It was January 2004 and I was in San Diego to join Mr. Benny for a small vacation . He was attending a conference in a nice location. We turned on the TV, and watched a Democratic Presidential debate. I was for Howard Dean at the time. But this debate changed my mind. I had seen John Edwards on CSPAN in the fall 2003, voting against one of the worst bills for senior prescriptions (remember the donut holes), but I really was not aware of John Edwards as a true candidate. I thought of John Edwards as a messenger when he wanted to address poverty and keep hope alive.
Though John Edwards, I was able to connect to the best of his team—Elizabeth Edwards. She brought many of us together.
Similar to the community diaries—if you wish to blog your negative thoughts about John and Elizabeth Edwards, then please go to an open thread. This is about my connection in how I got politically active as a person, a blogger, and how I became a part of the Kossacks. And I how I got to know so many of the Edwards peeps because I became a political activist in my 40’s years—and still doing it today.
It was January 2004 and I was in San Diego to join Mr. Benny for a small vacation . He was attending a conference in a nice location. We turned on the TV, and we viewed a Democratic Presidential debate. I was for Howard Dean at the time. But this debate changed my mind. I had seen him on CSPAN in the fall, voting against one of the worst bills for senior prescriptions (remember the donuts), but I really was not aware of John Edwards as a true candidate. I thought of John Edwards as a messenger when he wanted to address poverty and keep hope alive.
Poverty was and is still a big issue to me. I grew up in the lower middle classes; my father was paraplegic—hard to help our family financially, my momma did much to keep my family going—but she became lost in the mind land—meaning she had mental illness. At times, we didn’t have much to eat. We had to wait on clothes and shoes, but momma did it through the JCPenney lay-away plan. She paid every month, but it was hard feeding a family of 5.
Because one of my heroes, President Jimmy Carter, I was able to go to college on grants, and I still worked while going to school. My parents had no money for their kids to go to college, and I knew the grant could be a way out of being poor, as President Carter did.
So, why would I be attracted to John and Elizabeth Edwards?
John Edwards was in the same boat I was when I was young. Yes, he attracted millions from lawsuits. But I applauded that. But do you know how I learned about him and Elizabeth?
One America blog. Sorry, but as it is gone, I would have a linky.
I had never blogged before. The concept was new to me. But Chris Winn’s genius (the first webmaster for the JRE campaign) and my wanting to share my thoughts about poverty and other issues engaged me. For the first time, I got involved in local politics too. More Dems got elected in 2004-2008.
Elizabeth became familiar with many of us via reading the posts. And I believe she wanted to know more of who would support One America. I liked her because she would engage us on the site, and she didn't act like a typical politician's wife.
I was a “wall washer” (as Nannyboz would say about us for the One America site)—at our service, nothing ever paid. What Nannyboz meant was that we got rid of troll posts. We kept the place clean of asshets.
Four years later, we still felt strongly about the Edwards vision for One America.
In 2006, I was hand-picked as a good volunteer blogger to be out for OAC. I didn’t know about the Daily Kos; I was more of a DUers—I was introduced via a team of bloggers.
Because of Elizabeth Edwards, she knew I could be a person to debunk mistruths or continue to blog about the leftist positions the campaign would lay out. I am a proud lefty progressive, which is why I pen these thoughts.
Among the lefties who were asked to help John and Elizabeth to be of service or those who wanted to be part of the One America place:
Iddybud, NCdemamy, bettyc, tomp, leslieh, davidmizer, neiltheethicalwerewolf, nannyboz,dk2, townhomegirly, animal , shar2, ellinoranne, poligirl, anonymoses
We are not going to revisit the campaign since we know how it turned out.
Last spring, I saw Elizabeth. I was going to a conference in RDU, and I e-mailed ahead to tell her I would be in the area and I wanted to say hello. She said she would happy to see me –and a few others. That is when I knew her health had taken for the worse. When I took her aside, Elizabeth confided to me that it had—and she wasn’t certain how much more she her life would last. She was given a short amount of time and this time, it was real. She still outlasted out the doctors.
As Elizabeth said in one of her books--: remember the bells—borrowing from Len Cohen:
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
Here is a photo that was taken when seeing her. I bought a rug at her store, and tonight Mr. Benny uses it to warm his feet in his condo in Florida.
You can read more about that experience at Benny’s World.
http://bennycat.blogspot.com/...
Scott Simon said it well yesterday: It’s apt to use a basketball term to remember someone who made her life in North Carolina: Elizabeth Edwards played the clock until the very last second. She was a ray of life.
For Elizabeth and her fans, I leave this song by Nancy LaMott, who died two days after a performance on TV—very similar to Elizabeth Edwards in understanding all of us. Elizabeth was not aware of Nancy LaMott until a chat on the OAC blog, and she said she would buy her music—because Mr. Benny’s first spouse died of breast cancer, and Nancy LaMott died of cancer—and kept going until the end.
http://www.youtube.com/...
Thank you, Elizabeth for your humanity—and we truly live on borrowed time.
We will miss her.
Update: NCDem Amy, who attended the funeral, provided a link to a picture montage from the service: http://www.newsobserver.com/...