John Edwards has been speaking out loud about Katrina, poverty, etc. Here are some highlights and my take on why his voice needs to be heard:
John Edwards proposes a "New America Initiative" to rebuild New Orleans
Dear Friend,
Over the past two weeks President Bush has failed in his response to Hurricane Katrina, and as a result thousands of Gulf Coast residents - most of them poor - have been tragically neglected, leading to preventable suffering and death. Our government let them down. Many of them lacked the means to leave their cities; our government failed to help them evacuate. In the wake of the storm many of these poor residents lacked food, water, and medicine. Several days after the storm had passed, many of them still did not have these supplies. A good friend of mine put it well: The often unseen poor, well, they are among us. We see them now. And it's not just bad schools and an unlivable minimum wage and no healthcare. They don't even have enough money to get out of the way of a hurricane. They had nowhere to go and no car to get them there. It's a new attribute of poverty. Not enough money to get out of the way of a killing wind.
But government failure is nothing new for too many of these victims. Before Hurricane Katrina struck, twenty-three percent of New Orleans residents were living in poverty. The Americans who suffered the worst in this disaster are the Americans who always suffer the worst, because for too long our government has turned a blind eye to their plight. Unfortunately, it takes a disaster like this one for the government to see the reality that too many Americans are facing.
Today, the relief effort is focused on providing, food, shelter, and clothing to thousands of men and women. That's the right thing to do.
But the victims of Katrina want more than life's necessities. They want a chance to rebuild their lives. Many of them also want to help rebuild a city and a coastline that mean so much to them, and so much to all Americans.
We ought to give them the chance to help through a New America Initiative. This initiative, which is modeled after the Works Progress administration, would help them rebuild a devastated region and offer good-paying jobs and hope to the displaced. Join me and say no to President Bush's failed leadership in a growing call to take this tragedy and turn it into an opportunity. It is not enough to talk about it; we will have to show this Administration that the real leadership means visionary action. You, one by one, can increase the power of the call to action by signing my New America petition here:Join me as I call for President Bush to create this initiative.Every single signature increases the power of the call and the chance for real hope for our brothers and sisters. If anything good can come from this terrible tragedy, it can be a New Orleans and a Gulf Coast that represent the one America we all believe in, not the two Americas we've seen on television for the last ten days. And the way to build that one America is to help the victims of Katrina take control of their own destiny, with good jobs that contribute to the cause.
A little over 75 years ago, America was struck by a different kind of hurricane, the Great Depression. Like Katrina, the Depression left responsible and hard-working Americans without work and, often, without hope. After years when America did nothing, Franklin Roosevelt called Americans to action. He said something then that is still true today:
These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.
Today, hundreds of thousands of Katrina's victims have no money, no jobs, no hope. The Labor Department says it will create some new temporary jobs, but it's not nearly enough for all these men and women. Work is what they want, and work is what they need.
We have done it before; we can do it again. But this time the vision is not coming from the White House, so it has to come from the people. It has to come from you. In response to the Great Depression, FDR created new opportunities for men and women to work through his alphabet soup of new agencies like the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps. Today, we've got plenty of government agencies, but we need to adopt the same simple idea as FDR.
That's why I want to reject the Republicans' failed philosophy of taking care of wealthy insiders at the expense of everyone else. I propose this New America initiative dedicated to creating good-paying jobs for Katrina's victims so they can get back on their feet, get the skills they need, and rebuild New Orleans.
Join me as I call for President Bush to create this initiative.In the meantime, it's crucial that we continue to support relief organizations that are working with the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Here's a short list of such organizations. Please give what you can.
* Red Cross
* Hurricane Housing
* NAACP
In this crisis we've seen how detrimental the failure of Presidential leadership can be. But even in this horrible tragedy we have an opportunity to make life better than it was for thousands of impoverished Americans along the Gulf Coast. You and I see these opportunities because we've always been looking for them. It's time that the President sees them too.
- John
At the formal launch of his new poverty center and its mission
Delivering the first of many lectures in the center’s speaker series Wednesday, the former N.C. senator and vice presidential candidate outlined his goals and vision for the program.
“We’ve chosen to focus on work,” Edwards told a crowd of about 200 at the UNC School of Law.
“The truth is that poverty is the problem. Work is the solution. And opportunity is what’s missing.”Edwards, whose message of two Americas — the haves and have nots — resonated during last year’s national election, said he envisions a center that will proactively work to eradicate poverty.
“We’re going to study. We’re going to discuss. We’re going to work. And we’re going to act,” he said. “And we’re going to highlight the amazing things that students are doing on this campus.”....
Edwards said he will measure the center’s success by its ability to draft plausible solutions.
“I think the issue is whether we have some serious substantive proposals of how to combat poverty.”
It’s a task that he said won’t be easy to accomplish.
“If we really believe in equal worth and equal opportunity for the people in this country, then we have a lot of work.”
Full article:
Edwards drives poverty discussionsEdwards pans hurrican response
President Bush's leadership during Hurricane Katrina was "slow" and "indecisive," former vice presidential candidate John Edwards said Wednesday in joining the critics who have panned the federal government's response to the devastating storm...
"This is about presidential leadership," Edwards said. "It's not about bureaucrats or their organizations. What do we do and how do we respond in a serious and decisive way when America's hit with such a disaster."
Full article:
John Edwards pans relief effortsOn poverty, on CNN
No, we shouldn't accept it. You know, I remember being, as a teenager, seeing LBJ's war on poverty. I still remember vividly seeing Bobby Kennedy go through Appalachia and show us the other America that Michael Harrington had written about.
And there's a lot of criticism on the war on poverty, there were some mistakes made, no doubt about that. Some of those have been corrected, other corrections that need to be looked at. But it's because of the war on poverty that we have Medicare today, we have Medicaid, we have the elementary and secondary education act. It cut the poverty rate in America almost in half. It had a real impact.
These are people that we as a nation should embrace and give them the kind of opportunities that they're entitled to. I mean, that's what this is about at its core. If we believe in real equality, we ought to believe in real equality of opportunity...
They are clearly connected for this reason. If you are an African-American family in America today, the average net worth of an African-American family is about $6,000. Latino family's about...Latino's about $8,000. White families, $80,000. And that's a huge gap.Full Transcript:
Edwards on Hurricane Aftermath-------------------------------------------------
Regardless of what anyone thinks of Edwards, it is important to listen to his message now more than ever before. Democrats need to follow Edwards' lead and offer their plan for New Orleans reconstruction. And, they need to offer a progressive plan that puts the rebuilding effort in the hands of locals and not partisan corporations!! This is very important... FDR's programs are an example that Edwards cites and rightfully so. This is the time to show America our side of the message because we have America's attention right now. If we just criticize, we will turn people away from politics and voting, instead of getting them to vote democratic. Hence, our leaders need to take this opportunity to put forth their vision. PLEASE SIGN HIS PETITION!!Btw. the Senator was on Hardball tonight for a few minutes (what did you expect from tweety?) and will be on CNN's Late Edition on Sunday.
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