Vote for Joe

Buckeye Back Road Tour cont.:   Liz and I talked to three classes at St. John’s Catholic High School in Bellaire, Ohio.   The last presidential debate was the night before and it was dominated by talk of the economy.   I said to the students that today in America (like everyday) some 4,000 little, innocent babies will be violently killed in their mothers’ wombs, yet a majority of Americans seem more concerned about gas prices, their 401ks, their ability to purchase the new TV…   “What would that say about us as a society?”   I asked the class.   “Selfish,” a student instantly replied…   At Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, I met with Economics professor Mike Welker.   He told me we have become a tremendously complex society where, among other things, credit is embedded at almost every level.   This allows for increased problems around living above one’s means, of greed… I asked him what it would take to shift this around at a grassroots level?   He replied:   “Spiritual conversion.”   That’s what I love about Franciscan University.   You can’t even take a Math course here without learning about God’s Natural Order…   Earlier in the week, I talked briefly to an Ohio University Professor of Finance in Athens, Ohio.   She’s from Africa and said that trying to practice consumer moral constraint — in the midst of so much “temptation” (read: advertising) in America — is extremely   hard…   A front page article in the Athens Messenger   this week noted I “jog through the streets of Cleveland in an old pair of gray sweats and my favorite place to eat is the Old Fashion Hot Dog Place around the corner — chili dogs a buck and a quarter.”   Rampant consumerism?   Hardly…   Actually, the Columbus Dispatch newspaper this week noted that if I was president the traditionally lavish Inaguaral Balls would be preempted by a simple rice and beans meal in solidarity with the poor of the world — the saving going to help starving children.   The Dispatch also noted that the last thing I’d probably do on the first night as president would be to: shovel the walk.   (I would be a Secret Service nightmare.)

Buckeye Back Roads Tour cont.: We drove north into Cambridge, Ohio, where I did some impromptu stumping with the late afternoon ‘brain trust’ in a corner of a McDonald’s Restaurant there. Some 12 older guys were spread among about five tables. I stood in the middle and let them ask me questions. (Ok, so it wasn’t the debate at Hofstra University, but then again I bet Hofstra didn’t have chocolate sundaes on their dollar menu.) One man asked where I stood on 2nd Amendment Rights. I said I supported the right to bear arms, but with some reservations. I said, for instance, that I would like to see stiffer penalties for those who commit crimes like armed robbery. I also would like to see a ban on automatic weapons. “People don’t hunt with automatic weapons,” another man enjoined. “They do in Cleveland,” I replied… At our next stop in Bellaire, Ohio, we met Frank Kovalchik who was (of all things), a former gun dealer. He said that currently you have to fill out paperwork and go through a three-day waiting period to get a gun. But if the initial purchaser then wants to sell the gun to someone else — there’s none of these requirements. Kovalchik wondered how much common sense that makes? I wondered that, too. Note: A couple stops back in Lancaster, Ohio, Sabrina Modzelewski told me she and her husband Bill purchased a gun for self protection. They both took classes to learn how to use the gun properly and they keep the gun in a safety lock box (with a combination) so their children can’t access the gun. Besides the background check and waiting period, it would make sense that it be mandatory those buying a gun would be required to take classes in how to use it effectively, and safely (I mean, we have to take driving classes). What’s more, it would also make sense to me that it would be mandatory the purchase of a gun should also include the purchase of one of those safety lock boxes. (The purchase of a car, for instance, now comes with mandatory seat belts.) How many times do we read about a child accidentally being killed by a gun that was easily accessible? And on the issue of hunting… I would like to see much longer bow and atlatl (spear) hunting seasons and much less time for gun hunting seasons. It just seems to me that hunting with a gun is not very fair to the animals and leads to overkill in animal populations. What’s more, these types of kills are often taken for granted as opposed to the often longer, and more skilled, pursuit entailed by hunting with a bow or spear. And finally, we would do well to take a page (and some classes) from the Native Americans on how to use every part of the animal once it’s been killed.

Buckeye Back Road Tour cont.:   We continue to travel about Ohio where Obama and McCain are now in a “dead heat,” according to the Columbus Dispatch today.   Wouldn’t it be fascinating if it stayed that way in Ohio and  our campaign:  impacted the vote?

Buckeye Back Road Tour cont.:   We ended our pit-stop in Cleveland and have headed back out onto the back roads of Ohio.   In Wooster, Ohio, farmer Ed Schafrath (brother of former Cleveland Brown Dick Schafrath), told me he once went to a seminar on organic farming.   The presenter started with holding up a handful of soil and then posed a question:   “How many of you think God makes mistakes?”   No hands went up.   The presenter then explained that God put thousands of micro-organisms into a handful of soil, all working together to make the perfect growing environment.   Yet we now pump herbacides, pesticides, fertilizers… into the soil to “improve it.”   Ed said after he heard this presentation, he bacame an organic farmer.   Hard to argue with that, huh.    For more on our agricultural platform…   While in Wooster, we also talked to Eugene Grande, who had recently given a talk on “The Common Good” at St. Mary’s in Wooster.   Eugene said that issues pertaining to the common good include: arms control, the death penalty, the environment, housing, labor and employment, poverty…   He continued that each of these are subjective (according to the Catholic Church) in relation to view points of legislators and the electorate  in regard to  acceptable levels.   However, he said the Catholic Church looks at the following points as always   “intrinsically evil”:   abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, cloning, in-vitro fertilization…   Eugene also offered the following in relation to the latter:   “For a growing number of people, absolute beliefs or norms indicate nothing but an inablility to tolerate other peoples’ views and convictions.   History provides evidence that relative standards of morality breed chaos and ultimately the downfall of society.”   By the way, anyone see how the stock market did yesterday?

Buckeye Back Road Tour cont.:   On the current ‘financial crisis’…   Foreclosures seem to be starting a chain reaction.   A homeowner is foreclosed upon when they can’t pay the mortgage anymore.   This begs the  question:   How many people are simply living beyond their means these days?   Sure there’s inflation.   And yes, variable rate mortgages are going up.   So in the face of this,  many could adjust by, say, living more simply, and creatively (like house-sharing).   This should be how we approach the National Debt as well.   That is, the Federal Government should: tighten it’s belt and come up with creative ways to pay it off.   Note:   During a talk I gave to  a group of  Amish in Kidron, Ohio, during Campaign 2004, one man said he had a fool proof answer to  keeping the  National Budget out of the red:   First, we should have someone in D.C. with “a caluculator that works,” he said.   And secondly, we should use this calculator to count up how much tax money has come in in a given year.   “Then we shouldn’t spend any more than what’s come in,” he added.   A lot of people might look at this as tremendously over-simplified, even naive.   But is it?   Maybe it is, indeed,  the simple common sense way we should have been approaching this thing all along.   I think it is.