Vote for Joe

Instead of going to Air Force One last weekend for a luxury trip to Mar-a-Lago, I went to Table One in hardscrabble Kenton, Ohio, on the way to see my kid’s basketball game. Table One is owned and run by Christian volunteers. There’s no prices on the menu.  If you get a burger, and you’re more well off financially, you “donate,” say, a bit more for the burger. Reciprocally, if someone is less well off, they will pay less (or even eat for free).  It’s, in essence, a “Pay It Forward” establishment, with a Christian ethos of “sharing.”  Our position paper on “the economy” spins around this type of ethos. See…

In my spiritual reading this morning, I came across the “Tower of Babel” story in the Old Testament. It seems God had told “man” to go to the ends of the earth, or at least to Des Moines, and “populate” the whole thing. Instead, many of them congregated in this one place and started building a city that would “…reach to the heavens,” so, apparently, they could be god-like. Or something like that. God, the real God, said: bad idea, scrambled their one common language, and people of like languages were then forced to disperse to other places around the globe. Fast forward to today… Man, through advanced technology, has developed a common language (computer language). What’s more, there is computer software now that instantly translates any spoken language. It’s name: “Babel.” Fascinating, huh. In essence, we’re doing it again. Rapid advancement in technology, in science, in architecture (Skyscrapers stretching into the heavens?) are making “man” perceive himself/herself as “god-like.” And the more “god-like” one seems to become, well, the less of a seeming need for reliance on the real God, right. Note: We need to be doing all this in a measured, prayerful fashion — instead of going at it in breakneck speed.

Okay, looking at this picture, it wouldn’t take an anatomy professor at Dartmouth to figure out that abortion is murder. Period. Yet our society has become so unbelievably evil at this point… There are all those on the “left” who, outright, want this killing. And there are all those on the “right” who are doing virtually nothing to stop it. Some lip service maybe, a “March for Life” once a year, a few prayers… For abortion to end, a sustained, prolific protest climate similar to what was created in the South to end Segregation, needs to be created nationwide. But, well, us “pro-life people” are too busy with work, with entertainment, with… WHILE THE HOLOCAUST RAGES ON ALL AROUND US! We’re at 60 million abortions in America, and counting. Way worse than Nazi Germany! And look at how history looks at the Germans who knew, but just stood by. Of course, to protest in Nazi Germany would have meant certain death. To protest abortion in America? Some neighbors might think you’re a little too “zealous,” huh. And we wouldn’t want that, would we? We’re all going to be standing at Judgement answering for this one day soon. What’s your answer going to be? Note: Trump joined the “March for Life” this year. I told the Lewiston (Montana) Argus newspaper that as president, I’d go to the streets regularly, as I have done often over the years, to spark this nationwide, prolific ongoing abortion protest. Listen to my “Communion Reflection” on stopping abortion on this page…

While I went into downtown North Baltimore, Ohio, to stump early Saturday evening (see previous entry), virtually nothing was open. So I headed out to McDonald’s on the outskirts of town. While passing out a “Joe campaign card” to an older couple at a booth by the window, I asked who they were considering voting for this election. Republican? Democrat? The wife, whose countenance visibly changed, for the worse (And I’m not making that up!), said: “Nobody.” I smiled and replied: “Then I’m your guy!” If only the whole electorate was that fed up, huh.

While Democratic candidates are stumping in Iowa, I headed to Middle-Point, Ohio. Call it a hunch. While passing out campaign cards in the Fire House Pizza & Carry Out, one woman said she was impressed I was stumping in, of all places, her little hometown. I said I stump all over. She also said that Middle-Point isn’t the center of Ohio, but rather it is the geographic “middle-point” between Chicago and Pittsburgh on the railroad line. She also explained that the volunteer firefighters in the village were also volunteering all kinds of time to build a new firehouse there. Note: I picked up a local newspaper and read the high school students in the area had been involved with a month-long fundraising initiative to help outreach organizations involved with impacting human trafficking. Highly commendable.