Edwards Must Take the 2004 Presidential Election [View All]

When John Edwards talks about two Americas he means two competing ideologies. The America where the opinions and values of the citizen are the motivation for the country and a foreign country I know nothing about, where people are classed together, told what to do and how to think.

I only recently had the chance to read "Four Trials" (my wife read it first.) I was particularly struck by the closing speech made at the conclusion of the final trial. In the speech, he contrasted Valerie Leakey, the little girl eviscerated by a swimming pool drain, as pure innocence, lifting one hand. Lifting the other and making a fist he characterized the negligent pool manufacturer as corporate indifference. Then he made the two collide to illustrate to the jury what happens when the whims of powerful corporate interests meet a defenseless individual.

His point was, and is, well-taken. WE must be the defense of the people. It is you, I, our neighbors, the people we grew up with and who live next to us today who have the power to stand up, draw a line and tell those who would continue this nation on the course it is following that we will allow it NO MORE.

This election, should John Edwards win the nomination, will mark a turning point in our nation. Will we go forth in the optimistic spirit of my grandfather's generation, who overcame a Great Depression and won a World War? Of Martin Luther King, John and Robert Kennedy, who dared to rise against two centuries of oppression? Or will we succumb to the anti-values of the current administration? Are we blind consumers or producers? Tearers-down or builders? Soulless shells that shuffle our feet to the whims of a ruling class or living, breathing embodiments of the hopes and dreams of our daughters and sons?

It will do nothing to protest later. You'll be a gentle breeze in the middle of a cyclone. NOW is the time for your wind to howl. NOW we have the power. NOW we have our say. NOW we win the nomination and NOW we take back what is ours, what is entrusted to us, has been bled for and will always belong to every American- our sovereign government.