We’ve headed into Iowa, where we stopped in Newton. There I interviewed Fr. Ernie Braida who has helped coordinate a Sister Church program with a church in El Salvador. He said they regularly send parishioners (including medical personnel) to help with food, shelter, solar power applications, water purification systems… At the Newton newspaper, I told a reporter that one of the major problems in America is: “the breakdown of the nuclear family.” I said youth are growing up with parents on a fast track with little time for them. As a result they grow up angry, and violence increases in the country. Or they grow up feeling empty inside, so they turn to drugs, sex, compulsive eating, workaholism… to fill the voids. And we have a society saturated with all that right now, I added… We then went to Grinell, Iowa where I talked with Bill Olson, who is the National Secretary for the National Lawyers Association. He said in 1992, the American Bar Association officially took a pro-Choice stance. As a result, a group of Pro-Life lawyers formed the National Lawyers Association. Olson said he is currently working with some Catholic Church leaders on such questions as the ethics of couples adopting embryos that have already been frozen, and so on… Afterwards, I was interviewed by Grinnel’s newspaper. The reporter asked me about solutions for rural poverty. I said we’d like to see a shift to many more small family farms, using sustainable agricultural practices (organic, small technology, etc.) to impact some of this poverty. With more farms, there will be more people working, more connectedness to the land from generation to generation, and so on. I also explained to the reporter that we had just learned about the Center for Rural Affairs in Lyons, Nebraska, that serves as a sort of ‘business incubator’ for those wanting help starting a small family farm in, say, a niche market… We then headed east into Illinois, still along Hwy 80. We stopped first in Geneseo where I gave an impromptu, short talk to a group at St. Malachy’s Church there. I said we stood for: Life, more social justice, sound environmental stewardship… Afterward, I was interviewed by Geneseo’s newspaper. The reporter asked what the most rewarding thing has been about campaigning. I said: “planting seeds.” As an example, I said we had talked to a youth group in Oklahoma City about abject poverty on some of the Native American Reservations. Several weeks later we got an e-mail from the youth group leader saying because of the talk, the youth had committed to spending two weeks helping on one of the poorest Reservations in New Mexico. “So we get a policy enacted long before we ever get to D.C., and who knows how far it ripples out from there,” I said… We then went to Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Silvis, Illinois. Pulling up, one is rather graphically greeted with a yard full ofsmall, white crosses and a sign that says there are 4,400 abortions a day in America. Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Fr. Logan refers to abortion as: “terrorism.” I agree. Later that day, I was interviewed by the local CBS News affiliate here. I said Liz and I were running as “concerned parents.” And what we were most concerned about was mounting drugs on the street, sex in the media, violence (including to the unborn, I said). Note: Our Lady of Guadalupe Church has 24/7 Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Among the parishioners I talked with, they said there seemed a tremendous outpouring of grace as a result.