#682 – Dick Bernard: The Bottom Line of Teaching, as Defined by Teachers who were Students, Once

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A couple of weeks ago a friend, a retired educator, happened across me at a coffee shop and we took some time to catch up on this and that.
The conversation drifted around to teachers we had known, and George recalled the time when he had met with two other classmates who’d attended school together somewhere, back then.
The three were all successful in their chosen professions, and much to their surprise they all identified the same teacher who they remembered for one reason or another.
Later, George took the time to find out where the teacher might be living, found her and gave her a call to relate the story, and say thank you. She didn’t remember the students, but appreciated the phone call.
Not too long afterward, George remembered, he noticed a news item where an elderly lady had wandered away from home, and was found drowned.
That elderly lady was his memorable teacher from long ago.
He was glad he’d called her when he did.
The conversation thread reminded me of two identical workshops I had presented at the summer leadership conference of the Minnesota Education Association back in the mid-1990s.
These annual conferences were for teacher union leaders from locals small and large across the state of Minnesota.
For the workshops I decided that I would have an introductory exercise where I asked the participants – it turned out to be near 40 in all – to contemplate two questions:
1. Think about a school employee from your own school days who made a difference in your own life. (Every school employee is really a “teacher” of kids, I reasoned.) I asked them to focus on the first person who came to mind…we had limited time, after all.
2. Then, having chosen that single person, pick a word to describe what it was about this employee that made him or her impact on you.
Then they shared.
And there was almost no time to actually do the workshop I had planned.
The opening exercise essentially became the workshop.
So, what traits did these teachers select about that person who made a difference in their own life?
(click to enlarge; a printable list is here Educator Qualities001, and the list of words is reprinted at the end of this post.)

Noteworthy qualities of effective educators from mid-1990s workshop


The descriptors are as they are.
You can analyze as you wish.
(It should be noted that one person in the workshop couldn’t identify anyone who’d made a positive difference in his life.
But that’s life too, isn’t it?)
If you know someone who deserves thanks, now is a good time, before it’s too late. And if they’re no longer “with us” (as my Dad used to say), thank somebody else who made your day a little brighter, sometime, and you just haven’t told them….
I have many additional thoughts on this topic, but I don’t want to interfere with your own….
The Qualities Identified at the Workshop (apha order):
Acceptance
Accessible
Advocate
Affirming (two mentions)
Alive
Approachable
Caring – (four mentions)
Challenge
Confidence – (four mentions)
Creativity
Dedication
Empowering
Encouraging – (two mentions)
Enthusiasm
Exciting
Expressed thanks
Feeling important
Friendly
Fun Loving
Fun – self confidence
Guiding
High expectations
Human Aspect
Humor
Impact
Insight
Inspiring – (two mentions)
Involvement
Made learning real
Making students feel special
Outgoing
Passion – (two mentions)
Personable – (two mentions)
Personal contact
Perspective
Pride
Professional
Reality
Reassurance
Self-esteem
Sharing of self
Spontaneous
Support
Valuing
Valued as a person
Vision
Warmth
Well-traveled

#681 – Dick Bernard: The Courage of Voices; beginning a Community Conversation on Restoring and Building Relationships

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I’m not long returned from a most remarkable nearly two hours at Washburn High School in south Minneapolis.
The reason several hundred of us were in the auditorium tonight was an unfortunate event that happened January 11 at the school, and still looms large in the local news in this large metropolitan area, and even larger in racially diverse Minneapolis public schools. (Here is the FAQ distributed to those of us who were at the meeting: Washburn HS faq Jan 13001)
Succinctly, several students – I gather there were four – took a small doll with a black face, put a string around her neck, hung the doll over a railing, took a picture and posted the picture on Facebook.
Predictably and appropriately the incident stirred outrage, but thankfully no violence (that I know of).
Tonights community gathering was a significant effort by the school district to begin the difficult process of dialogue to not only deal with the incident, but to use it as stage for growth of a more caring community in the future.
(click to enlarge)

I was proud to be there, if only to accompany my friend, Lynn Elling, nearing 92, who graduated from Washburn in 1939, and has great interest in peace in general and peaceful relationships in particular.
The evening news in a while will perhaps give two minutes to summarize an intense hour and 45 minute series of comments by students, community members and school staff.
There is no way that they can capture the feelings and emotions of actually being there.
Certainly, I can’t capture the essence of the evening. Indeed, everyone there probably left with their own perceptions of what happened, and what didn’t….
For me, the power of the evening was the courage of the voices who rose to speak from their own values, their own truths.
They did not all agree with each other; but the tone was civil and the almost electrically-charged auditorium atmosphere was orderly.
There were, perhaps, 20 speakers in all, reflecting the great diversity of the community, both the school, and at large.
Of all the comments I heard, perhaps the most powerful was from a Japanese exchange student at Washburn, who confessed being worried about attending the school before enrolling last fall, but was now completely a part of the student body.
Her colleague students gave her rousing support.
It took courage for her to stand before the room and state her truth. She was just a few feet from where I was sitting.
By no means was she the only one with a message. There were dissonant notes, but there were no sour notes.
Everyone was their to speak their own truth; to be ‘on the court’.
And everyone else was clearly listening.
In such an atmosphere, one could almost anticipate occasional boos, or disruption of some sort.
There was none. Washburn last night was a community, not a bunch of individuals with agendas.
There were more speakers than time available to hear them.
Meeting finished, we filed out to go home.
I got the sense that the real meeting was just beginning, and that there would be long term and very positive results.
Thank you, Washburn High School and the Minneapolis Public School community.

#680 – Greg Halbert: "The Right to Keep and Bear Arms"?

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(click to enlarge photos)

Banana Clip AR, as seen Jan 22, 2013, in Minneapolis MN at the Seward Cafe


Dick Bernard: The Gun Issue is on the table, and that is good. Unfortunately, much of the conversation is as much based on reality as the above painting, which I saw in the Seward Cafe on Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis today. The painting does get at a reality, however…. The ladies in the below photo (same place and time) were having a civil conversation “under the gun” so to speak. If only we all could approach the gun conversation in the same civil manner.
There is lots of good information available, if one is interested in learning. The following is an example.
Recently I had occasion to send around to my own e-list a “Was the Second Amendment Adopted for Slaveholders?“, by MinnPost columnist and long-time well respected writer on Government issues Eric Black. The column links to a longer academic paper by Carl Bogus.
Both are worth a read. At minimum, read the last two paragraphs of Black’s commentary.
Greg Halbert, a good friend, fellow church usher and retired prosecutor, is on my list, and read the items, and provided his own summary view, in a note to Mr. Black.
Here is Greg’s note to Eric, with an appended additional note to myself.
I encourage you to read the Eric Black column and his accompanying links as well.
Greg Halbert to Eric Black Jan 19:
Very much enjoyed your article on the Second Amendment; you educated me greatly, as I am sure it educated many other people who read your piece.
There is another point regarding the right to possess firearms that troubles me. I receive numerous emails from conservative people who claim they have a right to possess a firearm for possible use if and when government becomes tyrannical.
Nothing much, that I have come across, is discussed regarding this claim. Our Revolutionary leaders believed the British government had become tyrannical so they launched the Revolutionary War. But, in doing so they committed treason against the king. Fortunately they won the war and gained independence from Great Britain. Had the British won the war, George Washington and others could well have been executed.
So here we sit in 2013 with certain citizens of the United States fearful the U. S. government will become tyrannical, so they possess firearms and ammunition for use if such tyranny develops.
The difficulty I have is just how is this tyranny defined? How will you, me and others know when our government becomes tyrannical? It is left unsaid, but I presume gun toters think they as individuals will determine when the government has become tyrannical. Then what?
Do these Second amendment worshippers actually think they will take on city police departments, county sheriffs, the national guard, FBI, etc?
Do people who assert this right to possess firearms for use against a tyrannical government understand that treason is another word to describe their actions if they ever come to that?
This tortured line of thinking has escaped any careful examination.
Greg Halbert to Dick Bernard Jan 19:
These so-called super patriots fail to appreciate they are really contemplating treason with this talk that they need arms and ammo to be prepared for response to a tyrannical government. Who determines the government is tyrannical? Anyone? Isn’t that anarchy? Sorry, I am running low on question marks so will close.

#679 – Dick Bernard: Thoughts on Martin Luther King's "Why We Can't Wait", on Martin Luther King Day 2013

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Yesterday at Mass at Basilica of St. Mary visiting Priest, Fr. Pat Griffin, in his homily, included a snippet of Martin Luther King’s writing: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly….”
I wrote enough snippets of the quote so that I could source it, and at home went to the search engine and, sure enough, there the exact quote was in his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, written April 16, 1963.
That letter was primarily to religious leaders, Bishops and like rank, who were not, shall we say, being very supportive of efforts to end injustice against the Negroes, one hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Such change disrupted their notion of temporal influence.
Preceding Father Pat’s pull quote was this phrase by King: “I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states….” and so on.
My takeaway from his message is that we’re all in this together, not gangs of individuals protecting our narrow interests, however righteous those interests seem to be.
I pulled my quote, above, from my copy of Martin Luther King’s “Why We Can’t Wait”, published early in 1964, primarily about the watershed Civil Rights year of 1963.* At the time, Dr. King was 34 years old.
The book remains in print, and I recommend it as required reading for anyone who wants to make a difference.

The book outlines how difficult it was, even then, to make a difference, and it emphasizes (at least so I saw) many things that most people don’t take time to acknowledge.
Dr. King’s hero and model, apparently, was someone most of us have never heard of: Fred Shuttlesworth.
And the Civil Rights Movement had difficulty convincing the Middle and Upper Class Negroes of the value of its mission to bring justice to those with less power and influence. Negroes who had by some chance or another risen above their “place” (say, owning a business) were reluctant to jeopardize their own perceived success to an uncertain cause. They were torn and too often they went with the status quo.
The most important chapter for me was the last one in the book, “The Days to Come”, in which Dr. King talked about the realities of the political process, including his personal acquaintance with three Presidents (Lyndon Johnson had just become President of the United States when the book was published. The others were Eisenhower and Kennedy.)
MLK was a rarity among us: not only was he a gifted and charismatic leader; but he recognized the reality leaders, including Presidents of the United States, face.
Most of King’s 1963 centered on Sheriff Bull Connors Birmingham AL. And at page 132 of Why We Can’t Wait he says this, recounting a comment by President Kennedy (then 46 years old) followed by his own commentary:
“Our Judgment of Bull Connor should not be too harsh,” he commented. “After all, in his way, he has done a good deal for civil rights legislation this year.”
King’s next sentence bears our attention: “It was the people who moved their leaders, not the leaders who moved the people,” King says.
Today, on the celebration of Martin Luther Kings birthday, and the public inauguration of President Obama, his words take on special meaning to all of us who care.
The ball is in OUR court.
* POSTNOTE:
My copy of Why We Can’t Wait came as a surprise gift from my friend, Lydia Howell, in Dec. 2006. It was a well-used copy, which I have even more well-used over the last six years.
Lydia’s note says “Now, more than ever, I find the life, work and words of Dr. King one of my deepest inspirations. I hope you…find [Why We Can’t Wait] useful….”
I surely have, Lydia.
I decided to first read the book one chapter each day, sitting in a pew at the Cathedral of St. Paul.
My book notes that I read the chapter “Letter From Birmingham Jail” on April 14, 2007, at 2 p.m., during a wedding. At the quotation cited by Father Griffin on Sunday, I have handwritten in the margin, “Bridal Procession”….
I have no idea who got married that day, or how they’re doing, but I can tell you this juxtaposition of thoughtfulness and words inspire continuing action.

#678 – Dick Bernard: Anniversary of a Retirement

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It was thirteen years ago today, January 18, 2000, that my staff colleagues at Education Minnesota bid me adieu at my retirement after 27 years attempting to do my best to represent teachers in a collective bargaining state.
I was not yet 60 when I cleaned out my office, handed in my keys and walked out the north door at 41 Sherburne in St. Paul.
It had been long enough.
Even so, I had purposely fixed my retirement date to accommodate the statutory deadline for contract settlements that year: January 18, 2000.
My job back then was an endless series of negotiations about anything and everything: elementary teachers had differing priorities than secondary; that teacher who’d filed a grievance, or was being disciplined for something, had a difference of opinion with someone. Somebody higher up the food chain had a differing notion of “top priority” than I did….
So it went.
And negotiations was a lot better than the alternative where the game was for one person to win, against someone else who lost.
It was one of many lessons early in my staff career: if you play the game of win and lose, the winner never really wins, at least in the real sense of that term, where a worthy objective is for everybody to feel some sense of winning something. Win/Lose is really Lose/Lose…everybody loses.
We are in the midst of a long-running terrible Civil War where winning is everything; where to negotiate is to lose.
We’re seeing the sad results in our states, and in our nation’s capital, and in our interpersonal communication (or lack of same) about important issues, like the current Gun Issue, Etc.
Thirteen years is a while ago.
I brought my camera along that January 18, 2000, and someone took a few snapshots (at end of this post). Nothing fancy, but it is surprising how many memories come back:
There’s that photo of myself with the co-Presidents of Education Minnesota, Judy Schaubach and Sandra Peterson. Two years earlier rival unions, Minnesota Education Association and Minnesota Federation of Teachers, had merged after many years of conflict.
I like to feel that I played more than a tiny part in that important rapprochement, beginning in the late 1980s in northern Minnesota.
Both officers have retired. Sandra Peterson served 8 years in the Minnesota State Legislature.
Leaders don’t stop leading when they retire.
February 28, in Apple Valley, Education Minnesota’s Dakota County United Educators (Apple Valley/Rosemount) will celebrate 20 years from the beginning of serious negotiations to merge two rival local unions.
I was there, part of that. And proud of it.
There’s my boss, Larry Wicks, who many years earlier I’d practiced-teaching-on at Valley City State Teachers College. I apparently didn’t destroy him then; he’s currently Executive Director of the Ohio Education Association.
And my work colleague and friend Bob Tonra, now many years deceased, who somehow took a fancy to my Uncle’s WWII ships, the battleship USS Arizona and destroyer USS Woodworth and painstakingly made to scale models, behind me as I type this blog.
And of course, colleagues – people in the next office, across the hall, other departments, etc. Or Karen at the Good Earth in Roseville – “my” restaurant for nearly its entire existence. They gave me a free carrot cake that day….
That January 18 I finally cleared the final mess from my office and took a few photos of my work space, across the street from the State Capitol building. On my office door hung a photo from the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, April, 1999, a few days after the massacre at Columbine.
That young lady in the picture is granddaughter Lindsay, then 13. She, her parents and I walked up that Cross Hill on a rainy April day, and saw the stumps of the two crosses one Dad had cut down – the ones erected by someone else to the two killers, who had killed themselves. They lived then, and now, scarce a mile from the high school….
All the memories.
Let’s all learn to truly negotiate and to compromise on even our most cherished beliefs.
Such a talent is our future. Indeed our world’s only chance for a future.
(click to enlarge)

Judy Schaubach, Dick Bernard, Sandra Peterson Jan 18, 2000


In Gallop Conference Room at Education Minnesota Jan 18, 2000


Karen Schultz and server at Good Earth, January 18, 2000


Bob Tonra with his model of the USS Arizona ca 1996


Larry Wicks (at left)


Cross Hill above Columbine High School, April 1999, granddaughter Lindsay by the crosses, late April, 1999

#677 – Dick Bernard: President Obama's Moment

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In my opinion, Wednesday, January 16, 2013, will go down as President Obama’s John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King moment.
It took an immense amount of courage for him, January 16, 2013, to confront our nations culture of violence, particularly the fringe – it’s really only a fringe – which worships the unrestricted “right to bear arms” – all and any kinds of arms.
(The Second Amendment, ratified Dec. 15, 1791, says this in its entirety “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The reader can, of course, choose which words to emphasize…or ignore…in that amendment.)
President Obama, his supporters, advisers and the Secret Service, know the personal risks of what he did yesterday.
I believe President Kennedy, and I know Martin Luther King, knew the risks of witness for a better society and world. They both fell to rifle shots from hatred, 1963 and 1968.
Any of us around then – I was a school teacher when the announcement over the intercom came that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas – know more than we want to know about how hatred and threats such as we are now seeing spewed by folks tend to trickle down to madmen who are more than willing to do the dirty work of killing the messenger. The NRA is, I believe, wittingly facilitating this hatred.
The vast majority of us, I believe, are with the President on his initiative to change the sick system which enabled Newtown and other tragedies.
But we can’t be sitting quietly in the background in our circles as this debate moves forward.
We need to supportively encircle the President and help him move forward in the many ways available to us. We need, particularly, to support our legislators who support change, and encourage those who are reluctant to see a civilized world in a different way than through a gun sight.
Yes, this is a complex issue.
Personally, I don’t own or plan to own a weapon, but neither am I anti-gun for the traditional uses I grew up with. Gun ownership is a privilege with great responsibility. Sadly, legislation is about the only way to increase responsibility.
I see something of a continuum in the debate which is now officially beginning.
At one end of the continuum is true religious model, best stated in the “beat their swords into plowshares” citation (Isaiah 2:3-4). Arbitrarily, I’ll call that end zero.
At the other end is the “man’s home is his castle” philosophy which, played out to its illogical end, allows anybody to do anything with any killing device. I’ll call that ten.
Somewhere in between those poles is common sense in a “free State”, as stated in that Second Amendment.
We are – all of us – the “State” referred to in that Second Amendment. We are “the people”.
The collective “we, the people of the United States” share responsibility to “insure domestic Tranquility” (the Preamble of the Constitution), and tranquility doesn’t come at the end of a gun.
(On that continuum, above, I’d put myself at a four or less.)
Our World is our Castle.
We all live together in that Castle. We depend on each other; not only on ourselves.
Get involved, and don’t quit. Be willing to negotiate, but carefully. It is hard to negotiate with someone who refuses to negotiate.
On this and other issues, learn both sides and stick with it. It’s a crucial issue at a crucial time.
Here’s the complete U.S. Constitution: Constitution of U.S.001
Recent previous posts on this topic are here, here and here.
UPDATES:
From Will:
Some blogger yesterday had a great juxtaposition of King and Obama: “I Have a Dream” vs. “I Have a Drone.”
Dick, to Will: Yesterday, I seem to recall, the President mentioned that there had been 900 or so gun deaths in the U.S. in the month since Newtown. Perhaps you could tell me how many deaths from Drones in the same month? How many Iraqis died in a typical month in the Iraq War when it was raging back in the good old days of 2003-2008? How many war dead in Afghanistan in a typical month?
The United States is a nation that almost worships violence. And the gun issue is a perfect place to intensify the conversation on the role of violence in our society.
The President is already on record asking Congress to help adopt rules for use of Drones. It isn’t as if he’s been silent.
Over 50 years ago I edited a small college newspaper, and I’ve always been intrigued by this item we printed in one issue of the paper, sometime in 1960-61.
(click to enlarge)

Viking News, Valley City (ND) State Teachers College, May 24, 1961


Bruce, Jan 17:
Excellent blog.
I concur with you in that it took tremendous personal courage for Obama to take his position on gun control. The president’s life is always in danger for any political act he does, but this one is exceptionally dire. If he is successful in facing up to the NRA and it’s rabid fringe followers, his life will be at risk even after he leaves office. That is the level of emotion on this issue. It may be equivalent to Lincoln and slavery, which brings me to an article I read in the last couple of days on the 2nd Amendment. It’s point is the 2nd was ratified to preserve slavery. I think it goes to ” the man’s home is his castle” doctrine. That is the basis for a person has the right to protect his property with violence, if necessary. The most valuable property in the 18th century in America, when the Bill of Rights was ratified, was slaves. Slavery was legal, and there were slaves in all of the states. The national economy depended on the institution of slavery. In order for the Bill of Rights to be ratified the south needed a compromise which protected their property(slaves) from abolitionists thus preserving their police state(slave patrols). I think, Tom Hartmann, the author of the article, has a good analysis. Protecting the institution of slavery was at the heart of the 2nd amendment. With the Emancipation Proclamation, the 2nd Amendment should have been eliminated. There was no longer a reason for it except for protecting the profit of fire arms manufactures. I can’t help but think it’s exceptionally poetic that it’s the first “Black” president that is facing down the gun lobby. I think it scares the hell out many. In the Tarrantino movie Django, Django must remind many, unconsciously if nothing else, of Obama. It’s a very violent movie, but I recommend it, especially after you read this article.
Another lobby that is as powerful as the NRA is AIPAC. Obama is standing up to that lobby, too. He is putting forth all his political might to show down these two lobbies. With the nomination of Hagel, he has pick a fight with AIPAC. He has brought it out into the light, and now with the backing of Senator Levin(MI) a powerful supporter of AIPAC, he may have won that fight. See here.
The president has guts and resolve. That is what makes him dangerous to the forces that these two lobbies represent. Liberating the country from the oppression of these two lobbies is no small feat, and as you have stated, we need to help this president and protect his back.

#676 – Dick Bernard: The Gun "Conversation" one month after Newtown.

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This is the one month anniversary of Newtown CT massacre. It seems a good time to look back, and ahead.
The day of Newtown – it was a Friday – I wrote a blogpost in this space, which was also carried in the local Woodbury Patch. There were 45 comments on that post. They speak for themselves.
A few days later I did a second post, with some recommendations. It is here. I included in the post the following graphic, which is very pertinent at this point in the conversation about guns.
(click to enlarge)

Handout from a circa 1972 workshop.


This old graphic demonstrates a general truth: if you seek change – good or evil – after a crisis, there is a narrow window of opportunity. If you wait for the perfect moment to act, the opportunity is lost, since people have a short attention span. Both heroes and villains need to pay attention to this.
I could give many examples from both good and evil, but these would deflect attention from our need to act on this issue, now.
There are so many opinions already out there, another one may seem superfluous, but here are some very brief thoughts:
1. Attempting to introduce more arms into any setting, especially schools, is insane. More weaponry simply introduces more possibilities for more tragic mayhem. If one only considers schools, in the United States there are about 14,000 school districts, 133,000 schools (ranging from one room rural, to immense structures serving thousands); with 55,000,000 or so students and perhaps 5-6 million staff, mostly teachers.
Solving this problem with more lethal weapons is no solution.
The NRA attempted to exploit post-Newtown hysteria on this.
2. The National Rifle Association (NRA) does not deserve the power it attempts to exercise.
It is useful to learn about the NRA. Here is an article that seems to summarize the bases well, though not from the official NRA perspective.
NRA claims to enroll about 4 million members at $35 dues. This translates into approximately one NRA member per 60 adult Americans, and by no means do all NRA members subscribe to the credo of the current leaders.
If we look at NRA leadership as it is, rather than what it pretends to be, it is nothing more than a “skinny 90 pound weakling” who, exposed, is no more powerful than the exposed Wizard of Oz. It has only the power the rest of us choose to give it.
NRAs big money backing may talk, but only possesses the same single vote influence that every one of us has with the people we elect to represent us. We have the power on this issue, if we choose to exercise it.
3. Those who demand the right to be armed and dangerous are fools, exposing their short-sightedness and, yes, impotence.
I am trained in firearms – Army years. But I’ve never owned a gun, and I have no intention to get one now.
In a ‘gunfight at the OK Corral’ I would be un-armed and dead.
I don’t need to go to the OK Corral, but if I did, and I was killed, my problems would be over, but my well-armed assailants problems would just be beginning.
Last I looked we have little laws in this country which frown on murder. And we have technology with which to find murderers that wasn’t available during the OK Corral days.
Someone lethally armed is potentially more a danger to him or herself than to any intruder or the hated government.
I don’t need to list examples. They abound.
The struggle for sanity in gun ownership is by no means over. It is just beginning.
Be on the court.
It is your legislators, national and state, who will have to enact the policies that are needed. They depend on you.
UPDATE:
from Peter Jan. 14:
Well since you put it that way…
Just guessing you should strengthen the connection between NRA-fear and legislators. They are the ones who are afraid of NRA, because it looks as if it can get them un-elected if they don’ play along. Also it would be well to look into the history of that, has anybody been un-elected by the NRA? Cause they sure have swung a lot of weight in DC. Power in DC is a very individual matter. Relationships between less than three or four people can have the effect of thousands of votes. NRA is probably as hollow as you say, but to let the air out of them you have to expose this, and that means revealing the actual mechanism of how this (tax exempt!) outfit pulls the strings it pulls, and what those strings are made of.
I don’t actually believe the rank and file membership does a whole lot in the way of lobbying. Lobbyists are all presenting themselves as representing a lot of voters, or a lot of jobs in your district. But day-to-day they don’t really have to trot them out. It’s like the filibuster.
Dick, to Peter, and all: If one feels they have no power, they have no power. We are far more powerful than we think we are; and the adversary is far weaker than it would admit it is….
From Phyllis Jan 15:
Good article! I honestly think most of our senators and congressmen are wimps/weaklings when it comes to the NRA. I wish they would all get a spine!! They cannot answer yes or no, but dance around a question when it comes to gun safety. So they get a F rating from the NRA, who really cares….and what does it mean to have the A+ rating??? Does that make them a better person?? Just asking….

#675- Dick Bernard: A Mysterious Photograph; subtext, can't be serious all the time, there are mysteries, and they give an opportunity to think back to those ever more olden days!

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Recently, enroute to finding something else, I came across a mysterious 8×10 photograph, unlabeled.
(click to enlarge)

An unknown bunch....


I remembered when I first saw it, in my mother-in-laws effects. She had passed away in 1999 at 84 or so, and it certainly wasn’t her fan memory. Her children have all passed on as well, the most recent and last in 2007, so I can’t ask them. My wife, Barbara, had passed away of kidney disease at age 22 in 1965; her brother, then 19, had died in a car accident in 1975; and the middle brother died at age 60 in 2007.
The photo was and still is a mystery.
I decided to scan the photo and send on to a friend who maintains an e-mail list from Barbara’s high school graduation class of 1961. We were all born from 1940 to 1943…WWII babies.
It brought forth quite a few comments, from whimsical to serious. Here’s a “Facebook” like thread, which turned out to be very long. But if you’re interested, you’ll read on…!
Diane started the conversation: “I don’t have a clue who these people may be. Sorry.”
On we went, and here are a few later responses:
Barb: “I showed this picture to my husband, the musical person, and he had no clue either. He said it looks like a heavy metal band, or one of it’s precursors. Seems to me as though it is not a group from the 60’s, so it was probably not Barbara’s property.”
Larry: “Right…you saw some these guys later on, with Grateful Dead, Kiss, others, but during our late 50s early 60s era, this wasn’t the kind of group we were following and I don’t imagine….”
Margaret: “Perhaps their hair dresser would know.”
Ron: “Very funny Margaret. The guy on the right looks somewhat like a young Frank Zappa. Maybe???”
Diane: “I thought it was rather clever. ”
Doug: “Love your answer Margaret … I asked my wife and she doesn’t know.”
Barb: “[Ron] says that ” it could be” a young Frank Zappa. So who is he???”
Dick: “Well, you shook the bush, and here I am: [look at this video].
It might be Zappa…
If I was to guess, this photo belonged to…Barbara’s younger brother [who] died in a car accident…in August, 1975. He was only 19. I can’t say this for sure, but I think he got into the drug culture in later teen years, which was a shame. He was his Mom’s boy. He really never had a Dad, since his Dad split shortly after he was born. The family story was a very, very difficult one.”
Barb: “Yup, I think Ron was right . . . the guy in the video does look like the picture Dick has! My hubby says he was popular during the hippie years, the drug years, and that he named one of his kids “Dweezel” . . . . good grief! I think I was married and raising little kids during those years and I missed all of those goings on.
Dick, if you put it on e-bay, who knows what you might learn! Even if it isn’t autographed, it’s a real photo. Some old ex-hippie might want it!”
Ron: “He’s [Zappa] the musician who named his children: Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet Emuukha Rodan and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen.”
Larry, to Margaret’s hairdresser comment: “Haha…good line Margaret…..we 61’ers all had neat hair…like Leland’s and Chuck’s duck tails and Roy’s and others’ crew cuts…etc…and then I was using “butch wax” and “Brylcream” …a little dab will do ya..”….to slick back the locks.”
Dennis: “I have to laugh at the dialogue that follows a picture. We must all be home snug in our environment hoping for those hazy, lazy, crazy days of summer. My skiing ability was tested as I went out this morning and slid down the entire driveway to get the paper. I was very successful, however when I turned to go back up the driveway, I learned it is easier to ski downhill than uphill. Must be a physics law here. I remember the crew cuts. It was suggested to us by our coaches that it would be to our advantage to keep our hair short. I went back to the archives and looked at our basketball pictures, all short hair. Now I pay my barber by the number of hairs left. Oh well!”
Margaret: “You guys had great hair!”
Larry: “Haha…hey, Denny…assume you know HOW to ski or, at YOUR “advanced” age, are you just learning? Bully for you if you’re learning a new skill. Keeps those neurons cracking and healthy, they tell me.
Don had a crew cut or something like it, if memory serves. I look stupid as hell in one (some would argue, “ya, in any other haircut too!”) and that’s how I looked when JoAnne and I got married. Ouch. Why she went through with marrying me I will never know. Now, I too, Denny, as I noticed this morning at “Great Clips,” that I am growing a rather large hairless spot on the back of my head AND the clippings on the cloth I was wrapped in show quite a noticeable amount of gray, that being the growing color of whatever remains.
Weatherwise, as you mentioned, we are “hunkered down” too awaiting a dip into the ice box and perhaps a blizzard of sorts. Roads are very icy tonight. Fargo’s temp, at 8:43 PM central is 16 above, but Denver’s is only 12 – my daughter’s Florida Goldens like romping in the snow but I imagine they’ll start to miss the tropical temps as the thermometer dips. And it’s only 39 in Las Vegas tonight….those are the temps I watch on my iGoogle page.”
Dick: “Does anybody still use Brylcreem? I was one kid who was pretty liberal with the definition of “a little dab”. Maybe that’s why we didn’t have a second chicken for dinner – the family budget went for my Brylcreem.”
Larry: “Hahaha…hey, Dick I see by your Wikipedia link that ” Sara Lee bought the personal care unit of SmithKline Beecham in 1992.” Brylcreem was part of that . I believe it must be sold in some parts of the world, if I read the article correctly..maybe under a different name. Heck, there might even be some in Sarah Lee food products…perish the thought.
I put on plenty of it too. My grandmother used to get pretty mad when it stained the inside of my PARKA.. We all had to have a “parka” in those salad days. Now I wear a red bomber cap when I run my snowblower.”
Dick: “Since I started this ‘marathon’, perhaps I can add another comment (which probably won’t close the conversation). I thought the comments were so intriguing that I’d do a blogpost about the photo, including some of your comments.”
Barb: Well, you were right, Dick. You’ve started a whole “other” conversation! Diane is entertaining a big group of friends at her home in Tempe today, so I’m guessing she won’t comment until tomorrow at the earliest.”
Reader, if you’ve got this far: your opinion?

#674 – Dick Bernard: The War for Peace…

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UPDATE Jan. 7, 2013: note comment at end from Garry Davis.
UPDATE Aug, 2013: Garry Davis passed away at the end of July, 2013. See this post.
Sunday [Jan 6,2013] I was privileged to be among nearly 100 people invited to a private preview of a very special eye-opening film, which has the potential to inspire the public with a new way of looking at the world.
In the documentary, which is still in development, World Citizen #1 Garry Davis engaged us with his fascinating life story. A riveting story-teller, he told us how his quest for a different kind of world began during World War II, when in the wake of his own brother being killed in action, he found himself killing German brothers and families in B-17 bomber runs on German cities.
He couldn’t see any sense in killing others to avenge the killing of his brother and this changed his life. He came to see no real sense in even national borders. In the end, he felt, people have to relate to other people, and figure out ways to get along, otherwise our human world cannot survive. Borders were artificial fences, especially as they defined countries.
His actions made him controversial.
The in progress film about Davis, which I think will be a very important one, develops the story of what happened later in Davis’ life, and how his commitment to peace could be a template for us all.
The screening was co-sponsored by Global Solutions Minnesota, World Citizen (founded by Lynn Elling and others in 1972), A Million Copies, and Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers. The Film Society of Minneapolis and St. Paul was also co-sponsor and great host for the event, which was presented in their theater at St. Anthony Main, Minneapolis.
Of course, life is not always simple. Paradoxically, on the same Sunday of the screening, another “war” was about to break out.
President Obama is nominating former Sen. and Vietnam War veteran Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense, and the issue appears to be drawn on whether Hagel will be sufficiently tough as a representative of American interests. Much will be said in coming days. Here’s a good summary of the first salvos.
This nomination battle is well worth watching.
Garry Davis is still very much alive, at 91, and at the screening on Sunday was Minneapolitan Lynn Ellling, near 92, who remains a lion in the quest for World Citizenship and Peace.
After the screening, about half of us stayed for an interesting Skype conversation between Garry Davis and Lynn Elling and others on the topic of world citizenship.
(click on photos to enlarge)

Garry Davis (on screen from Vermont via Skype), Lynn Elling, film producer Arthur Kanegis and a guest share thoughts on the pursuit of world peace on January 6.


Such a topic, Peace, is not a simple one, and there are differences of opinions of how one achieves lasting Peace, but the importance lies in the potential good of the conversation, and of working together to resolve differences.
Garry Davis – and his counterpart Lynn Elling – experienced War up front and very personally in WWII, and neither considers War an option for achieving Peace.
In the War paradigm, which the upcoming debate over Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense is all about, the only conversation will be about the Power of one nation to dominate others, in my opinion.
I had seen an early draft of the Davis film in October, 2012, and it caused me to do reflecting on my own about the issues raised, long before the January 6 preview.
Indeed, Davis was and still is “controversial”.
So, too, were Nelson Mandela who endured years of prison before becoming a world hero; and more recently Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Laureate from Myanmar who couldn’t accept her award in person for fear that she wouldn’t be allowed back in her own country, and endured 21 years of house arrest within her own country, and made one of her first public international statements to the Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College in Minneapolis in March 2012. Most recently, she had as a house guest, President Obama.
There is a very long list of “controversial” people who have made a difference and can be role models for us.
Being controversial is often very desirable and good.
I also remembered a couple of sentences written by Martin Luther King Jr. in his book, Why We Can’t Wait, published in 1964, shortly after the assassination of President Kennedy.
King had not long before endured the Birmingham Jail and some months later gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the Washington DC Mall.
He wrote this in his book:
“I am reminded of something President Kennedy said to me at the White House following the signing of the Birmingham agreement.
“Our judgment of Bull Connor should not be too harsh” he commented. “After all, in his way, he has done a good deal for civil-rights legislation this year.”
Immediately following these sentences, King says this, a message to all of us: “It was the people who moved their leaders, not the leaders who moved the people….”
We of that generation tend to forget a crucial fact: at the time of this conversation, Martin Luther King Jr was 33 years old; President John F. Kennedy was 46.
When Lynn Elling MC’ed the event where Minneapolis and Hennepin County became the first World Citizenship city and county in the United States on May 1, 1968, Lynn was 47 years old. Three years later, in March, 1971, Minnesota as a state became World Citizen. Mr Elling was heavily involved in both actions, which were non-partisan and had a very impressive list of bi-partisan supporters.

Lynn Elling at Minneapolis City Hall May 1, 1968 opening the event where Minneapolis and Hennepin County declared themselves World Citizenship Communities, and where the United Nations flag flew alongside the U.S. flag.


Minneapolis/Hennepin County MN Declaration of World Citizenship signed March 5, 1968, dedicated May 1, 1968


Lynn Elling with the Minneapolis Declaration at Minneapolis City Hall, Dec. 22, 2012. Photo compliments of Bonnie Fournier of the Smooch Project


Minnesota Declaration of World Citizenship March, 1971. photo courtesy of Bonnie Fournier, Smooch Project


The future is with the young. We need to help them choose a path which will give them a positive future.
UPDATE Jan 7. 2013: received from Garry Davis:
Hi Dick,
Great blog! Loved it! So happy you referred to my personal “history” site ( a real archaic opus compared to what one sees today, but still containing some interesting archival material). For instance, under “World Citizenship Movement & the World Government,” in the 3nd para. starting “In 2 years over 750,000 people registered, etc.” you will note “In June, ‘mondialized’ Cahors.”
This small southern French town (famous for its wine) actually started the “Mundialization Movement” from which the 1971 statement of “Mundialization” of the State of Minnesota derived followed by the State of Iowa on October 25, 1973. (For the full list see here). [NOTE: Minneapolis and Hennepin County MN mundialized March 5, 1968.]
Colonel Robert Sarrazac, former Maquis during WWII and my principal “organization” in Paris, was the author of the first “Mundialization” declaration.
Maybe a footnote could be added to fill out this important item.
Looking forward to having the pleasure of meeting you in the Spring.
Warmly, in one global village,
Garry

#673 – Dick Bernard: The 1960-61 Viking News of Valley City State Teachers College

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(click to enlarge photos and graphic)

The Jan. 2 musing about Valley City State Teachers College 1958-61 became longer and longer, but as I completed it, it didn’t feel complete without finally, after over 50 years, dealing with the Viking News I had the privilege of editing in 1960-61. All 13 (and 76 pages) of the issues are in pdf form below. It was worth the better part of a day of work to do this. Perhaps one or two folks from those halcyon days of yesteryear will find a memory or two or three! I surely did.
1960-61 was the ‘good old days’ of technology.
Those newspapers – on 10″x14″ inch white glossy paper, were typeset on linotype at the Valley City Times Record. Mr. Vandestreek (as I knew him, his byline was C. Vandestreek) was the editor or publisher and the person to whom I delivered the copy, and the corrections for each issue of the Viking News. I watched the linotype guys do their work. I walked the half dozen or so blocks from campus up to the newspaper office.
We staff people were all amateurs, but we had good practice and an outstanding adviser in Mrs. Canine. We operated out of a room in the basement of Old Main at the College, and worked with manual typewriters.
Mrs. Canine was a tiny lady but a formidable person. No one even thought of messing with Mrs. Canine! She had that commanding presence that on occasion comes in handy.
Science instructor, Mr. Ovrebo, seems to have done almost all of the picture-taking, and he did a great job. Photography must have been his hobby. This was in the day of black and white film, and flash bulbs. Picture taking was hard work. I’d guess Mr. Ovrebo did his own developing and printing in a darkroom at home or on campus.
The volunteer staff of the paper changed by the month. I took the time to do a count, and in all 56 people, including five teachers, were named as contributors to the paper, in one way or another. Seven of us were on the staff for all 13 issues: myself, Robert Rieth, Dick Greene, Doug Dougherty, Diane Pederson, Marcia Bemis and Darleen Hartman.
I think Mrs. Canine liked the work we did in 1960-61, and at the end of the year she gave me a set of the newspapers, stapled in the margin. Now, 52 years later, they are once again “republished” in a manner that none of us could have imagined back then: on a blog over the internet.
The contents of our newsletter speak for themselves. Our ad salesman apparently did a very good job; you can see the ads for the movies that happened to be showing at the single theater in town around deadline date!
We were just a bunch of kids, and it was a good year. Thanks for the memories.
Issues of the Viking News:
September 23, 1960 (four pages): Viking News Sep 23 60002
October 6, 1960 (four pages): Viking News Oct 6 60001
November 3, 1960 (six pages): Viking News Nov 3 60001
December 5, 1960 (six pages): Viking News Dec 5, 1960001
January 20, 1961 (six pages): Viking News Jan 20 1961001
February 16, 1961 (six pages): Viking News Feb16 1961001
March 15, 1961 (six pages): Viking News Mar 15 1961001
March 29, 1961 (six pages): Viking News Mar 29 1961001
April 14, 1961 (six pages): Viking News Apr 14 1961001
April 28, 1961 (six pages): Viking News Apr 28 1961001
May 3, 1961 (eight pages, Senior Edition): Viking News May 3 1961001
May 24, 1961 (six pages): Viking News May 24 1961002
July 5, 1961 (six pages): Viking News July 5 1961001

This list changed somewhat with each issue. Bernard, Rieth, Greene, Dougherty, Pederson and Hartman, as well as Mrs. Canine and Mr. Ovrebo, were on staff for all the issues.

Mrs. Mary Hagen Canine, Viking News Advisor


Mr. Ovrebo, Faculty member and photographer for Viking News