Common Sense & Mars Madness

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National Geographic excerpt

In Trump’s address to Congress the other night, he said America will be aiming at Mars “…to plant a flag there.” During the same speech, he said he was bringing “common sense” back to the government. Okaaaay… The temperature on Mars averages below 0 degrees. There is very limited oxygen on Mars. The soil on Mars is basically clay and silt-sized particles, but it’s mostly made of sand. None of all this, oh, is all that habitable for humans. My sister just went on a missions trip to a village in rural Cambodia. The village has no electricity, no running water, little food. Wouldn’t it make sense, (spiritual) common sense, to take the billions of dollars being wasted on going to Mars, and use it to help people in desperate straights on this planet? This would be a “Cambodia (El Salvador, Ethiopia, Biafra…) First” paradigm. One much more in line with the Gospel message — if anyone is reading the Goslpel anymore, that is. Apparently, Trump (…and many of the ‘Trumpian Puppet Republicans’) aren’t, much.

Fill ‘er up? Not.

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old Ohio service station, circa 1925

I recently wrote a newspaper article about an old area service station. The interview subject said his father used to work on Model T’s and Model A’s “…back in the day.” The Model T was billed as the first “…mass-affordable car in America.” But should we have hit the “pause” button before producing these. Our position paper on transportation makes a good argument that we should, indeed, have paused — and approached it with much more prayerful discernment, like the Amish did. Also… In the last couple weeks, I also wrote an article about a mayor in a small town close to here, who has been mayor 49 consecutive years — second longest serving mayor in the country. I also wrote an article about a woman who was in the Navy squadron that carried out the ill-fated “Eagle Claw Operation” to rescue the 53 US Embassy hostages in Iran in 1980. And… I wrote another newspaper article about a small-town village administrator who was retiring. The amount of multi-tasking with a job like that is pretty extensive. You’re orchestrating street improvement projects, water tower projects, water treatment plant workings, the village road crew, parks projects… What’s more, you’re continually interfacing with contractors, village officials, the public… If done right, it’s all pretty impressive. Note: The current USA mantra: “America First.” The age-old Biblical mantra (so to speak): “The first shall be last.” Salient spiritual question: Will ‘last’ coincide with being stopped, and turned around, at the border of Heaven?

charismatic species and not so charismatic ones

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giant carrion beetle

I just read a National Geographic article titled: “The Conservation Popularity Contest.” The crux is that advocacy groups have a tendency to focus on saving “charismatic species,” like the panda, the polar bear, koalas… Yet there are other species that are not that glamorous, or attractive even, but need saving just as much because of their roles in the overall eco-system web. For instance, the American giant carrion beetle — described as the “…vulture of the insect world.” This beetle is currently assessed as “critically endangered,” due to habitat loss and pesticides. The article notes that there are now some 35,000 endangered species. It would be our administration’s take that God set up this complex, creative, interdependent eco-system. And being good environmental stewards means doing everything possible to maintain that eco-system being as healthy as possible. That simple. For more on our stance on the environment, see…

Manifest Destiny 2.0?

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guidetogreenland.com photo

In the early weeks of his administration this time, Trump has talked about purchasing Greenland; taking the Panama Canal back; turning Canada into America’s 51st state… One pundit labeled all this as: “Manifest Destiny 2.0.” Lest we forget, our first “Manifest Destiny” led to the genocidal killing of 20 million Native Americans, more then 800 broken treaties, and nothing short of cultural genocide with the Native Americans. During our research travels, we followed the Oregon Trail and did extensive writing on all the latter. What’s more, instead of rushing madly forward with Manifest Destiny 2.0, including now attempting to “conquer outer space,” we would do well, extremely well, to instead make Manifest Destiny 1.0 right — on multiple levels. And to see what our administration proposes with that, see our Native American position paper… Note: The position paper was used in a Cengage Learning college textbook titled: Social Justice.

mass production, or production by the masses?

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The Industrial Revolution was wrong. Yeah, we had the technological smarts to do it. But should we have? The Amish, for instance, go through considered prayerful discernment before adopting a new technology. We didn’t. We just rushed madly ahead. [*And, incidentally, we’re doing the same thing with the Fourth Industrial Revolution — with all things digital, including AI most recently.] In this book (above), the author wrote that mass production is a “…sophisticated, highly capital-intensive, high-energy input dependent, and human labor-saving technology.” Clunk! Or Ghandi’s take was: “The poor of the world cannot be helped by mass production, only by production by the masses.” Translated: We would be way better off going back to individual, quality craftsmanship within a framework paradigm of: “Local Production for Local Consumption.” How? Our position paper proposal for a New Economy explains...

“Liberty” that leads to self-indulgence? …on immigration

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My “If I were president…” (*see home pg.) colleague, Shane Ian Hoffman, sent me the above after our most recent podcast, which was on immigration. Indiscriminate mass deportation is underway. But should it be? Indiscriminate, that is. Case in point, which was cited during our podcast: The New York Times headline was: “Fleeing Gangs, Children Head to U.S. Border.” The article started with a 13-year-old boy who had gone missing in a San Pedro Sula neighborhood in Honduras. The boy’s seven-year-old brother went looking for him, starting at a local gang hangout. Two days later, both boys were found tortured to death. “The first thing we can think of is to send our children to the United States,” said a tremendously distraught mother in that Honduran town. And so, some parents do. Distance: 1,600 miles — often unaccompanied. Sometimes they come as families. But now we are “indiscriminately” turning these people away at the border, or sending them back if they’re already here. While we continue, for many of us, to live privileged, and often relatively safe, First World lifestyles. It would be best to read the above graphic, closely. If we don’t adhere to what’s written there, think of the high wall many of us might be met with at the border of Heaven. For a look at a position paper on immigration, that would align with the “liberty” talked about above, see…

Is the EV Revolution the (long-term) answer?

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Just finished reading this cover article. Although it was written some three years ago, or so, there were a number of salient points that are still quite applicable today… For instance: “All-electric vehicles are simpler than gas-powered ones. They have no gas tanks, no pistons, no spark plugs — and no tailpipe.” What’s hidden, and this is key, was explained to me by a professor in the “Alternative Vehicle Department” at Bowling Green State University a number of years ago on a research stop. And that is this: To manufacture an average sized car, will take as much fossil fuel burning — as the gas-powered car will use in a lifetime. Pretty much the same (minus some parts), in regard to the fossil fuel that will be burned making the EV. Of course, then it won’t burn fossil fuel after this, which is, indeed, a plus. But it would be our administration’s belief, we’d be better off looking at a new transportation paradigm in general. I will say, however, one of the things in the article that caught my eye, and what might be a good interim step, is what Tesla is selling in China. That is, two-door electric “micro-cars,” with a top speed of 62 mph and a list price below $6,000. Also, there are EV motorcycles, with the tag line: “Riding Quiet.” *My next post will explain, in much more detail, our transportation position. Note(s): At the time the article was written, 12-million plug-in cars were on the road, globally, with a majority of these being in China, Europe, and the United States. Concurrently, the article noted that there were 1.5 billion “gas guzzling” passenger vehicles globally. And the electric vehicle market was just starting to open up, slightly, in developing countries. Interestingly, the author noted that because motorized vehicles were still not that prevalent in these countries, there is not as much of a psychological transition to EV’s. Again, stay tuned for the “Joe Revolution” in transportation. “Buckle up.” ‘Er rather, you might not have to buckle up — at all.

Native American tragedy

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I just wrote a newspaper article about the “Copus Massacre.” It was the early 1800’s, and some settlers had come to the eastern side of Ohio, where they lived scattered in cabins. One of these settlers was James Copus, a Christian missionary. It was said that he lived in peace with three Native American tribes in the area and would regularly smoke a ceremonial peace pipe (see photo) with them. One day the U.S. Army came. They had orders to move the native Americans to a temporary Reservation in western Ohio. The Army asked Copus if he’d try to persuade them to move voluntarily. He tried, but the Army became impatient and ended up burning the Native American villages to the ground and forcing the Native Americans west. In turn, the Native Americans thought Copus had betrayed them, and some returned to kill him, some soldiers, and other settlers in the area. *This is merely a microcosm of what we did all the across the country over time. Manifest Destiny? God’s will? Hardly. It was blind greed. Our Native American position paper addresses this, on multiple levels. And what is contained in that paper is key to putting our country on the right track, finally.

bringing sight to the world; and clean water to the village

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Continuing to catch up on January… I wrote a story about the local “VOSH Ohio.” The non-profit organization has collected over 4 million used eyeglasses over the past 30 years, or so. Volunteers work five days a week, cleaning them, sorting them by prescription, and storing them. What’s more, volunteer optometrists, and assistants, regularly go on Missions Trips all over the world to distribute the glasses to those in need. It’s a pretty phenomenal program, actually. One of the optometrists said that in Third World countries, often, blurry vision is simply a reality. But to see the look on someone’s face when they can see clearly again, is priceless… Covering a local village council meeting recently, the subject of water rates came up. There’s an ordinance to increase the rates. The village administrator said that the increase matches inflationary trends across the board. *The same village is undertaking a $6 million Water Plant Improvement Project. And the same village manager said that, as with many municipalities across the country, there is a need to update the equipment. What’s more, there is more of a focus on going to other levels of filtration, with issues like “forever chemicals” now being in the water, and so on. Note: National Geographic just did an article about micro-plastics being found in the human body at alarming rates now. Our administration would task the EPA on banning forever chemicals, plastics, artificial (and toxic) herbicides and pesticides… We would place a premium on being good environmental stewards, and using these pollutants, across the board, is being anything but good environmental stewards. Period. For our Environmental Position Paper…

Aging in Place; Friends of Ohio Barns

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Helping folks “Age in place”

Catching up on Jan. (cont.)… Our Social Security platform revolves, not just around a fund, but helping seniors feel ‘socially secure’ in their neighborhoods, their towns. I just wrote a story about an agency that’s main goal is helping seniors “…age in place” for as long as possible. It has satellite activity centers throughout the county, provides rides for doctor’s visits, or to get groceries, or to go to the bank… In fact, in 2023, figures show 16 agency part-time drivers logged 164,313 miles doing all that. The agency is subsidized by property tax levies, and the United Way. The agency also offers: Chore Services; Health & Wellness programs; Telephone Reassurance; a Medical Equipment Loan Closet… It’s actually pretty impressive in its scope… I also wrote a story about the non-profit organization “Friends of Ohio Barns.” Groups involved with this are in all 88 counties of Ohio and their mission is to work to save/restore old barns — to maintain, not only the structures, but the heritage. One of the local barns cited in the article was built in 1844, in a Pennsylvania Swiss style. It even had some old wooden pins, instead of nails. Our platform is big on restoration and maintaining heritage.