Notes from my wife (and ‘almost First Lady’) Liz: “As we often do when we are home in Cleveland, I and the children volunteered at the Storefront Drop-In Center on Saturday morning. The Storefornt is a Catholic Worker place for the homeless and others in need in the neighborhood. We serve food, provide a shower… This particular cold, wet morning we provided shelter and a place to socialize for a few hours. I was able to hand out some socks recently donated to the Center. This particular morning, I was struck by the lack of gratitude extended me while I was doing this. Than I realized that perhaps I wasn’t owed anything. That is, if I have enough — then anything beyond that doesn’t belong to me anyway. In fact if I have more than enough, maybe — given current global distribution of goods and food — I am a thief. I am taking from my brothers and sisters who can’t get work because it’s gone off shore. Or I’m stealing from others who work in sweatshops in these jobs off shore, so I can own two pair of Nikes at an affordable price to me — but a year’s wages to the shoe’s maker. Then there are those on unemployment lines (and in the Storefront) who have been pushed off their small farms by big corporate farming, so I can buy an affordable burger for a buck… Why should any of these people say thanks to me for giving them (socks this day) what, in a more just and equitable world, would belong to them in the first place. Note: The next week I cleaned out a few extra pairs of socks, and gave them back to my brothers and sisters.
11/29/07
During at talk to a Political Science Class at Baldwin Wallace College earlier in the week, I said our lifestyles are such that the U.S. emits 25% of the world’s carbon dioxide (the most of any country). And according to a good number of scientists, global warming is already triggering super- charged hurricanes, super- charged cyclones, drought and famine in the more arid countries… These storms, these droughts, are wreaking all kinds of havoc and carnage. So when you connect the dots, I said to the students, us Americans are (that’s right): terrorists. And if we don’t start conserving in a major way, in tandem with going to much more alternative energy, we’ll continue to be (that’s right again): terrorists. I mean, do we think this is all lost on God?
11/28/07
My wife Liz and I attended a Bible Study at the Catholic Worker house in Cleveland. We’ve been studying the book: Sabbath Economics: Household Practices. Liz and I were asked to summarize the chapter on Solidarity. In part of this chapter, author Matthew Colwell writes: “…solidarity implies an alignment of ones location, life, vision and hope with that of the poor and marginalized.” I said as an example of this, several years ago students at Bluffton College built a “tent city” and slept out in the March cold in “solidarity” with people in Afghanistan being displaced to refugee camps when the U.S. started bombing that country. These students not only entered into some of these refugees’ “location,” but they also raised money for a Habitat for Humanity home to be built in Afghanistan. (A Habitat home there costs $2,000.) Some Bluffton communtiy members, including our family, put up tents on campus in solidarity with the students. And our daughter Sarah, then six-years-old, told a reporter from the Lima News that we were lucky to have a tent — because she had just seen people sleeping in cardboard boxes in Juarez, Mexico, during a “Border Tour” we’d just completed.
11/27/07
I gave a talk tonight to a Political Science Class at Baldwin Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. Professor Tom Sutton said as Franklin Delanore Roosevelt asked the country to sacrifice during war time, the professor said he is personally thinking about sacrificing for the duration of the Iraq War. He said he was considering imposing a 50 cent a gallon of gasoline tax on himself. Professor Sutton said he’d then send the money to a fund to help soldiers coming back with, say, PTSD symptomology, or other problems. I have so often heard on the campaign trail how it almost feels, to many Americans, like we’re really not at war as we go on with our day to day tasks with hardly a thought to Iraq. Making a personal choice to sacrifice for the war effort on a regular basis, I believe, would be a good thing.
11/24/07
We attended a “Fair Trade Party” at Beth and Al Mancuso’s place in Cleveland. They were selling fair trade goods and food, coffee, tea, etc… from Third World countries. The intent is to help the poor in, say, Latin America, South America, Africa… get a “fair” price for their crops, their art, their clothes… I recently told the Wheeling Intelligencer newspaper that our administration would highly favor this type of fair trade imports and would stridently discourage free trade that considerably advantages, say: corporate farms in America that can grow at such volume and ship cheaply enough that the farm can actually undercut subsistence farmers in Venezuala trying to sell to their local markets up the street. This is not being “American strong,” this is an absolute social justice travesty. Note: One of the people at the the Mancuso’s Fair Trade Party had a sweatshirt on with a picture of a Native American and the words: “Homeland Security: Fighting Terrorism Since 1492.” How apt.
11/22/07
Thanksgiving Reflection: We had Thanksgiving Dinner at the Catholic Worker House among the poor and homeless of Cleveland (currently the poorest city in the country). The camarderie, and grace, this evening was palpable. The turkey wasn’t bad either… On a board in the house the following was written for the occasion: “And don’t forget this country was formed on the conquest of stolen land and that millions of indigenous people were slaughtered at the hands of the white man.” …How true, huh. And it’s not enough, we believe, to just lament the fact. It is up to us to make it right — which means way more than a legislative, formalized apology. We need to make significant tangible amends and go about the task of forming, through a melding of cultures, what God probably intended for America since the beginning — or rather, since 1492. Note: To view how we might go about that, see our Native American position paper.
11/20/07
We are moving into the Christmas season and many people in America will spend all kinds of time and money shopping for Christmas presents for people who, in most cases, already have more than enough. Meanwhile, famine sweeps through Somolia, Darfur… with scores of starving little children pleading through hollow eyes for a mere sip of milk. Then there are the million homeless people in Bengladesh in the aftermath of last week’s catastrophic typhoon, who are sleeping in the mud, or desperately looking for their loved ones, or desperately looking for food… And we’re headed for the Mall while singing stuff like Silent Night or The First Noel. Are we (spiritually) nuts? Do we think that the child who was born on Christmas Day and went on to say all this stuff about helping the poor, would think heading to the Mall — in the midst of so much potentially relievable human suffering out there — would be a good idea? Hardly. Let’s give our suburban children only one gift this year. Let’s give them a gift with eternal ramifications. Let’s give them an example of how to really help others — until it hurts.
11/17/07
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change just released their final report (over a five year study) on Climate Change. The NY Times reported it is, by far, the most alarming report, indicating we could be looking at a hyper-accelarated global warming scenario in the near future. The story said an unrelated Energy Agency report recently indicated that if current policies weren’t changed — the world would warm six degrees by 2030. This would be nothing short of absolutely catastrophic. So… It’s my belief that we can’t wait for worldwide government leaders to meet in a couple months to craft what will replace the Kyoto Protocol in 2012. For those (“change agents” in your neighborhoods, churches, civic groups…) who believe the UN, and other, Climate Change reports are valid, it’s time to — in a ‘hyper-accelerated’ fashion — step up your energy conservations practices, exponentially. And this is not just about saving the planet in the future, it’s about us being responsible for killing people now. I told the Wellington News in Ohio that if our energy gluttony in America is leading to super-charged hurricanes, super-charged typhoons (2,300 dead in the Bengladesh typhoon last week, and counting); current droughts and famine in more arid countries, etc… we are, in a very real sense: killing people now! And do Americans really think that we are going to be able to play the “unintended consequences” card with God at Judgement on this thing? I mean if we know there is a distinct: cause and effect. C’mmon. This isn’t moral theology rocket science. This is simply what it is: killing people! (For instance, turning on the air conditioning in America is like metaphorically pulling the trigger on a gun that shoots slow motion bullets at people starving to death from global warming, drought caused famine in Nigeria.) As a presidential candidate, I would strongly suggest all American ‘change agents’ out there start sacrificing tremendously and influencing as many others as possible, now! Note: For suggestions on how to do this, see our Energy Policy. Note 2: For our campaign supporters: We need supportive letters to the editor about our campaign to Ohio newspapers. Just google “Ohio newspapers,” and go to the letter to the editor e-mail links on the various papers. It’s important this starts happening now in the context of our current Ohio strategy. Thanks.
11/15/07
The NY Times carried a front page story on Delray Beach, Fla., which they dubbed: “The Oasis of Sobriety.” The reason for this is because of Delray’s “compact geography and critical mass of recovering people.” There are recovering radio shows here, a number of rehab centers, scores of halfway houses, coffee shop therapy groups… We would do well, I believe, to mimic this proto-type in towns across America — and not just for alcohol and drug addiction. On a West Coast campaign swing, I told CBS News in Monterey, California, that we have become: a society of addicts. That is, many are now addicted to gambling, work, sex, television, overeating… I am a former addictions counselor, and know that the best chance for recovery is being surrounded by people consistently working on similiar issues — often with the base for recovery being the 12 Steps of such groups as Alcoholics Anonymous, Codependents Anonmyous, Overeater’s Anonymous, Gambler’s Anonymous, Debtor’s Anonymous… It is this collective, addictive/compluslive behavior that translates into: higher crime rates, more broken homes, more abortion, more personal debt, more physical and psychiatric disorders… I told the Salem News in Ohio that to heal the country, you have to heal the family — starting with these core issues. For our position paper on this…
11/14/07
My wife Liz and I are coaching a Rec. Center indoor soccer team for the next six weeks in Cleveland. The Comets. We had our first game last night. It was a spirited match, with kids (mostly Black and Hispanic) lost in the exciting play, the cheering… as most youth would be. The difference down here? At halftime I came across a plain clothes police officer looking into the gym from one of the doors — with a gun holstered to his side. After the game, we drove one of our players, Devon (not his real name), 9, home through a nearby rough neighborhood. (One he often walks through after dark). Devon pointed out some older boys on a street corner. “Them’s the ‘dope boys,'” he said, rather matter of factedly. “They always trying to get me to do crack.” As we drove away from Devon’s place, I couldn’t help but think what an absolute (spiritual) scandal it is that we let these little kids in these big cities, day after day, try to dodge hunger, bullets and needles (or crack)… as so many just continue on with their comfortable, and insular, suburban lives — without virtually any concern. Note: For more about our take on urban youth…