PRENOTE:  My Comments on the Ketanji Brown Jackson hearing in Senate Judiciary this past week, here.

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Last Sunday, my sister in New York State invited family members to visit the live webcam overlooking the business street in Park Rapids MN.  We agreed to rendezvous there by phone at 2 p.m., at which time my Park Rapids sister and her husband would make their cameo appearance on line, for 15 minutes.  They followed through.  You can see them standing behind the cars in mid-street (the normal parking pattern on this street in Park Rapids).  There wasn’t much drama!  On the other hand, it was an interesting view of small town Minnesota.

Park Rapids MN 2:05 p.m. March 20, 2022

My brother John, lunching with a friend during a break in biking in San Francisco, was on line.  There was the usual sibling banter, including John, who said:  “I was sharing the live stream with my friend Jim as we were having lunch in San Francisco. His comment?  “Why are those people blocking traffic by standing in the middle of the road?”

Soon Flo and Carter’s 15 minutes of fame ended, and back to our respective lives.

Afterwards I got to thinking back to this street, which is very familiar to me, as Flo and Carter have lived their entire 50 years of marriage either in or near Park Rapids.

Park Rapids is a tourist town and those streets will be busier in fairly short order.

I got to thinking particularly  about a Lumberjack Days Parade on this very street, probably in the early 1980s.  The webcam looks south.  On the day in question I was probably two blocks down from the Ben Franklin.

This was an annual parade – maybe it still is – and the year I’m thinking about a lady and two of her kids from Belfast – Catholics, one of them Colm – were visiting a family at a nearby lake, and they came into town for the parade.

This particular parade had an especially elaborate unit from somewhere, which every block or so reenacted an Eliot Ness raid on the Capone operation in Chicago during Prohibition.

This was an active unit, lots of yelling, and running around, gunshots (blanks of course), and the like.

It was very entertaining, but not to the lady from Belfast, which at the time was still in what has come to be called “The Troubles”, where gunshots and lack of safety in the streets terrified residents, including Colm’s Mom.

The parade most all of us saw as entertaining was traumatizing to the visitor from Belfast.

The recollection reminds me that what we are watching play out in Ukraine and surrounding countries, is no entertainment to the millions of victims living there, while we can watch at our leisure on television.

Ukraine is the latest chapter of a deadly century particularly in Europe.  We are well advised to learn from past mistakes, which is not simple when some think that replaying the same movie, as happened on that street years ago, will yield different results.

A QUICK LOOK BACK AT THE WARS IN EUROPE IN THE 20TH CENTURY

In the home farm “junk” I have a 20 page booklet published in 1965 by the C.S. Hammond Company entitle Atlas of World War II, 20th Commemorative Edition.

Below is a photo of one of the maps in the booklet.  Here is the same map in pdf: Atlas of WWII 1965. (The text partially obscured by the bomb at upper left: “Europe’s Troubles in the 1920s”)

C.S. Hammond 1965 from Atlas of WWII.

The text from the booklet is brief and worth reading in its entirety: Atlas of WWII 1965 text.  No author is listed, but the general information is consistent with my understanding of the years described.  Note especially carefully the 1920s map, which does not include Ukraine and further identifies the various countries at the time.

It may be irritating, but in my opinion today’s national leaders have learned from deadly history and are working to prevent a reprise of the deadly wars of our past.  It’s not easy….

COMMENTS:

From Peter: I just posted this on opednews. There have been millions of refugees who had no public voice, except insofar as it served some nefarious interest to promote them. This group had concerns we rarely hear about from the people themselves.  Since bombing cities as flat as Dresden is the strategy of choice for all modern military actions, it’s a safe bet that most refugees share these views.

If you even the tiniest interest in Ukraine and world geopolitics, there is a talk I would urge you to watch, which I listened to Thursday night.  The talk was presented by Thomas Hanson, a retired career U.S. foreign service officer, and is 1 1/2 illuminating hours.  The YouTube link is here.  The organization sponsoring the program is one I’ve long been part of.  Your choice.  Carve out the time.  You won’t regret it.  You won’t regret it.  Redundancy intended.

I would personally much prefer to imagine a world without war, and a gentle Spring.  Unfortunately, we live within imperfection and this Springtime has to be a time to be in touch with very real  imperfection and tragedy.  Keep informed.

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Sunday morning at 10:33 a.m. Spring arrives in my city.  We’re at about 45 degrees N latitude, which means that our counterpart in the Southern Hemisphere is entering the first day of Fall.

Across the sea, in Ukraine, the territory between Odessa and Kyvv is about the same latitude and geographic location as the area between my Twin Cities and Winnipeg.  Which is to say, if you live here, you could be living there, in terms of usual weather patterns.  The midwest and southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan was  a hospitable new home for tens of thousands of “Germans from Russia” who in the early 1900s found themselves no longer welcome in then-Russia.

Spring to me, this year, is the blackboard at the coffee shop, which I see most every day.

Caribou Coffee March 17 2022

Nothing fancy, for sure, but colorful and personal.  Like spring is.

Everyone glancing at this post will have their own definition of Spring.  For me, “Spring” began on February 1 – it always does.  I figure January is the most difficult month, and while there is winter weather still ahead, it won’t last as long, nor be as difficult.

March can be counted on for some difficult snowfalls; it is later in April, when Spring begins to take root, so to speak, and usually later in May before there is reasonable assurance of no killing frost.  Spring is a fixed date, not a fixed event!

It is all variable, of course, but spring is a time of rebirth, and being outside is desirable.

I expect some springtime poetry from Molly, as for other seasons.  She sent her own list the first offering a few days ago, which I offer below with thanks.

“Hi Friends,

This is a bit different from the usual bursts of poetry, as the offering includes just one poem,  just below my name.

I have always loved Aldo Leopold’s book A Sand County Almanac. In fact, in 1967, when I was at UW-Madison working on certification to be a biology teacher, I was lucky enough to be introduced to the book by a professor who had been a student of Leopold’s!

My favorite essay in the book is the one for this month, titled “March; the Geese Return.”  In fact, a few snow geese have been sighted here in MN, as have swans, eagles, various ducks, some sandhill cranes, and –today–a red-winged blackbird in the metro area. The 3^rd week of March in MN is when the big flocks of geese usually start.

So, that essay is here: Leopold Geese Return . If you enjoy it, check out the book… Your library probably has it; the book will also probably include other Leopold essays, beyond those in the Almanac section, depending on the edition.

Blessings of the advancing season, & hugs, and keep your eyes and ears skyward…

Molly

————–

To the Thawing Wind

Come with rain, O loud Southwester!
Bring the singer, bring the nester;
Give the buried flower a dream;
Make the settled snowbank steam;
Find the brown beneath the white;
But whate’er you do tonight,
Bathe my window, make it flow,
Melt it as the ice will go;
Melt the glass and leave the sticks
Like a hermit’s crucifix;
Burst into my narrow stall;
Swing the picture on the wall;
Run the rattling pages o’er;
Scatter poems on the floor;
Turn the poet out of door.

–Robert Frost

COMMENTS:

from Fred: This is a forward another reliable source of war news. It’ more analytic and really interesting. I’m going to send along a fairly new review of the tactical situation in Ukraine from the other source you’ve seen. At the link is a tactical and strategic summary of the Ukraine war so far, from a US website that is a pretty good source for military developments worldwide.  Although the editors have worked with the US armed services for years, particularly in the area of wargaming and simulations, they’re frequent and candid critics of Pentagon policies and practices.

Fred also passes along another interesting source of ongoing news about what is happening in Ukraine.

Three weeks ago today was my surgery.  I’ve been home for over two weeks.  Yesterday I did my first walk, and found to my pleasant surprise that I could do the previous 2 1/2 miles in its entirety, only slightly slower than pre-surgery.  Questions welcome.

This morning, another post-op appointment, this time with Rehab doctor, who said no rehab was needed – I’m basically strong, she said.  Before the doctor, a nurse took my vitals, and had with her a young woman who said this was her first day in a training setting.  The young woman is aiming for EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) and no doubt she’ll be a good one.  Every one of us had to begin at the beginning….

In the afternoon, a surprise in-person visit with my sister and her friend Malcolm.  Mary is a retired Nurse Practitioner in New York State, still engaged in the profession largely due to needs generated by Covid-19; much of work in nursing home settings.  She acknowledged some problems with job-related PTSD.  The job of medical caregiver particularly in Covid-19 times has been stressful.  Her work goes back 60 years, in a great variety of settings….

I have said since the outset about this current issue that by quirk of fate, my surgery and recovery were in the same hospital and likely the same Ward where my first wife died 57 years ago – The University of Minnesota Hospital in Minneapolis.

One of the first things I did when I left the hospital was to write a heart-felt thank you letter to my physician, surgeon and the nurse manager of the station in which I began recovery.  I included the memories I had written about those long ago very difficult years:  memories I had written in 1981-82 for our sons 18th birthday; memories of how it was to be very sick from kidney disease then.

I have decided to include you as recipients of these memories, if you wish.  They are in two parts: Barbara and Barbara (2).  We can all identify formative events in our own lives.   A major one for me was the years described, 1963-65.

Dick, Tom and Barbara Bernard, August 1964. This is the last family picture. Barbara died less than a year later.

Lives indeed go on.  Barbara didn’t have the opportunity.  Tom is now 58.  Someone who read the documents I wrote long ago wondered how I could possibly have remembered all the detail.

There’s much to that story but I think I am possibly in soul-space with those folks in the Ukraine who coincident with my hospitalization have become refugees, out of control of their present and uncertain about their future.  Like these refugees, there have been millions similarly situated to our small family in 1964, and doubtless there are similarly indelible memories.

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Tomorrow is the memorial for Dr. Paul Farmer, who recently died suddenly and unexpectedly at 62.  I plan to tune in, and invite you too as well.  Details are accessible here (#3).

March 11, 2022:

from Stephanie:  I don’t think you are on facebook — I post way too much, I think, but there are a few posts I have made recently that I think might interest you.  The first is from a friend who is a psychologist in Moscow.  He had posted on facebook a petition signed by more than 100 Russians, listing their names and professions.  It has since been taken down…I don’t know whether my friend took it down, or facebook, or if it is blocked by Russia. Here it is:

March 9, 2022:

from Howie:  not about Ukraine, but could as well be.  Here

March 8, 2022:  from time to time I will continue making additions here, from other than major media sources.  Here are a few from the last few days.

from Norm: from friend Barry Levy M.D., MPH:

I thought you would be interested in my letter to the editor of the New York Times about Ukraine last week [follows]:

The explosive weapons attacks that are killing and severely injuring Ukrainian civilians are attracting much media attention. Whenever explosive weapons are deployed in war, civilians are likely to be killed and severely injured, even when they are not targeted.

But most civilian deaths in war result indirectly from damage to civilian infrastructure, resulting in reduced access to food, safe water, medical care, electric power, communication and transportation. Civilians become ill and die from diseases, malnutrition, and maternal and neonatal disorders. At especially high risk are mothers and young children, people with disabilities and older people.

It is critically important that steps be taken now to protect civilians and critical elements of civilian infrastructure, and to deliver humanitarian assistance to those in need.

Barry S. Levy
Sherborn, Mass.

The writer, a physician, is a past president of the American Public Health Association and an adjunct professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. He is author of the forthcoming book “From Horror to Hope,” about the health effects of war.

I’m also writing to let you know that I have authored a book, entitled From Horror to Hope: Recognizing and Preventing the Health Impacts of War, that will be published by Oxford University Press next month. More information is [here]..

from Carol:

A Ukraine refugee photo

from Remi, some of his ancestors from Ukraine, sends this sketch of some of his family links to Ukraine.  This only one of many assorted links between what is now Germany and Ukraine: Three of my mother’s grandparents came from Landau Ukraine, Russia, now called Shyrokolanivka, about 55 miles northeast of Odessa.. Their ancestors came from Landau Alsace, now Germany, in 1809. The other grandparent (a grandmother) came from Krasna Ukraine Russia, now Krasne, about 70 miles southwest of Odessa. Her ancestors were Warsaw colonists. They left German states, mainly Saarland, between 1785 and 1795 to settle in Prussian Poland. In 1814-1815 they went to Krasna in Bessarabia that the Russians had just taken from the Ottomans. My mother’s father was born in Caramurat, a Tatar town in Romania, about 50 miles from Russia.I have enclosed a depiction of a funeral there at about the time of his birth. His father had come from Landau Russia and his mother from Krasna. His German patois had many French, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian,Yiddish, Tatar and Romani words embedded in a fossilized Saarland-Alsatian  dialect. His ancestors dressed like Russians and had adopted many Russian traditions and folk remedies. I have attached a photo of one of his grandfathers in Romania wearing a Russian shapka (hat), third from left.. Also of his great  grandparents in Russia with cross necklaces and prayer books. He came to Canada in 1907. My mother’s grandparents on her mother’s side came from Landau, Russia to Canada in 1901 through Ellis Island, New York.

Photos from the olden days in Ukraine:

from Annelee:  Former President Donald Trump called Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine savvy, the work of a genius.  Fox Commentator Tucker Carlson and several Conservative Republican Senators agreed with Tucker and said that it was the right of Putin to invade the peaceful, democratic Ukraine so Putin could  restore Russia to it’s former greatness.

March 6, 2022:  Great friend Lydia sends  a couple of personal recommendations for those who wish to be involved in Ukrainian humanitarian efforts:

PERSONAL UPDATE, March 4: Two weeks ago today I was in surgery for colon cancer at University of Minnesota.  Nine days ago I came home.  Healing is going well, but it is not the “piece of cake” one would like.  Anyone who’s a veteran of major surgery can doubtless attest!  I am active every day, but still require lots of rest.  I try to follow recommendations, and I will take it easy.  Thank you for your interest and support.  Personally, it was good to be invited to and attend Ash Wednesday with daughters Lauri and Heather and Lauri’s family, and Cathy.

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Thursday evening I listened to a phone message from my long-time friend, Jim, calling from his home on a beach in a deeply rural part of deeply rural Molokai, Hawaii.  Jim has lived on the island for many years, and enjoys its isolation and deeply rural character.

If you want to get away from it all, you go to a place like Molokai.

I talked in person with him this afternoon.  It was a good conversation.  Ukraine entered the conversation, but was not the main reason for the call.  We’re just catching up.

That is how it is in today’s world.  We are all connected, instantly, regardless of where we live.  There is a blessing and a curse to all of this of course, and source of infinite threads of conversation.  It was good to hear Jim’s voice, from Pukoo on the east side of Molokai.

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from Carol, Mar 5:  a Ukrainian rfugee

Ukrainean refugee

UKRAINE: I have struggled with how best to engage with and for the Ukrainian people, and yes, for the Russian people now under siege by their own dictator.  I am still thinking about this.

Just now, I decided what better a tribute to Ukraine from me, than Minnesota musician Peter Ostroushko.  There are many selections at YouTube. Here’s one of his best, from a 2004 performance of his 1995 composition Heart of the Heartland.    Peter died Feb. 24, 2021.  He lives on in his music.  [Lydia sent an interesting MinnPost article about the Minneapolis Ukrainian community of which Peter was part.]

I am including with this post, just a few off the beaten path commentaries which have come from/about Ukraine.  You know what you’ll know from the TV.  These are items which may or may not catch the wave of news priorities.  They are not prioritized here.  I’ll expect to do a few more posts like this.

I agree with parts and disagree with others in these writings.  That is very normal in debate in a civil society.  We are a huge, complicated world, and our institutions reflect this.  There is no magic pill to solve everything, or even most things, but when any individual, institution, country or coalition of countries deems itself above, or in domination of, common Law regulating a civil society,  we are all in trouble.

We are not immune from criticism: In my Feb. 16 post, Preparedness, about war looming in Ukraine, I said this: “war or threat of war, or an enemy, is very helpful politically no matter the country or the system or the time in history.  Chris Hedges War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002) always comes to mind at times like this.  This came along about the time of our Iraq misadventure – a solution to 9-11-01.  War is Good…not, but yes…it is useful to politicians currying favor with people like US.”

A most common institution for humans, by whatever name or whatever tradition, is marriage – where two people in some way or another pledge common cause.  A long-time Catholic Priest friend and I were discussing this some days ago in a post hospital conversation.  I said to Vince that a good share of his work as a pastor was probably dealing with marital conflict within his own flock.  He laughed.  If two of us have troubles between ourselves on occasion, how can we expect 194 countries and over 7 billion people to just get along?  We are a work in progress, and we will always be so.  The tribal alternative is one which cannot be accepted.

Have a good weekend.

received from Molly: “Stay Calm”, by Tom Nichols in the Atlantic: Tom Nichols, Stay Calm, The Atlantic

from Fred, March 6: Interesting details [here] about the Russian military and its organization.

from Carol, a letter from a young person in Kharkiv:

“I can’t sleep tonight. Not that I slept well for the last 6 nights but tonight is particularly heartbreaking. My home city is being destroyed by Putin. I am not going to put pictures of horror, it’s plenty of them on bbc. Instead I will tell the world about Kharkiv. 

So Kharkiv is educational and scientific centre, it has 59 (!) universities! 59! We call the city “students’ capital”. One of them is one of the oldest in Ukraine, been partly destroyed today by missile from Putin. Another – National Law Academy, my alma mater, is in Ukraine’s top law universities (I am being polite here, it’s number 1))) Commentaries to National laws made by academics of the Academy are being used in the courts, that’s how highly they are rated. 

Kharkiv is heavy and military industry centre, there are factories to build tractors, tanks, plane turbines etc. You can see why Putin is so desperate to occupy it.

Kharkiv is arty and not only with clever and funny graffiti but with more than 20 (!) theatres including one philharmonic. I am glad my mum went to the philharmonic theatre just few days before the invasion. I have also personal dear memories and stories connected to it. At the high school I have been asked to do a journalistic project – to write about one of the heritage in danger sort of sights. I chose philharmonic theatre. At that time it was in a horrible state with leaking roof, needing immediate renovation as it’s hall was a copy of one of the halls in Tuileries Palace. Being roughly 15 years old I found the main conductor at the time (the head nowadays) and asked for a video interview. Being a very passionate about the theatre person he agreed. We made a lovely video showing how important it is to restore our city and national heritage. I don’t know how much of a difference it made but years later the philharmonic theatre with amazing architecture has been renovated. Guess what, you know already, don’t you? Yup, Putin dropped the bomb on it today. 

Kharkiv is also a centre for trade. We have Barabashovo market which I think is called the biggest in Eastern Europe! It is huge indeed. 

Recently Kharkiv also became an IT capital of Ukraine, having had a nickname of Ukrainian Silicon Valley. 

And last for this post but not the least my school of yoga – Ukrainian Federation of Yoga has started there. Our studio was located right next to the local government building, on the Freedom Square. No need to say what happened there today…

But you know what? I AM OK. Seriously. I know that we will rebuild it and that Kharkiv is free = Ukrainian. Just wanted my English speaking friends to know more than “second biggest city”.”