by Katy Knapp
Daily Lobo
Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards said his father had to borrow money to get him out of the hospital when he was born.
"He took me home to a little two-room house in a mill village," he said Tuesday in front of a crowd at Civic Plaza that was rallying for a minimum wage increase in Albuquerque.
Members of the Albuquerque Living Wage Campaign organized the event, and more than 100 people attended.
The Albuquerque Living Wage Campaign is in the middle of a 60-day petition drive to get a minimum wage increase proposal on the Oct. 4 ballot. If passed, minimum wage would increase from $5.15 an hour to $7.50 an hour, with a provision for annual increases based on inflation.
Albuquerque Living Wage Campaign is made up of local organizations including the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.
By July 28, the organization had acquired more than 7,500 signatures, bringing their total to 19,000 signatures - well over the 13,400 signatures needed to get the proposal on the ballot.
This comes after a January 2004 decision that requires business owners in Santa Fe who employ 25 people or more to raise their minimum wage to $8.50 an hour. If passed, Albuquerque business owners with 10 employees or fewer would be exempt.
Maude Hurd, national president of ACORN, said the federal minimum wage of $5.15 is not acceptable for today's standard of living.
"It's a shame, an outrageous shame," she said. "We are the richest country in the world and no one should work for $5.15. Everybody who is working full-time should be paid a living wage."
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Phillip Garcia, a member of UNM's College Republicans, came to the rally to protest ACORN and raising the minimum wage. He interrupted Edwards' speech by holding up signs and chanting, "ACORN's a fraud" before leaving the plaza. He was referring to accusations that the organization registered minors to vote in the 2004 presidential election.
"As far as raising the minimum wage, it would create inflation within the local community," Garcia said. "I'm not sure what impact it would have job-wise. Santa Fe hasn't lost a lot, but the burden would be on the consumers. It just couldn't help the economy."
Perkins said he was not angry with the protesters.
"You can't be mad at someone who is ignorant," Perkins said. "Just let them go three days living off minimum wage."
Attorney General Patricia Madrid spoke at the rally with city councilors Eric Griego, Martin Heinrich and Miguel Gomez.
Edwards has been traveling around the country speaking out against poverty in America, and fueling speculation by some that he plans to run for president in 2008. He told the Washington Post last week that he was planning on touring the country this fall, speaking to college students about poverty issues.
"My hope is to create a movement," he said.
Edwards said his parents were textile-mill workers in a small town in North Carolina.
"We worked hard just like all of you," he said. "Things broke the right way for us, and the Lord knows I've had everything you could ever hope for in this country, but a lot of the people I grew up with- - things didn't break the right way for them."
Edwards said watching people being forced into poverty by being laid off or not being paid enough has inspired him to speak out for a national minimum wage increase.
"In a country of our wealth and our prosperity, to have 36 million people living in poverty isn't complicated," he said. "It's wrong."
