I attended a Bible Study at the Catholic Worker House in Cleveland last night. The subject was the “rich man and Lazarrus (the beggar) at his gate” parable. “Average Joe” cliff note: The rich man doesn’t help Lazarrus much because he’s too focused on his own comfort. He dies and goes to Hell as a result… One Bible study member works for the Inter-Religious Task Force here and talked about the abject poverty of the ‘Lazarrus’s’ in Central America he’s seen. Another woman said as a college project she lived with poor, Hispanic immigrant ‘Lazarrus’s’ near the border. I said I just opened a correspondence from Food for the Poor the day before and was met with the horrifically tragic stick-thin figure of Guillermo, 6, (a young ‘Lazarrus’ in South America) who would starve to death three weeks after the picture was taken. He died clutching a teddy bear and pleading with his mother for help… Meanwhile, most of us in America (lower-middle class, middle class, upper middle class…) are tremendously “rich” by comparison. Yet we have blanketed ourselves in a sea of tremendously deluded rationalizations about why it is acceptable that we live these tremendously comfortable lifestyles (pursuit of “The American Dream,” wanting it “better” for our children, ad infinitum, or rather: ad naseum)… “Do you think when we’re standing there at Judgement with God that He is going to buy into America’s socio-economic strata system about what’s “rich;” or do you think He might go by, oh, a more global perspective?” I asked. What’s more, I postulated: “Lazarrus was at the rich man’s gate day after day. And just like an alley cat, he must of stayed there because he was getting just enough scraps from the rich man to barely sustain himself, no more.” I continued that a modern analogy would be us “rich” people making sure we are comfortable on every level (nice bed, three meals a day and snacks, the heat at 68 at home, air conditioning, comfortable furniture, a fairly full wardrobe…) and then we give a small bit (percentage wise) — not out of our perceived comfort needs, of course; but rather out of our excess. But like the rich man, we delude ourselves into thinking it’s enough. This is quite an eternal bet we’re making. I wonder if the rich man said to God at Judgement: “But what about You’re mercy?” And maybe God said: “What about yours, toward Lazzarus?” …Last night I said that we needed to stand in solidarity, cutting back to two meals a day (no snacks) and sending the savings to the scores of kids who are starving to death. We need to house share (to halve expenses) and cut the heat back in our American homes to 50 (or less), sending the savings to the millions freezing in refugee camps. I once told the Portland News, in Portland, Indiana, that Americans should sleep in sleeping bags on the floor and take the savings (on the comfortable beds, bead spreads, etc.) and send it to the scores of children with AIDS sleeping atop burlap bags on dirt floors in small huts in Uganda, Biafra, Nigeria… “It is all that simple,” I said. “And all that hard.”
11/7/07
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!