Candidate John Edwards

John Edwards, former Democratic Senator from North Carolina and Presidential hopeful, is gearing up for his greatest challenge ever: how to sincerely portray and establish his poverty-law ideology while the press relentlessly punishes him for his own rise to riches.

Polished 2008 Presidential contender John Edwards is determined to make fighting poverty a priority during his campaign. He has undergone a 10-college campus tour to promote "Opportunity Rocks," a grass-roots attempt at charitably moving politically active college students to promise 20 hours a semester in community service to help fight poverty in their communities. Speaking to a standing-room only crowd in the Pauley Ballroom at UC - Berkeley, he told the audience that "poverty is the great moral issue of our time." Citing Hurricane Katrina as a defining moment in American history which made the financial class differences embarrassingly apparent, Edwards went on to explain that raising the minimum wage, providing universal housing vouchers and providing greater opportunities like education to the poor will help alleviate what we know is America's great financial divide. (www.berkeley.edu/news)

Contrary to Edwards' image in the popular press which addresses Edwards' $400 haircuts and current position as consultant to hedge fund Fortress Investment Group, Edwards truly had to pull himself up by his own bootstraps. His father was a mill worker and he acknowledges that he attended college with the financial help of others. He eventually succeeded as a trial lawyer (not an easy job) and does not feel his current wealth hurts his credibility in any way when publically addressing poverty issues surrounding gender, race and world-wide financial inequality. (Glover, AP, 5/7/07; Pickler, AP, 5/8/07)

It appears he has a lot of help from academic and legal circles, most notably the contributors to his book of collective essays entitled "Ending Poverty in America: How to Restore the American Dream." Broken down into five sub-headings, 1) Confronting Poverty; 2) Forces Undermining the American Dream; 3) Spurring Better Jobs and Creating Higher Incomes; 4) Asset Building; and 5) Strengthening Family and Community - it becomes apparent early on that Edwards is not suggesting a temporary bandage (such as FEMA trailers to Katrina victims), but real long-term solutions to help poor people that benefits us all by bringing equality to our country.

Edwards tells reporters that he is no different than Franklin D. Roosevelt or the Kennedys when it comes to his desire as a person of wealth who truly wants to see this country come together equitably. However, unlike former President Lyndon Johnson and his decisive "War on Poverty," Edwards is not giving the American people enough concrete programs or solutions on how to go about fighting the injustices.

In his book, there are contributions by Pulitzer Prize winner David Shipler, the former foreign correspondent for the New York Times and another essay comes from Ruston Seaman, Executive Director of World Vision for Appalachia. Also included is an essay by former Vice Presidential candidate and former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Jack Kemp, who wrote "The Role of the Entrepreneur in Combating Poverty." Therein lies the problem, you can take the finest minds from Yale, Harvard, Georgetown and the Brookings Institute and put them all together in political think-tanks of endless committees, but unless someone, hopefully of leadership quality, takes all these non-partisan and diverse opinions and puts them into action, concretely and with full conviction, the country will just continue to follow the status quo. Edwards has the "calling," he just hasn't found his ardent followers yet.

Perhaps the poor, as the Bible tells us, will always be with us. Perhaps considering the failing housing market, nationwide natural disasters and budget-busting financial interests abroad like the war, the impoverished are not so clustered together as Edwards' believes. We are after all in this mess together. Also, it takes money to make money and like or not we are always endebted to the generous folks at the top who actually pay taxes, build businesses and carry long-term assets and debt.

Edwards and his fellow lawyers may be on to something here - think Southern Poverty Law Center and the marvelous work they have done to eradicate discrimination - however, in order to endear himself to the American public, John Edwards will need to tickle the ears of the Democratic (and Republican) voters, who may want to hear more positive messages of hope with less regulatory solutions and certainly those who wish to hear less about what they already know full well about the sociological problems which go hand-in-hand with poverty. Sojourner's Magazine will be hosting a Presidential forum June 3-6 in Washington, D.C. to address issues regarding poverty in America and it will be interesting to see how Clinton, Obama and Edwards shine during their speeches in this forum on moral values.

John Reid Edwards

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