Vote for Joe

I wrote a column today that is titled: Post Modern Voyeurs and Exhibitionists. My contiention is that most people in America (many unknowingly) have become one of these, or both. An excerpt from the column: A man is walking down the street with his wife and a scantily clad woman is approaching from the opposite direction. He stares. Then he stares intently. And as she walks by, he turns and stares intently some more. At which point, his wife, just as ‘intently,’ slaps him. Now, here’s the irony… That same man could be at home sitting on his couch intently watching scantily clad women on prime time television for hours — while his wife is in the kitchen thinking nothing about it… I shared this scenario in a talk to a graduate Religion Class at Bluffton College several years ago, and the professor reflected: “When you think about this objectively, it would be just the same as if the man watching television would have said to his wife: ‘Honey, I’m going next door to look in the window at Marge for a couple hours.”‘ …This all begs the probing psycho-sociologically significant question: “Have we gone nuts?” Or perhaps more apt: “Have we totally lost our common sense, or in this case, our: moral compass?” Note: I’m a former mental health counselor. And I’ve watched, time and again, how unconscious anger has played havoc with one’s emotional state, and with one’s relationships. And don’t think for a minute that if a spouse is, day in and day out, ‘intently’ watching scantily clad people (no matter what the medium) that there isn’t unconscious anger welling in the other spouse. Anger that can, ultimately, contribute significantly to the break-up of a marriage… Incidentally, the current divorce rate in the country is approaching: 60%. Again, if we start connecting these dots…

I have just started to update our position paper on the environment, based on some 15 years of research… A hot (excuse the pun) topic these days is: global warming. It is, indeed, an Inconvenient Truth. And since the Bush Administration has declined to sign the “Kyoto Protocol” in line with universal standards for the reduction of greenhouse gases, that doesn’t mean that we individual Americans can’t “sign on” to the treaty in spirit — and in action. During an energy seminar at Atnioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, I told the assembly that my family and I had created a: “Kyoto Protocol Home Zone,” with a sign to that effect out front, and everything. (Boy was Liz embarassed when I put that up.) Anyway, we’ve decided not to use air-conditioning, turned the thermostat down in the winter, wear sweaters and close off part of the house. I also told the Voice of the People television show in Hibbings, Minnesota, that in an effort to save even more energy, we all share bath water. Although I said I always try to get in the bath before our two-year-old. (Liz was embarassed on that one too.) In addition, we try to walk and bicycle locally at least 90% of the time within a three mile radius. We’ve dramatically reduced our purchasing (it takes burning fossil fuels to produce items). And I could go on with this, but I think you get the “Kyoto Protocol Home Zone” point. We all have the power not to use the power (paradoxical pun). Note: Wouldn’t it be a sight to see homemade Kyoto Protocol Home Zone signs go up in yards all across America, right next to the homemade Vote for Joe signs?

I spent the last few days extensively updating our position paper on “Agriculture.” (The updated paper should be up within the next month.) Anyway, one of the things I’m writing about is a seminar I attended in Ohio where a Bluffton College economics professor said that modern corporations, for the most part, see people as “individual markets,” not “individuals living in community.” As a result, making money from the “individual markets” is the priority, and how people live in community isn’t given much of a thought. So corporations often don’t hesitate to pollute, overwork cheap labor, or exploit natural resources… How this translates in the farming world is that corporate mega-farms in America can grow at such volume and ship cheaply enough — that these farms can undercut small family farmers selling to local markets in: Central America. As a result, impoverished people in the Third World become that much more impoverished… Question: Something to be “American Proud” of?

We took the kids to a jury trial for two Cleveland Catholic Workers who committed a non-violent act of civil disobedience about a month ago. During a prayer/protest rally outside an Armed Services Recruitment Center in Lakewood, Ohio, these two men chose to enter the premises and hold, in effect, a “sit in.” Police arrived and asked them to leave, but they chose to remain — and got arrested. The story made the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper and all the regional network news shows… On the stand before an almost full courtroom, Catholic Worker Chris Knestrick said he believed the “gospel of Jesus” calls us to pacifism with phrases like: turn the other cheek; do good to those who have harmed you… Knestrick, who is the Social Justice Coordinator at nearby St. Edward’s High School in Lakewood, said he’s seen, first-hand, the devastation war can wreak. He said his father was a Special Forces Green Beret in Vietnam who developed a bad case of post traumatic stress disorder. It dramatically affected, not only Chris’s dad, but the whole family… Joe Mueller was the other accused Catholic Worker. He had gone to Iraq the year before with a Christian Peacekeeper’s Team. (The next CPT team over to Iraq were kidnapped, made international news, and ultimately one of the members were murdered by insurgents.)… Mueller explained that during the protest in front of the Recruiting Center, the names of the dead soldiers were being read… Both men wanted to talk to recruiters and potential recruits that day, with the hopes of disuading some from becoming part of that list of names… Note: During one of the recesses, I was interviewed by Cleveland’s CBS anchor Harry Boomer. I said these men, like so many people in America these days, are opposed to the Iraq War. I then correlated their non-violent disobedience to similar acts during the height of the Civil Rights Movement in America’s South. I said in retrospect, America sees how important those acts were in helping bring about an end to a societal wrong. And while the circumstances around Iraq are complex, these Catholic Workers should be commended for standing up for their beliefs. And, I added, it’s not like these men are criminals. They spend their days trying to help the poor in Cleveland in as many ways as possible, including taking them into their home, running a nightly drop-in center for the disadvantaged, and so on… Mr. Boomer also asked me my take on the Iraq War. I said we went in there predicated on finding Weapons of Mass Destruction. “Yet if we let the weapons inspectors into Montana, what would they find?” I posed. “They would find 2,000 Weapons of Mass Destruction aimed all over the world. Wouldn’t that make us [read: U.S.] look like a terrorist nation to a lot of other countries?” Well, of course it would. Note 2: Mueller and Knestrick lost the court case. Yet we told our kids that they actually won in respect to what they were trying to do — which was to get a point across.

Met with Meegan Kresge who is involved with Cleveland’s new “City Fresh” project. Sponsored by Ohio State University’s Agricultural Extension (and a number of other organizations), City Fresh is about inspiring “small scale agriculture” in the city. Ms. Kresge has just completed a 10-week City Fresh course that trains potential “city farmers” in such areas as: growing, composting, selling to area restaurants and other markets… Ms. Kresge said she is working to get a grant, and other financing, to turn part of an old, abandoned parking lot on Cleveland’s near Westside into a pretty substantial garden/farm. Ms. Kresge said Cleveland’s “Forest Service” will drop off free wood chips that will be laid 12 inches thick over the asphalt. This will then be layered with a good amount of topsoil made from composting. Then the plot will be ready for planting… Ms. Kresge said we will start seeing more of this local urban growing across the country as oil prices continue to climb. And with this, peoples’ understanding of how “freshness” adds to a food’s nutritional value will increase as well. Note: During her City Fresh course work, Ms. Kresge said a concept which really fascinated her was the: “Mobile Market.” That is, people were encouraged to consider pulling “veggie carts” around the neighborhoods. I mean, why not. The ice cream guy does it. And what’s better for you anyway, huh?