Note to reader: Note: There are six other posts about Sykeston: There are several other post I have done about Sykeston: May 4 (the main article): Thoughts on Sykeston High School at its Centennial May 9 A 1957 Social Studies Test June 12 Remembering Sykeston in late 1940s June 28 Snapshots in History of Sykeston […]
Al Gore was in Minneapolis on Thursday, and while I’ve been to lots of speeches, including by Mr. Gore, and didn’t really need to go, there is something that draws me to such events. I got to Westminster Presbyterian Church an hour early, but turned out to be a half-hour late: I got a seat, […]
My sister, Mary Ann, decided to begin her retirement years by taking her skills as Nurse Practitioner to the Peace Corps. Since early October she’s been in the south Pacific island country of Vanuatu, a remote place east of Australia that I had never heard of. Since November 10, 2012, I’ve been sharing her experiences […]
UPDATE February 11, 2013: February 8 I posted a very brief survey to 46 persons on my long standing peace and justice mailing list. The survey was about Guns. Ultimately, 23 responded to the questions, and the entire compilation can be read here: Gun Survey Feb 82013R1. I was surprised both by the number of […]
Yesterday I was at a local restaurant having a cup of coffee, and writing some letters. It’s a very ordinary activity for me. For some reason, I ‘ve always worked best where there’s some hubbub around. At the next table, very close by, four men, obviously friends, and probably in their 50s, were conversing about […]
A couple of weeks ago a friend, a retired educator, happened across me at a coffee shop and we took some time to catch up on this and that. The conversation drifted around to teachers we had known, and George recalled the time when he had met with two other classmates who’d attended school together […]
I’m not long returned from a most remarkable nearly two hours at Washburn High School in south Minneapolis. The reason several hundred of us were in the auditorium tonight was an unfortunate event that happened January 11 at the school, and still looms large in the local news in this large metropolitan area, and even […]
(click to enlarge photos) Dick Bernard: The Gun Issue is on the table, and that is good. Unfortunately, much of the conversation is as much based on reality as the above painting, which I saw in the Seward Cafe on Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis today. The painting does get at a reality, however…. The ladies […]
Yesterday at Mass at Basilica of St. Mary visiting Priest, Fr. Pat Griffin, in his homily, included a snippet of Martin Luther King’s writing: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly….” I wrote enough snippets of the quote so […]
It was thirteen years ago today, January 18, 2000, that my staff colleagues at Education Minnesota bid me adieu at my retirement after 27 years attempting to do my best to represent teachers in a collective bargaining state. I was not yet 60 when I cleaned out my office, handed in my keys and walked […]