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.
8/17/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz (cont.) At a whistle-stop event in Lancaster, Ohio (near Columbus), today, I told a reporter from NBC News that we didn’t “pander to anyone.” Then, looking straight into the camera, I winked: “However, I just wanted the people in the Columbus area to know that when I do get to D.C., the first thing I’m going to do is put a big buckeye on the top of the Capitol Building.” A reporter from a Christian radio station also interviewed me on the street today, asking how I’d characterize our platform. I said we look at each issue with a “What Would Jesus Do” mind set. Note: I interviewed Vietnam Veteran Bob Sherman here today as well. He said he contracted diabetes as a result of being exposed to “agent orange.” While he’s been medically covered since 2002 (when the govt. ok’d covering agent covering orange cases, he said), he’s spent almost $60,000 on the condition since the mid-70s. I said as president I’d fight for that money to be compensated him.
8/16/04
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.)
8/14/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. In Loudonville, Ohio we met Paula Young who said she’d “never be ‘old.”‘ To keep with the name theme, she said her 23-year-old son is named: Harley (Are you ready for this?) Davidson Young. On a more sober note, the son is a Sergeant in the Army National Guard and is currently in Iraq. Another sobering thing we came across in Loudonville today was a statistic. In the window of Brad Porter’s Driving School in downtown Loudonville is a sign that says: There’s a vehicular traffic death every 13 minutes in America. “That’s 114 people every day,” Porter told me. He added that would be like having a half full commercial airplane go down in this country — every day. “Would you fly knowing that?” He asks. I recently told the Warren, Ohio Chronicle Tribune that, to cut back on these highway deaths, maiming (not to mention pollution levels, and so on), we propose more “Walkable Communities,” a model developed by Dan Burden. These towns feature lower speed limits, wider bicycle lanes, diagonal paths to shorten distances to the center of town… Average Joe truism: “The less people who drive — the less car accidents.”
8/13/04
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.
8/11/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. We did a whistle-stop event in downtown Bowling Green, Ohio today and drew, oh, a few less people than John Kerry had drawn when he was in Bowling Green the week before. Go figure. Toledo Blade reporter Jennifer Feehan asked me to sum up what “winning” means to us. I said when we talk about projects we’ve researched from place to place, like the inner city outreach The Point in The Bronx (see previous entry), or Womankind for those in crisis pregnancy, or a wind turbine farm… hopefully a seed gets planted and an inner city youth gets help; or a baby who otherwise wouldn’t be born, does; or the air becomes a little more breathable… we ‘win.’ “Oh, and we’re also trying to ‘win’ the Election as well,” I added.
8/10/04
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.
8/9/04
Average Joe Buckey Blitz Tour cont. The Columbus Dispatch ran a front page article yesterday saying that based on a recent poll the presidential election this year could come down to “7 percent of Ohio voters who say they are undecided.” By the end of our current “Average Joe Buckeye Blitz Tour,” I wonder how many of them will ‘decide’ for an ‘average guy’ who comes from their own state?
8/9/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. We have come to Bowling Green, Ohio for a whistle-stop event at noon Wednesday here in the downtown. I graduated from Bowling Green State University in 1978 with a degree in journalism. On a previous campaign swing through here (on a Summer/2000 biycle tour of the Midwest), I told a reporter from Bowling Green’s Sentinel Tribune newspaper that if someone would have suggested that I would be running for president 25 years later, I would have replied: “Have another cup of coffee.”
8/6/04
Average Joe Buckeye Blitz cont. We did a whistle-stop event in Chagrin Falls, Ohio today on a street corner overlooking the falls here. Beautiful sight. A reporter from the Chagrin Valley Times asked me about our platform. I noted that the upscale environment in Chagrin Falls might not be as ‘beautiful a sight,’ in respect to spiritual and social justice (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. That is, people here might want to consider that the next time they step into the new Lexus with all the options, or hop in a comfortable bed in their $300,000 (or more) home… “there’s a little child starving to death at the same moment somewhere in the Third World.” I also told the reporter that according to U.N. figures there are some 24,000 children (and adults) who starve to death in the World — every day. That, I said, should give us all pause… After the event, our children talked with photographer Itamar Gat, who had come to shoot our event. He’s from Israel and fascinated them with tales of riding camels in his youth in Israel. “No Joseph (our six-year-old), there is no camel riding in Ohio — that I know of,” I smiled… Tonight we journeyed across the state, not by a camel caravan, but rather by “Average Joe Mobile” caravan, to Bowling Green, Ohio. While having coffee with Liz in a cafe called “Grounds for Thought,” I was approached by a representatve of the local chapter of the: League of [Teed-Off] Voters. (They actually use other phraseology than ‘Teed-Off’). Shannon Morgillo told me the group is primarily made up of young adults who want to form a “voting block” for change. And they meet every week to stategize about doing just that. Bowling Green’s chapter currently has about 15 people.