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.
It took three months of walking…
While the immigration debate continues to heat up, we went to the Casa Juan Diego House of Hospitality in the heart of Houston to look at this issue ‘up close and personal,’ so to speak. The Casa Juan Diego is a cluster of 10 Catholic Worker Houses that take in illegal immigrant women, children and men. Men like Juan. Juan and his brother lived in rural Guatemala. He told me he made $2.75 a day as a woodworker, his brother made $1 a day as a small farmer. Their elderly mom got sick and needed a heart operation. It would cost $2,000. They came to America together to raise money for the operation. It took them three months of walking, stealing away on the outside of train cars, being shaken down and extorted by Mexican immigration agents… They, consequently, have been put up at Casa Juan Diego in Houston. Here their room and board is free and they have access to medical attention. During the day, they hire out from street corners to do day labor. But because of the recession, work is sporadic at best, said Casa volunteer Josh Johnson. Johnson has heard the heartbreaking stories, over and over. Of immigrants who have lost limbs falling off trains in Mexico on their way north. Of desperate mothers and children who have died in desert crossings near the border. Of immigrant women who have been raped and killed by drug cartels… Johnson said “first generation immigrants in this country,” for the most part, are not criminals. But if they are marginalized and not helped, the next generation is more prone to commit crimes. He also said that often immigrants don’t come here to live long-term. But rather they are here to make enough to raise both themselves, and family back home, out of dire poverty. Note: Mark and Louise Swick, co-founders of the Casa Juan Diego House, have recently published the book The Catholic Worker Movement (Intellectual and Spiritual Origins). The ethos of the Catholic Worker Movement is to, well, do just what they are doing in Houston. Help those less fortunate. For more on Casa Juan Diego, see…
seven days through the desert…
Our Deep in the Heart of Texas Tour continues… In Beaumont, Texas, we stood in solidarity with a group protesting abortion in front of a woman’s clinic. The sign out front read: “Changing the world, one woman at a time.” And what a world it’s becoming… We then headed into a hardscrabble area of Houston where we’re doing research at the Casa Juan Diego House of Hospitality. As all the rhetoric heats up around the immigration debate nationwide, the people here take in illegal immigrants and clothe them, feed them, get them medical attention, help them find jobs… People like “Jose.” He told me he came from the rural village of Michohcan, Mexico, where there is little work and a whole lot of poverty. His mother is elderly, his brother (who still lives with the mom) has Down Syndrome and he came here to find work to help them. He and a friend walked through the desert for seven days, swam across a river on the border and walked another seven days to get to Houston. He’s now struggling to get a small foothold in this country. Deport him? What part of the gospel message is that in? For our position on Hispanic immigration, see… While in Houston, we also talked to Kuno Trostmen. He’s pro-life. He said Planned Parenthood in Houston has just completed the construction of the second largest abortion facility in: the world. (The first largest is in China.) Note: We took the kids to a park in Houston where, wouldn’t you know, the Southern Regional Footbag Tournament was going on. They use a net and play on what would be equivalent to a bad mitten court in the grass. There are two players on each team and they use only their feet to kick the footbag (one brand name: Hacky Sack) back and forth. Footbag Hall of Famer Tim Vozar told me the Footbag International Tournament would be held this year in Oakland, California, with total prize money being $5,000. (Ok so it’s not the Master’s, yet.) Vozar also has a mobile Footbag Museum that he sets up from tournament to tournament. It’s complete with pictures, memorabilia and of course various styles of footbags. A handmade footbag, for instance, can go for up to $300. Just when you thought you’d heard of every sport…
the one common denominator…
We did a street corner, whistle-stop event in downtown Orange, Texas, yesterday as part of our Deep in the Heart of Texas Tour. Afterward I was interviewed by reporter Tommy Man Jr. of the Orange Leader newspaper. I said we’ve just crossed the 50 million abortion mark in America, global warming looms like a scary doomsday scenario, violence and drugs have turned the inner cities of America into war zones, we have a $12 trillion National Debt… And the common denominator? For about the past 20 years, we have had presidents out of Harvard and Yale. I said that this might, oh, indicate that what you learn at Harvard and Yale doesn’t equip you to solve these kinds of societal problems. In fact, maybe what we need in D.C. is some “good old fashioned common sense.” I mean… While in Orange, I also interviewed Vivian Kelly who is the director of Birthright here. They provide counseling, food, clothing, monetary help… to women who choose to keep their baby. “We were able to save 41 babies last year,” said Ms. Kelly… Incidentally, a bill just passed in Oklahoma that requires women to undergo an ultrasound and listen to a detailed description of the unborn baby before getting an abortion. This includes information about the arms, legs, internal organs, heartbeat… All the things that, well, human beings have. Note: Tonight we protested abortion on a street corner in Orange. The sign I held simply said: Abortion Kills Children. And it does.