{"id":8654,"date":"2016-08-24T21:18:45","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T21:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idsunmedia.com\/?p=8654"},"modified":"2016-08-24T21:18:45","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T21:18:45","slug":"what-if-politics-were-based-on-policy-and-not-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2016\/08\/24\/what-if-politics-were-based-on-policy-and-not-money\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT IF POLITICS WERE BASED ON POLICY AND NOT MONEY?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"p1\">Filmmaker follows former priest as he runs for office<\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em>By Dana DuGan<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8655\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8655\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-8655\" src=\"https:\/\/idsunmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/10-13-14-Church-Felix-RL--300x167.png\" alt=\"Charlie Hardy, right, and his stepson, from a scene in \u201cCharlie vs. Goliath.\u201d Photo courtesy of Reed Lindsay \" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8655\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charlie Hardy, right, and his stepson, from a scene in \u201cCharlie vs. Goliath.\u201d Photo courtesy of Reed Lindsay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\">There are two stories here. One is that Reed Lindsay, a freelance journalist and filmmaker, who grew up in the Wood River Valley, is making his first feature-length documentary, \u201cCharlie vs. Goliath.\u201d The other story is that of his subject, Charlie Hardy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Lindsay has been around. He\u2019s lived and worked in Latin America, Egypt, and Haiti after the earthquake. He was the Washington, D.C., bureau chief and the Haiti correspondent for TeleSUR, the Latin American satellite TV network, from 2004 to 2009. He <span class=\"s1\">has reported from Libya, India, Venezuela and Honduras, among other countries, and has been published in more than 20 newspapers and magazines and broadcast on numerous television news networks. <\/span>He just returned from Somoa, where he was at work on a documentary about a Somoan rugby player for Al Jezeera.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">But it\u2019s the returning to his roots in the West that has him busy these days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI\u2019ve done most of my work out of the country, but it\u2019s fun to get to know another state,\u201d Lindsay said. His subject matter was close by, well known to him and an inspiration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Hardy, a social justice activist who ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate two years ago, sought federal office again this election cycle. A Cheyenne resident, Hardy ran for Wyoming\u2019s U.S. House seat but <span class=\"s2\">lost the Democratic nomination to Ryan Greene, on Tuesday, Aug. 16.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI\u2019ve known Charlie about 13 years, since I was in my 20s,\u201d Lindsay said. \u201cI met him in Latin America. I was a correspondent at the time and was intrigued by him. He\u2019s a dreamer and a visionary, striving to make the world better. He\u2019s very youthful. He runs every morning for the last 45 years. He\u2019s never been in the hospital. And was born in the house where he lives today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Lindsay\u2019s film, \u201cCharlie vs. Goliath,\u201d has an active Kickstarter campaign now to help with the post-production costs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cIt\u2019s the type of documentary that can promote some discussion,\u201d Lindsay said. \u201cIt\u2019s my first feature-length documentary and I\u2019ve made a lot of sacrifices. I want to finally finish it and get it out there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Lindsay started filming his friend in 2014 while Hardy was running for the U.S. Senate, a campaign he eventually lost. Lindsay said he considered how to do a \u201cfilm about a guy who probably doesn\u2019t have a chance. The film doesn\u2019t hinge on whether he won or not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Some facts: Hardy is a true American original. He lives with little material goods, had no corporate sponsors, ran a campaign with $10,000 and traveled around Wyoming in a 1970 Crown school bus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI thought it\u2019d be a feature story, but I was inspired by his message to get money out of politics,\u201d Lindsay said. \u201cIt\u2019s the most important issue and not given enough attention by the media.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Hardy, 77, served as a Catholic priest for 29 years, including in parishes in Cheyenne, Laramie, Rock Springs and Casper. He was superintendent of Wyoming Catholic schools and was a missionary in South America, living for eight years in a cardboard-and-tin shack on the outskirts of Caracas, Venezuela. Hardy is also the author of<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cCowboy in Caracas: A North American\u2019s Memoir of Venezuela\u2019s Democratic Revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">\u201cThis whole question of money in politics \u2013 there\u2019s just that feeling that elections are bought and sold,\u201d Hardy said. \u201cThey\u2019re not won. If you have more money, you can fill the airwaves, fill the television waves. I would rather fill the hearts of people, which is more important than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Lindsay was joined in his endeavors by two other volunteer filmmakers. They shot more than 300 hours of footage and now have a rough cut of the film.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cFrom a rational perspective, Charlie never wavered and remained optimistic,\u201d Lindsay said. \u201cIf he could inspire me, and if I could inspire others through the film, then it could have a positive effect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Lindsay says that after this last election \u2013 Hardy won only Cheyenne \u2013 he may continue being an activist rather than trying for politics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cHe\u2019s the type of guy who has no material demands. What fulfills him is making a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The Kickstarter campaign may be found at https:\/\/bit.ly\/charlievusgoliath.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Filmmaker follows former priest as he runs for office By Dana DuGan There are two stories here. One is that Reed Lindsay, a freelance journalist and filmmaker, who grew up in the Wood River Valley, is making his first feature-length documentary, \u201cCharlie vs. Goliath.\u201d The other story is that of his subject, Charlie Hardy. Lindsay [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-art","8":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}