Vote for Joe

My Buckeye Back Road Tour took me to Van Wert, Ohio today. Van Wert, and the surrounding area, is known for, among other things, having the most wind turbines in the state of Ohio. There are some 300 of them (some of which you can see in the background here). In our travels, I have extensively researched alternative forms of energy. And, to be good environmental stewards (Just ask Pope Francis.), our country needs to shift to way more of this alternative energy, while at the same time cutting back, exponentially, on our energy use in general. Austerity measures? Yeah. That is, if we want to save the planet for our children. For more on our campaign’s take on energy, see…

I traveled 15 miles south to Harrod, Ohio (pop. 399) tonight. While passing on campaign cards, I approached a man walking toward the town carry out. He had an Ohio State University scarlet and gray mask on. I gave him a “Joe card,” bypassed my platform, and went directly to telling him: “I’m an Ohio State fan, too. So remember that on Nov. 3!” I could tell he was smiling behind the mask. Note: I also stopped at Harrod’s “Military Park.” They have a tank there, a huge anchor from a destroyer, a Howlitzer, and a UH-1 “Huey” helicopter, referred to as the “work horse” of the Vietnam War. For my position paper on the military, based on years of research, see…

I spent some time covering a special event this morning. Students from Ohio Northern University’s “Religious Life Organization” coordinated a Food Drive to help the local Food Pantry. One of the coordinators told me that the students heard the Food Pantry’s resources were thin because of the increased demand with the pandemic affecting some people financially. So why not help? And they did. Note: As president, I would try to inspire this type of local volunteering/giving, with an exponent of 25, at least. And our family practices what we preach with this. You have to wonder: Would Trump or Biden’s family do what we’ve done (click on link)? Probably not. Yet it is an essential key to really turning this country around.

On the way to my kid’s soccer game near Toledo the other night, I stopped in Van Buren, Ohio (pop. 461). There’s a small post office there that had fall schedules for the local high school team. I, strategically, laid a Joe campaign card on top of the schedule with, as you can see: “Go Black Knights.” Okay, okay… so my kid’s team plays them as well, and I’ll probably not be hollering — “Go Black Knights!” — the night of the game, but… Whose going to know, right? Oops. Note: The wildfires continue almost unabated in 12 states out west now, the 2nd hurricane in two weeks is churning in the Gulf of Mexico, civil unrest in our cities is almost off the charts now… It is, indeed, a “Black Night” for our country. And there could well be a reason all this is happening. And, yeah, climate change might be one. But more to a systemic, spiritual point, sin is also off-the-charts in this country at this time, and it wouldn’t take an Old Testament prophet to see that. Just an “average Jonah” from the Midwest — just getting out of an “Uber whale” who is announcing that maybe God is trying to wake us up.

Catching up on the last couple weeks… I’m pictured here at the Pilot Travel Center in Beaverdam, Ohio, where I stopped to stump. Think about it. You’ve got people from all over the country stopping at these kinds of places. So if you can get the campaign cards into just the right hands… Well, it’s either this or millions of dollars in advertising… I covered the Ada Village Council meeting the other night for the newspaper. The fiscal officer reported that, surprisingly, Ada was only 6% below projections for village tax collection, even with the pandemic. While acknowledging this, indeed, was optimistic, one councilmember cautioned that there was still need for prudence in spending because things still could go south, so to speak. It’s this kind of small town fiscal common sense that we need with economic matters in D.C... I also did a feature story about a local Bluffton bicycle story owner. He said the shop has been going gangbusters since the pandemic hit. He said families are opting for semi- “staycations” in the form of day long, weekend, etc., bicycle trips, and such. [Never let a crisis go to waste.] Way less plane, bus, train… travel. Way less pollution, global warming gases, and so on. And it took a pandemic for us to realign and start doing more of the right thing. Hmm… Note: At my son Jonathan’s soccer match the other night at Elida (Ohio) High School, the booth announcer, after the perfunctory sportsmanship and social distancing warnings, then asked that people refrain from “talking politics” in the stands as well. Have we actually gotten to that point? Wow.