Vote for Joe

Buckeye Backroad Tour cont.:   We talked with a woman today in Bluffton, Ohio, who said she was quite disturbed with the Olympic: clothing.   She said, for instance, that the women marathon runners, the women sprinters, etc. were dressed, well, immodestly.   (Anybody remember that word?)   They were all dressed immodestly except Rogaya Al-Gossra, a Muslim woman who ran the 200 meters event.   She ran in a headress, full length shirt and pants down to her ankles.   What’s more, in the preliminaries she won her race…   We stopped in Lindsey, Ohio, where I talked with Keith Naus of Naus Bros. Hardware.   He said several years ago he had a heart attack and now has to go in to get his cholestoral tested every couple months, at $350 a visit.   Mr. Naus has no healthcare insurance and struggles to pay it each time.   What’s more, his heart surgery was quite expensive, and he didn’t have healthcare insurance for that either.   He paid that off, too, by himself.   He said he’s hoping for a president who can help him.   I said we could.

We traveled further west to Norwalk, Ohio, where we were asked to participate in a Farmer’s Market that’s coordinated by Chrissy Houtz.   Houtz is a Vegan vegetarian who  opposes the cruelty of factory farming.   We also discussed, among other things, the  phenomenal amount of grain used to fatten animals in this country — that could be going to feed the hungry of the world. Given that 24,000 people starve to death in the world every day,   this is one of the biggest social justice travesties of our time…   At the Farmer’s Market, I interviewed John Dickerson who has a land conservation service.   A tremendously knowledgeable guy.   He said that traditional farming methods (using pesticides, herbacides, etc.) are rapidly destroying the soil.   But the ties between agri-business (that promotes this) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are so   strong that changing this seems near impossible, he said.   ‘Changing this,’ by the way, would  mean going to a much more sustainable, organic small farm base in this country.   Something our agricultural position paper wholeheartedly embraces.

Russia is escalating it’s assault on bordering Georgia, at the time of this writing.   The New York Times reports that Georgia serves as a major conduit for oil flowing from Russia and Central Asia to the West.   So the widening conlict, it would seem, is partially about control and monetary gain for Russia (not just retaliation against an aggressive action)…   With the inevitably rough transition to a free-market economy in Russia, times have been hard for many there.   Some of this Russia/Geogia conflict, I believe, could have been averted with much more of a proactive humanitarian outreach into Russia when it initially converted to democracy.   At the time, I proposed the U.S. set up a “Sister City Program” with most of the towns in Russia.   Besides cultural exchange, and the like, this program could have included a regular outpouring of Sister City donated money into each town.   This would have not only helped the Russian people, but it would have helped stem  (or at least temper) things like this incursion into Georgia because, well, the Russian economy would have been doing much better by now —  with our help.   Not to mention this would have gone a long way toward diminishing lingering Cold War tensions between Russia and the U.S.   In fact, the window of opportunity for this massive Russia/U.S. Sister City Project is still there, but it seems to be  closing fast.   Note:    The average American is much more well off than the average Russian at this point. Yet we are lavishing ourselves with extras  (several televisions in the house, central heating and cooling, three full meals a day and snacks…) in the face of the Isrealite/manna story in the Bible.   Author Richard Lowry writes  about the concept of “Sabbath economics” and he says of the manna story.     Families were told to gather just enough manna for their needs each day.   In God’s economy there is such a thing as too much or tool little, as opposed to capitalism’s infinite tolerance of wealth and poverty, Lowry writes… We in America are confusing “wants” with “needs” in this country, out of self indulgence.   As a result, others starve elsewhere, others are plunged into war, others…

There has been talk this week by both major candidates about energy policies…     Our energy policy calls for, among other things,  a dramatic shift to much more sacrifice and the development of renewable energy technologies, I said at a debate at the National Press Club in D.C.   Anything less at this point, I believe, is akin to:  “rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic…”   What do I mean by sacrifice?   We would provide tax incentives for Americans to house share.   When you share a home, you share heating, cooling, lighting… What’s more, you halve expenses so you have more discretionary money to install, say,  solar panels, wind turbines, and the like.   On a campaign stop in Winnona, Minnesota, we learned that city has a “Home Share Program” that helps connect people who want to house share…    House sharing  will also start to reverse urban sprawl, free up more money for social justice causes, exponentially enhance peoples’ community building skills…    During  a stop  Habitat for Humanity headquarters in  Americus, Georgia, we toured replicas of Third World homes, which, on average, are much   smaller than American homes.   Should we Americans be proud of this?   Should we Americans feel “blessed” by this?   Or should we Americans see all this additional space for what it really is?   The sin of gluttony.

Iran did some missile tests last week and, in turn,  the United States ramped up it’s rhetoric against them.   We don’t want Iran to have nuclear weapons capability.   Yet we have nuclear weapons aimed all over the world, including, I’m pretty sure, at: Iran.   One would have to ask: What’s up with this?   A New York Times   article said the Bush administration has refused to rule out a miliatry option to rebuke Iran… On our last tour, we went to Sunday Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Oberlin, Ohio.   The priest said Jesus’s New Testament message was consistently that we shouldn’t return violence for violence.   So given the current state of affairs in the world, “…how many of you would vote for Jesus to be president?”   He asked.   Good question. Note:   Like other campaigns, we are in need of donations to keep on: Schriner Presidential Election Committee, 2100 W. 38th St., Cleveland, Ohio 44113.   Thank you.