#307 – Dick Bernard: Jackie, reflecting at a moment 50 years later

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January 2 I was going through a box of old papers and came across a somewhat ragged green high school folder kept by my first wife, Barbara.
Leafing through the contents I came across an envelope whose cover and contents need no embellishment (click on the photo to enlarge it).

I don’t know the history of this little card: Barbara died in 1965 and her fatal illness preoccupied our two years together.
I was a college senior during JFK’s first year in office, and it was in 1961 that Barbara graduated from Valley City (ND) High School.
The card, with raised lettering, was certainly not a unique personally signed note from the First Lady; on the other hand, I highly doubt such a message went to every high school graduate in the land that particular year. There is a story, exactly what I’m not sure, but there is a story….
It is now 50 years from that hopeful time of 1961.
Those were not necessarily the best of times. John Kennedy barely won election, facing bitterness from many quarters – politics has always been a sordid affair. During JFK’s term, In October, 1962, I was in the Army during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was one month out of the Army, teaching school, when JFK was assassinated Nov. 22, 1963, etc.
But those brief Kennedy years were times of hope and of optimism and of a certain civility in the political conversation. Not long ago a speaker reminded us that Kennedy’s Peace Corps was the Kennedy administration followup on an idea of MN Sen. Hubert Humphrey…. I have good memories of President Eisenhower.
Fast forward fifty years:
Yesterday began the terms of a new Congress, and a new State legislature in Minnesota.
It is hard to see a repeat of those hopeful “ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country“.
But one can hope.
But if there is to be hope, it needs to be accompanied by individual and group action. At the website built as a tribute to two friends, Lynn Elling and Joe Schwartzberg, who chose to make a difference in their world, are two quotes, of Margaret Mead and Gandhi, which merit reflection. Take a look…they’re easily found at the beginning and the end of the page.
Happy New Year!

#302 – Dick Bernard: Christmas Eve, a story of winter in rural Minnesota

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Yesterday, on my daily walk, I came across a guy who, I thought, was acting strangely.
He had a shovel, and was on the right side of the street, taking a clod of snow out of the abundant snowbank there. Then, oddly, he carried the clod across to the left side of the street, and returned to repeat the process.
Being curious, I asked “why?”
Quite matter-of-factly the young man said “I’m building a snow fort for my daughter”.
Oh….

Show Fort on a suburban street


Such it is at the season where we seem to have a great abundance of White Christmas – 6″ more by our house again this morning.
I just walked by the man’s house again, and there it was, a snow fort. As kids interest span goes, there probably was a flurry of activity at the fort yesterday; today it’s on to other things. But it was a nice piece of “Christmas”.
Maybe because it’s cold up here, and indoors is more a normal state of affairs this time of year, thoughts turn quite easily to reminiscing, especially as one moves on in years.
I could build on the snow fort story with my own recollections in long ago North Dakota; or I could reprint a Grandpa story sent to me by a friend, himself a Grandpa, with this years Christmas card.
Rather, I’d like to offer a more lengthy story, shared by a Minnesota French-Canadian in the winter of 1996, in a newsletter I was then editing called Chez Nous. The story link is Lowell Mercil – Winter 001 . Most recently I included it as part of a family history book I’ve written about my father’s family and their 400 year history in North America.
It’s about 7 pages, so take your time. But you’ll enjoy the trip back in time to, perhaps, the 1930s in northwestern Minnesota near Crookston and Gentilly.
All best wishes.

#301 – Dick Bernard: At the Post Office, Wishing a Merry Christmas; at home, a Happy New Year ahead?

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Wednesday, December 15, we attended Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis…
Friday morning December 17 I was at the Post Office early, the better to beat the rush.
Even given the good timing, there were still a dozen or more of us in line, with one postal worker on station (two stations vacant).
We were a quiet bunch, and I struck up a conversation with the guy behind me, who identified himself as working in a lab for a major corporation. Nice guy.
The small talk drifted to snow removal after the blizzard the previous weekend. Minneapolis and St. Paul were still not dug out. I commented that the cities were already suffering budget problems due to the amounts of snow thus far, and it could really be a problem later.
The guy responded with the mantra: “there isn’t a revenue problem, there’s a spending problem” and dragged in the entire state and federal budget. We didn’t go further. My guess, though, is that he knew about as much about the complexities of the state and federal budgets as I knew about his lab job: nothing. As a taxpayer, he had a right to complain, whether or not his complaint made sense, or if he any data to go on beyond somebody’s talking points.
The line continued to move at a normal rate (I’m a regular there. I know).
A woman a few folks behind me loudly complained to the postal worker behind the counter about those other counters with no postal workers behind them. Get workers out here – now. The obvious inference was that there were supposed to be people out there but they were likely gold-bricking on company time. She, the customer, was in a hurry and didn’t want to wait.
The counter lady likely had heard this complaint before. “They’re back helping sort mail for the route carriers“, she said, quietly.
The rest of us just continued quietly waiting our turn. As I’ve come to expect over many times in the line, my/our wait was perhaps 15-20 minutes max. It SEEMS longer if you think about it. Left to its own devices, the line moves at a regular pace.
The next day found me back at the post office once again. This time I was in another line waiting for the automated postal device where you can process your own items and pay by credit card.
This time the lady at the front of the line offered, grumpily, that she didn’t like the grumpy people at the counters so she came to the machine. I know this post office well. The lady was grumpier than the grumpiest counter person on his or her last nerve facing an unreasonable customer. I’ve watched postal workers at work. I know.
It takes all kinds. If there’s a grumpy quotient, it’s more likely some unreasonable customer demanding service that cannot be instantly provided.
A couple days later, back at the post office one more time: the postal worker helping me was a bit upset. Apparently, not long before I’d joined the queue, someone in line had collapsed and, he thought, had possibly died. He was concerned about this unknown woman – he guessed she was in her mid-30s. He just didn’t know. [UPDATE Dec. 24: the woman did die.]
I suppose in the three postal visits I describe I was in the company of 30-40 of my fellow citizens in my town.
A couple of the folks were downright unreasonable, but the rest were just people, understanding that we were all in a small community and that service took time, and that even the post office might be trying to do things right.
Even with all the ample insanity that passes for public political conversation these days maybe, not so deep down, as a whole we are okay as a society. But we’re too timid.
To have a Happy New Year we need to get far more engaged in the politics that determines what kind of society we are going to be part of.
In the New Year we’ll have a chance to witness in our government, state and national, the ascendance of the politics of anger. Watch out.
Happy New Year.
… In the Guthrie audience with us was my wife’s son and 6th grade grandson. Her son is basically unemployed, working a part-time job which is by no stretch adequate.
I’ve seen A Christmas Carol before, at the Guthrie.
This year I tended to see our American society as akin to good old Ebenezer Scrooge. While we suffer from high unemployment, 90% of the work force is employed; most retired people like myself are doing very well indeed (you don’t go to the Guthrie for nothing these days). Compared to the so-called Third World, even our poor citizens are well off financially.
Still there is a Scrooge-like tendency that we have: while we consider ourselves a very generous people, we are very stingy when it comes to letting loose of what we consider to be ‘our’ goodies.
The next day, my wife asked my grandson what part of the performance he liked the best. “Christmas Present“, he said without hesitation.
Perhaps we should pay a bit more attention to “Christmas Future”, which is what caught Ebenezer Scrooge’s attention….

#300 – Dick Bernard: The "War" of the Season

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Today is the Winter Solstice, this one especially unique because of the total lunar eclipse which last happened on this solstice in 1638, three years after my first French-Canadian ancestors, Jean Cote and Anne Martin, married at Quebec City November 15, 1635. One can wonder if they watched that eclipse, and wondered what it meant….
Fast forward 372 years, this morning at my coffee spot the every Tuesday Bible Study group at the next table was chatting about this and that, and the resident old guy at the table got into the Christmas Cheer topic: “if someone wishes me Happy Holidays, I wish them a Blessed Christmas back“, he loudly said.
None of this “Happy Holidays” stuff.
We are a pluralistic society, which is troubling to some who seem to have the desire to take over the Meaning of Christmas as solely a Christian observance, and more specifically, a Christian observance as interpreted by their own denomination.
It can get rather confusing.
At the local post office, I could buy, this year, seven varieties of ‘holiday’ stamps: Evergreen (representing the natural world, I suppose); Angel with Lute; miscellaneous holiday – snowman and such; Madonna and Child; Kwanzaa, Eid, Hanukkah. When I got around to buying stamps they were down to Evergreen and Angel with Lute, so that’s what I got. I was planning to buy a book of each. I am sure someone is analyzing the statistics of how many of each were purchased this year; and I am sure there have been numerous and earnest committee meetings within the post office, and assorted other interests, to lobby to get rid of certain designs, or to add others. In its way the U.S. Postal Service accurately defines This Season In Which We Are Now In The Midst.
All of the observances represented by those stamps are clumped around the winter solstice for a reason. The history of each can be easily researched.
I happen to have spent my entire life within one Christian denomination, so the Christian observance of Christmas is my tradition. But many, perhaps most, of the people I know do not share my specific tradition, and they deserve equal respect for their own view of this time of year.
A recent New York Times column, and the responses to it, frame the issues pretty well: here and here. Prepare for a long and interesting read.
I close with a winter solstice poem sent to me by someone I know as a Christian….
THE SHORTEST DAY
Susan Cooper
So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us – Listen!!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, fest, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!!
As Tiny Tim so immortally says in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, “God bless us, everyone“.
Happy Holidays.

#298 – Dick Bernard: No One is an Island: Remembering at Christmas, 2010, an untimely death, and expressing a thousand "thank you's"

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UPDATE: This link was put together by Larry Gauper, a classmate and friend of Barbara during Valley City High School 1957-61: Barbara Sunde Bernard_12_13_2010-3.
Peace and all best wishes for a wonderful Christmas Season and a Happy New Year in 2011. If you wish to participate in a meaningful remembrance this season, note my post at this blog for December 16.

1913 Christmas Card


Every year since 1977 I have crafted my own Christmas Card. Each year, something ‘catches’ me and becomes the focus for that year.
This years message is about “community” and how it entered three lives, years ago. My message has a history, literally, which began for me about 49 years ago, and which began again in November, 2007, when I dropped off some materials at the Fargo (ND) Forum about my brother-in-law Mike, who died Nov. 7, 2007, in a Fargo hospital. Larry Gauper of Fargo ND picked up the story in November, 2010, culminating in a blog post about his friend and Valley City ND High School classmate, Mike’s sister Barbara, who was my first wife. His post is entitled “Remembering a classmate and friend.” I became a close collaborator in Larry’s project.
Barbara and I were married slightly over two years, till she died of kidney disease at University of Minnesota Hospital July 24, 1965.
Barbara was desperately and, it turned out, likely terminally ill during our entire marriage. We married when I was 23 and she 20; at age 22 she was dead, leaving behind a son age 1 1/2, and a stunned family. Neither of us had any idea, when we were dating, then married, that our “Ken and Barby” (as Larry described us) view of the future would have no chance of being fulfilled.
Innumerable people have experienced what Barbara and I did so many years ago. We were not unique.
I can imagine our experience as analogous to being caught in a whirlpool and desperately trying to escape. Everything was supposed to be normal, but nothing was…. It takes a while, but sooner or later you know that you’re just not going to escape.
Barbara died in an intensive care bed at the University of Minnesota Hospital, on the 8th floor if I remember correctly.
Here’s where the “thousand ‘thank you’s” enter the picture.
The unplanned re-visiting of events of over 45 years ago had an unexpected impact on me.
I began to think of all of the people who in one way or another participated in helping us get through those very confusing and difficult days of 1963-65.
At one point, I thought of trying to list everyone, here. But I dropped the idea: there are far too many, and besides, I would forget some who richly deserved thanks. A great many of them have long ago passed on themselves; many have disappeared from my radar – moved, etc. There are large numbers of them whose name I never knew, or who I never even met. All of these are the “thousand” I refer to in the subject line.
We never did have an opportunity to thank them at the time. I doubt we thought about it – we were trying to survive, after all, and expressing gratitude is a luxury not readily available to those in constant stress.
So, here’s an attempt to at least thank those who were there when we needed them. While we tried to survive, they offered us endless varieties of helping hands.
In no particular order:
Our families and friends, yes, especially those who kept Barbara ‘under their wing’ in the hardest times. Thank you.
Babysitters who took care of our son, Tom, when Barbara couldn’t, and I was working. Thank you.
Work colleagues, school administrators, landlords, legions of medical staff in many clinics and hospitals. Thank you.
Marion and Louis Smart, then of 1615 S. Ferry, Anoka MN, who took Tom and I in the tough first year after Barbara died, and who I’ll likely again hear from this Christmas. Tom’s crib in their home was his ‘manger’ in 1965-66! Thank you.
To Mitsy Polman, then of Spring Lake Park MN, who, the following year, babysat Tom along with raising her own kids. Many years ago Polman’s moved. I don’t know where. Thank you.
To Irbers, who were very often a life raft for me in the toughest of tough times. Thank you.
The greater community, represented by the Hospitals and Clinics who took Barbara on as a patient, even though they knew we had no insurance and would likely never be able to pay the bill. Thank you.
To North Dakota Public Welfare, who paid most of the discounted cost for Barbara’s 58 final days as a patient at University Hospital in Minneapolis. Thank you.
Extraordinary special thanks to those who lent a helping hand, small or large, even if there was no reason to extend that hand.
I would wish on no one what we went through, especially what Barbara went through. On the other hand, one gets a new appreciation of what that little word “community” really means. It is ALL of us, whoever we are or wherever we live.
Thank you all. What little I can give back, I will.
Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year in 2011.

Tom and Dick Bernard, November, 1965, Minnehaha Park, Minneapolis MN


Footnote: The first paragraph of this writing refers to my post for December 16, which in turn refers to a memorial on the first anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. At our first committee meeting, one of the members suggested as a central piece of text John Donne’s Meditation XVII, commonly known as “No man is an island”. It seems to fit particularly well with this reflection.

#297 – Dick Bernard: Bells for Haiti, January 12, 2011

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UPDATE JANUARY 12, 2011:
My post for today re Haiti.
January 10, 2011 post on Haiti
UPDATE JANUARY 11, 2011:
Twin Cities focus News Release
for the Bells for Haiti Committee:
Honoring Haiti, One Year Later:
Bells to Sound Across Minnesota on Wednesday, January 12th
City Halls, Churches, and Schools to Toll their Bells at 3:53 PM: Honoring Lives Lost in Haiti—and Recognizing Minnesotans who Helped
Contact: Therese Gales, American Refugee Committee
tel 612-221-5161; ThereseG@archq.org
Minneapolis, MN (January 11, 2011)—One year after a massive earthquake devastated Haiti, churches, schools, universities, and city halls across Minnesota will toll their bells in unison on the one-year anniversary of the earthquake—Wednesday, January 12, 2011, at 3:53 PM CST—for 35 seconds, the duration of the Haiti quake.
The Bells for Haiti initiative—started by an ad hoc group of Haiti advocates from Minnesota—has garnered participation from around the country and Haiti. With support of Mayors Chris Coleman and R.T. Rybak and the Archdiocese of Minneapolis / St Paul, churches and schools in communities both small and large throughout Minnesota will toll their bells. Some participants include: Minneapolis City Hall, the Cathedral of St Paul, Luther Seminary, St Mark’s Episcopal, the Basilica of St Mary, Hamline University, St Olaf College— as well as small communities like the Visitation Monastery in north Minneapolis which is home to six Visitation sisters. Trinity Lutheran Church in Hovland, MN, on Minnesota’s North Shore is participating—the bells are caked in ice and snow today…if the church bells are unusable tomorrow, participants will bring their own bells to toll. Communities in Oregon, Chicago, Vermont, Florida, and Haiti are also participating. A full list of participants can be accessed here.
“In just 35 seconds, thousands of people in Haiti lost everything,” said Jacqueline Regis, a Haitian-American attorney and author who is also a member of the group organizing the “Bells for Haiti” effort. “Through Bells for Haiti, we want to bring people together a year after the quake to honor those who lost their lives, recognize the millions of people who still struggle to find hope—and also recognize people from all across Minnesota who stepped forward to help the people of Haiti.”
The earthquake took the lives of 250,000 people and left more than 1.3 million people homeless. A hurricane and cholera outbreak have also worsened the situation. At the same time, thousands of Minnesotans—concerned parents, doctors, school children, architects, teachers, nurses, and many more—stepped forward to help.
“We want Bells for Haiti to be a reminder—that we are stronger together than we are alone,” added Regis. “We want to tell the world that we remember… and will not forget.”
The Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network and the Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers are co-sponsoring the Bells for Haiti effort.
EVENTS
Two Twin Cities community events are known, which relate directly to Bells for Haiti:
Wednesday evening, Jan 12, at 6:30 p.m., a simple rice and bean memorial dinner will be offered at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 46th and Colfax Ave S in Minneapolis. The dinner will be followed by a memorial service at 7:30 p.m. All are welcome.
Thursday evening, 7 p.m., Ruth Anne Olson will read from her book Images of Haiti: Stories of Strength. The reading is at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 1917 Logan Avenue South Minneapolis (north end of Lake of the Isles.)
UPDATE JANUARY 7, 2011: Interest/Momentum is building. Note Facebook entry. Please share with others you know who may have an interest.
UPDATE JANUARY 5, 2011:
A general news release describing Bells for Haiti which can be adapted for use anywhere is accessible here.
Visit the Bells for Haiti Facebook page, here.
 Map comparing size of Minnesota and Haiti here.
Nearly a year ago, January 12, 2010, at 4:53 p.m. Haiti time, indescribable horror descended on Port-au-Prince and the mountains south of Haiti. Estimates vary, but as many as 300,000 lives were lost, and more than 1.3 million were, in an instant, left without homes. Government buildings, including the iconic Presidential Palace, were destroyed.
The catastrophe followed a season with four tropical storms which devastated Haiti in 2008; and was succeeded by a Cholera outbreak still raging.
Haitians are an indomitably hopeful people, impossible to defeat. But the events of the past eleven months can seem almost insurmountable.
After the quake, on April 26, 2010, 35 individuals representing 25 organizations with long term interest in assisting Haiti met in a Minneapolis church.
The sole purpose of the meeting was to begin to get to know each other.
Out of that initial event came a simple e-mail contact list. It was agreed to call the group KONBIT-MN/HAITI, essentially, a group whose sole purpose is to keep the conversation going between groups of diverse interests. Konbit-MN/Haiti has no meetings, no Bylaws, no Dues, no Fund Raising. Some would say that means it has no purpose, either. Why “Konbit” (pronounced “cone beet”)? The Kreyol definition Here.
It is through the idea of one member of KONBIT-MN/HAITI, and the joint effort of a working group of a dozen members of the alliance, that an idea, Bells for Haiti, came forth for remembering in some significant way the one year anniversary of the devastating Haiti earthquake, January 12, 2010.
“Bells for Haiti, January 12, 2011” is now on the web. Fliers in English and Kreyol are below. Click on either flier to enlarge it.


The details as now known are on a Facebook events page, where individuals including you, the reader, are invited to not only indicate your attendance at this virtual event, but also to help make others aware of the event wherever they live. The guest list is beginning to build, and with your help it can build exponentially over the next 28 days.
The Konbit Committee realizes that not every gathering place has bells. There is room for virtual bells; there is room for 33* seconds of silence at church services and other gatherings in the days immediately preceding January 12. Etc.
Different cultures have different traditions. For example, in Haiti an alternative may be beating on pans, bot teneb (defeat darkness). Individual groups can plan their own activities to mark January 12.
But the essential idea is call attention to an anniversary of an awful event in Haiti, and at the same time, enroll the entire community of humankind in working together for our mutual betterment as a world society that cares for each other.
You and/or your group are invited to join with KONBIT-MN/HAITI wherever you live, whatever you do.
Make the 33 seconds on January 12 a personal call to action for yourself.
KONBIT-MN/HAITI IS THE ORIGINATING GROUP FOR THIS ACTIVITY.
THE GROUPS REPRESENTED BY 39 PERSONS ON KONBIT-MN/HAITI. Listing of an organization does not constitute an endorsement by that group of this activity, even though the representatives of Konbit are in agreement with this activity. Other groups are invited to join KONBIT-MN/HAITI. Simply respond to the author of this post (see about page for e-address)
Annunciation Catholic Church, Minneapolis; American Refugee Committee; Basilica of St. Mary, Minneapolis;Church of the Risen Savior, Burnsville MN; COFHED (Christian Operation for Health, Education and Development); El Milagro Lutheran Church, St. Paul; Fonkoze; Haiti Justice Alliance, Northfield MN; Haiti Justice Committee, Minneapolis; Haiti Outreach; Healing Hands for Haiti; Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church, Minneapolis; Messiah Episcopal Church, Minneapolis, No Time for Poverty; Rotary International “City of Lakes” Club, Minneapolis; St. Albans Episcopal Church, Minneapolis; St. Clements Episcopal Church, Minneapolis; St. James Episcopal Church, Minneapolis; St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church, St. Louis Park, MN; St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church, Maple Grove MN; St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Minneapolis; St. Matthews Episcopal Church, Minneapolis; Spare Hands for Haiti; World Wide Village.
Other initial endorsers (co-sponsors) of this activity:
Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN)
Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers (MAP)
* – Estimates vary on the duration of the initial shock in the earthquake: 33 seconds is one estimate; 35-40 is another…whatever the actual duration, the devastation happened in hardly more than an instant.

#296 – Dick Bernard: the Metrodome vs the Blizzard (it lost)

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UPDATE JANUARY 13: Minneapolis Star Tribune front page article, etc.
Enroute to church this morning I passed within blocks, as always, the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis. It usually stands out when viewed from Interstate 94, but today it was hard to pick it out: overnight the roof collapsed from the weight of the snow from yesterday’s blizzard. The absence of a roof made it hard to see.
At church, my fellow-usher friend commented that the Dome was just expressing its feelings, let-down that today’s game had been postponed. If so, it must now be downright depressed. The game has been moved to Detroit tomorrow night. That’ll show the Grand Dame of the Twin Cities.
I don’t know how the Dome is insured against such calamities. There are often clauses which in one way or another consider “acts of God”, of which weather is one of the obvious ones.
So, why did God pick on the Dome? (It’s a fair question, because people are constantly suggesting God’s intercession, a preference or disgust for this or that; that God’ll get you, or got you, because you weren’t listening.)
Perhaps, I thought, God was cutting Bret Favre some slack, allowing him one more day to heal so that his game-starting streak could remain intact. Maybe the intent was to lobby the Minnesota legislature: you folks need to give those Vikings new digs…or maybe it was the opposite “so, you want a new stadium without a roof. See what will happen?” (As I write, Chicago and New England are having a snowball fight in their game.)
Full disclosure: I have very little investment in professional sports, interest or otherwise. Till yesterday, when the Giants were stranded in Kansas City, unable to get to Minneapolis, I didn’t even realize there was a game here. Still, pro sports is a roost-ruler in this and many other markets.
Pro-sports is a big business, that is all that it is.
The Metrodome, unsightly and elderly as it is, has been a very functional place since its completion 28 years ago, in 1982. There is an interesting history of the structure here. It was completed on time, and under budget – something unheard of even then. I took a ten year old to a game early in the first season at the Dome. I recall the night vividly: there were four home runs in the first inning. What a start.
Now it is in tatters, till stitched back together.
Those with an interest in a new stadium – or not – are already talking about how to ‘spin’ this spectacular incident earlier today. Talking points are being developed ‘as we speak’.

#283 – Dick Bernard: A simple and positive idea, Holiday Greetings to those who may not otherwise receive them.

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A great friend clued me in on a project a friend of hers was doing: to deliver 1000 greeting cards to military service persons, their families or veterans. It has a deadline of December 10, 2010, and the details are here.

Early 1900s Christmas Card


I bought in on the project and it was simple process to complete 50 cards for the project. We had unused cards from previous Holiday seasons, and it was simple enough to find cards that were not overly focused on one religious tradition or another. I chose to identify myself as a US Army veteran because that is what I am. I was in the service in 1962-63, nearly 50 years ago, in an infantry company.
Back then, as Company Clerk, I was well aware of the fact that when mail call came, there were always colleague GIs who didn’t get any mail at all. Some never got any mail. There is something unfortunate about feeling left out when (it seems) everybody in the unit is getting mail but you. This feeling intensifies when you’re a long way from home and you’re missing a major holiday.
The folks with this project have very simple rules: no inserts, personal messages, mailing addresses – that sort of thing.
The rules make sense…and they make the project even simpler. I simply offered “all best wishes, in peace” and that was that.
Dig out those leftover cards, complete as many as you care to, and send them in within the next week. They cannot be sealed, and the fold has to be inside so that the cards can be easily inspected for content.
If this particular idea doesn’t intrigue you, replicate the idea in some other way this intense season of the year.
Whatever your tradition, or your personal feelings about this season, I’d recommend this as a worthwhile project.

Christmas postcard from December, 1913


My story about those long ago postcards, two of which appear above is here.

#281 – Dick Bernard: "A Red Sky at Morning…." Thoughts at Thanksgiving 2010

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Last Friday morning in Salt Lake City we were treated to a vivid sunrise over downtown. It was a magnificent vista, even if spoiled by some cars in the parking lot and a nearby sandwich shop.
I stepped out on our hotel balcony, and took two photos:

Salt Lake City UT early morning November 19, 2010


Utah State Capitol, early morning, November 19, 2010


Of course there is often a downside to a red sky at morning. As the ancient rhyme goes: “Red Sky at Night, Sailor’s Delight; Red Sky at Morning, Sailor’s Warning.”
As predicted by both sky and weatherman, seasonable weather began to turn, with heavy snow on Saturday night. Today, Tuesday, came an e-mail from a Salt Lake City friend reporting that a blizzard had descended on the Salt Lake City area and the University of Utah had closed.
So, enjoy those morning red sky’s while you can…something bad might be on the other side!
Meanwhile, back indoors in the “Crossroads of the West”, in the papers and on television in Salt Lake City, the yapping of the day revolved around the evil TSA and its supposedly horrendous and invasive procedures at airport check-in. We had checked in at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport last Wednesday afternoon; and checked in again at Salt Lake City airport last Sunday. There was a severe disconnect between the reality we experienced in the airports and the on-line, print and video outrage portrayed by the formal and informal media. We all went through the lines quietly and without incident. Of course in every crowd there’s the near-“road rage” type, but they are the rare exception. But they also make – dominate – the “news” today, on most any subject.
The vast majority of us knew the check-in drill, practiced for years now. The TSAers we encountered were polite and businesslike. We saw or heard no meltdowns. We weren’t newsworthy.
If the crowd we were with in those check-in lines represents America, the country is okay. And that we can be thankful for.
This being Salt Lake City, we took in programs at Temple Square and toured the immense and magnificent Latter Day Saints Conference Center across the street from Temple Square. As expected, people were unfailingly polite and gracious. Our Guide at the Conference Center was a few years older than I, and walked with a limp – five hip replacements can do that to a person. But the fact that she would take on such a volunteer assignment was most impressive. The Mormons know a thing or two about hospitality.

Temple Square from the roof of the LDS Conference Center. The Tabernacle is the building with the unusual roof at right.


The evening of the “red sky at morning” we attended a magnificent Bell Concert at the Tabernacle. Because I arrived late, I joined a line of latecomers and ended up with what I considered to be the best seat in the house: behind the orchestra, seated where the Tabernacle Choir sits. Missing the first half-hour was almost worth it.

At the conclusion of the Holiday Bells Concert at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City November 19, 2010


Sunday morning we joined the group attending the weekly radio broadcast of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir from “the crossroads of the west”. One needs not be Mormon – I’m not – to be inspired by this magnificent choir.
The radio broadcast began in 1929; I first saw the Choir in person in 1971; first heard it a few years earlier. It is constant quality, it’s members volunteers. This being Thanksgiving week, the program was Thanksgiving based. The rendition of Irving Berlin’s “Counting your blessings” brought tears (listen to a version here).
Outside the Tabernacle’s walls, of course, the winds of controversy about this or that continued to swirl. But for a moment there was a respite.
Tomorrow, Thanksgiving eve, grocery stores will be packed; then there is Thanksgiving; then there’s that monstrosity called “Black Friday” – the official frenzy beginning the “Christmas Shopping Season”, unfortunately our real “Christmas season”. The traditional reason for Christmas is left to compete for leftovers of attention. “Christmas” is “shopping”. At my coffee place, Christmas music started Nov. 1.
“Christmas shopping” will happen.
Today, I prefer to remember the image outside the Salt Lake City home where my brother’s 65th birthday was being celebrated last Saturday night. The “Red Sky” had brought winds earlier, then rain, then snow to the windward side of the Wasatch, and large wet snowflakes began to fall. I took a few photos of the outside scape. Here’s one of my favorites:

Salt Lake City Saturday evening November 20, 2010


Have a very Happy Thanksgiving, and work for a brighter, better country and world.

#280 – Virgil Benoit: On French-Canadians, English and the American Revolutionary War

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During an animated conversation on Sunday, some new friends, long-time residents of Long Island NY, and for a number of years residents in Salt Lake City UT, asked a question about an aspect of French-Canadian history, which I then rephrased for Dr. Virgil Benoit of the University of North Dakota, an expert on things Franco-American. His Initiatives in French – Midwest is a fledgling but important organization to celebrate the French heritage in the Midwest.

Dr. Benoit re-enacting an important French-Canadian trader at old St. Joseph (Walhalla) ND 2008


I asked Dr. Benoit: “Is there a simple reason why the French did not support the Americans when, in the Revolutionary War period, the fledgling U.S. was interested in throwing the English out of power in Quebec?
I know nothing is simple, but perhaps there is a general answer.*”
Dr. Benoit responded almost immediately, and his succinct commentary is well worth sharing, and is shared with his permission.
Hi Dick,
“The Quebec Act of 1774 [Q Act] is often cited as the event which encouraged French-Canadians [F-Cs] to not revolt against the British in Canada in 1776. The Q Act gave F-Cs the freedom to practice their religion, customs and language.
The Q Act was a first in British governance towards its colonies. But the British were only a small minority in Quebec at the time. Maybe they felt they had to do it that way. They also knew they could lose the other thirteen colonies in North America and have no foothold in the New World. The F-C. also had no support from France by 1776. They also were afraid of being swallowed up by the neighboring anglo-saxon protestant culture, i.e. the new United States. As it were the Quebec Act gave them more protection as a defeated people than the unknown relationship with a nation-to-be.
With the defeat of 1760 [of France, by England at Quebec] the F-C society lost its upper class. Its leaders with political contacts went either back to France or had been lowered in status to common folk as far a political or social influence was concerned. The one class that rose quickly to exert influence in Quebec at this time was the clergy, which turned out to act very conciliatory toward the British. They [the clergy] interpreted the new situation stemming from the Quebec Act as one that guaranteed protection. They felt that as a conquered people the French-Canadians should be careful and appreciate that they had religious freedom as well as privileges to use French and customs as before the conquest in 1760. Over time, the clergy tied the privileges of religion and language together, saying that to keep French was also to be true to the Catholic faith.
These two “freedoms” became the clergy’s motto for keeping French-Canadians together, so to speak. The clergy fought migration to urban areas, such as Quebec City and Montreal which were very British and Protestant up until WWI. In short, the surrender of New France by France led to the seemingly paradoxical situation you are asking about. But the French of the former New France did not side with the Americans. It happened as you see because the common people of the former New France saw little hope, and their choice not to fight again was reinforced by the clergy. The common folk had fought the British invasion of 1760, but were in the end greatly outnumbered on the battle fields. They lost and along with the defeat, strategy (contacts with the homeland) and courage were also lost.
It would take the French Canadians until the 1970s to work their way back to a Quebec society that could be called contemporary to its counterparts in the world. Bravo. They did it. There was the Revolution of 1836 against British dominance in Quebec. It was stopped. There was the war’s act of Trudeau against Quebec in about 1968. It did not last. In all the rest of time and in all other arenas of civilized society the Quebec people have worked through parliament to regain equity with those who invaded and took their country away in 1760.
A final observation, invading armies can make war, but they can’t kill culture. It will surface and come back. In Quebec, not only has culture survived wars between gigantic superpowers and brutal scrimmages on the home front, but a rich government has been put into place and the country is dynamic today. Best to you.”
Virgil
* – At the time of the American Revolution, the French had already been established in what is now Quebec for 168 years. The founding of Quebec as a French Colony dates to 1608, with the major development beginning after 1630.