I talked in several Government Classes at St. Ignatius High School today. One of the issues that came up was global warming. A student asked what we could do about it. The instructor, Tim Evans, said that we currently generate most of our power from coal and oil — which produces huge amounts of greenhouse gases. Mr. Evans went on to say that God must be shaking His head. That is, from about six in the morning until nine at night He sends this big, yellow sphere over our heads — day in and day out — from which we could generate all kinds of non-polluting energy. And the same goes with wind that blows around us, for the most part, day in and day out. Yet we continue to dig deep into the earth to extract stuff from the ‘Dark Side,’ if you will. Again, tremendously polluting coal and oil. It’s almost analogous, if you will, to God continually tugging at us to look up, while Satan is continually tugging at us to look down. Note: Just after the class, I came across a book titled The Party’s Over. It is about declining supplies of coal and oil and the coming calamaties that might well cause. The book notes that it is inevitable we’ll have to sacrifice considerably and switch over, as soon as possible, to clean, renewable energy sources, like, oh, that big yellow sphere.
5/3/08
During a tour last week, I gave a “Politics in the Backyard” talk in Stuebenville, Ohio. Prior to the talk, a couple friends of ours, Sadi and Abi Hoyt from Scio, Ohio, played classical harp. It sounded like something, well, right out of Heaven. And to get to Heaven, I said during the talk, it is my belief Americans will have to considerably step up their sacrifice and charitable giving. I noted that, in a recent talk to the UN, Pope Benedict said we must end inequitablility between countries. I then read an excerpt from a New York Times article that said a woman in Haiti was offering her children to strangers — so they didn’t have to starve to death. Meanwhile, many Americans go on buying cars, over-stocking their refrigerators, using air conditioning, going on trips…. Equitable? Hardly. Note: I had to laugh. This week the media has been explaining how Clinton and Obama are posturing to appeal more to middle class voters. Meanwhile in Cleveland, Ohio, I’ve been painting the interior of a house up the street this week. I don’t know, maybe I should be bowling too.
5/1/08
The Salem News in Ohio did a front page story about our campaign last week. The story noted that I believe [in the short term] that it would be good for our country to go beyond Recession and actually slide into a: Depression. (Whew… there goes a few votes, huh.) In reading about the Great Depression in the 1930s, I learned that many people moved out of urban centers to rural settings. They moved in with relatives, friends, etc., there to be closer to food sources. As a result, these urbanites reconnected with the land, learned to live simply, and generally shared on a considerably heightenned level with their neighbors… So, do we want to continue to be ‘consumed alive’ in our current culture; or would it be better to shift to a much more centered, simple and sharing culture? And while I’m sure many would want to choose the latter, I don’t think many of us can get from here to there — without a crash. Just like alcoholics often have to hit “bottoms” before they truly decide to change their lives.
4/28/08
Buckeye Back Roads Tour cont.: Campaigning last week, we spent the weekend at Ann and Tim Miller’s small farm in Lisbon, Ohio. They practice: “Apostolic Farming.” That is, they look at farming as a sacred trust between themselves and God. To honor this, they don’t use toxic pesticides, herbacides, fertilizer… that can damage humans and the soil. And as they look at farming as a sacred vocation, they look at family as a sacred vocation as well. They don’t listen to television, they listen to each other. The children begin to learn a sound work ethic at an early age as they all pitch in around the farm to help. They pray a Rosary together every night. (Our family prayed with the Millers both Saturday and Sunday night and it was nothing short of what could be referred to as a monastic family experience.) As a result of all this very intentional parenting, I find the Miller children to be some of the most spiritually centered and emotionally grounded youth we’ve come across anywhere in the country. Note: I told CBS News in Monterey, California that to heal the country, you have to heal the family. And the Miller family in Lisbon, Ohio, is an excellent model for how we can start to do some of that.
4/24/08
Buckeye Back Road Tour cont.: We stumped at the Steel Trolley Diner in Lisbon where a man from East Palestine, Ohio, told me he was out of work for a year (actively looking the whole time) when he finally got a job at the local steel mill. “There doesn’t seem to be a middle class anymore,” he sighed… We drove on to Scio, Ohio, stopping to talk with people in little villages along the way. We talked with George at “George’s Automotive” in one of those villages. I asked him how he came up with the garage’s name… In Scio our son Joseph, 10, was allowed to practice with a Little League Team. We cheered Joseph on and passed out some flyers in the stands… The next day it was more back road stumping on our way to Steubenville, Ohio, where I talked to a group of Franciscan University students at an “average Joe Politics in the Backyard Barbeque.” I said that in a speech to the United Nations, Pope Benedict said we must “…eliminate inequalities between countries.” To put a face on this, I said we had done research in Juarez, Mexico, where 200,000 people — many of them families — live in one room, cobbled together shacks the size of the porch I was talking on this night (about 15 ft. by 15 ft.). If we want to bring “equality” between nations, shouldn’t the average American family go to “house sharing” with one, two, three… more families, and take the savings so that many people in Mexico (Haiti, Uganda, Nigeria…) had at least the basics in adequate shelter? Of course we should.
4/22/08
Buckeye Back Roads Tour cont.: I gave a talk at St. George Church in Lisbon, Ohio, yesterday. I said the rising price of wheat, rice, etc., is devastating to many in the Third World. A NY Times article (mentioned in the last blog entry) reports from a sprawling slum in Haiti, where one woman offered one of her five young children to a stranger. “Take one,” she said, cradiling a listless baby and motioning toward four rail-thin toddlers, none of whom had eaten that day. “You pick. Just feed them.” …I then said to the St. George congregation: “Air conditioning, unnecessary driving, too many clothes, dinners at Bob Evans… while this mother in Haiti has to give up her children to strangers, to starvation?” …And at the Last Judgement they will say: “But Lord, when did we see you hungry?” Note: I just did an interview for Ken Leanard’s blog http://1truebeliever.wordpress.com/2008/04/18/
4/21/08
We launched on yet another tour Saturday. We did a “round table” discussion at the Friends Roastery Coffee Shop in Salem, Ohio, that day. Before the discussion, I told reporter Mary Ann Greier about a New York Times article I’d just read about the rising price of wheat and rice throughout the Third World nations. In a vignette from the country of Haitti, the times noted that three-quarters of the populaiton earns less than $2 a day and the one business that is booming amidst the intense, sweeping hunger that has taken hold in that country is the selling of “patties made of mud, oil and sugar.” Although nutritionally terrible, Olwich Louis Jeune said he is eating them because: “It makes your stomach quiet down.” I told Ms. Greier that our administration would do everything imaginable to try to inspire Americans to cut back dramatically on their lifestyles, so the destitute of the world can have at least the basics in nutritional foods — dirt not being one of them.
4/16/08
One of the first things Pope Benedict XVI said on his plane coming into America dealt with the issue of immigration. According to a New York Times article, the pope said that we should mobilize many more efforts into poverty stricken countries to help people become as sustainable as possible in their families, their neighborhoods, their culture…. so they don’t feel compelled to leave because of lack of hope. This, too, is the essence (in the long term) of our platform on immigration. Note: I mean, think about it. If you’d lived in Peoria, Illinois, USA all your life with family, friends, neighbors, the Chicago Cubs… would you want to just up and move to Juarez, Mexico. Then again, maybe I shouldn’t have used Peoria as an example. (There goes a few votes, huh.)
4/12/08
Dan Kremer, an organic farmer in Yorkshire, Ohio, just sent me something from the National Catholic Rural Life Conference. It was titled: Eating Is A Moral Act. One of the issues raised was: “Supporting fair wages and healthy working conditions for farmworkers.” (On a research tour of the San Jauoquin Valley in California we learned about just the opposite, with many farmworkers making extremely low wages and working continually in extreme heat amidst toxic herbacides and pesticides.) Another NCRRLC issue: “People around the world have a right to food security.” However, at a seminar in Bluffton, Ohio, I heard Bluffton College Economics Professor Jim Harder explain that American corporate farms can grow at such high volumes these days, and ship cheaply enough — that they can undercut subsistence farmers selling to local markets in, say, Ecuador. This isn’t about ‘America being able to compete with any country in the world,’ this is about nothing less than: a tremendous social justice travesty! Note: Dan Kremer left a corporate, urban lifestyle in Dayton for a “simple rural way of life” in Yorkshire, Ohio, where he does everything in accordance with National Catholic Rural Life Conference values. For more on his farm/apostolate, see: www.eatfoodforlife.com Note 2: This weekend events to raise awareness about the crisis in Darfur will be conducted all over the country. We have a detailed position paper on Darfur with suggestions of what can be done to help. In addition, see www.tentsofhope.org
4/9/05
We are readying to launch on yet another tour at the end of next week. We will be accompanied by Stephen Piscura, who is doing an ‘On the road…’ documentary about our campaign. We are trying to raise donations for this tour. If you can help, our address is: Schriner Presidential Election Committee, 2100 W. 38th St., Cleveland, Ohio 44113. Thank you.