Vote for Joe

In the wake of the catastrophic train derailment at East Palestine last week, I wrote a newspaper column that asked a question that, well, no one seems to be asking: WHY ARE WE USING THESE TOXIC CHEMICALS IN THE FIRST PLACE?! I mean, we have the technological smarts to send spacecraft to Mars, but we can’t come up with, say, paint that doesn’t “…cause cancer in rats in California”? This is absolutely nuts! In a sense, with our cleaning fluids, paints, plastics… virtually all having some of these chemicals, it’s like we’re all living in East Palestine. One in three people get cancer in a lifetime in America now… In one of the towns that I cover as a reporter, a billboard recently went up with a photo of a homeless man, with the words: “Veterans, you’re not alone.” One would wonder, at least in part. That is, I did some research. In 2019, as an example, 17 U.S. Veterans, on average, committed suicide each day. Uh… I also wrote an article about a local, Christian book study group. They were reading the book: Live Your Truth (and Other Lies). The premise of the book is, basically, that some modern, pop-culture, self-improvement philosophies, and such, may actually be antithetical to the Gospel message. For instance, one of the slogans alluded to in the book is: “You only have one life to live…” With the attendant message being to grab for all the pleasure and material wealth you can. Note: I gave up a profession and my hometown to go out onto the roads of America to do all the stuff you see in this website, since I “…only had one life to live.” Part of the journey/sacrifice is contained on the following page…

Memphis on My Mind… Memphis is now 65% Black. Our family moved into a hardscrabble area of Cleveland that was, at least, 50% Black. We moved there to do outreach volunteer work with a group called the “Catholic Workers.” And we were there for some five years. Many people in this part of Cleveland, like, I’m sure in Memphis, are trapped in trans-generational poverty loops. What’s more, kids down there are faced with trying, daily, to dodge hunger, needles and bullets. It’s a systemic problem that needs a systemic solution, not just social service Band-Aids. Our campaign has not only thought hard about the situation, we have, again, lived in the midst of it. Our position paper provides a multi-dimensional approach to the real solution to all this.

If we are serious about reducing our carbon footprints, we have to change our individual lifestyle patterns and, basically, get tougher in some areas. I, for instance, ride my mountain bicycle around town about 50% of the time — during winter. What’s more, I interviewed our local bicycle store owner for an article on “winter bicycling,” and he said with the proper thermal attire, studded tires, fat tires, and the like, winter biking is, indeed, quite doable. We keep pointing at the next Climate Summit emission reduction promises, which we should. But pointing at these, we have to also realize there are three fingers (Covered with thermal bicycle gloves, hopefully.) pointing back at us. Incidentally, as president, I’ll be bicycling around DC in the winter as well. And won’t that be fun for the Secret Service. LOL. Can’t you just hear that: “He’s going to do what?”

In doing a series of stories about small, local businesses, one of the ones I focused on was Ten Thousand Villages. Ten Thousand Villages (there are 100 stores nationwide) contracts with Third World artisans and offers them, not sub-standard, but rather “fair” prices for their products. In “caring for the earth,” Ten Thousand Villages often contracts with artisans who use locally sourced, recycled and renewable resources. Ten Thousand Villages is non-profit, and also often contracts with the disabled, women, “…and others often excluded from the global economy.” The store manager noted that the organization provides 50% of the purchase price up-front to artisans for materials, and such — because often these people can’t get small business loans from their local banks. What’s more, the other 50% is paid when the product is complete — whether it sells, or not. Note: Our administration’s global trade policies, in part, would embody this kind of ethos, simply because it makes ethical/spiritual sense.

I just did a newspaper article about a local community center that puts on an annual Thanksgiving Dinner event. Attendance this year, according to the director, broke all kinds of records. The director surmised ‘inflation creep,’ number one, is attributable, to the rise in attendance. And two, after all the Covid lockdowns/restrictions the past two years in this country, she said people simply like “…getting out again.” In fact, she continued, the laughter, the smiles, the conversations in general at the tables, were quite poignant to her. And on a contemporary affairs front, it’s not hard to seen why the protests over stringent (Zero Covid Policy) lockdowns in China are erupting. As president, I would stand with the general populace in China — unlike what the current U.S. administration is doing. Human rights should always trump trade concerns, and so on. Especially if you’re coming at it from a spiritual angle.