Vote for Joe

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

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.

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.

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.  

Buckeye Back Roads Tour:   I talked at St. Mark’s Church in Lancaster and St. Francis Church in Newark this last week.   The topic: abortion.   During one of the talks, I said for all the carnage at Northern Illinois University this week (six dead, some 15 injured in the shooting), there were about 4,400 little babies who were dismembered and suctioned out of their mothers’ wombs that same day in America.   Shouldn’t that be front page news, everyday?   Of course it should…   We did whistle-stop events in downtown Newark and downtown Columbus this past week as well.   One man-on-the-street in Columbus queried:   “You’re really running for president?”   I replied:   “Well, someone had to do it.”   He smiled…   In Lancaster, I interviewed Carol Sullivan who has been a Red Cross Volunteer since 1985.   She’s responded to numerous crisis all over the country, including 9/11, Hurricane Katrina… While she is a retired nurse, Ms. Sullivan is a woman who believes her faith would call her to continue to work for God.   She is what we colloquially refer to as an “extra-mile American.”