Vote for Joe

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.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

On our way up I-65 through Alabama last week, we stopped in the small town of Cullman.   The tornado that devastated Tuskaloosa, skipped across the state, also touching down in Cullman.   I talked to one of the eye witnesses, a woman who lives on the western outskirts of town.   She said she heard the tornado sirens and dashed to her front window just in time to see the tornado touch down in a field just across the street.   “I knew I should have immediately gotten away from the glass.” she said.   “But I was transfixed with the sight.   Luckily the tornado didn’t turn left toward us.”   The tornado continued west, hopped over the small downtown, and then plowed a path down the eastern half of 3rd St. here.   The destruction was absolutely phenomenal.   Huge trees were completely uprooted, there was nothing left of homes, cars were dashed about as if they were miniature Hot Wheels…   It was dark and we pulled up at one intersection that was all rubble, except for a lone wall of one house that was still standing.   Rummaging about a bit, our young son Jonathan found  two items that  seemed to be the only things  that were  intact in all the debri.   A Bible and a small Composition Book with the name “Maddie” on the cover.   I leafed through the book, noting Maddie seemed to be a first or second grader who made daily entries, and drawings, in the book.   There were entries about playing with friends, going to a birthday party, learning about pumpkins at school, and… a page in the middle stopped me.   Maddie had drawn a picture of a tornado.   Her entry on that page read:   “I’m looking forward to going on the field trip tomorrow.   We are going to do a lot of experiments.   Of course I already know how to do one experiment.   I know how to make a tornado.”   As I looked again at the drawing, then looked up at all the devastation, there was this, I don’t know, this erie feeling.   Note:   We learned two people had been killed here.   I was hoping one of them wasn’t Maddie.

Catching up…   We came out of the Florida Panhandle, heading into Alabama in the early evening one day last week.   And we found ourselves caught in the cross hairs of a huge thunder storm system.   We turned on the Weather Channel on our radio and it was reporting the cell had wind gusts of up to 50 mph and was at an extremely high ceiling of 50,000 feet —  and there were some “swirling  wind patterns.”   (While not being a meteorologist. I could still kind of figure out that last part could spell: tornado.)   Lightning was flashing all around us, but there was no rain yet.   This, needless to say, is not the type of weather you want to be driving high-profile vehicles, like our motor homes, through.   We decided to make a dash for a truck stop in nearby Geogiana, where we parked behind some 18-wheelers.   And while the storm passed with little incidence, it gave us a small inkling of the trepidation people around the country have been feeling as the threat of potential tornadoes approached them.   Needless to say, it’s a scary feeling.   Note:   Foremost in Liz and my minds that evening was the safety of our kids.   That was also on another parent’s mind in Massacussetts yesterday.   As the tornado sirens were going off, she placed her young child in a bathtub, then lay down on top of her.   The tornado made a direct hit on the house.   Everything collapsed.   The mother died.   The child lived.   The Bible says there is no greater love than to lay down your life for another.   And such was the case with this mother.

Our Florida Panhandle Tour   continued:   In Crestview, Florida, we met with Rosa Garrett from South Korea.   She married an American service man and came to the states some 25 years ago.   Of the contrasts between countries, she said what she found most striking was the difference (overall) between how elderly were treated in her country and how they are treated here.   For instance, in her country (until just recently) there was no such thing as: nursing homes.   “Families take care of their own there,” she said.   Also, how elderly are addressed in South Korea is much more respectful as well, Rosa continued…   There has, indeed, been a significant decline in respect for the elderly among the last few generations in America.   What’s more, I once told a newspaper in Champaign, Illinois, that the elderly in America are being pushed farther and farther to the margins in their retirment travels, assisted living facilities, nursing homes…   A wave of euthanasia for elderly seems to loom on the horizon as well — if more isn’t done to intervene…   We also recently stopped in DeFuniak, Springs, Florida where we stopped at Lake DeFuniak.   It is one of only two know perfectly round spring-fed lakes in the world (the other is in Switzerland).   The lake is one mile in circumference and over 60 feet deep.   There are a lot of theories about the shape, including a meteor strike.   Adjacent to the lake is the Walton-DeFuniak Library, purported to be one of the oldest libraries in the country…   While in DeFuniak Springs, we also met with Beth and Patrick   Stanley.   Patrick, 31, has Down Syndrome and still lives with his mom, Beth.   Patrick is an accomplished artist who has shown in a number of Florida gallaries and has designed a series of greeting cards.   Beth is very active in the National Down Syndrome Congress and is a strong advocate for “Life.”   She said so often when a couple finds out the baby in the womb has Down Syndrome, they’ll abort — and tremendously miss out on the “gift” God has in store for them.   She said despite Patrick’s various physical problems (asthma, orthopedic issues, and so on…) he has been an “absolute joy.”   Beth lobbies, hard, for more inclusion of Down Syndrome children in mainstream schools.   As these children are a gift to their parents, they too can be a tremendous gift to their classmates, said Beth, if only the classmates would slow down to include these children —  on every level…    So some of these Down Syndrome children are  currently being aborted.   It’s not hard to envision a time in this country, like with the elderly, that children with what we deem as “disabilities” will be tragically euthanized too…     Last night our family attended a Wednesday night prayer service at the Independent Baptist Church in Crestview, Florida.   The pastor said he saw the recent, highly-scary tornado activity in this country as part of “God’s judgement” for a nation going morally astray.   Given that we’ve now crossed the 50 million abortion mark in America, euthanasia looms like a tsunami here, sex and  violence pervade the media (and our cities), etc., etc., etc., … the pastor’s corollary may well be apt.   Note:   While  in Defuniak Springs, we attended Mass at St. Margaret’s.   In the back was a display that included a jar of water with clean water and a jar with quite murky water.   The display, sponsored by the Council of Catholic Women,  was to bring attention to the fact that one-sixth of the the world’s people don’t have access to clean drinking water.   Several years ago, during a campaign stop in Wisconsin, we met with an environmental science professor from the University of Wisconsin.   He said there was so much more the U.S. could do to bring more safe drinking water to the Third World.   And our administration would work over time trying to do just that.   Note 2:   I talked with Barbara Warburton, who lives in Destin, Florida.    She has been featured recently in a number of Florida newspapers per: her stance on the television show Family Guy.   She said shows like this are leading to the “destruction of morality.”   Through the Parents Television Council, Warburton and thousands of others filed a formal indecency complaint with the Federal Communications Commission to protest the program.   Oh, one other thing:   Mrs. Warburton’s son Patrick — is the voice for one of the animated  characters in the show.   Talk about sticking to your principles.   Note 3:   While in Florida, I talked to two high school classes in the country of Nicaraugua, via the magic of Skype.   It was a bi-lingual class.   Note 4:   A man approached me in a parking lot in McDonald’s.   He pointed to the:   Find us on Facebook signage we have on one side of the camper.   He then smiled and exclaimed:   “Facebook, You Tube… stick   it to the big man!”   He then gave me  a thumbs up and walked on.   Note 5:   While at the Sunset King Lake RV Resort in Defuniak Springs, I got in a conversation with a couple from Indiana who grew tremendously excited about our campaign because I was, indeed, an “average Joe.”   The husband is an airplane mechanic and said it was about time there was a common man in D.C.   He was getting fed up with a lot of the big money and partisanship.   I said to consider us and as a campaign promise, when I got to D.C., I’d change (there’s that “change” word) the Statue of Liberty to: a Hoosier.   As soon as anyone figures out exactly what a Hoosier is.   They laughed.

Our  Florida Panhandle Tour continues…   While in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida, I watched President Obama’s speech on current Middle East policy today.   My beliefs square with his in standing in opposition to regimes that rule by “coercion, not consent.”   And this would, indeed, encompass half of the Middle East.   President Obama also said that successful transition to democracy hinges on “economic growth” as the reigns of commerce pass from a few to many.   And he proposes to relieve $1 billion in Egyptian debt and to establish “Enterprise Funds” to help some of the Middle Eastern countries.   Both well considered moves as well, I believe…   In tandem with debt relief to, say, Egypt; our administration would also propose debt relief for many Third World countries struggling to simply stay afloat.   The late Pope John Paul II called for this a number of years ago.   And I see it as tremendously sound, spiritually…   On a campaign stop in Cortez, Colorado, several years ago, we met with a woman who had gone on a missions trip to Uganda where she stayed with a large family living in a small hut.   The mother and father had AIDS, as did half the children.   They all slept on burlap bags  on a dirt floor, she lamented.   Forgiving Uganda’s debt would help free up government resources (a  significant part currently being spent  for the interest on the debt) to help families like this.   Note:   Recent bumper sticker sighting in Niceville, Florida:   “I’m diagonally parked —  in a parallel universe.”