Vote for Joe

Just wrote a newspaper story about a local man who recently moved here from Portland, Oregon. He’s renting a place that, when he moved in, had about a third of an acre of well-manicured backyard lawn. Not anymore. He set to work putting in a good sized raised bed garden (heirloom tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkin…) ; a wild flower garden, with milkweed plants for butterflies; he planted a couple pear trees; put in a couple grape vines; and for good measure, planted an oak tree sapling that will be providing a good deal of shade and a great wind break — in about 25 years. And he’s doing it to help reverse the environmental devastation that often comes with your basic green lawns. For instance, lawns receive the most toxic fertilizers and pesticides of any “crop” in America. This all destroys valuable top soil and leeches into the groundwater. Lawns are also the most irrigated crop in America, averaging getting 200 gallons of drinking water per person per day. And overall, we spend $40 billion a year just to keep our lawns green. Note: What this man in Bluffton is establishing in his backyard is what is referred to as a “permaculture,” which is, basically, an interdependent eco-system. (He also did keep part of the grass.) Our administration would turn the White House lawn into a highly productive permaculture and try to inspire the same throughout the country. For more on this, see…

Catching up on the last couple weeks… Late at night, I’m continuing to review the criteria, from state to state, to be an “official” write-in. Each state’s criteria is different and there is a jumble of protocol to meet (some difficult, some not so difficult)… During the days, I continue to write for two local newspapers — often about stories that tie into various parts of our platform, and so on. For instance, we’re staunch “religious liberty” supporters. And last week, I covered a ‘town square’ prayer vigil for a young girl who had been Life Flighted to a Toledo hospital the night before and was in critical condition. Christians from around the town gathered, prayed and read from the Bible. It was a heartening display of Christian solidarity. [The girl was an active youth group member at a local Assembly of God church.]… I wrote a column that expressed that defunding the police was “…left of ludicrous.” What we should be doing, I wrote, is ‘funding’ the police way more, in tandem with citizens stepping up way more with community initiatives to supplement local police work. In our travels, I researched citizen “Crime Alert” block programs, citizen Mediation programs to cut down on police work and court dockets, community “Crime Stopper” programs… I also researched an Indio, California CHIP (Citizens Helping Indio Police) program that had citizen volunteers driving about in squad cars handling minor things and calling in more significant things. This was helping cut down on police burn out, and helping make Indio safer in general. For more all this, see our position paper on crime… Also during this time, I wrote a story about a local Cars & Coffee (see photo) monthly gathering where classic cars sit side by side with, well, your more run of the mill local cars whose owners have, nonetheless, kept them up quite nicely as well. For instance, a classic 1957 Nash might be parked next to a 2007 Volvo. Our platform calls for Americans to value and maintain things much more, as opposed to the “planned obsolescence throw-away culture” that seems the predominant paradigm these days.

Catching up on the last 30 days… To keep my “populist” image going, and to put food on the table as well, I’ve been doing some house painting. My son Jonathan is working with me this summer. And when he’s not doing that, he’s practicing soccer. He’s a senior this year, was named 2nd Team All-State last year, and their team went to the State Championship Game. This year I’ve just got my fingers crossed there will be a season at all… I’m also continuing to do free lance writing for two local newspapers, with many of the articles tying into various aspects of the platform. For instance, I did a story on a small town local merchant who, during the shutdown, was on the verge of losing the business — as are many small business owners across the country. Our position revolves around downtown revitalization in these small communities and, over the years, we’ve researched a number of models to help affect a shift back to this. I also did a story focusing on a family here, and how they, in part, survived the Great Depression. A lot of resilience, a lot of thrift, and a lot of prayer. Note: It is also crunch time for ballot access, which, it looks like, will be “official write-in status” for me. (Unless there’s some kind of a miracle.) So late at night, I’ve been going over the criteria, filling out forms, and so on, so I can be an “official” write-in.

The other night I was reading an article in this magazine about the dramatic warming going on in the Arctic. In fact, at this rate, scientists posit that by the year 2036, there will be no summer sea ice up there anymore. There’s a “canary in the coal mine” for planet extinction. Yet, instead of pouring all our energy (in a reverse sort of way) into curbing greenhouse gas emissions, countries are jockeying for position to mine minerals, oil and fish up there, as the thawing opens up these possibilities. What’s more, troop presence (American, Canadian, Russian…) is increasing up there as well, as a new ‘Cold War’ — in a not so cold place anymore — is taking shape. Our administration, on the other hand, would stand down from all this, while putting a tremendous amount of focus on cutting back energy demand, going to alternative energy, and so on. Just for one: To extract fossil fuels from up there, burn more, and speed up the planet’s extinction at the expense of future generations, is absolutely nuts — both common sense wise and spiritually.

For a newspaper series, I recently interviewed a local naturalist who has a Masters Degree in Environmental Science from the University of Iowa. She said with temperatures warming, this is pushing migratory birds farther and farther north each year. You know, you have to wonder if at some point they’re just going to run out of “north”? What’s more, during a talk several years ago, I heard an environmentalist say that after all the trees are gone, all the birds are gone… next is: all of us.