Politics

“I was about eight when I noticed a book our babysitter was reading had a picture of a little girl on the cover. I asked if I could read The Diary of Anne Frank and the babysitter said, “No. There are things in here I don’t think a girl your age should read.”

Around the same time LIFE Magazine arrived in the mail with pictures of the Holocaust and the Nazi concentration camps. It must have been an anniversary issue. My father came home from work to see me transfixed by these pictures so horrible nothing in my imagination had prepared me to believe such evil, such suffering, existed: soldiers standing sentry over mounds of human corpses high as houses. Men thin as skeletons in dirty striped pajamas, staring from behind barbed wire with dark hollow eyes. “I saw those pictures, after the war, in the Pacific,” Daddy said. “They’re strong. I’m not sure they should be published for everyone to see.” My reaction was, It’s about time. I thought my father was wrong. I am still haunted by one man in particular, whose eyes seemed to ask the photographer, “Where have you been? How could you not have known?” Twenty years afterwards, I was just finding out that people suffered like that. At school, the nuns had told me about Catholics suffering under Communism and I had thought my people – Catholics – were the only persecuted people. I had not known about the Holocaust because of this focus on “our own.” I vowed never to be ignorant again. I vowed to expand my sense of “our own” to all humanity – in our current crisis, to the planet itself. Violence, intentional cruelty as revenge and dominion, doom all of us, physically and spiritually. That’s what drives my activism, the urge to educate, and be educated, about those who still do not share the wealth and peace in which I live. If people are suffering, I want to know, so I can help if I can. And I live freely in a rich, powerful country – even in our suppression and economic distress, America is powerful, and capable of improving our own circumstances and others’ – so I can.”

Mimi Kennedy is a woman who is not afraid to share her ideas or her views and believes citizens in a democracy have a responsibility to contribute sincerely to the public discourse, hearing and being heard. The result, for her, is outreach to the community where others agree or disagree, but often applaud her courage, bravery and advocacy for the things she believes in. She is passionate about social justice, nonviolent conflict resolution, election integrity issues and a healthier population and environment. Historical pollution problems in upstate New York lend the backdrop to her upcoming novel. She accompanied Dennis Kucinich on his grassroots presidential primary campaign for much of ‘03 -’04 and was appointed National Advisory Board Chair of Progressive Democrats of America by Executive Director Tim Carpenter at the organization’s founding activist conference in Roxbury, Massachusetts, during the ‘04 Democratic Convention.

An inspiring speaker and mentor, Kennedy takes the development of young artists seriously and has returned often to her alma mater, Smith College, to speak to students as a Guest Alumna. She is a strong supporter of the National Theater Workshop for the Handicapped, which trains physically challenged actors in their craft and equips them to become professionals. She is not afraid to take an eclectic approach to outreach: she accepted the opportunity to judge the Millenium Miss America in Atlantic City and spent the Millenial New Year’s Eve participating in the nonviolent candelight vigil at the Nevada Desert Test Site protesting the resumption of nuclear weapons testing. “In my life, I’ve found what I prepare for, I eventually do. Nuclear weapons are a dangerous plan for human suffering. The maintenance of the arsenal causes suffering in the present by absorbing public resources for death, not life. Ending nuclear arms is a race between wisdom and hate; I’m throwing my lot in with the people I consider wise.”

Violence is the enemy. Conflict is inevitable in life; violence is not and we must learn to avoid it. War is more expensive than any life-giving social program. Building is difficult, but rewarding: it is creative human expression. Bombing is impulse: it takes only one child to destroy the block tower many cooperated to build. It is an outsider’s impulse, a fearful impulse, an impulse of rage. Honor is admirable. But to kill for honor is a deadly mistake. Living with honor is the highest aspiration; integrity and always, care for the next generation as a guide to all decision-making. Erik Erikson said (I paraphrase) that a society needs to know what kind of adults it requires for its perpetuation, what kind of human attributes it values, in order to have a system of education that allows children to adapt and thrive. Our education, formal and informal, has increasingly become about fear and control. Children are traumatized by violence in their lives, whether they are near victims and witnesses or far, with an uneasy sense of being helpless accomplices. I believe America, if it is interested in perpetuating our Constitutional self-government and sustaining an economy of free people, not slaves, must re-evaluate the kind of adults we want to shape. Then our education system will thrive. I understand the need for people to have ideology to which they devote their loyalties and lives. But such ideology must be humble, and take a second place to the sustenance of life and hope itself in the constant renewal of generations. That is the true spirit that animates us all. And we can develop education that equips adults to reason as a way to live with troubling ambiguities; to be flexible and humble on behalf of the human family even as we choose to live with heartfelt devotion to a particular idea or creed that animates our ancestors, families and communities. But we must agree that coercion and violence do not have place in such devotions. And improved social justice, for all, worldwide, will help that to happen