Infrastructure

Tonight President Biden addresses Congress.  As has become my custom, I’ll publish this hours before there are any specifics.

Tonights address is about priorities, as is always the case when the President addresses Congress. This will be unusual: that Pandemic is still part of all of our lives; the insurrection of January 6 looms in everyone’s memories; the George Floyd decision in Minneapolis was one week ago….

“Priorities” always mean “money” and how it is translated by those for or against expenditures for this or that.

As I was thinking about what to say, here, my thoughts went back to a comment I heard at my coffee stop a few weeks ago.  It was a young man – he appeared to be recent post-college – asking the server what I thought was an odd question: “do you take cash?“.

The source of the quote, a young person, was especially odd.  I come from a generation where transactions were almost exclusively cash or check (the check below is the oldest actual check I’ve ever actually touched) – probably one of the first checks written by my grandfather when he started farming in North Dakota in 1905.

(At first, I thought Grandpa signed the check with a stamp.  I have five other checks from the same batch.  They all differed, but only slightly, and all were as precisely written.)

Those days, ND was in the midst of boom times.  Having said that, folks then could not have imagined today.  Their U.S.  was very different in innumerable respects.

Tonight, I think the Presidents address will be about infrastructure, writ large.  It will be about the crumbling ‘infrastructure’ as it is commonly understood – roads and bridges and the like.

But I think the president intends to expand the conversation to a greater infrastructure: things like child care and other matters of great concern to ordinary folks who could use the helping hand of Government.

I’d predict that the response from the other party will be fear about deficits – that we can’t spend all of this money.  These will be the same folks who passed huge tax cuts in 2017 meant to benefit the already rich and most wealthy corporations…and in turn increased the deficit and squeezed needed resources to those with less.

You can predict what side I’m on in this conversation.

Which leads me back to the young man’s comment: “do you take cash?”.

Debt in this country is not the issue, in my opinion.  In fact, “debt” is the source of a great portion of the “wealth” of this country – interest on debt, spending on credit when one can’t afford whatever want, etc., etc.

At the same counter where I heard the above comment, I’ve noticed people going to the second credit card for their coffee, because their first one was already max’ed out.  It is apparently a not infrequent occurrence, both for the company and the card holder.

Our infrastructure is essential; debt is not an issue.  The U.S. is a community, among 192 other communities (world nations).  We are more than a group of individuals.

This is incomplete.  Doubtless I’ll write postdates, later.  Feel welcome to weigh in, now or later.

POSTNOTE: 9:30 p.m. April 28:  I watched the entire speech.  The Republican response is now on air.

All is predictable.  9:40 his response is concluded.

Our future is in our hands, literally.  We get what we elect.  Here’s my contribution at least to Minnesotans: the current listing of our Senators and Representatives in Washington, and our local legislators in my part of Minnesota.  Time to get to work: Minnesota Legislators

POSTNOTE: 6:20 a.m. April 29:  Overnight came my favorite summary of the previous days national news.  This one headlined “A Bit Transformational”  about President Biden’s speech.  Alan, out in Los Angeles, a retiree like myself, albeit more talented and with a longer tenure as a blogger, most always nails complex issues in what I consider a reasonable way.  What he said and says is always worth your time.

As for me, last night when I wrote the other postnote, I had a one page letter on the desk next to the computer screen.  I received it on April 5 from someone in another state who’s someone I’ve never met in person.  You can read the letter here, as received, with only two words deleted: Democrats?  Along with this letter came a substantial collection of printouts from assorted “news” outlets of the right wing fringe.  I’ve decided to keep them.  This single page is a good summary.

We are in a very different country now than my Grandpa was, when, as a 24 year old brand new farmer in North Dakota, he wrote the $14.50 check, most likely to a new local business for something related to his farm (the town of Berlin was brand new at the time).  He and Grandma, his 21 year old spouse, had been on the prairie for about 6 months, first crop in the first horse-plowed field.  It had to be an exciting and optimistic time.  They lived together on that land until the first of them died 62 years later, and history would fill in the blanks, with small triumphs and large tragedies as life went forward.

April 29, 2021, President Joe Biden gave a “right on” speech.  What becomes of it is up to every one of us.

POSTNOTE: 2 p.m., May 2: Here’s President Biden’s speech to Congress on April 28.  One of many points of emphasis in his speech related to wealth inequity and the role of Congress in increasing this inequity in the 2017 tax cuts which had the opposite effect from the advertised.  This is the issue in the current debate.

“…Look at the big tax cut in 2017.

It was supposed to pay for itself and generate vast economic growth.

Instead it added $2 trillion to the deficit…

According to one study, CEOs make 320 times what their average workers make.

The pandemic has only made things worse.

20 million Americans lost their jobs in the pandemic – working- and middle-class Americans.

At the same time, the roughly 650 Billionaires in America saw their net worth increase by more than $1 Trillion.

Let me say that again.

Just 650 people increased their wealth by more than $1 Trillion during this pandemic.

They are now worth more than $4 Trillion….”

COMMENT:

from Jeff: Lately I have begun to think more about immigration.  Partly as a result of my beginning genealogy work.  Partly from my past historical study. Partly because of the current situation and the last 5 years.

I have always had a saying for the folks who are xenophobic and anti immigrant (and who are all descendants of immigrants of course): “ladder pullers”….I think the metaphorical name explains itself.
In 1906 , unless you were Chinese (or most likely Asian in general), or physically ill or mentally disabled,  you could enter the USA without a visa, without a passport, you just needed to give a contact person who confirmed you and have a little cash in your pocket.  Recently I was trying to find out exactly when a passport was actually needed to enter the USA…I havent really found out when, but in 1923 big restrictions on immigration primarily to stop the flow from Eastern and Southern Europe were enacted.  But it seems it wasnt till 1952 that a passport was required to come and go for USA or other citizens.  I remember from my research that my Italian grandparents arrived in 1906 and 1911 , but they didnt get naturalized until 1921 or 1922.  My guess this was because if they didn’t become American citizens they knew that they would not be allowed back in if they left to visit their family in Italy.
I personally know a Chinese woman who is in China right now because her H1B visa was not renewed during the Trump final year and the pandemic restrictions. She works for a company in Wahpeton/Breckenridge as an international salesperson for food grade soybeans exported from North Dakota/MN to Asia.
Apparently the Biden administration did not extend the work visa restrictions Trump passed, so she may be able to regain her visa and come back to work, however my friend in N Dak who is her boss said absolutely nothing is happening out of the US Embassy in Beijing on visas.  I imagine the stacks of applications and appeals fills several rooms…..
Have a nice day.

From Steve:  A friend sent me an email this morning commenting on the President’s speech. He wrote about how things have changed in our lifetimes and memories, about the role of government and our economy. He included a copy of a check his grandfather had written as a farmer in North Dakota, probably to a merchant or a banker in 1905, and reflected on the pride and optimism that young man must have had after his hard work and the fortunes of weather. Last night’s speech was as different from the politics and economics of those days early in the 20th century as spaceships and helicopters on the moon are from farming on the North Dakota prairie in 1900.

Politics is as fickle as fashion and the term “transformational” is the latest example. I’m not sure the word was used to describe Roosevelt’s New Deal, Humphrey at the 1948 DNC, or Fredrick Douglas’ “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” speech. And there are others like those “transformational” appeals. In each case someone stepped forward to say that things can be better, that the resources of this country and the intentions of human nature can be directed differently, toward a more attentive and generous future. The President’s speech last night was in that tradition–an appeal to our optimism and confidence that all of us can share in the benefits of this nation. I hope it works.
 
The president also talked about our place in the world. “I’ve spoken with 38–now 40–leaders of other nations”, he said. “I let them know we’re back.” There are moments in the last century when statesmen acted in ways that protected the well-being of our global future in peacetime, among them the Marshall Plan, the formation of the European Union, the Treaty on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Arms, and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Our challenge, it seems to me, is to run in both races–here at home and among the nations of the world. Not an easy task.
 
In the meantime, we have work to do here. Our legislature and the governor, the Republicans and the Democrats, have chosen to find what’s possible to accomplish in Minnesota in these last three weeks of the session. Not an easy job, but it’s one we promised everyone we’d do. There’s a familiar comparison of politics with sausage-making suggesting that neither is for weak stomachs. My grandparents made sausage in their home to sell at Ingebritsens on Lake Street during the 1930s and 40s. They were careful, imaginative and proud of their hard and attentive work. They had nothing to hide or be ashamed of. I watched them and thought it was fascinating and didn’t question their honest effort or dirty hands. Politics, I’d say, has a lot to learn from those who make sausage.

 

Women

Walter Mondale died on Sunday.  He’s a homie, and a small town boy like I am.  His trajectory was a bit more lofty than mine, and he will receive and deserve all the plaudits for a life very well lived.  I can recall meeting him a single time, a few years ago.

“Back in the day”, in 1987, my Dad moved to a retirement home in suburban St. Louis, on the bluff above E. St. Louis. Illinois.  To get to St. Louis, one went through E. St. Louis, then very much down on its heels.  More than once I saw a political sign on a building, and it comes to mind this day:

ca 1990, East St. Louis IL.

Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro didn’t fare well in the 1984 election, but no question they made their mark.  To my knowledge she was the first woman nominated for the office of vice-president; Kamala Harris is the first woman to actually achieve the office, and to sit in the chair occupied by then-Vice-President Walter Mondale 1977-81.

Those who break through ceilings understand the pain often involved in upsetting the status quo.  It takes lots of patience and persistence, and an endless succession of heroines, sometimes male, mostly anonymous, who plow the ground toward future success.

It is a truism that those who have power rarely willingly concede it.  They are accustomed to having control, and will do whatever is necessary to keep it.

It takes courage to keep fighting for equity.  It was a conscious calculation for Walter Mondale to pick Geraldine Ferraro to be his running mate; it took courage for Ferraro to get to the point where she got the nod to run for Vice-President.   So it goes….

We know the history of democracy in this country.  I won’t belabor the points.  Running things was for a great part of our history the province of white men of means.  Then it was white men, whether of means or not.  This was and still is reflected in Law, again, largely made by white men.  (My DNA says I’m virtually 100% white European, French and German and English).  I’m no “man of means”, but I’ve been spared many struggles because of gender and race.

The emancipation proclamation freed the slaves in 1863, but only, effectively, for black men, and that only temporarily.

Women had to wait until 1920 to get the right to vote, and we know how that has gone.

As we move on through the current days, the group I am watching, and cheering on, even when I disagree with a specific or that, is the group I would call “young women of color”.  For all of American history their gender and race has been largely kept in the background, with little power.  Every day I see new indications that they are rising up.

Now is their time.

Yes, there will be disagreement, and there will be mistakes – real and perceived – but make no mistake, this is their time.  Not all will be positive examples for their gender or generation – we’re seeing that already.  But this is a time in history which I personally look forward to.

POSTNOTE, April 25, 9 a.m.: On my walk this morning I reflected what I wrote yesterday, and back home were two comments from long time friends.

I’ve been on the ballfields of life and (to Marion) I have also ‘shared many struggles’, but ‘spared’ because of gender and race.

To Greg, the ball-field has not been equal, ever, in our country, and we all need to come to grips with that reality.  Whatever our circumstances, our white maleness, regardless of family standing, gave us an automatic head start.  As we speak, there are hundreds, literally, of legislative amendments in most of the states of the U.S. attempting to make it more difficult for certain others to simply exercise their right to vote.  These initiatives of course are always couched in protecting the sanctity of the ballot, with no accompanying evidence of any abuse worth writing about.  The Republican side, I think, wants our divided country to play the ball game on a field which for them is 45 yards from the end zone and for the others 55 yards….  It’s only five yards difference from 50-50, but oh, the difference that five yards make.

Out on the walk I was thinking about the topic of women in political leadership, which is the point of this post.  This is not a good and bad distinction.  I made an informal list of women leaders In recent history which includes a thankfully former Congresswoman of mine, female, who was (my opinion) a disgrace; and another former candidate for vice-president whose only qualification was – well, I don’t really know….  There are a great number of women who learned to play the game by the mens rules, and this didn’t make them a better person.  Women are no more all alike, than are men.  But took them over half our lifetime as a nation to even achieve the potential right to vote.  White men, and even slave men, didn’t have that delay.

No question, this is a difficult issue.  But we’re at the transition point, and I’m one man who wishes success to the women who have a positive vision for the future of democracy.

POSTNOTE April 26: I continue to recommend the series on Racism that I participated in a year ago, which began right before the Pandemic.  It was a significant learning experience for me.  I think you can still access it here, scroll down to Becoming Human.  Posts relating to George Floyd as amended are at Mar 29 and Apr 19.  The first segment on CBS 60 Minutes on April 25 was on the George Floyd case.

COMMENTS (More at end of post).

from SAK: Many thanks for the piece on “Women”.

I was intrigued by Mr Halbert’s response which went thus:

“Enough focusing on past injustices. No one alive today caused past injustices. Yet, most people alive today have been treated unfairly at some time. When we get knocked down the only option is to get up and try harder. We can shape our lives much more than other people, “society” can shape our lives, We, each of us, is responsible to shape our future through hard work that includes getting a good education.”.

May I point to today’s Germany where, again, most (by far) people alive there today did not cause past injustices. Yet Germany has successfully healed its wounds and is now a shining example of how to repent & redeem the past. T.S. Eliot in his Four Quartets wrote: “And time future contained in time past”. It is not an option to shirk responsibility & try & muddle along as if all past injustice is just that: past. There is space for forgiveness but also for acknowledgement,  atonement and most importantly work to improve things.

There are a few effects & ideologies working against this necessary work. The first is perceiving the past through rose tinted glasses and indeed glorifying the past. Another is the belief that rugged individualism will succeed no matter the circumstances. This is linked to US’ specific history and the abundant Hollywood productions supporting this myth. It also connects nicely with the American Dream idea. I would suggest reading this article by the evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson, I Have Come to Bury Ayn Rand (with a wink at Shakespeare’s Julius Casesar).

The fact that is much closer to the truth is that, as Brecht put it in a poem, “we all need all the help that we can get”. This becomes especially evident when crisis hits, & there have been many crises in our own lifetimes.

I’ll also add the point already alluded to by your good self that there are entrenched interests who favour leaving things as unjust as they are because it suits them, their financial prospects and/or their positions of power. Many ultra conservatives forget that the present status quo was resisted tooth and nail by older generation of conservatives. That is the same status quo that present ultra conservatives try & preserve at any cost – a status quo which has never been that static anyway but perhaps some think it will preserve their own status!?

Of course I am all for Mr Halbert’s recommendation that all should not shy away from hard work or getting a good education. It’s just that some might need a nudge to get on the starting line and perhaps help paying for that education.

Many thanks again & warm regards,

 

Earth Summit, Rio, 1992

Today is Earth Day.  Of course, every day is earth day, and on and on, but we seem to have a need to name and date things.  The first Earth Day was 1970, or so says the official website.  Check it out.

1970 was over 50 years ago.  It surprised me to learn this, though I shouldn’t have been surprised.

Coincidentally, a few days ago I’d checked in with my friend, Bharat, about the Rio Earth Summit of 1992.  I knew he’d been there, and did he know any others from Minnesota who had attended.  I knew he’d met Arthur Kanegis there, and Joe Schwartzberg.  Bharat and I talked on the phone this morning, and there are some other names ‘rattling around’ as such things happen when you get older.  The brain is sort of like the Bingo cage, especially when you age: Every now and then you ask a question about something, it rattles around and possibly an answer comes out of your brain, maybe days later.  But you need to be patient.  And isn’t that what change is all about?  Change doesn’t happen instantly.

Today was really the appropriate day for the conversation.  The Rio Earth Summit was an initiative of the United Nations, and memorable.   Here’s a summary prepared a few months after the conference.

In 1992, I wasn’t engaged in the movement which I’ve come to identify as having four component parts: peace, justice, environmental sustainability and global cooperation.  Till 1992 I didn’t even know such a movement existed.  For me, my engagement began as an aftermath of 9-11-01.  For each of us, I reckon, there is a ‘trigger moment’, perhaps many, which move us in this direction or that.

Not long after 9-11-01 I got to know Bharat and Joe and many others in a still existing organization, the Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers.

As Bharat and I were chatting this morning, I mentioned another person I met at the time, Hank Garwick, a retired engineer, who with his spouse, Dottie, were extraordinary activists and volunteers.   Their international passions seemed to be India and Haiti.  Here, they are in 2009.

Dottie and Hank Garwick December 8, 2009

We humans, given a choice, are like the old saying: “birds of a feather flock together”.  So it is with the movement I consider myself part of, which focuses on issues related to peace, justice, sustainability and international issues.

We all pass on, it is inevitable.  So Hank and Dottie, in their quiet ways, were mentors for many.  Before them someone else gave the good example, and on and on.

The movement provided many mentors for myself – mostly by watching them work.  I was over 60 years old when I met the peace and justice folks, and they were mostly considerably older than myself.

Just this morning came a photo I hadn’t seen before of one of my heroes, Lynn Elling.  Lynn was 19 when I was born.  When he died, at 95, he’d had 9 years to teach me, and I’m grateful.  Yes, he could be exasperating – a hallmark of people with passion.  But a hero, nonetheless.  I remember him, and Joe Schwartzberg here.

Lynn Elling and teachers at World Citizen Peace Education Training Oct 20, 2015, St. Paul MN

There are many, many stories within this movement.  One more, for the road:

Ten years ago Bharat invited me and several others to meet with Arthur Kanegis, who was in the process of making a film about the life of Garry Davis, who became a peace activist in his 20s, during WWII.  It’s working title “The World Is My Country”.

I’d never heard of Davis, or Kanegis, but was intrigued with what was presented at lunch, that late spring day in 2011 at the West Bank of the University of Minnesota.

A year later, with the film developing, I asked permission to show the draft to some high school students in St. Paul.  I wanted to see if kids could relate to an old man telling a story about his life as a peace activist.  Succinctly, their answer was “yes”.

In 2017, we world premiered the film here in Minneapolis; and this month, April 2021, more than 65 public television stations across the U.S. are airing the film.  It has arrived.

More information about the film, which is likely still available for preview on line, is at The World Is My Country.  Watch it yourself, and even better have a few kids watch it with you.

Bharat told me that he met Arthur Kanegis at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.  Very likely, Garry Davis was at the same convening.

Yes, Rio was just a conference many years ago attended by idealists who probably wondered whether it made any difference.  But the connection lives on, doubtless in many, many ways.

Speaking only for myself, I have observed, as one who didn’t have any idea that there was such a conference, I can say, absolutely, yes, Rio de Janeiro in 1992 did make a big difference.

A new generation now is in position to take the reins.  They’ll make mistakes like we did.  But they will build their worlds future.

Godspeed.

 

 

 

 

George Floyd

Today (April 19) is the day for closing arguments to the Jury from prosecution and defense in the Derek Chauvin trial in Minneapolis.  Thence the jury of citizens will take up the matter and make the final decision – well, their final decision.  At this moment, no one knows for sure the outcome or the future.  We all have the opportunity for our own opinions.  I’ve heard a few.

What I have to say I’ve said at the originating post as amended, which you can review here.  At the end of that post, most recently amended Tuesday morning, April 20, I say what I might rule, if given the responsibility.

Today my choice of activity was to pass on the oral argument and go instead to my personal ‘pilgrimage place’, the site of GandhiMahal Restaurant which burned to the ground, last May 29, part of the aftermath of May 25, 2020.

I took a few photos.  Here are two:

The Gandhi Mahal area April 19.  The choice of door – apparently from a commercial food cooler – was pretty obviously very deliberate, but why, as yet unknown.  It was not there April 17, so was installed only a day or two ago.  Also unknown is the Bamboo choice of fencing, and the two grill sculptures of rebar.  The questions will be answered, doubtless.  Behind the photographer (see below), a block west of the door (beside and behind the red brick building)  is the 3rd precinct Police Station, still closed. Between is a mural to George Floyd and Kobe Bryant.  Workmen were involved in some project in the buildings at right.  The entire area is involved in reconstruction.

The neighborhood, which I have visited often over the months since late May, 2020, still shows evidence of the demonstrations, but there are definite signs of recovery.  Ruhel Islam, owner of Gandhi Mahal, has to be an optimist, fencing his property with Bamboo grass, or so it appears.  He is a man of peace, and I am sure he has something planned for his lot, though I don’t know what that might be.

None of us have any idea about what may or may not happen once a Jury verdict is announced.

People do have thoughts.  A lady I’ve known and respected for over 20 years, Carole, sent a link to her personal website, here.  She is working with others to build forward.

Yesterday came an e-mail from a friend which deserves attention.

Fr. Harry Bury, activist Priest best known from the 1960s, but in more recent times leader of the local Twin Cities Nonviolent, which for the past three years or so has done a major 10 day event around September 21, wrote this to me, yesterday:

“I need as many letters to flood the editors of publications stating that Twin Cities Nonviolent is actively seeking ending all violence in the Twin Cities and especially as the trial reaches its verdict.
Then we need for people to understand that “JUSTICE” does not mean punishment. To end violence, justice must mean restoration, rehabilitation, and reconciliation, not retribution. If justice stands for “getting even” then violence will continue and get worse. This is the message of Twin Cities Nonviolent. It needs to be heard and\ implemented. Your help is essential.”
*
Fr. Bury has walked the talk of peace and nonviolence for his entire life.
*
Finally, if you missed the film, The World Is My Country, I believe you can still access it here.  It is a film about possibility, not impossibility.  How a young man dove in, and made a difference.  I wish every young person would have an opportunity to see this film, and have an opportunity to discuss it with both peers and elders.  Take a look.

The fence around the Gandhi Mahal lot on 27th at Lake St. Minneapolis, April 19, 2020.

Gandhi Mahal area May 29, 2020

COMMENTS ARE SOLICITED (also see end of post)

from Jeff: I am expecting guilty of 3rd degree homicide and 2nd degree manslaughter, and 7 to 10 years.   And that outcome I fear will not make activists happy, but should enliven the opportunists who follow them after 10pm to damage peoples lives like your friend and his restaurant.

from Steve: I do remember Fr. Bury and agree with the words you’ve quoted here. Thanks for the reminder of this life dedicated to healing and justice.

from Fr. Paul: GREAT thoughts, Dick.

from Tony: Thanks.  Nice work.

POSTNOTE April 22, 2021:   All is calm after the Tuesday verdicts in Minneapolis.  But all is not finished at all, not here, not in this country.  This mornings Just Above Sunset summarizes the terrain: “The Dust Settled” .

I took another drive down to the GandhiMahal neighborhood yesterday afternoon.  It was a chilly day; everything was quiet.  Quite obviously city officials had braced for trouble.  The windows of the Library across the alley from the restaurant lot had been covered with plywood.  The library has been open since January, but access is through the back door.  Inside, the library was…a library.  A man was there with his infant, etc.  But not yet the same.

Not a thread of bamboo had been interfered with on the Gandhi Mahal “wall”.  A workman was doing some work on what quite obviously will be an outdoor stage for some as yet unknown event, I’m guessing on the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death.  But I don’t know.

Some collapsed sidewalk from last year is about the only remnant of the chaos a year ago.  It may be there intentionally.  We shall see.

I’m posting a few last thoughts at the March 29 post, if you wish….

With wishes for peace and justice for all.

Four photos at the Hennepin Country Library at Lake Street near 27th on Apr 21, 2021. Boarding of the windows was very recent. Especially not the “open”. The only access to the building is on the back side. To my knowledge, library windows were not broken nor covered a year ago.

Main entrance to the Lake Street Library.

Gandhi Mahal area April 21, 2021

Afghanistan

This week, President Biden announced the intent of the U.S. to take all remaining U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, the 20th anniversary of 9-11-01.  The news is predictable, as presented by all ‘sides’, from extreme right to extreme left.  Most every opinion is expressed with absolute certainty.  There is no room for nuance or other points of view.

October 7, 2001, when the bombs began to drop on Afghanistan, is when I became a peace activist.  I could see no short or long term good coming out of the action.  I’m no prophet, but that prediction did turn out to be prophetic.  There are many, today, who will say we should stay there forever; that Biden is weak, and Obama.  So be it.  We made our bed when we chose bombs after 9-11-2001….

Yesterday I found the actual news clipping which I kept from the newspaper of October 8, 2001.  Here it is in photo and pdf form: Afghanistan Bombing Oct 10 2001.

Some months later, I submitted an op ed to the same Star Tribune, which I hoped would be printed on the six month anniversary of 9-11-01, but which ultimately reached the printed page on April 20, 2002.  You can read it here: Afghanistan column 4:2002 (click to enlarge).  You will note not a single mention of “Iraq” in that column.  Iraq was not yet part of the public conversation.  It actually was the first day of Spring 2003 when the bombing of Iraq began.  (A few years ago I did a chart for my grandson, then a high school junior, now a Marine, about the cost of War: War Deaths U.S.002.  For anyone interested, at the time of 9-11-01  and immediately thereafter, here is what I wrote: Post 9-11-01001.)

The rest of the 20 years is history which speaks for itself.

As noted in the article in 2001, going to war was popular.   It seems simpler to whip people into a frenzy about some ‘other’, than to seek an enduring peace, what is called “the force of law” (as distinguished from “the law of force”).

As it happened, Thursday of this week about 30 of us gathered via Zoom to talk about a very notable film, The Mauritanian, about one of the slimy undersides of the Iraq-Afghanistan era – the infamous prison at Guantanamo Bay Cuba, and one of its inmates Mohamedou Ould Slahi, imprisoned for years without charges, tortured into a ‘confession’, and now released.  We were very privileged to be joined on our discussion by both Slahi, and his attorney, Nancy Hollander.  (The recording may already be available, or certainly in the near future, at Global Solutions Minnesota).  Of course there were other, probably even worse, ad hoc U.S. government prisons in other countries.  But Guantanamo deserves a spotlight.

It is very worthwhile to watch the film before watching the conversation.  In addition, Slahi has authored a book, now translated into 27 languages, about his experience.  Details here.

The uncomfortable part of this brief column is that all of us, in assorted ways, are and have always been complicit by action and inaction in our history as a country.  We do this through the election of our representatives at all levels in every election.  We portray ourselves as the very model of the best features of democracy; but we betray that very democracy very often.

When I was one of the 6% against the bombing of Afghanistan, I found out how lonely a position it was.  It is now 20 years later, and what have we accomplished, really?

The fall back is to blame somebody else – always somebody else.

WE are the United States, not him, or them, or someone else.

POSTNOTE: for those in the Twin Cities, at 3 p.m. tomorrow, on the TPT Life Channel at 3 p.m., the great story of Garry Davis, World Citizen, whose youthful ideals were put to the test during and after WWII.  The same film is being shown in many PBS stations across the U.S. this month – last number I had was 65 stations.  Check your own station for details, and if it isn’t on the schedule recommend it.

Opportunities

My local coffee shop, Caribou at City Centre, Woodbury, has recently partially re-opened tables, to what seems 25% capacity.  During Covid-19 Caribou suffered much like the rest of us.  I visited two or three times a week for to-go.  It was support for the local business, where I’d been an almost daily early-morning customer for 20 years before the pandemic changed its life.  Yesterday one of the indoor tables was open.  It was good to have an interlude at ‘my’ place.  I wrote my sister!   Someone had left a small piece of art in the chalkboard of the community blackboard next to me, which speaks for itself.

Every moment is an opportunity to choose.  I remember an excellent definition from a long ago workshop: the difference between “choose” and “decide” is immense.  The root of decide, we were told, is the same as for suicide, homicide, etc., etc.  To choose tends to be more affirmative; more positive.

The Pandemic leaves us all with lots of moments, which among all of the other emotions and apprehensions, have offered opportunities as well.  Earlier in the week, on Monday, another opportunity unexpectedly presented itself.  You can read “The Eagle” here.  Like the small sign, the Eagle just appeared at the right place and the right time for me.  Our paths intersected.

The Pandemic has opened other learning opportunities largely through the internet.  An organization I’ve been part of for many years offers two this next week.  All details are here (scroll down to Third Thursday Global Films Discussion Group, “The Mauritanian“, and the program following it, “Ending Childhood Malnutrition in India“.

The program on Wednesday, April 14, features Dr. Bharat Parekh, whose work began on this project probably 15 years ago, and has evolved into a now very successful project.  It was and continues to be based on the Development Goals of the United Nations, MDG #1 and SDG #2, specifically the goal of zero hunger.  Dr. Parekh is a long-time friend and colleague.

The Mauritanian, to be viewed ‘on your own’,  on-line discussion group Thursday, April 15, will include, live, Mohamadou (the Mauritanian) and Nancy Hollander, the lawyer who represented the imprisoned man.  You need to RSVP to participate in the Zoom program.  (For many years our group had an in-person Third Thursday with an in-person speaker.  A new leader suggested the Third Thursday film, which continues the tradition – and broadens its reach beyond a room.)

Sometimes, good actually flows from adversity.  Yes, we’re still getting accustomed to the new thing, but….

The premier event for me, personally, is one week from Sunday, April 18 at 3 p.m.   The local public television, St. Paul TPT Life, Channel 17, will feature the documentary, “The World Is My Country“, a film I very highly recommend, especially for young idealists who care about the future.  The film is about Garry Davis, and begins in the WWII years, and I was privileged to learn about the project in 2011, and I’ve been involved in its evolution ever since.

I’ve seen the film often, most memorably in November, 2012, when I showed a first draft of it to a group of high school students in St. Paul.  I found them very engaged, and I think this is where its long term potential lies – something kids can discuss.  Ask some kids you know to check it out.

TPT is one of at least 65 U.S. public tv channels which will air the film during the month of April.  All details, including preview and stations showing the film, are here.  If your station is not on the list, ask them to check this out – the film is highly recommended by the public television network in the U.S., NETA.

We only have a finite number of moments.  Let’s make the best of as many as we can.

Eagle

Monday was just a nice weather day in Minnesota.  I took my usual “abstract random” drive in the general area of home.  This particular day I broadened my reach somewhat, going across the river to Hastings to reach a park I knew existed, Spring Lake Regional Park, about had visited only one time, and then in the very late fall.

This day, foliage was just beginning to bud, and at the overlook, below me, I saw something in a tree (see photo at end of post).  It turned out to be a magnificent Eagle, which gave me a couple of minutes of its time before departure to places below its perch.  I managed to take a few photos, one of which is here.  It was a moment to cherish.

April 5, 2021 at the Mississippi River just northwest of Hastings MN

The Bald Eagle is the national symbol of the United States, in itself an interesting history.  It has been the national bird since 1782.

The park overlooks a wide spot on the upper Mississippi River called “Spring Lake”, and seems atop a bluff.  In easy eye-shot is Grey Cloud Island, previously referred to at this space.  Here’s the map reference point if you wish to visit.  (Grey Cloud is conspicuous because much of it has a long history of being used for sand., and thus doesn’t have foliage.)

The park itself has a spot in Minnesota’s history.  It was part of the site of Nininger, a big idea that didn’t pan out in the earliest days of Minnesota, just before Minnesota became a state (1858).

There’s no ‘moral to the story’ here, other than saying, take that side trip when you can, and have your camera along.  You just never know.

Here’s my first view of my Bald Eagle on Monday, April 5.

Two Special Events on-line

Two events, available where you are!

Special event Tue. April 6, 2021: Special FairVote Minnesota zoom event, Women Leading Democracy Forward, on April 6th from 5 – 6pm CT.

The event will bring together Professor Danielle Allen – renowned political theorist and Director of Harvard’s Center for Ethics – State Senator Melisa Franzen and State Representative Kelly Morrison for an important discussion about the breakdown of our democratic institutions, how women are playing a key role in strengthening those institutions, and how we can strengthen our system to enable more women to run for public office, win, and lead our democracy forward.

REGISTER HERE

Professor Allen is an acclaimed author on justice, democracy and citizenship and a frequent contributor to the Washington Post and other prominent media outlets. She co-chaired the bipartisan Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship, a project of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which recommended Ranked Choice Voting as one of the top reforms “to achieve empowerment for all, responsive and effective governance, and a resilient and healthy civic culture.”

In a discussion with leading Minnesota democracy advocates, Assistant Minority Leader Melisa Franzen and Assistant Majority Leader Kelly Morrison, Professor Allen will discuss reforms to strengthen our democracy and make it more inclusive, representative and responsive to all voters.

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Global Health Day Wed. April 7, 2021.  Symposium on-line, sponsored by Global Minnesota.

Details here.

Global Minnesota is an outstanding organization with a long history.

Easter

Today is Holy Thursday and this is Easter week.

Anyone who knows me, knows I’m a church sort of guy.  Church has always been important to me.

Like everyone else to my right or left, ahead of me or behind, regardless of denomination, whether a believer or not, I’m far from perfect.

Easter has its puzzles: why did those church fathers (yes, likely all men) decide all those centuries ago around 300 A.D. to make Easter a roving day, fixed to the rhythm of the natural world, the first Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox?  March 28 was the most recent full moon.  It must have been an interesting discussion.

We drove down to Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis on Palm Sunday, 2021.  March 28.  Below is a photo I took:

Basilica of St. Mary, Minneapolis MN March 28 2021

The regular Mass we attend had begun, but we weren’t there.  I haven’t been inside the building for more than a year.  I last ushered there March 15, 2020.  Quarantine rules are still in effect, and I have no issues with that.  Indeed, on Saturday Travis, the usher coordinator, sent an e-mail to all of us asking for help on Palm Sunday.  I’ve been on the ushering team for years.  I wrote back: “I hope you know how much I’d love to do this.  On the other hand, I’m 80…and had the vaccinations some weeks ago, and no problems, but then there’s Basilica’s ground rules.  So….”  (If you don’t look Basilica suggests that those over 65 not attend.  As I say “I have no issues with that”).  During the Pandemic, church has been available on-line, including this week.  Here are details.

Those ground rules, which I think are and have been prudent and wise, reflect the still current reality.  The Pandemic is not over.  Those in Basilica on Sunday pre-registered.  Right  before I took the photo there was a short line of socially distanced people at the lower level door at rear left of the church.  When will the ‘new normal’ begin?  And will it be the normal we remember pre-pandemic, or something else?

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We’ve been part of Basilica for many years so memories flood as I look at the photo.  Particularly, this day I think of fellow usher, Clarence Birk, for whom this place was central most of his 88 years.  Clarence died Oct 14, 2019, a few months before the pandemic changed all of our lives.  He’s just a singular example. He’d been part of this parish since elementary school.

There are other things I notice in the photo.  The flag pole is at half-staff, for instance.  Part of the reason, doubtless, was a recommendation of MN Governor Tim Walz and his Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.  But their most recent announcement expired on March 22, relating to government flags, was in memory of the eight victims of the Atlanta area shooting.

I called the church this week to ask why the flag is still at half-staff.  In memory of the victims of the recent super market shooting in Boulder CO was the answer.

Basilica has a strong social justice focus.  To my right about a half block from where I took the photo, off the sidewalk towards downtown, is a sculpture  on Basilica grounds, “homeless Jesus”.  It speaks for itself, as it appeared right after it was received, before being moved to its home outdoors, Oct. 28, 2017.  Here’s an article about the work.

Homeless Jesus, in undercroft at Basilica of St. Mary Oct 28, 2017.

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This is the second Easter impacted by Covid-19.  Like the timing of Easter, Covid-19 is part of the natural world.

In my layman’s view, Easter has always been about death and resurrection.  There are more intense feelings than usual this day.

Today is the 4th day of the nationally live-streamed murder trial in downtown Minneapolis, a mile and a half from the Basilica of St. Mary, another trial about our national ethic which happened 10 months ago almost to the day – Memorial Day, May 25 2020.

We all have our plans for Easter and all other days.

My best wishes for a great Easter time for you and yours.

Our time on earth is short.  Make the best of it.

Downtown Minneapolis (zoom lens)as seen from near Clarence Birk’s boyhood backyard in north Minneapolis August 14, 2019.  Clarence and I were re-visiting his old neighborhood.  Basilica would be somewhere about halfway to downtown.

An old postcard from Easter 1922.

About the Chauvin Trial:  here.  I am following it, but only as news.  From time to time I may add items to the post, which I began on Monday.