An independent presidential candidate campaigned to members of the Catholic Student Association on Tuesday night.
Joe Schriner stopped at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Starkville as part of his tour of the South.
Grant Holzhauer, a junior in philosophy and religion, suggested that the association invite Schriner.
Holzhauer said he came upon Schriner’s name on the Internet and looked at his campaign Web site where he discovered they both agreed on many of the same issues.
“I took a wild shot and asked (Schriner) to come, and it just so happened that he was wanting to come through the South during March,” Holzhauer said.
Schriner’s campaign nick-name is “Average Joe.” He said one of his key issues is to get people, especially students, to start focusing on a using their “God-given” talents to help the underprivileged rather than trying to find a job where they can make the most money.
He also said he wanted to make one-third of schools’ curriculums to revolve around community service.
“I want our children to learn as much about helping the poor, social injustices and the disadvantaged as I want them learning about math and science,” he said.
The solution for the economy is to ask Americans to cut back on their lifestyles, Schriner said.
By buying smaller cars, fewer clothes and less food the public could cut back on their consumption. Through doing this, people would not need to work as much, and would be able to start job sharing programs to cut unemployment, he said.
Schriner said he decided to run for president after he traveled the country for eight years researching small town people who had common sense methods of dealing with problems of national importance.
“We’d like to see some of those small town common sense people in D.C. uncomplicating the government, making it a lot more user friendly for everybody,” Schriner said.
Another reason Schriner said he wanted to run for office was because his faith called him to step out and make a difference in the world.
Kevin Bupp, a senior computer science major who attended Schriner’s presentation, said he was not really impressed with his opening remarks in his speech.
At one point Schriner thought the school colors were purple, and at another point he prayed for the men’s basketball team’s victory over Vanderbilt, even though MSU was playing Auburn, Bupp said.
For more information on Schriner or his campaign, visit his Web site at www.voteforjoe.com.