campaign stops:
Valdosta, Tifton, Ashburn, Cordele, Atlanta,
Cartersville, Rome
Georgia on My Mind Tour II / Winter 2007
- In Valdosta, Georgia, I talked with Jessica
Culpepper. For the past three years, she’s written 495 letters to U.S.
troops in Iraq. And for as much as she said she’s personally benefited
from writing the letters, Ms. Culpepper wants the war to end.
- In Valdosta at St. John the Evangelist Catholic
Church I gave a talk to a youth group. I said at Sunday Mass this morning,
I’d heard (as had many of these youth) a priest give a pitch to
financially sponsor Third World poor through the Christian Foundation for
Children and Aging ($30 a month). I suggested some of these youth group
members go in together to sponsor someone(s).
- In Valdosta, I interviewed Barbara Cunningham,
Director of the city’s GEAR UP Program. GEAR UP is an acronym for:
Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs. Ms.
Cunningham told me this is a federal program that provides funds for
professional development for teachers and college visits, tutorial help,
and so on for students from low-income families. Ms. Cunningham said the
program is now in various cities throughout 48 states.
- I was interviewed by a Valdosta’s regional NBC
News reporter. I said I was running for president as a concerned
parent from the Midwest. [The things I’m most concerned about are:
global warming, abortion, war, Third World hunger, violence in the
streets, sex in media entertainment…]
- I interviewed Paula Bickerstaff in Valdosta, Georgia.
Her fourth son, Patrick, had a rather rare Trysome 18 Chromosome disease.
He was diagnosed in the womb. Babies with this disease rarely live long
outside the womb. Yet the Bickerstaffs made a decision to have the baby.
“As a Catholic, that (abortion) wasn’t even a question,” said Mrs.
Bickerstaff. People around the country started praying for Patrick, the
Bickerstaff children rallied to try and help their brother… Patrick
lived six weeks outside the womb and “touched so many lives,” said
Mrs. Bickerstaff.
- In Tifton, Georgia, I was interviewed by the Tifton
Gazette. I said as president I would adhere to the “Just War
Doctrine.” I continued that I wouldn’t have gone to war in Iraq
(because it didn’t match up with Just War criteria); but I would
consider at least limited military intervention to stop the genocide in
the Sudan.
- In Tifton, I toured Brother Charlie’s Rescue
Center. Executive Director Mark Stone explained this is a Christian-based
program that has a homeless shelter housing up to some 45 people. In
addition, there is a drug and alcohol rehab wing where the length of stay
varies from six months to a year. Lenny Accuri, who runs this wing, told
me recovering addicts have access to individual and group counseling. What’s
more, after some recovery time, they are given help to get more education
or a job. Director Stone told me Charlie’s receives donations from area
churches and it serves an 18 county region. “It’s a ‘last stop’
for many,” he added.
- In Atlanta, Georgia, I interviewed Ed Weir. He helped
start New Hope House in Lamar County, Georgia. This is a house for
families and friends of prisoners on death row. The prison is just four
miles away from New Hope House and people are allowed to stay up to two
weeks at a time, free. What’s more, Weir travels the state acting as a
consultant in trials where the death penalty may be an issue and he is
involved with a “Moratorium Campaign” to stop the death penalty.
- Prior to his work with New Hope House, Ed Weir helped
found the Jubilee Community in Madison County, Georgia. This, too, is a
Christian outreach. A couple homes were set up for refugees, starting with
“Boat People” from Cuba. This soon expanded to refugees from Vietnam,
refugees from Central America, Mexico… “Some of these people didn’t
even know what persecution was… because bullets going through their
walls (was normal),” said Weir.
- At the Open Door Community in Atlanta, we sat in on a
talk on International Women’s Day. Presenter Diane Wiggins said women are persecuted all over the world and this day she focused on
Chihuahua and Juarez, Mexico. “For more than a decade, these cities near
the US-Mexico border have been the killing fields for young women, the
site of over 400 unsolved ‘femicides.’ …We had gone to Juarez,
Mexico on a research trip during Campaign 2004. Juarez was referred to
then as the “murder capital of Mexico.” The poverty in Juarez is
staggering and leads to a tremendous amount of social problems, including
murder.
- While passing out flyers in a park in Cartersville,
Georgia, I met a man who is a Libertarian. He said his biggest issue
is the abolishment of the Income Tax and the institution of a "Fair
Tax," which, in essence, is a National Sales Tax. I said our
tax policy includes a Simplified Progressive Income Tax and a partial
National Sales Tax to cover some Federal Government expenditures.
(As we talked, a photographer from Cartersville's newspaper took a series
of pictures.)
- In Rome, Georgia, I attended another group on the
works of author G.K. Chesterton. During the group, a college professor
said “materialists are winning the day.” That is, through genetic
manipulation, and such, humans were being reduced, basically, to machines.
Later another group member said: “How long will it be before humans have
a hard drive crash – and computers bleed?” Facilitator Tom Farmer
pointed out that Chesterton once said: “The human brain is a machine for
coming to conclusions. If it cannot come to conclusions, it is rusty.” I
couldn’t help but think how ‘rusty’ modern man’s brain has become
sitting in front of computers and televisions with our minds continually
consuming pre-thought thoughts.
- I gave a talk at Seven Hills Fellowship in Rome,
Georgia. Pastor Brian Pierce told me he’d be talking on the “Days of
Noah” later in the service. I said to the congregation that if we looked
around America these days, we might, in fact, find it quite similar
(abortion, sex, crime, drugs…) to the days of Noah. And just as they
couldn’t see it then…