Vote for Joe

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.

After finishing our last tour, we have stopped at a farm in western Ohio.   Here we’ve been involved with most every aspect of farming:   baling hay, helping with a big garden, feeding the animals (cows, chickens, sheep…).   Good hard, clean work.   And something that is key to our platform.   Our Sarah, 15, recently wrote in her journal: “We lift 50 lb bales of hay off the wagon.   It’s hot, dusty work — but you get muscles.”   On a  stop in rural Thorp, Wisconsin, during Campaign 2000, we met with Bernie Stuttgen.   He’d been a phys. ed. teacher at Thorp High School for 30 years.   He said with the decline of the small family farm in America, a lot of kids are now “out of shape.”   That is, the work on the farm not only helped develop a work ethic in the youth, it also helped them develop, well, muscles.   Our platform calls for a return of the small family farm in America.   In fact, we’d like to see a return to a primarily agrarian-based society again.   One where organic growing was predominant, again like the old days.   Organic farming is more labor intensive, which could tremendously impact unemployment in the nation.   And it would produce a new, and healthier, generation of youth.   For more on our agriculture platform… Note:   We are trying to raise campaign donations for the next phase.   If you can help, please send your check to:   Schriner Presidential Election Committee, 14304 Mangen Rd., Yorkshire, Ohio 45388-9715.

Catching up on our last week in Ohio… We’ve come to farm country near the mid-western border of Ohio for a pit stop.    This afternoon  I was out in a barn  putting up  bales of hay…   Earlier in the day, I talked with a man in Greenville, Ohio, who is a member of the Ginghamsburg Methodist Church in Ginghamsburg, Ohio.   Among a wide variety of outreaches, both domestic and overseas, this church regularly sends  congregation members  to help in The Sudan.   They go to help in the midst of the violence/genocide, in the midst of  abject poverty, because, well, that’s the Gospel message.This man said that while much of the church money could go into bigger church buildings, and so on, the pastor thinks there are greater needs.   Good paradigm…   In Greenville, I also interviewed Amber Schmerge at the Greenville Farmer’s Market downtown.   Ms. Schmerge is the director of the Downtown Re-Development Project here.   The project is multi-pronged.   It focuses on attracting new business to the downtown.   It’s involved with historic preservation.   And it  features  an array of creative approaches to get people coming back downtown again.   As an example, one Friday night a month an outside  movie is shown on 5th Street here.   Last month the feature was Spanky And Our Gang, which drew 150 people…   I’ve also spent part of the week sanding our campaign vehicle.   (I’m really hoping Air Force 1 doesn’t have any rust.)…   And finally, I met with organic farmer Dan Kremer.   He said current applications of artificial pesticides and herbicides on conventional farms get into the food, which we then ingest.   He said there are links between eating these foods and cancer.   What’s more, these pesticides and herbicides damage the microbes in the soil that are part of the nutrition chain to the plants.   As a result, the crops are becoming less and less nutritious.   In turn, our immune systems are diminished in kind.   And the weaker the immune system, the less it’s ability to fight carcinogens that come into our bodies.   A staggering one in three people in America  now get cancer.   I told  a newspaper in rural  Bellefountaine, Ohio, that instead of just “Racing for a Cure,” common sense says we should: STOP USING THE STUFF THAT CAUSES CANCER IN THE FIRST PLACE!   Note:   That night at the Kremer farm, there was an outdoor volley ball game in some grass next to the cow pasture.   The game was  illuminated by a spotlight on the barn.   It was adults, neighborhood kids, everybody.   And it was such good clean fun, I can’t tell ya.   Think Norman Rockwell, in his heyday.   Note 2:   As we ready for the next tour leg, we are trying to raise campaign donations.    If you can help, please send your check to our current location at: Schriner  Presidential Election Committee, 14304 Mangen Rd., Yorkshire, Ohio  45388-9715.   Thank you.