May 2014 – Thoughts Towards a Better World

#892 – Dick Bernard: Meeting General William and Mary LeDuc

May 31, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, History, Minnesota, Quebec/French-Canadians /by dickbernard

COMMENTS INVITED, both on-line and in e-mail form. Will be added at the end of the post.
Sometimes life brings fascinating surprises. Some weeks ago a lady was photocopying something next to me at FedEx, it looked interesting, and I took the bait.
It was a tour of the life and times of General William Gates LeDuc and his wife Mary at the archives of the Minnesota Historical Society, and the Upper and Lower Landing areas of riverfront St. Paul.
Many thanks to Joan, Heidi and Linda for a great day today.
(click on any photo to enlarge it)

Heidi Langenfeld expertly led the tour group, here speaking to us at Irvine Park, St. Paul.

Sample of one of the LeDuc “crazy quilts” in the archives of the Minnesota Historical Society.

Linda McShannock of Mn Historical Society showed the back of a Crazy Quilt square, which was labeled by the maker of the quilt with the source of the pieces used.

Several additional photos are at the end of this post.
The LeDuc’s were a very interesting couple. William was grandson of a French Navy Officer who served in the American Revolution leading to the creation of the United States. The article at this link is an interesting read about the man, William Gates LeDuc.
He came to St. Paul in 1850, when the present day city was just a tiny town; became a General in the Civil War, and moved with the movers and shakers, though great wealth eluded him. He and his wife married built their mansion at Hastings just southeast of St. Paul (more here), and it was a group of friends of this house that I joined for today’s tour.
What attracted my attention initially was the obvious French name, LeDuc. I’m French-Canadian. It took little time to ascertain that LeDuc was American, descended from (grandson of) a French Naval officer in America’s Revolutionary War. French, not French-Canadian: to some, an important distinction.
Beginning about 1760, before there was a United States of America, there was a rather unusual relationship between the French, the English, the French Canadians and the United States.
In a very few words:
The British defeated the French at Quebec in 1759; Quebec had already been French since the early 1600s, and had built a vibrant French-Canadian society.
In the American revolution beginning 1776, the French-Canadians became de facto allies of England, saving Canada for the English.
At the same time, the French allied with the Americans to defeat the English, resulting in the United States of America.
Of course, in 1803, the United States doubled its size through the purchase, from France, of the immense territory called “Louisiana”.
This very odd coupling led to very complex relationships, including some perceptions of French-Canada towards France, which exist to this day.
In the days of immigration to the United States, French-speaking Canadians were distinguished from Canadians. “Canada” meant Canadians who spoke English. French speakers were another category.
Suffice, there have been books written, and endless arguments….
LeDuc was American, of French descent, and an important character who came to St. Paul at the very beginning of its development, and he was an important man. But he was American, through and through.
In all, we spent nearly five hours on the tour, learning a great deal from the artifacts, and visiting the places and hearing about the people known to the LeDucs in early St. Paul. The characters came to life.
When I left the Historical Society, I began to think of “footprints” left by these early settlers to our area: tangible items, like furniture, a sword, a dress worn to a White House formal gathering, some letters – the kinds of things you see in museum.
What would be our footprint on history, I wondered?
In a way the answer came in the gazebo at Irvine Park pictured above. It was threatening rain, and the three persons in the Gazebo invited us in. They were two adults, white, and a young girl, very dark skinned African-American, who seemed to be their daughter. They were sitting behind Heidi, who was reading from an actual letter written long ago about a young man with a hatchet in St. Paul who lied about his misdeed, and blamed a “nigger boy”, but was caught in his lie and appropriately punished. [Note Fred J comment at end of post.]
The paragraphs she read were directly from the long ago book.
The use of the word, with the young girl sitting directly behind Heidi had shock value to all of us, and Heidi acknowledged that, including to the family behind her.
It occurred to me that we are leaving footprints, and many are positive ones: a descriptor routinely and derogatorily used 150 years ago was no longer acceptable language in our society.
It was an uncomfortable and awkward moment in that gazebo, but a powerful one, with lots of room for thought. Sure, Heidi could have left out the sentence, but I’m glad she didn’t. It was another learning opportunity for us.
Thanks, Heidi, and everyone, for a wonderful afternoon.

A Mary LeDuc formal gown worn to a White House function, as shown online at the MHS

The same gown in storage in the archives of the Historical Society.

Re Mary LeDuc’s dress (two photos above) more information here. Note Facebook, etc., at the end. You are encouraged to “like” this link, and share it!

A Civil War battle flag captured by a Minnesota soldier during the Civil War, held in the museum archives.

One of St. Paul MN’s oldest houses, built by Alexander Ramsey’s brother in early 1850s, now part of Burger Moe’s at 242 W 7th St, just a block or two from Xcel Center.

COMMENTS
from Fred J, June 1, 2014: I would make an addition to your blog commentary regarding the very interesting story you note. The tendency of those accused of crimes to blame an anonymous “black person” [the ‘N” word is no longer used] as the scapegoat culprit persists in present-day culture. It is modern racism on two fronts: 1) the accused assumes his accusers are more likely to believe him/her because of the racist belief that black people are more likely to be criminals and 2) what does it matter if an innocent black person goes to jail for the crime—they’re black after all.
Response from Dick: I appreciate Fred’s response. I recall so well the famous quote of George Santayana, given most prominent status at the entrance to the hideous Auschwitz which I visited in May 2000. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. Denying the past is as dangerous as remembering it, sometimes.
from Heidi Langenfeld, tour leader, June 1: Your blog is very thoughtful and I am okay with the reference you chose. Race and our attitudes toward how we speak about “others” is something we continue to modify as we learn. I believe it is important not to white wash history (pun not intended). But, as one of your stories in the newsletters you sent said, “victors write the history”. Doesn’t that put even more responsibility on researchers to include examples of attitudes, customs and values when we report the past?
From Jerry F. June 1: Thanks, Dick. Nice blog about General LeDuc. I’ve seen the house many times from the road but have never visited it.
From Jane P. June 1: Very interesting, Dick!

#891 – Dick Bernard: Election 2014 #2. Running for Election, a Team Activity

May 30, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, Minnesota, Politics /by dickbernard

These posts will continue at approximately one per week till the November 4 election. #1 is here.
Thursday I was at a meeting that included my State Legislative Representative, Joann Ward, MN District 53A.
I asked, off the cuff, how many people live in your District; and how many households (“doors”) there are.
Population: 37 to 39,000
Households: 16 to 20,000
Most every Minnesota legislative District has similar numbers. Rep. Ward’s is relatively compact, being a suburban district, major parts of two suburbs.
She is a first term legislator, the incumbent, and between now and November 4, six months from now, she has to figure out how to reach in some fashion or other, as many as possible of the people who might vote for her, or her opponent*.
On the official paperwork, she is the one running for legislator; actually, it is every single one of her constituents who support her re-election who are “running”. (She has been an outstanding legislator, but those two words bring a new dimension to her candidacy this year: she has a record. Incumbency is its own curse, particularly in this intensely polarized political age!)
If she runs by herself, without lots of active support from the constituents who elected her last time, it will be difficult. “Nature of the Beast”, these constituents, most of them, including her strong supporters, at this moment, are paying no attention to the coming election, concentrating on other things, like summer at the cabin.
It is a dilemma.
I happened to be at the local Convention at which she was nominated March 31, 2012.
Here is a photo of her first stump speech, seeking nomination. (click to enlarge)

JoAnn Ward with her family March 31, 2012, local political convention.

I had a very small advantage over the delegates to the Convention that day. For a brief time, 13 years earlier, JoAnn and my paths crossed, and I saw her in action as a school volunteer helping bring to fruition a successful Community Conversation About Public Schools, a pilot program I was coordinating in her local school district (at the time I lived elsewhere).
She was one of those who stood out, even then: the kind of person you remember.
Most of the delegates really had no idea who she was March 31, 2012; and she had likely had really no idea about the realities campaigning for election. I would bet that then, and probably often since, she and her family have wondered “why did I do this?”
Running for office, especially as a newcomer, is very difficult. Serving in office is no walk in the park either.
We had agreed to do a fundraiser for her during that summer, and it was considerably less than successful: we invited over 20 people; only a couple of them came. Probably a half dozen of us sat in our living room.
But, thinking back, that tiny event was, like all other events, crucial for her. It was an opportunity to practice talking about Issues in front of Real People. It was like that first speech we’ve all had to give sometime, in front of people, in 5th grade, or high school, or at church, or wherever, only worse: you have no idea who is in your audience, or what questions they are going to ask, and governing a state, much less a nation, is exceedingly complex work.
I’ve watched JoAnn Ward these past months, and she has served us with distinction.
This will not deter her opponents, who will paint her in an extremely different way.
There are many ways by which we who voted for her last time – there were 11,932 of us – can help her retain her seat in 2014.
Campaigning is not rocket science: it is people helping people. We each can help.
But we can’t wait till November, or next month, or sometime later to do so.
Ditto for every other candidate in every other district in every political party everywhere: the Candidate is not the one running for Election; the Constituents are….
Get off your duff, find out who’s running, help them in every conceivable way that you can, starting with letting them know you’re willing to help.

* Joann Ward’s first election to the Legislature, 2012.
23807 – Registered Voters as of 7 a.m. election day
11932 – Votes for JoAnn Ward
9269 – Votes for her opponent.

#890 – Dick Bernard: Dad's Flower

May 29, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, Family History, Quietings /by dickbernard

Originally published as #889 on May 28.
A couple of days ago, daughter Lauri stopped by and noticed:
(click to enlarge)

May 25, 2014

Of course, it’s spring in Minnesota, and the State Flower this time of year is the Dandelion, and the Barbary Bush that is aggressively protecting it is very prickly. So, what to do?
Besides, as she pointed out, and we both know, the Dandelion was my Dad, and her Grandpas, flower of choice for special occasions.
When he was out and about in the spring, and dropped in on the Brashers, or somebody he knew at Our Lady of the Snows or elsewhere in Belleville IL, and Dandelions were in season, Dad’s “calling card” was not infrequently a bouquet of Dandelions, with a certain amount of je ne sais quoi (a pleasant quality that is hard to describe).
He was that kind of guy, Dad was.
I’ve done home-made holiday greetings since 1977, and each year something “speaks” to me and becomes the topic of the annual greeting.
In 1996, the year before Dad died, it was the Dandelions turn, and the resulting simple card is here: Bernard H Dandelion 96001
There’s an old saying that goes something like this: “a weed is simply a flower misplaced”. I just google’d “weed flower misplaced quotation” and here’s your daily reading.
Dandelions haven’t received the memo….
Dad, lifelong teacher that he was, would be delighted to know his little and delightful eccentricity (not the only eccentricity!) is being publicized.
Have a great spring.
POSTNOTE: Sad to say, that proud Dandelion pictured at the beginning of this post is no longer visible, at least for this year. I put on some heavy gloves and removed the greenery and the flowers.
But that doesn’t mean its end.
It is entwined with the root system of its host plant, so it will be back, and back, and back.

#889 – Dick Bernard: Working Towards Peace: A War Well Worth Fighting

May 28, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, History, International Relations, Minnesota, Peace & Justice, Politics, War /by dickbernard

RELEVANT ADDITION TO THIS POST, added May 29, Just Above Sunset, here.
UPDATE to May 26 post, first paragraph, here.
NOTE: Previous 889, Dad’s Flower, will be 890 for May 29, 2014
(click on photos to enlarge them)

Bill McGrath, Northfield MN, sings Pete Seegers “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” May 26, 2014

Today, President Obama speaks at West Point. The previous days he’s been in Afghanistan and at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. My intention is not to report on what’s already been, or will be, said. You have many independent sources. The White House website will have the actual words. My favorite re-capper of the previous days news six days a week is Just Above Sunset, including the May 27, 2014 post, “Most Likely to Succeed”, from which I take the below pull-quote from the 5th paragraph playing on previous and following paragraphs about graduating from high school, and our propensity to self-select into “tribes” and persist in the insanity of talking “war”.
“…there are no quiet nerds who no one noticed in politics, or not many of them. The job is to display the tribe’s norm, and personify them. For example, Democrats don’t like wars, on principle – we should fight them when we have to, but not fight the when we don’t have to. Obama, long before he ran for president, famously said he wasn’t opposed to all wars, just dumb wars. He had Iraq in mind, not Afghanistan, but even that was heresy to many…Democrats see the sacrifice of our soldiers as worthy of great honor, but often sad. This appalls Republicans. In a nation of warriors the heroic cannot be sad. War makes us who we are, and feats of derring-do to overcome evil [is] pretty damned cool – and we can’t show weakness. That’s a tribal norm and also Obama’s problem. Putin has walked all over him. Everyone has walked all over him. McCain would have bombed Iran the day he took office. Mitt Romney would have eliminated capital gains taxes and then bombed Iran the day he took office. Obama is talking to Iran, and it seems they will end their nuclear weapons program, but he’s doing it the wrong way. Obama should have bombed them. Our military is awesome, from awesome individuals to our whiz-bang secret gizmos – the tribe has said so. We are a Warrior Nation after all – not a nation of diplomats and thinkers.” (emphasis added)
The U.S. functions as a two-party country, Republicans or Democrats, much to the chagrin of purists who’d like more options, but when we watch, listen or read commentary about moving away from deadly combat to solve world problems to something more rational, like negotiations, the commentary will be spun one way or another: Fox News vs MSNBC, etc. And the conversation becomes “Warrior” versus “Diplomat”, or other softer words.
My natural affinity group is “Progressive”, which in days past counted amongst its ranks legions of high profile and highly respected Republicans; but these days seems an outlier on the left who seem to consider both Republicans and Democrats to be twin evils against Peace when, in fact, there are huge and substantive differences (“warriors” versus “diplomats and thinkers”).
The right wing warriors, the Tea Party, have essentially frozen the Republican party in a perpetual radical mode: progressive types need not apply.
On the left, there will be scant celebration of a move to a new reality in our relations with the world: Obama has sold them out; there will still be troops in Afghanistan; and until every sword is beat into ploughshares the protests will continue.
I’m a ploughshares guy who, on the other hand, can see little common sense in not accepting that incremental improvements in a dismal status quo are, indeed, improvements, not simply the lesser of two evils. Since the beginning of his term, I’ve been impressed with President Obama’s skill in managing this impossible to manage country.
Today, most my friends on the Left (and that is where my friends are, mostly), will say about Obama’s words “there he goes again”. You can’t compromise with evil”. Of course, the other side says the exact same thing, though they define “evil” a bit differently. But the Right is more entrenched in positions of power in politics; while those on the Left migrate to fringe groups which have no power at all, except the purity of their position – a story we know all too well.
I’m sure I’ll find disagreement….
My good friend, Ehtasham Anwar, who’s just completing a year of study in the United States before going back to his South Asia home country sees this pretty clearly, I feel. He is troubled by the dichotomy he has experienced: at home in his country, signs of the U.S. “hegemony” are everywhere – us meddling in their affairs in sundry ways. Here in the U.S., on the other hand, he sees a population full of marvelous, peace-loving people. It’s a troubling contradiction to him.
Why the difference?
Can we as a country truly export our best and truest “face”, the face of Peace?
Working towards Peace: it’s well worth truly dialoguing about, often, very seriously, friend-to-friend, opponent-to-opponent. Read Just Above Sunset for a start.

Barry Riesch at the Veterans for Peace Memorial Day at the Vietnam Memorial at the MN State Capitol May 26, 2014

COMMENTS:
Joyce D, May 28 (commenting on a Letter to the Editor in the St. Paul Pioneer Press May 28)
Original letter follows this response.
Just some quick addenda and a correction to “Blaming Obama” (Letters, May 28.) I would add to the writer’s defense of President Obama the facts that Obama successfully got the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks (GWB, it should be remembered, declared he really wasn’t all that interested in getting Osama bin Laden,) ended our heinous policy of torture, ended the misbegotten war on Iraq and is in the process of ending the war in Afghanistan. At the same time, President Obama used diplomatic means to rid Syria of most of its chemical weapons and to halt nuclear development in Iran, without committing us to more wars. He improved America’s standing in the world, he enabled millions of Americans to access affordable health care for the first time and, though the VA still has an unconscionable backlog, that backlog was dramatically decreased under Eric Shinseki’s leadership, despite the influx of war veterans and the refusal of Republicans in Congress to fund the VA adequately.
The correction: Obama did not vote against invading Iraq as a US Senator. In fact, at that time Obama was still a member of the Illinois legislature. He did, however, speak out forcefully against attacking Iraq, something few politicians had the courage to do. Our current Governor, Mark Dayton, was one of the few brave legislators who had the guts to vote against that damaging war of choice.
The Pioneer Press letter: Blaming Obama
James R. LaFaye, St. Paul
It is impossible for me to read the diatribe in Monday’s Pioneer Press “Opinions” and remain silent. The author is typical of so many hardcore anti-Obama dissidents — long on opinion and short on facts. Ever since Barack Obama became our president, his critics have been dead set on blaming everything but the Civil War and Lincoln’s assassination on him. I am sure the letter writer is able to afford his own health care coverage unlike the millions of uninsured Americans who benefit from the Affordable Care Act. Its critics insist on calling it “Obamacare” simply to engender disapproval among like-minded individuals.
“Our foreign policy is a joke.” I guess he would prefer that we return to the policies of the previous administration whose response to the 9/11 tragedy — which occurred on their watch — was to invade Iraq under false pretenses when the perpetrators of this greatest domestic terrorist attack in American history were not even from that country. Maybe the letter writer is upset we haven’t invaded any more countries during Obama’s presidency, like Syria or the Ukraine, to demonstrate America’s invincible might.
Finally, although I am as deeply saddened and upset about the VA debacle as any American, to blame this situation on Obama and the Democrats is absurd. A cursory investigation of the VA’s (or its forerunner’s) history in providing health care services to our Veterans will quickly reveal a long history of malfeasance going back to the Civil War, WWl, WWll, the Korean War and Vietnam, which obviously included many Republican administrations. The current tragic conditions at the VA are only aggravated by the great number of returning disabled veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, neither of which wars are attributable to our current president. In fact, as a senator he voted against invading Iraq.
Bruce F, May 28: I agree with you and the Sunset guy about the tribal differences between Democrats & Republicans, Obama & McCain /Romney. I also understand the incremental differences that pass for progress, which displeases me more & more as I move into the last quarter of my life. I think what your friend Ehtasham doesn’t understand is that the friendly American people don’t make foreign policy. That policy is made by corporations through officials that are elected by the friendly American people. The corporate interests are seen as our national interests. It appears to me that both Democrats & Republicans, Obama & McCain/Romney understand that. The hegemony your friend sees is directed through soft power(Obama & the Democrats) or hard power(McCain/Romney & the Republicans). Whether hard power or soft, they are meant to dominate America’s competitors. Make no mistake, hard power will be used by both Democrats & Republicans when soft power options are not effective. Although, the Republicans are less patient.
Peter B, May 30: There are competing narratives gushing at us from every screen and earbud and woofer and tweeter in our environment as the “news cycle” cycles. There is a flavor of opinion for every taste, and a level of sophistication, of nuance, of validation, to satisfy the most rigorous intellect. And not a byte of it makes any difference: let me know when the wars end, the hungry are fed, and the refugees returned. And I’m not being cynical, that is the possible future in which I live and work. I’m just not holding my breath.
Because. Because, you see, all this patter, these “competing narratives” are competing, but not for credibility, as one might assume. but solely for attention. And quantity is what matters, not quality. Any attention, as long as it is of sufficient focus and duration to pay off the advertisers and provide marketing data. That amounts to about a nanosecond apiece, about the amount of difference one person’s opinion makes in any of this. The system does not care what you think, or how you respond; they have what they want before you blink one eyeball.
This system is terribly effective at disabling any seriously dissenting view, that is, any contagion of thinking that might interrupt the parasitic extraction of wealth, by converting any such expression into yet another contender for eyeballs, drowning in the waves of professional reaction to the previous set of reactions to the carefully shallow and belated stories on the Feed. If you have trouble with this notion, get some app like Ghostery on your browser, and see how many marketing analysis ‘bots are tracking you on your favorite political websites.
Omitted from entertainments like NPR and Fox is any insight into the background of this endless repeating sequence of purportedly unrelated disasters; that, or a pale simulacrum of it, is the purview of bloggers in the hierarchic layers of op-ed websites, or bestselling authors flogging this week’s disposable insider look at the Real Deal, or indy filmmakers exposing the seamy undersides of fatcats. By the time one burrows down into the dense language of psuedo-academic think-tanks or even actual academic research, even if the funding trail is transparent, there are only about forty people in that space who can grasp such complexity, or simplicity maybe. And they’re only talking to each other.
All this is quite integral to the machinery of our modern corporate feudalism, because the main purpose of this segment of the enterprise is to entertain us. That means, occupy our attention, encapsulate public discourse; it is far more valuable commodified in the Attention Economy than for any informative content it may hold. And if you wonder how to tell if you are in one of the back-eddies or blind alleys or dead-end sinkholes of irrelevancy for intellectual discourse referred to here, don’t worry, you are: that is what the publishing industry, the telecommunications industry, the entire higher education system, and the internet, have become: that’s where you can still get paid by the word, or actually, the letter.
While we argue over whether Obama is what we think he is, or does what we think he’s doing, the global oil and banking extraction industries grind on, now seamlessly integrated with “our” government, which provides infrastructure and military backing. This is not some sinister world domination scheme concocted by some secret fraternal order. Or maybe it is: but this does not matter at all. As with all such machinery, its highest purpose, the driving force behind it, is no more than to preserve and perpetuate itself, at all costs. It has no functioning awareness or concern for humanity, its creators. Now that it is set in motion, it will run until we stop it, or until there are no commodities left to exploit. And like some retrovirus, it is very, very good at extracting energy even from serious attempts to disable it. We work for it, we feed it, and it feeds some of us, more or less.
This is a problem.

#888 – Dick Bernard: Memorial Day and Disabled Survivors of War

May 26, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, Family History, History, Minnesota, North Dakota, Peace & Justice, Politics, War /by dickbernard

UPDATE May 27, 2014: Here’s a Facebook album of photos I took at the Veterans for Peace Memorial Day observance at the MN State Capitol Vietnam Memorial yesterday.
A very worthwhile summary of the tension which seems to surround the Memorial Day observances (Pro-War or Pro-Peace) can be found here. It is long, but very worthwhile.
TWIN CITIES READERS: join with the Veterans for Peace today at 9:30 a.m. at the Vietnam Memorial area on the State Capitol Grounds for the annual Memorial Day reflections. I have attended this observance for years. It is always moving.
May 29 UPDATE: Thoughts after the Memorial on Monday May 26
After the annual Vets for Peace Memorial on the Minnesota Capitol Grounds Vietnam Memorial, I went home to try to reconstruct my attendance at these events over the years. Almost certainly they go back to 2003, which was about when I was becoming an activist for Peace, and was a new member of Vets for Peace. I didn’t make all of the Memorials: sometimes I was out of town; but if in town, I’d be there. Ditto for Armistice Day each November 11, most often at the USS Ward Memorial in the same neighborhood; the first one, though, at Ft. Snelling.
2014’s observance was better than last, which was better than the year before, and the year before that…. Slowly, surely, the observance grows in attendance and in quality.
My friend, Ehtasham Anwar, from Pakistan and a Humphrey/Fulbright Fellow at the Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota, counted 150 of us at the observance.
From the first Pete Seeger song by Bill McGrath of Northfield, to Taps at the end, the one hour event was its usual quiet, powerful self, with memories, both of the structured sort (reading the names of the fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan), to individuals recalling their own victims of war, both living and dead.
Jim Northrup, Objibwa author and Vietnam vet spoke powerfully about his personal family history with the Vietnam War. It began with memories of watching Albert Woolson, the last survivor of the Civil War in parades in Duluth, “surrounded by pretty girls” – pretty cool for young Northrop. Then memories of the War itself, abstract demolished by reality. Seeing John Wayne appear and as immediately disappear in a cameo appearance on a battlefield somewhere over there….
One of the vets rang a hand-made bell eleven times, remembering 11 a.m., on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, when Armistice was declared in the “War to End All Wars”.
We adjourned, quietly, and went our separate ways.
There were no gun salutes. It was all about Peace.
At the wall, at the end, organizer Barry Riesch and myself found that we both knew, in different ways, one of the names on the wall, Joseph Sommerhauser, killed 1968. He was Barry’s classmate; and he’s my long-time Barbers brother. Tom, my barber, was also a Marine in Vietnam.
So is how it goes with circles, only through gatherings like this can dots be connected.
(click to enlarge photos)

Barry Riesch identifies name of Vietnam casualty, Joseph Sommerhauser, May 26, 2014, at the Vietnam Wall, MN State Capitol Grounds.

Original Post for Memorial Day 2014
About three weeks ago, my wife and I stopped downstairs after 9:30 Mass at Basilica for our usual coffee and conversation.
This particular day we joined a man sitting by himself at a table. He was a very dapper older gentleman, well dressed, wearing a boutonniere.
We introduced ourselves. He gave his name. I’ll call him Roger.
Roger, it turned out, grew up in an eastern state and was drafted during the worst parts of the Vietnam War. He was a Conscientious Objector, and went into alternative service aboard a Hospital Ship just off of Vietnam during 1968, one of the deadliest years of the Vietnam War.
He told his story that morning at coffee. He came home from the war, and went to work in the medical field. All went okay for something over 20 years, then PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) took hold. His personal hell was compounded because no one would believe him; he was, after all, “normal” for over 20 years. It took a long and very frustrating time to verify his career-ending disability.*
We shared contact information before leaving coffee.
Later in the week, came a packet from my new friend, including several photos, three of which are below.

Hospital Ship Sanctuary late 1960s

“Roger” is in this picture, 1968

Gen. Westmoreland visiting the ICU on the Hospital Ship.

I’ve seen him each Sunday since, and each Sunday he’s wearing that boutonniere, dressed very well.
This day, Memorial Day 2014, at 9:30 a.m. at the Vietnam Memorial on the State Capitol Grounds, I may see Roger, who I invited to the annual Vets for Peace Memorial Day observance. Each year this observance grows in numbers of participants. It is always impressive. Whether or not he chooses to come, I’ll dedicate the day to him.
I’ll also bring to the observance two new friends from Pakistan, Humphrey/Fulbright Fellows in the University of Minnesota Human and Civil Rights Center, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. I have been assisting them in identifying Americans to interview on the topic of Peace. The interviews, their stories, and their perceptions of America both from at-home and here are most interesting, and perhaps a topic for a later post.
But these are tense times in the issue of care of the desperately wounded coming home from combat oversees, particularly Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
This evening 60 Minutes had a powerful segment on PTSD programs. You can watch it here.
There is a great deal of political controversy, lately, about the Veterans Administration Hospitals. My Grandfather Bernard died in a VA Hospital in 1957; so did my physically and psychologically disabled Brother-in-Law, who I spent time with at three different VA hospitals during assorted confinements. A VA Nurse I know is an outspoken advocate for better funding of health care in the system. Etc.
Still, the entire system, especially the Director, former Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki, and, of course, the President of the United States, is under attack as this Memorial Day dawns because of assorted outrages at a number of VA Hospitals in that immense system. Rather than fix the problems, the political strategy is to demand that the top guy be fired, and blame the President (and Democrats) and reap political points in the process.
Disgusting.
If you’re interested (I hope you are) a long post on the topic I would urge you to read is here. There is a short comment of my own at the end.
I close with this personal comment: we are a nation that seems to revere war, when war has never and will never solve anything; and it is war that will ultimately kill us all. We have created and continue to refine the monster that can kill us all.
What I look for is the day when we can celebrate the death of war: now that will be a cause for celebration!
We Americans, indeed the vast majority of all citizens everywhere in the world, are a peace-loving people. Just look around at your friends, neighbors and communities. The vast majority of us do not celebrate war.
But it will take our individual work to end our national obsession with it, and to reduce the numbers of our fellow citizens killed or mortally and permanently wounded by it.
Let us make Memorial Day a day to celebrate Peace.
* – POSTNOTE: My barber, a retired man, is a Marine veteran of Vietnam. His brother died at 18 there; his name is on the Wall in DC and Minnesota. In Vietnam my barber was one of those who went into the tunnel system constructed by the enemy – he was willing and had the build for it. This was in the 1960s.
Tom and I talk a lot while I’m in his barber chair, and in recent years he’s talked about claustrophobia as a fairly recent and disabling issue for him. It sounds odd, coming from him, a former tunnel rat, but it is truly a problem for him, and he receives treatment from the VA for it.
War, it turns out, never ends.

#887 – Dick Bernard: "What's up, Doc?" Warner Brothers Presents Bugs Bunny at the Symphony

May 25, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, Education, Minnesota, Quietings /by dickbernard

NOTE: The “Filing Cabinet” for items regarding the Minnesota Orchestra Lockout, including far more than past posts, can be found here. Supplements to the below post can be found at May 25, 2014, at the end of the Filing Cabinet.
Feb 14, 2014, very shortly after the lock-out ended, I wrote a brief e-mail to ticketing at the Minnesota Orchestra: “We are ticketed for Saturday evening Feb 15, but cannot attend due to a family funeral in ND on the same day.” A most gracious ticketing representative wrote back: “I am sorry for your loss. This concert was a non-exchangeable purchase, but I made an exception due to the circumstances. I have placed the value ($120) of the tickets onto an exchange voucher for you to use for a future performance.”
We looked at the options, and decided that “Bugs Bunny at the Symphony II” sounded like fun.
Thus, last night found us at a packed Orchestra Hall with the real maestro, ever self-assured Bugs Bunny, assisted by on-stage stand-in Maestro George Daugherty.
I cannot imagine a more enjoyable evening. The entire program is here: Bugs Bunny MN Orchestra001 (The usual prohibition on photography, etc., was not recited, thus the couple of photos (sans flash) which appear below.)
If Bugs Bunny comes to your town, see him!
(click to enlarge photos)

May 24, 2014, Orchestra Hall, Bugs at the Podium.

It’s a fools errand to try to summarize Bugs Bunny and ensemble, including a magnificent Minnesota Orchestra filling in for the Hollywood Studio Orchestras so common in the olden days in which Bugs Bunny and his many colleagues came to be well known. Competitors like the Roadrunner, Elmer Fudd and many others shared the screen at one time or another in the evening.
It brought me back to the now old days. In my childhood we very rarely saw a movie, but when we did, the 7 or so minute cartoon was always part of the preliminaries. Over 50 years ago, in college, I spent a year and a half as doorman and assistant manager at the Omwick Theatre in Valley City ND, so saw at least bits and pieces of many cartoons from that era.
The Orchestra music was snuck in on unsuspecting younguns back then, and what a delightful fallout it had. Who in my age range doesn’t remember The Lone Ranger theme from the William Tell Overture?
Creator/Conductor George Daugherty gave extended comments at two points in the concert. Our mostly adult audience was heavily laced with kids, and we were all having fun, but he said we were no match for a packed house of elementary school kids on Friday afternoon.
We’re still very early in the healing time from the 488 day lockout of the Orchestra, just ended Feb. 1, 2014, so that was on my mind too. Back in January, we were faced with the possibility of a permanent parallel season funded by the members of the Orchestra itself. A full line-up of stellar concerts were planned. Last nights program booklet was a clue that Bugs Bunny had been scheduled as an alternative concert before the lockout ended. It is not the usual Showcase edition we now receive; rather the more simple booklet we received during the lockout concerts.
Maestro Daugherty was effusive in his praise of the musicians on stage with him, and presented to them a print by Chuck Jones, the animator and director who built the Bugs, etc. empire.
In his bio (linked above), Jones recalled the power of children imagination: “Jones often recalled a small child who, when told that Jones drew Bugs Bunny, replied: “He doesn’t draw Bugs Bunny. He draws pictures of Bugs Bunny.” His point was that the child thought of the character as being alive and believable, which was, in Jones’ belief, the key to true character animation.”
Later in his life, Jones created paintings of his characters which are now in the Smithsonian Institution. One of them became a limited edition print, and at his appearance in Minneapolis, a print was presented to the members of the Orchestra for hanging in their break room.
It was a neat touch.
I’ve been an activist in the Orchestra situation since it began so long ago, and I recall an early on comment by a retired band and orchestra director in a Twin Cities public school, lamenting the diminished attention to the Arts. She said this June 21, 2013: “As a retired … music teacher, I am aware of the cuts to grades K-12 vocal and instrumental music, that started about 1980. As public schools eliminated music classes, so disappeared the process necessary to build an audience base-development for the MN Orch. If instrumental music is reinstated in grades K-12, today, it will still take 20 years to rebuild the arts tourism community that will purchases season tickets to the MN Orch.”
In so many ways, kids are the future.

Presentation of the Chuck Jones art work to the Minnesota Orchestra musicians May 24, 2014

POSTNOTE: Todays Minneapolis Star Tribune carries an interesting perspective by Bonnie Blodgett: Diminuendo: the dying sound of stewardship among the ruling class.
Earlier this week I was at the ancestral farm in North Dakota, a place now going to seed because its occupants have all passed on, save my Uncle, who is now in a Nursing Home and will no longer make his frequent trips to the home place. I brought back a couple of boxes of photo albums, just for inventory and safety purposes, and in the same closet found in a ramshackle weather-beaten case the Clarinet my Uncle once learned how to play as a youngster. In the same collection was a newspaper column sent from my Uncle’s older sister, Mary, dated June 17, 2002: Cousin, Violin maker001 Carl, the subject of the article, played Grandpa’s fiddle with much feeling and expertise at a family reunion over 20 years ago.
My family, like most, is not one of substantial means; like only some, however, it has a very strong musical tradition.
The wealthy, who seem to run things (including into the ground), and are more dominant than ever, need to pay close attention to their real “base”, which is people like us.
COMMENT:
from Shirley L, May 25: A delightful report about a wonderful experience! We all need a little Disney in our lives now and then. Thanks!

#886 – Dick Bernard: Ten Plots

May 22, 2014/0 Comments/in Family History, Quietings /by dickbernard

(click to enlarge photos)

St. John’s Cemetery, Berlin ND, May 21, 2014. Verena’s headstone is to the right of the Busch family headstone.

Tuesday morning we laid Aunt Edith to rest in the St. John’s Cemetery in tiny Berlin ND. Seven family members were there, including Edith’s brother, our Uncle Vince, whose entire 89 years had been spent with his sister, who was 93 when she died February 12, 2014.
The next morning I was talking with a guy I hardly know, my general age, and the topic of death came up. “Do you ever think about dying?” he said, then going on to remember his Mother who died days after a terminal cancer diagnosis; and his Dad, dying just minutes after having coffee with his son, and declining to ride along up to “Jimtown”.
Death is the one constant for every living thing. All we don’t know with precision is exactly when and how.
I’m guessing the vast majority of us hope that when the time comes, at least one other person will care enough to care that we passed on, and will acknowledge that we made at least a little positive difference sometime in the time we were passing time on earth.
I’m also guessing that someone’s death is more a time for the living to reflect on their own lives, already lived and to come. The deceased has no reason whatever to worry about what hymn was sung, or so forth. The ritual varies culture to culture, place to place, but there is a constancy.

Graveside May 21, 2014. Edith’s grave next to that her mother, Rosa, and father Ferdinand Busch. Fr. Jerome Okafor presiding. Brother Vincent nearest the car.

Which brings me to the title of this post “Ten Plots”.
Back a few months, when the possibility of death of one or the other sibling seemed ever more likely, I inquired about burial plots at St. John’s just outside of Berlin ND. The sexton looked at the map and said the Busch’s had ten plots reserved in the cemetery, which surprised me a great deal.
No family narrative exists laying out the reasoning for this purchase; which gives me free rein to speculate.
Ferd and Rosa Busch married Feb 28, 1905, and immediately thereafter moved to their new patch of ground about five miles northeast of Berlin. Nine children were born to them.
In early May, 1927, when the third child, Verena, was 15, she died of peritonitis. Hers was the first family death. It was a devastating event for the family.
Vincent, then two, recalled looking for his sister.
Edith, then nearing seven, was very well aware of the death of her 15 year old sibling.
It was a terrible time for Mom and Dad.
My speculation – and it is only speculation – is that when they purchased the burial plot for Verena in the then-rarely used cemeteries, they purchased lots for their entire family.
Of course, time went on. The youngest child, Arthur, born in Oct 1927, may not have been counted in May, 1927. Except for Vincent and Edith, who stayed on the farm, all the other “kids” moved on. They are listed at the end of this post.
Of the ten plots, only five will likely be used.
But they stand as silent testimonies to life, and to death.
We’re all “on deck”. Make the best of the time you have left!

Certificate of marriage of Rosa Berning and Ferdinand Busch at St. Josephs Church Sinsinawa Mound WI February 28, 1905. The feather from Rosa’s post- wedding hat adorns the frame.

The Busch Family: (information is as best known. Amendments are welcome.)
Lucina (Jan 3, 1907 – July 6, 1996) married Duane Pinkney, buried Morris MN
Esther (Jul 27, 1909 – Aug 20, 1981) married Henry Bernard, donated body to University of Houston; memorials at assorted places at Our Lady of the Snows, Belleville IL
Verena (Mar 21, 1912 – May 2, 1927) buried St. Johns Cemetery, Berlin ND
Mary (Sep 26, 1913 – May 2, 2003) married Allen Brehmer, buried Wales, ND
George (Jan 11, 1916 – Jun 23, 1979) married Jean Tannahill, buried Grand Forks ND
Florence (Nov 3, 1918 – May 24, 1996) married Bernard Wieland, buried St. Mary’s, rural Dazey ND
Edith (Jul 20, 1920 – Feb, 12, 2014) buried St. John’s Cemetery, Berlin ND
Vincent (Jan 6, 1925 – )
Arthur (Oct 16, 1927 – Feb 23, 2011) buried Chicago Archdiocese Catholic Cemetery Westchester IL
The “Double Cousins” who lived next farm over, August Berning, Grandma’s brother, married Christina Busch, Grandpa’s sister)
Irwin (no birth date known, died at 6 months)
Irene (Dec 7, 1908 – Jul 15, 1994) married Carl Langkamp. buried Calvary Cemetery, Rockford IL
Lillian (Feb 8, 2010 – Dec 20, 1999) married Walter McFadden
Cecilia (Nov 24, 2012 – Mar 11, 1998) Married Donald Thimmesch. Buried Glendale Cemetery Des Moines IA
Rose (Nov 2, 1914 – Jan 6, 1998) (married George Molitor KIA over Italy Apr 4, 1945; married Ben Van Hoorn
August (Nov 12, 1916 – Jul 3, 1965) married Betty Cisinski
Hyacinth (Nov 16, 1918 – Dec 7, 2002) married Robert Sweeney
Ruby & Ruth (Sep 25, 1920; Ruby married Miles Fitzgerald and is still living; Ruth died in infancy)
Rufine (Feb 21, 1922 – ?) (married Don Anciaux)
Agnes (Sr. Mary Catherine) (Jan 18, 1924 – Mar 23, 1981)
Anita (Oct 20, 1925 – Jan 25, 2013) married Dale Cranfield
Melvin (Apr 13, 1928 – ) married Leola Peters

#885 – Dick Bernard: Reflecting Union

May 15, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, Labor, Minnesota /by dickbernard

(click on photos to enlarge.
blurriness in closeups is free of charge…teachers are animated, hard to catch quiet!)

Part of the large crowd May 13

Tuesday night found me in Andover MN, across the table from Robbyn, a lady whose name tag identified her as teaching at Roosevelt Middle School in Blaine.
The name tag brought me face-to-face with my own history: then-Roosevelt Junior High School opened nearly 50 years ago, August, 1965, and I was one of the faculty, then beginning my third year in teaching, who opened that building.
I’ve known that fact for all those intervening years, of course, but it was the name tag that made the difference.
Robbyn and I were among what appeared to be well over 100 present and former leaders of Anoka-Hennepin Education Minnesota (AHEM) gathered for what I think was the 15th annual year end celebration of a school year about to completed, with all the ups and downs one can expect in a huge school district, geographic and otherwise: the largest school district in Minnesota.
MC was President AHEM President Julie Blaha, using her best “lunchroom supervisor voice” (the PA system was down for a bit) to review the past year, like all years, significant in many and sundry ways.

Julie Blaha May 13, 2014

The whole concept, “Union”, has been abundantly kicked around in recent years generally by the old trick of labelling: pick what seems to be a bad example, publicize the daylights out of it, then expand it to cover everyone: “they’re all alike”.
Of course,Unions are simply groups of people working together to represent their interests. They are not ‘cookie cutter’ models. In the teacher union context, I have watched our Union evolve over more than 50 years. Any teacher Union (we always called ourself “Association” – same difference) is a conglomeration of differing priorities and concerns: men, women, elementary, secondary, coaches, special education on and on and on.
In a teachers union, there is considerable negotiations to simply get to Negotiations.
When I began teaching in 1963, the heavy predominance of teachers was female, but the informal leadership was most always male; and the ones in charge were the Superintendent and School Board. The hierarchy was firm and defined. The change began about the early 1970s in Minnesota, and there were some years of getting accustomed to new realities on all “sides”.
Among 26 Special Guests on Tuesday, 15 were women; all six receiving Special Recognition were women; the outgoing (in all ways) President for the last four years is a woman; she succeeded another woman; her successor next year is a male…. The Union State President, in attendance: a woman. These days, in this very large Union, it appears that things like gender or grade level or position on the pyramid no longer make a difference.
They certainly used to, back in the good old days.
It’s a very, very good change.
There was pride in that banquet room on Tuesday. You could feel it. These were folks who had dealt with the struggles of professional work life in a complex suburban school district and had survived.
Two leaders, Bill Davids and Suzanne Quinn-McDonald, received Lifetime Achievement Awards. To be honored by your peers is the greatest honor.

Suzanne Quinn-McDonald

Bill Davids (Julie Blaha in background)

Then there’s some of we “old duffers”, leaders from the past, all of us who helped the Union along beginning in the early 1960s. Maybe “over the hill”, but not yet under it….

Dick Bernard, Lyle Root and Bob Marcotte, AHEA union leaders from ‘back in the day’, over 40 years ago. May 13, 2014

#884 – Dick Bernard: New Cement: Memories of Grandpa Bernard

May 12, 2014/0 Comments/in Family History, North Dakota, Quietings /by dickbernard

Scene of the action: Caribou Coffee at City Centre, Woodbury MN May 12, 2014.

My coffee mate Steve and I usually quietly occupy our respective corners by the front window at Woodbury Caribou Coffee. Today he suddenly whipped around to watch the action on the sidewalk the other side of the window.
As action goes, what we saw outside wasn’t much. A guy was by with one of those saws to break the bond between blocks of sidewalk concrete.
The task for the next crew, sometime very soon, will be to take out the old concrete and replace it with new.
Of course, Steve had to quip: “they have to fix the sidewalk so that some old guy [presumably me] won’t trip coming in here.”
Fair enough, but a bit much to take from a young whippersnapper, scarcely five years retired.
Young pup. Who does he think he is?!
Talk got around to sidewalk superintending, and I remembered a YouTube piece I saw a year or two ago, with a cameo of my grandfather, Henry Bernard, watching them pave Main Street in Grafton ND. Turns out the piece was filmed in 1949. You can watch it here. Grandpa appears at 4:15 of the 5 minute video. He has three seconds of fame, maybe, and he’s one of only two old birds who gets his own name affixed to the video.
“Old bird”? In 1949, Grandpa would have been 77, not much older than I am now.
In the fashion of the day, he was dressed up, even to do this sidewalk duty. White shirt, tie and straw hat. He’s pointing out something or other to one of the other nearby folks. He had a first grade education in Quebec, and a first class engineers mind: he had been chief engineer in the local flour mill ‘back in the day’, and he loved to see how things worked. He’s recorded as the guy who drove the first motorized fire truck to Grafton from somewhere or other; fire chief and all around first class guy (and tough in bar fights too, I heard). At his funeral in 1957 all the VIPs of Grafton attended.
Back home I went out for my walk and coming east on Lake Road I approached an older guy standing motionless, looking at something off to the side.
He just kept standing there.
Finally I reached him, and saw the reason: he was watching some guy put new siding on a house.
Just continuing the fine tradition of sidewalk superintending. Doubtless remembering something from sometime.
We chatted a bit, and I walked on.
Thanks, Steve, for the memories.
Re the job specialty: “Sidewalk Superintendent”, the pays lousy, but the hours are good, and sometimes the work can be quite interesting!

From my front row seat, 9 a.m. May 12. 2014

May 12: As I left,I asked the guy who seemed to be supervisor, “how do you keep idiots like me from walking in the wet cement?” He just smiled. Another kibbitzer remembered working on these crews as a summer job long ago; and wondered if there’ll be someone carving initials before it dries….
POSTNOTE: Like most ordinary people, Grandpa seldom made the news, which for most of us is a good thing.
Some years ago, cousin Loria Kelly in E. Grand Forks happened across a powerful account of Grandpa and Grandma in Los Angeles in the winter of 1942. You can read it here: Bernard Los Angeles 2-42001

#883 – Dick Bernard: Fishing Opener/Mother's Day (or is it the other way around?)

May 11, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, Education, Minnesota, Nature, Peace & Justice, Quietings /by dickbernard

Mom’s Day weekend at Heritage House, Woodbury MN, May 10, 2013

Happy Mothers Day, all you Moms out there, whatever your role or gender. You know who you are.
But….
Friday night the local CBS affiliate had its co-anchor and weatherman up in Nisswa MN for the soon-to-begin Fishing Opener in Minnesota.
In the early segment, Governor Dayton was showing, with his hands, the length of his catch last year. Then, he predicted, on camera, the length of this year catch: longer, of course. No one asked for proof. Such is the case for “fish stories”. For a Governor to miss the Opener would be political death, whispered and shouted and topics of billboards and TV ads: “HE DIDN’T GO FISHING ON THE OPENER!”
I dramatize, but only a little. Those guys in the driveway I saw earlier in the week, earnestly talking about The Boat in the driveway, can explain. The Opener is serious business…for those who like to fish. Hopefully there were no stowaways on that boat, critters like zebra mussels about to be introduced in a new lake “up north”.
(click on all photos to enlarge them)

Postcard from 1908 sent to Ferd and Rosa Busch, Berlin North Dakota

Mothers Day and Fishing Opener have been twins for many years in Minnesota. It is as it is. Doubtless there are negotiations at many homes. The guys getting the boat prepared had other preparations too!
So, also on Friday, we went to our favorite Mother’s Day Flower Market, the Ramsey County Correctional Facility, which annually produces and sells flowers around Mothers Day weekend (the last weekend is next weekend.) As word gets around, this is an ever busier place, and with good reason. Inmates learn horticulture, and as I heard one inmate, a worker, say to a customer about the product he was working with: “they’re beautiful”. One-fourth of the proceeds go to help with program at the facility.
Yes, of course, inmates are also some mother’s son, or daughter…. It’s easy to forget that; as it is easy to forget that there are soft spots even in the seeming hardest of hearts.
There is something about flowers that soften the hard edge of normal existence, even for ones who’ve made mistakes on life’s road.
(click on any photo to enlarge it)

Checking some plants, May 10, 2014

Product on display May 10, 2014 at the Ramsey County Correctional Facility Flower Sale

Give some thought, today, to the Mom’s, and their kids (including well into adult years), for whom this day is less than pleasant for any number of reasons that you can enumerate.
Life is not always a dance to fine music; it can be messy and very, very complicated.
On a display wall at the flower shop was a display of four letters, from an inmate, from a college, and from two others. They’re pictured here. Most likely, you can read them, enlarged. If not, they speak powerfully to what the facility is all about.

Letters on display, May 10, 2014

Happy Mothers Day, all.

au Printemps at Heritage House May 10, 2014

Fresh Rhubarb at Heritage House (think Mom’s Rhubarb Pie!) May 10, 2014