Recap of the last few days on the trail: At Mass on Sunday, Fr. Ted Kossee at Queen of Angels Church in Peebles, Ohio, said he had the funeral of a young girl who had been killed in a car accident, when the car her mother was driving apperently slid on some ice and crashed into a Dodge Caravan… I am currently drafting a position paper on transportation in the U.S. I note that the Old Order Amish (Mennonites, Quakers…) refrain from driving, in part, because it’s a grave matter to cause someone’s death, they believe, no matter what the circumstance. The point being, anytime we get in an automobile, we know there is a heightenned chance we might kill someone. Several years ago, I interviewed a man who has a driving school in central Ohio. He told me statistics show someone is killed every 13 minutes on U.S. roads. That translates into a little more than 95 traffic deaths a day, or the equivalent of a “half full jetliner.” He added if a half full jetliner went down everyday in America, there would be a major outcry — and flying might be a thing of the past. But in our ‘auto-addicted’ society, we simply look past these tragic deaths (like this little girl in Adams County), and go on: ‘injecting the miles.’ Isn’t it about time we move out of denial about our driving habits in America, and face the reality of what we’ve created?… And speaking of deaths, during an informal round table with some community members from Presentation Ministries in Peebles, Ohio, Bob Olsen told me about his efforts to save unborn babies over the years. Olsen used to live in Houghton, Michigan (in the Upper Peninsula). He said in Houghton there was a storefront clinic that referred women to abortion doctors. Olsen said he and a group of church members would protest in front of the downtown clinic every week for two years. Because of the protests, merchants also exerted pressure on the clinic to close as well. And it did… In Bluefield, West Virginia today I was interviewed by a local columnist. I said that on the way here along the Ohio River, we saw a lot of barges filled with coal. (Coal minig is big in West Virginia.) I said as president I would stridently work toward a shift from burning fossil fuels like coal (that causes acid rain, global warming…) toward much more clean, renewable energy from solar and wind sources. Well, few have accused me of pandering. Note: the Bluefield Public Library marquee reads: “Deck the Halls with Books and Holly.” Is that how it goes?
After a brief stop in McComb, Ohio, we headed south to Adams County, Ohio, in the foothills of Appalachia. Adams County is the second poorest county in Ohio. One thing you notice when you’re here is a lot of “Support the Troops” ribbons, bumper stickers, etc. At the gym I worked out in was, not a picture(s) of a bodybuilder, but rather: a Marine recruitment poster. There’s a big military market here. With youth stuck in rural poverty loops, with often less of an emphasis (and/or funding) for education, the military looks like a good option to proportionately more youth here… I am currently reading a book called The Gospel According to RFK about Robert F. Kennedy’s brief run for the presidency in 1968. In a campaign speech to some college students, he confronted them about their deferment status, noting those coming from less advantaged rural poverty, or inner city, settings were losing their lives in Vietnam… I couldn’t help but think what a tragic corrolary to now. That is while there isn’t currently a draft, the disadvantaged (proportionately so) are still losing their lives overseas in Iraq, while the advantaged (just as proportionately so) continue on at Dartmouth, Auburn, Tennessee State University…
We are in motion for the next of our Campaign 2008 tours. To date, we have traveled some 11,000 miles campaigning for this election cycle. This tour will take us through 22 states (and even more potty stops).
Interviewed Christine Lee, who works for the non-profit Seeds of Literacy Adult Education Program in Cleveland. She said endemic to the inner city, students sometimes fall through the cracks when it comes to literacy. That is, they sometimes only learn to read at rudimentary levels, but somehow are still able to make it from grade to grade. One of her suppositions is that at the larger schools in Cleveland (and there are many), the student-teacher ratio is big, accounting for a significant measure of student “anonymity.” Note: Several years ago, I interviewed a former school board president in Gallup, New Mexico. Her belief was that each classroom teacher needed aids to help with discipline, extra paper work, help with lesson plans… so the teachers had more time to, well, teach. Common sense says with more aids, it’s doubtful as many students would fall through the literacy cracks, or other cracks as well… *I’m just reading a book about the late Robert F. Kennedy. In one of his speeches he said he envisioned an America where there were: “more books than bombs.”
Met with Ian Heisey who is involved with Cleveland’s Community Development Corporation project. Cleveland has 21 CDC programs throughout the city, all with a focus on improving the quality of life within the neighborhoods. Heisey is involved with the CDC program in Ohio City neighborhood here. The CDCs focus on safety issues, affordable housing, education, employment assistance… Heisey said his CDC project is the only one in Cleveland that also has a “Mediation Program.” Heisey, who helps coordinate this project, said neighbors sometimes develop friction with other neighbors over such things as persistent loud music, troublesome dogs, and the like. And instead of getting the police involved, the court involved… some neighbors in Ohio City opt for voluntary “conflict resolution,” which is facilitated by Heisey’s office. Note: Our administration would promote a U.S. Dept. of Peace, and a component would include similar Mediation Projects in communities across the country. The process gives people more tools in conlict resolution, which can carry over into family disputes, friendship disputes, and the like. So often relationships are destroyed simply because people don’t have the knowledge of how to do healthy conflict resolution.
Spent the week updating more of the position papers [see: “Life Issues”], readying for our next tour, and preparing for a talk I gave tonight at Cleveland’s Whitman House. The monthly event is called: “Soup and Substance.” And tonight I was, theoretically, the “substance.” (Although my wife Liz might contend that at times.)… For part of the presentation, I played an excerpt from a radio show I’d done on a 50,000 watt station in Columbus, Ohio. Talk show host Carla Wren had asked me my take on the economy. I said we had the biggest gross national product of any country in the history of the world — yet we have a 60% divorce rate, with the nuclear family being blown apart. We have kids sleeping on inner city streets. And the violence continues to mount, all over. I continued that, perhaps, our priorities are a bit skewed. I added we propose a 20 to 30 hour work week, so there is more time for faith, for relationship building in families, for community volunteering… Ms. Wren smiled and said: “I’m for that.”
After Mass at St. Augustine’s Church in Cleveland Sunday, I stopped at the social hall there where, every day, there are meals for the poor. It’s not uncommon for 50 to 75 street people (or people on the edge of being on the street– a majority Black) to be here. Their countenance, more often than not, is depressed, frustrated, angry… mixed with quiet, and sometimes not so quiet, desperation. However, yesterday there was a wholly (not to be confused with: ‘holy’) different atmosphere. That is, the tables were filled with a bunch of neat, well dressed (and for the most part smiling) White people. More than a few of them had on $40 sweaters with Notre Dame insignias. I asked. One man explained this was Cleveland’s “Notre Dame Club.” ND alumnus, and their families, get together regularly around the Cleveland area for these meals. “We also do community service,” the man stressed. And I’m sure they do. That is, these rather well off surburbanites may do a bit of fundraising periodically, maybe drop some second hand coats off for the poor down here occasionally — then head back to their comfortable suburban worlds… thinking they’ve done their bit for God. At the Mass just before, Fr. Ben said he wondered how Jesus would feel seeing a good number of people down here who were homeless? And I couldn’t help but wonder how Jesus would feel about a system that allows for the children of the privileged in suburbia to head off to Notre Dame, Stanford, Bowling Green State University for that matter; while youth down here grow up dodging drugs, hunger and bullets — with little hope for college and a ticket to that suburban world… My wife Liz has been reading a book on social justice of late: The following is an excerpt from it: “Where charity tends to involve individuals or small groups of people acting to meet the immediate needs of others [a coat for the homeless here, a few bucks there]; work for justice involves a more communal, and even global, awareness of problems and their potential long term solutions. Where the notion of charity calls to mind voluntary giving out of one’s surplus, the notion of justice suggests that there is an absolute obligation to share the benefits of God’s creation more broadly than we see in the present order. Translated: People in suburban America need to slow their upward mobility climb, cut back on their lifestyles (read: sacrifice), and put a lot of energy, resources, and smarts — into shifting the ‘present order’ toward: education systems, healthcare systems, business systems… that are much more equitable — for all. That is, if one takes the gospel message seriously.
Met with Megan Wilson who is the project manager for Cleveland’s new “City Wheels” project. An environmental initiatives, City Wheels has a fleet of hybrid cars (gas and electric) that are available for rent to area people. Ms. Wilson said often those in the city usually get places, within a certain radius, walking, bicycling or on bus. However, they keep a car just for those rare incidence when they have to, say, move something, or pick someone up at the airport, or… “It’s the sense we have to have a car, just in case,” said Ms. Wilson. What’s more, she said many city people sink a “huge amont of money” into a car (insurance, car payments, etc.), and, again, they may use it quite infrequently. Ms. Wilson added that figures show for every City Wheels car, some 20 cars are taken off the street. What’s more, similar initiatives have started up in metropolitan areas all across the country in the past several years. Note: And if you’re going to give your car away in lieu of something like the City Wheels project, I was recently informed Habitat for Humanity has initiated a “Car Donation” program to help fund the building of more homes for low income people.
I have spent the last few days updating our position paper on: crime. It contains a tremendous amount of research per:, not only creative crime prevention programs, but precipitating factors that lead to crime: alcohol and drug addiction, poverty in the inner city, dysfunctional families… Note: In Columbiana County, Ohio, several years ago, I interviewed Wayne Zeitler, a former bartender. Zeitler wants to see the establishment of a: “drinking license.” Like driving, Zeitler told me Americans should look at drinking as a “privilege,” not an inherent right. And as one has to sudy to pass a written driver’s license test, it would be the same for a drinking license. Topics might include: how many drinks it takes to go over the legal limit of alcohol for your particular height and weight; the degree of slower reaction time you experience with each drink; signs and sympotms of alcoholism… Zeitler added with this system, a drinking license could be revoked for repeated incidence of drunk driving, domestic violence, drunk and disorderly conduct… After interviewing Zeitler, I told the local newspaper in Columbiana County that this was the kind of creative, outside-the-lines, approaches our administration would be looking for — from ‘average Americans.’
We are readying for a 22 state campaign tour and we will be leaving Dec. 14. We are trying to raise donations for the first leg of the tour. If you can help, please consider it. We are in need. Thank you… Joe Schriner (Schriner Election Committee; 2100 W. 38th St., Cleveland, Ohio 44113.) phone # 419-792-9059.