Impressions of RE Sources’ Twentieth Anniversary Speaker

Al Hanners, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is a writer and retired geologist.

“What’s in a name?” asked Shakespeare. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Quite a bit, if your name happens to be Kennedy, I thought when I saw the notice of the luncheon to celebrate RE Sources, 20th birthday. Is Robert Kennedy Jr. the real thing, I wondered? Besides, I wanted to see who would show up, so I went.

Now that I have heard him speak, let me tell you loud and clear that Robert Kennedy Jr. is the real thing! He brings with him not only an impressive track record, he has an inspiring passion that cannot be faked.

Robert Kennedy Jr. was delayed at the airport, so there was plenty of time to renew old friendships and establish new ones. There was time to enjoy the beautiful view of Bellingham Bay from the rotunda room of the Bellingham Cruise Terminal, time to contrast it with the view from the dining room of the Bellwether Hotel, a bare terrace in the foreground and porta-potties lined up in the distance off the hotel property.

Tables were decorated with English ivy bearing fruit, an alien plant and anathema to hard core environmentalists. Robins eat the fruit in May and spread the plants in woodlands where the ivy kills trees by twining. Who noticed?

While we waited for Kennedy, Carl Weimer thanked the sponsors, John Watts, Joan Casey, and Sue and Craig Cole. He recalled that RE Sources, now a prosperous company, was started by a group sitting around Louise Bjornson’s kitchen table 20 years ago. They started recycling in Bellingham, now the most successful program of its kind in the state.

Although Carl didn’t mention it, at the same time that same kitchen table launched Louise Bjornson’s political career. Mayor Ken Hertz selected Louise as a member of his mayor’s advisory committee because he wanted to balance the committee by adding an environmentalist.

Robyn du Pré, RE Sources North Sound Bay-Keeper, brought Robert Kennedy Jr. from the airport and introduced a youthful man, the spitting image of his father. Did he have lunch? He dove right into recounting his Washington State connections, recalling hiking here with his grandfather and Supreme Court Justice Douglas. He once spent two weeks hiking in the San Juan Islands. His interest in the environment came early. For years a pair of peregrine falcons nested in the imposing Post Office building in Washington, D.C. Kennedy was more interested in watching them en route to the White House than seeing his uncle.

I found Robert Kennedy Jr. a pragmatist. If he was touched by an ideology, it was belief in the free market system. Throughout his talk, he returned again and again to his central theme: polluting is not free enterprise, rather it is a subsidy he strongly opposes.

Kennedy got his start as a hard core environmental activist as a pro bono attorney for Republican and Democrat fishermen (he didn’t say fishers), who sued General Electric for polluting the Hudson River with PCBs. While there were still fish in the river, they were no longer edible.

In telling the story of how the Hudson River came to be polluted, he not only told the kind of story familiar to environmentalists, he established himself as firmly against state rights that allow weakening the environment by pitting one state against another. In response to protests of weakening regulations on pollution, General Electric said, “If you don’t, we’ll put the plant on the Hudson River in New Jersey instead of New York. You’ll still get the pollution and New Jersey will get the jobs and tax revenue.”

The plant was built on the New York side of the Hudson, the river was polluted, the fishers sued, and under the legal counsel of Kennedy, they won.

However, there was an international sequel at the luncheon. Leave it to Barbara Brenner, bless her. In the question period, she asked about a parallel situation imposed by the World Trade Organization where countries are pitted against each other and reduce international environmental regulations to the weakest. Kennedy’s answer was muted, without his usual fire. In the end, and it came soon, he conceded that Barbara had a point.

Coughing and repeatedly sipping water, it seemed nothing could stop him and his messages. He helped establish Riverkeepers all over the United States. The analogy between his River-keepers and our own BayKeeper, Robyn du Pré, was not lost on the audience. We must save the environment for our children. And it is immoral to wipe out God’s creations.

I worked in New York City at the time of the Cuban missile crisis. Forever I shall admire John Kennedy’s courage and wisdom in handling that situation. Robert Kennedy Jr., I have added your name to my short list of Kennedys.

For a transcript of “Our Environmental Destiny, an Afternoon with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” go to the RE Sources website: http://www.re-sources.org. You can download the Adobe Acobrat document.