We talked to a woman recently who said she and her husband adopted a baby with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. It’s their only child, and she said the girl has been a tremendous blessing. She added that people will sometimes abort when there is early diagnosis of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Down Syndrome, and the like. And in so doing, they will miss the tremendous blessing these children can bring. One form of this testing is called: amniocentesis. This procedure includes inserting a needle through the uterine wall to gather samples. Also now, there is a simple blood test to determine birth defects. Note: During a stop in North Carolina during an earlier campaign, we talked with a couple who adopted a baby girl from China. Because of the “One Child Policy” in China, girls are often aborted, or left to die in back alleys or isolated rice paddies. Note 2: The following is a AP lead to a May 31, 2012 story: WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday fell short in an effort to ban abortions based on the sex of the fetus as Republicans and Democrats made an election-year appeal for women’s votes. [Given China’s gender-based abortions, what does that say about our country?]
Re-drawing the line…
In our travels, we recently came across a Korean War veteran. He talked at length about his war expreiences there and was concerned about the mounting tension there now as well. It’s a complex situation geo-politcally. While doing some research, I learned that the arbitrary drafting of the “North Limit Line” gave the best fishing grounds in the Yellow Sea to South Korea, and that has been an ongoing point of contention. It’s also been a flashpoint. Two years ago, North Korea fired a deadly salvo into Yeonpyeong Island over the disputed boundary. However… In 1950, the U.N. Security Council designated the U.S. as the executive agent over establishment of where the line would be placed. In an op/ed piece for the New York Times, Selig Harrison proposes the U.S. help Seol and Pyongyang come to an equitable ‘meeting of the minds’ about where to re-establish the boundary line in the Yellow Sea. This makes sense. Common sense. Note: The farmers in North Korea are currently experiencing an extreme drought and I believe we would do well to help them.
downtown revitilization
The New York Times carried a piece on Chester, Vermont, recently. This small quaint town, like a number of small quaint towns in Vermont, is fighting a “Dollar Store” going in — because they’re worried about changing the character of the town. Our travels have taken us to Brattleboro, Vermont, and Plattville, Wisconsin, both small towns that have robustly undertaken downtown revitilization projects. (Plattville even has ongoing forums to educate the public about why it’s important to shop locally and support the local “Mom & Pop” businesses.) In addition, some of the store owners in Plattville have moved into apartments above their shops so Main St., in essence, has become their “front yard.” This makes them even that much more invested in fixing up the downtown. It’s a throw back to the “old days,” when a lot of storeowners lived above their shops.
hydro-fracking?
The New York Times carried an op-ed piece today on the questionable practice of “hydro-fracking” to extract natural gas. Last week, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar proposed new rules for drilling for natural gas on federal and Indian lands. The new rules are more stringent. Hydro-fracking, basically, is toxic chemical-laden water pumped into the ground at high pressure to force the natural gas out. There’s concern about contaminating the air, underground aquifers, etc. Some 3,400 wells are drilled on federal lands alone every year. Now, common sense says, for one: There’s going to be accidents. Ibid.: Chernobyl, Fukishima, Deep Water Horizon… We continue to move along at a breakneck pace on all this (nuclear, oil, natural gas…), but what kind of world are we leaving the next generation? Note: During a talk at the University of Notre Dame, I said our administration would place a tremendous premium on promoting: “good environmental stewardship.”
“old school” social security
I was talking to a minister today who noted that the year Social Security was enacted in this country in 1935, the average life span for a white American was 62.9 years. (You couldn’t collect Social Security until you were 62-years-old.) Needless to say, in the early years the Social Security Fund was quite buoyant. Now the average life span of a white American is 79 years, and you can still start collecting at age 62. The SS Fund is currently in trouble. A question: “Does anybody remember when ‘social security’ was about the family and community making sure the local elderly were “socially secure?” That is, the elderly often lived with their children or other extended family. And for those without family nearby, there are now non-profit organizations like: Little Brothers, Friends of the Elderly. (We researched a chapter of this in Houghton, Michigan, during our travels.) Local volunteers, in effect, adopt an elderly person in the community. They meet socially with the elderly person on a regular basis, provide rides, help clean the person’s house, do other odd jobs… Note: Instead of myopically looking at just a one-dimensional fix to Social Security, we should be looking at a variety of creative local ways to help the elderly — like in the “old days.”
…just white; Bread Basket; Mustang Sally in Ft. Oglethorpe; b-ball in the mountains; Java Jo’s
Catching up on the end of the tour… The “Georgia On My Mind Tour” (original, huh) included stops in Thomasville, Albany, Columbus, and Ft. Oglethorpe. During one of the TV news interviews, our young son Jonathan told the reporter he might get a little bored with living at the White House. “I mean, all you’d pretty much see is just white,” he said, somewhat seriously. The reporter smiled. So did we… In Albany, Georgia, we met with the staff at the Bread Basket Bakery. This is a bakery with a purpose. The proceeds from the bakery fund a rather nice halfway house for recovering women in Albany… In Ft. Oglethorpe, we attended one of their monthly “Cruise-ins.” Old fashion cars are parked up and down the main street here and speakers on telephone poles blast out such tunes as Rockn’ Robin; the them from Happy Days; Mustang Sally… I knew the lyrics to the latter and started hamming it up by singing along — much to our teenagers’ chagrins. We then interviewed Max Stoker for a You Tube video on his 1954 Champion Studebaker. It was quite a car… Following this we drove through Tennessee north into Kentucky. On the last night of the tour, we stopped at the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg. It was quite a night. Our kids got in a pick-up basketball game with some college students in this “old school” type, intrarmural gym. Watching the sunset over the mountains through some arched gym windows, with our kids playing a spirited basketball game on an old wooden floor in the foreground, was, well, something like a Norman Rockwell scene, in motion. We have had so many of those types of scenes, so many small town wholesome moments, in the traveling over the years. And Liz and I, as parents, have been tremendously blessed with it all. Note: The next morning on the way back to Ohio, we stopped in Dry Ridge, Kentucky, where we decided to ‘wet our whistles’ (sorry) with, of all things, Java Jo’s coffee. I passed out some campaign cards there and one of the workers, Robin Bowers, said she had two daughters — in the Marines. She said while she was on board with military cuts that were about blatant waste, she didn’t want to see any cuts to things that would help her daughters on the battlefield — “…as they are protecting our lives.” Note 2: At 3:58 p.m. Monday, “the beaver” landed back in Bluffton, Ohio. We travel in a “vintage” (that is when it’s not acting up) 1978 Dodge Beaver Motorhome. As coincidence would have it, Bluffton University’s mascott? That’s right: “the beaver.”
Georgia; and… Joe; 8 degrees hotter; farming in the ’30s; 3 Crazy Bakers…
We started the Georia On My Mind Tour in Thomasville where our Jonathan got in a spirited “sandlot soccer game” at Remington Park over the weekend. We then did a downtown whistle-stop event. Three TV news crews filmed. One of the shows started out: “Now it’s Obama, Romney and… Joe.” I liked that. The front page of the Thomasville News-Enterprise ran a story the next day about the campaign. I noted that the day before an Associated Press article carried a story saying temperatures for March were a record shattering 8 degrees above normal, which many scientists attribute to: global warming. I said running as a “concerned parent,” I didn’t want to leave a world of climate chaos for our children. (What sane parent would?) We propose a dramatic shift to renewable energy now, with, well, the concept of “sacrifice” making up for any energy shortfall… We then headed north to Moultrie, Georgia, where I talked with author Sarah Senkbeil. She had just published the book Company’s Coming about farming in the 1930s in America. (She’s 83 years old.) One of the lines from her book reads: “I’m trying to figure out how we can do what we do on a round world?” Gravity is, indeed, a mystery… As far as our campaign, we propose going back to a small farm agrarian based society where we, once again, farmed much like they did in the 1930s (organically, with small technology, and much more at ‘nature’s pace.’)… In Moultrie, we also stumped on the downtown square where there is an “eternal flame” for all the local fallen service people; a majestic magnolia tree that was planted in 1845, and the Three Crazy Bakers Bakery nearby. We stopped in for coffee, and more stumping. One of the ‘crazy bakers’ was a woman from Australia who got in a lengthy discussion with my wife, who is from New Zealand. Needless to say, the accents were thick. Then it was on to Albany… Note: For a copy of Sarah Senkbeil’s book, call: 800-741-2712 Note 2: While there’s been a lot of media stories, our main form of campaigning has been handing out campaign cards and putting up fliers on bulletin boards. And we’re asking our supporters to do the same from town to town. It’s our answer to the Super PAC million dollar TV ads.
‘JoeCare;’ ’50s diner; Tallahassee stumping; bagel ball…
The campaign rolls on… We were interviewed by the newspaper at Appalachacolla, Florida. I told the editor that in Grand Junction, Colorado, we researched a two-story hospital (Marillac Hospital) staffed by volunteer doctors, volunteer nurses and other volunteer citizenry who do intake, janitorial, landscaping… Everything is on a minimal sliding fee scale here for people without healthcare insurance. What’s more, this would work in every county in the country — and is part of our ‘JoeCare’ platform… In Carrabelle, Florida, I went around the town putting up fliers on a multi-tude of bulletin boards (our answer to the Super PAC multi-million dollar TV ads). At a ’50s diner there, I circled the part of the flier that says we’d like to see the country go back to the ’50s in a lot of respects. (And we’re doing this all without paid political consultants. I just figured that would play well at the diner. Smart, huh.)… From Carrabelle, we headed north for a whistle-stop event in Tallahassee. After the event, we stopped at the Metro-deli where when you order a bagel, the guy taking the order literally throws it (fastball, curve ball, it’s pretty amazing) to the guy by the toaster. I told the guys that if I’m asked to ‘throw out the first bagel’ somewhere, I’d bring them in from the bullpen. Onward to Georgia, and the Georgia On My Mind Tour (Part III). We pride ourselves in originality.
oil addicts, Transition Towns…
The campaign rolls on… In the last week we appeared in the Northwest Signal Daily News, which is circulated throughout Northwest Florida. I was asked about offshore drilling in a newspaper office not far from the Gulf of Mexico. I said while the oil from the Deep Water Horizon spill (the worst accidental spill in U.S. history) was cleaned off the surface, it sill floats in the water columns below the surface and is entrained in the sediment on the bottom as well. And speaking of ‘bottoms,’ I said that we have become a nation of addicts when it comes to oil and the Deep Water Horizon catastrophy should have been analogous to an alcoholic/addict “hitting bottom.” (Well, I call ’em like I see ’em — no matter who the local populace is.) Note: There is a movement afoot called “Transition Towns.” It is comprised, in essence, of people in psuedo, self-help groups who are supporting each other in getting off the ‘oil habit’ to help a town ‘transition’ to alternative forms of energy use. I attended one of these meetings in Cleveland and heard people supporting each other in bicycling more, walking more, losing the air-conditioning, cutting the heat back… and doing all this, and a lot more, in a variety of creative ways.
spark plugs, tail lights, ABC News, smoking…
Catching up on the last couple weeks (blog was down)… We launched on our next tour, heading south in our 1978 motorhome. A couple spark plug wires shook loose around Cincinnati and we were cresting hills on I-75 at 40 mph, with everyone leaning forward… Then the tail lights went on the fritz, but the folks at Sechrest Automotive in Williamstown, KY, took care of that. I gave “Brad” there a campaign card. He said he’d get it blown up and make a yard sign out of it… That afternoon, we stopped at a YMCA just outside of Lexington, Kentucky. The local ABC News affiliate was doing some filming at an anti-smoking display they had set up here this day. I told the reporter I was running for president and had some views on smoking. He said great, and did an interview. (And we continute to do this all without an advance staff.) Among a number of things, I said I was onboard with the new Surgeon General allowance for graphic pictures (black lungs, people with emphysima…) that will be included on the sides of cigarette packs this year. Only 20% of people now smoke in this country because, in part, because of agressive advertising against it. Smoking leads to so many attendant health problems in this country, including a form of slow suicide. That is everytime someone lights up, it’s like putting a little tiny gun with a little tiny bullet in one’s mouth. Note: Our healthcare platform is heavy on prevention.