Good Bye For Now, John Edwards

Former Senator John Edwards announced today that he is quitting the race for President.

Edwards never seemed to get enough traction running against the historic candidacies of a woman and black male. Much of the blame for this lies with the media. The talking heads like to blat on day after day, night after night, about the unusualness of either a black man or a woman in the Executive office. The Edwards campaign didn’t give them enough fluff because the Edwards campaign was first on the issues.

Edwards spoke day after day about “Two Americas” and about poverty and those who are left behind by the unfair economics of the United States. Most of us don’t like to hear about those who are less fortunate than we are. We feel good when we donate our unused clothing, food to Gleaners, and help in other ways to give to the poor. We don’t like to come face to face with the dirt, sickness, physical and mental pain of poverty, however, and when we are forced to see it, we often turn away. Perhaps it’s because deep within us, we are cognizant that “there but for the grace of God, go I.”

We will contribute time and effort to working on numerous charitable projects. We’ll take vacation time and work with Hurricane Katrina victims. We may even go to a foreign country and work with the poor there for several weeks. We always know, however, that our comfortable style of living is waiting for us when we choose to return home.

I think that John Edwards would encourage us to give our efforts to works of charity. I’m especially mindful of President Jimmy Carter who has set an example for us of how little money it takes to conquer some diseases that maim, blind and kill, such as guinea worm or malaria.

But John Edwards didn’t intend to stop with charity. His vision of ending poverty and sickness was a vision of social justice. What I heard (and I’m sure you’ll let me know if I’ve got it wrong) was that he was advocating systemic change in our government and our lives. He wanted to bring people in to the middle class and assure that all of us went to bed at night with our basic needs filled. A roof over our heads, food in our stomachs, a means to health care and education – in other words, a decent standard of living for all Americans to be obtained by a fair living wage. For those who cannot work, the rest of us have an obligation. It’s said that the true measure of a society is how it treats its children, its elderly, and its handicapped. This is not charity, it is justice.

It’s said that John Edwards is a hypocrite because he has a large home in North Carolina. That may be but it is not for me to judge him on what he owns. I know, however, that he has experienced poverty as have I, and that experience should not and cannot be forgotten.

Don’t go far away, John Edwards. The poor need a voice.