Tue Feb 09 2010
By JACK PALMER
Joe Schriner grew up watching the Cleveland Browns and swimming in non-EPA-approved Lake Erie.
He graduated from Bowling Green State University, and has lived in the small Ohio towns of Ripley and Bluffton.
Now he wants to be the Buckeye states ninth favorite son to become president of the United States.
We declared last Nov. 3, Schriner stated on Wednesday during a visit to The Crescent-News offices. We were gracious, we waited five hours after George Bushs acceptance speech.
Since then, the self-proclaimed average Joe has traversed 11,000 miles and 15 states.
Ive got a lot of support in places like Minnesota, where they seem to be more independent thinkers, he related. But two weeks ago we decided to concentrate our efforts on getting on the ballot in Ohio.
Schriner, 50, needs 5,000 signatures in the state to become ballot-eligible for the 2008 general election.
Right now what I am doing is establishing contacts in every community to help spread the petitions, he explained. We wont start circulating until 2006. Next summer well be going from county fair to county fair.
During his stay in Defiance, he met with local Catholic deacon George Newton, who teaches the life skills class for the local RAVENS organization.
Its a great program and is very representative of my philosophy that we need to do more than just throw money at the poor, stated Schriner. We need to teach them skills to help themselves, skills like how to get prepared for a job interview and how to be a good employee.
Schriner also discussed a recent conversation he had with Edgerton resident Ruth Kimpel.
When she was 18, she was a newspaper correspondent who rode around town knocking on doors asking people if they had any news to report, he said. That wouldnt happen today.
I think its a step forward to go back to those days in this country, when neighbors knew neighbors and kids were not afraid to go play sandlot ball on their own.
Schriner earned a journalism degree from Bowling Green State University in 1978 and worked as a reporter for the Sandusky Register. From 1983-90, he served as a drug and alcohol counselor in Lorain and Cleveland.
For the next eight years he traveled Americas back roads, using his journalism skills to interview average Joe citizens who were going the extra mile to help their communitys kids, their poor and their natural environment.
I felt kind of like Charles Kuralt without the following, he explained. As I traveled, I filled a lot of notebooks with these interviews.
He ran for president in 2000 and 2004 and is now on the back roads again, campaigning and spreading his message without a large war chest, lavish fund-raisers or high-gloss TV ads.
Americans need to consider slowing the pace of their lives, he stated. Theres been a resurgence of mom-and-pop stores in the downtown areas. We need to make our downtowns more walkable and bicycle friendly, and slow the speed limits.
Environmental stewardship is just as important to Schriners platform as fiscal stewardship.
We promote that because we think we should be cutting back on the burning of fossil fuels, he said. There should be a shift to more alternative-fuel vehicles. We should approach these high gas prices as an opportunity rather than a crisis.
And, he added, if everyone in the United States recycled their newspapers, we would save 500,000 trees every week.
Unlike some politicians, Schriner is truly pro-life.
He is against abortion, euthanasia and the death penalty. He advocates many more local safety nets for mothers and fathers in crisis pregnancy.
We believe if you heal the family, you heal the country, he said. We need to teach more conflict resolution in schools. We need to improve community programs on relationship building and healthy parenting.
He has a unique foreign policy proposal: establishing a U.S. Department of Peace.
We have 12,000 people in the Peace Corps and it should be millions, he stated. We can do that by offering volunteers the same incentives as military, like long-term insurance benefits and GI bill-type programs.
Every fifth- through eighth-grader should adopt a foreign country, he continued. They should read articles about that countrys current events, learn the history, perhaps even start a pen pal relationship with someone their age there. We need to foster the global community. The world doesnt have to be viewed as us vs. them.
After 15 years of research, we have a platform and blueprint for America that is not only viable but is the direction the country needs to go in, he asserted.
Schriner and his wife, Liz, have three children, Sarah, 10; Joseph, 8; and Jonathan, 2. Since the 2004 election, the family has moved from Bluffton to inner-city Cleveland.
More people in the suburbs need to move back into the cities and live side-by-side with the poor and help them help themselves, said Schriner. My wife and I work at a homeless outreach and our children are very involved. It raises their social consciousness. Theyre not living in a bubble.
What we try to do most as a family is practice our faith, whether thats attending daily Mass or volunteering with an outreach to help the disadvantaged, he added. We try to center our life around the gospels, because we think, ultimately, thats why were here. Some days we do better than others.
Schriner said he would welcome campaign contributions of any amount. For more information about his campaign, visit his website at www.voteforjoe.com or contact his campaign at 419-792-9059.
Were optimistic, he said. We think its feasible to win Ohio.
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