I’ve been hobbling around town the last few days with a torn calf muscle. (Whenever I put on my basketball shoes, I think I’m 18-years-old again.) I’ve used the time to do some more research for the National Debates (call me an optomist). One of the things I’ve been looking at is NASA. And as coincidence would have it (and, well, because it was staged in Florida), that topic came up last night in the Republican Debate. Each candidate, more or less, said they were committed to a robust Space Program. President Obama has echoed that as well. During a talk at Notre Dame University several years ago, I said all the great minds coming out of Stanford, MIT, etc., were developing these ultra-expensive, ultra-complex spacecraft — to take us to places where: “We can’t breathe the air. There is no gravity. And there is no food. Wouldn’t that be, oh, A LITTLE HINT GOD DIDN’T WANT US THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?!” My research notes that NASA spent $209 billion alone on the 30 year Shuttle Program, which just ended. Ya gotta wonder, wouldn’t that money have been better spent on the poor in our inner cities and the scores of people starving to death worldwide — ON THIS PLANET?! Note: A Science News Magazine recently reported scientists believe they have found a red dwarf star that may be habitable, with temperatures that could range from 14 to 24 degrees (Spring in Barrow, Alaska). Only problem is: It would currently take 200 years to get there. Now I know that wouldn’t be for me. I have a hard time getting Liz to agree to a weekend away campaigning by myself. And anyway, if you really wanted that experience — why wouldn’t you just go to Barrow and take a side trip to look at the pipeline at Prudhoe Bay, or something?
homeschool basketball; polarized; Obamacare; contraception…
Liz and I attended our kids’ Homeschool Basketball League games last night in Harrod, Ohio. Both Sarah and Joseph’s games were quite spirited. Afterward one of the other parents approached me and wanted to talk politics out in the hall. He said he was torn about who to back in the Republican Primaries. I said I was torn too. (Just kidding.) He said he, like many others, wondered if any of these candidates could beat President Obama. I said the whole thing, it seemed to me, was getting way too polarized. For instance no matter what President Obama does, the Republican knee-jerk response seems to be that it’s “all wrong.” I mean, is there an “adult in the room”? Common sense says he’s done some good things and some not so good things, and there’s been all sorts of complex shades of grey inbetween. Just like with any of us. For instance, the spirit of his healthcare plan seems to be helping get healthcare insurance to those on the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum. And I believe that sentiment is good (although I disagree with the type of approach). However a decidedly ‘not so good thing’ in the shades of grey in Obamacare, I believe, is that the L.A. Times today reported that Catholic hospitals, universities and other religious institutions are “mandated” to offer health plans that provide contraception benefits at no cost to their members. The Times said the American Catholic Bishops were infuriated and this was a direct attack on religion and First Amendment rights. I’d have to agree. No matter what one feels about artificial contraception, the Catholic Church teaches it is counter to God’s Natural Law, and a “serious sin.” Thus, it’s my belief the “conscience clause” should, indeed, be applied here.
Chihua Chihua, Border Tours, NAFTA problems
I talked with Matt Arnold today. He and his family were missionaries in Chihua Chihua, Mexico, for 17 years. They worked with indigenous people in the rural areas there. He said it’s not “African poverty,” but the poverty there is significant — and just one poor growing season away from major problems. In fact, because of an unexpected cold snap that came through Chihua Chihua last year, Arnold said come harvest time there there may well be some dire needs. (For more on Mr. Arnold and his mission go to ntm.org.) During our conversation, Mr. Arnold also alluded to the escalating violence across Mexico. On a campaign “Border Tour” a number of years ago, our family went to Juarez, Mexico (billed as the “Murder Capital of Mexico”). Some 200,000 people there live in slums with no running water, no sewers, no electricity… What’s more, many work in multi-national plants there making $3 a shift, not an hour, a shift. Note: With the passing of NAFTA in 1994, it opened the door for more and more ‘sweat shop’ situations throughout Mexico and Latin America.
The Great Debaters, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mom’s Restaurant…
For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I watched the movie The Great Debaters with our children. It’s about the debate team at Texas’s Wily College in the 1930s in a segregated South. Based on a true story, this Black debate team, in a precedent setting event, debated Harvard’s debate team, and won. The debate topic at Harvard (at least in the movie) was on the pros and cons of civil disobedience, something Dr. King used quite effectively… In our travels, we have traced the “Voting Rights March” from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. We looked at Black (and White) rural poverty in the Black Belt region of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. We moved into the inner city of Cleveland to look at, and help impact, Black inner city poverty, something Dr. King was also quite outspoken about. Toward the end of his life, Dr. King had moved his family to the projects in Chicago to focus attention on this poverty. Note: While back in Cleveland recently, a friend of mine, Dan Dragony, and I went to Mom’s Restaurant in a hardscrabble area of the city. It was clean and kind of homey, had an old black and white picture of the Cleveland Indians, and the food was not only good, it was relatively inexpensive. It is these old ‘Mom’ and Pop restaurants that used to be the hubs of our neighborhoods (before the McDonald’s, Burger King phenomenon). And it’s my belief they should be again.
Wooly Bears, and such
We drove to Cleveland this week from Northwest, Ohio. On the way in, I put up campaign literature on bulletin boards in Fairview Park, Ohio, and Vermilion, Ohio. (Our answer to the big money campaigns.) I was traveling with the family and told the kids that Vermilion was the home of the annual Wooly Bear Festival. Both our teenagers rolled their eyes, in unison. (They’re getting pretty good at that.) In response, I said: “Well, it’s a big deal to people who like Wooly bears (“caterpillars,” for the uninitiated),” I smiled. They didn’t…
a water fund; a New Year’s resolution; and a “monster” problem
Catching up on the last couple weeks: For Christmas, our family’s gift to Jesus was a donation to a Third World clean water fund. Some one billion people worldwide don’t have access to clean water… For New Years, I made a resolution to: win the presidency. Well, it was either that or lose weight… Also, for the last couple weeks inbetween work, kids basketball league stuff and doing some chores for Liz around the house — I’ve been boning up on contemporary affairs, expanding our positions, and so on… (This running for president is taking a little more time than I thought it was going to take.) Anyway, some data: A recent AP article said there has been a “monster” (6%) increase of greenhouse gas emissions in the last recorded year. It is higher than the “worst case scenario” outlined by climate experts just four years ago. (As I type this, it was 62 degrees yesterday in northern Ohio: on Jan. 6!)… A recent Newsweek article noted environmentalists argue that we can achieve energy independence by “cutting demand and ramping up renewables.” Translated: In the short term, at least, we have to: sacrifice. They did it during World War II to help with the war effort. And I mean c’mmon, this is a ‘war on the environment.’ I recently gave a talk at the University of Notre Dame. At one point, I brought our seven-year-old Jonathan up to recite a short poem: “The sky is blue… The earth is green… With lots of fresh air sandwiched in between.” Right behind Jonathan was a big picture of factory smoke stacks pumping huge amounts of global warming gasses into the air. How can we all go on with our lifestyles in this country, knowing little Jonathan is destined for a world of climate chaos? How? Note: How about America’s New Year’s resolution being: To transform from a “society of consumers” to a “society of conservers.”
“senior (driving) tsunami;” Go Packers!
Our motor home got hit last week. It was parked on a quiet side street and an 82-year-old woman, in broad daylight (at a slow speed), swerved and hit the back corner. The next day (Are you ready for this?), the local Lima News ran a front page feature story about the growing problem of older people driving too long. The article noted that 10,000 people turn 65 every day in the U.S. now, a trend that will continue for the next: 19 years. In fact, the article pointed out that in the next 10 years one in four drivers will be over 65. “We call it the senior tsunami that’s coming,” Elin Schold-Davis said. (She is the coordinator for the American Occupational Therapy Association’s Older Driver Inititiative.) For many seniors, driving is a form of independence. It is also increasingly representative of how much the extended family has geographically split apart in the country. That is, in the “old days” there were usually relatives nearby (or in the same house for that matter), who could drive an elderly relative wherever they needed to go. So… Do we need an “Older Driver Initiative,” or, well, do we need people starting to move back home? Note: I recently campaigned in several small towns in Northwest Ohio. In one of them, Elida, I spoke with one of the owners of the Green Bay Packers football team. Steve Hedrick, who used to live in Green Bay, owns one share of stock (purchased this year for $250) in the team. The Green Bay Packers are the only co-op in football. That is, all the other teams are owned by one owner, whereas the Packers are owned by a whole lot of average fans, if you will. Green Bay is also the smallest market in football, but could well have the most enthusiastic fans. That’s what partial ownership does for you, and should be a paradigm used a lot more in businesses across the country. See our economic postion paper…
Average Joe on Main Street USA
We spent the weekend moving into our new home on Main Street in Bluffton, Ohio (pop. 3,875). That’s right, “Average Joe on Main Street USA.” Doesn’t get much more populist than that! And we don’t even plan these things, the house was just available. It’s a modest house, small garden in the back. We’re doing the decor in ’50s stuff, complete with an old phonograph. In fact, I told the Alliance (OH) News that our platform asks the American public to consider going back to the ’50s in many respects. That is, a time when the pace of life was slower, neighbors knew neighbors, the streets were safe for kids, and Norman Rockwell paintings were big, real big. Note: Bumper sticker sighting in Bluffton: “Astronomy is Looking Up.”
‘Joecare’
While the other candidates are holding town hall meetings, and the like, in Iowa and New Hampshire, I’ve decided on Northwest Ohio. (Call it a hunch) Last night I found myself in an impromptu round table discussion at McDonald’s with some 20 Methodist Church members from Leipsic, Ohio. One of the women was an ER nurse and said a lot of extraneous healthcare costs come from people on Medicaid, for instance, coming to the emergency room, often unnecessarily, for the slightest of physical ailments. She said she believes this, in part, is because it is free to them. Coupled with this, Atlanta Georgia’s ER doctor Jonathan Davis told us on a stop there that some 33% of ER visits, if not more, are unnecessary as well (Medicaid, or not). This, in part, is because we’ve become a society addicted to feeling good all the time. And we run for help at the least discomfort. And in tandem, we’ve become such a litigious society, doctors are afraid of advising someone not to come in. Note: Our administration wouldn’t be opposed to Medicaid, but we would mobilize a public awareness program to help people to learn more about healthcare issues that need a doctor, or not.
split second lapse…
I talked with Kurt Schoenfeld yesterday. He travels the Midwest giving training seminars for firefighters on tools (like “Jaws of Life,” etc.) used in extracting people from vehicles in the aftermath of a bad wreck for Howell Rescue Systems. Coming on the heels of a report the day before by the National Traffic Safety Board (NTSB) that said texting, e-mailing or talking on a cell phone while driving is “too dangerous,” I asked Mr. Schoenfeld his opinion. He said even though he personally talks on a cell phone while driving for business purposes, he concurs with the NTSB finding. He said all it takes is a “split second” lapse for a major accident to happen. And he’s been at the scene of many such accidents. Our administration would concur with the NTSB (and Mr. Schoenfeld) and lobby for ban in regard to talking on cell phones, texting and e-mailing while driving. I mean, this is just simple common sense.