#753 – Dick Bernard: "Communication"(?) in the 21st Century.

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This week I upgraded my anti-virus program to include more bells and whistles, including asking it to check up my back-up file – the separate “file cabinet” that keeps a digital “copy” of whatever comes into, or is generated by, my computer.
I had no idea what to expect. After two days, at about 4 a.m. Sunday morning, I took a photo of the screen at the moment the anti-virus said it had reached…well, here’s the photo (click to enlarge):

July 27, 2013

July 27, 2013


Last I looked, Sunday night, the number was at about 125,000,000 “files”, whatever that means. By this morning it had finished its work, finding two items to toss in the digital equivalent of jail: quarantine.
That little filing cabinet of mine sure holds a lot of stuff. It doesn’t seem to weigh any more than when it was empty….
We are in an age where we can communicate with everybody about everything, and save it all. Sometimes I wonder if we communicate at all.
If our entire system of cyber-communication failed (a possibility), we might find it was a good idea to have gotten to know our next door neighbors a little better.
Facebook says I have about 360 “friends”. These are almost all people I know in some context or other, all folks who I chose to “friend”, though as they all know, I very rarely communicate by that means. At the same time, at the infrequent times where I feel I have something important I want to share, it’s best to have that friend list available: some will notice. For certain purposes Facebook is a marvelous tool. I’ve seen it work, personally, once. But the “friend” list has to be there first before it can be effectively used. So, if somebody wants to “friend” me, fine by me…. But don’t expect a daily update.
I think it’s equally important to not abuse the list, otherwise nobody will look when I want them to at least pause when they see my name.
Then there’s Twitter.
Recently, somebody Twittered me, apparently interested in my “following” him. It said he had about 1200 followers, and he was following about 1120 others.
Twitter is another tool, but how in the world people can actually meaningfully communicate by that means is beyond me. Sure, you can call for revolution, but it’s not quite that simple. I guess I have five “followers”. They have never heard from me.
The Twitter rule is, I believe, no more than 144 characters, perhaps 25 words. Sure, you can link a blogpost to it, but if somebody won’t read 144 characters (about what is bold-faced in this sentence), why would they read something with hundreds of words?
And I blog a lot (usually 600-700 words). And obviously do a lot of e-mails too. In desperation, I tried YouTube a couple of times; I’m in Skype, but haven’t used it yet…maybe a to do. There’s other digital marvels I’ve heard of, but never gotten acquainted with.
And I write letters. Real letters, with stamps that require me to go to the post office. This is sometimes, a good social opportunity, even if somebody is grousing about lack of instant service, while someone else ahead is consuming seemingly endless time with a clerk….
Cathy noted something on the news a couple of nights ago that powerful people in the U.S. Congress continue their intention of starving the Post Office out of existence, even though that same Post Office is specifically required by the U.S. Constitution. Perhaps starvation is the wrong word; penalizing it out of existence might be better, as pointed out in deadly accurate ads by the Postal Workers Union, as recently as this morning.
And on it goes.
This morning, I took a picture of the little device still whirring behind this screen, and noted my long unused Zip Code book.
I picked the book up, noted it had been printed in 1988, and the first class stamp, then, was 25 cents (46 cents today.)
At any rate, as I have said for years, we do have more ways to communicate less, and maybe we ought to dust off the person-to-person ways that build relationships close to home.
Computer backup, meet Zip Code Directory, July 28, 2013.

Computer backup, meet Zip Code Directory, July 28, 2013.

#752 – Dick Bernard: "Detroit". The Minnesota Orchestra as Metaphor

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Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vanska February 3, 2013, performing a portion of their Grammy nominated performance, here.

Locked Out Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra Concert Oct 18, 2012, with Maestro Skrowaczewski

Locked Out Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra Concert Oct 18, 2012, with Maestro Skrowaczewski


July 23 and 24 I did two posts related to “Detroit” (see them here and here.) I put “Detroit” in quotes, since the word itself has become a useful hate word, a label: “look at THEM, failures…”
The issue, of course, is who “THEM” is defined as being.
The battle lines are now drawn, as to whose fault “Detroit” is: Capitalism itself; or the poor people of Detroit who, it is suggested, lacked the good judgement to have their city efficiently run by…Capitalists. I’ll let that debate rage on.
Meanwhile, here at home, largely unnoticed, the Minnesota Orchestra ten month Lock-Out by management (it is NOT a strike, as some suggest), is at a crisis stage. A Big Dog, George Mitchell, has been engaged to attempt to mediate a settlement within the next month or so. It is impossible to guess the outcome. But the conflict is in the news again, thankfully.
Disclosure: I’m a longtime Minnesota Orchestra fan and subscriber – a “listener” who pays plenty of money every year to hear world-class music in Minneapolis. Here’s my position, filed June 21 and occasionally updated since then.
So, what does Minnesota Orchestra have to do with “Detroit”?

More than a bit, I suggest.
The Twin Cities has been my home since 1965. And it has been a place to be proud of, a “Major League City” of over 3,000,000 residents.
“Major League”, of course, means Major League Basketball (1947), Football (1960), Baseball (1961), Hockey (1967), and Women’s Basketball (1999), and probably some other sports I’m not aware of.
In the Twin Cities, we apparently take “Major League” seriously.
And long before those sports, there’s been Major League Music, first known as the Minneapolis Symphony (1903, later renamed Minnesota Orchestra in 1988), whose last concert as an orchestra was over a year ago, and whose new “stadium”, a remodeled Orchestra Hall, particularly a fabulous new lobby, is supposed to open in September, perhaps without an Orchestra.
This Minnesota Orchestra, locked out, has been known as one of America’s five top tier Orchestra’s: the Minnesota, New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Chicago Symphonies.
Minnesota’s “Detroit” has come to be the unresolved dispute at the Minnesota Orchestra, and it is useful to consider the implications of the potential loss to this community if the Orchestra is downgraded.
Alan Fletcher, President and CEO of the prestigious Aspen Music Festival, on June 24, 2013, defined the four key players in an orchestra as follows: “musicians, donors, administrators, and listeners”. (His entire remarks are here. Note especially the three paragraphs beginning “Classical music in…”. He will be speaking here, in Minneapolis, across the street from Orchestra Hall on August 20. Details here.)
Of the four groups, I have been “listener” since 1978, and a small additional “donor” for quite a number of years. I gave when asked. (“Donors” in Fletcher’s context probably refers to the mega-buck folks who donate millions to the Orchestra endowment; “Listeners”, on the other hand, are the ones who fill the seats and pay substantial money for the privilege.)
In this four-cornered “quartet”, it occurred to me, it is the “listeners” who were not so much as asked for their opinion. Perhaps I missed the memo, but I do pay attention to such things.
And it is we listeners who pay a good share of the ongoing bills; the endowment from “donors” is a savings account, the nest egg to be used to help out for things like building the mega-bucks new lobby which, apparently, is more important than the music inside the hall.
In the case of the Minnesota Orchestra, it seems to me, it was the Administration, the big people unknown to listeners like me, who made all of the decisions that have put me and my colleague listeners out on the street for an entire year.
Sooner or later, this conflict will be settled – they always are. I reiterate what I said June 21: “I have taken my stand, as a listener: Until the Minnesota Orchestra Musicians, through their Union, encourage me to return to Orchestra Hall or to Orchestra programs, I will not pay for nor attend any event at Minnesota Orchestra Hall, nor any other event scheduled by the current management or Board of the Orchestral Association.”
I may be just a “grain of sand”. But I am that….
October 18, 2012

October 18, 2012


July 27, 2013, The Lobby from 11th street...

July 27, 2013, The Lobby from 11th street…


...and from 12th Street

…and from 12th Street

#751 – Dick Bernard: "Detroit", "leadership"

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Yes, comments are solicited.
After writing the post on Detroit, yesterday, my friend, Michelle, a community activist in my town, wrote some comments which I felt were very pertinent, among which was the following, with an important beginning caveat:
Michelle: I don’t want people to think I put blame at the feet of the African American community solely for Detroit. What I am saying is that we ALL SHARE in the blame, and that should include the African American Community. “African American communities should have worked harder to find and groom strong, moral leaders who when they got their chance at running Detroit, which many, many did, could have been more effective in representing the true needs of the community.”
(I strongly suggest reading her entire comment for context. They begin below the photograph.)
Michelle is white, and so am I, and at the risk of being assailed as a know-nothing, here goes, anyway.
First, I think it is a safe presumption that Detroits failure is, to a certain very powerful element in our society, a useful political success, on many levels. Some of those who denounce it are privately cheering it.
As the propagandist did in his post, and the editor added the photographs to illustrate the disaster, Detroit is useful to gin up negative emotions (which is viewed as a positive by the architects).
Similarly, while government in Washington these days is demonstrably reviled by the populace, the whole purpose of gridlock is to make government seem to be the problem rather than a good. Dysfunction drives a wedge between government and the very people it benefits. Dysfunction is politically useful.
In the White world, where I have lived my entire life, there are endless leadership pyramids, from committee chairpeople to “Dads”, ad infinitum. Over history, it has helped to be in a better situation starting out. The ultimate beneficiary of this was born yesterday in London: Princess Kate and Prince Williams newly-named first-born became, at birth, third in succession after Queen Elizabeth. He has no dues to pay. He picked the correct parents.
There are endless other examples. I don’t even need to list them. We live them every day in every place. Start with the pre-eminence of White Men (but not all white men are equally powerful); women, on and on….
Add in the impact of an entire national history in the U.S. of slavery and it is easier to understand why African-American communities have a bit of difficulty getting traction in political organizing and positive exercise of power.
In this context, the positive example set by the Obama’s is a huge threat to the established white power structure in this country.
(Occasionally that power structure will let in some person of color. Yesterdays Minneapolis Star Tribune had a column by one of these folks, Peter Bell, of the conservative Center for the American Experiment, and others. But Bell and others pay a price of admission.)
The best book I ever read about the stated and unstated lines between black and white in this country was Jimmy Carters gentle memories of growing up in rural Georgia: “An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood.” Check it out some time. He simply tells it how it was during his own early life.
The white power structure – a tiny minority of all whites – is a minority, and knows it.
But “power to the people” does not come the way most of us seem to go about it: working within the usual constructs of power.
The conversation needs to change, and the first lesson is to remind ourselves of the rules, and then break those rules of engagement, such as believing the myth that money is more powerful than the vote, etc.
Gandhi said it well: “we must be the change we wish to see in the world”.

#750 – Dick Bernard: "Detroit"

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MORE: See followup post July 24, 2013, here.
For a long well-written summary of “Detroit” and (alternatively) “Pittsburgh”, check this. (I’ve been to Detroit several times between the 1960s and 1987; to Pittsburgh several times from the 1960s to 2011.)
In yesterday’s e-mails came a long and hideous recitation of the problems in “Detroit”. It was what I expected – the guy who forwarded it, forwards similar stuff frequently: a dozen hideous photos of destroyed places in Detroit, surrounded by an endless recitation of words like “corruption”; and helpful words like “illegals”, “Muslims”, “Mexicans”, “Sharia Law”…. “Detroit” is one scary place.
The preface to this “forward” apparently came from two, perhaps three, different people, exactly as stated:
“Maybe you’ve seen this one before. Pretty scary stuff…….L”;
“This may be construed as racism which is not the intent.The devastation of a once vibrant city in the US today is appalling….DETROIT IS THE FUTURE OF U.S. AND CANADA”
“After 5 Democratic Black mayors in a row [three are in jail and the other too have been indited] all for theft, fraud,lying and other meriad [sic] charges, what result would be expected?
The city is now in bankruptcy and now run by a bankruptcy chief appointed by the Michigan State Governor and the debtors will get 10 cents on the dollar.—D”
All the invective is to be expected, and typical of the venom sent around, e-mail box to e-mail box.
Granted, “Detroit” is a disaster, but far more complex than conveyed by racist invective. It is a very large example of a failure of far more than just a city or its citizens, as pointed out very well by Michelle in a comment at the end of this post.
As it happens, the guy who sent this to me graduated from the same tiny high school in the same tiny North Dakota town in the same year I did. We were classmates. In fact, both of us were in the same town a short time ago for a 100th anniversary of the local school, which has been closed for eight years, likely never to open again.
It was a nostalgic couple of days. There is an unexpected opportunity, now, to compare our little town with “Detroit”.
Our North Dakota town is typical of hamlets everywhere. Put together, they would equal or exceed “Detroit” of far-right legend: vacant buildings, etc., etc. There may not be the crime, but there is a logical reason for that: what self-respecting crook would waste their time in these tiny places? Maybe a meth lab in some abandoned country building, or such.
But these thousands of unfortunate little places share a great deal in common with Detroit. They are casualties of our “free market” system and their survival depends on the ever fewer people who live within their bounds, many of whom survive on hated things like Social Security and Medicare, and are in no way equipped to rehabilitate a disaster beyond their control.
The larger community, called State or Nation, has for all intents and purposes deserted them.
In the little town where my classmate and I were on July 6, there always was a single block Main Street with a few outlier businesses. When I returned there 55 years ago, there were, best as I recall, 13 businesses on that Main Street. Today there are two – at least I think there are two, there may be only one. (There were a few businesses on side streets years ago; all but one has disappeared today.)
The rest of the town is similar. The empty school, left to its own devices, as it likely will be since it is expensive to heat, even minimally, will just continue to deteriorate and ultimately become uninhabitable – just like many Detroit buildings.
While in my little town, I did an informal count, and it appeared that only a bit more than half of the buildings I knew as a youngster remained 55 years later.
There is no way up for this little town for which I, for one, have fond memories. And I think it’s a typical small North Dakota town.
It is really no different than Detroit, except that it is small and anonymous….
As for “Detroit”, it has become a stock hate word for overtly racist commentary like the forward I received.
Read Michelle’s comments, below the photo, and give this some thought.
We all, in one way or another, have helped create Detroit, and my little town….
(click to enlarge – this photo is from another little town in which I once lived.)

A decaying North Dakota public school, 2007.

A decaying North Dakota public school, 2007.


Comment from Michelle, July 23, 2013:
I lived and worked in the heart of African American communities in St. Louis during the late 80’s-early 90’s. And like a good liberal, white Minnesotan, tried to make positive changes in an urban city that, while not as bad as Detroit, had and still has it’s share of challenges – it’s still the murder capital of the midwest. Like St. Louis, Detroit is surrounded by super-wealthy suburbs that exist in isolation with no “metropolitan planning commission” like we have here in MN. Again, I would say that here in MN, while people sometimes feel the Metro Planning Commission seems meddlesome, our good government nature here has allowed our communities to thrive by helping to balance resources regionally vs. let cities battle it out on their own.
My perspective is this – like what I experienced in St. Louis, everyone is to blame for Detroit – This is not some “bad Republican corporate white man problem.”
The State of Michigan should have put a regional planning and development commission together a long, long time ago.
The business community should have diversified from automobile dominance many, many years ago.
The unions should have worked harder to disassociate themselves from the “mob” and other illegal activities that still plague the biggest unions.
African American communities should have worked harder to find and groom strong, moral leaders who when they got their chance at running Detroit, which many, many did, could have been more effective in representing the true needs of the community.
And “liberals” like us on this email blog… could and should remember that business is not all evil – we need to champion strong companies to fuel our inner cities and speak out against corruption in the unions when we see it as well.
On issues this big – the complete collapse of a major American city – we all share blame and it’s a wake-up call for the future.

#749 – Dick Bernard: Dr. Soren Kolstoe, naturalist, outdoorsman, poet.

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Depiction of Dr. Soren O. Kolstoe at entrance to Kolstoe Hall Valley City (ND) State University

Depiction of Dr. Soren O. Kolstoe at entrance to Kolstoe Hall Valley City (ND) State University


ND Centennial Stamps001
A while ago I was researching answers to a 1957 North Dakota test for high school Juniors and Seniors about North Dakota History, Geography and Government.
Reviewing a 1963 Geography text by Bernt L. Wills I found a number of poems about North Dakota outdoors written by Soren Kolstoe, a name familiar to me from my days at Valley City State Teachers College. Dr. Wills was clearly taken with Dr. Kolstoe’s sensitivity to the land and fauna of North Dakota and wanted to include some of his work in his book.
The poems intrigued me and I set out to try to find out more about Dr. Kolstoe and his work. Thanks to Shirley Lindsay, daughter of “Koley’s” (Dr. Kolstoe’s) close friend, hunting buddy, and legendary Dean of Men Lou Bruhn, I made contact with a couple of Dr. Kolstoe’s children, one of whom sent me a signed book of poetry, Lyrics of the Prairie, written by Dr. Kolstoe years ago (access to all poems below the photos).
Dr. Kolstoe was also legendary at STC. He joined the faculty in 1924,and retired in 1958. (Turns out he was 70 when he retired, and I’m 73 now, which gives one pause.) A few weeks after his retirement I began my college career there, so I didn’t know him personally, though he was still an advisor to the Fraternity I joined in 1960. But he was larger than life, even as a retiree.
[UPDATE July 27, 2013, the Kolstoe family shared with me a 2003 memo written by a staff person at Concordia College, Moorhead, about Dr. Kolstoe’s bio: Kolstoe,Soren-History]
A residence building at present day VCSU is named after him.
Here is an undated photo of Dr. Kolstoe; a second of him ca 1959 in the college yearbook; and of the hall named for him, and following the photos are Dr. Kolstoe’s poems and some comments of Carolyn Kolstoe, wife of Dr. Kolstoe’s son, Ralph, himself one of two Kolstoe sons who achieved, like their Dad, PhDs in Psychology.
(click on photos to enlarge them)
Dr. Soren Kolstoe, undated, at a State Fair in ND, with his display of wild bird eggs.

Dr. Soren Kolstoe, undated, at a State Fair in ND, with his display of wild bird eggs.


"Dr. S. O. Kolstoe enjoys EBC informal initiation" EBC section of 1960 Viking Annual, Valley City State Teachers College

“Dr. S. O. Kolstoe enjoys EBC informal initiation” EBC section of 1960 Viking Annual, Valley City State Teachers College


Kolstoe Hall Valley City State University July 5, 2013

Kolstoe Hall Valley City State University July 5, 2013


The family has given permission to share Dr. Kolstoe’s poems about North Dakota wildlife and environment, and because of their number – over 60 poems – they are presented here in three sections. (The first three pages in each are identical). It is believed these may have been published ca 1965, but that is uncertain.
Part 1: Lyrics of Prairie #1001
Part 2: Lyrics of Prairie #2002
Part 3: Lyrics of Prairie #3003
Here’s Carolyn Kolstoe, June 19, 2013 (shared with her permission): “I am delighted to know that you have enjoyed my father-in-laws’ poetry. He published this booklet of his love of North Dakota and the pleasures that he found there. [He sold the book] while he was displaying his bird egg and stuffed animals collection at state fairs. [Dr. Kolstoe] received his BA at St. Olaf, Northfield, MN, and his PhD at University of North Dakota. He taught at VCSTC for many years, then in retirement, was hired by the North Dakota Wildlife Federation to visit any school in the state to show slides and read poetry of animals of the state. We were living in Grand Forks when he came to visit the schools there.
He was born in Haugesund, Norway, January 4 1888, and died in Grand Forks ND February 12, 1978. [Sons] Oliver is living in CA, John is in Montana, and Ralph [Carolyn’s husband lives, depending on season, near Bemidji MN, Marco Island FL or Grand Forks ND]. Ralph retired from the UND Psychology Dept after having taught there for 35 years.
Soren’s egg collection was donated to the state of ND and while it was owned by Soren, it was one of the largest collections in the United States. He had the eggs boxed by the number in a usual nest, bedded in cotton with a glass cover. Many were displayed in the museum near the State Capitol in Bismarck. I am not sure where they are presently.”
Dr. Kolstoe had a special permit to do the egg collecting.
Anyone wishing to get a message to Dr. Kolstoe’s family can simply write dick_bernardATmsnDOTcom, with Kolstoe in subject line.
ND Wild Roses between LaMoure and Berlin ND, July 7, 2013

ND Wild Roses between LaMoure and Berlin ND, July 7, 2013

#748 – Dick Bernard: Two American Flags. What does the "United" in United States of America mean?

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At the end of this post is the link to President Obama’s talk on the importance and implications of the Martin/Zimmerman case, and other links and comments.
*
July 6, enroute from Sykeston to Jamestown ND, I saw a huge American flag to the right, and a sign leading to Historic Ft. Seward just above Jamestown. I decided to stop and take a look.
(click on photos to enlarge)

Ft. Seward, near Jamestown ND, July 6, 2013

Ft. Seward, near Jamestown ND, July 6, 2013


Ft. Seward, it turns out, was a short-lived obscure post Civil War encampment, largely built to secure the westward expansion of settlement through Dakota Territory. A YouTube video claims Gen. Custer was there before Little Big Horn. Maybe so, though he embarked from Ft. Abraham Lincoln in what is now Mandan ND area in 1876.
Nonetheless, the Stars and Stripes very impressively fly over the James River valley, with the substantial help of the constant North Dakota wind.
Much devotion is given our national banner. We pledge allegiance to “the flag of the United States of America“.
These dis-united days in our Republic, I sometimes think a more appropriate description might be the “dis-jointed state of Americans”. Even the term “balkanized” is too tame, since we are a society that has become fragmented almost door-by-door over infinite topics, the most recent highly publicized one being the case of State of Florida vs George Zimmerman.
We are, basically, very good, and very caring people. But we can, and do, these days tend to fragment ourselves by our selection of what information to let in and keep out of our seeing and hearing.
We make our case on what we believe, and associate only with others with similar beliefs, others beliefs be damned.
On a societal level, many can and do “State-shop” to find out where they have the most rights and least responsibilities. More of us have the financial means to personalize our selections than perhaps any society in human history, including our own U.S. society of the not too distant past.
We reverence winning, with little concern for those who lose, and the winners get stronger and more dominant every day….
In the process we have come to possess, in my opinion, a very dangerous luxury which in time will come to destroy us if not monitored and adjusted. We are less and less a “society”, a “United States” than a society of individuals. We don’t have to talk with or listen to anybody who doesn’t agree with us. We can attempt to legislate our personal opinion (called a “win”) in the short window of opportunity available; but the temporary win leads to potential for a later loss.
Earlier today, a friend and I talked a bit about the “olden days” in which we lived, before even television, before telephone converations were private.
People were much the same, then as now, but did not possess the dubious luxury available to too many now: of “winning” their notions of a perfect world, unaccountable to others not as fortunate as themselves.
Where from here? Here’s an alternate view visioned by some unknown person at a past time.
About 20 miles before Ft. Seward on that same July 6, I decided to take a short side trip in tiny Pingree ND, a place where my family had lived for a single year, 1942-43.
On the side of a deserted building, there, was the project of somebody, sometime, expressing an ideal that we might well pay more attention to. It is a stylized American flag – the second flag referred to in the subject of this blog. I took a photo, note the text:
Pingree ND July 6, 2013

Pingree ND July 6, 2013


Since its beginning in 2009, I’ve captioned this blog, “Thoughts Towards a Better World”.
The photo of the flag with a message captures the spirit of that thought nicely.
Additional Notes:
In the matter dominating the air in recent weeks, Florida v. Zimmerman, today came a very interesting description of how Abraham Lincoln viewed “stand your ground” in 1838, 175 years ago, long before he even thought of becoming U.S. President. (What he said is in the last couple of paragraphs, but the entire article is well worth reading in context with the present day.)
Also, today, President Obama spoke from the heart about the need for a national conversation on the issue. The video of his remarks is here. An editorial about the Presidents remarks from the New York Times is here. Lots of the comments from anonymous types are as revealing as they are troubling. Racism is alive and well in our society.
My personal thoughts on Martin/Zimmerman filed on July 15, 2013, here.
Comments:
from Shirley, July 20, 2013: Morgan Freeman – I agree! (link here)
from Dick, in response to Shirley: Good one. And it’s even true! http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/blackhistory.asp
One of many best lines in the Presidents talk was the reference to his daughters and their generation (which would be my grandkids generation). By and large, the kids get it far better than we ever will.
Unfortunately, I doubt we’ll ever reach the ideal posed by Morgan, who’s an immensely successful black man.
We have an entire history as a country to deal with. We were founded as a state that depended on slavery.
But, we march on, by bits and pieces. Thanks much.
Here’s a very long and excellent column about the President’s Talk, yesterday.
from Jeff, July 20:
The cult of individualism in the large sense (not the one referred to by right wing moral majority types) is a major factor in our nations changes.
You know that sociologists have studied the lack of communal civic engagement, i.e. the decline of bowling leagues, neighborhood groups, organizations like Elks, Kiwanis, etc.
I believe that conservative 1% and the ethos of the supreme court’s conservative majority supports dis-unity and balkanization in its reverence for states rights, and individualism(selective of course).
This is expressed thru the decline in societal spending on public education at all levels. I honestly believe this is if not expressed but implied in the entire Conservative political movement from the 60’s thru to today. (Maybe demography will eventually override it, maybe the current Republican tea party etc is the final “stand your ground” act of this before a different peopled nation overcomes it.)
Basically in the past 20th century there were two places where all people commingled and had to “put up ” with each other. The first was the armed services which thru the draft put everyone together. The second is/was the public school system.
The Draft was done away with more by the left, the public school system is being starved by the right.
from Mike, July 20:
Your comments are often thought provoking and always interesting. I’m not surprised the state’s case was poorly presented. In trying a case, the attorney must believe in the justice of his case. Did the Assistant DA trying the case really believe his cause was just? We can’t read his mind, but we look at how his argument was presented.
The case was in Florida, after all.
From Dick, in response to Mike:
I think the Florida folks did what they could. I spent a career representing people, and a constant was second-guessing oneself, and being second-guessed. It is an imperfect deal, but the best we’ve got.
From Bruce, July 20:
I’ve just finished reading Ann Petry’s, The Street. I’m not sure why I choose to read it, but I was on my way out of town and needed some reading material to distract me from our worldly condition. It was written in 1946 and it’s about racism in America. I wasn’t thinking about the Zimmerman trial or the “Stand your Ground” laws at the time I saw the book on the shelf in our downstairs hallway. I remember buying it several years ago and not having read it, so I decided to try it out. What a surprise. Take all the crap of the Zimmerman trial, “Stand your Ground”, and Obama’s off the cuff, candid talk on race, and forget about it and read this novel.
For those who think racism in America has improved since the time Petry wrote this novel, think again. I think Obama should read this book before he talks about racial progress. What we’ve done as a society is disconnect racism from the over-riding American Values. We’ve separated it from materialism and competition for material wealth which provides power to dominate. We default to the position that in America everyone regardless of race, etc. should have the opportunity to achieve material success. So we create civil right laws, fight wars to make sure the right to opportunity is achievable. We don’t question the underlying cause of racism in America, which is the quest for materialism that is supported by the free market place, and places everyone in competition for material success. I think that should have been the conversation that Obama should have started with his gifted rhetorical skills. To put it bluntly, it’s the economic system of capitalism and the free market place that the president supports that is responsible for how we treat each other.
The Street, along with The Great Gatsby, and Howard Zinn’s, The Peoples history of America, should be on everyone’s reading list. The President’s message was for those who want to feel good. It wasn’t based in truth. It obscured the truth.

#747 – Anne Dunn: I have been told

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Anne M. Dunn is a long-time and wonderful friend, an Anishinabe-Ojibwe grandmother storyteller and published author. She makes her home in rural Deer River, MN, on the Leech Lake Reservation. She can be reached at twigfigsATyahooDOTcom. She has three previous posts at Outside the Walls. You can read them all here.
If you have an interest in publishing something at this space, contact dick_bernardATmsnDOTcom.
Feed The Dog
It happened during the Fish War*, on April 24, 1993, that I found myself at the East Lake Community Center, Mille Lacs. David Aubid, of Rice Lake, had brought out the drum. Several men joined hands across it as though they sealed a sacred trust.
Slowly… quietly… the circle around the drum enlarged and the heartbeat rhythm called us to unity.
Of course, there was a feast. Of course, walleye was served. Of course, Esther Nahgahnaub prepared an excellent road-kill beaver roast. Of course, I wrapped a piece in fried bread and enjoyed an outstanding sandwich.
Then after a long day of rain, the sky cleared and the stars came out. Later we would see a feather moon rise cardinal.
But first… the caravan formed.
We followed a procession of red lights through the dark night. As we crested the hills we looked back at a hundred headlights strung like beads on a serpentine string.
The first part of this Ride-For-Rights took us to Malmo. I was surprised at the extent of media coverage this event had attracted and I tried to ignore the cameras as the drum quietly called us to gather. The media lights were blistering bright and seemed to lacerate the friendly darkness.
Shoulder to shoulder we stood, engulfed in the sacredness of the moment, encouraged by singers of ancient songs.
But having just attended a non-violence witness training session, I grew a bit uneasy. We had been warned that there could be trouble. So I decided to check out the person standing behind me.
This is when I saw that which is now imprinted on my mind like a favorite photograph from an old album.
The drum, the singers, and ‘the first people’ were surrounded by the Witnesses for Peace. They formed a wide circle around us. Their white arm bands shone like emblems of valor. Their shoulders pressed back like brave defenders. The ring of young, pale, flint-like faces reflected their corporate determination.
Turning back to my own circle… I felt my heart rise into my throat and a comfortable old smile settled into the familiar lines that time had etched upon my aging face.
When I heard the old ones talking, when I heard them telling of the past and wondering what will be. They said, “The young ones must soon take up the battle.” They say, “We are ready to hand the struggle over to the next generation.”
Sometimes they are concerned that the young ones are not prepared to fight, that they have become apathetic. Sometimes they fear that supportive elements of the larger society will grow weary of our efforts to find justice in our own land.
But we have stood within the circle of healing. I have seen a microcosm of all nations standing together. I have seen them gathering under a feather moon rising cardinal over dark waters against a black night. Therefore, I know we are not alone on our journey toward justice, peace, freedom and human dignity.
Many who stood in that circle that night are gone now. But they left us with instructions. “Do not forsake the future. Our children rely on you to continue our good fight for a better world. Not only is it too soon to quit… it is also too late.”
Some of you are thinking, “How can it be too soon and too late at the same time?”
I leave that for you to ponder. But believe me, if you give this question deep consideration you will have secured a universal truth that will serve you well from this day forth.
We are born innocent but over time we may find ourselves entangled in the mesh of social and behavioral disorders. These influence our path and determine our destination. But a timely word in a waiting ear can set us free.
When I was 19 years old a Lakota elder named Charlie Stryker told me something that set me free and changed my life.
“We enter the world with two companions. One urges us to do good, the other to do what is bad. These tendencies are like hungry dogs. Remember this, my girl. The dog you feed is the one that grows strong.”
Charlie gave me a universal truth that day. It continues to influence my path and determine my destination.
I guess all I really did during the Fish War was try to feed the right dog. Today and tomorrow I will continue to perform this small but meaningful ritual. That is how you help change the world. You keep planting seeds, the sky sends the rain and earth gives the increase. You scatter good seeds of worthy ideals on fertile ground and wait for an abundant harvest. Of course, there is the possibility that you will not live to see the results of your efforts.
Several years ago my grandson Brandon and I planted a small community of red cedar. Afterwards I told him I probably would not live to see them grown.
“I’ll come and check on them,” he promised. “I’ll remember how we did this together.”
However, he was murdered when he was 17 so I return alone to appraise their growth. Those trees are already much taller than I and still growing.
Bye-bye now. Don’t forget to feed the dog.

Anne Dunn at right, with daughter Annie and grandson Justice Oct 94

Anne Dunn at right, with daughter Annie and grandson Justice Oct 94


* – The “Fish War” to which Anne refers was a contest over Treaty Rights to fish in MN Mille Lacs Lake. Here is a copy of the Treaty as reprinted in the April Minneapolis Star Tribune: 1837 Chippewa Treaty001.

#746 – Dick Bernard: The George Zimmerman case: An Action with Consequences, for Zimmerman, (and perhaps, even, Possibilility for something positive.)

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UPDATE: This post, reposted on the Woodbury Patch, has thus far attracted 29 comments pro and con.
*
For anyone interested in a much longer summary of news after the George Zimmerman verdict Saturday, here is an interesting recap of reactions entitled “Insufficient Justice”.
Yesterday, my friend, Greg, a retired Prosecutor, asked me if I was surprised by the verdict in the Trayvon Martin death by gunshot last February.
I said “yes” – I had thought George Zimmerman would at minimum have gotten some ‘slap on the wrist’ punishment. After all, he’d killed an unarmed person who, it turned out, was minding his own business.
I asked Greg the same question back – was he surprised? “Not at all”, he said. He lived a career with the reality that prosecutors face every day in our system: the issue of proof “beyond reasonable doubt”.
Personally, I think there is some significant “silver” – a glimmer of hope – beyond the dark cloud of what was a legal murder of an innocent teenager in Florida 16 months ago.
We are a TV ‘soundbite’ nation where news comes our ways in those annoying crawlers on the TV screen or equivalent; or in very short snippets of news reports repeated over and over and over. Or Twitter feeds….
This blog, at this point 198 words, is too long for most citizens.
You’ve come this far: give me 400 more words of your time.
1. We’ll likely never know how Mr. Zimmerman really feels now, many months after he chose to pull his weapon and kill Trayvon Martin. Without that weapon, that night, he probably wouldn’t have engaged Martin; or if he did, the result at worst would have been what usually happens in a normal fight. All the gun accomplished was to destroy two lives: the young man who was killed that night; and the successful (and legal) perpetrator who will now be used for awhile by those who feel he helped their cause; but who inevitably will be discarded, becoming a nobody, if anything less attractive to a potential employer.
I do wonder how he really feels…we’ll likely never know that.
2. There is an opportunity presented, here, for a deep national conversation, person-to-person, town-by-town, about many things.
Is Florida a safer place because of the gun laws that spawned the Trayvon Martin killing? Will the incident encourage people to move to Florida?
Is the marketing of fear that increases gun sales solely a benefit to the gun industry? After all, it is hard to imagine that vigilante gun owners will be much encouraged by the very real life sentence given Mr. Zimmerman in the wake of the incident in Sanford FL. He is free, but how free is he, really?
3. Will this tragic incident encourage more talk about the down-side of increasing attempts to increase “states” and “individual” “rights” (as opposed to acknowledging the positive role of a responsible (and responsive) federal government and citizens who are as aware of their responsibility to society at large as to their rights as individuals?

We like to pretend we don’t need government: that government gets in the way, particularly the farther away it is.
Is this so? Recently I did a 850 mile roundtrip to reunion places I was visiting in North Dakota. In my summary blog piece about the trip I chose to focus on Interstate 94, which began construction the very year I started college in 1958.
We Americans live on these highways.
In my trip I traveled:
550 miles on Interstate 94, the granddaddy of Federal projects
154 miles on U.S. 52 and 281
140 miles on N.D. and MN State Highways
a tiny handful miles on county roads and city streets.
You can guess which roads were least desirable. There’s reason I chose the Federal highways whenever possible.
I don’t need to explain any more.
Let’s talk.

#745 – Dick Bernard: A quick visit to Valley City, Sykeston and rural LaMoure, North Dakota

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I just spent four days and nearly 900 miles revisiting places of my roots in North Dakota. It seemed like a long trip, and it was, but then, last night, I watched the first part of the Ken Burns program on the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1803-05.
Piece of cake.
This trip happened when I learned that tiny Sykeston High School, where I graduated in 1958, and where my Dad taught for ten years, and my mother for four, was having its Centennial, I decided I wanted to be there. I wrote a blog post about Sykeston on my birthday, May 4, and this morphed into six others, and now this one, eighth in the series.

Tom Richter, grad ca 1960, gets his photo by the iconic 1913 at Sykes High School July 6, 2013

Tom Richter, grad ca 1960, gets his photo by the iconic 1913 at Sykes High School July 6, 2013


Associated, was another history centered blog post about Valley City State Teachers College, which I attended, and graduated from, in 1961. This led to another blog post on January 2, 2013, which has itself had many followup posts.
Old Main - McFarland Hall at Valley City (ND) State University July 5, 2013

Old Main – McFarland Hall at Valley City (ND) State University July 5, 2013


So, there’s little reason to write more. Mostly, this post consists of photographs with captions I took at Valley City on July 5, and at Sykeston on July 6, 2013.
2013 Sykeston here *. (See note at end of this post.)
Valley City here.
There is an additional Facebook album from another larger Sykeston reunion in the summer of 2008, here.
And readers familiar with either place can add to with additional photos or comments at their leisure.
Sykeston is 400 miles one way from home in suburban St. Paul; in between, some 310 miles from home, is Valley City. So it was not “out of the way” to stop at one enroute to the other. Between Sykeston and Valley City is Jamestown – always “Jimtown” to my Grandpa.
When I began college in 1958, the first ten-mile section of Interstate 94 was being constructed in North Dakota, between Valley City and Jamestown. It was probably one of the first true pieces of Interstate in the United States. I remember it was said to cost “a million dollars a mile”. So it makes sense, with this piece of history, to note that endless ribbon of concrete called I-94 in North Dakota:
I-94 between Valley City and Jamestown ND July 6, 2013

I-94 between Valley City and Jamestown ND July 6, 2013


This trip I drove 550 miles on I-94, lickedy-split. Kids today cannot imagine what it was like in the years before the Freeways, even on U.S. highways, all of which went through the middle of every town, large and small. It was not the good old days: no air-conditioning in the car, no cruise control, no seat belts….
At Jamestown, in 1959, along I-94 was built what has become something of an iconic tourist attraction, “The World’s Largest Buffalo”. That buffalo was constructed during the time I was in college, and I decided I needed to stop there after leaving Sykeston on July 6. The buffalo is, the plaque says, 46 feet long, 26 feet high, 14 feet wide and it weighs 60 tons. More about the buffalo here.
It’s not going anywhere. It has aged well.
The World's largest buffalo at Jamestown ND July 6, 2013

The World’s largest buffalo at Jamestown ND July 6, 2013


We had been at that very spot in 1960, and here’s photo “evidence” (I wasn’t in this particular photo, and probably wasn’t photographer either, but all of my siblings and my Mom are in this photo):
Bernards Worlds Largest Buffalo Jamestown ND ca 1960001
Yes, it is just your basic tourist attraction, but impressive nonetheless.
Completing the trip, on July 7, my Uncle and I were driving out to the family “Century Farm” 10 miles from LaMoure and I asked him to stop at the corner of Highway 13 and their county road. There, as they have been for years, was a nest of wild prairies roses that somehow or other have escaped being plowed under for all these years.
The wild prairie rose is North Dakota’s state flower.
A photo of this flower is an appropriate way to end this post.
Wild Prairie Roses between LaMoure and Berlin ND July 7, 2013

Wild Prairie Roses between LaMoure and Berlin ND July 7, 2013


* – This is a letter to those who attended Sykeston High School – an idea for future consideration: Sykes High Future001

#744 – Dick Bernard: Some Proposals for this Fourth of July

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Today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune has a good quiz to test your knowledge of the U.S. The column, including link to the test, is here.

Heritage House, Woodbury MN Summer 2013

Heritage House, Woodbury MN Summer 2013


Today, July 4, is supposed to be a simple kind of day in the U.S. My daughter described it well: “grillin’ and chillin'”.
This particular July 4 is a tad more complicated, if one wants to pay attention to complexity. Edward Snowden is a man sort-of without a country in the Moscow airport; the President of Bolivia was detained somewhere since his plane was suspected of harboring Snowden; and then there is something going on in Egypt, whether bad or good depends on the interpretation. A good long summary of Egypt is here for anyone who wishes.
And then there is a matter of our own less than pristine history. A surprising post I saw yesterday about a monument to a major American mistake in one war came in yesterday. The writer is not a “usual suspect” for this kind of essay. You can read A Memorial to a Mistake here.
We don’t like to own mistakes….
There is tradition for us, today. Ordinarily the theme is some variation of War, down to the Fireworks tonight “the Bombs Bursting in Air….”.
A pretty typical musical version would be this song sent to me by a friend not long ago. It is very patriotic. Good tune. But I left this comment “Such an angry self-righteous song. I’m an honorably discharged Army vet from a family full of military vets. My uncle went down on the Arizona at Pearl Harbor. Saddam Hussein and bin Laden were our useful “friends” years before 9-11-01…how soon we forget. I’m lifelong U.S. and I love this country; but we are part of the world, not above it or in dominion over it.”
I’ll see if my comment is “approved”. I posted it July 2, 2013 at 8:30 p.m. CDT.
I’m a patriotic guy, but my patriotism is canted somewhat differently than the singers and fans of that song.
Just for consideration, I’d like to propose looking at some alternatives to a war-based celebration of our Independence.
All you need to do is to take a look, and make up your own mind:
1. I’m proud to be a Founding Member of the U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation.
The Founder of this foundation, Dr. Michael Knox, is a friend of mine, and he noticed some years ago on a visit to Washington D.C. that there were no end to memorials to War, but reminders about Peace were in short supply.
Michael and I do not agree in all particulars about his project, but we are totally on the same page about celebrating Peace at least similar to our obsession with War.
Take a look, and consider becoming a member of the Foundation, and letting others know about this fledgling and important group.
2. A photographer and journalist I know, John Noltner, is continuing a nationwide project for which he has already achieved significant success.

I asked John for something I might add to this post. Here are John’s words about his project:
“What does peace mean to you?
It’s a question I have been asking people for the past four years for a
collection of portraits and personal stories called A Peace of My Mind.
The goal is to find the humanity in every person…even our adversaries.
Perhaps through hearing the stories of some who are like us, and others
who are quite different, we will be able to see past the rhetoric that
confounds our national dialogue and develop a more compassionate way of
engaging with the world…in our own families, our neighborhoods, and the
international community.
To hear some of the stories of people working toward peace, follow this link.”
Invest some time in learning about this project, and consider contributing to its success.
3. The Snowden affair reminds me of someone I’d never heard of till a couple of years ago, Garry Davis, who was a U.S. bomber flight crew in World War II. And after his brother was killed aboard a Destroyer off Italy, his bomber group bombed one of Germany’s large cities.
Davis could not get out of his mind the sense that one senseless killing – his brothers death in War – simply begat another – his bombing Germans.
He knew there were innocent victims down there below him, people like himself, and like others he knew. After the War he decided to renounce his U.S. citizenship and became a Citizen of a World, with tragi-comic results. He became a citizen of everywhere, but was accepted as a citizen nowhere.
He had idealistic intentions. His only crime was wishing to renounce war between nations as a solution to problems, and for a time he had a huge following of people equally sick of war, having just experienced World War II.
People working together to solve problems became Davis’ mantra.
His is a fascinating story. He is still living, but at 92 frail. Indeed, a movie of his life is in preparation – I’ve seen a long preview of it. You can watch the trailer here.
Watch the trailer – it’s 7 minutes – and consider contributing to the completion of this very important film of witness to peace. Here’s the link to do so.
4. Peacestock. Finally, for interested persons in the Twin Cities area who are interested in the policy topic of Peace, consider Peacestock on July 13, in rural Wisconsin not far from Red Wing MN. Here’s the link for that program. I’m a long-time member of Veterans for Peace.