John Edwards is taking a break from fundraisers and a break from campaigning in primary states. Instead, for three days next week he will be going on a poverty tour:
Edwards' "Road to One America" tour will take him through New Orleans, Memphis, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and eight other cities and eight states. It begins on July 16, and he'll wrap up in southwest Virginia, then Whitesburg and Prestonsburg in Kentucky.The former North Carolina senator and 2004 vice presidential candidate said the makeup of the poor has changed in the past 40 years to include a wide range of ages and a variety of ethnic and regional backgrounds.
Edwards also plans to visit towns hit by the loss of manufacturing jobs and cities with suburban poverty.
President Lyndon Johnson declared the war on poverty in 1964 from eastern Kentucky's coal country, the same territory that would draw Robert F. Kennedy for a two-day caravan tour in 1968, a month before announcing he would run for president.
Predictably, the chatter has been about how this will impact the race. Will it help him get votes? Will it raise his profile? Why is he doing this? Is it genuine? Is he a hypocrite because of his wealth?
Who cares? It does not matter. It doesn't matter if he gets a hair weave on the plane and if he decides to but a new Jaguar. What matters - what matters A LOT - is that he is doing it.
When his campaign manager says, that the goal is to highlight the 37 million Americans living in poverty reminding people, "They are not just statistics. They are human beings with hopes and aspirations." Take it at face value. Applaud it. Jump up and down for it.
Why?
Because he is doing it.
No one else is.
And the poor need every bit of attention any candidate is willing to give. Kudos to John Edwards for the trip. May every other candidate be shamed into following his footsteps.
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On this point, "Is he a hypocrite because of his wealth?... Who cares? It does not matter. It doesn't matter if he gets a hair weave on the plane and if he decides to but a new Jaguar. What matters - what matters A LOT - is that he is doing it.", I disagree strongly. Intention and motivation matter greatly. David, there are very few people who would argue that the poor are not human and without aspirations; the poor do not need a wealthy white man visiting them as a photojournalist for National Geographic might, to underscore the point.
Nonetheless, Del Allan, it is important that we know who our neighbors are and with no one trying to bring attention to the ones in poverty, they quickly become invisible or, worse, Dickensian.
Yes, the poor do need the attention. Their plight - their utterly, totally politically ignored plight- needs every bit of attention anyone is willing to give to them.
We have this very disturbing 'hypocrisy' standard when it comes to dealing with the poor. If a politician is rich and says anything about the poor we say they are hypocrites. We do not apply that standard anywhere else. Imagine if we did. Would that mean that only sick politicians could talk about health care? Only immigrants could talk about immigration? Of course not. I think, however, that we do it to make ourselves feel better. If we can call someone else a hypocrite we don't have to listen them and unlike mega-issues like health care and immigration poverty is something that we can touch - we can help the poor that we see and those in our communities. And we know this and it bothers us and that is why we so want to discredit those politicians who talk about them.
I find it funny that people will complain about Edwards, but have no problem with Bill and Melinda Gates efforts to help poor and sick. We think politicians are only in it to get elected, yet one could argue that Edwards is a lot more altruistic than Bill Gates. Gates has built is millions on cut throat, and sometimes very questionable business tactics. Yet, here we are complaining about Edwards.
I don't get it.
John Edwards asks us to change our attitudes, look at ourselves, care for the untouchables.
Bill and Melinda - generously - give lots of money - effectively - and we feel pretty darn good about being co-citizens with such generosity. Which would be more difficult? I think ol John is asking us to be more than we are accustomed to being.
This isn't either/ or kind of thinking and giving. It is both / and.
I'll repeat my mantra -which - by the way - I must repeat to myself at least 10 times a day. "If I am willing to serenely bear the burden of being displeasing to myself, I will be a pleasant place of shelter for Jesus." John is asking us to do that very thing - indirectly. Darn, I'm talking myself into supporting him. He waas off my presidential radar until this discussion started.
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