During a phone-in interview with MCAM TV in Manchester, New Hampshire, this week, I was asked my take on outsourcing of jobs overseas. I said the burden for this, for the most part, falls sqarely on the shoulders of the American consumers. That is, because we’ve become addicted to cheap, foreign-made products sold at Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target…, we are, in a very real sense, subsidizing the outsourcing. What’s more, our subsidization is perpetuating sweat shop conditions and pay in other countries worldwide. As an example, on a research trip to Juarez, Mexico, we learned workers in multi-national plants there were making $3 a shift — and 200,000 people were living in abject poverty as a result. Our consumer choices are moral choices, whether we have spiritual leadership telling this, or not.
11/6/07
I did a phone interview with Joe Lahr and Jeff Kassel on the MCAM TV Morning Show in Manchester, New Hampshire today. In discussing healthcare, Mr. Lahr said he’d like to see government run Universal Healthcare like most First World countries now have. And he added that because of this, many people in Europe (as an example) have more life span longevity… I said we advocate a decentralized Regional Health Care System of local taxes and supplemental, benevolent citizen healthcare initiatives “…for local people to help local people in a community.” For instance, I explained in Monroe, Louisiana, we researched a “Community Pharmacy” subsidized with volunteer staff, people donating money, doctors donating free samples… all to help low income people. And I added that if you allow a conduit for these types of benevolent local initiatives (as opposed to a wholly, federally-controlled government system), you allow for more opportunties for “eternal longevity (in Heavan)” for those willing to help. And we think, ultimately, this is a saner spiritual paradigm.
11/5/07
I was stumping with a guy on the streets of Cleveland yesterday. He said he was opposed to the money being spent on the Space Program because there are so many things on this ‘planet’ that need fixing. I recently told the Wapakoneta News in Wapakoneta, Ohio (home of astrounat Neil — “One smal step for man…” Armstrong), that as president I would work to end the Space Program. (How’s that for being politically gutsy?) I told the reporter, for instance, that scores of children in the Third World are dying every day of contaminated drinking water or no food — again, on this ‘planet.’ And we’re spending billions of dollars to get to other planets? C’mmon!
11/3/07
In the wake of a President Bush veto of legislation to provide $23 billion for water projects across the country, Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio said he would work to override the veto, according to the Associated Press. “We are facing a water infrastructure crises, and our national investment in water resources has not kept pace with our level of economic expansion,” said Voinovich. The Southeast, which is currently experiencing a major drought, is having water problems of their own. Ad hoc citizens groups, etc., are meeting to look at some of the problems, and solutions. At one of these groups, a friend of ours, Tom Farmer, who is the Board President for the Coosa River Basin Initiative in Rome, Georgia, said: “”If only we had such… passion for conservation.” Mr. Farmer recommended that a Statewide Water Management Plan should be “strong in language, with clear and enforceable rules.” I couldn’t help but think, is it a “water infrastructure” crisis we’re experiencing nationwide, as Sen. Voinovich postulates? Or are we woefully short on what Mr. Farmer in Georgia points out: conservation. It’s my belief that it is the latter. During an interview on the We The People television show in Hibbings, Minnesota, I said our family of five share the same bath water to conserve. (They used to do that in the old metal washtubs every Saturday night in this country.) What’s more, we don’t take a bath or shower every day. We have become so ‘antiseptic’ in this country that we think showering daily is a must. It isn’t. Also, our research across the country has intersected us with: people who collect rainwater in barrels at the bottom of down spouts to water their gardens, etc., people who don’t water their lawns and have learned to live with less than green grass, and dare I say, even: brown spots; people who actually take GI showers; people who use waterless compost toilets; and, (Are you ready for this: “Super Water Saver Woman.”) No kidding. The other night at a Bible Study on Halloween night (“costumes optional”), one woman showed up as Super Water Saver Woman, cape, tights, the whole thing. Among her ‘heroic’ strategies — and there were a number — she saves her shower water and buckets it into the toilet when it needs flushing. And she doesn’t flush after every pee either. (That in itself is seven gallons of water per: flush — in less you have a “low flush toilet.”) Note: The point to all this is that while millions of people in South America, Africa, Indonesia… search desperately for clean drinking water every day, we’ve become tremendously gluttonous when it comes to consuming water in America. We should be conserving exponentially (our administration would propose water meters on every home and business) and taking the savings to help these other countries have more wells, sanitation systems, desalinization plants… so they, too, can have safe drinking water. And it shouldn’t take a drought to get us thinking about conservation. It should merely take a measure of spiritual principle — focused on social justice for all.
11/1/07
A guy who’s been living on the streets of Cleveland on and off for years, stopped by for coffee at our place the other night. He talked about families living in a nearby housing project. “They walk out of the doors not knowing whether they’re going to be dodging bullets, or not.” he lamented. Cleveland’s homicide rate has skyrocketed this year. Cleveland is currently the poorest metropolitan area in the country. The paradigm here is about calling for more police, more Citizen Patrols… Yet the real, long-term answer is for some of the advantaged in suburban and small town America to roll up their sleeves and move back into these decaying urban centers to live side-by-side with the disadvantaged. Not for ‘gentrification’ purposes, which merely pushes the poor out. But rather to bring a heightened measure of social justice, camaradarie and a community garden, or two. Note: As an example of how an aspect of this would work…
10/28/07
I have just finished Project Vote Smart’s “2008 Presidential Political Courage Test.” The following is an example of another 100 word essay I wrote for the test, this one on “Social Security Issues”: I told the News Gazette in Champaign, Illinois, that we would inspire programs to reestablish the elderly as valued members of their communities. (This is the essence of “social security.”) We also believe the Social Security Fund should be a “lock box,” where the money put in isn’t diverted. And we believe the SS Fund should be like paying into another insurance fund — the same as car insurance, health insurance… You only collect if you need it. That is, if a retiree’s yearly income — from pensions, stocks, bonds… — exceeds $70,000 (currently an arbitrary figure), then one wouldn’t be elibible to collect that year. Note: This would help keep the fund bouyant as more and more Baby Boomers move into retirement, and it would bring more of a measure of social justice to society. And along that vein… Note 2: Some friends from Georgia just got me a subscription to the Chersterton Society magazine: Gilbert. In a review of the book God Has Not Changed, reviewer Chris Chan writes: “Throughout these essays, Ellis (the author) makes it clear that God wants us to be good, chaste, honest, temperate, prudent, faithful, charitable, and hopeful, but He does not want us to be bunch of wussies. [I would agree with that.]
10/27/07
For the past several days, I continue to work on Vote Smart’s “2008 Presidential Candidate Political Courage Test.” Part of the test calls for 100 word essays on various topics. The following is another of those answers per: “National Security Issues”: I told the Athens News that we have to objectively analyze the reasons for terrorism toward the United States. Some of these include: our own massive nuclear weapons build-up; training froeign paramilitary groups in terror techniques; exploiting other contries resources… In addition, author Richard Horsley notes that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were, in part, motivated by those “angry at the western capitalist consumerism that has invaded their lives (through media/entertainment, etc.) and undermined their traditional values.” Then there were the Iraq sanctions that killed some 1 million people; U.S. backed Israili military; U. S. Military in Saudi Arabia…
10/25/07
Since we’ve been back in Cleveland, I’ve been working on an extensive “2008 Presidential Political Courage Test” for Project Vote Smart. Part of the “test,” is providing 100 word synopsis on various stances. The following is my response to the category of Crime Issues: I told the Rome (GA) News that our administration’s paradigm would be one of “Restorative Justice,” as opposed to dead-end warehousing of prisoners. This would include creative and comprehensive rehabilitation (pyschological counseling, drug and alcohol treatment, education options…) On the streets we would push for much more Community Oriented Policing, Citizen Patrols, Neigborhood Crime Alert progams, all of which we’ve looked at in our reserach trips across the country. And on a systemic level when it comes to crime, we propose stepped up efforts to end poverty, heal the family, curb alcohol and drug addiction… all major contributors to crime. Note: For an indepth look at our position on crime…
10/24/07
I was talking to my wife Liz’s “Mum,” Dawn, who is here from New Zealand for a visit. Back home, Dawn and her husband Stuart, house share with one of their daughter’s families. Our platform calls for a considerable amount of house sharing, I told the LaCross Tribune in Wisconsin during one of our recent tours. It only makes sense, common sense. That is, if we want to reverse global warming (and the environmental cancer of urban sprawl), we should double up in homes to share heated space, to share lighted rooms, to share furniture and appliances (which all take fossil fuels to make). What’s more, we would halve expenses, freeing up all kinds of money for carbon offset projects, humanitarian aid programs to the Third World, etc. The only thing keeping most of us from doing this in America is: our selfishness around space and our fear of intimacy and community building with others. Granted, these can be big things. However: GET OVER IT AMERICA — so our children will have a world to grow up in!
10/23/07
We have returned to Cleveland for a pit stop. Last night my daughter Sarah was reading from a book about the economy. It noted that until the 1960s, hardly anyone used seat belts. Then, thanks to consumer advocate Ralph Nader, seat belts became mandatory. Interestingly enough, you’d think people would be safer. Wrong. Without seat belts people had a tendency to drive slower and safer. With seat belts people started thinking they were bullet proof and began driving faster and more recklessly. This, ultimately, produced more accidents. There are currently some 33,000 vehicular fatalities on the nation’s roads every year, and many more maimings. (By comparison, we’ve lost about 3,500 soldiers in Iraq in the past four years.) Our highways are war zones! We just don’t look at it that way, because we are motor vehicle addicts in denial… Sarah and I concluded that speed limits should be lowered considerably (20 mph in the city and 40 mph on the highways), in tandem with seat belts still being mandatory. With these speeds, most everyone would be so much safer. People also wouldn’t drive as much, which consequently would considerably curb global warming gases. What’s more, people would start looking for jobs closer to home, which would curb global warming gases even more, etc., etc., etc…