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.
“Drums keep pounding rythym to the brain…”
We’re in Loveland, Colorado, where I interviewed Adrian Yanez. He is a music teacher at a local school and worked in the music industry for years as well. He said music connects with us on three levels. That is: physically, mentally and spiritually. And what connects with these is rhythm, harmony and melody. Mr. Yanez, who is Catholic, said there is a lot of secular music that conveys good messages. However, he said there is a lot that doesn’t. And what’s more, it (rock, rap, hip hop…) appeals to our carnality, our materialism, our tendency toward violence… This is such a tremendously important point, in looking at triggers that, at least in part, lead to the sociological problems we have today. Violence is almost off the scales in our big cities, to rap back beats. Sexual acting out is rampant, as explicit rock lyrics (“Why don’t we do it in the road…”) psychologically urge us on. Drug use increases exponentially (“One pill makes you morbid, another makes you small…”). For us to think that much of this music is merely inane background noise that doesn’t influence us is: merely nuts. As parents, Liz and I closely monitor the music our children listen to (as do the Yanez’s). In these days, it’s important parents, well, be parents. Note: Walking into the weight room at Loveland’s Chilson Rec Center right after the interview with Mr. Yanez, the first lyrics I heard over the sound system were: “Let the music be your master…”
a different type of Memorial Wall
Our Rocky Mountain High Tour continues… We headed north to Boulder where we visited the “Memorial Wall for the Unborn” at Sacred Heart of Mary Church there. It honors: “All unborn babies lost to abortion, miscarriage or stillborn.” At the top of the section on the wall to the babies who have been aborted, it reads: “Blessed are they who morn, for they will be comforted.” -Mathew 5:4. Below were various rectangles with various short thoughts inside. Some read: “I realized too late.”; “Part of me died too.” –Your loving sister; “Please for give me.” …Leaning up against the bottom of the Wall was a small basketball, a doll, a model plane… In Boulder, we also went to the Whole Food Market for lunch. As I was walking in, a man asked me about my platform. I said I would be considered progressive leaning when it came to my stances on the environment and social justice. And I would be considered conservative when it came to “life issues.” He asked what that meant. With the Memorial Wall still fresh in my mind, I said I’m, for instance, against abortion. “I guess that’s all I need to hear,” he said, turning and briskly walking off. As I watched him go, I thought of the small basketball leaning up against “the Wall,” that would never get bounced. Note: Some 11 Russians have just been arrested as part of a spy ring in the U.S. The Wall Street Journal noted that for the past 20 years, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, both Russia and the U.S. have continued to participate in “espionage and counter-espionage” against each other. Maybe this is just me, but if we don’t want Russia spying on us, MAYBE WE SHOULD STOP SPYING ON THEM! (I’m serious.)
Got altitude?
We continued north to Lafayette, Colorado, where I saw a t-shirt that read: Got altitude? … In Lafayette, I interviewed Ben Venvigel who was at the Los Alamos nuclear site at the same time Albert Einstein was there, working on the atom bomb. While Venvigel said he saw “the bomb” as an istrument for peace (ending World War II), now he’s not so sure, and in fact a bit leary of the technology. He related that JFK once was quoted as saying: “Let’s put an end to the atom bomb, before the atom bomb puts an end to mankind.” Bumper sticker sighting in Lafayette: Who Would Jesus Bomb? …While in Lafayette, I also talked with George Peirce, 85. He was raised in rural Texas during the Depression. He said he, his father and five siblings all lived in an abandoned cotton mill. And if it wasn’t for FDR’s “New Deal,” he said he wasn’t sure the family would have survived. He said at the height of their own family crisis, the government began providing regular food staples. What’s more, the father eventually got a job with the New Deal’s Public Works Project crushing rocks for new roads in the area.
Is kickball an Olympic sport?
Our Rocky Mountain High continues… We traveled north to Lafayette, Colorado. There I met with Paul Spotts who is president of Catholic Young Adult Sports. In the Diocese of Denver, the organization is putting together a series of leagues (kickball, softball, flag football…) to get youth who, say, might not be talented enough for high school sports, involved with organized sports nevertheless. Spotts told me the main priority is building community among the youth, while providing an “entry way to Catholicism” for some. “It’s soft sell evangilazation,” he added… At the Lafayette McDonald’s, I stumped with some of the patrons. One man was Jeramy Hughes, who is a “senior scientist” with Cold Quanta in nearby Boulder, Colorado. He told me they expriment with lasers on atoms. I asked him what particular application(s). He said because the science is so new, they are still trying to figure all that out. “We’re a solution looking for a problem,” he smiled… I then went to the Lafayette Library where I put up a campaign flyer on the Community Bulletin Board there. This library’s entire roof is an array of solar panels and there is an intermediate sized wind turbine out front as well. Lafayette sits about 5,500 feet above sea level and gets a significant amount of wind. Note: Bumper sticker sighting in Lafayette, Colorado: Sea level is for Sissies!
‘on the ground strategy’ and socks
Our ‘on the ground’ campaign strategy continues… In the face of million dollar political advertising, we’re currently going with: “average Joe” fliers. Well, it could work… In Wheat Ridge, Colorado, I put up a flier on a bulletin board in King Sooper Grocery — right below a season schedule for the Mile High Grizzlies semi-pro football team. (Bulletin board placement is everything.) We then drove into downtown Arvada, Colorado, where I put a flier up on the community bulletin board on the square in the ‘Old Town’ area, then I walked about passing out more campaign literature… Then if was off to North Geffco Park in Arvada, where our Jonathan, 7, played in the sand at the playground with a group of kids and I passed out yet more campaign literature to some of the parents… Afterward we went to Shannon’s Thrift Store where the boys got a few used baseballs and I bought a couple second-hand pairs of socks. (Have I mentioned it’s a low budget campaign?) Note: Last evening at the Arvada YMCA, the coach of one of the teams there let our kids join in on a practice scrimmage. Liz and I ran the scoreboard clock. We all had an absolutely great time.
pro-life, social justice and “amen”
I gave a talk at the most long-standing pro-life Mass in Colorado, maybe even in the country. Fr. Bill has been conducting Mass every Saturday (rain, snow, sub-zero temperatures…) since 1994, at a street corner in front of Planned Parenthood’s abortion clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Fr. Bill told me that during the Republican Convention here several years ago, he had t-shirts made for people who were born after 1973. They read: “I survived Roe vs. Wade.” Fr. Bill also helps coordinate youth “Chastity Rallies.” He said it is his belief that the use of artificial contraception started to cheapen life, which consequently has led to almost wholesale abortion. During the Mass, Fr. Bill said if abortion continues, God may well, “out of His mercy,” allow major chastisements to correct us… We then stopped in Arvada, Colorado, where we talked with Chris Michalik. He’s been to Juarez, Mexico, four times to help with building projects in the slums there. (He goes with the non-profit group Southern Exposure.) They build a $3,750 home in a week there. The modest (by our standards) cinder block homes are like absolute mansions, in comparison to the tiny, cobbled together shacks that stand throughout most of the slums. Chris said to me that “…we are fighting the (immigration) battle on the wrong side of the fence.” He said a big part of the answer is to mobilize as much help as possible south of the border so people don’t have to leave family, friends, culture, language… Chris noted that people work in the multi-national factories in Juarez for as little as $4 a 10-hour-shift (Mexico’s current minimum wage), yet he was amazed to see that the prices in the stores in Juarez where comparable to the prices in U.S stores… Chris is also involved with Arvada’s Community Food Bank. We stopped by there today and interviewed a volunteer who told us that the year before last, the food bank collected some 46,000 pounds of food, whereas last year it was 42,000 pounds. He attributed the decrease to the recession. Note: The volunteer’s name at the food bank was: Richard Amen. (Honest.) He laughed and said at church when everyone says amen, “…I stand up and wave.” Note 2: At the YMCA yesterday in Arvada, we saw a bumper sticker with a picture of a bicycle and the words: “I spend my life behind bars.” Probably a good ‘sentence’ for all of us concerned about what’s going on in the Gulf.
four fingers pointing back
Our Rocky Mountain High Tour moved into Canon City where Liz, the kids and I got in a sandlot football game with some local kids. I then stumped with some spectators at a local tennis match. And then later, got in a conversation with the Canon City McDonald’s ‘brain trust’ table. Two former farmers asked about my agricultural platform. I said as president I would lobby to get corporate mega-farming classified as a “monopoly,” and broken up. In tandem, we would provide a series of incentives to mobilize the return of the family farm. Then, after a brief stop in Pueblo, Colorado, we headed on to Colorado Springs. There our family stood in solidarity with a group protesting in front of a Planned Parenthood Center the morning abortions were taking place there. Our Sarah pleaded with several women not to go in: “It’s a child. It loves you. Please don’t…” This morning I was interviewed by ABC News in Colorado Springs. I said while people are pointing a finger at BP, four fingers should be pointing right back at: us, as I pointed to a busy nearby street. “We’re creating the demand,” I said.