#1101 – Dick Bernard: Iowa and what follows: Revisiting 1984.

Next Tuesday is the first Presidential Primary, at the Iowa caucuses. They will be as they will be, as they were in 2012, and 2008, and so on. Then will be New Hampshire, and South Carolina, and Super Tuesday…. If one turns on the telescreen, it is impossible to not know about these elections, even if they are only local snapshots, many months from the main event.
Out of curiosity I looked up the Iowa caucuses for 2008 and 2012. As you’ll note, in 2008 the Presidential Republican and Democrat winners were Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama; in 2012, Rick Santorum and Barack Obama.
2016?
This seems to be the year that will prove that George Orwell had it right when he published 1984 in the late 1940s: people are easily manipulated, and control of visual media is the key.
A word about the “telescreen”, which more and more dominates the political conversation, in a moment.
*
As I write, Donald Trump is still the Republican front-runner. Of course, this can change in an instant, but….
We recently took a vacation in Hawaii which began with two nights in a higher end hotel on Waikiki Beach.
Sixteen year old Ryan, our grandson was along, and our first item of business was to take him Pearl Harbor, the USS Arizona, and all of that.
We arrived late at night, and the next morning walked directly across the street to find something to eat before catching the tour bus. Ryan saw a sign on a building that he became somewhat fixated on: it was a Trump Tower. It was probably Ryan’s first photograph in Hawaii. “Trump” impressed. You can read and see about the Waikiki Trump here.
The Trump property was certainly not a homeless shelter. Ours was the building that was the “one building off of Waikiki Beach” that interfered with sight lines of the beach and the ocean from the Trump Properties on the lower floors of the building.
Donald Trumps base support, his fans, seem much closer to the homeless shelter, than to owning a condo in any of his towers.
Go figure.
*
Tomorrow night are the final debates before Iowa. Trump has declared he won’t show up, which hardly anybody believes. You can read a lot of the buzs about this here.
Actually, Trump reminds me a lot of a local professional wrestler who became Minnesota Governor in 1998: Jesse Ventura.
Ventura was some of the time, and in some ways, a fairly decent Governor…so long as he had his way. He knew how to maintain star status.
He didn’t run for a second term, didn’t support the party which gave him the public legs to run on in the first place, and was, as a satirical novel about him, “Me“, suggested, only about himself.
Trump is Jesse on steroids.
*
Of course, Trump may not “win” next Tuesday. Somebody else may dominate.
Iowa will be over, then there’s New Hampshire, and South Carolina, and Super Tuesday….
*
But through it all is the tellyscreen, which was really the star of the show in 1984, will dominate, a purchased by megabucks available for political advertising of all kinds.
*
For Orwell, the telescreen was everywhere, and controlled what people saw and, as a bonus, reported back everything that they were doing.
We have essentially reached that point, now, in the U.S. We have become mesmerized by visual media; and anyone who thinks they can escape being recorded by someone with a camera, and reported, has scarcely a grip on reality.
*
Next Tuesday is the first demonstration of American Democracy in action, in Iowa. About nine months from now, local, state and national leaders will be elected by “we, the people”, by our action…or inaction.
What will we see when we wake up the morning after Tuesday, November 8.
The ball is in OUR court. What will we do with this responsibility.
POSTNOTE:
To my knowledge, George Orwell really never got around to explaining what motivated him to do 1984. The book was published in 1949 and he died in 1950, at age 47.
It was published not long after WWII ended.
I’ve heard it said that it was a cautionary tale about the evils of Nazi Germany and its mastery of manipulation of the masses, or of the totalitarian regime of the Soviet Union. Perhaps he was observing radical socialists in his home country of England.
Novelists really never say. It is for others to do their interpretation.
In the book, we never see Big Brother, who’s in charge of it all. We’re not even sure that Big Brother even exists.
It causes me to think of the leadership of today’s ISIL (ISIS). Most of us, without research, wouldn’t even be able to name the leader(s) of that short term attempt at domination; nor could we identify its capital city. It in itself has created a new world.
But in the end, it was the “Proles” I paid attention to in the book. I presume this meant “proletariat” the common people of the time, basically portrayed as clueless (if they were smart), or enemies (if they had the stupidity to be outspoken).
In my interpretation, the big resource for presumptive leaders that 1984 emphasized were the values of fear, and of having an invisible enemy.
It would be my bet that Orwells work has been a pretty persuasive teacher for many who wish to exert control.

#1100 – Dick Bernard: Global Climate Change

Whatever your particular opinion about the issue of Climate Change, I’d urge you to take the 2 minutes and 20 seconds necessary to watch this video, prepared by the Fellows in the 2015-2016 Hubert M. Humphrey Fellowship Program (The International Fulbright Program of the U.S. Department of State).
This video is brand new, and it would be good to see it given a broad viewership.
Last night myself and others were privileged to hear J. Drake Hamilton of the Minnesota Group Fresh Energy talk about Climate Change, and the recently concluded Paris talks which she attended in its entirety. Her at-the time reports can be viewed here.
Prior to the Paris conclave, in August, Ms Hamilton was honored to be one of a dozen leaders invited to a briefing by President Obama relating to his administration plans on the issue of Climate Change.
(click to enlarge)

J. Drake-Hamilton (in red) at the White House, August, 2015.  From the booklet Global Warming 101 produced by Fresh Energy.

J. Drake-Hamilton (in red) at the White House, August, 2015. From the booklet Global Warming 101 produced by Fresh Energy.


Following Ms Hamilton’s remarks, three Humphrey Fellows responded from their own perspectives. Ahmed Tholal (Maldives); Abosede Oyeleye (Nigeria) and Hamze Haidar Ahmad (Lebanon), representing the views of MENA (Middle East North Africa).
All gave riveting presentations. In particular, I was gripped by Mr. Tholal’s comments, including a very powerful poem. His country, the Maldives, may become the first country in the world to be extinguished by the impact of human caused global warming.
I think I can fairly say that the cumulative impact of the two powerful hours on me was to reinforce my deep concerns about this very real crisis, but I left the meeting hopeful….
The Paris talks and resulting accords were substantive and the worlds power actors from all sectors are getting on board. Action is long overdue, but climate change will not be ignored.
We all had opportunity to take a booklet prepared by Fresh Energy entitled Global Warming 101. A pdf copy of the eight page booklet is available here. The data is clearly presented. On page three of the booklet, it was said that 2014 was first on the list of “The World’s 15 Hottest Years on Record”. Of course, within the last few days, it has been announced that 2015 has replaced 2014 as the hottest year on record….
What can the ordinary citizen do? There is a tendency to be defeatist, as I overheard two airplane friends talking as we deplaning in San Francisco in mid-December: “we’ve really had nice weather in Minneapolis” one said; this led to worried comments about global warming from both; but the conclusion was troubling “I just don’t think there’s anything we can do about it. It’s too late.”
This is a bit like saying one has been inflicted with a serious disease, but there’s no point in changing behavior, seeking treatment, or otherwise attempting to cure the ailment.
In this case, survival of life on the planet is at risk.
If, collectively, we adopt a defeatist attitude, we are certainly inviting the worst outcome.
Climate change is not a leaders problem (though who who we choose to lead us makes a huge difference), nor Fresh Energy’s, nor Hamilton’s or the three outstanding representatives of their countries.
This is our problem for us to deal with individually wherever we are, and do whatever we can do (which is far more than we probably think.

#1099 – Dick Bernard – Hawaii, more history with the U.S. than we think….

Previous posts at January 6 and January 11. Other posts will follow.
New Years Eve we were seasoned veterans of the Big Island. It was our 12th day at the Kaawihae Village house…and there was a New Years Eve party, with real Hawaiians there!

New Years Eve 2015 Kawaihae HI

New Years Eve 2015 Kawaihae HI


It was a relief to find that real Hawaiians were just folks, like Cathy and I. We all acted our age; quite a few celebrated New Years when Los Angeles did (two hours earlier) and bid aloha.
Very unusual for me, I stayed up till midnight, the real midnight, but not long after.
2016 was here.
I have a long time interest in geography – it was my major in college. Even so, it is always interesting to match up preconceptions with realities, physical, human, etc. For starters, the island of Hawaii is not flat, like a regular map suggests. Sure, we know the highest mountain in the world is there (if measured from base to top, Mauna Loa is over 30,000 feet), but even above sea level it is just a few hundred feet less than Pike’s Peak, but not a dramatic sight from anywhere within the roughly 30-50 mile radius of the Big Island.
Basically, Mauna Loa and its twin Mauna Kea are the island of Hawaii.
Big Island of Hawaii

Big Island of Hawaii


For some reason, Hawaii feels and even sounds like a foreign country, even though it is every bit as American as anywhere else in the U.S.
A poster at the Army Museum at Waikiki Beach summarized the U.S.-Hawaii history as follows:
At the Army Museum on Waikiki, Honolulu, Dec 19, 2015

At the Army Museum on Waikiki, Honolulu, Dec 19, 2015


Succinctly, Hawaii has been in the U.S. sphere for many years.
118 years ago, in the early summer of 1898, my grandfather Bernard and his fellow soldiers likely arrived at what is now Hickam Field at Pearl Harbor as their ship likely refueled enroute to Manila and the Spanish-American War [see end note]. They were there before Hawaii was formally annexed by the U.S.
This happened a few months after their miserable troop ship steamed out of Pearl Harbor. And that was quite a long time ago. A sketch history of Hawaii is here.
Henry Bernard, upper left, at Presidio San Francisco, Summer 1898; his future wife's cousin, Alfred Collette, is at lower right.

Henry Bernard, upper left, at Presidio San Francisco, Summer 1898; his future wife’s cousin, Alfred Collette, is at lower right.


Sadly, 43 years later, Grandpa’s youngest son, Frank, went down with the Arizona at Pearl Harbor….
At the gathering on Dec. 31 were many nice people, including an announced candidate for the Hawaii State Senate, by all appearances a very capable guy.
He and his family were neat people: his district would be fortunate to have him again as their Senator.
But that is ahead.
Back home I got to thinking about a photo I’ve long had, which I hadn’t paid much attention to.
Josie (Bernard) Whittaker and group at Hilo HI May 2, 1969

Josie (Bernard) Whittaker and group at Hilo HI May 2, 1969


That’s my Aunt Josie, Grandpa and Grandma’s daughter, and Dad and his brother Frank’s sister….
She’d beat me to Hilo 47 years ago.
Josie was part of the Los Angeles deaf community, and my guess is that everyone in the photograph was deaf, part of a tour group to Hawaii.
Aloha. Mahalo.
End Note: In a rather quick review of the literature on the internet, I don’t find any specific information about the troop ships going from Presidio San Francisco to Manila in 1898, except that the trip was well over a month in duration; and I had previously heard that they stopped at Honolulu enroute. Folks I talked with in Honolulu were short of specifics, though one man at the Army Museum was sure that the fueling station would have been where Hickam Field now is. A research task for another time.
[contact-form to=’dick_bernard@msn.com’][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Website’ type=’url’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]

#1098 – Dick Bernard: Martin Luther King Day

Today is Martin Luther King Day (his birthday January 15, 1929, death April 4, 1968.) The Minneapolis Star Tribune headlines, at page two, “MLK Day to feature conflict and celebration”.
We Americans love conflict, winners, celebration….
It would be interesting to hear Dr. King himself report on this day, in 2016. He’s no longer with us. As I opined earlier, on a great Christmas homily I heard in Hawaii Dec. 25, we need to “get to work, actively, in our own spaces and places to make our community, our world, a better place for everyone”.
Personally, I think Dr. King would be encouraged by the slow but inexorable progress made since his life so tragically and prematurely ended in 1968. But that’s just my personal opinion.
My philosophy has been shaped by many years of experience, where incremental change, often very slow, sometimes going backwards, was a daily reality. If one could stick with it, be persistent, and looked at change over five years, or ten, or more, there was, really, great progress. As I suggested, Jan. 6, “…its best that we nudge ourselves off of our sense of hopelessness or dependence on whatever it is that holds us back…We are, each of us, responsible….”
Yesterday, President Obama, our first African-American President, spoke of the latest accomplishment in improvement of Iran-American relationships. To me, that is a very big deal (albeit very frightening for those whose narrative is the need for endless conflict, mistrust and suspicion).
So it goes with the merchants of doom, for whom only complete dominance of some enemy will keep us safe (an “enemy” being essential to keeping us in line). Negotiations, unless a total “win”, is a sign of weakness, they say.
The argument of negotiations versus war can continue without me.
For this particular day I’ll provide a link to Dr. King’s famous 1967 speech about the Vietnam War, then in its ascendancy. Perhaps there is something to learn about today, there.
Finally, this from my friend Madeline, today, which is appropriate as well:
MLK and Realistic Radicalism
Rev. David Breeden, Senior Minister
Sunday, January 17, 2016
Nowadays Martin Luther King, Jr., day is a national holiday. Once, MLK was “the most hated man in America.” Is the sea-change because his ideas have been accepted by mainstream America or because he is safely dead?
podcast/assembly-mlk-and-realistic-radicalism/
Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals has been used by many groups, including civil rights movement, tea party, occupy movements, black lives matters, and perhaps by the current Republican candidates. Rules_for_Radicals*
Large numbers of whites think that black lives matters tactics are inappropriate/counterproductive; blacks think they are necessary. It’s an example of “white privilege.” Whites don’t think they have to be disruptive to change things; while blacks know they need to.
Peace,
Madeline
* – Dick Bernard: Alinsky was a very important part of my training when I became a teacher union representative in 1972. The podcast linked above is excellent listening. Alinsky’s constituents were the powerless in Chicago, people like the folks who cleaned toilets in airports. Alinsky was essential training as teachers moved from being powerless to having some share in decision making power. It was a very uncomfortable transition for both sides, teachers and school boards, and we both made mistakes, sometimes serious, but progress happened, and continues to happen, where people learned to work together. Both sides benefited, and continue to benefit.
Ironically, at the beginning of my career, my organization was subjected to Alinsky’s tactics by a competing organization: it made us very uncomfortable. It took a while for us to effectively counter them. They work.
During the ascendancy of the Newt Gingrich years, especially, I saw abundant evidence that the radical right had learned and applied aggressively the same rules for radicals. It still does….
POSTNOTE February 4, 2016: Further Reflections on Saul Alinsky by Dick Bernard
It should have been obvious to me, but wasn’t, that most people, even political types, were only vaguely aware, if aware at all, of Saul Alinsky.
Perhaps the following might be helpful to supplement the excellent sermon linked above:
I became a full-time teacher union organizer in March, 1972. It was an emergency appointment, for six months, in one of Minnesota’s largest school districts, Anoka-Hennepin, in northwest suburban Minneapolis. A few months earlier Minnesota teachers had been given the statutory right to collectively bargain with their employer. 1972-73 was to be our very first contract which included a grievance procedure ending in arbitration. It was a heady, very nervous time. We were all learning as we went along.
In the early fall I went to a training at the National Education Association in Washington D.C. which included an introduction to the tactics of someone named Saul Alinsky, who I’d never heard of before. (His principles – the ones I and others learned – are in the previously referenced link, above). It wasn’t until years later that I learned that the famous Alinsky had died just three months after I began my staff career, which ultimately spanned 27 years.
We were taught the tactics because, at the time, teachers had little power when it came to negotiations. Yes, bigger districts did enter into negotiations of a sort, and there was some kind of grievance procedure, but in the end, all the ultimate power was invested in the school board and its administration. As suggested above, it was a heady but uncertain time. We had to learn what to do with power; management had to learn how to share a little of its power. It wasn’t always easy.
We had another complicating factor: at the time, there were two competing teacher unions in Minnesota: the Education Association (mine), and the Federation of Teachers (AFL-CIO).
The Federation had learned the same tactics we had, but because we were by far the largest union in the school district, we became a target of the Federation. We, not the school district, were in the Federations “bullseye”. And in this new arena, we were an obvious, and juicy, and vulnerable target for a takeover through a bargaining election.
We “dodged the bullet” the first time around: neither side was yet up to speed about this competing union business. We made mistakes; so did the Federation….
The second time around, in the spring of 1974, the Federation got sufficient cards to call for an election, and went on campaign against us with the election scheduled, if I recall correctly, for the month of April. They were “Alinsky’ing” us to our ultimate death – they figured. And we were nervous too.
But at some point we frantic folks in the bullseye took a timeout.
I can remember when it happened; I cannot recall under what circumstances we changed course. I think it was local thinking, not anything else.
We had just been bombarded with another bunch of paper (no e-mails or such in those days), and someone, and then collectively, came to the realization that we were, after all, the union to which most of the teachers belonged, and that had to mean something.
At that moment we made a crucial decision, to stop being defensive, and to go on the offensive.
Everything changed. The election came, and we won approximately 60-40%. This was 1974, and was the last serious challenge the local ever faced.
This was no act of genius; really it was an act of near desperation. And we were fed up with being attacked for doing the best we could under difficult circumstances.
I think of this turnaround often when I see Alinsky tactics being the crucial organizing tactics of the Tea Party and the earlier Newt Gingrich revolution. It is a good time to relearn the old lesson I learned in the spring of 1974.
I note that I previously have written about Saul Alinsky on this page. If you wish, look here.

#1097 – Dick Bernard: A Reflective Time

Hawaii roadside Dec 15001

Roadside monument to someone, probably a young person, who died near Kawaihae HI Dec. 2015


A few days ago a few folks in California, Tennessee and Florida won the largest lottery in history.  Judging from the news, there was, even knowing the chances of winning were near zero, the thrill of the dream of riches with almost no effort!
The day after the drawing, I had my date with the Internist (annual physical) and Eye Doctor (annual checkup).
A few days before, at coffee after church, my fellow usher friend, call him John, and his wife, Mary, were sitting with me.  Mary not too long ago was a fellow usher with us.  This particular day her Alzheimers took over.  She was uncommunicative, and abruptly walked away.  John knew the drill.  He caught up with her, and they left.
There were no departing words, there didn’t have to be….  Theirs is a very long and loving marriage with several grown children, and such is the lot of their lives at this moment in time.  He has retired from his job, because she needs his full-time care.
And so it is.
The day after the checkups, I attended a very large funeral for a colleague from many years ago.  I didn’t know Bob well, but in our mutual context from about 1972-75, he was a stellar person, a dependable and valued colleague.  The attendance at the funeral was not surprising. He spent his time “on the court” of life.
He had died suddenly, shoveling snow.  He was 77.
Arriving home, my wife told me that the elderly lady across the street, the always pleasant person who I saw just weeks ago walking with her dog to pick up the mail, had just died; there were no details.  Last time I saw her ,she was her usual pleasant self, about to head for some time in Florida with her daughter and son-in-law.
This morning, giving blood, the attending nurse who I’ve become friends with, allowed that five people from her high school class have died in recent years, all from cancer.  She’s probably 25 years younger than me, and while her class was a large one, still….
Both the Internist and the Eye Doctor had a minimum of serious looks as they checked me over this year.
I even passed the memory test given by the pleasant nurse before hand.  So for me it was a good day.  Hopefully, the next visit with both of them is a year from now.
I could extend the above list considerably, of course.  For all of us, life happens.
There is an “end of the road”, in temporal terms, and the more miles our vehicle has traveled, and the rougher the road, the closer the destination is.
Thankfully we’re mostly spared that memo which specifies the day, hour and cause of death.
We all just know that we are somewhere along the route.
One thing I’m sure of: if we’re fortunate to have medical insurance, especially medicare for the elderly, we can almost be assured of a longer and better quality of life than those who preceded us.
The practice of medicine (emphasis on “practice”), with all its abundant and well publicized problems, is in the greatest part full of caring professionals who do their best.
That dreaded memory test is useful to help notice a symptom.  Mary’s ailment probably could not be prevented, but it is helpful for her husband to know earlier, and be prepared.
In the end, I’m reminded of the long ago words of the wise pastor at the same Church I attended the funeral on Friday.
Perhaps 40 years ago, a teacher I knew, Myron Way, died in a car accident enroute to a national conference, perhaps Boys Nation.  He was probably in his 40s, then.
Pastor Hyllengren said, and I’ve always remembered this: “Myron lived before he died; and he died before he was finished.”  “Too many of us”, the pastor continued, “die before we’ve even lived”.  His reference seemed to be a passive approach to life itself: we don’t live, and then we die.  We wait to win the lottery, in vain.
Bob lived….
I’m not sure I remember Pastor Hyllengren as he intended; but he’s not around to challenge my interpretation.
Let’s make every day, a day we win the lottery, just by showing up.
POSTNOTE from Kathy: Thanks for writing your thoughts and sharing. “Be faithful to the day” a 102 year old nun told me…her mantra for life.
[contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Website’ type=’url’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]

#1096 – Dick Bernard: Thoughts About The Big Island of Hawaii

Today it is below zero here at home in Minnesota. One week ago today we left “on a jet plane” from Kailua-Kona airport on Hawaii, largest island of our nation’s 50th state. It had been in the 80s all day…. My first post about our trip is here.

Presidents plane at Hilo Airport Dec. 22, 2015 (see note at end of post)

Presidents plane at Hilo Airport Dec. 22, 2015 (see note at end of post)


Dec 20 – Jan 4 2016 we were on the Big Island of Hawaii, our first such visit. My Dad, long before the word “blog” entered the vocabulary, used to say he traveled by looking at the pages of National Geographic.
Perhaps one or two or more readers will get some ideas about the wonderful Big Island from the following, and take it from there, through the Geographic or some other source.
(click to enlarge all photos)
Big Island of Hawaii

Big Island of Hawaii


The above map helps give context to the Big Island.
We stayed at my cousin Georgine’s rental property at Kawaihae Village, (the dot you see on the northwest (dry) side).
(If you’re planning a visit, consider staying at her place, link here.) Between us and the Kona airport (the other dot on the map) was 34 miles of excellent road. In between were several ‘gold coast’ resorts. Georgine’s home offers a great view of the west coast and the ocean, and all-around pleasant environment.
Hawaii owes its existence to volcanoes, past and present (see the brown areas on the map for more recent lava flows).
Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa dominate the island, with the “saddle road” in between. During our visit I circumnavigated the island, including saddle road, and travel by car was often relatively slow, but generally easy. (In Hawaii, unless you persist in staying on the coast, you’re either going up, or going down.)
I worried about the roads, with, it turned out, no basis at all.
A guide at Kilauea said the island, 4,000 or so square miles, is a bit smaller than Connecticut, and has only 190,000 population (Minnesota has about 87,000 square miles and 5.5 million population.) An islander we met said the island is more or less equally divided into five ethnic groups, one of which is Hawaiian; another, which one guide pronounced “howlers”, (not spelled that way) is more recent imports, non-Hawaii natives in any sense.
Hawaii hosts 11 of 13 climate types, I was told. Where we were was arid but pleasant grassland. Twenty miles away or less would be tropical vegetation groups. I think we experienced most of the climate types one time or another in our two weeks. Unless you elect to be chained to a resort, take warm clothes for excursions in higher country (Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea are Rocky Mountain elevations).
Walking distance from our house at Kwaihae was a very interesting ancient Hawaii historic site, Pu’ukohola Heiau. The text of the site brochure can be read here: Pu’ukohola Heiau001
There is a quiet, but not benign, tension remaining from the days of traditional Hawaii to the days of colonial empire (ca 1700s forward) to the present day.
An apparent standoff between protestors against the installation of a new observatory on the sacred mountain of Mauna Kea had closed the visitor center (which had the bathrooms).
There are lots of observatories and etc. already atop Mauna Kea. Enough was enough, apparently. As always, the issue depends on the perspective of the reporter….
Attempts at conversation to learn a true history of this paradise were unproductive. Whose version of “history” is true? This is always a legitimate question.
A tour guide in Honolulu suggested that a native collaborative culture had been replaced by a competitive one, without going into details….
Among other evidence of colonial actions (uncluding of course our own) the Hawaii flag features the English Union Jack instead of stars.
On arrival home, my cousin sent this link to a recent long article in a Business publication about current Native Hawaiian issues. It is worth a read, particularly for those with an interest in issues of native peoples, anywhere. Indigenous people may have been defeated in sundry ways, but they have not been beaten.
Much of the pristine appearing mountain area is not safe for people, in part because of unexploded old ammunition. The reason is that a significant section below Mauna Kea is a military reservation, Pohakuloa, and the empty areas of the island were long used for bombing and artillery training.
Waimea, a short drive from our vacation home, was used as a military training post following Tarawa beachhead in WWII.
We stopped at an information spot below Mauna Kea, and behind me was a carefully made protest sign made by someone about Pohakuloa. You can see it below.
Pohakuloa001
My sister and her husband and myself took the drive to Kilauea Volcano on Jan. 3. The drive of about 90 miles was less than three easy hours from Kailua-Kona.
I had visions of an angry Kilauea before the trip. It is definitely active but was docile during our visit (the photo shows only part of the immense caldera, several miles across).
There is a brand new book about the scientist who made the volcano his life work, and for whom the visitor center at Kilauea is named. The book was reviewed in the Honololu Star Advertiser on Dec. 20. You can read the review here: Kilauea:Jaggar001
Kilauea Jan 3, 2016

Kilauea Jan 3, 2016


Earlier in the week, grandson Ryan and I went on a doors-off helicopter ride over the Kilauea area. Georgine’s stepson Ryan Moeller was the excellent pilot (below)
Ryan and Dick on return from Kilauea area, Dec. 22, 2015.  Pilot Ryan Moeller expertly did the flying.

Ryan and Dick on return from Kilauea area, Dec. 22, 2015. Pilot Ryan Moeller expertly did the flying.


POSTNOTE: The photo that leads this post is the back up Air Force One, which we saw parked at Hilo airport on Dec. 22. President Obama and family were on vacation on Oahu, and it is apparently standard procedure to have an identical backup plane for the President when traveling. I took the photo from the helicopter as we were about to land.

#1095 – Dick Bernard: The Gun Issue

Bottom Line: I support President Obama’s continued attempts to reasonably manage the “gun issue” in this country. This is not a new position for me.
I think I’m part of a huge majority in this country (which is, unfortunately, silent to their elected representatives). If those of us in favor of gun sanity speak out, it will count, regardless of the NRA.
But we have to speak to these elected representatives in some formal and individual way, often, organized and individually. Otherwise, nothing much will change. They are terrorized by the organized gun lobby.
*
It is a relatively simple matter to find facts about guns in the United States of America, and in the rest of the World, and the uses and consequences and history of weapons.
1. Here’s Amendment II of the U.S. Constitution in its entirety: “A well regulated Milita, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”. (Adopted Dec. 15, 1791, when the idea of “arms”, generally, was a bit different than today.)
There have been million of words expended to interpret what these few words mean. To use a favorite lawyer word, their meaning is not “clear”..
2. The current census of guns in the United States apparently is roughly equivalent to one gun per person (over 300 million).
3. At the same time, roughly two-thirds of households have no guns on their premises. This includes the “wild west”.
*
The “news” keeps us informed about heinous acts with guns.
The U.S. is not the “wild west”, and even the “cowboys” among us know that simply having a gun and threatening to use it is itself a risky proposition.
*
I have personally experienced that getting guns from one place to another is a bit more complicated than taking them to the post office or UPS or FedEx.
I’ve never owned an operative gun, and have no intention to start now. Other than qualifying as “expert” on the old Army M-1, I’ve not shot a gun since.
In my “real world”, for the last year or so, I’ve been the temporary custodian of my deceased uncle’s “farm guns”. There are seven of these, and an old inoperative “six shooter” found amongst the farm possessions. These are all safely in storage. Their new owner lives in a distant state. Uncle Vince’s “stockpile” of ordinary firearms is pretty typical, I think: a couple of shotguns (for ducks et al), a 22 calibre (varmints), an ordinary deer rifle, and two or three old nonfunctional and similarly pedestrian weapons from earlier farm days. His was hardly an arsenal, and they were rarely used.
In my work-a-day world, which involves lots of contacts with people in assorted contexts, I have not seen an open-carry “exhibitionist” for a long while. My experience, I would guess, matches the rest of us. I don’t run into braggarts impressed with their firepower.
A good part of this shyness about using guns may well be the uncomfortable (for gun owners) fact that shooting somebody has its own potential consequences.
Murder, even attempted murder, is still frowned on in this country, it turns out. You just can’t go out and kill someone without consequences.
Not even police are immune….
*
Want change? Get on the court.

#1094 – Dick Bernard: A Homily to begin a New Year

See also Jan 11 and Jan 20, 2016
My Christmas message here, Dec. 17, 2015.
Aloha.
We just returned from nineteen days in Hawaii, most of which time was a wonderful visit with my cousin, Georgine, and her circle, as well as the use of her home on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Mahalo!
Only one previous time, in 1985, did I visit Hawaii. Certainly I’m no expert on our 50th state. Still, there are many learnings, simply from observing. In later posts, I’ll share more observations about the Hawaii I saw the past 19 days. This initial post focuses on events part of three of those days.
We are home bodies. Christmas and New Years this year was far away from home. One becomes aware of customs and traditions, similarities and differences, inclusion and, yes, exclusion.
December 23 was not a particularly good day, and in mid-afternoon in a McDonalds restaurant in a Kailua-Kona Walmart, I had the good fortune of passing about an hour of time listening to a concert of community elders sitting across from me (picture below, click to enlarge). They were simply folks, singing in English, and in Hawaiian, tunes familiar, and unfamiliar. At most, there were about nine in number. It was a very pleasant time, and they seemed pleased there was an audience.

Singers in McD's in Kailua-Kona Hawaii, Dec. 23, 2015

Singers in McD’s in Kailua-Kona Hawaii, Dec. 23, 2015


Earlier, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Dec. 20 edition featured an essay by Minnesota home-boy Garrison Keillor on Christmas. Neat: GK Honolulu Star-Adv001.
But the high-lite for me was the Christmas Day homily of Fr. Stephen at Annunciation Church in Waimea (called Kamuela by the post office, as there are six Waimea’s in the islands.)
One doesn’t have to be Catholic or even Christian to know the basics of the Christmas story: Jesus was conceived and born, and on goes the story.
I happened to be sitting in a pew directly in front of a doll, the infant Jesus, which, ironically, was directly in my sight-line to the crucifix on the wall behind the altar.
Fr. Stephen had a very simple Christmas message which I interpreted like this: Jesus was born, and then he died, and then he was resurrected…the basic elements of the story we all know.
But in a most gentle way this teacher seemed to nudge my thinking in a new way. Surely, Jesus went away, leaving his disciples behind, those folks who had become dependent on him doing miracles and such. There they were, stuck with continuing the hard work Jesus had begun.
In a sense, perhaps, we were being reminded by our homilist that we need to learn that we are the ones who “must be”, as Gandhi so famously said, “the change we wish to see in the world”. We cannot delegate our responsibility to someone else. At least that is how I heard the message.
I started to see the Christmas message a bit differently than I had always seen it. If those apostles of Jesus were a bit slow on the uptake, so long as he was on the scene, so are we, and its best that we nudge ourselves off of our sense of hopelessness or dependence on whatever it is that holds us back, and get to work, actively, in our own spaces and places to make our community, our world, a better place for everyone. It’s not enough to blame the President, or the Republicans, or whomever. We are, each of us, responsible….
With our involvement the world can indeed become a better place.
At the end of Mass December 25, the excellent community choir sang the Hawaiian Christmas song – you’ve all heard it: here’s Bing Crosby’s rendition.
Mahalo, everyone at Annunciation in Waimea, Big Island, Hawaii.
Fr. Macedo, Dec 25, 2015

Fr. Macedo, Dec 25, 2015


Annunciation Choir 12 25 2015

Annunciation Choir 12 25 2015


A PS: A couple of days later I was back in the same Church, again listening to the same choir, and the same pastor. It was Holy Family Sunday. The message this time was about the tough time this Biblical family had for some years after Jesus was born. As Christians know, Herod was not especially happy at this new child. The family was not welcome. They became “Illegal Immigrants” for a considerable time
After church, myself, this stranger, this short term “migrant” in Waimea, was welcomed to participate in the after Mass hospitality.
Migrants are not a pleasant topic these days.
Back home, going through mountains of mail was a Refugee Facts001. Might be a good fact sheet to look at as this New Year begins.
Aloha.