Vote for Joe

I was reading parts of this book tonight. The first section was about slavery and the accounts are absolutely horrendous. Splitting families, torture, murder… Some 15 million people were displaced and slavery was called, in some circles, “…the trade of hell.” And besides all this, slavery opened the door, incrementally, to European colonization of Africa. And all this has bled down through the generations, without much in the way of equitable tangible amends. Our position paper on “Black Amends,” proposes just that.

I just interviewed a woman who is a local “master gardener” for a newspaper article. To be a master gardener in Harding County, you have to take 10 continuing education hours of classes on gardening a year, and volunteer for 20 hours, total, in Kenton, Ohio’s “Friendship Garden.” This is a creative series of gardens (started by a non-profit) that includes herb gardens, raised bed gardens, wildflower gardens, an “ABC” garden that has each letter of the alphabet represented with a plant, a child-friendly interactive garden… One of these “Friendship Gardens” should be at the heart of every community. We need to increase our gardening exponentially in this country (in regard to increased sustainability, being more rooted in nature, teaching the next generation the importance of being in touch with natural cycles….). Having a big, centralized town garden like this would, ‘naturally,’ inspire a lot more gardening in a town. Note: This is a scene from the wildflower section of the Kenton Friendship Garden.

I covered a presentation about our local Crime Victims Services Agency today. It provides court advocacy, counseling, life skill training, and a host of other services. One area that is on the rise is elder abuse, neglect, and so on. To respond to this, they have a “Guardian Program” that connects area volunteers, one-on-one, with an elder person in need. These volunteers advise the senior citizen in regard to housing options, medical options, recreation activity outlets… and more. That is, they also reach out as “friends,” taking the person to, say, dinner, or to a movie, or… The woman running this program said during the presentation today that volunteers are often amazed with how “lonely” some of these senior citizens are. Our platform looks at Social Security as not just a “fund,” but in a multi-dimensional way that would help these seniors feel much more “socially secure” in general in our society. Note: The 4th Commandment is: “Honor your mother and your father.” What’s the bet that you’re carrying out the spirit of this thing if you extend this even further and become a “guardian” to someone else’s mother or father?

Buckeye Back Road Tour continued… On a campaign stop in Columbus Grove, Ohio, I was met at the village square by, of all things, a “Ten Commandments” display. A majority of the people in Columbus Grove were saying, in essence, that these “laws” were at the heart of their community. Refreshing.

I was in a conversation today with a local banker who said he believed the Federal Reserve lowering the interest rate last week was, indeed, tied to the recent emergence of the “inverted yield curve,” which is often the harbinger of a recession. He said the volatility of the markets tied to the evolving trade war is a major concern. What’s more, and this is not often talked about in economic circles, or at least not talked about enough, is that, yes, there is an extremely low rate of unemployment. However, conversely, this gives a distinct advantage to laborers, who in turn, are often demanding higher wages. While this, indeed, is good for the workers, reciprocally, it sometimes hurts business owners — with this equation also rippling into the economy.