Fort Worth Star-Telegram
April 25, 2000
NATURAL LAW HOPEFUL CITES SPIRITUALITY, POLITICS
By Jack Douglas Jr.
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
RICHARDSON -- About 500 people filled a conference room at the Richardson Civic Center Monday night to discuss ways of transforming the normally turbulent world of politics into a process that is in harmony with Mother Earth.
They came in new Lincolns and old Chevrolets, each paying a $10 or $12 admission fee, if they could afford it, to hear motivational speakers Neale Donald Walsch and John Hagelin, the Natural Law Party's presidential candidate.
Hagelin and his hundreds of followers called for voters to forget about Al Gore, dismiss George W. Bush, and instead bring "spirituality and politics" together, placing, among other things, the environment over capitalism.
Hagelin, 45, is director of doctoral programs of physics at the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, and a co-founder of the Natural Law Party. He is also seeking the presidential nomination of the Reform Party, which he hopes can form a coalition with his group. He says he is the only aspiring presidential candidate who is offering "common-sense, forward-looking solutions" that "never see the light of day under a Republican or Democratic administration that is bought and paid for by special interest groups."
Hagelin said politics, and the government, should take lessons from Mother Nature's ways of nurturing life and the environment. "Nature provides a very profound truth in life ... a universal, unified field of intelligence," Hagelin said.
His message, at least among the group in attendance Monday night, is a popular one.
Elizabeth Archuleta, a massage therapist from Dallas, said she is strongly considering joining the Natural Law Party. "I'm not very happy with the way society is right now, and I'd like to see it get better," Archuleta said.
Brandy Jones, also a massage therapist, said: "Our education system stinks. It only has to do with politics and money. We're not teaching our kids anything about real life."
A brass band played and spirituals were sung as Natural Law Party members pushed their platform. It includes revamping the health care system and fighting medical political action groups, cutting taxes "deeply and responsibly," protecting the environment through nonpolluting energy sources and promoting "organic agricultural practices ... without hazardous chemical fertilizers and pesticides."
Hazel Chandler, an Irving businesswoman and Natural Law candidate for the U.S. Senate, said the political process, and society in general, must get in sync with the laws of Mother Earth.
"If we don't live more in harmony with what's going on, we're not going to survive," Chandler said.
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