In Lubbock, Texas, my wife Liz interviewed Alice Mata for a book she is working on about women around the country. Alice is the mother of five young children and came from a family of 20 children. She said that the doctor recommended to her mom that she quit after seven children, for health reasons. The mom replied that whe wanted to be open to how many children God wanted her to have. Note: Over population is not our problem. The problem lies in urbinization and inadequate resource distribution… While in Lubbock, I was also interviewed by the ABC News affiliate. At one point in the interview, I was asked about my position toward China. I said that China currently owns a lot of our debt, which tremendously weakens our position in regard to pushing them on human rights issues there. (There are many reports, for instance, of Christians being tortured and killed for their faith in China. Not to mention forced abortions under the one child policy, etc.) As president, I would lobby to pay off the debt to China quickly and remove the country from a “favored nation status” when it comes to trade. “The economy should never trump human rights issues,” I added.
wind turbines and sportmanship
While in Abilene, I was interviewed by Bob Bartlett at NBC News here. Then we traveled to Sweetwater, Texas, where I passed out fliers downtown and was interviewed by the Sweetwater Reporter newspaper. The previous Sunday, the newspaper had done an extensive piece on all the wind turbines on the Texas plains here. It noted that Nolan County was home of the five largest wind turbine projects in the world, outside of China. There are 150 wind farms in the Nolan County area… Coming out of Sweetwater, we found ourselves in a virtual sea of big, white twirling turbines. In this corridor, the wind blows consistantly, as it does in parts of Wyoming, Montana… Our administration would offer subsidies to encourage the building of similar wind farms in many locations nationwide. Heading north, we stopped in Post, Texas, then it was on to Lubbock… In Lubbock, we met Joe Mata, 37, who could be playing basketball in the European League, he’s that good. He plays in “three on three” tournaments around the state and has won a good number of trophies. He invited Sarah, Joseph and I to play with a group of guys he plays ball with every Friday. The game started with a prayer, there was no foul language (Except from our Joseph, who picked up a few four letter words at Cleveland’s Rec. Center. I benched him with a “technical.”), and there were no fights. Just good, clean competition. Call me “old school,” but isn’t that how it should be? Note: As I was typing this in a library in Amarillo, I looked up to see the following on a guy’s t-shirt: “One man practicing good sportsmanship is far better than 50 others preaching it.” — Knute Rockne.
“Out to Lunch”
The next day in Stephenville, a front page story about the campaign ran. The headline: “Will The Next President Be An Average Joe?” Paula Kinsel and Kim Sykes would like to think so. After seeing the article, they invited us to their small restaurant called: “Out To Lunch.” (Something Liz accuses me of being frequently.) At the restaurant, which is in a small green converted home, I talked to regular Grieg Mayberry. He has a Sunday Gospel Show on KSTV Country Radio here. He also has a prison ministry and said that recently a member of the “Mexican Mafia” and two “Arian Nation” prisoners “each came to the Lord.” It was tremendously moving, said Mayberry. Mayberry is also a member of Cottonwood Baptist Church here and said the church (unlike many churches these days) spends more on outreach than they do to the church facility itself… From Stephenville, we traveled to Abilene, Texas, where I met with pro-life advocate Dr. Jim Sulliman. A marriage and family counselor who graduated from Rutgers, he has been at the forefront of the pro-life movement here. He showed me a 1963 Planned Parenthood pamphlet that was describing what artificial birth control was, and wasn’t. For instance, it said birth control wasn’t abortion. “An abortion kills the life of a baby after it has begun.” The Planned Parenthood pamphlet amazingly read. Sulliman also said much of Planned Parenthood rhetoric around now promoting abortion revolves around “…a woman having the right to do whatever she wants with her body.” In response, Dr. Sulliman says: “Have a woman take off all her clothes and walk down the street. See how far she gets before she’s arrested.” Good point.
womens issues worldwide…
From Meridian, we started to mosey (Texas term for traveled slowly) further northwest to Hico, Texas. The “purported” home of the legendary “Billy the Kid.” There we visited (Where else?) the Billy the Kid Museum, complete with a replica of the old city jail cell, period rifles, a saddle and, well, Billy the Kid coffee mugs. The museum is run by Dan Rightmer, a former town alderman in these parts. When he heard I was running for president as a populist candidate, he said his great uncle was elected to Congress from this area with the Populist Farmer Party, in 1898. And Rightmer said it might just be high time that another populist candidate won. I agreed… Then we “saddled up” (sorry) and headed for Stephenville, Texas. There we were interviewed by Erin Cooper, a reporter for Stephenville’s newspaper. Liz said as First Lady she would undertake looking at women’s issues worldwide. (For instance, back in Mobile, Alabama, Liz had attended a talk about “human trafficking” of young women throughout the Third World.) We then stopped at Cross Timbers Pregnancy Care Center where we were given a tour. Later that evening, we attended a Cross Timbers Pro-Life rally for youth at the city park. Almost 300 youth, youth ministers and parents were in attendance. In between Christian rock and hip/hop bands, a Cross Timbers staff member told the audience that current data shows that three out of 10 women will be pregnant by age 20 in America. And 62% of youth will have intercourse before graduating high school. She said that Hollywood is telling us it’s OK to have sex outside of marriage, while the Bible’s message is just the opposite. Note: To view part of the Stephenville, Texas, interview, see
wild pigs, cougars and coyotes
We headed further northwest, stopping in Meridian, Texas. The newspaper here carried a story about a local author who had just published the book Eyes in the Alley, about growing up in Texas during the Great Depression. While her family did fairly well, she recalled a family who regularly looked through the garbage in the alley next door. And she particularly recalled one of the daughter’s eyes as she imploringly looked in at her family through the fence… While in Meridian, I also talked with Main Street Antique Store owner Linda (I didn’t get her last name). She said people in D.C. are generally out of touch with why people in rural Texas need guns. She said it isn’t uncommon for her to come home to wild pigs tearing up her backyard looking for grubs. There is a cougar who often drinks out of her pool. And coyotes are everywhere. I said in Cleveland the most we have to deal with is an occasional squirrel, with an attitude. Note: About five miles out of Meridian, we blew a back tire. Our camper has duel rear wheels, so we limped back into Meridian where the spare was put on at Bowman Tire by a guy who said: “No charge.” Can you imagine that in this day and age? We then spent the night at the Bosque Bottom RV Park where dry camping is 10 bucks. Yet another financial blessing. (Have I mentioned this is a low budget campaign?) The RV Park attendant was a guy named “Slim, because I used to be.” He told us his wife had passed away six years ago, and he wasn’t going to remarry: “Until I find a woman as loyal and good as my dog Daisy here.” In return, I said: “If you find her and she has a sister, could you call me?” My wife Liz didn’t find that, oh, all that funny.
little time for ‘teenage angst’
I met with Baylor University professor Tyler Horner again. He said adolescents today are flooded with choices around computer technology, television choices, other entertainment options… And in all this they have the luxury of (and time for) tremendously self-focused teenage angst, if you will. Professor Horner said that during the 1950s, for instance, a majority of teens had fewer choices and often entered into the work world much quicker. As a result, they had to “grow up way quicker,” said Professor Horner… Later in the day, I gave a talk to a group of Baylor University professors. I said as president I’d work stridently to stop violence in our inner cities. Some eight youths are killed by gun violence in these cities — every day… The next day I met Bryan Arispe and his family. Great people. We had lunch together in a park at Waco. Arispe is an expert woodworker and helped build former President George Bush’s house at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. He said the window frames were imported from Europe… The next day we stopped at Heritage Farm in Elm Mott, Texas. Operated by Heritage Ministries, the people here live in Christian community and practice the old fashion crafts of blacksmithing, weaving, plowing with draft horses… “These are homesteading skills and crafts that take place in a plexus of relationships with creation and creatures,” they say. “The notion of work solely for profit is a product of secularization. (Our lifestyle) is not ramanticized nostalgia… It is an exemplary Christian existence.” …From Heritage Farm, we then visited World Hunger Relief Inc., also in Elm Mott, Texas. Here World Hunger’s Dale Barron said to us that America withholds (overeating, spending money on non-nutritious junk food and beverage, throwing good food away…) a tremendous amount of food from the world. World Hunger Inc. is a teaching farm. People come here to intern from all over the country, said World Hunger’s David Cole. They learn about sustainable, low-tech farming practices, then go on Third World missions, and the like.
leaving a legacy…
In Waco, Texas, I gave a talk at St. Jerome’s Church. I said that we so often get puffed up with patriotism here; but Mother Theresa once said America was the most spiritually poor country she’d ever visited. A dichotomy? Yep… In Waco, we also met with Baylor University professor Tyler Horner. He said part of the reason society has lost some of it’s spiritual moorings is because recent generations are becoming more and more “self-focused.” This, in turn, leads to less and less volunteering. Tyler, who volunteered with Ameri-Corps and teaches about children and families at Baylor, said “every human has a need to leave a legacy.” And people who just focus on working to make a buck, start feeling quite unfulfilled later in life. Tyler, on a personal level, is trying hard to leave his own ‘legacy.’ He’s involved with Church Under The Bridge for homeless people here and is helping coordinate a program with the city to develop a high-quality, early childhood learning curriculum. It is in early childhood, Tyler says, that a lof of the personality, learning styles, and so on, are formed. Note: T-shrit sighting in Abilene, Texas: “I follow all the voices… in my wife’s head.”
sunflower capitol of Texas…
From Serenity Pond, we headed north last week on Rte 6, the Texas-Brazo Trail. Our first stop was in Hearne (the “Sunflower Capitol of Texas”), where I passed out fliers and did an interview with the Hearne Democrat newspaper. I said my wife Liz and I were running as “concerned parents from the Midwest.” Between the ongoing wars, metropolitan violence and drugs, sex on television… call me “old fashion,” but it’s just not a sane environment to be raising children in anymore… We then stopped in the towns of Calvert and Marlin, continuing to campaign. I told the owner of the Marlin Cafe that I believed there needs to be other voices out here on the campaign trail. Then it was on to Waco…
“…live in harmony with nature.”
We stopped at Serenity Pond in Kurten, Texas. This is 10-acres of private property that Patricia Jane McCain turned into a “Wildlife & Bird Sanctuary.” She built a home on the property in 1987 and then set about, not only preserving as much as possible, but adding even more touches of natural habitat. Ms. McCain wrote regular columns for the Bryan (TX) Eagle. And the writing and preservation work on her own land inspired many in these parts to become more naturalist oriented. She also is part of the Backyard Natural Habitat Project, which many states now have. On a tour of her grounds, she told us the species of birds here include painted buntings, black birds, woodpeckers, cardinals… Besides the writing, she regularly conducted tours at her place for deaf children, inner city children, local school children… Her philosophy is to “…live in harmony with nature.” Note: Ms. McCain was married to a first cousin of Senator John McCain. What’s more, her father, William Tillinghast, did major renovations to the inside of the White House during the Truman administration during the 1950s.
…living in a shack
We headed north out of Houston, stopping at Camp Kappe in Plantersville, Texas. This is a youth camp that teaches environmental awareness and empathy for the plight of those in the Third World. At the camp is a “global village.” The director is Sister Thomas Ann, a Dominican nun who started the camp in 1981. She has spent time in Africa, Japan, Mexico… and developed a real understanding of the plight of Third World people worldwide. In the last entry, I talked about a couple illegal immigrants from Guatemala, and their long trek to this country to get help for their mom who is sick. Sr. Thomas Ann lived in Guatemala. She described the poverty she saw there. She said it wasn’t uncommon to see 10 to 12 family members living in a shack “the size of my kitchen.” There was no running water, no indoor toilet, rice soup as a staple (maybe once a day) kids playing soccer in the streets with raw sewage running by… To raise awareness about all this, Camp Kappe has built five proto-type houses to give youth in this country a much better feel for how others live worldwide. The houses are replicas of what you’d see in places like Guatemala, North Africa, Indonesia… Some of the houses, for instance, have black pots over an open flame outside. Sr. Thomas Ann will explain to the American youth that half of the world still cooks outside. Note: Sr. Thomas Ann said that the camp regularly hosts inner city kids who, for most of their lives, have been literally encased in concrete and broken glass.