#987 – Dick Bernard: Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Day after Yesterday

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Last night I went to an outstanding program commemorating the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
This was a one-night program. The program booklet can be seen here: Auschwitz- Apollo 1-2015001. As the program booklet notes (p. 2) Dr. Sean Vogt, Director of the wonderful Apollo Male Chorus, was moved and inspired by a personal visit to Auschwitz in 2011.
The production was magnificent, including a premiered work, and deserves repetition. One can hardly imagine the amount of work that went into making “the Liberation of Auschwitz” happen.
There has never been a substitute for individual or small group commitment to bringing a goal to fruition. That was certainly true last night.
I sat there, last night, reflecting on our own trip to Auschwitz and other places of the Holocaust 15 years ago. I was intensely involved at every step of that powerful journey, and the combination of about 40 of us, mostly Catholic and Jew, had its own powerful (though mostly unstated) dynamics. There was, after all, a very long history of Catholic (and Christian, generally) teaching about the Jews which in the Catholic Church always culminated in the Good Friday recitation of the central role of the Jews in the Passion and Crucifixion of Jesus. This theological history, in a very real sense, aided and abetted the Nazis in making the Holocaust possible in the first place.
The unworthiness of the Jews was internalized in Christian teaching.
On the Pilgrimage, we were all aware of this, and there was frequent talk about this, and we doubtless all reflected on this in differing ways.
We arrived home, and went our separate ways. In yesterdays post I summarized:
“[May 4, 2000] at the entrance to the first of the horrific exhibit buildings at Auschwitz, we saw, posted, with emphasis, the oft-noted quotation of George Santayana:
“Those who cannot remember the past
are condemned to repeat it”
We arrived home in Minnesota emotionally and physically exhausted a few days later, and after a period of several months of reunion and passion, building on what we had experienced, our lives cycled back to normal – a usual pattern after such high (or low) experiences.
Then, little more than a year later came 9-11-01. I suspect we reacted, individually, and continue to react, in different ways. We’ve never talked about that, as a group.
What would we say?
Today, 15 years later, the memories of the visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau remain vivid.
But on this day of remembrance, and in all days, we humans are well advised to remind ourselves of what we, ourselves, are capable of, for good, and for evil.
Auschwitz-Birkenau is a powerful reminder; 9-11 as well….”
Those 16 months between coming home and 9-11-01, and the many years since 9-11, have a cautionary message for all of us, that catastrophes can themselves be misused and abused for self-interest.
Some months after we arrived home, a suicide bombing, or several, in Israel, provoked what has become a common response: rather than “an eye for an eye”, or dealing with the suicide bombing as a crime, the issue became Israel versus Palestinians in Israel, and I remember vividly the general formula: one Israeli Jew killed translates to ten Palestinians dead, in response. It was like saying to me, in Minnesota, that if I didn’t stop the killing by someone I didn’t know 200 miles away, that I might be killed in response, or my house destroyed. The excessive revenge response made no sense to me, and I said so, and I was no longer considered an ally by some.
After 9-11-01 came e-mail “forwards” including photos of some apparent-Palestinians cheering the collapse of the Twin Towers. The Us versus Them theme intensified. The issue of Moslems as the problem entered the conversation.
Moslems replaced Jews as the problem….
In Sep., 2006 I was invited to the local premier of a widely circulated (and still available) “documentary”*, which featured film clips of a few radical Moslem leaders railing against the Jews. We have all seen such clips, carefully selected and edited, used to attempt to prove almost anything. The purpose is simple: to create an impression (much like the Christian teaching about the role of Jews in Christ’s death on the cross): “Crucify him!”
Or kill them.
In recent days there is, of course, the developing situation in Europe in the wake of “Je Suis Charlie”, seems to focus on demonstrations focusing against the Moslem immigrants, rather than the lunatics that actually did, and abetted, the killings in Paris. The initial issue in Paris focused on Freedom of Speech. But now there’s the less than subtle ‘spin’ that the killing of four Jews now represents a new rising of anti-Semitism, with the very recent matter of Bibi Netanyahu attempting to use the tragedy to seize the political advantage against the supposed threat of Iran, including involving the American Congress. Again, it is not a pleasant time, and perspective is lacking. Two violent incidents are being misused.
I could go on, of course.
Can we talk?
* I am not inclined to give free publicity to this film, which I consider a hate film, but in the interest of discussion, here is the wikipedia link about it. In my own “review” September 27, 2006, I said in part, this: “…It is a new but classical propaganda film…The tone of the film was such that you’d walk out of the theatre and almost be inclined to cross the street if you see a Muslim coming your way…that kind of ‘balance’.”
The person who invited me to attend the film was not pleased with my review…you can read the entire review here: Obsession Rev 9-27-06001 The Sep 2000 U.S. News and World Report article about American Neo-Nazis (referenced in review) is here: USNews-9-25-2000001
Of course, the film gives an obligatory disclaimer: “This is a film about radical Islamic terror. A dangerous ideology, fueled by religious hatred. It’s important to remember most Muslims are peaceful and do not support terror. This is not a film about them. This is a film about a radical worldview, and the threat it poses to us all, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.” But the emphasis is making common people fear and distrust all Moslems, not just the few. As we all know, this narrative played out well in Germany in the Auschwitz days, against another minority.

#986 – Dick Bernard: Learning on a Beautiful Spring Day at Auschwitz-Birkenau

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PRE-NOTES: 1. Auschwitz-Birkenau, air photo and description: Auschwitz-Birkenau001
2. Recollections of a GI who visits Dachau shortly after liberation in 1945 are at the end of this post.
(click on photos to enlarge them)

A quiet walk on a beautiful day May 4, 2000. Approaching the entrance to Birkenau death camp, Poland.

A quiet walk on a beautiful day May 4, 2000. Approaching the entrance to Birkenau death camp, Poland.


January 27, 2015, marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp near Oswiecim, Poland. This day, 70 years ago, marks the beginning of the end of WWII, the deadliest war in world history, in which near 60,000,000 people died, about 3% of the world population.
Near 6,000,000 of these deaths were Jews, over half the world Jewish population at the time. One in six of the Jews who died in WWII, died at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
May 4, 2000, my 60th birthday, was spent at Auschwitz-Birkenau with a group of about 40 Christians and Jews from Temple Israel and Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis MN.
It was a beautiful spring day.
I suspect there were many such beautiful (weather) days at this horrid place during its operation 1940-45, but the business of this camp, which opened the same month and year that I was born, was death, pure and simple.
At Auschwitz, the victims were largely Polish political prisoners; at Birkenau, the victims were Jews.
Our Pilgrimage was a profound one. Earlier we had visited Plaszow (suburban Krakow, subject of the movie, Schindler’s List), Terezin, Prague. And spent a day at Tabor, a Czech town whose Jewish population was obliterated in the Holocaust, but whose Torah was saved and had become part of Temple Israel in Minneapolis.
May 4, we began our visit at Auschwitz. Then we walked to Birkenau, along the very same railroad tracks which brought box cars full of victims to the rail head within the camp (photo above). Men, Women and Children whose destination was the brutally efficient ovens.
Birkenau May 4, 2000 by Matt Smith

Birkenau May 4, 2000 by Matt Smith


Birkenau May 4, 2000, by Matt Smith

Birkenau May 4, 2000, by Matt Smith


The sole function of this awful place was to kill people, mostly Jews, as efficiently as possible.
It was an experience burned into one’s very soul.
If had lunch that day, I don’t remember it.
On our day, the sun was shining, temperature about perfect, the grass green, leaves were on the trees, birds chirping….
We walked mostly in silence in this horrible place; often the sound of our feet the only human sound.
One of our fellow Pilgrims, Len Kennen of Temple Israel, later assembled a photo gallery of what we saw not only at Auschwitz and Birkenau, as well as from other sites of the Holocaust we had visited. Len’s photo galleries, added with his permission, are accessible here and here. Click on any photo to enlarge it. (Photos from the other sites are accessible here.)
As our day closed, the group gathered for a memorial service and candles were lit in memory of those whose lives ended here.
Earlier in the day, at the entrance to the first of the horrific exhibit buildings at Auschwitz, we saw, posted, with emphasis, the oft-noted quotation of George Santayana:
“Those who cannot remember the past
are condemned to repeat it”
We arrived home in Minnesota emotionally and physically exhausted a few days later, and after a period of several months of reunion and passion, building on what we had experienced, our lives cycled back to normal – a usual pattern after such high (or low) experiences.
Then, little more than a year later came 9-11-01. I suspect we reacted, individually, and continue to react, in different ways. We’ve never talked about that, as a group.
What would we say?
Today, 15 years later, the memories of the visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau remain vivid.
But on this day of remembrance, and in all days, we humans are well advised to remind ourselves of what we, ourselves, are capable of, for good, and for evil.
Auschwitz-Birkenau is a powerful reminder; 9-11 as well….
A memorial service between the ovens....
Ben and the Memorial Candles within Birkenau

Ben and the Memorial Candles within Birkenau


Group Reflections at Birkenau May 4, 2000: Auschwitz May 4 2000 001
Directly related: North Dakota GI Omer Lemire was one of the first to visit Dachau after its mid-April, 1945 liberation. The experience affected him the rest of his life.
Here are his memories of that visit: Omer Lemire at Dachau001

#985 – Dick Bernard: Ernie Banks. Remembering a Boyhood Trip to Chicago, and seeing the Cubs

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I’m an early riser, and todays NYTimes headline on the computer screen said, simply, “Ernie Banks, the eternally hopeful Mr. Cub, dies at 83”. That would be the Chicago Cubs, the first and and for many years the only host Major League baseball team I ever watched in person, at Wrigley Field, Chicago, in the mid-1950s. Here’s the news conveyed by the Chicago Cubs organization; here’s this mornings Chicago Tribune top story.
Mr. Banks played with the Chicago Cubs beginning in the 1954 season. He was 23, the shortstop.
I likely saw Ernie Banks twice, in the summer of 1955; then again in 1956. Those were in my teenage years, and we were living in the country, Antelope Township, about 20 miles west of Wahpeton ND. Both times we went to visit my Uncle and Aunt, Art and Eileen Busch, in Broadview IL; and both years we went to see the Cubs, because they happened to be in town.
It is possible to more or less fix the dates in history because we didn’t make 600 mile trips as a matter of routine in those days. This was before freeways, and there were five of we kids to pile into our 1951 dowdy gray Plymouth Suburban. No air conditioning, or seat belts or such. There is a photo, apparently taken on the trip by myself (I wasn’t in the picture) at the Rum River Park in Anoka; another on the Busch’s suburban lawn.

Bernards, Summer 1956, at Anoka MN roadside park

Bernards, Summer 1956, at Anoka MN roadside park


Here’s a photo of myself with my brother, Frank, taken in the general time period.
Frank and Dick Bernard, Antelope ND, 1955

Frank and Dick Bernard, Antelope ND, 1955


The only physical memory I have, other than the games at Wrigley, was the interminable drive through Wisconsin to Illinois, heavy traffic, long very slow lines of traffic behind semi-trucks creeping up the seeming “everlasting hills” on two lane U.S. 12. We stopped for cheese somewhere, and my love affair with Colby Cheese began that day, somewhere in Wisconsin.
Both trips were a very big deal for my parents, especially my Mom. Her brother, my Uncle Art, was a young electrical engineer for General Electric (GE), and after he married Aunt Eileen in January, 1955, they moved to Broadview in the Chicago area. He lived and worked in the Chicago area for the rest of his career. A year and a half later their first child, John, was born, and we made the second trip back to Broadview.
By then, I was involved in sports, such as one could be in tiny rural environments, and I fantasized about Mickey Mantle, who was making news with the New York Yankees.
We didn’t have TV, then, so my fantasies came from radio broadcasts, and I could play them out by trying to hit baseballs over the trees at the edge of our yard (don’t recall ever succeeding at that, but I well occupied much time trying!)
Then we were in Chicago, the BIG city. And when company comes to town, part of the obligation is to entertain them.
It happened, both years, that the Cubs were in town and scheduled; the White Sox were on the road. So the decision made by my Uncle was very simple: it was to be Wrigley Field and the Cubs that we’d see.
My memory is that we sat in the first base line stands both years – perhaps a GE block – and the weather was nice. I know that the Cubs opponent one of the years was the New York Giants, the other year the Pittsburgh Pirates, and at the time, the teams were 7th and 8th (8th was last) in the standings.
No matter, this was the Big Leagues.
Of course, these were day games. Wrigley Field didn’t have lights, then (and still?) unique in that respect.
I have no specific memories of who won or lost those games, or of any particular player, or spectacular play.
With no question, Ernie Banks was shortstop at both games, but he was, like me, a new kid on the block.
But I can say they were memorable days for this North Dakota kid.
Those were simple days, at least they seemed so.
Mom and Dad have long ago passed on, as have Art and Eileen. Mom’s last surviving sibling, my Uncle Vince, who grew up sharing his bed with his kid brother Art, is well along in his last mile of life out on the North Dakota prairie; I last saw Vince on Thursday.
For everyone there is a season….
Thanks for the memories.

#984 – Dick Bernard: Carpet Bowling and Marshmallow Toss

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Wednesday afternoon I made a trip up to ND relating to my Uncle, who’s in a Nursing Home in a small town, and has recently been enrolled in the Hospice Program. The trips are frequent, tiring, but always necessary.
Usually I leave in early morning. This day I was scheduled for something called Carpet Bowling with my second grade Pal at his elementary school. It was only a half hour, then I’d be on my way. I wasn’t sure what it was till it began.
Think “real” bowling, and you get a notion of Carpet Bowling. A regulation sized bowling ball is used, but this one was second grade weight. The pins were regulation size as well, but very light.
One class was involved, with their “pals”, one of which was me. There were four lanes, and we took turns. It was all very well organized. (My one turn, I got nine pins the first throw, and a spare!)
Teachers work magic with youngsters, and the supervisor of this activity was no exception. Everybody shared, and we all had a good time. At the end of the half hour, the teacher asked we Pals if any of us had ever worked setting pins, and a couple had, and described what they did in the old days, and how much they were paid.
It was fun!
Then I got on the road for the usual 5 1/2 hours, and for the next 18 hours was dealing with stuff that needed to be dealt with, including time with my Uncle.
The last activity of the day was a conference with the nursing and hospice staff.
It was scheduled for three o’clock, and I had to wait for another conference to include.
I was just outside the day room of the Nursing Home, and elders were seated in an oval, and a lady was preparing for an activity, described on the Activities Board as “Marshmallow Toss”, or similar wording.
It was a simple activity: the coordinator had five squashed marshmallows that had hardened. Of course, they were very light.
There were two small plastic pans that were the targets, one perhaps a foot or two away; the second a tiny bit further.
Each person had their turn: the objective was to toss the marshmallow into the container. For most of us, the simplest of tasks, but when you’re very old, and sometimes very disabled, even something easy becomes a challenge.
One guy got them all, easily; a lady next to him barely could get a single marshmallow in the closest container.
No matter, both had their turn, and a small opportunity to, like the children a day earlier, try to achieve a certain goal.
There were no winners either day; every one participated equally, and supported for what they had done.
I left for the 5 1/2 hours back home, with lots of time to think.
The proximity of the activities, just a day, but 300 miles, apart, was striking to me.
Long ago, these elders trying to toss marshmallows had been in the second grade somewhere, doing something like the carpet bowling activity.
There was perhaps 80 years difference in average experience between them, and for the elders, many peaks and valleys in between, that the youngers have yet to experience.
My Uncle, strong as a horse 10 years ago, is now essentially bedridden, extremely frustrating to him as life winds down.
For each of us, we’re in our own place, on the same path as those elders tossing marshmallows at the nursing home on Thursday.
Enjoy the trip, whatever you have left.

#983 – Dick Bernard: Martin Luther King Day 2015: See "Selma", and Read "Why We Can't Wait"….

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Today is Martin Luther King Day in the United States. The Day was first implemented in 1986; first recognized by all States in 2000. This years MLK Day is one of the most significant in the days history, in my opinion.
Yesterday I went to the film “Selma” about the events surrounding March 25, 1965, and the ultimate passing of the Voting Rights Act later that same summer*.
The film is powerful and moving. I would urge attendance.
Today the very Right to Vote is under serious attack in many places in our country.
I’m an old geography major, so I always seek some geographic context. Here is a map of Alabama from my 1960 Life World Atlas: Alabama as of 1960001. Here’s the more specific location:
(click to enlarge)

Selma Alabama is about 60 miles west of Montgomery, the capital of Alabama

Selma Alabama is about 30 miles west of Montgomery, the capital of Alabama


At the time of the 1965 march, Selma was on the very bottom of my list of priorities. My wife, 22 years old, was desperately ill, and two months after March 25, she and I were making the long trip from Elgin ND to Minneapolis where she was admitted to the University of Minnesota Hospital for a needed kidney transplant.
She died two months later.
The film, which opens with King receiving the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, has been roundly criticized about its interpretation of then-President Lyndon Johnsons actions at the time of the voting rights act. At the same time, it has been suggested that the criticism has been motivated more by things like jockeying for position for Oscar nominations, than actual criticism of historical facts.
Actually watching the film, I think the general picture of that period in history is quite accurately portrayed, including its portrayal of Lyndon Johnson.
About a year before the events of Selma, and right after the assassination of President Kennedy (Nov. 22, 1963), Martin Luther King Jr., then 34 years old, published a fascinating book, still available, called “Why We Can’t Wait“, recounting the incredible year of 1963. In this book, which includes the famous Letter from the Birmingham Jail, the final chapter assesses in brief but fascinating fashion Presidents Kennedy and Eisenhower and Johnson.
I consider the book a must read for anyone hoping to understand the times of MLK. It is written in King’s own words, about the who’s and the what’s, just after the actions of 1963 had taken place.
There is one comment by Johnson in the film which wraps it up for me:
MLK is making his demand for Voting Rights for Negroes, and Johnson angrily asks King to understand the difference between advocating for a single issue, in this case, voting rights, versus the problem any President has, in juggling multiple issues, dealing with endless enemies and friends with differing and often conflicting priorities.
Of course, King also had enemies in high places: As most know, one of King’s major arch-enemies back in the day was J. Edgar Hoover, the powerful head of the FBI. The film uses, powerfully, entries from FBI logs about wiretapping King, then using these in efforts to destroy him.
It has long been clear to me that Johnson supported Kings ultimate goal of voting rights for all citizens, but, as Kennedy had before him, Johnson counseled King that a President, any President, cannot simply wave a magic wand and get his way with the often rebellious rabble called the Congress, and Governors, and all sorts of officials and individual citizens everywhere.
Direct, organized, cooperative citizen action is essential to success in any initiative.
That word “cooperative” is a tough one. King experienced those tensions too.
King, at least in my reading, got it, about how to succeed. The movement was not about him. He was an idealist, with a very practical sense about him. He knew his key ally, President Johnson, couldn’t do things exactly as demanded, on a set schedule, and that he had to mold the people into some kind of a working coalition needed to do the critical work, like enduring the danger of walking across the Edmund Pettus bridge in March, 1965.
Making change is very difficult. King, even with his allies sometimes in conflict with him, and with each other; and Lyndon Johnson, with an even more enormous quandary with everyone he had to deal with, accomplished something miraculous in 1965. About the time LBJ signed the bill, he was reported to have said that he knew this singular action would lose the south for the Democrats for a very long period of time, and he was right.
In my opinion, the Old South will not rise again, 50 years of some freedom and some justice have made a huge difference, though much work and diligence is required.
Some years ago I almost literally stumbled across another writing about the difficulty of political decision making, as recounted by two Peace and Justice leaders. They had met with former Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, Johnson’s Vice-President, and here is how they recounted Humphrey talking about practical politics.
Do watch the film, and read the book.
But most importantly, not only increase your own actions, but be more aware of the need to compromise and to be satisfied with incremental change rather than a too common “all or nothing” approach to negotiations.
The 1965 Voting Rights Act is in peril; the difference between now and 50 years ago is that the people who can solve the problem are no longer disenfranchised, and simply need to be certain to register and to vote.
* – An outstanding photo chronicle of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement is the 1995 book He Had a Dream, by Minnesotan Flip Schulke. Copies of the book remain available. I have the autographed book, from the 1998 Martin Luther King Day Breakfast in Minneapolis where Mr. Schulke spoke. Pages 90-115 photo document the Selma action in 1965. Mr. Schulke was a graduate of Macalester College, met and first photographed Dr. King in 1958, and worked with him until Dr. King was murdered in Memphis April 4, 1968.
POSTCRIPT: I wrote previously about Why We Can’t Wait on Martin Luther King Day in 2013.
At the beginning of the 2013 post, ironically, I quote Fr. Pat Griffin, a retired Priest of the Diocese, who often says one or more Masses on Sunday at Basilica of St. Mary. Yesterday Fr. Griffin was again celebrant at Basilica, and this day quoted MLK as follows: “if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.” This quote, from the end of a long sermon of King’s called the “Drum Major Instinct” given Feb. 4, 1968, not long before his death, became controversial because it was misquoted on the new monument to his work on the National Mall in Washington DC.
The key words left out: “If you want to say”….
Read the entirety of the sermon….
COMMENTS:
from Judy, Jan 19: Read Bill Moyer’s comments about “Selma” He says the movie “sadly” inaccurately portrays Johnson’s role in steering the bill to passage. Johnson was extremely active behind the scenes in getting the bill passed. Though he was friends with some of those old racists from the south, he knew that the bill was politically and morally the right thing to do. Also, read Robert Caro’s book on Johnson and a book I’m reading now, “An idea whose time has come,” by Todd Purdum.
As you know, Moyers is a wonderful liberal who worked for LBJ. He recommends the film even with its flaws because it is a powerful reminder of what we have accomplished and what we still have to accomplish.
from Jermitt: Thanks for sharing your experiences and thoughts on MLK. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to meet Dr. King during a Luther League Convention in Miami in 1960. His presence in the room along was overpowering. When he spoke, He had everyone’s attention. it really made the room totally silent with respect for what he was saying. The children I chaperoned at that conventions and I still talk about it when I see them.
from Jeff: My argument with the director, who I found a very creative intelligent person… she brought up the issue that many people had no correct historical understanding of the Civil Rights movement, many had misinformed ideas on several things.
Then when asked about artistic license in regard to the issue of deliberate factual errors in her own movie she completely pushed it aside.
This person sees a glaring inconsistency.
from Andrena: I also saw ‘Selma’ over the weekend. It was a powerful movie and I was disappointed the actor who portrayed Dr. King wasn’t nominated for an Oscar.
from Lydia:Perfect for this day. Re-read your previous MLK essay sourced back in this one—thank you for the shout out 🙂
We had a small but enthusiastic group for the screening of KING: MAN OF PEACE IN A TIME OF WAR yesterday. Mae Had a rousing discussion (which was recorded by a fellow KFAIer who I hope to work with further) that will be put on the air in near future. Sister Brigit MacDonald was there and of course was a welcome addition as well as Vets for Peace prez Dave Logsden (& out of town VFP member visiting Dave). Plus some new people I didn’t know! (Catalyst listeners).
I’ll certainly share your MLK pieces today.

#982 – Dick Bernard: A Prairie Home Companion

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(click to enlarge photos)

Garrison Keillor, Jan 17, 2015

Garrison Keillor, Jan 17, 2015


It had been a long time since I last actually attended a performance of Garrison Keillor‘s long-running “A Prairie Home Companion“. Tonight was the night, and a wonderful night it was, with a distinctly blue grass tilt, featuring the Gibson Brothers, Heather Masse, (one of the very popular Wailin’ Jennys), and last, but certainly not least, Joe Newberry.
Here is the program booklet for tonights show, the 1,414th in a series that began in 1974: A Prairie Home Companion001. (The program is rebroadcast nationally from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. the Sunday following the show. Check here for details.)
I first saw PHC in 1977, the year before the show moved to its long-standing venue, now the Fitzgerald, but for most of its life going under the name World Theatre of St. Paul.
In 1978, the show moved into the ancient World Theatre, and Garrison mused about that move in a story. Among other fascinating facts, PHC music director Rich Dworsky’s father owned the World Theatre at the time PHC moved in, and the first rent was $80 per weekend. I attended some early shows there, and the theatre was down in its heels at the time. Of course, today it is an elegant venue.
My son-in-law, who came along and greatly enjoyed the program, observed that there were many of we gray-hairs in the audience, and of course that is true. Garrison, who would have been about 32 when the first show went on the air, is now 40 years older, as are great numbers of his early fans. Indeed, centerpiece of the stage set (see photos) is the facade of an old country farm house (on whose porch about a half dozen audience members sat to watch the program last night.
At some point Garrison (and all of us) will move on, and one can only hope that there will be a viable alternative to carry on the tradition of remembering the olden days before things like Facebook and other forms of instant communication and gratification.
My personal tastes in music have always been quite varied, and tonight was the night for some distinctive sounds, primarily of the bluegrass family. It was a very fun evening, added to by the fact that there was a post-show second concert featuring the above musicians and, of course, Garrison Keillor himself.
In the bonus post-show show, “January Jump Start”, I had the opportunity to take a few snapshots, just to give a little life to the performers for the evening. Otherwise, very often YouTube has video of the various performers in action.
They’re all worth a look and listen!
Heather Masse and Garrison Keillor Jan 17, 2015

Heather Masse and Garrison Keillor Jan 17, 2015


Joe Newberry (guitar) with Richard Kriehn Jan 17 2015

Joe Newberry (guitar) with Richard Kriehn Jan 17 2015


The Gibson Brothers (3rd and 4th from left) with Joe Newberry and ensemble Jan 17, 2015

The Gibson Brothers (3rd and 4th from left) with Joe Newberry and ensemble Jan 17, 2015


POSTSCRIPT
Between PHC and the bonus “January Jump Start” we walked the couple of blocks to St. Pauls iconic Mickey’s Diner for a quick bite.
Mickey’s never surprises. Donny had a piece of pie and coffee; for me, a side of O’Brian’s Potatoes and a coke.
Mickey’s is a direct kind of place: we had to stand and wait our turn for a seat at the counter, just across from the grill. The place was busy but well organized, and the cook and server were friendly and efficient.
Mickey’s is, as their sign says, “24/7”, and the reward for good behavior is being served.
It was a show in itself…and the food was very good!
Cookin' at Mickey's Diner, St. Paul

Cookin’ at Mickey’s Diner, St. Paul


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#981 – Dick Bernard: "Third Thursday"

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The first “Third Thursday” of what is now known as Citizens for Global Solutions, Minnesota(CGSMn), was March 23, 2000. (For purists, yes, the first Third Thursday was on the fourth Thursday, but they had a good excuse…!) Since that first program there have been well over 100 topics explored by over 100 always well qualified speakers*, and last nights presentation by Dr. Christy Hanson (by my count, speaker #106 at Third Thursday) was no exception.
I have written frequently about one or other programs at Third Thursday and a consistent lament is how impossible it is to distill an experts presentation, punctuated by questions from an always alert audience, into a cogent summary. You have to be at these free programs to truly experience the learning available for the investment of two hours of your time.
Dr. Hanson’s topic title was intriguing. Here’s the title slide on her powerpoint (click to enlarge, look in lower right corner). The original work of art was by students at Macalester College in St. Paul, and according to Dr. Hanson, is still found on a wall somewhere on campus at all times. It is a beautiful piece of work. Dr. Hanson’s bio is here.
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Dr. Christy Hanson Jan 15, 2015

Dr. Christy Hanson Jan 15, 2015


Dr. Hanson’s talk on “Global Health: the Greatest Story Rarely Told”, highlighted not what hasn’t been accomplished to make the world better for, particularly, women and children; but rather the miracles which have been worked around the world by cooperative efforts by experts like Dr. Hanson, assorted countries, United Nations and allied agencies like World Health Organization, companies, and individuals like Jimmy Carters, Bill and Melinda Gates, Clinton Foundation, etc. quietly join hands, tackling immense tasks world-wide. Too seldom do these efforts get the attention they deserve.
The real heroes (and sheroes): ordinary people in villages, neighborhoods and local offices world wide. All they need is a little help from a lot of friends who care.
By no means did she sidestep the fact that on this globe of over 7 billion human beings there are immense problems and inequities. One of her first slides showed the stark reality of deaths of mothers dying as a result of pregnancy. In the U.S. that would be 1 in 4300; in southern Africa, 1 in 31. That is a huge gap, so huge that for those of us in the U.S. it is scarcely comprehensible. We have no way to truly understand such a disparity.
She continued to tell her story, basically focusing on themes like infant death, malaria, TB, HIV and horrible tropical maladies, like Guinea Worm and the like.
She could have ended with an “ain’t it awful” scenario, causing a listener to give up hope. But there was a clue when she accepted the offer to speak by changing the title of her talk from what had been suggested, “the Ebola Crisis”, to “The Greatest Story Rarely Told” about the immense accomplishments in Global Health in recent years.
She ended her talk with a simple quote from Helen Keller, herself an heroic figure who encountered her disabilities, making them into abilities. “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.”
So very true.
In these days of endless crisis, blown up by finely tuned words and images, it is easy for even an old optimist like myself to lose hope. But people like Dr. Hanson, and an earlier Third Thursday speaker on Rwanda, Dr. Holly Nyseth-Brehm, and many others, help turn the dismal on its head. By their very presence on the world stage there is hope! There is real hope.
(I was unable to write about Dr. Nyseth-Brehms excellent presentation when it was given back in May. At least, here is a photo of this fine new professor at Ohio State University. And she’s writing a book about Criminal Justice related to Rwanda in the wake of the genocide of 1994. Watch for it!)
Hollie Nyseth-Brehm, Third Thursday, May 15, 2014

Hollie Nyseth-Brehm, Third Thursday, May 15, 2014


* Here is the complete list of Third Thursdays, as published in CGSMn’s newsletter Third Thursday 2000-2014. The upcoming events are always published by CGSMn’s website. Check them out; plan to attend. Next one is Thursday, February 19.
COMMENTS
From Jim N, who was at the talk: As a Christian I love the thought of relieving human pain and suffering. The people we are talking about are truly my brothers and sisters. I raised the issue is this sustainable? ie outside people landing in an impoverished, yet sovereign land. The solution is interesting: $15 million from US taxpayers, totally free drugs from 5 drug companies, charity from other Americans philanthropists. Is that sustainable?
Could you imagine a meeting in my homeland Norway. They would talk about the huge inequity of the American Indians near Bemidji MN who are not getting the proper medical care and are very prone to illness and suicide or the veterans like Jim Nelson’s Vietnam vet brother ( a hero who saved many innocent civilians) but couldn’t get the medication he needed from the VA to treat the affliction from Agent Orange. He suffered for 30 years and died in 2014. The solution would be simple: the taxpayers in Norway would take a little of their wealth, the drug companies would provide free medications and the philanthropists in Norway with pitch in and then we could take care of our MN native Americans or sick veterans who die waiting for help.

#980 – Dick Bernard: One week after the first attacks in Paris

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One week ago some lunatics went on a killing spree in Paris. By week end there were 20 fatalities, and a huge demonstration of over a million people in Paris last Sunday.
I wrote my feelings at the time, last week. They are here.
At the end of that earlier post are now two comments, from Stephanie and Emmett, plus some additional observations by myself posted this morning. I encourage you to not only take a look at these comments, but most importantly to resolve to get in action yourself, working for a better world where you live.

Student drawing of an American flag, early October, 2001, suburban Minneapolis MN

Student drawing of an American flag, early October, 2001, suburban Minneapolis MN

#979 – Dick Bernard: The Paris Attacks. An Opportunity, Once Again, to Learn, including from the Past.

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In the annals of humanity there have always been unspeakable tragedies perpetrated by human beings, one or more against others. The increasing sophistication of instant world-wide communication about everything, including atrocities, may be a blessing, but can be a curse as well. We have to be wary of being manipulated; to slow down, and try to make calm, reasoned assessments of apparent realities.
(click to enlarge)

Je Suis Charlie, Paris France Demonstration, January 11, 2015, photo by Christine Loys

Je Suis Charlie, Paris France Demonstration, January 11, 2015, photo by Christine Loys


Thursday’s Minneapolis Star Tribune main front page story caught my interest: “TERROR SHOCKS PARIS” with two subheadlines, “IN EUROPE Attack is likely to fuel anti-Islamic sentiment” and “IN PARIS 1 gunman surrenders, huge hunt for 2 more”. Most of the content of five of the twelve pages of the world news section were dominated by the story about the killing of a dozen people by two brothers and a third person.
The Saturday paper brought news of a second attack in suburban Paris, with lots more printers ink.
Twenty people (including the killers) lay dead in the Paris metropolitan area of over 12 million people. Paris is one of Europe’s largest cities, and truly one of the worlds most ancient and celebrated cities.
I wrote an e-note of support to a good friend of mine, Christine Loys, whose home is Paris. Her reply*, printed below with her permission, does not need editorial comment except that she asked me a question which I have answered.
There is nothing remarkable about the tragedy in Paris this week. Examples of similar past tragedies are abundant: for instance, two years ago, 20 school children and 6 adults in a school in a prosperous suburban community were killed by a crazed gunman (Newtown CT). In 1999, 12 students and one teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton CO were killed by two fellow students, who subsequently killed themselves as well.
A complete list would go on and on and on.
The trial of the Boston Marathon bomber is now beginning….
Each time such crises happen, a great deal of attention is paid to them as a spotlight shines on them; then life goes on, until the next tragedy, which will certainly happen somewhere, for some reason.
Each time much effort is exerted to attach meaning to the madness – whose fault is it, who can be blamed. What is worse, as is happening now, is that the tragedy is used as an opportunity to organize around one’s particular belief.
But in the end, we usually seem to learn little or nothing from these truly isolated tragic episodes, and we could learn so much. The overwhelming vast majority of us are good people, who can make the needed changes, where we live. But mostly we don’t, and won’t, for reasons each of us know within ourselves (“I can’t do anything about it….”, etc. etc.)
Over 40 years ago, at a workshop I attended, the instructor distributed a handout which I have always found instructive at times such as this. It was called Crisis Sequence, and the original version appears below (click to enlarge).
Handout from a circa 1972 workshop.

Handout from a circa 1972 workshop.


Time after time in those 42 years I’ve seen the applicability of this chart to any number of Crisis situations, the most dramatic being 9-11-01. As we so well know, especially from 9-11-01, such Crises can be exploited easily, and take on a new life of their own.
Almost every American approved the bombing of Afghanistan in 2001: Afghan War Oct 2001001. History everywhere is full of examples of excessive response to such tragedies.
In my opinion, those who are shocked by what happened in Paris this week (which is all of us) should spend time learning from Paris, and all the other crises we have experienced during the “media age” in which we are immersed. There are many lessons we can learn, and they are immersed in that old handout reprinted above. Then, as Gandhi said, we must become the change we wish to see in the world.
* Here’s Christine’s comment from Paris, received earlier today:
“[Y]ou will be surprised that ALL of us Parisians were deeply traumatized first by the assassination of the artists from Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday morning (they intended to kill freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of talking…no less) and then by the hostages double drama that took place 48h later on Friday that ended up with 20 people killed !!! My friends and my family, at work or from home could not do anything else than follow the events on television or radio, live…we all were talking on the phone to each other at the same time. It has been a horror time with much fear… Children did not go to school when possible and people did not work or move from home when it was possible not to. I went to do some grocery shopping close by on Thursday afternoon and there was NOBODY in the streets of Paris… I felt like in a horror movie, quite frightened by the silence. Sales people in the cloth shops were expecting a huge amount of people for the sales, (it was the first day, usually the most crowded) but there was no customers….. Unbelievable….
Now all is over but it remains a very uncomfortable feeling of uncertainty, that it could start again anytime anywhere….
The authorities say that we should not enter into psychosis but it affects all of us in every way…. The trouble is that at the same time they say that they know it is going to happen again soon and we need to be prepared….. How would you react?”
Christine asks, “How would you react?”
I’m not sure how I’d be reacting now, if Parisian, and in Paris. It is doubtless a very traumatic happening, threatening personal safety.
I do know that my son and family lived one mile from Columbine High School when the student gunmen attacked the high school in 1999, and I was certainly concerned about my granddaughter who was then 13. A week later I was with them walking up “Cross Hill” above Columbine. So I guess I joined a “demonstration” of sort, out of grief for and solidarity with the victims and their families and community. (Originally, someone had put up 15 crosses on Cross Hill, including the killers, but someone else had torn down those two crosses. It was unfortunate that the two crosses were removed.)
Christine’s words remind me of American reaction to 9-11-01, beginning immediately after 9-11-01, I felt we Americans had grossly overreacted in our response to the tragedy of 9-11, and our collective grief was exploited and manipulated, much to our detriment (first the Afghanistan, then Iraq, Wars the prime, but by no means only, examples). In effect, a large tragedy (9-11) was magnified and we and others have suffered from the effects of misuse of this tragedy ever since.
In fact, I wrote about 9-11 then, immediately after the attacks: Post 9-11-01001. Now, more than 13 years after 9-11, I would say the same things I did then.
POSTSCRIPT Jan. 11, 2014: Perhaps my bottom-line worry for France and all of us remains as I expressed in two very short essays about the U.S. after the tragedy of 9-11-01. They remain accessible here.
POSTNOTE Jan. 12, 2014: My favorite blogger, Alan of Just Above Sunset, who I’ve always gathered considers Paris a favored city, summarizes world views on the situation, here.
COMMENT
from Stephanie, Jan 12: It has been a horrible time indeed for the French and for the entire world. What is the answer? I don’t know.
Close friends of mine live in Montrouge, where the policewoman was killed. I spoke with them last week. They had gone to pick up their grandchildren at school, which they do every Thursday. The kids, ages 6, 8 and 9, were hyper…their teachers had told them all about what was happening, even that Kalishnokovs were the weapons of choice. Needless to say the grandparents, both retired educators, were not pleased.
My dear friend Marie-Christine was at Porte de Vincennes, picking up her granddaughter at preschool just prior to the massacre at the grocery store.
The sister-in-law of another friend lives at Porte de Vincennes and shops often at the take-out shop next to the grocery store.
I wrote to a cousin who lives in a Paris suburb not far from Montrouge. She replied
“En effet ces événements nous ont tous choqués, mais ce qui est rassurant est que les français se sont montrés très solidaires dans leur réaction ainsi que de nombreux pays étrangers. ”
(These events have shocked us all, but we are comforted by the fact that the French are very united in their reaction, as well as so many foreign countries.)
When I was in Paris in August I saw a man on the street who was wearing a yarmulke. He was about 40 years old. I asked if he felt in any danger or if he felt his head covering made him a target. He said no. He said he usually doesn’t wear a yarmulke but was on his way home from Saturday morning prayers. I have made it a habit to try talking to people in France who are identifiably Jewish, either because they are wearing a yarmulke or a Star of David. None has expressed a desire to leave their home in France to move to a foreign country. Some have said they feel that anti-Semitism is on the rise. I guess I think that in the US there is a rise in intolerance and anti-Semitism, so this is not a surprise to me.
I don’t have any confidence on our intelligence community or, for that matter, that of any country. Radicals are going to continue…when you don’t fear death and think you are right you can and will do anything. I have plans to go to Australia Feb. 2-26. My family doesn’t want me to go…but I will. Who would have thought that 9/11 would have happened? Or the bombing in the Canadian Parliament? Or in a café in Sydney? Is there any safe place? I don’t think so.
Sorry this is not a happier e-mail.
from Emmett, Jan. 14: Very interesting write-up and perspective. I try not get too wrapped up in this stuff. I can’t remember if I have told you that I am attempting a book on religion, but I am finding the greatest challenge is dealing with the “H” word, Hypocrisy, which runs rampant around the world. We have Israel and other countries represented in the marching in that parade in France who are known to have assassinated journalists. And just a few months ago, Israel bombed a Christian Church and three Mosques and a UN shelter in Gaza, killing around 500 Christians and another 1500 Islamic Palestinians, 700 of total being children. And all that after being told over a dozen times by the UN that these facilities were designated shelters for the besieged Palestinian civilians. I didn’t remember any parade of world leaders after that tragedy. So I just go about my life focusing of my charity work, my attempts at writing a book, and my scientific presentations to inspire students to pursue science and pretty much ignoring all the propaganda that is broadcast on the news channels.
Final Postnote, Jan 15: I try to keep tabs on Paris from afar. It appears that, so far, the general French reaction, public, government and otherwise, is similar to what happened in the United States in 2001. The Crisis Sequence model (above) holds true, as one would expect it would. We are all people, after all, in whatever country we live, whatever our ethnicity, language, nationality….
Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail there, and war fever doesn’t infect them, as it did the U.S. back then. There are no winners in such angry reaction. Especially today, who do we kill to get revenge?
The “War on Terror” as envisioned by U.S. government leaders in and even before created a monster for all of us.
It began with the stupid definition of “Axis of Evil” by the Bush administration, and continued with a so-called “Coalition of the Willing”, where there was a defined enemy, a country, specifically a leader of the country, to be taken out.
Back then, France was derided because its leaders weren’t sufficiently enthusiastic about going to war. The U.S. House of Representative passed a stupid motion renaming French Fries in their cafeteria as “Freedom Fries” (I wonder if they’re still so named.)
We all know how the War on Terror has turned out. Rather than erradicating “terror”, we have institutionalized it; we have empowered rather than eliminated its proponents.
Now any lunatic, anywhere, can disrupt and confuse entire populations, such as the killers in France did last Wednesday and Friday. A country goes paralyzed, as ours was in the fall of 2001 (and in too many ways still is). At some level, I’d guess, we all know what we did to ourselves by our national response to 9-11. Humans being humans, we won’t admit it.
There is need for change, and it won’t happen at the highest political levels, in my opinion. It is individuals and small groups in the countries of the world who will change things, not a few Presidents standing in solidarity for photo opportunities; or idealogues of all stripes attempting to fashion the crisis to fit their own ideology. Even in these few days following the attacks in France, there have been endless examples of this manipulating of a reality to fit a narrative.
After September 11, 2001, we Americans had a choice of two forks in the road ahead: to make things better, or make things worse. We chose the wrong alternative, in my opinion, attempting to beat the rest of the world into submission by our awesome power (which turned out to be not so powerful). Too many of us continue to deny reality: our feeling of superiority masks the reality of our own self-imposed impotence. We are part of the world, not apart from it.
(I keep thinking about one factor that contributed mightily to our governments course of action after 9-11. A few years earlier a bunch of influential people developed what they called the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), in which the U.S. would dominate the world. In my opinion, PNAC was used to implement our response to 9-11. 9-11-01, however it came to happen, was very useful to powerful American political leaders at the time.)
The website for PNAC has been suspended, which is why I link to Wikipedia, but the Wikipedia entry gives a good history, including the listing of the influential framers of the document: people like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, key architects of the War on Terror. It is useful to relook at this piece of our own history. A good short summary of this time in history can be seen in the latter half of my January 1, 2015, post on the United Nations. See Dr. Joseph Schwartzberg’s comments headed Plan C, and note especially Plan B.
Personally, I have one relic of 9-11-2011 in my office, and a big file of materials kept from the time of September 11.
The relic is a drawing of an American flag made by a 5th grade boy, Lester, in a suburban Minneapolis school in early October, 2001, during the time that teachers everywhere were helping their students talk about what happened on September 11 through all of the means that teachers use.
Here’s that flag Lester drew that day. He would now be 19 or 20. I wonder what has happened to him since….
Let’s work for a better world. It will take each of us to accomplish that better world.
Student drawing of an American flag, early October, 2001, suburban Minneapolis MN

Student drawing of an American flag, early October, 2001, suburban Minneapolis MN


Paris Sunday Jan 11 2015 courtesy of Christine Loys.

Paris Sunday Jan 11 2015 courtesy of Christine Loys.


President Obama to France? Had President Obama gone to France, he would have been criticized; had he sent someone else to France, he would have been criticized. Personally, I saw no reason why he would go to France; indeed, I found it to be respectful of the French themselves. There was no need for our President to be there. I don’t recall world leaders coming to the U.S. at the time of 9-11-01 even though many countries lost citizens in the Twin Towers in particular. In fact, at the time, my guess is that the U.S. administration would have preferred to have no one sharing the stage with them. After all, as pointed out above, we were led by people who wanted the U.S. to be the sole super-power in the world. Personally, I like the commentary of President Carter on the topic earlier today. You can read/watch it here.

#978 – Dick Bernard: A Teacher and a Butterfly

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Life takes it own course, and in our often too-frantic lives, we miss the gentle things that really make a difference.
So it happened, yesterday, that I had to leave, early, the funeral of a retired educator to attend to an equally important duty: taking 10-year old granddaughter, Addy, to the soon-to-end (Jan 8) Monarch Butterfly film and Exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota. (If you’re in the area, carve out the time for the program: it is well worth it….)
Marty Wicks, the retired educator whose life was celebrated yesterday, was a lifelong public educator. Her life is summarized here (4 pages): Marty Wicks001. She accomplished much.
I come from a family filled with public educators. That was also my background and career, and I think most in the education profession, including Marty, would agree that “lifelong educators”, especially in public education, early on realize that miracles can and do happen on their watch, but often these happen without their direct knowledge, and ofttimes many years later.
Marty’s brother-in-law, in a tribute to her, gave a personal example of how she, as his sister-in-law, was a powerful teacher to him, personally.
She made a positive difference, the best any of us can hope for.
Funeral over, and before the lunch, I had to make a rapid departure to pick up my granddaughter for our “date” with the butterflies at the Science Museum of Minnesota.
We had tickets for the 1:00 showing at the Omnimax, and like the rest of the packed house we sat transfixed as the remarkable story of Canadian researcher Dr. Fred Urquhart’s near lifelong quest to track the Monarch Butterfly migratory pattern came to life. Part of his incredible story can be read here.
Central to the story is Monarch PS397, tagged by some west suburban Minneapolis students in August, 1975, and remarkably discovered by Dr. Urquhart in Michoacan Mexico four months later, literally minutes after he began his first visit to the Monarch sanctuary, 2000 miles from where PS397 had begun its journey.
The two events: a funeral for an educator; and the central role educators played in one of the most remarkable stories of tracking a migration of an insect, thereby contributing to human knowledge, came together for me on Saturday afternoon.
Film over, Addy and I then went to the Butterfly Exhibit at the Science Museum where adults, kids and butterflies mingled happily in a summer-like environment (perhaps this doesn’t include the little tike whose nose became home base for a friendly butterfly, stopping by to visit!) It was warm in there: tip, if you go there, leave coats behind!
The Exhibit and the Film are at the end of their run here, but there are still a few days; and doubtless you can probably catch them somewhere else. Here’s the website for the film.
There is much more to be said, but more words from me are superfluous.
At the end of the day, I thought of a snapshot I took in November, 1999, North Dakota (below). It has always symbolized for me the entirety of relationships (the tree) and how individuals can shine like the sun, at a particular time for a particular person or persons. Like ourselves and the Butterflies, yesterday, we coexist together.
For certain, Marty Wicks “shone”, and lives on in many ways.
Addy, being ten, will likely have good memories from yesterday, but as kids are wont to do may well move on to other interests.
The important thing was the experience, the opportunity, to learn and to grow. We can all learn.
(click to enlarge.)
ND Sunset Nov 1999001