Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. Was interviewed by Wheeling, West Virginia’s newspaper per: a whistle-stop in Martin’s Ferry, Ohio today. I said a “common sense” answer to our country’s energy situation is for some to: house share. Not only would two families share, say, the energy needed to heat a place; but conversely, they would cut their energy expense in half. I then told a reporter from the Times Leader that in tandem with this strategy, our administration would focus on developing better clean, renewable energy alternatives (wind, solar, hydro-electric…). It’s just good “environmental stewardship,” I said. I then headed west to Cambridge, Ohio where I was interviewed by The Jeffersonian newspaper there. On my way in, I contacted the editor who said: “Oh yeah, I know you. You’re, like, ‘nobody’s Joe.'” (No, that’s ‘everybody’s Joe,’ I smiled to myself). After the interview, reporter Dan Davis offered quite an idea. He said the eastern part of the country, with the recent flooding and all, has more than enough water. Why not build a transcontinental pipe line and send water out west where there is currently a drought? Good thought. [While stumping in Martin’s Ferry last night, Roger Kinney came up and said he was quite supportive of what I was doing. “I have the choice of 31 flavors of ice cream at Baskin Robins, but I only really have the choice of two presidential candiates,” he scoffed. Actually, if our campaign was likened to a flavor, I’d have to go with: Rocky Road — because, at times, it has been one.] Note: For those of you reading these entries, and are behind the campaign, we need supporting “letters to the editor” of Ohio newspapers. Thanks.
10/11/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. Stumped in Colleen’s Place Restaurant in Lisbon, Ohio this morning. Local contractor Bill Martin told me with a lot of lumber going to Iraq for reconstruction, it has hurt him because lumber prices here have gone up considerably as a result. I then headed to East Palestine, Ohio where Larry Walton told me he gets frustrated that a candidate’s first obligation is often to the party, even if this means passing on a good idea from somebody of the other party. Walton was Chairman of the Young Republicans in Columbiana County, Ohio when Barry Goldwater ran for president in 1964. Walton also volunteers his time to tutor youth in reading, and I told the local newspaper in East Palestine it is people like Mr. Walton who we consider “extra-mile Americans.” I then headed south to Stuebenville, Ohio and Franciscan University. There I was met by editor Dennis Sadowsky of the Catholic Universe Bulletin of the Cleveland Diocese. (He had driven down for the day.) After an initial interview, Mr. Sadowsky shadowed me for a time. I stumped in Stuebenville’s downtown. Saline Township Clerk Connie McCourt, who was on the street this day, told me she was concerned about Governor Bob Taft’s statewide budget cuts. Candice Hill, who worked for the county Mental Retardation Services here, told me she was involved in programs for helping the mentally retarded find work. “I’d much rather work with the mentally retarded than many others,” she said. “They don’t back stab, they work hard, are generous, caring…” I then met with Josh Miller, who runs People Management, in Stuebenville. His firm helps people match their talents with a profession through a series of rather extensive discernment processes. [Even though we spend a tremendous amount of time working, many people take little time in discerning where their talent could be best used. They often just follow, say, a money path, I would later tell Stuebenville’s The Herald Star.] I then headed further south to Martin’s Ferry where I stumped downtown there passing out literature and talking to people on the street.
10/10/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. Spent the day with Tim and Ann Miller in Lisbon, Ohio. They have a small family farm they are raising their seven children on. And they practice “apostolic farming.” They look at farming as a “lay apostolate.” They raise everything organically, use small techology and look at farming as, in a real sense, a prayer to God. Tim said he believes raising children on a farm develops a strong work ethic and intimately connects them with the cycles of nature.
10/9/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. At the Algonquin Festival in Petersburg, Ohio, today, story teller Ralph Borror did an imitation of Abraham Lincoln. “Abe” said a defining moment for him came as a youth when he happened upon a Slave Auction in New Orleans where a brother and sister were sold — to two seperate people. “I realized they’d probably never see each other again. And right there I vowed I’d do everything I could to end slavery,” “Abe” said. And he did… Our platform points out, however, that there are still many who are “slaves” to inner city poverty cycles. And we ask those doing well out in the suburbs to slow down, cut back and roll up their sleeves to help the people in the inner city in a much more dynamic way. While doing some research on the Southside of Chicago several years ago, for instance, we saw many little children trying to dodge drugs, bullets and hunger, every day.
10/8/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. Was interviewed by the editor of the newspaper in Cadiz, Ohio, today. I said we saw one of the biggest travesties in America is the demise of the small family farm, because farmers are not only losing their farms, but we as a society are losing a way of life that was so important to the fabric of this country. She nodded in agreement. What’s more (wouldn’t you know), her and her husband have a small farm. Cadiz, by the way, is the hometown of Cary Grant for any of you who: ‘frankly give a darn.’ (Sorry, but we’re running on a family (id, post_author, post_date, post_content, post_title, post_category, post_excerpt, post_status, comment_status, ping_status, post_password, post_name,to_ping, pinged, post_modified) VALUES platform.)
10/7/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. Stopped first in Salem, Ohio where I stumped downtown and talked with Salem’s Karen Christy who said she and her six siblings were raised on a nearby farm with the “Golden Rule.” Wouldn’t it be nice if more people were still following that, she smiled… I then traveled to Alliance, Ohio (home of the ugliest hot dog store in the country — bright yellow building and a giant, and I mean giant, simulated hot dog on the roof), While being interviewed by political reporter George Salsberry of the local newspaper, he told me the city has a Good Samaritan Health Clinic. It was started by volunteer doctors trying to help those who are uninsured… From Alliance I went to Canton where I passed out campaign literature downtown and was interviewed by a reporter from Canton’s newspaper. I told her that with 24,000 people starving to death every day in the Third World (U.N. figure), that we saw this situation as a tremendous “Pro-Life issue.” I mean, it’s just common sense, I said.
10/6/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. Talked with Phil Zeber, owner of the Rock Creek Country Store in Rock Creek, Ohio. He’s had the store for almost three years, but can’t get a bank loan because he’s just barely breaking even, he said. It’s a Catch 22, he went on, because the bank loan would save him some $400 a month. I then entered into a debate with one of the regulars at the Rock Creek Cafe next door. (The group meets most mornings here and calls themselves the ROMEOS — “Retired Old Men Eating Out”.) In response to a question about what I’d do about terrorism, I said I’d work to fight it at it’s roots. That is, as kids grow up seeing no way out of poverty in the inner cities here, some join gangs. The same with some of the kids in the Third World, only there some ‘gangs’ are called: “terrorist cells.” I said to fight terrorism at it’s roots, you have to get more humanitarian help into the Third World. “Why would you want to help them,” one man shot back. And the “debate” ensued… (And unlike the nationally televised Debates of late, I had more than two minutes to answer.) Later in the day I met Rita Linehan. Fascinating story. In order to help a diocese in El Salvador, the family decided to do a fund raiser to get a priest there a 4×4 vehicle to traverse the highlands. They ended up raising money for five vehicles! What’s more, the family’s initiative sparked 10 sister church projects between the Youngstown Diocese the the Diocese of Chaltaenango in El Salvador. (Light ‘one candle,’ and look what happens.)
10/5/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. Did a series of whistle-stops along Lake Erie in the Northeastern part of Ohio. In Conneaut, I was on WWOW’s Louie Free Show. In talking about the environment, Mr. Free said that by letting what some might consider an ‘unimportant species’ go extinct, could that, in reality, disrupt the whole eco-system chain and, ultimatley, throw everything off? Good question. In Jefferson, Ohio I interviewed two high school Juniors involved with a course on “Service Learning.” The course has them volunteering in the community with things like: A Buddy Walk for Down Syndrome children, painting the high school stadium, walking dogs at the Humane Society… I told the Ashtabula Star Beacon newspaper that we’d like to see one-third of the American curriculum (K-12) being volunteer work out in the community because: “I want my children learning as much about helping others as they do about math, science, English…” In Ashtabula, I also met with Rita Sarell who has a rather prolific (large posters, and so on) Pro-Life display in the window of her computer firm downtown. A picture in the News Standard newspaper the next day showed myself talking to Mrs. Sarell — with the display in the background. When I asked Mrs. Sarell if she was worried about the display hurting business at her store, she said. “Oh, it’s not my store. It’s God’s.” After talking to Mrs. Sarell, I had also told the Ashtabula newspaper that I recently heard in Nazi Germany, while adults and children went by screaming and wailing in box cars toward the Concentration Camps — many of the churches turned up the organ music to: drown out the sounds. And, I continued, isn’t that what we’re doing now in American society? That is, metaphorically, we’re turning up the music (pre-occupation with entertainment, sports, obssesive work patterns, and so on…) — while these little unborn babies (4,400 a day in America) go down the tracks to their deaths.
10/4/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. Did a whistle-stop tour down Rte. 224 through the interior of Ohio yesterday, stopping in Nova, Sullivan, Lodi, Willard… At the end of Mass at a church in Willard, the parisioners (as they do every week), read a: Prayer for Peace. Part of it reads: “God… cleanse our minds of retaliation and help us to be instruments of Your peace.” Note: We propose a U.S. Department of Peace that would, for instance, exponentially increase things like Peace Corp. help to the Third World. If we became more proactive about building peace and social justice, we believe tensions would diminish in kind.
10/2/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. *Note: WE NEED DONATIONS TO KEEP GOING RIGHT NOW! IF YOU CAN HELP, PLEASE CONSIDER IT. THANKS. (Schriner Election Committee, P.O. Box 15, Bluffton, Ohio 45817). Yesterday was just a great “backroads of Ohio” day on Rts. 68 and 235. A few vignettes: I was interviewed by the Xenia Daily Gazette in the morning, then headed north to Yellow Springs where I stumped on the main street there. Barber Greg Hasser said his shop had been broken into twice, once after he even installed metal bars on his back window. “Those guys (presidential candidates) are talking about protecting our borders… and I can’t even protect my back window,” he half smiled. In St. Paris (pop. 2,000 “…counting the dogs and cats”), Tom’s Varsity Barber Shop owner (my day for barbers) Tom Roush has the place filled, absolutely filled, with sports memorabilia. He said his favorite is a basketball former Indiana University coach Bobby Knight had signed for him. I then went to Rosewood, Ohio and talked to the Rosewood Grocery and General Store owner about supporting local business. After putting up a flyer in Rosewood (my response to the million dollar adds), I headed to DeGraff, Ohio where a man playing the ukelele on the main street there, stopped playing, looked up and hollered “Go Joe!” In Quincy, Ohio I talked to Sue and Bill Weiskittle, who had just returned from a trip to Marion, Ohio to see the “Moving (Vietnam Memorial) Wall.” Bill had been in the service and said to me that the news media seldom focuses on the good things that are happening in Iraq, like the kids going to school, the women having more rights… The Weiskittle’s daughter told me she’d seen a piece about our campaign on Channel 7 News out of Dayton and wanted to wish me “luck.”