A few pieces of wood (revised)

After reading this article by Postman I can’t help but to agree and disagree with many of his statements. I somewhat agree when he says that politics is like a show business but I believe that it is up to the individual to further look into candidates running in political campaigns. When Postman talked about people viewing commercials regarding political problems and seeing fast solutions due to the commercials being only 30 seconds long, I believe that if people are truly interested in politics they will take those commercials and look deeper into the problems and the candidates. It’s up to the individual how much they choose to want to learn about candidates. I think Postman needs to consider this as a positive outcome because those who further look into candidates help contribute to the nation’s problems. By understanding these problems then finding a candidate who will help fix these problems helps everyone out as a whole.
I’m very happy that I waited until today to write my blog on Postman’s article because as I’m sure everyone now knows, Democrat John Edwards has dropped out of the presidential race. I know this does not have much to do with Postman’s article but one of the things that Postman says in his writing touches on what I saw today when I was watching Edwards drop out of the running. Just to set the record straight, I do support Edwards and I do believe in a lot of the things that he was and is pushing for to help better the United States. I believe he would have made a good president, but I also believe that he knew that there were two other people ahead of him who the United States would rather support. Making it clear that I do like Edwards I would like to comment on something Postman said in his article and something I saw on TV today. Postman quoted, “if politics is like show business, then the idea is not to pursue excellence, clarity or honesty but to appear as if you are, which is another matter altogether” (Postman 126). When I was watching Edwards step out of the race today I saw something that sort of disturbed me. After he had given his speech, and while the cameras were still rolling, Edwards along with his son (at least I think it was his son) were shown helping put up some wood strips on the porch where he gave his speech. The owner of the porch was a victim of Hurricane Katrina back in 2005, and with what was shown it was clear that the owner’s house was not fully back to normal. Now I know that one of the things that Edwards fights for is getting victims and New Orleans back on their feet. During his speech today he did say a lot about how there are still homeless victims in New Orleans and how he will not forget about them, but I just thought it was kind of a cheap shot to show him put up a few pieces of wood. I personally have gone down south 6 times to help rebuild houses that were hit by Hurricane Katrina and I think that is why I was so disturbed by what I saw. A few pieces of wood are not going to help anything but make Edwards, or as Postman would say, appear to be excellent and honest. The only thing I can hope for is that viewers watched that segment and instead of getting hostile like me at seeing him and his construction skills, hopefully they will see that 29 months later there is still much needed work to be done.
I have attached the video, via youtbue and CNN of Edwards dropping out of the presidential race. Please take notice to the background camera shots and all the commotion of people behind him. Unfortunately I was unable to find any footage of Edwards after his speech there he was shown messing with his “few pieces of wood.” But back in January, believe me the cameras did show him and his little participation. In my opinion Postman would agree that Edwards is displaying exactly what he is talking about in his article.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WxnX_US4Ag