Farewell, Jimmy

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Today is the celebration of Jimmy Carter’s life at the National Cathedral in Washington DC.

December 30, 2024, I did a post about President Carter, and this week, Chuck Woolery sent me his comments. which appear in the comments section of the December 30 post, and which I recommend to you on this date, as both a tribute to Jimmy Carter, and an invitation to action as a citizen.  Scroll down to the long comment “from Chuck”.

Farewell, Jimmy.  You showed up.

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The funeral service is over.

Here is a photo from the second time I saw Jimmy Carter in person, at the Augsburg University Nobel Peace Prize Forum, Minneapolis, March 6, 2015.  He was 90, and he gave a great talk, focused on Human Rights, as I recall.

Jimmy Carter, Minneapolis, March 6, 2015

COMMENTS:

from Dick: a question came up from someone about Jimmy Carter’s religion (Baptist) and where the funeral was held (the National Cathedral in Washington).  Over recent history, so far as I know, state funerals for Catholic President (Kennedy) was St. Matthew’s Cathedral in D.C., and for others – apparently all Christians to date – at National Cathedral (Episcopal).  To my knowledge there is no rule, nor even necessarily a tradition about this practice.

from Norm:  Just a beautiful service and memorial to President Carter and to all of the values that he and America stand for!

I do wonder, however, what President Obama and President elect, Trump, talked about when sitting side by side for two plus hours other than where is the bathroom! 😬😂
Carter was everything that Trump is not, nor ever will be nor ever plans or wants to be!

response from Dick:  It was a powerful tribute to a great President.  About the past-presidents, understood.  What I think we fail to realize these days is that power folks at every level, every working day, have to deal with people they don’t agree with about impossible issues that they can’t avoid (I’m being kind).  Remember Truman’s “The buck stops here”?  It’s part of the job of President in a pluralistic society; or Governor, or Senator, or House member….

We lose perspective these days because we don’t have to sit next to somebody we disagree with.  We can curse at each other screen to screen, and not face a punch in the face!  In an hour, at this same screen, I’ll be joining a zoom call during which I’ll probably be asked to say a few words.  It’s just a book club my cousin asked me to participate in.  I’ll see some of the people.  Except for her, I’ll know no one.  Not everybody will be seen, you know the drill.  Compare it with what you describe, two of the most powerful people in the world sitting next to each other at a funeral knowing that they’re on national television before probably millions of people!  All they know for sure is that they might be on television.

What we have to recover is the ability to be civil with people with whom we disagree.  This isn’t easy.  Both sides have to be willing.

 I do wonder what the incoming President was and is thinking.  He’s not known for the kinds of behaviors President Carter was being eulogized for, or how Jerry Ford, Andrew Young, Walter Mondale and others are remembered as being.  Not only that, he has the additional self-imposed burden of coming into office under a pretty dark cloud.  No need for details.  You know.

There are interesting days ahead, to say the very least.


from Molly:

I listened to part of President Carter’s memorial service today.
It reminded me of the following brief poem by e.e. cummings.
Blessings,
Molly
——————————————-

a great 
man 
is 
gone. Tall as the truth was who; and 
wore his 
… life 
like a … 
sky.

           e.e. cummings

from Cindy: I view Jimmy Carter’s passing and funeral as the last great act of service and patriotism that he could provide to our country. Besides taking the spotlight off the orange man for a couple of weeks, his legacy stood before us in stark contrast to what we are about to face in the While House. I dare say that everyone there, save the Trumps, was in total agreement with what all the speakers had to say and the beautiful music shared with us. DJT was there so he could finally be on TV again, and miss-nose-in-the-air looked as though she’d rather be anywhere else. The memorial service was a beautiful event, filled with memories and humor, history and personal stories. I was reminded of much of his legislation that I’d forgotten or was barely aware of at the time. Rest in Peace, you Gen Z-er!

from Flo: We’ve often missed everything on our TV and radio, but service was so poor this afternoon that we couldn’t even get on the TV or our computers – System Wide Failure. All’s well now. Such is life in the fast lane. Just wish the news could be better all around the world!

from Dick, January 10, 5 a.m.: I watched the service at the National Cathedral yesterday morning.  Heather Cox Richardson does an outstanding writeup of what we all witnessed, here.  Late in the day came the Supreme Court decision that another ex-president can be sentenced today in New York: the first president convicted of a felony ever, I gather.

I looked through my photo file from the second, and only,  time I saw and listened to Jimmy Carter up close and in person, March 6, 2015.  (The first time was truly memorable, at the. old Minneapolis Auditorium, in 1978, when Carter came to defend the decision to create the Boundary Waters Conservation Area, and support a local candidate for Congress.  I recall a packed house with lots of people carrying “STOP” signs, and enroute into the hall having to walk through a phalanx of chanting people in grocery bag masks protesting the Shah of Iran.  Some memories stick….  Jimmy is at peace; to us that wish as well….

from Fred:  I am a longtime reader and supporter of American Heritage magazine, home to the best journal on American history since its inception. Perhaps I have forwarded a copy before but thought you would like this tribute, in the form of past articles about Jimmy Carter. Upon learning of Carter’s death, I thought of you and folks like you, Carter included, who untiringly expend great energy in advancing peace in the world.

The magazine is free, donations accepted, and has a searchable library of past articles. It is a great resource for almost any topic.
Jimmy Carter was truly a great American. I saw him but did not meet him when he was in St. Paul working on a three-house Habitat for Humanity on the lower east side where Dave and I taught.

Pacific Palisades

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Last night, we learned of the Pacific Palisades fire not long after the residents of Pacific Palisades itself.  That is the nature of today’s instant communication. world wide.  As I write, the city sounds as if it has essentially been destroyed.  At moments like this, one feels helpless, whether on the scene or far away.

Yes, fires are common, and floods, and on and on.  We tend to treat them as routine.  They are not.

The first thing I did last night was to fix, for myself, where Pacific Palisades was.  I knew it was part of Los Angeles metro, which is immense. Here is the Los Angeles Times reports which I presume will be updated often.  Thanks to on-line maps, here is the city and environs.

I actually know very few people in California, our nations most populous state with near 40 million people.  It is easy to say, “not my problem”.

We are all part of a greater community which is the entire planet.  Not only are we part, but we are all interconnected to an extent one could have not imagined even 50 years ago.

Today, it is a massive fire in Pacific Palisades, California.  A short while ago it was another massive fire in Lahaina, Hawaii; catastrophic hurricane damage in the east, especially North Carolina; last year Canada, on and on and on, everywhere.  We are not alone.  We are among 340,000,000 Americans and 8.2 billion on planet earth.  This is where community expands from individual, to town, to state, to nation, to world.  We’re all in this together wherever we live and we need the infrastructure locally available to help our neighbors in need, wherever they happen to be.  After all, we could be next.

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Important note:

Beginning tomorrow morning, and especially for the rest of the month of January, I will have frequent and generally brief posts relating to current events.  First will be on the occasion of President Carter’s service Thursday morning.  I will not be doing the usual notification to the mailing list.  The daily posts for each month are accessible here.  For posts by month go to the archive space at the right on this page.  Jan 3 & 6 are previous posts in January, 2025.

COMMENTS (more at end)

from Ed:  The Eaton Canyon fire in Altadena CA is burning out of control in our old neighborhood. We lived in Altadena from 1972 to 2002 until we moved to MN when I was hired as the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Metro State. All our old CA neighbors have been evacuated and one of the schools has burnt to the ground. This is an unusual time for the fire season, which usually occurs in October and November.

We are lucky in MN, just cold weather and some snow.

from Brian:  Good points!  I grew up in the Houston/Galveston area, and we had our hurricanes!   I’d watch trees blow over.


from Michael: Yes just unbelievable and surreal. All The local TV stations, all Last night of them, have coverage of what’s happening as of course I see on Fox News. They cover it quite a bit, so I’m sure some readers are seeing some of the craziness on TV nationally.

For perspective to anyone who might read this, I live in Redlands California, which is I imagine about 35 miles from downtown LA on the 10 freeway. I do have a daughter who lives in Los Angeles off of Sunset Boulevard. I was speaking to her last night and they were packing things to evacuate, but felt That it probably wouldn’t happen. We both were wondering how much the winds were going to kick up as they were predicting last night, they were supposed to get stronger at 10 o’clock at night and of course they did so we knew it would get worse but I felt and still do kind of feel that they’re going to be OK as they are just a little bit away from Pacific Palisades.
Anyways, I am certainly safe and OK as I am 30 miles from all that but the winds here in Redlands are pretty strong. They were 60 miles an hour just west of us last night and today I have a few trees that were in barrels if you can imagine that actually blew over so I could very well understand if a fire started anywhere, how dangrrous these winds really can be that they could spread a fire in an instant
I haven’t heard from my daughter this morning, but I am assuming that she is OK.
Whole neighborhoods burning to the ground certainly hard to watch. My goodness!! So very sad.
And you are going to hear about the lack of homeowners insurance here as it has gotten so expensive and many companies wouldn’t even give you a policy—much like auto here—-so people forced to get some kind of state insurance which is very limited in coverage. I keep thinking now about after the fires are out. This is just going to be a devastating cost, and because of those insurance concerns some of these people are not going to be able to rebuild.
Anyway, will hope for the best, thank you for your concern. Hello to the group

from Dick, Friday morning Jan. 10:  Today at my usual coffee, the ‘church guys’ were conversing at the next table.  I wasn’t eaves-dropping, but the course of conversation in general terms seemed to be talking about dilemmas of things like insurance coverage, a perfectly reasonable item of conversation.

As usual, I left early for my daily walk around the indoor soccer field.  A are-haired lady came in about the same time as I did, and we shared the usual good-morning.  We don’t know each other.

Very briefly, as she began to walk, she said “I just moved here from LA, and I have friends who lost everything”.  It was totally unexpected, and impossible to address as she was walking away at a faster pace than I.  I could identify her by her coat collar – it was chilly inside as usual – so I thought I’d see her a round or two later.  I stopped and fished out a piece of scrap paper and wrote a note to give her when she passed me by.  Here it is:
I never did see her. which only means she may have been there for only a single round or two.  And of course, I don’t know her.  Such is how life is.  We all make assumptions about our unknown neighbor.  The chance encounter was a learning opportunity.  The note goes into my wallet in the off-chance that I’ll see her again, and sort of recognize her….

 

January 6, 2021

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Today is the 1st anniversary of Jan. 6, 2021.  I won’t let it go unremembered.  It is a day I hope will never be repeated.  Today is 4 years since the unprecedented unforgettable event.  It is part of American history.

Joyce Vance gave her opinion in her January 5th Civil Discourse, here.  Her informed commentary is always worth your time.  This morning she published a supplementary post on the same topic, here.

Here’s my blog from four years ago,  January 6, 2021.  (Prior and after, I blogged on Jan. 5 and next on Jan. 12, 2021.  Neither related directly to Jan. 6.)

I printed and pdf’ed the “screen shots” taken by myself of about an  hour of the riot at the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, 2021. Jan 6 2021; Jan 6 2021 (2). (There are two sets of photos, in sequential order.)  These are unedited and are just what was on the screen when I took the photo.  There are 32 in all, you can scroll through quickly.  None are Pulitzer quality, I can assure you.  I watched the chaos most of the afternoon that awful day.  At the beginning, I didn’t have the camera at hand; I stopped taking pictures after about an hour.  Never, did I anticipate what I witnessed live on TV that afternoon.

I follow politics – anyone who knows me knows this.  On the other hand, I don’t spend an afternoon watching political paint dry.

January 6, 2021 – it was a Wednesday – would not normally occupy my time any year.  The formalization of the vote is usually a routine event in the national political calendar.  Not so in 2021.

2025 continues to happen today.  “Politics” is every single citizen; it is all of us, not “them”.  We are all part of the problem…or solution.

As I will continue to say, I am one of the 75 million who voted Democrat on Nov. 5, and I’m proud to be so.

I have no idea how all will be today and this year.  We will soon see.  Odds are today will be more like the good old days, than that first Wednesday in January was in 2021.  About the only controversial thing at the moment is that the nations flags are flying at half-staff, recognizing the death of President Carter a week or so ago.  Odds are that the inauguration on January 20 will be relatively normal.

We’ll see how/if the new President follows through on his promise to be a dictator only on day one, which I presume is sometime shortly after January 20.

We are all well advised to stay aware, active and very attentive to actions in coming days, months, and years to follow.  Our democracy, as we have come to know it over our entire history, is in trouble.  And we’ll pay the price if we lose it.

Take the time to read the latest commentary by Heather Cox Richardson, which was in my inbox overnight.  How do you fit in to the picture.

Stay on the court, peacefully.

It is 5:10 a.m. Monday, Jan. 6, 2025.

POSTSCRIPT: It’s irrelevant, I suppose, but the incident with the Tesla – the perpetrator – did not pass unnoticed by me, nor the tragedy in New Orleans, since the perpetrators were or had been soldiers, at least one recently on leave from Ft. Carson, Colorado.  Ft. Carson is where I did my two years of service in 1962-63, and I know it well, as I know GIs, as I know Colorado.  Very b:riefly: I volunteered for the Draft immediately after graduating from college.  I had zero interest in becoming an officer.  So I spent my ‘career’ as a Company Clerk in an Infantry Company – probably similar to the New Orleans murderer.  In short, I lived in and was very aware of the community that is military (and it is a community).  I’m proud to have been in the service; and I respect those who have and are serving, and understand that their society is imperfect, as is our own.

POSTNOTE: I watched the totality of the formal recording of the electoral votes at a joint session of House and Senate.  In all, about 35 minutes.  Kamala Harris presided as President of the Senate.

Jan. 6, 2025

COMMENTS (more at end)

from Sandy: Excellent points once again Dick! This is certainly a scary time with Trump being re-elected. It is unbelievable. Let’s hope he cannot destroy our fragile democracy

“Last Night….”

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Last night was a breezy and very chilly one in downtown Minneapolis, but we were at the Dakota Jazz Emporium for a truly wonderful American Roots Review, Larry Long and group celebrating songs of “freedom, freight trains and hope”.  We saw the first of two sets in this standalone program.  Anyone who follows Larry Long’s work would likely agree that that last night was a very special evening.

Larry Long and Roots Review at Dakota Jazz Club Minneapolis, January 3, 2025

Larry Long has a long and noteworthy history, summarized here.  I first met him in 2007.  My photo files suggest (photos of him which I took) that I’ve heard him sing at least nine times, which certainly doesn’t make me a groupie, but certainly I’ve experienced his music.

My most moving encounter was when he, I and our friend Ruhel Islam (GandhiMahal) visited Lynn Elling on his deathbed nine years ago in early February.  Lynn’s passion, the song “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream”, performed most memorably by John Denver. Larry Long himself gave Lynn an in-person rendition with Lynn’s daughters in attendance.  Lynn passed on less than two weeks later, and I’m sure Larry’s singing was a special memory for his final days.

Larry Long with Lynn Elling Feb 3 2016

The local community knows Larry well for nearly 50 years.  If you’re not familiar with him, do check his website.

To check out John Denver and “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream” go to AMillionCopies.info and watch the first few minutes of the film ‘Man’s Next Great Giant Leap”, starting at about the 3 minute mark.  The film was made in 1971 specifically for Minnesota Peacemaking initiative championed by Lynn Elling and others.

Larry performing at an anti-Iraq war rally in late August 2007.

 

 

Jan. 3, 2025

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Suggestion: Print the photo (note pdf link) and keep as a ready reference.  Add contact information for all your elected representatives, local, state, national.  Use it often.

This post has been long planned, but is being written in the shadow of the terror in New Orleans at the beginning of New Years Day, 2025.  This, and the sad but expected death of a personal hero of mine, President Jimmy Carter death on December 29, are much in my thoughts now.  But life goes on, and we have much to learn from past, and much to prepare for in the future.

The U.S. Presidential Election Results are as of December 11, 2024,  the day of required reporting of the election results to the United States  (Certificates of Ascertainment).   January 3, the new Congress will be sworn in must elect a speaker and very shortly thereafter begins the formal process leading to inauguration on January 20, 2025.  (Other 2024 Election Key Dates are  here.)  The remainder of this month is immensely consequential.  Make a point of following the news.

Pdf of the above: Nov. 5 2024 Presidential Election Results.

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My comments on this are very brief: Every one of the approximately 240,000,000 who could vote on November 5, 2024, including those who did not vote at all, had a role in the results of the election.  There is no do over for four years, and no modification for two.

I was one of the voters.  So were you, regardless of for whom or even if you voted.

Not represented are over 70,000,000 American citizens who were not old enough to vote on Nov. 5 – not yet 18.  They are the ones who will be most affected by our decision on who voters selected as leaders at all levels in all places.

I was one of the 75 million who voted for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz (that’s why I list them first).  I am aware that my cohort of 75 million has great diversity and immense potential power, but only if we individually acknowledge our own responsibility to work where we live, and to work together.  Living together in any community is never easy – even people of seemingly like minds disagree.  But the alternative to constructive work together is disaster.

I have and will continue to follow politics carefully.  I urge you to do the same, and to act wherever you are every day.

There are a great number of issues in this complicated society, and there are hundreds of legislators all over the country, some of whom representyhou.  You and I and all of us are the ones who ultimately make the difference.   Think of the difference each one of us could make if each of us reached one other person.  Do something constructive, every day, where you live.

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President Jimmy Carter and Rosalyn.

Events following President Carter’s death will be announced at the Carter Center website, here.

Here’s a recent post (October 1) I wrote which included a personal section on Jimmy Carter.  You’ll find it near the end of the post.  Scroll down.

Within that post is a link to Jimmy Carterr’s autobiography which he published at age 90, “A Full Life”.  I read the book this past summer.  It is well worth your time.  I have huge respect for President Carter and his lifetime work in multiple arenas, including President of the United States.

UPCOMING:  My next scheduled post is January 5, focus: January 6, 2021.  CHECK BACK.  

POSTNOTE: I learned of the Las Vegas incident after beginning this post and am following it closely, but have no comments to add to the conversation.

COMMENTS (more at the end)