“This is not about charity, it’s about justice”

Yet another sign of Bono’s global influence: A leading presedential contender is now borrowing one of his catch phrases.

John EdwardsU2 fans who saw John Edwards appear The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last week heard a familiar refrain when Edwards promoted his Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity. At the end of the interview (at 7:28 to be exact), he explains, “This is not about charity, it’s about justice.”

Over the past several months, especially at Live 8, Bono has been quoted with this exact same phrase.

The interview is now online.

Keep an eye out for Hillary Rodham Clinton telling us all to dream out loud. And if John McCain starts talking about watering cans, watch out…

Last 4 posts by atu2 staff

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3 Responses to ““This is not about charity, it’s about justice””

  1. Beth 12 October 2005 at 8:23 am permalink

    Gotta say, it’s more Bono who’s borrowing — the phrase dates back to at least the 80s in leftwing Christian political discourse. But… may it get as wide airplay as possible!

  2. kevhutch 12 October 2005 at 10:08 am permalink

    Interesting, Beth - not surprising that Bono did not invent a phrase that he uses so widely. But he certainly has hijacked it and made it his own: If you google “It’s not about charity, it’s about justice,” nearly every item returned is a Bono quote.

    http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2005-12,GGLD:en&q=%22it%27s+not+about+charity%2C+it%27s+about+justice%22

    So I’m not sure that it’s more Bono who’s borrowing — at least he did a little work to dig up an old phrase. Citing the Google search above, odds are good that Edwards got it directly from Bono.

  3. Beth 12 October 2005 at 10:47 am permalink

    Oh, yeah, Kev, I think Bono has spread awareness of the “not about charity but about justice” distinction around much more than all its previous exponents put together — and I wouldn’t question for a minute Edwards probably heard it from him.

    BTW I didn’t mean I thought Bono went and dug it up… I think he said to himself something like, “what I need is a way to explain why charity isn’t enough here… now what was it those guys who took me to El Salvador kept saying again? Oh, yeah, *I* remember….”