As one of the students in the audience last week when Ms. Kerry Kennedy spoke, I was moved by both the stories she told and her fierce sense of activism. Kennedy is a woman who is never deterred by the vastness of human injustice, but rather is motivated by the fact that she and others can make a difference. Kerry Kennedy is an activist for justice. Her book, Speak Truth to Power, has led “over 40 human rights delegations to over 30 countries, all with the goal of preserving the rule of law and human dignity”. The book features interviews with other human rights activists.
Kennedy currently chairs the Amnesty International Leadership Council, which is a world wide movement with 2.8 million members who all fight to end luminous human rights abuses. Kennedy also judges the Reebok Human Rights Award.
She also works with the foundation that memorializes her late father, Robert Kennedy, The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. Speak Truth to Power is also one of the Center’s projects. It “is a multi-faceted global initiative that uses the experiences of courageous defenders from around the world to educate students and others about human rights, and urge them to take action. Issues range from slavery and environmental activism to religious self-determination and political participation.”
Kennedy visited Hewitt to discuss why she does what she does, how we can all be activists for what we believe in, and how no injustice is too small to seek redress.
Kennedy explained that it was her father’s involvement within the Civil Rights Movement which sparked her to follow a similar path. There was no division between Robert Kennedy’s work and his family life. Kennedy remembers that from an early age, she learned about fairness and division; for example, to much laughter, she described how she took careful attention to make sure that when she tied her shoe laces, she always switched which one she began with so as to give them each equal attention.
Kennedy did go through monumental hardships as she grew up. Both her father, Robert Kennedy, and her uncle, President John F. Kennedy, were killed for their political beliefs. Her best friend was gay and died from HIV. She discovered that the husband of close family friend was abusive to his wife. But, as Kennedy grew up she took internships, and she realized that violence can be challenged and defeated. She documented immigration abuses, making it clear to countries that, “women’s rights are human rights.”
Kennedy believes “we can all create change”; in order to do so, you must reflect on what makes you truly happy. Kennedy interviewed other prominent activists like the archbishop Desmond Tutu and Ellie Weisel. She looked to her faith and other activists to assist in her purpose. When she discussed how one can make change, she said, “we have to be angry enough to speak out and that could be a course for revolutionary change”. We must harness that anger and direct it towards change.
Kennedy gave the steps on how to take charge and make change: recognize the problem, document it, and then take action. Her heroes are those who do just that, which prompted her to discuss how exactly she defines a hero. She discussed how a hero is someone who creates change, revises something, practices self-sacrifice, and overcomes fear by facing fear.
I asked Kerry Kennedy several questions, including what inspired her in her everyday activism work; she answered, “the advocates who surround me.” I also asked her how she remained on a human rights course, to which she answered the constant injustices make her want to continue to fight, as well as the morals of her childhood which continue to resonate in the work she does. Kerry Kennedy is an inspirational woman, whose words have the power to create change.