crossposted
I wrote this late in the evening yesterday, hence all of the references to John's withdrawal "today".
And we have much work to do, because the truth is, we still live in a country where there are two different Americas...
... one, for all of those people who have lived the American dream and don't have to worry, and another for most Americans, everybody else who struggle to make ends meet every single day. It doesn't have to be that way.
And with that line from his 2004 Presidential stump speech, John Edwards had me hooked.
When we went back home for Christmas this year, I watched a video of an interview of my paternal grandparents that my cousin did for a school assignment several years ago. In that video, I saw my PaPa S. talk about being from a family of sharecroppers. They moved around a lot, wherever they could find land to farm. And, they didn't get a lot after paying the landlord. And I saw both of my grandparents talk about living through the Great Depression - how they had little and worked for less. But they worked hard to give their kids a better life than they had. They passed that work ethic to my parents and my parents gave me more than they had. Now it is my turn to give my children a better life than what I had.
Like John Edwards, I realize the good fortune of my opportunity. I was blessed with parents who sacrificed for me. But also like John Edwards, I realize that not everyone is blessed with the same opportunity.
"I see an America where last year Exxon Mobil made $40 billion and the CEO of one of the largest health care companies made $200 million. And I contrast it with a picture of 40 million Americans who have no health care coverage and have to go to the emergency room to get treatment. Thirty seven million will wake up literally worried about feeding their families and children. Children are living on the streets in America—while Exxon Mobil made $40 billion. Last year 35 million went hungry in America. Enough is enough. We’re better than this."
"We can start a tidal wave of change that spreads across this country with a power and with a force that cannot be stopped. And when that wave of change is done and that wave has spread across America, every one of us will be able to look our children in the eyes and say, 'We did for you what our parents and grandparents did for us. We made absolutely certain that we left America better than we found it and we gave you a better life than we had.'"
Perhaps it is because of the sacrifices of my grandparents and parents that the message resonates with me. When I hear John Edwards talk of the fight for social justice, I am reminded of the words of my political hero, Robert Kennedy, who also ran a Presidential campaign based on the same principles in 1968:
Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change. And I believe that in this generation those with the courage to enter the moral conflict will find themselves with companions in every corner of the globe.
And so, today was a profoundly disappointing day to me. This was the campaign that finally inspired me to work. I signed up for One Corps. A few weeks ago, I went to the first organizational meeting for the local campaign. I went to the rally, and took my daughter, so she too could experience the inspiration - and take a lesson on looking out for those less fortunate than us. I followed the campaign daily, chatted online with fellow supporters around the country. I had planned to spend this weekend phonebanking to get out the vote for John here next Tuesday. On election day, I was going to take off work and stand outside the polling places asking for votes. But with the announcement that John was suspending his campaign, those plans came to an end. In case you missed it, here is the video of the announcement.
And so it was a sad day. But the time for our sadness does not linger, as John said at the end of his speech today:
All of you who have been involved in this campaign and this movement for change and this cause, we need you. It is in our hour of need that your country needs you. Don't turn away, because we have not just a city of New Orleans to rebuild. We have an American house to rebuild.
This work goes on. It goes on right here in Musicians' Village. There are homes to build here, and in neighborhoods all along the Gulf. The work goes on for the students in crumbling schools just yearning for a chance to get ahead. It goes on for day care workers, for steel workers risking their lives in cities all across this country. And the work goes on for two hundred thousand men and women who wore the uniform of the United States of America, proud veterans, who go to sleep every night under bridges, or in shelters, or on grates, just as the people we saw on the way here today. Their cause is our cause.
Their struggle is our struggle. Their dreams are our dreams.
Do not turn away from these great struggles before us. Do not give up on the causes that we have fought for. Do not walk away from what's possible, because it's time for all of us, all of us together, to make the two Americas one.
Thank you. G-d bless you, and let's go to work.
As the word spread today, lots of people asked me what I was going to do now - which candidate was going to get my vote next Tuesday. And I thought a lot about it throughout the day. As I pondered the possibilities, I thought that voting for Obama would most honor the principles that got me so deeply interested in Edwards' campaign in the first place. The more I thought about it, the more my mind went back to Bobby Kennedy. At some point during the day, I was reminded of a couple of passages from the Bible.
Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
-Psalm 146:3
Yes, this was never about the man, it was about the message. This is the dream of Bobby Kennedy, long dormant, that was revived by John Edwards five or six years ago. It is about doing these things not because they are beneficial, but soley because they are the right things to do.
And so, I will go into my polling place on Tuesday and proudly cast my vote for John Edwards. I will not cast my vote hoping to convince my candidate to get back into the race. I cast my vote to remind the candidates still in the race that this political contest is not about personalities, but it is about looking out for each other. It is about being our brother's keeper, because it is the right thing to do.
To those that would question the wisdom of such an approach, I would quote another passage from the Bible:
I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
-Ecclesiastes 9:11
John's out of the race, but not the cause. We'll have to walk a little farther, climb a little higher, and shout a little louder. But we WILL keep walking, and climbing, and shouting for the ideals of this campaign.