The League of Rural Voters has asked all the presidential candidates to come to a “rural summit" in Ames, Iowa. The National Summit on Agriculture and Rural Life will be held October 27.

The Summit will “will examine emerging issues and economic development trends within rural regions and communities nationwide, with a focus on federal strategies to support the new and emerging realities of rural America," League of Rural Voters executive director E. Niel Ritchie wrote in a letter sent to each presidential candidate. Ritchie said each candidate would be given time during the day to address the 400 people he expects to attend the Summit.

This is the second time since June rural organizations have tried to entice presidential candidates to a gathering of rural policy-makers. In June, only Sen. Hillary Clinton made a live appearance before the National Rural Assembly in Northern Virginia — and that was via a satellite hook-up from her Senate offices.

The preliminary agenda for the Summit has set aside time for discussions of bio-fuels, globalization, immigration and technology. The event will be held on the campus of Iowa State University. On October 26th, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy is organizing a Rural Youth Conference, also in Ames.

You can contact the League about the Summit at (612) 879-7578; or email info@leagueofruralvoters.org.

We have reached the “authenticity" phase of the presidential campaign. This is when we’re told whether candidates are “real," and therefore worthy of our trust. Being real — or, at least, being perceived as real — is important. In ’92, we can remember that President George Bush flunked the authenticity test when he was bewildered and amazed by a grocery store scanner. It was clear the guy hadn’t bought a half-gallon of milk since before he headed the CIA.

For the past week, we’ve been supplied with various measures of candidate authenticity — from Barack Obama’s musing about a snooty kind of lettuce to Fred Thompson’s decision to slip his law-and-order hoofers in some less-than-manly Italian footwear. This is a strange time, the authenticity period, but here we are and here is how the candidates are stacking up against “real" Americans.

Democrats should (like England's Queen Elizabeth) know by now to stay away from lettuce. In ’88, Boston’s Michael Dukakis suggested that the row crop boys in Iowa plant Belgian endive, which branded the Democrat with the mark of Brie. This month, Sen. Obama was at Beverly Van Fossen's farm in Adel, Iowa, when, searching for a profitable future for agriculture, the candidate began talking lettuce. "Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula?" Obama asked. The answers would be no and no, since there is no Whole Foods in all of Iowa.

Sen. Obama, talking lettuce in Adel, Iowa.
Photo: Obama campaign

(Hey, Sen. Obama is not the only one with an arugula-meter. Lettuce is how supermodel Cindy Crawford knows whether she’s in a real city. She said, "Arugula is how I define cities. I go to a grocery store, and either you can get arugula or you can't." According to the supermodel standard, Adel isn’t a real city, an opinion with which the citizens of Adel no doubt agree.)

Obama’s lettuce moment gave everyone a howl; on the other hand, we learned that Obama, who is African American, “shows an ability to transcend race" and to connect with mostly white Iowans “on shared values." Who knows about that?…..just don’t get him talking leafy vegetables.

This exercise in authenticity is all about sitcom stereotypes, of course, and nobody fits the “Green Acres" script better than former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani. According to The New York Times, his honor toured small town Iowa recently — specifically, Greenfield —and there voters checked for “dirt under Giuliani’s fingernails."

What did they find? Betty Schuler asked if Giuliani would forget people in rural America after he was elected. “Oh, I’m not going to forget the little guy anywhere," Mr. Giuliani said, according to the Times. “When I got elected mayor of New York City, I didn’t forget anybody. The place that kind of won the election for me was Staten Island. It’s the closest thing that New York City has to — I wouldn’t call it rural, but suburbs."

Fred Thompson, in his Guccis, at the iowa State Fair

The poor candidate was trying to connect, and maybe Staten Island was as close as he could come to Adel. “It was, as he traveled through heavily Republican country in the most rural part of Iowa, a complicated process of cultural negotiation," the Times reported of Giuliani’s venture into rural Iowa. “At moments, he was the candidate from Mars who seemed as if he was campaigning on Venus (and no disrespect intended toward either planet)."

Republican Fred Thompson was supposed to be the most authentically rural candidate. (Giuliani was an authentic New Yorker, but for some reason that doesn’t count as real.) Yankee reporters think Thompson is authentic and rural because he has a southern accent. But then the tall, deep-voiced actor and former senator showed up at the Iowa State Fair wearing Gucci loafers. Jeez, he couldn’t pick up a pair of alligator boots in Los Angeles?

John Edwards’s Secretary of Rural Affairs, Virginian Mudcat Saunders, is busy telling everyone that Sen. Hillary Clinton can’t win in rural America. "Hillary Clinton can't win where I come from," Mr. Saunders said. "It's a joke for her to even try... If the Democrats want to win, Edwards is their guy." In other words, she’s authenticity-deficient. Clinton, meanwhile, tells folks she was "born into a middle class family in the middle of America in the middle of the last century." Middle, everyone knows, is real.

It doesn’t pay to mess around during the authenticity period of a campaign, to play it cute. It’s best to be straight up about your genuine-ness. So, when former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee entered a sports bar in Fort Mill, South Carolina, the Republican candidate got straight to the business of being true to life:

"We do talk the same language, don't we?" Huckabee said. "We know about deer hunting, NASCAR -- the things that really matter."

By STEFANIE FELDMAN

The scene is Ophir Mine, an abandoned mine site located in Searles Valley, California. The rock music starts and the edgy male vocals ask: “the nclb was such a scam/ so now you tell me, sir or mam/ would you scrap the whole thing or just revise?/ tell me the truth, don't tell me no lies." After brief applause, Anderson Cooper directs the question to Bill Richardson.

The YouTube video by “blackturtleus" was selected for CNN’s YouTube debate Monday. Blackturtleus is also known as Randy McGirr, a San Diego native who now lives in Trona, California. Trona is a town of about 2,000 near Death Valley and is, according to Randy, “about as rural as it gets."

McGirr is a teacher and serves as the Trona Teachers’ Association union president, so his question about the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law was serious. “I’ve been quite distressed about NCLB and specifically how it does not take into account the unique needs of small schools," McGirr wrote in an email to the Yonder on Tuesday. “My intent was for the ruins [of the mine] to represent the state that education is currently in as a direct result of NCLB."

Randy teaches sixth grade, but he has held various positions at the school. “One thing about a small school district is that you wind up with lots of experience teaching lots of subjects!" he wrote. McGirr explained his problems with NCLB:

Randy McGirr at the abandoned Ophir Mine.

“The biggest problem I see that is especially difficult for rural schools under NCLB is staffing. This is especially true at the high school level. Certain classes are taught only once every two years and require a specialized credential. Under NCLB every teacher must be fully qualified to teach every class he or she is assigned to teach. It is impossible for a small high school with a staff of nine or ten teachers to have a fully qualified (teacher in these classes)…it's hard to get teachers to even accept positions out in the middle of nowhere and if the job requirements are too stringent there won't be any qualified applicants at all! “

When not teaching, Randy creates quirky YouTube videos (including a debate question requesting a tunnel between Alaska and Russia) and writes self-published books that often feature children living in rural areas. His books, and his politics, are greatly affected by living in Trona.

Two other rural Americans had videos chosen for Monday night’s debate. Tony Fuller, from Wellston, Ohio, sat in his bedroom with a U.S. Army poster in the right side of the screen, and asked whether women should be required to register for the draft when they turn eighteen.

Jordan Williams is a nineteen-year-old pre-law student at the University of Kansas from Coffeyville, Kansas, a town of about 10,000 people. According to Jordan, growing up in a conservative town pushed him toward the more liberal worldview he has today.

YouTube questioner Jordan Williams.

Williams said he did not consider asking a question specifically about rural issue when he posted a YouTube question, which he did on a whim. Inspired by a feminist and black literature class he took last semester, Jordan asked for Senators Obama and Clinton to respond to critics who claim they are not “black enough or female enough."

The word “rural" wasn’t mentioned Monday night, nor were issues peculiar to small town America. (In previous debates, Democrats had mentioned “rural" more than Republicans.) John Edwards did say he would not support industries that turn coal into liquid fuel, a process that has both backing and opposition in Kentucky. When asked about nuclear power, Edwards said, “biofuels are the way we need to go." As for coal-to-liquid technology, Edwards said, “the last thing we need is another carbon based fuel in America."

Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd seemed to miss the fact that the winds of Katrina struck both cities and countryside when the hurricane landed in 1975. In response to a question asking whether or not race played an issue in the response to Katrina, Dodd said, "We can never ever allow again a major city, a major population center in our country go through what New Orleans, the Gulf states did as a result of the kind of neglect from an American president." Presumably, Dodd would extend that protection to smaller towns.

While Randy, Jordan, and Tony did not ask questions that were uniquely rural, they reminded us that the voices of rural America are not that far removed from their city cousins. The No Child Left Behind Act, a national policy, is very much a rural issue at McGirr’s school in Trona, and it is just as important in the inner city of New York.

We know now that a snowman can question candidates for president. Now, how about Native Americans?

The Democratic-leaning Indn’s List Education Fund (think Emily’s List for Indians) has asked all the Democratic candidates for president to attend a debate in California in late August — the delightfully titled Prez on the Rez event. The debate is hosted by the Morongo Band of Mission Indians; some 2,500 leaders from 500 tribes are expected to attend the Indn’s List conference.

Mark Trahant, a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe of Idaho and editorial page editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, will moderate the debate. Trahant had this exchange (YouTube above) with President George Bush.

The invitations for Prez on the Rez went out six months ago. So far, not many Democrats have accepted. Well, three have, but New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is the only candidate near the top tier who has agreed to come to California on August 23rd. Obama, Edwards and Clinton have yet to say they’ll come. In fact, Sen. Clinton has announced she won’t be there. (Maybe she saw the Bush YouTube.) Indn’s List president Kalyn Free reacted:

The Morongo Casino.
Photo: Ace Copeland/flickr

"Hillary Clinton's willingness to ignore Indian voters on the campaign trail has made it clear that she lacks the courage to change lives in Indian Country. I'm both disappointed and astonished that Senator Clinton has turned her back on American Indians. By refusing to participate in this historic event, she lost an opportunity to inspire an entire generation of American Indians to engage in the democratic process. Sadly, that reflects the hollowness of her rhetoric and the narrowness of her vision."

Free goes on, hoping to bludgeon the senator into appearing. But the story is complicated.

California tribes are in a conflict with organized labor. The tribes want to expand their casinos, and labor wants to organize the casino workers. The expansion of the casinos was held up in the California legislature for months and was only resolved in late June. The tribes were allowed to add more slots, but labor was left out of the settlement. The Democratic candidates may be staying away from the Morongo event to avoid a conflict with organized labor, which is livid at being ignored in the agreement.

Free, a member of the Democratic National Committee, told the Los Angeles Times that if Democrats won’t come, she’ll invite Republicans, “and they’re going to have unfettered access to tribal votes and tribal money." Clinton responded by setting up a “Native American Leadership Council" in Nevada, consisting of more than a dozen tribal leaders.

Native American voters live in swing states — New Mexico, Nevada and, now, perhaps, Arizona. And they’ve been reliable Democratic voters. But maybe there’s not enough celebrity on the Rez. It’s interesting that bicyclist Lance Armstrong will hold two presidential forums on cancer policy and research next month in Iowa — just days after the Prez on the Rez date — and he already has five candidates lined up to attend. (None of the top five or six have agreed to the LiveStrong forums.)

Everybody wants candidates to address their issues, and the candidates — justifiably, perhaps — are reluctant to say yes too often. No candidate attended the National Rural Assembly in person, although Sen. Clinton took questions on a video feed.

Maybe it’s a bit too easy to ignore Indn’s List because it’s still a bit too easy to dismiss, or even denigrate, Indians. In February of this year, a Montana state representative called a fellow legislator — a Native American — “chief" and asked if a gavel could be considered a “war club." Rep. Ed Butcher, R-Winifred, later apologized on the floor of the Montana House for what he had said to Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy, a Democrat from Rocky Boy.

Mark Trahant has been blogging about Prez on the Rez and puts the need for this discussion in context:

“Presidents once spent a great deal of time thinking about native people. One way to think about it: Indian Country was like Iraq (only closer) – war, security and national expansion all wrapped up into a complex presidential problem…. Gradually, though, presidents spent less and less time thinking about American Indians. More and more it was delegated to Congress, the Courts, or the Interior Department.
That is the context for Prez on the Rez. We need to bring back presidents -- and future presidents -- into a discussion about the federal policy as it relates to American Indian tribal governments."

When your house drowns, what happens? The Lovelaces of D'Iberville, Mississippi, told filmmaker Joel Cohen of the Center for Rural Strategies how they relied on family, friends, and FEMA in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina.

"Everybody ought to have to live in a FEMA trailer and lean over a toilet and brush their teeth," Mr. Lovelace said. He and his wife had considered buying a mobile home and traveling after his retirement. Not an idea they relish now.

Scores of people who were housed in FEMA trailers after the 2005 storms have testified that formaldehyde fumes inside the poorly ventilated trailers have cause health problems. According to the Washington Post, "As many as 120,000 families displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita lived in the suspect trailers, and hundreds have complained of ill effects."

As far as YouTube viewing, we here at the Yonder will take Faith the wonder dog over presidential politics.

Monday night, however, CNN and YouTube will co-sponsor a debate among the Democratic presidential candidates. The two media companies are collecting questions from voters through YouTube. CNN will sort through the offerings and then the candidates will answer a few dozen of these queries on July 23rd.

This is either the greatest thing since the Nixon/Kennedy debates or, as one academic put it, an event that is "superficial" and "overly hyped." The Yonder has no idea how this will turn out — whether this is a new dawn for democracy or a perversion of YouTube. (Did we mention Faith the wonder dog?) We have, however, collected questions for the candidates — questions gathered from Yonderites. We suggest you cast your question into the pot. It might not do any good, but it beats taking out your political frustrations on the dog.

In the meantime, here are our questions from Yonder. We’ll rotate them through the next couple of days, so keep coming back.

Editor’s Note: With this contribution by Nate Thompson of Whitesburg, Kentucky, the Yonder begins “Speak Your Piece," stories written by DY readers. Yonder is a big place, and we’ll only come to understand what is happening here by tapping our collective experiences. Thanks, Nate, for getting us started. Send to Speak Your Piece .

By NATE THOMPSON

The Ramp Photo: Josh Wigginton
There are two things that never seem to go unnoticed here in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky — how small the towns are, how beautiful the mountains are, and how many churches you can find. Ok, so, three things. Over the last several years there has been an awakening happening with the youth of America, and now this awakening is hitting homes across our nation, leaving an older generation to wonder what is going on. Most of the older generation is asking us, “Are we going to get in step and be a part of the move to God, or is this just a young person’s rebellion?"

For the past 10 years there was a place that was opened to facilitate the move to God among young people in the very rural town of Hamilton, Alabama. This was a town where Baptist and non-denominational churches reigned. The
"spiritual mother" who began this movement is a great female songstress, evangelist, and obedient Christian. Her name is Karen Wheaton.

“Mrs. Karen," as most call her, received a mandate from God to start a place for youth. She explained she didn’t want to see young kids ruin their lives. She wanted to change lives and set kids free. So she began The Ramp — a gathering, or conference, to fill kids with the word of God and to change their lives forever.

As Mrs. Karen puts it, The Ramp is meant to “awaken a generation out of spiritual death and religious complacency, calling them into their individual purpose and corporate responsibility as an offensive army imposing the Kingdom of God.

(For podcasts of services at The Ramp, go here.)

The Ramp began to gain TV exposure in the early 2000's, giving Christians an idea of what the ministry was doing in one rural Alabama town. A lot of the people in the area began to picket The Ramp and told Mrs. Karen she was creating a sprit of rebellion in the youth of America. Many people began to complain that The Ramp was just a place for kids to hang out and pretended to be a place of worship. These people claimed that The Ramp trashed religious beliefs and threw morals out the window.

Actually, many people didn’t know what The Ramp was until they had talked to the kids who had gone there; then they began to see what The Ramp was all about. Soon there was a
coalition that was standing up for the ministry because it was good for the kids, not only in that part of Alabama, but for the kids of the nation.

After opposition to The Ramp died down, things
really began to take off. Mrs. Karen started a ministry team that consisted of young adults — called the Chosen — from high school seniors to college grads. It was a dance and drama team that inspired other dance and drama teams across the nation.

Out of the many kids who fill up the floor and bookstores there at The Ramp, about 90% of them are not from Hamilton – which is pretty intriguing. Only about 54% who attend are from Alabama. Most of the kids who attend the conferences in Hamilton are kids from rural areas and small towns, young people who want to be reached. Most live in what I like to call "diet" rural areas.

We from Kentucky marvel over the little hills they call mountains there in northwest Alabama, but some of their hills are just as beautiful as the great peaks in our part of the Appalachians. There's a common denominator between the kids who travel from all over the world to come to a little rural town, and that is to get something from God.

A lot of the parents today don’t understand the way kids are being brought up in Christ today. They think the music is of the devil and kids shouldn’t jump or even say a word in service, or even have a woman standing in the pulpit.

But we are ripping up religious trash that we have allowed to become a part of our walk with God; we are not letting the things from an older generation get in the way of our walk with Christ. Most parents who may attend church but aren’t in leadership in a church want to have "good" kids, not "godly" kids. And there is a whole movement of a generation that is hungry for the things of God and wants to see God change the face of a nation.

The Ramp is at the forefront of leading a generation into another great movement of God. This little rural town is one of the most powerful places on the face of the Earth — all due to the obedience of a little girl from a small town who never thought she would fulfill her vision. Mrs. Karen stayed strong and steadfast and is now known as a spiritual mother to millions of young adults and teenagers across the nation. Rural, suburban, urban kids alike might not share the same things in life, but when they meet in the rural town of Hamilton Alabama, they share the same heart.

NOTE: Go to the Forum section of the Daily Yonder to discuss The Ramp and religion of a new generation.

Where do rural people fit into the 2008 election? Candidates talk pretty, citizens talk straight, while the Center for Rural Strategies rolls the camera.

Native American students of journalism convened at the University of South Dakota, June 3, 2007.

Family band from Elizabeth City, NC, sets out to save the world.