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Dec 5, 2003 John Edwards often comments on the discrimination he witnessed growing up in the 1950s and ’60s in rural North Carolina during his campaign stump speeches. He has stated that he believes in an America where the family you’re born in or the color of your skin never controls your destiny. John Edwards controlled his destiny by being the first in his family to attend college; working his way through school, obtaining a law degree and going on to become a successful attorney and United States Senator. Senator Edwards used his legal education and experience in filing a friend-of-the-court brief, along with 11 other senators, that urged the Supreme Court justices ruling on the University of Michigan’s affirmative action policy to uphold them. The senators argued that affirmative action policies at universities throughout the country play a significant role in remedying racial disparities. The senators' brief was one of more than 60 submitted to the high court in support of the university. Briefs filed by the Bush administration countered those of the senators and others, demanding the justices to declare the policies as unconstitutional. "The president was wrong about equality in America, wrong about the promise of opportunity for all and, according to the Supreme Court, wrong about the law," Senator Edwards said. Imagine these policies as the scaffolding that workers use to repair a building. In repairing institutions’ recruiting practices to include disadvantaged populations, the scaffolding of affirmative action will no longer be needed once the repairs have been made and the system is functioning ideally. To continue to impede minorities in recruiting for employment or education is to allow institutions and corporations to plod along the path to disrepair, which would be a detriment to the very fabric of American society. Society has advanced dramatically since the 1950s and ‘60s, and John Edwards is the natural choice, based on his exemplary life, to lead America closer to its ideal of being that country where color or any other arbitrary criteria would no longer determine one’s destiny. ------------ About the author: Chuck Tyler is a freelance writer and journalist based in South Bend, Indiana. His credits include coverage for the South Bend Tribune (www.SouthBendTribune.com) of a triple homicide trial and a town hall meeting of concerned citizens and local officials for the Herald-Palladium (www.HeraldPalladium.com) following 9/11. Email him at: tyler_1420@yahoo.com Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
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