#1077 – Dick Bernard: Remembering Sandy Peterson, two Unions, and a Merger

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Sandra Peterson died on October 24, 2015. Her death was local news in Minnesota. She deserves the kudos which are coming her way. She was a visionary leader.
(click to enlarge)

Some of the guests at the anniversary, Feb. 28. Center front is Judy Schaubach, then VP of MEA; 2nd from left in top row is Sandra Peterson, then President MFT. Others: front row Sharon Kjellberg and Denise Specht; top row from left Paul Mueller, Greg Burns and Dick Bernard

Some of the guests at the anniversary, Feb. 28. Center front is Judy Schaubach, then VP of MEA; 2nd from left in top row is Sandra Peterson, then President MFT. Others: front row Sharon Kjellberg and Denise Specht; top row from left Paul Mueller, Greg Burns and Dick Bernard


I knew Sandy as a union leader, first of MFT, then Education Minnesota, “back in the day”. It was to be expected that she would be described as a “tough union leader and tender hockey grandmother” as though these were contradictions in terms. She, like so many “union leaders” and “grandparents” made, and still make, a very positive difference. She and I didn’t know each other well, but we certainly weren’t strangers either. Indeed, we office’d just a few doors down from each other for the last two years of my career, first at MFT, then at MEA.
(For many years, here in Minnesota, there were two competing unions: one was the Minnesota Education Association (MEA); the other the Minnesota Federation of Teachers (MFT). I was one of many MEA Field Representatives; Sandra was President of MFT.)
At this point, a little history would help to understand the “teacher union” business in context with Minnesota.
For most of my staff career (1972-2000), each organization viewed the other as the enemy, and we acted accordingly.
The two-union conflict is a long and interesting and important story, which veterans of one camp or the other can likely still recall with fervor (and differing interpretations). It is a story younger teachers cannot relate to.
The time of change in relationships was the 1990s.
I happened to be the MEA staff “on the ground” in Rosemount-Apple Valley in the early 1990s when the winds of change began to blow. Both “sides”, I think, knew that the teachers they represented were sick and tired of the unproductive conflict, and discussions led to proposals which led ultimately to state then national action: To my recollection, the two locals became Dakota County United Educators in 1993, the first merged MEA-MFT local, recognized by both national unions (the photo above is at the 20th anniversary of that merger in 2013).
In 1998, the two state unions merged to become Education Minnesota, and at the end of August, 1998, several of we MEA staff were assigned offices at the nearby MFT headquarters in St. Paul. President Sandra Peterson’s office was just down the hall from us, and while there was likely apprehension among all of us, it wasn’t visible and it didn’t last long.
On August 31, 1998, I took the two following photos outside the new Education Minnesota co-office; about the same time Sandra Peterson and MEA’s Judy Schaubach became the merged Unions Co-Presidents. (click to enlarge).
Changing the signage from MFT to Education Minnesota, August 31, 1998, 168 Aurora, St. Paul MN

Changing the signage from MFT to Education Minnesota, August 31, 1998, 168 Aurora, St. Paul MN


Some of the MFT staff August 31, 1998

Some of the MFT staff August 31, 1998


I retired from Education Minnesota two years later. My retirement had nothing whatsoever to do with the merger. It was an ordinary retirement.
The merger had been well planned, and the years of working more and more closely together on many things made the transition simpler.
It took a long while for the “brand” “Education Minnesota” to stick. (In some sectors, I doubt it will ever stick. For instance, the third Thursday and Friday of October will, it appears, always be called “MEA days” or “MEA vacation” in the public eye in Minnesota.)
It is 17 years since the merger of MEA and MFT. Anyone with less than 17 years of teaching experience has no real context of a time when there were two teacher unions in conflict with each other (and were thus easier to divide and conquer.)
Mergers take lots and lots of ability to find and build common ground. Sandra Peterson more than played a strong and positive role. There are adjectives better than “tough” which I would use to describe her and others who have built strong and effective unions, not only in the public school teacher sector.
“Visionary” comes to mind.
Unions are an asset to the public good, not otherwise.
Ironically, just a couple of days ago my copy of the NEA Retired magazine arrived in my mailbox. It’s cover topic is about Union. It is worth a read, here: I am the Union001
Bon Voyage, Sandra!

#1076 – Ehtasham Anwar: Seeking an answer to a disconnect: Americans as Peaceful People; and America's International Image as Warmonger.

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PRE-NOTE to this post from Dick Bernard at end of this post.
The two 25 minute videos referred to by Mr. Anwar in his last paragraph can be accessed at his Facebook page, here. See Dreamworld section.
Personally, this is the most important project I feel I have ever been involved in. My hope is that you watch the videos, and then enter into discussion about what they mean in context with your own life, the United States, and of our planet Earth.
(click to enlarge)

Ehtasham (center) with Melvin Giles and Suhail, St. Paul MN Jun 11 2014

Ehtasham (center) with Melvin Giles and Suhail, St. Paul MN Jun 11 2014


Ehtasham Anwar
Through the eyes of media, rightly or wrongly, I had always seen the United States as an aggressive country, a war monger nation, and the biggest obstacle to my dream of a dream world—a world free of hunger, disease and war.
I also believed the US citizens were too mired in their own worldly pursuits that they did not have time to attend to what the US government was doing elsewhere in the world in their name and with their tax money. They either endorsed or, at best, remained indifferent to the US aggression and highhandedness abroad. Their heart, if at all it was, did not beat for the humanity at large. They were thus equally to be blamed for the death and misery that their government brought to people in many parts of the world every now and then.
And then I got an opportunity to travel to the United States and live among, and interact with, the citizenry. Myths were shattered. Concepts were changed. I met some of the best persons in my life in the United States. They were as humane, if not more, as anyone else on the globe. Overwhelming majority disapproved war. They too felt disturbed over the US hegemonic designs. They too worked for the cause of peace. They too wanted a world full of happiness and joy, not only for them but for others too.
Where then was the disconnect? My confusion compounded. With so many good people, why was there no impact seen on the US policies? Was the church and the clergy playing its due role? Those who were working for peace failed to inspire their own families, how could they expect to impact the US policies? What were the obstacles? Way forward? Messages?
My quest led me to a journey—a journey through the hearts and minds of the common Americans. During my nearly a year-long stay in Minnesota, I talked to people from all cross sections of the society: those who had given their lives to the cause of peace; those who had taken part in, and personally seen the horrors of, the World War II and the Vietnam War; those who had participated in the civil rights movement; those who were well off; those who belonged to less privileged segments of the society; those who were the academicians, and had been keeping an eye on, peace and related issues all around the world; those who claimed to have belonged to the inner circles of the US security establishment; those who spoke from the pulpit; those who used arts as a weapon for peace; the men; the women; the young; the old; the rich; the poor; the white; the people of color.
Not all of my questions were satisfactorily answered, yet, at least, I got a clue to what they were thinking. I decided to compile all my work—the interviews—in the form of a video ‘Peacemakers of Minnesota’, with three aims in mind: Firstly, to pay tribute to those who had virtually given their lives to the cause of peace; secondly, to archive their thoughts and achievements for the posterity; and finally, to help those who would want to work for peace by equipping them with greater insight into the thought process of the citizens of the sole superpower of the world for the key to global peace lies with the US citizens.
Wish me, and them, a very good luck.
Ehtasham interviewing Native American author and Vietnam War veteran Jim Northrup, Memorial Day, 2014, Vets for Peace gathering.

Ehtasham interviewing Native American author and Vietnam War veteran Jim Northrup, Memorial Day, 2014, Vets for Peace gathering.


PRE-NOTE Dick Bernard
In April, 2014, Kristi Rudelius-Palmer, of the Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota Law School,asked if I would assist a Fulbright/Humphrey Scholar in finding Americans who might be willing to talk about the quest for peace.
Thus, I had the great privilege of meeting Ehtasham Anwar, already an accomplished high level civil administrator in a large city in his home country of Pakistan. He was soon to return to his country after a year in Minnesota.
Ehtasham had a simple goal: to interview ten Americans interested in peace, and then to assemble a report on what he had heard.
We quickly “clicked”.
I set about acquainting Ehtasham with the Twin Cities Peace Community; and ten people were found who agreed to be interviewed. My priority was to identify elders for obvious reasons; sadly, the first person Ehtasham “met”, by attending his funeral, was Rev. Lyle Christianson. The two of them would certainly have clicked as well. I was aware that the time clock was clicking. A lady, high on my list of candidates for interview was too ill to meet with us….
Through very fortunate circumstance, Ehtasham’s Pakistan colleague, Suhail Abro, had a video camera, and agreed to assist in filming each approximately 45 minute interview; each person asked to respond to about ten questions. None of us had ever done such a video process before. As you will note, Ehtasham and Suhail did a marvelous job.
In the end, I expected to have film of the ten interviews for an archival project for the Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers, a group of which I have long been a member, this year celebrating its 20th anniversary.
Not only did the interviews on film appear, but Ehtasham edited the hours of individual interviews into a well-made 50 minute video (which appears in two 25-minute parts at his Facebook page).
Those interviewed, primarily elders in working for peace, are as follows: Dr. Joseph Schwartzberg, Lynn Elling, John Noltner, Mary Rose Goetz, Don Christensen, Tom White, Mary Morris, Dick Bernard, Coleen Rowley, and Melvin Giles. Given more time, we could have interviewed many more people.
A second powerful film from the same project was at the 2014 Veterans for Peace annual Memorial Day observance on the Minnesota State Capitol grounds.
Ehtashams intention, and mine, is that the films be viewed broadly and both become a resource for replication through other interviews, and especially for discussion.
I learned a great deal from Ehtasham and Suhail in my time with them, and I keep in touch with Ehtasham to this day.
For those with questions about things such as process: dick_bernardATmsnDOTcom.

#1075 – Dick Bernard: A Prairie Home Companion comes back home to Anoka.

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POSTNOTE Oct. 25, 6 a.m.: Here’s last nights program at the Anoka High School Fieldhouse: Prairie Home Anoka001. You can listen to the program here. It was a phenomenal evening. More comments later today.
(click to enlarge photo)

Anoka High School Seventh Avenue Singers with Garrison Keillor October 24, 2015

Anoka High School Seventh Avenue Singers with Garrison Keillor October 24, 2015


*
Tomorrow, tickets in hand, we’re off to see the Prairie Home Companion (PHC) – I’ve had tickets for weeks. This time the show is at Garrison Keillors Alma Mater, Anoka Senior High School, in a town and school community in which I lived and/or worked from 1965-81.
If you can read this, you can listen to the show on Saturday, here, regardless of where you are in the world.
I first happened by PHC in 1977, thanks to my friends Don and Laura. You could walk in off the street then, and find plenty of good seats. Things changed when they went national.
Keillor, of course, plays off the old and familiar of rural America, and Anoka was the big town of his youth, where he went to Junior and Senior High School. That then-small County Seat town, along with the rural precincts between St. John’s University and Freeport along I-94 west of St. Cloud (Lake Woebegone Country) gave Garrison the base for his always rich stories.
Saturday will probably be a particularly rich show.
Though I rarely see or listen to his show these days, I’ve seen it in person at all phases of its evolution, most recently back in January 17, 2015 at the Fitzgerald Theatre, and at the day long celebration of its 40th anniversary at Macalester College in St. Paul in July, 2014. On that particular day I watched the “yarn spinners” do their magic in person, unfortunately without master sound effects man “Jim Ed Poole” (Tom Keith) who died a few years ago. (His replacement, Fred Newman, is right fine, as you’ll hear!)
(click to enlarge)
Garrison and yarn-spinning gang at Macalester College St. Paul July 4, 2014

Garrison and yarn-spinning gang at Macalester College St. Paul July 4, 2014


Fred Newman, July 4, 2014

Fred Newman, July 4, 2014


I was lucky to live and work in Anoka when it was germinating the ideas for part of Garrisons “little town that time forgot but the decades cannot improve”.
When I go out to Anoka on Saturday I’ll be thinking of Ralph’s Grocery along the east bank of the Rum River, which I got to know in the 1960s. Garrison would deny Ralph’s begat Ralph’s Pretty Good…, doubtless, but how else would his “Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery” get its name? There Ralphs sat, just a block or so north of Main Street.
Then there’s Pastor Inkqvist, and Father Emil. They have to be Pastor Hyllengren of Zion Lutheran and Father Murphy of St. Stephen’s; the latter my elderly Parish Priest in the old Church and rectory downtown; both powerhouses in their respective competing religious communities a few blocks apart.
And Anoka was the home of the Pumpkin Bowl, the school football field, and the big Halloween Parade, and the “Tornadoes”. It is most appropriate – planned, doubtless – to have the show in Anoka right at the edge of Halloween.
Back between 1965 and 1981 I either taught, or represented the teachers, in the Anoka-Hennepin School District, already a sprawling school district encompassing thirteen then-largely rural townships. By 1971, Anoka High School had come to be Fred Moore Junior High, when the massive new high school was built north of the tracks. We’ll see the show in the fieldhouse of the now old “new” high school….
Garrison was gone by the time I came to Anoka, but there were a fair number of school teachers who survived and live on in one or another of his phenomenal stories. They were names familiar to me.
I can live those days vicariously now.
But anyone who tunes in can tune in on their own growing up, wherever that happened to be.
Some of the laughter you’ll hear tomorrow night will be my own, and I plan to go decked out in my 40th anniversary Prairie Home Companion T-shirt, and my Powdermilk Biscuits baseball cap (“Has your family tried ’em? Heavens! They’re tasty!”
POSTNOTE:
Is William Keillor Garrison’s root? From the History of Anoka County by Albert Goodrich, 1905
(click to enlarge)
History of Anoka County by Albert Goodrich, 1905

History of Anoka County by Albert Goodrich, 1905


A FEW WORDS AFTER THE SHOW:
Monday, October 26: Since the entire show is accessible on-line (at beginning of this post), the sounds are all there for anyone who’s listening.
I taught in Anoka-Hennepin district from 1965-72, then represented the teachers there, including Anoka Senior High School, from 1972-81, and my son did his Sophomore year there about 1979-80 or so. So I experienced the evening quite intensely. Lyle Bradley and Coach Nelson were very familiar to me. I did get one photo of Lyle Bradley, 90, and still vibrant.
Garrison listens to Lyle Bradley, about this and that....October 24, 2015

Garrison listens to Lyle Bradley, about this and that….October 24, 2015


This was a very personal program for Garrison. That was obvious from the beginning when he came down into the audience and led the few thousand of us in several songs before the show began, including the Star Spangled Banner and America the Beautiful, as I recall.
There was reverence shown to public schools and teachers, particularly Anoka, his alma mater. I’ve followed Garrison for years, and there were some serious speed bumps a few years ago between himself and public education, but it appeared that was in the past.
His family, his schools, and his community were the relationships that made him what he is today.
I was particularly struck by his reference to growing up autistic. It was an affirmation to any who struggle in any way with autism or its effects.
It was amusing to hear the skit about the Homecoming game between Anoka and Visitation (a Catholic girls high school in St. Paul). Anoka won 6-0, of course, but he softened the edge between zealots for no holds barred competition, and those who emphasize team play and empathy for the underdog. (In the skit, Visitation was the hard-edged competitor, and Anoka the softer feelings oriented team.) It came across especially well, knowing that Anoka-Hennepin has gone through some rough years lately over LGBT issues. There was a “you factions can get along” sense that I was left with.
School people were heavily involved in the program, from kids, to teachers, to the librarian, to the Principal. A school is a social system which, in our society, everyone can enter and have an opportunity to find their muse.
I left renewed and buoyed in lots of ways. When you’re aging, you lose essential touch with the systems of youth. And this show was important for me – though I hasten to acknowledge that we have nine grandkids, and the day after PHC, we went to a wonderful vocal concert in Bloomington which involved two of them, grades eight and ten.
Still, it was great to see the greater community of kids as well.
Thanks, Garrison. You done REALLY good!

#1074 – Dick Bernard: The newest crisis at Congress in Washington D.C.

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Lots of people despise “politics”, even though the very essence of politics is people like you and me. It is easy to blame “them” (choose your favorite “them”). In reality, it is all of us who vote, who never vote, who make demands that are impossible to satisfy.
Politics is all of us. Period.
I write at another crisis time in Congress (that is all there ever seems to be).
It is said, now, that 40 Congresspersons, called the “Freedom Caucus”, are essentially trying to run things as a new speaker is to be elected to replace John Boehner who is quitting.
Whatever “dog” you happen to favor in this conflict, note that number, 40. 40 people who think they have the political process by the throat and can move their agenda by being united.
These folks, out of perhaps 320,000,000 Americans, believe that they can control the political process in this country, simply by sticking together.
They know politics, the rules, the Constitution. They are, yes, playing by the rules.
They know how to get the Press: the latest stupidity of “Benghazi” morphing into “e-mails” will play out on stage today, perhaps, or tomorrow, and make news, when there is no news to make.
Whether you think they’re wonderful, or awful, it is best that you watch what happens in the next weeks on all manner of issues.
If gridlock and control by tiny minorities is what you want, fine.
These are scary times, indeed, when people who call themselves “Freedom Caucus” are essentially the same people who want to control others freedom, and exert their unmerited, but accessible power.
Those of you who think that’s wonderful, fine.
But these 40 aren’t your friends, ultimately. They are only friends of their own national and worldview, and everyone else is disposable.
Friday morning, after Benghazi….
When I wrote, yesterday, I wasn’t sure if the hearing was Thursday. I guess I thought it was Wednesday yesterday – I am getting older, you know.
But when I came home from a meeting last night, after 8 p.m., and the hearing was still on, live, I knew this had been a long day in the hearing room, of which I saw almost none.
Just Above Sunset does a good job, as usual, of covering 11 hours of essentially nothing. You can read it here.
But after everything is said in done, it is up to the individual voters, who vote, or don’t vote at all, who will make the difference.
Especially pay attention to who your representive in the House of Representatives is, or will be….

#1073 – Dick Bernard: Concert Today in St. Paul, 1 PM: "From Darkness to Light: A Journey Toward Peace & Reconciliation"

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Peace is possible. Just take a look at St. Paul, Minnesota, and its Sister City, Nagasaki, Japan.
(click to enlarge photo. pdf here: Civic Symphony Oct 18 15002)
Civic Symphony Oct 18 15001
By chance I was at St. Paul’s Landmark Center yesterday, at the same time as the St. Paul Civic Symphony was doing its final rehearsal for this performance.
It will be magnificent. I know. I heard all of it.
After the rehearsal, Music Director Jeffrey Stirling stopped by the Nagasaki-Hiroshima Exhibit (where I was volunteering), and I asked him about the now 60 year Sister City relationship between St. Paul and Nagasaki.
He said that, to his knowledge, the cities relationship, the first for any American city with any city in Asia, was largely brought into existence through the efforts of Louis Hill, Jr., the grandson of railroad magnate James J. Hill.
He didn’t know Mr. Hills specific motivation.
I asked, was there any online history of the forming of the relationship?
Mr. Spirling wasn’t sure, but directed me to the Hills Grotto Foundation. This article, there, doesn’t answer the question, but is nonetheless fascinating reading.
Another link, here, outlines the timeline of the relationship.
The exhibit at which I volunteered continues through Nov. 28 at the northwest corner of Landmark Center, on the Main Floor. At first glance, it appears to be a small exhibit. But one of the visitors there, yesterday, spent the entire time watching/listening to survivor stories on one of four DVD players, and she was engrossed. She was 7 years old at the time of the Atom bomb, she said, knowing of it as we Americans would have known it, through child’s eyes.
Leaving the exhibit, I met a Japanese-American couple, from Minneapolis, who recounted how WWII impacted on their family.
More information on remaining events can be seen here.

#1072 – Dick Bernard: September's Song, "When the days dwindle down, to a precious few…." Don and Stan and Ted and Jessica and all of us.

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Woodbury MN Oct 2015

Woodbury MN Oct 2015


It was quite a week, including Thursday at the Minnesota Orchestra where our 87 year old friend, Don, and I, watched 92 year old Stanislaw Skrowaczewski conduct Schumanns Concerto in A Minor for Cello and Orchestra, Opus 129, and Bruckners Symphony No. 7 in E major. MN Orch Oct 15 105002.
I go to concerts to listen to music; this concert was great…so said the reviewer. Age hasn’t dimmed the maestro’s baton!
The Bruckner Symphony itself is over an hour, and conductors don’t take breaks in their duties. Occasionally the maestro would hold on to the support bar behind him (the bar extended in height by about a foot, likely specifically for him), and I noticed an unused chair beside the podium – just in case? But on he went; and apparently tonight as well.
At the intermission Don and I were talking about keeping on, as Stan is doing: “when you stop doing things, you die”, said Don, with the voice of experience that I, trailing him by a dozen years, can more and more relate to.
Like all elders, Don has his rich stories. Most of his career he worked keeping track of railroad cars for the Northern Pacific RR in the days before computers. But in his younger days, his credits include at least one small dinner party with actress Elizabeth Taylor, and sitting in Joan Crawford’s seat at the Oscar’s one year (she was unable to attend). He was most impressed by Audrey Hepburn, who he met more than once in Hollywood.
Pretty good for a native of St. Paul’s Frogtown.
For Don, for Stan, it’s now past September, and September’s Song fits.
But as we know, there are lots of Stan’s and Don’s around in the world, from, let’s say, March till late December….
A week earlier I’d been at the same Orchestra Hall with Grandson Ted, now 15, and an aspiring musician.
We went to a Jazz concert in the Atrium, and Ted especially watched the drummer, as he’s been asked to be the drummer for his schools jazz band this year. He’s got lots of musical talent, and drummers have a big job. He’s up to it.
The previous night, two of us old-timers were up at our Alma Mater in Valley City ND, to meet Jessica, the first recipient of a class scholarship we have worked on the last couple of years.
Jessica, a most impressive Senior, preparing to be an elementary school teacher, made my day. I was her age, at that college, once…. (photo at end of this post)
Two days later, good friend Joe, another 87 year old, convened a major conference in Minneapolis which went splendidly Oct 9&10. It was, literally, his conference. I wrote about it here. The Workable World conference will, I predict, live on far past October 10, and far beyond Minneapolis…. It will live on, especially, in the abundance of young people who were there; who left with much to think about, and act on.
I saw Joe two nights ago, in a group where a young woman, Mnar, spoke powerfully about “Muslims as the other” in this country. Afterwards Joe wrote some of us about his experience: “[Her] presentation not only shattered a number of stereotypes about Muslims and women, but also provided some much needed lessons about the slanted way we get — or fail to get — the news.”
*
The past few day, in a physical sense, have been tiring. I am ready to “couch potato”. But that lasts only a little while.
Last night I gave in and joined Lynn, 94, for dinner. Lynn will die with his passion of world peace on his lips. He will never, ever quit.
Rebekah and her friend Quinn, students at a local University, brought him to our meeting, and the four of us had a too short conversation which needs to continue.
It was an inconvenience to meet last night, but it was one of those meetings I will remember far beyond last evening.
I think of a sign I saw at my coffee shop yesterday morning, and photo’ed especially for Joe.
It is below. It applies to every one of us, regardless of age.
It’s now October, and there is still hope….
Dream Big001
Dick, Jessica and Carl, October 7, 2015

Dick, Jessica and Carl, October 7, 2015

#1071 – Dick Bernard: Getting perspective on the UN System at 70.

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Those remaining at the very end of the second day of the conference. Photo by Claude Buettner

Those remaining at the very end of the second day of the conference. Photo by Claude Buettner


Click to enlarge any photos.
Keynote speaker W. Andy Knight, and artist R. Padre Johnson's well known art work of the Family of Man. Padre was at the conference.

Keynote speaker W. Andy Knight, and artist R. Padre Johnson’s well known art work of the Family of Man. Padre was at the conference.


First things first: it is impossible to summarize the Workable World Conference I attended on Friday and Saturday, October 9&10, at the University of Minnesota.
Here is the program booklet: Workable World Speakers Oct 9-10 2015. The entire conference, every speaker, was videotaped for later use, and later there will also be proceedings published for posterity. Check back at this spot in some months, and I’ll include an update.
I attend meetings frequently, both to learn something, and to give support to the process. It is much like the synergy of a basketball game. The team can play the game, but it helps a great deal to have someone in the stands – an audience. But it has been my experience that there are always “ah hah” moments, small or large insights that flow out of some comment, or an amalgamation of several comments: learning moments; insights.
There were a lot of these for me Friday and Saturday.
(click to enlarge)
Charlotte Ku and audience, Saturday Oct 10, University of Minnesota

Charlotte Ku and audience, Saturday Oct 10, University of Minnesota


At some point in the proceedings it occurred to me that there were roughly as many registrants for the conference (over 200), as there are countries in the UN (193), so I began to imagine each of us in the hall, including the speaker, as a “country”.
Of course, all is not alike between countries. One of we audience members, for instance, would control 25% of the Gross National Income of the entire world; another has 20% of the world’s humanity. (These are the U.S., and China, of course.) (This data an much more from Transforming the United Nations System by Dr. Joseph Schwartzberg. I highly recommend it.)
Then, there are those in power positions (I was one of these, controlling the portable microphone!) And, of course, those who registered but never came to a session, or could be there for only a short time for one reason or another.
Whatever the case, this was a melting pot of sorts: experts, critics, supporters, all with a common interest in ideas about the United Nations System.
Schwartzberg book001
One speaker, in answer to a question, described the UN at 70 to be much like an airplane over New York City which has a problem with a wing which has to be repaired on the fly.
This provided rich imagery for me, about how the immensely complex business of the United Nations is an endless series of crises to manage amongst people with different priorities.
What if, I thought to myself, we in that audience at Cowles Auditorium had some problem dropped on us, and there was no one to decide except ourselves?
Given how people can be, it could be a dicey proposition to even decide on a simple matter. It’s easy to despise “government”, but one sort of government or another is essential to individual and group survival.
The conference was expertly moderated by Prof. John Trent of the Centre on Governance at the University of Ottawa; Maryam Ysefzadeh and Tim O’Keefe of Robayat helped quiet our minds with gentle Persian music.
Maryam Yusefzedah and Tim O'Keefe Oct 10, 2015

Maryam Yusefzedah and Tim O’Keefe Oct 10, 2015


We were reminded that the United Nations was a creation of a specific moment in time, post World War II. Change is required for any such organism, and indeed change is happening in small increments and in less than obvious ways (from the bottom up, for instance.)
But imperfect as the institution is, it is far far better than the alternative of no United Nations.
That is my main takeaway. With all its fault, the United Nations is essential to our future as a planet…and I think the collective speakers and audience and most of the rest of humanity know and appreciate that.
Prof Robert Johansen of the University of Notre Dame spoke on the dilemmas and realities of Peacekeeping in the contemporary world.

Prof Robert Johansen of the University of Notre Dame spoke on the dilemmas and realities of Peacekeeping in the contemporary world.


POSTNOTE from Dick Bernard: As one would expect from an academic conference, there were many comments of note, that stick in my mind: here’s a single one for starters. A speaker talked about the U.S. role as present day hegemon (which I define as “big dog”) of the planet. Of course, there have been successions of hegemons over the centuries, and ultimately they all overreach – something of a nation version of the Peter Principle: each rising to their level of incompetence, then collapsing….
It was observed that President Obama, in his role as leader of the U.S., has been working to tamp down a bit the U.S. tendency to interfere in everything, everywhere. This diminished interference can be interpreted by some as weakness, but at the same time, it is a strategy that helps to keep the U.S. as primary hegemon of the planet. In an odd, but logical way, the actions of President Obama support the objectives of the very people who are most critical of him as being weak and ineffective. And at the same time, those who would promote a more aggressive policy of particularly military engagement in the world would act against the U.S. own hegemonic interests.
At least for me, there was a lot of food for thought in this observation, such as I heard it stated.

#1070 – Dick Bernard: Bombing the Hospital in Afghanistan. Who's at fault about the killings in Roseburg, Oregon…?

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If you watch the news at all, it is not necessary to define the very recent topics in the subject line, at least in the terms that they have been reported, and your personal feelings about them.
In my opinion, both give we Americans an opportunity to take stock of ourselves: how each and every one of us fit into construction of our image as a country.
Of course, the simple narrative is to blame somebody else. We know how this goes. We have lots of practice. Left, right, center, it is virtually never ourselves to blame: it is somebody else, most always one person. “Obama” bombed that hospital, some would say. That gun-obsessed mother of the gun-crazed son who killed the students at the Roseburg Community College is now the target.
Tomorrow it will be something else, local, regional, national, international. “Whose fault? Not mine! He (or she) is to blame.” Never us as a nation of individual citizens.
*
For me, regarding the endless war in which we find ourselves mired, most recently the tragedy at the Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Afghanistan, Day One was not 9-11-01, but it came soon after, in early October, 2001, when the decision was made to bomb Afghanistan (though the real objective was, we learned later, Iraq).
I keep few newspaper clippings, and refer back to these infrequently, but here is the one that I kept the day after the bombs began to fall on Afghanistan in early October, 2001:Afghanistan Oct 7 2001001
Just read the article, and put yourself in it, then, and since then, to today. How would you have answered those survey questions then? Why? How would you, now?
What politician of any party could have been anti-war then, or indeed, today? It would have been political suicide for almost 100% of the politicians, then. Even today, it is high risk to actively advocate for peace.
We are a war-sodden culture: war is our national tradition. And it is killing us.
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As for the gun issue, the polling data seems to favor doing something about unrestricted “firearms in every pocket, makes no difference who has them or where”. We apparently don’t buy the unrestricted “freedom” mantra. Still the gun culture prevails. For a politician to be for gun regulation of any kind is a guarantee of political assassination by the likes of the National Rifle Association. And their “target practice” has been very effective.
Unfortunately, “we, the people”, every one of us, assure, by our inaction, that our elected representatives will do nothing to stop the insanity in which we find ourselves with guns.
Every one of us have good reasons (in our mind) why we don’t do anything to change the course.
That Mom in Roseburg, Oregon, like that Mom in Newtown CT – the mother of the serial killer of elementary school children there – might be complicit in the crime of her son, but she is less guilty than the entire body politic who allow this insanity to continue.
We are the ones who need to be indicted.
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Till we act, as individuals, the gun industry and those who exploit the fear-obsessed to move the “war as the answer to all our ills” narrative will continue to rule the roost.
Fear, after all, sells.
We are a good country, filled with very good people – just look at your own self, and the vast majority of your friends and neighbors in your town.
But we continue to fail, by our inaction. It is our inaction at home that assures our bad image abroad.
It’s up to us, not to anybody else to change our countries direction on War and Guns and so many other issues. We cannot delegate this responsibility to someone else.
Until each of us act, minority rules.
*
Some useful resources:
On guns: The Brady Campaign and Americans for Responsible Solutions are good, credible sources deserving your attention and support.
On policy, just read that short article about American attitudes in early October, 2001. Politics is People, and every person counts.
Personally, my favorite daily source of a summary of national and international current events is Just Above Sunset, an indefatigable blogger in Los Angeles. It’s a long read, but a great summary of what’s going on six days a week. Check it out. Todays, “Whistling Past”, is about the Afghanistan quagmire. Here. Yesterday’s, “Only in America”, is about guns.

#1069 – Dick Bernard: A Conversation about the United Nations: Looking at the UN at 70

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Friday and Saturday, Oct 9&10in Minneapolis, is the Workable World Conference devoted to ideas about transforming the UN system. All details are here. Registration is still open. Here is the program of speakers at the event: Workable World Speakers Oct 9-10 2015

The United Nations Building, snapshot, June 30, 1971, Dick Bernard

The United Nations Building, snapshot, June 30, 1971, Dick Bernard


Workable World endeavors to take a look at the United Nations at 70, and how it might be transformed to work more effectively in the present and the future. Speakers will present their thoughts on solutions which can then be debated in other forums at other times. Basis for the conference will be the book, Transforming the United Nations System, Designs for a Workable World.
There is a lot to learn, and I’ll be there for the entire conference. I’ve heard only two of the speakers previously. It is important to listen to new viewpoints; then to become engaged – to participate in helping make a positive difference.
There is potential for positive change presenting itself at this conference.
And this world of over 7 billion people and over 190 nations can be a better place because of this discussion.
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Back in 1945, when the UN was chartered by 50 nations in the rubble of WWII, communication and most everything else was primitive compared with today. A preview showing at the conference of a soon-to-be-released film about Garry Davis, World Citizen number one, will have some film from the first UN General Assembly. (A short clip from that film is accessible here.)
Today, there are over 190 nations in the United Nations dealing with serious crises in many arenas, some, as climate, even more threatening to living things on the planet than war itself. Our globe is one nation, not many….
None of us are helpless; everyone of us can help. But the trick is finding a way to work together.
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In my view, this weekends session, featuring largely academic presenters with much knowledge about the international stage, will appropriately share the stage with an e-mail I received from a long-time friend a single night ago.
The subject line of the e-mail said this:
“Just received this e-mail from a friend in Aleppo, Syria”:
“As for your question, mostly everyone I met over here and everyone one I know online, in other Syrian provinces or in the diaspora, support the Russians and their coalition with Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanese Resistance against the terrorists.
“I wish to see the end of that nightmare before the end of the year. The dream is closer now, thanks to the Russians, who are targeting the real bases of terrorists, not claiming doing so like the U.S. Coalition. Only now, terrorists in Idleb are fleeing to Turkey, and the ones in Reqqa are fleeing to Iraq.
“Some comment[er]s are afraid that it could be a new trap for the Russians, as what happened to them in Afghanistan back in the 1970s and 1980s. However I guess they learned their lessons and won’t make the mistake again.
“I’m waiting for the Russian[s] interfering in Aleppo. So far nothing happened over here. But they are preparing the arena for it.”
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Of course, I know nothing about the writer of the above e-mail, his (or her) personal bias, etc.
Presuming the person on the ground is in Syria, and Syrian, the opinion, even if only from a single individual, is at least as authentic as CBS News’ Scott Pelley’s nightly nutgraf about the “Assad Dictatorship”, or other such presumptions of certainty or “truth” delivered in other forums by other people about anything and everything.
The e-mail is a symbol of another reality today, which is both a blessing and a curse.
Today, unlike in 1945, anyone with a keypad, as I use, here, has the capability of spreading a message worldwide, true or false, malicious or well-informed, polished or not. We can spread truth or gossip with ease. Immense good, or evil, can be promoted instantly, worldwide. Each of us need to make informed decisions based on strong evidence based on knowledge; and we need to participate in making our world a better place.
Over and over, from Nazi Germany to Rwanda, to endless other situations, we’ve learned what happens when innuendo and blaming some other, takes root and spreads like wildfire.
Maybe that writer from Aleppo is right, maybe not.
Maybe Scott Pelley is portraying news with integrity, or maybe there is a canned narrative being sold….
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This world is a very complex and imperfect place. But we tend to judge things instantly, based on fragments of information coming, as via the e-mail, from persons or entities of unknown reliability. Disorganized anarchy can too easily happen.
This is a dangerous problem, making it ever more important that there be international leaders who can not only assess risks and opportunities and respond, but work at least minimally collegially with colleague leaders who represent differing points of view.
In the end our future depends on us, a well informed and engaged citizenry, participating in all of the many ways we can to make our world a better place.
Personally, I think the idea of a United Nations was and remains the best idea for a stable world, though the results will never be perfect.
This weekend is a time to learn. Come on over.
At Global Market, Minneapolis MN, International Day of Peace Sep 21, 2015

At Global Market, Minneapolis MN, International Day of Peace Sep 21, 2015

#1068 – Dick Bernard: In Love With a Gun.

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(click to enlarge)

Grandpa Ferd Busch with shotgun and game in summer of 1907, viewed from the north of his new farm home. At left, his Dad, Wilhelm Busch; at right his brother Frank. At the time, Ferdinand was 26 years of age.

Grandpa Ferd Busch with shotgun and game in summer of 1907, viewed from the north of his new farm home. At left, his Dad, Wilhelm Busch; at right his brother Frank. At the time, Ferdinand was 26 years of age.


In 2013 I happened to come into possession of a book of poems, “Lyrics of the Prairie” by a retired professor at the college I attended beginning in 1958. Soren Kolstoe (bio here: Kolstoe,Soren-History) had retired right before I began my four years, but he was legendary at Valley City State Teacher’s College. His “beat” was psychology, but his love was the outdoors, particularly the North Dakota outdoors. I wrote about him here, including (with permission) his book of poems.
Near the end of the book of poems is this one:
A GUN
Strange how much a man can love a gun;
A battered thing of senseless steel and wood,
I’ve used it hard and fear its day is done.
I’ll get a new one, or at least I should.
A sleek new job with parts that really match,
A perfect product of the gunsmith’s art;
Smooth, shiny blue, without a scar or scratch,
A beauty that should win a hunter’s heart.
Yet all these beauties leave me strangely cold.
I find the parting harder than I thought;
I know they’re good but still prefer the old,
To any new-style gun that can be bought.
This gun was more than just a gun to me,
A trusted hunting pal for many years.
It served me well and somehow seemed to be
A partner in my triumphs, hopes, and fears.
It’s battered now and worn beyond repair;
Its hunting days it seems at last are done.
But still I’ll keep it, cherish it with care,
Strange how much a man can love a gun!”
SOREN O. KOLSTOE
I knew my Uncle Vince loved North Dakota outdoors, and in his home were four guns – I call them farm guns – which were always ready, but, by 2013, not used for many years.
He was generally a solitary hunter for the occasional duck, deer, varmint or whatever that crossed his land. (From time to time, he’d use the shotgun to scare off the pesky blackbirds who were decimating his sunflowers – I remember that). His gun was his companion on the hunt, that was all.
So, I gave Vince a copy of Dr. Kolstoe’s poems. As it happened, it was at a time in his life when he was rapidly deteriorating in health, and five months later it fell to me to admit him to the nursing home in LaMoure. I doubt he ever looked at the book, which I found in the envelope. Life had changed his priorities.
But the possessions Vince worried about the most were his guns.
I saved them from being stolen, but I’m not sure he trusted me – someone who has never had any use for a gun, nor even owned one – to take good care of them.
He’s gone now, and I still have those guns in safekeeping, at some point to go to the family member who wants them the most.
They’re just some old farm guns: a 12 gauge or two; a .22 calibre; something that would pass for a deer rifle; a single shot out in the shed. Just old farm guns.
I think of those guns, my Uncle, Dr. Kolstoe’s poem, and lots of other things, this day after the day before when the latest carnage took place in this country at a college in Roseburg, Oregon: lots of innocent folks, and the gunman, falling to bullets from guns.
Been a long while since we in this country have crossed the boundary from sanity to insanity when it comes to guns.
Our politicians are threatened with political assassination if they mess with any one’s gun in any way whatsoever.
“Second Amendment Rights” they say.
It’s long past time we figure it out. Those folks in Oregon yesterday, now being prepared for funerals, had a “right to life” too.
Vince once belonged to the National Rifle Association, but I gather not for long. He didn’t like the policy drift of that organization.
I wonder what he’d say if he were here today, having watched the news….
Once again we have a chance to converse about this topic. And maybe a chance to do something.
Lets….
COMMENTS:
from Christine: It was risky to call your message “In Love With a Gun”. Of course, one can understand your real feeling about it after reading the message.
from Claude: Very interesting, Dick. Thanks. The recent shooter had six guns on him and seven more back at home. I think it was more than one gun that guy was in love with.
On Thursday night I was returning from St Paul and listening to MPR here (dated Oct 2 but I heard it Oct 1) to a college professor being interviewed who had grown up in Baltimore in the crack cocaine days. He said it was easier to get a gun than a job. He inherited his dealer “starter kit” when his brother was killed and left a safe full of money and drugs. So this now college professor knows from the inside a lot of the gun problem. He professed never to be a gun person himself. He bought as a mid teenager his first gun just because he felt he needed one for posturing or protection (often unloaded! that seems to be a mistake?). But he knew people who loved every aspect of guns and he said that today’s gun culture is probably the same.
from Sharon: This brought memories back of my dad on the farm and the many guns he had. One was placed over the back door. They were given to nephews and us kids when he died. The rest were sold at an auction. I took the old gun that did not work anymore just to hang over a wood stove in the basement. Just sold it on E Bay last year when we moved. Thanks for sharing.
from Larry: Thanks for sharing this. It is quite powerful, and express my sentiments about gun control.
from Jim: Dick, thanks for sharing. Brings back memories of my childhood too!
from Duane: Thanks, Dick… AMEN, FGS.
from Lynn: Thank you Dick,
As I remember we credited Dr. Kolstoe for founding the EBC’s and originating it’s name.
The EBC’s had a traditional fall pheasant hunt. After the hunt, we invited our dates to a pheasant dinner which we prepared and served.
During my first teaching job in Bowdon, ND, Dr. Kolstoe spoke to our high school student body and demonstrated hypnosis with a volunteer student. After, he came to my bachelor apartment and we had pheasant, which I had hunted and prepared in a crockpot.
I had two farm guns like you describe, a double barrel 20 gage and a .22. They were strictly utilitarian and I no longer have them, left behind when I left the farm. I fired military weapons on the practice range when I was in the Air National Guard. I have no use for guns now. My son loves to hunt and he is teaching his sons proper use of guns and hunting skills.
I agree we need to do better and withdraw from the insane use of guns. I thought the task force chaired by Vice President Biden put forth reasonable legislative proposals. I would like Senator Heitkamp [ND] to introduce her alternative, since she did not support the work of the task force. Somehow, some protective mechanism should have prevented a person who was an Army boot camp dropout from bringing six guns and five ammunition magazines to an Oregon school.
from Ken: Thanks for sharing this piquant and well-thought piece. Like many, I tend to feel that the situation is rather hopeless. With a reported 90%+ plurality of polled citizens being in favor of at least more extensive background checks, still the advocates of divinely ordained 2nd Amendment prerogatives (NRA and gun manufacturers) rule the day, along with nonchalant and effete politicians who fear taking them on.Truly a problem that our system does not seem capable or competent to address, much less solve. Sad.
from Norm: I feel the same way about the limited number of guns that I own having used them and still using them for deer and bird hunting every fall, something that I really enjoy doing.
While I know that the killings in Oregon have prompted another push for gun control, I honestly don’t think that would make much of a difference in preventing such future outbursts of violence. Just like I did not think that the adoption of the permit to carry law in Minnesota would lead to an increase in gun violence as claimed by it opponents…and it did not, of course although it did lead to some business for the sign people given all of the guns are banned from these premises postings that one sees all over the place.
Of course, the laws do allow the occasional idiot who needs to have people notice him or her who wanders through public places carrying a gun visibly on his or her hip. Those folks seem to have a need for attention and probably believe that people will really “respect” them if they walk through crowds with a visible weapon on their hips.
Goodness, if their mommies had only hugged them a few more times when they were growing up maybe they wouldn’t have such a need for public attention.
I am not an NRA member nor ever will be given their far right positions on not only gun control but many other issues as well. On the other hand, I honestly do not think that more stringent gun control laws will reduce the number of incidents like the recent one in Oregon. The shooter in that instance had bought several guns over the past three years all through legal purchases. As such, the gun control laws in Oregon did not prevent him from doing what he did.
I wish that I could say that I thought that more stringent gun control laws would any future Oregon’s but I honestly do not think that they would.
from Jim: Ok Norm, we know you love your guns. But you must admit that the level of gun violence in the US is well beyond sickening toward the astounding, war-like. In the country of Columbia, which the media portrays as a hotbed of revolutionary violence, FARC revolutionaries kill about 500 per year. Columbia is a country of 48 million so a matching kill rate for the 320 million US citizens would be a little under 3400. But actual statistics for US gun violence in 2013 are 11,209 deaths by homicide, 21,175 deaths by suicide, 505 deaths by accident (Cheney events), and 281 of undetermined cause. We are bythose measures, a far more dangerous place than revolutionary Columbia.
from Charlie: Many Very Good comments here about GUNS.
Like You Norm I grew up on a farm & my Dad also kept a gun above the kitchen door. I hunted many years with him & we had a lot of fun hunting pheasants, ducks, fox, squirrels, deer & even going to Montana & Wyoming Deer hunting a few times. I also still have a couple Small Caliber guns, the shot guns & deer rifles I gave to my sons & grand sons years ago. I always loved to hunt but after my Dad died, I pretty much lost interest & only hunted a few times after my Dad’s passing. Stupid me, I even was a member of the NRA for one year & soon learned how very crazy & far right they were & still are.
Many comments here that I agree with, that it seems almost hopeless that NOT much will change.
I do feel we need much more thorough Back Ground Checks. The Change of Ownership of every gun should require a Back Ground Check, Even those like when I gave guns to my kids. A limit on the size of ammunition clips. What kind of a hunter needs more than a 10 bullet clip ? Last but not least, Ban the Sale of Assault Weapons. NO HUNTER HAS A NEED FOR AN AK-47 type Gun, I also believe we should have National Gun Laws that I think fewer of the crazies would slip through the cracks. We Do Need the Same Gun Law in Every State All Over the USA ! !
Thanks Everyone for All Of Your Great Comments.
from Kathy: Here is my personal opinion on the matter of guns.
1. Repeal the Second Amendment. We no longer need to have armed citizen militias.
2. Put a huge tax on all ammo and guns except those used specifically for hunting. Require hunters to attend a class on gun safety and require them to carry insurance for owning a lethal weapon, just like we have to have car insurance. Require them to be disabled and locked up when it is not hunting season.
3. Confiscate all other guns and ammo. Collectors must disable the guns they have, not add to collections, and register their collections with local authorities. Hunters must also register their hunting rifles. A yearly tax to own a gun and/or maintain a collection should be required. Limit the number of hunting rifles a person can own.
4. Anyone involved in a death by gun will be subject to the death penalty.
5. Shut down the NRA, and gun manufacturers.
6. Allow only ammo for hunting to be made.
7. No more gun shows.
8. Prohibit the sale or transfer of a gun to another person.
from Emmett: We are working to get an activity started here in the state of Washington to publicly highlight those persons in Congress and our State Legislature that are against tighter gun sale laws and see if we can get a national movement to do that like the $15 minimum wage movement that we started. Something has got to be done. Listening to the Sunday cable news programs, there was much discussion about the subject. Several of the discussions had to do with the high levels of crime in Chicago and Baltimore, both of which have strong gun laws, yet none of the so-called experts seemed to understand that those cities have the problem of the states around them allow gun runners to buy volumes of guns at gun shows then turn around and sell them to criminals and others just outside the city limits. We need a national referendum on the subject and the selling of guns without doing proper background checks should carry a life-in-prison punishment. This won’t solve the entire problem, but it will hopefully make some impact.
from Carol: I’ve had more than enough with the handwringing that we “can’t do anything.” I am committing to not voting in the next election for anyone who will not personally assure me that they will support (on federal/state level) the very reasonable gun control laws that Obama proposed after Newtown. Have to look up the exact language, but they were background checks for every sale, a ban on (semi-?)assault weapons, a limit on number of rounds. If some Republicans can spend their whole lives voting on the basis of abortion only, we can only look at guns. I think it is truly the only way to make a difference.
Care to join me?
from Lloyd: I took Kolstoe hunting out in the Flasher [ND] area which is where I was from with a bunch of EBC’s. We had a great time but I mostly remember knocking a hole in the oil pan of his car and ruined the motor. I have always lived with some guilt because I was driving and should have been more aware that it had happened. The poem was great and so true. I have lots of guns, or at least several and they were almost all purchased in the 50’s and 60’s. They are great relics and all work well and I still hunt with them.