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Feel free to borrow and send elsewhere if you desire...and I'm heading out to drown my sorrows in a few beers as soon as I post this, so please don't make me wish I was here to defend myself when I get back...I just wanted to share this with everyone, I know you all may or may not agree. But it was cathartic to write, and even more so to know people are reading it. Thanks :hi:
Much like I have never written a letter to the editor, I’ve never before become so involved in a political movement as I did with John Edwards’ campaign for President. For seven years I’ve watched the current administration essentially ruin our country. I voted for Al Gore in my first election, then watched the Supreme Court decide who should be President. I voted for John Kerry because he was preferable to the alternative.
John Edwards’ message spoke to me and made me believe we could recover from all of the damage that has been done. For the first time in my life, I donated money to a political campaign (and like many of his supporters could not really afford to do so) and I volunteered my free time phonebanking and gathering signatures for him. I felt like I was working hard to elect the person who could save our country, bring back our standing in the world and finally DO something about all of the things that have been overlooked for too long. There ARE Two Americas. John Edwards was fighting to give voice to those people whose best interests have been overshadowed by the corporate entrenchment and partisan gridlock in Washington. He was the only one determined to truly do something about the influence that corporations have in our government, and he didn’t owe anything to any of them, so I believe he would have.
Sadly, I believe that those same corporations and the stranglehold they have on every facet of our lives, and especially on the mainstream media, ultimately eliminated him from the race. I firmly believe that someone had a hand in his decision today, he was too devoted to his cause to have come to this decision on his own. I’’ll be the first to admit, I’m still in shock. I can’t understand why he would drop out now. It’s not that I expected him to win the nomination, though obviously that’s what I was working towards. He played a very important role in this race, leading the way on the issues and forcing them into the discussion when the media is happier focusing on handshakes that didn’t happen and petty attacks between the two frontrunners. He could have played a very important role in a brokered convention.
Studies have proven that Edwards was virtually ignored by the media. As I watched my candidate be marginalized by the media for the past year, I grew more and more disgusted with our country. In a self-fulfilling prophecy, their lack of coverage in many ways forced him out of the race. Today they were all too eager to cover his departure and speculate that a lack of getting his message out did him in. Don’t they realize that they’re mostly to blame? When he had coverage, such as a debate, his numbers surged. If his message was heard, people liked what they found. Sadly most people don’t turn to media outlets that aren’t controlled by anyone, such as NPR and PBS, who do cover the real issues. I don’t understand the mainstream media’s fascination with having the nominee decided as quickly as possible. We’ve been forced down to the two star, history making candidates after only four states with delegates have voted. What happened to your vote counting for something (if it’s counted at all with our lovely non verifiable voting systems)?
They’ve infringed on our democracy by turning the election into a horse race, and in doing so, cost us the best candidate we had in what is certainly the most important election of my lifetime. I had real hope for us with John in the race. Today, when I know that in November I now have to hold my nose and choose the lesser of two evils, again, I have none.
Sincerely,
Judy
Pittsburgh, PA
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