UPDATE Nov. 16 2024: Please read this paragraph, and the last comment from me on this page as well. This post originally was published on Nov. 9. Subsequent there have been many comments. I would encourage you to read the comments, including the links included. I’ve read them all. In addition are these posts from […]
First commentaries: Letters from an American 11:18 p.m; Civil Discourse, 11:19 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. The contents of this post were written before polls opened on Nov. 5. A post on the results will follow within a couple of weeks, likely before Thanksgiving. I’d invite anyone to include their own observations in the followup. […]
These are tense days. Here are a couple of recent e-mails from friends. Dr. Virgil Benoit and I have been friends for many years. His work life was as a professor of French, and his passion was his French-Canadian heritage. Like me, he’s retired now, He’s been part of this list for a long […]
Halloween, Tuesday, October 31, 2000, we were in Washington D.C., and had hopes to visit the Capitol. But it wasn’t prime time. The 2000 Election was one week away, and the odds of seeing much was pretty low. I called the office of our then-Congressman, Bill Luther, and discovered that there was a session of […]
Larry Johnson is a longtime friend and peace activist, I am sending this along with his permission. Dear Friends and Family: My heart surgery a couple years ago may have ended my 50,61,70, or 100 mile walks, but I still walk every day. This is, however, the first year in as long as I […]
Today is 7 days to the 2024 Election. It is also the 95th anniversary of the generally accepted first day of the Great Depression, October 29, 1929. Letters from an American does about as good a job as possible summarizing that dark time in American history here. The Great Depression ground on till almost the […]
ELECTION INFORMATION: Minnesota related; and National information. Just this morning I learned of the Army Talk #64 referenced in the photo below. The entire 8-page Fact Sheet is here: Fascism US Army 24 Mar 1945. The source is Heather Cox Richardson, who summarizes the below here. I would strongly recommend reading the entire eight page fact […]
ELECTION INFORMATION: Minnesota related; and National information. Related Post: Fascism 1945, here. This is my final paragraph, my final thought, before sending this post October 26, 2024. Our nation, the United States, has survived 237 years of sometimes very messy democracy – a nation which has embraced diversity in all of its forms, and a […]
This afternoon was a truly exceptional one for me. At noon, daughter Heather and I went to an uplifting kids film, The Wild Robot, at a local theater. When I came home I spent an hour and a half watching the new and searing Frontline Special on the first year after October 7, 2023. The […]
January 18, 2025, is the 25th anniversary of my retirement from Education Minnesota. 61 years ago, I started teaching school. Today I spent part of the morning at the annual “MEA” teacher’s conference at River Centre in St. Paul. It is an event that attracts me each year, and each year the people around me […]