Vote for Joe

We did a “whistle-stop” event in front of a historic diner in downtown Edinboro, Pennsylvania today on Rte. 6. The event had a new feature today, a small bull horn we’d picked up at a garage sale for 3 bucks. Our six-year-old Joseph loved that. “Can I use it Dad, really!” We might have lost some votes today, but Joseph had fun — screaming. Afterward we had a press conference, or sorts, in the “average Joe” mobile with reporters from the Meadville Tribune and Erie Times-News. I said the night before I had attended a small faith community meeting at Our Lady of the Lake Church here. The group has done a number of outreach projects and most recently they are fasting meals, desserts, etc., and putting the savings in a fund for the “Kid’s Cafe” in the inner city of Erie Pennsylvania, just north of here. One of the group members, Jerry Caler, who made the Olympic Trials as a gymnist in 1964, has volunteered at the Kid’s Cafe. He said perhaps the most poignant thing he’s heard there is a youth saying: “Before I started coming down here, I didn’t know you were supposed to eat three times a day.”

In Decature, Indiana (pop. 9,000) we met with Judge Jim Heimann and his family. Judge Heimann has been on the bench the pat 14 years here, having run for office twice, literally. He said during his campaigns he has knocked on every door in his district, actually running from door-to-door in a black suit, and matching black pair of tennis shoes. Judge Heimann is a Democrat who has a strong pro-life stance and an empathy for social justice issues — as do his children. Kyle and Amber, for instance as students at Purdue University, have been to Haiti on mission trips several times as part of a church twinning project. Amber said she was particularly impacted by the stark poverty. Amber’s college major is Child Health, and she said she was tremendously saddened to see the malnutrition and disease in the young children in Haiti because of, primarily, lack of food and medicine. Kyle had also recently returned from Juarez, Mexico where he helped build a home for a homeless family there. During a talk show on Decatur’s local radio station, I said it is young adults like Amber and Kyle, who are continually looking beyond themselves, who are the hope for America, and part of the hope for the world. And it is families like the Heimanns that should be models for all families — if we want the kind of country we think God would intend. Incidentally, Kyle is also a musician and, as a donation, is currently working on an “average Joe” theme song that I recently wrote. One line: “Shipshewana, don’t you wanna… vote for Joe!” Stay tuned.

Earlier in the week, I gave a short talk at St. Mary’s Church in Salina. I noted that St. Mary’s Social Concerns Commission cites a 1995 Catholic Bishops Pastoral Message that read: “The pursuit of economic justice is not an option or add-on for Catholics; it is part of who we are and what we believe.” In that spirit, later in the day I told the Northwestern Kansas Register newspaper (of the diocese of Salina) that we ask a majority of Americans to consider cutting back on their lifestyles tremendously (less energy use, less clothes, smaller cars, house sharing…) and use the savings to help more in the Third World and the inner cities of America. The editor of the newspaper is Msgr. R. M. Menard. He’s 92. Yet when I walked in the office he was banging away on the keyboard like a new cub reporter. The keyboard of an old, grey manual Royal typewriter. I asked him about that, and he said: “I’ve just always done it this way.”

We stopped at the Prairie Museum of Art & History where there was a special display this day titled: “Bleeding Kansas.” Prior to the Civil War, there were tremendous riffs all over the state over slavery. Some factions were “Free,” the others were “Slave.” Kansas evolved into a tinder box which helped spark the Civil War, and ultimately, the abolition of slavery. But slavery still exists, I told a reporter from the Colby Free Press after touring the museum. I said little, inner city Black (White, Hispanic…) children are “slaves” to a cycle that, for the most part, keeps them in a “poverty loop.” And I said our platform asks people living comfortably in the suburbs and small town America to roll up their sleeves, go down to the inner city and bring another type of abolition — through creative mentoring programs and stepped up church and social service help.

We stopped in Burlington, Colorado where we visited the quite impressive “Veterans Monument,” adjacent to VFW Post 6491. It was constructed in 2002. An authentic Cobra helicopter, aquired from the Department of Defense, sits atop a pointed pedestal of stainless steel, displaying plaques ot the Veterans Day Prayer, and a plaque to POW’s. The other three sides contain the names of those from the area who have died serving our country. There are currently some 400 names, and there is room (according to a brochure) for 1,200 names. Let’s hope they all don’t get filled in.