Sara C. Tobias / Chief Photographer / st939605@ohiou.edu

“Average Joe” Schriner in front of his family’s home-on-wheels during a campaign stop Friday on Court Street.

Athens was just one of “Average Joe” Schriner’s stops on his family’s 200,000 mile trek to transform the nation in their home-on-wheels — a van spray painted with the slogans “Whitehouse or Bust” and “Vote Average Joe.”

Schriner, running for the third time as an independent for United States president, parked on Court Street on Friday to offer college students a drastic alternative to electing Barack Obama (D) or John McCain (R).

“What both (candidates) are proposing is analogous to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic,” he said. “Our platform is turning the ship away from the iceberg.”

He and his wife, Liz, focus their campaign on how global warming, education, poverty, war and domestic and foreign policy affect the sanctity of life, he said.

Schriner graduated with a journalism degree from Bowling Green and has worked as an addiction counselor. He now works as a handyman when not campaigning and has also written three books.

His family recently moved into inner city Cleveland and opened their house to homeless people, Schriner said. Other Americans could solve many problems if they sacrificed excessive material goods and shared what they have with those less fortunate, he added.

If elected, he said he would transform the White House into a homeless shelter and encourage citizens to share their homes with others to eliminate homelessness.

“It’s wrong that we house our vehicles in garages while little kids are sleeping on the streets,” he said.

Schriner said that he also hopes to attract students’ support because of his specific education plan. He would offer colleges tax incentives to reduce most degrees to a two-year program so students can focus primarily on their major and not have to take required general education classes.

This would save a lot of money that the U.S. could then give to third-world nations, he said.

Hillary Brown, a senior studying English, said that eliminating general education classes would defeat the purpose of a college education.

“The point of going to a liberal arts school like OU is to come out a well-rounded person, not just for a degree,” she said.  

Schriner would also encourage citizens to stop using air conditioners and would provide tax incentives for those who use public transportation and ride bikes.

To discourage excessive driving, he would impose large tolls on highways, he said.

He also said that his administration would ensure the building of more wind turbines, especially in the Great Plains, what he called “the Saudi Arabia of wind power.”

As an avid anti-abortionist, Schriner said he would take extra steps to stop abortion. He would propose an amendment to the constitution to change the “inalienable right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” to begin at conception and would push for anti-abortion laws.

He would also support “sharing jobs,” a concept that would allow two people to share one job. One person could work the first half of the week and the other could work the second half, he said.

Bailey Shoemaker Richards, a freshman studying creative writing, said that she thought sharing jobs would create lots of problems because it would be really inefficient.

Brown said she thought  the idea of sharing jobs would not solve unemployment.  

“I think we need to create more jobs rather than just splitting them,” she said.
Schriner did not get any votes from Athens County in the 2004 presidential election, but he said that he thinks this year will be different.

“I talk to so many people that say they’re so fed up that they’re just voting for me,” he said. He added that he has traveled to many places in Ohio and appeared in several newspapers so he is more recognized and thinks he could have some effect on Ohio’s polls.

He doesn’t think he’ll win the presidential election this year, but he anticipates a possible win in 2012, he said.

To vote for Schriner voters need to write in his name along with his vice president’s name, Dale Way, on the ballot.