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Hello friends and neighbors! This has been a good Thanksgiving break for Ulysses and his family. We've enjoyed a nice visit to the progressive island of peace and learning that is Ithaca, New York. While there is much to give thanks for on a personal basis, I can't help but consider some of the glaring inequities and problems that plague our entire nation. We travelled through Richford, New York, on our way here-- the birthplace of that most famous of Robber Barons, John D. Rockefeller. Now Richford is still mired in a crushing atmosphere of Northern Appalachian rural poverty that is downright shocking. Why didn't any of Rockefeller's wealth make it back to his home village? The answer of course is depressingly simple. Hardly anybody takes any notice of poor folks in a little hillbily enclave like Richford... better to donate money to Cornell University twenty-five miles away. After all, at least there your family name will grace a building used by students likely to go on and prosper after graduation.

John Edwards asks us not to merely drive past the poverty in places like Richford, but to commit ourselves to improving the plight of poor folks in this country. The mainstream media may delight in repeating foolish crap about $400 haircuts, but I think Edwards truly desires to make things better. So today, in addition to thanks for all the bounty so many of us enjoy, maybe we could spare a few moments to consider what reforms we sorely need in this country-- before the suffering of millions can be effectively eased.