We stopped at the Youngstown, Ohio, YMCA where (Are you ready for this?) there is actually a chapel in the middle of the complex. (The first chapel in a YMCA that we’ve seen anywhere in the country.) What’s more, one of the posters there reads: “Let’s remember what the C in YMCA stands for.” Refreshing… This blue collar area is also home to former U.S. Congressman James Traficant Jr. In a column for The Review newspaper, he said as a Congressman he would have “attacked NAFTA… with reckless abandon.” Now I’m not sure why Mr. Traficant would have fought NAFTA, but the following is one of the reasons I would… On a Border Tour in Texas, I interviewed a Bacon College professor in El Paso who specializes in Mexican and Central America issues. He told me that the year NAFTA passed, the Mexican government stopped giving small subsidies to family farmers in the interior of Mexico. Some 15 million people lost their land and had no place to go but border towns where they needed cheap (read: almost slave ) labor to work at the big multi-national factories going up to take advantage of NAFTA’s new import/export tax rules. As a result of all this, some 200,000 people now live in a huge slum on the westside of Juarez. The whole thing is nothing short of a tremendous human rights travesty.
running away to “Mayberry”
We have launched on the next phase of our campaign tour… We stopped first in Trumbull County, Ohio. In Warren, Ohio, here, I talked with Fr. Charles Crumbley who is a chaplain for the U.S. Marshalls (showed me his badge and everything). He also worked with Childrens Services here for 19 years. In a series of counseling sessions, he learned one youth grew up without a father at home and the mother would regularly sell the boy for sex, beginning at age eight. “I thought I’d grown up in an ‘abusive’ home because my parents hadn’t given me a car when I turned 16,” Fr. Charles smiled, explaining his perspective on dysfunctional families changed considerably during his work with these troubled youth. Speaking of troubled youth, or sort of troubled youth… Over the weekend our Jonathan, 7, had, oh, a little bit of bad behavior. After his “time out” was over, he approached me and said he was thinking about running away to: “Mayberry.” Note: I am a former counselor who worked extensively with addictive family systems and have heard stories similar to what Fr. Charles described. What’s more, our Healing the Family position paper notes that if we don’t ‘heal the family,’ we’re not going to ‘heal the country.’
…veritable war zone
We’re still in Cleveland for a pit stop. Tonight I took our kids up to play some football in a league at a neighborhood Rec. Center. When we arrived, there were four police cars and an ambulance in front of the Center. A boy in his teens had been shot in the leg (apparently during a drug related incident) and then ran to the Rec. Center for protection. He collapsed on the gym floor, blood everywhere. He was eventually taken to the hospital… The kids down here live with this, day in and day out. Guns, knives, drugs, poverty… It’s a veritable war zone. For many here it’s not about excelling (in sports, in school…). It’s about surviving. This has to stop. And as president I’d do everything I could to stop it… After things calmed down, the football game was played. Our son Joseph played quarterback a bit and completed a couple passes. Our daughter Sarah caught a 25 yard pass. And our son Jonathan, 7, lost a front tooth (it was a baby tooth) tackling a kid on the opening kick off. He’s a linebacker in the making. Note: Today the NY Times carried an article that, in part, said Republican Senator Mitch McConnel has introduced the Tax Hike Prevention Act, which, as it’s name implies, ensures that nobody gets an income tax hike. Ok, common sense on this one: Our national debt is approaching a staggering $13 trillion. Without increased tax hikes and/or major cuts in government spending — we’re not going to balance the budget. That simple.
the “greening” of Cleveland…
Talked with Baldwin Wallace College’s Professor Tom Sutton. He said the “greening” of Cleveland goes on. The city is just starting to develop a six-acre urban farm, complete with Amish organic farm consultants. Across the street from us is a one-acre urban farm that was developed over an old asphalt parking lot. (The farm coordinator for this was walking around today with a t-shirt that read: “Got Mulch?” There is also a good sprinkling of community gardens and farmers markets in Cleveland. And there is a number of Backyard Habitats as well, including ours. I often say on the campaign trail that when we get to the White House, we’re going to turn the entire front lawn into a perma-culture; while trying to inspire homeowners across the nation to do the same. Note: Professor Sutton teaches Political Science and I’ve talked in his class a couple times over the years. He asked me how the campaign was going. I replied: “Even though I’m the only one to declare at this point, the polls are showing I’m still behind.” He laughed.
only one thing that was missing…
Our sons played in a Rec. Center football game tonight in Cleveland. It was a hard fought game that was well coached, on both sides. The only thing that was missing was, well, much of an audience. Besides myself, there were only two other parents cheering for our team. But so it often goes in the cities. So many of these kids are latch key kids, often with just one parent at home. The kids down here just as often fend for themselves, trying daily to dodge hunger, drugs, bullets… Sometimes they’re successful, often they’re not… Note: There’s an essay on our site that flushes this out a bit more. Note 2: Call me an overly proud parent, but our Jonathan, 7, was the smallest (and youngest) kid on the field tonight, yet he got in there most plays and mixed it up quite well with the big boys. So much so, the coach took him aside after the game and complimented him on his spirit and toughness.
collective, rather exhorbitant, lifestyles
Talked today with two human rights advocates who work in Colombia. Chris Knestrick told me that malaria is a huge problem in that country and he had recently gone on a mission to bring a man deathly sick with the disease to a hospital. The team had to hike 20 hours into rural Colombia and another 20 hours back to get this man to the hospital… Another huge problem in Colombia are international companies who come in virtually rape the land of natural resources (trees, minerals…), which, in turn, leads to all sorts of human rights travesties. This weekend at St. Patrick’s Church in Cleveland, Deacon Bill Merriman said during his sermon that America takes a huge amount of natural resources from around the world to fuel it’s collective, rather exhorbitant lifestyle. Once again, as I mention in the last post, wouldn’t it be common sense that we begin to connect the dots between the collective lifestyle we’re maintaining here and the human rights abuses happening in other parts of the country. Note: While shopping for my Fall presidential candidate wardrobe at the thrift store (needless to say I spent a bit less than the $150,000 Ms. Palin spent on hers last election) around the corner today, a saw a t-shirt that read: I hear voices in my head… and they don’t like you.
‘this side of the fence?’
Over the weekend, I talked to a counselor who works at a local mental health agency here in Cleveland. I said to him that I’d recently read that some 21,000 people had been killed in Mexico in the Drug Wars in the last four years. This counselor responded that it would be good to do a study to try to understand the psycho-social dynamics that lead to someone becoming involved with a drug cartel. What’s more, I said, wouldn’t it be common sense for us in the U.S. to get a better handle on what’s driving our drug addictions on ‘this side of the fence?’ I mean, ultimately, isn’t the demand we’re creating for the drugs at the root of the whole thing?
city on the edge…
We’re back home in Cleveland. A few entries back, I wrote about the relative tranquility and security often found in small town America. Here, it’s different. As I write this late Saturday night, a police helicopter is flying low and searching the neighborhood. Pit bulls stand guard behind rusty fences. People drink and smoke pot on their porches, play loud rap music and, with some frequency, yell at each other, fight. It’s a different world. One decidedly on the edge… Earlier in the evening, I talked with Cleveland lawyer/activist Maria Smith. She has been to Nicaragua a number of times as part of tours with Witness for Peace. She said the poverty in Nicaragua increases, in large part because of NAFTA. With free trade, she said corporate mega-farms in America are now regularly undercutting small Nicaraguan subsitence farmers trying to sell to local markets in that country. What a tremendous travesty. Note: I saw a bumper sticker today that read: Fair Trade, Not Free Trade
‘walking with her’
We were in Wapokenta, Ohio, this week and met with Kimi Brown. She’s the mother of six and one of her daughters works in a restaurant. She came home one night and explained that another waitress, who was 28-years-old and a single mother of a four-year-old, had broken up with a man recently and shortly after found out she was pregnant. She had decided to abort the baby. Kimi contacted the woman, asked her not to go through with the abortion, and offered to “walk with her” each step of the way. Kimi then contacted a circle of her pro-life friends and was able to raise $3,000. Last minute, the woman decided against the abortion and the money was given to her to help her through the pregnancy. What’s more, she decided to put the baby up for adoption and one of Kimi’s aunts decided to adopt the baby. The baby was born Dec. 11 and is now with his new family… This is such an excellent example of pro-life people, not just saying no to abortion, but reaching out to try to tangibly help. No strings attached, just love.
barber poles, “Sips” and a round-a-bout
We were in rural Knox County, Ohio, working on a friend’s farm here for the day. A tremendous wind shear had just come through and our family spent the morning helping clear trees from the fence line… In the afternoon, I went into Mt. Vernon, Ohio, where I parked our campaign vehicle on a high visibility area on the town round-a-bout. I passed out campaign flyers on the square, put one up on the bulletin board at the post office, then it was off to a nearby barber shop (with an old-fashion swirling barber pole, the whole thing) to pass out yet more cards. Walking out of the barber shop, I noticed a rather large group of employees were getting out for the day at the three-story bank across the street. On the sidewalk outside the building, I passed out a good number of cards to them. Then it was off to Sips Coffee Shop (great name, huh) where the owner said he’d put some of the cards on his display table. It’s actually a rather politically oriented place, various Mt. Vernon councilmembers come here Saturday mornings to answer citizen questions, etc. From Sips, it was off to Joey’s Diner where I passed out some more cards. Note: We’re asking supporters to pass out campaign flyers in their towns, maybe get some creative average Joe for U.S. president signage for their vehicles — and park these vehicles in high visibility areas as well. It’s our answer to the big, multi-million dollar campaigns. And yes once again, we’re doing this all without paid political consultants.