Go Listen: Edwards' New Poverty Plan

On NPR on Friday, John Edwards talked about more than just party endorsements.  The only thing being reported by most of the media outlets were his statement to Michele Norris about it being difficult to make a "compelling case for the math" of a Clinton nomination. 

While I admit that I was eager for John Edwards to endorse either Clinton or Obama immediately after he dropped out of the race, I now understand why he hasn't.  John and Elizabeth Edwards are using their political capital to support the causes close to their hearts.  For Elizabeth, this is health care.  For John, the issue is poverty.

Now here's the part most media outlets ignored: John Edwards talked to Michelle Norris about his new poverty campaign "Half in Ten."  Half in Ten seeks to cut poverty in half in 10 years and eliminate it in 30 years. He mentions things such as raising the minimum wage, providing access to quality childcare, and expanding the income tax credit as steps to lift people out of poverty. 

You can listen to John Edwards's discussion about "Half in Ten" at NPR.

Speaking of poverty, immediately after Michele Norris's talk with John Edwards, I heard a Youth Radio Tour piece, Poverty Is About Real People Not Politics, written and spoken by Machlyn Blair, a young man from Blackley, Kentucky.  He speaks compellingly about his little piece of heaven, his community of hard working people, who are the face of poverty in the United States.  Here's an excerpt:

When I was 17, I learned the phrase "the working poor" — I'm not sure that anything else has made me feel as small as those three words did, because then I started to realize that struggling with poverty wasn't a personal thing, that the whole problem was a lot bigger than me or where I live.

As I get older, living in a poor place feels more and more like being depressed. I can't figure out how to change things, can't go to college. For the past three years, I haven't felt like I was moving forward in life.

Machlyn Blair, at 21, shows more wisdom than most men 20 years his senior. You can read his segment on the NPR site, but I recommend that you listen to Machlyn's words. This is a young man, a whole community, that deserves to have more options.

*Photo from John Edwards for President.

Comments

[PunditMom]

Edwards is our man!