Entries by dickbernard

“I Speak for Democracy”

Today is son Tom’s 56th birthday.  His Mom, my wife, Barbara, died in 1965 at 22, when he was one. Last night was precinct caucus night in Minnesota.  I attended as I always do.  I’ll write more about this later in conjunction with an unusual Primary election which was set up by MN law in […]

Caucus

Tomorrow (Tuesday Feb 25) is caucus night in Minnesota.  I will be there, as I have been to many caucuses over the years.  Next week will be Minnesota Primary Election.  I’ll participate in that, too.  That is a much more recent addition to the political menu in Minnesota.  We shall see how it works.  (Complete […]

Politics

February 19, I was watching Family Feud, a favorite escape. For those unacquainted, family feud teams compete to guess how 100 persons answer questions on topics familiar to most everyone of us.  One of the questions host Steve Harvey asked this night: “What is one species you wouldn’t mind to see extinct?”  One of the […]

53-47

Related post:  Jesus, here. Today we stayed after Mass for a talk by a founder of a national group called “Better Angels“, which bills itself as “a working alliance to depolarize America”.  There were about 75 of us in attendance, and it was a very stimulating hour with Bill Doherty.   We’ll join.  I encourage […]

Jesus

Last weekend I spent at a Men’s Retreat at the Franciscan Retreat Center in Prior Lake.  I’m now a regular there, since 2014, I think.  From Friday night to Sunday afternoon there’s time to reflect.  It is good. This year, the day before the Retreat, was the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C.  …. During […]

Going to Retreat

Shortly I leave for what has become an annual event: the Men’s Retreat at Franciscan Retreat Center in Prior Lake MN.  I asked a staffer how many years I’ve attended.  He checked, every year since 2014, except 2015, which I missed. I missed 2015 because earlier in the week my Uncle Vince died in North […]

Auschwitz, et al

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day.  Today Minneapolis Star Tribune has an excellent opinion piece on the topic.  You can read it here. In the Spring of 2000, we were privileged to be with a group of Christians and Jews who visited a number of Holocaust sites, together.  It was an extremely powerful two weeks, including […]

The Senate “Trial”

SEE JANUARY 31, 2020, ADDITION BELOW. Prior post on this topic, here. This is written as a rough draft, and will be published as such. Quite often at this space I have written about events I considered important before they actually occurred – trying to put my own “spin” in the mix before, rather than […]

A Nation of “Manchurian Candidates”?

PRENOTE:  Nov. 28, I learned of a malicious hack of my computer.  This seems to have been much more than an amateur gambit.  Hopefully I can learn from this experience, and I want to pass along my own personal opinions, from my own experience. Much of the following was written on January 20.  This PRENOTE […]

Impeachment.

I write on Saturday, December 14.  Some weeks ago I said I’d comment on the Impeachment of Donald Trump. Thursday night I watched much of the rhetoric in Judiciary; overnight, a rare nightmare visited in my sleep – one that I’ll remember: an ominous very dark storm cloud rapidly approaching a crowd, one of whom […]