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
5/15/08
A couple weeks back, I gave a talk at the Christopher Program, an Alternative High School in downtown Columbus, Ohio. The class I talked in was doing some tremendously creative “Service Learning” projects. One student was doing an education program about “Environmental Awareness in the Work Place.” Another student was working with a local social service agency to help further awareness about domestic violence and sexual assault. Yet another student was doing a form of street theatre to raise awareness about safe driving habits… As a spin-off, I said I’d interviewed a man who owns a Driving School in Loudonville, Ohio. he told me there are 33,000 traffic fatalities every year in America, one death every 13 minutes. That’s almost five deaths every hour, or 120 traffic deaths a day. The man said that would be the equivalent of a half-full airliner going down every day in this country! America has lost a little more than 4,000 Service people in Iraq over five years. We’ve lost some 165,000 motorists during that same time. Our roads have become “war zones,” it’s just that we don’t look at it that way, I said. Among a number of things, I said our administration would push to have highway speed limits go back to 40 mph, like they were in 1941. This would significanlty save on gas, cut down, just as significantly, on carbon dioxide gas emissions, and make the highways tremendously safer. Several students indicated I might not get a lot of votes with that stance… Note: Several days later, I got an e-mail from Jonathan Renard, one of the Christopher Program students. He wrote: “I especially found it interesting when you said: ‘Do you want to vote for a president that says what you want to hear, or do you want to vote for a president that challenges your thoughts?’ I have been thinking about that all weekend,” he added.
5/12/08
We have dilineated between “legal” and “civil” matters in this country. But are we always using common sense in this dilineation? Example: I walk into a retail store and steal a pair of shoes. I’m charged with “shoplifting” and given a fine and, perhaps, some jail time. I walk into a retail store and buy a pair of shoes on my credit card. Instead of paying the monthly fee, however, I take that money to go out and buy more stuff for myself. In this case, have I, in effect, stolen the shoes as well? Common sense would say: yeah. Yet, I’m not prosecuted. Note: It would seem to me that we’ve created a terribly complex, and convoluted, economic system. And this scenario is just one example. What’s more, this has clouded our spiritual perceptions as well. That is, you’re average American consumer would look at the ‘credit card / shoe’ scenario I outline as purely an economics concern, not a spiritual concern as well.
5/8/08
I gave a talk to a high school “Justice Group” in Cleveland this week. It is part of the Catholic Schools for Peace and Justice (www.cspj.net) network here. I learned the group has sponsored such events as “Dance for Darfur,” which raised some $7,000 for Darfur, explained CSPJ coordinator Augie Pacetti. These high school students have also done events to promote “Fair Trade” and help the “Invisible Children” of Uganda. They help with tutoring at a neighborhood “Arrupe House” program. They do street outreach to the inner city poor… When senior Nick Drosos was asked why he’s involved, he simply replied: “I just think it’s right.” Enough said. Note: Our Education platform calls for a paradigm shift, if you will. That is, we would like to see one-third of school curriculum be “Service Learning” projects — like the ones this Cleveland “Justice Group” is involved with –out in the local community, and in the world at large.
5/7/08
During some talks at St. Ignatius High School Government classes in Cleveland yesterday (see last entry), I posed a scenario. I said scientists are now saying that global warming is already causing drought and famine in some of the more arid countries. So there is a good possibility that as a result of our fossil-fuel-addicted (read: gluttonous) American lifestyles, children are starving to death in Uganda, Nigeria, the Sudan… right now. “So what does that make us?” I asked the class. “Murderers,” a student replied. I nodded. And then I added that while we aren’t being prosecuted for this, when we’re standing at Judgement with God — will He bring it up? And boy, when you’re talkin’ eternity — what’s driving way less, cutting the thermostat way back in the winter, turning off the air-conditioning altogether? I mean, you think it will be hot here…
5/6/08
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.