Exclusive Interview With James Vaughn
By Brooke Layne
June 12, 2006
I interviewed James Vaughn, and found him to be very thoughtful,
wise, and kind. What struck me even more was his ability to answer a question "point
blank". I questioned him about a possible Mayoral election, and about his youth, and
distortions that have surfaced concerning his viewpoints. I want it to be made clear,
this man is very focused on one thing, Justice and Equality for all Americans. I
interviewed him at his home.
Brooke: I want to thank you for allowing me to interview
you.
JV: Thanks for the interview.
Brooke: So what shall I call you, James, Jim, Gator??
JV: Call me whatever you are comfortable with, it's fine with
me.
Brooke: What do your friends call you?
JV: A little bit of everything, some do not know me by anything
but Gator, but to most it's "Jim".
Brooke: I always wondered about how you got the nickname
"Gator", and when?
JV: Third grade, one of my lifelong buddies gave that nickname
and it stuck, the details would bore you.
Brooke: I've noticed you are in contact with friends from way
back in time, that's pretty good.
JV: Well, I was raised to treat people as you would like to be
treated. In life, that sticks with you, people either hate you or love you for that
reasoning, most of my friends respect that, and they are up front with me. Some of
the friends I made when I was 3 are still very good friends, almost a "kinship" is
there.
Brooke: Were you the kind of kid growing up that was
"wild"?
JV: Maybe, maybe not. I played baseball as a kid, did rather
well. I blew my knees out and moved along to motorcycles, and the motorcycle almost
blew me away, at least a few times anyway.
Brooke: Do tell, and what kind of bike?
JV: a 1975 Honda CB 125, it was metallic blue, a street bike that
I took to the woods with many times.
Brooke: Do you remember a crash in particular?
JV: Oh yes, 1980; I was coming home a wee bit too fast, the front
brake locked up, tossed me off the bike, and up against a trash dumpster. Thank God I
was wearing a helmet, but it tore alot of skin off my chest. I was unconscious for 10
minutes, it really 'rung my bell'.
Brooke: Did it slow you down on the bike, that is?
JV: Not really, I wanted to ride wheelies farther and faster. I
took to the woods and believe me, with slick street tires on that bike, I slid around
quite a bit., I think that's what made me so good on the street, master a street bike
in the mud, the streets are nothing in the eyes of a kid.
Brooke: Okay, now the details of your infamous jump, all your
friends speak of it!
JV: (laughing) I decided to jump my dad's golf cart, but I
thought I wanted a more dramatic jump, so I drove his ole 1968 Buick LeSabre in line,
and thought, "hmm, what else can I move here"? It ended up being two golf carts, two
cars, and two trucks. I jumped them using a ramp I made out of plywood. I jumped them
without a glitch. It scared my parents, so I quit that in a hurry.
Brooke: What ended your biking days?
JV: My cousin just had bought a new Harley, he was coming home
(in Herrin, IL.), a dog ran out in front of him, and he crashed, hitting his head
against a curb. He died in Saint Louis, was 30, left behind kids, it really was
tragic. So his dad (my uncle) begged me not to ride anymore, walked me right up to
the coffin and asked if I wanted to put my folks through that. I gave my dad the keys
to the bike that evening, and that ended my biking days, and may have saved my life.
End of story.
Brooke:A hard lesson learned indeed.
JV: I really do not like talking about it, I mean I can talk
about good memories all day long about my cousin, but losing him so young, it was
tough....next question please.
Brooke: What kind of music did you like growing up?
JV: A little bit of everything, I liked the old "honky tonk"
sound, on the other hand I liked Elvis, Ricky Nelson., and Rockabilly. On the other
hand, I would also listen to alot of Rock 'n' Roll and Blues. It hasn't really
changed much, I listen to the same music basically. Depends on the mood.
Brooke: Quite a variety, any favorite songs?
JV: "I Never Go Around Mirrors" by Lefty Frizzell, and on
the Gospel end, it would have to be Presley's version of "Where No One Stands Alone".
Both songs really sends chills down my spine.
Brooke: Okay, it's a known fact you did great in baseball, what
happened when you hit high school?
JV: A combination of things, mainly I hated the system. Why
should a kid play the full game when he plays terrible, just because his daddy is on
the School Board, or is 'influential'? I would almost puke when I went into the
huddle and some kid would be crying because he did not want to play, his daddy
wanted him to play. All I asked for was a fair chance. My freshman year I was small.
I had to drink protein milk shakes to make it to 107 pounds. I think my senior year I
had the last laugh, I was one of the tallest kids, and literally spat on the
establishment ran athletic system. Besides, as I mentioned earlier, I already had
blown my knees out. No big loss for them nor me. It just bothered me about all the
good athletes who were not given a chance, and no scholarships. Let me make it clear, some coaches didn't play the establishment's game, and they weren't "happy campers" by any means. I was a kid and knew this was going on. After I graduated they dumped on one of the best coaches we ever had, I respect that man (always did) for standing up to them, doing things his way. I think he had the last laugh, looking back at things now.
Brooke: I sense a fighter for the underdog way back
then?...
JV: Always, I never could stand to see anyone mistreated in any
shape, form or fashion. When I seen the system beating a good person down, it drove
me berserk. As I got older, I learned how to teach that person to fight back.
Brooke: Values came into play, obviously?
JV: When I was little, when a neighbor lost a spouse, we mowed
their yard, we tidied up things, we all pulled together for that person and their
family, you don't see that anymore and it breaks my heart. Someone stole American
values in my opinion.
Brooke: What else did neighbors do back then?
JV: We always shoveled their sidewalks when it snowed, you
couldn't let them slip on the ice and break a hip. You always gathered walnuts so
they could make a pie. Sometimes you just sat with them and let them have someone to
talk to, and what a source of information they proved to be. It's not like that
anymore, and it's a shame.
Brooke: Your accident, being the one working for the city.
JV: It was a temporary job for me to begin with. I wanted to go
to college, but my dad had a serious heart problem. I had to work, plain and simple.
I end up mowing the City Park, I heard a loud "bang", next thing I knew I was in a
hospital laying in traction. I was in tremendous pain. Four crushed vertebrae, 2
ruptured discs, and a sciatic nerve pinched 3/4 in half. I came out two inches
shorter. I could not feel anything from the waist down for 46 days, then the feeling
came back. When I got out of the hospital it was no longer Summer, a totally
different season. It was hard to accept the fact if safety switches had not been
taken off the mower, the accident would have never happened. I was using a mower that
had been rebuilt from a fire the August before, when they were rebuilt all safety
switches had been scrapped. The way I was treated during and after the accident was
criminal, the harassment was cruel and unusual.
Brooke: How did you deal with all of this, you were a young man,
what 20 years old?
JV: Well, for starters being told to stay off the streets was
harassment, but looking back, I can see why they didn't want me visible. I was a
product of their stupidity, if I looked bad-they looked even worse. It got so bad my
dad took me south to The Lake of Egypt, when the "work hardening classes" only popped
more discs out. I swam in those waters, did things the old fashioned way. Came back
to town and walked anywhere I damned well pleased.
Brooke: The harassment stopped?
JV: To a certain degree. Alot of lies were told, and still are
being told. They are miserable and desperate tyrants.
Brooke: Your dad, losing your dad affected you deeply, didn't
it?
JV: My dad was a decent man. I remember when he went into the
Veterans Hospital over a "tickling sensation" in his ribs, when they finally
got him to St. Louis, cancer had spread from the bone to the lungs, only 8% of his
heart was functioning. He died October 1, 1987 (that year), was 65.
Brooke: It affected you, right?
JV: Oh yes, I learned alot during his illness and after his
death. I found out what true friends were.
Brooke: You started having medical problems after that, if I'm
correct?
JV: Summer of 1987, both my parents were in the hospital. I
thought I was just worn out. I was having "double vision" and three day spells of
"car sickness". I was hospitalized, they didn't know what was wrong, so they
diagnosed me with, "Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever". Late in December, I found out in
Memphis, Tenn., that I had four spots on the brain. At first they didn't know what it
was. They wanted to go in the next day. I told them I needed to get things taken care
of around home, I signed a waiver in case anything happened to me.
Brooke: Scared?
JV: I was just worried nobody would be around to look after my
mom. I already had made my peace with God, I just was "anxious" because I didn't know
what to expect.
Brooke: So what happened?
JV: They found four blood clots on the brain, my eustachian tube
had rotted away, something in my left ear had rotted away. They got 3 of the 4 blood
clots, the 4th was emptied courtesy of a tube in the back of my brain and diuretics.
Reconstructive surgery took place on those bad places that had rotted away. I knew
then I was a lucky man. I literally shook 30 days after the surgery. It was a really
horrible thing to go through, many probably still do not know what I went through.
But it's over, and every day since that surgery has been a gift!
Brooke: What happened shortly after?
JV: 1990, the medication to keep the blood from clotting was
having adverse reactions on my system. I went into the hospital, and that very
evening I collapsed. My heart stopped. I spent 3 days in a Coronary Care Unit. I'll
never forget waking up and seeing my mom holding my hand, I think she was afraid I
was going to leave this ole world.
Brooke: Pretty close call....
JV: Medications are strange, some can kill you, yet save another
life. But I'm O.K..,
Brooke: When did someone first ask you to consider running for
Mayor?
JV: 1993
Brooke: Why didn't you?
JV: I wasn't ready, plain and simple.
Brooke: And every election since?
JV: Yes, but the last two elections they were more serious. Like
I say, I will not run if someone is going to run who is going to give this town back
to We The People, if they are running legitimately, I'll gladly back them.
However, if nobody is going to run that has that in mind, I'll run myself, I'll win
because the people are tired of the chicanery from City Hall, just walk the streets
and ask people Brooke. Carterville is being split in half, City Hall operates with so
much secrecy it's pitiful. People that love this town are leaving because of all the
tyranny, and that's what it is plain and simple, tyranny!
Brooke: Is that a "warning shot" of a possible run?
JV: I said what I just said. Things better change. I have plans
to return this town to the people, plans for the youth, plans for the middle aged,
plans for the elderly. This is their town too!
Brooke: How do you know this time seems different?
JV: More people from all walks of life are asking me to run, some
people I just have a feeling are possibly "carrier pigeons" for the powers that be,
and asking. I always tell them to, "take that message to your boss"! I will not
tolerate a tyrant, and Carterville has became a "breeding ground" for them, in my
opinion.
Brooke: Would you run the City Constitutionally?
JV: You know it! Nothing but!
Brooke: Why do you think this next election will gain alot of
attention, if you should run?
JV: This entire Republic is under a Constitutional Crisis. I have
preached from the beginning, taking this Republic back starts with our own backyards,
meaning City Hall offices, County Commissioner seats, and yes, Mayor offices. You
work at the bottom and weed out the tyrants as you move up the line. It cannot and
will not work any other way. People in the alternative media know me, they know my
solutions work. I know the media will cover it for a real good fact.
Brooke: They've pretty well blacked out your web site, why
do you think they'll start paying attention now?
JV: I never said, "now". Come election time, the entire
media are basically prostitutes, they'll cover a hot story to sell their product.
History proves this.
Brooke: Good point, by the way, how is the web site going?
JV: It's going great, thanks for asking.
Brooke: You've covered many hot topics, national, world, and
local...
JV: I also run articles that the mainstream media dares not to
publish. You'll hear the real opinions on my site.
Brooke: What is the joke about the lake at the Cannon Park?
JV: Let me use a parable here, if someone wanted to rename The
Statue of Liberty, people would always remember it as, "The Statue of Liberty", am I
right?
Brooke: Yes
JV: So we have a strip pit named "Red Ledge", now they are
trying to call it something else. I grew up in the woods where Cannon Park sits now,
and Red Ledge was the strip pit that was there then, and is still there now.
Brooke: Very good point!
JV: Try explaining that to some educated idiots, they just do not
get it.
Brooke: Let me ask you how people are trying to twist your
viewpoints, if I may.
JV: Ignorant people do not know anything about the U.S.
Constitution, in fact they are afraid of it. I am a Constitutionalist. People have
taken the very beliefs this Republic was founded on, and twisted it to mean something
else, almost hateful! The rumor makers have said me being a Constitutionalist should
make people leery of me! Talk about twisting the facts! Let me pass on some
great advice, "Wrap yourself around the Bible and The U.S. Constitution, and you'll
stay safe, and will not be in the dark about anything."
Brooke: Great advice to live by!
JV: It's sound advice.
Brooke: Do you believe we have a period of time to take The
Republic back, or can it be put off for a few years?
JV: There's no time to waste, Brooke. Every single day
another Right has been voted away. The unPatriot Act tears at the roots of our
Constitution. People need to wise up and get their heads out of the sand. Right now,
Bushco is figuring out a way to start a nuclear exchange with Iran. Iran hasn't done
anything to ask for this treatment. If you follow the same "play book" they used for
Iraq, they are using it for Iran. We can't let this happen at any cost. It's immoral,
and I fear God will punish us severely if we allow this to happen.
Brooke: Wise answer, and it makes you think.
JV: It should. America is in trouble.
Brooke: One last question and my friends would not let me hear
the end of it if I didn't ask, it may seem off the wall...
JV: Ask me, we can't let you get in any hot water now!
(laughs)
Brooke: Ok, are you seeing anyone now, I mean are you
single?
JV: I'm single, and not seeing anyone right now. Maybe I'm too
picky?
Brooke: Why?
JV: Now if I knew the answer to that question, I would not be
single right now, would I....
Brooke: Good answer, you have a point actually.
JV: It's the truth.
Brooke: Jim, it's really been fun and interesting during
this interview, I will tell you up front, I find you to be a very interesting man who
knows what he's talking about, and that is rare today. Thank you for letting me
interview you.
JV: Any time Brooke, you've been quite a journalist as always,
thank you for the gracious interview.
©2008 James Vaughn