Buckeye Back Road Tour cont.: We headed into Findlay, Ohio, over the weekend. Sarah and I stood at the busy intersection of Bright Ave and Rte 224 holding two signs. They said: ABORTION KILLS CHILDREN; and, LORD, PLEASE FORGIVE OUR NATION… Some people honked and waved their support, others didn’t… We went to an ultra-new and tremendously expensive St. Michael’s Church for Sunday Mass. High gloss marble, high expansive ceilings, costly stained glass, central air condidtioning… One of the prayer intentions this morning was to remember the increasing number of people in the Third World who were hungry because of rising food prices. I wondered how many millions of meals the cost of this new church would have provided — for the poor? There is such a phenomenal spiritual disconnect in this country… We came across a group from the Stoney Ridge Church in Findlay who were walking through the streets praying for their neighbors, and the town in general. Findlay was devastated by a flood in 2007 and the group told us that their church and some 17 other churches in the area had set about praying for the town, and the souls of their neighbors.
6/7/08
Buckeye Back Road tour cont.: We traveled to Luckey, Ohio (pop. 1,000), where we stumped in the downtown area. I passed on a flyer to Town Administrator George Jensen who had a “loaves and fishes” t-shirt on. I smiled and told him I was hoping that loaves and fishes multiplication thing was going to happen with the campaign. George belongs to the Methodist Church here and is quite involved with helping the town food pantry. Great guy. I gave him a card to hang up on the Luckey Municipal Building bulletin board that said: “We’re hoping to get ‘Luckey.'” Get it? (I got a million of ’em.)… We then traveled to Bowling Green, Ohio, — home of Bowling Green State University — where I gave a talk at St. Thomas More Church (primarily to college students). I said people can get so lost in their studies, and academia in general, that they lose sight of trying to tangibly impact the pressing social issues of the day — [like abortion, World Hunger, global warming…] Probably the first time these students were told maybe not to study as much, huh. Note: The following is a link to a Green Party Presidential Candidate Press Conference I participated in last year talking about some of the latter issues.
6/6/08
Buckeye Back Roads Tour: The Norwalk Reflector newspaper did a video on our campaign for their website http://www.goreflector.com/ (click on Videos and scroll down to Ordinary Joe in Norwalk). Later that day, our family stood on a street corner in Norwalk holding signs protesting abortion. While in Norwalk, we also took our kids to a park where they played with a 4-year-old boy who had so many inoperable tumors (non-malignant) in his cheek area and neck that he needed a tracheotomy just to breath. Great child, full of life and the nurse who was watching him this day told me he’s been accepted tremendously well by his peers at pre-school. Young kids are so accepting… We headed on to Port Clinton, Ohio, where I gave a talk at Immaculate Conception Church. Fr. John Missler there also gave a talk on “…loving your neighbor as yourself.” Afterward, I said that busying ourselves with extra-curricular activity, with entertainment, with over-working… while 4,400 little unborn babies are killed every day in America — with little protest — could not, in any way, be considered: “…loving your neighbor as yourself.” From Port Clinton, we drove into the heart of Toledo that night to stand in solidarity with a pro-Life group who went to an abortion clinic to pray the rosary outside as a “silent protest.”
6/4/08
Buckeye Back Roads Tour cont: We traveled to Norwalk, Ohio, where I talked at a prayer group Monday night at St. Mary’s and during a Mass at St. Paul’s the following day. I talked about how abortion wouldn’t end until we, frequently, took to the streets. After the talk at St. Paul’s, our family did just that, took to the streets of downtown Norwalk. We held signs saying: ABORTION KILLS CHILDREN; PRAY TO END ABORTION; ABORTION HURTS WOMEN… Tuesday night we went to a prayer vigil to stop abortion at St. Paul’s. Deacon Jim Reichert said that in America now, one in four babies are aborted (read: killed). He said we kill more babies in one year in America now — than the number of all American soldiers killed in all our wars combined. Deacon Jim said that the gospel explains the greatest sacrifice is to lay down one’s life for another. Conversely, abortion is about “sacrificing the other person for my own good,” said the deacon. He also added that the Catholic Church looks at abortion as an “intrinsic evil,” according to a church pamphlet on “Faithful Citizenship.” Note: After the vigil, a group of parishioners got together to talk about setting up a committee to get the teachings about Faithful Citizenship into the hands of as many Catholics at St. Paul’s as possible before the November vote.
6/3/08
URGENT! To get on the ballot in Colorado (which polls show is a key swing state in this election), we need donations totalling $500. We also need nine (9) “electors” in Colorado. An elector is a registered voter who would commit to go to Colorado’s State House in December to cast a vote for us — if we won the election. This is a perfunctory part of the Electoral College System. Perhaps one of our supporters in Colorado could marshall getting nine electors in a particular area so you could, for instance, car pool to the State House. The deadline for all this is June 17. If you can help, would you e-mail me at joeschriner@hotmail.com or call 419-792-9059 Thank you. Note: We have campaigned extensively in Colorado over the years, and if it looks like we’re going to have a showing in Colorado, it might be enough to make our campaign a national story. But we need people to step up to help with this.
6/2/08
Buckeye Backroads Tour cont. We met William McCraken while stumping on the streets of Oberlin, Ohio, last week. He’s a real dynamo when it comes to the environment. He just took a job with the Sierra Club and is involved with an ad-hoc group in Oberlin called POWER. The group is designed to help low income people in the area get help to install alternative technologies and help people also get more insulation… It only stands to reason that if we’re serious about reversing global warming, then those who are environmentally conscious, and more well off financially, would start a local fund to help bring others up to ‘green speed,’ if you will. Common sense would say: We’re all in this global warming thing together.
5/30/08
Buckeye Back Roads Tour cont. We are in motion again. This morning I gave a Pro-life talk at Sacred Heart Church in Oberlin, Ohio. Preceding the talk, the priest said that we all too often don’t take the gospel message seriously. He asked, for instance, how many people “…would leave Heaven to save someone from going to Hell?” I followed up by saying in the talk that we are so ensconsed in the comfort of our own homes (air conditioning, television, music…) — read ‘Heaven;’ while 4,400 little unborn babies go to their deaths everyday in America because of abortion. Shouldn’t we be forgoing our comfort to take to the streets regularly to protest, to fill the newspapers with pro-life letters to the editor, to fill our legislators’ offices with letters, to volunteer at, and tremendously fund, local crisis pregnancy centers…? So that babies don’t die and people don’t have to go to ‘Hell’ because of the choices they make to abort. I also posed: “If abortion continues because of our own sins of omission — will we, too, go to Hell?” Note: The priest also asked another fascinating question today. “How many of us would sell all that we own, [give the money to charity] and go live with the poor (in solidarity)?” While not going to that extent, yet, a Sacred Heart Peace and Justice Group member said their church has recently become part of a nine-church Interfaith Hospitality Network in Lorain County. These churches rotate in putting up homeless families.
5/27/08
The Phoenix spacecraft just landed on Mar’s norther polar region. According to an Associated Press article, the Phoenix will be digging trenches in the soil there to get to ice that is believed to be buried inches down. The samples will then be analyzed for organic compounds, “…the chemical building blocks of life.” A thought: We are spending billions of dollars looking at potential water sources on Mars; while literally billions of people on this planet don’t have access to clean drinking water. Wouldn’t the billions of dollars be better spent on, oh I don’t know, maybe helping more with “life” in this planet!? Note: During Campaign 2004, I told the Wapokaneta News in Wapokaneta, Ohio (home of astronaut Neil — “One large step for mankind…” — Armstrong), that as president, I would work hard to end the Space Program.
5/24/08
I just had an article posted on the new e-magazine Liberalati. Go to www.liberalati.com and scroll down. The article it titled: Environmental Murderers. Note: In the last blog entry, I mention we are just readying to leave on our next campaign tour leg and we need donations. If you can help: Schriner Presidential Election Committee, 2100 W. 38th St., Cleveland, Ohio 44113 thank you… Joe
5/20/08
The New York Times carried a piece yesterday describing anti-immigration mob violence in Johanesburg South Africa. Groups of vigilantes were taking to the streets to beat and burn to death recent immigrants to this city from the country of Zimbabwe, where poverty there is off the charts. Many of the Zimbabwe refugees in Johanesburg live in tiny, squatter hovels just trying to scrape by (which is, sadly enough, better than how it was for them in Zimbabwe). Problem is South Africa has a 23% unemployment rate and people here are now being affected by the rising food prices as well. So as a backlash against the people from Zimbabwe who have sought refuge here, the South African mobs are barbarically terrorizing them. The only thing more ‘barbaric’ are people in the First World (Americans included) who continue to surround themselves with nice cars, central air conditioning, televisions, nice furniture, three meals a day and snacks… in the midst of so much relievable world suffering! These people in the hovels are the ‘Lazarrus the beggar at our gate (Biblical parable)’ thanks to, well, the New York Times. And it is our selfishness in America, our self indulgence in regard to things we’ve conned ourselves into thinking are ‘necessities’ in this country (air conditioning, entertainment centers, the newest comfortable mattress, dinners out…), that are keeping so much more life-giving resources from those living (and dying) in desperation in the Third World. In the parable I allude to, there’s a “rich” guy who doesn’t help Lazarrus significantly enough. The ‘rich’ guy goes to Hell. How many of us are gambling our eternities on all the things that aren’t really necessities — while billions of people live in abject poverty (like squater hovels) worldwide? It’s a gamble I believe is tremendously foolish to take. Note: We will be leaving on our next campaign tour next Wednesday and need donations to help with the tour. Our’s, we believe, is a voice that’s vital for our times. Please help us reach as many as possible. Thanks. Schriner Presidential Election Committee, 2100 W. 38th St., Cleveland, Ohio 44113