An article about our campaign ran today in The Dispatch, which covers a good deal of northwestern Illinois. In the article, I said that if I was president now I would take several hurricane displaced families into the White House. And as an addendum, the article also noted that I urged every church in America to take in a displaced family from New Orleans and provide shelter, food, clothing, medicine and funds to rebuild. In addition, I had told the reporter that I’d just heard a priest say every day there is a “silent hurricane” around the world, with 24,000 adults and children starving to death, every day. And we should be mobilizing to help them with as much urgency as we’re trying to respond to the New Orleans crisis… The night before, I gave a talk to the Just Faith Group at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Silvis, Illinois. The group is focused on social justice and is currently reading the book: The Powers That Be. An excerpt reads: My friend Jack Nelson Pallmeyer once found himself walking through the streets of Calcutta, so enraged by the poverty that he wanted to scream at God: “How can you allow such suffering? Then he came to a painful realization: “In the suffering of the poor, God was screaming at me, in fact at all of us, and at our institutions and social systems that cause and perpetuate hunger, poverty and inequality.”
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.
The following is some other highlights from our week in Nebraska… We took the kids to an old Pony Express Station in Gothenburg. The Pony Express was put out of business by: the telegraph. And now it’s: Instant Messaging. When’s it going to stop!… I was then interviewed by the Gothenburg newspaper, explaining we had researched mentoring programs to help in the inner city. Reciprocally, the reporter told me former Nebraska University football coach (and current Nebrasaka state senator) Tom Osborne had developed an extremely affective mentoring program in Nebraska called: Teammates… In Grand Island, Nebraska, I was interviewed by the Publisher of the Hispanic newspaper: Buenos Diaz Nebraska. Oscar Erives asked my position on the southern border. I said we had recetly gone to Juarez, Mexico to look at conditions there (read: abject poverty). That is, families living on $3 a shift factory wages. They live in cobbled together shacks, no electricity and malnourished babies dying from drinking contaminated water. I said my policy would be to mobilize as much help as possible for people south of the border. And if some needed to come here to get help, then my administration would try to make that as easy as possible for them as well… While in Nebraska, my wife Liz interviewed Tobi Chacon, who homeschools her three children and is planning a six week cross cultural immersion trip to Mexico so they can learn more about their father Frank’s heritage, and the Mexican culture in general… Shortly after, we traveled to York, Nebraska where a reporter for the York Times News asked me my take on American agriculture. I said agri-business these days in the U.S. can grow at such volume on huge farms that they can, frequently, undercut small subsistence farmers in Mexico who are selling to the local grocery store. I continued that many see this as a “strong America” that can compete with anyone on the international market. I said I saw this for what I believe it really is: a social justice travesty… We then headed on to Ashland, Nebraska, where we attended a service at the First Congregational Church and a Bible Study afterward. During the service, Rev. Roy Paterik prayed for the political leaders of the country, then added: “And may we as Your church — hold them accountable.” Note: Up the street from First Congregational in Ashland is St. Mary’s Catholic Church. The marquee in front of St. Mary’s read: “You Think It’s Hot Here.”… And to round out the Nebraska experience, we stopped in the Old Town area of Omaha, Nebraska, where we did an afternoon whistle-stop event on the corner of 11th and Howard. During the event, Stqan Stearns stopped by. He’s was in Finance and Accounting for the military, recently retiring after 22 years service. He said the current round of military base closings (as with the prior ones) have quite an affect on local economies. He said while local dollars circulate throughout the community, with local merchants, local people in general, taking a percentage of that dollar; the federal money that comes into a community from military personnel, and so on, often dramtically bolsters the local economy because each dollar is a: “new dollar.”
We headed further east this week on Rte. 80, stopping in North Platte, Nebraska — home of the “Buffalo Bill Museum.” How Bill Cody got the name “Buffalo Bill” is by killing more than 4,000 buffalo during an eight month period of time on the plains here. In my book, a tremendously abhorrent feat. Some of the early settlers would randomly kill huge scores of Buffalo out on the plains here in order to deplete the main food and clothing source of the Native Americans — forcing them elsewhere. (As I’ve mentioned before, we built this country on unconscionable ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the Native Americans, while breaking treaties, stealing land…) Yet, and here’s the thing that’s really an irony: We get all spiritually and patriotically puffed up about how this country was founded on “Christian principle.” Maybe in word. Maybe on paper. But in action?… While in North Platte, I was interviewed by the North Platte Telegraph newspaper. Using the figure 4,000 again, or thereabouts, I said there are about this many abortions a day in the U.S. And I said we believe that has to: stop. Note: Articles the last couple weeks have been centering on the debate about whether to make the “Morning After Pill” available over the counter. Not only would this increase abortions (probably exponentially in the U.S.); but then we couldn’t even accurrately track the number of abortions in America. Translated: Our society is getting more and more morally nuts, almost by the minute. And with fewer and fewer strong voices to object.
We’ve headed into Nebraska where I was interviewed by the Ogallalla newspaper. (I practiced pronouncing the name more than a few times before we got to the town, so I didn’t lose any votes.) During the interview, I told the publisher that we would push for a National Health Care System — like they have in Candada, Denmark, New Zealand… — so there would be equitable health care for all. Sound spiritual principle would beg for that, we believe — especially with 46 million Americans who have no health care at all right now. In tandem, I told the publisher, we would also push for more: Marillac Clinics. Several years ago, we researched the Marillac Clinic in Grand Junction, Colorado. Doctors, nurses, community members who do intake, clerical, janitorial… work, all volunteer time at the clinic so those without health insurance in Grand Junction have a place to go. I told the publisher if you could get these types of clinics going in many towns in America, it would defray some of the additional tax it would take to subsidize a National Health Care System.
An article ran in Sterling, Colorado’s Journal Advocate yesterday about the campaign. It noted that I said to curb greenhouse gas pollution, we need to cut back on consumer purchases. That is, so much energy is used to manufacture products. And as the energy is used, often, greenhouse gasses are emitted from the plant. Now, we can work toward more environmental controls for the plants (which I would be in favor of); but on a grassroots level we can, each of us, cut back on our consumer purchases to help the environment even that much more. (Not to mention, also free up more capital to help with Third World hunger, and the like.) Note: At a store in Sterling, I saw a t-shirt that read: “I Am Nowhere!”
We are now heading diagonally back to Ohio on Hwy 80. I was interviewed by Chris Marcheso of the Fort Morgan (CO) Times yesterday. I told him that a big part of the reason Third World poverty exists is because priests and minisiters in ‘First World Countries’ (America, Canada, many European countries…) are not graphically talking about all the abject poverty in places like Haiti, Uganda, Biafra…, and in tandem, exhorting their congregations to dramatically sacrifice and help much more, because, simply: “nine times out of 10, these (spiritual) leaders are very comfortable themselves and are not motivated to encourage sacrifice.” Note: After a talk I gave at Xavier University during Campaign 2004, I addressed this issue. Afterward, a priest approached me and said Pope John Paul II had said the Western World and the Third World were playing out the gospel parable of: “The rich man and Lazzarus — the beggar at the gate.” The cliff note: The rich man is indifferent to Lazzarus, and the rich man ends up in Hell as a result… Note 2: To contemporize this parable a bit more: Compared to most of the Third World, most of us in America are: “rich” — no matter what our arbitrary American categories say are: “rich, upper middle class, middle class…”
We have finished Rte. 160 in southern Colorado and are heading north. In Pueblo, Colorado, I interviewed a woman whose husband had died two years ago of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (a form of cancer). He had been a “missilier.” That is, he worked in one of the many nuclear missile silos in Montana. And his job, among other things, was to “turn the key and press the buttons” in the case of a nuclear launch. The woman, who asked for anonymity, said of the some 600 missiliers in Montana, during the five years the family was stationed there, there were nine other cases of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, Hodgkins Lymphoma and Cervical Testicular cancer… All, she said, possibly linked to exposure to radiation from the missiles. (And how many more have early stages of these is anyone’s guess, she continued.) She said the military doesn’t have a program for early detection of these cancers in the missiliers.
A few weeks back, I got a case of minor heat stroke and dehydration. In addition, I picked up the flu — as we were going through the desert in Nevada. We don’t use air conditioning in the campaign vehicle, for environmental reasons. And to finish the particular tour route we were on (HWY 95), meant we still had to go south into Arizona, in August. We made a decision to go on, even though my temperature was about 102 or 103… We made it, and shortly after the fever broke… Two days ago, USA Today had a cover story about illegal immigrants making the trek across the desert in Arizona, on foot. According to the article, smugglers drive the immigrants north ot the barb wire fence, cut through it, or climb over it, and enter the desert in Arizona — where summer temperatures reach 115, or higher. They dodge motion sensors, video cameras, helicopters and agents with infrared goggles. If something goes wrong, the “coyotes” think nothing of abandoning these people in the furtherst reaches of the desert, also according to the article… As a result, more and more of these immigrants are dying. The cause of : hypothermia and heat stroke. The article further explained: “As the body temperature soars to 107 degrees, pressure plummets, vital organs fail, victims suffer cramps, nausea, exhaustion. Some strip or go crazy. Ultimately, they just sit down and collapse”… Makes what I went through seem quite minor. And what’s more, many of these people brave all this because: their kids are hungry. How can so many of us, and especially those of us who profess to be spiritual, be so cold to their plight?
While in Alamosa, Colorado, I also met with Brian Benke. He participates in a Community Sponsored Agriculture project here in connection with El Sagrado Farms. People in the area buy “shares” at the beginning of the season ($450 a share). This entitles them to weekly produce from the farm, which is delivered to a centralized location in Alamosa every week. Brian said the farm is totally off the grid with it’s use of wind and solar generated energy. In addition, El Sagrado grows everything organically. (Similar CSA’s have started up all across the country in the past 20 years and is a step toward moving society back to more ‘local production for local consumption.)