We’ve traveled further west along the border to Deming, New Mexico. While we are in Deming, President Bush is in Milwaukee outlining some of his new energy proposals. One of his proposals is to expand research into smaller, longer-lasting batteries for electric-gas hybird cars, including plug-ins. We think this is a good step, but only in the interum. We believe a more “sustainable” solution is to redesign towns to make them much more walkable and cyclable. This redesign would also provide for accessibility to all the basic “stuff of life” for residents — like it was in towns before the car. Our increased mobility, whether in gas powered, or electric-gas powered, vehicles has added tremendously to the environmental cancer of urban sprawl. What’s more, this increased mobility has added considerably to the breakdown of family and community — as scores of people regularly, and quite literally, speed about the country these days chasing the “American Dream” while leaving family members, friends and neighbors… in the rear view mirror. [For a counter to this current dominant paradigm, see: the Amish.] Note: The Albuquerque Journal carried a story today that posed the question: Can speeding and rolling through a stop sign with kids in your car be considered “child abuse?” Jurors in the case of a man from Framington, New Mexico, said that this adds up to “felony child abuse” for a father who was doing 68 mph in a 35 mph zone with three children in the car. (He also rolled through a stop sign during an alleged, short “slow speed” chase, failed to use a turn signal, and resisted arrest initially.) He was sentenced to seven years in prison. Note 2: Here’s another more sweeping question: Is putting a child in a vehicle that at any moment can be turned into a “death trap” (there are 33,000 highway deaths and many more maimings every year on American highways), constitute “child abuse,” period? I mean, we know we’re putting the child in jeapordy at every turn, literally. Yet we’ve become addicted — and almost hopelessly reliant — on our current transportation modes. So at the very least, does that make it any less right? And at the very worst, are many of us, conceivably, ‘abusing’ our children every day — whether we buckle them up, or not? Note 3: After writing all this, I picked up an El Paso Times last night. A front page story reported on the death of a 23-month-old girl who was struck and killed accidentally as her mother pulled a sport utility vehicle out of their driveway. What if the mother had been pulling out in a bicycle…?
2/21/06
There was a wire service story today that President Bush telephoned President Vincente Fox of Mexico to exchange ideas on “how to stop violence and improve security along the two countries’ mutual borders.” We’re currently down on the southern border where I met with a sheriff’s deputy in Las Cruces, New Mexico over the weekend to discuss border security issues. Jimmy Beasley, who has been with the Sheriff’s Department the past 19 years, said drugs coming across the border are a tremendously big issue. He said it’s not uncommon to stop trucks with a half ton of marijuana, or cocaine, or meth-amphedimines… Beasley said the drug cartels south of the border are powerful and quite networked. And no matter how much there is in the way of security, Beasley said they will find a way to get at least some, if not a lot, of the drugs through. It’s the old: ‘suppy and demand.’ So common sense would indicate we have to find more ways to decrease the demand. One way that is working, in part, is the DARE Programs that are now in some 85% of the school systems nationwide. Sheriff Beaseley has helped coordinate the DARE Program in the Las Cruces schools the past 16 years. He said the curriculum is multi-dimensional and includes such things as teaching students how to develop positive peer groups and make responsible choices around drugs. Note: Deputy Sheriff Jimmy Beasley said it’s not only wrong peer group choices that can lead to drugs. The home environment also can contribute tremendously to a youth using drugs, or not. Beasley said when he first started with DARE, a girl in Kindergarten told him her Daddy had come home drunk the night before “… then stuck a needle in his arm.” Beasley said he was so moved by the story (and others), that he was inspired to make DARE the main thrust of his work.
2/16/06
We’ve come to Las Cruces, New Mexico where my daughter Sarah and I sat in on a workshop at Our Lady of Health Church. Part of the workshop included people talking about how they “…longed to see God’s face.” I said it’s actually not hard to see God’s face. That is, Jesus said whenever we do something for the “least of these,” we do it for Him. So it only stands to reason that we can see God’s face every day — in the face of the poor. Although that’s harder to do in Las Cruces these days. An ordinance was passed several years ago banning the homeless from begging on the streets, etc. What a shame, especially for those sincerely looking for God’s face.
2/15/06
In the inner city of El Paso, Texas, we visited the Annunciation House — a shelter for illegal immigrants. I interveiwed Director Rubin Garcia, who has been with the Annunciation House the past 28 years. He said he is particularly concerned about the growing sentiment in this country against Hispanic immigrants. And he said he’d like to see a lot more dialogue between the cultures, especially because there is so much interdependence of late. He explained after NAFTA, many multi-national companies have gone up on the northern border of Mexico to take advantage of the cheap labor. In turn, the U.S. has become major purchasers of the products from these companies… As an example, Garcia explained there is a huge television manufacturing plant in Mexico (with 70 semi-truck bays). Workers here make 50 cents an hour, $4 for an eight-hour shift. Because of this cheap labor, people in the U.S. are able to purchase a television(s) at, say, “Best Buys” for a mere $200. For someone making $20 an hour in the U.S., it would take them 10 hours to afford the TV. For one of the factory workers in Mexico, it would take them 400 hours to afford the TV. (However, many of their homes (shacks) don’t even have electricity and they are just scrambling to afford the basics in food for their families.) Translated: We are building our lifestyles in the U.S. on the backs of the poor in Mexico (India, China…) The answer (spiritually speaking): Dramatically reduce our lifestyles in the U.S. and just as dramatically fund Third World humanitarian projects — and places like El Paso’s Annunciation House as well — to help those in Mexico (India, China…) become as sustainable as possible. Social justice would demand no less.
2/14/06
I was interviewed by Larry Hiatt, the editor of the Fort Stockton Pioneer newspaper. I said our platform called for amnesty for all illegal immigrants in this country. What’s more, several years ago I researched a program called the Hispanic Council in Eunice, New Mexico. Local people in this border town had set up a grassroots program to help new Hispanic arrivals by doing fundraising to help with higher education. They put on seminars to help people liaison with social service help. They also put on trainings to help new arrivals learn how to start their own businesses, etc. We’d like to see Hispanic Councils all over the country and at the time, I’d told the Hobbs, New Mexico Sun newspaper that we should look at new Hispanic arrivals, not as burdens, but as a tremendous opportunity to help those who are less fortunate. I mean, what a spiritual blessing, huh… Note: Coming into Ft. Stockton (and heading west out of it) the topography is flat, dusty and, well, no man’s / or no woman’s — to be politically correct — land. A person on the street told us that while Ft. Stockton isn’t the end of the earth, “…you can see it from here.”
2/13/06
On the square in Ft. Stockton, Texas, is a plaque that reads: “Dedicated to the pioneer spirit of the 13,176 people of Pecos County to commenmorate the celebration of the Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.”… I recently read part of James Mischner’s: Texas. The Mexicans had been in Texas (it used to be pronounced Tejas) for 300 years before the American ‘pioneers’ came. And the Native Americans had been there a lot longer than that. America’s sheer numbers in pushing into the area to get as much land as posssible would eventally put Texas square in the hands of the U.S. Pioneer spirit? Or unbridled greed?… Should we be ‘celebrating’ that in any way, or should we be urgently trying to figure out as many ways as possbile to make it right, spiritually? Perhaps a first step would be offering amnesty to all the Hispanic illegal immigrants in Texas (and elsewhere). I mean, it was their land before it was ours. The least we could do is offer more access so even more Mexicans could own land in Texas (and elsewhere). And to those who say: “Well, the Mexicans took some of the land form the Native Americans first…” Do two wrongs make a right?
2/11/06
We’ve traveled out of the ‘hurricane zone’ and into west Texas. In Sheffield, Texas, I interviewed rancher Ron Stuard. We are close to the border here, and Stuard said labor is hard to find for, not only his ranch, but ranches throughout the area. He said he personally would be in favor of a program that would, in essence, have Hispanic immigrants get temporary “sponsors.” That is, south of the border there would be a list of names of people willing to work up north. Reciprocally, employers to the north would post jobs. And people would be matched up. Stuard proposed that these workers would then come for a specified period of time (3 months, 6 months, 9 months…), and at the end of the work, the employer would be responsible for getting the worker(s) back to a check point. Stuard added that in the middle part of last century — during World War II when there was a shortage of laborers in the U.S. — there was a Congressional Act passed that set something similar to this up. But it since has been rescinded. Note: Stuard said if he is caught employing illegal immigrants on his ranch, he can be fined up to $10,000.
2/10/06
We traveled further into southern Louisiana where I was interviewed by the Houma Diocese Catholic newspaper. After explaining the Pro-Life part of my platform, I was asked how I differed from “conservative Republicans” on other issues. I said St. Benedict believed we should treat the environment as we do the “sacred vessels of the altar.” I said I believed that too. (We’d actually like to end pollution, altogether.) I said with 24,000 people starving to death worldwide that we’re asking Americans to cut back dramatically on their lifestyles and help much more in the Third World. I said we’re spending millions on “weapons of mass destruction” to keep oursleves safe, while these people starve. And I said I thought that was a social justice travesty… We then headed further into ‘Cajun Country’ where I interviewed Steve Harrington. He said during Hurricane Rita (which hit shortly after Katrina), his Vermilion Parish was totally flooded in swells that were as high as those of Katrina. Steve said right after the storm hit — and before the government got there — some 300 pleasure and fishing boats were scrambled by local people to pick up everyone in their homes. As a result, there were no drownings in Vermilion Parish. “We’re Cajuns. We take care of our own,” Steve smiled. Note: I asked Steve what was the most poignant thing he encountered during Hurricane Rita. He said during the height of the storm, he couldn’t get his dog, a Labrador Retriever, to come in from off the porch. Steve said every time another piece of siding, or a shingle, or whatever… blew off his home, the dog would race into the yard, retrieve it, and bring it back to the porch.
2/9/06
Took a tour of the “Save a Life” crisis pregnancy center in Picayune, Mississippi. Besides counseling for crisis pregnancy and post abortion trauma, the center offers counseling for women who have had miscarriages as well. Director Mary Fowler told me it’s important for women (and men) who have had miscarriages to be able to grieve for the baby. Save a Life also has a sonogram machine and I was shown a poignant, and quite detailed, picture of a 10-week-old baby in the womb. Even at this early an age, there is no mistaking it’s a baby. Over and over as we’ve stopped in these centers, we’ve been told the incidence of abortion decreases dramatically after a woman is able to see a sonogram picture of their baby — and they realize he/she is anything but a “blob of tissue…” We then headed down to New Orleans, driving by the 9th Ward and into the French Quarter area. The devastation continues to amaze us. Yet what amazes us even more is the insistence on having Mardi Gras go on. Billboards around town (including one in front of the Super Dome where there was $140 million in damage) read: “Mardi Gras …let the party begin!” [Southern Louisiana’s The Advocate newspaper carried a story today that read: “Mardi Gras, which always holds a bit of mystery for outsiders with its fun, frolic and debauchery…”] Have we grown that desensitized to sin? At our last stop, a priest said Katrina seemed to be a distinct wake up call — but he wondered how many people were listenning?
2/8/06
I interviewed Frances and Jack Huck in Picayune, Mississippi. Several years ago they converted a free-standing garage on their property into a two bedroom apartment for Frances’s elderly mother and an aunt. It cost $23,000 to covert the garage to a kitchen, two bedrooms and a small living room. (Jack installed all the wiring and put in sheet rock and the doors on his own.) Frances said it was a tremendous blessing having her children living so close to their grandmother and aunt as they grew up. “Also, my mother had loved us growing up, and I wanted to return that.” And Frank added: “God put us here to help each other.” Note: Our platform points out that when Americans think “Social Security,” the first thing that pops into most peoples’ minds is: “the Fund.” Our belief is that Social Security should be about an elderly person feeling as ‘secure’ as possible in their family, their neighborhood and their community — emotionally, physically, financially… And the Hucks in Picayune, Mississippi, provide an absolutely excellent, grassroots example of this.