"we see you, we hear you, we embrace you, we are going to lift you up."

The Natural: John Edwards Six Months Later
Mark Shields
Creators Syndicate Columnist
Apr 12, 2005

~ excerpt ~

That speech is indeed different. Poverty and the struggles of working Americans who are still poor are his passion.

Edwards tells about Loretta: "I can still feel her handshake — strong like a truck driver. She spent 14 years working at a wash house — working for the minimum wage — earning a little more than $200 a week. She would always try to do better, but no one would give her a chance."

Loretta "kept pushing ... got her GED and a loan. And now she owns her own pizza franchise." How many people work there? "She said that there are 'eight of us.' Not, seven people work for me. There are 'eight of us.' ... You could hear in her voice the respect she has for other people."

Nearly 70 years ago, FDR told Americans: "The measure of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, but whether we provide enough to those who have too little."

John Edwards offers a different wrinkle: "We have a moral responsibility to help those around us who are struggling. ... How we treat people in their time of their need is the test of our character." To those struggling, "we see you, we hear you, we embrace you, we are going to lift you up."

It would be a lot different message from the last winning Democratic presidential campaign, which championed school uniforms and the V-chip for television sets.


http://johnedwards.com/news/headlines/cnn20050412/