Entries by dickbernard

June 1, 2024

This is post number 2002, and the first I’d encourage you to bookmark and come back to once in awhile this summer.  (Yes, June 1 isn’t quite “Summer”, and not quite “school’s out” in most places, but it’s after Memorial Day…and June 1 is easy to remember.)  I hope you at least scroll through this, […]

Peace

Annual Twin Cities Veterans for Peace gathering 10:30 a.m. Memorial Day near the Vietnam Memorial Wall on the south lawn of the State Capitol mall.  This observance is a longstanding tradition. POSTNOTE MEMORIAL DAY 8:37 a.m.:   Last night we watched the annual PBS special for Memorial Day at the U.S. Capitol Mall.  For some reason […]

Public Education

This post is dedicated to my friend, Marion Brady, whose commentary on public education is below.  Marion, who just turned 97, wrote this a few months ago, reflecting on 73 years in and around public education.  Were my wish to come true, you’d pass this along to every person you know who has an interest […]

Religion, too….

Anyone who visits this page with any regularity knows that I am and have always been Catholic.  Enter search word “Basilica” and you’ll find 146 (of 1997) posts at this space since 2009. The current Basilica magazine (cover at left), leads me to a different kind of reflection about organized Religion, of which I’ve been […]

Marie-Josephine

Everyone has a mother and a father, and this Mother’s Day I choose a daughter: Marie-Josephine Collette. This Mother’s Day, much more than most I remember, is filled with demonstrations that by no means is everything easy for women, for men, or for families, however constituted, or when.  This post is offered for reflection, and […]

Law Day

POSTNOTE May 31, 2024:  Yesterday afternoon I listened as the verdict was read: 34 times, “Guilty”.  This morning at my coffee place I took a photo of the empty conference table next to mine.  It has ten chairs, like a dozen members of a jury, shall I say.  Shortly thereafter  were the usual church guys […]

“When I’m 84….”

Today, I’m 84.  (The title is a play on the Beatle’s “When I’m 64“, one of the songs in Yellow Submarine, the 1968 movie I took son, Tom, to see – he was four, then, 56 years ago!).  Before I continue, here are a half dozen responses to the April 17 Earth Day post on […]

Energy and Climate: the conundrum.

On April 17 I did an Earth Day post that featured a one hour talk on energy and the future. The focus of the post was a a thought provoking recent talk on the Energy/Climate Conundrum.  The talk itself was about an hour, with Q&A for most of another.  The YouTube link is here. The […]

Consequences

POSTNOTE Aug 29, 2024: Front page of Minnesota Star Tribune Aug 29, 2024: Nicole Mitchell 8 29 24 Monday of this week I was about to leave for a conversation group I’m part of.  I caught the first part of the 6:00 local news on WCCO-TV, and one of the first stories was about the […]

Earth Day 2024

POSTNOTE Monday, April 22, 2024:  Overnight, two commentaries relating directly to the below: Heather Cox Richardson and Joyce Vance.  Earthrise, eferred to in Richardson’s post. Monday, April 22, is Earth Day.  Of course, every day is earth day, and has been since the beginning, but this particular day dates to 1970.  More here. My nephew, […]