We headed west on Rte. 80 to Demopolis, Alabama. There we met with Gala Culpepper (Is that a southern name, or what?), who is a member of the Demopolis Historical Society. She said there is quite a thrust here to preserve history, with a series of renovation projects and historic markers all over town. And as they are trying to preserve history, they are trying to preserve a “simpler” way of life, said Gala. That is, going to work each day, church on Sunday and a “family meal at Grandma’s” on Sunday afternoon” — all wrapped in a slower pace… I then met with St. Leo pastor Michael Wrigley who was a sociology professor at Alabama University until he heard the call to priesthood. He told me he gave up his salary, pension, and so on at age 42, because he said he knew God was calling him in another direction.
12/31/04
We headed into Selma, Alabama — the flash point for the Civil Rights Movement. Local Historian Alston Fitts gave me a tour. Alston explained that the first Civil Rights march from Selma to Montgomery turned into Bloody Sunday, as some 600 (mostly) Black walkers were beaten back by state troopers wielding billy clubs. The TV news cameras were there. And as what many would like to believe was a providential coincidence, the “News Flash” from Selma broke into the showing of the movie The Nuremburg Trials (Nazi Germany) on one of the stations. “People were watching a movie about extreme oppression, and then there was this scene of innocent, non-violent citizens being beaten,” said Alston. Numbers for the next march the next week swelled to 25,000, as people from all over the country came to Selma in solidarity. The march went the 50 miles to Montgomery this time and the eventual result was Lydon Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act… I told the Selma newspaper that the courage demonstrated by these marchers (including Martin Luther King Jr.) should not only never be forgotten, but the American citizenry should be inspired by it as people continue to fight battles for equal rights, peace and social justice throughout the land today.
12/30/04
Was interviewed by Montgomery, Alabama’s newspaper. I told reporter Erica Pippins that we still had “slavery” in this country. That is, Blacks, Whites, etc… are still slaves to inner city poverty loops. And to impact this, significantly impact this, people in the suburbs need to slow their upward mobility climb, roll up their sleeves and head into the inner city to help, really help.
12/28/04
I interviewed Auburn University professor Rene McEldowney today for a position paper on health care. Professor McEldowney is a “Health Care Economist” who has traveled the world researching other countries health care systems. She told me the American privatized system is actually quite wasteful, with some 30% of the budget going to administrative costs, or “paper pushing,” as she put it. Making up some of this “waste” (as opposed to direct care) is: money for advertising, salaries for personnel to deal with insurance companies, lawyers to deal with law suits, CEOs who are making six figures to oversee a lot of this… Meanwhile, in countries like Holland that have gone to socialized medicine (government sponsored), many of these costs are eliminated. The professor, who is a proponent of National Health Care because she sees it as a more efficient, and equitable, system for everyone, told me she saw America, sometime in the future, going to a similar National Health Care plan. And she quoted Winston Churchill in regard to this (and other things). “You can always trust Americans to do the right thing — once they’ve exhausted all the other possibilities.”
12/27/04
Met with St. Bede’s Pastor David Tokarz in Montgomery, Alabama today. He said his church has recently established a Sister Church project with a Black Baptist Church in rural Hayneville, Alabama. It started when First Baptist Church sent out a financial plea for one of it’s congregation members. A mother of three was dying of Aids and the church was trying to move the family in with a grandmother in the area so there was a continuity after the mother passed. The money was needed to build an addition onto the grandmother’s home, and St. Bede’s rallied to help.
12/26/04
In Prattville, Alabama, I met with Gene Brown, Deputy Executive Director of the National Naval Enlisted Reserve Association. He said the biggest Veteran’s issue, in his opinion, is getting more health care benefits for those who have served. His organization supports the Naval Marine Corps and Coast Guard. He said he is quite concerned about recent cuts in Federal funding to help Veterans in general, and would like to see a significant shift back.
12/22/04
We headed south to Clanton, Alabama where we talked with Sr. Marie Dina, pastoral leader of Ressurection Church here. There are many Hispanics connected with the parish that are living below the poverty line. She said, however, the answer is not: “charity.” The answer is: social justice. That is, the gospel would call us not to just throw some short-term money at the poor; but rather the ‘haves’ must work stridently to help the ‘have-nots’ get better education, more mentoring help, more help for people to develop the God given talents they have… so that much more true equality is attained. Note: Sr. Marie is so intent on helping the poor here, she goes without heat in the rectory so the savings can go to help. “I just sleep under a lot of blankets,” she smiled.
12/19/04
Several entries back I wrote about an extremely alarming news report about the Netherlands allowing the killing of some new borns with serious physical maladies. Today in Irvington, Kentucky we met Ray Meredith whose daughter (who is a doctor in St. Louis) has adopted three children from other countries with physical and emotional disabilities. As an extension, Dr. Jennifer Ladage has established and directs the Foreign Adoption Clinic and Education Services (FACES) clinic in St. Louis. A team of doctors here provide medical help for foreign adopted children who are often plagued with malnutrition, dvelopmental problems, infectious diseases… Ray told us his daughter is a Christian and her desire to help primarily eminates from her spirituality. Note: At the Green Valley Restuarant in Irving there is a plaque on the wall that says: “Momma says there is not much to see in a small town, but what you hear makes up for it.”
12/18/04
We’re in Irvington, Kentucky where I met with Pastor Todd Edmundson of Lincoln Trail Christian Church. Pastor Edmundson graduated from Milligan College in Tennessee, and he explained one of the courses there is: “Christ in Culture.” He said professor Phil Kenneson there explains that many people have bought into American cultural beliefs without examining them much against true gospel (id, post_author, post_date, post_content, post_title, post_category, post_excerpt, post_status, comment_status, ping_status, post_password, post_name,to_ping, pinged, post_modified) VALUES. As an example, in a free market economy Pastor Edmundson explained people are oriented toward: productivity, power and a consumer mentality. “The rythm of life is about making your pay check bigger,” said the pastor. Yet the gospel message exhorts us not to chase money, power and material possessions; but rather to seek to be humble and of continual service to others. One translation: The gospel message would say: It’s not about saving for the new car with the better options; but rather about making do with less and taking the additional money to help the poor.
12/14/04
Traveled south to Adams County, Ohio where I talked with Harlen Plummer. He was in the Service for 27 years, is a past Department Commander of the of the local DAV Chapter, and regularly goes to Washington to lobby for better veteran’s benefits. And the benefits he’d like to see most is: more comprehensive ones for veterans returning with MS, TB, cancer… He said some of the cancer, for instance, is being caused by “depleted uranium,” which is used to coat bullets, missiles and other armor piercing munitions. That is, the depleted uranium is radiocative and is not only a threat to the soldiers who are handling it; but to countless civilians in Iraq. At a seminar last year on this, I learned that once one of these “hot” bullets or missiles pierce, say, a tank — the tank becomes radiocative (practically forever, because of the tremendously extended half-life of the uranium). As a result, little children playing on the abandoned tanks in Iraq (as just one example) are exposed to significant doses of radiation. In turn, the cancer rate in Iraq has increased tremendously among the general populace since the first Gulf War when depleted uranium was first used, it was pointed out at the seminar. In addition, as a natural biological progression in the general populace, birth defects have also increased significantly. What a tragic irony: We are currently fighting in Iraq over “weapons of mass destruction” that weren’t there; using, of all things, insidiously slow, long-term versions of weapons of mass destruction.