AMillionCopies
This letter is especially to you, specifically to you.
Today (Saturday, March 22, 2025) is the second day of Spring in Minnesota, and Day 61 of the first 100 days since the inauguration of the 47th President of the United States.
Today, it is increasingly evident that the citizenry of the U.S. is beginning to act against what we are seeing happening at the highest levels in this country of ours. So I’m scrapping most of what I planned to say, and will include some links which you may find useful. Possibly I’ll include the rough draft of what I was going to say. If so, it will be at the very end.
*
AMillionCopies? “AMillionCopies” is a website I put up in March of 2008, which still exists with basic content unchanged; a tribute to two personal citizen heroes with a few links to groups I support. It will take only a few seconds to scroll through. Do take a look. The site came to mind a week ago when I overheard two apparently old friends reconnecting at my coffee place. They seemed in synch with me, and one of them was talking about what she heard was a “million postcard” campaign bubbling up somewhere. It brought my website to mind. Here’s the song that motivated me then, and still does.
I have a second personal website which goes back to 2002 which has a peace and justice component: chez-nous.net/peace-justice. It, also, takes only seconds to scroll through, though there is more if you are interested. Ironically, the first story on the page, written in 2005 was about Red Lake MN, and refers to the place and the tragic event that is the front page story in today’s Minnesota Star Tribune.
Pertinent recent blog posts:
Social Security March 13
Department of Education March 11
Back in 2008 I did a series of short essays I called “Uncomfortable Essays to the Peace, Justice… Communities“. For you, if you wish.
*
The final item today is reference to a fascinating four-part program I saw on public television this week.
James J. Hill
The last few days I’ve had the good fortune of learning about and watching the four episodes on the life of James J. Hill. HERE is the link to the four episodes. The series is about four hours, so plan accordingly. I think you’ll find it very engaging.
Hill was born 1838, a farm kid in what is now rural Guelph Ontario; and from 1856 till his death in 1916, St. Paul MN was his home.
If you have any interest in history, particularly if your personal history includes the midwest or northwest United States, you’ll want to carve out the time to watch this.
POSTNOTE: At the beginning of the 100 days on January 20, 2025, I doubt any of us could have accurately predicted the chaos and confusion that has followed. There are 39 days to go. I’m not sure if or how I’ll modify my habits at this space. Absolutely I will stay in action, and I hope you will as well. If we lose our democracy in any way, we have lost it all for our future. Keep on, keeping on.
COMMENTS (more at end):
from Brad: thank you for the links. I really enjoyed the “American Indian Story” on your Peace & Justice site. It is so true, and I have to agree. I’ve recognized similar internal conflicts with a few of my Trump-based family members. Unfortunately, losing contact and communication with one brother is the result. I try to forgive but it is very hard to do.
response from Dick: Religion was not a neutral issue in the old days. Today’s tension is an outgrowth of ages old even worse tensions, which we probably can all quite easily recite – at least our portions of them. I recall a visit with an older woman who lived near my Busch relatives in LaMoure County ND. She said she really didn’t know the family. They were Catholic and hers were Lutheran. The distance was intentional, she said. The worry was both ways: what if one got interested in one from the other and they got married. It was as much a market share as it was dogma, in my opinion.
from Remi: I recently finished watching “The Empire Builder” and found it fascinating. What an amazing man, full of contradictions; at times so kind and cruel at others. He accomplished so much. The first episode, focusing on St. Paul, particularly captivated me. I learned that Hill built the rail line between St. Paul and Duluth. The series served as an insightful crash course on unbridled, unregulated capitalism. I was impressed with his experiments concerning dry land farming, which my father, his father, and his grandfather practiced. Have you ever been to the James J. Hill Library?
response from Dick: I have been to Hill Library, but not a usual stop. The Library is in downtown St. Paul very near the Ordway Center, Landmark Center and other very familiar places. It is open to the public.
The coup asked for by the majority of those voting in 2024 in favor of putting an authoritarian government place led by oligarchs is well underway and will be difficult to stop or recover from!
I am proposing that seniors protest the current regime’s antics by withholding their federal taxes if we don’t receive our SS checks in April. I will pay my MN taxes, but…