About Family"The campaigner is currently on a Back Road to the White House Tour with his wife, three kids and a host of novel ideas in tow." --Rome (GA) News Defying all odds, and then some. Our's is a story of an average Midwestern family that is defying all odds, and then some. We have undertaken a quest for the presidency. No big money. No special interest support. Just a dream and an old motor home.And in that motor home, we have traveled more than 100,000 miles down the back roads of America, to date. We have campaigned in towns all across the country the past four election cycles. We have stumped on street corners of hundreds of towns, including Teutopolis, Illinois, Ephrata, Pennsylvania, Rome, Oregon (pop. 5) (If we don't carry Rome this election, I'll be surprised.)Our story has appeared in thousands of newspapers, including the Rising Sun (MD) Herald (circulation 2,000 on a good week), the Havre (MT) Daily News, the Keene (NH) Sentinel, the Jackson Hole (WY) News. In fact, we've spent more time on America's back roads than perhaps any presidential candidates family, ever. The Harrison (OH) News Herald noted that I was the first presidential candidate to stop in their county since, well, 1950.And its the 1950's that we'd like to see the country go back to, in spirit, I recently told the Chillicothe (OH) Gazette. That is, we'd like to see the country go back to a time when the pace of life was slower, neighbors were closer, there was less pollution, it was safe for kids to walk the streets, and Norman Rockwell paintings were big. As a family, we finished a 1,000 piece Norman Rockwell puzzle (minus two pieces our Jonathan probably ate). And when were not doing puzzles, our family is volunteering at a drop-in center for the homeless, or working at a community garden, or trading baseball cards, or doing other family stuff. When a reporter from The Post-Journal in Jamestown, New York, asked what made me average, I replied: "I cut my own grass (with an old wooden push mower -- to reverse global warming). And while I'm cutting the grass, my wife Liz is usually gardening." Liz...I've been married to Liz the past 17 years. She is from New Zealand and has an accent that won't quit. When a TV talk show host in South Carolina said that we seemed like the kind of couple that was very happily married, I replied: We have our days.What average Midwestern couple doesnt, huh?Besides gardening, Liz's other hobbies are running, photography and beating me at Scrabble. Besides being a wife to me and a motor-home-schooling mother to our children, Liz is the campaign manager and campaign treasurer. She is also in charge of ballot access. And she is the person most likely to say to me: "You're not actually going to wear that shirt to the talk, are you?"Liz also gives any number of talks herself and is continually helping with position paper research. (This is research that has spanned almost 20 years of traveling. And it is research based on interviews with experts, and regular citizens, all over this land.) Liz recently told the Mississippi Press that "...while it's easier to lament about the state of society, its better to do something." Our children...We have six children.Two of them, Peter and Mary Rose, died of complications in the womb. (We hold to a Consistent Life Ethic, I told the Cortez (CO) News. And Liz and I believe, strongly, that Peter and Mary Rose are both human beings with immortal souls.)For the past five years, we have also financially adopted a youth in India through the Christian Foundation for Youth and Aging. And it has been more than a financial adoption. We regularly exchange letters and our children refer to Gopinath as their older brother.Our money helps with food, schooling and other basic needs. And in the past five years (based on the progression of pictures we've been sent), Gopinath has gone from a stick thin lad to a strapping young man who is just finishing high school and is considering going to medical school. (During a campaign talk to a youth group in Valdosta, Georgia, I said part of our platform involves asking many Americans to cut back on their lifestyles so youth in the Third World can have a better shot at life.)Our children Sarah, 15, Joseph 13, and Jonathan, 8, are getting a pretty good shot at life, as things go. They, for one, are probably some of the most well traveled kids in the country. American history comes alive for them as they travel and they have seen some pretty spectacular things (Mount Rushmore, the Pacific Coastline, the Rocky Mountains). But more spectacular than a lot of this picturesque geography, have been the people they've met along the way who are trying to make a difference.They've been regularly exposed to: inner city workers in Cleveland and Atlanta trying to help the homeless; environmentalists in Nebraska, Wyoming, Ohio trying to help nature; pro-life people in California, North Dakota, Colorado, Florida trying to save babies; peace activists in Vermont, Maryland, Illinois trying to stop war, and so on...This has all made a tremendous impression on them, as has seeing the needs of: a homeless vet sleeping in a box under an expansion bridge in Cleveland, in winter; a scared, young single Hispanic mother who has just crossed the border into Texas illegally with her two-year-old; immigrant children from Myanmar who have escaped poverty and oppression and are now at a transition spot in Georgia.All this has helped form our kids in a way, well, that we think they should be formed to motivate them to make their own difference in the world.Our Sarah also likes to write, like her Dad (I'm a former journalist). One of her essays on an urban farm in Cleveland, won an Earth Day Award in a writing contest for all of northern Ohio. Her most recent book is called Road Buddies USA and is a series of postcard poems from places we've visited, like: a Pony Express Station in Gothenburg, Nebraska, a phenomenal city park at Houghton in Michigans Upper Peninsula, the ocean at Pacific Grove, California.Joseph likes to travel too. And one of his favorite places has been the Field of Dreams in Epworth, Iowa. He also likes to toss the baseball around with his Dad. And, with his Mom's help, Joseph has started an Animal Facts Club with a group of pen friends. Joseph is also quite an artist.Joseph and Sarah also love to play basketball, soccer and (while not an official sport) engage in sibling rivalry. I told the Fairibult (MN) News that if I can handle conflicts between Sarah and Joseph, Russia and China will be nothing.Then there's Jonathan, 8. He's my driving buddy. Jonathan also likes playing basketball, baseball and football. He's got a great arm and a tremendously fun loving personality. Jonathan also helps Dad pass out campaign flyers on the street corners and when we're back in Cleveland, he and I like going to the Old Fashion Hot Dogs place around the corner.I told the Owantonna (MN) People's Press that we travel together because we see family solidity as extremely important. People are so busy these days and they don't get to be with their families, Liz said to the reporter. There's such a reward in that.*For more on the kids, see their respective web pages on this site. The innocence of these young children... In an interview for the Politics One blog, I said that it is the innocence of these young children that haunts Liz and I. That is, these little ones are walking into a world of war, babies being killed in the womb, climate change that is on a path to soon decimate the world, scores of starving children in the Third World, while inner city youth in this country try to dodge hunger, needles and bullets growing up.I told the Selma (AL) News that in the face of all this, Liz and I gave up our regular professions and we are running for president as concerned parents. And were not just concerned for our kids, were concerned for everybody's kids.And I told the Range News in Wilcox, Arizona, "This nation needs to be a lot more healthy for them (the children) spiritually, emotionally and environmentally."During a talk at Berry College in Rome, Georgia, I said that "...now is not the time to be partisan anymore. Now is the time to be right."So we press on as a family, one town at a time. Our family is a modern version of Johnny Appleseed. That is, in each of these towns we plant seeds about all these wonderfully creative, common sense things weve researched.Things like: how models in Nebraska City, Nebraska and High Springs, Florida hold the keys to reversing global warming; how a church in Staunton, Virginia, and a woman in Cortez, Colorado, know, unequivocally, how to end world hunger; how a police officer in Newport, Rhode Island has the answer for making the streets safe again for kids And did you know that you don't have to go any further than Bluffton, Ohio, to learn how to end war, for good?Hopefully, some of the information weve spread has taken root and is rippling out to other towns. And just as hopefully, some day, the most unlikely of families, from a hardscrabble neighborhood in Cleveland, will end up in D.C. So their message can get out farther, and faster before its too late. Joe

About Joe's Family

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Liz Page

Liz at a glance44 years old. Originally from New Zealand. Faith: Catholic. Married to Joe the past 17 years. Home-schooling mother. Campaign manager, treasurer and in charge of ballot access and campaign literature graphics. Former public relations consultant in New Zealand. Liz also has an agricultural science degree. Volunteer work: Catholic Worker outreach to the poor in Cleveland, Ohio, and Atlanta, Georgia; Brown County, Ohio, Mental Health Walkathon co-coordinator; city youth gymnastics instructor; city youth league baseball and soccer coach Hobbies: Running, art, gardening, history and scrap booking. In Lizs words: Kia Ora and gidday."Kia Ora" is the greeting of hello in Maori, the language of the indigenous people of New Zealand. The country I am from. "Gidday" is, well, a Down Under greeting too.I now live in Ohio, where some people look at me a bit funny when I say gidday. I live in Ohio with Joe, that is when we're not on the road campaigning.I was traveling the world when I met Joe. We got married, and I have been here now the past 18 years.While raising our children, Joe and I have become very concerned about their future nuclear proliferation, poor international relations, global warming, escalating war and violence in general, unjust distribution of wealth, the declining value of life and family I told the Mississippi Press newspaper that it is easy to lament about all this; but its better to try to do something about it.And so we are attempting to.Peace...In the face of what seems ongoing war now, we propose a U.S. Department of Peace. We have spent years researching such initiates as: the Ulster Project to decrease tension in Northern Ireland; Bluffton Universitys Cross Cultural Program to bring social justice and conflict resolution help to other countries; Wilmington Universitys Peace Center programs for trust building in families and schools (Peace has to begin at home.)The U.S. Department of Peace would work to help deescalate international tension . And it would help secure a future for all our children by proactively building solid, lasting relationships with as many nations as possible. While we honor those who put their lives on the line for their nation and believe in more support for Veterans and their families; we would hope with a deeper commitment to peace that war would diminish in kind.Saving the planet...I said to a Chronicle Telegram reporter in Elyria, Ohio, while on an End Global Warming Bicycle Tour, that if nothing changes -- nothing changes. For the future of our children, Americans need to change their lifestyles. It is critical that they start to live more simply and environmentally conscious. In our family, we cycle or walk to the grocery store, we dry our clothes on the line, live with little, recycle, compost and we have converted part of our yard into a backyard habitat. And it would be the same for us in D.C.Government, too, must make a major commitment to save the environment for our children. We have looked at comprehensive recycling program in New Jersey, extensive wind energy projects in Oklahoma and California, effective solar energy applications in Wisconsin, geothermal technology in Michigan and much more.We believe the federal government should push to help subsidize a lot more of these types of projects around the country, and soon. Healing the family, and faith...A friend of ours says: If you heal the family, you'll heal the nation. And we carry his message with us throughout the country.In talks, I note that there was a time when families lived and worked side-by-side, valuing being together more than the new house, furniture and latest must-have.

Liz

"Backyard Habitat"

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Habitat Essay

We moved to a hardscrabble area of Cleveland , Ohio to help try to transform it on as many fronts as possible. And one of these fronts is: nature. A good deal of nature in this city (and in many cities across the country) has been paved over. And much of what's left is a lot like our backyard was when we moved in several years ago: weeds, patches of scraggly grass, long neglected soil, and, maybe, a pigeon. My wife Liz, who has a green thumb that won't quit, set out (with the help of our children) to turn our long-neglected backyard into a diverse Backyard Habitat. The weeds were pulled, compost was mixed in with tremendously sandy soil, an organic garden was planted and native plants like ferns, a berry bush, geraniums, and so much more, were put in. Each year, the plant biodiversity gets fuller, the garden yields more and a good mix of squirrels, birds, chipmunks, and even a small garter snake have taken up residence out back. What's more, many of the days we're back from the road, our family can be found out digging in the back or working just across the street on an urban farm that has been developed on an old vacant lot. It's my contention that one of the reasons there's such a hard, chaotic edge to the city, any city, is that many people have been unplugged from the tremendously grounding' experience of, at times, working with the land. For more, see our agriculture position paper. -Joe

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Gopinath Page

Gopinath's Page Gopinath lives in India. When we started sponsoring him through CFCA, he was about 12 years old. He is now 17 and a senior in high school. In a recent letter (our family and Gopinath correspond regularly), he said he was preparing for government examinations. If he does well, he wrote that he is planning to enter medical college. Something his poverty racked country needs considerably more of, doctors. Gopinath also wrote that he continues to play soccer with his friends as much as he can. And he regularly does extra-curricular things with the CFCA staff. During a recent holiday, for instance, the CFCA coordinator took Gopinath, and several other youth, on an excursion to visit a Catholic Shrine. Gopinath often talks about his Catholic faith in his letters. It is apparent that it has become quite important to him. CFCA has become important, if not a life line, to him as well. He wrote that CFCA provided money to buy clothes at Christmas and pay his school fees. He also wrote that he receives CFCA money for family expenses and some of this money also paid for medical bills when he was recently sick. Our family reads these letters with interest. And our kids refer to Gopinath as their older brother. We, in turn, write Gopinath letters back. With these correspondences, we also send pictures and drawings. Gopinath has, indeed, become family. We pray for him often. As the Catholic faith is important to Gopinath, the Catholic faith is important to us. And part of that faith calls us into a deeper relationship with those less fortunate. The Third World is teeming with those who are less fortunate, I recently told Channel 10 News in Albany, Georgia. (Just prior, we had toured Habitat for Humanitys Third World mock Slum Village in Americus, Georgia.) The poverty depicted here is staggering. And we believe the response to this shouldn't in any way be about how blessed we are in America by comparison. The response should be: to help. --Joe Note: For the past five years, our family has sponsored Gopinath through the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA). The purpose of CFCA, according to organization literature, is to create a worldwide community of compassion through personal outreach. The highest priority is a one-on-one sponsorship of children, youth and aging persons to help them achieve their desired potential, live with dignity and partake fully in their communities. In our campaign travels, we continually urge Americans to consider cutting back on their lifestyles and helping more in the Third World. We have found CFCA, and organizations like them, to be excellent conduits to do that. What's more, common sense says that the more we help -- the closer we will all be as a world. -Joe

G o p i n a t h

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Sarah Page

Sarah

Sarah Our Sarah, 15, is the starting point guard for a basketball team, a staunch pro-life advocate, a Catholic Worker who regularly helps the poor and, well, a teenager who is helping accelerate her dad'’s balding process. Sarah learned to play basketball with the guys on the courts of urban Cleveland. In all that, she developed quite a shot, is a great ball handler (although she still needs a little work going left) and she got tough, real tough. So tough, in fact, that in her first game in a girl’s home schooling basketball league, she got three fouls called on her in the first two minutes of the game. By the third foul, Sarah looked at the ref as if: ‘What’s up? They'’re not bleeding or anything.’ At the coach’'s behest (he called time out and told her she wasn’'t allowed to touch anyone, for the rest of the season), Sarah toned her aggressiveness down a notch and went on to have quite a year. But she hasn'’t toned her aggressiveness, or rather ‘passion,’ down when it comes to standing up for life. As we travel, we regularly stand in solidarity with people protesting in front of abortion clinics and Sarah is right there on the front line pleading with women not to go in. She has a real gift when it comes to connecting with these women, especially young women. In a talk at St. Patrick'’s School in Phenix City, Alabama, Sarah told the students that life is the most precious of things and we must be a voice for all the little ones who have no voice. And as the unborn have no voice, the poor on the margins of society have little voice as well. Sarah has grown up around Catholic Workers who are continually trying to help those on the margins in the cities of our country. Sarah has regularly served at the various outreaches we'’ve volunteered at. And more, she has befriended a good number of these people over the years. Her easy smile and sincerity go a long way in breaking down barriers. And this concern for the poor started early on in her life. At a campaign stop in Savannah, Georgia, during Campaign 2000, Sarah and I were walking through the downtown area when we saw a man in disheveled clothes sleeping on some building steps. Sarah, then three and a half, asked me what was wrong with the man. I told her he was homeless. Sarah then got almost frantic, tugging at my shirt and exclaiming: “"Daddy, Daddy, we gotta find him a home!"” How do we end the homelessness in America? Everyone become three and a half years old again. And somehow, Sarah has, indeed, been able to stay three and a half in her heart. Not necessarily in her body though, which brings us to my hair falling out. Of late, Sarah has been talking (and talking, and talking…) about driving, pierced ears and, well, boys. I on the other hand, like with most other average Joe fathers with a special daughter like Sarah, am in denial about the whole thing. (Although the hair falling out would seem to indicate I'’m not in total denial.) One day, in a fit of exasperation about all this, Sarah not so much asked, as said: “"You just don’t want to see me grow up, do you?"” "“That’'s so totally (That’'s what the kids say these days: “so totally”) wrong Sarah,” I responded. “By the way, don'’t you think your doll Katie could breathe better if she was on your bed and not in your dresser drawer?"” --Joe ..

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Sarah's Global Warming Essay

Sarah's Archive Page

Sarah Essay

Sarah on Global Warming

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Preface: Our Sarah recently won an essay contest put on by a local Earth Day Coalition in Cleveland. As we travel, I continually talk about the threat of global warming. I told the Wellington (OH) Enterprise newspaper that Liz and I are running as "concerned parents." And one of the things we're most concerned about is leaving a planet that is habitable for our kids. Sarah is concerned about that too. --Joe A Local Solution to End Global Warming :"City Fresh" by Sarah Schriner City Fresh is something new. I live right across from a City Fresh Farm in Cleveland. My mom's friend is the organizer. What is City Fresh? City Fresh is a program to bring small farms into the city. This will help end global warming. Read on and find out how. What City Fresh does is work with neighborhood organizers to change old abandoned parking lots into small farms. First they put down two feet of wood chips on the cement. On top of this they layer leaves, composted vegetables and bread, then manure. They spread soil on top and start growing vegetables, fruit trees and berries. How does this help end global warming? With City Fresh, food is grown in the city. If we grow food in the city, trucks don't have to drive miles to deliver it. Trucks give off carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is greenhouse gas. It gets trapped in the atmosphere, which heats up the planet. What can you do? Start in your backyard. Start composting to build up good soil. Build garden beds. [You can research gardening at your library.] Pick out seeds - not just for flowers, but vegetables, berries and fruit. So you are not depending on these to come by truck. Talk to your friends and encourage them to garden. Talk to your parents about starting a community garden or City Fresh in your neighborhood. Other ways we can work on stopping global warming is to plant trees to absorb carbon dioxide. We can use ethanol in our cars or walk and bicycle more. If we don't stop global warming now, we will become an endangered species. ..
Sarah Archive

Sarah

Sarah at 13

Sarah at 6

"Hi, my name is Sarah Schriner. I'm 13 years old and I have spent a lot of time on the road with my family. I have been in every state, except Alaska and Hawaii, at least three times.My favorite places are the headwaters of the Mississippi at Lake Itasca in Minnesota, and Pacific Grove, California, where the monarch butterflies winter every year. I also like to visit various friends' places around the country, including anywhere there are horses. I love horses.When we are on the road, apart from home school and doing lots of reading, I like to spend time playing with my little brother Jonathan, 3. Dad also calls me his "First Assistant." This involves going with him to interviews and talks, taking notes sometimes, photocopying information and passing out flyers.Back home in Cleveland, Ohio, I enjoy taking piano lessons, singing in the St. Patrick's Choir, playing soccer, and spending time with my relatives. I especially like working with my aunt Kathy in her bakery. And I like gardening in our backyard with Mum.I also volunteer with my family at a drop-in center for the homeless a couple times a week. I serve food, hand out toothpaste or socks, and just hang out with people.I think my father has good ideas for America and I hope he becomes president because he wants to end things like the death penalty, abortion, pollution and poverty." --Sarah..
Sarah, 6, loves nature. On the "big trip," as she likes to call it, through America, she has hiked part of the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut, walked the desert in New Mexico, swam in the ocean off of Florida...When home, she particularly likes to work in the garden with Mom.Her favorite plants are sun flowers. And this last year, she planted a number throughout the garden.Now, when we're out traveling, Sarah passes some of the sun flower seeds on to those we meet along the way -- so they, too, can experience a little more of God's smile.--Joe..

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Joseph Page

Joseph

JosephAt the time I write this (12/1/10), our Joseph is 13-years-old. He loves outdoor nature things, tolerates school, is quite an artist, and, like our other kids, loves sports.As we travel, Joseph seems most at home on the farms we stop at. He likes practically any chores involving animals. He also enjoys chopping wood, digging in the garden and driving any type of motorized farm stuff he can get away with (dirt bikes, four-wheelers).Joseph is the kind of kid who would do well with an apprenticeship type of tract, especially one involving working with his hands. Besides the farm work, Joseph helps regularly with mechanical work on our campaign vehicles. And at the outreach places we volunteer at, Joseph likes helping the resident handyman with various tasks. He also enjoys various aspects of cooking in the kitchens of these places.In sports, Joseph often plays quarterback (he's got a good arm) in the sandlot football games we come across as we travel. He's currently a starting guard on an eighth grade home schooling basketball team. (He's a good ball handler, decent shooter, but needs work on his passing. That is, he needs to pass more.) And in soccer, Joseph particularly likes playing goalie although he's also quite skilled in the field.Joseph spends hours on the road (and just hours in general) drawing. He primarily uses pencils and the drawings have been tremendously varied. Hes been working, for instance, on a book about the 50 states and various things he's seen along the way. He also just watched the movie Hoosiers, and Joseph was inspired to draw a picture of some black, high top Converse basketball shoes. Staying with the basketball theme, Joseph recently drew a picture of a prison basketball court. (Some of the outreaches we've been involved with have included ministries to those in prison).Some of these outreaches also revolve around helping the homeless. And for Christmas this year, Joseph did a variation of the famous Christ in the Breadline 1950's drawing. While Joseph, and our kids in general, are full of life and are sensitive to the needs of others (admittedly some days more than others); looming over them is a strong sense that they may not have a world to inherit. With the threats of catastrophic things like global warming, nuclear proliferation its not looking good.Author Henri Nouwen once wrote: Children know the world could end in nuclear Holocaust. Thus, the nuclear threat can not only bring untold destruction in the future, but is tremendously troubling to their hearts and minds today.What sane parent would want that for their kids? But here we are. Now, we've tried people out of Yale as president. We've tried people out of Harvard as president. Maybe its time we try an average concerned Midwestern parent. One who is not tied to lobbyists, but one who is desperately tied to: Joseph having a world he can continue to draw.--Joe..

Joseph's Art

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Joseph's Archive

Joseph Archive

Joseph

Joseph at 11

Joseph at 6

"My name is Joseph David Schriner. I'm eleven.I really like touring America with my family as my Dad runs for president. I get to meet a lot of new friends. And I have several "pen friends."I formed an "Animal Fact Club" with these pen friends. And in our letters to each other, we exchange interesting animal (or insect) facts or drawings.Here's one of those facts: Stinkbugs are also known as shield bugs. Some use their flat bodies to 'shield' their young from hungry insects and birds.One of my favorite traveling stops has been the "Field of Dreams" baseball field, which is cut out of a cornfield in Iowa. I got to play baseball there. I also liked the Lewis & Clark Center in Great Falls, Montana. I had a great time at "Shoots & Ladders Park" at Houghton in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. And I really liked sledding in the Tehachapi Mountains of California.On the road I help Dad with map reading and engine work. (And sometimes there's a lot of engine work!) I also like campaigning in parades.Back home in Cleveland, we volunteer at a drop-in center for the homeless. Last year a homeless man named Ray taught me how to play chess. He used to be a professional chess player and still carries a chess case with him now.We should make room for the homeless in our houses. In Bluffton, Ohio, we took in a homeless man. We still pray for him a lot. I have a t-shirt my sister Sarah gave me (I'm wearing it in the picture above!) that says: "Life begins when the season starts." I put it on the wall by my bed. I play all kinds of sports, including baseball, basketball and soccer.When we travel, we try to go to daily Mass and I get to be an altar boy sometimes. When I grow up I'm thinking about being a priest."-- Joseph..
Joseph, 6, likes mud, baseball, mud, soccer and, well, more mud. We're actually convinced Joseph could find a muddle puddle in the middle of the Mohave Desert -- in mid-July. Joseph also likes Legos. With just a few blocks, and a whole lot of imagination, Joseph has constructed earth moving equipment, a helicopter, boats, planes... Joseph's most prominent features: red hair and freckles. His most prominent trait: childlike compassion. During the prayer intentions today at Mass at Our Lady of Peace Church in North Augusta, South Carolina, Joseph prayed: "For all the people who have been killed in war." What a better world it would be, if we were all six-years-old again, huh?--Joe..

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Joseph Art

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Jonathan Page

Jonathan

Jonathan Archive

JonathanAt the time I'm writing this (10/17/10), our Jonathan is now seven-years-old. And an absolute delight, most days.When were not on the road, Jonathan helps out at the various urban outreaches to the poor were involved with. He buzzes about helping serve food, pour coffee, sweep the floor and most importantly, bring to the atmosphere the innocent, fun-loving nature of, well, a seven-year-old.A Schriner family classic, if you will, happened recently with Jonathan on a cold night in December in Cleveland. We were at a rather crowded drop-in center for the homeless one particular Friday evening. I was going back and forth from the kitchen serving coffee to various people clustered throughout the room.On a pass by a group of people sitting around a small table, I heard the gravely words: GO FISH! It came from a guy who had the stature of a linebacker for the Cleveland Browns. His one eye was cocked and intently staring down at our Jonathan holding playing cards in one hand, as he reached for the discard pile with the other. It was such an endearing scene, I can't tell you.In talks we give, Liz often says that Jonathan doesn't see poverty, he doesn't see homelessness he just sees into people's eyes.Now when Jonathan isn't playing Fish, he's often playing some kind of sport.At the basketball court at the Rec. Center in Cleveland, Jonathan is known as Little Nash. (That is, as in the NBA point-guard Steve Nash.) Jonathan is quite a little dribbler and can hold his own on the court. This is because he is forever trying to keep up with his older brother and sister at the courts we regularly stop at all around the nation.Jonathan has shown some grit, too, on the gridiron. In a football league, also at the Cleveland Rec. Center, among kids mostly bigger and older than Jonathan, he played linebacker and got in some pretty good licks. So good, in fact, that when the coach found out we couldn't stay for the whole season because of an upcoming campaign tour, he smiled and said: I'll put Jonathan up until the season is over.As Jonathan looks into peoples eyes, I often look into his. And its almost as if I'm looking into a lot of innocent little 7 (6, 5, 4)-year-old eyes. And they're counting on us adults. Counting on us to make it a safe world for them, a wholesome world, an environmentally clean world Liz and I often say were running for president as concerned parents from the Midwest.--Joe..

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Jonathan Archive

Jonathan at 3

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"My name is Jonathan Charles Schriner. I am three years old. I am also Daddy's 'driving buddy' when we're out traveling America. While Mummy home schools at the table in our motor home, I sit in the passenger seat helping Daddy spot big yellow diggers and old fashioned cars. This is a really important job, Daddy tells me. My favorite places on the road are truck stops where Daddy walks me around so we can look at "18-wheelers" and talk to real truck drivers.When we are campaigning on street corners during our "whistle-stops," I like to help pass out flyers to people. Everyone is so friendly to me. Sometimes I try to encourage Daddy by saying: 'Good for you Average Joe President!' Daddy always smiles when I say that.When I am home at 'Cleveland in Ohio' (that's how I say it), I like to wrestle with my brother Joseph, color with Mummy, build Legos and go to the 'Old Fashion Hot Dog Place' around the corner with Daddy. We get fries there and I talk to my friend Shawn the dishwasher.Oh, and I love books too. My favorite author is Dr. Seuss, and my favorite books are Cat in the Hat and I Had Trouble Getting to Solla Sollew.See ya..." --Jonathan..
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