More Than Just Talk JOHN EDWARDS 08 * BLOGTracy Russo in Quick Posts
5/08/2007 at 1:03 PM EST
Bob Herbert in today's New York Times:
New Orleans has not been a hot topic at those upscale gatherings. Much of the city is still in ruins, still in "terrible shape," as Mr. Edwards noted. During a lengthy interview that followed his talk with the local residents, he told me that what had been allowed to happen to New Orleans was "an embarrassment for America" and that as president he would put the power of the federal government squarely behind its revival.
He said he would appoint a high-level official to take charge of the rebuilding, and he would have that person "report to me" every day. He said he would create 50,000 "steppingstone jobs," in parks, recreation facilities and a variety of community projects, for New Orleans residents who have been unable to find any other work. And he said, "We're also going to have to rebuild these levees."
(As if to underscore the last point, torrential rains on the same day as the interview caused dangerous flooding in the city. The levees were not an issue in this case. But the flooding occurred just as attention was being focused on serious flaws that have been found in repairs made to the levees after Hurricane Katrina.)
Mr. Edwards, who announced his campaign for the presidency in the Ninth Ward, has stood by his commitment to make poverty one of his big campaign issues. I mentioned that poverty has not gotten much attention from the national media, and asked why middle-class Americans should care about the issue.
"First, you should care because it's a moral issue," he said. "It tells us something about the character of our country. And, by the way, I think most people do care about it. And second, you should care because if you want to see the American economy grow and strengthen over time, the strength and breadth of the middle class is a critical factor. When we have middle-class families struggling on the edge, falling into poverty or near poverty, those things weaken the American economy."
It's not a good sign, said Mr. Edwards, to have so much of the middle class hanging on by its fingertips at the same time that the ranks of the poor are growing. There are about 37 million Americans living below the poverty line, five million more than when President Bush took office.
In an essay in the recently published book "Ending Poverty in America," which he co-edited, Mr. Edwards wrote: "The real story is not the number but the people behind the number. The men, women and children living in poverty -- one in eight of us -- do not have enough money for the food, shelter, and clothing they need. One in eight. That is not a problem. That is not a challenge. That is a plague."
http://blog.johnedwards.com/story/2007/5/8/13349/39328 Transformational Change For America And The World - JOHN EDWARDS for PRESIDENT 2008:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:
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"I'm proposing we set a national goal of eliminating poverty in the next 30 years." - JOHN EDWARDS 08 Silence is Betrayal - JOHN EDWARDS 08Ending Poverty in America
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