In the last entry, I talk in general terms about the tremendous disparity between most Americans and most people in the Third World. Today at the drop-in center my family volunteers at in Cleveland, I came across a New York Times Magazine with much more specifics about the chasm I alluded to. The story was about immigration and how some 200 million people now immigrate worldwide, mostly because of the abject poverty they live in. The story focused on Emmet Comodas, 36, who was orphaned at age eight, lived on the streets of Manila in the Phillipines, went on to have a family of five children and eventually “hustled” a job at a government sports complex, making $50 a month — not enough to keep his family fed. One of his daughters had an extremely frail physique and a congenital heart defect. And they all live in a “one-room, scrap-wood shanty in a warren of alleys and stinking canals, hidden by the whtewashed walls of an Imelda Marcos beautification campaign,” according to the article. To feed his family, Emmet eventually took a job in Saudia Arabia cleaning pools, 4,500 miles away. He was gone two years the first time, before he was able to get back to see his children. After three months he went back. In all, he was gone almost two decades, for the most part. The children were “deprived of their father while sustained by his wages,” said the article… Ok all you ‘faith-filled,’ American Dads and Moms with kids out there in suburban land — think about that! You could have helped Emmet stay home with his children — but the wide screen TV was more important, the new (or used) car with the extra options was more important, the vacation in Florida was more important, the new furniture was more important, the new coat was more important, the snow blower (vs. the shovel) was more important, the dinner at Bob Evans was more important… Oh sure, we’ve given some money to the poor — but it’s been so woefully short in relation to how much we really could give. Some of us even talk a good game, throwing around such termininology as “preferential option for the poor,” and “helping those less fortunate.” But ask us to really sacrifice? To do without some of our comfort, like air conditioning so kids don’t starve to death? The fact is, we have become so absolutely addicted to our comfort in this country (in the face of so much worldwide relievable suffering), that it’s a spiritual sickness of the nth degree. A spiritual sickness that could have major eternal consequences for us. You’re just not going to hear that much from the American pulpit (although the Bible’s pretty clear on it), because the priest or minister is probably preparing the sermon in his/her air conditioned study. Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.
3/14/08
I have spent a considerable amount of time the last few weeks interviewing people who are activists for nonviolence. Bill Corrigan, who is a deacon at St. Colman’s Church in Cleveland, saw the horror of war first-hand in World War II’s Battle of the Bulge, among other front line fights. He is now involved with Pax Christi USA (National Catholic Peace Movement). “Our country has probably killed more people than any other organized group in the history of the world,” Corrigan said to me. This has included both military and civilians, like, for instance, one little boy… In an article published by the Center for Christian Nonviolence, Fr. George Zabelka, the Catholic military chaplain for the World War II Atomic Bomb Group, said one haunted pilot told him that he had been doing low-level bombing down a street in Japan when a little boy appeared looking up in “child-like wonder” at the plane. The pilot said he knew in a few seconds the child would be burned to death by the napalm he had already released… Bill Corrigan suggested that the infra-structure of the U.S. military — with it’s personnel, it’s equipment (all terrain vehicles, cargo planes…) — would be perfect to deliver a whole lot more humanitarian aid all over the planet. And in this, many of the ‘hot spots’ (where countries are fighting over food and other resources) would ‘cool’ in kind. The problem is we can’t fill a whole lot more cargo planes, until many of us Americans start to house share, take the bus, lose the comfortable furniture, the TVs, the vacations in Florida… and stand at least in some — and this would still be just a little — solidarity with the poor of the world. Question: If we knew our sacrifices as Americans could stop some of these wars through the paradigm Bill Corrigan presents, yet we obstinately continue on in our lifestyles, aren’t we tangibly contributing to the deaths of some of these other people in some of these war zones worldwide? Answer: Well, sure. Ps… And you can save all the rationalizations against what’s proposed here for someone else. Like, oh I don’t know, maybe a little boy looking up at a plane (tank, missile…) in Pakistan, or Palestine, or the Sudan, or…
3/10/08
We live in the inner city of Cleveland (intentionally) and volunteer at a Catholic Worker outreach to the poor here. Today we learned one of the homeless men who goes to the outreach froze to death over the weekend. It wasn’t the cold that killed him, it was all of us who killed him. All of us living in the comfort of our central heating on three meals a day, while we recline in the easy chair watching, say, ESPN. Oh sure, we’ll throw a token (percentage-wise) at the poor now and then. But ask us to considerably cut the heat back, lose a meal a day and not buy the television… so people without homes (here and in the Third World) can have at least the barest in shelter, food and medicine…? Well, you know what the answer to all that is in America. Just look around. Note: When Jesus said he was going to Heavan to prepare mansions, do you think He was going to prepare them for the people in the easy chairs? Oh and by the way, the reason you’re not hearing this from your nearest pulpit? Because most of the priests, ministers, rabbis are, that’s right, sitting in central heating, after their third meal of the day, watching Sports Center. Note 2: As much as people want politicians who tell them what they want to hear, spiritually, do you think that’s, oh, the right paradigm?
3/8/08
A few blog entries back, we noted we were looking for a vice-presidential candidate running mate with a consistent life ethic who would stand with us in solidarity on a ticket. The following is part of an e-mail that came in from Augie Pacetti, who formerly taught Social Justice classes at Padua Franciscan High School and is the current Campus Minister at St. Ignatius High School, both in the Cleveland area: “I follow your campaign blog very regularly… [And] I would be honored to stand with you as your vice-presidential running mate. I admire you and Liz and the commitment you’ve made to your family and our world. You have had a major impact on me through the people and topics you introduce on your blog and the ways in which you attempt to live “…in the world, but not of the world.” If you need me, I’m here. If not, you still have my vote!” Peace, Augie Note: While Augie Pacetti would be an absolutely excellent running mate, I forgot to mention on the last blog entry about this that the vice-presidential candidate (because of FEC regulations) has to reside in a state other than the one the candidate resides in — and has to be over 35 years old. In other words, we are still looking and I can be reached at joeschriner@hotmail.com Thanks. Note 2: Like the other campaigns, we can only do the traveling and campaigning on donations. Please help us if you can: Schriner Presidential Election Committee, 2100 W. 38th St., Cleveland, Ohio 44113
3/3/05
We just got an absolutely excellent endorsement that appeared on the relatively new Political Cortex website. See item #5 at:
http://www.politicalcortex.com/story/2008/2/29/1676/21672
Note: It was my birthday today. My sister Patti gave me a card with a picture of a cat sitting on a globe and looking at the camera. The cover read: Is that you’re birthday cake?! Then inside: “Talk about global warming!” I laughed, sort of.
2/29/08
Buckeye Back Road Tour: We went to Lordstown High School where I talked at a Candidate’s Forum put on by political science teacher Terry Armstrong and his classes. Mr. Armstrong took a good number of students to the Iowa Caucuses, helped arrange for some students to go to Hillary Clinton’s talk in Lordstown the week before, and contacted the candidates for this forum so his students could be informed voters. What a refreshing teaching style, huh. …I turned the talk into quite an interactive, and unscripted, “Town Hall Meeting,” if you will. The students became tremendously animated and engaged in what turned out to be a lively debate. One student asked me my stance on embryonic stem cell research. I said I believed life began at conception and that this was a form of abortion. Some of the students grumbled. I asked to see a show of hands: “How many of you have been embryos?” The grumbling subsided a bit. The students wanted to also talk about immigration, poverty in the inner city, the Iraq War… One student pointed out that before we went to war with Iraq, Saddam Hussein was “torturing” people. I asked the students how many of them thought water-boarding (simulating drowning), which the U.S. is doing with terrorist suspects now, is “torture.” A majority raised their hands indicating they believed it was. “So we’re doing the same thing Hussein was doing?” I asked. That seemed to give everyone pause. Almost as much pause as when I said that we went into Iraq looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction “…yet we have 10,000 of them aimed all over the world!” Many say we’ll never use them. I say: “Tell that to the little children who were incinerated at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” Note: The first local candidate to speak after me was the current County Coroner. He ended his talk to the students by saying: “You can be thankful you’re seeing me socially here — and not professionally at my office.” A coroner with a sense of humor. He got my vote.
2/28/08
While back in Cleveland, my daughter Sarah and I attended a session on Sabbath Economics at the Catholic Worker House. One participant said that our society has become absolutely nuts with complexity. That is, we now spend so much time almost frenetically trying to decide between all the different types of washing machines, all the different types of options for cars, all the different types of clothing… In the last blog entry, I talk about stopping in Plain City, Ohio. Maybe we as a society should consider going to ‘Plain City’ figuratively as well. The Amish have. Or actually, they have never left. In our research travel, we have stopped in Amish communities in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois… The Amish live simply. They ride in buggies with few options. They wear plain clothes that all look pretty much the same. They don’t worry about whether to get the television screen with the higher resolution, or not. Because, well, they don’t watch television. In living simply, the Amish have way more time for God, for family, for community… And when you think about it common sense wise, isn’t that the kind of trade off we should all be considering?
2/25/08
Buckeye Back Roads Tour: We’ve been buzzing (‘Buckeye buzzing,’ if you will — sorry)around the state this last month. The following are some more vignettes from the road: In Plain City, Ohio, I put up a black & white flier in the Pioneer Club Coffee Shop that said: “Hello Plain City! …from the ‘plain’ candidate.” Once again, we’re doing this all without paid political consultants. A patron in the shop started to argue with me over our stance on illegal immigration. We propose amnesty and he said he thinks we should: “…send them all back. Just ask the Native Americans about illegal immigration,” he added in all seriousness. What an ironic twist, huh. I should have then told him our platform point about giving the Native Americans back some of the land we stole. (I’m sure that would have gone over big, too. Ah, these unscripted campaign stops.) But I was in a hurry, so I gave him our web address… In Lancaster, Ohio, I sat in on a talk about “death and dying” by a Catholic nun who specializes in the topic. Someone in the audience said she’d just recently read in Time Magazine that 65% of an average American’s healthcare costs go to — their last two months of life. This money is sometimes spent on, what the Catholic Church would term, “extraordinary” medical measures. And these measures amount to billions and billions of dollars every year — while many in the Third World don’t have even the basics in medicine, period. During the Q&A part of the presentation, I mentioned that this might be, oh, a little self-indulgent on our parts. It’s kind of like American funerals. We spend 4,000 bucks on a casket for one dead American, while that money would build two nice Habitat for Humanity homes for a lot of ‘living’ Ugandans (Haitians, Nigerians…). This all would once again beg the question: Have we Americans become insanely blind when it comes to social justice? Note: The guy in Plain City who wanted to send all the illegal immigrants back, prefaced that statement with: “I love my country…” Funny, I’d just seen a bumper sticker in Columbus the day before that read: “Even though I love my country… it’s time we start seeing other people.” Note 2: We’ve just arrived back home in Cleveland for a brief pit stop.
2/23/08
Ok, it’s crunch time for us! We need a vice-presidential candidate — with a consistent life ethic — who will stand in solidarity with us on a ticket. Short of a tremendous miracle, what is possible for us this time is to actually win Ohio, which would be a phenomenal victory and a great spring board into the 2012 Election season. (“Wouldn’t that be the feel good story of Campaign 2008,” a reporter from the Ashtabula Star Beacon said to me when I explained the strategy.) Besides all the extensive cross country campaigning we’ve done, in the last eight years we have campaigned in Ohio for 16 solid months of that time and have been on the front page of most newspapers in the state, a lot of regional network TV news, etc. However, we can’t start getting petition signatures to get on the ballot in Ohio until we have a vice-presidential candidate. It’s that simple. For those of you following our campaign, you know we’re giving it 100% on this end — against all odds. We’re asking someone to step up to join us. We’re not even asking that person to campaign, necessarily. Again, just to stand in solidarity on the ticket so we can move the campaign to the next level in Ohio… I can be reached at 419-792-9059 or joeschriner@hotmail.com So often we hear people lament about the state of presidential politics. Here’s a chance to impact it. Note: We have just put a new page up on the website displaying how our campaign has impacted some of those we’ve encountered along the way.
2/21/08
Buckeye Back Road Tour: We headed west out of Columbus stopping at Dan Kremer’s Eat Food For Life Farm in Yorkshire, Ohio. Mr. Kremer is an absolute evangelist when it comes to organic farming. His orientation is that farming could well be considered a pro-Life issue. That is, with modern farmers using toxic herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers, the soil is being tremendously depleted. In turn, a given crop’s nutritional value diminishes in kind. What’s more, some of the toxins get into the food creating ‘chemical cocktails’ in the consumer — that can, ultimately, cause cancer and other disorders. (During an Election 2004 campaign swing through Ohio, I told the Bellefountaine News that because of these modern agricultural practices, we have become our own worst enemy when it comes to: chemical warfare.) Mr. Kremer looks at farming as a vocation and adheres closely to Catholic Rural Life principles. All his crops are organic, his chickens are free range and his cattle are grass fed. And he carries other local farmers’ organic products (honey, nuts…) at his Farm Store on the property as well.