"The global problems of climate change, population growth and severe poverty are so enormous that no one country can solve them alone, former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said in one of the opening keynote addresses at a three-day student-organized conference on global poverty

"We face enormous challenges that literally go to the survival of the planet," Edwards said, adding that the problems are "connected to each other, and connected to all the uncertainty, instability and danger in the world today.

"It is required, absolutely necessary, that we work in a cooperative, coordinated way," the former North Carolina senator added. "That's why we need visionary leadership."<[...]

Specific things the nation should be doing to alleviate poverty, he said, include universal health care, an increase in the minimum wage, strengthening of the rights of unions, initiatives to help people build assets such as matching savings accounts, and better access to education.

"Young people can play such a crucial role" in bringing about such changes, he said."We have to develop a political will to take action," he said. Asked by a student what the most important thing is that young people can do to help achieve these goals, he emphasized "advocacy, making your voice heard. Organize rallies, be part of the movement, support candidates" who are working to improve conditions.

David Chandler - MIT News (18 April 2008)

That's right.  Senator Edwards was speaking to us, young people, at the Millenium Campus Conference.  He issued a very powerful challenge, but you wouldn't have been able to fathom it from the NECN report.

Just days earlier, on April 17, Senator Edwards went on the Colbert Report, again attempting to use his position to focus on the issues that matter most.  Watch the video from the always entertaining and informative show below:



Strangely enough, it has been Edwards' wife, Elizabeth that has been able to breakthrough and have an affect on the mainstream political dialog. ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos picked up some of Mrs. Edwards' comments on health care and bounced them of Republican Presidential Candidate, John McCain.  Edward's remarks are debated between minutes 11 and  14.  You can watch the video here, and I'll transcribe part of the interview below and give you a flavor of some of McCain's views on health care:

George Stephanopoulos: One of the points that Mrs. Edwards made in the Wall Street Journal, she said that your whole life you've had government health care.  You were the son of a naval officer, naval officer, now a member of Congress, and her point is:  Why shouldn't every American be able to get the kind of health care that members of Congress get, or members of the military get?

John McCain:  It's a cheap shot, but I did have a period of time when I didn't have very good government health care, I had it from another government. (laughs) So, look I know what it's like in America not to have health care.  We know that Americans are hurting there as well.  We've got to make health care affordable and available.  The difference, again, between myself and the Democrats, and with all due respect, Mrs. Edwards, I want the families to make the choices, they want the government to make the choices.  That's a fundamental difference and we will continue to debate that issue.

But, we can provide incentives.  You mentioned that it's not enough, a $5,000 refundable tax credit for every family in America.  It's a lot better than what they got to day.  And if we can let them go across State lines and get these inflationary aspects of health care under control, which we can do, then more Americans will have affordable and available health care.

This Week with George Stephonopoulos (20 April 2008)

Instead of the issues we get headlines like, McCain: Elizabeth Edwards claim 'A Cheap Shot', shouted everywhere.  A careful reading of the transcript or watching of the video exposes that this is an outright fabrication.  McCain was describing his own statement, not Edwards', as a cheap shot, as went on to describe his time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam as a time when he didn't have health care.

Issues like health care and poverty, and different candidate's stands on those issues, should be what the media is educates the public about during this election year.  Instead all we get is elementary school yard, he said, she said, headlines that send us all into a dizzying spin.

It's refreshing to know that the John and Elizabeth Edwards have chosen to use their positions to try and get people focused on the issues, I just wish the media would oblige.