Vote for Joe

Vermont is one of the most “walking friendly” states in the nation, with all sorts of “Yield to Pedestrian” signs about, including in Burlington, Vermont’s biggest city and where we headed next. With people everywhere on the street early this evening and the outdoor cafe tables full, we couldn’t help but think: “Bullhorn Country.” So we got out our $3 garage sale bullhorn, and in the tradition of the old-time campaigns, drove about the downtown slowly and told anybody within earshot (range of about 100 ft.): “VOTE JOE, HE’S THE WAY TO GO!” About the third pass through town, we came across a swank cafe, with outside tables filled primarily with couples. Couples all lost in conversation. That is, they were lost in conversation until the street light adjacent to them turned red and I trained the bull horn toward them: “VOTE JOE…” was all I could get out as people at each respective table jumped, upsetting water glasses and the like. (Our six-year-old Joseph had apparently turned up the volume on the bullhorn before handing it to me.) And there went a few votes…

We met with Fr. Jim Noonan in Shelburne, Vermont today. He grew up in Shelburne, but is now a Mary Knoll missionary in Cambodia. He said in Cambodia 50% of the children are illiterate, and 50% are also malnourished. What’s more, the per capita annual income is a mere $300 there. And many of the children in Cambodia, as is true throughout the Third World, die of what are now considered “prevenatble diseases,” said Fr. Noonan. Fr. Noonan said it’s hard to say we live in a “civilized time” when a majority of the people in developed Western countries carry on with their lifestyles, spend billions on defense, and so on… while these little children are dying by the scores elsewhere.

‘The British were coming’… and they were met by the “Green Mountain Boys,” and others in the Colonial troops, at the hills of Humbardton, Vermont on July 7, 1777. It was the only battle of the American Revolution to be fought totally on Vermont soil. According to literature at the National Historic Site here, the Colonists gave the British “startling exposure to American courage in battle.” We arrived here a week after the annual reenactment of a battle that claimed 580 casualties, 27% of those who fought on both sides. And though we missed the reenactment, looking out over the expansive battlefield today, it was as if you could still almost hear the pitched musket fire of yesteryear.

We got to Utica, New York just in time to watch the “Boilermaker,” the largest 15K (9.3 mile) road race in the country — some 10,000 runners participated today. My son Joseph and I watched most of those runners go by, including two guys dressed like the “Blues Brothers” in sun glasses, suits, ties… and boy were they sweating. These guys were followed closely by a woman wearing a rather loud pink flamingo hat, with the neck and head duly flopping about. And chugging along behind her, at a pace that can best be described as “average,” was a guy who had a t-shirt that said: “Gary: age 58.” Being ‘average,’ and all, Joseph and I cheered particularly loud for him… We then stopped at the Shrine of Kateri Tekakwitha in Fonda, New York. She is one step from becoming a “saint” in the Catholic Church. Of the Mohawk Tribe, she had suffered much persecution because of her Christian faith in the mid-1660s. She also had a quite noted love of God’s creation. So much so, she is often referred to as a patroness for the environment. And it is the environment that many are out of touch with these days I told an agricultural reporter for the nearby The Amsterdam Recorder later this afternoon. I said often the closest many get to nature anymore “…is watching the Weather Channel.”

We headed east stopping at the Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, New York. It was here in 1848 that the first Women’s Rights Convention in U.S. history was held. Some of the issues included the right to vote, property rights, equal education… The National Woman’s Hall of Fame walls here display all kinds of women instrumental in bringing about some of this change: Dorothy Day, a famous Catholic activist, Bessie Coleman (first African American woman pilot — get her license two years before Amelia Aerhart), Sojourner Truth, a nationally reknowned traveling preacher… Amy Worth, a staff member at the Women’s Hall of Fame, said people come year round from all over the world to visit here.