Elizabeth Edwards Meets Some Bloggers

Yesterday afternoon I had the unique experience of listening in on a conversation with Elizabeth Edwards (yes, that Elizabeth Edwards). She was meeting in person with about 20 contributors to Silicon Valley Moms Blog, and some of us from Chicago Moms Blog and DC Metro Moms Blog were able to link in remotely by telephone. And it was clear as soon as she walked into the room that you can’t not like this woman. She’s a strong, appealing person with much still to give in her life. Hell, she doesn’t have to meet with people like us. But she did.

And I’m glad she did, because I’ve been feeling like I want to know more about all the candidates this time around. And because of her I do. You know, it takes a lot of time to be informed. You have to read a lot of articles and listen to a lot of debates and read a lot of websites and platforms. And because she accepted an invitation to talk with our group, I did all those things, and I feel much more informed than I was last week. For example, I didn’t know that John Edwards has a plan to pay for one year of public college for students willing to work a part time job. He woud finance it by restructuring the student loan programs we’ve been hearing about in the news lately.

You can read here how she answered all our questions, and she did so with humor and grace. But it was her final comments that hit me. As a country, she said, “We are on a bad path now.” I couldn’t agree more with that statement. She went on to say that to change directions we need people to engage. Writing a check isn’t enough anymore. “It’s really easy to get more of the same, but no so easy to change things.”

But I think we do have to change things, and we can do that if we all just try a bit harder. She made me see that I can do that.