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.
1/19/05
We traveled south to Nacogdoches, Texas (the oldest city in Texas). There I met with Sacred Heart Catholic Church youth minister Stephen Watson who told me he was preparing for a “30-hour famine” with the youth at the church. They will drink only water. Later in the day, I told the Daily Sentinel here that while this “famine” among these, for the most part, upper middle class kids won’t emulate the day-in, day-out constant hunger and stress of those in Third World countries, it’s a good step toward helping increase empathy levels for these American youths’ brothers and sisters in other parts of the globe.
1/16/05
We headed west into Longview, Texas where I interviewed Lori Dohanich, who is a religion teacher at St. Mary’s school here. She told me she teaches a unit to 8th graders about social justice issues, focusing specifically on the era of the ’60s when a number of these issues took center stage: civil rights, poverty, the environment… She said she teaches students about “real heroes” like Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, Mother Theresa… And she explains to the youth there is a difference between, say, being a “great athlete and being a person of great character.”… Speaking of great (or sort of great) athletes, however, we did meet Joseph Pipak in Longview, a former pitcher for the old Dallas Eagles minor league team. His claim to fame: He got the famous Stan Musial to ground out to second in the only time he ever faced him. He autographed our childrens’ journals.
1/14/05
We stopped in Marshall, Texas today where I met with Shane Johnson who has established a couple half way houses here for those in drug and alcohol recovery. Called: The Way, it’s a Christian based program that provides in-house meetings and eductional programs, connects residents with jobs in the community, and so on. What’s more, Trinity Episcopal Church here provides a free meal for the residents every week and a doctor at the Church, Dr. Lake Littlejohn, offers his services free to the residents. I told a reporter from Marshall’s newspaper that our campaign believes there should be more help to those in recovery, because with active addiction, domestic violence increases, crime increases, and a whole other constellation of social problems… We also met with Fr. Denzil Vithanage of St. Joseph’s Church here. He is from Sri Lanka, one of the countries most devastated by the recent tsunami. Fr. Denzil, who is an absolute spiritual dynamo, went into action right after he heard the waves had hit — and he has been able to raise $24,000 (so far) in this small Texas town to help the people in his country. Fr. Denzil worked with Mother Thersa before coming to America, and told me being “empathetic” to the plight of others means, not just giving, but psycholigically and physically entering into the sufferings of others. And the plight of those in crisis pregnancy is a top priority at St. Joseph’s here. Among a number of projects, they’ve started a Gabriel Project, which provides financial, emotional and spiritual help to those in crisis pregnancy. The combination of programs here have been so effective, St. Joseph’s was just named the top Pro-Life parish in the diocese.
1/13/05
In Tallulah, Louisiana I met with Darryl Ellerbee, former local caseworker for the Youth Opportunity (YO) Program. A federally funded program, Ellerbee said a $20 million dollar grant was awarded to three parishes (counties) in Louisiana. He said people between the ages of 14 and 21 are offered GED training and scholarship money for technical schools, and so on. Tallulah is one of the poorest areas in Louisiana,and it shows. Half the downtown is boarded up, a quite noticeable amount of the housing around the downtown is, at best, delapidated shacks… We then headed to Monroe, Lousiana, which has it’s share of poverty as well. The St. Vincent de Paul Society has established a “Pharmacy” to help. North East Louisiana Community Pharmacy Board member Cindy Smith told me the community pharmacy distributes medication to low income people. Nurses, techinicians and office people volunteer their time and area doctors donate samples, nursing homes donate unused medication, etc. And speaking of the poor… Later in the day, I told Monroe’s News Star Reporter Christy Futch that 24,000 people starve to death every day in the world, which means we experience a “silent tsunami” every 6 and 1/4th days. Ms. Futch said she found that absolutely “shocking.”
1/10/05
In Vicksburg, Mississippi we talked with Mathew Emory of London, Ontario, who was here visiting the historic battle site. Mathew said in Canada there is a lot less gun violence because guns, simply, aren’t as much a part of the culture there. “If someone makes us really mad, we’ll just bug them to death, or something,” he smiled… We also sat in on a Sunday School Class at Bomar Baptist Church in Vicksburg. The topic: “How to maintain your purity in the current society.” The most predominant suggestion was to either lose the TV altogether, or curtail watching considerably. During a talk I gave to a morality issues graduate class at Bluffton College a couple years ago, I explained that while sitting in a restaurant window booth with your spouse, how many people would turn and intently, and in a prolonged fashion, watch a scantily clad woman, or man, walking down the street? “What kind of visceral reaction would that create in your spouse?” I asked. Yet we’ll think nothing of sitting for hours with, or without, our spouse, intently, and in a quite prolonged fashion, watch scantily clothed women and men through another “window” (read: TV screen) on prime time TV without thinking twice. However unconsciously, anger often grows in a relationships as a result of this. Divorce in society increases…
1/8/05
This week I told the Scott County Times in Forest, Mississippi that the Catholic Rural Life Association has come out with a statement calling for a moratorium on big confinement farms for cattle, chicken and so on. The farm conditions prove tremendously cruel to animals, generate large amounts of pollution run-off, and these progressively bigger farms are driving the small farmers off their land. Forest, Mississippi, by the way, has a huge Tyson Chicken complex that helps drive a lot of the local economy. (There goes a few votes.)… While in the area, I also interviewed Sr. Nona Meyerhofer, site director of the EXCEL program in nearby Morton, Mississippi. Among her many duties, she runs an after school program for Hispanic children to help them keep up with their studies, and with assimilation into the American culture in general… We then headed west to Pearl, Mississippi where I interviewed Jo Haley, 43, in regard to our ongoing study of poverty issues in the South. Mrs. Haley said growing up in Pearl, her father was a share cropper and later a truck driver. Her mother was a deaf mute. For four years they lived in one room in the Russums Motel, “apt. 34,” she remembered. Jo said her and her sister, and mother and father, all slept in the same bed in that room. And she remembers more than a few meals being: a piece of bread, mayonaise, black pepper “…and we’d just think about a tomato,” she lamented. I couldn’t help but wonder how many children were going to bed tonight in the “Delta” area of Mississippi hungry. Then I couldn’t help but wonder why that’s so.
1/7/05
We met with Jo Anne Zettler in Meridian, Mississippi two days ago. She is past director of Mercy Associates. (They are the lay arm of the Sisters of Mercy.) Jo Anne said the Sisters of Mercy go into areas where there are no hospitals and try to establish them, or other supplemental medical services. For instance, she said some of the Sisters of Mercy are working in Mississippi’s Delta region, the poorest in the state. What’s more, unlike a majority of the “snow bird” RVers who come south for enjoyment in the warmer weather each winter, she said one RVing couple from up north come south to the Delta region every winter to work with the Sisters there. In that same volunteering vein, Jo Anne is a wonderful example herself. She was the director of the Associates of Mercy for five years, traveling throughout the 7-state St. Louis Region — while also being the mother of: 10. Jo Anne is an “extra-mile American” in the truest sense of that phrase.
1/6/05
We drove into Green County, Alabama, the poorest county in the country — and it shows. Touring downtown Boligee, Alabama, we saw a grocery, a bank, a mechanic shop and a series of other buildings, all closed. Some reduced to rubble. (The only thing open now is the Post Office.) The small farms, cotton gins, and other industry were once the staple here. But agri-business up north and out west has driven most small farmers off their land here, the industry has gone north and most jobs (which aren’t many) pay little more than minimum wage. Gary Burton, 41, said he is one of the lucky ones, working at a small cedar mill for “pretty good money,” $7.10 an hour. When asked how people got by down here, Gary said: “Dollar Stores.” In Epes, Alabama, just south of Boligee, Debra Bock told us a good number of people from here take a bus 2 and 1/2 hours from here to work at the Tyson Chicken Plant in Forest, Mississippi “for a little over $7 an hour.” She said people will get on the bus at 6:30 p.m., work from 10:15 p.m. to 6:15 a.m., ride another 2 and 1/2 hours home — and do it again the following night. [Meanwhile, many of those who are “advantaged,” comfortably sit back over a chicken dinner and the nightly news — without a social justice thought about it all. What an absolute travesty, not to mention a huge moral failing.]
1/5/05
A front page story about the campaign ran in The Demopolis Times newspaper. Editor Theresa Swope noted I was asking Americans (across the socio-economic board) to “sacrifice.” For instance, the story said I relayed that there was a time in this country when people, all people, lived without air-conditioning. My proposition is we go back to that, and take the savings to help people in the Third World have just the minimum in electricity so they can have, say: light. The Bible exhorts that if we have two coats, and our brother needs one — we give him/her one of the coats. And I have to believe when it comes to energy use in the U.S. versus the Third World, our proposal would represent the spirit of this particular Biblical value in a very tangible way.