Vote for Joe

Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. (Saturday afternoon). Up the road from where we’re staying in Peebles, Ohio, the Powered Parachute Wing Association was having a fly-in. Frank Parman from London, Kentucky, told me these ultra-light airplanes — with a multi-colored parachute wing above the craft — cost, on average, $15,000. After watching a few of these take off and land, we took the kids up the road to the Davis Memorial Nature Preserve here with John Brockhoeft and his family. Upon arriving, three families from Wilmington, Ohio, simultaneously emerged from a nature walk. They asked about my platform, and I launched into a ‘stump speech’ of sort (with actual trees around, the whole thing). One of the family members was Steve Gonzales, who is the pastor of the relatively new Covenant Presbyterian Church (“Transforming People and Communities Through Christ.”) And I told the group that was there what we were about. That is, helping transform communities with many more ‘people-helping-people’ projects… “with the sense of community being more like it was in the old days,” I said. After passing out a few buttons, we embarked on a good hour and a half hike along the American Discovery Trail, which intersects with the Buckeye Trail. The Disocovery Tail, I learned, is the only coast to coast, non-motorized recreational trail in the country. According to a website about the Trail, it links communities, cities, parks and wilderness… allowing people to hike, bike or ride horses for an afternoon, or a cross country adventure. (We decided on the afternoon, our Joseph is only six.) But what a fascinating, nature filled afternoon it was seeing the ferns, white cedar trees, wild mushrooms… The kids had a wonderful time. And as I walked along, I couldn’t help but think what a much more educational, wholesome and cost effective way to spend the afternoon, then, say: flying $15,000 aircraft around. Especially when the $15,000 might be much better spent on little kids growing up in the inner cities here, or on kids starving in the Third World…

Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. We did a whistle-stop event in Chillicothe, Ohio today. I told Chillicothe Gazette City Editor Lori McNelly that: “I’m an average American citizen who’s decided to run for president.” She asked me what I would propose for an economically depressed Ross County. I said Atwood, Kansas has a citizen’s benevolent fund to help neighbors in need, city projects short on tax money, schools that need additional money… Atwood has 1,500 people and the fund is currently at a phenomenal $1 million. I would also look to more local church initiatives to help the disadvantaged, as they have in nearby Bourneville (pop. 300). At another whistle-stop today there, I noticed a sign at a street corner: Food Pantry: If in need, call… Christian Union Church. From Bourneville we went to Bainbridge, Ohio, home of the nation’s first “Dental Museum.” It is at the site of the late John Harris M.D.D.D.S., who had the first American School of Instruction on Dental Surgery, circa 1825. Liz and the kids posed for a picture outside, with tooth brushes in hand and over-exaggerated smiles. Note: A sign in the window of a crafts store in downtown Bainbridge read: “I don’t suffer from insanity — I enjoy every minute.” I told Liz I thought that might be a good motto for the campaign. She smiled, even more exaggeratedly.

Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. Just before a whistle-stop event we had planned for Mt. Vernon, Ohio today, Walter O’Dell pulled up in his GEM mini-electric pick up truck. He said since he’s bought one (for $9,500), four other people in town have bought them as well in the past four months. What’s more, his first 800 miles has cost him a mere $11 in additional electricity costs. I told a reporter from Mt. Vernon’s newspaper that we would spread the word about Mr. O’Dell’s electric vehicle purchase across the country — so even more people would buy them, and in turn, the air might become a bit less polluted for everyone. (It is my opinion Mr. O’Dell didn’t just make a socially responsible decision, he made a moral one as well, because we are called to be good stewards of the environment.)

Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. We did a whistle-stop event in Vermilion, Ohio where a gentleman approached me to talk about big businesses influence on politics these days. “Anymore,” he said, “it’s as if you have to read between the oil (pipe) lines.” After the event, we headed south down Rural Rte. 60. In New London we talked to a small group of women on the street and passed out buttons. “This made our day,” one woman said. It made ours too. We then stopped at a small ‘Mom & Pop’ restaurant in the small town of Savanah, Ohio where I stumped with a group of young voters there. “And to think you came to Savanah to talk with us,” said a woman named Lori, who offered to write a letter-to-the-editor of her local newspaper about the campaign. We then headed further south to Loudonville, driving our campaign vehicle slowly around town. A man cooking chicken on a grill in front of Beezers Restaurant here called out that he had seen us on national news recently and thought it was “really cool” what we were doing. I gave him a button to wear while he was cooking.

Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. I met with Bowling Green State University graduate student Jeff Moore today who explained he was recently on a “Cultural Emersion” trip to The Bronx with BGSU sociology professor Dr. Bill Thompson. Moore said, among many things, he was particularly struck with how education (because of dead-end poverty, and the like) doesn’t seemed to be valued much in The Bronx. However, Moore said there was also hope there with such creative programs as The Point. Running out of an old converted warehouse, The Point offers area youth meals, tutoring in school work and computers… Among the more creative programs, said Moore, is an art class that revolves around: graffiti. “Well, it seems to be what some youth are quite interested in,” Moore smiled.