#526 – Paul Miller and Dick Bernard: Haiti, remembering eight years ago

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About this time of year in 2002, Paul Miller and I met each other at a meeting, and we learned we lived in the same community.
Paul was already active in the cause of Justice for Haiti, and over the coming months he began to urge me to visit the island Republic with him. It took a while. Though I was a geography major, I needed to re-learn where Haiti was, and a little about it.
Finally, Paul won me over, and on December 6, 2003, we landed in Port-au-Prince, just in time to see the democratically elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide begin to fall to a foreign state sponsored coup d’etat, which ended with President Aristide and his wife being spirited out of the country in the middle of the night, early Feb. 29, 2004, aboard a U.S. aircraft, with a final destination in the Central African Republic. (I guess, though I don’t recall it, that I’m the one who told Paul that Aristide had been taken out of the country.)
Our week, December 6-13, 2003, was an extraordinarily rich learning experience, which gave lots of direct context to assess the later reporting, which left out the positives we had experienced: our context simply didn’t fit the official U.S. narrative….
For those with an interest, there’s tons of information readily available from the Aristide government point of view. Don’t stop with the “official” U.S. narrative.
Following the photo (click on it to enlarge) are’s Paul’s thoughts, and following those, a link to my own reflections written late December, 2003, on our memorable week in Haiti, December 6-13, 2003.

Group visits with Michelle Karshan, President Aristede's foreign press liaison, Dec 11, 2003. From left: Jeff Nohner, Paul Miller, Rita Nohner, Michelle Karshan, Rita Nohner, Fisher, Dick Bernard


Paul Miller, February 29, 2012:
“Seems like yesterday, but also seems like a really long time ago
Haiti, 8 years later
I remember very well where I was when I learned that President Aristide had left Haiti in the early morning hours of February 29, 2004. It was my “where were you when you heard JFK was shot” moment, although I have that memory, too. It was at Caribou Coffee in Woodbury, Minnesota and my friend, who had traveled with me to Haiti in December of 2003, 3 months earlier, informed me that news reports were saying that Aristide had left Haiti. LEFT HAITI? No way, was my first thought. I did not think that Aristide would ever abdicate his presidential term in Haiti by his own choice after the 1991 coup against him and his 1994 return. Stunned and devastated would accurately describe how I received this most depressing news.
The facts would come to show that my instincts were right. President Aristide had no intention of leaving Haiti on that night or on any night during the remaining time of his presidency. Clearly he DID NOT leave that night of his own volition. You can choose to believe whatever you want to believe about US actions on this day and about US actions towards Haiti on any given day. However, if you choose to value the truth, then you will accept /learn that the facts show that Jean Bertrand Aristide was removed by US force/s and yet another coup d’etat took place in Haiti. The only real evidence offered of an alternative scenario are the self serving statements from those at the top of our government, chiefly George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and the sycophantic Colin Powell.
It’s not ancient history, like a lot of our nefarious actions towards Haiti. It was 8 years ago. Yesterday it was announced that President Aristide is being investigated for drug violations. Our hypocrisy really knows no bounds. What a coincidence that once again we are challenged to question Aristide’s integrity and ethics rather than to be reminded that there was a US sponsored coup that undermined Haiti’s hope for democracy and stability on this day, 8 short years ago.”
Dick Bernard reflections written late December, 2003: accessible here.

#525 – Dick Bernard: Congresswoman Betty McCollum pays a visit to Woodbury

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About 60 of us dropped by Woodbury’s indoor City Park Saturday morning to meet Congresswoman Betty McCollum, whose 4th Congressional District moves to the east in January, 2013. Of course, during this time of transition, my town remains in Cong. Bachmann’s district until January, but all candidates for all elective offices need to become acquainted with greatly changed district boundaries as a result of census mandated redistricting.
(click on below photos to enlarge them)

Cong. Betty McCollum in Woodbury, February 21, 2012


In Congresswoman McCollums case, redistricting means that approximately one-fourth of her over 600,000 constituents (including the baby in the photo, below) will be new to her. Of course, the Congresswoman is in her sixth term in a district contiguous to ours, so she is not exactly a stranger in these parts.
In this case, redistricting makes for strange bedfellows. The current Congresswoman, Michele Bachmann, lives in the to-be new 4th District, and as of this writing intends to continue to reside in the 4th, while running for her old seat in the reconfigured 6th District. It’s all completely legal. Bachmann has her own needs to get acquainted with new potential constituents….
There is not much to report about a get-acquainted session. This one was billed for an hour, started on time, ended on time: a good omen. In other contexts, I’ve had occasion to meet as part of groups with Rep. McCollum’s staff in St. Paul, and have always been pleased with their willingness to engage with constituents with concerns. The Congressman did speak to a current dilemma of constituent service. The majority Republicans in the House have cut back on Congressional staff budgets, which makes it more difficult for every Congressperson to get to know and thus better serve their constituents. It is part of politics.
One visitor raised the question of the oft-discussed needs for a new Stillwater Bridge, an increasingly intense political football.
I thought Cong. McCollum handled the issue very well. First of all, the project is not in her district yet, and it would be poor form to lambaste a colleague.
She didn’t.
She does, however, have a position on transportation generally and the bridge specifically, and she simply directed us to her Congressional website. Her long-term position on the bridge issue is here. Succinctly, the issue is extraordinarily complex, tempting but dangerous to try to reduce into sound bites.
Of course, more than just Congressional Districts are affected by redistricting.
Our home address stays the same but we also are moved into new Minnesota House and Senate Districts. The incumbent House member for our new district is Nora Slawik, currently in our next door neighbor district. She and Ann Marie Metzger are likely candidates for the new House seats. Both Nora and Ann Marie were at the gathering. There is no Senate candidate for either party at this point in time.
Cong. McCollum pointed out the obvious: politics is a team sport.
We, the people, cannot delegate responsibility for who represents us: they’re not some vague “them”. If we despise Congress, and polling consistently shows that we do, it’s ourselves that we despise.

In a District with over 600,000 constituents, as all Congressional districts are, a candidate cannot do it alone, particularly when there are 150,000 new constituents. Running for office takes work, and lots and lots of help, time, financial and otherwise.
Cong. McCollums campaign site is here. Take a look.

Nora Slawik, Betty McCollum, Ann Marie Metzger Feb 25, 2012


One of the new 4th Districts youngest constituents comes to meet Betty McCollum

#524 – Dick Bernard: Birthdays and Memories.

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Today is one of those Birth Days in my family circle.
It is unusual in that there are three today: Oldest son, Tom; spouse, Cathy; daughter-in-law Robin all begin a new year in their respective histories. Tom was born less than three weeks after the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan ‘shew’, February 9, 1964. So here, thanks to YouTube, is their appearance on that show. (I wrote a comment.)
Happy birthday to all. (You can see a brief cameo appearance of Tom in a Denver television spot about his wife, Jennifers, popular eatery, Simply Sloppy Joe’s here. More here.)
To this list of Feb 26ers, I could add my grandfather Bernard, who, were he alive today would be 140 (he lived to a ripe old age of 85 before passing on in 1957. I was 17 when he died, and I have lots of memories of him.) Born in rural Quebec in 1872, he grew up in a different world than we live in. His to-be mother-in-law, Clotilde Blondeau, later Collette, had come to what is now suburban Minneapolis (Dayton MN) as a young girl in the early 1850s, long before there were roads and railroads, and before Minnesota became a state. Blondeau’s were here nearly a decade before the Civil War and the beginning of Abraham Lincoln’s Presidency.
Time passes on, and the best we can do is the best we can do.
Birthdays are one of the two things we have in common. The other, death, comes unannounced. There is a certain ‘menu’ selected: sudden, lingering, on and on. I’m old enough to remember lots of these, some very recent; most of those recent deaths younger than I am; a tragic one learned about just this week.) Every one reminds us of good times and bad; relationships fine or complicated…death is really for the living, in the end. That’s what obituaries and funerals and memorial services are all about.
Recently I had a pleasant and unexpected reunion with a classmate from high school days, Duane Zwinger of Carrington, ND. He popped in at my coffee place unannounced and we had a couple of great visits. His daughter and family live, it turned out, two short blocks from my birthday-girl daughter-in-law Robin, son-in-law David and grandson Ben. (Their proximity is a reminder that today the whole world is our ‘neighborhood’.)

Duane and Dick, February, 2012


He and I had reconnected in 2008, on the occasion of the anniversary of my 50th year out of high school in Sykeston ND. He’s a year younger, and we re-met at the towns all-school reunion. We’d last seen each other in college days. I hauled out the little high school yearbook, and we read, and laughed about, the prophecy for my class Sykeston Sr Hist 1958001(there were nine graduating seniors; a tenth left school and joined the Air Force mid-year. Two have died.)
At that town reunion, several of we family members slept in one of the top floor classrooms of the no longer used Sykeston High School. It was a school several of us had attended, and my Dad was Superintendent and Mom taught elementary there. It was a nostalgia time.
The last morning, I wandered the halls of the old place, and decided to take photos of the senior class photos still hanging on the wall of the school. This was before I knew there was such a thing as Facebook, and probably before Facebook had perfected the technology of on-line photo albums.
But that was then. A couple of days ago I entered all of those class pictures – they began in 1944; the school began in 1913 – on Facebook.
Here they are, over 60 years worth, of people born from about 1926 to 1957. (If you’re unfamiliar with Facebook albums, you can click on any photo, it will be enlarged and you can do a ‘slide show’ on screen. Note arrow at right side of photo, and click on it.)
Happy Birthday all!
And here’s the Sykeston School Song! Sykeston School Song002
Best wishes.

#522 – Dick Bernard: After Ash Wednesday, 2012

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Wednesday noon we attended Ash Wednesday service at the local Catholic Church, and that afternoon I walked around with ashes on my forehead (“dirt” as the Priest described it), not making a particular statement with it. It’s the one time of the year when you can sort of figure out who might be Catholic.
Back home, the first e-mail I saw was the following from a colleague in Peace and Justice efforts.
As a lifelong Roman Catholic, I’m happy to oblige to help a little in passing this message along.
“Here is a statement published in the Feb 21, 2012 Philadelphia Inquirer that was written by my friend and former neighbor Paul Stubenbort. I think it should go viral. Paul had been a member of the Catholic ministry and withdrew over issues of conscience such as this.
Paul Stubenbort
Bensalem, Pa. 19020
Dear Editor:
Religious leaders in Philadelphia are opining that the U.S. Government is antireligion.
Archbishop Chaput claims that Obama’s healthcare stance is the most “aggressive attack on religious freedom in our country…in recent memory.”
This public discussion about freedom of religion and birth control is puzzling. I see no relation between the two. Most Catholics practice artificial birth control, or did, or will, and see no impropriety in it. Our church defines itself as “The People of God.” So most of the millions of the “People of God” practice birth control in this country. Only the Catholic Hierarchy finds something wrong with that. And its opposition to birth control is based, not on the scriptures, but on its own quaint reading of natural law, whereby every conjugal act has to be open to the procreation of children. To deny artificial birth control to societies that cannot even feed the people already here is morally irresponsible.
For the government to insist that all have access to birth control is socially responsible and morally defensible. The U.S. Government imposed its will on slaveholders in spite of slaveholders’ recourse to scripture to defend slavery. It likewise imposed its will on those who based their defense of polygamy on religious concepts. And just as the government intervened to stop evil, it has the right to intervene to promote good. The government has the right to legislate for the health and welfare of women, any religion notwithstanding. To accuse the government of being anti-religion in this question of birth control is more than foolish, it is political.
Paul Stubenbort
Roman Catholic
I routinely check to see if such a document is real, and appears as stated, and this one is real, and does appear in the Inquirer for February 21.
“Fair and balanced”, there is a long and passionate response against Stubenborts opinion in the same paper, which essentially mirrors the standard declaration of faith that (in this case, the Catholic hierarchies) religious freedom gives them the right to take away others freedom to believe differently….
Long and short, Roman Catholicism’s “feet in cement” position on contraception (and by extension its seamless notion of the sanctity of life from before conception to unnatural (Schiavo) death), is rooted in the decision of a single person, Pope Paul VI, in 1968, when he adopted the minority position of a Catholic Commission on the matter. Read any reasonably fair and balanced report of the genesis of that portion of Humanae Vitae, and you’ll find what I say is true. All the rest is argument, supporting or refuting the Pope.
This doctrine is not God or Jesus talking; rather it is Pope Paul VI, supported by the current political structure in Rome, and ignored by the vast majority of practicing Catholics.

#521 – Dick Bernard: Redistricting (Redistricted) Minnesota

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There will be endless political verbiage about the new Minnesota political map, released yesterday.
The implications depend on where you live, what your political leanings are, or who you like, politically. (In some places there will be an incumbent Republican (or Democrat) against another incumbent from the same political party.)
It will be a very interesting spring, summer and fall.
Here’s the first take I’ve seen, thanks to Twin Cities Daily Planet:
Minnesotans: Here’s how to find your new political district (maybe it stays the same, mine doesn’t): enter your address information in the search box, here.
A couple of commentaries, also from the Daily Planet, here: by Editor Mary Turck, and by Uptake editor Mike McIntee.
Now the politics begins, and politics is everyone, you, me. We are all “politics as usual”, whether we are heavily involved, or attempt to avoid the topic, or think politics (or politicians) stink….
Find out what your legislative and congressional district is, and get involved, very actively.
We are all accountable for the results come November.

#520 – Dick Bernard: A Million Copies

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Sometimes, something is just too good to wait.
This morning I had the opportunity to re-union in St. Paul with Marion Brady.
Marion and I were long time members of a quality education e-list maintained by the National Education Association (NEA). We “met” on-line in the mid-1990s, and had only seen each other in person one time, when I stopped by his home literally across the river from Cape Canaveral in January, 2003.
Though it had a long run, the e-list passed on, as such lists do, but we continued to visit from time to time on-line.
Here’s we two today: Marion is the guy on the right (click to enlarge).

Dick Bernard, Marion Brady February 18, 2012, St. Paul MN


Our hosts, Wayne Jennings and Joan Sorenson, served a great breakfast, and we had a great conversation, one of those that makes time race by. Both Wayne and Joan were long-time innovative educators in Minnesota History of Ed Reform in MN. Wayne founded in 1987, and till 2000 owned, a Minnesota organization, Designs for Learning, long involved in facilitating institutional change in education.
We covered lots of ground in our time together.
Marion had been up to speak to a convention of an organization called MN Association of Alternative Programs. Wayne is ex-officio on the Board of MAAPMN.
I’ve been a fan of Marion’s work for many years. Though he’s retired far longer than I, he really never quit teaching and learning and writing. And his ideas make a great deal of sense. His on-line presence is here. He’s the absolute model of persistence – promoting his philosophy to whoever will listen, and achieving some success. He just keeps going, going and going….
For some years, Marion has written columns for the Washington Post’s Answer Sheet section. Ordinarily, he passes them along to me.
All of his columns for the Post, and many others, are accessible here.
It was a comment about one of those columns that caught my ear near the end of our visit.
I had mentioned the Answer Sheet, and he was telling me about a recent column he had written, December 5, 2011, that had gotten such an unbelievable response that the section editor had requested permission to interview the unnamed source to make sure that she wasn’t defending a piece of creative fiction.
Succinctly, Marion’s topic was what most would consider to be somewhat boring – testing of student proficiency.
This particular column, he was told, had gone viral, and there had been 1.1 million hits in the first 48 hours. Yes, a MILLION.
By now you’re curious, doubtless, so here is the specific column, with a link provided to the editors note about the results of her efforts to verify its contents.
For those of us who toil pretty anonymously in the vineyard of opinion, this column by Marion Brady is an object lesson in the value of persistence. Some day when you least expect it, you get noticed, and noticed, and noticed some more.
Of course, you don’t win the race unless you show up and run in it, but it happens more often than we imagine.
Earlier we had gotten around to talking about a landmark settlement achieved by a largely unknown group of women called the Women’s Equity Action League (WEAL) in the late 1970s.
Joan and I discovered we had both worked with what was called the Minnesota “WEAL Agreement” (WEAL Agree MN Nov 77001 )which has had a long term huge impact on practices to hire women as school administrators and social studies teachers in Minnesota public schools.
The agreement was an attempt to implement Title IX – affirmative action for women – in public education. A shero in common was Margaret Holden, then local president of WEAL.
What is common today was a very, very hard slog back then.
Joan mentioned the famous Margaret Mead quotation about the impact of small numbers of people: “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
I had just given them my card, which refers to that quote at the top of my website page, and suggested they take a look there, AMillionCopies.info, where that very quotation has been sitting quietly for the last four years – just waiting for today.
Congratulations, Marion, and Joan, and Wayne, and all who plug along.

Dr. Wayne Jennings, Joan Sorenson, Marion Brady February 18, 2012


“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

#519 – Dick Bernard: The 2012 Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College, Minneapolis

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Tuesday I was privileged to attend a preview of the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College, Minneapolis MN.
All I can say is “be there”. And if you plan to be there, enroll now. I will be surprised if there is room for walk-ins the days of the Conference, March 1-3. All details are here. This will be an extraordinarily rich world-class conference. Those of us who attended the preview received a 12-page summary of a jam-packed agenda. It would be folly to try to choose a high-light, any day. You need to visit the site to get an idea of the wealth of options available.
There will be ‘tracks’, by day:
Business Day is Thursday, March 1; also on March 1 is a specific Arts and Music Day track.
Friday, March 2 is Education Day, the first portion called by its previous name “The Nobel Peace Prize Festival”, This years Festival is the 17th annual at Augsburg. (The history of both Festival and Forum are here.)
Global Studies Day is Saturday, March 3.
If there is a specific ‘theme’, this years seems to be South Africa, which plays a prominent role each day.
South African F. W. de Klerk, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate with Nelson Mandela in 1993, is this years honored Laureate. Naomi Tutu, daughter of Desmond Tutu, will give the closing Call to Action address. Saki Macozoma, who spent five years in South Africa’s Robben Island prison for anti-apartheid activities, will keynote Business Day.
de Klerk, Mandela, Tutu, Macozoma, Robben Island: perhaps an infamous history, but the perfect illustration of the Forums theme: “The Price of Peace”.
A major workshop on Global Studies Day might sum up this years Forum: Dr. Geir Lundestad, Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute and secretary of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, will speak on “Controversial Nobel Peace Prizes: Successes or Failures.”
Run, don’t walk, to register. All information is here.
A Personal Aside: now available on demand or through DVD is a new documentary film we were privileged to see last May. It is titled I Am, the Documentary, and my post about it can be found here. It would be great preparation for this years Forum….
If you believe that the idea of achieving Peace is naive and unattainable, visit a website that highlights the work of two individuals who set out to make a difference, and have…. It is here.

#518 – Dick Bernard: The Ask.

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A day or so ago I answered the phone and a little-person voice announced herself as “Susie”.
Susie? I thought it was a misdial. Then her mother came on, and I learned that I was talking to granddaughter Lucy, all irrepressible five years of her.
Her sisters, Girl Scouts, had convinced her to call us to alert us to Girl Scout cookie time. As I type this blog, their Mom is on the way to our house with the goods, just in time for Mardi Gras.
Earlier today, I stopped at Lucy’s aunts school. We were comparing notes. Joni said that she’d recently seen Lucy, and the first words out of her mouth were “how many boxes?”
Ah, salesmanship, and marketing….
It all reminded me of an occasion a year ago when I was part of a small group meeting with a top executive at a major company to cadge a donation for the Nobel Peace Prize Festival (now Forum) at Augsburg. The last member of our group, a nationally known figure, came into the lobby, and his first statement was, “what’s the ask?” What did we want from this appointment? He knew the trade.
Yes, we made the sale that day. It helps to have people along who know how selling goes….
I never was in the sales profession, but I admire good salespeople, and from time to time I pick up useful tips, like “what’s the ask?”
The guy who called the meeting that day was my friend Lynn Elling, then 90, who is a retired and successful salesman (financial products, Lincoln Life).
Recently he and I were visiting and he felt inclined to describe the sales process, simplified. He said (and this is useful for any of us selling anything), that the rule of thumb was that it takes three calls to get an appointment, and three appointments to get a sale. Most of us don’t have the stamina to jump through those hoops.
Then he described the Sales Pyramid, which is very simple, really: 1) you must know something (“credential”); 2) you must disturb the client; 3) then you propose a solution; and 4) you close the sale.
Oh so simple.

Noting Lynn Elling's reminisences of selling...Jan. 2012


I thought back to other little ditties relating to selling: to get a sale you must sell the product “7 times in 7 ways”; if you want a successful event, remember three F’s: Food, Fun, Family.
A survival skill for me in my early career was to internalize “patience and persistence pays”.
And as we all know from experience, a good “sale” is one where both the salesperson and the customer win, and months later the customer is glad he or she ‘bit’. We all know what that looks like.
Not so cool is when the objective requires that one side win, and the other lose…(very much like contemporary politics).
Of course, all of the strategies, even the good ones, don’t always work.
Recently a retired minister friend recalled a pitch someone had made to magnate Curt Carlson. His colleague was very nervous, and couldn’t get to the point. Mr. Carlson intervened, and coached the minister along.
The pitch was made, and Mr. Carlson responded, “I decline….”
Good luck Girl Scouts.
Oh yes. We’re now the owners of ten boxes….
UPDATE April 22, 2012: Recently I was visiting my friend, Lynn Elling (see above), and he had by his side the autobiography of CNN founder and mogul Ted Turner. In the book, Call Me Ted, Lynn said that Turner’s mantra for success was very simple:
“Early to bed,
Early to rise,
Work like hell,
and Advertise.”
Makes sense to me.

#517 – Dick Bernard: Why I don't quit the Catholic Church

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Each time I express an irritation with the Catholic Church, a few friends will write, in assorted ways, “why not just leave?”
I always answer in assorted versions of “you can’t change an organization from the outside. You have to slog away within the system.” Plus, except for the hierarchy, whose clear obsession is temporal power, the “Catholic Church” as an institution has never done dirt to me, and has been an immense contributor on many levels to social justice in this country and in the world. Its representatives in the form of Priests, Nuns, Parish Workers, etc., might vary in talents and abilities, but by and large they really, really care about the essential Jesus mission as expressed in the beatitudes. I can’t leave that for some greener pasture that may not be any greener.
So I slog on.
Yesterday, at the exact same Mass where we got “The Letter” and “The Notice”, there was a second collection for retired Catholic Religious. This is an annual collection, and this year there wasn’t a speaker, rather a flier, in Spanish and English, in each pew. The flier speaks for itself: Abp religious retirement001
There is a particular sentence I noted: “… worked for years for small stipends. Their sacrifices now leave a substantial gap in retirement funding.”
The translation from English to English is simple: the Nuns who built the Roman Catholic social service system took vows of “poverty, chastity and obedience”, and when it came to retirement time, many of their orders had almost nothing to sustain their retirees, at about the same time as vocations were dwindling to the present status which is almost nothing. So appeals which tug at the heartstrings come out each year. While I don’t know the exact relationship, I do know that orders of Nuns could be very aggravating to the hierarchical structure. They were not easily manipulated.
The rules were not as severe for Priests, but, in my viewing, the same attitude of service and social justice tended to apply to them as well. I remember many truly wonderful Priests.
I wrote out my check for $50 yesterday. It should have been more, but it was probably well above average….
In the old days it was a source of pride for a family to produce a Nun or a Priest or in some cases a Bishop.
Some of these folks were legendary.
If you look at photos of the Civil Rights marches in the 1960s, Priests and Nuns were conspicuous by their presence, and if you looked behind the scenes, the local Bishops were telling them to stay where they were supposed to be, and that was not on the protest line.
I recently did a blog post about a Priest ordained in 1973 who said his informal mentors were Priests active in the rights movements.
And those Catholic hospitals? It was groups of Nuns, basically. Ditto for Catholic womens colleges, and Catholic schools.
Sister Rose did her damndest to teach me how to play piano in 5th grade in Sykeston ND. She failed. But not long afterwards, Ms. Stone, classically trained in a prestigious conservatory ‘out east’, tried again, and she failed, spectacularly. It wasn’t the teacher, it was the student!
I can NEVER repay those nuns who took my first wife into their Grand Forks ND hospital for two months in early 1964 when we had NOTHING. We were a charity case. They took us in….
So these Bishops and the rest who are the moldy fruit on top of the Church cabinet, can try to leverage their temporal power and attempt to pass their beliefs on in political skirmishes and laws and constitutional amendments. But I’m going to stick with the struggle in the place where they can be made most uncomfortable. They can ignore people like me, they can threaten us, but they can’t get rid of us…unless we leave.
I know there are other people within the institution who are outspoken in their own ways. We don’t all agree on exactly what to do, but we’re in agreement that the status quo with these Bishops is not the best we can do.
So, here I am.
(click on photo to enlarge)

Nuns at a cookout in Sykeston, ca 1959


E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post wrote a good column on this topic today. It is accessible here. Thanks to Bruce who highlighted it in a comment on yesterdays post.