“Come, my friends.
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are–
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
~ “Ulysses,” Alfred, Lord Tennyson
By Catherine Austin Fitts
I ordered American Values: Lessons I Learned from My Family by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. at a UK website for delivery to the Netherlands in November 2020. I had been impressed by Kennedy’s accomplishments in bringing transparency to America’s vaccination and Covid-19 policies. I was curious to see what he might say about “values,” a topic that, in America, is bandied about quite a lot in a manner short of authentic meaning.
Kennedy commands respect for several reasons. First, he understands that our future depends on healthy children. If we poison the next generations, we have no future. Watching Kennedy in action is an antidote to watching Americans pour their hearts and souls into making millions in numerous activities that build the train tracks of tyranny while ignoring the poisoning of the children around them.
Second, Kennedy is willing to dive into the political “coliseum” and battle for his point of view in front of the rowdy crowd, no matter how many banking and corporate interests come after him. His patience and respect for the political process and his endurance to listen and debate are formidable. This takes hard work and serious study of science, medicine, and related regulation. It reflects the experience of someone who comes from a family filled with seasoned business people and politicians.
Finally, as an attorney, Kennedy is willing to take his case into the courts through Children’s Health Defense, the not-for-profit he founded. This is more hard work and requires the ability to assemble and work with teams on complex issues and raise the capital and support to do so.
Kennedy’s success at holding the pharmaceutical industry and government accountable has been significant. Consequently, it is not surprising that he has been the target of constant censorship and numerous hit pieces and smear campaigns. He has withstood years of countless blows and continues to make progress—keeping his temper in check.
When the UK website cancelled my order for American Values, I emailed Mary Holland, President and General Counsel of Children’s Health Defense. I did not know if the inventory was simply out or if this was a symptom of more censorship. Mary was nice enough to send me a copy.
I enjoyed reading American Values. While the Kennedy family was much larger and wealthier than mine, it took me back into the world in which I grew up. A world where we all said, “Hey, it’s a free country.” A world where ideas mattered. A world full of learning and ambition and sports and adventure—full of interest for many countries and cultures. A world in which we believed, which encouraged us to grow up and make an important contribution. We were responsible to build our world—a world where we conspired to help each other grow and achieve.
Just when it seems like that world is about to slip away forever into the recesses of time, along comes a leader like Kennedy to remind us of who we once were. Reading Kennedy’s descriptions of the discussions and debates at the Hyannis Port dinner table, I could hear a line from one of Richard Eberhart’s poems:
If I could only live at the pitch that is near madness
When everything is as it was in my childhood
Violent, vivid and of infinite possibility.
I miss that world where we believed we were part of something excellent—and the future beckoned with possibility. Kennedy and his colleagues at Children’s Health Defense and in the independent media fighting to defend Western science and medicine bring back this power.
As everyone knows, death haunted Kennedy’s childhood. He was nine when his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was shot and killed in Dallas. He was fourteen when his father, Senator Robert Kennedy, was shot and killed in Los Angeles on the presidential primary campaign trail, shortly after winning the California primary. If you study the best books on those assassinations, such as David Talbot’s The Devil’s Chessboard, reading American Values is a reminder that the most powerful perpetrators were people who continued to be part of the Kennedy family’s world. The intimate enemies are invisible, but close by, like poisonous snakes camouflaged in the grass. For all of its wealth and privilege, this was a dangerous world—one that Kennedy has endured. He is the Kennedy of his generation who has assumed his father’s and uncle’s mantle.
American Values is a reminder and call to action about much that is right and good in the American character. Reading it was also a reminder of why it is so important to raise and educate healthy children. Technology does not build the future. Money does not build the future. People do—people who “are strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
Related Reading:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Wikipedia)
Purchase: American Values: Lessons I Learned from My Family
Book Review—American Values: Lessons I Learned From My Family (Children’s Health Defense)
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