"I'd storm the gates of Hell with John Edwards - and expect victory", receives Karita Hummer's First Golden Pen Award

Don Vila, Winner of Karita Hummer's Golden Pen Award: First Recipient of KH's Golden Pen Award




I'd storm the gates of Hell with John Edwards - and expect victory.

Cross-posted from John Edwards 08 Blog

I have the great good fortune to post with grannyhelen, and I'll piggyback a bit from her post "Why I'm Sticking With John Edwards"
http://www.progressivessouthbend.org/200 8/01/why-im-sticking-with-john-edwards.h tml .

I should be clear that there is nothing she says that I differ with -other than my own circumstance, of course. My support of John Edwards though is highly visceral as well as intellectual. His campaign gets to who I am and the change I want to see in the world.

Aside from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., my only heroes up to now have been my parents.

Anyone who knew my father would describe him as person of high standards, possessing a fiery intellect and unquestioned integrity. Honesty was compulsory in our household, and my first and ongoing training in critical thinking took place at the dinner table every evening.



Focused and driven














The Thinker
















My mother spent many years working (for small stipends, at best) in Third World countries helping others better their lives - including stints in Guatemala, India and Peru. Her organization sponsors demonstration projects. These projects guide locals to available resources, provide volunteer labor and technical assistance, but the residents plan and implement the projects. They're also expected to sponsor a project of their own for others.

The projects can be as simple as micro lending programs or as comprehensive as the transformation which took place in Conacaste, Guatemala.

A small mountain village, Conacaste had no running water, no electricity, etc. A good chunk of time was lost to the women of the village as they walked to the river (over a kilometer away) or other basic chores needed to keep their families going.

By the time my mother left, Conacaste had running water, electricity, new businesses and even a social club for the village women. She wrote a very enjoyable book "Between Two Worlds - The Human Side of Development" about her experiences.

People who have read my previous essays may remember my parents were active in the civil rights movement (and included me in the activity) and allowed me my own activism without interference when I was older.

There's a lot more I could add, but I suspect you get the point. I come from very good people.

Now I have daughter who will turn five in March. Now it is my turn to set the example, to be the change I want to see in the world.

Four years ago, I discovered someone running for President of the United States who seems to feel as I do - someone who is impressed with the idea of doing what's right, rather than what's expedient or materially self enriching. Someone who could provide an example to others of the possibilities and was willing to the lead the fight to achieve them. He didn't win, but I certainly didn't forget John Edwards.

After he announced this effort from the ninth ward of New Orleans in December of 2006, I spent a great deal of time investigating what he had been doing since 2004. He had clearly done a lot of soul searching about the Iraq War. He had toured the world - witnessing the abject poverty inherent in so much of it. He spoke to not just to leaders, but to the citizens as well. He had formed a poverty center - studying the issues and calling experts together to propose solutions.

This experience clearly has honed his world view. It seems very simple - yet most people either can't grasp it, or don't believe it. I'd put it this way: It is in our best interests not to (consistently) act in our own selfish interest.

Grannyhelen noted some of John Edwards' detailed proposals - and he has a lot of them. I'd point out that if you look at them in their entirety, it's clear that they form a tapestry to lift people from poverty, keep those not in poverty - but threatened with it - from slipping into it and reclaim our role as an important, responsible world citizen. Or put it another way, to recognize the advantages he (and I) have had, and pay it forward.

I see what's great about my country and the people I hold dear in The Campaign To Change America.

And if you missed the short video "Challenge The System: The Edwards Movement Is Growing", click the link below. It is powerful. (3700 views in twenty-four hours)


I am baffled by people who complain that John Edwards expresses negativity. He has said “The American people are optimistic – relentlessly positive…” as is he. He also recognizes reality, and has ideas about changing it to a better one.

And by the way, take the title of this piece literally.

Don Wheeler
South Bend, IN

"Do you see what I see?" by Johnny Rouse, receives Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award

Recipient of Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award






Do you see what I see?

user icon Johnny Rouse in News Feed of
12/22/2007 at 9:44 AM EST

Cross-posted from John Edwards 2008 Blog

It has been seven months now since I met John Edwards. I was contacted by a member of his campaign back in late May. I was asked if I could get access to an American made Mini-Van and drive John to the High School from which I was a graduate. Here was an opportunity for me, a poor country boy, to meet the man who will be the next President of the United States. I jumped all over the opportunity, and I was at the airport an hour before he arrived.

It was early; I had been expecting John and Elizabeth as they were coming to congratulate the graduating class of which over seventy percent were to attend college. John Edwards, you know the one his opponents call a fake for his expensive hair cuts and his big house, had set up a program where the first year of college tuition is paid for students who stay out of trouble and go to instate public colleges and universities in NC. This program is called "College for Everyone" and it speaks more loudly than any shock jock, spin-doctor or gossip driven "reporter" could ever speak about the character and noble intentions of John Edwards. The fact is the ideas and vision John has for America have been tried and tested; he has empirical evidence to prove it. The percentage of students going to college from this poor, rural county in eastern NC is mind boggling for the region, and John Edwards is directly responsible for it.

You know that John Edwards guy so many have called a fake, an arrogant self-server and insincere, he planted another seed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that will be a great service to the poor for years to come. The Center on Poverty, within the Law School at the nations oldest public University, is doing groundbreaking research on best practices in fighting poverty. They are leading in the rebuilding of communities in New Orleans and gathering much needed data on issues of poverty around the world. This larger than life gentleman stepped off the plane without his lovely wife much to my disappointment.

Apparently, Elizabeth had some emergency tests ran that morning, and just like every other husband in America would, John showed obvious signs of concern. He tried to get in contact with her several times throughout the morning, leaving messages on her phone, contacting campaign staff in a nearly desperate effort to hear the results of the tests before he arrived in the very small and politically insignificant county in eastern NC. I could see a man who had every reason in the world to lose focus, turn back home and not make such personal sacrifices, but his intensity and determination was stoic. He knew what this meant to that community. He knew that the students in the lower grades would find inspiration to dream of something greater, and he read through the speech several times and had it down within ten minutes.

John Edwards could certainly fly off to a winter home in Bermuda and back to a summerhouse in New Hampshire, but he chooses to fight. The sacrifices he is making are not because of some ego trip or need for the spot light. This is a man who has chosen to make a stand and fight for those whom no one will defend. He has staked his labor into investments that will not return him any material or political reward, the poor don't vote. He is a redneck country boy (that means hard working around here) who has stood as the David for the weak against the Goliaths and prevailed. He is a man who does not know how to back away from a fight, and the American people are in a fight for the heart and soul of this nation. I am glad to see that John has finally shown that spirit to the American people that I saw seven months ago. This is a man who has dropped the gloves and is ready to lead the people to common sense, pragmatic solutions to the most pressing problems of our generation. You see John knows that for all Americans to succeed in the long run including the rich, poor, blue collar, white collar, scholar, entrepreneur, we have to help raise the weakest among us. What nation can fail when even its most severely disadvantaged have a very achievable opportunity to find greatness in their lives? That is what the American Dream is and always will be, and John Edwards knows this. And he knows and has empirical evidence that with a little investment in the forgotten populations of our country, we can step up and move beyond the doom and gloom of what many "experts" say is a falling America.

I saw this in John, and there were no cameras, reporters or babies to kiss. I saw this in a man who was concerned over the love of his life; he called her "sweetie" on the answering machine the same as I do my wife. I saw this in the man who sat next to me for nearly an hour in that van. The only way I can describe it is I saw all the markings of greatness in that man; one who can bring honor, compassion and common sense back to this nation. I saw a Commander-in-Chief; I saw a President.