A front page story ran in Colorado’s Valley Courier newspaper yesterday about the campaign. The story noted we had moved to the inner city of Cleveland to live side-by-side with the poor in order to be of better help… The story also noted that I thought the increased gas prices were actually a “good thing” (There goes some votes, huh.), because it might get people to drive less — which, ultimately, will cut down on greenhouse gas emissions… The day the article ran, I met with Leon Moyer of Alamosa. He rides a little motor scooter (which gets 85 miles per gallon) all around town. He said because the bike is less than 50 ccs, he doesn’t need a license plate or insurance for it. And he doesn’t believe in insurance anyway. “It’s a form of gambling,” he told me. And he added that many churches actually are opposed to: gambling. Fascinating perspective.
We went through Wolf Creek Pass (almost 11,000 ft) on Rte 160 in the Rockies today. (Our motor home wasn’t exactly doing top speeds as we approached the summit. Actually, I had everyone leaning forward, and praying.) Down the other side of the Pass, we stopped at Monte Vista, Colorado, where we did a corner whistle-stop event at noon. We got the banner out: “Average Joe” for president… imagine that!” and passed out flyers to people on the street. The editor of Monte Vista’s newspaper asked me why I was running for president. I told him I believed we had the best platform in regards to where we feel the country needs to go… We then drove into Alamosa, Colorado (pop. 8,370). Note: Tonight we took the kids to Alamosa Park for some playground time and a family walk around the track there. On one of the laps, I saw a Colorado bumper sticker that said: “I hike. Therefore I contemplate.”
We headed further east on Rte. 106 into Pagosa Springs, Colorado, where Fr. Pedro at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church said a college friend’s uncle had a lucrative law practice until 1973, the year abortion was legalized in America. Immediately after the Roe vs Wade decision, the man quit his law practice and began traveling the country trying to organize as many Pro-Life groups as possible. Fr. Pedro said this man undertook: “evangelical poverty”… However, there is not much poverty in Pagosa Springs. The town is primarily an upscale resort area that is currently looking to add an additional 415 homes in the near future. I told a reporter for the Pagosa Sun newspaper that this, like so many forms of urban sprawl around the country, is an absolute cancer that is destroying farm land and adding to global warming exponentially, as people move further and further out, which means they have to drive further and further in… I also said to the reporter that we would ask some of those in Pagosa Springs to forgoe their little “piece of paradise” here, and move into the inner cities of America to help children who are dodging drugs, hunger, bullets. Perhaps, spiritually, this may pay off a lot more in the long run for, not only for these little helpless children; but just as significantly –for those making the decision to help.
In Durango, Colorado, I met with Kathy Darnell who had just returned from a humanitarian aid mission to Uganda. She said the poverty there is unlike almost any form of poverty we have in the U.S. For instance, in the villages she visited in Uganda, many were afflicted with AIDs, and had little food, medicine. They live in huts and sleep on dirt floors, with burlap bags as their beds… At a Bible Study at Sacred Heart Church here later in the day, someone mentioned how “generous” Americans were to other countries. I said we often give out of our excess. Seldom do we really sacrifice. For instance, I asked the group how many of them would consider selling their $200 or $300 beds, and sleep on, say, a Mother Theresa mat. Then, how many would send the balance to Uganda so the people there could have just the basics in food and medicine? The next day, I told reporter Jim Greenhill of The Durango Herald that, “as president,” I would sell the big bed in the Lincoln bedroom, sleep on one of those mats in there, and send the savings to Uganda… In his article: Greenhill wrote: He’s (me) challenging the paradigm that a candidate must be either a donkey or elephant. (Although my wife Liz, at times, sees me as a donkey — or rather, the more slang expression for a donkey.) Note: Greenhill also noted that in our 75,000 miles of traveling, we haven’t campaigned in Hawaii yet. “It’s been hard trying to get an out board motor fitted on the back of the van,” he (me) quipped.
While in Cortez, Colorado, I also interviewed Roland Alksnis, a Vietnam Veteran. He was in the Army and saw a significant amount of fighting in 1972. He said he eventually asked to be discharged. I asked why? He said: “I didn’t want to kill people anymore.” He was given a: “Discharge Under Honorable Conditions.” He was also afflicted with a strong case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. “If you didn’t come out of that (Vietnam) all screwed up, there’s something wrong,” Roland added… We then headed further into the Rockies, toward Durango.
Still heading east on Rte. 160, I gave a talk at the Montelores Catholic Community last night in Cortez, Colorado… Prior to this, I took our Sarah and Joseph to the “Black Shawl Drama” put on by the Cortez Cultural Center. It is a moving reenactment of some of the early days of our country — through Native American eyes… This morning a front page article about the campaign appeared in the Cortez Journal. Staff writer John Krane noted that I was opposed to gay marriage. “A father brings varying traits to parenting, as does a mother,” Schriner said. “For a healthy, well-rounded individual, you need both…” Krane also noted my wife Liz and I are concerned about leaving a world of global warming for our children. So to help, our family home has become a “Kyoto Protocol Home Zone.” That is, we cut the thermostat back in the winter, don’t use air conditioning in the summer, bicycle or walk everywhere locally, use a push mower without an engine to cut the grass… Note: At one point, I even put up a “Kyoto Protocol Home Zone” sign in our front yard — which the neighbors found curious — and Liz found, oh, a bit embarassing… The article also noted that in order to help reverse “white flight,” we had recently moved into Cleveland’s “tough inner city” to help the needy.
We have intersected with Rte 160, our last tour Route on the way back to Ohio. We connected with 160 at it’s beginning near Tuba City, Arizona, just outside of the Hopi Reservation. I stumped with a group of some mostly Native American Boy Scouts, Eagle Scouts and their adult leaders. (They were doing a service project on the grounds of the Church of Latter Day Saints in Tuba City.) One of the leaders said: “Finally, this what I’ve been waiting for: an ‘average Joe’ for president.” Later that evening, I played in a pick-up game of basketball with some Native Americans at St. Jude’s Gymn. The man who organizes the games (three evenings a week), told me it was a good way “to keep some of the guys off the streets…” A good thing, apparently, because the streets in these parts, for one, are top heavy with drunk drivers, said Fr. Jerome Herff in Kayente, Arizona, where a majority of the populace is Navajo. Fr. Herff said in one week he did three funerals, all involving drunk driving incidence… Fr. Herff told me a professional counselor in his congregation did a documentary on transgenerational post traumatic stress in the Navajo Tribe as a result of colonialization. The theory being a beaten people (read: unconscienable “ethnic cleansing” of the Native Americans) internalize the anger, the shame, and turn it inward on themselves, their families. This, in turn, leads to heightenned levels of transgenerational depression, alcoholism, suicide… Fr. Herff also told me he supports the group: “Feminists for Life.” He said the group, which has chapters nationwide, goes into liberal universities like Brown (Ivy League), and so on, to educate young, impressionable students about Life issues — so they just aren’t getting all their information from Pro-Choice groups.
We continued down Highway 95, driving through more desert, more heat (temperatures around 100 today), and into Yuma, Arizona, near the Mexican border. This caps an almost 1,400 mile ‘Hard Ride of 95’ journey for us, and it was now time to head east on our last leg of this tour… In Gila Bend, Arizona later today, I met Chris Kouach. Kouach is from Stockton, California, and a quite active member of the Green Party. He, his wife and their young son had just been visiting San Luis, Arizona — the southern most point on Highway 95, about 20 miles south of Yuma. (Kouach’s wife’s parents live there.) Chris said he has just bought some land in San Luis — to build a library on. Kouach said he hadn’t traveled much in his life, and when he saw the poverty in San Luis (many new immigrants), he was quite moved, and wanted to help. So to help supplement education for new immigrants there, Kouach believed an additional library for the town would help tremendously. And with a Green Party twist, Chris said some of the library shelves will include sections on: the environment; organic farming; small, appropriate technologies…
I interviewed Dr. David Brooks in Blythe, California. He operates Salude (Health) Clinic here. A significant portion of the community here is poor and Dr. Brooks provides his services through Salude Clinic on purely a donation basis. (He established the clinic in 1969.) When asked his motivation, he said he believed it was his spiritual responsibility to help the poor. He’s Catholic.
A recent front page article in The New York Times described the current famine in the country of Niger. Because of drought last year in this country, the second poorest country in the world, one in five young children are currently dying of starvation there, in large part because of “world apathy,” according to the Times article. (The article was accompanied by a graphic, front page picture of a stick-thin, 16 month old child, “Baby Boy Saminou,” who had just succumbed to starvation.)… In Blythe, California, (still along Hwy 95) I interviewed Fr. Anthony from Nigeria, the next country south of Niger in Africa. Fr. Anthony said he has seen such incidence of famine over the years in that part of the world. And he said, perhaps, Americans just simply can’t relate. “If you have not traveled out of the country, your country can seem like the end of the world,” Fr. Anthony said… Note: I couldn’t help but think with modern media, the “Baby Boy Saminou’s” of these times are right at our “gate” — just like Lazarrus the beggar was right at the rich guy’s gate in the gospel parable. It didn’t fare well for the rich guy (read: Hell); and I wonder how it will fare for us Americans as we continue on with our rich (compared to much of the rest of the world) lifestyles — while meanwhile, these little Third World children continue to: die?