World Law Day Wednesday May 1.

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May  1 has a long history, covering many customs and traditions.  Here is one summary of history of May 1.

During the post WWII Cold War years, President Dwight Eisenhower proclaimed May 1 as Law Day in the United States, a contrast to the martial celebration of the day in the then-Soviet Union.  In 1961, Congress established Law Day as an official date on the national calendar.

Then came the 1960s, and a group of Twin Citizens in Minnesota decided that if Law Day was good, World Law was a proposition worthy of advancing, and thus World Law Day was born, with its first annual dinner in 1964, some attracting hundreds of participants.

The annual event went on until the early 1990s, and was replaced by other activities.  Then in 2013, Lynn Elling, one of the founders of “World Law Day” and then in his 90s, asked for World Law Day to be reestablished.  This year will be the 7th iteration, featuring Jim Nelson, for over 50 years active in the organizations which formed World Law Day in the beginning.  Speaker at the 2013 event was David Brink, once president of the American Bar Association.

All subsequent evenings have been stimulating and thought-provoking, with a variety of speakers and topics.  This years will be the same.

Full information about the May 1 program is accessible in this single page link: World Law Day 2019004.

All details about this years celebration are in the single page pdf above.

This is a dinner gathering, with dinner at 5:30 on Wednesday May 1, followed by Mr. Nelson’s review of the rich history he experienced.

Reservations are requested.

The evening will be very well worth your time, if you have an interest in a world which respects and relies on law for developing positive relationship between nations and people.  I’ll hope you can make it.

Wednesday, May 1, 2019.

Easter 2019

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Thursday evening we came home from a visit with our friend, Catherine.  It was still daylight, and the outlines of a full moon rising was on the eastern horizon.

Happy Easter.

Easter is one of those many holidays which is a blend of nature, custom and religious tradition: the Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox – in other words, the beginning of Spring time.  Depending on your tradition, the rest of the abundant blanks are filled in assorted ways.  We went to Good Friday at Basilica of St. Mary on Friday night; and Easter Sunday will be with two our families.  The grandkids in the area are enriched with $10 bills.  And so it goes….

My thoughts go in a couple of directions this year:

Butcher Paper Art at Ronalli’s Pizza March 2019

Death and Resurrection: Easter is a primary symbolic time in my own faith: a new beginning, as it were.

Those who know me, know that this has not been a usual year.  Grandson Ben, now 13, who very nearly lost his life May 25 last year, remains on the road to recovery, and doing very well.  Me, Grandpa, was diagnosed on the very same afternoon as Ben’s accident, as needing major repair work on my aortic valve.  A heart operation on Dec. 4, 2018, started my own journey to recovery.

A few weeks ago, Bennie, still recovering also, Grandma and Grandpa, met for pizza at a local pizza restaurant, and the combination of magic markers and butcher paper, led to the above work of art, to which we all contributed; probably half is Bennie’s work.  I saved this piece of paper from the trash.  To me, this is a symbol of re-birth, in a pretty profound sense, for Bennie.  That day at Ronalli’s was a memorable day.

Bennie’s parents and surrounding support system, including Grandma especially, are doing a great job.  And so is Bennie, though progress in some areas remains slow and the final picture unclear.  But everyone is working hard, together.

Rebirth and Renewal of the natural world: I think back to 1905 when my Mom’s parents, Ferd and Rosa (Berning) Busch married in Wisconsin (Feb. 28) and moved to the ND prairie to begin their long lives on the family farm.*

It is not certain exactly when Grandma arrived at the farm in 1905, but judging by family letters which were saved, it appears to have been about April 1, with her sister, Helena.  They would have come by train.  Grandpa had come west right after the wedding with a cousin, John Terfuchte, who was a carpenter.   Quite likely Grandpa’s brother, Leonard, came about the same time. It was hardly spring-like yet.  In 1905, Easter came on April 23, the full moon on April 19, 1905, the same day as the full moon for 2019!

Back in those days, postcards often substituted for photographs in family letters, and lucky for everyone, the Busch’s (probably Grandma) kept them all.  Some years back I borrowed the box from my Uncle Vince, and scanned about 150 of them, of which about 13 related to Easter time from about 1905-13 or so.  You can view them here: Easter Cards early 1900s003.  

Later, I wrote about them, and the article remains on the net, here.  Most of these postcards are in the permanent collection of the North Dakota Historical Society in Bismarck.  Most of these included a brief letter from one person to another.

And that’s my Easter story for 2019.   Have a great Easter.

*POSTNOTE: it is easy to overlook context with things like the old postcards.  Grandpa was 86 and Grandma 88 when they died in 1967 and 1972 respectively.  I was lucky to know both of them as an adult.  On the other hand, when they moved to the ND prairie in early 1905, they were young newlywed, 24 and 21.  For all of us, time passes quickly by.  Best to do the best we can with the time we have.

“The Jerk”

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Day Two (April 19, 2019) of the Public Version of the Mueller Report.

Just Above Sunset’s  “The Jerk”, is passed on with the permission of the publisher.  This was published about midnight, April 18, 2019, PDT.

This is lengthy, but very well worth your time.  I highly recommend this several times a week blog, most always about national political matters.

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(My first and only post on the Mueller Report was on March 24, the day it was announced.  You can read it here.)

POSTNOTE April 20, 2019: Today’s Just Above Sunset, Escalation Dominance, is another important piece.

Notre Dame, Paris

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I learned about the disastrous fire at Notre Dame today, as I learned about the collapse of the Twin Towers 9-11-01.  In neither case, did I see the images until long after the event, and then the reality set in.

My father is 100% French-Canadian, so France is not an abstraction to me.  At the same time, of my siblings, I’m the only one who’s never been to Notre Dame, Paris or France.  The closest I come is the view on the treadmill of assorted walking and bike routes in France.

But when I heard of the fire, I thought of some old snapshots taken by my brother-in-law Mike Lund when he was in the Army about 1972.  Here’s one of his GI snapshots:

Notre Dame, Paris, ca 1972 by Mike Lund

Mike was just a GI on leave from his base in Germany.  He wasn’t Catholic, but for some reason this Cathedral caught his attention, and in a small box of photos he left behind there were about eight snaps, most of which were labeled, which were of Notre Dame.  Here they are: Notre Dame and the Seine001.

Many, perhaps you, have been to Notre Dame, and perhaps these eight photos will bring back some of your own memories.  Unfortunately, this is the closest I will ever come to seeing what was the real Notre Dame.

POSTNOTE: Already it is being stated that this 850 year old church will be reconstructed.  This remains to be seen of course.  Just an idea to think about.  Years ago another iconic Cathedral, St. Boniface in Metro Winnipeg, went up in flames, only the shell saved.  The idea came to someone to save the shell, and to rebuild a new church inside the shell.  It was, and it remains, a magnificent place, regardless of one’s religious belief or fervor.  Here’s a bit about it.

POSTNOTE TWO:  Bro-in-Law Mike was an interesting character.  In his later years – he died at 60 in 2007 – he described himself a “lone wolf”, and didn’t think anyone would come to his funeral.  He would have been surprised by this exposition of his photos!  He had his college degree, was a successful GI, and had taught school for a time.  Ultimately mental illness helped assure his life of anonymity, which he seemed to prefer.  He neither fit in, nor stood out.  Personally, I much enjoyed our visits, and at the end I was the ‘go-to’.  I think he’d sort of enjoy knowing that his snapshots from Paris near 50 years ago would be of interest now, even if only to me.  I have more, of other things.  Maybe later.  Happy Easter.

COMMENTS (see also WordPress comments, below)

from Jane: When Mike and I were there we went under the sanctuary to where the ancient Celtic church had once been. Their churches likely burned too.  I don’t mean to sound glib. I admit I cried when I heard the news.

response from Dick: Cathedrals, regardless of denomination, whether called Cathedral or something else, are living manifestations of the very abundant downside of organized religion.  I happen to be lifelong and pretty active Catholic which, to me, represents what I feel are the best sides of the church, long flourishing in things like Catholic hospitals and other service organizations emphasizing justice and peace everywhere.   But every religious institution, regardless of “ideology”,  seems to have a tendency towards addiction to power and control.  The French church was no stranger to this.  This whole topic could/would be a very long, very rich, and probably end with very irresolvable tension, though I would welcome the conversation.  There are as many opinions as there are people.

from Kathy: from a friend sending a photo from Paris 3:08 p.m. April 15: We just went through the cathedral today. We’re flying home tomorrow.

Photo at Notre Dame April 15, 2019

from Jeff:

Cathedrals are (as your pillars of the earth stories tell you) always works in progress.  I am always reminded of my visits to Rome

And to the Basilica of St Clement Lateran.  This church is about 4 to 5 blocks south of the coliseum.  You can go underneath the church

To visit the previous church constructed in about 400 AD, and then below that to an early Christian church, and then below that to a Cult of

Mithras temple.  And below that or near it in time Roman civil structures, and underneath all of it a spring… which archaelogists surmise

May have been an even more ancient druidic/natural religious site in pre Roman times.

Also mindful of the photos of the “black hole” in space.  We are but a speck of a speck of dust mon ami!

from Jane:

Such personal grief for me at the immense destruction at Notre Dame Cathedral… Here are my photos [to be added] of the gorgeous sculpture by the front door and a photo of Mike and I in 2001 feeling joyful at a cafe right next to Notre Dame. This is the foundation and heartbeat of France, my adopted second culture -which has led much of my career. I lived there for a year at the age of 19 and was overjoyed to find a country that loved beauty, the arts, and history. A soulmate.

Did you know that distances in France are calculated by how far they are from Notre Dame? -The center of a country at the center of Western culture. I think of Parisian families that may have 32 generations that have passed that cathedral!! ( 800 years x 4 generations of 25 yrs.) The hopeful part is that in reconstructing this sacred place new young people will be recruited to learn the ancient skills of construction and thus carry on some of the medieval skills. 

One more memory. Mike and I walked down below the foundations of Notre Dame to where ancient Roman and Celtic temples had once been. The site itself has been holy for thousands of years and that won’t change.

 

MORE COMMENTS BELOW.

 

 

Town Hall

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Saturday, our local Senator and state representatives met in an open meeting with residents of the district.  Here’s a photo taken today, with a youthful constituent “lobbying” very articulately about his issue.

At Senate District 53 “Town Hall” April 13, 2019. From left: Rep. Steve Sandell, SD 53B, Sen . Susan Kent, SD 53, student presentor, Rep Tou Xiong, SD 53A

This meeting was like others I have attended.  This day I counted about 50 of us in the room (below).  The meeting was well publicized and open to the public.  This legislative district has approximately 80,000 residents: thus far less than one in 1,000 residents took an hour off of their Saturday to meet their legislators in person.

April 13, 2019

There was nothing particularly unusual about this meeting: people were civil; people came as citizens; some of the citizens represented their particular special interest (such as the student); the legislators reflected back on the complexity of their tasks, working with 200 other legislators from all over the state of Minnesota; each Senate District having approximately 79,000 citizens in a state with over 5,300,000 population, all having diverse needs and expectations.

This day my attention was drawn to a question I was asking myself.  My thoughts went back to another meeting four days earlier.

Saturday we sat in the typical arrangement for meetings: almost all of us seated, facing our three representatives.  There was absolutely nothing unusual about this, including the tenor of this meeting, which was positive.

But I wondered to myself: what if the room arrangement was such that all the chairs were in a circle, and during the meeting, everybody, and all issues, were equally valued, and those in attendance were required to not only hear the assorted issues, but to resolve them, as we expect our legislature to reasonably resolve the immense numbers of issues before it.

Succinctly, this expectation, however reasonable, is laughable, especially in our complex society where, it seems, we only act to elect somebody who we can then credit or blame for doing, or not doing, what we want as an individual.

The task is impossible, even when we have a great team of legislators.

A retired former colleague of mine spoke to the group along the same lines as I had been thinking.  In essence: we are the “government”, each and every one of us.  We all deserve the credit, or the blame for the dysfunction we complain about every day.

Just getting in a circle might be a positive step, but as I observed on Tuesday, just getting in a circle, even amongst ‘birds of a feather’, is not necessarily a solution either, unless the participants are willing.

The other meeting, on Tuesday, had 29 people in the circle, most knew each other, some for a long time, but an issue dropped into the group like a tornado into an unsuspecting community, and people were pretty clueless about getting things resolved, though there were professionals on relationships in that circle.  The tendency was to retreat into hardened positions, or  to simply avoid what was going on and, like me, stay silent.  In coming weeks I’ll see if they find a path to resolution (and I have to be part of that solution part of “they”, even though I observed I only knew 11 of the 29 at the meeting, and I had first learned of the issue – one important to me – only a few days earlier.)

In a society, especially a complex one like ours, getting engaged in solutions is not easy.  First, one has to divest him or herself of feeling he or she has the answer, or avoiding dealing with the question.

A CLOSING THOUGHT: One of the crucial dilemmas in our society is the glut of often false information we are subjected to each day.

At the session today, the conversation got around to universal health care, however those words are defined.  A lady who said she grew up in the United Kingdom talked about how valued it was to not have to worry about medical accessibility there.  Into the mix came the word “socialism”, now highly charged in some circles.  Another participant told of some friend of his in England whose relative knew someone who said that the English system was so bad that a person with a certain condition would have to go to prison to qualify for national health.

Who is one to believe?  The person with personal experience; or the person relying on and conveying incomplete and second hand information at best?

There are endless variations.  Maybe the lady was lying (I don’t think so); maybe the horror story in England was typical and true (I highly doubt it, absent evidence.)

In the end, each of us has to become much less sloppy, intellectually, and learn to sort out reasonable fact from demonstrable fiction.  We have to become better informed.  We are either part of the problem or part of the solution.

We cannot work together to solve problems and be suckers.

The NCAA Final, Hurdsfield and Sykeston

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Tonight in downtown Minneapolis MN either Virginia or Texas Tech will be National Champions in College Basketball.  You won’t see us among the 74,000 in the stands.  Easier to watch it on TV.

My contribution to the tournament is some reminiscences of country North Dakota Basketball in the 1950s.  More about the photo in a moment:

Pictured above is the Sykeston Wildcats of 1957-1958.  I’m top left, next to my Dad, who was coach more of necessity than interest or coaching ability.  He was also the Superintendent of the tiny school (nine seniors that year).

We did pretty well that year: 15-4, winning the County Tournament at Fessenden (photo above).  We played Hurdsfield twice, beating them at Hurdsfield 71-38; and a second time in Sykeston 80-41.  At the end of this post is a bit more about our team and our season.

But this blog, before Virginia and Texas Tech tip off tonight, is about a marvelous piece of North Dakota history, forwarded to me a few weeks ago.  It is about Hurdsfield High School in 1953-54 and it speaks eloquently and humorously about the reality of tiny town basketball on the prairie.

The description is six pages, well illustrated, and can be read in its entirety here: Hurdsfield ND 1953-54001.  The author, then, was a first year teacher from Wisconsin.  When he wrote the article he was a retired history professor with a distinguished career.

The article unleashed a flood of personal memories for me, as I would guess it would similarly jog the memories of other old timers, with their own stories from their own towns.

I’ll leave this post with the two pages from the tiny Sykeston yearbook of 1958, for those interested in more information about our basketball team of 1954-58: Sykeston 1957-58001.  (An earlier Sykeston team, in 1950, won third in the ND State Class C tournament.  I was 9 years old at the time, and at the game, but don’t remember anything about it.  But I was there! Sykeston 1949-50001.

May your favorite team win, and may it be close!

POSTNOTE comments April 10, 2019:

The NCAA final was awesome. In the end, Virginia defeated Texas Tech in overtime.  The official story is here.

From Larry: Thanks  for the photo.  I remember Jerry Sondag from long ago at VCSTC, as well as, of course, Dick Bernard!  from Dick: Duane Zwinger also went to Valley City State Teachers College.  Arlo Neumiller became a dentist.  I’m not certain of the others.

Two other notes came after the initial posting:   from my sister, Mary: Great fun…these guys put a lot of energy into March Madness as did the slightly less aggressive and talented from the old days – course the Flos and the Marys of the era remember the importance of the cheerleader! 

Dick: Ouch!

from the 1958 Sykeston Annual:

Sykeston Cheerleaders, 1957-58

From the Sykeston Yearbook for 1949-50: Sykeston Girls 1949-50003

In 1957-58, I don’t have record of a girls team.  I do remember that girls basketball, as it was, then, restricted any team member to half-court only.

A note from Darleen, who was a PE teacher in the 1960s:  “I read the article on Hurdsfield after I returned home and it is a winner!!!    I had not planned to read it & definitely not the entire article, but as I read, I couldn’t put it down.   I taught in some of the gyms that he wrote about — of course none that had a trap door in the middle of the court or a ladder to get to the latrine.   Carrington’s “old gym” was similar to what [the author] described and Rugby’s I’ll have to tell you about — a real classic.

Rugby is where Phil Jackson played in his Junior High yrs.”
“Phil Jackson” struck a chord – NBA legend who learned basketball in ND.  When I was in 8th grade, in Ross ND, the high school team played in the county tournament in the brand new fieldhouse in Williston ND.  My recollection is that we were to be part of the first game to be played in this fieldhouse, which was also where Phil Jackson played his high school basketball a few years later.
None of the other team members wanted to lead the team out for the game, so I ended up with the honors (this was an afternoon game, and I don’t recall more than a few in the stands.)  For years, the fieldhouse was named in honor of its famous Alumni.  Here’s an article about it.   Memories….
Oh, by the way, the Women’s NCAA champion 2019: here.
from Debbie: I appreciate your story about your HS basketball team.  My uncles, the Messner boys, (from 6 to 11 years older than me) were basketball players too and good ones.   My mom used to take me to their games in Pekin Auditorium before I even started school, so I’ve been a basketball fan forever.  The Messners won a regional tournament back in the late 50’s and it was a great triumph for tiny Pekin.  My uncle Melvin is receiving the award.

Pekin High School Basketball Team 1950s, winner of Regional tourney in Class C.

 

Celine Dion

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Sorting through papers recently, I came across a photo, received in October, 2007, from my cousin, Pauline.  The photo was taken in April, 2007, in Las Vegas, with Celine Dion, Pauline and three of her sisters, one of whom knows Celine very well.

Five French-Canadians, all five Canadian.

I’d guess everybody knows Celine Dion in context with her music.  A quick trip to YouTube has Celine and Peabo Bryson singing the title song from the movie Beauty and the Beast.

But the photo by itself would not have jogged this blog.  Another event yesterday brought the idea to celebrate a bit those of us proud of our French-Canadian ancestry.  More in a moment on yesterdays happening….

The Grandpa of the four sisters was the older brother of my Grandma, from the tiny village of Oakwood North Dakota.  That would make my Dad and their Dad, first cousins.

Grandma Josephine, born 1881 at then-St. Andrews ND at the junction of the Park and Red River of the North, lived her long life with Grandpa Henry Bernard, native of Quebec, not far from where she grew up, in Grafton.  In 1899, her brother, Arcidas, born 1876, in Dakota Territory, and spouse Clara, came north to farm  in the French-Canadian area south of Winnipeg Manitoba.  In the way of all pioneers of all nationalities, their ancestors and mine came to establish themselves in various places, becoming good citizens, wherever they lived.

“The rest of the story”?

Yesterday, we stopped in to give the neighbor across the street a little assist with a couple of things he needed help with.  Don, now 89 and every day more fragile, is proud of his ancestry, mother French-Canadian and Native American, and father, from Luxembourg roots.

Don is feeling his age these days, and divesting of his small treasures.  His small home is a museum, from years of travel and collecting, all, now, in his past.

This day he gave a gift: perhaps 20 CDs he’s kept over the years.  There was a variety, but two I especially noticed, Celine Dion.  Later I looked at them, and played them.  One was from about 1990, the second from 1993.  From the discography, I learned that they were Celine’s first two CDs in English, when she was in her 20s.  (She had several earlier, in French.)  The jacket of the first is pictured below.

 

Heritage is important.  Tomorrow Don will attend a talk about the French precedents of the Mendota area of St. Paul-Minneapolis.  The presentor will be from another French-Canadian historical place down the Mississippi River, Prairie du Chien WI.

Interested in things French-Canadian and Minnesota?  Visit our website FAHF.org, the French-American Heritage Foundation.  Among many resources there, click Library, click Chez Nous and you can find 1000 pages of a newsletter for French-Canadian published 1980-2002.  Check it out.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

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“…Everyone in this country should have good food and medication….”  Snippet” of conversation overheard by passerby at local fitness club, March, 2019.  See postnote, near the end of post.

More on “the AGED” “below the fold”….  Please read the last paragraph.  I am hoping that this post will provide lots of grist for conversation and thought.

From the public brochure for the new Medicare Law, 1965. See the entire brochure, and more personal comments, “below the fold”.

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I would strongly encourage watching the entire hour program with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, aired on Friday, March 29, but I’m not positive whether the entire program, as I viewed it, will be available, or when, but significant portions can be viewed here.

Much of the conversation Friday night centered around pieces of a proposal called “The Green New Deal”, which can be read here.  Of course, the proposal is controversial.  What isn’t controversial these days?  This is a proposal about helping preserve our – especially the next generations –  future.  The Green New Deal is a very conservative notion; and who better to shape that future than young people, like Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, who will have to live in it.

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As I watched the MSNBC full hour with Chris Hayes on Friday evening, I was thinking of the “generation gap”.  I’m about to turn 79; Chris Hayes, host, said he was 39; Ocasio-Cortez is 29.  As Hayes said, “you can do the math”.

This is my first mention of Ocasio-Cortez at this space; the first in 1,442 published posts since 2009.  I suspect it will not be the last.  She, and many others, are the vanguard for saving the the future of their generation (people like me will be dead and gone).  The Green New Deal is a heap better than planning for the next war, or pretending a belief will make something  true.

One of my grandchildren is older than Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, and since her birth I’ve made no secret of my commitment to trying to make a livable future for this younger generation.

Bah-humbug to those of my generation who dismiss their kids and grandkids future.  We’ve all seen that bumper sticker “I’m spending my kids inheritance”.  It takes on new meaning in these days of attempting to dismiss climate change and the like.  We are spending everything…we don’t know exactly when it will run out, but the clock is ticking faster, and as everyone who is old knows, it doesn’t last forever.  “You can’t take it with you“.

I am an elder, so I know a fair amount about what a long life lived is all about.  About sacrifices made for me, about mistakes I’ve made, about this or that witnessed or experienced by myself or my ancestors before me.  Things like War and the Great Depression.  We dismiss the past and ignore the future at our great peril.  Our greatest investment should be the future of those who will be here long after we’re gone.

The current Vice-President (quick, what’s his name?) had an applause line the other day, which seems to be a new ‘nut graph‘ for all occasions.  All that “green” meant, in his rendition, was “taxes”…. “And the only thing green about the so-called Green New Deal is how much green it’s going to cost taxpayers if these people ever pass it into law.”   (This comes direct from Fox News…anyone interested in finding it can simply do the google, like I did.)  “[T]hese people”…?

Of course, into the same speech came the current scare-phrase du jour: “socialism”.  (There is a lot, good to be said for “socialism”.  Medicare, which we elders covet, is really a “socialist” program….  This is a discussion we need to have, with a very open mind.)  “Don’t touch my Medicare” someone will say; in the next breath they’ll say “socialism is evil”.  The two are peas in a pod….

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“HEALTH INSURANCE FOR THE AGED”

Found in the abundant junk at the North Dakota farm in 2015 was the entire Medicare brochure from 1965: Medicare001. Sometimes junk is a treasure.  This is worth reading in its entirety.   The front cover is pictured at the beginning of this post.

Everyone has their own story:

In 1965, Medicare had just been enacted into law, and the potential recipients included my grandparents, Ferd and Rosa Busch, then 84 and 81 years of age.  Their last kids at home, Uncle Vincent and Aunt Edithe, also living on the same farm, were 40 and 45 respectively, and Medicare coverage for them was many years away.  I was 25, then, and my wife had been buried the very weekend Medicare had been signed into Law by President Lyndon Johnson.  My wife had died of kidney disease at age 22.  My oldest son, Tom, now 55, was a year old.  (My other grandparents had died in 1957 and 1963, each dying in hospitals.)

My grandparents were on Medicare.  Grandpa Busch died suddenly at home a little over six months after Medicare began.  I doubt he had ever been hospitalized, though I’m sure he should have been.  Grandma briefly used Medicare the last few months of her life in 1972.  I have been on Medicare, now, for near 14 years.  It has been an economic and physical life saver, most recently open heart surgery 4 months ago.

Nowadays there are people who think that Medicare should end; there are others who think everyone should be on Medicare.  Should health be a right or a luxury?  That is the essence of one of the current debates.  Paradoxically, many of those who most want to get rid of it for others in the future, or things like the Affordable Care Act, are people who now directly benefit from the program.

Such is how things seem to go.  Alexandria and Chris are now young, and they will, Lord willing, grow old, as I have been privileged.  Medicine, drugs, and other “socialistic” programs do cost money, and not everyone benefits directly, but the benefit is always there if needed.

The politics of this and other programs is stark, these days.  Medicare will be saved for people of my generation, until we are dead.  It is politically expedient.  Money will be saved by cutting the benefits (and perhaps ultimately the entire program) to the younger people, hoping they won’t notice.  After all, why bother?  They are “forever young” and won’t have to deal with it.  And there is that deficit, swelled by the tax cuts of 2017.  Magical thinking, is what I’ve heard it called.

This is time for the youth to take over, and I applaud Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and many, many others in her group of new leaders.  There are great numbers of elders, like me, who’ll support their efforts.  But, sadly, probably even greater numbers who don’t much care about what happens in the future, and are focused only on the now, and on the ever more dimly remembered “good old days”.

To the young:  get on the court;  keep on, keeping on!  It is your future that is at stake.

This and following: World Trade Center New York City June, 1972 photos by Dick Bernard

1978 card from Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

POSTNOTE: The comment which leads this post was made earnestly and civilly from a young man to a young woman.  I’m the one who overheard it.  I don’t know the context, the before or after.  It marked, to me, a good beginning point to one of many an essential conversations.  What are the rights of a human being in this by far the richest country in the world?  (The U.S. has about 5% of the world’s population, and 25% of the wealth).  What are our responsibilities to those who have less?

THE SHORT AND LONG TIME SOLUTION: I support the aspiration of young people (those my kids age and younger).  The world we leave behind, is the one that they inherit.  In a democracy, it is those who act who prevail.  This means, among other things, that the young need to not only vote, but to act in their own behalf – supporting what they need for their future.  They need to encourage others to vote, well informed, and to support good candidates in all the ways necessary, including financially.  They can’t afford to be lazy or complacent.  This is hard work.  But work which needs to be done, and cannot be delegated.

COMMENTS (see additional at very end, below):

from Michelle: Thx Dick! Always love your perspective

from Nancy, about a film about Ocasio-Cortez now at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival: “If you have time, Dick, you may want to attend this film. It will be shown three times during the MSP Intl Film Festival — I already bought my ticket for April 13th. I assume that tickets for this will go fast, so you should probably buy online ahead of time, if you plan to go.”

from Molly: Thanks, Dick, for a good post and for the link to another good post.

from Norm: I am just an ordinary individual as well albeit with a curmudgeon side that shows through on occasion.

Yes, I will read again the piece that you forward regarding Sagan and the clowns [here] and think about it some more, something that I think all of us should think hard about and reflect upon what we helped to create.
For example:
  1.  Why did the voters in MIchigan, and especially union voters, show their appreciation for Obama and the Democrats for bailing out GM and saving all of those high paying jobs with good benefits by voting for Trump…when the Republicans wanted to let the company fail?
  2.  Why did so many people and seniors in particular buy into the bull crap that Obama Care was going to cut their Medicare benefits?
  3. Why did so many Democrats get on their purist high horse and vote for Trump out of spite instead of Clinton because the Democratic Party did not endorse an Independent as in an Independent (not then and not now is Sanders a Democrat)?
  4.  They did understand that the next president was going to be able to fill several slots on the SCOTUS and that Trump would sure as hell pushing for very conservative candidates compared to what Clinton would likely have sent forth.  They did understand that those appointments would/could affect public policy for generations to come, didn’t they?  Of course, they did not think that issue thorough very well as they only were concerned about taking their bats and balls home and sitting and whining “poor us ain’t awful” in a secluded corner…”they didn’t nominate our man so we just are not going to play!”
  5.  Why did we in the most condescending politically correct manner send a politically unseasoned novice to Congress allowing her think that she was so important and then immediately began stepping all over herself and confirming for many that the Democrats are all about identity politics all worried about the so called “underrepresented groups” (what a croc!) at the expense of its long standing and long supportive base?
Yes, Dick, we have to think long and hard about these things and more and try to resist the significant part of our DNA that allows us to shoot ourselves in the feet whenever we can so as to be able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory as they say.
We often cite Wellstone and his assertion that  we all do better when we all do better…something that we often trumpet as who we are and/or could be but almost as often something that we do not put into practice due to political correctness, “underrepresented group” myths, and so on.