Falconer's Association.[43] He is also an avid whitewater rafter and has led several rafting trips in Canada and Central America.[12][44] He appeared in the IMAX documentary film Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk, riding the length of the Grand Canyon with his daughter and with anthropologist Wade Davis.
Political books
Children's books
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