Community – Page 16 – Thoughts Towards a Better World

#922 – Dick Bernard: "Officer down", A Family and a Community Tribute

August 7, 2014/0 Comments/in Community /by dickbernard

UPDATE: Commentaries about Ferguson MO can be found here.

Where Officer Patrick was slain, on Dodd Road, at intersection with Smith Avenue in West St. Paul, MN. Scene as it appeared after the funeral August 6, 2014

Yesterday I participated in the Memorial for Scott Patrick, the policeman who was killed during a routine traffic stop on July 30. I was simply one of those who stood along the route of the procession from funeral to cemetery in Mendota Heights MN. I viewed the procession at Somerset Elementary School, where my daughter, Joni, new Principal there, was one of those who rang the school bell as the police cars, and then the family procession, moved past.
It was a very moving near four hours. Todays news will be full of accounts in the local papers. Simply enter in your internet search box, Scott Patrick Mendota Heights Policeman funeral August 6, 2014.
The killing of Officer Patrick by someone he’d pulled over at a routine traffic stop made absolutely no sense. The officer was a person who liked people. His “alleged” killer, who has admitted killing the officer, volunteered he “hates cops”.
The one post that I most noticed on the day that the officer was killed was this late afternoon July 30 Facebook post from my daughter, Joni, a school Principal in Officer Patrick’s town:
“Officer Patrick would often visit Friendly Hills Middle School when his shift was during school hours just to check in, say hello, and make sure all was well. I am proud to have had the opportunity to know and work with him. Although I don’t live in Mendota Heights, our lights will be on to honor Officer Patrick and all those who daily put their lives at risk to protect us all.”
It was clear, both from Joni’s note and the service that Officer Patrick was an ordinary guy, who was, like so many ordinary people, very extraordinary. Just someone who did his job.
I took a few photos between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. while at Somerset Elementary School on the funeral cortege route. They follow, and after them, a short comment, and a proposal a friend sent me back in April, which seems now to be most appropriately presented.
The police cars I most noted? Park Rapids MN (where I’ll be, at my sisters, later today); Airport Police (where two of our family are Police); an Iowa State Patrol car (noting a long ago relative who was among the first 50 state highway patrolmen in Iowa, in the 1930s.) There were police from almost everywhere; from Chicago to Bismarck; and police from all conceivable sectors, including the police cadets from Hibbing MN. It was huge outpouring of support of the Law Enforcement family.
The photos (click to enlarge):

The bell tower of Somerset Elementary in Mendota Heights. The bell tolled for the entire hour that funeral procession vehicles passed by the school, including the estimated 4000 policemen and women honoring their fallen colleague.

A few of the 45 minute stream of police vehicles passing Somerset School.

I turned around to see the procession of police vehicles as they had just passed by.

The last vehicles in the funeral procession disappear, nearly two hours after the first car had passed by (1 p.m.)

Words aren’t adequate at such times as yesterday afternoon.
A young man, standing near by, audibly said “thank you” to the policeman passing by in their vehicles. He must have said those words, with feeling, hundreds of times.
Also near me, yesterday, was a nice but very serious young man, perhaps early 40s, who stayed the entire time and looked very serious and respectful. At one point we visited a little. Turned out that years ago a friend of his was the subject of the killers already vicious anger. What happened is irrelevant. “I suppose you’re against the death penalty”, he said.
“Not necessarily”, I noted, but I also noted that mistakes are made.
The killing of the officer was an act of impulsive anger. Is it an appropriate response to then try and kill the killer, however reprehensible he might be? I’d submit that there should be no easy answer to that question.
I could very well understand the young man’s anger, and I felt that the young man and I weren’t seriously at odds, nor even completely disagreeing. It was an important, brief, conversation, however, one of many we all should have.
COMMENTS:
Judy B, Aug. 7
Very nice post, Dick. I can’t remember a time when I was more touched by a news story. This one pierced my heart — perhaps because somehow you just knew he was a nice guy. Perhaps because he had two beautiful daughters who lost their dad. Perhaps because he had such a gracious wife. I wept every time I read a new story. This morning’s Strib, with its headline, “Calling Badge 2231..Officer Scott Patrick is out of service…” had me blubbering.
But I was also touched by the comment of my neighbor, a retired social worker, who said, “why didn’t someone help that man (the killer) long ago? Obviously, he fell through the cracks.” Not a very popular comment at this tender time, but an astute one.
Bob S, Aug 7
I read or heard something to the effect that in MN we only have 5 investigators working on 5000 cases of criminals who have vanished from the radar, that is not reporting to a probation officer or complying with the conditions of probation or parole, thus are in violation of the terms of freedom from jail, and who therefore would be considered wanted and often dangerous. The reason for this under-staffing has been budget cuts going back to Pawlenty. I notice Mayor Coleman in St. Paul is cutting back on all kinds of vital services, including public safety services (police-fire etc) and public works (pot holes). The mantra, cut taxes and government, is coming back to haunt us, and the right blames government.
David T., Aug 7:
read your blog piece on the killing of Officer Scott Patrick. Well done. I think the thing that brings out such an outpouring of grief and support any time one of these events happens is that we see the police as a kind of wall between the forces that would destroy the fabric of society and those who go about our lives dependent on that fabric remaining intact; the proverbial “Thin Blue Line,” if you will. A murder of a police officer feels so much more personal and existential than the myriad murders that are way-too common place.
It’s easy to understand the desire for revenge any time one of these horrific crimes occur. The death penalty certainly would be the ultimate act of revenge. Certainly there can be no other reason to impose it on the perpetrators of these acts. I doubt that the officer’s killer would have thought better of pulling the trigger had he been in a state that allows capital punishment. Maybe some of us would get a feeling of satisfaction in seeing the ultimate penalty imposed, but, in the end, I think there’s a larger price to pay when we empower the state, on our behalf, to have this power.

August 6, 2014 Dodd Road at Smith, Mendota Heights MN

Which leads, finally, to the proposal, made a couple of months ago, by a good friend, Grace Kelly, in St. Paul, a person who respects and likes police, but also recognizes that there are occasional individual and system problems.
I present her words exactly as she wrote them, as a draft, for thought and discussion by others in other contexts.
Grace Kelly, May 27, 2014
Here is the proposal that we discussed over the phone, in rough draft form. Since I tend to procrastinate, I am sending this out now. Please feel free to forward as you wish.
I believe that the standards of peace and nonviolence start with what happens in our own backyards. Peace cannot exist without justice. In our own community, we have had instances of an unarmed suspect of a non-violent crime being shot 5 times in the head and 2 times in the back by law endorsement officers. We also have officers who go unrecognized and unsupported when they risk their own lives to safely arrest people.
I would propose that there be four yearly grand awards, that are awarded after the previous year numbers are out, probably in June of following year.
1) 2014 Best Community Policing supporting Standards of Peace and Non-violence for a Force of 100 Sworn Officers or Higher
2) 2014 Most Improved Community Policing supporting Standards of Peace and Non-violence for a Force of 100 Sworn Officers or Higher
3) 2014 Best Community Policing supporting Standards of Peace and Non-violence for a Force of Less than 100 Sworn Officers
4) 2014 Most Improved Community Policing supporting Standards of Peace and Non-violence for a Force of Less than 100 Sworn Officers
I think this should be limited to just Minnesota because the research is difficult. Nominations could come from any peace activist or by self nomination of the particular police force. The police forces must be government paid. University or transit police could qualify.
In addition to the four grand awards, I would add a certificate level of recognition. For all nominated police forces, I think we should recognize three levels of achievement. No recognition is also an option.
Gold – Instances of some tough challenges with some outstanding achievement. Good overall performance.
Silver – Overall good performance. May have a few successes and a few challenges.
Bronze – A department marked by improvement although challenges may still exist.
No recognition – Even though there may be good noteworthy instances, the department has a culture as a whole that could be described as militaristic policing
In evaluating instances, what the department does to individuals after a good and bad instances has to be considered. A department that encourages retirement, assigns desk work, doles out censure and assigns parking patrol for bad instances is enforcing peace standards.
Standards for Community Policing
1) Respect for protest and all civil rights – Inspect instances where the police actively protected civil rights vs harassment for those who wish to speak out. An example of contrary evidence would be the Minneapolis police arresting Occupy protestors for stepping into the street. Other examples of contrary evidence are the numbers of obstructing justice and similar broad stroke charges. Are people allowed to video record police activities without harassment? Allowing observation and recording would be positive evidence.
2) Patrolling, investigation and prosecution across all economic and social divisions. Were rich people investigated? Does the arrest and conviction record reflect the social and economic diversity of the unit being served. If not, why not? Is just one type of crime persecuted? Are there areas of crime that are off limits?
3) Safe arrests and safe detainment. Community police specialize in arresting people safely without any injury. This even includes drug or mental conditions. Jails should keep people safe. People should be able to dress and eat within jails in a way that respects religious or ethical beliefs. For example, vegetarians should have meals without meat.
4) Community Involvement – Does the force actively reach out and engage with the community. How do everyday people feel about their force? Is there respect and courtesy? Is there fear? Do officers live and volunteer within the community? Are there force actions that go beyond the minimum? What kind of language and words are used in communications? Do officers reflect the diversity of the community?
5) Law Enforcement Effectiveness – How well does the department or office do its job? Peace cannot come without justice.
6) A Focus on Building Community not Just Increasing Prison Populations – Law Enforcement has a great opportunity to change direction of lives if diversion programs are used for first-time offenders or teenagers. Does the force use its ability to change lives for the better?
More background is in these articles: here and here.
Peace begins at home.
Grace Kelly nicknamed Kelly
651 246 6717

#919 – Dick Bernard: The Downside of Playing Nasty.

August 1, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, History, Politics /by dickbernard

5th graders rendition of American flag Oct, 2001

For the first three days of this week I was again away from the “news”. As I suggested in the “hermit” commentary a shortwhile ago, there are benefits to being ignorant about what is going on. But sooner than later, reality slaps one in the face. It is not pleasant.
Late this week, the U.S. House of Representatives, voted to authorize the Speaker to sue President Obama. It didn’t make front page news here; it was at the top of page three, even though it’s the first time in American history that a President has been sued by Congress. The key word: “authorize”.
My prediction: even if filed, the suit will go nowhere. In fact, I don’t believe there is any intention within the lawsuit for other than temporary political theatre. It is one thing to threaten a law suit; another entirely to actually file such a lawsuit; then difficult, time-consuming and expensive to go to court and actually prove a case when there are other than your own “facts” to contend with.
Since President Obama took office in 2009, the Radical Right Wing (which is now the official Republican Party in this country) has sworn to obstruct him at every turn. This posture is very public, easily found anywhere. Check Sen. Mitch McConnell and Rush Limbaugh among others.
The sole Republican objective: to make President Obama fail.
The gambit itself is what has failed, with the lawsuit only the latest move. It won’t be the last. President Obama has accomplished a lot, against incredible odds.
There are “Downsides” for every one of us in the obstruction in Congress, including those who dislike Obama and Democrats.
First, there is little apparent recognition of the fact that President Obama and the Democrats have a constituency – a very large one – citizens like myself.
It may be fun to kick Obama; it is good to keep in mind that he has lots of friends, like me, for instance.
And the silent majority of others who are only looking for a reasonable and responsible attitude towards governing and government in this complex society of ours.
Of course, Obama isn’t running for anything in November; the suit against Obama, and all of the other pieces of theatre, are to be used in local campaigns against Democrats.
So, what if the anti-Obama strategy “works”: the Republicans keep their safe majority in the House of Representatives, and pick up enough seats to take control in the U.S. Senate?
Will it be “game over”?
Hardly.
American politics has always been rough and tumble. I don’t like that, but it is part of the tradition of making decisions on important issues in our increasingly diverse society.

1864 Campaign Poster

Until recent years, when de facto leaders of what I would call the Radical Right Wing took control, this public rough and tumble was accompanied by private recognition by all sides that compromise was a crucial component of reaching agreement.
Legislating was bargaining, a recognition of diverse interests.
In recent years one party, the current version of the Republican party, has been taken over by individuals who believe that winning is all that matters; that compromise is unnecessary. Their gameplan can be aptly summarized by an organizing slogan I experienced personally 40 years ago: a competing organizations mantra was “disrupt, confuse, display anger”. It worked for them, for a while….
I would venture that anyone who has ever been in a relationship with another human being soon comes to understand that some variation of bargaining is a constant, if the relationship is to have any chance of success.
Translate this into a society of over 300,000,000 people, and try to feature one party – one constituency – “winning” – and staying in control very long.
For near six years, the leadership of one party, the Republicans, has hooked its program to the failure of the other party.
Can it, if it wins in November, suddenly become the party of inclusion, of compromise?
I doubt it.
There is a choice in November, and all of we American voters will have to decide whose philosophy best represents us all.
Study the issues and the candidates where you live. Vote, and urge others to vote for more positive, traditional, government. There is a choice.
POSTNOTE: After writing the above came this very long summary of yesterday in Washington. It is worth the read, if you don’t do long pieces, read the last few paragraphs.
The essential message to me: we, the people, can make the difference, but we probably won’t, since it is easiest to be disengaged and complain than to do something affirmative, by hard work for an alternative vision.

#918 – Dick Bernard: The Night of the Big Wind, July 28, 1949

July 28, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, Family History, History, North Dakota /by dickbernard

Directly related post from July 25, here.
For some reason lost to history, on July 28, 1949, we Bernards took a midweek 100 mile trip from Sykeston ND to Grandma and Grandpa Busch’s farm near Berlin ND. While there seems no particular reason for the trip, mid-summer would have been a logical time to visit Mom’s parents, and brother Vince and sister Edithe at the farm. Dad was school superintendent in Sykeston, and at the farm, crops were not yet ready to harvest.
We stayed overnight, a fateful decision we all lived to tell about. (Such trips, to my recollection, were never more than one night. One overnight was complicated enough with five little kids.)
(click on all photos to enlarge them)

F. W. Busch farmstead, 1916.

Fitting into the Busch’s small prairie house was no small task. By 1949, a two room addition had been added to the west (left) side of the house shown above.
As bedtime came that evening, best I can piece together, the 9 year old, me, slept with Uncle Vince, 24, in his tiny upstairs room; across the wall to the south, the window visible in the picture, was Edith’s room. Mary Ann, 6, and Florence, 5, slept with her.
Grandma and Grandpa were downstairs, and Mom and Dad, with Frank, 3, and John, who had turned 1 May 25, shared the other downstairs bedroom.
No one has ever recalled anything unusual about the day we were there. It was simply a summer visit.
Crops were maturing, but not yet ready for harvest. As usual, the dozen or so cows had been milked, back out to pasture. Horses would have been in the barn.
Sometime about midnight, best can be figured, a horrific wind seemed to come out of the south. My sister, Flo, described what happened next: “Oh, how I remember that storm! The thunder and lightning was impressive – scary! Then the window blew out and we tried to keep it covered with a blanket.”
We were all terrified, and to my knowledge none of the six adults did the common sense things you’re warned to do today, starting with taking everyone down into the cellar. Of course, back then, weather reports were basically what you saw in real time; no sirens or such. Storms were expected to happen now and again. But, as Uncle Vincent just recalled days ago, ordinary storms usually came in late afternoon, and this one came up suddenly, very late at night, and was a ‘hum-dinger’. Even at 9 years old, I recall sheets of water (it seemed) coming under the window and over the windowsill.
Being a strong Catholic family, there were plenty of “Hail Mary’s”.
The storm passed, no injuries, probably not even livestock, and Mary Ann recalls: “I remember going out at first light and seeing the [barn] roof missing.” That barn was less than a football field length from the house. We’d all had a very close call. Sometimes there’s talk that we experienced a tornado, but I don’t think so. It was just a horrific wind, and life changed for everyone, for a time.
I have found four photos taken of the barn shortly after the storm: Each are worth clicking on, to enlarge.

In the first photo, at left, you can see the damage. What appears to be the barn roof, misplaced, is actually a smaller barn-like structure that survived the storm. In the third, Grandpa Busch contemplates the next steps; in the fourth, the photographer, my Dad, is revealed by the unusually long legs in the shadow. (Click twice on this photo and you’ll see two horses who survived the storm.)
All around the area, there was devastation. The LaMoure Chronicle talked a lot more about the storm and the damage just in the LaMoure County vicinity: Berlin storm Jul 28 49001. The F. W. Busch damage is mentioned in the last column.
This being a working farm, with cows to be milked, there wasn’t time to be depressed. But rebuilding was daunting; there was lots of damage, most everywhere, on surrounding farms.
The adults worked like…farmers…and in fairly short order the task was looking manageable.

Grandpa was 69 when the storm hit; Vince, his son, was 24; my Dad was 41. The age references are important.
Grandpa knew of a farm on Hwy 13 just east of LaMoure whose barn roof design looked replicable. He built a form on the hayloft floor where the three men nailed four 1x4s together to make every new roof beam. Dad stayed at the farm for some time to help out, and Vince always says that without him, they couldn’t have done the project.
The roof beams were raised, and the local Priest, himself an expert carpenter, saw them, and said they wouldn’t last….
Vincent did the backbreaking work of shingling the barn. It must have been terribly hard, even at age 24, and frightening as well, but you do what you gotta do.
Shortly after the project was completed, within a few months, somebody took the below photo of the newly raised barn roof.
Unfortunately, either they or someone else had forgotten to advance the film, so what you see is a double exposure including other visitors to the farm. Both photos seem to be from the same day.
Front and center is Uncle Vince, in about 1949. (He’s also at left in the same picture. Click on this picture a second time for more enlargement.) The others in the photo are his sister Florence, and her husband Bernard Wieland, and their then young son Tom, all from Dazey ND. Tom is sitting on Busch’s then-new 1948 Plymouth.
Ironically, Tom Wieland died recently. Vincent and I went to his funeral in Valley City. Time passes by.

Last week, I took a photo of some of the roof beams in the still standing barn. Dad, Vince and Grandpa did damned good work back in 1949!

Lord willing, I’ll be back in that barn today, July 28, 2014, on the 65th anniversary of the big windstorm of 1949. There’ll be a bit of nostalgia, no doubt.

The old barn, July 23, 2014

A firm base for each beam has helped the roof survive 65 years. Photo July 28, 2014

Henry Bernard with his roof beams in the Busch barn, June 1991. RIP Nov. 7, 1997

#916 – Dick Bernard: Some Things. A Bit of Odd Synchronicity; An Opportunity to Reflect.

July 25, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, Family History, Health, North Dakota, Quietings /by dickbernard

(Click all photos to enlarge)

Byerly’s Woodbury, formerly known as Rainbow….

A couple of weeks ago I went to our nearby supermarket, Rainbow Foods, to pick up my daily staple: bananas.
This particular day, the store sported a new temporary sign, “Byerly’s”, indicating its new owner. We all knew this was coming: Byerly’s had bought Rainbow and change was coming to our supermarket. It was nothing rocket science: there is another Byerly’s a few miles away. But, still, it was a change. The average shopper might say Byerly’s is better. To me, they’re both generic “stores”.
Walking in, I asked a woman coming from the new Byerly’s: “do they still have bananas?”
She smiled.
Since that day, July 16, I’ve been rather intensely involved with preparing the farm home in North Dakota for potential new occupants.
It’s a very nostalgic time: the home place has been continuously occupied by my Mom’s family since 1905 (she was born there in 1909). Her brother, my Uncle, last in the line, the farmer who kept the place, and never married, is now in the local nursing home.
The re-purposing task has fallen to me, and with lots of help from family and neighbors the long vacant and now near empty farm house has yielded its trash and treasures.
Bananas are a relatively recent fixture on the family table in the U.S.; that rural farmhouse rarely saw them until very recent years.
But there was a big garden, and canned goods.
My sister started cleaning out the shelves of ancient home-canned this-or-that in the basement, and I hauled boxes of them out on Monday.
A jar of something canned by Aunt Edith with the old Pressure Cooker in 1997 (“97” on the lid) wouldn’t pass muster today, regardless of how well sealed. But that jar stayed in the shelves. Expiration dates had less meaning then.
Pressure Cooker? Here’s one, from the farm scrap pile…probably a perfectly good device, of no use, anymore.

Pressure cookers at the farm (the back one sans lid.

To my knowledge nobody on the farm ever died or got severely ill from food poisoning, folk wisdom, perhaps luck. An iron constitution helped, too.
Back at Byerly’s, today, I was discovering the new store: the only distinction I can discern is that they moved the bananas, and other things. They are reorganizing the placement of the stuff I buy. I’m not sure where anything is. Whole aisles are empty; waiting for redesign. The same stuff I’ve always seen, just in a different place. Change.
At the farm, everything is there, somewhere, but never to be the same again. Change as well.
Down in the basement, Wednesday, sat a forlorn cardboard box with some stuff in it.
I’ve learned in such encounters that just tossing the box and contents is not necessarily wise. You never know what you might be throwing out.
Hidden in the box was the device pictured below (with coins added to give a sense of scale).

If you haven’t guessed, what’s pictured is an old official stamp made of heavy cast iron, built to last.
Being curious, I found an old brown paper bag to see if the stamp still worked and it did.

You are forgiven if you can’t read the writing. It says “Corporate Seal of the Lakeview Farmers Telephone Company Berlin N Dak”: the telephone company my Grandpa had a great deal to do with for many years in the really olden times of crank dials (“two longs and a short”) and party lines, where “rubber necking” was expected: there were no private conversations. In fact, Uncle Vince just the previous night had been remembering how hard it was to maintain those simple rural telephone lines.
Grandpa had probably used this stamp hundreds of times. Family history.
There were endless other bits of family history, now relegated to trash, or to treasure (the distinction only in the eyes of the beholder; you won’t see the stuff on Antiques Road Show or American Pickers).
Then home to Woodbury to recover.
Today I went back to Byerly’s (aka Rainbow), and once again got my bananas.
What I take for granted in that store was in days of old beyond my ancestors comprehension.
I wonder if, someday, what I take for granted will be an unspeakable luxury for generations yet to follow.
We do take things for granted.
It’s cause for reflection.

F. W. Busch farmstead, 1916.

I go back to this old farm on Monday. Before I leave, I’ll publish a recollection from that old farmhouse, of the Big Storm of July 28, 1949.

#915 – Dick Bernard: Some very sad news: Journalist Andy Driscoll takes his final bow.

July 24, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, History, Media, Minnesota, Peace & Justice, Quietings /by dickbernard

We had just returned from several days out of town and catching on what’s been happening, Cathy noted the death of a friend of mine, Andy Driscoll.
Indeed it was true, and this morning I woke up with a ever-longer Facebook entry with tributes to and about Andy. I looked at the home page of KFAI, the public station on which he has broadcast since 2007, and saw more about him at the KFAI website.
Andy made a big difference, quietly, for many years.
There are many Andy’s in the world: there just aren’t headlines written about them; and they aren’t in the national media. But at home they regularly make an impact on their communities, small and large, in many and diverse ways.
Beginning in mid-2007, Andy produced and broadcast a one hour program each week on KFAI which he called “Truth to Tell”. I haven’t counted, but at minimum it would appear that he had over 250 programs on air. There were probably near 1000 on-air guests in that time.
Quite an accomplishment, especially considering that one hour interview programs don’t just happen. They take great effort.
In the first sentence I call Andy a “friend”.
I use that word with hesitation, but my guess is that Andy would agree that yes, we were good friends, even if we saw each other rarely.
In fact, along with Syl Jones, Marie Braun of WAMM, and Dr. Joe Schwartzberg of Citizens for Global Solutions, I was one of the panelists on his inaugural show on air, July 4, 2007.
(There were a few earlier practice runs in 2007; and the initial experiment began, I recall, in the Fall of 2006, but July 4, 2007, was the official first program. Apparently that first show remains available on archive. At this moment I haven’t tried to access it.)
Ironically, Andy’s last on-air show, as yet not available on-line, was about the future of the Minnesota Orchestra.
He and I shared a passion for the Orchestra as well; in fact, the last time I saw Andy in person was right after the lockout began, October 18, 2012, at the first concert of the locked-out Minnesota Orchestra. He commented at the end of my post about that evening here.
The last comment I have from him was also about the Orchestra situation at September 6, 2013. Scroll down to it here.
There won’t be any flags at half-staff for Andy Driscoll around his city, state and nation. Just people like myself who take a moment to reminisce.
But Andy, and all who labor in their own neighborhoods and communities are the ones who truly make the difference that matters, unsung, and too often unappreciated.
Andy, I note that you and I are the same age.
We’re walking down the same path towards the same destination.
Good traveling with you over these past few years, Andy.

#914 – Dick Bernard: Political Shorthand.

July 21, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, International Relations, Minnesota, Peace & Justice, Politics, War /by dickbernard

It’s near 100 days to the 2014 United States Election (by my count, the actual 100th day is next Sunday. Election is November 4, 2014.)
What will you do, each day, to participate actively in your responsibility as a citizen. It is an important question, each individual needs to answer for him or herself. We get what we deserve….
I’m fairly involved in politics. It is interesting (and often, frustrating). A few examples from the last few days.
Saturday I elected to go to the town hall for my local legislator. It was a nice summer day, and only about a half dozen of us were in attendance. All in the room were men, except the legislator, a woman; depending on one’s point of view, half in the room were “good guys”, half not.
Though I don’t go to all such gatherings, they are always interesting, even though they are predictable. As usual at this one, in attendance was the young guy filming everything. He calls himself a “tracker” for a special interest group that is much more for getting rid of taxes and regulation on business than on its stated goal, “jobs”. The hope, I gather, is to find some ‘sound bites’ for his advocacy group to use against the legislator in later campaign ads.
One well-groomed and dressed young guy, who looked to be college age or not far beyond, complained about “massive tax increases” and companies moving out of the state, and asked that the Minnesota version of the Affordable Care Act be “scrapped” – pretty standard talking points of the right, never supported by any data. What does “massive” mean? I don’t know. Likely he doesn’t either. It is a good, scary word, that’s all.
Even with only six people in the room, there’s no time to waste on debate of a single misleading word, so we moved on.
It was caught on video, of course.
I had to leave after 45 minutes due to another commitment. All was very civil. The legislator, now well experienced in such meetings, handled things very well.
But it was an example of what I would call “Political Shorthand” – saying nothing while suggesting everything: “companies are leaving our state….”)
And I’m speaking about the audience, not the legislator.
The first lesson a lawmaker learns is that we’re a diverse society. Some try to ignore that, at all of our peril.
Media, of course, is a crucial part of American politics.
The previous evening, sitting in my favorite chair, I watched the CBS evening news cover twin tragedies: the disastrous shooting down of a Malaysian Airliner over the Ukraine; and the even worse disaster between somebody and somebody else – let’s say “Israel” and “Hamas”, whoever they are, in terms of making stupid decisions anyway.
It struck me at how casual and comfortable I was, watching news about terrible tragedies taking place a long ways away.
We Americans view war as an abstract sport, though we are very active participants.
CBS was trying, I suppose, to be “fair and balanced”. They chose to focus on one Israeli casualty from the Hamas missiles; and four Palestinian young people killed on a Gaza beach by Israeli fire from a boat. It seemed a rather false equivalence: at the time hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza had already died in the latest round of war; hundreds of Hamas rockets had managed to kill one Israeli.
In the Ukraine, the issue was who was to blame for the near 300 deaths in the airliner in a contested part of the former Soviet Union.
As for Israel/Palestine, there have been, in this single conflict, far more Palestine deaths than the casualty list from the plane. In many ways, Israel is an informal 51st State of the U.S. What is our complicity in the tragedy. And, how do we define the word “our”?
Important.
After the legislators session, I went to my barber, a very good long-time friend, and he was certain about who was to blame for both. We had a good conversation.
Listen for the political and media “shorthand”. It is constant, apparent,
Dad, forever the teacher, would say “two wrongs don’t make a right”, and he’d be correct. But he was talking to kids when he gave that admonition. What about nations dissing each other, and wholesale killing?
It’s near 100 days till the election of 2014. Get on the court, actively, every day, wherever you happen to be.
POSTNOTE: My favorite blogger has a long overnite commentary about the Israel-Palestine situation. Here it is, if you’ve interested.

#912 – Dick Bernard: All-Star Baseball Game Day in Minneapolis

July 15, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, Family History, Minnesota, Quietings /by dickbernard

UPDATE July 16: Here’s how the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports on All Star Day in Minneapolis.
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Champs (see note at end)

Tonight we experience the All-Star Game in the Twin Cities. About the only advantage we have, here, is that there is more “news” on the local media. A privileged few from all over the country will actually get into Target Field to actually see the game (it is an excellent venue, a short walk to downtown Minneapolis). I would suspect the game will be televised. It is hard to predict whether the game will be good or not…it’s a pickup game for ‘stars’.
No knot-hole gang type need look for reduced price admission today. There are no cheap seats.
Today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune had a good commentary on Baseball All-Star games here, past and present. You can read it here.
There have been three All Star games in the Twin Cities since Major League Baseball came to town in 1961: 1965, 1985 and 2014. (History here).
If our record is any indication, in recent history, an All-Star game follows by a few short years the construction of a new Stadium. So we have a long time to wait before the next extravaganza here. (The football Vikings get the Super Bowl in 2018, a reward for building a brand new Stadium now under construction, or so it would seem….) The “reward” for common people is mostly inconvenience.
I have always liked baseball, though I rarely go to games. Baseball is (in my opinion) a very civilized team sport where the reward goes to the team more so than to the star player.
A friend at the coffee shop, an avid golfer, said this morning that baseball is “boring”. To each his (or her) own, then.
Tonight I might watch part of the All Star spectacle, mostly commercials interrupted by occasional action on the field. In the advertising sense, the All-Star game is a minor league Super Bowl. The sport is secondary.
As for me, I’ll take the part of the baseball game I watched yesterday in Woodbury.
Grandkid Ryan, about to turn 15, is in a summer league of high school age kids who’ve not made the varsity cut, but are still interested in playing baseball.
Yesterday I managed to see a good part of their final game of the season, turned out to be for the league championship, and they won, 5-4.
In the group photo, below, Ryan is kneeling at right.
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The League Champs, July 14, 2014

Except for Ryan, I don’t know the bios of the players. One of the kids, afterwards, was saying he’s beginning at the University of Minnesota in September. I know another kid, Ryan’s friend, was absent from this game due to illness. They all seemed to be decent, motivated, team-oriented kids.
This bunch started the season as average and ordinary (among their peers), but won their last five, then four straight in the playoffs, earning their trophies.
After the game, one of those old time sayings rattled around in my brain: “it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game”.
It seemed to fit what I had just witnessed.
I decided to seek the quotation out on the internet. Best as I can determine the author was the famous sports-writer Grantland Rice, who had borrowed it from some ancient similar quotation, and first used it about 1927.
These days in our society, everything seems to be about winning. Period.
It’s nice to see some kids just playing the game.
POSTNOTE: There’s some proud parents going with the kids in the photo at the beginning of this post. These 12 year olds from KMS (Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg MN) won a tourney at Chanhassen in late spring. They are a good working group, I’m told.
Teamwork is the essence of positive competition.

#911 – Dick Bernard: Those "illegal" children: whipping up the hysteria.

July 12, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, History, Immigration, International Relations, Media, President Obama /by dickbernard

The below letter of mine, published in the July 9, 2014, Woodbury Bulletin seems to fit todays post about the so-called crisis at the Mexico border. My letter was about war versus peace; the letter to which I refer in my letter was about revulsion towards a certain flag that represented “utopian” ideals. No matter, it all basically is the same story: fear and hate sells easily with predictably negative results.
(click to enlarge)

Letter to Editor, July 9, 2014, Woodbury MN Bulletin

The past week I spent most of my time out of sight of the internet and even newspapers and other media. I was 310 miles away in North Dakota: I’ve been to the ancestral farm many times in recent months, many more trips to come. As I’ve come to say, frequently, I can’t make the 310 miles (5 1/2 hours at my pace via freeway) any shorter. It is as it is.
I arrive at both ends, tired.
Enter the latest fear and hate issue: “illegals” pouring across our precious border with Mexico, but they’re not even Mexicans this time.
The recent news narrative, near hysterical in some quarters, has been the seeming flood of children from certain distant Central American countries. Were the scenario not so tragic – four year olds and younger (and older youngsters, too) facing immediate deportation, and apprehension by latter day militia at the border – it would be so absurd as to be amusing: hordes of children racing hundreds of miles across an entire country to the sacred destination of the United States of America.
I believe the real story in this case is hidden behind the reported story. I certainly don’t know the facts; but neither do the hysterical ones.
In my college years I was very much into geography, and out of these came a desire to seek a bit of context.
So in this case, children apparently traveling from places like El Salvador and Honduras to U.S. border states, it seemed useful to do a sketch map, using as base a page from my 1961 Life Pictorial Atlas of the World. (I added the map of Minnesota, simply to get an idea of scale).

Adaptation of an old map to show relative scale of Central America to Minnesota. 1961 maps

Minnesota, north to south, is just over 400 miles, 90 miles further than I travel to North Dakota.
For these poor families coming north through Mexico has to be a daunting trip of its own. I am not prepared to believe any story about how they were convinced to leave and came to take a trip with a certain unhappy ending.
There are elements of this story that literally smell of “false flag” – a situation set up by unknown parties designed to make a problem, then confuse and inflame emotions over immigration reform efforts in the United States. Some in Congress say that $2.7 billion is too pricey to emergency fund the agencies that have to deal with the refugees. Some quick arithmetic reveals that comes out to about $9 per American.
Yet we can spend trillions (three more zeroes than a billion) to war on Iraq and Afghanistan, and not bat an eye.
One will need very hard evidence to convince me that someone with impure motives is neither funding nor encouraging illegal immigration of mostly young people to whip up the fear (hate) in far too many people north of the border in the U.S. just in time for the 2014 elections. Add in President Obama (considered the deporter-in-chief by some) and this reeks of political motivation, in other words. NO, I can’t prove it. But it is as strong a possibility of any other theory advanced by anyone.
Whipping Americans into a frenzy is nothing new, of course. Think of 9-11-2001 for starters.
The poor people who were the cast of characters for John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” were not met with open arms when they entered California during the Dust Bowl. We banished Native Americans to the left over lands with hardly a tear; starving Irish arrived in the U.S. to less than a warm welcome.
There are endless stories.
Some, like our response to 9-11-01, solved nothing. 9-11’s cost short and long term is measured in the trillions of dollars, and this doesn’t even include loss of Americans and those in other countries which far exceeded the number of casualties during 9-11. After 9-11 we engaged in an endless war with no “win” at the end, except in the minds of certain folks defending their stupid decisions back then.
As I said, a 310 mile drive is no cakewalk, even on a freeway in an air conditioned vehicle.
Believe the narratives about the children from Central America invading the U.S. if you wish.
There is a much larger story behind this tragic migration, I submit.
PS: I predict that this latest issue will magically disappear after the 2014 election, and simply be replaced by some other outrage of choice afterwards; and perhaps be ginned up again in time for 2016.
A common sense suggestion: ignore the certain propaganda.

#910 – Dick Bernard: Prairie Home Companion at 40 – Chapter 2

July 5, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, History, Media, Minnesota, Peace & Justice, Quietings /by dickbernard

I wrote yesterday about my personal “history” with Prairie Home Companion; then I spent four hours at Macalester, and added a few photos of the event to the post. You can see it all here.
There is a temptation to go back today…and tomorrow as well. But there’ll be plenty of other folks there, and I’ve spread the word about the richness of the day to my small circle, and hopefully there’ll be throngs this afternoon and tomorrow at the event.
The relevant photos from yesterday are in yesterdays post. I did note Garrison’s long-time “trademark” (a little worn, a lady next to me said), and an older couple, obviously fans, who are “copy cats”. The two photos are below, and need no further explanation for those who are fans. (Hats off to Garrison on his shoes, from one who believes “old” and “comfortable” are synonyms.)
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Garrison Keillor July 4, 2014

Keillor fans July 4, 2014

I’ll listen to PHC on the radio tonight – first time I’ve done that in a long time.
But I lived the show at Macalester, yesterday. It is odd how things come together: seeing assorted folks I didn’t even know were Keillor fans; seeing others who knew people I did. A little chatting goes a long way, some time.
One lady and I got to the Chapel 45 minutes before Keillor and Company were to perform, both of us intent on front row seats (which we secured). She said they had gone to see PHC at some town along I-94, but she didn’t remember the town. Some hours later I ran into long-time friends from Anoka who’d been at the same place as I, and they said they’d gone out to see Garrison perform at Avon MN (on I-94). Aha, Brenda, if you’re reading. That is the place!
Some guy from Lanesboro asked a question about an almost cancelled outdoor performance there, and Garrison answered immediately. Later, buying the commemorative t-shirt and cap, the guy in the booth said they very nearly had to cancel a recent outdoor event at Ravinia OH for the same reason: threatening weather.
I’ve come to be around Garrison a number of times over the years. He is a contradiction: he is remote, but get him started on a story, and off he goes. They don’t invest a lot of time in formal rehearsals, I gathered. He observed that many of his musicians were really good actors as well, until they had to rehearse their lines, and the spontaneity went down the tube.
Yesterday, I dug out my modest Garrison Keillor file, and today I looked through it. It yielded some interesting morsels, most significant of which is a publication few but Garrison Keillor himself know exist.
Back in the late 1980s I had reason to spend some time in the musty “tombs” of the Walter Library on the main campus of the UofMinnesota. I was researching something very specific that required me to go into old archival boxes in the bowels of that historical library.
By then I was a real fan of Keillor, and I had read that he was, about 1965, the editor of the campus literary magazine, the Ivory Tower.
So, on a side trip, I discovered down there, in another place, two articles, both about Hockey at the UofM, from February 1 and April 5, 1965, issues of Ivory Tower. I photocopied them, and here they are, with acknowledgement: Keillor Ivory Tower 1965001 WARNING: If the words “Hockey”, “Doug Woog”, “John Mariucci”, and “UofM versus University of North Dakota at Grand Forks” ring your chimes, be prepared to read the 14 pages behind the link….
The little file was a brief story of the life of a relationship – Keillor with his show and his town, St. Paul. The June 1987 Minnesota Monthly devoted 124 pages as a Collectors Edition “Farewell to A Prairie Home Companion”. This was only 13 years into the run, but that was Garrison’s mid-life crisis.
The January 2000 Northwest Airlines World Traveler cover story on some air trip I took was “Garrison Keillor, America’s Storyteller”.
In February, 2001, our friend in London sent a long Review, “In search of Wobegon”, in The Sunday Telegraph. The June 28 and August 7, 2005, Minneapolis Star Tribunes had long articles about the upcoming Prairie Home movie directed by Robert Altman.
June 27 and July 4, 1999, the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Minneapolis Star Tribune had long articles on the 25th anniversaries of Prairie Home Companion.
I just re-looked at the articles, and the thought came to mind that I had in that old file folder was something of a history of a relationship that could fit most anyone, not just Garrison Keillor.
Spats, separations, celebrations, misinterpretations, and everything that goes along with couples everywhere.
Even the 40th anniversary is significant. By 40 years, there is some quiet acknowledgement that 50 years is quite a long ways off, and things have a way of happening, so why not find an excuse for a party!?
Garrison acknowledged as much in that rich hour we spent with him yesterday. I can only paraphrase, but in talking about the future he said he wasn’t much looking at ten years ahead. He’d seen politicians who stayed in office long past their time, and it wasn’t pretty….
Garrison, I’m glad to be in your neighborhood.
And Monday, when once again we drive west on I-94, and pass St. Cloud, St. Johns, Freeport, and Avon and all the rest of the places that helped give birth to Lake Wobegon (not to mention Anoka!), I’ll have occasion to smile.
Thanks for the memories.

#909 – Dick Bernard: Garrison Keillor and Prairie Home Companion at 40.

July 3, 2014/1 Comment/in Community, Media, Minnesota, Quietings /by dickbernard

UPDATE July 5, here.
There are big doings at Macalester College in St. Paul this weekend, celebrating 40 years of Garrison Keillor and Prairie Home Companion (PHC).
The St. Paul Pioneer Press (last Sunday) and Minneapolis Star Tribune (yesterday) had long articles about the anniversary. You can read them here and here.
Thanks to my friends, Laura and Don, I learned about and first attended Prairie Home Companion in the fall of 1977, probably at Macalester, though I’m not positive of that. That program and all others had a standard formula in those early years. Those were the years when you could walk in off the street and find plenty of good enough seating. Nothing fancy, but plenty good enough.
A year or two later our teacher’s association in Anoka-Hennepin School District hired the Powder Milk Biscuit Band, more or less the house band for PHC, to do a dance in Anoka. I wish I had photos.
It was a very fun evening.
In late April, 1979, I had gone to St. John’s University for the then-annual Swayed Pines Festival (ditto, thanks to Laura and Don). By then I knew what Garrison Keillor looked like, and a la Paparazzi, I got a candid photo of this long, lanky, bearded fellow walking quickly across the street.
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Garrison Keillor, late April, 1979, at St. John’s University, Collegeville MN, Swayed Pines Festival.

There was nothing particularly impressive about this tall drink of water with too short pants. But Garrison Keillor was in the process of making his mark, and I’m proud I could witness some parts of it, going quite frequently to PHC until national exposure made it difficult to impossible to get tickets.
My Keillor file has lot of paper in it, including two wonderful articles he wrote about hockey when he edited the literary magazine at the University of Minnesota in 1965. Some of his books are in my shelves. For me, Garrison Keillor has been an easy guy to like. I’m glad I “met” him through his show.
In April, 1986, I was in the audience when country music legend Chet Atkins was guest at the then dowdy World Theatre. It was a thrilling evening. I saw two or three of the annual Joke shows, and on one memorable occasion the assigned seat was on the stage, behind the performing cast.
Yes, we knew the formula, but every appearance was a surprise. Sometime in 1982-83, I heard that Garrison would be at the University of Minnesota Law School. He had all of us mesmerized with his story about some otherwise mundane event in the lives of the people of Lake Wobegon. The memories go on and on….
I think the events at Macalester this weekend will be awesome and memorable. Hopefully I can witness some of the free ones; PHC itself, always Saturday night, has long been sold out. Listen in on your local National Public Radio station. Wander over yourself, if you happen to be in the area, but take the bus – there are free tickets (see link at beginning of this post.)
I note that I did another column about Garrison in 2011. Here it is.
Here’s my most recent photo of Garrison Keillor.

Garrison Keillor and friends, July 16, 2012, Lake Elmo MN

COMMENTS: (see also response to this post)
from Norm N: Thanks for the Garrison piece. One of my favorites that I just had to search out and have the words was
his Class Warfare song.
from Mary M: I recently met a lawyer from New Zealand who was a real fan of Garrison Keillor and Prairie Home companion – always impressed with these small world scenarios.
from Laura S: Oh, thank you, Dick! Such fond memories…and I still listen to Garrison’s radio program!
Some photos after three hours at the Macalester Festival, Friday morning/early afternoon at Macalester. These were three of the nine available sessions I could have attended.
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from left: Fred Newman (sound effects man); Tim Russell. voice impersonator; Sue Scott, and Garrison Keillor did a full hour show featuring characters from Prairie Home Companion.

in background, at right, Dan Chouinard expertly provided the stage music (or whatever the background music for performers is called!)

Young girl was one of many youngsters entranced by Fred Newmans ability to make odd sounds, and make them sound real.

Dan Chouinard and Prudence Johnson gave a great program. Dan was also the background music for Keillor and the Royal Academy of Radio Actors (above).

Maria Jette and Dan Chouinard, like the others, gave a fabulous program