June 2016 – Thoughts Towards a Better World

#1139 – Dick Bernard: The Canada Consulate Canada Day gathering in St. Paul…Reviewing Partnerships.

June 28, 2016/0 Comments/in International Relations, Minnesota /by dickbernard

POSTNOTE June 28: Yesterday’s Canada Day event at Harriet Island in St. Paul was marvelous in all ways. Merci to the office of the Canadian Consul in Minneapolis. As noted in the following, I was distracted by ongoing events of the “Brexit” vote in England, and its implications. Thus, this post may seem somewhat mixed up, even more so than normal for this lonesome blogger!
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(June 27) In a couple of hours we attend the annual Canada Day event sponsored by the Canadian Consulate in Minneapolis. My annual invitation comes because for years I have been active in promoting the French-Canadian heritage I share with millions. The Canada Day events are always very enjoyable. I’m half French-Canadian (though born and raised in the United States).
(click to enlarge photos)

Canada-Minnesota Partnership brochure, 2016

The entire brochure can be viewed here: Canada-Minnesota 2016001
Before the event: Today, I wonder how or whether Consul General Jamshed Merchant will address the Brexit issue in Britain.
Canada is part of the British Commonwealth, though like most other commonwealth nations, independent. (“The sun never sets on the British Empire” was true for many years.)
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Canada Day is July 1, but like our July 4, it has a more or less portable date of observance: it is a national holiday. In Quebec, there is an abutting Holiday, St. Jean-Baptiste Day, on June 24, its own provincial holiday (“been there, done that”, at least twice).
You can read about the observances and their history here and here. Those celebrating those holidays have no decisions to make other than deciding how they’ll “vote for” (participate in)…go to a parade…whatever.
But even on holidays, there are reminders of competition.
Nothing is easy. What we take for granted can carelessly be taken away….
Even in the descriptors about Canada Day and St. Jean-Baptiste day (above links) one can learn about the lengthy negotiations that made todays celebration in St. Paul possible. Simply note the “Commemoration” section about Canada Day, and “The Fete National” section under St. Jean-Baptiste Day…. There’s lots to work out. Ask anybody who’s ever chaired anything.
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I do wonder if anything will be said about “Brexit” in remarks today.
It is not quite so easy as to say to the rest of the European Union, “you’re fired”, as Donald Trump liked to say on his television show about less than adequate subordinates. Perhaps more than a few “Leave” voters sloppily thought, in their “Brexit” vote, that their particular fear or grievance about the European Union would just go away, and life just goes merrily along.
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Consul General Jamshed Merchant and spouse Pheroza Merchant, June 27, 2016.

Back home from the event. Not a word about Brexit in my earshot, nor from Mr. Merchant. Lots of other kinds of positive inspiration that are always around at these kinds of events.
This was simply a celebration of partnership between two neighboring countries, friends.
At our table, Lois joined us. She’s with a group called Alaska Wilderness League, there to call attention to an Alaska wilderness issue. She can be found here, 5th row down at the right. Click on her photo and you’ll find contact information to get involved. I’m pleased to pass the word.
This is how citizen advocacy works: person to person, in small groups. I had never heard of Alaska Wilderness League before. In a very small way I’m glad to help Lois and her group. Take time to learn more about her advocacy issue, and pass the word on.

Dominion of Canada and Provincial Flags Jun 27, 2016

Among the several hundred people enjoying a great day along the Mississippi in St. Paul, I ran into a half dozen people I knew; and perhaps a half dozen rich conversations with people we”d just met, like Lois.
In the world in which most of us live, the idea of community has basically taken root, and expands beyond sticking with only the people who totally agree with us.
The Canadian Consulate is many things, including a standing symbol of diplomacy: one country to another. Part of the community.

Faces in the crowd this afternoon.

Back home, on television, there was news about Brexit.
Those who won, apparently didn’t expect to win, and apparently had no plans to implement their win.
No one knows what will happen long term.
If I were to bet on this, Brexit will never be implemented. There will be some learnings coming out of this potentially distrastrous (to England) vote.
The thoughtful people know on many levels that working for is much more productive than railing against.
Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, Merci Beaucoup Canada.
I hope we’re as good a neighbor as you.
FURTHER POSTNOTE ON BREXIT: Maybe the theme song for the promoters of Brexit might be the catchy country song of Dierks Bentley: “What Was I Thinking?”, which you can listen to it here.

#1138 – Dick Bernard: "Brexit". Another first rough draft of history.

June 25, 2016/0 Comments/in History, International Relations, Politics /by dickbernard

This morning I sent my friend, Christine, lifelong French citizen, this Just Above Sunset blog in the aftermath of the “Brexit” vote in England. The post is excellent and informative; Christine’s comments come a little later in this post.
To me, the most important data comes near the end of the column:
“But consider the UK data:
HOW AGES VOTED
18-24: 75% Remain
25-49: 56% Remain
50-64: 44% Remain
65+: 39% Remain
The future electorate of the UK wanted to remain in Europe.“
My generation, the youngers parents and grandparents said “we don’t”. Such a division doesn’t augur well.
{June 26, 2016 Minneapolis Star Tribune p. A12: Turnout for the vote “was 71.8%, with more than 30 million people voting..Leave won by 52 percent to 48 percent.“)
(click on photo to enlarge)

Hawaii state flag, Big Island of Hawaii, Dec. 27, 2015

There will be endless analyses of what the Brexit vote really means, on many levels. I really knew little about it until it actually happened.
What astonishes me is that this ballot question was apparently a simple “yes” or “no” and, apparently, only advisory – did the voter want Britain to remain in or get out of the European Union? This required no knowledge by the voter, not even any emotion. Just mark “yes” or “no” or not bother to go to the polls at all to answer the single question “yes” or “no”.
While the results apparently are advisory only, they have huge implications for the UK, for the European Union, for the entire world. And virtually nothing seems to have been thought through, by the majority, nor by the people who demanded the vote.
They just wanted “it”, whatever “it” was. Sound familiar?
Essentially, it was virtually “government by twitter”: an utterly brainless affair. How does any supposedly democratic society survive this passivity?
In my opinion, it doesn’t.
I include the odd flag picture at the beginning because, in so many ways, we are twins of England, from the time of our first settlement. I saw this flag on the island of Hawaii in late December, marking an apparent roadside death of someone. I learned later that it was the state flag of Hawaii, and the use of the Union Jack – the British flag – along with the stripes of the U.S. flag was intentional and most interesting.
Here’s the story of the flag.
In the United States we have just completed the Primary-Caucus system where symbolically winners of the Presidential horse-race have been anointed through a hodgepodge of endorsement systems. We are more and more formalizing the “primary” system, but only for President, as if the President of the United States is the only position which matters, and even less formally than in England, we demand the simplest possible commitment to “vote” for the candidate of our choice.
We know little, and we don’t care. Just make it quick and simple.
The question was made simple in England and now what?
After reading the Just Above Sunset, Christine responded (response shared with her permission):
“I find this analysis very interesting although I don’t buy the Christians, Jerusalem and religious links around it.
I fully agree with the comment that “Driving the “Brexit” vote were many of the same impulses that have animated American politics in this turbulent election year: anger at distant elites, anxiety about a perceived loss of national sovereignty and, perhaps most of all, resentment toward migrants and refugees.
“There’s a fundamental issue that all developed economies have to confront, which is that globalization and technological changes have meant millions of people have seen their jobs marginalized and wages decline,” said David Axelrod. ”
I am not expert enough about Trump and American context but it seems to me similar to what I can hear and read here in France.
I don’t believe France or other European countries, although they have populist political leaders too, would follow the UK. Actually we are all frightened, and this earthquake induces a fast reaction amongst the European leaders to reform and strengthen the European organisation as soon as possible.
The very good effect of all this is that EVERYBODY talks about Europe which was not the case earlier.
Europe, for those who thought that they did not benefit from it, now realize how important it is. Even if there is much to say about it, Europe is a great tool to improve and harmonize little silly things like safety regulations. Traveling, or employing all sorts of people (which brings the subject of immigration….), easy for most specialists like medical doctors whose diplomas are recognized, to work wherever they want, schools accepting equivalencies, but also to drive commercial markets in the world, with America, India, China, Russia…and so much more like no boundaries (again immigration is a topic), same money (UK never wanted to leave the Pound)….”
Reader” what is your opinion? At least share it with yourself!
We need to become very engaged as citizens. We must responsibly control our own fate.

#1137 – Dick Bernard: "Politics" and "Politicians" and "Bureaucrats"

June 23, 2016/1 Comment/in Community, Minnesota, Politics /by dickbernard

Click photos to enlarge them. Tomorrows post on “Gridlock” in Minnesota and Washington.

Rep. JoAnn Ward meets with constituents Jun 20, 2016

The subject of this post has been on my mind for a long time. Very recent events make today an appropriate time to share a few thoughts and photos: Donald Trump has made his formal entry into the Presidential campaign by trashing Hillary Clinton (who I have, since 2008, and continuing) supported as an eminently qualified candidate for President of the United States. The Republicans have been attempting to destroy her for at least 25 years now).
More on Hillary Clinton in a post to come later.
Last night began the “sit-in” by Congressional Democrats to escalate the attempt to get some action on Guns (I support this action, strongly). Also yesterday a good friend forwarded to me one of those “forwards” full of “facts” with absolutely no supporting citations, or claim of authorship, and, thus, unbelievable (yet believed by many, especially old white guys with computers.)
In short, it’s time….

Cong. Betty McCollum MN-4th CD May 4, 2016

Even the use of the words “politics” and “politicians” in this headline will turn off some readers.
“Politics” and “Politicians” are words that can be made to have an unpleasant, even icky, ring. Here’s one definition. I think the part which applies most to our democratic society in this country is: “5a: the total complex of relations between people living in society.”

Candidate for SD 53B Rep Alberder Gillespie meets citizens May 24, 2016

In my view, Politics is all of us; everyone of us have to be “politicians”.

We’ll be electing a President in a few months, and the flood of publicity can make it seem that that the Presidency is the only election that matters: make Trump the President and CEO of the United States and all will be solved. The idea is ridiculous on its face, but many think that.
I tend to follow “politics” more than most; and perhaps I participate more than most as well. We go to fundraisers for candidates we support; this afternoon I’ll be in a local legislators unit in a local parade; I’m on the Board of a statewide group called the “DFL Senior Caucus” of the Democratic (DFL) party in Minnesota; I write stuff. In short, I try to show up.
Every reader is like me in that they are represented in many ways at many levels in our society.

MN Gov.. Mark Dayton May 24, 2016

Speaking personally, with no pretense of providing a complete list, here are some of the positions I (and all of us) are called to select by our vote: (whether I vote or not makes no difference, every action or inaction or foolish action is the same. It is a “vote”):
U.S. President (and Vice-President);
Two United States Senator, and one member of Congress;
State Governor, and several Constitutional Officers (Treasurer, Auditor, Attorney General…;
One State Senator;
One State Legislator:
One County Commissioner;
A Mayor and Council People in my town;
Certain Judges;
School Board Members;
Homeowners Association Board officers and representatives;
and on and on and on.

State Sen Dist 53, Rep JoAnn Ward Dist 53A and Washington Co. Dist 2 Commissioner Stan Karwoski Jan. 31, 2016

State Sen Dist 53, Rep JoAnn Ward Dist 53A and candidate for Washington Co. Dist 2 Commissioner Stan Karwoski Jan. 31, 2016

I have an opportunity, and even an obligation, to help in whatever ways I can elected officials who are not on my ballot, by contributing money, or similarly. The tone of this country depends on who occupy the offices, as is ever more painfully obvious.
Then, there’s that “bureaucracy” that some love to hate:
Superintendent of Schools, Principals, Teachers
Fire and Police Department
City employees of all sorts
State Highway Departments and those who work for them, very visible in this season of road construction.
Public Hospitals, and Libraries, and Parks
This could also go on and on and on.
At the very least, we should be grateful that there are citizens who are willing to “step up to the plate” and seek and perform the duties of the very important jobs that need doing. Leadership is not an easy task.
At the very least, learn to know WHO represents you directly in the above positions, and others which are related. And consider developing a civil relationship with them, the more direct and active the better. They have a very hard job, trying to represent all of us.

At the Oakdale Summerfest Parade on June 23, with candidates JoAnn Ward, Betty McCollum and Susan Kent and perhaps fifteen others as part of this unit.

Practicing the chant pre-Oakdale parade June 24.

Before the Oakdale Parade June 23, with supporting cast: 1923 Ford.

Former MN Secretary of State, Mark Ritchie, discussing Expo 2023, a possible World’s Fair-like event for Minnesota in 2023.

Rep. Keith Ellison, Minneapolis, with constituents Jun 9, 2016

Russ Feingold, former U.S. Senator, WI, in Minneapolis, exploring a bid to run for U.S. Senate again in 2016.

#1136 – Dick Bernard: The Man in the Background: Father's Day 2016

June 19, 2016/0 Comments/in Community, Family History, History, Quietings /by dickbernard

I continue to go through hundreds of photos left as part of the legacy of the North Dakota farm. Recently I was looking at this one:
(click to enlarge)

Memorial Park Grand Rapids ND ca late 1940s early 1950s

The initial focus was the women in the group photo. I didn’t know any of them, and I’ve sent them to a ND friend lifelong in that area to perhaps identify one or two or more of them.
But my interest turned to the guy in the background, who seems to be holding a stick, doing something.
On initial glance it looks like a stick, maybe a baseball bat. On the other hand, it may well be a croquet mallet for a lawn game popular back then. The stick may look a little fatter than in should because it is a bit blurred. If you click a second time over the man, you can almost see the croquet ball to the right, to his front….
Almost certainly the camera had caught a Sunday outing at the Memorial Park – the folks were all dressed up, as if after Church. Also, almost certainly, the women and men were farmers or engaged in agriculture in some way. Most were likely Moms or Dads, and Sunday was a day of rest.
If I’m right – that it is croquet I’m seeing. Not far away some more men were throwing “horseshoes” – real ones. And off to the left was the baseball diamond, where the town team was playing some out of town bunch, and there were kids, and people fishing, and visiting, and picnics and this and that.
As was (and is) most often the case, the old photos is not labeled as to year or people. It didn’t occur to anybody that somebody, 60 or more years later, would care who or what….
As I say, this was a farm photo, and there were hundreds of them, and I’m still going through them, and they won’t be thrown away.
Most were taken by a couple of versions of old box cameras, thence as time goes on, assorted new fangled cameras replaced them. Everytime we came to visit, Grandpa would gather us on the lawn for the traditional picture before we left for home. This was a Grandma deal as well, and their children followed suit.
The picture exists because somebody felt it important to not only record the moment, but to keep it for posterity.
The picture itself is just another moment in the life of some people out in North Dakota, among many moments in many days in many lives, filled with good times and not-so-good, crops, relationships, tragedies, children, whatever.
As we all know, some days are better than others….
Today at Basilica of St. Mary, Fr. Bauer asked all the men to stand up, and recognized every male there for whatever role they play in others lives. It was a nice touch, typical.
While this is a specific Father’s Day, yet another tradition in our society, all of us, regardless of gender, play a part in making our world a better place.
We are all fathers and mothers.
Have a great day.

Part 2. Nobel Peace Prize Forum June 6-8, 2016: The Drowning Child and the Shoes…2016 Nobel Peace Prize Forum, Bloomington MN

June 17, 2016/0 Comments/in Community, Economics, Education, Environment, Health, International Relations, Peace & Justice /by dickbernard

This years Nobel Peace Prize Forum focused on “Globalizing Compassion”, particularly children, and gave a very large role to the co-2014 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, a native of India who passed over a career in engineering to invest his life work on issues relating to child trafficking. More about his Children’s Foundation is here.
Satyarthi is an immensely engaging and persuasive man. You can see and hear him speak at this years Nobel Peace Prize Conference at the weblink listed below.
(click to enlarge)

co-2014 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Kailash Satyarthi, June 7, 2016 Nobel Peace Prize Forum, Bloomington MN

Many of the talks at this years Forum are accessible online here. They are all worth your viewing time.
The brimming-with-information Program Booklet for the 2016 Forum can be read here: 2016 Nobel Forum001
My comments, Part One about the 2016 Forum is here.
Wednesday afternoon, June 8, the final day of the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, we were on our final coffee break. One of my colleague participants asked me what I thought of this years Forum. I said I always like workshops like these, where I know hardly anyone, including the speakers. It never fails, I said, that I leave without some insights, useful to me.
The conference adjourned, and I went home exhausted.
There was a final program, a film, The Same Heart, in the evening that I almost decided to miss.
Along with perhaps 50-100 “remnants” (not unusual after long conferences), I was at the theatre, and it was during The Same Heart that I experienced one of those insights I’d mentioned a few hours earlier.
The film is about the realistic possibility of eliminating the worst poverty for perhaps a billion children world wide. The film opened with a camera focusing on what appears to be a lake, and then panning back to a narrow stream.
Peter Singer*, ethicist at Princeton University, posed a question to the viewers: suppose that you are standing on the banks of a brook, and you look across to the other side and see a toddler going in the water, almost certainly about to drown. You are the only adult. The brook is shallow, but entering the water will ruin your new shoes.
What would you do?
His basic point was that there are hundreds of millions, if not billions of such toddlers around the world today, in effect drowning in circumstances out of their control, and most of us in varying degrees of affluence are unwilling to sacrifice our personal pair of new shoes to help them out. The message has stuck with me since I watched the film last week. It will not soon go away.
What would, what will I do?
The other insight came in bits and pieces, but it came together during a session on Tuesday afternoon.
An official of UNICEF, Olav Kjorven, Director of Public Partnerships, was talking about a UNICEF “My World” survey, about the “World We Want”, where millions of people expressed their opinion about priorities for humanity.

Olav Kjorven, UNICEF

Almost off-handedly he commented on the unlikely creation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by the UN at the beginning of the 21st Century, ending 2015. It seemed (my opinion) that a major reason these goals were adopted relatively easily was not so much because anyone thought they could be attained, but that they really were seen as a set of informal goals for the world which would not upset anyone’s “apple cart”, be stuck with commitments, and especially wouldn’t require much funding.
The MDGs have turned out to be much, much more substantive. “Grassroots” people have taken them seriously, and in a sense policy is being proposed and implemented from the bottom up, rather than imposed top down.
I was somewhat familiar with these goals. In 2005, I had attended a session on the Millennium Development Goals. One of the featured speakers was Marilyn Carlson Nelson, a powerful Twin Cities businesswoman who came out strongly about tackling child sex trafficking: her business, as we Minnesotans know, is the hospitality industry, worldwide. My notes about that meeting are here: MDG Workshop 2005001
Ms Carlson Nelson was part of a panel at this years Peace Prize Forum, and in her time period she said her insight moment came in 2004 from someone she said was “Amb. Miller” who heightened her awareness that her industry had a major problem with child sex trafficking. She took a very serious look at her own industries cause in the matter, and has taken action, and is still taking action, and most importantly has become a public witness for closer attention to justice in other areas as well.
She quite clearly became a behind the scenes leader in settling the Minnesota Orchestra lockout three years ago; most recently Mark Ritchie mentioned her as a very positive actor. The saying “don’t judge the book by its cover” comes to mind; or be careful about “painting with a broad brush”.
Progress is a process, often slow, but progress happens with effort.

Marilyn Carlson Nelson June 7, 2016

At the same meeting in 2005 was my friend, Dr. Bharat Parekh, who decided to take on the problem of child malnutrition in his native India, implementing one of the MDG’s. Here is a talk given by Dr. Parekh in 2014, talking about the then-progress on his work towards a goal.
I don’t know what his aspirations were, but Dr. Parekh had a plan, and he worked it hard – I watched what he was doing as elements began to come together – to the extent that now he is a Board member of a major organization called Toddler Food Partners, and is making a big difference.
Back at the conference, Mr. Kjorven noted that at the end of the 15 year MDG period, the “World We Want” survey (previously mentioned) gave great grassroots impetus to the current UN Sustainable Development Goals.
I left the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize Forum exhausted and, at the same time, renewed and refreshed.
People can and do make the crucial difference. They just need to believe their capacity to make that difference.
A WONDERFUL POSTSCRIPT: The final session of Wednesday afternoon was dryly described as “Closing Remarks” with a two line descriptor: “Nobel Peace Prize Forum Executive Director Gina Torry will close the final afternoon of the 2016 Forum.” This was a “don’t judge the book by its cover” descriptor, as the session began with a wonderful tribute to my deceased friend, and stalwart of the Nobel Peace Prize Forum from 1997 on, Lynn Elling, deceased Feb. 14, 2016. Featured was a video by public television made about 1993 which needs no elaboration. The segment concluded with a hashtag #peaceitforward…a wonderful tribute.
June 25: Recently the Aitkin Independent Age newspaper featured a long article about Lynn and his work in his lake country community. You can read it here: Big Sandy Lake and dad article
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* I note that Dr. Singer’s views on certain issues have excited some controversy which is hi-lited on the internet. That is of no concern to me, here. We all have points of view. His drowning child and shoes image will always stick with me.

#1135 – Dick Bernard: A Christian, A Moslem and A Jew

June 16, 2016/0 Comments/in Links /by dickbernard

This morning I was in line at my daily coffee place in Woodbury, Caribou at City Center.
The lady two persons ahead of me, in Hijab, was chuckling. “I’m cheating”, she said. She apparently had seen something in the pastry case…. (For the unaware, Muslims are about midway in the month of Ramadan).
Her gentle admission reminded me of an e-mail exchange yesterday.
My friend, Joyce, from Jewish roots in New York, had sent the e-mail, subject line: “Bacon & God’s Wrath” with a link to the New Yorker. Joyce’s message was brief: “Absolutely delightful; watch the video. I love this woman, especially when she talks about using “the google.” “
I didn’t connect with the video, initially. This is about 8 minutes, and it is as advertised, “delightful”.
The e-mail led to my response, as a lifelong still practicing Roman Catholic:
“So…payback…As you know, I’m Catholic.
Back in 1965 the rules for Catholics were no meat on Friday, and I was an observant Catholic.
My wife had died two months earlier, and I was broke, and on three consecutive Fridays, inadvertently, I’d eaten meat (Ex: I was invited to someones house and they had hot dish…what was I to do?)
So, being a good Catholic and feeling guilty I decided I had to go to confession, and did so in the church in [a nearby town] on the way to my second job.
I confessed, and the Priest “threw the book” at me – a larger than normal penance, in the Catholic way.
It was so out of the norm that I left the confessional and walked out the door and haven’t been to confession since….
There was another rule: when you went to Communion, it was believed that we were receiving the body and blood of Christ. So you had to Fast from midnight on, till after Communion in the morning. When you received Communion wafer, there was none of this chewing and swallowing. It was supposed to melt in your mouth, pretty literally. Eight or more hours is a long fast for a little kid, and my sister, Flo, quite often fainted. But the rules were the rules.
And so it went.
They still try the “no meat on Friday” during Lent some places, but nobody seems to care; and Confessional booths are used as broom closets and coat racks for the ushers and where the candles are kept. And there are no rules about fasting before Communion.
Still, I suppose, some purists complain about this.
I’m still a very active Catholic, but it has nothing to do with doctrine. I just like going to Mass….
Here’s to Bacon!”
Back to Caribou…my new Muslim acquaintance tarried a moment, and I shared a bit of my story. She said she was going to an all day workshop, and she excused herself from the fast. It was strictly common sense.
I know it’s Ramadan now, and I asked her when Ramadan concludes: This year, it is July 5.
Do watch the video. Have a great day “wherever you are at on your faith journey” (the every Sunday mantra at Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis – my Church).

The Massacre in Orlando

June 13, 2016/0 Comments/in Community, Guns, History /by dickbernard

POSTNOTE June 18: A letter to the editor which I will submit to the local newspaper next week (I missed this weeks deadline).
“The entire Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” (1791).
All the rest is argument about what those words mean, most recently the U.S. Supreme Court (2008).
For me, the question is very simple: what defines a civil society? What makes us civilized? For example: we have lived for years in a quad home in Woodbury. We share walls with three neighbors. There are 24 such homes (96 units) in our Association, governed by the rules set in Law.
We have been blessed to have good neighbors, and our town is good, too. But as we all know, with over 60,000 residents in a town, there is no assurance that all will be well. Expand that to over 5 million Minnesotans; over 300 million Americans; over 7 billion in our world, and a near absolute individual “right..to keep and bear arms” doesn’t translate to a “civil society” in which we all can live. Orlando is the latest example.
As I write, our own next-door neighbor for many years has her quad up for sale. She has retired, and is moving. We share a wall with her.
Her objective is to sell her home to someone who, we hope, will be a good neighbor. She would want the same, I’m sure, but mostly she wants to find a buyer.
With respect to the current debate, do we want a new neighbor who turns out to be armed and dangerous?
This is essentially what faces every one of us.
Currently, the complex rules relating to weaponry are set by lawmakers constantly threatened by organized political assassination solely for their actions on the gun issue: “Vote correctly or you’re dead.”
“Assassination? Harsh. True.
Orlando, Sandy Hook, all the rest can happen here. None of us are “free” of the threat.
We citizens are the only ones who can help restore sanity in the conversation about the sacred Second Amendment. We cannot allow ourselves to be paralyzed into inaction; to enable the next Orlando, which is a certainty,somewhere within our own borders.
We citizens are the difference.”
POSTNOTE from Jermitt, June 13: Thanks for sharing. The article on Riding Death to the White House was powerful.
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One week ago today, I attended the first day of the annual Nobel Peace Prize Forum at the Mall of America in Bloomington MN. It’s theme: Globalizing Compassion…Let us march!” I did a post about that first day last Tuesday, and attended the entirety of the rest of the powerful conference Tuesday and Wednesday. It was inspiring and exhausting, and coupled with a very busy rest of the week, I have not yet completed my thoughts on the recap of that conference.
Then came yesterday morning, waking up to the news about the massacre in Orlando, then headlined as possibly 20 dead; now 50 dead and over 50 wounded, the worst such carnage in American history; as best as can be determined, another one of these “lone wolf” carnages often facilitated by easy and legal access to deadly weapons which, as in Orlando, make wholesale mass murder of innocent people simple.
I yield my space to today’s “Just Above Sunset”, “Riding Death to the White House“. It is worth the time it will take to read, including the links.
Then, get into action, and stay in action.
“Politics” is every single one of us, and we all can do our bit. We all own a piece of this tragedy.
We can’t pretend it is not our problem to help solve.
Meanwhile, my recap of “Globalizing Compassion” will follow sometime this week.

1905 “Six Shooter” as discovered March, 2015

Thoughts Three Days Later: June 15, 2016, 2 a.m.
Orlando is a tragedy on so many tracks, every one of them demanding our attention.
There is a single common thread that seems most important to me, the one that rises to the top, as we continue to try to make sense of insanity. That single thread is our unwillingness to even attempt to check the ever more dangerous guns that are making our own society less safe. Our society is truly making progress on most of the issues identified in Orlando, such as race and sexual orientation.
We are paralyzed on the gun issue. It is a dangerous paralysis.
1. Including the shooter*, it is now known that 50 people died at the Pulse in Orlando. Over 50 were injured, most severely. This is what a single deranged shooter, a lifelong U.S. citizen, with a combat grade weapon publicly sold in the United States can do. The primary weapon, apparently, was a SigSauer MCX. And we sell this type of horrific weapon to most anyone who walks in off the street?
This leads me to think of the 1905 “six shooter” pictured above. It came west with my grandfather in 1905. I doubt it was ever used, other than to be tried out. It was probably solely a self-defense weapon, as he came west with the basic ingredients for his new farm in North Dakota.
The very day of the massacre, the musical Hamilton, celebrating early politician Alexander Hamilton, got many Tony Awards. Alexander Hamilton was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr in 1804 – a political dust-up. It is noted that Hamilton, probably deliberately, never fired his single shot, in effect, giving up his advantage. Aaron Burr “won”, but what?
Now a single shooter, legally, can buy and use a weapon designed for warfare, with warfare like results. That same individual can, in many places, conceal and carry, or flaunt the weapon in public.
2. Mitigating against this right, the track record for assassins, such as the murderer in Orlando, is not good: they ordinarily end up as dead as their victims, and those who survive do not have a promising future either.
Still, we as a society demand the right to possess and use deadly weapons for all sorts of reasons.
3. The main justification, the Second Amendment, apparently gives little cover who claim unrestricted rights. The “right to bear arms” is not unrestricted and never has been.
But politicians are cowards, with good reason: they have the “gun” of being assassinated (un-elected) pointed constantly at their head by the NRA and its ilk. It is difficult to blame politicians for encouraging a firing squad to do them in.
4. It is quite clear, now, that Orlando and other presumed “terrorist” plots are not an organized deal by ISIL or some other big scary acronym. It is also clear that the now-dead shooter would probably still be alive, along with his victims, had he not possessed the legal “right” to buy lethal weaponry in the state of Florida. Armed with something like Grandpa’s brand new pistol, he could not have pulled off the massacre in Orlando.
5. The solution rests with each of us, as citizens. We cannot be silent. We won’t get shot for standing up for, insisting on, action.
But we have to give politicians, the ones who will have to make the decisions in our democracy, cover for doing the right thing politically. In our system, it is the politicians that are going to have to take the action. It is not enough to blame politicians of any party.
We have the power.
We need to learn how to exercise it responsibly.
* – In Orlando and other places, the killer is as dead as the people he kills. But for some reason, his death isn’t treated the same as the others he killed. I first noticed then in 1999, in the wake of Columbine, when someone put up crosses above Columbine High School, which included crosses to the two teenagers who did that carnage. A day or two later, relatives of one of the slain removed the crosses to the killers….

2016 Nobel Peace Prize Forum, Bloomington MN. June 6-8, 2016

June 7, 2016/0 Comments/in Community, Economics, Education, History, International Relations /by dickbernard

This years Nobel Peace Prize Forum began yesterday, and continues through tomorrow at the Radisson Blu Hotel at the Mall of America.
I’m attending in person. Yesterday’s program was incredibly powerful, and probably today and tomorrow will be as well.
It is too late to attend yesterdays; and few of you may be in a position to attend today and tomorrow (though you can register at the door, I’m sure), but if you follow through you can likely watch the plenary sessions here, and if past is prelude, film of many of the previous sessions will be archived at the same site.
Yesterdays focus, “Every Minute Matters”, was exploitation of children, ending last night with a very powerful film, “Sold”, about the history of a youthful Nepalese sex worker in India. You could hear a pin drop in the theater.
A card distributed gave weblinks for bringing the film to your local community, here, and to bring the film to your local school, here.
Today’s Forum focus is entitled “Globalizing Compassion“, beginning at 9 a.m.; tonight at 8 p.m. at the Mall of America theater, screening of the film “Antarctica 3D: On the Edge“.
Wednesday, the theme is “Challenging Neutrality“, and the evening film, also at Mall of America, is “The Same Heart” about changing international economics to the betterment of the poor by an extremely small “Robin Hood Tax”. Of course, nothing is easy when you mess with money, but this is a serious initiative, proposed by people of serious mind.
(The venue, the Radisson Blu, is at the south edge of the Mall of America, on Killibrew Drive, a simple and short indoor walk to the Mall. There is on-site parking, the first three hours free.

#1134 – Dick Bernard: Grandpa Bernard's Can of Pebbles

June 5, 2016/0 Comments/in Community, Family History, North Dakota, Peace & Justice, Quebec/French-Canadians, Quietings /by dickbernard

Now and again in our growing up years we made it up to Grafton ND to visit Grandma and Grandpa* Bernard, who lived in a tiny house at 738 Cooper Avenue.
Grandpa, 68 when I was born, and 85 when he died, was a most interesting character, starting life in Quebec on a farm, then an asbestos miner at Thetford Mines QC, thence a lumberjack, a carpenter, and finally chief engineer of the Flour Mill in Grafton (he came from a line of probably hundreds of years of millers in France and thence in Quebec. His brother, Joe, was chief miller in Grafton.)
This particular day, Grandpa was sitting on his accustomed perch on the front stoop, basically exactly as shown in the old photo:
(click to enlarge photos)

Henry and Josephine Bernard, 738 Cooper Ave, Grafton ND, ca early 1950s.

I don’t recall Grandma being there, but we kids were, and at some point Grandpa looked over his shoulder and saw a dog trotting down the sidewalk.
“See that dog?”, he said. Then he picked up his homemade slingshot, and fished a pebble out of the nearby can and made sure the dog saw it.
No word (nor bark) was spoken.
The dog kept coming till some invisible “do not cross” line; at that point, making a hard right, trotting across the street; hard left past Grandpa; and on about whatever business the dog was about that sunny day.
Grandpa loved dogs, best I know, but there was a time and a place for everything, and apparently this neighbor had to be reminded, now and again, of the rules of the road at Grandpa’s house.
The parties understood the rules….
There are endless Grandpa (and Grandma) lessons conveyed to us, as we all know, once past a certain age. Things we just soak up, without realizing it at the time.
Not all the stories were conveyed directly, or even intentionally. For instance, across the alley from the tiny house was the Walsh county yard where things like snowplows and other public machines were kept. And down the street was the Courthouse, and the local Jail….
And there was the annual event at the Courthouse where the last remaining veterans of the Spanish-American War had an annual remembrance of their fallen comrades. It was always impressive and Grandpa was always in it.
There was something else about Grandpa, which you can see in the picture.
He had one leg.
The other he had lost to diabetes in 1946. Since he was a veteran, that leg was amputated at the VA Hospital, in Fargo; as was the second, at the time he died in 1957.
He used to entertain we kids with the stub of the missing leg.
Over time, I’ve come to learn that he lived to entertain us because a government agency, the VA, had saved his life; and Social Security, enacted about the time he turned 65, was what they had for retirement. His source of livelihood, the Flour Mill, had gone out of business on short notice right before the stock market crash in 1929; and at almost exactly the same time, the bank with nearly all their savings, went under due to fraud.
Overnite they went from regular middle class to dependent on others. It was the year Dad graduated from high school, and, of course, his plans on going to the University of North Dakota were dashed.
Of course, if there’s a grandpa, there’s a grandma.
Just yesterday I came across an old photo of my other grandmother, Rosa (Berning) Busch, with the Ladies Aid of Berlin North Dakota in September, 1946 (See below). Grandma is the lady kneeling in the front row at the center of the photo.
There are lots and lots of Grandma stories, as well as Mrs. Busch stories, even to this day.
No extra stories to be conveyed here, but an encouragement to remember your own, about those who came before you.
And to emphasize what is no longer often seen as obvious: we like to think we are, as individuals, in charge of our own universe.
What our ancestors knew, imperfectly, was that we all do better when we all do better.

Berlin ND Ladies Club September 1946. Rosa Berning Busch kneeling, second from right.

* There exists, to my knowledge, a single film clip recording Grandpa Bernard and others “sidewalk superintending” in Grafton ND in 1949, when a crew was paving the Main Street. His moment of fame come at four minutes 15 second mark. You can view it here.
Of course, we all have two sets of grandparents, whether we got to know them or not. And there are all manner of other relationships which would take a long writing to describe in any detail…for each of us in our own lives.
In my own case, Grandpa Bernard died almost exactly on my 17th birthday, in 1957; Grandma Bernard died near my 23rd birthday, in 1963; Grandpa Busch died in 1967, less than two weeks after their 62nd wedding anniversary, coming up the stairs from the basement with some eggs for breakfast; Grandma Busch died in early August, 1972, at 88. Lore has it that she lingered on long enough so that her youngest son, my uncle Art, could make it from Chicago. He did, and she died very soon thereafter.