Chiles walks, wants more than talk

His thick, unruly eyebrows give Bud Chiles away as the offspring of the late and highly respected Florida governor, Lawton Chiles.
The similarities begin, but hardly end there. These days, he’s wearing out some shoe leather, just as his father did almost 40 years ago, but for a different cause. He brought his message to Marianna Wednesday, walking from the Jackson County Courthouse to Golson Elementary School to talk about his cause with administrators and children there.
He also stopped in on the Jackson County Health Department’s mobile dentistry clinic.
His father became known as “Walkin’ Lawton” in 1970, during his successful strategy to walk and talk with potential constituents in order to win a Senate seat. He logged 1,000 miles in that campaign.
The son says he has no plan to seek public office. “I’m walking, not running,” he said.  “That is not on my agenda.”
But he is on a campaign of sorts; to build grassroots demand for front-end spending on programs for children, and to get 1 million people to sign on for personal efforts on the behalf of kids. The Pledge For Florida’s Children is a project of the Lawton Chiles Foundation. Bud works for that organization, which focuses on the welfare of children.
Lawton Chiles served as governor of the state for two consecutive terms, from 1991 through 1998, and consistently advocated for the youngest Floridians. Bud says he wants to extend that legacy.
Bud Chiles’ 600-mile, 1 million step walk is part of the foundation’s “Worst to First” initiative, “to make children’s issues the top priority for Florida’s leaders,” according to the foundation’s Web site.
Chiles said he believes his father would “be sick to his stomach” about the state of education and spending practices as it relates to children in Florida.
He believe more money should be spent on children in their formative years, to get them ready for kindergarten and to make sure they get a healthy, solid start in life.
He points to the prevalence of juvenile offenders and the large number of prisons in Florida, as evidence state leaders are failing to create an atmosphere that will lead children into responsible, productive lives.
He says the state is pulling too much funding from after-school and enrichment programs which have historically helped in that effort.
Chiles wants his pledges to bring pressure to bear on lawmakers to change that focus, and believes they can do it if they pull together and put real action behind their signatures.
He also wants them to volunteer for programs that already exist but are struggling, or which were good but now face funding cuts or other problems.
Chiles said he’s convinced the answers are already out in the communities, but that the programs lack the support they need. He believes his walk will inspire others to take action and make their own commitments.
As he travels — he’s already walked about a quarter of his trip, logging 140 miles — Chiles and his support team are documenting programs that need help in every community he visits, including Marianna, Sneads and Quincy, his three targets Wednesday.
He’s hoping residents will log on and find a place for themselves in the effort to help Florida, the forth largest state in the country, move from its poor standing in terms of educational success to become the country’s leader.
The Lawton Chiles Foundation’s Web site is at http://www.lawtonchiles.org.