Elizabeth Edwards: Courage and Peace and Mercy

From Elizabeth Edwards, who is on her way to become the first Lady, Spouse, and Mom, as well as for Justice:

In between the screams of horror, somewhere lost in the outrage, there is a small, sad voice. The horror of the moments today will fade, will become -- as too many moments before it have become -- but a dark shadow on our national soul. The outrage will dissipate as a new insult to humanity erupts -- as we know too well it will. But the small, sad voice will stay with us, should stay with us, must stay with us.

The voice of parents and brothers and sisters, of grandparents and fiances, of lovers and friends and roommates. The voices of those who lay beside them, of those who carried them from Norris or West A.J., of those who tried to heal and those who prayed for life. We need to keep that voice alive, the voice that first and last reminds us of the promise of the lives that were lost today.

I remember writing after the death of the 1000th American in Iraq -- and there were 40 more names released this week who died in Iraq and Afghanistan bringing the total to over 3300 -- that it wasn't one thousand but a thousand ones, each with a family, each with corsages or boutonnieres pressed between the pages of a book, each with dreams and plans. And so it is again with at least thirty-two young people of promise. At least thirty-two ones, each a treasure, each a joy, each a story to learn and repeat, so that the madness that took their breath will not also steal their stories.

We don't know the stories yet, but surely we will. And we don't know why, and likely we will never really know and certainly we will never truly understand. But for each of them, we have to try, we have to learn why this tragedy repeats itself here, in this country of the greatest possibilities, a country built on the right to pursue happiness. Why here? We have to figure this out. And then we have to get about the business of fixing it.

For them, and for us all.


Amen, EE.

Thank you from Elizabeth Edwards

This message reminds me her PSA last fall in which "Decency Costs Nothing." People who know Mrs. Edwards (as I am acquainted with her personally) know that this is her true spirit.

Presidential Rhetoric

Yesterday I wrote about how Coultergeist reappeared and the Edwards' responses to her caustic, hateful words. There are some of the DU who think their responses were tepid at best and should have gotten into the mud pit or post stronger rhetoric.

If these same critics had read Saving Graces, they would know that Elizabeth was a target of hate herself in the last campaign. Here are a few excerpts worth sharing from Saving Graces, p 252-3, in which the setting is Grand Junction, CO:

On a bench outside the airport gates sat a man, perhaps in his 60's, his hair thinning, the color of his faded jacket and the color of his weathered skin nearly the same, and on his lap he held a handmade sign, maybe 12 by 18 inches, and on the sign a single word, plainly printed: FATSO.

skip a couple of paragraphs to page 253:

The sign I realized, was meant for me. It was a thrust of ugliness and meanness, designed to throw me off. The man had made the sign, driven to the airport, parked and sat on that bench for who knows how long, waiting for me to come by, so that I would read his sign, so I would see that someone, a plain old man, called me Fatso.

If you didn't understand John, or even grasp what Elizabeth said, read further here, again quoting from her book:

--there were 3 Secret Service agents and my little team, more than the usual load. "Did you see that guy?" I could tell 2 things from the way the Secret Service had responded: they had hoped I hadn't seen it, and they were mad."

I think I understand how John and Elizabeth operate. They have to "shrug" this off, but as Elizabeth and John say, this talk has no place in our society at large. But like any president or first lady, it is important to keep the message focused, then move on. The difference in the response here, and one I haven't seen in the past 6 years, is one of true empathy. I think empathy, a true Saving Grace, is what the Edwards as a family will bring to the White House in 2009.

Update: James S at JE08 reminded me of this PSA spot Elizabeth did at Thanksgiving last year. Here's the clip.



Decency costs nothing, as Elizabeth said.