That will be good for you and your forebears and progeny.
Dear Haruna,
Let me start by saying, "Thank you." You have stood with Elizabeth and me
throughout this campaign. Your support has sustained us as we have traveled
across this country.
Earlier today, I suspended my campaign for the Democratic nomination for the
presidency. I made this announcement from where our journey began just over
12 months ago: New Orleans.
I began my presidential campaign in New Orleans to remind the country that
all of us -- as citizens and as a government -- have a moral responsibility to
each other, and what we do together matters.
Now, it's time for me to step aside so that history can blaze its path. We
do not know who will take the final steps to the White House -- but what we do
know is that our Democratic Party will make history.
And, along the way, all of you who have been involved in this campaign and
this movement for change and this cause, I am asking you to continue speaking
out for those who have no voice, just as Elizabeth and I will continue to do.
We need you.
Do not turn away from the great struggles before us. Do not give up on the
causes that we have fought for. Do not walk away from what's possible, because
it's time for all of us -- all of us together -- to make the two Americas
one. We need you.
I hope you will take a few moments to listen to the video clip of my speech
in New Orleans earlier this afternoon or to read it below.
In the meantime, Elizabeth and my family join me in thanking all of you for
your support and for working so hard on my behalf. We are truly blessed to
have such friends.
Thank you.
John Edwards
January 30, 2008
---
Thank you all very much. We're very proud to be back here.
During the spring of 2006, I had the extraordinary experience of bringing
700 college kids here to New Orleans to work. These are kids who gave up their
spring break to come to New Orleans to work, to rehabilitate houses, because
of their commitment as Americans, because they believed in what was possible,
and because they cared about their country.
I began my presidential campaign here to remind the country that we, as
citizens and as a government, have a moral responsibility to each other, and what
we do together matters. We must do better, if we want to live up to the
great promise of this country that we all love so much.
It is appropriate that I come here today. It's time for me to step aside so
that history can blaze its path. We do not know who will take the final steps
to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but what we do know is that our Democratic
Party will make history. We will be strong, we will be unified, and with our
convictions and a little backbone we will take back the White House in November
and we'll create hope and opportunity for this country.
This journey of ours began right here in New Orleans. It was a December
morning in the Lower Ninth Ward when people went to work, not just me, but lots
of others went to work with shovels and hammers to help restore a house that
had been destroyed by the storm.
We joined together in a city that had been abandoned by our government and
had been forgotten, but not by us. We knew that they still mourned the dead,
that they were still stunned by the destruction, and that they wondered when
all those cement steps in all those vacant lots would once again lead to a
door, to a home, and to a dream.
We came here to the Lower Ninth Ward to rebuild. And we're going to rebuild
today and work today, and we will continue to come back. We will never forget
the heartache and we'll always be here to bring them hope, so that someday,
one day, the trumpets will sound in Musicians' Village, where we are today,
play loud across Lake Ponchartrain, so that working people can come marching
in and those steps once again can lead to a family living out the dream in
America.
We sat with poultry workers in Mississippi, janitors in Florida, nurses in
California.
We listened as child after child told us about their worry about whether we
would preserve the planet.
We listened to worker after worker say "the economy is tearing my family
apart."
We walked the streets of Cleveland, where house after house was in
foreclosure.
And we said, "We're better than this. And economic justice in America is our
cause."
And we spent a day, a summer day, in Wise, Virginia, with a man named James
Lowe, who told us the story of having been born with a cleft palate. He had
no health care coverage. His family couldn't afford to fix it. And finally
some good Samaritan came along and paid for his cleft palate to be fixed, which
allowed him to speak for the first time. But they did it when he was 50 years
old. His amazing story, though, gave this campaign voice: universal health
care for every man, woman and child in America. That is our cause.
And we do this -- we do this for each other in America. We don't turn away
from a neighbor in their time of need. Because every one of us knows that what
-- but for the grace of God, there goes us. The American people have never
stopped doing this, even when their government walked away, and walked away it
has from hardworking people, and, yes, from the poor, those who live in
poverty in this country.
For decades, we stopped focusing on those struggles. They didn't register in
political polls, they didn't get us votes and so we stopped talking about
it. I don't know how it started. I don't know when our party began to turn away
from the cause of working people, from the fathers who were working three
jobs literally just to pay the rent, mothers sending their kids to bed wrapped
up in their clothes and in coats because they couldn't afford to pay for heat.
We know that our brothers and sisters have been bullied into believing that
they can't organize and can't put a union in the workplace. Well, in this
campaign, we didn't turn our heads. We looked them square in the eye and we
said, "We see you, we hear you, and we are with you. And we will never forget
you." And I have a feeling that if the leaders of our great Democratic Party
continue to hear the voices of working people, a proud progressive will occupy
the White House.
Now, I've spoken to both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama. They have both
pledged to me and more importantly through me to America, that they will make
ending poverty central to their campaign for the presidency.
And more importantly, they have pledged to me that as President of the
United States they will make ending poverty and economic inequality central to
their Presidency. This is the cause of my life and I now have their commitment
to engage in this cause.
And I want to say to everyone here, on the way here today, we passed under a
bridge that carried the interstate where 100 to 200 homeless Americans sleep
every night. And we stopped, we got out, we went in and spoke to them.
There was a minister there who comes every morning and feeds the homeless
out of her own pocket. She said she has no money left in her bank account, she
struggles to be able to do it, but she knows it's the moral, just and right
thing to do. And I spoke to some of the people who were there and as I was
leaving, one woman said to me, "You won't forget us, will you? Promise me you
won't forget us." Well, I say to her and I say to all of those who are
struggling in this country, we will never forget you. We will fight for you. We will
stand up for you.
But I want to say this -- I want to say this because it's important. With
all of the injustice that we've seen, I can say this, America's hour of
transformation is upon us. It may be hard to believe when we have bullets flying in
Baghdad and it may be hard to believe when it costs $58 to fill your car up
with gas. It may be hard to believe when your school doesn't have the right
books for your kids. It's hard to speak out for change when you feel like your
voice is not being heard.
But I do hear it. We hear it. This Democratic Party hears you. We hear you,
once again. And we will lift you up with our dream of what's possible.
One America, one America that works for everybody.
One America where struggling towns and factories come back to life because
we finally transformed our economy by ending our dependence on oil.
One America where the men who work the late shift and the women who get up
at dawn to drive a two-hour commute and the young person who closes the store
to save for college. They will be honored for that work. One America where no
child will go to bed hungry because we will finally end the moral shame of 37
million people living in poverty.
One America where every single man, woman and child in this country has
health care.
One America with one public school system that works for all of our children.
One America that finally brings this war in Iraq to an end. And brings our
service members home with the hero's welcome that they have earned and that
they deserve.
Today, I am suspending my campaign for the Democratic nomination for the
Presidency.
But I want to say this to everyone: with Elizabeth, with my family, with my
friends, with all of you and all of your support, this son of a millworker's
gonna be just fine. Our job now is to make certain that America will be fine.
And I want to thank everyone who has worked so hard – all those who have
volunteered, my dedicated campaign staff who have worked absolutely tirelessly
in this campaign.
And I want to say a personal word to those I've seen literally in the last
few days – those I saw in Oklahoma yesterday, in Missouri, last night in
Minnesota – who came to me and said don't forget us. Speak for us. We need your
voice. I want you to know that you almost changed my mind, because I hear your
voice, I feel you, and your cause is our cause. Your country needs you –
every single one of you.
All of you who have been involved in this campaign and this movement for
change and this cause, we need you. It is in our hour of need that your country
needs you. Don't turn away, because we have not just a city of New Orleans to
rebuild. We have an American house to rebuild.
This work goes on. It goes on right here in Musicians' Village. There are
homes to build here, and in neighborhoods all along the Gulf. The work goes on
for the students in crumbling schools just yearning for a chance to get
ahead. It goes on for day care workers, for steel workers risking their lives in
cities all across this country. And the work goes on for two hundred thousand
men and women who wore the uniform of the United States of America, proud
veterans, who go to sleep every night under bridges, or in shelters, or on
grates, just as the people we saw on the way here today. Their cause is our cause.
Their struggle is our struggle. Their dreams are our dreams.
Do not turn away from these great struggles before us. Do not give up on the
causes that we have fought for. Do not walk away from what's possible,
because it's time for all of us, all of us together, to make the two Americas one.
Thank you. God bless you, and let's go to work. Thank you all very much.
**************Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape.
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