Caroline Kennedy: Life, Work, and Leadership

I'm known I would say principally as a writer of books but this is something that's very very important to me and when you all in the Judson community reached out to me and and said you thought it'd be fun to do it here tonight I thought what a great idea and then he started throwing the names of people that I might interview at me and when you mentioned ambassador Kennedy I said anybody but her please I can't stand her and I don't know what happened obviously you don't really care about my opinion but if you forced me to do this and so I'm gonna do it but I know that neither the ambassador and I we don't want to be here we're just gonna get through it as professionals and she's some hard to sum up so I won't I assume you're somewhat familiar with her I'd like to talk to her tonight about a number of things but I want to I want to speak to her about what it is to be an ambassador um but if I have to take a theme for the evening which we can touch on and there's no exact plan but what is leadership often with Socrates in the city I'll just have a question what is leadership you know a lot of times we take things for granted and and we just sort of we think we think about leadership but we don't really think about what is that thing and why do we have this concept and and and what is required of us so ambassador Kennedy has has written many books she's she's part of a political family with which nobody is unfamiliar and she's a mother probably the most important thing a mother and a wife and it really is just a spectacular privilege to get to have a conversation here tonight with her and you so ambassador Kennedy if you would come up here we'd love to have you [Applause] our microphones working yeah okay um I hope you don't mind if I call you ambassador Kennedy because you aren't ambassador I'm not gonna call you former ambassador Kennedy is it is it okay to call you ambassador Kennedy yeah that's okay you sure yeah that's good all right I I did want to talk generally about leadership but before we get to that I just wanted to start with a question I think that's probably on most people's minds and if you don't mind I'm gonna read it okay but I'll make it seem natural I'll deliver it in an actual way okay ready this you're not supposed to do this but I don't care for many the last name Kennedy is synonymous with politics so I can imagine that feeling for you sometimes like a gift and sometimes like a curse how have you managed or tried to forge your own identity with the inconceivable pressure to most of us here of being part of a political dynasty well be more specific yeah I I think that I've had great models and role models in my family when I think about leadership I really think about my grandmother my mother my uncles and I think that they really each were such strong personalities that that it was easy to feel like each one of us has many gifts and and our your I feel in my family extremely fortunate to have the chance to develop those to have a great education to have a strong family and faith and to discover what we're all you know how we're here to help how we can be of service and so I don't really know but I feel like I I was encouraged along the way and to to be my own person even though I think I think probably maybe even for some of the boys in my family there was probably more pressure to try to do the same thing as other people had done yeah I'll square that as correct too even though the rating you you you you've really had a very varied career you you've written books about poetry you've in New York City where I live you've been an advocate in the sphere of Education I want to get to everything but I'm fascinated with the idea that you were an ambassador to Japan I don't know can you can you tell us did you have a relationship with the country of Japan what was it that led to your being asked to be the ambassador of Japan if to Japan the ambassador dude you're not supposed to correct the host ambassador all of the United States to Japan yes yeah isn't that what I said come on right so the ambassador of the United States to Japan yes correct well I had been a supporter of President Obama's and when he was re-elected my kids were out of the house and I thought that you know I'd love to to participate in some way maybe there was something I could do to be helpful I had been working in New York and education for about 10 years and written and edited a number of books and so I went to see somebody and I thought maybe there was something I could do in education and and the adviser that I was meeting with said well what about being ambassador to Japan and so he had an opening what so I was completely surprised and completely excited about something that I had never ever occurred to and I said well isn't there somebody who maybe would be more suitable to be ambassador to Japan because I was really coming here to talk about education and they said well actually the two most important qualifications are that you're close to the president and now you have a recognizable name so I thought wow okay well I'm this is going to be amazing and so when I would get there they would say you know Mike Mansfield Walter Mondale Howard Baker Tom Foley you know how does that make you feel and I was like like a woman I think that one of the things that I didn't really anticipate in Japan and it's very I'm very honored to have a representative from the consulate here was the deep affinity and admiration for President Kennedy that that exists there and I think it goes back to his service in the war I was the first child of a Pacific War veteran to be appointed ambassador and and I think there was really his presidency coincided with Japan sort of emergence onto the global stage after recovery after the war and I think that there's still people who used to come up to me and quote the inaugural dress every day and I think that it really showed me kind of how people perceive America and how and what we're really known for around the world and that's our ideals our service our generosity and and it made you know a tremendous and profound impact on me the first time I had been to Japan I went to Hiroshima with my uncle Teddy in college and I had been back on my honeymoon and so I went to Japan on your honey yeah why no I mean in all seriousness like I went to London on my honeymoon these are not typical places that people go for honeymoon so that that's an interesting connection that all those years ago well I had studied some in college and I just thought it was such a fascinating civilization and I had the time to do it because it was after my first year in law school so I had a little more time than I might have had if I was working so so it was good to go someplace far away but anyway so we had a great time and never dreamed that I would end up living there for three years but it was I think one of the most powerful things that happened to me when I was there even though you didn't ask I'm going to share this story but I think people might be interested I think you know many people older people know that of my father's war record pt-109 which was sliced in half by Japanese destroyer and some of the crew was killed and others were injured and eventually they were rescued and it was made into a movie and a song and all that but what people which was you know became very famous and what people don't know is that he correspondent with the crew of the Japanese destroyer throughout the 1950s and and really had a deep personal commitment to reconciliation and to building peace and he had hoped to visit Japan during his second term and be the first president sitting president to do that and while I was there I met the widow of the destroyer captain who showed me a picture that my father had sent to her husband that said to captain hanami wait enemy present friend and and so I really felt that I you know was in the right place at the right time and I was so fortunate to be able to kind of carry that spirit forward into our time so then and the opportunity came for President Obama to visit Hiroshima I felt like that whole legacy was very much at work and and that was I think a hugely important event definitely in Japan less visible perhaps here but I think it really brought that whole process of reconciliation you know forward even to a much higher level and it really showed me how sort of all these personal individual acts of friendship and trust and sacrifice had kind of made it possible for the leaders to follow and so that was really I think a huge event and and I felt like it very much connected to my own family legacy and experience I'm amazed everything you've shared about Japan and your father corresponding with the folks on the battleship I mean I'd never heard that and it strikes me that all of that qualifies you particularly well to be the ambassador to Japan so I think you're being very coy when you say that you don't you know well know some of that I didn't know myself I mean I learned it as I was going I think the most visible thing about me being in Japan was that I was a woman and it was at a time when Japanese the Japanese Prime Minister really put an emphasis on women's empowerment and President Obama's first act as president was to sign the lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act so so I think that there was also an opportunity there for me and I think for Japanese women to see a woman in a very visible role was meaningful and and I think it was a great chance for me to represent America and the commitment that we've made to two women in the workplace particularly there as well so so it just turned out to be a really good idea all around and I think nobody was quite sure at the beginning that it would be but it turned out to be it just occurred to me now just to prove that I've done very little research for this interview that no I think that's off oh it's it just struck me a few minutes ago what I hadn't thought of before tonight was that your grandfather was ambassador to the court of st. James I guess in the 30s is that right so it strikes me that you're you know further qualified on some level people are thinking about ambassadorships you know not many people have grandfather's that were ambassadors to the court of st. James for example you'd have to agree with that I would have definitely agree that I don't know that you know qualifies but for me but it's interesting it's interesting it's interesting because I think also the role of ambassador has changed nobody's quite really sure what an ambassador does and whether it's just ceremonial and social or whether there's still really a job to do in this age of communication but I found that to be incredibly actually important in terms of being able to obviously represent your country in the case of Japan or obviously England to our closest ally and but also to help this country understand your host country as well so there's it's really a two-way street and I think for certainly for governments around the world to have somebody there is really important for them as they try to navigate the US I think it is actually a very important and I think it serves the United States very well to have people positioned all over the globe so it's it's unfortunate that we don't have our full set of diplomats and I would hope also that if there's any students here thinking about careers and leadership opportunities that you would consider the Foreign Service because it's an incredible way of life and in a real service to our country that's something that's really indispensable even though obviously at home or not it's not as visible to us but I think the benefits that the Foreign Service brings back to America are really immense your your father most famously said asking about what you can do what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country that strikes me as really beautifully patriotic but it ties into this idea which you've written about and spoken about the idea which ties into the larger idea of leadership but of service from what various places did you get do you get this idea of service as being important well I think it's it's a really important idea I definitely didn't have anything better to do then sir my country in Japan but I know things very well you know it's service so but I think probably from my grandmother I think she really had a really deep faith and her father was first elected to Congress when she was 5 and and she didn't stop campaigning and and being interested in kind of government or how to wake the world better or how we can all serve until she died at 104 so so I think that she really took you know st. james's worked so hard and that we should be not just hearers of the word but doers and she raised this family of doers and I think she grew up in Concord in Boston and her father was mayor in Congress congressman and so I think that she really felt like you know incredibly patriotic and also had a very deep faith and so I think when you put those two things together [Music] it it sort of leads to this sense of asking yourself really what what you can do and I I think one of the things looking back I see when we would go visit her she would always you know one of the things she would quiz us about you know the Pilgrims and dates and American history and but one of the her favorite things was to have everybody recite the midnight ride of Paul Revere and and my uncle Teddy loved it the most and he would like when I did a couple of poetry books he would come to all my poetry signings and recite the midnight ride it forward there in the bookstore everybody lo everybody everybody has an uncle like that yeah exactly it was fantastic and but I think it was really her way of kind of getting us all to think you know would we be ready to ride through the night what could we do and sort of that we should all have this idea that history is not just you know dusty artifacts or dates or something but it's really made by people who are you know ready to to do what they can and whatever it is at that moment when they're called and and give of themselves to for their country for their community for others and so I think it was just her kind of sense of imagination and patriotism and faith that all kind of came together and and sort of that she passed on I didn't know this about you or your grandmother your uncle having a fondness for that poem but there is literally nothing in English literature and I was an English major closer to my heart then longfellows poem there's really moving to me to hear you say that there's literally a whole chapter about that poem in in this book sitting right here which I'll tell you about but it's it's it's it's my it's my book about America and because my parents came to this country as European immigrants in the 50s but they taught me to love America but I only discovered more lately that it does take an effort to love one's country and to understand that we have to that we do have to give back and I now point to that poem in exactly the way that you just did because I think that we're missing that in the in the current culture and I'm worried about that there used to be touchstones like that that everyone could be familiar with and everyone could agree with and that's it's less the case today so it's a it's a passion for me to try to do something about that and I'll probably be bothering you specifically with regard to that poem but it is it is a beautiful poem in that history is very very important I guess you mentioned your your grandmother's face and her love of country talk about your faith a little bit because when people think of the Kennedys they they think of you know Irish Catholics not just Irish but Irish Catholics and how central that has been for a number of members of your family well I think the person who probably put their faith into action and the most extraordinary way was my aunt Eunice who was very devout and founded the Special Olympics actually here in Chicago and I think she was just a tremendous inspiration for all of us and never stopped you know questioning and weeding and was her commitment to people with intellectual disabilities was just so profound and I think that's one of the reasons I was really happy to be invited here was because I heard about the rise program and the commitment that Judson has but I think that also for all of us growing up was really kind of surrounded us and was really you know faith put into action so so I think there's obviously a contemplative part of faith and then there's a part of faith in the world and so I feel lucky that I had sort of an exposure to both the idea that everyone is equal and valuable in God's eyes is of course you know central to the Christian faith and and really central to what it is to be an American those ideas are enshrined in our founding documents and it seems to me more and more that that idea the ramp evaporating culturally that that idea that every life is sacred that we don't mean we seem to talk about it less which I I find dismaying I I've been a big advocate for the unborn precisely because of that issue John Paul the second call that the culture of death I don't know if you have any thoughts on that but it's such a big issue and that touches so many things and as a as a Catholic I'm just curious if you do have any thoughts on that you don't have to I do but I think I don't feel that we don't talk about our individuality enough I really feel like one of the things I think that President Kennedy talked a lot about was our responsibilities as citizens not just our rights and so I feel like the collective is something that is is something that we I think the sense of what we can do together the sense of working with others at a time when we are there is a lot of division or disagreement you know how we going to get back from that as a community and so I feel like focusing on these issues of kind of divisive social issues is is something that we have enough of right now so I don't think I'm gonna go there with you right now there was no there there to go to I know I mean I think that it I bring it up just because I think that it is complicated and it doesn't it doesn't we don't really have to touch on divisive social issues but just as a general concept when you think about the vulgar ization of culture in general our discourse I feel like you know many of our movies and TV shows are just dark there's a darkness there and I feel like that's something I would guess most parents would would be concerned about it doesn't really matter where you are politically in any event okay here's a question you must get now and again what's the difference between the way people perceive you and the way you perceive yourself being a public figure most of us can't really imagine what that's like so no I'd rather than somebody else calling besides you know I'll tell you how they perceive you no that's okay I don't really I'd like to sort of think about it from you know the inside I think that's a better way to go I think that it's hard if you're always thinking about what other people think of you I think that's part of growing up so I can't really do much about that so I'm I'm just gonna go along with what I think that's good by all accounts your mother did a really spectacular job of raising you and your brother on a number of sort of obvious levels and it strikes me that you have brought that to the way you've raised your kids is that is that fair is that true and to what extent would it be true it's my guess well I think that she was somebody who was really true to herself and she really in in an incredibly courageous way he lived the life that she wanted and I think that was obviously a great example for me and my brother I think that she people think of her as you know being you know a fashion icon and they and that and obviously she was but for me I think I really think that was the least important part of her and it was really her intellectual curiosity her courage her kind of sense of humor that were so much more important and her love of reading and books and her sort of belief in education and doing well there and and that was really what she passed down I think to us and so for example we she loved poetry and literature and mythology and history and but for birthdays and Christmas and holidays we had to instead of presents buying presents or whatever we had to pick out a poem and memorize it or illustrate it and and that was what she wanted we of course wanted presents but in any case and so I think that it really was a great way of encouraging us to explore on our own and not feel like poetry was done hard or we weren't smart enough to understand it or all the ways that people get intimidated and so I think it was you know we were incredibly competitive about this John and I but I when I look back she kept all the poems in a scrapbook which I have and when I see what we chose at different ages it brings back it's almost like looking at photographs it brings back so many memories of who we were at the time you know how we were the jokes that we had the you know how we were trying to you know kind of be the best one and but also I think for Christmas and all that it really made reading be kind of a central part of our family life whether it's Christmas or you know Mother's Day or whatever it is and so so I feel like that was a great gift that she gave us was that sort of commitment to the life of the mind and I think that that's really what she and my father shared and in a way that I don't think people really appreciate that's if I may say so amazing and beautiful and I'm annoyed that I didn't do that with my daughter she's 20 now that was the point of the story was to me right just to annoy me I know that's alright that's alright you know listen ambassadors come and go alright tomorrow I'll be talking to something no I I have to tell you that there is something so beautiful about memorizing poetry and the only poem that I made my daughter memorize was the guy right over here and of course we will do it together in the car to annoy my wife but it's it's a beautiful thing so I have to ask you what are some of the poems that you chose to memorize well we didn't have to memorize them all we could also just kind of know them and you know copy them over that was you know my but I think I liked there was a number of years poems that I've liked and the song wandering Aengus I memorized and memorize Robertson Robert Frost poems I memorized my kids did it all so I mean I tried to get them to do it too and so they memorized my son obviously picked William Carlos Williams a red wheelbarrow because it's three lines long and he was really proud of that and considered himself done and he also memorized that and Cameron with a new title but I I placed a jar in Tennessee while Stevens poem wallace stevens and my daughter's liked i'm trying to i can't remember right ii but my daughter when i so I did a few because my mother had really passed on this to us I did a a couple of poetry anthologies for children and in the last one I did which actually was translated into Japanese which was really fun my daughter translated the creation part of Ovid and so that's in the book that's extraordinary what just a wonderful thing tell us about the books that you've done that are in thaal g's and poems is it just the one that I'm thinking of her were there a few because I know one there are well a cup of you I did the one it was actually after my mother died and I and I had this idea that as I just described that it was you know people were always coming up to me and and telling me that you know she was fat you know fashion icon and all that and it I just was thinking about what you know really was important to me about it hurt so I did this poetry anthology that was a number of her favorite poems and then ones that that we had learned when we were little and things like the teddy bears picnic and things like that and then moral fashion and then when I was doing talking about that book so many people would come up to me and tell me that they had the same experience with their grandmother or their aunt or you know their parents so I thought that there was really a lot more to this and it was a way of passing down these values from generation to generation and that that's something that we don't have as much out because people are busy or you know we live our lives on the run now and everybody's working so but it doesn't really take that's one of the great things about poetry is that you know some of the greatest ones are short and they're not all like the midnight ride of Paul Revere so so and kids can can come to them even kids who don't like to read so I did one for children a family of Holmes and then I did another one poems learned by hearts I was working with students in New York City and who were doing spoken word competitions and poetry slams and all that and so I really saw how this is not just a kind of a solitary thing but it's really a group activity now and and allowing students to develop their voice by writing their own poems I think it's becoming obviously such a powerful art form here and so I then started a teleconference poetry sharing between kids in Japan and the South Bronx and Korea and then the Philippines we now have so we have a four country poetry slam going on every few weeks and then we try to get together once a year at the end of the year but it's been a lot of fun and its really fascinating to see all these kids from around the world write about whether it's you know what they're going through whether it's you know friendship struggles her family or faith or their history or their legacies their countries or war time or migration so I think that that's been a way of keeping that alive and then I did one for women because I kept women were the ones were always coming and telling me about how much they love poetry they were writing poetry and so it seemed like that would be a good idea too and there are so many great poems that speak to the different stages of a woman's life in particular I it's gratifying to hear you talk about poetry this way because I really think that that it's one of the things when I think of the vulgar ization of culture today it's we don't really we don't really do poetry anymore I mean when you think of the poems that are in The New Yorker for example but I can't take them seriously and forgive me but I I feel like there's a whole you know new genre of poems written for people who are in MFA programs or who are editing you know little magazines or something like that and the idea of poetry is something that we do as a culture that everyone does has has kind of gone away and accepted and spoken word right I was just gonna say you've just mentioned that and that that is very interesting to me what what I mean but what happens does it get anthologized and people memorize it I guess it doesn't really right well I think it's starting to and I think it's getting a whole new generation interested in words in the power of words and finding their own voice and becoming empowered and we're you know working with others and so I think that that's really you know it's in some societies it has a different role I mean and usually in repressive societies poetry plays a really important role but I think in our country which is so vibrant and we have so many different cultural and so many different languages and so many different poetic traditions it's really an incredibly kind of powerful new art form this collective composition I want to talk about America broadly but I'd like to start out a little bit more specific for example what's the capital of North Dakota I think I think you know no can you think of five capitals beginning with a five capitals beginning with a well first of all you said Bismarck which is correct we're gonna grade that that's correct it's very rare that people get that um paddles it's got to be Allentown right I don't know Philadelphia I actually I actually memorized all 50 state capitals when I was in third grade but I've forgotten most of them including the five would begin with it and no I don't know they're real are they really farther beyond today yes there are and and I know this because when we were used to drive around the car a lot and the Secret Service man who was with us for our whole childhood that was one of the questions that he that was one of his questions to keep us quiet and so I look what I still remember them keep us thinking his and the other one was who who had a home run off Sandy Koufax and caught a touchdown pass from why a tittle it's got to be Jim Brown quiet Jim Brown right no I don't know you've got the capital so we can with a I'm not gonna say I'm not getting this question trivia question um ski Ted Williams yeah all right so you will tell us eventually yeah sure okay well I mean it's more fun for maybe there's somebody in here it really loves well they're just gonna look on their phones that's their cheating make me look at that wouldn't she you can't look down yet okay you know what you're right all right that's great she's right all right I think we're gonna have to okay well his name is Alvin dark Alvin dark dark dark the first world leaders guess who stumped the crowd unbelievable um all right I really didn't want to talk about America more broadly than what is the capital of South North Dakota so we asked you and I don't know if you have an answer for this but you know when somebody talks about America what does America mean to you what is America can you go first I've written a book on the subject I've written a book on the subject I really have I gave it a lot of thought in when I when I wrote this book and I was mesmerised by my own brilliance no I was mesmerized by the idea when it finally began to occur to me what America is and why it is exceptional because it's an idea and because it's a nation that exists for others really it's an extraordinary thing but because your your father was such a vocal patriot and your your family has served the country I guess I I do I do want to know what America means to you as a concept you know and I don't mean specifically today but generally well certainly it's something that I obviously have always been I really feel that we are the luckiest and we are so incredibly fortunate and the more you live in other places the more you see how indispensable this country is and when you see our values sort of being put into action to help others whether it's to rebuild countries to the peace corps whatever it's really something that I think does inspire me to want to give back or to work as hard as I can to be worthy of that sacrifice and legacy that has gone before us because I think that this is going to take a big commitment always and we don't have a we really have a set of documents and promises and so we can't take this for granted and think that it's easy to do that because we're living it but it's really something that requires I think each of us to give some of our time and some or thought and effort to to participate to become active citizens to think about the kind of future that we want and what we're doing to help create it and that doesn't mean that everybody has to be acting on a national scale and but I think one of the things I saw in Japan just too was that how vibrant our kind of NGO and community-based organizations how that sector is really something that I think is incredibly unique to America and so I know there's people here who work I mean I met people who work to help victims of domestic violence people who work in education faith-based organizations and all of that I think contributes to what makes this country so special so it's just an infinite a matter of energy and passion and caring but I think that our democracy is something that's really precious and we should really treat it that way well I I think that's right and I think it's a it's a biblical idea since Judson is a Christian college the idea that God blesses us so that we will be a blessing and you know when I hear you talk about your grandmother quizzing you on the Pilgrims and things that this country has been so dramatically blessed not least with the idea that we're supposed to do something with the blessing in others is not just for us but that we really are meant to use our wealth and all that we have our freedoms for others and I guess I wanted to end on a bummer of a note so that's not true but it's kind of funny when I hear about you know whether it's Google or today the NBA but putting profits above the idea of freedom it just seems to me that we're living in a generation where a lot of people have forgotten how beautiful it is to be free and how so many people long to be free and forget that because they're free they have an obligation to uphold the idea of freedom and not just you know to take a check or something like that so I do think that that is a it's a central idea of what it means to be an American and I just want to say that it's it's really beautiful to hear you articulate how your family and now you see that and and have lived it out and my final question is can you forgive me quick yes or no answer all right all right we'll take it backstage ambassador Caroline Kennedy really it's just been a joy to have a conversation with you I hope the folks here got half as much out of it as I did and on behalf of Judson and everyone here I want to say thank you very much [Applause]

Channel: socratesinthecity

Views: 11,661

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Keywords: EricMetaxasSocrates, Caroline Kennedy, Kennedy, Metaxas, Socrates in the City, Eric Metaxas, EricMetaxas

Id: kJi6s0XRuUY

Length: 45min 25sec (2725 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 01 2019