He showed up….

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POSTNOTE June 29: I plan to do a specific post, probably simply titled “Joe”, probably within the next week or two.  Check back if interested.

June 28, 2024: I did watch the entire debate last night, and my comments are at the end of this post, preceded by other comments about last night that I’ve received.  The initiating post, with six other comments, is here.  I will add additional comments, if any, at this page, so feel free to comment yourself, and/or check back in awhile to see if there is anything new.

from Carol: Instead of listening to whatever recap foolishness they always have afterward, [my husband] and I just had our own recap.  He’s probably been more of a Biden fan than me, but he totally agreed.  Biden’s polling is going to go in the toilet after tonight.  And hopefully Trump’s will drop as well.  You know who won tonight?  That crazy Kennedy guy who wasn’t even on stage.  Either that, or this mess just ensured that a whole lot more folks won’t vote at all.  The Democratic party had better take a very fast hard look at this, and punt.

Of course Trump lied like a rug the whole time, and made faces and acted like the big bully that he is.  He’s awful, just awful.  I told C more than once tonight how I would JUST LOVE to slap [Trump] silly.  I tried to think of just one thing he said that was even true.  But how many Republicans do you really think are going to fact-check him?  I mean, they already know what a liar he is, so why would they be surprised?  He looked energetic and forceful, and that’s all they’ll care about.
Biden of course had facts and figures on his side.  And tonight that didn’t matter one whit.  (It also seemed that he had a lousy cold.)  He came across as intimidated and nervous plus confused – which is an awful look.  And whoever encouraged him to try to get down into the gutter with Trump should be fired.  I’m embarrassed knowing that the whole world was watching this.  I think Biden has done an excellent job – esp. given what he had to work with.  He was the person we needed at the time.  He should have stuck to his promise to be a one-term president.  He would have gone down in history as being very effective.  Looking at him tonight, NObody is going to honestly think that he can do the job for four more years.
I have never seen anybody who can handle Trump – and I’ve been waiting for a long time now.  The only way would be to have the ability, when he tells one of his whoppers, to hit a replay button and have actual video show up on a screen in real time.  Listing all his lies the day afterward doesn’t work.


Carol #2:  The NYT has a column by Nicholas Kristof saying that Biden should withdraw, plus a ton of comments agreeing.  If he did that, maybe it wouldn’t split the party apart.  Tonight was more than just having a cold, or a stutter.  It was Biden losing his way and then speaking gibberish exactly in the same manner that Trump has been mocked for recently.  Seemingly having no mental agility in responding to Trump.  I said less than 5 minutes into the debate that he had just lost the election.  And pretty much everything from then on just reinforced that.  By the time it was over, I was shaking and couldn’t stop.

There were many comments in the NYT asking Jill to talk to Joe.  Gonna be interesting.  I told [a friend] the other day that it seemed to me Joe’s heart isn’t really in it anymore.

from Lindsay (who has a comment in previous post, to which I had responded): I agree with your comment wholeheartedly! It’s feeling harder and harder to participate in our political landscape with how things are going. I hope some walk away from tonight’s debate having seen the babbling lunatic for who he really is, and perhaps go the reasonable route, but boy does this feel unlikely. You would think so many would have already jumped ship by now.

from Patti: All I can say is wow1wow1wow1  What an eye opener tonight’s broadcast  was.  Everyone who is going to vote this November should have watched this program.  My eyes were opened as to just how dangerous a situation we are in.  I will have to double my prayers.


from David: Reading the NYT’s various commentators’ opinions on last night’s debate, it seems like the consensus is that Biden had one key  job: Demonstrate that he’s up to the job of defeating Trump and he failed. Tom Friedman sums it up well “Joe Biden is a Good Man and a Good President but he Must Bow Out of the Race”.

My own opinion is the Joe Biden is a solid patriot who kept Donald Trump from a second term. Right now he needs to ask himself this question, “Trump is a paramount threat to our democracy. Why do believe that only I can stop him?” Someone else running for president once said, “I’m the only one who can fix it.” Joe’s better than that.


from Jeff: I didn’t watch, perhaps saw one min and Biden’s voice was muddled, Trump was clear and direct (and lying)…

The Dems and pundits are in a panic.   But this was simply waiting to happen.  A good man, needs to face hubris and pass the torch, should have a year ago. now it’s crisis instead.
I don’t understand voters who say they want Biden but have to vote for Trump (a sign of our entire calcified political system which is zero sum 2 choices) but there it is in a nutshell.
Gretchen Whitmer [prospective candidate].

Jeff added, later: the question is strictly about marketing and electability….not the good intentions or soundness of mind of an octagenarian.  As is, Biden would have a hard time winning Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, NV, and Pennsylvania….Trump is evil incarnate, and a Trump White House and a GOP Senate and as seen today Hard Right SCOTUS, would do significant damage even if he didnt become a dictator.


from Chuck:  We got the Debate we deserve. The Democratic party has lost touch with reality. Trump only knows reality TV, while the GOP swears loyalty to a delusional narcissist. Thus, “We the People'” are getting what we deserve. H. L. Mencken said, “Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance” and “the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.” If we fail to elect a leader in touch with reality, very hard times are coming.

Standing under our Flag we have all pledged loyalty to “liberty and Justice for all”. Collectively however, we have all put our political partisanship ahead of our children’s future. As it is now our Constitution is incapable of achieving any one of the seven intentions in its preamble. Consider the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln who wrote that our “Declaration of Independence is our Apple of Gold” and our “Constitution it’s Silver Frame.” Yet our democratically elected officials have never even considered codifying “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God”.

It should be a self-evident truth that failing to protect nature and meeting the most basic needs for all people- will never end well for any of us. Because “Everything is connected, everything is interdependent, so everything is vulnerable…. And that’s why this has to be a more than whole of government, a more than whole of nation [effort]. It really has to be a global effort….” Jen Easterly. CISA director. Oct. 29, 2021. [the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency is our nation’s newest federal agency established by the Trump Administration in 2018]. Ms. Easterly is still Director, and our environment is humanities most fundamental and essential infrastructure!

from Terry (in today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune.  Terry is on this Listserv). Strib letter.jpg


From Dick:  Last night, right after the show….  The chattering class on the TV is micro-analyzing the performance (the debate, which, after all, is a show).  I like all of the chatterers, but enough is enough.  Off to bed.  90 minutes done, and 160 days left to the election, near two months before the Democratic Convention.

Most perceptive comment I heard from the chatterers was from Lawrence O’Donnell, graybeard of the bunch at 73,  who sagely observed that Warren Buffet, one of the richest of the rich, is near 93 years old, and still making wise decisions.  In other words, keep the age thing in its proper perpspective.

I look forward to the fact checking blizzard which starts in the morning.

June 28 9 a.m.: The Church Guys, regulars on Friday morning, were next table over as usual today.  No mention at all of the debate. One brought up discussion with his late 80s Dad’s about pro-life, but that’s about it.  It’s important to keep this in perspective.  Not everyone was engaged in this business of watching a debate last night.

One of my life skills, learned in the trenches of dealing with public school teacher matters for 27 years, was learning to resist jumping to conclusions.  What seemed obvious at the time was never quite so obvious weeks or months later when push came to shove.  Frequently perspective was gained driving in the car from one place to the next; or sitting with a cup of coffee in a restaurant, or on and on.  Insights need to mature.  Snap judgements are natural and even useful but not very reliable long-term.  Time tends to modify judgements, as we all know.

Twelve hours out – minutes from the initial ‘shock’ (if that’s what you felt) from the the ‘debate)’ – I find myself thinking about my cousin, Vernon Sell, who had a passion for family history.

Vernon was one of those people who showed up when something needed to be done.  He was on the Court.

Vernon had his doctorate and professorship, but all that paled against his tenacity, which culminated in presentation of a plaque to the family church in St. Lambert, Quebec, built on land donated by the ancestral family 150 years earlier.

He was literally at death’s door when he made the presentation to a packed church.  He’d had an emergency blood transfusion.  Less than a month later he died, at age 69, one of his dreams realized.  I think he literally and deliberately lived just long enough to complete his work.

June 27, 2024, and many, many times before, and Lord willing, to come, Joe Biden has showed up.  Of course, the questions now being raised are legitimate, but also they’re raised in the heat of the moment, and perspective will come only with time.  As I’ve said, Joe is just a kid in my own personal context.  I know the quandaries faced as you get older; I also know from life experience that age is only a single criteria and there are no guarantees for anyone at any time.

(If interested in seeing Vernon and his plaque and the church in question scroll down here.  The last six photos are of the occasion referenced.  I missed this reunion due to a family wedding the same weekend.)

June 29:  I’m adding an old powerful graphic someone used at a meeting I attended probably in the 1970s.  It seems to fit pretty precisely the crisis reaction of the moment:

PDF of below Crisis Sequence 1970s – what happens after  shocking event occurs.  This was a handout saved from some long ago workshop I attended.  It has always made sense.

POSTNOTE Sunday June 30, 2024: I’ll be doing a post, tentatively titled “Joe”, in the next day or two.  If you happen to see this, and can deflect some time from Jay 4 week, take a look.  I hope to have a reflective piece, largely about US.  Your choice.

from Jim:   Well…  At least Dean Phillips, his political career now thoroughly ruined, can go to bed each night and drift off to sleep knowing that he did the right thing and tried to warn us all, right up to and including saying “If no one else will do this, I’ll do it myself!” – even though there was never any chance of his gaining traction.
Pundits and commentators like to point out that the only person Trump cares about, even when he is doing something that does have popular support, is himself.  And that’s true.  It’s time for Biden to step up and think of someone other than HIM-self, or history will judge him similarly harshly.  That is, if he buys in to what his own campaign has been saying all along about this election being “existential” and all the stuff about “democracy itself” being at risk should Trump win.  It is now all but guaranteed that Trump beats Biden in November, if Biden is still the candidate.
Even though I am “only” 69, I have had four medical conditions in the last decade where a doctor has told me “This does not get better.”  For a couple of them, I was told “You can live with this, at least for a while, if you don’t want surgery now.”  But, ultimately, you do what you have to do because the condition will get worse.  Sadly, I know from watching my own paternal grandmother, and my dad, that senescence, one thing that I personally have so far been spared, is one of those things.  It progresses in only one direction.  Maybe some day in the future medical science can change that, but right now we KNOW that Joe, God bless him, is senescent, and in the 4.5 years until the end of a second term, it will get worse.  In that amount of time, it will get MUCH worse.  It is time for Democrats in general, his family more particularly, and Joe, himself, specifically, to stop living in denial.  No, it is NOT fair that, while only three years younger, and nasty/loony/evil/pick-your-own-adjective, Trump shows little or no sign of being similarly senescent, but that is the reality.  By November, for those handfuls of “late decider” voters – those who do not have a horse in the race, yet – it will be beyond irresponsible to vote for Biden.  As such, from last Thursday forward, he can no longer win.  He has to stand down, and I will go farther than most of the pundits and commentators –  If he will not stand down, the movers and shakers in the Democratic party have to MAKE him stand down, by whatever means necessary.  At least, that is true if they, too, believe in all the “existential election / risk to democracy” rhetoric surrounding a Trump win.
James Carville (remember him?) was quoted Saturday with what I think is a brilliant idea.  Biden should have Obama and Bill Clinton over the White House.  They should hole up in the Oval Office for the lion’s share of a day, and when they emerge, Biden should go before the press, with the other two standing either side behind him, and he should announce the five (or another number of their choosing) Democrats that THEY want the Convention to consider.  So that no one has to risk his/her career by “coming out”, or risk being passed over by not doing so.  The nomination is not Biden’s to confer on any one other person, including Kamala Harris, but it IS his to decline, and this is the best way to do it.  Carville, always larger than life, but also such a lightning rod, always has been a favorite of mine – brilliant in both strategic and tactical ways…  I’ve been reading all the various pundits and commentators, and this is the best idea I’ve seen for doing what has to be done in a way that at least MIGHT not destroy others’ careers.
Regarding just running on policies/values/issues – essentially, arguing that our guy is senescent, yes, but their guy is nasty/loony/evil/pick-your-own-adjective, so, dear voter, use some other criterion:  I think it behooves Dems who want to WIN to realize that 40+% of voters LIKE Trump, and the critical “decider” 10% or so either don’t hate him, or hate them both.  And to know that, among both the Trump supporters, AND that “late decider” crowd, it is understood that Trump drove the body politic toward a recognition that the border does in fact need to be dealt with in some way, and that the bipartisan consensus paradigm of just 9 years ago for “free trade” was wrong.  Biden has done little or nothing to reverse those two paradigm shifts – he has basically adopted them, though one can argue about how well either man has implemented either of them.  Polling shows they are IMMENSELY popular stances.  Also, while I’m not at all sure I agree, polling shows overwhelmingly that most Americans think the economy was better FOR THEM during Trump’s four years than during Biden’s 3+.  The poll numbers on this are WORSE for Biden among “late decider” voters than they are for the whole public.  Running behind Biden and emphasizing policies/values/issues is TRULY just another way to lose.
The Dems – the party of change, of risk-taking, of open mindedness – need to make a change, take a risk, and trust in the open-mindedness of the American voters.

 

 

Osterholm

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Tuesday I had the real privilege of being able to listen in on a zoom cast for a group of retired Kiwanis members in Roseville MN.

I know one of the retired Kiwanians there, and he told me about the program featuring Dr. Michael Osterholm, a long time Minnesota PhD specializing in infectious diseases.

Tuesday, we were treated to a powerful hour.  I don’t think it was recorded.  The alternative is probably found at the link under his name (above).  He has a new book in progress, scheduled for publication in 2025, to be titled “The Big One”, about the inevitability of future pandemics.  Watch for it.  (If you do a search for this you will find this title under Osterholm and Olshaker as a 9-hour audible book, so this may be a book in process, though not yet in print.)

The first big one, the one that brought Dr. Osterholm to my attention, was HIV AIDS.  In the fall of 1987, my organization, the Minnesota Education Association, called a required meeting for all staff at a hotel conference room in suburban St. Paul.  It was at a scary time – not unlike 2020 – and Dr. Osterholm was there to tell it like it was, and he did.  Along with him was a Gay Man in later stages of AIDS, who also spoke to the group.  The man died later in the year, I recall.  He was a very profound witness to the then-reality.

It was a highly charged event.  There were perhaps 100 of us, and it was mandatory, and there we were, stuck in a hotel conference room with somebody who had AIDS.  As Larry, then Executive Director of the MEA and the person who called the meeting, recently remembered:

“I have not thought about that meeting on AIDS for awhile but it was pretty cutting edge at the time. I have a very clear memory of the meeting as well as the race to the payphones after the meeting to call family members. As I recall there were a half dozen pay phones just outside of the meeting room and folks were lined up a couple deep waiting their turn to make a call. It was an impact full and emotional meeting. 
Dr. Osterholm’s prediction, that eventually he believed a vaccine would be developed, was true and it was Dr. Fauci who was the leader of that successful and life saving effort.”

I think it could accurately be stated that at the time of the meeting, AIDS was probably more feared than Leprosy.   It was a terminal illness, and no one was sure about anything, and there was no therapy yet available.

It was understandable that we would be apprehensive.  At the same time, our job was to represent the needs of tens of thousands of public school teachers, who in turn were exposed to hundreds of thousands of students every day, and vice versa.  The analogies to the Covid-19 pandemic are striking.

I asked Larry and Norm, the person who invited me to participate, for a couple of bullets from the talk.  This is an impossible task, since so much ground was covered for this largely retired professional audience.


Larry offered:  “I think his acknowledgement about the loss of trust in public health and the quandary about fixing it is true but troubling. 

He is a great teacher. You can’t listen to him and fail to learn – a lot. 
Not the biggest point of his comments, but it  is sobering to hear the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] reports to 23 different Congressional committees.  No wonder we sometimes feel that Congress is a mess. “


Norm, whose career was in public health in Minnesota, had this to say:  “I asked Dr. Osterholm two questions to which he responded very well and, again, very thoughtfully

  1. Given the uncertainty with most scientific explanations of who’s on first and given the seeming fact that so many people are uncomfortable with uncertainty, how should public health deal with the many folks who reject science, aka public health in this case, because it cannot guarantee with 100% certainty that this vaccine or this therapy or this modality will work? I noted that I had encountered many people including several close family members who chose not to believe Dr. Fauci et al because “he would say one thing one day and a week  later another thing that was sometimes different.” They wanted certainty like believing the claim that the visit to our shores by COVID-19 was all a hoax or that just gargling with Clorox would take care of the matter.  Note:  many people did just that and were able to make a few trips to the ER for treatment of throat burns as payment, if you will,  for their strong desire for certaimty.
  2. What should or could public health do to restore trust in its recommendations and findings?”

Dick: Personally, as I recall, Dr. Osterholm opined that he doubted that it would ever be conclusively determined, the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.  He is, after all, a scientist, and that is his job to go beyond soundbites and speculation.

He felt the current vaccine therapy was perhaps useful only for a few months – that one cannot assume that one round of shots is enough.  Every four or five months seemed his bottom line.  He worries about disinformation, and about anti-vaxxers who refuse to get or authorize immunizations – the “nobody will tell me what to do” crowd, who in the process subject others to communicable diseases which are controllable.

Dr. Osterholm is a long-time colleague and friend of Dr. Anthony Fauci, and he recommended Dr. Fauci’s very recent book “On Call“, available everywhere, whose last 100 or so pages is on Covid-19.  Some other sections of Fauci’s book (which I have) “The AIDS Era”; “The Wars on Terror and Disease”; “Expecting the Unexpected”.

I think Dr. Osterholm has a podcast, and I’d recommend it for those who are interested.  As Larry notes, he’s a great teacher, and as we all learned in 1987, he’s a no-holds-barred kind of guy – he’s willing to deal with tough issues openly and honestly.

We aren’t out of the woods, here or anywhere in the world.  Ours is an international and mobile and very complex society.  We are fortunate to have the Osterholm’s and the Fauci’s of the world doing everything they can to keep us safe.

Treasure

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Tonights debate?  See “Politics” at the end of this post. 

9:56 p.m.  Thursday June 27 – I watched the entire debate as an 84 year old man, 2 1/2 years older than President Biden….  Followup Post :He showed up”, here

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Monday I saw the film “Treasure”  (released June 2024) at a theater in Inver Grove Heights MN.

I was the only person in the theatre, for the single showing of the day, at 3:30 p.m.  I only wished I had brought along tissues – it had that kind of emotional content for me.

It was one of the most powerful films I’ve had the privilege to see.  Perhaps the theme, and the current time in history, mitigate against its success at the box office, but I can see it as basis for tens of thousands of introspective thoughts, and dialogue opportunities about making ours a better world.

Obviously, it’s not a box office hit.  It’s easy to search for what reviews there are.  Here is one of many reviews, this one from the Jerusalem Post.

I give the film my highest rating.  It is filled with nuance far beyond a simple dad and daughter nostalgia trip.

Friend, Carol, called my attention to it on Saturday: “We were planning on seeing the new movie “Treasure” but it has disappeared from theatres in like a week.  Do you know anything about it? (seeing as you always seem to know about good movies…)  It’s about a Holocaust survivor who returns to his roots in Poland.”

I looked it up: the nearest theater showing it on Saturday was in Hudson WI, 15 miles or so away.

Carol wrote: “We were going to go on Father’s Day but the weather was crappy.  It had just come out – and now it’s basically gone.  Oakdale theatre said nobody was coming to it.  I’m wondering… bad timing? protests?  It’s not very highly rated – but, like Cliff said, what do THEY know.  Cliff has been to Poland several times, and his German ancestors came from what is now Poland.  So maybe we’ll like it.”  

Then, later, after seeing the film Carol said: “I highly recommend it – I think you would really like it.  Certainly a different movie.  We did go see it in Hudson, and there was one other person in the theatre…  Granted, it was a beautiful day outside, but I think that’s really a shame.  It’s probably kind of a niche movie.  It’s based on a book and real story, which often are my favorites.  I think there’s been complaining that the scenes of them visiting Auschwitz weren’t graphic enough, or something.  But they made their point.”

I can only second what she said.  In my opinion, it is much, much more than simply Poland and Auschwitz, though that is the basic premise of the story: a daughter takes her dad to visit his Polish homeland about 1990, and the story goes from there.

I made a list of insightful moments for me, personally.  There were over 20 on my list, more than just a few for a two hour movie.

I could go into a lot of detail, but if you simply go to the movie and open your mind to reflections on not only the holocaust, but our contemporary world, I will be very surprised if you don’t agree with me – that the film is an investment, not a cost of time and money.

The internet will give showing times if any are available.  Possibly it is available on line, though I didn’t check that.  At least check it out.

Thank you, Carol.

POSTNOTE: About 6 million WWII casualties were from Poland.  About half of these were Jews, the other half Poles.  (In pre-war Poland, the total population was about 35,000,000, of which over 3,000,000 were Jews, of whom less than 400,000 survived.)

I was at Auschwitz-Birkenau the entirety of my 60th birthday, in 2000.  It is one of those times I will never forget.

Walking from Auschwitz towards Birkenau Death Camp May 4, 2000. Photo by Dick Bernard

Our group spent about three days in Poland.  Earlier our tour group had visited the site of the Plaszow Camp (the “Schindler’s List” camp) in Krakow area.  One of my most vivid life memories was at the memorial monument there.  We had just arrived, and our bus driver privately and quietly picked a tiny wildflower and placed it at the monument.  In my mind, I can see the touching action of that ordinary bus driver as I write.

POLITICS: 

I likely will watch the “debates” on June 27 more as theater than substance.  MPR this morning said that as many as 60% of Americans may watch all or some of the action tonight.

I am interested in and have followed politics carefully for many years.  Both Trump and Biden are well known quantities now – 90 minutes or whatever watching them as verbal gladiators is a waste of time, in my opinion, but a cash cow for media.  Minds will not be changed, and the persons who should be paying attention likely won’t be watching anyway.  Yes, I’m a cynic.

I will write more about the candidates and races after the Democrat Convention (Augut 19-22), and before early voting begins in Minnesota (September 20).  Most likely my comments will be the last week of August at this space.  

(FYI, the Republican Convention is July 13-18; Minnesota Primary Election is August 13.  I have signed up as an election judge for Primary Election.). More information for Minnesotans accessible here.

A post I did earlier, entitled Fascism, is worth a look, if you haven’t previously done so.)

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Also, on-line as of June 27, a post on a talk by Dr. Michael Osterholm, well known in Infectious Disease work.

COMMENTS (more below):

from Jeff: Debate: I am in that non watching 40%,  I generally don’t watch, they really arent debates and have gone downhill rapidly since the late 80s.  And yes, for most of the audience it isnt going to change any minds. As for me, there really is only one option, its either an old man or a mad man.  I will go with the old one.

Treasure: I will look it up and read reviews, based on your description of the ticket sales, it sounds like the type of movie that should have gone right
to a streaming platform, which i suspect it will be on quickly, probably do better on there.

Osterholm: Thanks.

from Sandy: Thanks Dick! Let’s hope Biden totally wins the debate tonight and hope Trump looks totally unprepared and dull.

We know Trump will lie and hopefully the Anchor people will confront him and stop him!

Substitutes

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Sometimes truth actually bests fiction.

I’m an ordinary fan of classical music.   “Ordinary” to me means attending maybe 5 or so concerts at Orchestra Hall each year, more or less potluck.  When we go, I don’t know what the program is till we’re there; sometimes, there is a conflict and we need to reschedule.

Thursday June 20, was one of those reschedules.  The program book identified the program “CELEBRATING PRIDE WITH THOMAS SONDERGARD“, featuring pieces by Dame Ethel Smyth, Karol Szymonowski, and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.  The first two composers I’d never heard of.  In fact Karol S’s piece had to be cancelled because pianist Francesco Piermonesi had broke his collar bone in a bicycle mishap in Germany, and was being replaced with identical twins Christina and Michelle Naughton doing a piece by Francis Poulenc.   There was an insert in the program book telling us about them. (Program and supplement here: Orchestra June 20 2024).

The program had a Pride month focus – all the composers were LGBTQ+.  Thomas Sondergard, conductor and music director of Minnesota Orchestra, led an absolutely marvelous program, which was to be repeated Friday and Saturday night.  The Friday night program was to be broadcast live on public television, and I wanted to watch it again, and I did, last night.  Both performances were memorable.

At the beginning of Friday nights program, an announcement was made that Sondergard had fallen ill, and had to be replaced by a fill-in conductor, Chad Goodman of the Elgin, Illinois, Symphony.  I don’t know Sondergard’s ailment.  I hope he’s up and about by now.

I’ve sat in those seats for years.  This was a first time I’d seen this: a last minute substitute conductor.

Goodman had a daunting task, and performed it admirably, and presumably conducts again tonight.  I suppose the purists might have seen some differences between the two performances of the same pieces by the same musicians.  All I know is the standing ovation at the end of both performances.  We had witnessed an absolutely class act from everyone in the Orchestra organization – classic crisis management, which had to be incredible.  To say I was impressed would be a massive understatement.

As noted, the performance high-lighted Pride month.  Early in the program Pride in the Twin Cities was high-lighted.  It was noted that the first Pride event was 51 years ago, spearheaded by 25 who did an apparently unpermitted parade and faced arrest as a consequence, for which 25 others would come up with the bail money.  The Pride event now happening attracts a half-million participants, and is the largest free Pride event in the world.  There is much to be proud about.

POSTNOTE: As it happens, earlier in the week I’d come across a Buddy Holly single printed in 2000 to recognize the singer who died in a plane crash, heading to a gig in Fargo-Moorhead “the day the music died” in February 1959.  I sent it to my friend, Larry, a contemporary in North Dakota in the late 50s, early 60s, who at one point in his career was a DJ.  He appreciated the gift, and sent me a note including a ten minute fascinating audio interview with Bobby Vee, then Bill Velline, the young high school age musician whose group filled in for the deceased Buddy Holly and group that difficult night in 1959.

Larry: “Really appreciate your sending me the Buddy Holly collector’s 45. And the envelope made for the record is good to have too. Although I do have a CD of the Holly masters, I love having this artifact. Thanks for thinking of me.  

BTW…I did an interview with Bobby Vee about three or four years before he died, when he was headed to VC [Valley City] for a class reunion concert.  I talked to him in a phone interview from his recording studio in St. Cloud..he tells vividly about what he did the day the music died…if you haven’t heard it…here’s the link: 2010 Interview with Bobby Vee.mp3 – Google Drive“.

 

A “We” or “Me” World?

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The focus of this post is Maryam’s commentary following the map.  Maryam is a long time good friend who grew up in the Middle East, and is long time American, and shares her important insights.  She expands on a brief passionate commentary she made at a meeting I attended on June 4.  Please take the time to read and reflect on what she says so powerfully….  (Ironically, on the same day I am publishing this piece, Russia (Putin) and North Korea (Kim) have expressed dangerous solidarity with each other, and the major headline of the Minneapolis Star Tribune notes “Iran set to triple nuclear capacity“.)

Very recently – within the last week – I was sorting papers and came across a file folder labelled simply “Gaza 2008-09“.  The file was mine, now 16 years old.  It had been an active file for me back then.  (FYI, here are the pertinent contents of that file: Gaza 2008-09.)

16 years.  How time flies.  When disaster happened in Israel near Gaza seven months ago, October 7, 2023, I had to review for myself where and what Gaza was.  Sixteen years ago, Gaza had also been front page news in the U.S.

In the file was a long commentary I had submitted as an op ed to the Minneapolis paper, along with letters to various officials, political and religious.  The op ed wasn’t published.  What surprised me is that I had forgotten about it.  I suppose this might be due to the fact that we are so inundated by “breaking news” that one event bleeds into another, and benumbs us, unless the “breaking news” directly and immediately affects us – an unfortunate and dangerous reality.

June 4, about two weeks before I discovered the file, I had been at the meeting referenced in the first paragraph. Maryam, who grew up in Iran, and has lived for many years in the U.S., gave a brief but impassioned commentary on her view of our view of the contemporary situation in the Middle East and world generally.  She was speaking from the heart – you can tell.

I asked her if she would be willing to commit her thoughts to writing, and if I could share them.  I felt her words held much grist for thought and discussion.  She agreed, and what she said follows, below.

I am grateful for her writing, and I hope it leads at least to thought and discussion.  First, a map of the Middle East from Goode’s World Atlas (19th Edition 1995 Rand McNally  p. 182). Note “Gaza” on the map.

Maryam:  I joined CGS [Citizens for Global Solutions] because I wanted to help inform typical Americans of their responsibility to make better decisions and vote with information and knowledge of the consequences of that vote to the rest of the world.

I want people to understand that no single president of the United States or someone like Netanyahu from Israel can address and resolve political, religious, society, cultural, economic issues that have existed for over 3000 years [in the Middle East].  This is particularly true when there is little understanding of the root issues, and what series of decisions by superpowers in the world have brought us to this point in time, most likely have created even more of a complex reality to address.  We ignore basic facts at our peril  
 
I believe most Americans vote and make decisions based on a single, or very few, issues, to satisfy their own immediate needs and wants, without considering others, including the impacts results of U.S. voting can have all over  the world. This mindset comes from our being uninformed about world history and cultures, The USA does not seem to have a culture of encouraging teaching about the world and how the USA fits as one country within that world [now 195 nations]. 
 
In the largest and richest democratic republic in the world,  in the 21st century, we have minimal information and knowledge about our role and responsibility in the world.  We can not have “peace in this world ” without putting away our selfish and one issue thinking.  As a country that impacts the lives of so many with every decision made, we MUST be more conscientious about our values, how we vote and who we put in power.  We are responsible for how we impact lives everywhere.  This is not saying we are responsible for others lives, but how we can positively impact on and influence their choices. 
 
We are living in a world that, more than ever, has interdependencies of economies, religious practices, societal standards, financial stability, health & safety of the earth, food and water availability and politics.   We have to account for all those elements.
 
Since the U.S. education policy seems to be ever more constrained, even about our own history, the only way I know of to inform and educate the future generation of leaders is to require them to go and live,  for at least a year,  in a country that does not speak English and is very different  culturally/economically, than where they come from, and require them to figure out a way to survive, make money, and complete their expected tasks no matter what.   This might be a program similar to the Peace Corps.  I know the growth they experience will completely change their attitude about life, culture, money, needs, honor, ethics,  purpose and more.”

POSTNOTE: We saw a phenomenal concert by the Minnesota Orchestra at Orchestra Hall today (Thursday) which will be aired live Friday night June 21 at 8 p.m. CDT on PBS.   I think this may be available by livestream anywhere.  The program is “Celebrating Pride” featuring pieces by Dame Ethel Smyth, Poulenc and Tchaikovsky.

For those of the French-Canadian persuasion who live in the Twin Cities area, on Tuesday evening June 25 at 6:30 at the Minneapolis Central Library, 300 Nicollet Mall; and Wednesday evening June 26 at 6:30 at St. Paul Central Library,  90 W 4th Street, Christine Loys will show her film En Avant L’Etoile du Nord ou “Le Joie de Vivre”.  Christine will be in attendance at this showing.   I have seen both the original and the current version.  Both were excellent.  The approximately one hour film explores the rich French in America heritage in this area.

Finally, there have been some other posts in the last two weeks: Fascism (6/12) and Country School (6/15) have comments; Bump Stock (6/16) has a recent commentary about gun violence which I consider particularly worthwhile and from an unexpected source.

COMMENTS: 

from Larry: Thank you for this.  I have believed for a long time that every young person should have to do two years of service after high school, in another country or culture.  Paid for minimally, with room and board, like old time military service.  Then when they’re done, college or trade school etc paid for similar to the idea of GI bill.  Military would be one option, but also Peace Corps and many other service efforts.  The Veterans program at Roseville Rotary had several Veterans speaking to what Maryam says – several were doctors and their military service was on an Indian reservation, or obviously in another country.  Plainview, Minnesota just put in a monument/memorial to the Peace Corps.

response from Maryam: I wish the foreign experience could be mandatory in the U.S..  the people here truly need the experience to become world citizens.

Bump Stock

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Occasionally in life there are memorable events.  Sunday morning at Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis was one of these, for me, and probably for many.

Today’s newsletter at Basilica of St. Mary had an attention grabbing headline “The Idolatry of Guns and the Scourge of Gun Violence in America” by Pastor Fr. Daniel Griffith.  It speaks for itself, you can read it here: Fr. Dan griffith Gun Violence Jun 16, 20240002.

Everybody gets the newsletter as they enter, and habitually I read the commentary, written by one or another of the staff.  They are always learning opportunities.

This Sundays was by the Pastor, who happened also to be celebrant at the 9:30 Mass which I attend.  It was his message which I read in the newsletter.  I was surprised that his message focused directly on his article.  After all Guns are hardly issues on which everyone agrees, and a good topic to avoid.

My personal measure of this message came from the response of the Congregation at its conclusion: total quiet.  No applause, no boos, however one defines those terms.  What I heard was active listening.

Basilica is an important church – the co-Cathedral in this diocese.  What is said matters.

There is hardly any doubt that what Fr. Griffith said and wrote was vetted beforehand.  Every word is open to interpretation and misuse, as we all know.

Two days before the Mass came the Supreme Courts “Bumpstock” ruling.  The newsletter commentary had been written some time before that, likely in the wake of the most recent deadly shootings directly affecting Parish members and the greater community surrounding it.

Bumpstock only accented the importance of the message.

“Guns” are no stranger on this page.  I note this is the 97th post touching on the topic.  I need say no more.

Do read the commentary referred to above.  And as is always the case, individual action is important.

A Father’s Day Musing

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Have a great Father’s Day, whatever your personal role and experience might be.  I ask you also to check out my post for June 12.  It includes some learning recommendations on a critical issue facing all of us.

Onward: A short while ago my friend, Kathy, shared  a small box of memorabilia kept by her mother, who, in the 1930s,  was a country school teacher in what is now south suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul.  Among other most interesting contents in the box was this single  photo, ca 1915, at one of the numerous such country schools.  I would guess this school accommodated grades one to eight (roughly ages six to 14).

Country School ca 1915

A particular piece of good fortune came with this photograph.  On the back someone – probably the teacher – had identified all of the children by name.  One of the youngest ones, who Kathy pointed out, was born in 1909.

There are 14 children in the photo (actually the arm of a 15th can be seen at left, but that isn’t quite enough!).  Going by surnames, there were three from one family; two from each of five other families; and two singles – 8 families in all.  The family names didn’t have any obvious possible connection.

The teacher was Miss Hynes.  She didn’t share a surname with any of the kids, so she probably wasn’t from the township.  She would have been hired by a local school board, with recommendation and advice from the County Superintendent of Schools.  She would have had a very simple one year contract.

All of the kids were probably from nearby small farms.  Those days a typical farm might be one-fourth of a section (640 acres, one mile on a side).  Generally they would walk to school.  Odds were that they were all the same nationality and same religion.  In short, they mostly had something in common, and the older ones had probably spent their entire eight grades in the same one-room school.

I’m particularly intrigued by the bookshelf at the back of the room.  It they were lucky, some of the books may have been a ‘library’.  On the other hand, it could possibly be the storage place for the meager supply of school books on hand.

Behind the photographer would be the teacher’s desk, and the blackboard.  Usually, most of the windows would be on the south exposure of the building, to gather sun, and help keep in the heat in colder days.  There was a standard architecture for country schools.  There was almost certainly no indoor toilet, or running water.  It was one-room, with probably a small ante-room for hanging coats and such.

My mother went to, and both my parents taught in, these country schools.  For Mom and Dad, their country school work years were about ten years from the late 1920s to the late 1930s.  The individual school enrollment varied year to year.  Higher grade kids could and did help lower graders.  It there was a single student in a grade, and the student seemed to be doing fine, they’d simply be moved up into the next grade.

My Mom was one of these.  She ended up graduating from high school before she was 17, and went. out to teach country school right away.  Her first year ended at Christmas.  There were several older boys in her first school, and they were bigger than she was, and not inclined to behave.

She ended up teaching elementary kids for 30 years.

One of Dads country school kids ended up getting married to Mom’s brother – they met at college.  George and Jean  both became school teachers.

There are, of course, endless and varied stories about school.  Here’s one, with my response, from a 1979 column in the Minneapolis Star: School 1979 Mpla Star.  

Out of these humble places came rocket scientists, prominent leaders in all sectors, etc., etc.  The unifying element at all of them in this place called school was initiation into the world of relationships with others, then and still the real essential of living in a community, anywhere.

COMMENTS (more at the end):

from Fred: Very much liked the photo and accompanying words. It takes me back. My father attended a one-room school just east of Goodhue and pointed out its ruins to me.

from Rose:  An interesting read.  Thanks for sharing.

Attached is a picture from the country school I attended.  I was in 4th grade in this picture so it was taken in the early 1950s. Three students are missing from the picture.   I went through 8th grade.  We had a County Superintendent and students in 8th grade (in Country Schools) had to take a county exam to graduate.  I am still FB friends with my classmate.  She remained in our hometown.  We had three in our class which was the largest class.
This was in NE Iowa.  The county historical society there did a report on all of the country schools in that area and published stories and pictures of all of the one-room school houses.  Most of my teachers were older women who specialized in teaching at these schools.  They went to “Normal schools” for teacher training so usually had a two-year degree.

from Larry J: Dick, Elaine went to Pleasant Valley country school north of Bemidji.  The superintendent there said the country school teachers were the best he had.


from Valerie:  Thank you for sharing this!

My mom taught in a country school in Pipestone county.  She was the last teacher in her school before they combined and moved to a school building in Holland, MN.

POSTNOTE June 16: A retirement activity is endless sifting and sorting of the flotsam and jetsam of life.  Most elders go through this.  Two days ago I came across a note written by my daughter at my request, which I used the same day as part of a talk to teachers and administrators in the Anoka-Hennepin School District, hardly a country school district even then, May 4, 1999.  The comments are about a teacher who made a difference in a fourth graders (Joni’s) life, and speak for themselves: Joni May 4 1999.  It is pertinent to note that the talk was given four days after I’d walked up Cross Hill above Columbine High School in the wake of the massacre, with granddaughter and her parents who lived perhaps a mile from the high school.  This was a charged time in history.
At the end of Joni’s  writing, which I read to the assembled teachers and administrators, I scrawled my takeaway from her comments, which I shared with the audience and are presented here unedited: “Every one of us is a Clem Gronfors to someone every year.  Every one of us is also a home base teacher, connecting, but more subtly.  We have no way of knowing, maybe forever, knowing who our life touched and all we know is that we did.”

That summer of 1999, I did a couple of workshops at the Education Minnesota Summer Leadership Conference at College of St. Benedict, and decided on an opening exercise.  There were about 20 teachers in each session.  I asked them to think back to their school years and note the first school employee who came to mind who made a positive difference in their life.  Then, I said, pick out a word to describe that person.

The entire workshop ended up as the introduction – after participant feedback, there was virtually no time left.  Only one person couldn’t think of anything positive to say, which is okay.  I suppose the word got around – there were as many or more at the second session as at the first.

Clem is long deceased, but he made a difference.

Thank you, Joni.

 

Fascism

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If you have any interest in the future of our society if the alternative to Joe Biden and the leadership of state and national political leadership prevails on Nov. 5, don’t say, after the fact, that you weren’t warned.

In the last couple of days I’ve watched the first installments of two new programs that will bring fresh new views of a distressing reality that derailed Germany in a dozen awful years; and has at times been a close call in our own United States, and is in fact prevailing at this very moment.

Your choice.  If you choose to watch/listen, both are doable times and very engaging.  At the very least watch the first segment of Maddow’s Ultra 2. and the first hour on Hitler and the Nazis.  I have watched both.  Short synopsis: we, the people, pick our poison.  Nobody does anything to us.  We do it to ourselves by who we elect to represent us. My opinion: the Germans did themselves in.  We can easily do the same thing.

Here are the programs:

1) Rachel Maddow’s second round of Ultra, first segment premiered yesterday; 30 minutes, several more to follow I presume once a week.
2) The brand new Netflix documentary on Hitler and the Nazis.  It is chilling and eye-opening context on our present.
Watch the programs and spread the word.

3) Complementary is the June 12 commentary from Heather Cox Richardson with a brief history of the insidious role of disinformation in the public sphere.  It is also worth your time.

POSTNOTE June 14: I watched all episodes of “Hitler and the Nazis” on Netflix.  The six episodes are new, about one hour segments, and very relevant to the present day in which we are living.  If you’re not sure, take time to watch the first episode to get an idea.  This is not abstract ancient history.

Quick review: The crucial target audience for this film are politicians and camp followers of Trump  who think they have things all figured out.  Hitler had huge support among the public in Germany, from all subgroups, including women.  In the end, everything collapsed for everyone.  It is an object lesson for especially we in the United States.  Elections matter, and those who think they don’t make a difference and who decide to not vote at all, or vote for hopeless ideals, will drag us all down.

This is the only year in my lifetime where I will declare to anybody that the only vote that matters is for the Democrat candidate for any office anywhere.  This is no year to pretend the stakes.  There is no longer a “Republican” party that deserves the name.

Schools Out…

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Late this week the local high school signboard noted the last day of school for 2023-24.

This morning I found myself humming pieces of the tune “Schools out for summer…“.  I remembered the tune, but not performer Alice Cooper, nor that the song was released in 1972 – the year I left Junior High teaching and embarked on my career of representing school teachers.   (No, I was never into shock rock!  And all I know about Alice Cooper is what I just read in Wikipedia.  I thought I heard once that he had been a teacher; the wiki article gave me a bit of education on that!)

The kids now commencing life out of school are mostly at or fast approaching 18 years old.  They were born about 2006.  They are part of the post 9-11-01 generation, the Iraq War generation; veterans of the Covid-19 year of 2020-21.

An easy exercise: think back to when you were 18, just out of high school.  What were your thoughts, your environment, the future that you didn’t know at the time….

Today’ 18 year olds have experienced a great deal.

Their inauguration into adulthood will be the Nov. 5, 2024, election in the United States of America and they are the ones who will likely live their entire adult lives in this country.  Who will be elected to all offices matters a great deal to their future.  And they will be among those who have the right to vote for whoever it is they think should represent them as their lives proceed.  More than most of us, this election has very long term consequences.

They have a daunting responsibility…to themselves.

Traditionally, the post-18 cohort is relatively detached from voting; by extension hoping that the older generations will make life easier for them.  This is not the way it works, folks.

Take a pass from participating in the 2024 election and you’ll have to wait 2, 4, or 6 years for the next opportunity.

An additional development in the post 9-11-01 world especially is the refinement of the business of individualism, tribalism and the politics of grievance.  Each have gotten much worse, in my opinion, looking back just in my own lifetime.

This week, President Biden has represented the U.S. at the Normandy Beach areas in France in  observances around the 80th anniversary of D-Day, where immense numbers of young people, not only allies, but Germans, slaughtered each other  representing their respective countries. (Directly related post: D-Day)

What the young combatants in early June, 1944, mostly kids in their late teenage years, learned 80 years ago, was stark.   In a terrifying way, they picked up from experience  knowledge that today’s youngsters need to draw from as their own adult lives begin.  In a sense, todays young people have the benefit of experiences similar to those of the Great Depression and WWII, learned by the earlier generations.  Todays young people have an opportunity to learn from the past.  Whether they will or not is truly up to them, going forward.

Graduation parties – we’ll be at one today – “schools out for summer” and on and on will soon be over…but most of the graduates have long lives ahead of them which are going to be enhanced or damaged by who they choose to lead in all elective positions in this still great democracy – the United States of America.

POSTNOTE June 9, 2024:  We spent part of yesterday afternoon at the graduation party in rural exurban St. Paul.   It was about an hour travel each way, and two hours on site.  It was a beautiful day.  Like you, probably, I’m a veteran of these events.

This day I  decided to just watch the kids who attended, friends of the graduate, a quiet, nice young man,.   Enroute home I thought about another 18 year old, me, at the time of high school graduation 66 years ago.

The physical circumstances were very different, of course.

What I thought about was hopes and dreams of those kids; their access to technology; their mobility – things like that.

Graduation in 1958 was a few months after Sputnik jolted the nation like few other events have.  The Russians have beat us into space!  This resulted in expensive initiatives for advancing science and technology, programs like the National Defense Education Act, the National Science Foundation.

That was the year that Eisenhower successfully advanced the idea that resulted in the Interstate Highway system, much of which is being rebuilt this summer in all parts of the country.  We were definitely in the Cold War environment – missile emplacements all over my part of the country.   Etc.  Etc.

One of the first things every 18 year old male had to do was register for the Draft, but it was abstract to us, though one classmate dropped out of 12th grade to join the Air Force at the urging of his older brother.

Looking back, it didn’t take too long to discover that young people like me were the cannon fodder for the elders in case of crisis.  I say this not facetiously.  I was in the Army during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 – I watched JFK speak over a television set in an Army barracks a few miles from one of the presumed Soviet missile targets in Colorado.  I entered the Army at the beginning of the Vietnam era.  I was lucky enough to get out before my unit ended up in Vietnam.

I could make a much longer list of things we casually noted as young people in a different era.  Then we couldn’t vote till we were 21; last year for the first time Minnesota requires young people to register to vote when they register for a drivers permit, and voting age is now 18, as it has been for many years.

Young people today have their own thoughts.

It was an interesting exercise, yesterday, watching those 25 or 30 or more kids that dropped in, and just watching them.   And wondering what they were thinking.   Best to think now of how they exercise their rights as a citizen.  It was a useful day….

POSTNOTE June 10, 2023: The public radio announcer this morning commented on Jazz legend Wynton Marsalis commencement address at the University of Michigan in 2023.  You can listen and watch here.  It is extraordinarily powerful, about 15 minutes.  Do watch.

 

 

D-Days

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This morning on my walk, an old guy (my age) asked his walking companion, another old guy, about the flag at half-staff outside the building.  His friend wasn’t sure.  I was passing them by and chimed in “D-Day”.  Ohhhhh.

Not that I’m a wise man.  I asked the guy at the desk when I had checked in the exact same question, so I had a few minutes head start on the others.

Such is how fleeting history memories are, especially in these days of instant access to information, whether true or not seems to make little difference.

Anyone who knows me knows that I take such things seriously…and I was 5 when WWII ended.  I lived part of it.

D-Day was 80 years ago.  Here is how the Eisenhower Presidential Library chronicles it.  The average age of the few who survive is probably about 100 years old.  At the 90th anniversary, possibly there will be one or two left .  There is likely a “last man’s club” already formed.  It’s a not uncommon tradition among survivors.  I include only a single link as the news will be full of information about D-Day at 80.  Here is the Statement issued by the White House.  Later,  [here], I’ll add President Biden’s remarks from Normandy.

There is another D-Day coming up:

Enroute to my walk today I was thinking that five months from today, Nov. 6, 2024, the nation will be waking up to the results of the 2024 election for thousands of positions nationwide, including President of the United States.

Nov. 5, 2024, is indeed a D-Day for the United States, for every one of us.

Most likely, given my age, there will be no dramatic changes in the last years of my own life.  If I think only of myself, maybe I can say “who cares gets elected?”

Of course, I don’t think that way.  We are at a dangerous juncture.

It is the generation of my kids and grandkids and their entire cohort everywhere who will be directly and possibly irrevocably impacted by how the elections everywhere turn out this November.  Most everybody who’ll be elected will be elected for a two or four year term, and it’s not possible to say at the end of election week, “whoops, I think I should have voted” – or made a more careful choice.

(I’ve seen this happen, by the way.  We had at least one “oh, what the hell?” election here – 1998 – where a dark horse won a squeaker over both Republican and Democrat candidates who were both viewed as mediocre by their partisans.  The winner turned out to do okay, but he could have as easily been a disaster.  But people in both parties decided they could throw away their votes for more known quantities to elect a more entertaining guy.)

D-Day is five months away.  Every single individual has a personal stake in what happens on Election Day.  Register, get informed, encourage others, vote.  In a democracy, it is our individual responsibility.  It is not somebody else’s problem.

Recommendations:

  1. Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s Lucid column on How Hitler Got to Power.
  2. Rachel Maddow’s Ultra Podcast begins season 2 on June 10.  Check it out.
  3. If you are wondering: here’s a July 24, 2019 comment in my own blog from someone on this list, who so far as I know is still on the list, commenting on then President Trump: “Well Common criminal [Trump] may be, but he is the best thing this country has seen since Reagan.”  This was five years before the recent 34 Guilty verdicts and numerous indictments in the wings.   We ignore the present at the risk of the future.

POSTNOTE 10 pm June 6: This evening I watched the History Channel reprise of D-Day, as seen through film and interviews of those involved in the actual invasion.  It was a powerful evening.  I was disappointed in myself for not being more aware of the significance of the day earlier in the morning.

My family of origin was pretty heavily involved in WWII, for the most part assigned to the Pacific front.  But I know of four German relatives I never met who were farmers and conscripts in the German Army, and would never talk about the war after it ended.  I really don’t know anyone, at least directly, involved in D-Day.  No difference: war is deadly wherever and for whatever by whomever:  Basically young people draw the short straw to fight to the death against other young people.

As the program ended I was replaying the lyrics of Waltzing Matilda, the Aussie anthem of the hopes, dreams and horrors of WWI.  Here is a version of the song, in memory of all who have served in any way in any war in any country.

And may there be peace on earth.

POSTNOTE 5 a.m. June 7: Excellent commentaries that weave D-Day and Election Day together, here; also. here.