Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Don Vila receives another Karita Hummer's SilverPen Award for "Katherine S. Newman nails it in "The Nation""






DonVila receives another Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award


Co-Posted from John Edwards for 2008 blog

http://blog.johnedwards.com/story/2007/11/13/134426/43

Ms. Newman,the dean of social science at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and Malcolm Wiener Professor of Urban Studies at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard authored a powerful essay in support of John Edwards and what he wants to do.

Here are a few excerpts:

"The race for the Democratic nomination is still that: a real race. For my money, there is no other candidate who will work as hard as Edwards for the nation's low-income families, the working poor, struggling students and the 47 million Americans who desperately need health insurance. Organized labor sees him the same way, which is why he has garnered this seal of approval (the SEIU endorsements) and the boots on the ground that it represents--even in the face of the Clinton juggernaut. They know that Edwards is the candidate who can actually win the general election, the one who is thinking about people like them."

"I first met Edwards at a gathering at the University of North Carolina's Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity. Hurricane Katrina had devastated the Gulf Coast only a few months before and exposed the "two Americas" of which Edwards had spoken throughout the 2004 campaign. He called the country's experts together--across party lines--to debate the causes, consequences and remedies for poverty in an era of unprecedented wage inequality. For two days we discussed what should be done to enhance the mobility of the working poor, how we should deal with the competition from low-wage countries like China and what the trends in out-of-wedlock births mean for single mothers below the poverty line.

Most politicians would have given their obligatory keynote address and retired to the comfort of their leather chairs. Edwards stayed the whole time, ran virtually all of the sessions, asked intelligent questions, probed for more practical answers and stuck around to talk with the presenters about how to cull from their academic research workable ideas that could form the basis of a campaign that has as its centerpiece the eradication of poverty in this wealthy nation."

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071126/newman

This is a gorgeous endorsement from someone who is an expert on issues The Campaign To Change America is all about.
She closes: "There is every reason to expect that the Democrats will end up with solid majorities in the House and Senate in 2008. We need a President who will grab this brass ring. We should not squander the opportunity on tepid, middle-of-the-road, blow-with-the-wind candidates who will be too busy trying to paint themselves as tough on crime or hard-nosed on Iran to seize a chance that may not come again in our lifetime."

Some days are good, others better.

Don Wheeler
South Bend, IN

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