#727 – Dick Bernard: The Disastrous 2012-13 Minnesota Orchestra Season. A subscribers view.

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Note comments as received which are included at the end of this post, and as Responses.
Prior Post: here
Musicians website here.
Tonight, June 1, was supposed to be our last concert for the 2012-13 season of the Minnesota Orchestra (MO).
Yesterday, May 31, I went down to view the under-construction area at Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis. Here are three photos:
(click to enlarge photos)

The vision of the building. I was most struck by the police sign on the fence surrounding the illustration.

The vision of the building. I was most struck by the police sign on the fence surrounding the illustration.


The north end of the hall, the under construction new lobby would be to the left.

The north end of the hall, the under construction new lobby would be to the left.


Orchestra Hall from 11th Street. The sidewalk immediately in front of the hall has no holes for "sidewalk superintendents" and security is tight.

Orchestra Hall from 11th Street. The sidewalk immediately in front of the hall has no holes for “sidewalk superintendents” and security appears tight.


Of course, there is no concert tonight. The entire season was cancelled, bit by bit, over the last eight months. The Orchestra was locked out, as was, to little apparent notice, everyone of us who normally fill the auditorium seats.
There have been occasional appearances by the LoMoMo (Locked Out Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra). We were privileged to attend the first one October 18, 2012.
Earlier this week I submitted a perspective on the Lockout to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. It was apparently declined. My proposed column is found following the photo of the tickets (below).
I don’t feel as moderate as my commentary suggests.
Seeing angry comments in print in Minneapolis’ major paper was unlikely as this lockout has been and remains a “mover and shaker” issue, and my criticism would be of the “movers and shakers” who make up the invisible Board of the Orchestra, and by extension the downtown Minneapolis and Hennepin County Power Structure. (One of those invisible MO Board members is the Publisher and CEO of the Star Tribune.)
These 80 or so MO Board members are the folks who decided to authorize and to continue the Lock Out. (A lockout is simply a management version of a Strike.)
This management strategy has failed, resulting in an entire season destroyed, and the future is very uncertain.
Revisiting my long career in collective bargaining, I cannot recall, ever, as incompetent a bunch as this Minnesota Orchestra Board when it comes to the most basic of customer relations.
This very large Board seems to have no sense whatsoever about, or no interest in, its real base, we people who pay to come to hear and appreciate outstanding music performance.
The MO Boards apparent devotion is to its immense endowment (investments), and new lobby. Both are useless without an orchestra to showcase world class music, and an audience to appreciate it.
In struggling for an analogy that might give context to non-MO readers of the proposed article (below), I finally compared the 2012-13 fiasco to a theoretical similar scenario in a small school district somewhere in the metropolitan area. How would the community accept a decision to close the schools for an entire year made by a faceless School Board unelected by the public and thus unaccountable to the community?
Not well, I reckon.
Would what happened in that single school district impact on the other communities?
Ubetcha. Communities, even large ones, do not live in isolation from one another.
Over the months it has occurred to me, a long-time subscriber, that I wouldn’t recognize any current Board member if I ran into them on the street or, for that matter, at Orchestra Hall. They may as well be anonymous.
It is unlikely that there will ever be admissions that any mistakes, even small ones, were made by the large MO Board. The “wagons are in a circle”. But it was the Orchestra management who created this lockout, and thought it could force capitulation by its musicians.
I congratulate the musicians.
There will be a settlement, sometime.
Whether there will be a recovery is another question.
We ordinary folks, one by one, need to find our voice and act in the many ways that we can to save this Orchestra. It is not enough to blame, or say we can do nothing. We need to act.
Tickets to the last scheduled concert for the 2012-13 season of Minnesota Orchestra. Like all the other concerts, this concert was cancelled due to the lockout.

Tickets to the last scheduled concert for the 2012-13 season of Minnesota Orchestra. Like all the other concerts, this concert was cancelled due to the lockout.


The submission to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 29, 2013:
June 1 is our last Minnesota Orchestra Concert of the 2012-13 season: Dvorak’s “New World Symphony” plus other pieces.
We’ll do as usual: come in from Woodbury, attend afternoon Mass at our Church, Basilica; have a light dinner at the Hilton Saturday evening….
That’s been our pattern this year, as it has been for many years: six concerts (plus occasional other miscellaneous programs at Orchestra Hall); seats in Row 4, directly behind maestro Osmo Vanska’s stand. Good seats.
Oh…I just woke up.
That June 1 concert I mention was cancelled a few weeks ago, and before that, the 5th program; and before that the 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st.
This year our tickets were to be at the Minneapolis Civic Center auditorium while they built a new lobby at Orchestra Hall.
But we and our colleague concert goers (some might say “customers”) were Locked Out an entire season by the management of the Minnesota Orchestra, and we’re supposed to believe the narrative that it is the Musicians Union who are at fault.
We know better.
My file labeled “MN Orch 2012-2013” keeps growing.
Minnesota Orchestra is more than just an Orchestra – it is a world-class Orchestra.
But most people in this metropolitan area probably don’t much care about what is happening down at 11th and Nicollet Avenue.
As I’ve witnessed the destruction of the season this year, I’ve tried to put this unique community of MnOrch in some understandable perspective, if only for myself.
What does this disaster mean to our metro area and to our state?
Imagine a school district with about 150 teachers, whose School Board simply shuts down the entire system for an entire year, then blames the teachers union for the shutdown. What about the students and their parents, who are the customers? [edit June 1, 2013: I think the actual Orchestra – the Union – was less than 100 when this lockout began, and has already shrunk considerably as members leave for other places.]
That’s a reasonable comparison.
Full disclosure: I spent 27 years full-time in and around collective bargaining in Minnesota. It was my career. My colleagues and I managed in many assorted ways negotiations and administration of literally thousands of Minnesota school district labor contracts.
I thought we saw it all, one time or another.
Never in my experience, or in “war stories” we shared, have I heard anything similar to this wreckage of my Orchestra by faceless people – the Orchestral Association Board – none who I’d recognize if I ran into them on the street, anywhere.
Months ago, I wrote each of them – over 80 – a real letter, with stamped envelope, sent to the only address I had: Orchestra Hall.
Not one sent so much as an acknowledgement.
Quite often in my own personal experience with collective bargaining there were bruised egos and even, on very infrequent occasions, a strike, though never anything even remotely approaching the length of this lockout.
Bargaining is not a simple conversation, where one side dictates the answer.
But always there was a settlement. Seldom were there strikes preceding; never were there lockouts.
At some point – maybe tomorrow – there will be a settlement to end the Minnesota Orchestra disaster of 2012-13.
Will we be back in our prime seats whenever the settlement happens?
If it’s up to me, I’ll be back only if the musicians through their union ask us to return.
We don’t go to hear the Management, or to sip wine in a fancy lobby; we go for the Orchestra.
There will be no Dvorak’s “New World Symphony” on Saturday night.
The movers and shakers of this state best get their act together and settle this conflict. The reputation of our community is damaged.
Downtown Minneapolis MN from Orchestra Hall May 31, 2013

Downtown Minneapolis MN from Orchestra Hall May 31, 2013


From Alan, June 2, 2013: I just cannot believe how disrespectful this board is towards their musicians and their patrons. I cannot believe that they have any understanding about what these musicians go through to get to the level so that they can perform in the blind auditions and get acceptance to be hired at that level.
What kind of management would spend 50 million dollars to improve their plant, Orchestra Hall, which I believe is the most pathetic building that houses a major orchestra in any city in the country for a city of our size. Over 10 % of the seats cannot see the entire stage. On the third tier, close to the stage, you have at the most a 20 to 25% view of the stage, and the sound there is pathetic.
The building should have been built like the Ordway, not as deep and twice as wide so that every seat in the auditorium would have a straight on view of the magnificent orchestra that we used to enjoy. The plaza could have been designed to be in the rear of the building. After this building was built, and it was discovered that all of the seating did not have a complete view of the stage, the words architectural blunder appeared in the paper just once, and then never again.
4th row is great seats. We used to have seats in the center section on the left aisle in that row for many years. I myself never went to hear music, but to watch music being made. That location allowed me, if there was a pianist, to see his or her hands on the keyboard.
My own daughter performed as a sub (violist) with that orchestra when Leonard Slatkin was the conductor. One of the letters stated that only 52% of the seats are filled for concerts, Are they blaming their marketing shortcomings on the orchestra members? It appears that to me.
Cancelled Concert Nov. 30, 2012. This was a special event including our 83 year old friend, and his friend.

Cancelled Concert Nov. 30, 2012. This was a special event including our 83 year old friend, and his friend.


from John, June 4, 2013:
Beginning last September when I got first word of this lockout I have been
“on this case.” Likely you have the MOMO website, and there you can see
among “replies” my letters there. From the outset of this mismanagement’s
lockout it has been clear that they own no loyalty to our musicians and to
Osmo Vanska. For me this string of lockout cancellations has been one of
the major disappointments of a life that has been, since my mother’s
teaching of music, altogether fascinated by the world of classical music.
Anger about this is mine as well. I am also fully embarrassed by the
inaction of the powers that be, including our governor whose former wife has
been such a loyal supporter of the MO.
From the start the faceless Board has aimed to destroy the musicians’ union.
Years ago I served on the Board of the Inter-Faculty organization, a
thoroughly weak representative of faculty on the then-seven campuses of the
Minnesota State University System, and I have seen mismanagement in church
settings as well. Dick, the barbarians are storming our gates. Perhaps not
even the group of attorneys that I have repeatedly invoked, could turn
around this situation.
In any case, there is no publicly visible effort to
do that. Not only are we losing our Minnesota Orchestra as we have known it
under Osmo Vanska superb world-class leadership as Music Director. We are
also witnessing another terrible blow against unions and workers’ necessary
right to organize for their own right to exist.
Many thanks for your outrage and its effective expression, John

#717 – Dick Bernard: A 1957 Social Studies Test; and a look back to the future in North Dakota

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UPDATE MAY 23, 2013: In the third paragraph, below, is a 100 question test I took in 1957. Scroll down to the UPDATE continuation following the original post, and you will find the Answer Key which I prepared, to the best of my limited ability. If interested, first take the test, then compare your answers with mine in the key. Challenges are solicited.
This is part of a series of posts about Sykeston North Dakota.
Feb 11, 2013: “Sykes High, oh Sykes High School”
May 4 (the main article): Thoughts on Sykeston High School at its Centennial
June 12 Remembering Sykeston in late 1940s
June 28 Snapshots in History of Sykeston
June 29 Sports in 1950s small towns in North Dakota
July 3: Remembering Don Koller and the Lone Ranger
*
A few days ago I did a long post about Sykeston High School, a tiny place near the center of North Dakota from which I graduated in 1958.
Curt Ghylin, now a Minnesotan but back in the early 1960s a student at the same college as I, Valley City State Teachers College, visited the blog, and noticed a state-wide test given to high school Juniors and Seniors that I had taken in November, 1957, on North Dakota History, Government and Citizenship.
For those interested, the 100 question test is here: ND Hist Govt Ctzn 1957001.
Curt asked a perfectly reasonable question: “I want to show our kids the test on North Dakota history that your referenced. Do you know if the key is available somewhere? I don’t know all the answers.”
Well, I was a kid taking the test in 1957, and I did well on it, but it was statewide, probably scored by the University of North Dakota (UND), 150 miles or so from where I was marking my sheet….
No, I don’t have an answer key, Curt.
And relooking at the test, yesterday, I wouldn’t give even odds that I’d get 50% right today, without lots of cheating!
But Curt’s was a perfectly reasonable question, and I knew I had placed second (or such) in the state that year, and there must be something…. In my bookshelf was a book I had been given at the state “Know Your State” contest at UND in December, 1957. It was an autographed copy of “North Dakota A Human and Economic Geography” by Melvin E. Kazeck of the Department of Geography of the University of North Dakota, published 1956 by the North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies at North Dakota Agricultural College (now NDSU) in Fargo.
Mostly, all of the answers will be somewhere in that 264 page book. Best I know I’m the only person in the world who has a copy (I google’d it), so if it’s going to get done, I’m going to have to be the one to do it.
And I will, Curt. Yes I will. Take the test yourself, and check back to this space by early June, 2013 for the “key” (which should be pretty close to accurate).
In his e-mail, Curt articulated a problem with such old documents: “I had to point out to my sister-in-law as she read the test that the date of the test was 1957 when she questioned why Interstate 94 wasn’t a possible answer for question 2—‘The highway running across ND from Fargo to Beach’ “
Here, from Kazeck’s book, is a map with the answer to THAT question, from page 181! (The first stretch of ND Interstate wasn’t constructed until 1958, between Valley City and Jamestown, and that was among the first stretches of Interstate Highway in the U.S.)
(click to enlarge)

North Dakota Highways 1956 from Melvin E. Kazeck's North Dakota, A Human and Economic Geography

North Dakota Highways 1956 from Melvin E. Kazeck’s North Dakota, A Human and Economic Geography


But what about the title of this post, “A look back to the future in North Dakota”?
As I was leafing through Kazeck’s volume, I came across the last chapter “The Future of the State” of North Dakota.
That chapter was written 57 years ago, by someone very well versed in his topic and published by a respected institution.
This morning I pdf’ed that 35 or so page chapter, and for anyone with an interest, here’s how a North Dakota geographer saw the future of North Dakota in the year 1956: ND Geog 1956 Kazeck001
I find the chapter quite interesting.
I hope you do, as well.
UPDATE May 23, 2013:
Here is the Answer Key for the 1957 test: ANSWER KEY for ND Test 1957.
All I can say is that I’ve tried to give answers that seem consistent with what the test authors would have said were correct in 1957. With some luck, most of my choices are accurate. I was a geography major in college in North Dakota, but over 50 years away has taken its toll. I avoided the traditional student response to multiple choice – “multiple guess” – but at times it was very tempting.
I was very fortunate to have in my bookshelf two books which were source works about North Dakota geography written during the general time period of the test. Melvin Kazeck’s volume is described above; and Bernt Lloyd Wills book, North Dakota, The Northern Prairie State, was a text for North Dakota students. This book included a pleasant surprise (see below).
Neither book appears to be currently available.
A third book in my bookshelf is Dr. Elwyn B. Robinson’s History of North Dakota. I didn’t use this book when searching answers, but it appears to remain the definitive history of North Dakota, and it is still available for purchase.
Each author was, at the time they wrote their book, professors at the University of North Dakota. Kazeck and Wills were geographers; Robinson an historian.
Robinson’s Preface is very interesting to read, and in a few words gives context to North Dakota, and (probably) reveals the reason for the 1957 statewide test for young students like myself:Dr. Elwyn Robinson001
Bernt Lloyd Wills was apparently a graduate of Valley City State Teachers College (VCSTC), my own alma mater.
His Social Studies book appears, in retrospect, to have been a cooperative venture involving college geography teachers across North Dakota. George Kennedy, who expertly taught me all the classes towards my major at VCSTC, contributed a number of the graphs incorporated into the book. Among many VCSTC teachers who stood out, Mr. Kennedy and Mary Hagen Canine (journalism) stand out for me.
On page 262 of Wills book are ND school statistics for 1960 and earlier years. In 1960, in North Dakota, there were 135,548 students in North Dakota Public Schools, of which 35,600 were high school students (most likely grades 9-12). Thus, perhaps 15-20,000 ND students took that Social Studies test in November, 1957.
Wills book includes a chapter on his future vision for North Dakota: “Retrospect and Prospect” is a very interesting read, joining Kazeck’s future view (see above): ND Bernt Wills 1963002
Wills also includes a significant number of poems by Dr. Soren Kolstoe, born in 1888, who was a long time professor at Valley City State Teachers College, and apparently retired in 1958, right before I enrolled at VCSTC. The Kolstoe poems included in the book reverence the land we all know as North Dakota: Soren Kolstoe poems001
And since it can still be purchased, I’d suggest Dr. Elwyn Robinson’s History of North Dakota as a Legacy Book for your descendants. His last chapter, “The Character of a People” catches the essence of the state in which I grew up.
Thank you, North Dakota
Comments:
From NDakotan Rick, May 9, 2013:
I enjoyed the read. I picked out a few plums.
1. Population has been fairly stable since 1920 or so. Low 600,000 number
until recently with the oil boom. Now projected to go over 1 million.
2. Back in 1950, some analysis suggested that if ND developed all of its
natural resources: Oil, Coal and Water. We would add 1 million in
population. ND has developed the coal and most recently the oil. And, it
appears we will add population accordingly. Pretty good insights by those
economists back then. The water never got developed. It was a major project
called the Garrison diversion project that would bring Missouri river water
east for irrigation through-out central and eastern ND. Depended heavily on
federal dollars. Garrison diversion did start in the 60’s and was on and off
again through-out the 60’s,70’s and 80’s depending on which administration
and which congress was in power to dole out public monies. Finally, in the
80’s, it died a final death (Reagan’s terms I believe). Now sits half
finished. I think they brought it as far east as about north of Jamestown.
3. Population was only 2400 (non-native) people in 1870 when statehood was
in the works. Wow, can you imagine. I think ND is desolate now, that’s just
over the population of Hankinson scattered across the entire state.
4. It only cost a total of $70,000.00 in 1950 to own the land and equipment
to operate profitably an average farm of 650 acres. Sounds like simpler
times to me. That total bill today for 650 acres including equipment is 3.2
million.
5. Here’s a real gem for you Jeff. Page #32. If you have a hard time
figuring out the politics of ND. It’s in our DNA. Back in the 1950’s, the
legislation was considering a progressive property tax to keep a level
playing field with farmers. Not let the large farms get bigger at the
expense of smaller farmers. The more land you owned, the higher the property
tax until at some point, the property tax was so high on large farms that it
became unprofitable to be a large farmer. I like it. Never got enacted
though. Sounds like a true progressive liberal policy to me.
From NDakotan Carl May 9, 2013:
After reading the ND forecast article, it reminded me of the uncompleted McClusky Canal. I was teaching in McClusky when they were surveying. (1960-63) My wife is from McClusky so we went out there and checked on the progress of the digging when we went home to the grandparents. It is a shame they didn’t finish the less than six miles to connect to the Lonetree Reservoir. I got the information below by Googling the McClusky Canal. There are some good fishing lakes created by the canal be lower than the surrounding area. In fact one lake was drained an another created. Enjoyed your recent blogs. Carl
Lonetree Wildlife Management Area
The original Garrison Diversion Unit plan utilized the McClusky Canal to transport water resources to the Lonetree Reservoir. The reservoir was intended to be a regulating reservoir connecting the McClusky Canal and the New Rockford Canal. It was deauthorized by the Dakota Water Resources Act of 2000 and, instead, developed into a wildlife conservation area. The Lonetree Wildlife Management Area is operated by the North Dakota Game and Fish Department.
The McClusky Canal is a 73.6-mile-long canal designed to transport Missouri River water to the Sheyenne River, which flows into Lake Ashtabula reservoir above Valley City and, eventually, the Red River, and to the New Rockford Canal, another part of the GDU. The McClusky Canal crosses the continental divide between the Gulf of Mexico drainage basin and the Hudson Bay (Canada) drainage basin. The McClusky Canal has not been completed and currently (2006) does not connect to the Sheyenne River or the New Rockford Canal.
From Bismarck Tribune May 2, 2012, here.

#712 – Dick Bernard: Office of the President

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Tonight I was at the meeting where my wife, Cathy, completed the last of many terms as our Homeowners Association President, and before that on this Association Board, and another before that.
She left the Board only because she’d done more than her fair share over many years. There was no competitor, and no one asked her to quit. She got some very nice applause and compliments.
There are millions of Cathy’s out there, taking on responsibilities that no one else really wants. They all, whether good, bad or indifferent, deserve applause for what they do for all the rest of us.
(click to enlarge)

Cathy Bernard, April 25, 2013, presiding at her last Association meeting.

Cathy Bernard, April 25, 2013, presiding at her last Association meeting.


Down in Texas, same day, the George W. Bush Presidential Library was dedicated. All the living Presidents were there. Whoever the incumbent, whatever the position, however petty, being President is a tough job.
Cathy did a great job all these years: she was a hands-on President. It wasn’t always easy. She knew the 96 units; she had to deal with the usual problems brought forth by the 96 occupants (some of which are in foreclosure, owned by the bank).
You don’t know what the problems will be in being an organization President. Some had gripes about this or that tonight. But they weren’t griping about her; they were griping about this issue or that for which, if they owned a free-standing home, they would be solely accountable for solving – or not.
Meanwhile, down in Texas, today was G. W. Bush’s day.
Somebody said that the word “Iraq” was not mentioned once; someone else that the public opening will be May 1, the 10 year anniversary of “Mission Accomplished” – the day we “won” the Iraq War 43 days after it started….
Of course, the scale of problems the Bush Administration and the others had to deal with are more complex than those that Cathy and her small board had to contend with.
The only real difference, in my opinion, is the certainty that the G.W. Bush reality between 2001-2009 will be massaged so much to be unrecognizable, set up against the reality of those long, long eight years.
For the tiny most privileged few in our country, the eight Bush years were magnificent: he was probably the best President in History, according to them, and if they look at only the short term (which is all they care about: we Americans have very short memories.) A while back someone sent this pretty dramatic graphic on income equality in this country, from the San Jose Mercury News. It is worth watching it to the end.
The tiny minority has it all, money wise, in this country. They could easily fund the Bush Library. He deserves it, according to them.
What surprises me, constantly, is that the people who are being economically left behind tend to vote for the ones who create and massage the income inequality.
Do watch the video graphic about income.
The issue is not what Obama is going to do about it; it is what you and I are going to do about it.

#704 – Dick Bernard: "You oughta go tah, Nor Dakota…"*

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* – Once upon a time, the North Dakota promotional anthem (at least as I remember it). I can hum it still. Wish it were on YouTube….
But the title “masks” a more serious message, today.
Recently, within a day or two of each other, came two links: one from a present day and lifelong North Dakotan; the other from a born and raised, but many years out-of-state North Dakota native.
Here is one, an article and photo album from The Atlantic magazine about the oil boom in western North Dakota.
I’ve seen quite a number of articles, photos and commentaries about the second boom in ND’s Williston Basin (I lived there, at Ross as an 8th grader, in 1953-54, so experienced mostly the down-side of it, then). I wonder, often, about the true “cost-benefit analysis” of the boom: there are big (money) benefits, yes, but what are the short and long-term and huge costs, not just in money terms….
The below photo is the other, following by a day the North Dakota legislature and Governors action outlawing abortion, deliberately pushing the envelope on the matter of State’s Rights (one would presume) 40 years after Roe v. Wade.
Image
Both the article and the photo come from fellow alumni of Valley City State Teachers College ca 1960-62.
Both the article and the photo, in my opinion, illustrate that all is not all that simple in the state of my birth, my home for all but 28 months (21 of those in the U.S. Army) of my first 25 years of life.
I’ve been absent from North Dakota for the last 48 years, but North Dakota is a very big part of me. The first family member saw the Missouri River at Bismarck with Gen. Sibley’s forces in 1863; my descendants have lived in what was to become North Dakota since 1878.
When I began this blog in 2009, I decided to include two photos on the home page. One is of a North Dakota country road between Berlin and Grand Rapids and my uncle and aunts beloved dog Sam (dec 1995).
The other (below), looking north from Hawk’s Nest west of Carrington ND, was taken at the time of the Sykeston community reunion in July, 2008, also the 50th anniversary of my high school graduation from Sykeston High School.
(click to enlarge)

From Hawk's Nest, July 2008

From Hawk’s Nest, July 2008


Photos, it is often said, speak thousands of words.
The landscape from Hawk’s Nest is the North Dakota I remember. The billboard above, likely a creation of photo shop technology, has a far more harsh message about North Dakota in this Easter week, 2013.
The billboard “photo” speaks its own volumes.
Early this week the North Dakota legislature passed, and the Governor signed, one of the most draconian anti-abortion measures ever passed anywhere in the country. There are thousands of words, including the Governors own, about the intention of these laws and the upcoming citizens initiative in the state of North Dakota. The months ahead will determine the wisdom – or stupidity – or unbridled arrogance – of North Dakota’s elected leadership.
The people will decide.
What the folks at the capitol building in Bismarck may not have adequately considered, however, is that most of we North Dakotans by birth and upbringing, no longer live in North Dakota, and may have our own stories, and our own ability to impact on the decision making in the state that we may not, now, physically live; but whose geography and history lives on in each of us.
This goes for me as well.
I left North Dakota in May, 1965, for a very simple reason: my wife was dying. In fact, she died at the University of Minnesota Hospital two months after we crossed the North Dakota-Minnesota line. Three days before she died I had signed a contract for a new job in the Twin Cities, and except for visits, I have not gone back to my “home state”.
But I do go back every year, and will, again, go back in May.
My heart is always there, in North Dakota.
But, back in 1965, only two months before I left North Dakota, the possibility of abortion needed to cross the minds of Barbara and I. I wrote about how this came to be in one of my early blog posts, which has a simple heading “Abortion”, and was filed in October, 2009. You can read it here.
Even then, we had no available legal options.
Today, I can add a small financial “voice” to the upcoming struggle in ND, and will do so; and I am still deciding what to convey to the ND Governor and Legislators representing the many towns that I lived in back then, including Elgin, from which my wife left in an ambulance near the end of May, 1965.
Gov. Dalrymple and the prevailing legislators may consider themselves to be clothed with great authority.
The people will speak….
I’d ask you to consider passing this commentary along to others.

#699 – Dick Bernard: Listening to the Governor of Minnesota

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Yesterday noon we, along with several hundred others, braved Twin Cities roads to gather at a lunch at McNamara Alumni Center at the University of Minnesota.
The speaker was Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton.
(click on photos to enlarge)

Gov. Mark Dayton, March 5, 2013, University of Minnesota First Tuesday.

Gov. Mark Dayton, March 5, 2013, University of Minnesota First Tuesday.


The event was the Carlson School of Management’s “First Tuesday” and the large audience seemed mostly to be Twin Cities business representatives. University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler was one of the dignitaries in the audience.
A portion of the audience at First Tuesday March 5

A portion of the audience at First Tuesday March 5


It was a most interesting hour. Gov. Dayton spoke, referring a number of times to this handout which we all received: Guv Hndout Mar 5 2013002. At the end, he answered questions and listened to advice from the floor, presented at random through several portable microphones. He was with us for over an hour; then departed to talk with another group somewhere else.
The tension of driving to the event after 8″ of snow, was worth it.
Governor Dayton knew his audience, and he politely but certainly took the offensive.
Judging from the tens of thousands of communications I see, from left and right, and politically disinterested, we are a society that takes non-negotiable positions, basing our judgements on our understanding of our one or two most important issues.
Contemporary society is complex, so we citizens mostly revert to simplicity. We don’t want information unless it supports our position.
It is a dangerous attitude, shared by far too many.
Gov. Dayton, as we Minnesotans know, comes from a very prominent Minnesota business family; spent part of his early career as a school teacher in inner city New York; and has spent most of his adult career in public service in the state of Minnesota.
He has an impressive portfolio. Still I sometimes hear him ridiculed for various unfair reasons.
But he knows bottom lines and good public policy.
The Governor was in a serious mode, yesterday.
His anchor story was of meeting with a dozen or so of Minnesota’s most prominent big business leaders not long ago. It was one of those fancy, private dinner meetings somewhere.
He marveled, he said, at how these very sophisticated captains of Minnesota business and industry seemed not to budge from their respective certainties, even when confronted with pesky facts that didn’t support their positions. (Think assorted mantras: “business is being forced to leave our state due to high taxes” and the like.) Belief seemed to trump reason.
They were stuck (as we all can be) in their belief about reality.
Sitting there, I could better understand people at my level being mired in our own unrealities, than these anonymous Big Shots who privately had the Governors ear for an extended period of time.
We ordinary people have to struggle to get to “facts”; these Captains of Minnesota Business have boatloads of employees in their corporations who, if they were hired for and allowed such, could be truth tellers.
But hearing the truth is inconvenient, and even these business leaders apparently wouldn’t publicly budge, even in the face of contrary evidence from the Governor of their state.
Gov. Dayton spoke as a confident leader, in command of his narrative, unquestionably competent including addressing questions from the floor.
The Governor commented about Minnesota’s flagship University of Minnesota, and said he had gathered data which demonstrated that the UofM did as well or better in its accomplishments than the sum of the eight major universities in Boston – little places like Harvard, MIT and the like. His very prominent businessman Dad once told he and his siblings: “if you put all your eggs in one basket, you better take mighty good care of that basket.” But, he said the UofM, and public institutions in this state, have suffered from policies of austerity; and the state suffers as a consequence.
His Tax proposals are intended as informed thoughts and invitation to debate on alternatives to the pesky realities of our state, where for too many years we have relied on shell games, like shifts, to pretend we are doing well financially, supposedly “balancing our books”, when in reality we were digging ourselves a deep hole from which we now have to fashion a way out.
At the beginning, the Governor was greeted with polite applause.
At the end, there was a standing and sustained applause, joined by most in the audience, applause which did not seem forced.
It was a good day.
March 5, 2013, McNamara Alumni Center at University of Minnesota. Audience listening to Governor Dayton.

March 5, 2013, McNamara Alumni Center at University of Minnesota. Audience listening to Governor Dayton.

#686 – Dick Bernard: Going to listen to Al Gore on "The Future. Six Drivers of Global Change"

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Al Gore was in Minneapolis on Thursday, and while I’ve been to lots of speeches, including by Mr. Gore, and didn’t really need to go, there is something that draws me to such events. I got to Westminster Presbyterian Church an hour early, but turned out to be a half-hour late: I got a seat, but in one of two overflow spaces. The house was packed for the longstanding Westminster Town Hall Forum.

Al Gore speaks Feb 7, 2013, Westminster Town Hall Forum Minneapolis MN

Al Gore speaks Feb 7, 2013, Westminster Town Hall Forum Minneapolis MN


I won’t write a review of the speech: you can listen to it here. (This is the instant video of the speech. Mr. Gore’s portion begins at approximately the 40 minute mark). At about the ten minute mark is a 30 minute musical concert by a twin cities musician, who was also very good.
Neither do I plan to review Mr. Gore’s book, “The Future. Six Drivers of Global Change“, which is readily available everywhere, and is meant for reflection, discussion and personal action.
“The Future” is a book for thinking, not entertainment.
I’ve long liked Al Gore. He is a visionary, not afraid to articulate a realistic vision if we wish to survive as a human species.
Visionaries, especially prominent ones, are often viewed as threats, and are vilified in sundry ways by their enemies.
So it was with Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth which was released in 2006, ridiculed by his enemies. But as current events in our country are showing, the film has been in all relevant particulars true, if anything, even conservative. Yes, there are “yah, buts” in the film, but as an acknowledged climate expert said at a meeting I attended a year or two ago, he said the film was 90% accurate, and this was from wisdom of hindsight.
We saw Mr. Gore speak on An Inconvenient Truth a year before the film was released, in 2005, and it was a memorable, never to be forgotten event. Here’s what I wrote about it then: Al Gore July 2005001. It is remarkable that this was eight years ago, already. Of course, largely, denial continues to be a prevalent reaction to things like Climate Change.
In so many ways we humans live with short-term thinking (“me-now”) and we imperil not only our present, but certainly our future. “An Inconvenient Truths” dust jacket made some suggestions back then that are still relevant today. They are here: Al Gore Inconven Truth001
“The Future” covers numerous topics other than just climate change, and covers them well.
In his talk, Mr.Gore said he got the idea for “The Future” several years ago – 2005 I seem to recall – from a question someone asked at a presentation he was making somewhere in Europe.
From that seed grew extensive research and reflection.
Mr. Gore suggests – that’s all he can is suggest – a wake-up call.
To those who think the cause is hopeless, he asked simply that we remember changes like Civil Rights in this country, which in his growing up days in Tennessee would not have been seen as a possibility either. It is the people that will change the status quo, he said, recalling a particular learning moment in his youth when a friend of his made a racist comment, and another friend told him to cut it out. It is small moments of public witness like these that make the difference, he suggested. He gave other examples as well.
Of course, Gore is a prominent world figure, a former Vice-President, and now a very wealthy man.
But in his appearance, yesterday, he was part of us – he even stopped by the overflow rooms before his speech to give a personal welcome. It was a nice touch, we felt.
By our demeanor – I like to watch how audiences react at events like this – we were very actively listening to him.
It’s past-time to get personally involved, but never too late.
(click on photos to enlarge)
Mr. Gore stops by one of the two overflow rooms prior to his speech.

Mr. Gore stops by one of the two overflow rooms prior to his speech.

#683 – Dick Bernard: The Cost of Fear; the Power of Speaking Out.

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Artists rendition of "Banana clip" automatic rifle seen at a Minneapolis restaurant


Yesterday I was at a local restaurant having a cup of coffee, and writing some letters. It’s a very ordinary activity for me. For some reason, I ‘ve always worked best where there’s some hubbub around.
At the next table, very close by, four men, obviously friends, and probably in their 50s, were conversing about this and that and at some point one of them mentioned that he had been actively thinking about ordering an AR-15, and a gun cabinet to go with it.
The chat went on a short while, then he mentioned the topic had come to the attention of his spouse, and apparently he had changed his mind: she would have nothing to do with the purchase. As he described it, they had an interesting conversation….
If I heard it right, I was listening to one smart man, talking about one powerful woman who had something to say about one important matter: an assault rifle in the home.
The conversation got me thinking in a direction I hadn’t considered before: how much does an AR-15 really cost?
I don’t have a gun, and I don’t plan to have one, and I don’t stop to look at guns in stores or even look at ads about guns. I don’t know the details about todays killing machines.
When I got home I googled AR-15, and there were lots of references.
Succinctly, if you can get the assault rifle (there’s been a run on them – supply and demand), it is not cheap. And that’s just for the weapon.
Plus, a well-equipped AR-15 owner should have a range of accessories to go with the gun, all which cost money; things like the locked cabinet, the ammunition, the gun range, etc., etc.
I also noted a more than subtle paranoid edge to the websites peddling AR-15.
Most merchants sing the praises of their product. These sites were less than welcoming or disclosing. No smiley-faces there.
Any reader can challenge my assertion, simply by doing what I did: google “AR-15 cost”.
So, if I heard this totally decent looking and sounding man correctly, he won’t be getting his new gun, and the family relations will be better, and he’ll have money to spend in more productive ways.
I am not, by the way, anti-weapon. Never have been. I am against the insanity of combat weapons for “self-defense”.
Would this guy lug his AR-15 with him everywhere? If he ever had need for the weapon at home, could he find the key to the cabinet? Would the cabinet be where he needed it to be when he needed it? Would he be thinking clearly when he was squeezing the trigger?
Would his investment prove to a blessing or a curse?
Back home I listened to gun victim and survivor Gabby Giffords brief and extremely powerful testimony to a Senate Committee on the issues of Guns. Her husband Mark Kelly’s testimony as well. And the testimony of NRA’s Wayne LaPierre.
Giffords and Kelly made sense. LaPierre simply “came out with guns blazing” and made no sense at all. He was speaking raw power, bullying behavior, that was all.
I’d recommend support for the Giffords/Kelly brand new website on Americans Responsible For Solutions (they are both gun owners, and not against guns per se).
And another good site to get acquainted with is the Brady Campaign.
There’s no need to be afraid of getting into this conversation. It may even do a lot of good.

#661 – Dick Bernard: Pearl Harbor Day and the wreckage of the Minnesota Orchestra Lockout

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UPDATE February 23, 2013: Still unsettled…. I sent this letter to the 28 members of the Minnesota Orchestra Association Executive Committee last week. here. Sometime today I’ll again watch the story of Pearl Harbor. [Here’s this years Pearl Harbor reflection]
I also have interest in current affairs, and the recent lockout of the Minnesota Orchestra is an important issue to me, as we are subscribers, locked out like the orchestra from, perhaps, this entire year of concerts. Thus the following post:
Today is the annual meeting of the Board of the Minnesota Orchestra (MO). I didn’t know that till a newspaper column in yesterdays Minneapolis Star Tribune. I had decided, some weeks ago, that December 7 would be an appropriate date to write about the very public catastrophe facing this world class orchestra whose home is downtown Minneapolis MN.
As I write, there are major issues between musicians and management at the Orchestra. The solution for the moment is to lock out the musicians and those of us who bought tickets to the concerts.
For those with little or no interest in or knowledge of the issue, some time ago the Orchestra Board made at least two major decisions: to embark on a major renovation of Orchestra Hall; and to lock-out the Musicians of the Orchestra in a contract dispute, thus almost guaranteeing that the season will ultimately be cancelled (half has already bit the dust.). We subscribers have thus been “locked out” as well.
The Japanese preemptive strike on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and the lockout of Minnesota Orchestra musicians came quickly to mind for me when this conflict affected we ticket-holders. In both cases there was a ‘win’, albeit short-term, for Japan, and for the MO management, but in the long-term it is a rather pyrrhic victory.
(click on all photos to enlarge)

Orchestra Hall Minneapolis MN December 5, 2012


There have been numerous interesting commentaries not necessarily taking one side or another: In the New Yorker was this contribution; last Sunday in the STrib carried this column. There have been many more commentaries. This has become national news.
I happen to have a particular interest in this lockout, since for a lot of years we’ve been a subscriber for six concerts a year, and perhaps have attended two or three more each season. We sit in the fourth row, behind the maestro. Perhaps there are better seats in the house, but we’ve come to like being upfront, and over time you get to know the nature of your neighbors, and they, you. We seem to be fairly typical among our fellow concert-attendees.
All of we customers have become the victims of this conflict. The list of victims is expanding, daily.
I also spent an entire career in and around collective bargaining, so I know the trade, including the foolhardiness of inserting oneself in the middle of a dispute where the real ‘facts’ (issues) may not be visible. All I can say for certain is that at some point there will be a settlement, and the sooner the better that will be for both parties.
As in war, the more protracted and bitter the conflict, the greater the residual damage will be.
In such disputes there are always diverse points of view, strongly felt. In this one, there seems to be value in ranking several top priorities, which I present in alphabetical order below:
Concern for the customers (the people who actually attend the concerts, whether one or a thousand)
New Lobby construction
Power and Control: authority issues
Quality Musicians and others who work for MO
Savings Account (the endowment fund)
Rank these from one to five (most to least important) and you might have a personal idea of where you stand.
Of course, there can be more factors, but these give an idea. As for me, the November 26 Star Tribune printed a letter from myself on the issue, in which I said, in part: “… we buy tickets to hear the Minnesota Orchestra….”
As a result of this letter, I received a number of very interesting phone calls and e-mails, all positive, all expressing similar concerns.
November 24, I sent a U.S. mail stamped letter to all of the 81 listed members of the Minnesota Orchestra Board. It is here: MN Orchestra Nov 24 Ltr001 (There are actually 25 members on the Board, but the Orchestra website lists honorary, emeritus and other Directors as well. They are listed at the end of this post.)
I asked each for “individual acknowledgement of this letter.” So far, no acknowledgements of any kind have been received from any Board member. Perhaps it’s a little too early.
Meanwhile, the hurt goes on as the cement shoes worn by the respective sides seem to be hardening. Maybe there will be a breakthrough, maybe not.
I went by Orchestra Hall Wednesday to take some photos (above, and following at the Hilton across the street), and together the photos evoke for me a very sad situation for a great orchestra in our great community.
I ask good faith bargaining, all cards on the table, and an honorable settlement.
Since it appears that this is essentially a Business driven conflict, I offer a piece of advice to the people who will have to ultimately settle the matter from my good friend, former Governor and successful businessman, corporate owner and philanthropist Elmer L. Andersen, in his memoir “A Man’s Reach” (2000), edited by Lori Sturdevant. At pages 96-101 Mr. Andersen summarizes his four corporate priorities, as follows:
1. “Our highest priority…should be service to the customer.”
2. “The company should exist deliberately for the benefit of the people associated in it.”
3. “[Our] third priority was to make money.”
4. “Our philosophy did not leave out service to the larger community…The quality of life in a company’s hometown is important to that business’s welfare and future….”
Of course, Mr. Andersen was talking about internal priorities within his own company, but still, it is quite good advice, I’d say.

At the Hilton Hotel near Orchestra Hall December 5, 2012


The Dream...December 5, 2012


Directly related post: here.
The Minnesota Orchestra Musicians Union website is here.
The Minnesota Orchestra Board as of December 6, 2012:
* – denotes membership on Executive Committee
Officers
Jon R. Campbell*, Chair, Wells-Fargo Bank
Richard K. Davis*, Immediate Past Chair, U.S. Bancorp
Michael Henson*, President and CEO
Nancy E. Lindahl*, Secretary, Deephaven MN
Steven Kennedy*, Treasurer, Faegre Baker Daniels
Life Directors
Nicky B. Carpenter*, Wayzata MN
Kathy Cunningham*, Mendota Heights MN
Luella G. Goldberg*, Minneapolis
Douglas Leatherdale*, The St. Paul Companies
Ronald E. Lund*, Eden Prairie, MN
Betty Myers, St. Paul MN
Marilyn C. Nelson, Carlson, Minneapolis MN
Dale R. Olseth, SurModics, Eden Prairie MN
Rosalyn Pflaum, Wayzata MN
Directors Emeriti
Margaret D. Ankeny, Wayzata MN
Andrew Czajkowski, Blue Cross & Blue Shield, St. Paul
Dolly J. Fiterman, Minneapolis
Beverly Grossman, Minneapolis
Karen H. Hubbard, Lakeland, MN
Hella Meaars Hueg, St. Paul MN
Joan A. Mondale, Minneapolis MN
Susan Platou, Wayzata MN
Directors
Emily Backstrom, General Mills, Minneapolis
Karen Baker*, Orono MN
Michael D. Belzer, Crescendo Project Board, Minneapolis
David L. Boehnen, St. Paul MN
Patrick E. Bowe*, Cargill, Wayzata MN
Margaret A. Bracken, Minneapolis
Barbara E. Burwell, Wayzata MN
Mari Carlson, Mt. Oliver Lutheran Church, Minneapolis
Jan M. Conlin, Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, Minneapolis
Ken Cutler, Dorsey & Whitney, Edina
Jame Damian, Minneapolis
Jonathan F. Eisele*, Deloitte Service LP, Minneapolis
Jack W.. Eugster*, Excelsior MN
D. Cameron Findlay Medtronic, Minneapolis
Ben Fowke*, Xcel Energy, Minneapolis
Franck L. Gougeon, AGA Medical Corporation, Plymouth MN
Paul D. Grangaard, Allen Edmonds Shoe Corporation, Minneapolis
Jane P. Gregorson*, Minneapolis
Susan Hagstrum, Minneapolis
Jayne C. Hilde*, Satellite Shelters, Minneapolis
Karen L. Himle, HMN Financial, Minneapolis
Shadra J. Hogan, Minnetonka MN
Mary L. Holmes, Wayzata MN
Jay V. Ihlenfeld, St. Paul MN
Philip Isaacson, Nonin Medical, Plymouth MN
Nancy L. Jamieson, WAMSO, Bloomington
Lloyd G. Kepple, Oppenheimer, Wolff & Donnelly, Minneapolis
Michal Klingensmith, Star Tribune Media, Minneapolis
Mary Ash Lazarus, Vestiges Inc, Minneapolis
Allen U. Lenzmeier, Best Buy, Minneapolis
Warren E. Mack, Fredrikson& Byron, Minneapolis MN
Harvey B. Mackay, Mackay Envelope Company, Minneapolis
James C. Melville*, Kaplan, Strangis and Kaplan, Minneapolis
Eric Mercer, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Minneapolis
Anne W. Miller, Edina MN
Hugh Miller, RTP, Winona MN
Anita M. Pampusch, Bush Foundation, St. Paul
Eric H. Paulson, Excelsior, MN
Teri E. Popp*, Wayzata MN
Chris Policinski, Land O’Lakes, St. Paul
Gregory J Pulles*, Minneapolis
Jady Ranheim, Young People’s Symphony Concert Assoc
Jon W. Salveson*, Piper Jaffray & Co, Minneapolis
Jo Ellen Saylor*, Edina
Sally Smith, Buffalo Wild Wings, Minneapolis
Gordon M. Sprenger*, Allina Hospitals and Clinics, Chanhassen
Sara Sternberger* WAMSO, Eagan MN
Mary S. Sumner, RBC Wealth Management, Minneapolis
Georgia Thompson, Minnetonka MN
Maxine Houghton Wallin, Edina
John Whaley, Norwest Equity Partners, Minneapolis
David S. Wichmann*, UnitedHealth Group, Minnetonka
John Wilgers, Ernst & Young, Minneapolis
Theresa Wise, Delta Air Lines, Eagan MN
Paul R. Zeller, Imation, Oakdale
Honorary Directors
Chris Coleman, Mayor, St. Paul MN
Barbara A. Johnson, President, Minneapolis City Council
Eric W. Kaler, President, University of Minnesota
R.T. Rybak, Mayor, Minneapolis MN.

From 11th and Marquette, December 5, 2012


Downtown Minneapolis from 11th and Marquette December 5, 2012

#659 – Dick Bernard: "Black Friday" and "the Fiscal Cliff"

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A week ago today, Black Friday was raging. Actually, it began on Thanksgiving Day, and if one carries it even further, I first heard Christmas (shopping) music at my coffee stop right after November 1.
(click to enlarge)

Pre-Black Friday advertising, Nov. 17, 2012


Christmas in America is not so much a celebration of the birth of the Prince of Peace; it is, rather, the major profit season for the entire commercial year. And it is likely primarily on credit card: “credit or cash?” is the mantra. Credit is preferred by merchants – more money to be made.
The main difference this year is the endless yammering over the supposed and dreaded “fiscal cliff” coming on December 31, when the 2002 tax cuts which have been a major part of the cause of our huge debt sunset.
So, while we members of the middle class are urged to spend money we don’t have on things we (or recipients) don’t need, of even want, we are to live in fear of the approaching fiscal cliff over which we apparently will tumble at midnight on December 31.
Happy New Year.
The best (and most entertaining) rendition of the fiscal cliff “conversation” came from Alan in Los Angeles early Friday morning. It is here, quite long as usual, but in my opinion, enlightening and very real.
Take some time to read it.

#593 – Dick Bernard: Election 2012 #30. The Politics of Resentment

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Over a year ago, in mid-April 2011, a coffee acquaintance, a generation ‘south’ of me in age, asked me a question.
As a second job, he’s long been a local volunteer fireman. One of his duties was to handle his units retirement investment fund. Apparently their fund was not doing well – they were getting virtually no return on investment.
He knew I’d been involved in education and teacher unions, and at the time there was rage against teacher unions and teacher pensions, especially across the border in Wisconsin. The essence of his obvious questions were framed in a manner you can detect in an instant: “who do they think they are?”; “how can they have such good pensions when mine is so bad?”
I’m not sure what he expected me to do: to grovel and beg forgiveness? For starters, I knew little or nothing about Wisconsin teacher pension history, policy or law. I’d never lived or worked there.
But he didn’t know two things about me: first, that I not only grew up in the family of two career school teachers, and had all of their one year contracts, and know the general how’s and why’s of teacher pensions, including their history; second, that I had just been at a national conference of retired teachers where, understandably, a major topic of discussion was the status of teacher pensions nationwide.
But in such situations as our conversation, there is no room for argument.
I did tell him I had a document at home that might be useful for him, and indeed I had such a document which I had picked up at the conference. It is here: Pensions 2011001. It speaks clearly for itself.
A few days later, I gave his Dad an envelope with the document, and that is the last I heard from the man about the topic, though I continue to see him from time to time.
My document, plus a note to him about the reality about how teacher pensions came to be and are funded, apparently did not fit his particular bias, which was that teachers were abusing the system with plush pensions provided, of course, by gullible taxpayers.
He (and doubtless many others) were stuck in first gear on the issue: teachers had something they didn’t, or at least didn’t have quite as abundantly, and somehow that was wrong.
What he was articulating, in my opinion, was ginned up resentment of others in his economic class who were doing better than he, and even worse, that these were public employees who were also union members (as if volunteer firemen were not public employees or organized – as his group certainly was).
Over and over again I have seen this dynamic in play as the rich and powerful fashion sound bites and literature pieces to prove that somebody, such as those teachers, are ripping off the system.
It isn’t true, of course, but that doesn’t matter. Neither does it matter that those employees in Wisconsin had likely deliberately, and over a long term, bargained away part of their short-term wages and benefits in favor of the longer term retirement benefits – really a prudent conservative trait (and I know teachers as basically being conservative). All that mattered is that they were a bit too uppity for “Public Servants”, and must get back in their proper subservient place as, literally, “public servants”.
Oddly, similar resentment does not seem to flow from middle and lower class to the aristocrat class. Somehow or other, there is admiration for wealthy, however that gain has been made.
It is really quite crazy making.
The poor and the middle class are in very large numbers defending the rich who, by and large, could care less about their less affluent brethren….
The plutocrats and oligarchs are badly outnumbered, and know it.
Their solution: endless media buys and incessant lies stoking resentment – person against person – over the coming months. In other words: “divide and conquer”.
The lesser folks – some call them the 99% – had best figure out some way to stick together and take the offensive, or the situation will only get worse, and all 100% of us will be adversely affected.
For other political related posts, simply enter Election 2012 in the search box, and a list will appear.