Learning.

UPDATE June 2: Previous and related posts: May 27, 29 and 30.  Column by Ruhel Islam’s daughter in June 1, Washington Post, here.  John Noltner, A Piece of My Mind, has been interviewing people at 38th and Chicago, you can see these here.  PHOTOS AND MORE ADDED TO JUNE 1 POST.  The future of our nation is truly in our own hands.  Everyone must mobilize.

This and the previous three posts will constitute my ‘file’ about George Floyd.  Any additional comments or news will be added at the end of this, or one of the earlier posts.

*

I woke this morning contemplating the previous 72 hours, and the time since George Floyd died last Monday, May 25.  As May ends, I have a few thoughts to share, which are based on hope.  Today I am encouraged about the future.

What dominated my thoughts this morning were two photos I took December 2, 2015, at a Twin Cities Nursing Home. The event happened because of Ruhel Islam, owner of Gandhi Mahal, one of the businesses destroyed by fire a couple of nights ago.

 

Ruhel Islam with Lynn Elling Dec. 2, 2015

Larry Long, Lynn Elling and Ruhel Islam Dec. 2, 2015

As I recall this day, Lynn, a legendary activist for peace, was on the trip towards eternity, and not long before had been admitted to a Nursing Home – I’m inclined to say Masonic Homes in Bloomington, but it may have been another at that time.  Ruhel, owner of Gandhi Mahal, a favorite restaurant for Lynn and his wife, Donna, suggested we take a meal to Lynn, and invited Larry Long.  Both knew Lynn from community activities.  I was Lynn’s friend and, this day, the chauffeur for Ruhel and Larry.

This visit is one I will never forget.  The meal was from Gandhi Mahal.  Ruhel fed Lynn.   Larry sang “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream”. It was first class in every way.

Lynn died three months later, and at his Memorial service May 1, 2016, Ruhel attended and Larry sang.  It was a fine and deserved farewell to a man who took peace seriously.  Memories of the events and the men endure.

Five years later, a couple of nights ago, Ruhel’s restaurant burned to the ground, an indirect victim of someone’s deliberate arson.

The May 29  New York Times had an article about Gandhi Mahal, quoting Ruhel.  He and the restaurant will revive because of who, and how, he is.

*

The past few days and the future are important times for our city and everywhere.

In my mailbox Sunday morning, this, from my sister in rural Minnesota: “All of this this is too sickening to contemplate from a distance, but that’s where I am. I was glad that friend Judi and cousin Mary Kay were feeling safe and optimistic, in spite of the terror that has erupted near their neighborhoods. At this point in time COVID-19 seems inconsequential!  Any thoughts on how I can make a positive difference during this tragic time, please let me know.

Also, from a valued relative in North Dakota: “They are in Fargo tonight Hope they do not come further west.Too bad that is all people have to do.”  (There were rumors on my end of the cities about groups gathering at Hudson WI.  Best I know, nothing but normal kinds of vigils and small local demos.)

Yesterday, a friend sent some wisdom shared in her neighborhood in St.Paul, which I included in yesterdays post, and which is included again at the end of this blog.  Is the list accurate?  Your choice.  Here are some more observations.

  1. At a time like this there are endless opinions and emotions.  Take a personal time out, to think things through.  This is a time for dialogue, including within your own head, about your own self!  Are your beliefs consistent with objective reality?
  2. Be very cautious of the tendency to indict a group of any kind.  “The police” that we know are by and large very respectable people – many of us know them as family, or friends.  Daily, they confront crises.  Yes, there is aberrant behavior, to be dealt with legally.  Unfortunately, we live in a society that far too often relies on labeling, and this is very dangerous for us all.
  3. I was very impressed with how my state and local government handled, and is handling, this most recent crisis, including the seeming chaos at the beginning.  Yes, mistakes were made, and owned, but adjustments made.  I wish everyone would be able to listen to the entire news conference held by Gov. Tim Walz and his crisis team on Thursday.  Walz’s career was as a teacher, and he was teaching Civics, without using the word.  “Government” is much more than just a word.
  4. Today Just Above Sunsets Alan, included a long collection of Racism quotes.  They’re worth a look, here.
  5. What we’re learning now is valuable to apply to the future, near and distant.  We can choose to learn or not learn some valuable lessons we’re having to confront not only about a pandemic (COVD-19), a community crisis (a murder), and about ourselves, especially.
  6. I encourage your viewing of the six talks on racism.  The links can be found here under “Becoming Human”.
  7. This is written before curfew on Sunday afternoon.  Absent unforeseen developments, this will probably be the last post on this topic.
  8. Your comments and additions are solicited; they will be added here, so check back in a couple of days..

George Floyd, Minneapolis Star Tribune May 31, 2020 p. 1

from Nancy, May 30:

Here’s a post that I saw on Facebook today — very important message:

‎Jesse Haug‎ to Lowertown, Saint Paul
9 hrs
A reminder that on nights like these, there are multiple distinct groups in action, with distinct goals and behaviors. Do not confuse one with another.

I’d group them into at least 5 categories.

1/
ACTIVISTS: They have clear goals, at least in their own heads. They are out to be heard and noticed. They may be nonviolent. If there is property damage, it will be targeted. Diff activists may have diff targets, but it won’t be indiscriminate.

2/
GRIEVING CITIZENS: They aren’t (yet) organized activists. They’re hurting deeply. They haven’t been heard. They have more anger than they know what to do with. They may cause unjust damage, even though their anger comes from a place of justice.

3/
ROWDY IDIOTS: They don’t give a shit about justice. They just want to fuck shit up. They’ll mingle with the activists, even though activists are ultimately a nuisance to them. They’ll come like moths to a light any time things are going off the rails.

4/
CHAOS AGENTS: Like rowdy idiots, they want to fuck shit up. But like activists, they have a goal and are self-controlled. They’re here to escalate, create an opening, make others look bad. Prime examples: alt-right instigators and crooked police. (There’s overlap.)

5/
PROFESSIONAL THIEVES: Whenever there’s chaos, there’s an opportunity to make a buck. Some of the “looting” has actually been well-organized, coordinated hits: post a lookout, designated grabber, getaway car.

6/
There may be more groups I’ve overlooked.

I say all of this to point out the danger of using the word “protesters” for everyone out there tonight. If, for example, you say, “protesters need to stop burning buildings,” which of these groups are you are referring to? Be specific, not vague or generalizing.

Above all, be careful that you do not wrongly ascribe to ACTIVISTS and GRIEVING CITIZENS the actions of the other three groups. That is just what those other groups want.

The need for justice is real. The grief is real. Take them seriously. Respect them.

Addendum: just in case it’s not obvious, the first two groups are the vast majority of people out there — but the last three cause the vast majority of damage.

from Barry, May 30, 2020, Minneapolis MN, at E 38th St and Chicago Ave S

POSTNOTE June 1, 2020:  I choose to use this time in our history as a learning opportunity.  The good old days that some in my generation revere, were in reality not all that good, and even if they were idyllic, they are no more (including the recent past).  Within these most recent posts is a great deal of useful information, if you care to learn more.  The neighborhoods I’m most familiar with are here.  The I-35 W bridge incident last night was about three miles straight north of Lake Street.  Much of the damage was along Lake Street.  Neighborhoods were less affected.  There was some damage in St. Paul as well.

There is a meme about that certain groups were responsible: African-American, outsiders, etc.  Drive these streets and they are regular neighborhoods, basically well kept.  Why would they destroy the shops in their area?  As pointed out above, protests these days are motley crews, populated by more than simply people with a grievance, in this case witnessing the murder of a black man by police in broad daylight.  The Twin Cities is my home, for most of the last 55 years.  It is rich in diversity, full of good people.  It also has a deserved negative reputation for abundant sins of discrimination in the past, including the 1967 riots.

Every single one of us has responsibility here, in what we see, say and do, particularly from this point on.  This is not a matter of ‘them’; it a matter of ‘us’.

 

 

Images

Other related posts at May 27, 29 and 31

Today is beautiful in the Twin Cities – as WCCO-TV will correctly be able to say, “another Top Ten weather day”.  Of course, a day is much more than “weather”….

My walk is always good reflection time, and this morning I thought back to a long ago sermon I heard at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Minneapolis.  The Gospel reading for the day was from Matthew chapter 22 verse 34-39.

The Priest finished the Gospel reading, and we sat down for his sermon.

He began by repeating the last phrase of the days Gospel: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Then he sat down, and said nothing further, and sat, and sat and sat.  Imagine yourself in the pew, that day, accustomed to hearing some message, and all you got was 6 words.  It’s not fair!!  After what seemed like hours, the Priest stood and continued the Mass.  We were left with the task of filling in the many blanks for ourselves, and I’m leaving you with the same blanks to fill, now many years later.

*

Out on the path this morning, somebody had neatly printed in at least five different places “Justice for Floyd“.    The same writer had a final message, in the same print: “Have a nice day!“, to which someone had added a postdate: “Thank you, too“.

*

At home I got restless, and decided I needed to take a drive down to Lake Street in Minneapolis, just to see whatever I could see from the car.

Approaching St. Paul, a sign: “Curfew 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.”  I saw this several times, to and from.

I crossed into Minneapolis on the Lake Street bridge over the Mississippi, and about the first sighting was the Dunn Brothers where I’ve had coffee from time to time – my cousin lives nearby.  Plywood was apparently being placed on the windows, or taken down – I’m not sure which.  This would be about 47th Avenue S, at W River Parkway.

At about 32nd Street, on my left was the remains of a Walgreens, burned to the ground, only a shell as remnant.  Lake Street was blocked at 29th, so I turned around and made my way a couple of blocks north, past St. Albert the Great, which was undamaged, and west to 27th, which was open, so I could see the remnants of the intersection I knew best, where GandhiMahal was.  This entire area was very much like a war zone must look.  The damage seemed mostly restricted to businesses on the major streets.  Only those who wished to destroy know why they picked the targets they did.

Gandhi Mahal, which I initially thought may have survived, has since burned to the ground.  I took a couple of photos.  In this one, Gandhi Mahal would be between the two folks at center, about a block behind them.  Of course, Gandhi Mahal no longer exists.  My friend, Ruhel Islam, who owns the restaurant is a man of indomitable spirit, and I think he will recover, with lots of help from many friends over the coming months.  There are many stories like his.  But everyone will need lots of help.

27th and Lake, Minneapolis, May 30, 2020, about noon.

To another Bible Question, “…and who is my neighbor?” (Luke Chapter 10 Verse 29).

On this sad Saturday, I saw hundreds, if not thousands of ordinary folks walking down the streets with brooms, shovels and other tools of recovery, just coming to help in whatever way they could.  They came to give their hour or whatever, no questions, no demands.  They represented the diversity of the area.  There was no sense of defeat in these folks, such as the couple next to my car in the Aldi’s parking lot, who were simply sweeping the street in their vicinity.  My “thank you” to them was cordially received.  For everyone, every little bit helps.

Of course we’ll be barraged by analysis, fault-finding, blaming, on and on in coming days.  This is expected and needed.

But the Resurrection experience for the destroyed areas will truly be the common citizens who care, like whoever it was that wrote the sign in the park, to the quiet people with brooms and dustpans.

Thanks to everyone.

NOTE:  There have been amendments and quite a few comments to the previous post on this topic, and I doubtless will have another post with my own perceptions, perhaps tomorrow night, Mary 31,.  And, of course, other comments are solicited.  It is useful to check back – any comments received are shared

COMMENTS (more at end of page as well):

from Jane re Gandhi Mahal article in New York Times, here: Dick, this is about Gandhi Mahal, from the NY Times.  I too loved that place. Amazing people.
From The New York Times:  “Their Minneapolis Restaurant Burned, but They Back the Protest.  Though a Bangladeshi family lost their business in the uproar over the death of George Floyd, they support demonstrators and helped medics treat them.”

from Carol:  My son lives in So. Minneapolis and his church (City View) is a couple blocks from the 5th precinct.  He’s there now grilling – the church is buying food and feeding the neighborhood.  He says rumor has it that 70,000 plan to march on the 5th precinct tonight and burn it down.  He said the locals have been out for hours, cleaning up the streets.

from Darleen:  Thanks for the message and eye witness account of the destroyed area.  No one knows the who’s and the what’s, but I tend to believe that much of the damage was from bussed in protestors rather than people who live in the area.   I suppose it is a combination of both.  Tensions were running high and the virus pandemic frustrations played a role.  Be safe

from Corky: Are we better off  today vs yesterday? Has the main problem been sidetracked? Does 1968 come into view again? How do we begin to address the inequality issue in this country? For some reason ,  virus issues & personal home storm damages doesn’t even seem to be that important anymore. Time to reflect on the humanity in our country.

from Thomas:  I appreciate the first-hand update, Dick.  Hopefully the peaceful demonstrators will be off the streets by 8:00 p.m.  I know that me and my family are hunkered down in our residences.  Trust you’re the same.

from Nancy: I’ve enjoyed reading your thoughtful blog at this very sad and difficult time. Thank you.

from Thomas: I appreciate the first-hand update, Dick.  Hopefully the peaceful demonstrators will be off the streets by 8:00 p.m.  I know that me and my family are hunkered down in our residences.  Trust you’re the same.

from Bryan:  Thanks for the update.   Good to know things are calming down a bit.    Here’s a video I did of the situation here in Charlottesville, VA:

 

A City Burning

Other related posts at May 27, 30 and May 31.

May 30, 2020: I have lived, worked and travelled a great deal  in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area of over 3,000,000 people for most of the last 55 years, and I am not living in fear today, nor have I in the past.  This is a time for all of us to open our eyes, especially those of us who are “white”, and there is an opening for us to do so.  I highly recommend watching those talks about racism referred to in the original post (below), which you can do anywhere you are reading this.  Overnight came a summary of the national scene, Finally Falling Apart,  This moment is an opportunity, not a crisis.  Yes, it requires change in attitudes and behaviors – our own.  We’re up to it.

*

Wednesday I went down to the State Capitol Grounds to take photos of a monument I’d first noticed on Memorial Day.  Here is one of the panels.

Minnesota Workers Memorial Garden, State Capitol St. Paul MN, May 27, 2020

After the photo I drove over to the place where George Floyd was killed by police Memorial Day, 38th and Chicago Ave S in Minneapolis.  An orderly crowd blocked the intersection.  I got within half a block.

I returned home on Lake Street, passing by 27th and Lake, half a block from a restaurant very well known to me, Gandhi Mahal, on 27th, a half block south of Lake Street.  Gandhi Mahal was a community gathering place; COVID-19 had closed it, as all restaurants in mid-March.  I had to cancel a meeting scheduled there for April 15.  I had frequently used it for dinner meetings in the past.

A couple of blocks earlier, about the corner of Lake and Minnehaha, I noticed some young people with signs beginning to gather at the corner.  I didn’t realize at the time that nearby was the 3rd Precinct of the Minneapolis police department.

Last night we watched the fire rage in the Gandhi Mahal neighborhood on television.  At this moment, I don’t know the fate of Gandhi Mahal; however the block literally across the street from it was consumed in flames when last I watched.  [see update at the end of this post.]. This week has been a sickening time for me.

Minneapolis will continue to be dominant international news in the wake of the the George Floyd killing in broad daylight by Minneapolis police two days ago.

I wrote about it at this space Wednesday.

This morning an e-mail from my sister in New York:  “My comment is very short. There are things that are just plain WRONG….this is one of them.”

There is nothing more to say at this moment, except to urge every reader to take the time, this weekend, to watch the six talks on American Racism, all linked within Wednesday’s blog. Please take a look again, or for the first time.  Watch the talks.

Then reflect, and act.  Where do YOU fit in?

State Capitol St. Paul MN May 27, 2020

POSTNOTE after my walk: I’m a creature of habit.  After posting this blog, I glanced at the morning paper.  Gandhi Mahal apparently wasn’t damaged.  Most of the property damage was along Lake Street, not far from the restaurant and in the “Uptown” area about 3 miles west.  Of course, as in any traumatic event, there is shock, and then infinite numbers of opinions, which leads to the very real dilemma left to any one who wasn’t there but has the responsibility of sorting things out.  I have my opinion, you have yours.  That’s all I’ll say for now, except to urge you to watch the six talks on Racism.  Whatever your opinion, this is not an isolated incident in the history of our country.

Here’s an old graphic I like to use in similar situations.  We’re beginning the “RECOIL-TURMOIL” phase.

UPDATE 1:15 pm.  A friend just called to note that the GandhiMahal Facebook page announced that the restaurant was at minimum damaged by fire last night, though it is still not listed as a fire casualty in the paper.    Here is the Star Tribune article. For those on Facebook, you can read more here.

The Minnesota Governors briefing and update late this morning was very useful in identifying the very complex nature of taking action in a crisis of the sort we witnessed overnight, including the opportunistic involvement of anarchists and looters (two specific and not necessarily related ‘groups’ who are unverifiable, and thus potentially ‘false flags’ by those seeking to blame someone).  The Governor, who himself served 24 years in the Minnesota National Guard, and who was backed by people like the State Patrol and Minnesota National Guard and others, talked about assorted chains of authority and responsibility in a civil society, from local police and sheriff, to mayors, on and on and on.  Nothing is ever as simple as it appears to be in a tweet, or a complaint.  Yes, there were mistakes, and there will always be mistakes, but not willful.

Personally, I was witness to this kind of complexity very often in my day to day job years ago.  What was initially presented as an absolute right/wrong dichotomy, etc., was never so clear, the closer one got to the actual situation, and actors.  I’d simply advise everyone to be  careful about a rush to judgement, and assessing blame, though it is very tempting.

COMMENTS (additional comments at end of post)

from Laura: Prayers for a city to be healed.

from Adam: I really appreciate the visual you shared. Quite insightful.

from Jermitt: Thanks for sharing your personal experience with us.

from Mary, who lives in the area: It is my library postoffice, Aldi’s, police station and bike tire pump.

from Darleen:  Yes, the police officer is rightfully charged and the 3 officers with him or close to him would have been wise to tell him to stop as a compassionate request for human lifeI did not see the event the night it happened.   I watched some of it today and did see the knee on the neck.   The officer was out of order.   The autopsy did not indicate that death was caused by strangulation.   The trial will definitely be interesting.

from Fred:  Thanks, as always, for your perceptive commentary. We just might be seeing the start of a “long hot summer”—late 1960s style. It is tragic. Our Dear Leader just offered a unifying statement noting that cities being hit are run by Democrats.  I remember the night Dave and I took the wives to attend a dinner at Gandhi Mahal with you. It honored your German-author friend.

 

Dead Man Talking

Other related posts at May 29, 30 and May 31.

I knew the latest Minneapolis police incident would be front page news this morning.  All I didn’t know was exactly what it would look like.  Here’s the ‘above the fold’.

Minneapolis Star Tribune front page May 27, 2020

There will be a lot more to say about this, and other similar news.  We are subscribers to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, so this is today’s front page on our doorstep.  More can be read at the STrib website, here.  Todays editorial is about this case.

For those with an interest, I recommend highly a six part lecture series on racism I attended through our parish, Basilica of St. Mary, in February.  The first half of the series was in person; the last half was cancelled due to COVID-19, but all six parts are on video.

The faculty are all professors at the University of St. Thomas.  All presenters are white, by deliberate choice.  Episode 6 explains why.  Each are about an hour in length.  The series was extremely well done.  Do check it out.  Comments are solicited.  I will add to this post as time goes on.

25 years ago, on Martin Luther King Day, 1995, I was asked to comment at my church.  Here is the summary of what I said on that Sunday: Race, a personal view

from blogpost “Spring” April 25, 2020:

BECOMING HUMAN: A LENTEN SERIES:  Along with about 50 others, I attended the first three of a planned six lecture series on this topic.  Each talk was powerful.  The last three had to be cancelled due to quarantine, but the speakers, all faculty at St. Thomas University, put all of the six lectures on video, and Basilica and St. Thomas have made them available to everyone, and I’m passing along with permission.  The syllabus is at the end of this post.  I have not included the links or followup activities.  Here are the links to the talks themselves.

Week One: Dr. David Williard: Civil War to Civil Rights

Week Two: Dr. Jessica Siegel: The War on Drugs

Week Three: Dr. Amy Levad: Mass Incarceration

Week Four: Dr. Amy Finnegan: Defeating the “White Savior” Complex

Week Five: Dr. Michael Klein: Mobilizing for Social Change

Week Six: Dr. Kimberley Vrudny: The Blackness of God

POSTNOTE May 27: I take a short drive each day, and today I made a longer trip to the scene of the tragedy yesterday, 38th and Chicago in Minneapolis by Cup Foods.  Here’s the google map of the intersection and neighborhood.  When I drove to the area (about noon, westbound on 38th) a crowd had blocked the intersection and was orderly, and appeared mostly younger.

This story is an important one, unfortunately not unusual, and probably just beginning.

May 28, 2020:  Today’s STrib top headline “Violent protests intensify…No pulse when medics arrived for George Floyd…New fury in the streets’ [Mayor] Frey calls for cop’s arrest.

The Second headline below the above “100,000” and the rest of the front page is devoted to Corona Virus covid-19.
There is another editorial about the Floyd case today.
*
Most of my work career was spent sorting out facts from information so I don’t dash into indictments.
But there is a side-by-side comparison I’ll be making as this one progresses.
The Justine Rusczyk (aka Damond) killing happened about three years ago in south Minneapolis.
In 2019, Somali Minneapolis policeman Mohammed Noor got 12 1/2 years for killing her in the dark alley in south Minneapolis (my sidewalk analysis: a tragic accident).   Justine’s family got a $20 million settlement.  Two women, Minneapolis Mayor and Police Chief, lost their jobs.
Time will tell what justice means this time.

*

BECOMING HUMAN: A LENTEN SERIES

Welcome to The Basilica of Saint Mary’s Lenten Series on “Becoming Human.” Though of course we wish we could have continued the series in person, COVID-19 made online delivery necessary. We hope that this “online portal” to the series provides you with some ofthe tools that will be necessary to engage in the work of transforming our communities.

The theory guiding this series is that the racial history we all inherit is dehumanizing for all of us, though it is dehumanizing for white folks in different ways than it is dehumanizing for people of color. The only way to “become human” is to confront the legacy of white supremacy and undergo a process of transformation, even conversion, to engage more humanely in the world, especially across the color line.

Key to this effort is learning the history of how white supremacy has been structured into the American legal system from its founding (week one), persisting beyond the era of Civil Rights especially through the “war on drugs” (week two), and leading to the contemporary reality of mass incarceration (week three). Learning the stages of development in racial identity can help to disrupt the “White Savior” complex, the tendency of white people to engage in efforts that are unhelpful at best, and patronizing at worst (week four). True social transformation can happen when there is a match between our unique gifts and the world’s need. As Frederick Buechner put it, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet” (week five). Since theology is a carrier, too, of white supremacy, learning about the Blackness of God might also help in recognizing the moral imperative behind this religious calling to engage in the work of social transformation (week six).

This series will echo the Christian cycle of creation-fall-redemption, starting with the theological idea that humans were created in the imago Dei, but fell into a sinful condition where persons, relations, and structures fail to function in the ways that God desires. Humans were created reflecting something of the divine life, but sin–especially the social sin associated with the domination of one over another–has diminished life, not only for people of color, but also for perpetrators. The final two sessions in the series will point to the hope that God is redeeming us from the condition in which we find ourselves. The series holds onto the hope that the Holy Spirit is at work in the world, enlightening us, empowering us, and encouraging us to resist systems of oppression, and to cooperate in the task of reclaiming our common humanity.

COMMENTS:

Statement from a well known and respected Interfaith organization in Minnesota can be read here.

from a long-time friend: Reference to George Floyd,  I think it’s safe to say that abusive law enforcement is not unique to your area.  The use of excessive force is something that we have also been dealing with out here in Seattle.  Our Seattle Police Department (SPD) has been under a DOJ consent decree since 2012 and after a change in leadership and revised training, that consent decree is about to be lifted.  But the actions of our SPD has never been as blatant as the outright murder of George Floyd.  An example of the worst case of SPD use of excessive force that I can think of was the killing of a Native American wood carver who was carrying his carving knife as he crossed the street.  We have also had problems with members of the King County sheriff’s office.  I have had a back and forth with the King County sheriff on this subject as well as with members of his team that participated in a bowling league that I played in.  The debate centered around their attitude and the resulting training to shoot-to-kill when they drew their weapon.  I pointed out to them that when I was 12, my sister Lila and I would throw stones into the air and shoot them with our 22 rifle.  We didn’t hit them every time, bit did so with sufficient frequency that we could conclude that we were never very far off.  The point I was trying to make was that if a trained police officer had shot the Native American wood carver in the leg, guess what he would be doing with his hands.  He would drop the knife and grab his leg.  There was no need to kill him because he didn’t respond to the police officer’s demands.  This would have also applied to the lady with the scissors that was shot by a police officer in Bossier City, LA.  I am no psychologist, but my observations of the some of the King County officers that I bowled with is that they seemed timid and didn’t seem to have high degree of confidence in themselves. This leads me to believe that there are guys that join law enforcement teams because it make them feel like tough guys, while they live in fear on the job.

Response from Dick:  As I’ve said at an earlier time, generally I’ve had few issues with police, including the Minneapolis group (our church is in Minneapolis, and a large place, so Mpls police are a regular and invited and positive presence).

On the other hand, Minneapolis historically has a very bad reputation when it comes to race, not so much recently, and the community knows this.  It will be most interesting to see how this plays out in the longer term.  A solution is not to immediately fire the chief and the mayor – they already did that in another high profile incident three years ago.

Memorial Day

See also, here.  This post includes a May 24 Letter from an American that deals specifically with the 100,000 casualties, thus far, from the COVID-19 Pandemic.  Peter Barus’ May 22 post, here, has much food for thought for all of us, relating to the current state of our country and the globe itself.  Take the time….

*

Today, 16 of us joined a Zoom for the annual Vets for Peace gathering.  It was different, but it worked well.  Here’s a bad photo (problem with my camera)…but you get the idea.  I suspect Zoom, et al, is becoming a new normal for all of us.

May 25, 2020 VFP

Everyone has their own point of view about/on this day.  This is a good day to practice the difficult skill of dialogue.  Here are some points of view, just from today.

Larry, former VFP President, referred us to a couple of letters in todays Minneapolis Star Tribune:

This Memorial Day feels different during this time of pandemic. Usually we honor our military, especially those who have died. Now, however, we seem to be expanding our thoughts about sacrifice and service. In my neighborhood, I see handmade signs on trash bins thanking sanitation workers for their service, signs near mailboxes thanking postal delivery people. We now hear grocery workers being mentioned as being “on the front lines,” of medical workers who have died from COVID-19 exposure as the “fallen.” It seems that we may be reconsidering what work actually keeps us safe, what forgotten service also implies sacrifice and also deserves our praise.

None of this is to diminish sincerely held willingness to do military service. But why do we honor only those? But perhaps the most profound honor we could give to military heroes would be to stop sending them to endless wars, perhaps to die or perhaps to live the rest of their lives impaired by wounds seen or unseen. Perhaps the greatest honor we could give our military “fallen” would be to stop making so many of them.

CHARLES UNDERWOOD, MINNEAPOLIS

Sudden death lurks among us, sharpening our vision about what really matters. We demand that our legislators act to protect our loved ones according to our best science — not caving to talking points geared to wishful thinking. Will the coming special session stand out as Minnesota cares, or Minnesota kills?

As our state legislators debate where to focus our resources, let’s all remember that federal support for essential state and local needs has been shifted to wasteful Pentagon spending. Our country has stockpiled more than enough bombs to annihilate the world, but not enough virus-shielding gear to keep our health care providers alive. The U.S. has spent or obligated $6.4 trillion on wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and Iraq, but we don’t have enough basic materials to test for a killer virus.

Let’s take a collective deep breath and realize: We need to shift from a culture of war to a culture of care. We demand that our legislators act to protect Minnesota lives with today’s 2020 vision. We have more than enough; we need to prioritize care.

AMY BLUMENSHINE, MINNEAPOLIS

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Norm, long-time friend and activist, sent an e-mail recalling the day (Norm amended by addition today, and it is added at the end of the post):

Memorial Day was often cold and rainy or such is my memory of that special day from growing up.
I do remember the community marching from the high school to the cemetery led by some local WWII veterans and the high school band or at least members of it.  There would be a little ceremony, then blanks fired in a salute followed by the playing of taps.  I think that we then hiked back to the school for a little deal but maybe not and the vets went back to the American Legion club to reminisce and reflect.
I think that the local honor guard would then head out to the cemetery south of town and repeat the gun salute and the playing of taps and maybe out to another cemetery as well, i.e. Kalevala cemetery?.
I think that all ended for the most part by the early 50’s at least in terms of the community marching to the cemetery.
I also remember that we frequently would go over to visit the family and relative plots in the Barnum cemetery as well much more than I remember those sessions in the Cromwell cemetery.
Although they have all been canceled this year, there are always several Memorial Day programs at many of the local cemeteries as well as the VN et al memorials on the grounds of the state capitol.  I have never attended the service at the VN memorial but have visited that site at other times and found the names of two of my nine ROTC classmates, Banks and Coulliard, on the Minnesota memorial wall. Both John and Bruce were pilots and both were KIA in Viet Nam, 1966 and 1968 respectively.
There was an Oestrich kid from Cromwell who was killed in and/or during VN  and also a Carl Seagren (sp?) from the UMD AFROTC program.  I ran into his older brother, Len, at the O Club at Utapao when I was stationed there and he told me about his younger brother’s death at that time.  I cannot remember if Len told me that Carl had died as a result of military service or due to some other reason.
Time to remember Grandpa Smith’s service in the Army in Montana and the Phillipines as well as that of Uncle Rudy who was gassed in WWI while serving in Europe.  I think that his brother, Frank, also served in the Army at that time as well but I am not sure.
I can’t remember if Uncle Frank’s sons, Buddins and Brad, served in the military or not but they might have.
I don’t know if Uncle Fritz ever served in the military but maybe he did as well.
I don’t know if any of the Duluth Hanson’s served or not, however.
Then, there also were the Katzele boys, Gene and Ed, who served in the Navy during WWII as did Uncle George while Uncle Roger served in the Merchant Marines.
Distant cousin, Lester Harrison’s son, Craig, served in the Army in Korea as I recall. I remember Grandma Hanson encouraging me to correspond with Craig when he was in Korea and I did.  Craig then gave me all of his military hard ware, that is, ribbons and medals and so on, when he returned from Korea.  I guess that meant that he must have been able to read my handwritten lettes when they reached him in the Korean Peninsula. 😎
We all got to serve during the VNW [Vietnam?] as did Cousin Kirby, i.e. USAF, Coast Guard and the Army respectively.
I am sure that there are many other relatives that I have forgotten and/or never knew about their military service but our family did have its share of service men over the years and during various conflicts just as did so many, many families across the state and the country.
Dad did not get drafted to serve due to his age and his bad knees but did get appointed to the local draft board which probably did not make him all that popular in the Cromwell area when I think about it.  
I had never really thought about that probability until much later in life.
Ah yes, Memorial Day, a time to reminisce and to reflect.😎
A colleague vet recalled time at Ft. Carson, which was where I served my two years.  

Tom, commander of the local American Legion, did basic a couple of years before me at Ft. Carson and sent several e-mails, in part:

Do you remember a movie house on base called The Daniel Boone?
I got my first 3 day pass by disassembling my M1 rifle and naming all the parts.
I enjoyed the web site and photos.  [Dick: Go here, to second page, click Ft. Carson, and you’ll find 15 or so snapshots I took at Ft. Carson 1962-63.  Included, I think, is a photo of the base as it appeared when I was in.].
The barracks were the same as when I was there, kind of a yellow colored as I recalled them and with coal fired furnaces.
I, too, can still see Agony Hill in my mind.  I was able to make it up with a full pack
and rifle, but it took all I could muster up at the time. 
Tanks were scary when on foot and a group of them passed by at high speed.
One could actually feel the ground vibrate.  
As you say, memories.

Amended by addition by Norm:

I just noticed that I did not indicate where my brothers and I served during the VNW.
Hans was a career officer in the USAF and a helicopter pilot who served in VN working with the “little people” as he called them, that is the Montagnards, inserting their small units led by a Vietnamese officer, who often did not return with the unit when Hans and his colleagues picked them up a few days later. As you know, the Vietnamese hated the hill people including the Yards, Bru, and the Sioux seeing them an uncivilized backward folks.  Hans said that they would only tell him and his colleagues that their officer was KIA and unable to return with his unit.  Hans said that he and his colleagues always thought that friendly fire might have been a factor there but…
He did not work with the Hmong who were also hill people who were fighting with the CIA in the Secret War in Laos against the Pathet Lao.
I spent a year in Thailand with the B-52’s at Utapao AFB (technically a Thai navy base but the USAF extended the existing runway a bit from a few thousand feet enough to get the little puddle jumpers used by our Thai colleagues to 12,000 or so that could heavily loaded bombers and KC-135  tankers…) located about 90+ miles south of Bangkok on the Gulf of Thailand (Siam). 
Actually, other than the initial 28-weeks spent at the joint USAF, NAVY and Marine photo/radar intelligence school at Lowry AFB in Denver, all of my active duty time as a Reserve office was spent as a photo/radar intelligence officer with the B-52’s.
Little brother, Rolf, spent his time as a Coast Guard office following OCS in Connecticut, on a buoy tender in Duluth and finished up in Boston at the CG station near where the Constitution is parked.
Again, just my brothers and I and nothing unique about it just as it was also the case with hundreds and thousands of families.

 

 

Vets for Peace Memorial Day 2020

Friend Molly occasionally sends around a few friends on her mailing list.  Here’s the weekend version, less than a page: Molly May 23, 2020 (click on image to enlarge it)

May 24: from Joyce, Letter from an American.

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This is not an ordinary Memorial Day.

This year there will be no in-person gathering:no permit for the traditional large gathering of Vets for Peace. For many years, it has been an annual tradition to gather at the Vietnam Memorial on the Minnesota State Capitol grounds on Memorial Day.  It has been a rare year that I have been absent from this event.

This year, two alternative events are scheduled, one on Sunday live-stream on KFAI-FM; the other via ZOOM on Memorial Day, both at 10 a.m..  All details, including links, are here.  At the same link is access to several other programs.

Here’s my friend, and Memorial Day commemoration organizer, Barry Riesch at the Minnesota Wall, Memorial Day, May 26, 2014. Barry is identifying Marine Joseph Sommerhauser.  Barry and Joseph went to the same high school in St. Paul; Joseph is the younger brother of my barber, Tom, himself a Marine and Vietnam combat vet.

Joseph enlisted after high school and didn’t make a year as a Marine before he died in war, 1968.

Memorial Day, May 26, 2014, at the Memorial Wall on Minnesota State Capitol Grounds.

War is, indeed, hell.

Now we’re engaged in another war.  We are all ‘boots on the ground’.  This year it isn’t somewhere over there, long ago.  It’s right here.  We’ll probably go over 100,000 American deaths from COVID-19 this weekend.(58,220 Americans died in the Vietnam War in 10 years.)  In another sense, we’re in a bizarre combat against each other….  Be safe.

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May 15, one of my daughters asked me, and my two brothers, to remember our own military service.  We all complied.  I decided to go into a little more detail.  It’s here, if you wish: Remembering war, May 23, 2020 (click on the image to enlarge it)

I would also encourage reading Peter Barus’ post as well.  Access that post here.

And today’s Just Above Sunset is. on point as well: Not This Year.

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Check back for future posts.  The next one will likely be titled “The Pawns”, within the week.

COMMENTS (see also, the end of this post):

from Jermitt: I read your stories on your families military experience and found them interesting.  I think you probably read my personal story of my military experience.  I recently did some research on two of my dad’s brothers who were both wounded during WWII.  I was able track their location on the day each one was wounded.  I also lost a cousin in Vietnam, who name is on the WALL.  A second distant cousin was also killed in Vietnam war. Thanks for sharing, Dick.

from Alan, Quotations for this Memorial Day.  I highly recommend Alan’s frequent commentaries at Just Above Sunset.

from Mark: thank you for pulling all these threads together – that Peter Barus piece is incredible

from Richard, (his brother Don, 90, is our good friend across the street):  FYI, both Don and I are vets- he was in Germany, just post WWII; and, though I applied for Germany, was sent to the Far East- just at the wind-down of the Korean War. Don was in anti-aircraft and, I believe, they did firing practice over the Baltic Sea. Later, he was stationed in So. Bavaria. He took advantage of his free time and travelled all over Europe and No. Africa- Morocco and/or Algiers.  You may have seen his photo on a camel- I guess he travelled to France and all, mostly by motorcycle with friend. It turns out (re your article), I was stationed at Fort Carson, CO– and was in ‘fire-direction artillery’ (155’s); and nearly every week we’d do fire practice on the plains near the base of Cheyenne Mt. Another recollection at that time re combat fatigue was that of a Sgt., who was assigned with us in our fire direction center tent. He had recently returned from the heat of the Korean War, and would dive for the ground every time we fired the 5 or 6, 155mm cannons, knocking over our tables with maps, etc. It was uncontrollable for him, even though he knew when we were giving an order to fire. The term then was ‘shell-shock’.

That and other stories by our cadre returning from Korea were a bit un-nerving when my orders came down to be sent to Seoul, Korea, near the DMZ. However, on the way, one of our two military planes lost an engine and had to return to Ft Ord, CA, so my plane was diverted to the AFFE Headquarters-Rear in Japan. Fortunately for me, I was there for almost a year and loved it. I travelled a lot when off duty in Japan, even visited Nagasaki (that was about 10 yrs after the atomic bomb was dropped there, ending WWII). My military tour highlight though was when, having trained in swimming and diving throughout HS and at Macalester College, I participated in the AFFE ‘All-Japan’ and the ‘Far-East’ Swimming and Diving championships in Osaka, Japan.

Fortunately, because of the time in service, neither Don nor I had to be engaged in combat.

 

Peter Barus: You Have More Power Than The President

Peter and I have been on-line friends for nearing 20 years, and recently he sent me a post initially sent to “friends and family”, included a blog post he published in Op Ed News.  The correspondence is sent along with his permission.  The letter and two links are very much worth your time.  Photo with Peter at end of this post.

Thanks, Peter.

“Happy Mother’s Day, you have more power than the President”

Dearest Friends and Family,

I hope and trust this finds you well, and creating the future with gusto!

I’ve written something and posted it on line for all to see, here.

It’s about a tough subject. But it’s hopeful. Or maybe I’ve finally lost it, I’d be the last to know.

It might be the foreword to a book that’s been rattling my brain for years, now called “Dodging Extinction at the Dawn of the Attention Age”. Or, it might be the whole book. It’s probably the best synopsis of this monster (well, I’ve got about 140 pages, more if it goes to press in the popular and handy 6″x9″ format).

There are a lot of famous writers up there with me, along with the cranks and poets and geniuses on OpEdNews. Naomi Klein has a very good piece there now [A High-Tech Coronavirus Dystopia] that is a very good followup to Professor Zuboff’s 2″ tome, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. She is spot-on. Everybody should read this, both of these, prescient, timely and incisive works.

I’m not thinking about which character in A Night To Remember I want to be, as the deck tilts and the lights flicker. I’m thinking about a possible future in which we follow the excellent advice of Tolu Oni who lays out the real problem(s) and shows that they are not intractable at all.

A shift to sanity is possible and probably happening already. The media, of whatever stripe, are not going to make any money by reporting this. But most of us have abandoned the media as we’ve become more intimately connected on the new networks.

As Shoshanna Zuboff and Naomi Klein make clear, however, we have become intimately connected to a system that fracks us like oil and gas. The fracking salts are bots and trolls and memes that isolate us into tiny markets-of-one, and from there, we try to hold elections. This worked to their unimaginable profit, and our great detriment, unfortunately, but has gone about as far as the Masters of the Universe could take it. Their next project must fail, or our species surely will.

An imagination confined to a Marvel Comics paradigm is not going to get us much farther than what we see now. Too bad for them; Like an old bandmate of mine, who used to play lead guitar for Muddy Waters, would say: if you can’t keep up, take notes.

Stay tuned, and stay in touch!

love

Peter

Peter Barus, first row at left, Oct 23, 2002, Mastery Conference

 

Commencement

Message on back of work uniform at local McDonald’s: “Keep calm, wash your hands” – an apparent and appropriate message for both customer and server.

Parker is a senior at Eastview HS in Rosemount-Apple Valley ISD 196.

Last year, September 11, 2019, I observed and commented that the children born on Sep 11, 2001, were all having their 18th birthday.  It is now about nine months later, and we’re in about the third month of “quarantine birthdays” during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Around 53,000,000 K-12 students of which over 3,000,000 are seniors, will mostly finish their school year at home, as most schools are closed.  (The book of national education statistics can be accessed here.)

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Every one has their personal stories.   Two of our grandkids are in the class of 2020, for instance; four grandkids have already graduated; three more enroute.   And on and on it goes.

Last night we watched a one hour virtual graduation featuring, among others, lots of seniors, plus Barack Obama, Malala and LeBron James, and other celebrities.  The real appeal was the representatives of the graduates themselves.  It was a very  uplifting hour, broadcast widely, and I hope it is repeated.   President Obama’s 7-minutes can be watched here.  Here is commentary about the program from ABC News.

Doubtless, there are other virtual graduations to come.  I hope to watch some of them.

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The last eighteen years has been quite a childhood for the youth of America, and we’re just beginning the next round.  Most of the rest of us experienced the last 18 years in America as well, and this is a good time to take a clear-eyed look back at our personal, national and global experiences.  We have an opportunity, now, to learn something from our past.  Will we take the bait?

A short while ago, driving in the nearby suburb of Newport, I noticed an immense and still live old tree on a vacant lot.

The old tree lives on, and could it talk, has a great deal of wisdom to share.  What lessons could it teach all of us.  What travails has it survived?  What can we learn from this “elders” experience?  From our own elders?

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And what can we learn from this now-old song, which I was reunited with recently?

“Freedoms just another word for nothin’ left to lose.  Nothin’ ain’t worth nothin, but it’s free.” from “Me and Bobby McGee”, by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster, listen here, as interpreted by Roger Miller in 1969.

What are the takeaway messages of “Me and Bobby McGee”?

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One teacher of many on drive-through parade at Oltman Middle School, South Washington County, May 4, 2020. Many parents and students did the drive-by visit to the school.

COMMENTS (additional comments at the end of these):

from Molly:  I sure do appreciate your latest post. Also, thanks for the link to the Obama speech–I was about to look for it!  I am just so glad to be part of your community.

from Laura: Thanks, Dick!  I concur…

from Judy:  Dick, good for you…I go with the scientist as well.  Trump and his supporters don’t get it.

from Joyce: Thank you for this, Dick; Eric and I are applying for absentee ballots this year. We both love voting on Election Day, but we just don’t think it will be safe this year. Meanwhile, I have a pin that looks just like the “I Voted” stickers you get after voting, except mine is enamel, and it says, “I VOTE”.

from Tom: Enjoyed it, Dick!  Thanks for sharing.

 

 

Jonathan MN: A Place in Time

Last week, enroute to an auto tour of the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska, I took a wrong turn and found myself in another neighborhood of Chaska, the 1960s era new town of Jonathan, now a large neighborhood of Chaska.

May 15, 2020, Hwy 41 at Hundertmark, Chaska MN

I first saw this development about 1970, when we drove down from rural Anoka to see what it looked like.  At the time I was a teacher of geography at Roosevelt Junior High School in Blaine, and we were interested in new innovations, which Jonathan certainly was.

More recently I’m good friends with Ray “Padre” Johnson, who for several years in the 1970s was pastor of what was then the church in the community.

Jonathan still is an identified collection of neighborhoods within the city of Chaska.  Lots of interesting information is available at the town of Jonathan website.   Click on the History link for many interesting documents.  One of the most interesting to me was an article on “Creating New Towns” from 1970.  An interesting photo gallery is also accessible here.

The new town movement has a long history, with a number of interesting articles on the internet.  There were only a few such communities developed in the United States, but they all made their mark.  Here is an article about a few of the U.S. new towns, of which Jonathan was one.

Moms

For another, and excellent, view of Mothers Day, read Heather Cox Richardson, here.  (See in addition Bob’s comment at the end of this post.)

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There are an infinite variety of Moms (which I choose to leave without boundaries of gender, age or marital status).  I’ve been thinking about “Moms”, and I invite you to do the same.

This day, here are a few “Moms” who come to mind, which happen to all be women, but could be anyone.

Yesterday morning I delivered Mother’s Day plants to two daughters who live in area suburbs.

Daughter Lauri, just across the river in South St. Paul,  concluded on Friday a most interesting project, which she began as Covid-19 precautions increased.  Walking has never been off-limits here, and what Lauri decided to do was to seek to walk every local street at a pace of about an hour a day…dressed as T-Rex.  By yesterday, she’d become an item in Twin Cities area TV news, and invited us over to the last blocks around Vets Field.  We joined a small group, all of whom seemed to mostly follow the rules.  Here’s a photo (there were several pretenders tagging along with Lauri for the last lap),

Lauri, third from left,  et al at Vets Field South St. Paul May8, 2020.

Lauri says she has new appreciation for those she used to watch in the Macy’s Parade.  It ain’t easy.  People of all ages enjoyed the free show one or two at a time from the safety of their home or front yard.

Daughter Joni, is Principal of a 1,000 student Middle School near here, and also the Mom of a high school senior who like every high school senior this year will not have a normal high school graduation.  At their home, I noted a lawn sign that says it well.

Parker is a senior at Eastview HS in Rosemount-Apple Valley ISD 196.

A week or so ago, Joni’s faculty did a marvelous drive by “parade” at their school – students and parents paraded in their cars on the school bus entrance route past the faculty spread out along the route.  We were one of the cars in the parade.  It was a marvelous experience.

Sisters Mary Ann and Flo:  Mary Ann (she goes by Mary these days) is just south of me in age, and her career has been as a nurse, most of the career in New York State as a Nurse Practitioner.  Her most recent message: “I work in health care – I am privileged to work in health care – but I have never felt quite as marginalized and minimized as during this pandemic.  While most Americans have drunk the kool-aid of ‘terrify me with possibility of infection and death’ the health care worker is still showing up for work with infected persons and is faced with labeling gowns and masks so they can re-use them after disinfection.  We do the best we can and are in general much better at recognizing the presence of infection and doing what we can to break the chain.  During my career I have spent time in leper colonies, sitting with active tuberculosis patients, cleaning up the sores of yaws, avoiding mosquitoes and ticks and bed bugs and on and on…always hoping my immune system and my maker would kick in and save the day.  I remember days when we had very few gloves  and had to re-wash them….gloves are readily available now.”  Mary is still filling in, as needed, primarily in Nursing Homes in New York.

Flo’s retirement hobby this year is helping with the U.S. Census in her rural Minnesota county.  She notes that only 57% participated in the census 10 years ago, and the lack of participation has consequences for them.  They have their reasons.  She keeps at it.

Finally, Cathy, my spouse, who’s a tireless Mom for many, including this retired guy!

Some years ago – she can’t remember how they met – she became friends with our across-the-street neighbor, Don.  (Photo from Wednesday, below).  Don is 90, single, never married, and his friend, John, who checks in on him several times a day by phone, is unable to stop by as he used to.  So Don increasingly relies on us for most every thing, including just getting out of his immaculate house once in awhile, such as getting some spring flowers the other day.  The old saying “he ain’t heavy, he’s my brother” comest to mind.  Don is increasingly aware of pending end of life, is ever more needing a bit of support and encouragement.  I help too, but it really was and is Cathy who’s been day-to-day in his corner.

May 9 2020 at Volunteers in Correction flower sale at the Ramsey County Correction facility.

What do these stories bring to mind for you?  Have a great day.

There have been two prior posts in May, the 4th and the 8th.  Take a look.

May 8, 2020 Carver Park Woodbury MN, my daily walking route, a couple of miles, usually meeting three or four people.

COMMENTS (more at the end):

There are numerous brief comments.  Here are some  more lengthy ones.

from Christina: You wrote about Mothers in your blog and asked for any stories of Mothering.
My son said this year Mother’s day should be called “Care takers day”
My sister just sent me a note telling what her daughter has been up to during this Covid 19 time.
She is a single woman who has just been elected to the city council in her town in Washington.
She doesn’t have any children that she gave birth to, but it sure sounds like she is a Mother to the community.
In my sister’s words:
I have to tell you about Charla’s projects. At first I kinda wanted to shake her because she does such a poor job of taking care of her own life. But she has really gone to town getting food for the people in her community. She bought lots of food through a restaurant who allowed her to order it at their prices, then she distributed to a food bank. Two times she got 150 lbs of ground beef, plus all kinds of other food. She said she finally realized she could not keep it up, so she is soliciting more people to buy food for people who need it. She is not the least bit shy. She said she knows who has money and who does not. So she called some of them and said, “I have a mission for you. Here is your shopping list. ” She is not bashful. As she said, they all seem willing to help, just don’t know how to go about it. Charla’s apartment is a cute apartment on top of a pizza parlor on Main Street. So since the quarantine has been in place, she has been running a bubble machine every evening out of her upstairs window. Word spread and now families come with their small kids in the evenings to play with all the bubbles. She bought out the local stores and ordered bubble soap from Amazon to keep it going. I don’t even want to think of what she has spent on bubbles. Local facebook pages have thanked the person who has the bubbles but they don’t know who it is. A friend of hers told her that for the next campaign, she has to have an emoji of her blowing bubbles on her campaign posters so people will know it was her.
One lady she met said she wanted to provide bubbles. Charla explained how it is hard to find them, and she would prefer that people spend money on food for other people. She told the woman about her neighbors who need help. The woman, whom Charla had never met before, drove to several local communities until she found bubbles in Federal Way.; She bought out all the bubbles from Party City, brought them to Charla, along with a package of diapers and a grocery card gift certificate for the neighbors. Like you said, Christine, there are good things happening.
There are two apartments on Charla’s floor. She has one and the other one is a Hispanic family with three kids, two in diapers. They moved in at the very beginning of the quarantine. Charla thinks the wife might be undocumented along with some of their other relatives. So she has kind of taken them under her wing. She got us to give them cash and cases of diapers and I know she has provided lots herself. The people wrote her the nicest note about how they were looking at a place to rent. They found this apartment and are so grateful because Charla is helping them get through. Charla thinks they have zero money, he is laid off, and when you have undocumented family, it is hard to sign up for anything because you are trying to stay under the radar. Today their little guy dropped off a picture he had colored and a ponytail schrunchy that his mother had crocheted. I thought it was so sweet that they gave that to her. Even if they need food, they still have their dignity.

from Larry: Thanks. I’ll pass it on to [spouse], since my mother’s been gone since 1951. I also wanted you to know that nothing you send will disappear; it’s going in file that has your name on it, for deposit in a proper final resting place that may well outlast us all.

from Bob, supplement to Heather Cox Richardson’s comments:

Too few Americans are aware that early advocates of Mother’s Day in the United States originally envisioned it as a day of peace, to honor and support mothers who lost sons and husbands to the carnage of the Civil War.

In 1870 — nearly 40 years before it became an official U.S. holiday in 1914 — social justice advocate Julia Ward Howe issued her inspired Mother’s Day Proclamation, which called upon mothers of all nationalities to band together to promote the “amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.” She envisioned a day of solemn council where women from all over the world could meet to discuss the means whereby to achieve world peace.

Julia Ward Howe was a prominent American abolitionist, feminist, poet, and the author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” She nursed and tended the wounded during the civil war, and worked with the widows and orphans of soldiers on both sides of the war, realizing that the effects of the war go far beyond the killing of soldiers in battle. The devastation she witnessed during the civil war inspired her to call out for women to “rise up through the ashes and devastation,” urging a Mother’s Day dedicated to peace. Her advocacy continued as she saw war arise again in the world in the Franco-Prussian War.

As the call for a Mother’s Day carried on, it gained new momentum and finally became a national holiday in the early 1900’s with the lead of Anna Jarvis, who had been inspired by her mother, also named Anna Jarvis, who had worked with Julia Ward Howe in earlier efforts for a Mother’s Day. She envisioned mother’s Day as a time of recommitment to honoring and caring for mothers, especially mothers who are no longer able to care for themselves.  She lived to see Mother’s Day becomes a victim of commercialism, when honoring mothers was reduced to giving flowers, cards and gifts she died in 1948, disappointed and disillusioned that her work has been so trivialized.

While Mother’s Day has presently lost much of its early edge for justice, it’s important to note some of the underpinning intentions and re-commit ourselves to its prescient calling. At a time when our country is again engaged in devastating and costly wars abroad and many of our own communities are torn apart by violence, it’s time for Mother’s Day to return to its roots.

In the spirit of Ward Howe’s original call, this occasion can be a time to dedicate ourselves, on behalf of mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers everywhere, to rise up and protect our most vulnerable by calling for our leaders to make a directional shift in the course of our nation. There is no need more urgent than addressing the devastation brought on by violence in all of its forms – affecting the lives of untold millions in our nation and around the world. Then, we may finally see the carnage and devastation of violence and war fade into its own history. There could of course be no better way to honor our mothers.

MOTHER’S DAY PROCLAMATION
Boston, 1870

Arise, then… women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
whether our baptism be that of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies.
Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage,
for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.
From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says:  Disarm, Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.
Blood does not wipe out dishonor,
nor violence vindicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
at the summons of war,
let women now leave all that may be left of home
for a great and earnest day of council.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them then solemnly take council with each other as to the means
whereby the great human family can live in peace,
each bearing after his own kind the sacred impress,
not of Caesar,  but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask
that a general congress of women, without limit of nationality,
may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient,
and at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
to promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
the amicable settlement of international questions,
the great and general interests of peace.
~ Julia Ward Howe