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…
10/22/07
We attended Mass in Coshocton, Ohio, this morning. The gospel reading was about a farmer who has a good harvest. Instead of giving some of it away to people less fortunate, he builds another barn to store all of it for himself. God calls him a “fool” because, apparently, he’s headed to Hell for that decision. The priest in his homily then said to a group of rather well off parishioners(compared to the Third World)this wasn’t, necessarily, about “divesting” one’s material stuff… I sat flabergasted. There are some 24,000 people starving to death every day in the world, millions more people are without the basics in medicine, shelter, clothes… Of course, this is about divesting a lot of our American stuff.
10/20/07
average JoeOhio Tour cont: We were told the Circleville Pumpkin Festival outdraws the Ohio State Fair. So, of course, this was our next stop. There were pumpkin rolls, pumpkin pie, pumpkin ice cream (yuk), pumpkin cup cakes… The winning pumpkin in the size category was: 1,508 lbs. Steroids? After going through the heart of the festival passing out campaign flyers, I came across part of the parade route, which was lined with chairs. It was a couple hours before the parade, but some people were already seated. So I walked up the street passing out more cards and telling them I was “…the early part of the parade.” See, we don’t even need a highly-paid campaign strategist, or anything. Note: A front page story in the Lancaster Eagle Gazette today noted that my campaign was, in part, focused on global warming, world-wide poverty, and the decay of American’s inner cities.
10/19/07
average JoeOhio Tour still cont.: We did a whislte-stop in downtown Lancaster, Ohio, today. Mayor David Smith stopped by to say hello. Nice guy. A reporter from the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette also came by for an interview. She asked me about my stances. I said the day before, I talked with Gloria Knott in Cambridge, Ohio. She had been on two medical mission trips to Haitti and said the people there, including the children, were horrendously malnourished (“…a piece of sugar cane may be all a child has to eat for a day there,” she said). What’s more, many children spend the entire day just looking for small amounts of clean water and many sleep in cinder block structures at night with no roofs and partial walls… I told the reporter from the Lancaster Eagle that it is “unconscienable” that we have a 33% obesity problem in America in the face of this poverty. It is just as inconscienable that we ‘gorge’ ourselves on excessive entertainment, nice cars, quite comfortable homes… while these little kids in the Third World starve. Are we nuts? Do we not think we’re going to have to answer for this at Judgement? And the only reason we’re not hearing this from the pulpits of America (for the most part) is because our so-called spiritual leaders (priests, ministers, etc.) are gorging themselves on excessive entertainment, nice cars, comfortable rectories and homes…
10/18/07
average JoeOhio Tour cont: We drove into Cambridge, Ohio, where we did a downtown whistle-stop. A reporter from the Daily Jeffersonian newspaper did an interview. We talked at length about global warming. I said, among other things, that like in war time: I would ask the American people to sacrifice. Even if that meant rationing energy use, etc. She responded that it really is a war on the environment that we are seeing today. For more on our environmental stance as it relates to global warming and other issues, see…
10/17/07
We did a whistle-stop event in downtown Stuebenville. Reporter Dave Gossett from the Herald Star newspaper interviewed me. I said we believed in a consistent life ethic that sets us against abortion, euthanasia, embyronic stem cell research, pollution, poverty… and anything else that ends life prematurely. And in regard to poverty, I told Mr. Gossett that our family had moved to the inner city of Cleveland to live side-by-side with the poor in solidarity (and to help). That is the real key to changing our turbulent inner cities. It’s just getting people and churches, for instance, to get behind this.