Goodbye, John Edwards

Today John Edwards dropped out of the presidential race. I happened to be watching CNN this morning when the "breaking news" aired, and I watched this afternoon as he made his speech in New Orleans. I cried a bit while I watched it; his message and passion about poverty hit home with me, and I am so disappointed that he's no longer in the race. He talked about stopping under an interstate bridge in New Orleans this morning, a bridge where many homeless people sleep at night, and he talked about the people who come there to feed the homeless out of their own pockets-- not because they have the extra money to do so, but because they're sacrificing to meet the needs of others. Out of all the issues that are absolutely important, this issue of poverty and human suffering is the big one for me. Situations like this one break my heart because of the suffering in the lives of so many others, and it fills me with joy to see the love and compassion that some people have.

I am glad to hear that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have agreed to make the poverty issue part of their campaigns and, if either become president, a central part of their administration. I hope they follow through. I'm interested to see what all the candidates have to say tonight in the CNN Republican debate and tomorrow night in the CNN Democratic debate. At this point I'm not supporting any candidate, nor am I in a hurry to-- I have already voted in the primary, thanks to early voting, for John Edwards. I wish he'd had more of a chance.