Montana Moseying Campaign Tour cont: We stood in solidarity with a group protesting in front of an abortion clinic in Billings. (I told the Lewiston-Argus newspaper in Lewiston, Montana, several campaigns back, that as president I’d be protesting abortion on the streets as well.) Afterwards, we met with some of the pro-life group for coffee at the Log Cabin Bakery here. Move over Mr. Lincoln… We then headed southeast through the Crow Reservation, which includes the Little Big Horn Battle site… We got to Sheridan, Wyoming (voted the country’s best “western town”), at sunset. Note: Our Native American position paper was recently featured in a Cengage Learning college text book. Note 2: The Billings Gazette noted that Social Security is now 75 years old. Benefits are currently being paid to 53 million people, with an average monthly pay out of $1,026 a month. The SS Fund is in trouble because, in part, the government has continually borrowed money from the fund to finance various government projects, including waging war, according to a Gazzette op-ed piece. It is our belief, the SS Fund should be a “lock box” that the government can’t borrow from.
Mustangs
We went to a Billings, Montana, Mustang game with some friends. The Mustangs are a farm team of the Cincinnati Reds. (And no, they didn’t ask me to throw out the first pitch. I’m starting to get a complex.) For the first three innings, I walked about the stadium (it seats 3,500) passing out campaign cards. One Mustang fan, tongue-in-cheek, said he just heard that there was a new proposal for term limits. “Congresspeople get two terms. One in Congress — and one in prison,” he laughed, sort of… Earlier in the week, I talked at length with a man in Billings, who used to work for the U.S. Forest Service in Alaska. He said a key to healthy forests is regular selective cutting, to cut down on the intensity, and frequency, of forest fires, insect infestations, and the like. For more on our position on the environment…
right out of Mayberry
Having ended our Roaming Wyoming Campaign Tour, we have embarked on our Moseying in Montana Campaign Tour. (Notice, not only the consonance in ‘Moseying in Montana,’ but the implied western theme as well. And I even do my own speech writing, too.) Anyway… Crossing into Montana on I-120, we stopped first in Belfry, Montana. Belfry High School’s mascot (What else?): a bat. In fact, there’s a big black one, wings extended (the whole thing), hanging ominously in front of the school. In Belfry, I also passed on a campaign card to Earl Black who runs the town’s one-pump service station. It’s a throwback to, say, Mayberry. The services station has a small bay, air for town kids’ bicycles and no snacks inside. Earl said this little “Mom & Pop” station is having trouble anymore competing with nearby truck stops, convenient store gas stations, and the like. I paid for the gas, then offered Earl an extra five dollars — as a donation to help keep him going. Note: We do that periodically at small town “Mom & Pop” places (service stations, hardware stores, barber shops…), because we think it was these small stores, these small family farms, that was once the backbone of America. And should be again. See our position on this…
and they work, and work, and work…
Tying up loose ends from our Roaming Wyoming Campaign Tour… In Cody (as in “Wild Bill Cody”) Wyoming, we attended an Old West Show in the downtown area. While the kids watched the fake gun fight (they do it every weekday night in the summer), Liz walked about in her cowgirl hat, and me in my Cleveland Brown’s cap. passing out campaign cards to the audience. (Given some of my stances, I’m surprised none of the gunfighters aimed at me.) …We then headed north to seven miles before the Montana border on Highway 120. There we toured the Mt. Carmel Boy’s Youth Ranch. Troubled youth (drug and alcohol problems, behavioral problems, et. al…) are sent here by their parents from all over the country. Volunteer “house parents” here, said they had to actually hire a “transporter,” (former DEA agent) to come into their house in Kansas late at night, handcuff their son and transport him here. He had become severely addicted to marijuana and was becoming a threat to his family, the community… After six months of clean living and hard “cowboy work” on the ranch, the son turned things around and is now attending college and doing quite well… Youth Program Director Lester Dumm said that after the youth arrive here, they are stripped of any vestiges of the negative culture they often come from. No earrings, no jewelry, no wearing pants too low, no rock/rap music… Each is issued some cowboy jeans, cowboy shirts, cowboy boots… and a horse. They’re given a short time to learn how to ride (a couple hours), then sent out to the ranch to work, and work, and work… It’s a working ranch in the truest sense, and they learn early on, that they are valuable to the operation. Many of the youth have never had that type of responsibility, said Lester. And it becomes a key to their character development.
“…will carry the baby to term.”
We landed in Cody, Wyoming, as part of our Roaming Wyoming Campaign Tour. While here, I attended a Catholics United for Life meeting. They discussed an upcoming conference they were sponsoring titled: Making sense of In Vitro Fertilization and Embryonic Stem Cell Research. The conference, slated for Oct. 2, will be a look at: “…the “moral, medical and legal issues surrounding reproductive technology and regenerative medicine.” On the moral side, the Catholic Church teaches that embryonic stem cell research is wrong because it is believed life begins at the moment of conception. During the meeting, Rev. Dwayne Borgstrand, from St. Luke’s Anglican Church here, gave a presentation on the proposed new Heart Mountain Crisis Pregnancy Center to be located in Cody. He said figures showed that in the year 2008, there were 134 abortions at the abortion clinic in nearby Billings, Montana: for women with northern Wyoming addresses. Rev. Borgstrand said they were trying to raise funds for a sonogram machine for the center, because these figures show some 85% of women who see a sonogram picture of their child “…will carry the baby to term.”
…where the brave dare not go.
Our Roaming Wyoming Campaign Tour took us further north toward Cody (as in “Buffalo Bill” Cody), Wyoming. But we first stopped in tiny Meeteetse, Wyoming, where I passed out campaign cards in the downtown area. In the Meeteetse Museum there, I also learned that 14 miles to the west on “Pitchfork Ranch,” the Marlboro Man (Remember him?) commercials were filmed for the better part of two years. Unbeknownst to us, not only was the memory of the Marlboro Man lurking here, but someone else was ‘lurking’ here as well (we found out the next day). An escaped convict from an Arizona prison, who may have been involved with killing a couple campers in Yellowstone park during his exodus, was on the lam in Meeteetse the same day we were there. (He was caught by U.S. Marshalls the next morning while still in Meeteetse.) To say we go where other presidential candidates dare not go, would be, well, an understatement.
Gift of Waters…
We headed north out of Lander, Wyoming, stopping first in the town of Riverton on the Wind River Reservation. I passed out some campaign cards in the city park. Some fo the cards went to a group of motorcyclists heading to Sturgis, South Dakota, for the yearly mega-motor cycle rally there. One man, after reading the card, asked me for two more so he could pass them on to “the only two sober guys who will probably be in Sturgis.” …Leaving Riverton, we headed north through a long canyon to Thermopolis, Wyoming (pop. 3,150). This weekend is the 60th Anniversary of the Gift of the Waters (Historical Indian Pageant). This is the commemoration of Chief Washakie and his nation giving the gift of some hot springs in the area to the “white man” as a show of friendship. We entered the Average Joe Mobile in the Saturday morning parade here, passing out a lot of campaign cards along the route to shouts of “Go Joe!”, and the like. We then attended the evening performance of a reenactment of the “Gift of Waters,” complete with colorfully dressed Native American dancers, actors… About halfway through the performance, our seven-year- old, Jonathan, had to go “#1.” But there were no restrooms around. I took him out by the parking lot and positioned him behind a tree, and me. He was doing his thing, if you will, when unexpectedly a couple people appeared and walked right by us in the parking lot. Jonathan turned startled and, well, instead of the tree, my lower left leg was now in his trajectory, if you know what I mean. Apparently, Jonathan’s ‘Gift of Waters’ to me. And so it goes on the campaign trail…
“Now that’s what this country needs.”
We traveled to Lander, Wyoming, as our next stop in our Roaming Wyoming Campaign Tour. There was a “Community Meal” in a downtown grocery store parking lot to celebrate the town pulling together to make it through a recent flood. There were a number of politicians there stumping, including, well, us. Liz and I walked throughout the crowd of some 1,000 people, shaking hands passing out a lot of campaign fliers. As I walked away from one table, after explaining I was simply an “average guy with some common sense from Cleveland, Ohio,” I overheard one man say to the others: “Now, that’s what this country needs.” …While in Lander, I also talked with professor Jason Baxter, who just took a job here with Wyoming Catholic College. (He was formerly a professor at Notre Dame University.) He said students at WCC aren’t allowed television sets, i-pods, video games… Professor Baxter said they are here to study, discuss what they’re studying, and get to know each other. “We’ve become a culture of infinite distraction,” he added. Note: On the way to Lander, we stopped in Lamont, Wyoming (pop. 4), and they were all at the Grandma’s Restaurant when I arrived. If we don’t carry Lamont, I’ll be surprised… We then stopped at Muddy Gap Junction gas station, where I stumped with five Wyoming University College students chillin’ in the back of their hatchback. They were on their way to a mountain biking weekend. We discussed global warming, the economy and immigration. One of the students was from Phoenix and said she was opposed to the new Arizona immigration law because she felt it would lead to, among other things, “racial profiling.” …Inside the store at Muddy Gap, the walls are absolutley filled with all kinds of magic marker writings. After some strategic thinking, I decided to write: “Vote average Joe Schriner for president” — in a blank spot just above the urinal. Once again, we’re doing this all without any paid political consultants.
“Chew on my ideas…”
We traveled west to Rawlins, Wyoming, where we stumped at a Take Back the Night celebration at Bolton Park. Liz, the kids and I walked about a crowd of about 300 passing out campaign cards and striking up conversation. There was a woman there with an Elect Amy Bach for Carbon County Attorney. She’d been working the crowd for awhile and told me she simply really believed in Ms. Bach. (If more people were that proactive about politics.) …The next day we traveled north, stopping in Elk Mountain, Wyoming (pop. 192). After the family fanned out (as much as you can ‘fan out’ in downtown Elk Mountain) passing out fliers, and the like, I talked first with Pat Eastman. He said his grandparents rode out the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, and they had to learn to sacrifice. He said the same should apply today. That is, he explained in regard to government spending “…everywhere you look there’s waste.” His response: “Let’s fix it.” That is, we need to reign in extraneous government travel, turn the lights off at night in government buildings… common sense… I then went to the Crossing Cafe in Elk Mountain where I talked with owner Ken Casner, who is running as an independent for State Senate. He also ran for governor in 2002 (got 1,975 votes) and mayor of Elk Mountain (lost by eight votes). While running for mayor, he proposed the town by equipment (like a bush hog), and when it was not being used, rent it out to town citizens. Again, frugal common sense. He also said he served for 27 years in the Army and, at one point, said he could often complete his eight hour job in two and a half hours. His proposal is to use some service people for Federal Highway projects, and the like, to help improve America’s infra-structure. Note: Mr. Casner’s slogan: Chew on my Ideas… You don’t have to swallow them… Get out and vote! Note 2: We took the kids to the river here to swim. Here we met Dawn Kenneda, her children and their two: racoons. Cutest things. They had been found stranded in the woods as babies and the Kennedas (the father, Brian, is the area Game Warden) took the racoons in and have raised them the past three months. The racoons allowed people to hold and pet them, the family dog played with the racoons… it was quite a sight. Dawn said the racoons would be released this week (in a gradual way) back into the wild. In Wyoming, Dawn added, people can sign up to take wild animals in that have been abandoned, and the like.
…in solidarity
While in Laramie, Wyoming, we also met up with some old friends from our Bluffton, Ohio, days. Matt Frances, his wife Kristen and daughter Penelope have been in Laramie the past two years. Kristen is a teacher in the elementary school and Matt works in the Archive Department at Wyoming University. When we knew them, they were both students at Bluffton College and quite active with social justice causes. At one point, they participated in a week-long tent city on the Bluffton Campus as a show of solidarity with refugees all over the world. (During the week, the students raised enough money to fund a Habitat for Humanity home in Afghanistan.)… While in Laramie, we also met a man who was a recent graduate of Wyoming University. He told me during a Public Speaking course, he chose the topic of abortion. The visual aids he used during the talk, were pictures of unborn babies who had been dismembered during the procedure. He said it evoked quite a strong response… Note: Also while in Laramie, I found myself in line at a grocery store behind a man wearing a t-shirt with a tremendously complex set of mathmatical equations (E=MC 2, and the like). Above the equations, it read: Don’t Drink and Derive! (He, I found out, was (What else?) an astro-physics professor at the university.)