John Edwards

TomPaine.com - The America We Believe In

John Edwards is a former senator from North Carolina and was John Kerry's vice presidential candidate in 2004. Visit Edwards' new website at www.oneamericacommittee.com .

I am grateful for the opportunity to talk with you about the state of our union on the day of the president’s address to our country. While it is discouraging for all of us to see our country moving in the wrong direction, we need to take this opportunity to offer ideas for how to get the nation back on track.

America is losing the most important element of our national character: We are no longer the land of opportunity for all.

Generations before us came to America for one reason. This is the land where everyone who worked hard would be rewarded, could raise a family and could make a better life for their children. But America has changed. Now, hard work does not guarantee a decent standard of living, and our children do not believe they can achieve the successes of their parents. It should not be that way.

Hurricane Katrina brought the issue of poverty to the forefront for the first time in decades. But the reality is that the people of the Gulf Coast—the vast majority of them working—were living in crisis for years before the hurricane hit and put them on the news. They were living without good schools, adequate health care, safe housing and without hope—just like millions of other families across this country.    

During the week of the hurricane, the Census Bureau reported that more than 37 million Americans live in poverty; 13 million of them children, most likely as not going to bed hungry some nights. Their parents sit around the kitchen table and wonder how they’ll be able to feed their kids the next day—let alone send them to college. When will our leaders recognize that Americans are ashamed of our failure to reach out to these families?

My friend, Rev. Jim Wallis, has said that the Bible talks about fighting poverty more than 3,000 times. Three thousand times. Our work here on earth is clear.  

When history judges us, as a nation and as individuals, it will ask: What did we do to end poverty? How we answer this call will forever define us as a nation—showing the world how America leads or how we fail to live up to our most cherished values.