This is a woman who battles for her family, her values, and her life. How is it that a country that prides itself on values of fairness and justice has no concern for the individual when it comes to civility, fairness, and justice? We watched Hilary Clinton and her daughter suffer public humiliation for a husband and father's personal indiscretion. Elizabeth Edwards is attempting in her diary to teach us. We need to listen to this strong voice.
Elizabeth Edwards is asking us to stand up not just for her, but for all of us. What happens to a nation when there is no consideration for personal suffering? She understands wholly that she and her husband are public figures and that opens their lives to personal scrutiny. This is not what she is questioning. She is asking for the country as a whole to realize the implications of its national enquirer mentality that pulls a family apart and rips it to shreds. And then, after a few weeks it moves on looking for its next victim. Why do we as a nation not rise up and demand that we treat our families better. Yes, John and Elizabeth are a part of our family. They have sacrificed for their ideals and vision for what we can be. Does not that deserve our respect? Does she not deserve our respect that she campaigned for her husband while undergoing chemotherapy? Shouldn't we then demand a more civil professional journalistic media instead of the voyeurs and pundits that have overtaken our national dialogue. It appears our citizenry is so numb to insult that we simply stand back and accept it. It speaks not to the better angels of our nature as Abraham Lincoln called it, but to the worst in us. It disgusts me and saddens me. I think not just of Elizabeth but I think of her daughter and Hillary's daughter, and Elizabeth's young children. And as Atticus Finch told Scout you have to walk around in somebody else's skin and ask yourself, how would it feel? How would it feel if it were you and you had to take your children in your arms to comfort them over something they had absolutely no control over. And know this, a helicopter constantly flying over your head is a noisy intrusive thing that rattles more than your brain.
