Buckeye Back Road Tour cont.: The Athens News did a story on our campaign that included: “I recently coached an inner-city Little League Baseball team in Cleveland,” Schriner explains on [his] website. “On draft day, I picked the kids who looked like they’d be picked last, first. And apparently I did pretty well with this because we lost almost all the games…” While in Athens, I also talked to Stephen Rounthwaite who is part Seminole and was protesting Columbus Day in front of the Athens County Courthouse. Rounthwaite, a street musician, was beating a drum next to a sign that read: You Support Columbus, You Support Terrorism. Our position paper on Native American issues reflects this as well. “They say Columbus ‘discovered America’ — but there were all these people living here already,” Rounthwaite laughed… Before meeting Rounthwaite, our family stood in solidarity with a group protesting for peace in front of the same courthouse. Two rather big guys, in their own show of protest, showed up and held McCain/Palin signs just adjacent to us. They said they were pro-War, and not only should the U.S. be in Iraq, we should be aggressive about making sure Iran didn’t develop nuclear weapons. “My boxing coach used to always say: ‘Come at ’em early and come at ’em hard,” one guy said. I asked this guy what he would do if someone was coming at him with a gun? “Get a gun and fight back,” he instantly replied. “So what if a country like us (read: U.S.), had a lot of nuclear weapons aimed at a country like Iran? What would be Iran’s natural reaction?” I asked. Note: While in Athens, I met Pastor Jeff Bartlett of the First Christian Church here. He had a wonderful spirit about him and told me he was trying to come up with a series of creative ways to interest college students in getting involved with church. The night I met him, he was doing a cookout with a small group of students on a hibachi next to a busy sidewalk. He was cooking: Spam. I, as tactfully as possible, mentioned he might draw more students with, oh, a different type of main course.
10/17/08
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.)
10/16/08
Buckeye Back Road Tour cont.: This week we stumped at the Farmer’s Market in Athens, Ohio. Guitarist Billy Reiter, from Thornville, was playing “Neil Young stuff” there. I gave him a campaign flier and we talked briefly. Several days later I got an e-mail from him saying he was, indeed, going to vote for me. “We are no longer a government of the people, we are a government of the biggest bidder,” he wrote. What’s more, he said he was working on a blues-rock song titled: “Average Joe.” Stay tuned… At the Farmer’s Market, I also talked with organic farmers (and authors) Art and Peggy Gish. They are both Christian Peace Keeper team members who have spent a considerable amount of the time in the Middle East. Peggy wrote the book Iraq (A Journey of Hope). She had just returned from yet another trip to Iraq and said the situation, contrary to some media reports, is “getting worse.” Peggy gave me a copy of her book. I read a section that night that explained that after an insurgent attack, if our military has pinpointed that the insurgent(s) has come from a specific neighborhood, a platoon will go door to door, sometimes beating, sometimes killing, often times taking off to jail… a significant number of the men (fathers, sons, brothers…) in the neighborhood. One Iraqi told Peggy that one Hussein is gone, yet another — U.S. military — has arrived. Note: We got an “endorsement” from Georgia Dr. Jonathan Davis and an excellent write-up on his blog Gridbook this week.
10/15/08
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.
10/14/08
Buckeye Back Road Tour cont.: While the other candidates are on Meet the Press and Face the Nation , et. al., Liz and I were in Sabrina Modzelewski’s kitchen in Lancaster, Ohio, being grilled with list of questions she’d written down the night before: Where did we stand on gun control; off-shore drilling; traditional marriage… ? During the questioning, I mentioned we were pro-Life, and while you couldn’t necessarily legislate this: We would ‘suggest’ people consider starting to celebrate their “conception day” (give or take a few days), instead of their “birthday.” I mean, when you think about it… that’s when we all come into the world. Sabrina followed by saying she had had a miscarriage and the family buried the baby with a head stone that reads: Gabrial Tess Modzelewski, 1/20/02 to 10/19/02.
10/13/08
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?
10/9/08
Buckeye Back Road Tour cont.: During Mass at St. Mary’s in Lancaster, Ohio, today, Fr. Donald Franks emphasized that it is important for Christians to persevere in prayer, in exercise, in work… In deference to that, our campaign again headed out into the back roads of Ohio to stump some more. At the Handle-Bar & Grill in tiny Sugar Grove, I passed out a flyer and noticed a sign posted behind the bar: “You will be barred for fighting!” Once again I have gone — where other candidates would be afraid to go! We then headed over to the small Hill Grocery Store in Sugar Grove where I passed on another flyer and talked to owner Sue Hill. Given the Wall Street bailout, she said she wondered what’s happened to help for small businesses like hers. I said if I was president (the polls notwithstanding) I would, indeed, help small town businesses like hers. For our plan on this, see… Note: In the midst of the financial crisis in America, our platform calls for, I believe, a much saner approach to the economy in general.
10/8/08
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?
10/6/08
Buckeye Back Road Tour cont.: We made a brief pit-stop back home in Cleveland last week. Liz and I painted a couple rooms in the place next door to put food on the table. I told a Channel 3 News reporter (the paint still on my hands) that while the other presidential candidates were posturing to appeal to the middle class, I was, well, “painting houses.” I bowl too. While at home, I was also interviewed by the Cleveland Catholic Diocesan newspaper. I said our platform revolved around the underpinnings of Catholic Social teaching, including having a “Consistent Life Ethic” that sets us against: abortion, euthanasia, poverty, pollution, global warming, nuclear proliferation… and anything else that can end life prematurely. Note: While back in Cleveland this time, we had two bicycles stolen over a period of three days. Last year we had our campaign vehicle grafittied and a brick was also thrown through the passenger window. That’s just the kind of neighborhood it can be sometimes.
9/26/08
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.