Posted on 07/07/2004 2:45:46 PM PDT by Jenya
Running for his son: Teen's death changed Edwards' life
Almost everything John and Elizabeth Edwards have done since the death of their 16-year-old son has been in memory of Wade or influenced by his tragic loss - even the meteoric political career John Edwards [related, bio] began shortly afterward.
Friends have said the importance of Wade's death in the Edwardses' lives cannot be overestimated. John Edwards coached daughter Catharine and Wade in soccer and basketball. In 1995, John and Wade climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania together - the son helping the altitude-sick father make it to the summit. Wade worked at his father's law practice, and wrote a national prize-winning essay about his dream of becoming a lawyer in partnership with his dad.
``There is no adequate way I can express the pride I felt for my son,'' Edwards has written.
All of it ended in April 1996. Wade and a friend were driving to the family's beach house near Wilmington, N.C., when their Jeep veered and rolled over, apparently shoved by a gust of wind for which Wade overcorrected. There was no sign of alcohol or speeding, and Wade was wearing a seatbelt, but he was dead at the scene. Friends have said Edwards, overcome with grief, stopped working for months. Wade's room was untouched for at least two years, even the half-finished bottle of Gatorade on his bedside table.
``You just can't appreciate the pain parents feel until it happens to you,'' David Kirby, Edwards' law partner, told the Raleigh News & Observer.
But it was during this time that, in addition to initiating numerous memorial projects, Edwards decided to pursue his dream of a political career, reportedly deciding life is too short to postpone one's dreams.
Over Wade's grave is a 10-foot sculpture of an angel, cradling a figure that bears the boy's likeness. On the grounds of Broughton High School in Raleigh, the Edwardses built a 120-foot-long sculpture of a comet, with 70 handprints of his classmates. They created a writing contest and endowed a chair at the University of North Carolina law school in his name. They also founded the nonprofit Wade Edwards Learning Lab, an after-school computer center across the street from Wade's school.
Then, at age 48, Elizabeth Edwards decided to have more children with the aid of fertility drugs - Emma Claire in 1998 and in 2000, when Elizabeth was 50, John Atticus. Atticus was the name Wade used in high school Latin class.
Edwards has avoided discussing his son's death and has never allowed it to be used as a campaign theme. But friends have said the tragedy was behind his decision to challenge Republican Sen. Lauch Faircloth in 1998, his first and only campaign before running for president and now vice president in the current election cycle. He had been mulling politics for years, and Wade had urged him to run.
``It was something Wade wanted him to do,'' Elizabeth Edwards told the News & Observer.
it would be ironic if he were hit by a speeding ambulance his father was chasing.
I am getting sick of the Demos using personal tradegies for political gain: Al Gore with his sister and son, Wellstone death, and now Edwards. FDR did not look for sympathy for being a polio victim. This is definately the "Oprahization" of this country. It makes me want to puke.
I was shocked to see those young kids being hustled off to the campaign yesterday. I guess I would be more impressed if Edwards decided to be home to see them grow up, and not miss a moment. Somehow his decision to go for it in politics for himself seems very selfish after having just embarked on fatherhood again.
Then owa friend's son got caincer, and owa neighber's daughter lost her baby, and our cousin got killed in Afghanistan... (sniff sniff)
Then there was the brother of ma sista's cousin carl who lost a leg in Viet Nam, and her great uncle who got blowed up in Korea...
Then in world war II.......
These stories are always a no win for anyone to say something about. But,still it is very sad the way politicians of both parties bring some personal family tragedy into the public eye to perhaps garner the sympathy vote.
I shudder remembering how macabre was Gore's convention speech about his young childs brush with death and how effective it was in creating support and sympathy amongst people who saw it. I was repelled by the use of such a personal tragedy at such an inappropriate public spectacle. Hopefully Mr Edwards is more of a man than Gore was.
BTW, I thought we were not supposed to be interested in his personal life. I guess that's only if the info will hurt his chances at a successful liberal power grab.
"This is really crass, but did he sue Jeep?"
You know what? That is a very good question considering that Edwards is an ambulance chaser.
This is beyond disgusting to pull in the parents' who lost their child vote. The slime! With Edwards' stand on abortion....
Kerry/Wellstone
Apparently Edwards is Algore (same level of experience, same liberal ways, same southern origins) on anti-depressants. He's gonna walk around with that happy face, *..*-eating grin glued on his mug. Tells me that both he and Al are nuts - just different sides of the coin. Neither should be that close to the presidency - ever.
lol
The ONLY reason anyone should run for Vice President is that they, or their advisers, think they would make a good president in case anything should happen.
Running for his dead son makes about as much sense as clinton's reason for being in the White House: He needed it for therapy. Leastwise, that's what some of his friends actually said. And of course Algore was promised the presidency by his daddy.
Gotta wonder how 'rats would respond if a Republican came along and said that he, too, was touched by Wade's untimely passing and because of it decided that he would enter politics to help all the other young Wades out there to hold onto some of their dreams (not to mention earnings)?
Wouldn't be much more crass and cynical than the way we've seen democrats milk sympathy votes over the last few years.
I don't care what your political ambitions or affiliations are, this is an incredibly sad thing for any parent to suffer.
That said, I wonder if the other boy was hurt or killed. I wonder if his parents sued the Edwards family because of their son's negligence.
I am certain this was an accident but how ironic that a man who became a millionaire by cashing in when someone else's accident harmed another person's child.
I can't believe that people as bright as the Edwards did not at some point consider this some sort of karma. Maybe they don't talk about it because of the terms of the settlement with the other family involved.
Obviously, I think this issue must be approached carefully and with sensitivity.
Whats with that? Its already getting on my nerves too.
He must be grinning about his joke of being for the little man with 70 Million in his savings account.
It's not possible to have mercy on such a being.
Was there no one to sue Edwards for his negligent behavior? Where were the agents of the state to come in and seize his other children lest they face the same sort of attitude? And his wife? How could she bear to embrace this man again after his neglect of his children's wellbeing began to result in their deaths?
I think we have to examine this man's life in the most excruciating detail ~ even if we don't have non-existent pictures of him cavorting about under the influence of demon rum ~ and we must be prepared to make the harshest possible judgments based on the most limited bits of evidence.
After all someday he may be in charge of your safety.
What happened to the other child in the car?
How long before this becomes Bushs fault?
Actually, a kid driving around in a jeep gave me pause too. Our kids know they will not get to pick their first car because we'll be buying them safety, not coolness.
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