Racism

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POSTNOTE July 11, 2020: from the July 9 New York Times, well worth your time.

[IMPORTANT ADDED NOTE as of Sep. 16,2020 from Basilica of St. Mary, original sponsor to the Racism series described below:

The University of St. Thomas has placed the Becoming Human series on a new platform on their website.

To access the Becoming Human Series, please go here: 

While there is a fee for this series, The Basilica of Saint Mary is offering this series free of charge: The Discount Code is BecomingHuman100

We invite you to utilize this series and share the Discount Code, as needed.

On the site page, go to “Add Course to Cart,” enter into the “Check Out” page and add the Discount Code:

BecomingHuman100. This will remove the fee and you will have access to the series free of charge.]

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Racism is part of me.  It is part of all of us – all of us.

I started to come to grips with this years ago.  The first ‘evidence’ is this little piece I did in January, 1995, for Martin Luther King day at my church: Race, a personal view (click to enlarge).  

The desire to understand more about my own self led to the most recent recommendation, at these pages, several times, to listen to the six talks on “Becoming Human“, presented by six professors at St. Thomas University in February and March, 2020, literally at the beginning of the pandemic.  I saw the first three lectures in person, and watched the last three on line.  If you’ve now decided to watch, here is the link to all of the talks (scroll down to “Featured Resources”).

Where does this Racism business come from?

If we’re honest with ourselves, each of us can come up with plenty of our own examples: how we came to be who we are.

One fairly recent example for me came five years ago out at the North Dakota farm of my ancestral family, which I had to close when our last farm survivor, my uncle Vincent, died.

It was Nov. 14, 2015, and I was at the farm, alone, going about the lonely process of burning left over “junk”, from simple trash, to things no one had expressed any interest in.

Among the possessions in the metal shed was a pile of unclaimed books, none in good condition, certainly no ‘collectors’ editions.  I don’t like to burn books, but the burning barrel was the only feasible destination for these volumes, mostly moldy.

Still, I looked at each before tossing.  One in particular caught my eye:

I had only a vague notion about this book, but the title, “The Clansman” caught my eye.  It turned out to be a 1915 reprint of the original 1905 novel about the Ku Klux Klan, apparently republished on the occasion of the film “The Birth of a Nation” in 1915.  In substantial part, the movie was based on the book.

How was it that I found this book on a small farm in North Dakota in 2015?  Who brought it there?  Why was it kept for near 100 years?  Who read it?  Who saw it earlier and decided to keep it?  The book was stamped as once the property of Moorhead [MN] Public Library.  Other than the book, as best evidence, all the other questions are unanswerable.   Everyone who handled the book before me is long gone.  Here are two photos from the book.

Both photos from “The Clansman”, 1915

I decided to get this book restored, and I read it from cover to cover.  I sought to understand what it had to say; why it was written.

Personally, the biggest takeaway from this volume was a sense that white overseers, particularly in the defeated slave states, were terrified of the freed slaves.  They,  now badly outnumbered, probably felt they would now be treated as they had earlier treated their slaves.

Reconstruction thus became just a continuation of the Civil War.  The statues, this book, other symbols, are the remaining evidence of an attempt to defeat the defeat of the south in the Civil War.  As evidenced by this book on my relatives North Dakota farm, the attitudes migrated out of the south to other places, and still remain alive today.

I have encouraged people to read this volume and mine it as an opportunity to learn, not to pine about going back to the old days of slavery; rather to get better grounded in how serious and long-standing the problem of our history – our racism – is; to think and act about solutions to our 400 year dis-ease..

The book is nothing to fear, though few have taken the bait.

I think the book is worth your time.

Mount Rushmore/Crazy Horse

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Postnote July 6, 2020: “Largely Imaginary Foes”

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The last time I was at Mt. Rushmore was May 21, 2004.  The same day we stopped at Crazy Horse, across the way a few miles.  That day was my 5th visit to Mt. Rushmore; my third to Crazy Horse. (The first visit was 1971.)  On one of the memorable trips,  I had an opportunity to walk right up to Crazy Horse’s head; another time was spent learning a lot about Mt. Rushmore and Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor.  Take the time to learn the long history of the place called the Black Hills.

Below are a couple of pics from 2004, and here’s a map of their relative geographic location.

Tonight Mt. Rushmore is most in the news, and Crazy Horse may or may not merit any mention, so here’s an article about Crazy Horse from the Native American perspective.

Google the words Mount Rushmore for up to the moment comments.  There’ll be lots of words spilled.  Depending on your point of view, many you’ll like to hear, many you won’t.

Crazy Horse 2004

Mt. Rushmore 2004

POSTNOTES:

A brief blog post “Politics”, published July 1.  Also, check “Monuments” at June 12.

July 4th:  Just Above Sunset, “The Odd Fourth”

COMMENTS:

Dick (personal):  I just returned from my daily walk.  Met a guy who said “have a good fourth” and I responded “thank you, and you as well”.  I wondered how authentic each of us were.  It is a very odd 4th this year.

Yesterday we took a short drive over to Afton, a small town whose fame in part is a large marina on the St. Croix River, part of the eastern border of Minnesota.  There is an ice cream store there, Selma’s, which is always a magnet.  This afternoon there was a long line and no apparent social distance or masking.  We didn’t stop.

At the end of todays walk I noticed no flags flying in the neighborhood.  I’ll pay closer notice to flags as the day goes on.  (NOTE: 1:10 p.m. I’ve been ‘out and about’ and there are flags here and there, but simply personal census, it seems like fewer than I normally see.  9:30 p.m.  The rest of the day included another drive including by the ice cream stand referred to above.  The clientele seemed to be minding quite well the recommended protocols.)

from Emmett:  I have also visited the two monuments a number of times and took that walk around Crazy Horse.  I think my last visit was in 2012.  Note that the opening below Crazy Horse’s arm will not get much bigger than the hole that now exists because of geological reasons.  The same is true about the actual location of  his horses head.  The four faces of Mount Rushmore would fit in the area made up of Crazy Horse’s face and hair.  The Crazy Horse monument is really huge.

But for now, the important thing is today’s celebration.  Here’s wishing you and all your family a Happy 4th of July.

from Molly, two short pieces relevant to the day: Molly for 4 July 2020 

from Joyce, an important and very informative commentary from Heather Cox Richardson.

Larry commented in the on-line comments (at end of post) and I responded as follows: Many thanks.  I, too, have been to the battlefield, in 1978, I’m sure it has been expanded since then. As you know, it is ‘off the beaten path’.  And I’ve been to Ft. Lincoln and Custer’s house.  I seem to recall he was a mediocre officer, but he had a genius for PR, like someone else we know.  So, he lives in infamy.  I’m glad that Crazy Horse endures, whether or not it is ever completed isn’t as relevant as that it’s got a very good start.

Larry replied as follows: Yup…we’re on the same page re Custer…nice job on the photos and text on that subject…you do a fine job…I want to get my blog up to date…JUST updated the Hiliners61 blog. I wrote a piece on Custer a few years ago after reading a couple of excellent histories on the battle and the “General.”  They’ve done some nice work with the Indian memorial. Crazy Horse wasn’t so crazy.  In case you feel up to it sometime, here’s the link to that column I wrote.

from Donna: What a time we are living in.  This is a picture of my mom on her honeymoon during the 30’s.

Mt. Rushmore, 1930s.  The wedding couple was from North Dakota.

Some of my ‘office flags’. The others are Philippines and Haiti.

Politics

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Four months – 126 days – from now, Tuesday, November 3, is Election Day.

My “bio” is at right on this page.  The bio fits who I am, personally, politically.

Each and every one of us who are eligible to vote in this country are “politics”.  Period.  There is  nobody, nothing, else.  WE ARE ALL ‘POLITICS’, whatever we think – or don’t – about it.

For those of you who are Minnesotans,here is the key portal.  Everything you need to know about the 2020 elections is found there.  Every state, and most local candidates and parties have their own websites.  Find out who they are for your area, and get engaged.

Here are details about the Republican National Convention.

Here are details about the Democratic National Convention.

An old saying is “the devil is in the details”.  In my opinion, the “details” are each and every one of us; what we do…or don’t…is the ultimate key.

Learn the candidates and the issues where you live.  Every single election on your Nov. 3 ballot is equally important.

Show up.

As always, I solicit comments.  Check back here once in awhile, and watch for more posts as the political season gets hotter.

POSTNOTE:  A definition that comes to mind that I heard in person in June, 1960: Politics 1960 vs 1996001 (click to enlarge) (last para in col. 1): “… in reality [politics] is the lifeblood of American government.  When they tell me that politics is a dirty business I tell them, why don’t you get into politics then and clean it up.”  NY Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, speaking in a Valley City ND city park, June 3, 1960.

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July 2: This mornings Just Above Sunset: Not This Time; Pew Research analyses the 2016 presidential election.

COMMENTS;

from Steve, a member of the MN state legislature:  I remember reading your letter [to my legislators in May, 2020] and I believe I responded [he did]. I’ve referred to your thoughts several times in conversations with both friends and other legislators. Those of us–our circumstances are very similar–who recognize the costs of services and the inability of some to pay a full share, are in an unpopular minority. Our voices aren’t very loud. Three or four years ago, I read Thomas Piketty’s “Capital” and Joseph Stiglitz’s book on inequality. Both said that it’s the tax structure that has created and maintained the inequality in our society, and they were both pessimistic that it would change. Political decisions, they said, are in the hands of the very wealthy and they will control legislation affecting the structure of wealth in this country.

With the help of our research staff at the House, I authored an education finance bill based on Piketty and Stiglitz ideas. I may have told you about it. The idea is to remove the burden of k-12 finance from regressive taxes–property, income and sales–and move it to a progressive system of capital gain, estate and commercial/industrial property. I won’t go into details here–I’m happy to discuss it if you’re interested. It would have reduced homestead property tax across the state by 20%, increased tax on capital gains ABOVE $500,000 to11%, protected farmers andsmall business, and increased estate tax reasonably.
Dicks response:  Thank you very much, Steve.  It is an immensely difficult task to represent those who have less, largely I think, because they can be so easily convinced, through media largely, that other more seemingly powerful people have more expertise, etc., and will take care for their needs.  This is, unfortunately, not true.  Greed rules.  The already rich wish to remain first in line for the handouts, and they are immensely successful at this con (my opinion).  This has happened again within the trillions of  dollars stimulus passed by Congress and signed by the President.  The least needy are first in line, and the massive dollars they receive least supervised by the granting institution – our government.  I keep thinking back to the disastrous days of 2007-08….  We recently saw one of the movies about part of those years.  It’s “The Big Short”, and well worth your time.  There’s another documentary about the money disaster: Wells Fargo, Dirty Money.  There’s a boatload of reviews.
In my opinion, this is not to the ultimate advantage of the rich and the corporate interests they represent, however.  As I pointed out to a good friend, a retired corporate vice-president, capitalism depends on ordinary people spending money on goods that they want.  It makes more sense to provide a system that rewards people with money that they can spend on goods manufactured by companies who wish to profit.
Of course, this makes too much sense and will likely never happen.
The 99% are far superior in their potential power to elect more enlightened legislators…if only they would come to this conclusion and prove their point.  If they don’t, we’re all in deep trouble.