May 2016 – Thoughts Towards a Better World

#1133 – Dick Bernard: A Presidential visit to Hiroshima. Now it's up to us.

May 30, 2016/0 Comments/in Peace & Justice, War /by dickbernard

The annual Memorial Day observance of Veterans for Peace Chapter 27 is today, 9:30-10:30, at the Vietnam Memorial on the Minnesota State Capitol Grounds, St. Paul. This is always a meaningful observance.
(click on photos to enlarge them)

Long family, 1943. Francis at right. The Francis’ story follows the Vigil photo, below.

(I submitted the following commentary to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 20, 2016)
The scheduled visit of President Obama to Hiroshima is a great many years late, but commendable, a positive move away from our enslavement to a nuclear system and, hopefully, away from the “war is the answer” response to most any international problem.
I was five when those bombs dropped on Hiroshima, then Nagasaki, in August, 1945.
My mother’s brother, George, since 1943 a Lieutenant on the Destroyer Woodworth, was in the Pacific. The ship’s log records the boat as docking at Tokyo September 10, 1945.
After the bombs, Grandma Rosa Busch wrote her son a letter from the ND farm: “Hurrah, the old war is over!” August 9, George’s wife, Jean, wrote from near Grand Forks, “The news that excited everyone is Russia’s declaration of war on Japan. Surely Japan will crumble now under the combined pressure, new atomic bomb and repeated attacks.” Uncle George, in a letter written about the same day, concurred.
Hardly anyone, likely even new President Truman, knew what this atomic bomb thing was, except that it was something unlike anything before. Aunt Jean enclosed in her letter a newspaper clipping with an optimistic quote from the U.S. War Department: “A revolutionary weapon designed to change war as we know it, or which may even be the instrumentality to end all wars, was set off with an impact which signalized mans entrance into a new physical world.”
No one really knew what we had unleashed, except, as Grandma said in her letter, “the old war is over”.
War had been shown to be hell. 407,316 U. S. war dead.
People doubtless knew others – estimated 50,000,000 altogether – had died in World War II.
But that astronomically larger loss was different. All that mattered was our tribe.
We don’t have the luxury of ignorance, now, over 70 years into the nuclear age. We can assure our own destruction.
Latest estimates from the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI)) are that the U.S. has 7200 nuclear warheads, and we are about to expend billions of dollars to upgrade them? Why?
May 18, 2016, NTI sent a survey. Included in their e-mail was this brief statement, recommending “The Partnership“, by Philip Taubman. The book tells the story of five American Cold Warriors — George P. Shultz, William J. Perry, Henry A. Kissinger, former Senator Sam Nunn, and Stanford physicist Sidney D. Drell–who stunned the world when they came together to announce their support for a world without nuclear weapons. The New York Times called the book “fascinating” and “haunting.” “
We face a simple choice: we can continue to relive and debate the nuclear war past, which ended in an instant in August, 1945, and base our policies and our endless arguments on the perceived need of nuclear retaliatory force.
Or we can show good example of another way, by ridding ourselves of the scourge of nuclear weaponry and other similar weapons of mass destruction.

The downing of the Egyptian plane over the Mediterranean May 19 may give us an opportunity. If it does turn out to have been a terrorist bomb planted somewhere on the planes last ill-fated days, what do we do to retaliate? Launch an atomic bomb? Against who?
Or do we come to our senses and figure out a new way to deal with threats of all kinds, some of which, like the atomic weapon, we created.
President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima will shine a light on a new path. I am thankful for that.

Vigil, Minneapolis MN, May 27, 2016. Photo by Hiroto

Monday, May 30: I watched the President at Hiroshima at 3:40 a.m. on Friday May 27, and was unable to attend the moving vigil in Minneapolis that evening (photo above).
The newspaper didn’t print my op ed, which is their right. My intent was and is to encourage civil conversation among unlike minds about the nuclear issue, and the destructive nature of war itself.
In my letter to the STrib I told only part of Grandma’s story. On July 2, 1944, the young GI in the picture at the beginning of this post (likely just home from Basic Training, before going to war), who lived perhaps three miles from their home, was a parishioner at the same country church in North Dakota, and was in school with her children, was killed in the Pacific: “Fri [Aug 18, 1944] we had a Memorial Mass for Francis Long killed July 2 on Saipan”, Grandma wrote to her son at sea.
Francis had left high school to go to war, not unusual in those days.
July 25, 1945, two weeks before the Bomb, Grandma noted in a letter to her son at sea, that her nephew, next farm over, Marine Captain August Berning, “had a bad battle [on Okinawa] got shot through his jacket”, though apparently not injured.
Everyone was on edge. World War II and death from war was not far away from her farm. It was not far away from anyone, anywhere.
My friend, Lynn Elling, missed President Obama’s speech last Friday: he died Feb. 14. I know what he would say to me and others. The phrase I most often heard from him was that we are at “an open moment in history” to achieve peace, and I agree with him.
Lynn visited the Peace Memorial Park at Hiroshima the year it opened in 1954. His peace moment came early in his two years as a Naval officer in WWII when he saw Tarawa Beach a short time after the horrors there, Nov. 20-23, 1943: Lynn U.S. Navy001. I think he would have been pleased with both the presence of the President at the Memorial, and the tone of the proceedings May 27.
You build bridges by direct engagement, and in steps.
In our polarized U.S. we tend to build walls, choosing confrontation with or detachment from those with differing points of views. We cannot survive in our own personal or interest group silos, much less with bombs in silos everywhere.
We need to look forward, not look backward, or engage in theorizing (as, “the bombs saved 200,000 lives….”) or such.
Still, the Bomb did happen. We still possess thousands of warheads, for no good reason. This world will not survive with nuclear powers. It is our responsibility to change the course, the conversation, not those folks over 70 years ago.
The road to peace is through all of us, one act of peace at a time.
Watch closely, the evidence is there, that more and more of us are getting that message.
Here’s to positive engagement.
A directly related post from my friend, Peter Barus, yesterday, is here.
What has been the human cost of war for the United States? Back in March I put together a graphic which simply speaks about American deaths in war. You can see the single page here (click to enlarge). Of course, this barely scratches the surface, not including injuries, dislocation, and on and on, but gives an idea. War is not a video game.

Convenor and Vietnam vet Barry Riesch opens the 2016 Vets for Peace Remembrance for Memorial Day, 2016. This years event lasted over an hour and attracted what appeared to be about 150 people.

COMMENTS:
from Christine, sister-in-law of Francis (though he did not live long enough to attend her and his brothers wedding.) We were in Hawaii twice and each time visited Francis’ grave at the Punchbowl Cemetery [Honolulu]. It’s a beautiful well kept cemetery. Thanks for remembering.At the Memorial service in LaMoure they list all those who have died and read off the gold star mothers because Francis was so young when his mother died and Theresa the twin sister came to help raise the family they have also listed her as a gold star mother.
from long-time friend Annelee Woodstrom who lived under the Allied bombs in Germany at the end of WWII and has written about it. Annelee is 90 in September, and in the process of writing her third book. She speaks often to groups. I’m honored to know her and be a friend:
“Thanks for the moving memorial blog May 30th. I feel we need much more emphasis of Memorial Day—
I spoke at Oklee (MN), I always take the first call for me to speak for Memorial Day. This year I had four calls.
When the callers ask me what I charge for the Memorial Day Speech and say, “Nothing”, they always seem to be surprised.
Why would I charge to remember what our soldiers endured? My driver charges mileage, but that is his-her problem.
What disturbs me most almost every year is the absence of the young people. I know they graduated most likely the day before:
Before the [program] was almost done, I ask if I could speak again. I told them that this was NOT on the program, but it needed to be said:
I said that where ever I have spoken I notice the absence of young people.
I bring up the example that once I spoke in a metropolitan city — the band, matter of fact, many of the students, were present;
I commended the students for being present—the band director said that he threatened them to be there or they would not get a grade in music.
I told the listeners today (someone had mentioned my third book.) I said I have decided today that I would suggest for the schools to have graduation AFTER Memorial day —-I would ask the students and graduates to be present—after all, it is the soldiers that died made it possible for them to live in a democracy. They gave much more than a half a day, they gave their lives.
Let them think about that— the parents could also have an influence to get the young people there.
I got a standing ovation after that, would you believe it— Out of over 100 adults, only 2 11th grader’s were there— and they had been ask to sing.
QUESTION? WHEN WE ARE GONE, DO YOU THINK THE YOUNG PEOPLE WILL TAKE OVER AND CELEBRATE MEMORIAL DAY LIKE WE DID?”
from Mary: Always interesting that the human cost of war statistics count those who died…..let us also remember the impossible to count numbers of those who survive a death in any arena.
Response from Dick: A valid point, certainly. You’ll notice in the sheet the hi-lited section at the end of the sheet which attempts to cover all bases in a few words. I chose American death count for two reasons: 1) it is possible to get what seems to be reasonably consistent and reliable data; 2) the low number of American deaths in recent years, coupled by the tiny percentage of the population which actually serves in the military, makes it possible for us to become anesthesized to the true cost of war.
At today’s Vets for Peace observance (which I attend every year), there were a large number of individuals who remembered someone or other affected by their service to the nation. Easily the vast majority of those remembered came home in one piece, at least physically, but ultimately were brought down by causes such as suicide or addiction for which clear causality was what they experienced in war-time.
Perhaps fifteen minutes from the end of the observance three visitors approached me near where I was standing, and one of the women, in very broken English, seemed to be inquiring if it was okay to place their car in a nearby parking lot; the man apparently sensed my uncertainty with the language, and confirmed that was her question. They began talking with the older lady with them, and both their appearance, and their language quite certainly was Vietnamese.
I showed them the Veterans for Peace flag, and they looked more closely at it, and noted the website.
My guess is that most of the people in the group this day, including the organizer of the event, were Vietnam era veterans or their survivors. What a rich and meaningful conversation their could be if there was the time and the inclination to dialogue.
For years, now, there has been a “bottoms up” process of reconciliation going on – veterans returning to visit Vietnam, etc. My friend, Lynn Elling, and his wife, Donna, adopted a Vietnamese youngster, and Lynn and Tod went together to Vietnam in 2013.
There is progress. Political progress works best from the base up – politicians know this. Too bad more of us don’t realize the same.
from Lydia Howell: Thank you for trying to yet again reach out to the Strib—who, like all Corporate media, REFUSES to allow any anti-war voices. (I can’t remember the last time I saw an op-ed in a “major” newspaper or heard an anti-war voice included on tv/radio). Also: thanks for promoting VFP’s Memorial Day event. It seems to me that these “holidays”–today, Veterans’ Day & certainly the 4th of July—have all become times to CELEBRATE war, to use the war dead (at least the AMERICAN VETERAN war dead) to PROMOTE war. So, anything we can do as a “counter-weight” to the celebration is good.
Right now, I am reading a CRUCIAL book: WAR IS A LIE by David Swanson, who WAMM & VFP are bringing to speak SAT. JUNE 11, 6pm (includes potluck) at MACALESTER PLYMOUTH CHURCH, 1658 Lincoln Ave. Saint Paul. WAR IS A LIE exposes the long history of the American people being lied into war by their leaders—that’s right,. George W. Bush was NOT the first, by any measure. The book also exposes the pro-war arguments that are repeated endlessly & never challenged. Much food for thought & highly recommended. I hope to interview Swanson on my show FRI. JUNE 10 (9am) on KFAI Radio.

Chante Wolf May 30, 2016

At Vets for Peace Memorial Day, St. Paul, May 30, 2016

Peter Barus: A Talk By Amy Goodman

May 29, 2016/0 Comments/in Community, History, Media, Peace & Justice, Peter Barus, Politics, Technology /by dickbernard

NOTE: Peter is a longtime great friend from rural Vermont. He is an occasional and always welcome visitor at this space. On May 22, he had an opportunity to hear journalist Amy Goodman in Troy, New York. His comments follow, with his permission.
(click to enlarge)

Peter Barus, front row, left, Oct 23, 2002, Mastery Conference, Annandale MN.

Peter Barus:
May/22/2016
Amy Goodman spoke last night at the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, NY, a lovely little old converted church. Arriving early, I strolled around the block in this economically by-passed neighborhood of old houses, grand old churches, and grinding poverty. A local church still retains its original Tiffany stained glass windows, and the Troy Music Hall is world-famous for extraordinary acoustics. I found that the Sanctuary for Independent Media is very active in the immediate community. At one end of the block is a little park, with an outdoor stage, built by (and commemorating) local artists, craftspeople and community groups. The back of the stage is a wall of intricate mosaic made by many hands. There was chicken being cooked for the $100 a plate dinner, and while I was standing around, a little car parked, and out stepped Amy, with two or three friends. We all walked around the little park while one of the Sanctuary’s leaders explained the history of this little patch of green in the city. There is a community garden at the other end of the block, and inside the Sanctuary is a 100-watt FM radio station that broadcasts Democracy Now! along with music and community affairs programming.
After supper Amy spoke to a packed house in the high-ceilinged former church. Soon everyone was listening as if sitting across the kitchen table with Amy, as she reported on the 100-city tour she is completing with her book.”Democracy Now!: Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America” by Amy Goodman, David Goodman, and Denis Moynihan. Her speech covered almost the last four decades of peace, justice, civil rights action, from an eye-witness perspective only she can provide. The connections, the people and events, touched my own life at more points than I’d ever realized. Her stories are moving and the raw truth of them is immediate and inspiring. They seem to have a common thread, of ordinary people acting in admirable and selfless ways, without a moment’s hesitation, in the face of systematic oppression, violence and injustice. And it seems that this is how human beings normally act in such circumstances – media depictions to the contrary notwithstanding.
One important message is that the media have almost no connection to direct human experience, and politics is covered in proportion to political ad revenues. Punditry demands no actual knowledge of the facts. This is why, for instance, we rarely hear what Sanders actually says, much less in his own voice. Instead we are treated to speculation about violent “followers”. This major Presidential candidate has been “vanished” from the airwaves. The night the Republicans ended up with a “presumptive nominee”, that individual got coverage of an empty podium at one of his mansions, captioned “to speak soon!” while his rivals’ concession speeches, some Hillary sound bites, and zero mention of Sanders droned on. Sanders was at that time addressing an audience of tens of thousands in Arizona, by far the largest actual news event, and the cameras were pointing at an empty platform.
Amy brought stories of a real and very large movement, the same one we are constantly told ended successfully when Obama was elected, It is the current generation’s Civil Rights movement. Occupy Wall Street is part of that, Black Lives Matter is part of that. The many anti-war demonstrations that go almost totally unreported are part of that. The Sanders campaign is part of that. And the real, and unreported, question today is whether the corporate media will manage to keep enough of us distracted, resigned, apathetic and cynical while the forces of blind capitalism complete the looting, militarization and ultimately the destruction of our only planet.
The corporate media are simply ignoring that ubiquitous and vital public conversation. The stakes seem high. As I listened to Amy speak, it became clear that it’s not about choosing “sides” in some mythical epic struggle between good and evil, war and peace, much less “Republicans” and “Democrats”; it’s about discovering one’s own commitment, and whether it is to mere personal avoidance of pain, or to aliveness and possibility for all people, everywhere. To climbing the mythical Ladder of Success, or being of some actual service in making a workable world while we’re in it together.
Amy Goodman is a walking demand that we struggle with this question, for ourselves. Get with “people like us, and not like us,” she says, and express your own experience honestly, and listen honestly to theirs. Instead of accepting the false dichotomies and slogans and polls, endless polls, that pour out of the media echo chamber, take your part in the conversation that matters.
Peter
COMMENT:
from Dick: Great post from Peter. I most resonate with the last paragraph.
Each time I hear the conversation about who has the power I think back to a thirty years ago talk, about 1987, about “Referent Power” – how much we have, and how ineffectively the left uses it. Referent Power? Here. Scroll down a little ways. Developing positive relationships with someone who sees some things differently is crucial to making positive change. Relationships are not easy. They are crucial.

#1132- Dick Bernard: The Spymasters, and related.

May 22, 2016/0 Comments/in Community, History, International Relations, Media, Peace & Justice, Politics, Technology, War /by dickbernard

Last night we watched what I’d consider a must-watch two hour special on CBS’ 48 Hours: “The Spymasters: CIA in the Crosshairs“. If you missed it, I think you can watch it on-line here. Ordinarily these are shown free for a very limited amount of time.
Succinctly, we live in a complicated world. The constant effort, on all sides, is to try to reduce everything to the simplest of terms. If you watch this program reflectively, rather than strictly judgmentally, it will cause you to think.
Towards the end of the program we were reminded that in the 15 years since 9-11-01 there have been 45 deaths due to terrorism in the United States (an average of three per year in our population of over 300,000,000); on the other hand, radical Islamic terrorism and its dangers have spread dramatically. We see this, of course, mostly in TV images of ISIS these days. But even here, there are only a limited number of merchants of terror.
Fear of Terror is exploitable, as we see most everyday in our political conversation. It is used to keep people psychologically on edge, by so doing keeping them more susceptible to manipulation.
Back in the winter of 2016, I set about trying to define a bit how the face of war has changed. It exists in this single page graphic: War Deaths U.S.002.
Here is the same data pictorially (click to enlarge).

We are in a time of change, and in my opinion it is change for the better, though we will never rid the planet of evil. And the nature of news – we see it every single day – is to focus on the tragedies, the evil, the polarization of one person, one group, against another.
But a shift is happening.
By no means is it obvious, but it is happening. People of good will, which is the vast majority of us, simply have to take the bait and be, as Gandhi said so clearly, “the change we wish to see in the world”. But to do this we need to change our own behaviors, so easily leveraged by those who seek to elevate war above peace for their own reasons.
For one instance, yesterdays e-mail brought a rather remarkable commentary from a long-time peace activist in Israel, Uri Avnery. Avnery is a 92-year Israeli Jew with credentials. His comments are, I feel, pretty remarkable. You can read that here.
I thought the e-mail fascinating, and sent it to our near 90-year old friend, who grew up in a largely Catholic town in Nazi Germany and still has many relatives and contacts in her home country.
Her response: “The email on Uri Avery’s Observations gives insights to what is going on in Israel.
I believe it was Bastian, my German relative, who sometime ago remarked about the great number of Jews from Israel that come to Germany, want to live there, and seek German citizenship. Bastian stated also that these new immigrants could not live any longer with what was going on in Israel.
I was doubtful, I thought they may have been drawn by the free education and the lack of inflation that is taking place in Israel.
I went on the internet tonight and checked Jews moving back to Germany and I got quite a choice. To me surprising and interesting.
My niece Manuela … is most outspoken and angry about the fact that Germany is still paying Israel 3 billion a year for the Holocaust. She says, “My generation wasn’t even born when that took place. The young Jews that come here like us, so let it rest. There are enough monuments here — we will never forget.”
Israel should think about what it is doing to the Palestinians. As long as they take the land and freedom from the Palestinians there will never be peace.”

Mark Ritchie on Expo 2023, Thursday evening, June 9, 2016, The Woman's Club, Minneapolis MN

May 18, 2016/0 Comments/in Economics, International Relations, Minnesota /by dickbernard

“Wellness And Well Being For All: Healthy People, Healthy Planet”: that is the working theme for the proposed Expo 2023 in Minnesota. Former Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie has been having conversations about the idea since 2014 and a look at the projects website gives much interesting information.
Thursday evening, June 9, Ritchie will speak at an open-to-the-public annual meeting of Citizens for Global Solutions at The Woman’s Club of Minneapolis. His topic: “Working Minnesota’s Global” How can we best use our heritage of global-mindedness and activism to maximize our impact in our community, state, nation and planet?”
(click to enlarge – printable pdf here: Mark Ritchie June 9005

Minnesotans know Mark Ritchie was Minnesota’s Secretary of State (2007-15), and before that as founder and long time Director of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, “a non-profit organization working with businesses, churches, farm organizations and civic groups to foster long-term sustainability for Minnesota/s rural communities. Among other issues, it looked into how global trade rules impact family farmers and rural communities.”
Since completing his terms as Secretary of State, Mr. Ritchie has been very active in planning an internationally focused Expo 2023, which will bring a positive and international focus on Minnesota and the surrounding region.
His is a long record of activism and interest in international policy issues, including the United Nations. His talks are always stimulating.
Now, with his planning of the internationally focused Expo 2023, Mr. Ritchie is again bringing Minnesota into the international spotlight. We hope to see you on June 9.
It is very important that Reservations be made, as noted on the flier, by May 23.

#1131 – Dick Bernard: Random Acts of Inspiration

May 17, 2016/0 Comments/in Community, Education, Environment, Minnesota /by dickbernard

For many years, actually until quite recently, the prestigious Walker Art Center in Minneapolis had an impossible to miss work of art on its wall on Hennepin Avenue in Downtown Minneapolis: “Bits and Pieces put together to present a semblance of a whole.” (You can see its former presentation at Walker here.) I would guess the phrase was seen by millions of people, day after day – it was impossible to miss.
The phrase is no longer there. I cannot tell you what is there, now, though I go past the Walker as often as in the past.
I miss “Bits and Pieces”.
*
Random chance, literally, brought me face to face with Bits and Pieces in the last 48 hours. I did not plan my experience. Each quietly presented itself through invitations, or simply my marking time between one event and another.
Everyone of us has had similar glimpses of our real world, far from the mess we see constantly portrayed as “reality” on television or in the media. Here are mine May 14-16 in chronological order. What would some of your similar experiences be?
Saturday afternoon, May 14:
(Click to enlarge photos)

south Minneapolis MN, May 14, 2016

I was invited to stop by a neighborhood garden being planted by young people. This was no ordinary garden. Its produce will be sold to a well known restaurant in the neighborhood, Gandhi Mahal, whose owner believes in being part of the community. A group, Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light, is a driving force behind this initiative. All Saints Indian Mission and its First Nations Kitchen play an important role in this garden.
As I stood in that backyard, I thought back to my own old days, in the 1940s, Sykeston ND, when Mom and Dad had a big garden, and we kids had to participate in its care. I didn’t much like picking peas, or potato bugs, but somehow it now seems nostalgic and very positive.
A few hours later was a benefit concert for the Huntington’s Disease folks (the disease that got folk-singer Woody Guthrie). I stopped by the venue, left a donation, listened to a bit of the sound check by folk singer Larry Long, but passed on staying for the concert, which I’m sure was packed and outstanding.
Sunday, May 15:
Sunday morning was church as usual. I’m one of those people who like going to church; the people there infuse me with energy and optimism.
Afterwards I decided to stay downtown rather than drive home, as I was to be at another event at 3 in the afternoon.
What to do while marking the four hours? I started by proofreading part of a new book by our friend Annelee Woodstrom. This year is her 90th birthday, and her book will be her third. I don’t know how she does it, but she does. And each of her books have been profitable, as will be the third, I’m sure.
Her passion keeps her going. Her story is compelling.
I wandered back to the church to drop in on an event I knew was happening in the afternoon: the Blessing of Wheels, bicycles, motorized wheelchairs, and the like. This is an annual event. I’d never been before. It was brief, fascinating and uplifting.
I asked the lady, (photo below), if I could take her photo. Yes. She was to bring up the gifts, in this case, oil cans…. The brief ritual for perhaps 50 people, a basically non-sectarian but spiritual event, was really quite powerful – even for a non-biker like myself. Rituals have their place, an important place, in human life. In this case, even if you don’t own anything but a car with wheels.

Basilica of St. Mary Blessing of the Wheels May 15, 2016

Blessing of the Wheels, Basilica of St. Mary May 15, 2016

Then the main event for Sunday, the reason I stayed downtown: the Angelica Cantanti Youth Choirs at Orchestra Hall. I’ve long been an Minnesota Orchestra fan and have been in Orchestra Hall many times. This time was extra special. Up on that stage, amongst the several choirs for the 35th anniversary, were two of our grandkids, Kelly and Ted Flatley. The concert was two hours; they had prepared for this event for months. It takes work to get results….

Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis, May 15, 2016

Monday, May 16:
Finally, yesterday, I ventured out to suburban Blaine, where the Middle School I helped open as a brand-new Junior High School in 1965, recognized its 50th anniversary as a school.
You begin to feel old in such a setting: 50 years ago I was 25, a third-year geography teacher of 8th graders. That is three generations ago.
Roosevelt Middle School, teeming with adults and students, was a very vibrant place yesterday afternoon. There were kids doing Shakespeare; musicians playing jazz, walls and displays full of student projects for parents and visitors. There was lots and lots of life in that place.
It was a great late afternoon.

Roosevelt Middle School band members, Blaine MN May 16 2016

Student Art Project at Roosevelt Middle School, Blaine MN

Event over, I elected to join a group of a dozen or so “old-timers” for a bite to eat down the street, and more conversation.
It was about 8:30 p.m., and I was on the road going east towards St. Paul, when one of the most brilliant sunsets I’ve ever seen showed up in my rear-view mirror.
Events of the previous 48 hours were already in context for me, but this sunset capped it. I thought back to the Saturday ritual in the backyard garden in Minneapolis, where a Native American elder helped the young people understand the significance of their efforts.

Native American Elder and dancer, Minneapolis May 14, 2016

It was all good. Nature and Humanity in concert with each other.
Bits and Pieces has taken on a whole new life for me.
There is hope, lots of it, and it resides in every one of us, but it is the young who will have to make the difference.
*
The next few months will be filled with the mud-wrestling spectacle of national politics.
I can say that the last couple of days buoyed me up.
Look at the bright side. There is a bright side to this country and this world. Just look around you.
For some inspiration, check out Louie Schwartzbergs Ted Talk on Gratitude, which I first saw 5 years ago. You can access it here.

#1130 – Dick Bernard: West Virginia, and on we go.

May 11, 2016/0 Comments/in Politics /by dickbernard

Last Tuesday, I gave personal impressions of the Presidential Primary season as of the day of the Indiana Primary Election, May 3. At the beginning of that post (here) are a few comments in response to the May 3 post.
Yesterday were the West Virginia and Nebraska primaries. Yes, there was a Presidential Primary in Nebraska…results listed for the Republicans; but none for the Democrats. Under apparent Nebraska rules, this seems legitimate, still rather odd. Here’s the report I searched out today; I could find nothing about the “election” at the Nebraska Secretary of State’s office.
On we go.
There remain six months before the elections in November.
A challenge:
Without checking, take a piece of paper and write down on it all of the elected officials who you think represent you currently.
This would include the names of those in offices like Governor, your local legislator and Senator, your U.S. Senators, your Congressperson.
Then check your data against the facts, most likely easily found at your state’s Secretary of State’s website.
Write down who these folks are, and make it a point to learn a little bit more about them. You have plenty of time, but as you know, time flies.
Check out other data about the 2016 election: what offices are up for election this year; who the announced candidates are etc. The Secretary of State’s office is a good place to start. Every state is different.
How does one register to vote? Timetables? Declared candidates? You’ll probably find them there, if not at this moment, fairly soon.
Or, just check with someone at your City Hall, or County administration office, or even a friend or neighbor you respect. They will be very helpful.
In my state, Minnesota, the Secretary of State’s website is here.
An long-standing excellent source of non-partisan information is always the League of Women Voters (LWV). Most states have their own LWV affiliate. Minnesota’s is here.
I often hear people say they detest “politics”.
The essence of “politics” is the people who participate in the process.
We are all “politics” Here are some definitions of the word. It is just the matter of our participation, or non-participation, in the political process that will make the difference.

#1129 – Dick Bernard: In Praise of Exasperating People. A Thought for Mother's Day.

May 7, 2016/2 Comments/in Community, Family History, History, Minnesota, Quietings /by dickbernard

Last Sunday I had the honor of saying a few words at the celebration of the life of a friend who I’d known the last seven years of his near 95 years; and later that day more words at a now-annual dinner that wouldn’t exist were it not for him.
(More details on both can be found at A Million Copies, click on Lynn Elling, and, there, click on “celebration” in first paragraph at the top of the page.)
The real problem: how does one condense this guys life as a peacemaker into a few words?
I had four minutes.
At coffee over many days I made a list of experiences I had had with Lynn over the seven years. It became a very long list.
I finally zeroed in on a single vignette from another Memorial service I had attended in Comfrey MN at his request June 23, 2009. And within that visit, a single recollection from the piece of paper he asked me to read at that Memorial about the LST he and his friend, Melvin, had served on for two years in the Pacific in WWII. That summarized Lynn’s life for me.
(LST? Officially, that’s a “Landing Ship Tank”.
In his words, on his piece of paper from which I read, “LST” was a “Large Slow Target”. LST crew would understand…. Somebody in that congregation that day, a man, laughed out loud. He knew….)
As I prepared my list about Lynn, it dawned on me that Lynn was not alone as a positive example in my life.
I began another list, this one of people I’d known at many other points in my life who were in one way or another, like Lynn.
Then I decided to use part of those four minutes to talk about Lynn, the “exasperating” individual. He could be, I said, the kind of individual you saw coming, and ducked across the street to avoid. You knew that he wanted to tell his story, and that the pitch would include something he wanted you to do.
Some folks in the pews chuckled. They understood.
They were there because they knew Lynn.
I mentioned my new list of exasperating people, (the last entry was #27 – there are 14 men, 13 women.) They came from all points in my life. The list could be much longer.
That list is a keeper. You’d be honored if you were on that list!
From that list, last Sunday, I mentioned only Geography Prof. George Kennedy, who, back in about 1960, got very angry at me, calling me “lazy”, and that was for starters.
Well, that is exactly what I was: Lazy.
He knew I had talents I wasn’t using. I never forgot what Prof. Kennedy said, and how he said it. It was very pointed and very personal, and it changed my life.
Too bad I couldn’t tell him that he made a difference for me while he was still alive.
Exasperating people can be very irritating and annoying. That’s what the word means.
But if you take a moment, you can learn something about what you learned from them, about yourself.
Hopefully, I sometimes fill that role, of being “exasperating” to somebody else.
Exasperating. Remember that word…. At times, I fit that word. You?
Happy Mother’s Day May 8, to Mom’s (and all others who in one way or another have filled that oft-times exasperating role).

#1128 – Dick Bernard: A Political Conversation on the day of the Indiana Primary.

May 3, 2016/0 Comments/in Politics /by dickbernard

Comments following publication of this post:
from Flo: I appreciate your perspective but your piece appears to fail to recognize how Trump has risen to the top of the heap in the Republicans with just the support of disgruntled Americans who want to see somebody “stick it to” somebody else, with no thought of the repercussions. There are “backs” [pay-back time? ultimate responses] with every assault. Perhaps we’ll see them unfold in this election, but will it actually move us in a more positive direction or just set the scene for the next round of “backs”? I’ll push for the positive and try to accept compromises that that I know will still hurt somebody but seldom me, personally. It’s also important to note the the Equal Rights Amendment has been introduced in every Congress since 1923, but when it passed in 1984 it failed the final test of 3/4 of state’s support by three. The amendment continues to be “heard” by every Congress, but women are still not equal under the Constitution of the United States or Minnesota. Every right has to be hard earned by women and myriad minority groups, not taken for granted.
Thanks for airing your voice! It’s refreshing!
from Fred: Here is a quote from my favorite American newsman and cynic H. L. Mencken that is important this political season. It is famous but often misquoted. Here is the original version (pay special attention to the last sentence).
“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
from Jan: I am trying to figure out women who don’t support Hillary Clinton.
from Phyllis: I’m for Hillary, too! Hope the Bernie supporters really think hard and strong if they plan to vote for Trump if Bernie is not the nominee….
from Carl, recommended by a mutual friend, received by Dick in March, 2016, pertinent to this conversation: Steps to Fearocracy- Crowning a Demagogue v2
Just Above Sunset, for May 10, 2016 (published early a.m. on May 11). Title: Trump and God. And another: The Impossible Reconciliation.
*
May 3, 2016
Relevant and timely, the most recent Just Above Sunset.

On 7th Street, Minneapolis MN, Apr 19, 2016

(click to enlarge photo)
Today, another primary election, this time in Indiana. The chattering class considers this an important day…for Cruz, who’s fading fast. Bernie fights on, but in the longer term already seems not very relevant. Both Ted and Bernie know the score, and it’s late in the game.
So, at the next table at the coffee joint just minutes ago, two guys were catching up: comparing notes on Grandkids, Mom in the Nursing Home, that sort of thing.
At the end one of them said “Today is election in Indiana. It’s looking like Trump and Clinton.” (response) “Yah, I like Kasich, but….” (back to the first) “I’d vote for Cruz, but not for Trump.”
They seemed to agree if it was Clinton and Trump, they may not vote at all…at least for President.
I was tempted to ask, “so how will that help you?” But I have one or two brain cells left, and I didn’t go there. Besides, they were in the act of leaving when they made their declarations. As a friend likes to say, “power to ’em”. They’ll do what they’ll do.
People punish only themselves by doing the political equivalent of a kid holding his or her breath till they near pass out.
But you can bet that there’s lots of these conversations, to others, or to oneself, going on. “My way, or the highway”. In my circles: “Bernie or nothing”.
I’m one of those who’s been very comfortable supporting Hillary Clinton for eight years now. She’s got the credentials, and the toughness and, apparently, the stamina for the most difficult job in the world. Year after year, she’s one of the most admired women on the planet, and she deserves the accolades. She fits the job requisites for President of the United States. She’s been personally attacked for 25 years, and she survives.
She’s also demonstrably and basically honest in campaign claims. (This doesn’t stop those who loudly declare “she lies”, which she is doesn’t, when compared on truthiness with fellow candidates past and present.
I am most puzzled by the women – there are lots of them – who pass on no opportunity to express their dislike of Hillary Clinton. These include the progressive (most liberal) types. There is something more than ideology going on in their dislike of their colleague female.
I have my theories, informed by work experience, but I’ll pass on sharing them in this forum.
Meanwhile, at this moment, even before Indiana starts counting ballots and tallying delegates for Democratic and Republican Conventions, it appears that the race will be between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Those who like vicious battles (I’m not one of those) will enjoy the coming months.
Because of my own political leanings, I really don’t care whether those two guys I heard in the coffee shop sit out the election in November.
For sure, I hope those who have “felt the Bern” , after grieving for a little while, get to work for Democrats in the upcoming election season.
I won’t “hold my breath”….
POSTSCRIPT: All along I’ve liked how Bernie Sanders handled himself in this campaign. I think the Democratic candidates have been respectful of each other, and I like that.

Waiting for Bernie: A crowd at the Commons on Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis, Sunday May 31, 2015

Bernie Sanders, St. Paul MN, Feb 12, 2016

Hillary Clinton, St. Paul MN, Feb 12, 2016

Wednesday morning, the day after Indiana
I watch little of the endless analysis of election results, which begins long before the polls close. That Bernie won Indiana didn’t surprise – Hillary is looking towards the general election; it did surprise that Cruz dropped out. What little influence he might have, he lost. He burned most all of his bridges…within his own party.
I had reason to call up a post I did about “Power” some years ago. You can read it here. The topic of Power appears in the illustration down the page, and I write a bit about it there. Pay special attention to the one called Referent Power.
Movements come and mostly go because they are of the moment.
The ones that last are built on relationships and they require hard work, and compromise (think marriage).
Ted Cruz is the latest reminder about the fact that relationships are everything when it comes to politics. Traditional definitions of power: authority, money, things like that, don’t count for all that much. Relationships do…and have to expand beyond the people who agree with you. Those relationships take work, lots of it.
One of the photos, above, from late May, 2015, was taken by myself. I actually planned to go to see Bernie speak that day, but the line was too long, and I didn’t think there’d be space. I regret not at least getting in line. I took one last photo before I left the area. It is below.
Bernie caught a wave, and, of course, the narrative becomes that he managed to get the attention of the Democrats, which includes me. But I think it is wishful thinking to that he can enact his (or any) point of view by getting elected – to get in power. And I think he knows that. We are too diverse a society, in my opinion.
I’m an active Democrat, and I get, and the people I tend to be around also get, that there are unmet needs within society.
But we’re also aware of the practical limits that go beyond idealism. Progress is always a process, to be worked towards, within the limits of societies attitudes, prejudices, etc.
I learned long ago, in teacher union work, that you always had goals which turned out to be too high, and you were always disappointed when you fell far short of those goals, and had to make compromises you swore you’d never make…it is just how it is in negotiating between union members, and then with the administration and Board, and in larger part the entire community.
Negotiations is complicated.
It was perhaps a half dozen years into my staff career when I figured this out, while taking the time to look back at a particular “Don Quixote” quest we were on, about elementary class size. It was something we couldn’t negotiate – a management right – so each year we’d present our data, make our arguments, and the Board would thank us, and we’d go home, some of us very frustrated.
We did this year after year, and a notebook had been kept of each years presentation.
I happened to look back at the old data, and compared it against the current data one year in the late 1970s, and it was astonishing how much progress we had made in the last five. We just needed to have a perspective, which we hadn’t been able to see. There is a reason for things like long term plans, and long term vision, especially long term vision!
One other thing which comes to mind hours after Indiana. In organizing of most anything there is a hard and fast rule: don’t peak too soon (a corollary, don’t peak too late).
Election day in November is when candidates have to peak.
It may possibly be that Donald Trump peaked in Indiana, yesterday.
There may be a reason why Hillary Clinton was working a longer term plan.
It’s just a possibility.

Minneapolis MN, late May, 2015, someone’s welcome to Bernie Sanders.

Another thought on perspective, noon Wednesday:
We went out for breakfast this morning and four men were having a conversation about the implications of yesterday. Things like “trade policy” and “jobs” drifted my way, and the comment from one, “Hillary deserves to win”. I expect to see more serious conversations among friends of all stripes.
The conversation is good.
On my walk, after breakfast, I reflected on the lament I hear in different forms (and forums) from different persons: for instance, “liberals are never satisfied, they just want, want, want”, said in a way that suggests that “they’re taking away something I have, and I won’t tolerate it.”
It has occurred to me that conservatives, however described, especially under the far right “Make America Great Again” banner, have a point, worth at least paying attention to.
Under the purest of definitions, perhaps some feel we should go back to the beginning, where all authority was vested in white men with property, including slaves. After all, the Bible talks as a matter of fact about Kings, Slaves and such.
Back in those good old days when our republic came to be, the Founding Fathers were the ones who drafted “all men are created equal” into the Declaration of Independence, but this did not include women, slaves….
It took Negroes until 1863 to see the Emancipation Proclamation come into being, but not until the Voting Rights Act of 1965, did these rights have any teeth. And now, more than 150 years after 1863, attempts are made to diminish as much as possible those now ancient rights.
For women, it took even longer to get recognition: Womens Suffrage joined the Bill of Rights 1920, but it was not until after the Federal Titles, Title IX and the like, in the 1970s that the idea of women’s rights really took root.
Indians (Native Americans)? That takes many more chapters….
And how we treated, sometimes officially, certain minorities with contempt at certain times: Jews, Catholics, Japanese, strangers from most anywhere, the handicapped….
Today’s subject of caricature and contempt, like “Mexicans” and “Muslims”, can take heart: we’ve been there, done that, a lot, but we are ever changing, for the better.
Since when could an African-American President even be imagined? Now there’s the possibility of a woman as President. John Kennedy broke the “Catholic” barrier. Such happens.
And then there’s the matter of “God” in politics. The Founding Fathers looked with justifiable suspicion on organized religion, as even the strict constructionists know. Nonetheless, constantly, especially in the last 100 years, and even more recently, have been attempts to enshrine in our national fabric a vision of “God” which glorifies the beliefs of some that, somehow, God specifically blessed America, in ways they define in their own terms – no one else’s ideas matter.
These folks are aggressive and relentless and need to be challenged at every turn as they are attempting to impose their belief on others.

Rural Minnesota June 26, 2012

I think we’re becoming better, slowly. And that is frustrating and terrifying to the arch-conservatives. Plodding ahead, slowly, is hard, hard, work, and worth it.
Viewed through this frame, while the conservatives truly have a right to grieve, this is one old white Christian man who never wants us to go back again to those “good old days”.
We are, again, a “melting pot” and we are far richer for this.

Across from the White House June 2006, a carefully orchestrated protest, with cooperation of media, protestors and police, in progress. There were some “arrests”.

The Donkey and the Elephant just blocks up the street from the White House on 16th Ave NW.