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.
7/21/08
*Important: We’re moving into the final phase of our “2008 Ohio Strategy.” ***And we need supporters in the state, and outside, to e-mail supportive letters-to-the-editor about our campaign to as many Ohio newspapers as possible. (Go to Ohio newspapers.) ***Toward the end of the letter, would you please note that for a vote to count for us in Ohio, the voter must write (or type) in both: Joe Schriner / President and Dale Way / Vice-President. And to ask poll worker for help if necessary per: how to do a “write-in.” Note to our supporters: This is quite important to the campaign at this point and if you could write the letters sooner than later it would help a lot. Thanks. (If we have a significant showing in Ohio — Remember Ohio during Campaign 2004? — it will be enough to make the campaign a national story and provide a great springboard into Campaign 2012!) –Joe Ps. If you’re from outside the state of Ohio, please consider the letter to be the equivalent of a “vote” for us. As of now, we won’t be on the ballot in any states and Ohio will be the only state we’ll have “official write-in” status. Pss. For those of you in Ohio, would you also please consider putting up homemade yard signs that say: Write in: Joe Schriner / U.S. President Dale Way / Vice-President 2008
7/14/08
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.
7/9/08
Our vice-presidential candidate, Dale Way, was interviewed by the South Bend (IN) Tribune last week. In the article, Dale noted that our campaign takes projects we’ve researched across the country and promotes them on our travels elsewhere. For instance, in Monroe, Louisiana, we researched a “Community Pharmacy” run by the St. Vincent de Paul Society. The pharmacy is intended for low-income people. Doctors donate some of their free samples, nursing homes donate medication after someone has died, and people in the town donate for the purchase of yet even more medication. In speeches, in media interviews, on our blog… I talk about this concept with the hopes more and more of these Community Pharmacies start up so that, well, more and more people get help. This is the essence of the campaign. Note: For more on our health care postion…
7/1/08
Buckeye Back Road Tour cont.: We were interviewed by NBC News ABC News (both out of Toledo) last week. The NBC reporter asked about our Green Party bumper sticker… The reason I attempted to vie for the Green Party nomination is because I believe when it comes to ecological wisdom, social justice, peace building, decentralism… the Green Party has, by far, the best platform of any of the Parties. Conversely, I do disagree with their pro-choice stance. However in the other areas, it is a paradigm that’s time has come in this country. We also appeared on the front page of the Fremont News-Messenger newspaper last week. I told the reporter we look at global warming as a huge pro-life issue. “No world, no life,” I said.
6/25/08
Buckeye Back Road Tour cont: I gave a talk to a prayer group at Sacred Heart Church in Fremont, Ohio, last night. Part of the focus was about getting more help to people in the Third World. Afterward, Sr. Anthony Maria Valdez (“Sister Sam”) told me about an absolutely excellent local example of this. She is the Director of Spiritual Care at the St. Francis Health Center in nearby Green Springs, Ohio. People in a ward there for extreme brain trauma started a fundraising drive for the impoverished, small village of Lufu, Tanzania. Sister Sam said the St. Francis Health Center patients started donating, like, “25 cents” — all some had — and synergy (read: the “loaves and fishes”) started happening. Next the staff started kicking in, then others… and by the end of the year they had raised: $1,000. This money, in turn, paid for a village well to provide clean drinking water and for beds for a health clinic in Lufu. Note: We could end world poverty with a clear vision, 25 cents — and God.
6/23/08
During our pit stop back home in Cleveland, I painted a room in a neighbor’s home that they set aside for foster children. This couple is involved with the Catholic Worker outreach to the poor here. They aggressively lobby to maintain low income housing for the disadvantaged in the area. And both are strong peace activists. In fact, one of their bumper stickers says: “War is terrorism — with a bigger budget.” …Speaking of terrorism: We then headed back out, stopping first in Fremont, Ohio, where I gave a talk at St. Joseph’s Church on abortion. (During Campaign 2004 I said to the Range News in Arizona that with abortion “…we’ve become our own worst terrorists.”) During the talk in Fremont, I said little babies being dismembered and decapitated in the womb at nearby Toledo abortion clinics should be front page news in the Toledo Blade, every day! But it’s just that we’ve become so tremendously decensitized to it… We then did a downtown whistle-stop event in Sandusky, Ohio. The Sandusky Register photographer taking pictures this day was a former student at the Christopher Program in Columbus, an alternative high school. Some four years prior, I had talked in his Political Science Class. That semester each student had been allowed out of school twice a week to work on an issue or candidate’s campaign for the then upcoming 2004 Election. As president I would lobby for more of these types of classes to heighten political enthusiasm among the young.
6/18/08
We’ve come back to Cleveland for a pit stop. On Monday our family attended a Zoning Board meeting at City Hall. Some 60 people had showed to support the Community Garden across the street that has replaced an abandoned asphalt parking lot. The Community Garden includes a chicken coup, which was the main point of contention. The business next door is a funeral home and the owner thought the chickens detracted from his business. Some 20 people in the audience spoke, touting: the addition of this new “green space” in the area; the community building aspects of the Garden; being able to buy organic produce and organic eggs locally… I said it had been a tremendous benefit to our children who regularly work in the garden. What’s more, I said while there has been concern in our area about illegal cock fighting, to my knowledge there was no illegal ‘chicken fighting’ going on. In fact, the kids in the neighborhood were allowed to “adopt a chicken,” even giving each a name. Our Jonathon, 5, named his chicken: “Spider Man Chicken…” The board voted unanimously to allow for the chicken coup based, primarily, on the large outpouring of support, said the Chairperson. Although I actually think once the Board learned the chickens were, in essence, “pets,” I mean, who would vote to take a kid’s pet away? Note: On the steps going down this morning, someone said: “Wasn’t this democracy in action?” And it was.
6/16/08
Buckeye Back Road Tour cont.: We sat in on a Conistoga Neighborhood meeting in Port Clinton, Ohio. The mayor and a city patrolman in charge of the Property Maintainance Code was there. The officer referred to broken down vehicles, old rusting refrigerators, et. al. as: “yard art.” He outlined a series of steps neighborhood homeowners can take to report this, etc. Later in the meeting, a local woman gave a short presentation on “stress relief” (especially if the yard art is getting on one’s nerves). Maha Najd from Oasis Healing Arts demonstrated deep breathing techniques — which my wife Liz decided to use during our next, oh, tiff. Speaking of stress relief… We stayed at a campground just south of Bowling Green Friday night. Severe weather was predicted and all the campers congregated at the brick social hall. A high intensity, very brief front blew through with black clouds and 75 mph winds. It lasted no more than five minutes. As our daughter Sarah, 12, and I sat on a bench outside just afterward looking at the clear sky at sunset behind the front, Sarah asked: “Do you think it’s over Dad?” I said (tongue in cheek) that just like there’s total calm in the eye of a hurricane, “…we’re probably sitting in the Midwest’s equivalent of that.” She looked sideways at me and said: “I think I’ll go talk to Mom.”
6/12/08
Buckeye Back Road Tour cont.: In the last week, we had some more signage put on the campaign vehicle at The Sign Shack in Findlay, Ohio. Owner Joe Langhals let our kids help in a variety of ways, and it turned into a kind of ‘Graphics 101 Motorhome Schooling Class’ for them. (It’s amazing the breadth of educational experiences they have on the road.) We’ve had other stuff done at The Sign Shack over the years, and find the quality of the work absolutely excellent. In fact, I was telling Mr. Langhals that if his new signs don’t get us to the White House this election — nothing will. Note: Findlay has had two relatively bad floods in the past year and Mr. Langhals said he and one of his employees, Ryan, were featured in a picture on the CNN website as they stood beside their riverside shop — knee deep in water. Shortly after we left Findlay, we heard a tornado touched down in nearby Arlington, Ohio. This natural disaster thing is just getting crazy this year in the Midwest. One would have to soberly ask if the severe Midwestern weather is another dimension of: global warming?