Vote for Joe

Met with George Bartosh in Ocala, Florida. He is originally from Minnesota and had a cabin on, what he swears, is the “Lake Woebogone” story teller Garrison Keillor talks about each week on his Public Radio show. (The actual name of the lake is: Birch Lake, and George said the topographical details and several of the town folk seem to match with what Keillor talks about.)… Fiction (or not) aside, George is retired from Minneapolis Gas and Light Co. He said there is a “Retirement Group” from his company that does regular volunteer work with the Savation Army, Food for Deprived Countries; Habitat for Humanity…

Met with Barbara Fleury, the Youth Ministry Director at Holy Faith Church in Gainseville, Florida. She has her kids working at the local Soup Kitchen, visiting a nearby Catholic Worker house… all to expose them to those in need. She said it is critical that youth who are well off be exposed to those in need to increase their sense of social justice. Later at Mass here, Father Ignatius Plathanam said to follow Jesus is to be: “counter-cultural” (in American society). He talked about the famous Dr. Tom Dooley who renounced a lucrative medical career to work with the poor, as an example.

While in Orange, Texas we also met with Dru Chauffe, who was the “Moderator” (Director) for a 12 state region for the Dominican Laity. The group’s “charism” is to preach in every way possible. Dru said some Dominican laity go the abortion clinics to “preach love.” They “preach” through their service work in the Church. They go to the street corners to “preach love” to the gangs, the prositutes… “So many people don’t know the Lord… we must plant the seed,” said Dru… Incidentally, Dru’s husband Tom is an expert mechanic. And his donation to us this evening was to do some brake work on one of our vans. And he did an absolutely excellent job.

Went to Orange, Texas where we met with Paul and Ruby Mayeux, wonderful couple who are tremendously on fire for God. Several years ago, Paul started the Apostolate Against Pornography (and other public obscenities). He talks in area churches exhorting people to boycott stores that display, for instance, pornagraphic magazines — including stores with such mainstream magazines as Cosmopolitan and others that have, in essence, become ‘pornographic’ as well… Paul and Ruby are also quite active in the Pro-Life Movement and while in Orange, Paul and I were interviewed by the local newspaper — with a primary focus on Pro-Life issues. Paul explained to the reporter that he and Ruby have seven children: “…all gifts from God.” I told the reporter that Paul and Ruby are, indeed, excellent examples of what we call: “extra-mile Americans.” Note: Paul explained to me that he and his wife, in line with Catholic Church teaching, don’t use artificial contraception whatsoever because many can be abortificients, that is they can actually cause an abortion shortly after the embryo is formed. As an addendum, I told a reporter from Beaumont’s newspaper that artificial contraception has also made it a lot easier for people to have affairs, and in that (among a number of other factors), we are seeing a tremendous breakdown of the nuclear family in this country, partly because of this.

We drove further south to Lufkin, Texas where Diboll High School football coach Jimmy Davis attends a Bible study every Thursday morning at Starbuck’s Coffee Shop here. He told me, because of his Christianity, he will never “cuss out or berate a player.”… I then met with the mayor of Oak Grove, Texas who was in Lufkin visiting. Jerry Holder said his most recent political success had been getting a local environmental board to force the clean up of a local “informal junkyard” of cars that were leaking anti-freeze, oil, transmission fluid… I couldn’t help but think when he was talking, that: Cars all over the country leak this stuff on a regular basis, then it rains, and a significant amount of this hazardous fluid gets washed down storm drains — and into the nation’s waterways. In fact, I have several times read that this is a significant form of water pollution that doesn’t get talked about much. Why? Because we love our motor vehicles too much… Later in the day we stood in solidarity with members of “Lufkin for Life” who were picketing in front of a Planned Parenthood site. (They do it twice a week.) Lufkin for Life director Robert Dickmens told me: “Everyday more children are dying. As a Church, we can’t just say: ‘Oh, well.'” Covenant Presbyterian Church pastor Mark O’Neil, who was also out holding a sign this day, told me: “They (people in the abortion industry) are peddlers of death, immorality and promiscuity. Someone has to take a stand.” Later in the afternoon, I told a reporter at Lufkin’s daily newspaper that these protesters were, indeed, examples of “extra-mile Americans” who are willing to stand up vocally for their beliefs… Tonight we met with Paul and Rita O’Reilly. Rita grew up in the oppression of the Pol Pot Regime in Cambodia’s ‘Killing Fields.’ She told tragic stories of life in the work camps there in the early ’70s, and of the U.S. special forces who bravely helped her and some of her people escape. Her father was killed in the war, she lost a five-year-old brother in the escape, and her mother was shot in a refugee camp after the escape. She has since immigrated to the U.S., married Paul and they are both quite active Christians. In fact, Paul, 41, has given up a career and gone back to college to get a degree in Rehabilitation so he can help troubled youth. “I want to help inspire youth to think another way,” said Paul.