Our Roaming Wyoming Tour took us to Laramie over the weekend. While there, I met Douglas Wolford who is from Big Springs, Nebraska, and was on his way home from a vacation with his wife at Yellowstone Park. He has been on several mission trips to Mexico with the Assembly of God Church. He has gone down to help build churches and an orphanage. He said at one orphanage that he visited, there were some 40 kids ranging in age from four to 16. Mr. Wolford said they were both “hungry for food and attention.” He said when you see the poverty and desperation first-hand in a country like this, it’s not hard to understand why parents would do practically anything (including crossing the border illegally) to get help for their children… Mr. Wolford is also Secretary Treasurer of the Big Springs Fire District and responds to many accidents near the I-80 and I-76 split near Big Springs. He said what might even be more effective than, say, showing a Signal 30 movie at a school for drunk drivers, is to have the DWI offenders accompany him to some of these accidents to see, up close, the extreme carnage in the aftermath of one of these drunk driving crashes. Good point. Note: For more on our Hispanic Immigration stance…
‘Roaming Wyoming’
We have launched our Roaming Wyoming Tour. (And yes, we’re continuing to come up with this all without any professional consultants.) Our first stop was Cheyenne, where we took in a rodeo at the town’s 114th annual Frontier Days… After the rodeo, we stopped to view the Churck Wagon displays. Susan Patrick of Watertown, South Dakota, was cooking near her Peter Schuttler Wagon (circa 1849). She told me there was actually an American Chuck Wagon Association, with collectors finding the wagons at auctions, antique shows, out in the fields… Once fixed up, the wagons can range in cost from $12,000 to, well, whatever. Mrs. Patrick is an elementary school principal and said she often takes her and her husband’s chuck wagon into schools to teach children about them, in hopes of helping keep American heritage alive… And speaking of American heritage, I then took in a Frontier Days parade of old horse drawn carriages, and stuff. There was a horse drawn stage coach, dairy cart, ice cart, U.S. mail cart, even a funeral home cart… Because the parade vehicles were so slow, I was able to pass out average Joe campaign cards to most of the people in the carts. Meanwhile, my wife Liz took advantage of a long corn dog concession line at Frontier Days to pass out more cards. She then took the kids to the chuck wagon display where they got a whole lot of free samples (beans, biscuits, buffalo meat…) Have I mentioned it’s a low budget campaign? Note: I just saw one of the best book titles: If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat. by John Ortbery
quality time, peace and justice, and: Ever Open?
Our Rocky Mountain High Tour in Colorado is winding down… I was just interviewed by Channel 5 News here. I said I was running for president as a “concerned parent from the Midwest.” And I said it was just not a sane society to be raising kids in anymore amidst the drugs, the violence, the sex… Over the weekend, I was on a local Catholic radio show called Rome in the Rockies. I said I had read where the average “quality time” between parents and their children each day in America is now: eight minutes. Kids are being raised in front of television, in front of computers… At a downtown restaurant here, I noticed some Norman Rockwell paintings. That was such a simpler time and one where kids, for the most part, got a much more wholesome upbringing… Near Laporte, Colorado, we met Janie Stein and Martin Bates. They are full-tim RVers who are taking their music on the road. Their band is The States and they refer to themselves as “Wandering Minstrels for Peace.” They are Christian Peacemaker Team members who have been to Colombia and Canada working with human rights groups. “As war tax resistors (www.nwtrcc.org), we experiment with a lifestyle of simplifying our needs (living below the poverty line) in order to decrease our subsidizing torture and other war-making,” they write. Martin, who was in the Air Force for 20 years, said to me: “Plenty of people speak out for war and violence; there needs to be people speaking out for peace.” And Janie added that she had “sat on the sidelines long enough,” and now it was time for her to take a stand for peace, justice and environmental stewardship.” Note: Fort Collins is the home of the Ever Open Cafe. The hours are from “6 a.m. to 10 p.m.” Am I missing something?
“…sinews that knit you together.”
We met with Dr. Kimberly Schmidt in Ft. Collins, Colorado. She is author of Parables of the Flesh (The Creator’s love story). Inspired by the depth of Pope John Paul II’s book The Theology of the Body, which speaks to the complexities of being male and female in the image of God, Dr. Schmidt started to draw corrollaries between physiological systems going awry in the body and links to things like psychological trauma that hadn’t been processed. For example, Dr. Schmidt talked about trouble that happens in the colon (chronic diarrhea, chronic constipation…). “Constipation speaks of holding on too long,” she writes. People die, babies grow up, friends move away… and in this process we must learn to let go — realizing God, ultimately, is the author of life. “Constipation may represent a reluctance to let go,” writes Dr. Schmidt. In her work with patients in these cases, for instance, Dr. Schmidt will ask Jesus to enter the session to help with the person going through the stages of grief necessary to internally let go. And in this process, often the constipation will stop as well. Dr. Schmidt told me during the interview that we are becoming a “society that has forgotten about God.” We often look at things that come at us as merely random happenstance, as opposed to situations allowed by God to grow from. So we continually try to avoid hardship, numb pain… with alcohol, drugs, over work, sexual addiction, television addiction… In the ilk of M.Scott Peck’s book The Road Less Traveled, Dr. Schmidt believes that her psychological counseling must be intertwined with spiritual warfare. “I’m challenging you to probe so deeply into your soul that you can hear God’s voice echoing in the sinews that knit you together,” writes Dr. Schmidt. For more on Dr. Schmidt, her practice and her writing, see: www.incarnationalhealing.com
“Personhood” Amendment
I attended a Colorado Amendment 62 Personhood meeting in Greeley, Colorado. This is a statewide push to make abortion illegal. The literature points to the Biblical passage, Jeremiah 1:5, which quotes God saying: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” If you’re Christian, this would seem, oh, a no brainer when it comes to abortion being right or wrong. At the meeting, I talked to Keith Mason who is the president of Personhood USA. He said that while Colorado is the first state pushing for an amendment, the Personhood movement has been established, in varying degrees, in 40 states now. The featured speaker at the meeting was Pastor Walter Hoye from Oakland, California. (He had recently been given a 30-day jail sentence for sidewalk counseling in front of an abortion clinic there.) Pastor Hoye is African American. He said like slaves were considered property then, the unborn baby is considered property now. He then shared a poignant story about the Klu Klux Klan surrounding his home in the south as a youth. They then set the home ablaze, with his family inside. Half of his family died. No one was prosecuted. And it’s the same now. That is, the killing of these unborn babies goes on, and on — and no one is prosecuted.
Cracker Jacks, housing, and the border
We’ve been in Ft. Collins, Colorado, the past week stumping and doing some campaign vehicle work… While in Wal Mart picking something up, I noticed the woman in line in front of me was buying six boxes of Cracker Jacks, that’s all. I asked. She said she had a soft spot for Cracker Jacks — “…because that’s where my first wedding ring came from.” She continued that her husband was just back from Vietnam, was broke and found an orange plastic ring in a Cracker Jack box that he gave her, as, well, a down payment. They’ve been married 40 years now and she held up a gold wedding ring with a big diamond in it. “He’s done pretty well since then,” she smiled… The other night, our family was invited to an outdoor barbeque at a local architect’s home in Ft. Collins. He told me his profession has been hit hard by the recent recession, including the bubble bursting around the housing market. I said with so many foreclosures, and people on the verge of foreclosure, it amazed me that more people haven’t gone to things like house sharing between families, or at least renting out a room to a single person, etc., to stay afloat financially. I mean, common sense says it’s time to be creative. On an earlier campaign tour, we learned Winona, Minnesota, actually had an online House Sharing Program that matched people according to housing needs. Note: An article in the Denver Post today reported that the number of deaths among illegal immigrants crossing the Arizona desert from Mexico is soaring because of the increased heat. Some 40 bodies have already been found and the deaths could top the single-month record of 68 in July 2005. “Authorities think the deaths (men, women, children…) are likely due to the unrelenting heat in southern Arizona and the tighter border security that pushes immigrants to more remote, rugged and dangerous terrain.” Several years ago, we did a “Border Tour” that took us into Juarez, Mexico, where we saw extreme abject poverty and thus: the reason some people come here. On a radio show in Ocala, Florida, I said to turn our back (or build the fence higher) on such tremendous need is absolutely unconscienable. That doesn’t mean we wouldn’t fight drug cartels, etc.; but it does mean we’d ramp up help to people in genuine need.
she quit
Our family stood in solidarity with a group protesting abortion in front of a Planned Parenthood facility in Ft. Collins, Colorado. One of the protesters was Linda O’Brien, a former pharmacist. A Catholic, Ms. O’Brien said she decided to actually quit her profession because modern pharmacy has gotten to the point where distributing things like artificial contraception (including such abortion causing agents as “the morning after pill”) has become common place almost everywhere. However, the use of these is expressly forbidden by the Catholic Church and Ms. O’Brien didn’t want to be in a postion of compromise on this… After the protest, we attended a meeting with representatives from pro-life groups throughout northern Colorado. During the meeting, Luke Hellwig, a student from the University of Northern Colorado, showed an absolutely excellent computer video presentation he’d designed about a pro-life weekend they were putting on at the school this Fall. One of the things these students do the week of the event is walk around the campus barefoot. When people ask, they plug the event and talk about their pro-life beliefs. The event is called Bearfoot for Babies (UNC’s mascott is: the bear) and features a host of pro-life speakers, 3,300 “memory crosses,” a “Dance for Life” (50’s Sock Hop), etc. It will be held Oct. 4th through 8th on campus.
“don’t vote”
Our Rocky Mountain High Tour continues… During a downtown sidewalk sale throughout Ft. Collins, Colorado, Jonathan and I set up on a corner and passed out campaign literature. One couple in their mid-20s shunned the literature, explaining they “don’t vote.” I always get a bit incredulous with this response, especially with people in other parts of the world risking their lives to vote… I had stopped at the Ft. Collins Library to update our website earlier in the day. A woman was walking out with a t-shrit that read: Polar Bears Against Palin. Tongue-in-cheek kidding aside, in the face of increasingly mounting evidence that global warming is advancing at an alarming rate, we have to act decisively to reverse it. For our kids, and for future generations. Note: While passing out more campaign literature in Ft. Collins, a woman said she liked my domestic policies — “…but how about your knowledge of foreign affairs.” “I read a lot of National Geographics,” I smiled.
congressional hopeful, and immigration
I met with Ken “wasko” Waskiewicz, who is running for U.S. Representative in the 4th District of Colorado. He’s running as an independent and has a wife and eight-month-old daughter. He told me having the baby motivated him to make the world a better place. Thus the run. (We often explain that Liz and I are running as concerned parents from the Midwest.) Ken has been stumping the past several months, going door-to-door in his free time. His father, Ed, has knocked on 3,000 doors himself for his son. Ken is campaigning on a platform that includes, among other things: term limits for all in D.C.; stopping wasteful government spending; a flat tax; reducing the National Debt… Ken’s father used to have an immigration consulting business in Alaska and said his belief is immigrants should come here on a three year work visa. At the end of that time, if things went well, the person would be eligible for citizenship. Note: The other night in Berthod, Colorado, I talked with a Republican who said that people who believe in amnesty for illegal immigrants — “… should offer to sponsor one.” [Our campaign believes in amnesty for many who are here because of poverty and political oppression. Helping them seems the essence of the gospel message.] Note 2: Bumper sticker sighting in Ft. Collins, Colorado: Proud member of the right wing conspiracy
pro-life angels and a 3% chance
Met with Pete Spagnuolo who helped establish the Respect Life Committee at St. John the Evangelist Church in Loveland, Colorado. He moved here from Florida several years ago and has been an absolute dynamo. Through his efforts, his Pro-life group now has 22 members. They regularly pray and protest in front of the abortion clinic in nearby Ft. Collins. They have brought in pro-life speakers, including author Jane Brennan (book: Motherhood Interrupted) who was a drug addict, a prostitute and had had three abortions — “…before she had this incredible conversion experience,” said Spagnuolo. He said he is also a member of the Knights of Columbus that, in Coloardo, is raising $54,000 for a sonogram machine for a crisis pregnancy center in Aurora, Colorado. He said that last year, Aurora had 450 teen pregnancies, which placed them 13th in the nation in that category. Note: Sapgnuolo’s wife Virginia is the director of the Gabriel Project in Loveland. This is a non-profit that provides counseling, food, baby clothes, maternity clothes… for women in crisis pregnancy. Virginia told me there are currently 58 people (they’re called “angels”) involved with the project. Note 2: This week I stumped at the Anthropology Coffee Shop in Loveland. While talking to a small group of people about environmental issues, one woman had a suggestion in regard to wind turbines. She said we are creating this big, free-standing wind turbine structures. Why not put smaller wind turbines on top of existing power poles, which are already connected to the grid. Her point was the free-standing wind turbines clutter the landscape and you have to burn fossil fuels to make all the metal for the bigger turbines… Another man said he voted for a third party candidate for president last time. He said prior to the election, his friends were saying those kind of candidates often have just, say, a three percent chance of winning. “If you had a three percent chance of getting out of prison (versus no chance at all), wouldn’t you take those odds,” he smiled.