average JoeOhio Tour cont: Our family stood in solidarity with some 150 people on a street corner in Mentor, Ohio, as part to the annual nationwide “Life Chain.” I held a sign that said: Abortion Kills Children. My wife Liz held a sign that read: Adoption: A Loving Option. Our campaign revolves around “common sense.” And in the common sense realm: Ten fingers, ten toes, a heart beat in the womb… Ten fingers, ten toes, a heart beat outside the womb. A baby? Well c’mmon, of course! However, a faction of our society has moved so far into denial, that they can’t see the proverbial forest for the trees anymore on this one… Our platform calls for more safety nets for women in crisis pregnancy, including a multi-dimensional set of adoption options. For more, see our Life Issues position.
10/6/07
average JoeOhio Tour cont: We headed down some back roads in Northeastern Ohio this Saturday, passing out information and putting up flyers. About mid-afternoon we stumbled across the Huntsburg Pumpkin Festival where they don’t have a parade, but they do block off the road for a time for the: “Pumpkin Roll.” People in groups of five stand at the top of a steep hill and, that’s right, roll pumpkins. Whichever pumpkin rolls the farthest, wins. As a presidential candidate, I would have loved to have ‘rolled out the first pumpkin.’ But alas, we got there halfway through the event… Liz, Jonathon and I then walked through the festival and handed out literature, talked about politics and learned that at the “Great Pumpkin Weigh-in,” the winning pumpkin was: 1,050 lbs. Rolling that one down the hill would have been something, huh.
10/5/07
average JoeOhio Tour cont.: During halftime of a freshman high school football game in Mentor last night, I passed out literature about the campaign. I passed it out to Lake Catholic fans (Lake Catholic was leading by three touchdowns at that time) because, well, I thought they’d be more receptive than the other fans. Didn’t even need anyone to take a poll, or anything, to figure that out. Note: In the last post I talked about attending a talk by a psychologist on child rearing. I, too, am a former counselor who specialized in addictive family systems. See our recently updated position paper on healing the family.
10/4/04
average JoeOhio Tour cont: We are in motion again, heading into the Norhteast sector of Ohio. We stopped in Mentor where I sat in on an excellent talk by North Canton Catholic psychologist Ray Guarendi. Guarendi, who has a nationally syndicated radio show, said he had 10 children himself — and none of them were “strong willed.” He said the reason for this is because he and his wife are “stronger willed.” His point is that modern culture is allowing for more and more lax discipline, which in turn allows for more and more problems with children. And in regard to culture in general these days, Mr. Guarendi said modern culture is exceedingly “shallow and seductive” to youth. He said he’s talked to so many parents who look at their children at age 18 and lament: “But I didn’t raise them that way!” Mr. Guarendi’s response: “But you understimated what (culture) did.” …Interestingly, the talk was at St. John Vianney Church. St. John Vianney once said in a sermon that if your children are going to Hell, there’s a good chance you’re going to Hell. And he exorted parents to supervise their children at every turn and help them in as many ways as possible to be formed in the ways of holiness.
10/2/07
We’ve come back to Cleveland for a week to catch up on paper work and plan the next few campaign tours. (We are close to topping some 200,000 miles of campaign and research tours since we started this some 15 years ago.) Inbetween planning, I’ve been playing some dusty, back yard football with the boys. Joseph is developing quite a stiff arm.
9/23/07
We traveled to Peebles, Ohio, where I talked with Fr. Paul Donohue who is a Comboni Missionary for the Catholic Church. He was stationed in Kitgum, Uganda for a time. When I asked him about the poverty he saw, he said “poverty is a cultural concept.” He said many in Kitgum were part of subsistence farmer families who were just getting by. He said at one point he took a boy from the Sudan (Third World) to Italy (First World). Going down a street the first day, the boy stopped and stared at a woman — with an obvious mental disorder — walking down the street animatedly talking to herself. The boy later said to Fr. Paul that his country would never be so poor that a person wouldn’t have “someone else to talk to.” Note: During Campaign 2000, we interviewed a priest in Hart, Michigan, who takes upper-middle class American suburbanites to some of the poorest parts of Mexico. He doesn’t take them there to help. He takes them there to experience the solid sense of faith, family and community that can develop in places where people are unfettered by all kinds of material pursuits. The priest calls it a: “reverse mission.” (This doesn’t mean, of course, that people in the Third World shouldn’t have all the basics in food, medicine, shelter…)
9/22/07
During a campaign leg in California, I told CBS News in Monterey that to heal the country, you have to heal the family. I am a former counselor who worked extensively with family system dynamics. If a child grows up in a dysfunctional home and is neglected, verbally abused, physically abused… there is, for instance, internalized anger in the victim. Years later this explodes in violence on the streets, or domestic violence in the home, or prolonged repressed anger that ‘implodes’ physically into a breakdown of the immune system and/or implodes into psychological problems. Those who grow up shorted emotionally also are filled with internal holes they try to fill with compulsive sexual acting out, drugs, compulsive overeating, workaholism… Just look around society today, I told the BG (Bowling Green State University) News… I have just completed an extensive updating of our Heal the Family position paper.
9/21/07
We have stopped at Mark and Judy Hedge’s small farm in Jelloway, Ohio. Mark has put up an array of solar panels and is also the final stages of constructing a wind turbine. The farm is totally off the grid. During a talk at the Green Party National Convention recently, I told the audience I intended to turn the White House “green.” (I might even have it painted that color to stress the point.) There will be solar panels on the roof (like the Carter administration had), a wind turbine and the front yard will be turned into a perma-culture. Won’t that all be fun…
9/20/07
I took some backroads into Bellville and Butler, Ohio, today. I put up a flyer in the IGA Store in Butler (pop. 500) then headed into Bellville where the editor of the Bellville newspaper told me someone had called from Butler to let her know I was in the area. (I love small towns.) While in the V&M Family Restaurant in Bellville, I noticed the Ten Commandments on a plaque on the wall and on the menu it said: “Feel free to say a prayer of thanks before eating…” –Al and Joe. I talked to Joe’s son Shawn who said they are Christians who want others to feel free to pray in public here… I then walked about town passing out flyers and talking to people on the street — without as much fanfare as when John Kerry stopped here briefly during Campaign 2004.
9/18/07
average JoeOhio Tour cont: I gave a talk at St. Peter’s Church in Loudonville about abortion. I said we have to stridently work to end precipating factors leading to abortion. And one of these top factors would be: poverty… Later in the day I attended a youth soccer game and passed out campaign literature inbetween quarters. I also wrote a press release for the Loudonville Times newspaper. In it I said that as “concerned parents” Liz and I are worried about global warming, school shootings, 48 million people without healthcare insurance…