South Burlington man walking to fix democracy

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - A South Burlington man is on a mission. On Oct. 1, he’ll start walking from Los Angeles to Capitol Hill. With him, he brings an important message about the state of democracy in our nation.

WCAX News checked in with Rick Hubbard when he was nearing Lincoln, Nebraska, on his way to the starting line.

Hubbard is driving an RV that will make the journey alongside him with the help of volunteers. While it’s exciting, he says the walk means nothing if no one is paying attention to the mission.

“During the years I’ve been paying attention to how well our government has been serving our citizens; it has gotten worse, not better,” Hubbard said. “I’m motivated to do what I can in conjunction with others across the country to involve and motivate more Americans to get involved.”

Hubbard says he was inspired by a New Hampshire woman who took the same route in 1999. Her name was Doris Haddock, better known to those walking with her as Granny D.

“She was national news and it did help pass the McCain-Feingold legislation in 2002 that cut out corporate soft money,” Hubbard said.

Along the way, Hubbard will make stops in more than 80 cities and towns across the country.

“Having had advance cooperation and collaboration with citizens, activists, organizers who would’ve agreed to set up an event of some kind, who will talk about the actions that would actually improve things,” Hubbard explained. “So there’s partly an educational component about what would make it better and the second approach is to activate people at a local level to get involved, grab a sign, march in parades.”

“The rules are set at the moment to benefit the people the rules are designed to benefit,” Hubbard continued. “Those people are very happy with the system, but the people who the system is designed to help have never been more upset.”

Hubbard says this is a nonpartisan effort, not pushing any specific issue, but encouraging people to ask more from their elected officials.

He plans on wrapping up this journey in Washington, D.C., in January 2024.

You can follow his journey on his website.

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