Voting…Reflecting on Haiti and US.

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PRE-NOTE: My 10/28 post about Robert Gates and Colin Powell relates to this post.  Two related, important, long, articles came via two readers on Wednesday: here and here.  Another came in Friday, October 29 mail, here, “An Open Letter in Defense of Democracy”, published simultaneously in two magazines long identified as Liberal and Conservative, the Bulwark and New Republic.

Next week, Tuesday, Nov. 2, is an off-year election for local issues in many places.  Few people vote; the issues are always important.  If there’s an election in your town, Know the candidates and issues and vote, well-informed.

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Tuesday on the morning news a reporter was interviewing a citizen for a soundbite (I’m not being cynical – that’s the only reason for interviewing a person-in-the-street, in my opinion).  With so many people around, soundbites are easy to come by, and to find one that supports the reporters need.

This particular dear-in-the-headlights had voted for Biden a year ago.  She was a first time voter, though not young, and only voted for President, apparently.  She said she was never going to vote again.  Biden hadn’t fulfilled her personal issue demand – what caused her to vote in the first place.  Her sun had set on politics.

She looked…and sounded…pretty “American”.

One wonders if it ever occurs to her that her opinion is not the only version of truth; that someone like Biden has to deal with all sorts of impossible and competing priorities and opinions.  Somewhere, maybe next door, someone wants something a bit different than her.  Maybe a society has to be a team sport….

Not voting at all will solve nothing for her.  Unfortunately, she is not alone.  Lots of people share her fantasy…on all sides.

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The same morning, on my computer screen, came a message from someone posting from Haiti.

When Haiti is in the headline it usually isn’t good news.  Here was the message from the American in Haiti:

“Day 9 

When I awoke this morning I thought that I would be with daughter and son in law and my lovely grandkids tonight. That will not happen.  

We headed to airport early and made it through 19 barricades [emphasis added]. They varied in style and size. We made it about half way to our destination before [the] blockades started to appear. Burn[ing] tires, burning piles of trash, metal rods, abandoned car wrecks, broken glass, trees, etc. But the first 19 allowed us through with a simple beep of the car horn. But then [our driver looked] over about 100 yards from another burned out car in the road. There was a gap on the right that would allow us to pass, but he was aware of things I did not see. [Another passenger in our car, Haitian] also saw from the back seat. Down the window went and they asked a man of the street about the blockade and they [were] informed that this barricade was put up by a radical group and [they] would not negotiate our passage. 

So around we turned and back through the 19 barricades back to [our safe house] and another night in the safety of this compound. 

When I asked how he knew to stop at that particular blockade [our driver] said he saw the men on the other side of the barrier holding rocks and bottles to attack offending vehicles. Not worth the risk, especially with me in the car. 

On the return trip I asked how close we were to airport and he shook his head and said one minute away. So close and yet so far. So today is another day of waiting and praying for the people of Haiti. 

Please join me in that prayer.”

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Haiti is seen as a tragic place.  I’ve been to Haiti – twice.  In some senses, today’s United States is an even more tragic place, with people like the lady on the evening news, noted above, who squander the bounty all of us have inherited as American citizens.  So selfish that they will not bother to participate unless they get their way, exactly as they define it.

January 6, 2021,  is to me proof enough of how close we came to disaster in our own country; and many of us keep marching along to ruin.  Forever, Jan. 6 is symbolic of our own “barricades”.  Many of us apparently still believe that revolution is the only answer; winning the only option.  Too many Americans seem to buy the fraud that we need to be governed by some strong men; that this is a struggle between strong and weak.  I tried to write about this in The Teeter-Totter a few days ago.

The hoodlums in Haiti are no different than our own, and their odds of long term success are as slim, but on they march with their own particular narrative.

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But even in the dismal message from Port au Prince, I see a bit of silver lining.

On Day 9 somewhere in Port au Prince, Haiti, 19 barricades would let travelers through; one would not.

I keep thinking of the “tourists” in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021, and the faux armies in the American woods drilling for their own invasions being planned sometime, somewhere; the government “leaders’ and police and others who incongruously support them – all of them less civilized than those manning those 19 barriers the correspondent recounted on Day 9.

POSTNOTES:  1) I plan to send on some thoughts next Tuesday on the one year anniversary of the 2020 election and its aftermath.  How about your addition to this post?  Just e-mail me before November 2.

2) I live in the United States, of course, but I’ve paid close attention to Haiti for the past 19 years (see link below).

There were two inspiring trips, in 2003 and 2006, both study trips.  2003 immediately preceded the American-Canadian-French backed coup d’etat, overthrowing a democratically elected government.  The second was in a time of political tension, almost certainly supported from outside.  First trip, I met people who were later imprisoned, some later killed, assassinated by gun and poison, exiled, too.  Someone didn’t like their existence, apparently.

All in all, I found Haitians, from the most impoverished, to be great people doing their damndest to make a life against all odds – imposed barriers, often built from outside – threats to life and property, impediments to actually voting, disinformation, etc.  Theoretically, in Haiti this was easier to do.  The average citizen is deeply impoverished and more often illiterate, unable to read and write the official French language.

The Haiti I saw was working within Democracy.  People, largely illiterate, had risked everything to just stand in line and cast their vote.  They walked to the polls – no cars.  Their experiment worked against all odds for some hopeful years.  For sure, it wasn’t perfect, hardly.  What else do you expect when your friends are really your enemies.  Best that your leader be a dictator whose loyalty is to himself and to his patrons, the rich in other places.

Haitians did and likely still do great things against overwhelming odds.  I’ll take any one of them over any home grown American insurrectionists or sympathizers any time.

Haitians know the struggle from having lived it for their entire history.

VOTE.  Well informed.  For all the candidates most moderate and understanding that we are a country of all, not just some.

As for “praying for the people of Haiti”. pray for US, that this nation “of, by and for the people” all of us, “shall not perish from the earth”.

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I was introduced to Haiti in early 2002.

In between and after I’ve paid attention to Haiti in various ways to the present.

Since 2003 I’ve maintained an internet presence about Haiti.  If you’re interested, here.

COMMENTS (more at end of post):

from Jeff: not voting is part of the plan of the extreme right Koch/Tea Party wing of the GOP….voting rates in many states have declined alot, they did go up in 2020 because of the polarized election but from the 1960s till today many states are down particularly red states ….the minority can control if less turnout.

response from Dick: I agree with this analysis.  It doesn’t change my opinion that this emphasis on winning in the short term is disastrous for everyone, including the supposed “winners”, in the long term.  We all lose.  The solution has to be every one of us.  And it has to be a long term commitment.

Robert Gates and Colin Powell

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PRE-NOTE: I’m composing and completing this on Thursday afternoon, October 28, 2021.  As I write, the endless chatter is about whether or not or how much or who will make the President Biden package succeed or fail…while President Biden is enroute to Glasgow for CAP26.  When I click publish on this, I won’t know what decision is finally reached.  What I will be thinking about is the woman I mention at the beginning of my next post, at this point unpublished, but scheduled probably for Saturday morning.

Today is a retrospective and political reflection, for whatever its worth.  We, all of us, are “politics”.  We deserve credit…or blame…for anything that happens because of actions we take on our watch.  There have been many on-watch before us.  This comments on two of these people.

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October 17, I watched an excellent Sixty Minutes segment featuring Robert Gates, powerful insider and career – dare I say? – ‘bureaucrat’ who at one time or another advised eight U.S. Presidents.  This would go back to Reagan.

The following morning the news came that Colin Powell had died.  Powell’s career went back to before Vietnam, well over 50 years.

There is abundant information readily available about two men and thus I’ll not go into that at all.  Personally I had positive feelings about both men, as true leaders.

Both men, indeed all leaders of whatever gender, local, state or national or international, are subject to being ‘lightning rods’ for most everyone, makes no difference if the reaction is positive or negative to whatever it is that the leader has led on.

Back in the distant past, one year ago, I came across a lawn sign in Minneapolis that pretty well spoke my personal truth about leadership.  It speaks volumes for itself.

Political lawn sign seen in Minneapolis August, 2020.

People like Colin Powell and Robert Gates, and many, many others, fit this lawn sign to a tee.  They were people who had to make decisions that were always wrong to some, right to others, neutral to still others.  Somebody had to decide.  They made mistakes, and they even were willing to acknowledge that their decisions might not have been correct.

This morning I was noticing at my coffee place that there were perhaps 20 of us there with me, most patrons, a few others, staff.

I could say, honestly, that I actually ‘knew’ only one of those 20 people, and that person only in the very limited context of the coffee shop.  I thought to myself, what would happen if something happened in or around our mutual space that required a decision.  If it had to be an instant decision, someone would likely take the lead, and the rest would follow, no consideration of second guessing later.  Pick your issue, pick your leader.  Afterwards decisions will be made about wisdom or lack of the leader in dealing with the crisis.

Then expand this to the huge kinds of issues that we constantly ‘grade’ our leaders on.

In my youth, President Harry Truman had to make the decision about whether or not to drop the A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  It is a decision that will forever be second-guessed.  It is my understanding that when Truman ascended to the Presidency at the death of Franklin Roosevelt, that he wasn’t even fully aware that the bombs were ready to go, or perhaps, even, that they were being developed.   This was in April, 1945,  Hiroshima was bombed August 6, Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.  Germany surrendered in May, 1945.  Truman got the credit…and the blame, it seems.

I cannot conceive of the stress placed on Harry Truman at that point in his “The Buck Stops Here” administration.  He had to be the functioning adult in the room, and part of that was to take the shots afterwards, from the people who had their own feelings and their own agendas.

In the end analysis, we, the people, are always the one who have the responsibility for the decision makers we elect.  As long as we are a democracy (and that is in question, now, in our country), every one of us who votes (or does not vote at all) for any and all offices share the credit or the blame for a society which works, or not.

We need to take sides.  Colin Powell and Robert Gates were, in my opinion, positive leaders.  People whose example is good to learn from.  They showed up.

Enough said.

Women

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PRENOTE: Last Thursday I had a unique opportunity, which I want to share.  An organization I’ve long been part of has a Third Thursday Film each month, and the offering was the film “Worth”, a 2020 Netflix release starring Michael Keaton as Ken Feinberg, about compensating the survivors of 9-11-01 victims.  The ‘drill’ for Third Thursday is to watch the film first, then join on-line discussion about the film.  The guest, Thursday, was Ken Feinberg himself, who was played by Michael Keaton in the film.  The conversation was an outstanding hour plus and the conversation can be watched on-line at the Global Solutions website, here.  DO WATCH THE FILM FIRST.

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October 17 my friend, Kathy, asked me to send a copy of an obit she had read, and wanted to send on to someone.  She thought I knew the person who had died.   I’m still not certain, since the single contact would have been over 40 years ago at a meeting.

I followed through, and it occurs to me that this is an obit well worth reading, even though it is probably the longest newspaper obit I have ever seen.  You can read it here.  Take the time: Nina Rothchild (click to enlarge).  About the only observation I will make about Nina Is that she came to be noted at a crucial time in the women’s movement, long, and still, evolving but particularly evident in the 1970s.

I’ll take the risk of making a few observations, but mostly it would be nice to hear from women, perhaps using Nina’s story as a basis for conversation, perhaps not.

Just yesterday, after a memorial service for a deceased teacher union staff colleague, three of we former staff, all men, recalled the impact of Title IX in our work, particularly in the later 1970s and 1980s.  (My personal career in teacher union work was 1972-2000.)

Most of our members were women, then; but almost all of the public education managers – Principals and such – were men.  This extended to Union staff.  Anyone can fill in the abundant blanks.  You pick the occupation.

I’m a family historian, and a number of years ago I came across what I felt was a remarkable photograph from the 1940s. It included my grandmother.   It was remarkable not only in that the photo was entirely women, but on the back of the photograph every woman was named by someone with legible handwriting.

But what was most remarkable of all was that every single one of the 20 or so women were identified as “Mrs. so-and-so”, including one woman, I found later, who was not married, or at least my source said, no one had ever seen or even heard of a husband of the woman in the tiny town.  The women pictured were likely part of a church organization and thus, in a sense, all activists.  But their first name, in effect, was “Mrs”, and the person who wrote their names was probably also a woman.

It was intriguing.

Much more recently I came across a newsletter dated November, 1963, of a state peace and justice organization which still exists.  The newsletter was publicizing a group of speakers for an annual event recognizing the founding of the United Nations.  “Whoever speaks of and for the United Nations speaks for Man” read part of the article.  Then the 15 speakers were listed.  Four were women, three of them “Mrs.”, one “Rev. Mrs.”  (Two of the women had their given first name, the other two, their husbands name.)

Among the men, four were identified as “Dr.”, the rest simply listed by first and last name.  (It was duly noted in the same newsletter article that there were eight “women who worked on the committee and hanged appointments between the speakers and the schools….“. Seven of the eight were Mrs [husbands first name]; the eighth, Ola, was apparently a single woman.)

I could go on and on.

Earlier this month, at Church, I was intrigued by a phrase in the Gospel reading from Mk 10:2-12 – the one where Moses had the law that a man could divorce his wife; but “what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”  It occurred to me, and I wrote my Pastor afterwards, about the current contradiction in terms: “We – none of us – know what God really thinks.  God is a construction of our own beliefs (plural) often fashioned to fit our own construct.  This has always been true in every society, every belief system for all of human history.”  I have no problem believing in God, but I draw the line at humans defining what God thinks about marriage, divorce, even “life”, or anything at all for that matter – all of which are meddle’d in by the self-proclaimed Moses of our times, who usually are men, regardless of denomination.

The business of male and female has a pretty long history, as we know.  About half of us are men, half of us are women.  Change is happening but very slowly.

Have at it.  I’m glad Kathy alerted me to Nina’s obit.

POSTNOTE:  Last night (Sunday Oct 24) I stayed up long past my usual bedtime to watch the MSNBC Special “Civil War (or who do we think we are)“.  It had far too many ads – the price one pays for television – but the program was outstanding food for thought, regardless of one’s point of view.  I hope it is available to others. Here’s the link to MSNBC.  I have no other details about whether or when it will be rebroadcast.  Do take the time.  This is our collective problem as a society.  Avoidance won’t solve it.

COMMENTS (more at end of post)

from Fred: Your comment about mid-20th century women being identified as Mrs. instead of their given name resonates. Over the years, I’ve spent many hours trying to the first names of even prominent women.

Example: Mrs. A.T. Anderson of Minneapolis was one of the founders of the Minnesota Suffrage Association and a state leader in the Temperance movement. There were more than a few Anderson in Mpls at the 20th Century’s turn. After many dead ends, I lucked out (don’t recall exactly how but it had to do with finding her husband first) and found her.

Now AMANDA Anderson is rightfully known through that article I wrote for MN History on the MWSA.

from Jeff: I watched some of that Civil War documentary as it is an area of interest to me, however I watched it a few weeks ago on a streaming format.  I just looked it is on Peacock….and since I do not pay for that service, it is on the free version and able to be viewed still ….

I am reading “Robert E Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause” by Ty Seidule…..the author is retired military and former history professor at West Point who was raised in Virginia and has written an excellent dissection of the Lost Cause  in a very personal way weaving in his own experience with the history.  I expected a dispassionate historian discussion , quite the opposite it is both informed and factual but also intensely personal …recommended.
As to the knowledge of God, it’s good to see some of the apostasy is rubbing off…..
There is an excellent piece on today’s Israel in todays NY Times… talk about men thinking they know what God has ordained…oy vay.
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from Steve: As usual, thanks for the note and thoughts. I did have the chance to meet Nina Rothchild. Her husband, Ken, was president of the MN Historical Society’s Board while I worked there. He and the Society’s director, Nina Archibald, were instrumental in getting the legislature to appropriate money for the new History center. Ms. Rothchild was quite a woman. A real inspiration, and not just for women. Nina Archibald was another influential person in the arts and politics of the 1980s to 2000. When she retired from the Society, I think she served as an interim director of the MN Opera Company. She was quite a remarkably talented and brilliant person.

 

Invitations

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Tonight, October 19, Vets for Peace, 21st Peacestock, on Zoom.  Details here.

Fresh Energy is a recognized leader in climate change, and J. Drake Hamilton, Science Policy Director, goes to CAP 26 in Glasgow.  She has a zoom session on October 20.  Pre-registration required.  Details here.

Global Solutions MN has two interesting sessions, details for both sessions here.  October 21 Third Thursday movie discussion, featured speaker Kenneth Feinberg, the person subject of the film Worth,  watching the film before the talk is important.  It is available on Netflix; October 26, Forum on Immigration.  Details at the website, brief.  Registration requested.

World Without Genocide has a program on Afghanistan Genocide on October 24.  Details here.

Global Minnesota has interesting programs on Cybersecurity and Sustainability Oct 25 and 28, here.

United Nations Association MN has an on-line program on October 28, United Nations Day.  Details here.

All of these programs are available remotely.  I admit I miss occasional in-person meetings, but we certainly wouldn’t have the menu of choices available here.

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Special addition: Yesterday I initiated my third campaign for small donations to TPT in St. Paul.  The intent is simple: to bundle small donations of $10 or more payable to TPT to be delivered about Nov. 15.  Details in a one page letter here. TPT #2 2021.  Make check  to TPT, send to Dick Bernard no later than Nov. 15.  

(If you don’t know “TPT”, it’s the Minnesota affiliate of Public Broadcasting.  I’ve been impressed with PBS over the years.)

 

 

 

 

The Teeter-Totter

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Prenote: I encourage you to take a look at, and participate in, the upcoming Peacestock of the local Veterans for Peace.  It is next Tuesday evening.  Details here.

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I published Louts a week ago, and a day later I was thinking about an old photo in the treasure trove at the ancestral farm in North Dakota.  It is below, and it largely explains itself.  It came to mind in reference to our present day tribal society.  So did Blessed Debt, published Wednesday.  Both have several comments which stimulate thought.  An over-arching question: Do we find a way to live together, or do we engage in a fight to the death of our democracy?  This is not an idle question.

Teeter Totter, probably in Veterans Memorial Park in Grand Rapids ND ca 1940s from Busch-Berning collection 11082-00800, State Historical Society of North Dakota

The teeter-totter (aka seesaw) would be familiar to anyone in my general age.  It would have been part of my life beginning in the 1940s.  As we know, it was nothing fancy, and the five kids visible in the picture model it well.  More about it and its companion playground items at the end of this post, but mostly I’d like to very briefly comment on it as a metaphor for contemporary political relationships generally.

The seesaw was a playground staple that required cooperation.  It wouldn’t work for a single dominant individual.  It required cooperation of two sides.  The two kids at the left in the picture had to be somewhat balanced in weight by whomever was on the other end (who was someone somewhat equal in weight to them).  Absent this parity and cooperation, it wasn’t fun.  It didn’t work.  Just like today’s politics.

In the picture, you’ll see another teeter-totter behind the first, and a kid standing astride its fulcrum point.  It appears that there is a kid to his left, and one presumes there is someone somewhat similar in weight to his right.

In both seesaws there was balance.  Good examples of joint effort.

We live in contentious times in which balance almost seems unattainable.  Our seesaw is a nation is at odds within.  To win, the other must lose.  And then both lose.  We all lose.

The balance which our entire environment needs is gone and dysfunction becomes the norm.

Challenge: There is no more explanation needed about how this applies to our society in general.  It’s in your individual courts.  Think about us – all of us – as users of a gigantic teeter-totter, each with wants and needs.  

How can we get ourselves back in balance?  This is a critical question for each of us and for our society.

POSTNOTE: The playground.

When I was a kid, growing up in very tiny towns in North Dakota, most every school had some semblance of playground equipment.  The most common devices: a swing, some kind of merry-go-round, maybe a seesaw, probably monkey-bars.  These seemed to be the usual, along with the usual running space for working off excess energy at recess.

I started first grade in 1946.  The technology, then, was primitive compared to today.  The primary materials were steel and wood.  There was no apparent attention to safety or aesthetics.  Kids could get hurt.

Over history society has refined the playground to make it a much safer space for children.  Standards were established for playground equipment.

During this week I stopped at a new community playground which has just opened near by, a community memorial to a little girl who died at less than three of a childhood disease.

I looked for a teeter-totter, and a young man there with his child pointed out the 2021 version of the wooden structure of the 1940s.  Here it is:

Seesaw at Healtheast Sports Center Woodbury MN Oct 11, 2021

COMMENTS (more comments below):

from Sonya (who lives near the ND park in the above photo, and who I asked about Teeter Totter in todays park): There are no teeter-totters at the park anymore and I’m not sure why. Maybe they were deemed unsafe. The park did buy some new playground equipment this spring, but the man contracted to install it was so busy all summer that he didn’t get it done.

from Dick: sign seen on door of local business Oct 15 before this post was published.  It is not known who put it there.  It appeared to disappear by the next day, for reason unknown.  But the meeting it advertises is probably still on, and not friendly to people its organizers think shouldn’t be voting….

POSTNOTE 2 Oct 19: I opened this post with a comment thinking about a teeter-totter Aug. 10.  A few you responded.  Most especially, I noted Mary Ellen’s, below: “The lesson I learned had less to do with physics than with human nature – that is, not to get on a teeter-totter with certain people. I appreciate your emphasis on the cooperation necessary for a smooth ride, but what do we do with the bumpers?” (Emphasis added).

What Mary Ellen – a retired teacher – observed is what we all observed, as kids.  Bullies – that is what the “bumpers” usually were – spoiled the fun for the little kids.  In fact, this is possibly a major reason that you no longer see those kinds of rides in playgrounds.  They were not so much physically dangerous (though they could hurt) as they weren’t fun when the bullies took over.

Bullying extends far beyond big louts on the playground of course.  I read recently that Republicans have introduced over 400 bills in 49 states to suppress the vote and so on.  They are not seeking to balance the teeter-totter.

We are in a hopefully brief era, right now, where bullies and their admiring acolytes are setting fire to our democracy by attempting to subvert and thus control the process of selecting our representatives in elections of all sorts at all levels.  Mary Ellen asks “what do we do with the bumpers [bullies]?”  First and foremost, we confront them I’m each and every instance; secondly, we neutralize them by voting in each and every election.  The bullies of today know they are in a minority, and the only way they can prevail is to dominate in any way possible.  Bullies are basically cowards, but they’ll dominate unless exposed and at minimum neutralized.

Teeter-totters were no longer fun for bullies when their little kid companions (and the kids parents) wouldn’t subject themselves to the bullies harmful behavior.  In my opinion, today’s bullies will deeply regret the dominance they think will give them control over the rest of us.  But we have to first of all take them on.

Just my opinion.

Blessed Debt

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There were a few interesting comments to my post on Louts.  Take a look, if you wish.  A Followup post, Teeter-Totter, will be this weekend.

As I write, Wednesday morning, Oct 13, 2021, the chatter on the television is all from or about 90 year old William Shatner, just returned from his 3 minutes in space.   This is all about privatization of space, for the already rich.  There won’t be many common folks ready to pony-up $250,000 for a seat on later flights.  Some billionaire has already gobbled up all the seats for the first moon-shot, to come some day.  It is a fantasy world “bucket list”.

Not that fantasy is restricted to the rich.  Earlier this morning I was driving home from my daily walk, past the under construction ‘woods’ of new houses.  Off-screen to the right was the advertising board for these new houses, listed for $609,000. There is a market, apparently.

Woodbury MN Oct 13, 2021

In D.C. the hearings continue about January 6; talk about refusal to honor subpoenas and what to do about that.  And talk about the national debt which is (depending on who is in control) irrelevant, or a horror, spun incessantly.  (In a side comment about Shatner’s space trip, someone got in a shot at the Obama administration, which apparently slowed down the private sectors race toward space, after trying to clean up the financial mess left in the wake of the near collapse of our economy in 2008.).

I am not an economist, but today seems a good time to try to translate some numbers to help understand reality which is, after all, where most of us have to live.

Personally, I have come to believe that Debt is essential to those who already have wealth and want to increase it.  Debt is profit.  The only question is who benefits from the debt.  I could elaborate, but won’t.

There are about 330,000,00 of us in the United States, easily, still, by far the wealthiest collection of people in the world.  There are about 7 billion of us on the planet Earth.  Last numbers I have, from 2017, the U.S. has about 4% of the world’s population and 23% of the wealth: Wealth of UN Countries.   (I was good friend of the man who generated this list for his important book on UN Reform.  He was a world class academic and extremely careful in his presentation of data.  He died three years ago, and his work lives on. More about him and his work here: https://www.workableworld.org.)

Now, to a few basics (errors are mine, help me correct them).

$3 per person gets us to about a Billion dollars.

$3,000 per person gets us a Trillion.

Surely, that’s serious money…but if you take a serious look at personal debt, now or in the past, for yourself, personally, somewhere in your history is probably a lot of debt.  It could be for that new house, or car, or college or other expenses, or whatever.  But our society has long been organized around debt management.  That’s because debt is essential to wealth of the wealthiest.  You know the refrain, “credit” seems preferred to cash in this day.

Take those $600,000 houses in the picture above.  The odds are pretty slim that their buyers will be paying cash money for them.  There will likely be large mortgages (loans).

If you’re reading this you can make lots of words out of this single picture.

A whole bunch of those Trillions we already have incurred as “national debt” were gifts from previous Presidents and their necessary enablers in Congress.   It is Congress, after all, which controls debt.  It’s in the Constitution (basically Article I Sections 7 and 8).  You might remember those huge tax cuts in 2017.  These were gifts to the already wealthy and biggest businesses; they came via Congress, signed by the President.  There was no hand-wringing by the winners, then – rather victory laps.  But the tax cuts took huge amounts of income off the books, thus leading to increase in debt….

A bit before that, 2008 and the years prior, we spent like drunken sailors on assorted wars, and dismissed the problem of debt.  “Go shopping” was a refrain for recovery from 9-11-01.

For all sorts of reasons, good and not so good (like buying that house) debt grows.  Depending on one’s bias, any particular item of debt is blessed, or evil.  Depends on how YOU see it.  Here’s one chart that seems reasonably unbiased and gives a general idea, anyway (and is the first one when I googled).  I just add it to give you an idea.  Comments?

Succinctly, there are people far more knowledgeable than I who know what debt really means in context of the fiscal health of ourselves and our nation and our world.

All of the rest are useless sound bites uttered daily.

What is your personal debt, compared with your personal wealth?  That’s the first question we should ask ourselves.

When we translate this to a nation and a world, all we are doing is adding a whole bunch of zeroes.

Be aware.

COMMENTS (also at end of post):

from Jeff: Blessed Debt: at first I thought this was a post on the phenomenon of church mortgages.  These are a separate grouping within the banking industry I discovered a few years ago.  Loaning to churches to build is an interesting business.

Debt: I am no expert, but on the national debt and the current spending of the Federal govt, the biggest portions are Defense and social entitlement spending.  The rest of budgets and debts are mostly small potatoes.  So it really is Medicare, Medicaid, other aids to people in poverty or on the borderline and the defense budget.  “Guns and butter.”  as the economists used to say.
Many say the debt, the spending is unsustainable.  I think the key thing is to watch the ratio or % of the debt to the GDP of the USA , as long as it remains in a % basis that is “serviceable”…. just like a home mortgage…then debt is not a big problem.
As long as the spending is something that provides a return ….good health care that is preventative can be very profitable for a country, child care, PreK education, reducing student debt, physical/power/cyber infrastructure all provide a good return on investment.
So like a home purchase or getting an education, they are wise.  With the caveat that you keep the spending and debt within the % acceptable for a GDP…it makes sense.
Tax cuts:  the main thing people do not understand is that tax cuts are “spending”, the govt is essentially giving money to certain groups.   When you consider that the majority of tax income in the USA is paid by the wealthiest it is clear that the tax cut spending is lavished mostly on the wealthy.   The Bush tax cuts and the Trump tax cuts were also spread over 10 years in the budget, together they amount to 3.4 trillion dollars.  That sounds very familiar to the current Biden budget plan ….3.5 billion,  which I believe will eventually come down to somewhere in the 1.8 to 2.0 trillion when the Senators of AZ and WV have given their imprimaturs.   Both the tax cuts and the biden plan are spending .
Final thought and why Republicans are fighting so hard.  Things like PreK education and child care reimbursements, and possibly dental care under Medicare would be wildly wildly popular ….much like Medicare is today.  They understand this, and understand as well this could be the start of a generational change in priorities… we have spent 40 years trying to unravel the New Deal , and this is essentially the
first step in reinstating some of that social spending again.   In the last fiscal year the defense budget was 775 billion dollars, if you spread that over the next 10 years that would be 7.75 trillion dollars of defense spending… yet no one ever sees that debated ad infinitum or being discussed as a life or death bit of spending for the USA….
Church mortgages might have been a holier discussion.
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from Fred: You and the contributors have done a nice job in linking privatizing outer space, housing construction, and national debt to the policies of the two parties. In simplified terms, we’ve been seeing recent GOP administrations adding to the debt with give-away benefits to entrenched US “haves,” followed by Democrats working to repair the damage done. Obama got the job of saving the economy from the Bush “Great Recession”. We can still recall the near panic in US financial sector and those financial houses that were “too big to fail,” and corporations that paid no taxes. The Dems, as always, worked to even the playing field with programs tailored to the working class and poor. In the past both sides in Congress worked together to divvy up the budget’s available allocations. Now we’re seeing extremes on both end of this struggle demanding the entire pie. The GOP has already won this game of give and take by refusing to play it. The current socialist side of the Progressive movement has returned to its early 20th century roots and is trying to achieve the change for which their predecessors fought. But we Old Timers remember the likes of FDR’s Brain Trust, Norman Thomas (the great socialist and the nation’s conscience), Upton Sinclair’s utopian vision for California, Henry Wallace, Wisconsin’s LaFollettes, MN’s Floyd B. (I’m a radical) Olson, and North Dakota-based Nonpartisan League (NPL). They all made splashes on the American Left—the NPL perhaps the most noteworthy—and some progress for the little guy, but not the lasting impact for which they yearned.

 

 

October 11, 2021

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Today I was at the postoffice, simply to drop off a couple of letters.  Two ladies were wanting to do some business there, but the doors were locked, and they seemed confused.  It was Monday, after all.  I made a mindless quip: blame Columbus.  I hadn’t thought of the quip till the situation came up.  But coming home just now I thought it wasn’t particularly funny.  It wasn’t even thought out….

I’m here solely because of colonizing by white Europeans, of whom Christopher Columbus was one of the first.  Genetically I’m 100% European stock, French and German (they group the two nationalities together in my ancestral tree).  My first French-Canadian forebears was in N. America before 1620, but when he came North America was already well populated with a large assortment of native peoples.

And the story continues from there.

But I’ll leave that aside for this day, for which Indigenous People’s day is gradually gaining more traction.

Today, an offering from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, here.

Tomorrow, a zoom offering from World Without Genocide, In commemoration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, “Genocide of the American Indians:  From 1492 to Today” will be held on Tuesday, October 12, 7:00-9:00 pm CT. Register here.

Personally, I’ve had a bit of a walk with this issue in the last several months, becoming acquainted with an ancient Metis cemetery at Pembina ND.  If you’re interested, you can read my account about it here.  I am grateful to Ed Jerome and Ruth Swan for their many years of advocacy about this sacred ground.

Louts

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There are two links in this post which I hope you’ll read in their entirety.

With all that is swirling around the “news” universe, this post is motivated by local action threatening local public education. This week was the week that the National School Boards Association, felt it necessary to sound the alarm to all of us about loutish behavior engaged in by a few people people who should know better, but represent a danger we as a society should not tolerate.

More below, about the title of the post, and the specific motivation for this particular post.

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Elections for school boards are traditionally low-hanging political ‘fruit’.  In relative terms, few people pay attention to the issues and vote in such elections and mischief can be and is done.  There is an important school election in my school district Nov. 2, 2021 – an off year.  In our last local school election, 2019, also an off year, it appears that fewer than 10% of the over 65,000 eligible voters actually voted for candidates.

In my school district, this Fall, there are 9 candidates for the available school board positions.  You have to actively seek out information about them.  Four of them appear quite clearly to be what I would call ‘bullet ballot’ stealth candidates, who are clearly running together, supposedly non-partisan, but unquestionably partisan, and who seem basically anti-mask, anti-vaxx, and anti diversity, and opposed to a needed increase in the local school tax.  In such local elections, little attention is usually paid, which makes them even more dangerous than the rest.  This is where individual networks make the essential difference.  Every election has consequences, long after.  We are certainly learning this.

Know what is happening in your district this November, and vote, well informed.

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We all know louts.  You may have a different name for the ones you know, but they’re all basically the same.

As I was thinking about the protests against masks and vaccinations etc, now encroaching on schools everywhere, I got to thinking about patterns which I think are relevant for all of us to consider, as we need to confront loutish behavior.

This is not a matter of ‘everybody does it’.  We are talking about a small minority.  But, today there is a pretty clear distinction in partisan political behavior over a long period of time.  There are two clear examples of this, in my opinion.

In 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote against George W. Bush for President of the United States, and were it not for a Supreme Court decision in mid-December of 2000, where Gore conceded for the sake of the country, he should have been President.  Any reader likely knows more about this history and can fill in the blanks.  Gore was vilified by some for not fighting longer; he valued more a continuation of our Democracy.

Twenty years later, In 2020, Joe Biden won both popular and electoral vote for President, and the losing candidate and his acolytes are still declaring the election was stolen, against overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  We’ve all been through January 6 and all the rest of the subsequent nonsense.  Laws are being changed in many places to make voting more difficult and easier to overturn results.  The strategy is very clear: to make it easier for one side to manipulate future elections.

Re “lout”.

We’ve witnessed loutish behavior before – it was especially obvious after the election of Barack Obama in 2008, and the subsequent tea-party eruptions as the Affordable Care Act and such were being fought meeting-to-meeting in our local districts.

Make no mistake, louts won, back then.  But they weren’t winners.

I was thinking, today, about our national Congress, Senate and Executive Branch, the highest elected officials in this nation.  There are about 538 of them in all, and within their ranks are the exact same kinds of actors we would see in any community of similar size.  It is easy to despise the Congress we ourselves have elected.  It is “Congress R US”, truly.  We get exactly what we deserve.

Recently my friend Jeff sent over an article from his University Bulletin.  It is short, but very well worth a read.  Here it is.  Put yourself in the room described in the article about a real situation, and ask yourself, “what would I have done?”  Citizens like all of us have considerable power.  Now’s time to begin to exercise it…but we need to get off the couch!

POSTNOTE:

“Lout” has a very simple definition: generally, it is considered an uncouth and aggressive man or boy.

All of us know louts.  Of course, as we know well, there are women louts as well.  And all sorts of variations of bullying, in my opinion, a very close cousin of lout.  “Jerk” is another printable word that comes to mind.

I am particularly disturbed about the stupid and dangerous behavior in or near the school setting.

I’ve said often, and I can prove it, that I’ve spent an entire lifetime in public education.  At the front-end, both parents were already veteran teachers by the time I was born.  Today, 81 years later, one grandchild is in a local high school; one daughter is a substitute teacher in a public school; another daughter is a Middle School Principal and has been a public school administrator for years.  In between, I was a public school teacher, and then a long-time representative of public school teachers.  I haven’t seen it all, but I’ve seen lots.

Years ago, school districts took on bullying behavior successfully within their schools.  Now the bullying is happening outside, and today we have to be the antidote for this development.

Be aware, and go to work.

COMMENTS (more at the end of this section): 

from SAK: As usual I enjoyed & was “informed” by your post.

I would, however, quibble with one sentence if I may & it is this: ” It is “Congress R US”, truly.  We get exactly what we deserve.”

Somehow I don’t think the system is working as well as you hope. Congress & most other elected chambers everywhere are not perfectly representative & they are not a miniature mirror image of the society at large. Compare the elected chambers to the general population on the basis of the racial makeup, the median worth or income, & in the case of the Senate even the geographical distribution (state size). I am no out & out optimist à la Voltaire’s Candide and certainly agree that louts abound but in general & as a whole we do deserve much better than we get!

Best wishes & warm regards.

Response from Dick: Thanks for feedback.  To borrow a phrase, “the fly in the ointment” in the U.S. is and has always been the careless use (or non-use) of the franchise: the right to vote.  Even in the marquee elections, as for President, a third or more of the people who are eligible to vote, don’t take the time to even cast a ballot.  Some might think that they are sending a message with their non-vote, but the message isn’t quite what they believe it is.  They are “voting” but in a manner inimical to their own interests.  As I mention, in the most recent school board election here, 10% or likely less of those eligible actually voted for the representatives charged with administering a school district with over 18,000 students.  I could go on.  Ours is a very sloppy democracy, and we will collectively pay for this in the long run, including those who choose to exploit the system as they see it.  Thanks again.  Always great to hear fro you.

from Marion: Good stuff, Dick! Thanks much!

from Jeff: Good one Dick.

from Tony: Great information.  Timely.  Thanks.

from Norm:  You were generous with your response to your conservative friends regarding the matter of loutish behavior [see comment from Jim, below].  He seems to consider Thompsons totally political dumb-ass behavior in Hugo as just as serious as the Trump cult followers trying to over throw the election let alone all of the pressures that the man-child was putting on the important members of the executive office to do just that in the days that preceded January 6.

That was not only loutish behavior on the part of those who stormed the capitol and Trump as well but it was treason behavior as well.
Yes, Thompson is a complete selfish dumb-ass whose behavior in Hugo and his subsequent political dumb-ass justifications as “poor me ain’t it just awful that they is a criticizing me because I am black (that claim has become so f–king tiresome in such cases!) hurt us at the polls in 2020 and will also do that at the polls in 2022 as I have repeatedly said all along.
On the other hand, he did not try to facilitate and overthrow of the Constitution that he had taken an oath to protect as the insecure, ignorant, arrogant, five-time draft dodger did!
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Response from Dick: Norm speaks of a local Minnesota elected state legislator, essentially now operating as a lone wolf kind of individual.
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from Flo: An important reminder of my reasons for running successfully for two terms on the school board way back when! The same crap is happening all over, this time about “Critical Race Theory”.  I’m too tired to run, but I will be in closer contact with our Superintendent and Board members. It’s really scary times here in Hubbard County.
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from Brian: Great post, yay!
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from Dick: Oct 11 I asked my school administrator daughter a “pop/top of the head” question.  I said it’s become my opinion that our two “tribes” in the current U.S. seem basically the “we’s” and the “me’s” – the first tend to look at themselves as part of a community, greater than themselves; the second cannot conceive of any interest other than their own.  She seemed to resonate with my general perception.  At this point in time, I asked, how would you see your public community divided at this moment. She hardly hesitated.  about 60-40, the 60 being we.  It was the first time I’d posed the question; I had no opinion since I’ve been out of the profession for many years.