Vote for Joe

I was interviewed by reporter Carl Feathers from the Ashtabula Star Beacon today.   During the interview, I mentioned that National Public Radio last night carried a piece saying the Israelis would probably end their incursion into Gaza just before Obama took office next week.   The rationale, the NPR   reporter said, was that Obama would probably be more opposed to the Israeli action than President Bush is.   And they wouldn’t want to get off on the wrong foot with the Obama Administration, especially because they are so reliant on the U.S. for arms, etc.   I posed this to Mr. Feathers:   If Barack Obama is indeed opposed to the extent of this Israeli action, why doesn’t he do something about it: now?   Reports are that more than 1,000  Palestinians have now been killed in Gaza, a good number of them innocent men, women and children.   If you wanted this to stop, wouldn’t you — as “president-elect” — go to Gaza and, in solidarity, move in with a Palestinian family right in the middle of the war zone?   The bet is, this would end that war. Instead, Mr. Obama was staying at a $7 million beach house and playing golf at a country club in Hawaii.   He is now in D.C., in part,  readying for a series of lavish Inaugaral Balls.   Meanwhile children cower in terror, others are having their arms and  legs blown off with shrapnel from bombs… I told Mr. Feathers that if I was “president-elect,” I’d already be in that home in Palestine, not working on my golf swing.

New Year’s Eve:   Bombs fall on the Gaza Strip.   As I write this, reports indicate there are already some 400 Palestinians dead, 1,400 injured.   A picture in our Plain Dealer newspaper showed a bomb exploding in a building just beyond one, of many, refugee camps in Gaza.   Meanwhile, we sit back comfortably in  America and watch this unfold  in an antiseptic  way on the nightly news.   Bombs exploding,  innocent civilians (Moms, Dads, little children) being killed, maimed, cowering in darkened hallways as more jets zoom overhead…   And even with all this, few Americans really   care.   Or they’d show   it.    That simple.   They’d enter into solidarity with the innocent poor and oppressed in Palestine, for instance, and sacrifice all over the place to generate all kinds of funds to get those people in Gaza out of the slum conditions of the refugee camps, for one.   The overeating we’ll do New Year’s Day alone tomorrow —  all the  non-nutritional junk food and beverages we spoil ourselves with — while people live in terror, in squalor, is absolutely unconscienable.    If I were president… I’d  adamantly confront the American public about this and challenge them to sacrifice intensely for a massive fundraising drive to get as much humanitarian help to Palestine as possible.   Common sense says that by easing some of the poverty,  you’d significantly ease some of the tension over there.  This would be  a component  of my   ‘Road Map for Peace’ between Israel and Palestine.     Peace often comes with a price.   But is the American public really willing to pay it?   Or are we going to go on forever supreflously lamenting about it — at half time of the Bowl games?   Meanwhile Barrack Obama plays golf at a country club in Hawaii.   The greens fee alone for one round, I imagine, would be enough to get, say, 10 families out of a refugee camp in Gaza.   What kind of example is this for the nation?     Note:   We are readying for our first tour of Campaign 2012 to get our message of peace, social justice, Life… out to as many more as possible.   And we need donations to do that.   If you can help, please consider it.   Thanks. Schriner Presidential Election Committee, 2100 W. 38th St., Cleveland, Ohio 44113.

A couple supporters have recently e-mailed asking about our campaign strategies for Election 2012. (By the way, I’ve already declared for 2012.    Listen to the short declaration speech at the top of our home  page.)   In regard to donating to the campaign, one man wrote:   “People tend to want to ‘invest’ their money wisely and usually wait until they are confident enough that a candidate has a legitimate chance of winning.”   The answer to this is two-fold.     First:   People  need to  ‘invest’ in us now so we can advertise and do all the other things campaigns do to raise their profiles.   And people need to invest in us now to help keep us in motion so we can continue touring, stumping and getting our message out to as many people on the street and in as much media as possible.   (This is the kind of synergy that will make the campaign a national story with staying power —  especially because of the tremendous amount of time and effort we’ve already put into this to date!   As opposed to it being a ’15-minutes of fame’ phenomena.)   Also, when this becomes a prominent national story, we will have a much better chance of catching on with an established Third Party.   This is key because it is the best chance we have of gaining ballot access from state to state across the country.   Having said that…   Second:   When we’re on the road touring, we get a  significantly different message out.   It is a message  that is helping change the country now, one town at a time.   As an example, I recently gave a strong pro-Life talk at a church in centeral Ohio.   Afterward, the pastor stood up and was actually in tears.   He apologized to the congregation for not being “bold enough” in his witness to stop abortion and vowed to be so in the future.   And then this pastor and congregation members influence other pastors and congregation members.   And then these pastors and congregation members…   And as a result, we get part of policy enacted long before ever getting to D.C…   A front page article in the Athens (OH) Post recently noted that our family has set aside a “Christ Room” for homeless people in our small place in Cleveland.   So then someone in Athens sets aside a Christ Room, then someone in Louisville, Kentucky, sets aside a Christ Room, then someone in Holbrook, Arizona, sets aside a Christ Room… And before you know it, homelessness is down significantly in America and those setting up the Christ Rooms  are much more advanced  in their faith witness.   And part of our policy on poverty gets enacted as well… A ‘winning’ candidate?  We’ve been ‘winning’ every day we’ve been on the campaign trail the past nine years and 83,000 miles.   But (and really think about this), what if  a president turned the  Lincoln Bedroom into a Christ Room?   How much more of a witness would that be to the country?    …While traveling the 83,000 miles campaigning, parts of our message have gottten out in some 2,000 newspaper articles, close to 200 regional network TV news shows, hundreds of radio shows, many church talks, college talks…   In other words, we’re exhaustively doing our part.    But we need help.   Note:   The time for cautious consideration around “investing” in our 2012 campaign run — our last —  is over.    We ask people help  now in as  full a fashion as  we are undertaking it.    Because I believe it will take this kind of all out   effort if there is to be any real hope of getting to the White House.     Ps… If you missed our  DONATION LINK  on this post… Also, have I mentioned we need VOLUNTEERS?     Some references: “I experience Joe Schriner as a fervent pro-Life candidate willing to make great sacrifices for the moral betterment of our nation and the transformation of our society.   He was an inpsiration to our students.”   — Fr. Michael Scanlan, former president of Franciscan University.   And… “Joe’s talk during (Sunday) Worship was spirit-led and reflected his and his family’s concern for plantet earth — as our addiction to fossil fuels pushes us ever nearer extinction.   We need to hear his voice and God’s call.”   –Rev. Lea Mahan, First United Methodist Church, Wellington, Ohio.     And…  more references…  

I talked with Paul Breen today.   He is a Professor of Finance at Dominican University in Columbus, Ohio.   He said our current financial systems in America, for the most part, all revolve around credit. Professor Breen said when we started going “down the slope (in regard to our current financial crisis)” is when young couples, several decades ago, started buying houses they couldn’t afford on credit, which has now cascaded into a tremendous amount of foreclosures…   Some “average Joe” common sense:   People could   actually afford many of these homes if they used some simple, creative smarts.   They could rent out a room in their homes.   They could, in addition,  convert a garage to, say, an efficiency apartment.   They could even house-share with another family, halving the expenses altogether…   It just that, well, we’ve become so gluttonous and selfish  about “our space.”   And this is not so much an endemic  financial malady — as it is a spiritual one.     Note:   Professor Breen said credit (read: debt) is imbedded in America.   But was this God’s plan?   Many of us, in essence, have become compulsive debtors (credit cards, car purchases, home purchases…).   In California, I researched the group Debtor’s Anonymous.   People here admit to their addiction to debting and the formula is simply not to debt anymore, one day at a time.  And somehow, with God’s grace, they are able to live in this society without debting.

Buckeye Back Road Tour completed:    We ‘fought the good fight.’   For the past three days, we continued on through central Ohio, stumping in places like Yorkshire, Versailles, Plain City… On Election Day (today), we were in Columbus where we passed out campaign information at a polling place on the Ohio State University Campus.   I also talked with Deryck Spooner who was here from D.C. pushing for the passage of Issue 2   here, which is about backing a Clean Ohio initiative.   He is with The Nature Conservancy   and told me he believes climate change is real and a definite threat.   He pointed to shifts in weather patterns, the significant melting of polar ice caps, rising sea levels… He said part of the answer is cap levels on carbon emmissions, especially among coal, electric and oil companies.   And using a “market approach,” he said he would propose that these companies get dollar value “carbon credits,” for each pound of carbon that’s not produced…   We, too, believe climate change is a clear and imminent  threat that needs to be addressed dramatically, and now.   For more…   Note:   At this polling place there were some 10 Democrat volunteers passing out literature and I was told there were some 81 “staging areas” around Franklin County where volunteers were prepped and sent out to the different polling stations.   Meanwhile, it was just myself and our family.    The ‘staging area’ being our small motor home up the street.   And so it goes…