We’re back in Ohio to start the next phase of the campaign, and our lives in general. And as we’ve often asked many Americans to consider, we will soon be moving from Bluffton, Ohio to the heart of the inner city in Cleveland, Ohio to help with outreach there — inbetween future campaign tours. With “white flight,” and urban sprawl in general, many have been abandoned, and trapped, in abject poverty loops in the inner cities of America. As a result, children grow up dodging needles, bullets, drugs and hunger — with few to really help them. Note: Some 15 years ago (before all the traveling), I was involved with some outreach to the poor through St. Malachi’s Church. So I know the ropes, a bit.
3/14/05
Heading back to Ohio on I-75, we met Joe and Carole Ellis, who were heading home to Louisville, Kentucky from Oaxaca, Mexico. Each winter they go down to this extremely poor area of Mexico in their small XPlorer motor home, bringing along soccer balls, bicycles, and so on. They said the bicycles are sorely needed there, explaining people often carry 60 to 80 pounds of produce to village markets — over up to 12 miles. The couple also has been volunteering to help build an orphanage in Tlacalula, Mexico. Carole said seeing young children on the streets there, with no parents, really pulls at both her and her husband’s heartstrings.
3/12/05
Picked up a copy of the Valdosta (GA) University “The Spectator” student newspaper. Part of the masthead reads: “Less than the cost of Ramen Noodles… but you can’t eat it.” Obviously written by a “poor college student” whose regular fare is Ramen Noodles, and the like.
3/10/05
Participated in a Discipleship class at St. Edwards Church in Valdosta, Georgia. Deacon David Lasseter facilitated the group and said: “Justice is for those who can’t speak up for themselves. ” He also said he was considering starting a chapter of Amnesty International and said, besides international human rights abuses, there are many in this country who are experiencing human rights violations — including those on death row. Lasseter noted the Catholic Church strongly leans toward being against the death penalty.
3/8/05
Was interviewed by Jasmine Rangel of the Lake City (FL) Reporter. I said the night before I talked to a youth group in her city about worldwide hunger, including that 24,000 people starve to death every day in the world. Our Sarah (my “first assistant”) added: “They (the youth group) were, like, aghast.” Ms. Rangel wrote that down. I also told Ms. Rangel that we are “left of the Green Party” when it comes to environmental issues because we think it’s our responsibility to be the best environmental stewards possible.
3/7/05
Gave a talk to Clare Teixeira’s youth group at Epiphany Catholic Church in Lake City, Florida. I said when people are on the verge of starving to death, they get distended stomachs because without protein in their systems, the body starts feeding on the muscles, including the ones holding the stomach in. These quite well fed American youth were, for the most part, aghast. I also told them about Morning Star Fishermen, a “fish farm” project we’d just researched in Dade City, Florida. Morning Star is a teaching facility that brings up people from South America to learn how to get these fish farms going in their own villages — so not as many people have to starve. After hearing about all this, the youth committed to doing a fundraiser to help Morning Star.
3/4/05
Met with Teresa Walsh in San Antonia, Florida. For ten years, their family put up her mother and father in an ‘grandparents suite’ in their ranch style home. (The grandparents lived in a converted basement, with a kitchen and so on.) Teresa said the benefits were: her children got to know their grandparents quite well, they were able to intimately share their faith together; the grandparents sometimes spelled Mom and Dad so they could get periodic breaks…
3/3/05
Today is my 50th birthday. My wife Liz, 38, with her characteristic sensitivity and aplomb, said: “Wow, I didn’t realize how old this was going to make me feel.
3/1/05
Toured Morning Star Fisherman, a non-denominational project in the outskirts of Dade City, Florida. Morning Star has developed an excellent teaching “fish farm.” They raise Tilapia here, which reportedly has the highest protein content of any fish in the world. People from South America come here to learn how to set up variations of these fish farms, then go back to their countries to start similar projects — so people in poverty stricken villages can have a steady protein source… Later this day, I gave a talk to a Religion class at St. Leo’s University in St. Leo, Florida. I said we should all be concerned about hunger in the Third World. After talking about this at length, a student asked why “…as a presidential candidate,” I wasn’t talking about things that “directly affect” people in America (social security, crime on American streets…). I responded Third World hunger did directly affect everyone here, because if we fail to significantly help our brothers and sisters living in poverty in the Third World, the gospel message indicates (quite frequently) we might not fare too well on Judgement Day.
2/28/05
The Terri Schiavo case down here continues to get a good deal of national press. (She is a severely brain-damaged woman at Woodside Hospital in Florida whose life hangs in the balance because her former husband is fighting to take her off artificial life support. The contention is that it wasn’t her wish to be kept alive using artificial means.) Anti-euthanasia advocates are up in arms about this case, and euthanasia in general… I called into a rather heated local radio show in Ocala a few days back and said our society has to realize euthanasia, especially with the elderly, actually starts when families, and communities, start pushing the elderly farther and farther out — in retirment communities, then assisted living complexes, then nursing homes… How they are often “pushed out,” I said, is by younger generations no longer esteeming them, or listening to them, or…