Election 2024

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POSTNOTE March 1, 2024: A news headline tonight: 249 days to the Election.  Where do you fit in this picture?

The formal political process varies state-by-state, and party-by-party in the United States with infinite local variations.  So, as I write on Feb. 29, 2024, the 2020 process has just begun in Minnesota (not counting the endless 2020); and has surfaced in endlessly publicized “beauty contests” in places like Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Michigan.

“Super Tuesday”, which includes  Minnesota, is Tuesday March 5, and on we go in the crucial ritual of electing the many people, including President of the U.S., who will represent “we, the people” of the United States of America in 2025.

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A few words about how my local Caucus and Primary Election follow.

In my corner of the world – about 70,000 people in the east metro of St. Paul MN, mostly the city of Woodbury – the first formal political event for election 2024 was the Precinct Caucus on Tuesday, February 27.

I and others attended on a very dismal weather night.  Attendance was light.  Staying home was very tempting, but showing up was important.  If I was to do a door-to-door canvas in my little neighborhood of perhaps 150 adults, a goodly share of whom are senior citizens, I’d be surprised if there were more than a couple who actually attended this meeting open to everyone.  There were no earth-shaking local issues, which probably contributed to the low turnout.

The next day, Wednesday, February 28, I voted early in the Minnesota Presidential preference Primary Election at the town city hall. As is always true, the election supervisors were very polite and very professional.  There was a single question on the ballot.   In our state you must declare a party preference: Republican, Democrat or (if I recall correctly) Legal Marijuana.  You vote on a specific ballot based on party preference.  Inclusion of party depends on a certain percentage of voters in a previous election.

The actual Primary Election will be March 5.   There are 9 candidates listed on the MN Democratic Primary ballot, including Joe Biden, and only two others whose names I even recognized.  We won’t know the results until after the polls close on March 5.

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The caucus on Tuesday started at 7 and ended at 8.  There were the usual procedural matters, an invitation to present proposed resolutions, and then basically open conversation.  Presidential preference was not even discussed – that comes in the primary on March 5.

A second and crucial function of the caucus is to elect official delegates to subsequent larger gatherings to refine and consolidate resolutions, and to endorse candidates for local, state and national office.

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I always volunteer to be a delegate to the next level.

In my case, my Senate District official Convention is Saturday, April 6, and is open only to elected delegates selected at the Caucus (people who could not attend the caucus, could pre-register for delegate status).

Following is the Congressional District Convention on Saturday, May 4, then the State Convention (Duluth) May 31 – June 2.

I have attended all of these Conventions at one time or another.  They are always very interesting, and those attending take their work very seriously.

The Democrats National Convention is in Chicago Aug 19-24; the Republicans in Milwaukee Jul 15-18.  The actual election is Nov. 5, 2024.

I am nearing age 84, and there is a time and a place for everything.

I am a strong supporter of Joe Biden/Kamala Harris.  At the same time, my mantra has long been that the youth, women, and persons of color need to play the major roles in the future, both because they will live in what results far beyond my own mortality; and their issues are very crucial to their own future.

Another personal mantra: we citizens ARE “politics”.  What we get (and often deride) is exactly what we choose in this democracy, fragile as it has become.  Traditionally, more than a third of eligible voters don’t even vote once every four years.  And often those who vote only vote for a single candidate, with little knowledge of the implications of their vote.  This is a disgrace.

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“Below the Fold” – for readers in my own Minnesota Senate District #47

State and National Politics always get the most attention from the media, but the really important work is what is done at the local level.  And often times, local issues take on great importance in special elections including school issues, and the like.  It is not enough to vote for one person one time every four years.

There is a special event on Thursday, March 14 from 5:30-8:30  pm at Woodbury Middle: HotDish Challenge!  Cake & Pie Auction.   School cafeteria (use the entry facing Valley Creek>. Suggested $20 family donation + bid on auction

I asked the local chair to input on this issue, and below is what she offered.  She has been a very committed chair.

School Board campaigns & the CD4 Central Committee.
NOTE: CD4 is Congressional District 4.  Our local school district boundaries are in two Congressional Districts and this is simply an effort for efficiency.

1) Local elections for School Board
This year, CD4 DFL has jurisdiction over SCHOOL BOARD elections. 
We invite people to run for a position on the DFL CD4 Central Committee.  Email SenateDistrict47ATgmailDOTcom.
Why? Do you pay attention to extremist “Moms For Liberty” and MN Parents Alliance candidates?
They Ban books; Don’t say gay; Anti-vaxxers; Private school vouchers to deplete public school funds) More information here.
ISD622 and ISD834 candidates can ask the DFL CD4 for a Letter of Support.  Info here.
Follow them on Facebook: here

2) Local campaign Carpool Drivers
Our youth volunteers need DRIVERS for RIDES. Can you volunteer to drive carpool to pick up one or two teens, bring them to a (25) or (50) Door neighborhood for a 30- or 60-minute DOOR KNOCK or LIT DROP, then return them home? Info Here
3) Get involved – Volunteer or serve as a Leader
March 21 and April 18 – election for Precinct level positions and general volunteers
The SD47 DFL Central Committee seeks people to help us ELECT MORE DEMOCRATS.
Email SenateDistrict47ATgmailDOTcom to get started.

The Voter*

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A week from today is the Minnesota Precinct Caucus; a week beyond is “Super Tuesday” in many U.S. States.

While details from state to state vary, each state has a process by which citizens input on candidates and issues that their elected representatives will encounter during their term of office.  For Minnesota and my community, the essential information is here.  Scroll down to the indicated links.

In my view, in our democracy, which thus far has endured the entire history of the United States, there are two essential bookends:

  1. Eligible voters can cast a secret ballot for the candidates for office in their area.
  2. At the end of the process, a judiciary interprets the laws which have been enacted:  “The Rule of Law”.

In between and indeed within the bookends themselves there are endless possibilities for decisions that distress the very essence of a democratic republic, which is what we are.  The citizens and the courts are the essential gatekeepers.

The individual voter is the one ultimately accountable for the outcomes.  None of us need to do it all; but all of us need to do our part.

Get involved.

POSTNOTE: I saved a useful editorial from the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Dec. 31 on the topic of Citizen engagement.  I think it is worth a read.: Citizen Engagement StarTrib Dec 31 2023

Personal Opinion: * – “Voting” is much, much more than casting a single ballot one time every four years….

COMMENTS:

from Brian:  Great Stuff, Dick!

Well, as I’ve mentioned what I love about this country is “E Pluribus Unum”:  from many one.
As you know here in Brooklyn we live in a great neighborhood.  Down the street is Muslim mosque/conference center.  Also we have synegogues.  And I can walk easily to 2 Catholic churches.   And across the street is a French school for Haitians, we live in a Haitian area.   And Jewish area.
In Haiti, things aren’t going well–they’re fighting. In the Mideast, not going well, either.   But here, we have PEACE.
Why?  Similar to what you say, “rule of law”.  Voting.  Respect.
I’m a fan of the German band “Rammstein”.  In fact next week I’m flying to Germany to see friends.  Here’s a Rammstein video.

from Larry, in turn from Garrison Keillor: here.

 

Fani Willis

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Yesterday I watched an hour or so of Fani Willis’ testimony in Atlanta, and of course saw and heard much replay afterwards, which will continue through as many news cycles as it is interesting.

I have an opinion, before turning on the TV this morning.  I write 1100 miles from Atlanta, so I don’t plan to be on the scene.  There are lots of legitimate complaints about mass media today; there are benefits, and this, I think, is one of them.

If the name in the headline catches your attention, I don’t need to define Fani Willis or the issues surrounding.  You probably know more than I do.  So I’ll dispense with preliminaries.

Best I understand, Fani Willis didn’t have to testify yesterday.  Not only did she testify, but she voluntarily submitted to cross examination, which in the legal arena can be brutal.  The Law is, after all, an adversary process.  If it weren’t, there’d be no need for legislators and their outcome which is law which by its very nature is subject to interpretation and to judgement.  That is a subject for another time.

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I only know Fani Willis from others opinions, expressed in print, or in snips of visual media.

My thinking is that her decision to testify personally was deliberate and heroic, and her intent was far beyond her self interest.

She is testifying in effect for women generally, and women of color specifically, and most appropriately in the midst of Black History month.

Anyone who follows human and world and U.S. history even a tiny bit can sort of get the drift of where I’m going with my own commentary:

It starts with a male centric power based society;  Kings and the like.

Abraham Lincoln made a brave stroke with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, which at least made negroes persons and gave black men the right to vote.

Indigenous people were a cut out – they were given reservations which lasted so long as their land was deemed scrap and then was repossessed for the conquerors for mineral and other rights.

But as we learn, it wasn’t until 1920 that women secured the right to vote in our own country; and by then the Ku Klux Klan and others of their ilk put the non-whites back in their subordinate place.

I don’t have a clue why Fani Willis chose to testify, but what I see when I watch her is a very strong woman endeavoring to teach us all a lesson, and having a platform as large as Martin Luther King did in 1963.

My guess is that she knows the potential consequences of her witness, but she also knows the importance of being a witness, regardless of outcome, for not only her race but for her gender at a time when such witness is especially important.  She is an example to emulate.

She has earned and she deserves commendation, regardless of verdict.

9:21 a.m. Friday, February 16, 2024.

POSTNOTE: In a prior post I recommended the new film Killers of the Flower Moon, about the strategic and diabolic expropriation of Oklahoma oil lands from the owners, the Osage tribe.  It is a gripping film.  If you have the time, watch it.

On a more gentle note, here is a picture of Woodbury Minnesota in the morning of February 15, 2024.  We were snowless for almost the entire winter so far, and this snow is apparently not long either.  This is a mixed message – being so dry so late in the winter is not good news….

Personal:  Expect to see more posts about politics at this space.  There’s a bit less than 9 months to Nov. 5, and it doesn’t seem to be a gentle time ahead.  It will take lots of individual commitment to elect reasonable moderate people to hold this democratic republic together.  Minnesotans start with the Precinct Caucus on March 5.  Information about that here.  I follow the local, state, national and international business pretty carefully, There is so much that I only pick and choose a few items to comment about.  THINK and ACT.  It’s the future that’s at stake.

Easiest and best to check on latest post is to visit the archive for the current month (at right on this page).

I have gone through a mini=roller coaster time on health concerns.  The most recent medical assessment was on Valentine’s Day.  All indications are that I’ll be around for awhile yet.  I resumed my 2 1/2 mile daily walk this week.  In a few days, the dreaded annual senior citizen health assessment – the one where we all are assessed to our level of genius.  Then a calendar full of birthdays: an important 60th, and two 80th; and a Marine grandson home on leave, and on and on.  Apparently the snow will again disappear.  It has been a dry winter so far.  My winter always ends on February 1, but I’m also a realist.  The snowplow folks are not done yet….  But the snow on Feb 15 was really pretty.  I wish I was a better photographer.   (Behind the tables, at center, is my daily ‘command central’ from about 6-8:30 a.m., including today.

Have a great weekend.

COMMENTS:  (more at end of post)

from Steve:  I read your notes and enjoy the thoughtful conversation. We agree on lots of things. I do take issue with you, though, on the Fanni Willis issue. I won’t argue that a Black woman has a good deal of extra baggage when she checks in for a flight, but in this case, the issue is judgement. Bad judgement.

I was disappointed when John Edwards caused himself to lose support for a presidential nomination when his terrible judgement, inexcusable behavior, and questionable character was revealed. Bill Clinton lost four years of Democratic leadership (to say nothing about the Congressional inaction) due to his stupidity and presumptions. There are volumes of similarly disappointing stories of thoughtless personal judgement harming the public’s interest.
In Willis’ case, her public responsibilities and influence should be measured by her professional performance. (Her personal life, as far as I’m concerned, is pretty much her business.) Unfortunately, she and her colleague have severely damaged the case, now vulnerable to a loss of trust and confidence, against a public figure whose behavior—both personal and professional—have threatened the cause of democratic government and needs to be judged in an uncompromised court. Ironically, their indiscretion will be exploited by a defendant who’s the one who should be judged. Willis asked to be entrusted with this case and she lost it (to the Trumpers) before it got to court.
Harsh judgement, I know, but the whole kit-n-kaboodle is disheartening.

response from Dick: to the last word, above (“disheartening”).  Perhaps it is, but the conversation it is generating is important.  We need to take about this kind of stuff to not only understand, but to remedy.

I note that all the comments thus far, including from me, are from senior white men.

from Jim (who also has an earlier response below.  I had earlier asked a friend, identified in the first sentence below, to read what I’d written, and she responded with a single word “excellent”, which I had mentioned in a side note to Jim.):Dick,

I may not actually be in disagreement with your “retired white female activist” friend.  If your intention was to defend Willis against attack from the Trumpkin crowd, and from the Georgia trial Trump-and-friends Defense Team, because… y’know… we’re on the “other team”, and Fani’s Identity Politics subset of our team (black women) needs supporting in the most general of terms (i.e. – independent of the merits of any actual argument on some matter) – Why, then, rhetorically speaking, I, too, think you did an excellent job.  I probably would not have responded had you not done it so well!  But, the older I get, the more I am rejecting the our-side/their-side dualism that seems to be more and more popular in the culture as the years go by.  I find myself almost exclusively writing responses when it’s a member of “my own tribe” writing but I find “us” rather indefensible on the merits of the issue of the moment.

 

I was, though, a bit disappointed that you felt the need to assign “identities” to the correspondents who wrote, as if their being “older professional white men” made their observations less valid, or at least differently-valid – independent of what the merits of those observations were.

 

I was not only NOT an “early adopter” of Identity Politics; I was an early rejector.  I bailed on Liberals’ embrace of it in about 2014, after at least four years of questioning it.  It seems to me a dead-end strategy, one that turns almost all our issues into Zero Sum Games, which is very rarely a good idea.  As you are someone formerly involved in labor negotiations, I’d imagine you’d agree on that last point.

 

Identity Politics also leaves me with very little territory to occupy, personally.  I am not ONLY white, and male, and older, and formerly a “professional”, I’m also heterosexual, a native English speaker, a native born American, of northern European heritage, and a few other “identities” disliked by progressive activists today. (I had once made a list as part of a discussion with someone else, which I’ve lost, but I remember it came to twelve identity factors, ALL of which labelled me as “oppressor” and none of which could be used to claim membership among the “oppressed”.  Except perhaps “son of a ‘working-class/working-poor’ father who worked with his hands”, which, though I regard it as the single most important aspect of my “identity”, seems to be at best neutral in the eyes of most Progressive activists…)  Were I to play by the rules of today’s activist class (all Identity, all the time…!) I would be forced to be a “patriarchal neocolonialist white nationalist” or some such thing, and while Trump himself would probably then regard me as one of those “good people on all sides”, I find myself oddly not agreeing on much of anything with those who most proudly proclaim the Identity that I would have to claim as my own. Identity Politics is a game in which no team will have me.

 

Fortunately, I sense that we have reached, and perhaps recently passed, “peak Identity Politics”.  The inability of the traditionally oppressed American Jews and the traditionally oppressed American Muslims to agree on who’s entitled to claim the lofty perch of Most Oppressed Group At The Moment (or even whether the Jews have been or are oppressed at all – which just blows my mind…) seems to be accelerating the understanding, in the general non-activist public, that the whole Identity Politics concept is pretty much bankrupt.  The Israel/Hamas issue (not the violence there, but the controversy HERE) has already replaced my favorite example of dysfunctional Identity Politics from just a few years ago – the one in which South Minneapolis’ Somali, Hispanic, and Native American activist groups, all fell to arguing over the future use of a plot of land in a very poor neighborhood, whose actual occupants (comprising all three of those ethnic groups as well as some Hmong and non-Somali Blacks), wanted an outcome different than that desired by any of the three.  The utter inability to work together toward a disposition that might improve life GENERALLY would have been funny were it not so sad and unnecessary.  But everyone involved was playing the Zero-Sum Identity Politics game.  No one felt they could win unless all the others lost.  It was not a glowing moment for those Progressives who preach “intersectionality”.  The problem, or so it seemed, was that there was such a shortage of old white men involved in the issue – no obvious oppressors, so each group designated each of the others as oppressors-for-a-day, as it were.

 

This winter’s tempest-in-a-teacup in the St Louis Park schools, over Muslim parents (mostly Somali) wanting both pre-notification and an opt-out option when LGBTQ-sympathetic reading materials were to be used, is another example of the cracks showing in Identity Politics.  One can argue the issues here from multiple perspectives, and many have.  But the single vignette that really ‘grabbed’ me was when a School Board Member (white and female, if one thinks that matters, and judging from the things she said, not Muslim, but “more Progressive than God”…) very sternly LECTURED the Muslim parents during a school board meeting, telling them that she and the school authorities, generally, were disappointed in them because they had an expectation of “more solidarity from parents” from oppressed populations.  (The video of her speaking is breathtaking.)  Yes, a school board member lectured parents on what SHE expected, philosophically and politically, from THEM.  Regardless of the merits of the actual argument, I’d hope she pays at the polls simply for not understanding who is serving whom, and at whose pleasure.  The original issue was recently decided by the District granting an only slightly modified version of the parents’ request (the modifications came from the parent group’s own lawyers, and served merely to make granting the request more practical), while explaining in the formal announcement that they still found it very WRONG that the parents desired to retain some degree of control over what their own children were taught and/or indoctrinated with – especially when the rationale was that something conflicted with their religious beliefs – but that their hands were tied by state laws. …which they then took great pains to criticize.  <sigh>

 

 

 

 

Junior High

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Like many in my age cohort, life becomes a daily exercise in divestment:   Who would want this? Why am I keeping that?

In a cabinet in the garage, was the 1966-67 yearbook of the 1300 student Roosevelt Junior High School in Blaine MN.  I was in my fourth year of teaching, second year there.  The yearbook surfaced in a box – I hadn’t looked at it for many years.  Now, 57 years later, I took the time, and glad I did.  I bet you can identify….  At minimum, we’ve all been a newby teenager once.

57 years is not quite like yesterday, but it was fascinating to browse the 46 or so pages, which brought back lots of memories from that time in my life. (Included below is a portion of the Annual, including three sample pages of some real, genuine, 7th, 8th and 9th graders who filled the halls and desks at Roosevelt that year: (here: Roosevelt 1966 67).  No surprise, those kids look pretty much like kids the same age today, except they’re now in their 70s!)

Here’s the cover of the “Raiders’ annual.  Note especially the name of the artist, Lois Spooner.

This post isn’t about my own memories of 1966-67, or any other year for that matter, but I’d encourage  your personal nostalgia trip, from being a teen, and later, about whatever else comes to mind.  Life is full of events.  Sometimes, pictures are worth a thousand words!

Junior High (generally grades 7-9) or Middle School (grades 6-8), bring together youngsters between about 12-15.  We have or had kids and kin and neighbors navigating those sometimes difficult waters.

Early on in the 1966-67 annual, between the photos of Principal and Assistant Principal, was a succinct statement of philosophy to the reader, most likely a parent of a child in the book: “A junior high school is a bridge between elementary and senior high school.  It is a point where young people can have a chance to mature before they start to accept their responsibilities as adults.  This is the general purpose of Roosevelt Junior High School.”

So true.   A child leaves elementary school at the top of the heap, and enters high school as what is often referred to as a “fresh man”, almost literally!  A couple of the stair steps of life.  In between is the transition, sort of ‘running the rapids’ of growing up.

Personally, I was 26 most of 1966-67.  I was second year at Roosevelt, and 4th year of teaching, and learning, 8th graders.  I was one of many of the faculty who had opened the brand new school in suburban Blaine MN a year earlier.    My own classroom was across the hall from about the 4th window on the left in the picture.  I seem to recall room 112.  Five classes a day stopped by for their (hopefully) time on task, and maybe some fragment of learning for life.  The student. maybe had 45 minutes with 30 or so other kids.  There were over 1400 kids and adults in the ‘scrum’ together.  Lots of opportunities for function and dysfunction.

Lois Spooner? I noted her photo was in the book, and she was a 9th grader in 1966-67.  She is on the 9th grade page included with this post.  Odds are pretty good that she was one of those in 8th grade when the school opened in 1965, and odds are one in three  that she was in my class – I think there were three of us teaching 8th grade geography.

Lois was a very good artist, and I bet she and her parents were very proud of this cover art.  I hope life went well for her, she’d likely be in her 70s now!

Time flies.  Make the best of the time you have left.

Roosevelt Jr HS ca 1968, looking southeast. If memory serves, I took the photo from a plane piloted by my brother Frank, then in the Air Force.

COMMENTS:

from Jim:   Dick,

DID bring back memories! So much so, I’m gonna ramble here a bit for you, all the way to changing the subject altogether. (Came back and wrote that sentence after realizing I’d done it…!)

The photo looks like my own Northwest Suburban Chicago Junior High, from which I graduated in ’69, and the sketch even more so. Same exterior entryway. Same one story construction with a partial second story only to accommodate a gymnasium. Mine was definitely a ’60s building – Named for Robert Frost, the favorite poet of the Kennedy clan. It fed into a H.S. named for James B. Conant. More rambling on him in a bit…

I am struck by the differences in the culture of building schools in different times and places. In suburban Chicago, in the ’60s and ’70s at least, no one, but NO ONE, built a High School with capacity for any fewer than 3,000 students on the day it opened, usually with further expansion built right into the plans, and there were a few around that held 5,000 or more. As I recall, there was one district, with only two schools, which enrolled 5,500 in one and something like 7,500 or 8,000 in the other. There are some schools in the TC Metro with size in the 3,000+ range (Wayzata H.S. is one…), but it’s not the norm, nor is it considered the smallest that one would ever build. These were Grade 9-12 schools, with very few exceptions. Suburban districts typically spanned multiple suburbs and had multiple 3000+ enrollment schools. Kind of like the Anoka-Hennepin district here in the TC Metro, only both the districts and the school buildings were even bigger. My school played in an athletic conference made up entirely of two school districts – one with five high schools by the time I graduated in ’73, the other with eight. Due to community growth, I went only one year to Conant, then to a brand new school (Schaumburg, the fourth of the five). The year after I graduated, the fifth (Hoffman Estates) opened. A capacity bump of 7000 students in four years! All five are still open, and each has been expanded since, with the oldest of the five having been completely rebuilt from the ground up some years ago. I recently returned to visit Schaumburg, which can now hold over 4,000, and literally got lost inside wandering the additions…

The Junior Highs, in contrast, were smaller than your Roosevelt in Blaine. Each high school was typically fed by two or three grade 7-8 junior highs. If you do the math, that made a typical junior high about 800 kids – or less – and that feels about right compared to my memories.

Regarding J.B. Conant – He had a long life and several full careers. He was a research chemist, he was a military man in WW I, he was a prof at, and then President of, Harvard, he was a Cold Warrior – a key guy in setting up parts of the US-directed rebuild of western European institutions, and the first US Ambassador to West Germany, which was a pretty high-pressure and high-prestige gig at the time. After all that, in the late 50s and early 60s, he wrote books on public education in the US, and he is frequently credited (or blamed…!) for the very idea of big High Schools which could offer many diverse courses, as the desirable norm. Appropriate, then, that when my district built #3, to be shared by two rival suburbs, each of which wanted it named after their town, the compromise was to name it instead after Conant. Each town got theirs when #4 and #5 were built…

I just skimmed the Wikipedia entry for ol’ J.B. …and I am wondering if it is only a matter of time before there is a move to un-name that High School… He will always be a hero of mine – after all, I became a research chemist, I went for one year to ‘his’ school (my siblings, after re-boundary-ing, each graduated from it), and my first mentor and H.S. chemistry teacher, who was shifted from Conant to Schaumburg the year I was, absolutely idolized the man.

But in our present cultural mood, we un-name things that were named for individuals who did things we don’t approve of today, even if what we (think we) would have done instead had not even been thought of yet… and J.B. Conant has got himself quite the list of good and not-so-good! He worked on WW I poison gases. He developed “Up or Out” as policy at Harvard (i.e. – get tenured, or be terminated). He pioneered the SAT requirement (though perhaps it’s coming back…? At least it seems so this month…!)

Some felt he was somewhat antisemitic. (Sadly, that seems to be coming back recently, too…) The most charitable thing one could say, there, is that he lacked the sympathy of some of his contemporaries to the plight of the highly educated under Hitler, very much not wanting “refugees” like, say, EINSTEIN, for the Harvard faculty…!

He was a key player in getting government support for development of synthetic rubber. Manhattan Project. Was at Alamogordo. On committee that urged Truman to use The Bomb. Original member of the Atomic Energy Commission. For your readers who saw “Oppenheimer”, J.B. was one of the experts who was AGAINST developing the H bomb. I’m unclear on how history will judge some of that, and even on what I think about it today.

On the schools front, besides advocating for big, big, H.S.s, he was also against busing for integration, seeing it as impractical – before it was even a thing anyone was doing… That was in his second book on public education, bearing the today-inconceivable title “Slums and Suburbs”. Seriously.

On the other hand, he was a pioneer of many things that are universally praised today. A particular “pet belief” of mine is that we apportion too much blame to those who did things years ago, when those things were judged “normal”, that we dislike today; and we give far too little credit to those who risked much to pioneer things that we take for granted today. There’s an old joke in the corporate cubicle world that it takes hundreds of “attaboy!”s to counteract just one “awshit”. Evaluation of an historical figure should be PRECISELY the opposite, it seems to me.

Conant’s “attaboy!”s, for instance, include being responsible for a whole bunch of stuff in chemistry that only a chemist can fully appreciate, and the rest of us take for granted. Stuff like determining what chlorophyll IS, chemically. How oxygen interacts with hemoglobin. Basic theories of acids and bases (among American chemists, only two or three made larger contributions to that field – I worked as a grad student in Berkeley in buildings named after two of them. Conant was in their league.). As Harvard Prez, he abolished athletic scholarships, and, with that, being “big time” in sports that have professional leagues, like football. As you watch the NCAA continue its evolution into full-on pro sports, with all the internal contradictions that entails for academia, keep in mind that Conant saw it coming, and did what he could to prevent it. He pioneered Interdepartmental professorships and programs to help fight “silo-ing” of the faculty. He instituted General Education requirements for undergrads. (Hard to believe today that this didn’t “always” exist…) He was a champion at Harvard of the brand-new field of Philosophy of Science. Many of the pioneers of explaining “The Scientific Method” were Harvard profs on Conant’s watch. First Quine, then Kuhn. (While contemporary Philosophers of Science have objected to the details of Kuhn’s magnum opus, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, at least since I was an undergrad in the mid 70s, what YOU know about “the scientific method”, including the term “paradigm shift”, is probably straight out of Kuhn’s work, which both questioned and built upon Quine, and Conant.

Many of the firsts for women at Harvard came on his watch. First time women at Radcliffe – Harvard’s sister college – had many of the same classes as Harvard, and taught by Harvard profs. Then allowing their enrollment in classes AT Harvard. Women admitted to some of the professional schools at Harvard. First Medicine. Then Law. All on one man’s 20-year watch, 1933-53. Never got to full co-ed undergrad education, but perhaps not his fault. He “retired” to the US State Department in ’53 – and Harvard didn’t become fully co-ed until ’70 or ’77 (depending on which measure one wants to use), or “fully merged” with Radcliffe until ’99. So it took his successors longer to finish the job than it had taken Conant to get most of the way there.

A man of his times, who bent those times, in several ways, toward our time. I think that’s much more than “good enough”.

Preparing for Super Tuesday in Minnesota: February 27, 2024

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Read the first section below, first, then take the 20 minutes to watch this recent interview with President Biden.  Carol, who sent this to several of us says: “I just watched this and it made me much more comfortable with Biden’s “age.”  The interview has been watched near 2 million times.

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Super Tuesday is March 5, and Minnesota is one of the states.  If are a Minnesotan and you read nothing else in this post, look at the links in the 4th and 5th paragraph below.  My personal opinions are below the photo.

As reported in USAToday  Dec. 29: “The states conducting elections on 2024’s Super Tuesday include Alabama, Arkansas, Alaska, California, Colorado, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota (emphasis added), North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia” .  This is Minnesota’s first official “play” leading to election Nov. 4.

But March 5 isn’t the first act, and this blog post is intended to spotlight the biennial Precinct Caucus, which will be in Minnesota communities Tuesday, February 27, with preliminary training for assorted citizen facilitators on February 20.  In my local Senate District, Woodbury and South Maplewood, there will be a training on February 20 in the early evening, for anyone wishing to get their feet wet in the political process. The details can be found in the links above the photo.

Information from the Minnesota Secretary of State can be read here.  Itincludes links to caucus locations, and applies to Republicans and Democrats and other organized groups equally.  It’s worth taking time to read.

My own community location is at the Woodbury High School.  Here’s the general information for my own district: Democratic Caucus Feb 27 2024.  Other districts have their own information.

1961 Darleen Hartman, Dick Bernard, Doug Daugherty, Mary Canine Valley City State Teachers College.

Personal Opinion: Those who know me well, know that I have been politically involved for most of my adult life.  My role has solely been as citizen.  Disclosure: I am older than President Biden and very strongly support him.  What follows is my message to today’s young people, who will make or break their own future.

The above photo (I am second from left) was taken my last month of college in 1961.  I had turned 21  a short while before, which meant, in those days, that I wasn’t eligible to vote in the 1960 election.  Then came a couple of years in the Army.  Thereafter began a pretty regular practice of involvement in local politics,  precinct caucuses, more recently followed by Primary Elections.

The precinct caucus and the pre-meeting are excellent opportunities to meet candidates, learn about issues, and in general prepare for the primary March 5 and the general election itself, Nov. 5..

I’m in the home stretch of life and for a long-time now, while staying active myself, my mantra has become a plea for young people  to take responsibility for their future, much of which will depend on who they select to represent them in government.

The first memory I have of this attitude was about 1987.  My first grandchild was six months old and I was at a conference in Colorado.  We were asked to introduce ourselves, and  I said my focus would be the generation which included my granddaughter.

That was 37 years ago.

Last week in an e-mail conversation with a friend, also retired, I concluded my note with this: “it is our “kids” who need to take charge and will reap the benefits or pay the price for upcoming decisions, and we’ll no longer be in the picture.”

Every one of we elders have “been there, done that” like the kids are going through now, and will continue to go through.  Inevitably they will grow old themselves.

We elders owe to our youth passing on the burden of responsibility to them for their own future.  They will make mistakes, like we did.  But they have to learn the old-fashioned way, by doing.

Another personal mantra: we citizens whether we vote or not, or for whom, collectively share the credit or the blame for the results we see running our state and nation and locality.  The hair shirt of a participatory democracy is taking responsibility for action and inaction.

This is your country…and mine, and ours.

Let’s work together to make it better.

ADDENDUM:

I watched Super Bowl LXVIII last night.  It was a game worthy of a title contest between San Francisco and Kansas City.

I’m not known as someone who follows professional sports.  I had no allegiance to either of the finalist teams.  I suppose it was Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift, neither of whom I have followed in the past, who attracted my attention last night.

Thinking about the game after the fact, one piece of data sticks in my mind about last evening: four ‘stars’, Taylor Swift (34), Travis Kelce (33), Patrick Mahomes (28) and Trey Smith (23).  (In parens are their individuals ages.)

Taylor, Travis and Patrick are well known.  Trey, plays for the victorious Kansas City Chiefs,  I ‘met’ Trey  as the feature of a full half page photo on the front page of the sports section of todays Minneapolis paper.  He was in tears at the end of the game last night.

The four folks exemplify for me, the future of our country.  It makes no difference what their particular ideology might happen to be – they represent the best and the brightest.  Evolving leaders with many years ahead.

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This morning – February 13 – I got to thinking back to the recent film, Oppenheimer, about the advent of the Atomic Bomb, and its relevance to today’s assault on Truth.

As those of us of a certain age know, the Atomic Bomb and its relatives initially existed as mathematical theories until a live test in the New Mexico desert in the summer of 1945.

Not even the experts knew what might happen at the first detonation.  The action had consequences of many kinds which live on to this day.

We are living an analogous circumstance today, possibly even more dangerous than The Bomb.  It is The Truth (alternative ‘facts’).  It is virtually impossible to know what is real, and what is a fiction.  AI (artificial intelligence)  has erupted and an already bad situation has become much worse.

When I was a youngster, there was a simple definition for a lie: basically making up a story; or telling only parts of it.  I remember a Nuns definition: Omission or Commission.  It was a sin.

Now there are no boundaries, zero, none.  Vestiges of the old days remain, like Rules of Evidence, perjury and the like, but in the Wild West of the First Amendment and media, however defined, anything goes.  We have to choose what to believe.  Maybe what Carol sent me (at the beginning of this post) is true – I have to make the initial judgement.  I trust Carol, I have lots of experience over the years with how Joe Biden has been as a leader.  The video is consistent with how I’ve gotten to know him.  But the ‘cat and mouse’ game is constant.

Oppenheimer and his generation worried that the bomb they created would set off a chain reaction ending life as we knew it.  So far, we’re still here, and it’s only been used as a weapon twice, but threatened often.

We can ask ourselves the same question about a landscape without Truth.

Other recent posts: Israel-Palestine update Feb 5; and Junior High 1966-67 -Feb 10

I also highly recommend the new film, “Killers of the Flower Moon“.  It is a true story, and long, but very stimulating food for thought.  Similarly, The “Boys in the Boat” film is outstanding.

 

Israel-Palestine

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This is my 7th commentary on the general issue of Gaza and Israel.  All of these are linked at the beginning of the first post from October 8, 2023, here.

Since October 7. about 125 days ago, there has been one atrocity after another in the area around the tiny region called Gaza.  I don’t have to review the details for you.  You know them.  As I write there appears to be a tiny possibility of a cease fire after tens of thousands of deaths, immense destruction, and outbursts of violence elsewhere in the region.  One can only imagine what is ahead.

Of course, this brings out the political craziness in our own country we are watching play out at this very moment, bringing in other issues, like immigration, Ukraine, Houthy’s….  About the best any one of us common folks can do is to attempt to be informed.

Re Gaza/Israel, I gave personal impressions at this space on October 8, and again about 30 days later, on November 8.  What I said then speaks for  itself.  There have been 7 posts in all.  (See first para above).

In the interim I’ve tried to become better informed about the region.

None of these comments and thoughts have solved any of the tragic problems in the region, but hopefully they at least provide a tiny breeze that might help move and inspire one person somewhere in a better position than I to make a difference.  Margaret Mead probably said it best, many years ago: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

A distinct benefit of having even a small network, as is true with this one, is the potential for additional credible information from credible sources – persons I’ve come to know well – which helps improve my knowledge base.  Also, in this time of disappearing local newspapers and similar sources, I’ve decided to keep ongoing subscriptions to the local Minneapolis StarTribune (home delivery); and the New York Times and Washington Post on-line, plus Joyce Vance and Heather Cox Richardson. particularly well informed columnists on history and law..

All of these sources have become important.  In relevant point:

February 1, Joyce sent a lengthy New York Times magazine review of the history of this place sometimes called Palestine, sometimes Israel, often in conflict.   Joyce is from the Jewish tradition; I have other friends from Muslim and Christian who are similarly fine and caring and informed people.  We do what we can.

The byline for the Feb. 1 commentary is Emily Bazelon,  entitled “The Road to 1948” and is accessible to subscribers here, also likely available, possibly through a paywall for visitors.  The conversation is useful to better understand the area.  There is also a similar article, 30 pages, published Nov. 30, entitled “Was Peace Ever Possible?”

Do take the time….

And you don’t already do so, support the media in your community which endeavors to inform citizens on issues of the day.  There are usually several ways of subscribing.  Nothing in life is truly free; support the press.

“We Are the World”

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Today begins Black History Month.  A particularly excellent opportunity to review life and times.

Tuesday’s paper had a short article “Netflix gets inside We Are The World.  Here’s the 1984 blockbuster song .

I watched the 97 minute documentary last night and it was very, very interesting. I very highly recommend it.  It is its own best editorial comment.  I was 44 years old when the song was released, living in Hibbing MN, a few blocks down the street from the home where Bob Dylan grew up.  (Dylan has something of a starring role in the film.)

*

I was planning a blog with a different title, “Age”, about U.S. Presidents.  You know the narratives.

The Nutgraf of the day everywhere, these days, is that Biden is too old, and Trump is too old.  Time for a change:  to what, and why, and all the important questions about this topic are replaced with one liners, as so much of our political conversation has become.

(Disclosure: I’m 2 1/2 years older than Joe Biden.  I know what being old is, and what it means.  Joe Biden is not too “old”.  “Life” is not guaranteed for any one of us.)

In the interest of conversation, I developed a ‘rough draft’ of history of Presidents of the U.S. who have been in office since my birth: Presidents since FDR.  The first of these Presidents I remember as a person would be Harry Truman.  If you look at the handwritten one-pager it presents minimal information about these folks, and it is deliberately presented as a rough draft.  You can look at it from your own perspective, and put some ‘meat on the bones’ around your own opinions and conclusions.  Let me know of errors, or additions you’d like to see.  Comments welcome, of course.

Personally, I can think of no more critical time in my life as a citizen than the one we are in, right now.

And this is no time to be casual about the decisions we ultimately will make as individuals about who it is who will represent us at all levels on all issues of concern to everybody.

“Government” is every one of us.  The real dilemma of democracy is that the buck stops with every single one of us.  At the absolute minimum, write down who are the elected persons who represent you local, state and national.

As the 1984 song hit says: “We are the World”.

POSTNOTE:  This is a time of endless and incessant ‘breaking news” on most everything under the sun.  This is very challenging for citizens like myself.  We like to pass the buck to somebody else who is supposed to be responsible.  It was Harry Truman, I think, who  memorialized the saying “The Buck Stops Here“, which implied it was the President who was ultimately responsible for everything. Fair enough.  Somebody has to elect that President, or for that matter a multitude of other officials in public or private life that make our society function, or not.  Really, the buck stops with all of us, including keeping a democratic Republic as we claim ourselves to be a part of.

“Teaser” to take a look at my single page Draft of U.S. Presidents; I noted that not a single one of them was born in the time period we all know as the Great Depression, and only one during WWII.  All but one had prior experience in the realities of public service.  My personal nutgraf: if you want a prediction of how a president will be, study what he or she went through in his or her formative years.   What was, will be….

COMMENTS (more at end of post): 

from Fred: Learned a lot from your president’s list. You are older than I, but we still share exactly the same range of president’s in our lifetime.

from Kathy (retired 5th grade teacher): I remember my student Danille singing it in the talent show…so touching.

from a friend: We watched the video the other night. Fantastic.

Re our president’s age. I am not concerned about our chronological age. I’m concerned about the cognitive capabilities of all key leaders. In leadership positions such as president, line of succession, congressional, and key military, we the people should know that their annual physical is good, including cognitive skills, against recognized medical standards. When you lead (elected or appointed) in these public positions, you give up this aspect of privacy so that the people are assured you are fit to serve.