Tying up loose ends from the week… At Koinonia Farm in Americus, Georgia, I talked with one of the farm supervisors, Jerry. He said he’d just read in Acres Magazine that GMOs were actually attacking microbes in the ground, destroying much of the fertility of the soil. When you start tinkering with God’s natural design… Koinonia also offers a certified course on: permaculture. This is, in essence, setting up a tiered eco-system, with things like: berry bushes, an organic garden, free-range chickens, small ponds… It is an interwoven habitat that is rich in diversity, food production and so on. I have often said when we get to D.C. we’ll tear out a good deal of the front lawn at the White House and establish a permaculture. As we will ask many Americans to consider doing the same with parts of their lawn… On Rte 19 in southern Georgia, I talked with Tekisha O’quinn, 21. She is a single mom with one young child at home. Ms. O’quinn works at McDonald’s making $170 a week. She was told she wasn’t eligible for Medicaid because she was “…making too much.” I asked her how she was managing and she said she prayed her daughter didn’t get sick… At a Quick Foods about 35 miles down the road on Rte. 19, Victor Hicks and his buddy Herman were sitting at the only table in the store. When Victor heard I was running for president, he said he’d been pondering on why people on food stamps can purchase things like non-nutritional junk food like potato chips and soda pop. I said that was a good point, then promptly told our eight-year-old Jonathan to return the Coca Cola and get an orange juice. Jonathan frowned at “Mr. Victor”… In Tallahassee, Florida, Layton Zeigler pulled up beside us and said he’d noticed one of our campaign signs: Common Man, Common Sense. He said he didn’t want to burst our bubble, but “…there is no common sense in D.C.,” he smiled. I said we’d change that. And so it goes…
an anniversary, 2 Als and, well, Hell
We got to the Gulf Coast on the Florida panhandle on the night of the anniversary of the Deep Water Horizon oil rig explosion. Vigils were being held along the coast from Florida to Louisiana. Earlier in the day, Florida Governor Scott was hop-scotching the panhandle eating seafood and saying the area was again safe for tourists. Meanwhile, National Geographic reported after the spill that while the surface of the water may appear clean, down below an oil plume the size of Manhattan was discovered, along with any number of other plumes. And the phyto-plankton, zoo-plankton and larvae — all rudimentary Gulf eco-building blocks — were in major trouble… In Carabella, Florida, I stumped at the 2 Als Cafe. A father and son both named (that’s right) Al own it. An active member of the Tea Party, who is also a shrimper here, approached me in the cafe and said he didn’t see anyone in the current field of possible Republican presidential candidates being “…electable against Obama.” (By the way, that’s where I come in.) After a bit of general campaign banter at the table that appeared to be the “brain trust” of Carabella, I found myself in a one-on-one conversation with Gene Holstrom, who has an “Old Gospel Station” on the Internet. It is broadcast worldwide. Holstrom, 87, fought in WWII. He said at one point back then he prayed to have God show him just a little bit of what Hell was like. Shortly after, his tank was hit and he ran from it on fire. After running what seemed to be the equivalent of the length of a football field, he dove into a swamp to put the flames out. “That was enough of an example of Hell for me,” he smiled.
Ya think Michelle was in jeapordy…
While all eyes were riveted (sort of) on the Michelle Obama plane landing saga, the ‘almost First Lady’ Liz was in a much more precarious situation today in Tallahassee, Florida. We travel in two camper / campaign vehicles. And over the CB this morning, I heard: “Honey, when I was just turning the wheel, there was a rather loud ‘clunk,’ (using her best NPR Click & Clack ‘clunk’ sound, if you will). Do you think that means anything?” I radioed back for her to stop, then I got in and, after turning the wheel once, determined it was, indeed, a ‘clunk’ sound. And off to Fountain Automotive we drove, slowly. The mechanic there, “Spot,” was able to spot (sorry) that the clunking sound was coming from the frame — which had cracked. Not good, we all agreed, including Spot. (It’s a 1978 vehicle.) Spot, who couldn’t have been more helpful, didn’t have a welder that could do the job, but there was, wouldn’t you know, Tallahassee’s “Portable Welder” Robert Smith, who promptly stopped by and fixed the frame in an hour, including giving our Joseph a welding lesson. While welding, Robert’s arm got burned by a spark. I asked if he was OK? He said he’d had worse. That is, his arm had been scarred with 2nd and 3rd degree burns when a fuel tank blew up during the First Gulf War. The kids were rapt with his stories and afterward we thanked him, not only for fixing the vehicle, but for serving our country. Absolutely fascinating guy. Then it was on to the Gulf Coast this evening for the first anniversary of the Deep Water Horizon oil rig blow out…
they stood firm
We continued further south, stopping at Koinoinia Farm in Americus, Georgia. This was the backwater Selma to Montgomery of the Civil Rights Movement. On this farm in the late ’40s, blacks and whites lived and worked together in community — receiving the same pay. The Ku Klux Klan burned crosses and did drive by shootings. The town ostracized those on the farm. But the community stood firm. Community founder Clarence Jordan wrote a series of books called the Cotton Patch Gospels. The crux of the books was Jesus coming to earth in southern Georgia in the 1940s to confront the issues of the day, including (that’s right) prejudice. Jordan, along with Millard Fuller, were also the co-founders of Habitat for Humanity. Up the street from the farm was a settlement of blacks living in what amounted to a shanty town. People from Koinonia, hammers in hand, set out to help them. From this grew a phenomenal international agency that’s goal is: “To provide adequate housing for everyone in the world.”
Bill, birds and ‘Buford’…
We have launched on our next tour leg… Our first stop was Macon, Georgia — not by design. We got a flat. At Yancey Tires, owner Bill Yancey (calloused greasy hands and a rumpled shirt that read: Bill) said it was, indeed, ‘time for a change’ (some simple common sense) in D.C. His belief: If you’re a lawyer, you’re not allowed to be in Congress. Everything has gotten too complicated, and too convoluted, he added. I underscored that by saying to him that the tax code book in D.C. is now a mind boggling (literally) 15,100 pages long. Written, in part, by (You guessed it.): lawyers… While at Yancey’s, I also checked the condition of our spare tire. It’s mounted on the back. When I took the cover off, I found a bird had built a nest in it over the winter — complete with five fledgling birds! Our Sarah took the birds onto her bed in the back of the camper and became, well, ‘mama bird.’ For several hours, as they perched on her hand, her arm, her shoulder… she tried to get them to eat (cracker crumbs, bread crumbs…), but they weren’t biting, so to speak. When we got to Tobesofkee State Park later in the afternoon, the family consensus was Sarah’s best bet was: worms. She proceeded to find a couple small worms and was trying, again in vain, with these. I mentioned that the mother bird ingests the worm then regurgitates it for their young. Sarah rolled her eyes and said: “I’m not doing that dad!” Eventually we decided to take the birds out by the woods, and wouldn’t you know: they all flew off as natural as if they were, well, birds. An addendum: When I got back to the campaign vehicle, I turned on the radio. The dial happened to be on a local Christian radio station out of Macon. And the first thing I heard was this pastor talking about God “…taking care of the birds of the air.” (Honest.) Note: While at Tobesofkee, I talked with a Bibb County Sheriff (who resembled Buford Pusser, minus the big stick). He said the county has a Sheriff’s Department support program called REACT, which consists of 100 area citizen volunteers. These citizens go about town calling in infractions, help with crowd control at events, aid with water mishaps in the local lake… Part of our crime prevention platform calls for a lot more citizen involvement if we really want our streets to be safer.
“…growth compounding on itself.”
I met with Tevyn East who travels the country putting on a one woman The Affording Hope Project stage performance. The crux of the presentation (combining song, story telling, prayer…) is to explore the links between faith, ecology and the global economy. Ms. East performs with a sense of urgency because of the “environmental crisis that is upon us.” She said she sees the dominant paradigm, “growth compounding on itself,” as the crux of the problem. That is, an almost out of control growth that is profit driven, as opposed to a much saner pace that revolves around providing for the common good. How this would translate, Ms. East said to me, is the establishment of many more small, alternative economies within the context of local community. That is, a premium would again be placed on local production for local consumption, much more of an emphasis on quality craftsmanship as opposed to mechanized assembly line work, and so on. What Ms. East’s performance reflects, in part. is what we believe about the economy as well. That is, we need to establish a “New Economy,” quick.
…a little too violent?
In the last couple weeks, I found myself working out in the free-weight room at the local YMCA with two professional football players. One was Anthony Cannon, who was drafted in the 7th round out of Tulane University and played linebacker for three years for the Detroit Lions, until a bad shoulder injury temporarily ended his career. The other player was another linebacker as well. John McRae played for several years for the New Jersey Bears, a semi-pro team. His career ended with a knee injury. A degenerative injury that has become so bad he sometimes has to have gel inserted with a needle into his knee to keep the bones from rubbing. While talking with Cannon, he said he’s rehabbed his shoulder this last year and has recently signed with the Toronto Argonauts in the Canadian Football League… Now, I used to play football in high school and really loved the sport. Yet how the violence level seems to be escalating of late, it does give one pause. The NFL is, for instance, looking at the frequency of concussions and their long term impact on the brain. Then there’s things like full-paralysis, happening at all levels of the sport (even grade school). Maybe it’s time to take step, or two, back, and come up with a version of the sport that is considerably less violent. Sure, it’s a rush to watch football as it is now. But at what price? Note: Now on to a decidedly less violent sport. Running. My wife Liz ran the Atlanta Publix Half-Marathon this last Sunday. She’s been training pretty intensely over the winter and finished in a respectable: 2 hours and 24 minutes. And while the nation is transfixed on Michelle Obama’s arms, you should see Liz’s calf muscles! (Liz would shoot me if she knew I just wrote that.) Have I mentioned our gun control stance?
interview
I was interviewed for an online magazine recently. I was asked about the budget, taxes, health care, guns… To view the interview, see.
“We want what we want…”
The Japanese scramble to avert a complete meltdown at a nuclear facility today. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant melted down, spewing massive amounts of radiation throughout Russia and Europe. The Deep Water Horizon catastrophe spewed massive amounts of oil throughout the Gulf of Mexico. Then there was the Exon Valdez fiasco in Alaska… I could go on with this, but I think you get the point. We are awash in consequences because of our addiction to fossil fuel and nuclear energy sources. Extrapolated out, we’re addicted to comfort. Many in the U.S. for instance, have central heating, central air-conditioning… and don’t, for a minute, want to feel the least bit ‘uncomfortable’ in our homes. Likewise, we drive practically everywhere now in temperature controlled vehicles because we don’t want to feel ‘uncomfortable’ in the elements, or through physical exertion. Meanwhile we drill more, we erect more nuclear power plants… even in the face of what is becoming these tremendously lethal consequences. Because, as with any addict: “We want what we want when we want it!” Note: I am just finishing up a position paper on transportation, with a special focus on “fossil-fuel driven motorized transportation.” Did you know that we average now about 33,000 road deaths a year in America? That’s like half an airliner going down, every day. And if the latter was happening, do you think for a minute that we’d still be flying? But, well, when you’re “auto-addicted” your denial can be pretty deep. As these cars can be pretty intoxicating.
Nuclear madness
As the drama plays itself out with the Fukushima Nuclear Plant in Japan, it would seem an opportune time to reiterate our campaign’s stance on nuclear energy. It’s an ill-conceived energy solution and our administration would work to nix it. We traveled to Luck, Wisconsin, several years ago and met with Bonnie Urfur who is co-director of the watchdog agency “Nukewatch.” Ms. Urfer, at the time, pointed to the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant meltdown as a prime example of why we shouldn’t use nuclear energy. And here it is repeating itself again, maybe in spades. At what point do we say: “Ok, I get it.” Note: The Obama administration has recently proposed a new generation of 80 nuclear power plants. While part of this is all about doing a ‘bi-partisan dance’ to appease Republican interests, part of it is not. Hopefully we can all rise above partisanship in general for the sake of future generations, not of nuclear power plants, but of people.
