Vote for Joe

Catching up on the last week…  I talked with Bluffton College Education Professor Paul Weaver.  Every year he goes down to the country of Colombia as part of a Christian Peace Keeper Team.  Amidst the violence there, he and other team members serve as human shields for children walking to school, for rural villagers threatened with drug cartel attacks, and so on.  Christian Peace Keepers believe in non-violence and are willing to put their ‘money where their mouth is,’ so to speak.  That is, as soldiers are willing to die for war, these Peace Keepers say they are willing to “die for peace.”   …Our “back road” campaigning in Ohio continues.  We stopped in Harrod, Ohio (pop. 493).  This is the home of the Shay Steam Locomotive, circa 1905.  One is on display on the town green here, and is referred to as the “work horse of her day.”  (It was manufactured at the nearby Lima Locomotive Works.)  While in Harrod, the owner of the Harrod “Snack Shack” put up a “Joe the Painter” for President campaign flier on their bulletin board by the door.   I signed it and added: “GREAT FOOD!”  Okay, so I just had the beef jerky, but it was pretty good…  Speaking of “Joe the Painter,” I just read that “Joe the Plumber” has officially announced that he is running for Congress in Ohio’s 9th District.  And the “Average Joe Revolution” rolls on, like the Shay Steam Locomotive used to…  Note:  I filled in as coach for our son Jonathan’s Midget football team in a practice this week.  I lined up the offense and defense in a “rotation formation.”  That is, after each play the players ‘rotated’ so each boy got a chance to play each position.  That meant, at one point, that the kid who regularly plays anonymously in the trenches at center, got a chance to run the ball.  You should have seen the smile on his face as he lined up in the backfield.  And he gained about 10 yards to boot on a pretty good run…  After watching the Republican debate on the economy last night, I couldn’t help but think the “rotation formation” I used with the boys, would be a good idea for the economy.  That is, for instance, maybe some of the “suits” on Wall Street (and well dressed politicians for that matter), could ‘rotate’ into some low-paying, mind-numbing assembly line work for a significant amount of time — not a photo-op amount of time.  What’s the bet these people would soon (real soon) be looking to develop a new kind of economy based on much more human dignity for everyone, like our position paper on a “new economy” proposes.

This week I was interviewed for an article to be posted on NPR’s national website. The story is about independent presidential candidates who continue to run, election cycle after election cycle. Reporter Linton Weeks said to me that some would categorize such candidates as perennial losers. “How do you respond to that?” He then asked. I said in our “campaign wake” over the past 12 years (and 125,000 miles), there are more people in the country now helping: save the environment, curb crime, welcome the immigrant, stand up for the unborn, aid the poor… In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, I gave a talk to a church youth group about the abject poverty we’d witnessed on Native American Reservations across the country in our travels. The youth were so moved, that shortly after the talk they planned a two-week “work mission” into the poorest Native American Reservation in New Mexico. “Loser?” I responded to the NPR reporter. “By whose measure?” …This week (besides updating our website), we’ve been doing some grassroots stumping in northwest Ohio. In Columbus Grove (pop. 2,118), I talked with one of the owners of The Gas Station. You read that right: “The Gas Station.” While it’s not clear how many actual seconds it took to come up with that, I do have to admit that in all our travels — I’ve never seen another gas station with that particular name. I mean it’s so obvious, who would think of it? The kids and I then went to Kohl’s Grocery Store up the street to put up a “Joe flier.” A cashier named Debbie noticed our campaign vehicle, which I had strategically parked right in front of the front windows of the store. (And we continue to do this all without paid consultants.) Debbie took a flier and asked about our platform. What’s more, she earnestly said she would go home that night to do research on our website. She added that she takes politics seriously. I said so do we. Note: Our son Jonathan, 8, is playing his first year of Midget Football. The first practice, they lined him up at outside linbacker. And on the first play, he raced in and sacked a quarterback that was twice his size. He stood up smiling, turned to me and exclaimed: “I really like this Dad!” Ya gotta think Clay Mathews III, the middle linebacker for the Green Bay Packers, probably said something similar to his Dad after his first hit.

We have moved into Northwest Ohio where I was interviewed by Mike Maag, who has an internet radio show out of Columbus Grove, Ohio. He asked me about our tax policy. I said we wanted to do away with most tax loopholes (there are currently 173 of them), and go to a “simplified progressive tax” with an easy one-page form. This would eliminate most CPA fees and hours and hours spent deciphering complex tax formulas, and the like. What’s more, the form would include a place where each taxpayer could designate where one-fourth of their tax money goes (military, environmental programs, urban social programs, foreign aid…). This would make it a much more participatory democracy… Note: I watched President Obama’s speech on the American Jobs Act last night. What struck me as odd, among a number of things, was the proposal for a huge push to repair and expand American roadways. He, for instance, said the roads are “clogged” and we need more roads. Yet on the other hand, his administration is concerned about global warming. (I’m concerned about it as well.) So do we want to encourage more driving? Or do we want people coming up with more creative alternatives to driving? And the roads being “clogged” would tend to promote the latter. Common sense.

We traveled to Sidney, Ohio, where I stumped at The Spot Restaurant on the downtown square. There’s a rather nice plaque outside the eatery with a picture of former President George W. Bush. It says he made an impromptu campaign stop here on Aug. 24, 2004. He ordered a hamburger and a piece of pie. Subsequently, they named a hamburger after him. (In Staunton, Virginia, at the Lunch Box Restaurant, they named a sandwich after me during Campaign 2004 as well, so there! They called it the: “average Joe Brat(wurst) Sandwich.” After stumping at The Spot, my daughter Sarah and I gave a talk in a sixth grade class at Holy Angels School here. Sarah talked to the youth about her experiences living near inner city Cleveland. (We had moved there intentionally about five years earlier to work among the poor.) After the talk, I was interviewed by reporter Jennifer Bumgarner from the Sidney Daily News. I said our platform revolves around “common sense.” For instance, I said common sense says that we don’t jeapordize our kids’ futures by allowing climate change to go on. I mean if it’s real and we sacrifice, great. If it’s not real and we sacrifice, so what? Either way, we end up with a ‘greener’ America. Note: Ms. Bumgarner also asked me about jobs. I said one way to increase jobs is to impose strict trade barriers on imports, which would force us to make more stuff here. More common sense.

This weekend we campaigned at the North Star Festival.   North Star, Ohio,  has a population of 100.   That’s right, we continue to forgo political consultants, demographic studies… and head right for the place that has the best hot dogs —  and discussions.   While campaigning at the festival, I talked to a number of “average Joe’s,” if you will, with some good takes on stuff.   At the Antique Car Cruise-In, one man and his wife (sitting next to an old refurbished Impala), said they had recently moved here from Minnesota.   The husband said when Jesse Ventura was governor, there was a surplus.   So what did  Ventura do?   He gave some of the money back   to Minnesotans in the form of rebate checks.   “Now the government of Minnesota has been shut down the past two weeks,” the man said, shaking his head…   An old farmer from the area, calling on some common sense, said to me that the only answer to the astronomical Federal Debt is to “…tighten our belts and pay it off.”   Along those same lines, I talked to a CPA who doubled as a Dave’s RV Softball Team shortstop in the marathon games here this weekend.   He said his business didn’t do so well last year, so his family had to “ratchet down expenses.”   Why wouldn’t that be any different for the Federal Government? He wondered…   I also talked to a man who just graduated from the Agriculture Department at Ohio State University.   We talked about the continuing demise of the small family farm and it’s rippling effect.   For instance, in the “old days” kids growing up on the farm got all kinds of exercise.   Now for many kids it’s a sedentary lifestyle that is leading to things like childhood obesity.   This man said he’d just read where Ohio was 17th on the nationwide ‘obesity chart.’   Nothing to write home about…   I also talked with a Korean War Veteran sitting by his antique vehicle.   He said he was particualrly frosted by former President Bush’s decision to go into Iraq.   “There weren’t any weapons of mass destruction,” he scoffed…   Note:   At one point I approached a man in a Cleveland Browns shirt.   I told him our campaign promise was:   “When we get to D.C., we’re going to paint (“Joe the Painter”) the Capitol Dome orange and brown and put a big face mask around it.”   Liz says I gotta stop saying that.   But it’s like an addiction, or something.