I was interviewed by the Piqua (OH) Daily Call newspaper yesterday. The reporter asked if my family’s giving up everything to “follow a dream” had inspired others to follow their dreams? I said: “I hope so.” I also told the reporter that it occured to me that it was an awful knee jerk reaction to start pumping billions of dollars into New Orleans to rebuild right away. I said what would make more sense, I believe, is to allow for a time of considered study, debate, and discernment…. In Sidney, Ohio last night, I interviewed Dan Howk who had worked as an emergency room nurse in Brunswick, Georgia for six years. He said like with the poor who had been left behind in New Orleans, Brunswick has a whole population of poor “whose primary care physician is the: Emergency Room.” And Dan said hospital staff there had seen this from generation to generation… During an interview with the Sidney Daily News today, I said Americans should consider house sharing (two families to a home). You would cut expenses in half on shared appliances, heating, lawn equipment, mortage payments… And some of the savings, hopefully a significant amount of the savings, could go toward ending, oh, things like inner city poverty and world hunger. Note: At Mass at Holy Angels Church in Sidney today, the Gospel reading was about the Apostle Paul exhorting people not to make money (and all it can buy, read: comfort, status, and so on…) their main priority; while making the things of God secondary. Translated: Wouldn’t that mean sacrificing some of our American ‘comfort’ in single family dwellings, as an example, so millions living in abject poverty in the Third World can have at least the bare necessities in shelter, food, clothing? I mean, a third of the Gospel message, for instance, is about helping the poor. So in this case, wouldn’t cutting back on our ‘comfort’ levels in the U.S., to help the poor of the Third World, be: putting the things of God first — as opposed to making money (to purchase ‘comfort’) their main priority? What we spend the most money on, ultimately, indicates our main priority — no matter what we say.
In Piqua, Ohio I interviewed Wendy Wion who has taught at Piqua Junior High School the past 20 years. She was at a training in town today to understand more about the criteria for the “No Child Left Behind” proficiency requirements. She said the standardized requirements have her limited as far as how much creativity she can use in a classroom. She is a language arts teacher, and said she likes to expose her students to wide arrays of literature on a specific topic. (For instance, in the past she used to devote a whole unit to the writings of Anne Frank and other books on the Holocaust, because of it’s historical significance, etc.) However, because of all the criteria now around learning the rudiments of literature (facts, opinions, author’s main intent…) so the students grade well on the standardized tests, Ms. Wion said she has had to limit the Holocaust reading (or other broad band book pursuits) to much shorter periods of time. “There’s so much more I want to show them, give them,” said Ms. Wion… Another concern, said Ms. Wion, is just who is devising these tests, and what criteria they were using to come up with the test questions… In the book: Test Scores and What They Mean, author Howard Lyman writes: “Any time we prepare a test, whether for classroom use or for national distribution, we must decide what items to write, what elements of information to include, what wording to use, etc. Inevitably there is some degree of subjectivity in test-making.” [In other words, what might be deemed a priority in education by some, might not be by others.] And do we want the Federal Government determining this? Or do we want local teachers at local schools with local students, assessing those educational priorities based on the student needs they see, and using their own creativite professionalism to meet those needs? Note: When Piqua librarian Glenn Devers found out I was running for president, he smiled and told me he had been considering running for president himself. If he decides to declare, he said his slogan would be: “GLENN IS GREAT IN 2008!” I asked him if I could use that if he doesn’t run. He smiled again.
We have headed into the interior of Ohio for more campaigning. (After the last presidential election, one should perhpas never overlook Ohio.) And again, we are doing this all without political strategists… In Deleware, Ohio, Bill Edmonds took me on a tour of the Andrews House. Started some 12 years ago, the Andrews House is a big, two-story place that is supported by 12 area churches. During the ’90s, the house provided rooms for runaway youth. It now provides transitional housing for homeless families. In addition, the Andrews House does community meals for those in need and provides extremely low rent office space upstairs for such non-profits as: Big Brothers and Big Sisters; Action for Children; Alzheimer Association… It occurs to me that the networking of these 12 churches to help support all these positive initiatives througout Deleware creates the type of creative synergy which could work in any town. Note: On Sunday at Mass in West Union, Ohio the priest told a joke: A secretary came to the psychiatrist explaining: “There’s a man in the lobby who says he’s invisible.” The psychaitrist replied: “Well, tell him I can’t see him then.”
We have come to southern Ohio to spend the weekend with Sarah and Joseph’s pen friends here. We set tents up in the back yard, and around a fire last night the kids sat rapt as I told them the story of a 20 ft. tall polar bear that has only been spotted once (by none other than me, of course) in Antarctica… I also spent the weekend drafting a postion paper on Social Security, and had a cup of coffee at Peebles, Ohio’s Village Inn Restaurant — home of the “Liar’s Table.” With that polar bear story, I fit right in. Anyway, one of the breakfast items there is: “Noah’s Special.” I couldn’t help but think, like: four eggs, bacon, a large stack of pancakes, toast, oat meal… and anything else you’d eat just before a ratther long ark ride. The waitress told me it actually was: one egg, a sausage, a couple strips of bacon and white toast. I asked why “Noah’s Special?” She said a regular has been coming in for years ordering that exact same breakfast every morning. His name: Noah. Well, of course.
We stopped in Portland, Indiana yesterday where I met with Patty Johnston, Director of the Pregnancy Care Center here — what a dynamo! The center, which is an ecumenical outreach, provides free pregnancy tests; clothing, food, milk, diapers… for moms in crisis pregnancy. When Mrs. Johnston isn’t meeting with people at the center, she is out giving talks all around the county and exhaustively working to get grants. Like the one she recently got for the ‘CPR’ (Creating Positive Relationships) Program, which is a week-long middle school curriculum to teach students about abstinence, with a focus on teaching about the multi-dimensional aspects of relationships (intellectual, social, physical…). And that relationships are not just about sex — which seems, oh, sort of a strong cultural message these days. In an interview with a local radio station in Portland, I said Pro-Life work needs to be ardent and diverse. That is, the abstinence education Mrs. Johnston is promoting should (hopefully) tremendously impact the number of crisis pregnancy — that could end in abortion… Note: Later in the day, I was interviewed by the editor of Portland, Indiana’s newspaper. I told him while we didn’t pander to anyone, I wanted to let the good people of Indiana know that when I got to D.C., one of my first executive orders would be to change the national symbol from an eagle to a: Hoosier. “As soon as I find out what a Hoosier actually is,” I added. He smiled and replied that he thought nobody in Indiana actually knew, “for sure,” what a Hoosier was. (As president, I’m going to get to the bottom of this.)
I was interviewed by columnist Frank Grey of the Ft. Wayne, Indiana Journal Gazette yesterday. He asked a series of rather probing questions about my platform, then he asked: “How have you changed since you started running for president?” It was a question I can’t remember being asked before. After some thought, I told Mr. Grey that being exposed the vast needs of people in the inner cities of America and in the Third World, I had become much more “compassionate,” you can’t help but become more compassionate going, for instance, into a gang war zone on the southside of Chicago and see little children trying to survive. And after observing, up close and personal, other problems around the country (pollution, drugs, violence…), I said I had become more “concerned.” Concerned America is going in the wrong direction in many areas. Note: Hurricane Katrina highlighted the glaring difference between the ‘haves and the have nots’ in society. If Detroit, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Chicago… were flooded the same way, you’d see the same glaring disparity between ‘haves and have nots.’ The short term answer is to raise money to help the New Orleans victims in crisis now. The long term answer is for the ‘haves’ to slow their upward mobility climbs, roll up their sleeves and head into the inner cities to live and dramatically help (volunteer with mentoring programs, volunteer with tutoring programs, volunteer with more comprehensive social service programs, and so on) those stuck in poverty loops — like the ones we so graphically saw left behind in New Orleans.
I was interviewed by the South Bend (Indiana) Tribune. When the editor heard about all our traveling, he said it had always been his dream (in a “Blue Highways” sense) to extensively travel the country. “Although I don’t know if I’d do it the way you’re doing it,” he smiled… The Trib reporter who did the interview asked me about taxes. I said I’d push to abolish the IRS (too complicated and time consuming for the average American); dramatically shrink the Federal Government so we wouldn’t need near as much tax money; and, try to institute a National Sales Tax to cover what Federal costs are left… I also said we were big on social justice issues and had spent time while in South Bend at the Catholic Worker House there. (The Catholic Workers open their home to the poor and try to help them in as many ways as possible.) I said it was my belief that their work quite closely emulates the Gospel message, the way it was written… The reporter noted I was dressed rather casually (khaki’s and plaid shirt — 5 bucks at a thrift store), and asked if I was concerned that I might not fit the ‘presidential image’ that Americans had become accustomed to. I responded that if I say I’m concerned about Third World poverty and I’m spending $300 on a Brooks Brother’s suit and a silk tie — isn’t there a disparity?
The family and I went to Mass at St. Augustine Catholic Church yesterday. The priest said in the old days if a prophet brought a hard message, there was a “shoot the messenger” mentality. However today, the priest said we have a much more civilized way of dealing with hard messages. “We ignore them,” he said. Later in the talk, the priest said that no matter what the circumstances in New Orleans, looting is never ok… Just before the Mass ended, a woman stood up and confronted the priest in front of the congregation. She said while there may have been some inappropriate looting, many in New Orleans “looted” to get basic human needs like water, food, baby formula, diapers… Two other congregation members then rose and confronted the priest about this issue as well. I found that so refreshing. There should be more open dialogue during parts of the service, I believe. In fact, several times I’ve been at services where, when the priest finishes his homily on, say, the Gospel reading, they then open it up for others in the congregation to randomly share their takes as well… Later in the evening, I interviewed Notre Dame students Casey Stanton and Sarah Miller. They are both minoring in Peace Studies at N.D. Some of their classes include: an indepth look at the Israeli/ Palestinian Conflict; Non Violent Social Change (with a focus on Ghandi, Martin Luther King, etc.); and so on. We propose a U.S. Department of Peace and one arm would be trying to inspire more of this kind of study in American high schools and colleges. The more informed people are about these kinds of issues, the better off we’ll be as a society. We, as an electorate, can be so swayed by surface, American politician rhetoric; if we don’t understand the complexities (religious differences, cultural differences, history of an area…) involved in, say, a certain overseas conflict. Note: And it was ‘conflict’ that I generated in South Bend at the Mass at St. Augusinte’s (aka St. A’s). During the prayer intentions, I prayed: “That the enthusiasm generated by Notre Dame football here be redirected into something more important, like: peace building, social justice outreach, Pro-Life work…” There goes a few South Bend votes.
We are in South Bend, Indiana, at the Catholic Worker House here. Actually, this is a cluster of homes where the homeless and others down on their luck are taken in. Run totally on donations, the Catholic worker volunteers here help house and feed the poor. For Catholic Workers, this is not so much an option, as it is a: gospel imperative. Author Jim Wallis (who is also the editor of Sojourner Magazine), says about one-third of the New Testament is devoted to exhortations around helping the poor. That would seem to give us a clue about spiritual priorities.
Driving out of Illinois Friday evening heading toward our next tour route, we got suck in quite a traffic jam as people from Chicago were heading out for the Labor Day Weekend. My wife Liz said in the face of a national crisis like the New Orleans hurricane aftermath, wouldn’t it be refreshing if Americans collectively skipped the weekends at the cottage, or out on the water in their boats, or… stayed home, held prayer services for those affected and sent the savings from what they’d spend on the weekend — to New Orleans. Good thought.