Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Just ONE Question...


The word "shocking" is very apt if one realizes that historically, since the Kennedy-Nixon presidential campaign to this date, only two questions were ever raised on poverty during presidential debates. Josh Peck and Chris Scott of the ONE Campaign have sent out e-mails making everyone aware on this. ONE Campaign is encouraging its members and their friends to spread awareness on the magnitude of poverty, by launching the “Just ONE Question” campaign to get the fight against global poverty asked at the 2008 presidential debates

Thinking about it, there were poor nations that have in the past, tried to hide the real plight of their less fortunate countrymen. I can still recall that when international events took place here, two administrations had built high concrete walls on main thoroughfares that the foreign guests were expected to pass through to hide the sorry state of many poor people. True, the image of poor shanties was unsightly, but it also gave an impression that the government was trying to hide the true situation of the nation....many were impoverished and something had to be done about it.

I posted Josh Peck's e-mail below and the link to the petition at http://www.one.org/debates to Jim Lehrer asking him to include issues in the first presidential debate next Friday.

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Dear ONE member,

Two. Only two questions about global poverty have been asked in the history of modern presidential debates, going back to Kennedy-Nixon in 1960. That’s less than 1% of all questions asked.

To change that shockingly low figure, ONE is launching a new campaign to get “Just ONE Question” about the fight against global poverty asked at the 2008 presidential debates.

The first debate at the University of Mississippi at Oxford, Mississippi, will focus on foreign policy and is only 10 days away. Take action now by sending the message below to debate moderator Jim Lehrer. Click the link and we’ll send your message to Mr. Lehrer, urging him to ask Just ONE Question on the fight against global poverty.

At the presidential debate, please ask John McCain and Barack Obama just ONE question about their plans to fight global poverty.

This first debate will happen just one day after world leaders gather at the United Nations in New York for an emergency meeting on the Millennium Development Goals – the global pledge made in 2000 to halve extreme poverty and global disease by 2015.

Meeting those goals will require unprecedented U.S. leadership during the next eight years. For at least four of those years, John McCain or Barack Obama will be our president. It’s up to us to make sure that the issues being discussed at the United Nations in New York are also being raised with Senators Obama and McCain at the debate in Mississippi.

We can’t afford to have another presidential debate that ignores extreme poverty and global disease. Please ask Jim Lehrer for Just ONE Question on global poverty, and we’ll deliver your message to him next week, right when he’s sitting down to decide what he’ll ask the next President of the United States:

Thank you for your voice,

Josh Peck, ONE.org


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