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…