Joan Walsh - Elizabeth Edwards didn't deserve it

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Tuesday, Dec 7, 2010 18:46 ET

Elizabeth Edwards didn't deserve it
She inspired us, even as we watched her stumble
By Joan Walsh

http://www.salon.com/news/elizabeth_edwards/index.html?story=/opinion/walsh/2010/12/07/joan_walsh_elizabeth_edwards



In this March 26, 2007 file photo, Elizabeth Edwards greets audience members after arriving for a speech in Cleveland.

She didn't deserve it. Any of it. But "deserve" is a concept humans invented to pretend life is fair, even when it isn't; even "fair" is one of our fairy tales.

Elizabeth Edwards, dead at 61, didn't deserve to bury her teenage son Wade, or to develop breast cancer after giving birth to two children at 48 and 50. She didn't deserve to have her husband flagrantly cheat on her, fathering a child (he denied for a time) with another woman, and she certainly didn't deserve to be transformed from the conscience of her family -- how many people back in the day thought the wrong Edwards was on the ballot? -- to being the harpy blamed for encouraging her husband's admittedly crazy decision to run for president even after she learned about his tacky, solipsistic affair (thanks, "Game Change!").

I admired Elizabeth Edwards enormously, even after I figured out she wasn't a saint. I watched her use her elbows to slam Hillary Clinton in a long interview with me back in July 2007 that made national news (especially after Matt Drudge distorted what she said with the irresistible headline: "Gender Bender: Wife Edwards Says Hillary 'Behaving Like a Man'").

Of course, she didn't say that, but what she said about Clinton was pretty rough. She empathized with her as a female trailblazer -- both women were lawyers -- but accused Clinton of being a less than adequate advocate for women, because she was intent on seeming "tough." Here's the whole quote:

"When I was a lawyer, I was the first female lawyer many people had ever seen. I had an obligation to my client to do the work right, but I thought constantly about my obligation to the women who came after me. If I didn't do a good job, they wouldn't get a chance to sit where I'm sitting. I think one of the things that make me so completely comfortable with is that keeping that door open to women is actually more a policy of John's than Hillary's."

[RandomThoughts]

1. The book Game change was Psyops.

Not sure if public or private, and never read it, but its release date and media hype was part of a coordinated public opinion campaign. Not sure how 'close' it was to anything accurate.

Not sure if it was pyramid people, or intelligence community, or just private sector, but it was Marketing.


But been watching alot of that stuff happen. :shrug:


I wonder if 'game change' was actually about something else then the news said, never read it, could have been theft based with distortion, like other stuff I been seeing.



I do hope Elizabeth Edwards finds peace and comfort.

[qazplm]

2. we so want to believe there is some sort of karma

out there where the good are rewarded and the bad punished, and yet we don't see a lot of it.

Unfortunately, life is truly amoral, neither fair nor unfair.

BUT we can learn from people like her. The resilience, grace, and optimism she showed is a guide to us all.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

3. That's one of the key ingredients of long-term sanity...letting go of "fair."

Many years ago, when I found myself out of work for the first time, I went to a one-hour session that was held at the local EDD / Unemployment office.

The woman leading the session said "We're going to discuss some resources and give you some tips on finding a job today, but there are only two things that you really need to know. First, life is not fair. Second, adults lie."

I was stunned at the time...who would have expected that at an EDD seminar...but years later, she's still right.

:patriot:

[noel711]

4. "Fair"... another lie they sell us..

In a world where a wonderful, talented, brilliant, and
brilliantly political woman .. who was the real thing,
and an obviously loving mother (who did not parade her
children before the nation on television)...
gets the short shrift dealing with death,
deadly illness and betrayal..

And where the village idiot Sarah Palin gets all the gravy..

unfairness and injustice reign.

And the crap will continue as long as our culture
values style over substance,
and appearance over depth.

You were the real thing, Elizabeth.
You will be missed, but not forgotten.
HOpefully another generation will be inspired
by what you revealed to the world.

You don't need to wear high heels and pencil skirts
and strut a faux feminism to be an icon for women.