#516 – Dick Bernard: The Catholic Hierarchy goes to war…against me, a Catholic who happens to disagree with them.

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Today at Mass at Basilica came the expected Declaration of War (my interpretation) by the Catholic Hierarchy against the majority of us in the pews and not, who do not buy the promulgated line. If you are not Catholic, or one of the two-thirds of Catholics who do not normally go to church, the declaration, on contraception and on the so-called marriage amendment to the Minnesota Constitution, is worth a read, probably worth printing out. A copy of it is here: Abp Ns Declaration001. I gladly provide this information at no cost to the Archdiocese or my Parish, simply because it is information.
I’m under no illusions: the Catholic Hierarchy is a powerful adversary. It controls the money, the real estate, the employees and the microphone when it comes to the “Catholic” position on things. It is not a democracy. The 400+ Bishops, Archbishops and Cardinals in the United States are appointed, not elected, and their positions are set by a foreign principality, the Vatican. The local Archbishop has no popular referendum to indicate his support here. No one local can vote him in or out of his office. In many temporal ways he rules.
Still, oddly, assorted public officials, including non-Catholics who welcome his apparent ‘power’ on their issues, will give him and his brother Bishops great and undeserved deference.
The constituency I “represent” is likely an easy majority of the people in the pews at Catholic Church on any given day, including the few who attend daily Mass. But we do not get the attention. It is the other Catholic Church, the Hierarchy, that gets the attention.
As for me, I happen to be a lifelong Catholic and I like going to Mass and ushering, and I’ve never seriously considered bolting. It’s not fear, or lethargy, or anything like that keeps me coming. Mass on Sunday is part of my weekly routine. I like the Church’s traditional (and now flagging) attention to social justice.
Some suggest that I’m foolish to hang on. I’ve answered that question for myself, long ago. You don’t make change by disappearing from the battlefield. And this is a battlefield.
First, some data (which seldom is seen, and when seen is spun to death): Best as I can gather, 25% of Americans are said to be Catholic. This is probably a very liberal estimate (conservatives can make very liberal claims if in their interest, and the Bishops are no different.)
Roughly half of that 25% might be to the right of center, the other half to the left, in all variations of those misused terms. So, one-eighth of the U.S. population might seem to generally subscribe to one or another of the Bishops positions.
Of that 12% or so, a very small fraction are the spear-carriers for the Church. They are the ones who purport to speak for the faith, usually filmed inside a Church. They are the images on the evening news….
As for me, all I can do is set my own beliefs in front of the one, two, fifteen or twenty who might be inclined to listen and think about the implications of all of this.
My thoughts have not been hidden from view: Enter the word “abortion” in the search box at this blog and you’ll find eight posts in which the word is mentioned. The most important is October 12, 2009, which is here. Judging from years of conversations with and reading of works by Catholics, my views are very moderate, mainstream Catholic. It is the Bishops who are the extremists.
Enter the word “marriage” and you’ll find it in 25 posts. The most important and relevant one is October 6, 2010, which is here. I notice that at the end of this post I make reference to a future posting on a 1730 Quebec marriage contract. That future posting is here, June 25, 2011, and the link is towards the end of the post.
The civil contract (which preceded the Catholic Church marriage by two weeks) is well worth reading and discussing to get some grounding on the issues at stake in this state and others.
There is a great deal at stake. The institution that is my Catholic Church claims it is being discriminated against, even persecuted. I disagree in the strongest possible way. A fringe is seeking to take control under the guise of freedom of religion: their freedom.
The debate will be interesting.
But remember, those Bishops are not local people, and there are only 400 or so of them….
UPDATE: Monday, Feb. 13, 2011: Overnight came a good post in Just Above Sunset summarizing the national debate beginning on this issue.
“Why I don’t quit the Catholic Church”, a followup post, here.

#515 – Dick Bernard: "I Will Always Love You" Whitney Houston, and others

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A little medley for the day of the Grammy’s.
The news just in that Whitney Houston is dead at 48. She had a great talent and a tragic life. I picked a few personal favorites from different artists off of YouTube….
Whitney is at peace.
Any favorite songs you’d like to add to this list?
Whitney Houston Here
Celine Dion here
Susan Boyle and Elaine Page here
The Judds here
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and friends, here
Elvis Presley here
Yours?
UPDATE Feb. 12 p.m.
John B: My favorite WH song was The Greatest Love of All. It is the anthem of self -esteem. Sadly, I am not sure WH practiced it.

#513 – Dick Bernard: Going to the Precinct Caucus, thinking about 100 Years

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We’ll be at our Precinct Caucus tonight, at a Middle School in rural Lake Elmo ‘a hop and a skip’ from where Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann lives alongside a golf course.
Many precincts will convene at this school, same as always.
Four years ago, Feb. 5, 2008…well, here’s what I said, then:
“I’ve attended precinct caucuses for years. Our particular caucus location for the last several years has been a junior high school a 15 minute drive from me, just off I-94.
That’s 15 minutes on a normal day.
Tonight it took almost an hour to drive to the location, most of that time spent in the last half mile jammed bumper to bumper on the freeway and the exit ramp, and then another 15 minutes to walk to the school from my car which I had to park on the shoulder of the road.
The time spent had everything to do with the precinct caucus attendance, which was HUGE.
My caucus location was teeming with young people. The young guy who serves me coffee most mornings at my local Caribou was there, volunteering
for Al Franken. It is nice to make occasional unexpected connections like these….”
Two years later, sometime in early February, 2010, we went again, to the same school. Afterward, I didn’t write a word about it. Our local Senate District bulletin a few weeks ago said there were 300 at that Caucus. It was like a private gathering in our caucus classroom. Thence came the 2010 election. 41% of eligible Americans voted (55% of Minnesotans). We know the results. The election statistics on voter participation in 2008 and 2010 tell the tale: here for 2010; here for 2008. In 2008 62% of Americans and 78% of Minnesotans voted. (As I write, there are efforts at our legislature to make it more difficult for people to vote. Ah, freedom and democracy….)
A few hours from now we’ll be back at that school. Tomorrow I’ll report.
Why do I include “thinking about 100 Years” in my headline?
For the last several months there has been a frequent television ad for the fossil fuel industry, bragging, in several renditions, about the 100 years of natural fossil fuel resource we have left, making it seem like 100 years is a long time. You’ve likely seen one or more rendition of the ad over the last six months or so. Oh, so reassuring. We’ve got 100 years….
Even the most conservative Bible literalists say the earth has been around for a few thousand years now. We’re running out of time, and pretending that the good times can continue to roll on for at least 100 years. And then what? (I first publicly wrote about this in #4 on April 7, 2009. It’s been on my mind.)
This is your country, and the next generations future.
Get to caucus. Get well informed. And participate in the most important thing you can do: an informed vote in November.

Letter I submitted to Minneapolis Star Tribune yesterday (not printed, possibly still pending):

A letter writer on Monday declares “I will never again vote for any Republican or Democrat running at the state or federal level…[rather] go to the best third-party or independent candidate that I can find.”
Apparently, by this action, the writer (and many angry fellow travelers like him) believes he/they can make a difference by voting for people who don’t have a chance, and who often effectively help to elect people even less desirable than the successful Republican or Democrat they despise.
Maybe he thinks his action is superior to those nearly 60% of Americans who didn’t vote at all in 2010, many of whom now complain about this dysfunctional Congress and Legislature they chose to have no part in electing.
Or others who voted with absolutely no knowledge of who – or what – they were voting for.
Reminds me of this grumpy old man I once saw in the polling booth next to me. His wife was with him, and after voting he loudly exclaimed, “now I have the right to complain”.
Ah, what fools we are. We have exactly what we deserve.
Dick Bernard, Woodbury MN
NOTE: There seems plenty of confusion about how government actually works. Much of this is intentional on the part of political actors who attempt to deflect blame to someone else; another, even worse, is just plain ignorance of basic Civics. I can’t solve the problem of intentional ignorance in this blog, but it would perhaps be helpful to know the makeup of the United States Government, which you can see here Congress 1977-2011001, and by basic understanding of how laws are actually made (by lawmakers, Congresspeople and Senators, and not by the President.)

#512 – Dick Bernard and Jack Burgess: "…There ain't no power like the power of the people, say WHAT?…."

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Is there change in the air?
Sometimes you just have to take the time to look…and then you need to double down, and go back to work, hard, hard work. Yes, I said “go to work”. Human nature seems to minimize accomplishments, and denies how much work is necessary to make changes, and to sustain changes once made.
But it is interesting to watch what is happening.
At the end of this post is a column written by a retired teacher leader in Ohio LAST YEAR. It is instructive for today.
More currently:
1) The Komen Foundation badly miscalculated the little people who make it a success, and even with ‘spin’ will have trouble recovering. It has tarnished its ‘brand’. There are tens of thousands of words out about it. Suffice to say, Komen blew it.
2) Employment numbers are up, and they’re distressing to the critics of Obama who wish to exploit hard times. No, they’re not up enough, but they are up. Yes, there are plenty of additional problem, like wages, and attacks on organized employees, but the numbers are up. Personally, I think they reflect some recognition by the business sector that people need money to buy the stuff that generates business profits, and the biggest market is right here in the USA. Cynically, I might say that much as they would have liked to, they couldn’t hold the recovery hostage until Obama was thrown out in November….
3) Over a million people in Wisconsin signed a recall petition against Gov. Scott Walker, and these were actual paper petitions, collected by real people – not clicking a box on an internet link. Recalls are tough, tough, tough sells, and there’s a lot of work ahead. But the volley across the bow was damned strong.
4) And in Ohio, what the year ago column talks about, a year made quite a difference, and the Republican Governor and legislators found out that they couldn’t run roughshod over the people affected.
There are other many other ‘snips’ I could write about, like the few billionaires organizing their zillions of $$$’s to rule us all, permanently, and I could write a whole lot more about what those “power of the people” folks – people like me – have to do, but that can wait. Watch this space for more on Minnesota Precinct Caucus day Tuesday, February 7.
And attend and participate in your caucus.
And “Here’s a piece that appeared in the Chillicothe [OH] Gazette, back when we were demonstrating at the Statehouse against SB 5, which would have taken away much of what Bob, I, and thousands of others worked so hard for, way back when.”
Jack
Labor Peace or Labor “War”?
A column by Jack Burgess
3/8/11
Overlooked in the furor over Governor Kasich’s efforts to take away rights and benefits from Ohio’s public employees is the question of what life would really be like if he is successful. Apparently, he and his supporters hope that teachers and other public employees will just “get over it,” and learn to live with less salary and benefits, as well as less input into educational policy. Reality check time. Government offices and schools across the state will be staffed with unhappy people with no official channels for their complaints or suggestions. The probability is that Ohio will endure what used to be called, in the days before collective bargaining was legalized, “labor unrest.”
Pardon this old history teacher for pointing out that, as William Faulkner said, “The past is not dead. It isn’t even past.” While we need history books to remind us of the robber baron era when workers were shot for going on strike, there are plenty of folks around today who can remember what it was like before public employees had rights. They can recall when married women weren’t allowed to teach. Later, women teachers, married or not, had to resign if they became “with child.” As recently as 1967—before a moderate Republican Ohio government changed it—elementary teachers, who were almost all women, were paid less than secondary teachers, who were more often men. Almost all administrators were men. Women were allowed to be elementary principals, but rarely high school leaders or superintendents. Teachers’ unions have successfully advocated for the rights of women and girls in education. If bargaining were abolished, would national civil rights laws keep the reactionary Republicans who now run Ohio government from discriminating again?
Of course, men who taught before collective bargaining and the right to file a grievance, can remember when a male teacher could be told his sideburns were too long, and sent home in embarrassment to shave. How would administrators, pressured to get test scores up, and equipped with power that couldn’t be challenged by unions, treat their staffs? In one school in the “good old days” before unions, teachers, who were regularly berated over the P.A., system hung a sign on the teachers’ lunch room that said, “Incapable Fools Club.” At a faculty meeting, when a teacher disagreed, she might be told, “Shut up and sit down!” These attitudes, so common when school boards and school administrators had unlimited power over teachers, not only kept a lot of self respecting people out of teaching, they sometimes led to abuses of children. Maybe most important, they deprived schools, and the children for which they exist, of teacher input into educational decision making.
After all, teachers are the real educational experts. It’s the teacher who works with the children, day in and day out, while many administrators get further removed every day from the realities of the classroom. It was the teachers’ union, in Columbus for instance, that negotiated the creation of the alternative schools, as well as the requirement for libraries in every school, and lower class sizes at the lowest grade levels, so that children could get enough teacher time to get off to a good start with reading, math, and the other basic subjects. Unions in Columbus and elsewhere also fought racial segregation, and while Columbus may have been a bit unique, teachers everywhere always push—through their unions—for what children need.
And here’s a point that has yet to be discussed in the media. What will happen to the unions if they can’t officially represent their members? They’ll probably do what they did in the past—continue to represent their members as best they can, unofficially. OEA, AFSCME, SEIU, and the other unions will still have their staffs, their offices, and most of their members, now sad and angry. They will not just fold up and go away. Thankfully, the Governor can’t nullify the U.S. Constitution, which will still give public employees the rights of free speech, public assembly, and the right to petition the government for “redress of grievances.” If teachers can’t file official grievances over any of the thousand problems they face, they’ll probably find other channels. What if all the teachers in a school district—several hundred or several thousand—go to the school board meetings to present their views? Or present them around the buildings, on the public sidewalks? They can’t be fired or fined if they’re on their own time, on public property. And if dozens call in “sick,” how would management know who was and who wasn’t? How could they all be fired and replaced? There’s a shortage of science teachers and some of other subjects, now. Firing good teachers would, thus, punish the kids and the community.
Before legal collective bargaining, when teachers and other public employees demonstrated for things they and their students needed, school boards found the demonstrations—and the logic of the unions–most uncomfortable. Ultimately, school boards around Ohio, and in much of the nation, found it made good sense to negotiate or bargain with their teachers, so informal bargaining was born. But the process was messy, not regulated, and subject to mistakes and abuse by all parties. That’s why the collective bargaining bill was passed in 1983. And it worked, reducing the number of strikes and other problems.
Now, if Governor Kasich and his supporters win this fight over public employee bargaining, it looks like we’ll go back to those days when creative union leaders and courageous public employees risked fines and jail time to be heard. But they won’t go away. The choice is not between unions and no unions, but between labor peace, as we’ve mostly had since 1983, and labor unrest. We’ve seen what that unrest looks like around Ohio’s Statehouse in recent weeks.
And this is aside from the blow that will hit Ohio’s economy when 350,000 lower and middle income people have less money to spend in their communities.
Jack Burgess is a retired Chillicothe teacher and former Executive Director of the Columbus Education Assn., as well as Chief of Arbitration Services in Ohio’s Office of Collective Bargaining.

Lynn Elling, World War II and Korea Veteran, Businessman, World Citizen

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NOTE: This post originated in November, 2007, titled LYNN ELLING: A MILLION COPIES MADE: Visioning a New Declaration of World Citizenship, by Dick Bernard.  Originally published Nov. 5, 2007 at Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers, of which Dick Bernard was then President, slightly revised February 3, 2011, and December 3, 2012, and has been updated by addition several times, most recently Nov. 22, 2020.  Mr. Elling died in Minneapolis MN, February 14, 2016.  

*
I don’t know why Ed McCurdy chose the line “a million copies made” for his circa 1950 peace anthem, “Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream”.
Nor do I know why John Denver especially liked that song (a 1971 rendition performed by him on the U.S. Capitol steps is still available on YouTube.)
All I know is that I heard Lynn Elling lead us in singing that song back in the spring of 2007; and that the lyric “A million copies made” has stuck with me.
Who is this Lynn Elling?
And what does he have to do with peace and justice?
Plenty.
As a young LST (Landing Ship Tank #172) officer in WWII, Lynn Elling saw the horrors of War closeup in the South Pacific, at places like Tarawa. The history of LST 172 is here: Lynn Elling LST 172001,
Later he was recalled to service, and served in the Korean conflict, also on an LST.

Lynn Elling on USS LST 172 in the Pacific, 1944

Born in 1921 and a life long Minnesotan, after WWII Elling entered the insurance and financial planning business with Lincoln Life, becoming very successful in the profession. But early in his post-war career, he was discouraged and almost quit. Selling is very hard work. At a critical point in his early professional life, 1947, a workshop leader, Maxwell Maltz (Psycho Cybernetics) unlocked the door to Lynn’s future success. Maltz taught that if one could visualize a goal in technicolor, 3-dimension and stereophonic sound, the goal could be achieved. Elling listened, and followed Maltz’s advice, and it worked.
But Elling never forgot what he’d seen and experienced on that LST in the south Pacific in WWII.
Assorted experiences after WWII, including the service in the Korean conflict and visiting Hiroshima in 1954 and again in 1963, and opportunities to meet with and get to know people like Thor Heyerdahl (Kon Tiki), Norman Cousins, and many others, led to Lynn’s life long passion to build a culture of Peace and World Citizenship. Through leaders like MN Gov. Wendell R. Anderson, and mentors like Minneapolis business executive Stanley Platt, his wife Martha Platt, former Minnesota Governor Elmer L. Andersen and others, Elling was encouraged in his efforts.
His enduring monument is World Citizen, Inc.. World Citizen is a long-time member of Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers (MAP).
In the Fall of 1967, Stanley Platt and Lynn worked with then-Minneapolis Mayor Arthur Naftalin on a Declaration of World Citizenship, patterned on a then rapidly expanding program called “Mundialization” of cities particularly in Japan, France and Canada. Mayor Naftalin took the lead on the initiative, and on March 5, 1968, Minneapolis City Council and Hennepin County Board of Commissioners approved the resolution and the Declaration was signed by numerous parties. Here is a photo of a copy of the 1968 Declaration:

This was the first such declaration by a United States City. Signers of the Declaration and twenty-eight mayors from area communities attended the public declaration on Law Day, May 1, 1968.
Signers of the Declaration were: Chair, Henn. Co Board of Commissioners Robert Janes; Mayor of Minneapolis Arthur Naftalin; President Minneapolis City Council Daniel Cohen; Gov. Harold Levander; Oscar Knutson, Chief Justice Minnesota Supreme Court; Eli Kahn, President Minnesota Rabbinical Association; Congressman Don Fraser; Chairs of Minnesota Republican and DFL parties, George Thiss and Warren Spannaus; Aux. Bishop of Catholic Archdiocese James Shannon; Irene Janski, President of MN League of Women Voters; President MN United World Federalists, Sidney Feinberg, Minnesota State Bar Assoc; Harold Greenwood Jr, United Nations Association of Minnesota.
Former MN Governor Elmer L. Andersen spoke at the ceremony that day, very proud that the occasion marked “the first flying of the United Nations flag by Minneapolis and Hennepin County, [and] the first such declaration and UN flag flying by any major community in the United States. Thus this becomes a deeply significant occasion in our nation’s history. It represents a commitment to cooperation among nations for world peace, to belief in the common brotherhood of all men of all nations, and to aspirations for a world community of peace, freedom and justice under world law.“
In the same speech, he said “that we must look upon all the peoples of the world as one community, and we must find a way to operate under a body of world law to preserve peace.” (quotes from pages 151-52 of I Trust to be Believed, significant speeches by Elmer L. Andersen edited by Lori Sturdevant 2004). Text: Elmer Andersen I Trust..001

Elmer L. Andersen speech, City Hall, Minneapolis, May 1, 1968. Photo by Donna Elling

Gov. Elmer L. Andersen (center left) with Minneapolis Mayor Arthur Naftalin, May 1, 1968, Minneapolis City Hall. Photo by Donna Elling.

Lynn Elling speaks at May 1, 1968, ceremony at Minneapolis City Hall. In foreground, holding the Declaration, is Warren Spannaus, then Chair of the Minnesota DFL party, later Attorney General. Phot by Donna Elling.

Lynn’s passion for peace continued with another remarkable achievement in the spring of 1971 when 26 prominent leaders, including all notable Minnesota Republicans and Democrats, and then-UN Secretary General U Thant, signed a declaration of World Citizenship whose major proviso recognized “the sovereign right of our citizens to declare that their citizenship responsibilities extend beyond our state and nation. We hereby join with other concerned people of the world in a declaration that we share in this world responsibility and that our citizens are in this sense citizens of the world. We pledge our efforts as world citizens to the establishment of permanent peace based on just world law and to the use of world resources in the service of man and not for his destruction.”
Coming as it did during the darkest times of the Vietnam War, the 1971 bi-partisan Declaration is remarkable. Similar declarations were entered into in several other states and many communities.
See amillioncopies.info for more information about the entire declaration, which includes the signatures of all its very prominent signers.
In 1971, the Vietnam War raged on. It was difficult for most Americans to visualize an end to the deadly conflict. For those old enough to remember, the late 1960s and early 1970s was a time of deep division in this country. American youth were dying by the thousands in southeast Asia, as were millions of fellow world citizens in southeast Asian countries.

Here’s a Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial about the 1971 Minnesota Declaration:

Also accessible at the website is [the Elling led] 1972 film, “Man’s Next Giant Leap”, featuring John Denver and many then-notable Minnesota leaders, whose sole purpose was Peace Education for children and adults.
In 1972, Lynn and others founded World Citizen, Inc; in 1988, Peace Sites became integral to World Citizen. Peace Poles have been publicized by World Citizen for many years.
In 1996 Lynn Elling co-founded the Nobel Peace Prize Festival, later part of Nobel Peace Prize Forum, at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. The programs continued until 2018.
As so often happens, after a flurry of attention, the remarkable 1971 declaration literally ended up in a closet, its immense significance unnoticed by later generations.
Lynn Elling never forgot the 1971 declaration and in the spring of 2007 put it back on the table.
Today, of course, we are confronted by circumstances even more compelling and troubling than visited the U.S. and the world in 1971.
Today war is almost an abstract reality for many of us, something that seems to have no apparent negative consequences for us, mostly affecting people we’ll never see face-to-face, with fewer of ‘our own’ dying in places far away, no military draft facing young people, our war financed on a national credit card for our grandchildren to pay.
In a real sense we are playing a deadly video game. Additionally, we are beset with other potentially calamitous problems ignored at our peril. No longer can we pretend that our problems are confined to some other place far away, or even controllable by our own will. We are vulnerable in a way that we do not want to understand.
There has never been a greater need for world citizenship than there is today.
When Lynn secured his last signature on the 1971 declaration, achieving mastery in the space race was still a priority. Today, our very survival as human beings is rooted on what is happening on our own planet in all ways: human relationships, resource depletion, increasing inequities between peoples, climate change…the list goes on and on. Today’s priority must be right here on the sphere we call home – the earth. We are part of the global community; isolation and domination are no longer options.
Lynn Elling deserves immense credit and admiration for not only his accomplishment in 1971, but for reigniting the issue for today’s world.
Thanks, Lynn, for all you’ve done.
To all of you, stay tuned as we “retool and refuel” Lynn’s dream and take it, as he likes to say, “to the stratosphere”.

Lynn Elling World Service Authority Passport Photo 1975

Lynn Elling World Service Authority Passport Photo 1975

UPDATE, May 7, 2016:
LYNN ELLING, Minneapolis MN, died February 14, 2016, a few days short of 95 years of age. You can read his obituary here. A followup feature obit was published in the Minneapolis paper on February 25, 2016, can be read here. See also Celebration May 1 2016001 of his life on May 1, 2016.
Mr. Elling was a giant for peace. My personal attempts to summarize his life can be read below. My knowledge of his work, very minimal at first, expanded with virtually every visit during the 9 years I was privileged to know him.
He was a remarkable missionary for Peace, born of his experience during and following World War II. (More here: Lynn U.S. Navy001)
On May 14, 2014, as part of an archival project focusing on Peace Elders in Minnesota, Ehtasham Anwar and Suhail Ahmed, both of Pakistan, did a 57 minute video of Mr. Elling recalling his years as a peace activist.
The unedited film can be viewed in its entiretyat AMillionCopies.info.  The occasional voices in the background are Ehtasham (doing the interview) and Dick Bernard.
My comment about the interview, as it appears at the YouTube site, is: “Mr. Elling was 93 at the time of this interview in Minneapolis, MN May 14, 2014. I was privileged to be part of the interview planning and process, and from time to time I’ll interject a comment or question in this film. The interviewer is Ehtasham Anwar, then a Fulbright/Humphrey Fellow at the University of Minnesota Law School Human Rights Center. This interview was part of a project to interview ten elders in the peace movement. Mr. Elling’s was the second interview in the series, which was completed in mid-June, 2014. This video is unedited – it is essentially raw video – thus no effort has been made to correct content. I knew Mr. Elling for seven years before this interview. His memory as shared in this video was basically very sound, based on my own knowledge of his work, and past events. Any errors can be excused. He was a man who “walked the talk” for his passion of peace. He died February 14, 2016, days short of his 95th birthday. He was promoting peace until his death.”
Mr. Elling identified particularly with several organizations which still exist in the Twin Cities:
* World Federalists, now Citizens for Global Solutions MN.
* United Nations Association. It was during his time with UNA that he produced the film “Man’s Next Giant Leap” in 1972. The film, which can be viewed here, features singer John Denver and many Twin Cities civic and community leaders.
Mr. Elling served at one time as President of both of the above local organizations.
* World Citizen, was an organization he founded in 1972, and in which he was active until his death. I would say World Citizen was always the organization of which he was most proud.
* He was one of the Charter Members of Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers, founded 1995-96.
* In 1996, Lynn co-founded the Nobel Peace Prize Festival an annual event for years, and later was merged with the Nobel Peace Prize Forum.  He participated in these events until his final years.
* Mr. Elling was a Founding Member of the U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation. He was been nominated for that organizations annual Peace Prize for 2016. The application letter is here: Lynn Elling nom Apr 2016001
* annually, Mr. Elling participated in the re-dedication of Jefferson High School in Bloomington MN as a Peace Site, and indeed at other places. His passion for peace sites was avid, from the time he first learned of the concept in 1982.
* Concordia Language Villages at Bemidji, at which he dedicated as a peace site in 1996, and annually participated in a rededication of that most impressive peace site.
* As a Naval officer in WWII who saw the horrors of war, Mr. Elling would share the ideals and aspirations of the Veterans for Peace.
* perhaps more than anyone else, Mr. Elling was instrumental in the flying of the United Nations flag at what is now the Hennepin County Government Center, May 1, 1968. The flag flew there, next to the United States flag, until March 27, 2012. Here is what Lynn wrote about the history of the flag in May, 1968: May 1 1968 UN Flag Mpls001.  Much more about this issue can be read here.
He is at Peace. His mission must continue.
Dick Bernard
dick.bernard@icloud.com
May 16, 2016
* * * * *
UPDATE December 11, 2013: Personal statement: Dick Bernard.
I initiated A Million Copies website in March, 2008. At the time, I had known Mr. Elling for only nine months. As time passes, he continues as a most remarkable and committed seeker of Peace in our world. For the interested reader, place the words Lynn Elling in the search box of this blog, and you will find many other posts which refer to him in one way or another. He walks the talk for Peace. I’m honored to know him. Here is a recent summary of his experience/work for peace over the last 80 years: Lynn Elling Timeline 1943-2013. The most recent post which relates specifically to Mr. Elling is about the U.S. Declaration of World Citizenship signed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. You can read it here.
UPDATE June 20, 2012: Lynn’s spouse of 68 years, Donna Elling, passed away June 1, 2012. Here is a blog post about Donna and Lynn and their family, first posted on the day of her Memorial Service June 13, 2012.
UPDATE January 4, 2013: During the fall and early winter of 2012, I found more information particularly about the Minneapolis/Hennepin County Declaration of World Citizenship March 5, 1968. That information has been added to this post, including some photos of the May 1, 1968, dedication ceremony taken by Donna Elling.
I met Lynn Elling in June, 2007. In November of that year I wrote the below commentary for Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers (original here), and in March, 2008, I rolled out the Million Copies website tribute to Lynn Elling and Professor Joe Schwartzberg, which remains essentially identical to when it was first published.
Both Mr. Elling and Dr. Schwartzberg remain with us, and both remain very, very active in their respective passions.
This seems to be a good time to update the original commentary about Lynn. (Changes to original text are minimal. The photographs are new additions.)
March 1-3, 2012 inaugurates the new Augsburg Nobel Peace Prize Forum, incorporating the long existing Nobel Peace Prize Festival, also at Augsburg, in which Lynn had a major co-founding role, and through the years has been a remaining powerful and crucial presence as both worker and fund-raiser for this major event.
Lynn and his spouse, Donna, still live in south Minneapolis. They celebrated 68 years of marriage last fall. Below are photos taken September 22, 2011, at their home; and in February, 1972.
(click on all photos to enlarge them)

Lynn and Donna Elling September 22, 2011

Lynn and Donna Elling World Service Authority Passport photo February 7, 1972

Lynn and Donna Elling World Service Authority Passport photo February 7, 1972

Lynn remains very active in working for an enduring peace, particularly with children’s programs such as Peace Sites, also here, and listing here: World Citiz Peace Sites001. And Peace Education.
Donna and Lynn, congratulations and best wishes to you both.
UPDATE April 17, 2013: Here is an abbreviated timeline of Lynn Elling’s efforts for World Peace: Lynn Elling Timeline001 It is much abbreviated.
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Memorial Day 2013, Lynn Elling with family at their Lake Cabin, celebrate Donna's life and inter her ashes at the base of a favored tree.

Memorial Day 2013, Lynn Elling with family at their Lake Cabin, celebrate Donna’s life and inter her ashes at the base of a favored tree.

#510 – Dick Bernard: A Memory of a long-ago Ground Hog Day

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Today is a pea-soup fog day in my town, and the temperature is about 32 degrees, so any of the resident Woodbury groundhogs have no worries about sunburn, or freezing to death. They will not see their shadow, at least not from sunlight.
But the place for groundhogs today is Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Punxsutawney Phil has been on the job since 1887, telling us about the rest of winter. Here’s something about him, and what he predicted today….
There are, of course, other groundhogs, and twenty or so years ago my Dad, Henry Bernard, recalled a story of his Dad, circa 1912 at their home on Wakeman Avenue in Grafton, North Dakota.
“I must have been four or five [Dad was born Dec 22, 1907] when this incident occurred.
My father, Henry Bernard, was the chief engineer at the flour mill. During the summer the fellows caught a woodchuck (groundhog) and put him in a cage. He was named “Pete”. Pete gave a lot of amusement to visitors. His ability to peel and eat a banana was a source of awe to visitors. However, his ability to eat a soda cracker without losing any crumbs was remarkable.
Pete was kept in the cage until fall when he became very drowsy and slept almost all the time.
Dad decided that Pete was ready to hibernate and took him home and released him in the unfinished basement that we had. Pete got busy and dug a hole in the dirt wall., “stole” bananas, apples, carrots, etc., and took them inside the hole and sealed it from the inside.
Dad remembered the story about the groundhog and on February 2nd told mother to watch and if Pete came out to send the “boy” (that was me) over to the mill to tell him.
Sure enough Pete did come out, saw his shadow and went back into the hole for another six weeks. We must have had more winter.
Then he came out again but was sickly and died shortly after. The veterinarian said it was because he lacked certain things for his diet that he would have picked up if he has run wild. Dad had Pete mounted and kept him for many years. This story was often repeated and even I have repeated it many times since that time.”
Thanks Dad.

#509 – Dick Bernard: A Learning Session in Woodbury

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See Feb. 6 Update at end of this post.

Last night we attended a very interesting session sponsored by the group River Valley Action. The topic was Myth Busters. (DebunkingCommonMyths_Jan31_final)
There were three excellent and knowledgeable presenters: J. Drake Hamilton of the organization Fresh Energy; Professor David Schultz; and Kathy Tomsich of League of Women Voters Minnesota (do watch their video on Voter ID). The speakers topics related to their area of expertise, and their websites are well worth a visit. The format was effective, but the room was too crowded. More than 100 people were in attendance – they had expected perhaps 60.
DebunkingCommonMyths_Jan31_final
My biggest learning last night – it was really a reminder, I first learned it as a ‘target’ myself in a political campaign in the early 1970s – came from watching a certain few members of the assembled crowd, all in the back of the room, who seemed to be most interested in disrupting, confusing and displaying anger. None of them were excluded from participation. They walked in like all the rest of us (though one of them grumped loudly that they weren’t invited – but if so, why were they there?) Someone described their behavior as thuggish, and in a couple of cases it definitely was.
“Do you want a quote?”, one said to me, thinking me to be a journalist, I guess. (Thanks for the quote.)
Of course, with a negative mindset going in, ‘facts’ are of no value or even interest. There is no listening. If an unpleasant fact comes forth, there is simply a new charge, and on it goes. The angry bunch may have ‘high-five’d’ each other afterward – “we showed ’em!” – but they definitely reflected very poorly on themselves.
The “grumps” were people who would have no interest in supporting anything. They were into their own abundant anger, and that was about it.
Many sessions like last night are essential if we are ever going to begin to move past the insanity of todays anger-based politics. We have to sit in the same room, and talk, talk, talk, and listen, civilly.
I kept thinking back to a favorite quotation of mine, on dialogue, which I found in Joseph Jaworsky’s 1996 book, “Synchronicity, the Inner Path of Leadership“. Preceding the chapter on “Dialogue: The Power of Collective Thinking“, Jaworsky includes the following from David Bohms “On Dialogue”:
“From time to time, (the) tribe (gathered) in a circle.
They just talked and talked and talked apparently to no purpose. They made no decisions. There was no leader. And everybody could participate.
There may have been wise men or wise women who were listened to a bit more – the older ones – but everybody could talk.
The meeting went on, until it finally seemed to stop for no reason at all and the group dispersed. Yet after that, everybody seemed to know what to do, because they understood each other so well. Then they could get together in smaller groups and do something or decide things.”
We could use a lot more dialogue in our community, state and country.
I took a few photos, and perhaps they’re a good way to end this piece. (click on them to enlarge.)
Thanks to the River Valley Action folks for an excellent evening.

Kathy Tomsich of League of Women Voters (at left) and Claire Wilson from MN Secretary of State's office answer questions.


David Schultz of Hamline University (at right)


J. Drake Hamilton of Fresh Eneergy (at left of flipchart)


Outstretched arm guy at the back of the room seemed to have a need to dominate and control, but mostly reflected poorly on himself.


UPDATE February 6, 2011, here