“average JoeOhio Tour cont: We’ve headed west into Ohio stopping in Norwalk. A man-on-the-street, Harold, told me he found it amazing (and scandalous) how much better our lifestyles in America were in comparison to those in the Third World. He said to try and make things more equitable, he regularly donates to the international aid agency: Food for the Poor… We then did a whistle-stop event in downtown Norwalk where a reporter from the Norwalk Reflector asked me about my biggest issues. I said with global warming and nuclear proliferation, in either case, our kids might not have a world to grow up in. And with abortion, some kids never make it into the world at large in the first place… We then stopped at Sheri’s Coffee Shop (excellent place) in Norwalk where I sat in on part of a Bible Study. I said what Harold (mentioned earlier) was doing to help the poor could very well diminish the ranks of Al Quaida. That is, the more youth in the Third World see a way out of abject poverty, the less apt they’d be to join a terrorist cell (often a Third World version of a gang).
8/15/07
We spent the past five days in Cleveland catching up on paper work. To earn some personal income while we were back home, I also scraped a house up the street in preparation for painting. Some of it was lead paint, and I had to take a lot of precautions with a respirator mask and in the disposal of the paint chips themselves. Like has happened so often in our “Industrial Age,” we have sped ahead with the lates innovation (lead, DDT, carbon dioxide emission…), only to find — in tragic retrospect — that these ‘innovations’ are tremendously toxic. We would do well to follow the Amish of giving things time and prayerful discernment (not to mention much more thorough testing) before we adopted the latest ‘innovation.’ Note: Along these lines… We are forever ‘racing for a cure.’ Wouldn’t it make sense, common sense, to: stop using stuff that causes cancer in the first place!?
8/10/07
I did a two hour blog talk radio debate the other night with two other candidates vying for the the Green Party nomination. Go to the site, scroll down and click on the words: “Green Party Presidential Candidate Debate. Note: We are earnestly seeking donations for our next couple tour legs. And in the immediate, we have to do work on two of our campaign vehicles. Please help, if you can: Schriner Presidential Election Committee, 2100 W. 38th St., Cleveland, Ohio 44113
8/9/09
Average JoeOhio Tour cont: We went to Conneaut in the Northeast tip of Ohio. I gave a talk at St. Francis Cabrini Church after mass, exhorting the congregation to get more involved with Pro-life work. “Evil flourishes when good people do nothing,” I quoted… I then took the boys to watch part of a Conneaut High School football practice on a quite muggy morning… From here we went to WOWW Radio where Marty Landon not only remembered me from the last stop here some three years ago, but he still had our button! “I wrote you in (Campaign 2004),” he said. We assured him we were going to get on the ballot this time… From here, we did a whistle stop event on the corner of Broad St. and Rte. 20. Reporter Mark Todd of the Ashtabula Star Beacon asked me what our plans were for Ohio. I said we wanted to win Ohio. “Wouldn’t that be the feel good story of Campaign 2008,” he smiled. A reporter (“Pastor Trudy”) for Conneaut’s The Courrier newsaper was also at the event. I told her our campaign hinged on common sense and gospel values… After the event, I took the staff (our family) to the nearby State Street Diner. Great food and even better stuff on the wall. Between all kinds of ’50s memorabilia, was a plaque that said: “Teenagers! Tired of being hassled by your stupid parents? Act Now! Move out. Get a job. Pay your own bills. While you still know everything.” The diner’s owner, Mark, said he’d put a bumper sticker on his car “…as long as you are Pro-Life.” I told him I was and he immediately went to the parking lot… I then talked to Mike Morgan, who owns a pizza place in town. He said he is concerned about mounting home heating costs and wondered if there wasn’t a way to harvest some of the thousands of tons of fallen material on forest floors across America. His ideas is to compost this and turn it into slow burning pellets for home heating. (While I wouldn’t agree with this for old growth forests, because the composting of this material rejuvinates the soil; I wouldn’t be opposed to a pilot project to harvest some (let’s say one-third) of this material from tree farms. Tree farms that our administration would promote nationwide to provide domestic lumber and more foilage to help curb global warming… Heading out of Conneaut, we stopped to talk to an older couple from New Hampshire who were on a tandem. They had just finished a 270 mile bicycle tour of an Underground Railroad route as part of an Adventure Cycle Tour. On our last campaign tour, we had followed an Underground Railroad Route from Georgia to Ohio… We then headed into Cleveland where we stood in solidarity with the “Missionaries to the Pre-Born.” They were in the middle of a tour of Ohio and stand at street corners holding tremendously graphic (and big) signs of close-up pictures of dismembered, aborted babies. Their literature says that because modern media won’t show this horrific truth, there has to be some way for the American people to see, graphically, what abortion really is. One woman brushed by me as I tried to hand her some literature. She said: “It’s more complex than this.” What’s more complex, I believe, is the set of sophisticated rationalizations we’ve developed to justify what is simply barbaric. ‘A picture(s) is worth a thousand words’ on this one. The event wound down about 6 p.m. after rush hour. Our Sarah went on with the group to protest at another site, and I took the rest of the family back to our apartment in Cleveland to update this site and take care of some household stuff… And another day in the life of an independent presidential candidate from Cleveland came to an end about 9:30. Note: I had joked (sort of) earlier in the day, that running for president was taking, oh, a little more time than we thought it would.
8/7/07
We did a whistle-stop during a driving rainstorm in downtown Erie, Pennsylvania. A city with a bunch of big, bright frog sculptures around town. (I didn’t ask.) A reporter with the Erie-Times News asked why I was running for president. I said I was a ‘concerned parent’ who was worried about our kids not inheriting a world because of climate change, nuclear proliferation… In the wake of the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima — I shudder at what our world currently stands at the brink of, with all this advanced nuclear weaponry. What’s more, while we pump more and more money into nuclear protection for ourselves — some 24,000 people starve to death every day in the world (U.N. figures). A woman at St. George Church in Erie today told me this is nothing short of a tremendous social justice travesty. And when you think about it, it’s as if a limited nuclear explosion happens with these starving people, every day.
8/4/07
“average JoeOhio Tour” cont.: We traveled north to Ashtabula, Ohio, where we met with Jane and Margo Stuart who own “Silver Sands” assisted living home for the elderly. It is an assisted living home with a twist, or rather a discount. St. Joseph’s Church here has leased an old convent to Jane and Margo for the past 20 years. The cost per month to residents is about half of what an average assisted living facility would cost, said Jane. What’s more, the care is ultra personal. There are four full-time staff, several part-time staff ,and a number of people from St. Josephs who volunteer in various ways. Another reason the cost is so reasonable is because Jane and Margo don’t take a salary, they look at it more as a ministry. What’s more, they hospice the dying residents on site as well. “We try to wrap them in love,” said Jane… We then stopped in for a cup of coffee at “His Cup Cafe,” a Christian coffee house. Rev. Jim Ekensten said he sees his coffee shop (and adjacent “Healing Room”) as a ministry. People come from all over town for prayer, for coffee, for Bible studies… Rev. Ekensten said people come for prayer with drug and alcohol problems, with depression problems, with physical ailments… In turn, they are prayed over, connected with area churches, and so on. Rev. Ekensten said people were healed in the New Testament, and there is no where in the Bible where it said that this wouldn’t continue to happen in the future. Note: This day at His Cup Cafe, I got into a conversation with youth leader Joe Ford of the First Baptist Church in Ashtabula. He said he was Pro-Life and questioned the rationale of being able to kill a baby in the womb. He said this is no different than being able to “walk into my house and ‘off’ my eight-year-old.”
8/3/07
“average JoeOhio Tour” cont. We traveled to Parkman, Ohio, where we attended church at St. Edward the Confessor. Afterward we met Judy Chilhowski who is a Pro-Life advocate. Judy put a campaign bumper sticker on her car and then took us to breakfast at McDonald’s in Middlefield, Ohio, where we were introduced to the daily regulars who sit in the restaurant’s: “Corner of Knowledge.” Good group of “blokes,” as my wife Liz (who is from New Zealand) would say. We discussed many issues, including the exhorbitant amount of lobbying favors Congress people are able to curry. (With the tenor of this discussion, I decided on just the one patty sausage sandwhich — and not the platter — as a show of my committment to less ‘pork.’ Sorry.)… One of the “Corner of Knowledge” guys, Mathew Shannon, said he thought one of the biggest problems in the country is the breakdown of the family. We agree… I then talked with Middlefield’s Larry Lasich. He said with our advancing technology, people now sit watching television or are in front of the computer in temperature controlled homes for, well, most of the time. It has such a tremendous effect on breaking down the essence of community — getting to know one’s neighbors… To stay with the artificial theme, I then talked with Middlefield’s Robert McSween, who is a “natural health specialist” with the Natural Health & Education Center in Middlefield. He described how there are so many curative properties in natural medicine, etc., however few are recognized (not to mention ‘sanctioned’) by the AMA. This is because, I believe, lobbying groups to this body are dominated, primarly, by firms vested in selling synthetic medication… In a release to the Middlefield Post, I said I may well be tapping some of the “Corner of Knowledge” guys for my Cabinet. I also noted that, as a typical concerned Midwestern parent, I was concerned my children might not inherit an earth, because of rapidly increasing Global Warming. Note: Several weeks ago I participated in a News Conference with candidates vying for the Green Party nomination. (The Green Party, in my estimation, has the strongest platform when it comes to reversing Global Warming.) The following is a link to a video shot at the press conference: http://wilderside.wordpress.com/2007/08/02/daily-greens-press-conference-with-presidential-candidates/
8/2/07
I talked at a Peace and Justice group at St. Patrick’s Church in Kent, Ohio, tonight. Before the group, one man told me about falling off his bike and breaking some ribs. Luckily he has healthcare insurance. In Northfield, Minnesota, during Campaign 2004, I met a dishwasher who had fallen off his bike and broke a wrist. He didn’t have healthcare insurance — and wrapped his wrist in: Duck Tape… Tonight I learned St. Patrick’s group helps with Habitat for Humanity; collects hats, gloves and blankets for the poor; is helping sponsor the building of a health clinic in a village in Nigeria… What’s more, one of the group members has developed “Love Light” to provide meals for underprivileged children and they are developing an arm of the program to help children with physical and developmental difficulties. And St. Patrick’s group also sponsors an “Over the Counter Drug Drive” to help low-income people with over the counter medication. Note: The next day I told Dave O’Brien, a reporter for the local paper here, that it is groups like St. Patrick’s that form the unsung, grassroots backbone of this country.
8/1/07
“average JoeOhio Tour” cont: We stumped in Suffield and Hartville, Ohio yesterday. In Suffield, Joe Bruno (a smoker) said that nicotine is so tremendously addictive, and physically damaging, that most of our focus should be — on making sure those in the next generation don’t pick up. My daughter Sarah, 11, was standing next to me when Mr. Bruno said this. I hope she heard it… In Hartville, we had people say they’d seen one of a number of recent news shows about us. And they couldn’t have been more supportive! An HDL Delivery truck driver, who said he’d seen a Channel 19 News spot, immediately put a bumper sticker on the back of his vehicle. Hartville’s Pam Hefling, who owns the Creative Treasures General Store here said many of her store items are handcrafted by local artisans — “…who can’t compete with Walmart.” We have become addicted to cheap things, and in that the downtown stores are closing and the jobs are going overseas where workers are paid 30 cents an hour in sweatshop conditions… Catching up on loose ends: At a stop in Wernersville, Pennsylvania the week before last, we met with Chris Sullivan. He is co-director of the Mosaic House Tansitional Employment Program in Reading, P.A. The Mosaic House is a program that provides opportunities for people living with mental illness to live and work independently in te community. Mr. Sullivan said Mosaic House’s Transitional Employment Placements (TEP’s) are part-time — eight to 20 hours a week — and last 6 to 9 months. Mosaic House not only places the person in a local job, but a volunteer from Mosaic House works side by side with the person. Our platform calls for slowing our upward mobility climb, and get behind such programs like this to help the marginlized… In Norton, Ohio, we talked with David Kennedy who has a private legal practice here and a bumper sticker that says: Life Law. He said he is Pro-Life and 10% of his fees go to charities to support Pro-Life organizations. This amounted to some $23,000 for those charities last year. In Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, I saw a bumper sticker that said: It’s easy to be Pro-Choice — if you’re not the one being killed… While at home in Cleveland over the weekend, I saw a “Smart Car” Built by Mercedes Benz, the car is so short you can parallel park it perpendicular to the curb. A group of them are being driven around the country at present to generate interest. The driver of the car I saw said the car gets 60 to 70 miles a gallon in city driving. (See: www.dgraves.net) Note: I’m currently reading an alarming recent National Geographic article on global warming titled The Big Thaw. At one point, the article says it isn’t inconceivable that in the next century all the arctic ice in the northern regions will melt.
7/27/07
“average JoeOhio Tour” cont: The Review in Alliance, Ohio, noted that I take global warming seriously. So much so, I cut my grass with an old wooden, engine-less push mower, the article noted. It also noted that I am vying for the Green Party nomination. One of the reasons, I said during the interview, is because I believe the Green Party has the best platform, by far, for reversing global warming. One of their “Key Values” is decentralism. That is, a reversion back to much more small town interdependency that revolves around local production for local consumption… We did a whistle-stop event in Warren, Ohio. In a nearby park for a town lunch event, a band played “I was born in a small town…” by John Cougar Melloncamp. Almost as if on (decentralized) cue… I was interviewed by both Youngstown and Warren’s newspapers today. Fox News came out to do a piece as well. I wore an Ohio State Buckeyes shirt for the event. Well, when in Rome…