Catching up on some of our recent backroads campaigning…  Just outside Huntington, West Virginia, I interviewed Frank Holcomb from Point Pleasant in Mason County.  He is a retired state trooper.  Several years prior, he had answered a domestic violence call and was shot in the leg.  He became disabled because of the injury and had to retire early.  Officer Holcomb has a wife, two young children and is a member of New Hope Bible Baptist Church.  We talked about how society was becoming more violent as a whole and I said it was my belief those who put themselves in harm’s way day in and day out should be compensated accordingly… While in Huntington, West Virginia, we spent time on the Marshall University campus.  On Saturday Nov. 14, 1970, the Marshall University football team and staff (75 people in all) crashed just before reaching the Tri-State Airport runway while returning from a game.  Everyone was killed…  While in Huntington, we also talked with Grattan Gannon .  His wife inherited the “Hatfield Cemetery.”  That’s right, the ‘Hatfield’ of Hatfield’s and McCoy’s fame.  We were told there’s not much fuedin’ going on these days.  In fact, the families get together for an annual softball game each year now.  After hearing this, I couldn’t help but ruminate that maybe that’s the answer to a lot of these current international conflicts (with Iran, North Korea…).  Maybe we should all get together for some softball games.  (And some actually intimate I’m weak on foreign policy.  Ha!)  Note:  Gratten is an absolutely fabulous story teller, the Garrison Keillor of Appalachia, if you will.  And, in ‘down home’ fashion, he told us that at one of the funerals at the cemetery, a rather cantancerous Hatfield was on his way to his burial.  He was in a coffin on the back of a pick-up truck.  The cemetery is at the top of a rather steep hill and as the pick-up was climbing it, the coffin slid off and created quite a ruckus.  “See, even dead I knew Jeb was still going to mess this thing up,” one mourner (sort of) was heard to say.

We headed into Durham, North Carolina, for the Green Party National Convention.  The Green Party, in my estimation, is tremendously forward thinking on a good number of issues, including the environment.  They are on the cutting edge, for instance, of promoting “green economics.”  That is, the party promotes a shift to much more: renewable energy, local production for local consumption, alternative transportation…  I recently told an online newspaper in Huntington, West Virginia, that I saw climate change as a “pro-Life issue.”  No world, no life…  The Green Party is also quite strong on issues involving diversity, social justice and grassroots democracy.  Note:  While in Durham, I took our boys to a Saturday night Durham Bulls Minor League Baseball game.  We sat on the lawn beyond the center field fence and had an absolutely great time.  What’s more, it cost only 20 bucks for the three of us (and that included getting a pop in an “official” Durham Bulls big plastic cup).

We’ve stayed in Huntington, West Virginia (pop. 50,000) the last week amidst a whirlind of activity.  I was interviewed by the online newspaper here and Channel 3 News did an interview during a whistle-stop event we held downtown.  Last Sunday I talked at all the weekend Masses at St. Joseph’s Church about pro-Life issues.  We then met with columnist Patrick Grace, who is with Huntington’s Herald Dispatch newspaper.  We were on the same page with Mr. Grace when it comes to holding a Consistent Life Ethic.  That is, this sets us against abortion, euthanasia, poverty, pollution and anything else that can end life prematurely… We also stumped in the Jolly Pirate Donut place here with some guys at the counter who had seen the Channel 3 News spot.  One said:  “Whatever you do, don’t say anything against coal as you’re touring West Virginia.”  This still didn’t convince me that speaking against blowing the tops off mountains to get to the coal isn’t called for. 

While in Ashland, Kentucky, we talked with Liz Trabandt, who is in the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame.  She coached girls basketball at nearby Russell High School.  A relatively small school, the girls basketball team twice made it to the Kentucky State Finals.  Ms. Trabandt said it was, to a degree, like the Hoosiers story.  She gave our Sarah, who has played on a Rec. Center team back in Cleveland, some pointers.  The one she stressed most was “practice, practice, practice.”  …We then traveled further east to Huntington, West Virginia, where I talked with Joshua Sowards who is a Minister to Youth and Families at First Baptist Church in nearby Kenova, West Virginia (The pastor is Steve Willis).  Sowards told me they are in the process of planting a church at Marshall College in Huntington.  He said there is ”no surprise” that many people are spiritually lost in our Post Modern culture.  What’s more, he said even though much of modern philosophy is antithetical to the Gospel message, the biggest reason why people aren’t looking for God is because there’s a “lack of need.”  That is, people are often comfortable enough in their lifestyles, etc., that they don’t feel much of a need to rely on God.   

We traveled through the rolling hills of northern Kentucky, stopping first in Flemingsburg (pop. 3,100).  On fourth of July, we talked at length with John Dunn and Dwayne Roller, who were both in the Armed Services.  Mr. Roller received a Purple Heart during the Korean Conflict.  And Mr. Dunn was in Thialand servicing U.S. bombers flying into Vietnam.  (He vividly remembers the intense bombing of Cambodia just before the war ended.)  And while not everyone is on the same page when it comes to, say, the Iraq War, the Vietnam War — now deceased Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, who was one of the ‘architects’ of the Vietnam War, later expressed misgivings about it –; we can all be on the same page in regard to recognizing the courage (and just plain guts) those ‘on the ground’ demonstrate during a time of war…  Both Mr. Dunn and Mr. Roller are also extremely active Christians who participate in small covenant communities. And Mr. Dunn also is quite an astute Bible teacher…  While we were in Flemingsburg, we also attended the Dunn family annual fourth of July celebration.  It was quintessential Americana, with hot dogs, hamburgers, country music, backyard fireworks and a homemade rocket launcher that fired (Are you ready for this?): potatoes.  In fact this was so  impressive (the potatoes would fly 300 yards or more), our administration may well consider putting in a bunch of scud, oops, I mean ’spud’ missile silos in, like, Idaho.   Just kidding, sort of.

We have temporarily detoured off Route 50 to head for the annual Green Party National Convention in Durham, North Carolina, toward the end of the month.  I told a reporter Tonia Rose of The Morehead News  in Kentucky today that I believed global warming is real, an imminent threat (as many scientists are now indicating), and that we have to act aggressively to reverse it — “…so there’s a world for our kids to grow up in.”  I also told Ms. Rose that when it comes to reversing global warming, the Green Party — by far — has the best platform to do this…  While in Morehead, I also talked with Al Evans.  He was in the military and stationed at a nuclear missile base in New Mexico.  “Was it White Sands Missile Base?”  I asked.  “No,” he said.  “It’s so secretive, I still can’t tell you where it is.”  (He was there in the height of the Cold War.)  In regard to the current tension with Iran, Evans said he sees their nuclear posturing as merely “saber rattling.”  Note:  We have thousands  of nuclear missiles aimed all over the world.  As president, I would scale this back significantly and take some of the savings and earmark them for humanitarian aid into Iran.  Number one, they need the help.  And two, if you start to help a neighbor you’re fueding with, well, this often helps ‘disarm’ the tension.  Common sense.