Vote for Joe

We attended a conference on “Peak Oil” at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio today. The conference focused on the societal shift that needs to happen now that we’re now on the verge of peak oil production worldwide, and we are starting to move into a downward oil cycle. Put another way, speaker Pat Murphy echoed what many environmentalists are now saying: “The fossil fuel party is over.” Murphy, who is the Executive Director of Community Services, Inc. in Yellow Springs, called for much more of a phasing in of solar and wind technologies: “as soon as possible.” Murphy pointed out that during the oil crisis of the late ’70s in the U.S., Jimmy Carter had solar panels put on the White House roof. Ronald Reagan ordered they be taken down when he got in… Murphy also noted only 18% of the world lives in First World comfort, while much of the rest lives in staggering Third World poverty. He said we have become a country of ravenous “consumers” (energy, food, material goods…); while billions in the Third World live with less than the bare essentials in food, energy, shelter, and so on. He said years from now, our American society will be looked at as an abberation in regard to how we should really be living within the context of the global community. And Mr. Murphy added it is essential we become a society of “conservers,” rather than “consumers ” — as soon as possible as well… Berkley, California’s Jan Lundberg said: “The eco-system is on the ropes and the industrial world is in denial.” Describing himself as a “cultural change activist,” Lundgren said our society is going to have to “relocalize and contract.” That is, in the next era there will be a lot more local production for local consumption with food and goods, because peoples’ mobility will be curtailed significantly. [It was pointed out at the conference that an average food item in America now is trucked about 1,500 miles before getting to the table.]… Conference speaker Michael Shuman, from Maine, reiterated we must begin shifting to smaller, sustainable communities in which there is more interdependency. The author of the book: “Buy Local,” and an economist, Shuman proposes more incubators and mentorship programs to help small local businesses get started. He also recommends local citizens buy shares in local businesses to increase, even more, the local ties, etc.

Traveling south on Rte. 68 in Ohio, I interviewed Larry Spradlin who has been a volunteer EMT the past 20 years in Ada, Ohio. Larry is a member of the Local Emergency Planning Board, which is made up of representatives from the Fire Department, Police Department, town council, business community… He said it is his take that we have been way too preocupied with “Homeland Security” of late, and as a result, planning for natural disasters, and the like, has lagged. He said he believes we saw this quite graphically in New Orleans. On a local level here, Larry said he’s been lobbying for more emphasis on planning for the aftermath of, say, tornadoes than terrorist attacks in this rural area. Because he said common sense would indicate tornadoes are more likely in this part of Ohio… We then traveled south to Kenton, Ohio where I was interviewed by the Kenton Times. The reporter asked if I thought the busy hurricane season this year is a byproduct of global warming. I said it could well be. In addition, I said according to things I’d read of late, global warming could well be accounting for dramatic melting of the polar ice caps and the warming of the oceans. For instance, I read an article last year that explained that as the ocean temperature rises along the coasts, massive amounts of plankton are dying in kind. Why that’s important is because plankton is the first level: on the food chain. Note: In La Rue, Ohio today I learned that the famous Jim Thorpe lived here. He coached and played for the Oorang Indians, which was a Nationl Football League team made up entirely of Native Americans. Local historian Lance Roberts told me that La Rue was the smallest city (pop. 800) to ever have an NFL team. The team played just two years, 1922 and ’23. And it probably would have been longer, if the guys didn’t get so tired. Roberts told Oorang Indians would play the first half, go to the locker room, change into Native American traditional garb, do a Wild West half-time show (“With wild animals, and everything,” Roberts smiled.), then race back to the locker room, change, and take the field for the second half. Let’s see the ?Cincinnati Bengals, or Cleveland Browns, do that, huh!

Interviewed Frank Grieshop on his farm in Russia, Ohio today. Frank built his home here for a mere $6,000, and it is one of the most energy efficient we’ve seen. It was built into the side of a hill for insulation, has multiple solar panels on the roof and a wind turbine out back. In addition, the south side of the place are all large windows (for passive solar) and they overlook an indoor garden… Grieshop also has 70 head of cattle on his farm, all organically fed. He is what we’d consider an extremely good environmental steward… From Frank’s place, we headed north to get our “kicks” on Ohio’s Rte. 66. We stopped in Celina to pass on a press release, then headed to Spencerville where I was interviewed by the editor of the newspaper. She asked if I had any advice to help with the funding shortfall Ohio schools are currently experiencing. I said for one, even if a local levy to support a school system fails, wouldn’t it be common sense that the people who voted for the levy set up a voluntary school fund to deposit the taxes they would have been assessed anyway. This way, at least the school system would get some funds. And who knows, maybe others would get on board when they see the lengths there fellow citizens are going to help the local youth. The editor said she’d never heard of that idea, but added she thought it was a: “good one.”

I was the featured speaker at Dan Kremer’s “Eat Food For Life” Organic Farm Festival in Yorkshire, Ohio today. I said several years ago we interviewed professor David Orr who is the head of Oberlin College’s Environmental Science Department and author of the book: Earth in Mind. He explained farm chemicals like herbacides, pesticides, and so on, are creating “chemical cocktails” that are exploding in the form of things like cancer in our systems. I said with all due respect to “A Race for a Cure,” the country should, I believe, be more focused on : “A Race for Prevention.” That is, common sense would say we should be in a race to stop using things that cause cancer in the first place. And I said our agricultural platform would push for a tremendous shift to much more organic farming in the country… During Campaign 2004, I was interviewed by a newspaper in Bellefountaine, Ohio — right in the heart of rural America. I said the U.S. is so concerned about the use of chemical weapons by other countries; meanwhile, and quite paradoxically — many American farmers are using ‘chemical weapons’: on us. Note: Dan Kremer not only farms organically, but is an evangelist for the practice. (He follows Catholic Rural Life Association teachings for being a good environmental steward.) His farm festival drew people from Covington, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Ohio, Dayton, Ohio… He also gives seminars and has helped establish a quite successful, organic co-op that represents a number of local organic growers (providing bread, meat, cheese, vegetables, fruit…) out of his “Farm Store” in Yorkshire. For more on the Kremer farm, see: www.eatfoodforlife.com

I was interviewed by the Piqua (OH) Daily Call newspaper yesterday. The reporter asked if my family’s giving up everything to “follow a dream” had inspired others to follow their dreams? I said: “I hope so.” I also told the reporter that it occured to me that it was an awful knee jerk reaction to start pumping billions of dollars into New Orleans to rebuild right away. I said what would make more sense, I believe, is to allow for a time of considered study, debate, and discernment…. In Sidney, Ohio last night, I interviewed Dan Howk who had worked as an emergency room nurse in Brunswick, Georgia for six years. He said like with the poor who had been left behind in New Orleans, Brunswick has a whole population of poor “whose primary care physician is the: Emergency Room.” And Dan said hospital staff there had seen this from generation to generation… During an interview with the Sidney Daily News today, I said Americans should consider house sharing (two families to a home). You would cut expenses in half on shared appliances, heating, lawn equipment, mortage payments… And some of the savings, hopefully a significant amount of the savings, could go toward ending, oh, things like inner city poverty and world hunger. Note: At Mass at Holy Angels Church in Sidney today, the Gospel reading was about the Apostle Paul exhorting people not to make money (and all it can buy, read: comfort, status, and so on…) their main priority; while making the things of God secondary. Translated: Wouldn’t that mean sacrificing some of our American ‘comfort’ in single family dwellings, as an example, so millions living in abject poverty in the Third World can have at least the bare necessities in shelter, food, clothing? I mean, a third of the Gospel message, for instance, is about helping the poor. So in this case, wouldn’t cutting back on our ‘comfort’ levels in the U.S., to help the poor of the Third World, be: putting the things of God first — as opposed to making money (to purchase ‘comfort’) their main priority? What we spend the most money on, ultimately, indicates our main priority — no matter what we say.