The Scoop - http://www.bobharris.com/ Hi folks! Turns out there was time to write this week after all… New subscribers: thanks for joining up. Yes, the column is free, and you’re encouraged to forward it to friends. That’s how our readership grows. Gratuitous plug: Steal This Book And Get Life Without Parole is now available. You can order online from Amazon, thereby losing them money while increasing their stock price -- a phenomenon which baffles science -- but you’ll get the best price by ordering directly from my fine publisher, http://www.commoncouragepress.com/steal.html. Thanks! bh PS: This article is accompanied by about two dozen photographs. A complete version of this column, including photos of Granny D, Dick Gregory, and the march through Memphis, is at http://www.bobharris.com/scoop/memphis.htm. THE SCOOP for September 13, 1999 ___________________________ On The Road With Granny D Crossing the Mississippi… and other boundaries © 1999 Bob Harris http://www.bobharris.com mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * = italics Damn, this woman is strong. That’s the first impression I got from shaking the hand of Doris "Granny D" Haddock, shortly before joining her for a stroll across the Mississippi and into downtown Memphis. Granny D is an 89-year-old grandmother of eleven from a small town in New Hampshire. She’s about five feet tall. Her smile is about two feet wide. I walked with her for about ten miles the other day, then went back to my hotel room to write this article. Granny D is still walking. As you read this, she’s on a back road in western Tennessee, headed toward Nashville. Ten miles a day. One step at a time. She started her walk on January 1st in Los Angeles. Eventually, Granny D will have spent more than a year walking over 3000 miles, just to raise America’s awareness of the need for campaign finance reform. She’ll finish the trip on January 24th, celebrating her 90th birthday on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. As I said: damn, this woman is strong. ___________________________ Tuesday morning, shortly after 7 am: I meet up with Granny D in West Memphis, Arkansas, at the exact spot along U.S. 70 where her journey had ended the day before. As this day’s walk begins, about a dozen other people are also joining Granny for her daily stroll. (A photo is at http://www.bobharris.com/scoop/memphis.htm#van) They’ve come from every part of the country, both major political parties, and all ages and walks of life. Asking around, I find that everyone here has only three simple things in common: we’ve all heard about Granny’s walk, we’ve all felt strongly enough about it to join her for at least a portion of the journey, and (surprisingly to me, at this hour of the morning) we’re all in a terrific mood. The Memphis morning newspaper has printed a feature story on Granny’s walk, including a detailed map of her route and a large photo. Already, before we even begin, a few passing motorists are waving and honking their support. There’s a feeling of hearty, useful activism in the air. This feels really good. And that’s an unusual experience for me. I’m 35, and I can count on one hand the number of public demonstrations I’ve seen where people outside the demonstration actually care as much as those rallying. But Granny D has clearly struck a populist nerve. A few minutes after 7:30, we begin. Granny takes off surprisingly quickly. I finish the last sentences of a conversation, look up, and realize she’s already a block away. Clearly, my perceptions about what an 89-year-old woman can do require some adjustment. The rest of us step lively just to keep pace. (A photo is at http://www.bobharris.com/scoop/memphis.htm#begin) Granny D didn’t always have this much company. Much of the early walk was through empty desert, hundreds of miles from supporters and media coverage. The only real danger she has faced to this point has been heat exhaustion and dehydration in the 100-degree temperatures. Entire days and even weeks were spent facing the elements either alone or joined by perhaps one volunteer. "That never mattered," Granny D tells me. "I had decided that I would go as a pilgrim." Her words are chosen with care. Granny’s march is largely influenced by the memory of Mildred Norman, the McCarthy-era "Peace Pilgrim" who criss-crossed the country six times, walking over 25,000 miles "on foot and on faith," carrying little but a message of peace. As the Peace Pilgrim did almost a half-century earlier, Granny began her walk on a New Year’s Day in Pasadena. And just as the Peace Pilgrim carried nothing and asked for nothing -- surviving merely on faith that others would feel the same way and share a sense of community by helping in small ways -- Granny began with little more than a sleeping bag, willing to miss many meals and sleep under the stars in order to communicate to the American people the importance of reforming our democracy. Granny’s faith in us has been rewarded: not only have many people from communities along her path happily provided food and shelter, but passing motorists frequently offer fives and tens, offering to pay for Granny’s next meal or a new pair of shoes. Such small donations -- of a size a working person can easily afford -- are accepted; anything larger is always refused. There can be no whiff of anyone buying influence with Granny D. Of late, Granny’s constant companion has been John Anthony, 26, a former Common Cause employee who left his job in Washington several months ago to join her on the road full-time. Common Cause (http://www.commoncause.org) devotes much of its energy to promoting campaign finance reform, so it wasn’t much of a stretch. "We kind of melded together over our passion for the issue," John says. At first glance, John now functions somewhat as a manager of Granny’s daily walks, taking calls from reporters on a cell phone and scoping out upcoming stretches of road. But in person, it’s clear there’s only one word that really fits what John is for Granny: a good friend. The one noticeable donation Granny has accepted is the use of an old van, which now serves as something of a mobile headquarters -- full of blankets, road maps, cold bottles of water in an ice chest, and leaflets to hand out along the way. "It’s good to have just in case, but we’ve never had any real danger," John says. "People have been just amazingly supportive. In Dallas they even gave us a police escort." ___________________________ The police in Memphis, however, have not been quite so helpful. As U.S. 70 approaches the Mississippi River, it merges with I-55, and the pedestrian walkway ends. Approaching the bridge, we must walk about a mile and a half within a just few feet of freeway traffic. We anticipate cars and semi-trailers whizzing by our elbows at 60 miles an hour or more. This is the first real physical danger Granny D has faced. So John called the Arkansas and Tennessee Departments of Transportation to request assistance, and both were eager to provide an escort. However, a lieutenant in the Memphis police not only refused to help, but told John flatly that walking on an interstate was against the law. Period. And the lieutenant strongly implied that the police would be waiting for us on the other side of the bridge. So this is also the first time that Granny D has been threatened with arrest. No one in the group suggests, or apparently even thinks of suggesting, that we not continue. Granny has come 2000 miles to be here. We’re crossing. We form a single-file line and press on. I realize that I am walking just slightly to Granny’s left rear, protectively. So much for any pretense of journalistic objectivity. Fortune smiles, however. Just as we arrive at the road’s narrowest point, a traffic jam ties up the approach to the bridge. Which means that just as our pedestrian walkway ends, the traffic suddenly backs up and stops. (Photos are at http://www.bobharris.com/scoop/memphis.htm#bridge) Safety is no longer a concern. We’re walking faster than the cars are moving. Many of the people we pass as we approach the bridge honk their horns and wave at Granny. This is fun. Finally, as we reach the bridge itself, there’s an old walkway we can use safely. And at just this point, the back-up clears and traffic begins zipping past us again. It seems eerily like the cars were stopped just for us. Is Granny always this lucky? So far, yes. "It hasn’t even rained on her, not even a single drop, on the whole trip," John tells me. I attribute this aleatory quirk to a) a combination of the holiness of Granny D’s march, and b) global warming. As we cross the bridge, there’s also no sign of any police. Apparently the Memphis cop was bluffing. And so, at about 9 am, Granny leads us into Tennessee. At the small park on the other side, there’s a minor crush of cameras and microphones. The local media has come out to meet Granny and ask her about the march. Everyone else in the group has a chance to sit and stretch and drink some water. Granny, however, goes instantly from the bridge into the public eye. The 89-year-old woman with emphysema who has just walked five miles at a brisk pace doesn’t even pause to take a breath. She just smiles and gives simple, clear answers to all of the reporters’ questions --the same ones, I would guess, she has been asked many times before: "I am not supporting any political candidate. This is a non-partisan march." "I am not a politician. I am working on a social problem." "Oh, yes, people along the way support what I’m doing." And so on. Granny eventually gets the chance to drive home her main point: that "soft money" -- unlimited donations given to political parties, which are then used to finance campaigns for private advantage -- and private financing of elections have created "a political system that is now based on the bribery of officials." That’s the main message Granny is bringing to anyone who will listen -- passing motorists, CNN, youth groups, Congressmen, NBC Nightly News, women’s rights groups, Good Morning America, church groups, People magazine, senior citizens, NPR, civil rights organizations, state Governors, and anyone else who has any interest in hearing her message. (Photos are at http://www.bobharris.com/scoop/memphis.htm#media) As she enters the more populated eastern half of the country, Granny is garnering increasing media attention. Her speech in Little Rock was attended by almost all the local media and Salon magazine. Jim Hightower has recently made her comments from the road a weekly feature on his syndicated radio program. Granny has even made the current issue of George, appearing in their list of the 20 Most Fascinating Women In Politics. (For those of you scoring at home, Granny was #9, behind Madeleine Albright, Liddy Dole, and Hillary Clinton, but ahead of Dianne Feinstein, Tipper Gore, and Christine Todd Whitman.) Unlike many others on George’s list, however, Granny D isn’t concerned with increasing her own power, but the power of everyone else that she meets -- and their awareness that they even have any power at all. As John explains, the march is also an attempt to set a positive example: "A lot of the people she’s touching aren’t activists -- they’re just people who see her throwing her body into the way of a problem, in the great tradition of protest." Granny describes the people she’s trying to reach this way: "If you can motivate people to vote who haven’t in years -- if you can increase those numbers at the polls -- then you’re achieving something." A few minutes after she tells me this, a heavy-set, mustachioed man named Bobby walks up to shake Granny’s hand, wearing a facial expression usually reserved for meeting movie stars. "I think what you’re doing is really something," Bobby says. "It makes me want to go out and get more involved myself." Apparently Granny D is indeed achieving something. (Photos are at http://www.bobharris.com/scoop/memphis.htm#gregory) At about 11 am, we are joined by noted activist and comedian Dick Gregory, who probably understands Granny D’s march as well as anyone can: in 1976, Dick crossed the United States on foot himself, jogging 50 miles a day for two full months to bring attention to America’s problems with hunger and malnutrition. Dick and Granny D hit it off immediately. And again we begin to walk, this time along the river bank and into downtown. (Photos are at http://www.bobharris.com/scoop/memphis.htm#riverwalk) Our ranks have swelled as a number of local residents have joined us near the bridge. One is a representative from the office of the Memphis area’s Congressman, Harold Ford, Jr. Congressman Ford has been a vocal supporter of the campaign finance reform measures currently pending in Congress: the Shays-Meehan bill in the House, and its Senate counterpart, McCain-Feingold. These bills propose a good beginning to campaign finance reform: o a ban on soft money contributions from corporations, labor unions, and the wealthy, eliminating many six-figure contributions that buy tremendous influence o requirements that a majority of a candidate's campaign funds be raised from individuals in their home states, and an outright ban on foreign money in U.S. campaigns o restrictions on "Issue Ads," which are thinly-veiled campaign which skirt election laws by omitting candidates’ names but promoting their precise positions o numerous improvements in public disclosure of the sources and use of private funds o restrictions making it harder for unions and corporations to avoid current laws by laundering funds through non-profit groups o a ban on candidates converting fundraising cash for personal use all of which, when asked, the American public supports. Unfortunately, our elected representatives have a different view of democracy. Last year, Shays-Meehan passed by a wide margin, but the Senate version was killed by a minority filibuster. Both bills are coming up for a vote again in the next several weeks. Shays-Meehan will likely pass again; McCain-Feingold, however, will only pass if the American public makes it clear that Senators who do not support the measure will not be re-elected. More information on these bills can be found at Granny D’s website, http://www.grannyd.com, which now gets over 20,000 hits per week. Also, a list of important "swing" voters in Congress, whose decisions will likely sway the ultimate passage of the bills, and who might be swayed by calls and letters, is posted at http://www.arizonatimes.com/grannys-list.htm. Granny calls those who oppose reform "footdraggers," and suggests getting their attention by sending them boxes of old shoes as a protest of their position. I can imagine that several thousand boxes of shoes would get more attention than a single sack of mail. It’s a little before noon. "Go Granny Go!" suddenly booms out loudly from above. A group of construction workers are shouting down at us from girders 50 feet in the air. They wave. We wave back. Our procession is now large enough that traffic is stopping for us at intersections. More TV cameras show up. (Photo at http://www.bobharris.com/scoop/memphis.htm#TV) I notice that Granny and Dick are holding hands. Together, they are a combined 156 years old. And the rest of us have to work to keep up. ___________________________ Soon we arrive at the Clayborn Temple, where we are greeted by Rev. Samuel "Billy" Kyles, local leaders of Common Cause, and members of the sanitation workers’ union. BACKSTORY In 1968, the Clayborn Temple was where sanitation workers gathered to begin their protests against terrible labor conditions. Dr. Martin Luther King came to Memphis in March of that year to lead a march of these workers, whose call for basic human dignity was summarized in the simple slogan, "I am a man." It was while in Memphis on behalf of the sanitation workers that Dr. King was shot to death. He was standing on the balcony outside room 306 of the Lorraine Motel, where he had spent the last hour of his life talking with Ralph Abernathy and preparing for dinner at Rev. Kyles’ home. The night before, Dr. King had made his final speech. Alluding to Moses’ inability to join the people he led into the promised land of Israel, Dr. King spoke quite plainly of the imminent risk of assassination, and his peace with whatever might come: "And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say that threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. That speech was made at the Clayborn Temple. RETURN TO PRESENT "I feel a great kinship with the civil rights movement," Granny D had told me earlier. "Their movement was non-violent, and their cause was peace. And if blacks or any other group want a movement to survive and have any effect, that’s why we need to reform this campaign bribery system, so our voices will be heard." Her feeling of kinship is clearly mutual. At the steps of the Clayborn Temple, Granny D is presented with one of the original placards from the sanitation workers’ strike. (Photo at http://www.bobharris.com/scoop/memphis.htm#placard) And now Rev. Kyles and perhaps a dozen others, including many of the same men who marched with Dr. King some 31 years earlier, join Granny D in her walk. We begin by retracing the steps of the march Dr. King led toward city hall. It’s about noon. At the end of Beale Street, Rev. Kyles asks us all to take a moment, remember Dr. King’s work here, hold hands, and join together in prayer. I’m not a religious man. And holding the hands of these men and women, black and white, from all over the nation, I bow my head and thank God for the spirit and work of Dr. King. I thank God dearly for the opportunity to be touched by that spirit in some small way --walking here with these people who knew him, hearing their stories, and feeling a small glimmer of what he meant to their lives. I didn’t get any pictures here. I was too busy praying. And then we walked to the Lorraine Motel. ___________________________ The place where Dr. King was shot is now the National Civil Rights Museum. What was once merely a place of sadness and mourning has been transformed into a permanent monument to the simple power of truth, love, and faith in humankind. Writers from local newspapers and still more TV crews are waiting as we arrive. Granny D, Dick, and Rev. Kyles have chosen to come here to demonstrate that Dr. King’s spirit truly does live on, inside anyone who is truly committed to working for peace. (Photos at http://www.bobharris.com/scoop/memphis.htm#museum) Granny D: "Did Dr. King die here? His soul is still with us, and his voice still rings… our brothers and sisters of every color have sacrificed their lives to advance our shared dream of a land of equality. They have not made these sacrifices in order to separate our people into the poor and the rich, into the privileged and oppressed… Dr. King believed that equal economic opportunity was a precondition for literal equality… the economic division of our nation has deteriorated since Dr. King walked among us… The division of the people is arranged and perpetrated by a political system that is now based on the bribery of officials and the dispensing of billion-dollar political favors to corporations and the wealthy, paid by our tax dollars at the expense of programs that could make our society so much fairer… Americans are disheartened about the condition of their democracy… We will never be equal until we sit at the table of power. And we are today forced outside the room by the corrupting influence of big money. To the apologists and protectors of corruption in Congress like Mr. McConnell of Kentucky and Mr. Lott of Louisiana: understand, sirs, that just like those who stood atop the school steps to block the historic arrival of desegregation, you cannot stand forever atop the Capitol steps, your arms folded against the American people's longing for a democracy worthy of our national sacrifices… I thank [all those] who have walked with me here today. I hope you will walk with me again in January, when I will reach Washington DC at the age of 90. By then I might need a hand up the Capitol steps. And I hope that we as American brothers and sisters might go into that great temple of freedom together, with Dr. King beside us and in our hearts." Dick Gregory: "Down through the years, we have example after example that one person with courage is what makes the majority. We stand here now at a place where people once thought they could shoot one man and stop a movement… and they found out they can’t do that… And as a human being who is 67 years old, I say to this sister who’s one year short of 90, thank God for what you’re doing for older folks… What she is saying to the whole world is that there’s no such thing as being old -- the same light that God put in you at day one -- that light runs rampant in you now… so this sister, who is just eleven years short of 100, dares to say that she will walk from one end of this country to the other, for our benefit… I ask you to pray for her, and call your friends across this country, and ask your friends to pray." Rev. Billy Kyles: "I have been rejuvenated. I’ve been in the movement for 50 years, and I thought I ought to be able to slow down, but when I saw what Granny D was doing, I got recharged… it’s a joy to meet her and to see what she’s doing. It just goes to show the power of one, of the individual… the individual really does count. When Martin Luther King was killed… I wondered for many years, why was I there? I was there to be a witness, so here I am 31 years later, still witnessing. Martin Luther King… gave his life helping the least of us, the garbage workers… He touched so many lives. Granny was touched by him, and now her light has touched someone else, and that’s really how we get things done. So we pray for you on your journey, and I expect to be with you in January as you march into the capital city. God bless you, Granny." Local leaders from the sanitation workers, the League of Women Voters, and the AARP also make share their thoughts briefly. The media takes its pictures, makes its notes, and asks its questions yet again. And then, with ten miles completed, we’re done. ___________________________ Or, rather, I’m done, as are most of the folks here today. I shake hands with Jason from Little Rock, Dan from Chicago, Rose from Brooklyn, and many others. We promise to try to take this moment home with us and remember it to others. Then we go our separate ways. Back in my hotel room, I discover that my feet are blistered badly, I’ve managed to cut my leg somewhere along the way, and my head and face are badly sunburned. The next morning, I oversleep and wake up sore. Granny D is still walking. She’s such a sweet lady that I had trouble saying goodbye, even though I’m planning on joining her again in Washington. This is apparently common among people who have met Granny D along her journey. "Oh, sometimes it’s very hard to leave," she says with a smile and a shrug. "They cry, I cry." On Granny D’s right wrist is a Star Wars bracelet given to her by a three-year-old boy along the way. She smiles at the memory like the doting grandmother she is. "He said, wear this, it has power." Obviously he was right. At the very moment you read this, Granny D is hiking somewhere in western Tennessee, handing out leaflets, talking with local residents, and persuading people they really can change the way campaigns are financed. Granny D is thinking of writing a book based on her journals. Some people think she ought to run for Congress herself. We could do worse. So as Bush, Forbes, Gore, and their fellow millionaires fly across the country, attending endless fundraisers and promising real leadership in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars, Granny D walks onward. Ten miles a day. One step at a time. And does she ever miss her life before the march -- her family, her friends, her home in a small New Hampshire town? "Sure, sometimes I get homesick. But then I just remember my mission. And I’m back to it the next day." Damn, this woman is strong. ___________________________ Bob Harris is a stand-up comedian, political writer, and syndicated radio humorist. His new book, Steal This Book And Get Life Without Parole, is now available from http://www.commoncouragepress.com. To receive a free email subscription to The Scoop, just send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________ Bob’s Big Plug-O-Rama™ (updated 9/13/99): Steal This Book And Get Life Without Parole is available in many bookstores and can be ordered directly from http://www.commoncouragepress.com/steal.html at 25% off the retail price. The book includes cartoons by Tom Tomorrow and a foreword by Paul Krassner, who edited Lenny Bruce’s autobiography, How to Talk Dirty and Influence People. I’m doing readings at bookstores around the country during my fall college tour. So far, the book has already received hugely kind praise from Michael Moore, Jim Hightower, Jeff Cohen, and lots of other cool people. This is way exciting. Http://www.bobharris.com now includes streaming stand-up comedy clips, radio commentaries, and lots of other stuff like early writing samples from National Lampoon, my first published cartoons, and other such whatnot. Syndication of "This Is Bob Harris," the daily radio feature, is rolling along: 75 stations and counting. Call your favorite station and ask for the feature. They pay attention, honest. The radio stuff is also rebroadcast up to four times a day in over 140 countries by Armed Forces Radio. You can also hear an audio version of my commentaries at Soapbox, http://www.webactive.com/webactive/soapbox/monday.html. Some past columns are reprinted in the current print editions of Dollars & Sense, Extra!, and the Funny Times. The email version of this column now has subscribers in 44 countries. Finally, Mother Jones online (http://www.motherjones.com) now carries The Scoop almost every week. I am honored to be associated with these people. 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