Vote for Joe

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 was just reading in USA Today that Russia’s GDP is less than that of California’s.  What’s more, their economy, right now, is hurting.  While on the one hand, we continue to play geo-political chess with Russia over election hacking, continued aggression in the Ukraine, it’s involvement in the War in Syria…; maybe on another level, we need to be trying to help Russia more.  It occurs to me that sending more foreign aid, starting up American/Russian sister-cities, and sending teams of, say, Habitat for Humanity volunteers… might catch Russia off guard.  In a good way.  Just a (biblical) thought.

For our newspaper, I interviewed high-profile U.S. Congressman Jim Jordan in Bluffton the day before the Mid-Term Elections vote. [Jordan is a top candidate to become Minority Leader of the House, since Republicans have now lost control of the House.]  Jordan had several basic talking points:  He said he wanted to continue to push to “build the wall” (southern border) because safety of Americans was paramount.  Jordan is also all in on Welfare Reform.  And he believes in a much more decentralized approach to education, with much less standardized testing (and teachers teaching to these tests), and much more creative, teacher-driven curriculum that fit the various needs of their students, from year to year.  Note 1: Several days ago, I heard a conservative talk show host say she’s lobbying for Jordan to become the Minority Speaker because he will adamantly “fight” for Republican priorities.  Jordan’s sport in school?  Wrestling.  Note 2:  Mr. Jordan talked about Welfare Reform and that it is an issue both Parties have expressed interest in addressing…  In the book Repackaging the Welfare State, it’s noted that increasing productivity in a country can offset, say, a growing dependency ratio.  What’s more, the author writes that the Welfare State “…is unquestionably one of the noblest accomplishments of the 20th century.  It meant a shift from purely private charity to protection by the state as well.” Where the balancing act comes in, according to Congressman Jordan (and others), is discerning between legitimate welfare recipients, and people on the Welfare dole, so to speak, who could be, in fact, considered legitimate “able-body workers.”

I interviewed a Bluffton Village councilperson, Ben Stahl, who is the liaison  between council and the Tree Commission here.  In recent years, Bluffton has established an “Arboretum” with a wide variety of tree species.  In addition, the village participates in the Tree City USA Program, with, among other things, $2 per person from the village budget going to new tree planting projects, and such. Earlier in my cross-country research, we stopped in Nebraska City, Nebraska (home of Arbor Day Farm).  The town of 7,000 there was undertaking planting 10,000 new trees within a 10 year period.  The whole eastern half of America was essentially “clear cut.”  And, well, its time to replant some of this.  For more on this, see our position paper on the Environment.

Just read a couple NY Times pieces on immigration, the “approaching caravan,” et. Al.  One article noted that Mexico is struggling to assimilate the surge of migrants fleeing poverty and violence in Latin America.  Although Mexico hardly “…meets the definition of a safe country.  Last year was its deadliest in two decades,” the article noted.  Now, our campaign travels took us to Juarez, Mexico, several years ago where we toured the slums there.  Some 200,000 people living in cobbled together shacks with no electricity, no running water, and little food.  Of course Mexico would be “…struggling to assimilate the surge of [new] migrants.”  I told a newspaper reporter in Hobbs, New Mexico, during one of our “Border Tours,” that many Americans are missing a tremendous spiritual opportunity to help these people.  What’s more, and again on the spiritual front, what kind of wall (read: “chasm”) are many quite well-off Americans (by Latin American socio-economic standards) going to meet at the border of Heaven?  For more on our take on all this, see our position paper on Hispanic Immigration.