#562 – Dick Bernard: Jamie Nabozny. Bullied.

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My friend, Lynn Elling, founder of World Citizen, is fond of a particular quotation of Gandhi: “If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.”
I kept thinking of that phrase, and looking at the young people in the audience, when former student Jamie Nabozny gave a powerful presentation on his youthful experience of being bullied, as a student, years ago in Wisconsin.
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Jamie Nabozny, April 28, 2012, St. Michael's Lutheran Church in Roseville MN


The Gandhi statement became all the more relevant when one member of the Panel, a State Senator, was unable to attend the Saturday night event because the State Legislature was in session – and lawmaking these days has become a public war of sorts over how to deal with issues, controversial or not. He could not be absent from the legislature because politics these days is not a matter of truly resolving disputes, rather of who “wins” and who “loses”, or who can be pinned with the loss.
It’s not “bullying”, of course, but we do have a societal pattern of waging war as a preferable option to seeking peace….
The Senator was there only by name and empty chair.
His was definitely an appropriately excused absence, but it emphasized for me the essence of our problem as a society. We Big People can be terrible role models for getting along and resolving issues, and if we’re going to learn a new way, it will have to be Little People, the children, who will do the teaching. And their teachers, not only in the classroom, who will have to role model. World Citizen is one of those working with helping teachers teach more constructive behaviors.
There were perhaps 150 of us in attendance at the gathering in Roseville. Joining Jamie was an expert panel: Julie Blaha, president of the Anoka-Hennepin Education Minnesota teacher’s union; Heather Kilgore, PACER/National Bullying Prevention Center; and Shiloh O’Rourke, Senior, Bloomington Jefferson HS.

Michael Bergman moderates responder panel of Julie Blaha, Heather Kilgore and Shiloh O'Rourke


The difference between bullying now and when Jamie Nabozny went through his times of terror in Middle and High School is that a spotlight is now on the problem and it will not go away.
And todays kids and those associated directly with them are the ones who will diminish the problem, which will probably always exist, so long as our society continues to talk, as it does, in warfare terms about most everything including, for just one example, whether or not there will be a Vikings Stadium bill, and who will be blamed for it if it passes, or doesn’t (probably a main reason the State Senator couldn’t be with us.)
With Jamie, we watched the film, Bullied, which is his story. At one point he mentioned that over 90,000 copies of the film have been distributed. Schools can get a copy of the DVD free from the organization Teaching Tolerance.
We were reminded that in every bullying scenario there is a victim, perpetrator(s), and bystanders. Bystanders do not get a pass, whether adults or children.
We were also reminded that to ‘win’ at bullying is in the long run to ‘lose’: one of the main actors in Jamie’s trials at school has been in prison three separate times for the kind of behavior that he got away with in high school.
As the q&a session was about to end, two educators from Clear Springs Elementary School in Minnetonka rose to surprise Jamie and all of us, and gave Jamie several gifts including the shirt shown in the below photo. The saying is simple, and cleverly stated: “I stand tall. And you?”

Sandy Curry (at left) and Melanie DeWitt present Jamie with a shirt saying "I stand tall. And you?"


Donna and Lynn Elling, April 28, 2012


Part of the audience April 28, 2012


For more information on peace education through World Citizen, click here. For Jamie Nabozny, here; and for PACER/National Bullying Prevention Center, here.

#561 – Dick Bernard: Heather, an exceptional citizen and contributor to society

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Back on April 1, my daughter Joni sent me an iPhone photo of her sister (and my daughter) Heather.
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Heather at the Park, April 1, 2012


Yesterday Heather and I went bowling. We did two lines. She got a strike on her first frame. She won the first line, I won the second. No need to do the third (or for you to know the score, either!) Suffice to say that I didn’t take a dive to lose, and she didn’t cheat to win. It was all fair and square on Lane 11 at Mattie’s Lanes in South St. Paul MN. We were the only folks in the place. It was fun.
Today* Heather is having a new Pacemaker installed at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. She has lived with a Pacemaker for over 30 of her 36 years. This makes her a pretty exceptional individual in the realm of pacemaker survival rates, I’m told.
Heather, Down Syndrome, has seen a lot of life in her 36 years.
And she’s brought a lot of joy to a lot of lives in those years. Kids like her with exceptional abilities can and do have that affect on people who know them. Those with special abilities look at life a bit differently than we so-called ‘normals’.
When I was young, kids like Heather were people nobody knew much what to do with.
I remember Johnny in a tiny town in which I lived for several years. He was, they would likely say, retarded, or some less polite word: moron, idiot, imbecile…. He was older than we younger kids, and he lived at home. We’d taunt him in the assorted ways kids can, and sooner or later he’d get very angry, and because he was so big he could be dangerous.
We’d run, and he’d go home, and the next day he’d be back.
No special education in those days.
My grandparents lived in the town that had what they used to call the “State School for the Feeble Minded”, and in those years, while awareness was beginning to raise (this was in the 1940s), these folks were warehoused and when we came to visit, and went to the local park, we went by the school and on a summer day they were warehoused behind a fence, sort of like animals in a zoo, no deal differentiation that I knew of.
Things have changed now, of course, and kids like Heather in all their exceptionalness add richness to many lives, not to mention aiding the economy of which they are a part in many different ways.
Heather spends her weekdays at Proact Inc, an extraordinary partnership in Eagan MN. Earlier this week I took her there, and she was proudly wearing her Twins shirt.

Heather at Proact April 24, 2012


The technology she’ll have implanted today is a far cry from the technology of over 30 years ago. In those years, the Pacemaker had one heart rate; the current technology allows Heather to do things unimaginable in those early years, such as playing softball in a Special Olympics league called RAVE in which parents and others give and receive the joy of participation.
I can put Heather in the middle of many “circles”.
To each, she brings more gifts than she takes.

Dad and Heather October 1, 2010


Sisters, Heather, Lauri & Joni, April 26, 2012


For other postings about Heather, simply enter the word in the search box.
* PS: The procedure went well. She’ll be home tomorrow.

#560 – Dick Bernard: The Chicks

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Saturday morning a few of us were waiting in line at the Woodbury Post Office. A woman was waiting at the counter, and the clerk had disappeared. An educated guess was that the woman was picking up held mail.
Of course, the few of us were feeling impatient – places to go, things to do….
Presently the clerk came out with a box from which sounds came: “Peep”, “Peep”, “Peep”…. It was a delivery of live chicks.
Immediately the sourness in line changed perceptibly.
There was no grousing when the clerk opened the box so that the woman could inspect the precious freight. They were all okay, being as little chicks are wont to be.
This started a little conversation in line, remembering when people raised chickens. Somebody said that an ordinance had been passed in Woodbury allowing such activities. NO ROOSTERS, however!
I got to thinking back to days of old when we lived in tiny towns in North Dakota. In fact, I had done a blog post about the post office in one of those towns a few months ago.
Someone I knew from that town wrote a comment. Her Dad had been a rural postal delivery driver for years, and she said this, in part: “In the spring, he often had live baby chicks making lots of noise in the back of the vehicle. That meant going up to the houses to deliver them. There were also times when the post office was alive with the sounds of live animals.”
In the same comment she added what we of a certain age and circumstance all know about the post office in small towns: “The post office was definitely a social gathering place when many people waited for the mail to be sorted to the various boxes. There was no delivery in small towns – perhaps there never has been. You often read that people fight to keep their post office as it is a distinction to have ones own address and a time/place to find out how your neighbors were doing.”

Early 1900s postcard from rural Wisconsin to rural North Dakota


I don’t think I was the only one in the line on Saturday who noticed that when those chicks appeared, the tone of conversation of those of us in the line perceptibly changed.
For just a moment we again became neighbors, not quite so much in a hurry.
I’ll remember the care with which the woman and the clerk handled their precious cargo.

Woodbury MN Post Office April 21, 2012


UPDATE April 24: Here’s a little known but crucial piece of information about the contemporary “problems” of the U.S. Postal Service.

#559 – Dick Bernard: Jackie Stevenson. A Shero Passes On

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Jackie Stevenson passed on Sunday evening. This morning’s Minneapolis Star Tribune obituary carried a summary of her political life, and accolades about her. They speak for themselves.
Even among other Sheroes, Jackie seems to have been a cut above.
Somewhere in my photo files I probably have a better photo of Jackie than the below. On the other hand, Jackie made her difference in groups. This photo of Jackie with the DFL Senior Caucus Board in September 22, 2011, is as recent a photo as I have, and is evocative of her – she was always there to work and contribute.
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Jackie Stevenson , 2nd from left facing the camera, at DFL Senior Caucus Meeting at the DFL Headquarters, September 22, 2011


I was a colleague on the DFL Senior Caucus Board with Jackie. I didn’t know her for very long, and I didn’t know her well, but she was one of those persons who, if they talked, you listened. She radiated wisdom.
She and others of her feminist activist generation live on in many ways.
The legacy she and her colleagues in the struggle for women’s rights leave is a very rich legacy.
Just for a single example, in my own Senate District, 5 of the 6 candidates vying for three offices this November will be women; one of my two U.S. Senators is a woman; present U.S. Congresswoman is…a woman; and the person most likely to replace her in our new Congressional District is a woman.
And on and on and on.
Who’d ever thunk that would have ever happened!?
Those who worked more closely with her, for many years, will have lots to say in coming days.
As for me, farewell, Jackie.
You done great!
Here’s an old postcard to my grandparents farm circa 1910 (10 years before suffrage) that says it all, pretty well! I think Jackie would chuckle at it, though it wasn’t much of a chuckling matter back then.

1910 Postcard from rural Wisconsin to rural North Dakota

#558 – Dick Bernard: Election 2012 #14 – "The Catholic Vote" and "Making Hay While the Sun Shines"

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UPDATE May 5, 2012 at end.
This afternoon I attended the first of three sessions called “Forming Our Conscience” in the Undercroft (church basement) of the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. I was most positively impressed. There were 50 of us in the room – more than I expected.
Linked is the outline for the “Forming our Conscience” session I attended, as well as the topics for April 29, and May 6: Basilica Workshop001.
Stop by Basilica the next two Sundays if you wish. I found todays session an excellent use of my time.
There is no need to interpret the words, questions and opinions of speaker and the 50 or so of us in attendance today. The attached outline speaks for itself. That’s the outline for the modified dialogue that Dr. Evans capably led. A surprising amount of ground was covered in the short 1 1/2 hours.
It is no secret to anyone who knows me that I’m lifelong Catholic. Put Basilica of St. Mary or Catholic in the search box on this blog, and you’ll find many references. I’m Catholic.
I go to Church, I usher frequently (as I did again today), and I’m not passive when it comes to expressing a point of view, including to those among my non-Catholic friends who think that there must be some monolith of “typical” Catholics.
When all is said and done, I contend there are really two Roman Catholic Churches, at least as I experience them today: one is the official Church, the power people like the Bishops who are quoted by the major media. Then there’s the rest of us.
We ordinary Catholics seem roughly divided into camps, much like the population at large. So, if we comprise, as we do, perhaps 20% of Minnesota’s population, on our typical days the so-called Catholic view might represent, at best, 10% of the state’s population, and not all of these think alike either. This is a rough estimate, but I think fairly close.
We ordinary folk get little attention, but we have a lot of power and we exercise it in many ways.
The American Bishops attempt to dominate certain kinds of public policy debate and thus impose religious beliefs and doctrines on the rest of the population and this troubles me, even though I’m Catholic.
This dynamic is worse now, than I remember before.
But there is no single ‘Catholic’ point of view. We Catholics adults act like other adults. The Church itself admits that only one-third of us are actually in Church on any particular Sunday.
It is likely not easy to be the Parish Priests who have the job of getting unsolicited ‘advice’ from both ‘sides’, and being leaders, message carriers and diplomats at the same time.
There is, no doubt, tension within the Catholic community about many things. This tension was not on display this afternoon. There were perhaps a dozen different opinions expressed through questions, and we all learned in the back-and-forth.
An observation I had, but didn’t have an opportunity to articulate at the meeting, is the real dilemma when religion dances into the political sphere: politicians make promises they have no intention of keeping. They all do it, as a political survival skill, but it’s incumbent on ‘we, the people’ to be aware of this natural and very practical tendency of the persons who are running for office, and look for the most reasonable alternative.
And my Church hierarchy has a different dilemma that it seems to want to ignore.
In the good old days, whether merited or not, the Church had considerable spiritual power over its flock.
Dr. Evans recalled his days in rural Minnesota when “keep holy the Sabbath day” was still the religious rule. As anyone who’s farmed knows, good weather doesn’t just happen when it is supposed to, and you “make hay while the sun shines”. In the good old days, if it looked like a good day for haying would be Sunday, the loyal Catholic farmers would troop to see the Priest after Sunday Mass to get permission to do the haying. Of course, permission was granted: it was common sense. But the Priest was asked, first.
As recently as 50 years ago this still worked pretty well.
No more.
We are adults, we need to act like the adults that we are.
(click on photo to enlarge)

Part of group April 22, 2012


For past and future posts related to Election 2012, simply enter those two words in the search box and click. A list will come up.
UPDATE MAY 7, 2012:
The April 29 and May 6 sessions were equally strong, with the attendance higher than at the first, approximately 60 at each. The outlines for the subsequent sessions is here. Basilica Workshop002.
It would be nice if everyone could see how a civil dialogue can take place within a church as diverse as my Catholic Church. Dr. Evans outline and remarks were consistent with official Church teaching, while respectfully listening to questions and noting other points of view within this large institution. Most of the 4 1/2 total hours was devoted to dialogue.
We do not all think alike. There is not a “Catholic bloc”.
During dialogue time I raised a single question, essentially as follows: “The 2012 election is exactly six months away. The only objective of any political party is to win, and to do this they and their candidates and supporters will make false promises and false charges against the opposition. We will be inundated with this. What are your thoughts?“
I didn’t expect a definitive answer, and I didn’t get one. There are assorted factcheck websites, and Dr. Evans mentioned one or two of his own. He was justifiably nervous (it appeared he was a bit nervous) about recommending specific news media, so I won’t go there. These days it is probably impossible to find a truly objective media source. All that differs is the degree of bias towards one pole or the other….
One lady mentioned the possibility of checking the actual record of persons actually in office.
I thought to myself, as others brought up their own issues, that even voting records are not a surefire way to the “truth” since in this polarized political world, there is almost no legislation that is politically “safe” to vote for or against: it usually includes some component with which the lawmaker will disagree. “Poison pills” are often inserted in legislation so as to be used against a sitting politician later. In addition, far too many of us don’t think of the consequences of our vote, or even know why we’re voting a certain way, or vote based only on our interpretation of a single issue: all very dangerous practices.
All we can do is urge people we know to pay attention to what is really the most important decision one has to make in a democracy like ours: who we choose to represent us.
We are, after all, the very “politicians” we despise, or more hopefully, respect.

Directly related post here.

#557 – Dick Bernard: Election 2012 #13. Attending Cong. District 4 Political Convention.

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I’m a Democrat (called DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor) in Minnesota).
Today I attended the 4th Congressional District Convention as a voting delegate. This was my first 4th CD Convention. It was a simple matter of redistricting due to the 2010 Census. The previous ten years we lived at the same address, but in the 6th CD.
Registered were 225 delegates, earlier elected at Senate District Conventions. I described mine here.
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CD 4 DFL Convention in Vadnais Heights MN Apr 21, 2012


Political Conventions are where the crucial decisions are made concerning representation at the levels leading, ultimately, to the general election in November. It takes some patience to last through parts of long convention days dealing with important but often uninteresting stuff, but at the end of the day it is the delegates – people like myself – who make the crucial decisions selecting those who will represent us at state and national levels.
Assorted candidates appeared from time to time during the day, and all were given an opportunity to speak.
The DFL State Convention is in Rochester on June 2-3, and the National Convention is in Charlotte NC Sep 3-6, 2012.
The important business of todays Convention was endorsing our candidate for Congress, incumbent Cong. Betty McCollum, as well as to select eight delegates – four women and four men – to the National Democratic Convention. (Delegates to the State Convention had been elected earlier at the Senate District level.)
It was the selection of the national delegates near the end of the afternoon which was of most interest to me.
DFL rules pay great attention to affirmative action, and four women and four men as delegates was no accident. In fact, there were separate secret ballot slates for election of women delegates, and men. We all voted for every one of the the eight.
There were 14 female candidates and 17 male. I was in a new setting, and I wondered how the process could possibly work at all.
It worked very well.
Every candidate was given an opportunity for what I’d characterize a one-minute “elevator speech”. Some had fliers; some had likely done some pre-convention work with delegates.
They were an amazingly diverse bunch, representing all manner of the diversity of CD 4. I would have been comfortable being represented by most all of them.
In the end, 28 of the 31 candidates appeared to give their “elevator speech”; two had used leaflets to advertise themselves earlier in the convention; one was highly recommended to me by a delegate I know as a friend.
I voted for five of the eight winning candidates.
During the hiatus when votes were being tallied one of the Congressional District officers gave us a little quiz, showing the following quote:
“Fairness is the Final Result of
Years of Effective Effort
Combined with the Experience of
Diversity.”
“How many “f’s” are there?”, she said. I counted seven.
How about you? (clue: I was incorrect.)
Her point was a good one: we humans are wired in peculiar ways. Sometimes we selectively miss things that are obvious.
And so forth.
Election 2012 is not much over six months away.
Get involved.

Denny Schneider and Grace Kelly at the Convention April 21


(For other Election 2012 postings, simply enter those two words in the Search Box.)

#556 – Dick Bernard: Election 2012 #12. The Proposed Minnesota Voter Disenfranchisement Act.

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Highest on the list of contemporary issues I am concerned with is what I would call the “Minnesota Perpetual Voter Disenfranchisement Act”. This Act, HF 2738, is the proposed Amendment to the Minnesota Constitution which covertly (at least to public gaze) ends same day registration (the means used by one of six Minnesota voters) and replaces it with something called Provisional Voting. The HF 2738 is a voter dis-empowerment disaster in the making…exactly what its proponents intend.
Regardless, polls suggest that most people – party affiliation makes no apparent difference – think this idea is a good one and, at least at this moment, they will probably vote for it in the fall. If it passes, it will be a tragic mistake extremely difficult to undo. It will not pass if people know what it will do.
The proposed Constitution Amendment passed virtually unanimously in the 2012 session of the Legislature by solely Republican votes. (One Republican legislator voted against it, no Democrat voted for it, and it was intentionally passed so that it would bypass the potential veto by the Governor. There was no bargaining on this bill.) It does not even have a name as yet, and its descriptor masks its intent.
There is a fundamental (and encouraged) misunderstanding of what the bill is. Koolaid laced with Cyanide seems as good a descriptor as any.
My personal file on this issue, including the final bill passed in the Legislature, and the ALEC Model Legislation that is the birth mother of this monstrosity, is already an inch thick. (The Bill itself is only a few short paragraphs.)
All I can say is make every effort to learn everything that you can about this proposed Constitutional amendment in the coming months, and encourage your friends and neighbors to do so as well. There will be many sources of reliable information. Clear your calendar if you see or hear about a presentation in your area. You will want to know about this piece of poison you are being asked to enshrine permanently in our states Constitution.
And it is not absolutely certain that it will even pass court muster to be on the ballot in November. It is too deceptive and misleading.
I keep thinking of “Russian Roulette” – the deadly game where one bullet is placed in a revolver, and if you spin the cylinder of the six-shooter and pull the trigger and nothing happens you live.
HF 2738 is Russian Roulette with your right to vote, EVEN IF you think it can’t possibly affect you. What if you show up late to vote, and forgot your ID at home? Or you moved recently and do not yet have a valid ID with your new address? And on and on and on. It CAN happen to YOU.
(A while back I did a little exercise about my own voting history. I turned 21 in 1961, and cannot recall a subsequent election in which I have not voted (except in U.S. Army year of 1962). 2012 will be my 26th biennial Election in the United States.
Some time ago I reviewed my residence history in those 25 Election years: I lived in 10 different towns, in three different states. In four of the years I had been resident for three months or less; in five more, less than two years.
We are a migratory society and I’m not unusual.
I’d suggest doing your own history.
You may be surprised at what you recall.
And commit yourself to learning about one of the most disastrous initiatives ever to be foisted on the electorate of this state.
Related here, here and here.
(For all posts on Election 2012, simply type those two words in the Search Box.)

#555 – Carol Turnbull: Election 2012 #11. Thoughts about ALEC

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From Dick Bernard:
Carol Turnbull is a local friend, about as fair and even-handed a person as I know.
Recently ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) has gotten into her spotlight, and she wrote the following excellent column for our local paper, the Woodbury Bulletin. The article appeared in the April 5, 2012, edition. [UPDATE April 26: We have subscribed to this newspaper for years, and initially this article was accessible to us on-line, but apparently has now been restricted for public access. Most interesting.]
Near the end of her column she refers readers to a website, Source Watch, which follows ALEC activities and provides lots of information about the organization and its members. That, too, is well worth a visit.
Carol is undaunted by being a force of one. She would not fit some ideological profile. She is reasoned and she is reasonable.
ALEC members (and their legislator followers) are lately getting very nervous by the public attention provided by people like Carol Turnbull.
All it takes to make a difference is the determination to do so.
Thanks, Carol.
Here are some other comments by Carol on the issues raised by ALEC:
April 6: [T]here was one lone Republican who voted against the voter ID bill? He’s first-term Sen. Jeremy Miller of Winona. He looks like a kid!
“Minnesota State Senator Jeremy Miller (R-Winona) was described by the Winona Daily news as ‘increasingly reluctant to support constitutional amendments’ lately favored by MN’s GOP legislative majority. Miller seems to prefer cooperation and negotiation to brinksmanship…”
He of course now has a big target on his back. We can thank him at: sen.jeremy.miller@senate.mn
Carol on ALEC’s own newsletter: [I] particularly liked this statement I found – as though that makes it way better:
Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law was the basis for the American Legislative Exchange Council’s model legislation, not the other way around.
April 11 from Carol: Have you seen this blogsite? Check out some of the postings re ALEC on the right – he’s wonderful.
NOTE: For other posts on Election 2012, simply enter those two words in the search box at this site.

#554 – Dick Bernard: Parents United for Public Schools, looking forward

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Towards the end of yesterday’s most stimulating conference of Parents United for Public Schools, a slide appeared on the screen:
“I skate to where the puck will be,
not to where it has been.”
Wayne Gretzky
Gretzky was the almost superhuman hockey player who made it all look easy. I had the privilege of seeing him in person, one time, at the old Bloomington Met Center in the mid-1980s. We were at center ice perhaps a half dozen rows up, and when Wayne Gretzky was in the neighborhood, you knew you were in the presence of greatness, even amongst other great National Hockey League players.
“I skate to where the puck will be….” What a great metaphor for success in anything. Possibility replaces impossibility.
Our guest speakers were truly a dynamic duo: Dr. Tom Gillaspy and Dr. Tom Stinson. They’ve been advisors to the high and mighty in Minnesota and even folks like me have been privileged to hear them speak in other settings. Their specialties tend to make the eyes of mere mortals glaze over: economics and demography. But like Gretzky and his hockey puck, they make it all make sense, and make it interesting to boot!
In fact, much to my surprise, this mornings Minneapolis Star Tribune gave Tom Gillaspy page one treatment in the Variety Section. Imagine that: a demographer featured on page one of the entertainment section of the newspaper! (And I can say that Tom Stinson deserves equal time and treatment.)
I wish their message were on film. But it isn’t.
(click on photos to enlarge them)

Mary Cecconi, Tom Gillaspy, Tom Stinson, April 16, 2012


Second best is that their entire Power Point presentation is accessible at the Parents United website. It is here (click on “keynote presentation”), and very well worth your time.
We were also privileged to hear brief and inspiring messages from MN Gov. Mark Dayton and Education Commissioner Brenda Casselius. Sen Al Franken appeared on video.

Mn Governor Mark Dayton, April 16, 2012


Mn Commissioner of Education Brenda Casselius April 16, 2012


Two veteran retiring legislators were honored yesterday: the first time Parents United had made such a presentation. The Awards went to two long-term Legislators: Republican Senator Gen Olson (Minnetrista), and Democrat House of Representatives member Mindy Greiling (Roseville).

Rep Mindy Greiling, April 16, 2012 - courtesy Parents United for Public Schools


Sen. Gen Olson, April 16, 2012


It is always interesting to watch how people like these leaders, who we in the public are taught to view as combatants, treat each other: with respect. Senator Olson, who I knew as a public educator in long ago Anoka-Hennepin days, received her Award from former Democrat Senator and current lobbyist Kathy Saltzman (my former Senator); and Rep Greiling received her Award from Roseville School Superintendent John Thein. Sen. Olson got her start in public education; Rep Greiling got her political start on the Roseville School Board.
We saw, Monday, and we need more of, these highly visible lessons in political competition and respect as opposed to vicious political combat and loathing. There is a big difference.
We saw it in Roseville, yesterday. Absent teaching, we need to learn this skill ourselves.

#553 – Dick Bernard: Election 2012 #10 – Enlisting the Middle Class (Proles) to kill itself.

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I’m very near 72 years of age. The people of my and my parents generation created the Middle Class, and have been huge beneficiaries of it, in endless ways, from Medicare to the GI Bill to Unions, and on an on and on. For the younger generation, as Joni Mitchell’s popular song goes, they may not “know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone….”
Still, the “Army” to destroy the Middle Class we enjoyed seems to have been recruited from the same older generation. I see this in endless hateful, destructive and dishonest “forwards” from people I know from my generation and older.
I review and respond to the “forwards” I get. The vast majority are lies, pure and simple, from manipulation of photographs to manipulation of data. So little “truth” comes around, including TV ads, talk radio and the like, that only the foolish will believe any of it.
These days I think a great deal of a book published in England in 1949 entitled “1984” by George Orwell. It is a famous book, and everyone should read it again, especially those who send those forwards. Orwell’s model apparently was the post-WWII Soviet Union of Stalin, with elements of Hitler’s Germany.
It is pretty clear to me, these days, that unfettered American Capitalism would like to achieve the same objective – easily manipulated, passive and compliant Proles – that 1984s “Big Brother” did by using the same methods.
We are todays Proles.

The book, 1984, first came into my life when the actual year 1984 was far in the future and television was in its infancy and still a novelty.
Computers and ease of editing of images and text was unknown at the time I first read 1984.
But 1984 was about all of these things. “Telescreens” were everywhere, broadcasting what Orwell called the “two minute hate” frequently and at any time. These also doubled as surveillance cameras, recording every persons every move.
Nobody, nothing, was safe from Big Brother.
There was even a new language: “Newspeak”:
“WAR IS PEACE”
“FREEDOM IS SLAVERY”
“IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”.
Big Brother thrived because of cultivated fear of an unseen enemy he could describe, far away. This enemy was one to be feared and hated, and Big Brother was the only savior.
In my opinion, 1984 has become the playbook for contemporary Right Wing politics in this country of ours. The book simply reflects the exploitable weaknesses of humanity, and those don’t change.
I think of this 1984 every time I see the latest insulting and lie-filled “forward”; or see some example where information is manipulated so that some imagined “failure” of the President (or Democrats, or Unions…) is manufactured.
Indeed, since President Obama has been inaugurated, the mission of his enemies has been to make him fail by any means necessary, and then shamelessly lie about why the failure occurred. Similarly, my “class” – liberal, Union, is similarly characterized. Newspeak 2012: “Failure is Success”.
In 1984s world, the citizenry (Proles) was dominated and completely controlled and settled into a life of happy mediocrity: the housewife happily hung out the wash to dry; entertainment was getting drunk on cheap gin in the neighborhood saloon.
Nobody trusted anybody. The Two Minute Hate and “Big Brother is watching you” were very effective.
The main character, Winston, took a stab at breaking out of the mold, and for awhile seemed to be succeeding.
It is useful to remember the ending scene of 1984. Winston is personally confronted by his greatest fear. He surrenders to the fear. He “sees the light”.
The book ends with these words: “He loved Big Brother”.
POSTNOTE: Orwell died in 1950 only 46 years of age and only a year after publication of 1984. He ends his book with Big Brother still in complete control.
Is it so simple in the real world…? Well, we can read history. A long succession of “Big Brothers” learned their omnipotence was not permanent. Many of them ended up dead, and not of natural causes.
What is our fate as a nation? We American Proles will decide, beginning in November, 2012 by how we vote, or whether we vote at all.
We choose if we succeed or fail as a society.
Directly related: here and here.