Vote for Joe

We’ve spent the last week in the San Joaquin Valley in California campaigning and looking at farm worker issues… In Keene, California, we stopped at the National Ceaser Chavez Center. I met with Douglas Blaylock who administers the Robrt F. Kennedy Farm Workers Medical Plan. While a good plan (medical, dental, vision, prescription drugs…), Mr. Blaylock said only 2% of the farm workers (some 5,500 people) are insured under the plan. Among the top medical issues for farm workers are asthma and cancer from being exposed to all the toxic chemicals (herbacides, pestacides…) currently being applied to the fields. Mr. Blaylock said “cancer clusters” were being found among farm workers and their families in various places throughout the Valley. Another excellent reason to “grow organic…” In Arvin, California, a dusty farm town just south of Bakersfield, we learned a good number of farm worker families live two or three families to quite tiny houses and trailers — as farmers scrape to get a foothold in this country, or scrimp in order to send money back to relatives living in abject poverty in Mexico. While in Arvin, I met with Fr. Lucas Azpericueda who is personal friends with Vincente Fox, the current leader of Mexico. Prior to becoming president of Mexico, Fox was the head of the Mexican State of Guanaguata. Fr. Lucas said Fox helped transform this State to one where there were many jobs, good education, adequate housing… Fr. Lucas said a key to immigration issues here is to help each state in Mexico become as sustainable as possible. Common sense is most people don’t want to leave family, neighborhood, culture… unless, of course: because their children are hungry and there is no hope where they are… While in Bakersfield, the Bakersfield Californian newspaper ran a piece about some students from Loyola Marymount, a small, private Catholic college in Los Angeles, spending their Spring break in nearby Lamont, California. The students stayed in small homes with farm worker host families and spent some time working in the fields. The article explained one day the students went to an orange grove where they picked part of the day, then knocked off early. They were exhausted, according to the article. Yvonne Garcia, a 20-year-old political science major said she was troubled knowing the host family had to keep picking, not only that day, but into the future. “That brought up the question of why them and not us, and what’s the difference,” Garcia said, then trailed off: “I don’t know…” Note: I, on the other hand, believe I do know ‘what’s the difference.’ That is, these Loyola Marymount students probably grew up, for the most part, in quite a lot of privelege out in the suburbs. Their parents, most likely, weren’t willing to sacrifice their comfort much to bring real social justice, and solid systemic change, to help these farm workers have every advantage possible. (The parents, for the most part, just bought the oranges at the cheapest price possible in the grocery stores, and maybe kicked in a few bucks for the poor at church every once in awhile.) As a result, these children probably grew up without any real social justice models to speak of. Coming out of this insular suburban mileau, of course the youth are going to be perplexed about the deplorable conditions and causes when they see abject poverty up close for the first time. Being uninformed about this is not necessarily their fault. However, once they know. And for that matter, once we all know, then we become spiritually charged, not to so much to spend a lot of time philisophically ruminating about the ‘us vs. them’ question in the cloister of our suburban comfort, as to tangibly mobilize (and sacrifice) to do as many things as possible to help the farm workers (and all the other marginalized)– including changing the system… Ways to help immediately would be, for instance, to go to the The Ceasar E Chavez Foundation or Chavez National Center websites to find out ways to donate, or get involved on other activist levels… Another suggestion would be to, say, put aside an extra $10, $20, $50… every week you buy produce. Then donate it, for instance, to a church in the San Joaquin Valley that’s doing outreach to help the migrant farm workers here.

Recap of the last couple days in the Tehachapi Mountains of California… I gave a talk at St. Malachy Church here and said there is the story of a woman in the Third World who drowned two of her children in the sea — so she didn’t have to watch them slowly starve to death with her. I told the congregation that in the face of this (staggering Third World hunger), to go on with our quite well-off American lifestyles unaffected is a tragic mistake — that could well have eternal ramifications… I also interviewed Tehachapi’s Kelly Rogers for a position paper I’m updating on taxes in the U.S. Rogers has a degree in Economics from the University of California at Berkley. She said the prevailing paradigm in America today is “it’s all about me.” So the politicians develop platforms that reflect: “it’s all about you,” she continued. As a result, lawmakers propose multitudes of tax loopholes and exemptions to benefit their (often already well-off) constituents. Rogers said it should be viewed as a privilege to fund Government services to help the poor and disadvantaged, to help the environment, and so on. And she exhorts people to consider forgoing all the loopholes and exemptions… Another problem that has arisen out of all this legislation is the current almost mind-boggling complexity of the Tax Code. The Tax Law has grown from 11,400 words in 1913 to 7 million words today! There are at least 480 different tax forms. And even the easiest form, the 1040E, has 33 pages of instructions — all in fine print. What’s more, American taxpayers spend $200 billion and 5.4 billion hours working to comply with Federal taxes each year. Note: In downtown Tehachapi there’s a German bakery that sells a t-shirt that reads: “A grouchy German is a Saur Kraut.” And contemplating the absolute leviathan the Tax Code has become, it is enough to make anyone grouchy. (Sorry.)

We’re in Tehachapi, California, some 4,000 ft above sea level in the Tehachapi Mountains. Today while out jogging on Hwy 202, I was stopped by the scene of a white cross and some flowers by the side of the road. On the cross it said: “Daddy.” Below was a stick-on heart with the words: “I had a good Valentine’s Day this year Dad. I’m thinking about you…” Apparently this girl comes here to where her Dad was killed on the road to leave him regular messages about the events of her life. How tragic that we’ve set up a transportation system in America that is so dangerous (33,000 deaths a year on American roads). I couldn’t help but wonder how many children are growing up without ‘Daddys,’ without ‘Mommys,’ to share the moments of their lives because we’ve, without a lot of prayerful thought or discernment, simply wanted to be more mobile. And we often drive by these roadside crosses with hardly a thought — unless of course it’s happened to one of our ‘Daddys,’ or relatives, or friends… Note: Interesting timing… a bicycling enthusiast from Louisville, Kentucky, had e-mailed me yesterday. He liked that we advocate for much more bicycling in the country and he wrote that for him personally bicycling was good for his health, good for the environment, a more responsible, and frugal, purchase… What’s more, with greenhouse gas and carcinongen emissions from cars, the potential for fatal accidents, and so on… this man wondered: W.W.J.D.? That is: “What Would Jesus Drive?”… And more interesting (and tragic) timing… The day after I wrote all this, the Tehachapi News carried a front page article reporting that not more than a quarter mile from the accident site I’d just written about, there had just been another auto accident that claimed two lives and left three others critically injured. Nancy Ramirez (according to the California Highway Patrol) drifted a bit right onto the road’s shoulder, then corrected too far to the left and struck a Caltrans truck head on. Mrs. Ramirez’s 10-year-old daughter was ejected from the car and a third car struck her. She died. The driver of the Caltrans truck, Jackie Ray Aldridge, 51, was pinned behind his steering wheel. He died. Mrs. Ramirez is in critical condition. And her other daughter, Roquel, 6, broke both her legs and suffered a spine injury… Soon, most likely, another cross with another “Daddy” will go up near the accident site. If Mrs. Ramirez doesn’t make it, there will be a cross that says “Mommy.” And yet another that says “Daughter”… Both these accidents happened near the intersection of Hwy 202 and Schout Road. And maybe it’s time we, collectively, ‘SHOUT’ to change the motor vehicle transportation system (to “Walkable Communities,” horse drawn buggies, bicycles, walking…) that is killing us — One Daddy, or Mommy, or daughter… at a time. Note 2: As I mentioned all this during an interview with Carol Holmes, editor of the Tehachapi News, she replied that several days after this last accident — there was yet another vehicular accident in that same location that had involved two children and left one adult, a grandmother, in critical condition.

As we move into Lent, I heard a homily by Fr. Jim Kudilil at St. Francis Church in Mojave, California, that was right on the mark (in my opinion) when it comes to the true nature of “fasting.” Fr. Jim cited Isaah 58: 1-9. From the Living Bible: “…the kind of fast I want is that you stop oppressing those who work for you and treat them fairly… I want you to share your food with the hungry and bring right into your homes those who are helpless, poor and desolate. Clothe those who are cold…” Fr. Jim said it is on these kinds of things that people will be judged by God… In a talk after Mass, I elaborated on this theme by saying our platform called for “Preferential Option for the Poor.” And I exhorted the congregation members to “fast” their lifestyles in America (way less purchases, way less driving, way less energy use…), and funnel the savings into the Third World where there are millions of people living in continual hunger, without adequate shelter, clothes, medicine… (All the things the Isaah passage talks about.) I ended by saying I seriously doubted whether God, at the Final Judgement, was going to be all that concerned about whether we gave up chocolate for Lent or not. Note: Our campaign continually asks Americans to use way less energy in the form of (heat, air-conditioning, unecessary lighting…). Most Americans are tremendously gluttonous in this area. Our belief is that we should dramatically decrease our energy demand and provide for the rest of our energy needs with clean, renewable sources like sun, water (wave action) and wind. Driving to the church tonight on Hwy 14, we went by a series of large “wind farms” with hundreds of wind turbines that generate some of this clean energy. Later tonight I read the following in an Associated Press article: “Reversing decades of U.S. policy, President George W. Bush ushered India into the world’s exclusive nuclear club Thursday with a landmark agreement to share nuclear reactors, fuel and expertise with this energy-starved nation…” Our “Energy Policy” position paper notes we are adamantly against the use of nuclear power. For instance, the paper cites that the explosion at the Chernobyle Nuclear Power Plant in the former USSR released radiation comprable to: the detenation of all nuclear tests, ever. This is according to Dr. Vladimir Chernousenko, who is the former head of the Ukranian Academy of Science and lead investigator to the Chernobyl Clean-Up. The radioactive fall-out spread through Russia and much of Europe. And it’s anybody’s guess how much cancer, new born deformity, and so on, will result over the generations. (America came dangerously close to the same thing with Three Mile Island. And we are still sorting through all the pysiological ripples to the “Hanford Down Winders” caused by “controlled releases” of radiation from the Hanford Nuclear Power Plant in the state of Washington in the 1950s and 60s.) Coupled with all this, we are about to bury huge amounts of high level radioactive waste in Yucca Mountain in Nevada — for future generations to have to worry about… As concisely as possible, this is: ‘nuclear madness.’ What I believe we should be doing is sharing our expertise with India (and a whole lot of other countries) around developing wind turbine farms, and the like. I mean when it comes to environmental stewardship, it just makes way more sense, common sense.

An Associated Press article last week reported on a missile that blasted more than 100 miles into the atmosphere from Alaska’s Kodiak Island in the first of several tests planned this year for the National Missile Defense System. It is a ballistic interceptor intended to head off a nuclear missile fired by another country. We’re spending billions of dollars on all this to be more protected in America. Meanwhile, thousands of little chilldren starve to death every day in Biafra, Ethiopia, the Sudan… What if we took the billions of dollars we’re spending defending our lives, and used it to save the lives of these little Third World children? Would God look at this as offering to: “lay down one’s life for another.” Wouldn’t that be a ticket to eternity in Heaven, whether a foreign missile ever launched toward us, or not. But if we continue to choose to spend the billions in an attempt to stay safe in this world, and those little children keep dying… Where might that be a ticket to in eternity? Hint: While it begins with H, it’s not Heaven. Another hint: It’s a place that’s probably a lot hotter than, oh, the center of a nuclear bomb explosion. Note: As I write this, I’m in Rosemond, California, just west of Edwards Air Force Base. While we were in Lancaster, California (just south of here), yesterday, we observed a number of elaborate downtown murals with the portraits of test pilots and their planes in the backgrounds. (They did the testing on these supersonic fighter jets, and the like, at Edwards.) Seeing all this, I couldn’t help but think about all the wasted technological smarts and hours that went into the development of all these planes when we could have — just been sacrificing and praying the Rosary.) In 1917, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to some children at Fatima, Portugal, and said to avert World War I and World War II — during which a lot of these planes were developed — mankind was to sacrifice and “pray the Rosary daily for world peace.” Not enough people did. Our Lady’s predictions came true. Funny (in a tragic sense), in walking into the Rosemond Library, there is a highly-creative bronze sculpture of a young boy in overalls running and holding a model plane aloft, characterizing the military aeronautical ethos around here. Above the boy, is a huge picture of a black Stealth fighter in flight. I couldn’t help but think what might have been much more spiritually significant for this generation, and the ones to come in these parts (and all over the world), would have been this same bronzed boy, not running, but on his knees: praying the Rosary — to avert World War III.