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Hernando Today

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 10, 2008

Campaign Memories

The Iowa caucuses cause all the candidates running for president to move to New Hampshire where it was an interesting and refreshing experience for this writer to spend weekend after weekend there in Nashua and Manchester and other cities in 1984 to campaign as the "Buckeye Brigade" for John Glenn, my Muskingum College alumna and graduate in New Concord, Ohio, where he was reared.

I stood the vigil for John Glenn at Town Houses, sometimes in blizzard conditions, where voters ploughed through the snow in their international four-wheel drive Travelalls to vote for Ronald Reagan who had no opposition, along with those voting for Democrats.

Rev. Jesse Jackson's "Rainbow Coalition" was there. Hollingsworth, with his Southern humor, was there. They, along with McGovern, Gary Hart and John Glenn pretty well made up the pack. Our "Brigade" of some 15 to 20 campaign volunteers slept on a wooden floor in a warehouse a few hours a night, but spent at least 16 to 18 hours a day working the streets, doing door hangers in the late evening, car door pamphlets during the day; and we wrote 10,000 postal cards asking for support in the early morning hours and ate at fast-food spots the best we could.

Any spare time we had, we visited other campaign headquarters for buttons and memorabilia. We went to rallies almost nightly, some gathering hundreds of spectators, family members of candidates and reporters we knew like Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and others who allowed us to chat with them as though we were neighbors. McGovern had folk singer Bob Dylan in concert for him because McGovern was liberal to the left. John Glenn had a huge rally with all the spectacle of a winner partly because of his historic astronaut status, partly because he was very friendly, up close and personal, and partly because he appeared to be a frontrunner. We, of course, met and were very friendly with all his family members there to shore up his campaign.

A vanload of us drove south for the Super Tuesday states of then - Alabama, Mississippi and others. But John Glenn's campaign fizzled in Birmingham after working the state with those of us remaining as "Brigade" troops, eager to see our candidate pull ahead. Campaigns of 2008 cannot be much different, surely.

Wish I were able again. I already have a choice.

Deron Mikal

Brooksville

Service Saluted

Re: Letter to the Editor entitled, "Service Slap" in the Jan. 2, 2008 edition of Hernando Today.

Sgt. Smith, I wish you had given the name of the restaurant where you and your wife ate in Spring Hill off State Road 50, so that I would be sure that I never ate at that restaurant or any other of their restaurants ever.

By the way, thanks for the job that you are doing.

Clint Smith (no relation)

Brooksville

Editor's note: Sgt. Smith did give the name of the restaurant in his letter. It is the policy of Hernando Today not to publish the names of private businesses that letter writers are upset with because only one side is given.

Prayer Satire?

I am opposed to public prayer because of Jesus's words in Matthew, Chapter 6, Verses 5, 6, 7 and 8. Is Mr. Stabins making a satire out of prayer?

Doris Taylor

Brooksville

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