Road Photos
"Our cross country research and campaign travels have taken us down some 250,000 miles of American roads, many of them back roads. It has been a "Listening Tour" in the purest sense of that phrase, as we've listened to 'experts' and 'average Joe' citizens' takes on the issues of the day. And our platform, as you will read in the longer position papers, can best be described as: An American People's Platform." --Joe
Campaign talks
In this picture, I'm giving a campaign talk in Franklin, Massachusetts, during our "Original 13 Colonies Tour" at the start of Campaign 2000. This was one of a number of park and town square talks during that tour. Over the years, I've also talked in high schools, to student groups at colleges (University of Notre Dame, Northern Arizona State University, Xavier University, University of Dayton... to name some). As I've talked in civic venues, to church groups, at in-home events. I often say that we do all the things the other campaigns do, but without as much fanfare. That is, without as much fanfare -- yet. (Photo by Liz)
"...concerned parents"
This picture was taken of our Sarah and Joseph during a talk I gave at a town square in Keene, New Hampshire, during Campaign 2000. I told a columnist from the Keene Sentinel newspaper (as I've told scores of reporters over the years) that Liz and I are running as your "typical concerned Midwestern parents." We're concerned about our kids, or anybody's kids for that matter, inheriting a world of climate chaos, abortion, violence on the streets, an astronomical national debt... I mean, what sane parent wouldn't be worried about that?
Big Boots
We have a couple times done extensive "In Search of Lake Woebegone Tours" in the state of Minnesota. Although we have never found famed story teller Garrison Keillor's mythical town, we've definitely found the "small town spirit" of it as we've traveled Minnesota's back roads, and so many of the back roads of America in general for that matter. Here we have stopped in Red Wing, Minnesota, home of Red Wing Boots. Throughout the downtown are a series of big boot sculptures, like the one in this picture. (For scale, we posed our Sarah, 8, in the background.) I told a reporter from Red Wing's newspaper that, as president, after I get to the bottom of the UFO phenomenon, I'd try to get to the bottom of the weird appearance of these big boots. (Photo by Joe)
Harriet Tubman Museum
We stopped at the Harriet Tubman Museum in Auburn, New York. We also followed an Underground Railroad Route from Georgia to Ohio during one of our campaign tours. This is a tremendously significant part of American history. It is representative of courage to do what's right in the face of tremendous danger. And it is also representative of a blot on the American conscience (slavery) that has never fully been made right, and has left many in trans-generational poverty loops that continue to this day. After our family participated in an Underground Railroad: "Footprints to Freedom Tour" in Ripley, Ohio, I told the News Democrat newspaper in the area that Blacks are "...still enslaved in the ghettos (and rural towns) of America." And our administration would work stridently to change this. See our position paper on: Amends to Blacks. (Photo by Joe)
Bicycle Tours
We have done three bicycle tours in our campaigning over the years. During Campaign 2000, we did a five-state, 2,000-mile "Back to Basics Bicycle Tour" of the Midwest. (Here we are readying for another day on that tour in Mankato, Minnesota.) We also did a 1,300-mile Buckeye Trail Bicycle Tour around Ohio during Campaign 2004. And in Campaign 2008, we did a 300-mile End Global Warming Tour in Ohio as well. While not on the road, our family generally walks or bicycles anywhere within a five-mile radius of our home, both for the exercise and for the environment.
(photo by Eric Schaffhausen)
Ohio Tours
In all our extensive campaign travels, we have several times done "Front Porch" tours of our home state, Ohio. These tours have taken us to all 88 counties in Ohio. Here our first first campaign vehicle is parked in front of a small town Ohio Bicentennial mural. (In fact, that conversion van/motor home, at times, probably ran similar to the Model T, or whatever kind of car that is pictured in the mural.) I told a CBS News crew out of Columbus that, while we didn't pander to anyone, I wanted the people of Columbus to know that when we got to D.C. -- "...we're going to put a big buckeye on the top of the Capitol Dome." The reporter smiled and said: "You've got my vote." (photo by Joe)
Appalachian Mountain Tour
A tour of the Appalachian Mountains took us through Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia. According to Kentucky writer Jesse Stuart: "Appalachia is anywhere there is coal in the ground." The culture, as we found, is an eclectic mix of folk music, story telling, crafts, home remedies, food preservation, and poverty. A lot of poverty. Our administration would work on the latter. (photo by Joe)
Native Americans
We have extensively cris-crossed the country looking, in depth, at Native American issues. We have been on South Dakota's Rosebud Reservation, Minnesota's White Earth Reservation, the Osage Reservation in Oklahoma, the Hopi and Hualapai Reservations in Arizona... We followed the "Tail of Tears" some 1,000 miles from Georgia to Oklahoma. This is a picture of Gabe Kanawite at his home on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico. He told us he passed up a career in business to become a drug and alcohol counselor "...in order to help his people." (Photo by Joe)
Drug and Alcohol Recovery
On a tour of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, we visited the Phoenix House for recovering alcoholics and addicts. Alcohol and drug addiction are huge issues in America at this point, sparking a constellation of societal problems: domestic violence, a host of other crimes, divorce, highway maiming and fatalities... On a stop in Fostoria, Ohio, Mark West, who started a two-year drug and alcohol treatment model for federal prisons, told us that some 80% of those in prison committed crimes under the influence, or committed the crime to get money for drugs or alcohol. Our administration would push for more comprehensive treatment programs to help increase the rate of recovery exponentially. (Photo by Joe)
Amish
In our travels, we have spent a significant amount of time in a good number of "Old Order" Amish, Quaker and Mennonite settlements in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois... We have extensively looked at these peoples' lifestyles because they are so tremendously conducive to a strong sense of faith, strong family solidity, strong interdependent communities... Instead of merely looking at these lifestyles as, say, "nostalgic" or "quaint"; perhaps we should be looking to emulate more of what they're about into our own lives in mainstream America. Here we were at an Old Order Quaker farm in Barnesville, Ohio. While many of these Old Order people shun photographs of themselves, our Sarah and Joseph didn't mind mugging for the camera. (Photo by Joe)
Border Tours
We did several border tours through Texas, New Mexico and Arizona looking at Hispanic immigration issues up close. We also went across the border into Juarez, Mexico, the "murder capitol" of that country. Violence was rampant, as was poverty. This is a typical home on the west side of Juarez. There is no running water, no sewers, no electricity... and the children are hungry. A worker in the multi-national factories here makes, on average, $3 a shift, not an hour, a shift. The question isn't: Why some of these people are risking border crossings? The question is: Why aren't we helping them more? (Photo by Joe)
Policing
Crime in America is on the rise. We traveled the country extensively looking for creative solutions to curb this. In Indio, California, for instance, we looked at a Citizens Patrol, where citizens get training, uniforms, squad cars (but no guns). They patrol and call in offenses. In Montpelier, Ohio, it was an innovative Crime Stoppers program. In Newport, Rhode Island, it was the highly effective Community Oriented Policing (COP). Officer Marc Santi (pictured here) told us it's a throw back to the "old days." He bicycles a beat, shoots hoops with neighborhood kids, has coffee with the "Mrs. O'Leary's" of the neighborhood... (photo by Joe)
Country Music Highway
We followed the Country Music Highway (Rt. 23) through eastern Kentucky. This is a 144-mile stretch that goes north and south through seven counties. The amount of country music talent that came from this area is absolutely phenomenal. To name a few: Loretta Lynn, Billy Ray Cyrus, Ricky Skaggs, Dwight Yoakam, Patty Loveless... Traveling further south, we met with country music historian Paul Hughes in Kingman, Tennessee. He explained many Irish and Welsh immigrants came to this area and would sing "mountain ballads," accompanied with fiddles, banjos, washboards... Over time, songs about the hard life of the local coal miners started to dominate the musical themes. Pictured here is a country music mural in Bristol, TN / VA (it sits right on the line). This is purported to be the "birthplace" of country music. (photo by Joe)
Little House(s) on the Prarie
As our kids were growing up, my wife Liz read them all the Little House on the Prairie books. They were captivated by the stories. As we traveled, we tried to stop at a number of home sites for them, to make the stories come more alive for them. We stopped in Pepin, Wisconsin, De Smet, South Dakota (pictured here), Walnut Grove, Minnesota... While in Walnut Grove, our Sarah and Joseph swam in Plum Creek. At one point Sarah, then 7, looked up at Mom and I and said: "I feel as if I'm actually touching Laura." It was one of our favorite moments of the traveling. (Photo by Joe)
Hubbard House (Underground RR)
We stopped at The Hubbard House in Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio, on the shores of Lake Erie. This was the last stop in America for some slaves heading to Canada. William Hubbard was a member of the Ashtabula County Anti-Slavery Society. He also helped start the Ashtabula Sentinel, an Abolitionist newspaper. It is so extremely important to keep the memories of this part of American history alive. One of the most significant books I read -- over and over -- to our kids (and they still remember most of the words) is: Follow The Drinking Gourd about slaves following the Big Dipper and North Star to freedom. (Photo by Joe)
Bastrop barrel art
We stopped in Bastrop, Louisiana, where there is this odd kind of "barrel art" all over town. Bastrop, I was told, is an "oil town," and the gussied up oil barrels are a tribute to that. Pictured here looks like a razor back that got loose from Arkansas, or something. We have become a nation addicted to oil and glorifying oil might not be, oh, the best thing. (For instance, we recently went to the Gulf Coast for the first anniversary of the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. This was an absolutely catastrophic spill that will play havoc with the Gulf's eco-system for decades. And have I mentioned climate change?) We must, I believe, move away from oil as quickly as possible. (photo by Joe)
Street corner stumping
The family and I have stumped on hundreds and hundreds of street corners around America in our campaign travels. We have shared our thoughts, listened to people -- and in all this grassroots democracy goes on, and on. What's more, as we've heard what people have had to say on the streets, we've plugged some of their ideas into an extensive set of position papers that, we believe, can move the country in a direction it desperately needs to go at this point. Here I'm stumping with a group of seniors in Steubenville, Ohio. (photo by Dennis Sadowski)
Old Route 66
We have done a lot of tours with Americana themes, including Old Route 66. The ethos of Old Route 66 is reflective of our campaign. That is, it is symbolic of a slower time in America. According to a story in National Geographic, it is representative of a time when it wasn't about the destination on a super highway, but it was about the trip itself. The National Geographic writer noted it was a time when you could get a homemade pie at a restaurant and when the waitress asked you where you were going -- she was actually really interested in where you were going. Pictured here is Richard Delgato, who is involved with the New Mexico Route 66 Preservation Society. (photo by Joe)
I Love Lucy
We stopped in Lakewood, New York, which is billed as the hometown of actress Lucille Ball. And all over town were 'Lucille memorabilia.' For instance, our campaign vehicle is parked in the shadows of a 'Lucille and Desi' (Arnez) stamp at (Where else?) Lakewood's Post Office. The I Love Lucy Show (Andy Griffith Show, Leave it to Beaver, Flipper...) is reminiscent of a more wholesome time in America. A time, when it comes to media entertainment, that perhaps we should have never left. I once told The Review newspaper in Alliance, Ohio, that our campaign asks people to go back to the 1950's in regard to a slower pace of life, vibrant downtowns, and neighbors helping neighbors more. Just think: Norman Rockwell. (Photo by Joe)
Big Bat
We stopped in Louisville, Kentucky, to visit the Louisville Slugger Museum. Outside, leaning against the building, is a 5-story (count 'em) wooden bat sculpture. Quintessential Americana, this bat represents a throw back to the all wooden bat age. And more, it represents a time when kids thought nothing of hopping on a bicycle and heading up to the neighborhood sandlot field. Now, well, we're a lot more wary. Violence, child abductions... "Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio?" And where has that era gone in general? What's more, can we get it back? Our platform calls for us to do just that. (Photo by Joe)
Alternative Energy
We spent three days at an "Alternative Energy Fair" in Custer, Wisconsin. Pictured here is a display from the Lake Michigan Wind & Sun Company. We are big on alternative energy and have traveled the country researching it. As just some examples: In Michigan we met with an instructor whose college class designed an award winning, "Zero-Energy" solar home. In Mandan, North Dakota, we looked at a set of Whisper 900 wind turbines that powered almost half a farm. In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan we researched a geothermal home that had a $17 energy bill, for January. In Deming, New Mexico, we learned about a Southwest Sustainability Project that helped homeowners assess whether their home would benefit from wind or solar. And the project also showed homeowners how to increase their insulation. (photo by Joe).
Protest Tipi
On a campaign tour that traced the Lewis & Clark Trail, I met with Teton Tribe member Richard Shangreux in a "protest tipi" set up on the Missouri River's La Frambois Island in South Dakota. The tribe was protesting a recent "land grab" by the government that took 200 miles of Native American land along the river. Conversely, our platform calls for, not only not taking any more land from Native Americans, but giving some back to them and/or helping them re-establish the land of their ancestors. For instance, we stopped at the White Earth Reservation in northern Minnesota where Winona LaDuke of the Ojibwe Tribe told us their White Earth Land Preservation Project was aimed at reintroducing sturgeon to the area rivers, planting indigenous trees, going back to organic gardening, organic farming... Helping with these types of projects (including some land give backs) would go a long way toward making amends to the Native Americans for past atrocities. (photo by Joe)
Urban Greening
We intentionally moved to the heart of Cleveland, Ohio (the poorest city in the country at that time, 2004), to be 'part of the solution.' We volunteered at an outreach to the poor there, coached Rec. Center sports with kids in rough situations, and we volunteered at a community garden, an urban farm and turned our relatively desolate, small backyard into a rich, bio-diverse perma-culture. Here our kids Sarah and Joseph (in the caps) are helping at a plot in the Community Garden. So many kids, and adults, are tremendously unplugged from nature down here. They are surrounded by concrete and broken glass, contributing some to the 'hard edge' of most metropolitan cities in America. Our administration would push for much more 'greening' of these cities, for the kids' sakes, for everyones' sakes. (Photo by Joe)
Enola Gay
We stopped in Wendover, Utah, at an abandoned military base. Beyond the fence here was: "Hanger 5." This was the home of the "Enola Gay," the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. At Wilmington College in Ohio we stopped at the Peace Center there. The Center has a panoramic of what was left after that bomb detonated: virtually nothing. One arrow near "Ground Zero" pointed to a vacant spot where an elementary school had stood. It had more than 200 children in it that fateful day. Our adminstration proposes a U.S. Department of Peace and, among a wide variety of initiatives, those involved would work stridently to end nuclear proliferation, for good. (Photo by Joe)
Civil Rights
We visited the Voting Rights Museum in Selma, Alabama, as part of our retracing the "Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March." People from around the country came to march in solidarity with Blacks demonstrating against the laws of Segregation. Tremendous inroads have been made. But I told the newspaper in Montgomery, Alabama, that we still have a ways to go. Blacks, for instance, are still 'segregated' in our urban and rural areas, trapped in trans-generational poverty loops. We looked at the dynamics of these poverty loops up close in Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland, as we looked at them in rural Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana... Our administration would fight to help break these loops. (Photo by Joe)
Black Belt region
We did a tour of the rural "Black Belt" region in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and part of eastern Texas. This was once a booming agricultural area of productive small farms and solid towns. That's changed. Many of the small farms in the area are dying and the next generation is moving to the cities. What's left behind are shells of small town downtowns and poverty practically everywhere. This is where the rural poor live. This photo was taken in downtown Boligee, Alabama, in Green County. (Green County is purported to be the poorest county in the country.) Boligee used to have a grocery, a general store, automotive shops, restaurants... Now, the only thing that remains open is: the post office. (photo by Joe)
Wind turbines:
This is a scene from a canyon wind turbine project near Palm Springs, California. The wind blows through this canyon regularly and often in strong, sustained gusts. Likewise, we've seen similar displays in Oklahoma, Montana,... In fact, National Geographic calls the Great Plains states the: "Saudi Arabia of wind." Our administration would push for the "harvesting" of as much of this clean, renewable energy as possible, whether wind, solar, geothermal, wave action... And given the apparently clear and imminent threat of global warming, we'd push for all of this, quick! Note: Each of these turbines in California represent an investment by a company or an individual(s). In turn, they recieve regular returns.
(photo by Joe)
9th Ohio president
This is me at the McKinley Presidential Library in northeastern Ohio during Campaign 2004. There have been eight presidents from Ohio. This sculpture by some Youngstown State University students represents their perception of whom the 9th president should be. (Youngstown State's mascott is -- that's right -- "the penguin.") However as you can see, I have another idea of whom the 9th president from Ohio should be. I mean, the penguin isn't even wearing a campaign button! (photo by Sarah Schriner)