We’re in Bluffton, Ohio, visiting friends and campaigning. Last night we went to a Bluffton High School soccer match. They were playing Wapakoneta High School. For you recent history buffs, Wapakoneta is the home of astronaut Neil (“One small step for man..”) Armstrong. That’s right, the first person to set foot on the moon. Between the junior varsity and the varsity soccer games, I went to the Wapakoneta side of the stands and passed out campaign cards. While the subject didn’t come up (whew!), as president I’d seriously consider lobbying to at least temporarily end the Space Program. See, we’ve spent billions of dollars going to the moon, in part, to find out whether there’s water there. And we’ve spent billions of dollars going to Mars to find out the same thing. Meanwhile, one-sixth of the world doesn’t have access to clean drinking water on this planet. The rivers, lakes and oceans on this planet are becoming horribly polluted. A good number of underground aquifers are starting to dry up on this planet… I could go on with this, but you get my point. Wouldn’t common sense say we take the money to help the water systems on this planet, before exploring for water on planets (Are you ready for this?) where we can’t even breathe the air!?
Labor Day
In honor of Labor Day yesterday, I, well, labored. Is that intuitive, or what? I did some touch up painting on our motor home, and other odds and ends. During a Labor Day cookout in Bluffton, Ohio, last night, I talked with a man who works for a local construction company. The company recently got a contract to help with a 300-unit wind turbine farm in nearby Paulding County, Ohio. When completed, it will be the largest wind farm of it’s kind in the state. And it is my belief we need to continue to promote these kinds of alternative energy projects, both here and around the world. When the Copenhagen Accords sputtered (no specific targets for carbon cuts), columnist Gwyne Dyer wrote that a final climate deal must be asymmetrical. That is, the industrialized countries should take deep cuts in their emissions now, while developing countries cap the growth in their emissions soon. This means that all the countries worldwide need to be stepping up their alternative energy pursuits exponentially — with the industrialized countries helping to finance, say, solar and wind projects in the developing countries. Note: I believe we must take global warming seriously and one of our brief position papers on this outlines part of our strategy for reversing it.
“Dogs for Dollars”
Route 90 Run-N-Gun Tour cont… We sped along, stopping in South Bend, Indiana, where I talked with a teacher from St. Joseph’s High School there. He said the standard tuition at the school is $6,000 a year, far beyond the reach of many kids in the area. However, he lobbied for partial scholarships for low income Hispanic youths. And the administration went along. This year four Hispanic youth were given scholarships, with the possibility of more next year… We then headed on to Elkhart, Indiana, where there is a 16% unemployment rate. Driving into town, we noticed a graphic’s shop with a billboard that read: “We Make Signs for Money!” I then went to a downtown plaza where I passed out campaign cards to people sitting at tables around a small hot dog stand. The sign on the hot dog stand: “Dogs for Dollars.” Apparently when you’re living in a depressed town, you have to be pretty direct about needing money. Note: Our economy position paper reflects a new approach to the economy. One that could provide jobs for practically everyone.
“Fair Tax,” bee stings, and such…
Rte 90 Run-N-Gun Tour cont… We continued on Rte. 90, stopping in the Wisconsin cities of La Crosse, Madison, Straughton and Beloit. In Madison, I passed out some campaign literature to a man-on-the-street who said he wanted a “Fair Tax” instituted. That is, he’d like to see a uniform Federal “flat tax” on all items across the board — and the elimination of the income tax altogether… In downtown Beloit, while hopping back into the “average Joe” mobile, I sat on a Yellow Jacket bee. While he/she (to be politically correct) didn’t sting me at the point of contact, so to speak (thank God), he/she flew around to the front and stung me on the forearm. Apparently he/she wasn’t taken with our platform. Then it was on to Illinois. Note: Another oil drilling platform has exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. Could it be we are starting to hit somewhat of a “bottom” with our addiction to fossil fuels?
“Welcome to Welcome”
Rte. 90 Run-N-Gun Tour speeds on… In Worthington, Minnesota, we parked our camper/campaign vehicle in a Wal-Mart parking lot, right next to an auto racing dirt track. Talk about loud … The next day at Mass, we saw a man with a t-shirt that read America has now crossed the 51 million abortion mark, and counting… We headed further east, flying right by the town of Welcome (really, that’s its name), Minnesota. The city limits sign says: “The Friendly City!” If I’d been on town council there, my sign proposal would have been: “Welcome to Welcome!” …We drove on to Fairmont, Minnesota, where we took the kids swimming in Budd Lake (no idea who ‘Budd’ actually is, or was). After swimming a bit, I found myself in a round table, or rather round beach chair, discussion with some people who’d gotten together for a family reunion. The topic of “the border” came up. I said, for one, as president I’d do everything possible to keep drug cartels out. And common sense would say that part of keeping drug cartels out, is reducing the demand for drugs on this side of the fence. On an earlier campaign tour, I interviewed a sherriff’s deputy in Las Cruces, New Mexico, who said he’s regularly in on border drug busts involving 18-wheel trucks and thousands of pounds of, say, cocaine. But he also works with the local DARE Program for teenagers, to reduce the demand for drugs on this side. When I talked about this, some of the people at the beach had a rather “aha” moment. Note: While passing out campaign cards and stumping at the park next to Budd Lake, I told one man wearing a Minnesota Viking cap that when I became president — I’d introduce a Bill suggesting we change the Statue of Liberty to, that’s right, a big Viking. (Liz keeps telling me I’ve got to stop doing that from state to state.)
“One and Only Corn Palace”
In Mitchell, South Dakota, our seven-year-old Jonathan and I went downtown on a Saturday morning. We went to Jitters Coffee Shop first, where we stumped with some people there. While passing on a campaign card to the owner, she said: “You’re running for president of the United States?” I replied: “Well, somebody has to do it.” She laughed… There were some political debates slated for today at the “One and Only Corn Palace” in Mitchell. Jonathan and I left Jitters and headed to the front of the Corn Palace (big spires on the top of the building that look like ears of corn, the whole thing) where we passed out more campaign cards to a lot of people wearing various campaign buttons, etc. I ended up in a conversation with Steve Sibby, who is running for South Dakota Senate as an independent candidate. He said he was running because he was concerned big business had taken over both big political parties. His campaign motto: “Making YOU the citizen bigger.” That would have been ours too, if Mr. Sibby hadn’t thought of it first… We then went into the “One and Only Corn Palace” and sat in on a debate abut a Smoke Free South Dakota. A woman from the Cancer Society said those in South Dakota deserve a smoke free environment because, for one reason (or rather for ’60’ reasons), second hand smoke has 60 known carcinogens in it. Note: George McGovern was in the audience this day. He is a former senator and former Democratic nominee for president. What’s more, he was appointed by John F. Kennedy to be the director of the Food for Peace Program.
a calculator, that works
Rte 90 Run-N-Gun Tour cont. (at warp speed): In the last entry, I forgot to mention we stopped at the world famous — or at least pretty famous in South Dakota — Wall Drug. This has morphed from a small town pharmacy, to a rather extensive set of tourist stores with all kinds of Wall Drug memorabilia, arts and crafts, and the like. People were here from all over the country, so we walked about passing out a good number of campaign cards. I talked with people from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida… In fact, an elderly man from Florida said he was absolutely sick about our federal deficit (almost $13 trillion now). I said our platform plank in this area is: “Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone in D.C. with a calculator, that worked.” He smiled… In Mitchell, South Dakota, we met with Nick and Laura Baus. Great couple. They have a number of children, including a foster child they adopted six years ago. He has “verbal aprexia,” which is basically slowness in speech. His birth mother had been mentally handicapped, said Nick, and hadn’t been very conversant with the child early on. This led to the speech problem. Both Nick and Laura have been very patient with this child, as they laboriously work to help him improve his speech pattern. Both Nick and Laura said that in their teens, they both had a child (from different relationships) that they gave up for adoption. Now, reciprocally, they wanted to help in a different capacity. Note: Nick is very pro-life, and noted that we shouldn’t be surprised that there is a massive attack against the babies in the womb, because, after all, it is children that we can learn so much from. Jesus once said that you have to become like a child in order to enter the kingdom.”
30 minutes to doomsday
Rte 90 Run-N-Gun Tour cont.: We stopped at the National Park Service’s Minuteman Missile Headquarters just outside Cactus Flat, South Dakota. Among the displays here, was the simulated flight course of a Minuteman nuclear missile from southern South Dakota to Moscow. It would take 30 minutes. Chilling. At the height of the Cold War, there were 150 Minuteman missile sites in South Dakota. Each missile could deliver a payload equal to 60% of all bombs dropped during World War II… We then headed east to Murdo (pop. 550, including this one poet guy.) While I was passing out campaign literature on the street, I came across M.J. McMillan. He read the campaign card about me being a “common man,” and replied: “Wow, that’s what I write about.” Turns out he’s written two books of poetry titled: Common Man Poetry and Common Man Poetry 2. He recited a short, four-line poem that’s essence was that one can experience sunshine, or rain, dependent, not necessarily on the weather, but rather your perspective. Common sense… After putting up one more flier on Murdo’s downtown community bulletin board, we headed to Pesho, S.D. and then Chamberlain, S.D. where we passed out yet more campaign literature. One man-on-the-street said running for president must be some undertaking. “Yeah, it’s an uphill thing,” I joked. “And we’re not even sure if we’ve gotten to the hill yet.” But we are sure that we got to Mitchell, S.D. by sunset. Note: I just read where China’s one-child policy has been in effect for 30 years now, resulting in some 130 million abortions. Because many of the babies being killed are girls, some are calling it ‘gendercide.’
Hell, with the fire burned out
We stopped in rural Wasta, South Dakota, where we spent the day at the Trax Ranch. Pat Trax, with a group of other local ranchers, are fighting monopolies by four major Packing Companies “who control 80% of the slaughter industry,” said Pat. He told me the Obama administration is “right minded” in some areas in respect to fighting this type of monopolistic control. And he said the administration has been fairly good in general about helping the small family ranchers and farmers… While in Wasta, I also interviewed Ray Olsen, who had been on his ranch for three generations. His grandparents had come from Norway and established the beginnings of the ranch here in 1889 (you can still see wagon ruts nearby from the early settlers heading across). The family originally homesteaded here on 160 acres, under the Homestead Act signed by President Lincoln. Olsen added his would be the last generation on the land because, in part, it was becoming too hard for small ranchers to make a living off the land… We then headed further east, just skirting the “Badlands” of South Dakota. It is writtten the topography here is like: “Hell, with the fire burned out.”
Cold War era, and ‘war’ in general
We stopped in Rapid City, South Dakota, where they have bronze satues of many of the U.S. presidents on various street corners in the downtown area. My in-laws are here from New Zealand and are currently traveling with us in another motor home. They took our kids down to see Mt. Rushmore, just south of Rapid City. I stayed behind to go to the Bargain Barn Automotive Repair Shop (Have I mentioned it’s a low budget campaign?) to have our tail pipe and muffler replaced… This particular weekend in Rapid City, the Civic Center was displaying a replica of part of the Berlin Wall, a symbol from the Cold War era. We then headed east on Rte. 90 to the South Dakota Air & Speace Museum at Ellsworth Air Force Base. Here, too, were many reminders of the Cold War, and war in general. This included the mamoth B-1B Bomber standing at the entrance of the museum and about 15 other older planes (Corsair II, Skymaster, Thunderstreak, Sabre…) around the periphery. Another of the planes was the same model that dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima… Just as we were leaving the parking lot of the museum, another motor home pulled up beside us. I struck up a conversation with Tom Sitler, and his wife, from Reading, PA. He said he was recently in Hamburg, PA, doing volunteer work for Advent World, which trains Christian missionary pilots. Tom had done all the wiring for the runway lights there. Note: I recently saw a bumper sticker that read: Who Would Jesus Bomb? Note 2: Another Cold War is currently playing out in the Middle East. The threat of a nuclearized Iran.