We have just posted a tremendously updated position on “Hispanic Immigration” based on some six years of pretty extensive cross-country research. It is a position that looks through the lens, not of “American protectionism,” but rather of social justice. To view the position, go to “what joe stands for” on our home page.
5/16/06
Liz and I gave a talk to an assembly of students at St. Mary’s School in Mansfield, Ohio yesterday. I said a strong platform point of ours was helping the marginilized in society. And several years ago we had moved into the inner city of Cleveland to live side-by-side with some of these marginalized people, one of whom is Richard. Liz explained to the students that we had met Richard at an outreach center to the poor that we volunteer at. Richard is 50, single, a Vietnam veteran — and lives in a tent below a birdge in Cleveland, year round. Richard has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from his time in Vietnam. A car backfiring will send Richard spinning back to being shot at in the jungles of Vietnam, paralyzing him for hours. He also continually moves from high anxiety to deep depression, keeping him from holding a steady job. Liz said to the students that what Richard had asked for for Christmas the year before was a small Coleman Stove to stay warm with in the tent… I told the students that Richard needed more than the Coleman Stove. He needs quality, long-term mental health counseling to considerably diminish the PTSD symptomology. He needs job training and/or more education. And Richard needs a home. I then asked to see a show of hands of how many students had garages at home. Every hand went up. I then said we in America shelter cars while people like Richard in Cleveland and little children in Chicago, L.A., Phoenix… sleep on inner city streets. I ended by asking if they thought it would be a good idea for their parents to convert their garages into a living space for some of these marginilized people? Most indicated yes. “Then, if you would, would you go back home and tell your parents about this idea,” I said. They promised they would. (I figured it would be better coming from them, than from me.) Note: Just in case of some of the students forget to tell their parents, I also mentioned the idea to a reporter from the Mansfield News Journal during an interview later in the day… Liz said at the start of her talk that she’d been reading the book The Irresistable Revolution. At one point, the author said that he’d read a poll that said some 80% of Christians questioned believed Jesus spent significant time with the poor. But out of the same group, only 2% said they spend any significant time with the poor. [I couldn’t help but think: Wouldn’t a garage apartment be a good way to start.?]
5/15/06
We are in need of donations.
5/14/06
“Average Joe” sighting… Shortly after we drove into Cleveland, I got a call on my cell phone. It was Stephen Piscura who said he’d been following the campaign for awhile now and when he saw our vehicle going by an Ohio City coffee shop, he “almost knocked over a table” trying to get to the street to flag us down… While we missed connections then, he and a couple of his friends caught up with us later in the day… In his early 20s, Stephen is a senior at Kent State University and is on fire for Christ. He is spending the summer in Bangkok working with a Christian ministry called “Remember Nhu.” This is an outreach to youth forced into the sex slave trade. A growing problem all over the world, the ministry website www.remembernhu.com calls it one of “the darkest moral tragedies of our time.” Stephen said what motivates him to help is that Christ is in the face of each of these tremendously desperate children and teens. (In places like Bangkok, children are sold by their poverty stricken parents into brothels, and the like, so the rest of the family can eat.) Note: If all this isn’t bad enough, these youth are also at great risk, daily, of contracting AIDS.
5/13/06
We headed into Jeromesville, Ohio (pop. no stores, one service station, and a parrot). The parrot’s name is Olive and resides at the Ewing Citco Service Station, in a cage right behind the cash register. The parrot started to loudly squawk (not to in anyway be confused with ‘talk’) as I approached. “She doesn’t like people much,” Ms. Ewing said. Even at that, I wrote I was “pro-parrot” on the flyer I passed on there. And even more of a ‘political parrot coup,’ would have been to get the parrot saying “Vote Joe,” but again, the bird not liking people much, and me being a politician on top of that…
5/12/06
I was asked to give a talk to all the Social Studies students at St. Mary’s School in Mansfield, Ohio. I also interviewed St. Mary’s Principal Roger Harraman. As former Principal at Woodmore Public School, Mr. Harraman described himself as the “last holdout.” That is, before the “Pledge of Allegiance” in the school each morning, he allowed several moments of silence for students to pray (or not) in whatever way they wanted. In 1984 he was finally asked to stop… Our platform, when it comes to school prayer, is very similar to what Mr. Harraman’s was. That is, we would lobby for several moments, if not more, of silence where the student could pray (or not) however they wished. This country was founded on, among other things, “freedom of Religion.”
5/12/06
Yesterday in Leanordsville, Ohio (pop. 12 houses), I approached a man standing in his yard and gave him a flyer on the campaign. “Boy, you guys usually don’t come around here,” he smiled. In Ashley, Ohio (pop. about seven small shops downtown), Barbara Van Dyck told me her father-in-law was a U.S. soldier forced to walk in the infamous Batan Death March during World War II. And later, while being tortured for information — he had all the fingers on his left hand cut off. (Every veteran, whether tortured or not, should be given every advantage in our country — for life.) Note: In Marengo, Ohio (pop. one small family market), I put a flyer up in that market with the inscription: “Hello Marengo!” I try to rhyme them when I can.
5/11/06
My family and I stood in solidarity with some 175 Ohioans lobbying to legalize the sale of raw milk at a Statehouse hearing in Columbus yesterday. (Ohio has prohibited this since 1997.) One of the participants lamented to the House Committee that it seems an irony (if not an absolute travesty) that a group of citizens in the year 2006 have to fight to drink “raw milk,” which people for thousands of years just took for granted. John Ciprian said raw milk is “healthy, natural and unaltered artificially by man.” The contention, which was expressed in various ways throughout the hearing, is when milk goes through the heating of a pasturization process, many of the key vitamins and minerals are either eliminated, or diminished considerably. Carolyn Jackson, a dietician, drew a corrolary to the nutritional value of a mother’s breast milk. And she said we’ve never considered pasturizing that. Physician Wayne Feister said raw milk was “nutrient dense” and denying the public this and other natural, unaltered, sources of nutrition leads to a cadre of public health problems — because the immune system has been weakened in kind. During the testimonials at the end of the hearing, one person said that she found it amazing Ohioans can purchase alcohol and cigarettes — but they can’t purchase raw milk. Note: The night before, I talked with Worthington, Ohio’s William Ruth, 84. He told me he grew up on family farm in Johnstown, Pennsylvannia. He and his seven siblings drank raw milk from the farm’s cows as youth. He said besides himself, three of his siblings are now in their 80s as well… Maybe the saying should change to: “got raw milk?” Note 2: We urge Ohioans to call or write their legislators urging the passing of House Bill 534 to legalize the sale of raw milk. And we strongly urge more people to consider supporting your local organic farmers in general.
5/9/06
I was interviewed by Mike Smith who is Director of News Operations for a group of Clear Channel Radio Stations throughout a five county area of southern Ohio. He asked me why I considered myself average. I said: “Because I cut my own grass (when I’m home) and we eat at Mexican restaurants, because the chips are free.” He smiled. Mr. Smith asked about our strategy for 2008. I said we were planning on winning Ohio and a number of independent leaning states like Vermont, Montana, Wyoming… and, well, who knows about the rest of the country… I reiterated the part about winning Ohio with a reporter from the Circleville Herald newspaper later in the day. He said that would be: “huge!” I smiled. The reporter also asked me about Iraq. I said we predicated going into Iraq to find and eliminate “Weapons of Mass Destruction.” I then said, ironically enough, that if we let the weapons inspectors into Montana they would find some 2000 Weapons of Mass Destruction aimed all over the world. I continued that “common sense” would indicate that if we have amassed this massive arsenal and have it aimed all over the world — wouldn’t other countries feel threatened? I mean, c’mmon. And if they feel threatened, wouldn’t it only be natural they (Iran, North Korea…) would be trying to make their own nuclear weapons? So, the $64,000 question(s)? Do we work toward imposing sanctions, and maybe even a “pre-emptive” strike, to stop these countries? Or do we start to dramatically scale back (or end) our own nuclear weapons program as a good faith gesture? Note: After writing this, I read an Associated Press article in the Deleware Gazette that reported Iranian President Mohmoud Ahmedinejad said this week that the U.S. and other Western nations are engaging in non-peaceful nuclear proliferation… Given the Bush administration has just proposed maybe spending billions of dollars replacing older nuclear warheads with newer more potent ones — I’d have to say that this, indeed, sounds like: non-peaceful nuclear proliferation. I mean, again, c’mmon.
5/8/06
I gave a talk at the Sunday night service at the Agape Worship Center in downtown Waverly, Ohio, last night. Prior to the talk during the “praise report” time, someone thanked God for getting a raise this week “because I now have more money to help others with.” How refreshing. There was another speaker this night as well, a “Christian poet.” Mr. Norman Gross of Portsmouth, Ohio, mixed some poignant story telling with several poems that were absolutely captivating. A couple lines from one poem that particularly struck me had to do with people longing for a society where it’s clear: “What’s wrong is wrong. What’s right is right.” …Today I was interviewed by a reporter from Waverly’s newspaper. At one point, I said ‘what’s wrong’ (at least in one area of our global society) is an unequal distribution of resources between here and countries south of the border. I said what would be ‘right,’ I think, is mobilizing as much help as possible for Mexico and Central America, so those countries could be as sustainable as possible. This would help stem the influx of illegal immigration and help people stay in their countries, with their families, in their communities… All of which they often wouldn’t be leaving — if their kids weren’t hungry. The reporter responded that this seemed a common sense approach at getting at “the roots” of the issue. I nodded. Note: Jonathan, our three-year-old, and I, went to “Diner 23” in Waverly this morning. ’50s memorabilia was everywhere. On one wall was a picture of Barney Fife (Don Knotts) of “The Andy Griffith Show.” In his deputy uniform, Barney was awkwardly (as he always looked when he was doing this) trying to load his gun. The caption said of his “job description”: Answering the telephone, emptying trash, checking door knobs, taking the laundry while someone is out of town, feeding Opie breakfast, school crossing at 3 p.m., and chasing hardened criminals.