Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. I stumped with a group of regulars at the Lamplight Restaurant in Perrysville, Ohio early yesterday morning. One man had been to China recently on business and said he had been impressed with the beginnings of company privatization there, because it was moving at least a segment of the population away from dependency on government. Later in the morning, I told the Perrysburg newspaper that one our administration’s main priorities would be ending world hunger (24,000 people starve to death worldwide every day). I then went to Whitehouse, Ohio (pop. 1,000), and told a Fox News reporter that this might be “the closest we get to the ‘White House’ this Election.” Also while in Whitehouse, I got in a round table discussion at the Chickaroo Restaurant with a few of the town’s old timers and a reporter from the local newspaper. Topics ranged from taxes, to the war in Iraq, to inflated housing costs… Jim Strain, 83, told me he bought a two-bedroom ranch style home in Whitehouse for $850 in 1951. It just sold last year for: $92,000. Everybody at the table said: “Wow!” I then went up the street to meet with Whitehouse’s informal local “historian,” Darryl Bauman. Bauman, 68, said when he was a kid here movies (black & white) were a dime, the downtown was filled with all kinds of Mom & Pop shops, and Saturday nights everybody was in the downtown shopping, socializing and listening to music wafting down from the open windows of a second story dance hall. I then ‘danced’ (sorry) north to Swanton, Ohio. Enroute, Fox News called and said they were sending out a reporter and another camera man for some more footage because they had decided to make the story a feature “package” and send it to their national headquarters in New York. In Swanton, the news crew got there in time to see me slowly drive through town in the “average Joe” mobile, $3 garage sale bull horn in hand. I stopped at one point and called out to a guy cutting his grass that if I became president: “I’ll get you a union and you won’t have to do that anymore!” He laughed. I then went door-to-door on a street in Swanton and ended up in a lengthy conversation with a resident about Swanton’s school system, which is facing a looming teacher’s strike because of levy failures and pay freezes. Ironically, I was told a new high school was built not too long ago here, while an old high school, which had been totally refurbished not seven years prior — was now sitting empty. Late this evening, I drove into Delta, Ohio where I passed out some more literature and hung a flyer and a button up at the Community Market here. I had told the Fox News reporter earlier that when you don’t have the millions for advertising, flyers in small town groceries seem the way to go. (And again, we’re doing this all without paid consultants.)
9/15/04
Average Joe Buckey Blitz cont. The Ohio whirlwind tour rolls on… And I rolled into Haskins, Ohio (pop. 1,000) yesterday. Entering the village limits, the first thing you see is a Ohio Bicentennial sign saying Haskins is the “Birthplace of Earl W. North, an American impressionist painter.” I couldn’t help but think how refreshing it would be to someday see a sign that read: “Haskins: Birthplace of Ernie Schwartz, father, good worker and Kawanis member. I then posted “average Joe” flyers at Or’s Sunoco and the Pear Tree Hair Salon, right in the heart of the Haskins downtown. The owner, Jennifer, said she admired what I was doing and one of the customers asked for a button to give to her husband “…who is actually thinking about running for president himself in 10 years.” I gave her the button reluctantly, and smiled that current polls were indicating that I’d probably still be running in 10 years as well– “and I’m trying to discourage competition.” From Haskins, I traveled north to Waterville where I met with Chowder’s N Moor Restuarant owner, and “conservative independent,” Tom Kuran. Kuran talked about politics, and America in general, with a passion. Also, without telling him anything about my Haskins sign idea, he said he and his wife were recently watching a TV episode showing singer Britney Spears putting her hand prints in concrete on Hollywood Blvd. Kuran riled at this, saying: “Once, just once, I’d like to see an average American’s hand prints there (Hollywood Blvd.)!” I had interviewed Tom for our book Back Road to the White House 2, and afterward he gave me a campaign donation: a bowl of their “famous,” and rather unique, White Chicken Chili. And after only a couple spoonfulls — I knew who is going to cater the Inauguration.
9/14/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. Liz and I sorted through more state election forms back in Bluffton, our hometown, yesterday. I then headed to Bowling Green, Ohio, for a talk to the Knights of Columbus there. I commended the group for their efforts with the youth of St. Aloysius Parish. The current projects include: a $500 repair job to the basketball back boards in the playground; support for a parish Boy Scout Troop; yearly work with the Special Olympics… And while I lauded their efforts, I did shoot from the hip on another issue. I found out last night that President Bush had addressed the National Assembly of Knights of Columbus in the last year, and when he recently came by Bowling Green on I-75 here, this chapter’s Grand Knight, Steve Wenner, went to the highway exit and waved to the Bush motorcade. Acknowledging all that, I admonished: “Yet when I came off of the exit tonight, I didn’t notice anyone out there waving to me!” They laughed. And I laughed too, sort of.
9/13/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. In Peebles, Ohio, our ‘almost First Lady,’ Liz, met with Joanne Brockhoeft. Mrs. Brockhoeft home schools her children with a quite innovative, international curriculum that exposes them to a variety of customs and cultures they might not otherwise hear about. In addition, Mrs. Brockhoeft regularly reads her children newspaper articles about contemporary affairs in other countries. On a Fox News morning show in Cleveland, I said my administration would push for a U.S. Department of Peace — with inititiatives like Mrs. Brockhoeft’s being considered in each of our homes.
We then took the Brockhoeft and Schriner children for a hike on a nearby section of the American Discovery Trail, which is the only coast-to-coast hiking trail in the country. (We would have done the whole trail, but, well… not enough potty stop locations.) From Peebles, we traveled to Franklin, Ohio, for a whistle-stop. There we passed out literature and viewed this absolutely fabulous town mural featuring local scenes from the early 1900’s. I then wrote a letter-to-the-editor of the Franklin Chronicle here that lauded the mural (not to get votes, but because I meant it). The letter also noted Liz and I are running as “concerned parents,” and one of the things we are most concerned about is mounting violence in society and it’s affect on children. And I noted Franklin Township’s: “No Abuse at Home,” a new Ohio Justice System program, seemed a step in the right direction for cutting down on the incidence of domestic violence.
9/11/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. In West Union, Ohio yesterday I met with volunteers Nancy Ames and Robert Weber at the Interfaith House. This two-story home in the heart of West Union, was donated by a Presbyterian couple 20 years ago. Funded by area churches and private donations, Interfaith House provides food, clothing, money for medication… for some 200 families a month. (According to Ms. Ames, Adams county is the 2nd poorest county in Ohio.) A front page article in West Union’s People’s Defender newspaper ran recently about our campaign. Editor Bill Lange noted we are asking many Americans to cut back on their lifestyles, so people in Adams County (and the ‘Adam’s counties’ of the Third World) can get some more solid, long term help. I then spent the afternoon washing and waxing our campaign vehicles for our final 6-week blitz of Ohio. Note: Today is the anniversary of “9/11.”
9/10/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. During Mass this morning at St. Frances de Sales Church in Newark, Ohio, the priest said that St. Peter Claver spent 38 years ministering to Black slaves. During campaign 2000, I told a Pittsburgh, Kansas newspaper that many Blacks are still “slaves” to poverty loops in the inner cities, with adults and children there dodging bullets, drugs and hunger. (We saw this first hand — as we have seen numerous times throughout the country — while doing research in a ‘gang war zone’ on the South Side of Chicago several years back.) And because of the conditions, we ask American suburbanites, and the like — through creative church outreach, mentoring programs, and so on — to roll up their sleeves and go into the inner city to help… From Newark, we headed further south. At the Coop’s Corners Store in Thornville, Ohio, (pop. 1,000), I fastened a campaign button to the bulletin board, then talked to owner John Gillogli at length about the campaign. He, in turn, told me as a local business owner he likes to sponsor youth activities. He has donated genrously to the local girl’s softball league and to a high school class that had entered a recent Tractor Pull event. Thornville has an actual: Tractor Pull Park. From Thornville we headed to South Bloomington, Ohio, where I played a sandlot baseball game with our kids, as we do often on the road. Afterward, a South Bloomfield police officer pulled up and said vice-presidential candidate John Edwards had just come through here on Rte. 23 last week, “and we were only given two hours notice.” I debated whether to reply: “Well gosh, look at us! We slipped in right under your nose.” But I didn’t. Next stop: Adams County, Ohio.
9/9/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. Traveled to Mt. Vernon, Ohio yesterday where we attended a Ohio Department of Natural Resources seminar. In an excellent presentation, ODNR officer Mike Miller said the more “diverse” the eco-system, the more stable it is. However, he said current levels of farm herbacides and pesticides are significanltly hurting wildlife populations and throwing eco-system stability off. He said, for instance, the frog population along the banks of the Kokosing River here has dropped dramatically in recent years. We then headed further south on Rte. 13, stopping at the Hufford General Store in tiny Uttica, Ohio. It has been family owned and operated for 45 years. Our platform asks people to stridently support these local “mom & pop” stores in downtown districts (decentralism) — so they aren’t run out of business by the “big box” stores.
9/8/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. We took our kids on a carousel ride in Mansfield, Ohio on a drizzly Tuesday afternoon yesterday. Then we headed down to Mt.Vernon, Ohio where I met with Geri Darmstadt, a volunteer with Care Net Pregnancy Services of Knox County. She explained this local chapter of Care Net, has a group of high school students who do creative peer education programs for middle school students here on issues relating to abstinence. (The Program is called CATS, Concerned About Teen Sexuality). What’s more, Care Net here has a quite affective “Baby Bucks Program,” according to Ms. Darmstadt. Women earn coupons for attending educational programs about pregnancy, parenting classes, La Leche classes on breastfeeding, and so on. In addition, they earn more coupons for their regular obstetrician visits and other pre-natal care.
9/6 and 7/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. In honor of Labor Day, I spent part of the weekend talking to people about, well, labor. (And we continue to do this all without paid consultants.) After taking my picture, Crescent News (Defiance, Ohio) photographer Thom Born told me he goes out of his way to: “buy American.” We promote that too because we believe, strongly, in: local production for local consumption. And we don’t support NAFTA (as it currently stands), as an example. On a research trip to Juarez, Mexico three years ago, we learned the Mexican government stopped helping subsidize the subsistance farmers in the interior of Mexico after NAFTA passed. At the same time the multi-national company factories started going up on the northern border of Mexico. With the Mexican farmers losing their land in the interior, Mexico then had an influx of people to the north to work in the factories. At the time we were there, these jobs paid a mere$3 a shift, mothers and fathers were working two shifts, and the children were out on the streets — when they weren’t in their homes (read: shacks) with no running water, no electricity. [We might want to think about all that (morally) the next time we’re in Wal Mart trying to get the cheapest price on something.] Our platform calls for more social justice outreach into the Third World so, for instance, Mexican subsistance farmers can stay on their land. What’s more, through expanded Peace Corps work, and the like, we would also support a lot more initiatives to help create more sustainable local economies in general in the Third World. And back in this country, we’d push for much more economic equality. In Mt. Vernon, Ohio, I interviewed Whitney Wolfe, 18, an employee of McDonald’s. She is a high school senior who also works 30 hours a week. While she said she liked working at McDonald’s, long term here ideal job would be a more lucrative “9 to 5 desk job.” She continued: “I want to make decent money (she currently makes $6 an hour) and have benefits for my kids.” I couldn’t help but think about all the mothers, and fathers, currently working in the fast food, or other service industries, who are making $6 an hour, with no benefits. In the book: Nickled and Dimed (On Not Making it in America), the author points out that those working in these service industry jobs are often exhausted by the end of the day and barely treading water financially. Having worked at my share of these types of jobs, I know you also have little time, or energy, for family, community involvement, or for that matter, politics. (So you seldom have the time, or energy, to lobby to change the system that’s keeping you stuck and impoverished.) And maybe, just maybe, the “haves” (read 9 to 5ers) want it just that way.
9/5/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. Drove up Rte. 49 to Antwerp, Ohio, where I met with Bob Silliman who is a Third Order Franciscan. Silliman has been active in the Pro-Life movement and is also quite an artist. His oil paintings have been displayed in the Toledo Museum of Art and he is currently working on a series of paintings with spiritual themes. As with his Pro-Life activities, and other work for the church, Silliman said he sees his painting as a “ministry” as well. I told the Antwerp Bee-Argus newspaper that we would consider Bob Silliman an “extra-mile American.” This morning Bob and I attended St. Mary’s Church here and the priest said abortion is going on “right under our noses,” but many (even in the church) have grown “callous” to it. The priest continued that “we all abhor the violence and bloodshed of war,” yet in God’s eyes, abortion is no different, if not worse. That is, the violence is directed at innocent unborn babies, he said.