#115 – Dick Bernard: Learning about South Asia from a South Asian….

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Last week I was invited to one of those events that have hard and fast ground rules.  In this one, a prominent speaker speaks; the condition the listeners are asked to accept is to not breach confidentiality.  In some senses it is a very reasonable rule: a person would like some reasonable chance to be somewhat open and honest without inordinate concern of being misquoted, or quoted at all for that matter.  For the individuals privy to the information, the time can be very well spent.  Such sessions help to inform ones opinion.  These happen all the time, everywhere.
The downside is pretty obvious: only a tiny few have the opportunity to hear the insights.  At this particular gathering I was one of 22 enjoying a country club breakfast and informed comment.   (Five were women.)
Our speaker was eminently qualified: formerly (and at separate times) a very high military, and also an elected, official in his major south Asian country.  He was very well informed about south Asia, and very interesting as well.  But I’m not about to violate the rules, and tell you what his opinion was, or even what the questions were, save for the one I asked.
The questions were thoughtful, as were the answers.  In the eternal chess game that is international geopolitics there is never a black and white situation.  Behind the rhetoric is a never easy reality.
I had an opportunity to ask my question, and since it’s my question, I can bring it up, here, and then answer it myself without betraying the speakers response….
I observed that a recent poll – “our peculiar way of doing referendums on public opinion” – suggested that a distressingly large percentage of Americans, regardless of party preference, seem okay with bombing Iran.  What did our speaker think of that, I asked.  He addressed the question very well, but, as I say, I won’t tell you what his answer was.
But I can tell you what my answer – my reason for asking the question – is.
South Asia is a pretty big piece of geography.  The big countries are Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.  There are several smaller entities, and of course Russia and China are generally in the neighborhood as well.
When I got home I checked my trusty almanac.  Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan together have about one-third the land area, and one-third the population of the United States.  Toss Pakistan and India into the kettle and you’re up to a U.S. size territory with four times our population.
And here we sit at home, saying “bomb, bomb Iran” when we couldn’t manage our splendid little war in the smallest of the three “hot” countries listed above.  It’s as if we look on war as some video game; that somebody out in Fargo can bomb, bomb Afghanistan with a drone, and get the bad guys to wise up and come out of their caves with their hands up.  It worked for the John Wayne crowd….
Collectively we seem not to have a clue.
I thought my time was very well spent at the session.  I only wish everybody would have the chance.  One of the big problems in our society is that there is an anointed group of “big boys” (they’re usually still boys) who play the global chess.  They are upstream from the folks I was sitting with last week, but they, too, discuss and debate theories and ideas and gain perspective.  The lucky citizen elects leaders who’ll be willing to listen; the unlucky elects leaders who only tell.  We’ve had both types in recent years.  There is a big difference.
At about the same time I was having my coffee and eggs, reports were on about President Obama saluting the caskets of the fallen as they came back from Afghanistan, and Secretary of State Clinton having frank conversations in Pakistan with journalists and students and the government.  I thought both Obama and Clinton were class acts.
To the bombs and bullets crowd, Obama and Clinton are wimpy; to the peace types, they’re war mongers.
We take what we can, and work for better.
Thank you, source who cannot be named, for the invitation!  And thanks, too, speaker who is anonymous.   You did a great job!

#114 – Dick Bernard: Iraq revisited October, 2009

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“Iraq” is one of those words-never-uttered-in-polite-conversation these days.  Even in the protest community, out-of-Afghanistan is more in as the issue du jour.
Iraq does come up, but only indirectly, and not by name: there is worry about our horrible national debt…but not much focus on where much of that national debt came from: almost a trillion dollars in off-the-budget money spent on our now eight year “War on a Word” (See #mce_temp_url#).   To focus on that would be bad form…we must look forward, one would protest.
Ho-hum or not, we went, last night, to hear Sami Rasouli and his son,Tariq, talk about Iraq.  Sami is well known in my area; I know Sami, though not well.  He’s Iraqi, left Najaf for the broader world back in 1976; ultimately settling in the U.S. in 1986.  He became a successful restaurateur here, an American in all the conventional ways.
2003 was the time of the shift in attitude for Sami.  He went back to Iraq for a family matter, intending to stay only a short time.  His visits lengthened; he sold his restaurant; he committed what life he has left to rehabilitation of Iraq and relationships between Iraqis and the U.S. which has essentially destroyed their country.  On his most recent trip, now ending, he brought 15 Iraqis to see in person his part of the U.S.  The city of Minneapolis has recently become a sister city of his hometown, Najaf.  He founded a group called the Muslim Peacemaker Team, modelled on and assisted by Christian Peacemaker Team.  His internet place is #mce_temp_url#.  Do visit.

Sami Rasouli October 27, 2009

Sami Rasouli October 27, 2009


Last night, his 20 year old son, Tariq, spoke first.  Sami said, later, that he never thought that Tariq would even have an interest in going to Iraq, a country he had no direct relationship with – much like a person of German ancestry has no direct relationship with Germany.
Nonetheless, Tariq went to Iraq.  About the first thing he said was this: “Iraq is a third world country because of the U.S.”  It’s a rather jarring indictment, but true.   From an historical seat of civilization in the Middle East, Iraq has joined the Third World…and we did it to them, and would rather not notice….  Even during the worst times of Saddam, times were far better than now or the past several years of war.
Tariq showed a few minutes of video that he took in Iraq, the seeds of a documentary, then his Dad took the podium.  I’ve heard Sami speak before.  He spoke with conviction and passion.  He is well informed.
There have been immense casualties of war in Iraq; the 1991 Gulf War and the current nearly 8 year conflagration have essentially destroyed the country.  There is a website that attempts, diligently, to track the body count.  It is #mce_temp_url#.  It tracks only violent civilian deaths since 2003.  In all, since 1991, it is estimated that well over 1,000,000 Iraqis have died from the cumulative effects of the assorted wars and sanctions against Iraq by the U.S. and its supposed “coalition of the willing”.
But the disaster is much, much greater:  depleted uranium, from weapons of war, kills quietly and persistently and will continue to kill on into the far distant future, even if not used directly.  It is in the sandstorms, and in the water, and in the vegetables….
Potable water is in short supply, leading to epidemics of diseases like hepatitis, and premature death of children; electricity is scarce.  What was the middle class has largely left, and slow to return.
Sami talked about the three wars that have cemented Iraqi ideas about Americans like you and I.  I have mentioned two.  The first Iraqi image of America was, he said, “John Wayne movies”.  We are a society that celebrates and exports violent images.
He said something else well worth pondering: in his view, 5% of the population are inclined to peacemaking; 5% endorse the war philosophy; the other 90% tend to gravitate towards whoever has the power.  I believe he’s generally correct in his assessment.
The inclination is to follow the War crowd – the one’s who were in charge.  The consequence of our forever-wars is certain for humanity, and it is not for our good, whether we temporarily “win” or not.  We are paying the price now; we are only beginning to pay the total bill – that’s for our grandchildren (we seem to say).
It’s a tough struggle to commit to peace, but only we can do it….
For a rather stark comparison of what we spend on War as opposed to what this money could be used for, check out the downloadable postcards at #mce_temp_url#
Iraqi Art October 2009

Iraqi Art October 2009


PS:  A striking comment I remember hearing a number of years ago was via a person who was selling Iraqi art, a sample of which is above.  A visitor was admiring the work and said, “I didn’t know that Iraqis did art”, as if they were somewhat less than regular people.

#113 – Dick Bernard: Being a face of hope

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Thursday we attended a luncheon for a group, Friends of the Orphans #mce_temp_url# .  The Town and Country Club in St. Paul was packed with persons, there to learn about helping bring hope to orphans in Haiti, Central and South America.
Our guest speaker was Fr. Rick Frechette of the Passionist Mission in Haiti.  Fr. Rick is one of those legendary folks who have walked the talk of ministry to the least among us for many years.  He has been a Catholic Priest for 30 years; most of those years he’s ministered to orphans, first in Central America; since 1987 he’s worked with and among the poor in desperately poor Haiti.

Fr. Rick Frechette, St. Paul, October 23, 2009

Fr. Rick Frechette, St. Paul, October 23, 2009


Fr. Frechette’s website is #mce_temp_url#.  At the website, he has a blog entitled Rainbows at Midnight (go to “Reflections” page; access to this blog is at the bottom of the page).  Do take a look.  There are 19 essays there; some powerful writing about the sacred among the tragic circumstances he sees every day in the slums of Port-au-Prince.
There were many lessons in the day, some for us as people with our own causes.  Without question we’ll contribute some $’s to this worthy cause…largely because we were asked to contribute.  There is power in the act of asking for something, particularly since there are endless appeals for this or that.  The face-to-face was important too.  The business of selling in the intensively competitive arena of justice is not an easy one.  Those “marketing” justice need to keep this in mind.
Also, because we were asked, we’ll do what we can to make others – people like you – aware of this fine program.
I do have a standing hope for all of the other assorted good causes I see out there: that they consciously and deliberately try to figure out ways to collaborate and work together.  In the ideal world, society would work together to alleviate the conditions that make Friends of the Orphans and similar programs essential both in the United States and in the World.
Living in an imperfect world, we need to engage and help as we can, and at the very least help those who are actively “on the court” do what they can do.  We need cooperation more than we need competition.
So, thanks, Hugh, for inviting us.  And thanks, Fr. Rick, for the inspiration of your commitment and your example.
We knew noon on October 23 would be a very worthwhile time spent.  It was more worthwhile than we had thought it would be.
As the mantra hopefully will continue to go: “together, we can!”
Postscript:  So long as we’re on Haiti, Margaret Trost of WhatIf? Foundation, the meals program at Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste’s Ste. Claire parish in Port-au-Prince, will be making several appearance in Northfield MN November 14-16, and will speak at both Sunday Masses at Minneapolis St. Joan of Arc on Sunday, Nov. 15.  Margaret has committed her life to changing the conditions of hunger in a desperately poor part of Haiti.  Her book on her program is “On that day everybody ate”.

#112 – Dick Bernard: "La Grippe"

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This morning a New York Times bulletin said “Obama Declares H1N1 Flu a National Emergency“.  The summary said “Mr. Obama had signed a proclamation that would allow medical officials to bypass certain federal requirements.  Officials described the move as similar to a declaration ahead of a hurricane making landfall.”
Preparedness is great.  But my initial reaction to this is it’s time for us all “to get a “grippe”, to not over-react.  (“The grippe” is how I remember my grandparents describing the illness that we know as the flu.)
Last night on the national news the resident doctor expert was asked about the significance of the current flu outbreak, and the fact that so far 1,000 people have died in the U.S.  He more or less “mumbled” an answer that the outbreak is very serious and unusual.  Best I recall, the camera angle was from behind the doctor, with a concerned-looking anchorman listening earnestly to him.  He wouldn’t be pinned down on how bad 1,000 deaths thus far actually was (an average of 20 per state over a period of some months.)
The news narrative is that this flu outbreak is a crisis.  It is almost a lead story: little kids crying when they get their flu shots; schools closing….
I don’t doubt the general problem or the need for concern, but I wonder to myself how much we are manipulated by those with a vested interest in this crisis, particularly economic interest.  (The same news program seems largely funded by pharmaceutical ads.)
We need to “get a grippe”.  Back in April on this blog I commented that my mother nearly died in the 1918 flu pandemic which, as pointed out at #mce_temp_url# affected 28% of Americans and killed 675,000 (in a country with a then-population of about 100,000,000, compared to today’s 300,000,000.)  (Her recollections of that near-death experience are in my April 27, 2009 blog post #mce_temp_url#
Absolutely, there is reason to be concerned and to be prudent.  (I’ve had my flu shot; we’ve had one grandkid get the flu and throw up at our place while kid-sitting recently…and my spouse became his caregiver when he had to stay home from school…it’s hard to avoid reality.)
But, I think it is also prudent to keep in mind that there is also a LOT of money to be made by milking public hysteria.  And as we’ve learned over the past decade, fear is a potent weapon.  The flu shots and mist are not totally without risk either.  This we tend to forget.
Obama’s caution, as noted in the NYTimes article, is prudent; I have a bit less confidence in the headline, and the spin….
My two previous blog postings on this issue can be found at #mce_temp_url# and #mce_temp_url#.

#111 – Loren Halvorson: From Hidden Roots: The Genesis of Social Regeneration

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UPDATE February 18, 2010: R.I.P. Loren Halverson. Loren passed away February 15, 2010 at 82. Obituary and funeral arrangements.
Moderator:  This is a first for this blog – a book, online.  163 pages, eight chapters.  Do take a stroll through the chapters, in two parts, at the following web addresses:  #mce_temp_url# and #mce_temp_url#.  The book appears here with author Loren Halvorsons permission.  It is Lorens gift to humanity.  I ask that you consider sharing this book with others who you feel may value reading it.
I’ve known and respected Loren for the past eleven years.  I met him during a powerful three and one half day workshop* which I found very meaningful and life altering, and he, a fellow participant and senior to me, was one of many participants who inspired me to grow beyond my own status quo.
Out of the blue last Sunday came an e-mail from Loren.  I asked, and he gave, permission for me to pass along the contents of the e-mail.
“[Y]our note…came at a strange, or rather special moment in my life when I am undergoing radiation treatment for prostrate cancer that has been under control for ten years but now is spreading rapidly.  Ruth and I have decided to transform whatever time we have left from dread to delight by inviting long time friends and family to “third cups of tea”.  Already it has been a magnificent experience suggesting that life lurks in death, something I had formulated academically but not understood existentially until now.
I am also using this time to deposit courses I taught at Luther Seminary for thirty-two years in places where it might take root and produce fruits beyond anything I might have imagined.  Your note reminded that you might be just such a depository!  fortunately modern tools make this possible. A friend at the seminary (one of several Roman Catholic faculty we now have) has put things on line for me.  One is a course I taught the last ten years on base communities which arose not only out of my own field of ethics and society but out of years of living in an intentional community, the ARC.  [That material is at the referenced websites above.]”
Loren references “the ARC”.  ARC (Action, Reflection, Celebration) Retreat Center is  a wonderful place north of the twin cities of Minneapolis and St Paul #mce_temp_url#.  The dream of Ruth and Loren, ARC opened its doors in 1978.  I was privileged to participate in a retreat there in 2005.
As I write, I remember the summer of 1998 when Loren and I were in the workshop together.  During that year, Mitch Albom’s book “Tuesday’s with Morrie” was a run-away best seller.  I purchased the book as a gift for our instructor, and she deeply appreciated the gift.
It occurs to me that at the time I met Loren, he had not yet begun his walk with cancer; now, 11 years later, he is offering to others the same gift Morrie Schwartz offered to Mitch Albom.
I also remember a particular place that captured me at Loren and Ruth’s ARC Retreat Center in May, 2005.  It was a simple bridge across a creek, and it was for me a metaphor for life itself.
I’ll think of that bridge as Loren takes what he feels is his final walk through life.  He’s given a great gift, and he wants to share it with you, and you to share it with others.
Thanks, Loren.  And Peace.

The Bridge at ARC Retreat Center, May 21, 2005

The Bridge at ARC Retreat Center, May 21, 2005


Another view....

Another view....

#110 – Dick Bernard: $300,000,000,000

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For the last couple of weeks I’ve been subjected to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s 30-second ad that solemnly (and scaringly) intones (and helpfully prints on the screen) that Health Care Reform will mean $300 billion in new health care taxes.
Oh, it’s so good to have a consumer advocate in the good ole C of C, just watching out for the little folks like you and me.
I have no means to assess whether or not the $300 billion ($1,000 per American) is accurate, or what “helpful” (to viewers) information that it leaves out, but my guess is that the $300 billion is not the extravagant expense the Chamber proclaims it to be.  The $300 billion, will, after all is said and done, be spent for goods and services…produced and provided by U.S. Chamber of Commerce companies.  No, that’s not the issue(s)
I think that the ad is on there for a major reason: The Chamber is terrorized by the possibility of competition which may cut into the far more than $300 billion which will be realized if the government is kept at bay.  “Get rid of the $300 billion, so we can rake in $400 billion from the rubes” might be a more accurate rendition.
The Chamber is also terrified of the possibility of government regulation – regulation by the people who are its customers.  Regulation is for other folks, not “free enterprise”.  Free Enterprise, after all, can regulate itself (note the Wall Street collapse, et al.)
So, the Chamber shamelessly enlists its victims to lobby in its behalf, asking us to reject $3 in favor of, say, $4.
It’s the good old “American Way”: there’s truly a sucker born every minute.
Want to see the ad?  Here’s the U.S. Chamber of Commerce website. #mce_temp_url# It’s right there, plus lots more.  (it’s in the health care section at the bottom of the page.)  You’re looking at the association of the biggest and most powerful businesses in the country.  (The local Junior Chamber of Commerces are another entity, not quite as rapacious, in my view.)
UPDATE: October 22, 2009
Joyce helpfully pointed out two websites that “fact check” such things as political advertising (which the Chamber of Commerce item is).  They are politfact.com/truth-o-meter and factcheck.org.  Go to the website, and you should be able to easily search references to the Chamber of Commerce and find information about the specific ad, which began to run this past summer.
The “facts” at these sites about the ad in question would not cause me to change any of the content in my post (above).  The intention of the ad is to mislead and ultimately convince the ordinary consumer of the ad to work for the cause of those who are far wealthier than the vast majority of Americans, and thus far more able to help fund the cost of Health Care Reform.  This is not an unusual strategy of the wealthy: they are numerically inferior, but have much more money at their disposal to influence others.
Harold Meyerson, in a column I noted in this mornings Minneapolis Star-Tribune, originally written for the Washington Post, makes essentially the same points I do, at least in my opinion #mce_temp_url#

#109 – Dick Bernard: $1,420,000,000,000

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The Saturday, October 17, 2009, Minneapolis Star Tribune had a front page headline: “Deficit Surges to New Record“.  The subhead helpfully fleshed out the number: “2009’s deficit soared to $1.42 trillion – more than three times the most red ink ever amassed in a single year.”  In the early part of the article – the part people read – it emphasized that this was the federal budget deficit, and it included a number I’ll comment on a bit later.
Indeed, $1.42 trillion – $1,420,000,000,000 – is a lot of red ink.
It’s also the mother’s milk of unfettered Capitalism….  Somebody, after all, got all that loose change.
And there are those inconvenient truths, like the fact that our cost of “War on a Word” since 2001 will exceed $1 trillion by the end of this fiscal year #mce_temp_url# – and much of that is off-budget and relies on borrowed money from places like China.  Another excellent resource: #mce_temp_url#.  War is an unproductive use of increasingly scarce resources.
The article got me to thinking back to when my parents bought their first house.  It was in 1947.  I was seven years old; my parents were 39 and 36 respectively.  We were living out in Sykeston ND.  There were already four of us kids, and #5 was to come the following year.
I was old enough to have vivid memories of this momentous purchase.

Bernard's North House, 1947

Bernard's North House, 1947


My Dad was a school teacher, and Mom was stay at home, and the first few years they rented.  But by 1947 it seemed like they had a relatively stable work situation, and the family size was such that they needed a house.
They bought a deserted farm house that had doubled for a grain bin somewhere out in the countryside, and moved it to the north end of tiny Sykeston, ND, perching it on a foundation over a minimal basement with dirt walls.  If memory serves, their investment was $700 total.
It was the sweat equity that brought the mouse-infested place back to life.  If you look closely at the photo above, you can see a very tired looking man sitting on the stoop of the then-front door.  That would be my Dad.  Basically behind and to the right of the photographer (my mother?) would be the outhouse…no sewer or running water in those years: they had to go down to the town pump for the water supply.  No bathroom.  Minimal baths….  No garage for the one already old car.
Life went on, and expectations increased for all Americans.
Time went on and someone came up with the idea that people could borrow money and get stuff that they wanted.  Business thought this was a fine idea.  Debt is good.  It helps to promote consumption, and consumption is good.  As business took over government, slow but sure, government debt was okay too.  Who better to own than the government, especially when you could blame the politicians?
So, we sit here with this huge federal debt.  The paper helpfully pointed out that it amounts to “more than $4,700 for every man, woman and child in the United States.”
A lot of money, yes.
But comparing it against the massive consumer debt held by persons with mortgages, car loans, etc., etc., etc., etc.  it’s really pretty small change.
The calculation for the big business types now has to be: how far can they leverage this debt until we all go busted.  Sooner or later the debt becomes intolerable, even for those with a lust for profit.  The peasants need to be able to pay the bills.  If they can’t, the bubble bursts.
As noted, there are many reasons for that big federal deficit.
A bit of prudence, like my parents had to exercise back in the 1940s, would go a long way today.
Don’t expect it from the money changers in the temple that is Wall Street.

#108 – Dick Bernard: August Wilson's Radio Golf

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Last night a friend invited us to attend a performance of August Wilson’s last play, Radio Golf, at St. Paul’s Penumbra Theatre #mce_temp_url#.  I have been an off and on patron of Penumbra since 1985, and with Radio Golf have now seen eight of the ten plays of acclaimed playwright August Wilson’s “20th Century Cycle”.  (The ten plays are listed at the end of this post.  Mr. Wilson, who passed away six months after the premiere of Radio Golf in 2005, earned international acclaim, including, among numerous awards, two Pulitzer Prizes.  He considered Penumbra his “home” theatre – where his writing was encouraged and his work was first performed in 1977.  He was born and grew up in Pittsburgh PA.)
Radio Golf has its final performances this coming weekend.  It is well worth the nearly three hours of intense (and sometimes humorous) performance by the stellar cast of four men and one woman.
Wilson’s 20th century cycle traces the African-American experience in the U.S., decade by decade.
Radio Golf takes on the 1990s.  The plays title makes a whole lot of sense once the play is experienced in person.
Radio Golf is set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, where August Wilson grew up.
Boiled to its essence, I saw Wilson portraying the tensions within the African-American community as a traditional sense of community competes with the contemporary American view of money and its ability to both control and corrupt.  The unlikely heroes and villains are all African-American.  At issue is Big Money coming in to redevelop a poor neighborhood.  Money interests trump Community interests.
The plays focus becomes a ramshackle, abandoned, house which we never see, but which comes alive as somebody’s home.
In this play, in my view, Community (with a capital C) is winning as the play ends.  The power structure has all the weapons and the means to do what it wants, but when all is said and done, a unified community puts the big-shots in their place.  The play ends without revealing a final resolution, and one hopes that the community can keep its focus.
I went to the play knowing nothing about what I was going to see.
For me, Radio Golf came alive in a unique way, since in April, 1998, my daughter and I were given a priceless tour of August Wilson’s growing up neighborhood in the Hill District of Pittsburgh.  Our guide for several hours was his sister Freda, and what a wonderful guide she was.
We saw, and indeed went inside, the tiny, empty and deteriorating flat where August Wilson grew up; the restaurant where he did his first serious writing (he loved to write in restaurants); and all of the neighborhood places and many people familiar to him, many of which appear as characters in his work.  Never in my wildest dreams back then would I have realized that eleven years later I would see his 1990s view of his home neighborhood and its future in Radio Golf.
I have many photos of those several hours in The Hill District in 1998, and reams more of memories of what we saw.  Below are a couple of the photos.
See Radio Golf if you can; it helps bring a small amount of hope in a hopeless time.

August Wilson boyhood home was in building at right in the photo, 1727 Bedford Avenue. Entrance was from back side of the building. Note in background the skyline of downtown Pittsburgh, a few blocks down the hill.

August Wilson boyhood home was in building at right in the photo, 1727 Bedford Avenue. Entrance was from back side of the building. Note in background the skyline of downtown Pittsburgh, a few blocks down the hill.


Eddie's Restaurant where August Wilson began his writing career. Dick Bernard, April, 1998

Eddie's Restaurant where August Wilson began his writing career. Dick Bernard, April, 1998


August Wilson’s 20th Century Cycle
1900s – Gem of the Ocean
1910s – Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
1920s – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
1930s – The Piano Lesson (Pulitzer prize 1990)
1940s – Seven Guitars
1950s – Fences (Pulitzer Prize 1987)
1960s – Two Trains Running
1970s – Jitney
1980s – King Hedley II
1990s – Radio Golf
(1727 Bedford Avenue is at #mce_temp_url#)
UPDATE October 18, 2009 4:10 p.m.
I used the miracle of mapquest and whitepages to nose around pieces of August Wilson’s neighborhood which I remember from 1998.  The aerial photo of the neighborhood reveals at least the possibility that the flat in which he grew up may still exist; Eddie’s is no longer listed as a business; it appears that his school across from the Mellon Center downtown has been taken down, and in general the area looks redeveloped.  One can celebrate or lament what some would see as progress; others as destruction.  Perhaps there is an element of both….

#107 – Dick Bernard: Abortion

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Almost 45 years ago – it was March, 1965 – my wife and I, and her doctor, were worried that she was pregnant with our second child.
This was not a selfish worry.  Barbara had very serious kidney disease, and it was getting worse and worse.  Pregnancy would kill her and, of course, the fetus.
It turned out she wasn’t pregnant.  Four months later she died waiting for a kidney transplant at a major University teaching Hospital.  Her end of life meant major surgeries and isolation and intensive care for the last two months she was alive.  We were a charity case.
But if she had been pregnant in March, 1965, there would have been the issue of terminating a pregnancy.  We were Catholics; the hospital was a Catholic hospital; I think the Doctor was Catholic.  Likely we would have had to look at other options, and then have to live with the guilt of, as anti-‘baby-killers’ like to say, killing an innocent unborn human life.

Barbara and Dick, sponsors at a Baptism, March, 1965

Barbara and Dick, sponsors at a Baptism, March, 1965


I think of our two years of health hell every time the debate over abortion, over “choice”, heats up.  It never ends, and I despair that it will ever be resolved.  The cement in which zealots feet are firmly planted hardens.  There is no room for dialogue.  Theirs is, they say, the “objective truth”.
I am terminally pro-choice, largely because of personal experience.  Pro-lifers would not have nice things to say about me, even though I am, in all the important ways, as, if not more, pro-life than they are.
Now one of the issues made to be in Health Care Reform is an absolute prohibition on funding for abortion.  It is a ‘kill the bill’ position.  It is dishonest, and it is insane.  Some would add birth control, sex ed, personal conscience, et al to the list.
There is less likelihood that Law will end Abortion, than there was that Prohibition would end Booze.  Still, the pious outrage continues.
Abortion is called death of an innocent human being, but to my knowledge, there has not yet been a single legislature courageous enough to pass a bill making abortion murder, with penalties for the person having the abortion.  After years of intense heat but little light, there is no “life in prison without parole” for having an abortion.  (Occasionally there may have been some legislators who actually introduced such bills.  If so, I’d like to see the evidence.)
I remain Catholic.  Barbara passed on 44 years ago.
People, doubtless caring and of good will, rail against women’s right to choose without caring to understand the dilemmas of a lack of a right to choose.
It is a (too many would say) a ‘divinely divisive’ political issue, and, apparently, a good ticket to heaven….
I’m in pretty solid company, I feel, including amongst practicing Catholics.  Most would agree with me that a woman should have the right to choose.  There is not now, nor will there ever be, an effective law or penalty against abortion or family planning because such a law would be fatally flawed, and the view is shared by only a minority of Americans.
Still, ‘life’ remains a potent political issue, and only by shining the spotlight on it will the other side of it ever be examined.
This is an attempt to shine such a light.
Postscript:  Barbara and my personal story is here.
UPDATE October 16, 2009
Two days after the above post I saw a commentary which seems to fit the general topic in an appropriate way.  Perhaps is still accessible here.

#106 – Dick Bernard: "Capitalism: A Love Story" part II

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Part I of this post appeared on October 3.
We went to Michael Moore’s new film, “Capitalism: A Love Story”, on Thursday afternoon.  Friday morning I sent out to my own mailing list a short message about the movie, succinctly, “See it.  Not only to learn, but to be a public witness to the reach of this film.”
In response to this e-mail, a friend wrote “Although I haven’t seen it and probably won’t, however great Michael Moore’s indictment of Capitalism might be, it [it] lacks some methodology for changing our political and economic system, it’s just another way the plutocratic dictatorship that runs our country lets us discontents and malcontents blow off steam and makes at least some of us feel we actually are accomplishing something.”
“Capitalism: A Love Story” lasts about two hours.
When we were in the theatre for the first afternoon showing, there were about 30 or so of us.  We were very attentive.  There was lots of silence when we left the film.
At the end of the film, the screen went dark, and Michael Moore gave the viewers a little advice.
You have to see the film, or find out from someone else who saw the movie, what the advice was.  That’s how important I think it is for you to actually see the movie in person, if at all possible.
And, yes, the film does mention the P word, as it appears in a bankers group report about the new “Plutonomy”.  The topic of we the “peasants” – a business term – comes up too.
I’m glad I saw the film.
See it.
Then do something about it.