I just read that Joe Biden and his wife bought a $2.7 million beach house in Rehobeth Beach, Delaware with magnificent vistas of the Atlantic Ocean. Biden is colloquially referred to as “Middle Class Joe.” Above is the “vista” we have in our backyard. Enough said.
I recently saw the movie First Man about Neil Armstrong. It was, indeed, compelling, and he was quite a guy. However toward the end of an Urbana (OH) Citizen newspaper article — see last post — on our campaign, it was noted that as president I would lobby to end the Space Program — at least for now. (I also said that during a Wapakoneta Daily News interview as well. How’s that for politically gutsy?! Especially given Wapakoneta is Neil Armstrong’s hometown.) Anyway, the reasoning is this: Today, as happens every day now according to the UN, 24,000 people will starve to death on this planet, some two billion people don’t have access to clean drinking water on this planet, global warming looms like a scary doomsday scenario above this planet — and I could go on, and on, and… In other words, until we take care of our planet, the billions of dollars rocketing toward other planets, and such, could be much better spent. Common sense. Note: And don’t even get me started on this Trump “Space Force” deal.
Elizabeth Warren’s DNA testing shows some 6 to 10 generations ago there’s a strong indication of a Native American in her ancestry. Meanwhile, I’m pretty sure that’s not the case with me. However, what I did was go to a good number of Native American Reservations throughout the country where I conducted a significant amount of research. The compilation of this research was crafted into a position paper on Native American issues. And subsequently that position paper appeared as an essay in this Cengage Learning college text book.
Part of my stumping strategy is: When I see a group, any group, of people gathered… And so it was the other Friday night along Old Rte. 30 in Cairo, Ohio, on the way to my kid’s away basketball game in Paulding, Ohio. A group of guys were standing outside of “Biggies” front door jawboning. I approached and said: “I know this is coming out of the blue guys, but I’m running for president of the country as an independent candidate…” They asked some questions, including one guy wondering why I was running against Trump. I talked for about five minutes and then passed out some signed campaign cards. Another guy, who was drinking a beer, exclaimed: “When you get to the White House I’m going there to have you sign this!” I pointed out it was already signed. “Then I’ll have you sign it again,” he smiled. Note: Notice the Biggies sign. I can go “coast-to-coast” without ever leaving northern Ohio. Now my wife has mentioned, more than once, that maybe I should get a campaign strategist — besides myself, that is.
It was reported today that Elizabeth Warren has formed an “Exploratory Committee” to get a jump on the other potential Democratic presidential contenders. Not to be outdone, I declared a year ago and have been campaigning ever since. Part of our “Front Porch” strategy is putting up campaign cards/flyers in spots around Ohio. This bulletin board was at a Market in Mt. Eaton, OH, and as you can read, I don’t even need paid political campaign marketers for some of this stuff. Lol, sort of.
Catching up on the rest of the month… For “Small Business Saturday,” I did a newspaper story on, well, small businesses in Bluffton. They are the backbone of our economy (some 70% of businesses are small businesses), and they are an integral part of our Economic Position Paper… Pictured her, his woman runs a “spirit wear” shop downtown. The high school mascot is, that’s right, a pirate. It wouldn’t have been my first choice, but… I also did a story on a man from Ada, Ohio, who is a chaplain at a Mobile Chapel set up at a Pilot truck stop in Beaverdam, Ohio. It’s a converted 18-wheeler that has been converted to a chapel and sits as a beacon of hope, he said, for, often, lonely drivers who are continually tempted with drugs, gambling, prostitution… in some of these truck stops… I also interviewed the Ada Village Administrator for a story on local recycling. While there was a local focus, Jamie Hall explained the cost of recycling is going up because, in part, China has stopped taking the world’s recycling in order to ramp up badly needed pollution control in that country. China, for instance, used to take 40% of American recyclables to bolster their GDP… Our Environmental Position Paper outlines a series of measures we’d attempt to mobilize in America to work on our own pollution control… Instead of going to Mar-a-Lago for the holidays (although I realize Trump was stuck at the White House this time with the shutdown. I wish I was ‘stuck’ there…), I went to Steubenville, Ohio, for a family get together. One of our rituals is a family basketball game at the local gym. Our daughter Sarah was “Newcomer of the Year” in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference a few years back, our son Joseph is starting point guard for Franciscan University, our son Jonathan is starting point guard for his high school JV basketball team… and I couldn’t get out of bed the day after the game. I think I’ve lost a step.
Pictured here is Rachel Mathewson. I just interviewed her for a newspaper article. She’s 42-years-old, the mother of seven — and has run the Boston Marathon twice, and counting. (She currently has her eyes set on “Boston 2020.”) I currently have my eyes set on “Election 2020,” for the presidency. And like Rachel’s ongoing quest, so, too, has been mine. I’ve run for president in six successive election cycles, and counting. I’ve traveled some 250,000 miles doing cross country research, as well as 100,000 miles campaigning. Its been a MARATHON! Rachel keeps on, as do I. In her last marathon, Boston 2018, Rachel finished 18,751st. I’ve finished higher than that, each campaign. Just sayin’.
On March 18, 1942, four American Airacobra jets crashed together during a blinding snowstorm in a cluster of trees near a farmer’s field just southeast of the small town of Lafayette, Ohio. All four pilots were killed. I’d decided to do a “remembrance story” for one of the local papers. There hadn’t been a cloud in the sky all day. But as I was taking pictures of the historical marker at sunset (on Dec. 7, no less) a small formation of clouds appeared in the western horizon. Almost everyone I’ve shown the photo to has immediately responded that the front cloud looks an awful lot like: a fighter jet. I have to believe that evening that God was doing some “art stuff.”
I covered an Ada Village Council Meeting last night. As I write this, Trump is threatening a government shutdown. Conversely, this little village (pop. 4,000) seamlessly passed a new $11 million budget appropriation for fiscal 2019. No partisan haggling, nothing. What’s more, Ada’s government finances are in the black, while federal government finances float on an astronomical $20 trillion, and counting, sea of debt. Uh… Perhaps we could learn something from these rather well-running small municipalities across the nation. Just sayin’.
I recently did a newspaper article about Ohio Northern University’s “Mobile Health Clinic.” Funded by federal and private grants (including money from ONU), university pharmacy students, and other volunteers, travel throughout a three county area giving flu shots, vitamins, cholesterol screenings, blood pressure checks… especially to people who otherwise couldn’t afford these. Mobile Clinic Director Amy Fanous told me that she believes one of the biggest healthcare problems is that not everyone has access to quality healthcare and she said this Mobile Clinic, and other similar initiatives, would go a long way in impacting this — if it they were replicated all across the country. Our healthcare position not only calls this as well, but we have traveled extensively researching these kinds of model healthcare projects across America.