#109 – Dick Bernard: $1,420,000,000,000

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The Saturday, October 17, 2009, Minneapolis Star Tribune had a front page headline: “Deficit Surges to New Record“.  The subhead helpfully fleshed out the number: “2009’s deficit soared to $1.42 trillion – more than three times the most red ink ever amassed in a single year.”  In the early part of the article – the part people read – it emphasized that this was the federal budget deficit, and it included a number I’ll comment on a bit later.
Indeed, $1.42 trillion – $1,420,000,000,000 – is a lot of red ink.
It’s also the mother’s milk of unfettered Capitalism….  Somebody, after all, got all that loose change.
And there are those inconvenient truths, like the fact that our cost of “War on a Word” since 2001 will exceed $1 trillion by the end of this fiscal year #mce_temp_url# – and much of that is off-budget and relies on borrowed money from places like China.  Another excellent resource: #mce_temp_url#.  War is an unproductive use of increasingly scarce resources.
The article got me to thinking back to when my parents bought their first house.  It was in 1947.  I was seven years old; my parents were 39 and 36 respectively.  We were living out in Sykeston ND.  There were already four of us kids, and #5 was to come the following year.
I was old enough to have vivid memories of this momentous purchase.

Bernard's North House, 1947

Bernard's North House, 1947


My Dad was a school teacher, and Mom was stay at home, and the first few years they rented.  But by 1947 it seemed like they had a relatively stable work situation, and the family size was such that they needed a house.
They bought a deserted farm house that had doubled for a grain bin somewhere out in the countryside, and moved it to the north end of tiny Sykeston, ND, perching it on a foundation over a minimal basement with dirt walls.  If memory serves, their investment was $700 total.
It was the sweat equity that brought the mouse-infested place back to life.  If you look closely at the photo above, you can see a very tired looking man sitting on the stoop of the then-front door.  That would be my Dad.  Basically behind and to the right of the photographer (my mother?) would be the outhouse…no sewer or running water in those years: they had to go down to the town pump for the water supply.  No bathroom.  Minimal baths….  No garage for the one already old car.
Life went on, and expectations increased for all Americans.
Time went on and someone came up with the idea that people could borrow money and get stuff that they wanted.  Business thought this was a fine idea.  Debt is good.  It helps to promote consumption, and consumption is good.  As business took over government, slow but sure, government debt was okay too.  Who better to own than the government, especially when you could blame the politicians?
So, we sit here with this huge federal debt.  The paper helpfully pointed out that it amounts to “more than $4,700 for every man, woman and child in the United States.”
A lot of money, yes.
But comparing it against the massive consumer debt held by persons with mortgages, car loans, etc., etc., etc., etc.  it’s really pretty small change.
The calculation for the big business types now has to be: how far can they leverage this debt until we all go busted.  Sooner or later the debt becomes intolerable, even for those with a lust for profit.  The peasants need to be able to pay the bills.  If they can’t, the bubble bursts.
As noted, there are many reasons for that big federal deficit.
A bit of prudence, like my parents had to exercise back in the 1940s, would go a long way today.
Don’t expect it from the money changers in the temple that is Wall Street.

#108 – Dick Bernard: August Wilson's Radio Golf

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Last night a friend invited us to attend a performance of August Wilson’s last play, Radio Golf, at St. Paul’s Penumbra Theatre #mce_temp_url#.  I have been an off and on patron of Penumbra since 1985, and with Radio Golf have now seen eight of the ten plays of acclaimed playwright August Wilson’s “20th Century Cycle”.  (The ten plays are listed at the end of this post.  Mr. Wilson, who passed away six months after the premiere of Radio Golf in 2005, earned international acclaim, including, among numerous awards, two Pulitzer Prizes.  He considered Penumbra his “home” theatre – where his writing was encouraged and his work was first performed in 1977.  He was born and grew up in Pittsburgh PA.)
Radio Golf has its final performances this coming weekend.  It is well worth the nearly three hours of intense (and sometimes humorous) performance by the stellar cast of four men and one woman.
Wilson’s 20th century cycle traces the African-American experience in the U.S., decade by decade.
Radio Golf takes on the 1990s.  The plays title makes a whole lot of sense once the play is experienced in person.
Radio Golf is set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, where August Wilson grew up.
Boiled to its essence, I saw Wilson portraying the tensions within the African-American community as a traditional sense of community competes with the contemporary American view of money and its ability to both control and corrupt.  The unlikely heroes and villains are all African-American.  At issue is Big Money coming in to redevelop a poor neighborhood.  Money interests trump Community interests.
The plays focus becomes a ramshackle, abandoned, house which we never see, but which comes alive as somebody’s home.
In this play, in my view, Community (with a capital C) is winning as the play ends.  The power structure has all the weapons and the means to do what it wants, but when all is said and done, a unified community puts the big-shots in their place.  The play ends without revealing a final resolution, and one hopes that the community can keep its focus.
I went to the play knowing nothing about what I was going to see.
For me, Radio Golf came alive in a unique way, since in April, 1998, my daughter and I were given a priceless tour of August Wilson’s growing up neighborhood in the Hill District of Pittsburgh.  Our guide for several hours was his sister Freda, and what a wonderful guide she was.
We saw, and indeed went inside, the tiny, empty and deteriorating flat where August Wilson grew up; the restaurant where he did his first serious writing (he loved to write in restaurants); and all of the neighborhood places and many people familiar to him, many of which appear as characters in his work.  Never in my wildest dreams back then would I have realized that eleven years later I would see his 1990s view of his home neighborhood and its future in Radio Golf.
I have many photos of those several hours in The Hill District in 1998, and reams more of memories of what we saw.  Below are a couple of the photos.
See Radio Golf if you can; it helps bring a small amount of hope in a hopeless time.

August Wilson boyhood home was in building at right in the photo, 1727 Bedford Avenue. Entrance was from back side of the building. Note in background the skyline of downtown Pittsburgh, a few blocks down the hill.

August Wilson boyhood home was in building at right in the photo, 1727 Bedford Avenue. Entrance was from back side of the building. Note in background the skyline of downtown Pittsburgh, a few blocks down the hill.


Eddie's Restaurant where August Wilson began his writing career. Dick Bernard, April, 1998

Eddie's Restaurant where August Wilson began his writing career. Dick Bernard, April, 1998


August Wilson’s 20th Century Cycle
1900s – Gem of the Ocean
1910s – Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
1920s – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
1930s – The Piano Lesson (Pulitzer prize 1990)
1940s – Seven Guitars
1950s – Fences (Pulitzer Prize 1987)
1960s – Two Trains Running
1970s – Jitney
1980s – King Hedley II
1990s – Radio Golf
(1727 Bedford Avenue is at #mce_temp_url#)
UPDATE October 18, 2009 4:10 p.m.
I used the miracle of mapquest and whitepages to nose around pieces of August Wilson’s neighborhood which I remember from 1998.  The aerial photo of the neighborhood reveals at least the possibility that the flat in which he grew up may still exist; Eddie’s is no longer listed as a business; it appears that his school across from the Mellon Center downtown has been taken down, and in general the area looks redeveloped.  One can celebrate or lament what some would see as progress; others as destruction.  Perhaps there is an element of both….

#101 – Dick Bernard: Running for TJ; and building a base.

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My nephew, TJ Hedeen, died during liver transplant surgery on April 15, 2008.  He was 36.  He had a congenital liver defect.  He was a great guy, and left behind his wife, Mickey, and two stepsons, Bryant and Brace.

TJ, Bryant and Brace

TJ, Bryant and Brace


TJ’s death touched us all, but few as much as my son-in-law John Hagebock, a little older than TJ, who resolved to not  let TJ’s death be in vain.
John decided to make his contribution by drawing attention to organ donation programs, specifically Life Source.  #mce_temp_url# His first action was running the Twin Cities marathon on October 3, 2008.  It was his first marathon, and he finished the race.
John nearing the finish in the Twin Cities Marathon Oct 5, 2008

John nearing the finish in the Twin Cities Marathon Oct 5, 2008


The 2008 race was John’s warm-up.  He decided to do a reprise in 2009, but to up the ante a bit.  He began to quietly promote participation for TJ in the 2009 run, October 3.
By race day John had fresh running shirts advertising Life Source, and six more runners to “share the colors”.  He again ran the marathon; the other recruits were willing to do the ten mile segment.  Two of the six ended up injured, and couldn’t compete, but the other four finished the course.
John was a bit disappointed that he had only four new people on the course this year, but I’m really proud of what he accomplished.
He plans to do the same next year.
I suggested to him that a worthy objective would be to work with his new team to convince each of them to recruit two more runners for next year, and thus start a tradition of growth.
His program is off to a great start.
Congratulations, John.  Good running!  Good work!
There were doubtless many others in the thousands of runners who similarly were engaged in using the run as motivation for doing good for others.   Congratulations to them, as well.  They gave additional meaning to the race as well.
Again to readers, if you’re not familiar with organ donation programs, here’s a good chance to learn: #mce_temp_url#
Starting line Twin Cities 10 mile October 3, 2009

Starting line Twin Cities 10 mile October 3, 2009

#88 – Dick Bernard: A Happy Birthday to Annelee, and a time to reflect on War

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See comment at end of post
Annelee Woodstrom is 83 years young today, and what a remarkable 83 years it has been.  She’s one of my role models.  What a life.  What an example.
We saw her reading from her book “War Child, Growing Up in Adolf Hitler’s Germany” one week ago today.  We were among 75 people in a church conference room, all listening carefully.  You could “hear a pin drop”, literally.  Each time I hear her speak, her presentation is more compelling and powerful.

Annelee Woodstrom September 13, 2009

Annelee Woodstrom September 13, 2009


I met Annelee when I ordered a copy of her book in 2003.  I had read a column about the book in the Fargo (ND) Forum, and sent her a note.  We’ve been good friends ever since.
Annelee wrote the book when she was 77.  It is about to go into its third printing.  Last year, she wrote a followup, Empty Chairs, about 60 years in the United States, beginning as a war bride of an American GI from northwest MN.  Their marriage of 51 years ended with his death in 1998.  Empty Chairs has also been a success for Annelee.  She has a powerful story to tell. ( #mce_temp_url# for details about the books.  Both are well worth reading.)
Annelee was 7 years old when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933.  She lived in a town of about 6,000 people within walking distance of what is now the CzechRepublic.  There were two Jewish families in her town.  Both were forced to leave, both survived.  At the end of the war, Annelee was 18 and a telegrapher in Regensburg, and near the end of the war she and a friend walked 90 miles home: better to die at home than through the bombs, they felt.  They like other Germans were starving.  Earlier she had been under the carpet bombing of the allies and survived.  The detonation caused severe hearing loss.
What had seemed to be a glorious war for Germany, re-building national pride and securing additional land and resources, had an inglorious end for the Germans. There’s a lesson in that for us.
In the official public accounts of the winners (as in schoolbook history) of WWII, the war usually begins with 1938; the U.S. engagement begins with Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. WWII ends with the surrender of Germany in May, 1945; and with Japan in September of that year.  It was our heroic war, liberating good from evil.  When asked when the Germans saw the end was coming, Annelee readily says “1943”.  She was 16, then.
Annelee began her talk by recalling German history between the end of the “war to end all wars”, WWI, in 1918, and her birth in 1926.  This was a time of destitution for ordinary Germans, rarely seriously discussed.  The Nazis promised jobs and national pride and prosperity, and for a while produced on their pledge, especially for those who were loyal party members.  Her parents refused to become party members, and refused her requests to join the Hitler Youth, whose parades and splendid uniforms enthralled her as a young girl.
There is almost literally a black hole in information about the privation of ordinary Germans after WWI.  But it was this privation, and the resulting humiliation at the loss that probably were the major factors making ordinary Germans susceptible to Hitler and the Nazis propaganda.
Winners of wars write the always heroic official history; losers retain and pass down the memories and consequences of the loss.  There is always a “black hole” – a story not to be told.  Personal memory is powerful for the losers.  There is no surrender of memory.
Annelee to her great credit remembers, and chooses to share.
Happy Birthday, Annelee!
**
Annelee’s s story last Sunday reminded me of an earlier story I had read about Germany in the aftermath of WW I.
This story came in the form of a November 5, 1923, letter written by my great-uncle Herman Henry Busch of Dubuque Iowa to a nephew in Germany.  At the time, HH had lived in the United States for over 50 years and he was a prosperous land developer.  The original letter was in German, and I had it and several others translated for a family history I first wrote in 1993.
In relevant part, here’s what HH Busch said about the consequence of WWI five years after it had ended.  Bear in mind, he is writing from America, and at the time he writes has lived in the U.S. for over 50 years.
“The last letter [unavailable,  apparently written in pre-war or WWI times] I counseled [a cousin] to shake the [German] dust from his feet and come over [to the U.S.].  It was the time when the bishop from Lemberg was taken into captivity by the Russians.  He answered me that [Germany] had a good Kaiser and good times.  My warning was justified.
The American millionaires and the government had loaned the Allies so many millions that against the will of the common folk, President Wilson was pulled into the War.  England had nine million for newspaper propaganda (for war) in American newspapers about the brutal German and that the German-Americans had come to suffer under it, they were held for unpatriotic and were required to come before the court for little things as if they were pro-German[*].  The damned war was a revenge and a millionaire’s war and the common people had to bleed in this bloody gladiator battle.  Yes, until now the world still has no peace because of the revenge of France [**].
So now the Catholics of America have a nine day novena for peace, in our beautiful Marian church.  The novena ends on the feast of All-Saints Day. It would be desirable for the strong God of the warring armies to let justice reign here and give the whole world the peace so that, at Christmas, the world can experience peace and good will to all.  We Americans must now bear the war debt of fifty billion through taxes and it makes me happy that you [Germans] do not need help us pay the war debt.  The last occupation map that I saw had  [his home area between the Ruhr and Netherlands] Borken on the borderline, is Borken occupied?  Is Borken included in the occupied area or not?  Where do the garrison occupation lines run near you?  Was the harvest good?  Are many people in the area in misery?  What is your business?  Who lives in my old home now.  I forgot nothing of the beautiful hunting grounds of my youth.  If the hunt is still as good as then, it would be my utmost wish to make a hunt there in Soison.  Report also of your family. If Germany will become more divided through loss of the Rhinelands and the revolution of the socialists and communists [***] then there is still a  crisis to get through, and we very surely hope that the whole confusion is soon rectified and order comes.  If Germany had been able to overflow the American newspapers with propaganda during the war like England, then America would have been on Germany’s side instead of England’s and it would be in a completely different position now in the world.  One hears that the need in the cities is big and farmers fare the best….”  (page 271, Pioneers: The Busch and Berning Families of LaMoure County ND, 1991, 1993, 2005)
* – German-Americans, especially those who spoke German, were considered suspect in the U.S., much as the Japanese-Americans were considered suspect in WWII, and the Arab-Americans today.  The old patters continue unabated.   If we do the same things in the same ways we will always get the same results…but it is a very hard lesson to learn.
** – In another letter, HH recounts a story told by his grandparents about the early 1800s when Napoleon overran their homeland of Westfalia, and for a number of years they were governed by France.  No love was lost for France by this German.
*** – H. H. does not define “socialist” or “communist” in his letter, and no later record is known from later writings.  The Nazis did eliminate the communists as competition, and the more I learn about the Nazis, they were, rather than “socialist”, really a mother-lode for the capitalists of the day, both in their country and elsewhere.  They were really the very epitome of the “military-industrial complex” which President Eisenhower feared in his farewell address to the U.S. Congress in January, 1961, and which is now a troubling reality.  In his address, Eisenhower had actively considered adding reference to government to his phrase, but in the end did not.
In background, Annelee's family in 1943

In background, Annelee's family in 1943


Annelee’s father was ultimately drafted into the German Army in a construction engineering capacity.  Except for coming home around Christmas of 1943, he was never seen again.  They believe he died in a Russian prison perhaps after the war, but no one is absolutely sure.
H.H. Busch died in 1933, the year Hitler came to power, and the Great Depression was raging in the United States.  Except for the above letter, I have no further accounts by or about him.
UPDATE SEP 20, 2009 from Jim Fuller:
A key point in the piece is that the period between WWI and WWII is a “black hole” for most people, which means that they can have no real understanding of why the Nazis in Germany and Fascists in Italy rose so readily to power in their respective countries.
A painless way to gain considerable knowledge of that era, and have a great time in the process, is to read the novels of Alan Furst.  They are superb, and beautifully written stories of spies and emigre intrigue in Europe between the world wars, but they also are filled with factual detail that one rarely, if ever, finds in history books. Another excellent novel that provides great historical insight is Erich Maria Remarque’s “Black Obelisque.”  (Remarque was the author of “All quiet On the Western Front,” which in its early chapters also tells much about that between-wars period.

#80 – Dick Bernard: Eugenie Fellows, Au revoir to a classy lady

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At 6:09 p.m. September 9 came a brief e-mail: “My mother slipped away this morning, after a rally the last couple of days.  I was with her and she was not in pain, so it was not as difficult as it might have been.  She hated hospitals and did not want any more procedures.”  
Eugenie Fellows, who I got to know as Gene, passed away a few days after a bad fall at her home in rural FL.  She was a young-at-heart woman, born December 20, 1913; closing in on her 96th birthday.  Until her fall, she was an active lady.  She would respond to virtually every e-mail I sent, usually with a terse “interesting”, sometimes with a paragraph or sometimes more if the topic brought back some memory or other.  It could be said that she and I “talked” almost every day.
Her daughter, Joy Lominska, who sent me the e-mail with the sad news last evening, described her Mom well.  
Here’s a photo I took of Gene (as she called herself to me), in her yard in Florida, in January, 2003.  She was, then, a mere 89.
Eugenie Fellows January 2003001
I got to know Gene in some circuitous unremembered way in about 1995.  At the time I was editor of a small newsletter for people of French-Canadian descent, and somehow or other Eugenie found out about the newsletter, and me, and she sent an inquiry, which I later posted in the newsletter.  That began our long friendship, which began when she was a young 82!
Except for the single in-person visit in 2003, we communicated by e-mail and, sometimes, letter.  I hope her daughter takes a photo of her old computer for me.  It was a cantankerous old buzzard which she insisted on keeping.  Sometimes, she said, a paperclip worked wonders getting it running again.  She wasn’t able to read this blog: her machine had decided it had no time for the internet or attachments.  Computers can be that way.  On occasion, “interesting” would arrive here as “omyrtrdyomh”.   No matter.  Type and send….
Ironically, the last piece of mail she received from me was a recent printout of all the blog pieces I had done about Health Care reform.  She would have received it near the time she fell.
She never tired of telling about her life, especially specific memorable events.  
Her mother, Mena Hoiland, was Norwegian-American, her Dad, Emile Leriger de la Plante, was French-Canadian.  They married in Crookston MN, and during her growing up years lived in many places.  They were lifelong Socialists, as was she, and they were proud of socialism.  If they were like she was, they weren’t pushy about their political beliefs; neither were they ashamed of them.  
She never tired of mentioning marching with her parents in the parade celebrating the ratification of Women’s Suffrage in 1920.  At the time they lived in Milwaukee. She was six.  Somewhere in those years a house guest was Eugene V. Debs.
She enrolled at the University of Washington at age 16, but the Great Depression came along at the same time and interfered with her plans.  She returned to university when her daughter began school, earning a degree in Social Work and later a Masters Degree in urban planning, both at Ohio State.  She worked as a planner for many years.
Her beloved husband, Erwin, preceded her in death by about eight years.  One of their children preceded them in death.  Along with his professional work, Erwin was an author of commentaries on the human condition, and he was a good one.  She loaned me a book he had written.  (I returned it!)
Gene mentioned often her long-time activity as a member of the League of Women Voters, and she was also a long-time member of Womens International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).  A dominant memory when I visited her rural home was seeing bookshelves jam-packed with books.  She never stopped learning.   We walked the property and she pointed out this and that.  I sampled the fruit on the tree behind her in the photo: it looked benign, but it would give serious competition to a very tart lemon.   I’m guessing she was a bit amused at her visitors discovery.
Occasionally people come into to our lives who enrich us by their presence, even if at a distance.
Eugenie Hoiland LaPlante Fellows was such a person.
Au revoir, my friend.

#72 – Dick Bernard: Lindsay's 23rd birthday, and some other 23rds

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Today is my oldest grandchild’s 23rd birthday.  This birthday causes me to think back…and ahead. 
August 22, 1986, when Lindsay was born, means of communication differed from today.  There was no public access internet; public e-mail was several years in the future; cellular phones were just beginning to be talked about.  When I called to congratulate Lindsay’s Mom and Dad on August 22, 1986, I used a pay telephone in downtown St. Paul MN.  Pay phones?????  They are few and far between in this day of cell phones.

Calling Congratulation August 22, 1986

Calling Congratulation August 22, 1986


The number “23” doesn’t stop at 1986.
23 years earlier, in August of 1963, I was newly married, a soldier in the U.S. Army playing war with the 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized).  We were on maneuvers in the state of South Carolina.  I would guess that few of us in that Division realized that we were helping prepare for the Vietnam War, which was then still cool (in more ways than one), but which would soon erupt into a twelve year conflagration in southeast Asia.  We lost that war; today efforts are being made to ‘rehabilitate’ that history, and make it seem as if we won.
While we were slogging through rural South Carolina, learning first-hand about what segregation really was, elsewhere preparations were being concluded for a massive civil rights demonstration on August 28, 1963.  It was on that date that a young Dr. Martin Luther King gave his famous “I have a dream” speech before a massive audience on the National Mall in Washington D.C. It was truly a watershed moment.  You can revisit that major event at http://tinyurl.com/5f46w9. 
1963 was an important year for the American Civil Rights Movement .  It was the year of Martin Luther King writing his famous “Letter from the Birmingham Jail”, and many other events.  He wrote about 1963 in his 1964 book, “Why We Can’t Wait”.  I wonder what Dr. King would be thinking and saying today.
Go 23 years further back, to 1940, and I made my appearance in the world, in the time right after the Great Depression, and right before the U.S. entered World War II.  People of my generation are called the “Silent Generation” – we were too young to impact on WWII, too young to have lived through the Great Depression.  But we were deeply impacted by those events through our parents, relatives and surroundings.  Those really hard times became part of our very beings.
I wonder, this day, what things will look like for Lindsay and her generation, and their children, 23 years from now. 
The odds are almost certain that I won’t be around to see 2032.  Without the very active engagement of Lindsay’s generation, the times ahead promise to be unsettling and uncertain.  I’d like to feel hopeful.  But we’ve made a big mess of things, generally, especially the future, and those following us have got to turn things around for themselves.
Whatever I can do to help Lindsay and her cohort, I will do.  But we need to work together.
Happy birthday to you, Lindsay.
Happy future to you and all now and tomorrow.
A car with a message: LaMoure ND August 18 2009

A car with a message: LaMoure ND August 18 2009

#62 – Dick Bernard: Long Term Care: moving from Charity to Profit Center

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This is post #6 of 13.  The others: July 24, 26, 27, 29, 30, August 1, 2,5,6,7,10,15.
What follows is my response to a long editorial in the July 22, 2009, Minneapolis Star Tribune “Don’t ignore costs of long-term care“.  My response was sent U.S. mail to the writer of the editorial and the legislators mentioned.  I did not write it for publication – it is too long.  I may shorten it for submission as a regular newspaper column in August.
It is important to read the editorial first, as it provides the context for the response.  The editorial on which the letter is based should remain archived at www.startribune.com, (click on Opinion, click on Editorials and look through the archived list.)  I have typed the text of the editorial at the end of this post. 

July 28, 2009

Dear Editorial Writer (“Don’t ignore costs of long-term care”, July 22, 2009)

I have been letting your editorial of July 22 settle for a bit before responding.  I am armed only with personal experiences, your editorial and the enclosed [June 2, 1995 ] editorial by former Mn Governor Elmer L. Andersen.  I didn’t know about the Center of the American Experiment symposium, and in any event wouldn’t have been in their loop anyway. 

 

 To be succinct, the saying “fox guarding the chicken coop” came to mind as I was reading the proposal for (possibly) more taxes made by the Minnesota Free Market Institute representative.  Of course, in this case, the “fox” wouldn’t eat a few chickens and dash away; he’d “monetize” them by careful stewardship of the “eggs” – tough luck for Farmer Jones (the taxpayer) who accepted the “deal”…so it goes.  Money in the bank.

 

It happens that the Sunday before your editorial I was standing in the churchyard of the magnificent Cathedral of St. Boniface in Winnipeg.  We were there to close out a fascinating delving into the last days of my great-grandfather Octave, who died destitute in 1925 at what was described by my father as the “poor farm” in Winnipeg.  I envisioned what this must be.  I’d written about these recollections in a June 21st piece in my blog, and one thing led to another.  “Poor farm” came to be called “rest home” and by July 19, it turned out Great-Grandpa died in the Old Men’s section of Hospice Tache, the hospital of the Grey Nuns in Winnipeg, next door to the Cathedral.  In other words, as was true in those years, he was dealt with as a charity case, and the good nuns, who took seriously their vow of poverty, cared for him in his final days (he is buried in northeast North Dakota, appropriately at rest.)

 

In 1963, Great-Grandpa’s daughter, my grandmother, died.  This was before Medicare.  I was 23 at the time.  To my recollection, she spent most of the last six years of her life in a private room in a small town Catholic hospital.  Her husband had died.  She’d had a stroke, but she could hobble around with a walker.  Dad used to say that her hope was that she would not run out of money before her death.  She had little money to begin with.  I think she probably achieved her goal, probably with the the hospital administrators “wink” at bills. Her care was very inexpensive, and caring. 

 

About 1970, I was at a meeting with a Minnesota state legislator about some local issues.  Nice guy.  It was some years later that I learned that he and I were shirt-tail relations on Great-Grandpas side.  Some time after that I learned the legislator had made a lot of money through Nursing Homes he owned.  He’s long passed on, maybe visiting with Grandma….   Times had changed.  Cheap care had gone missing.  It was now in the Marketplace.

 

In the early 1990s it became my great good fortune to begin a dozen year friendship with Elmer L. Andersen, former MN Governor. 

 

He and I became acquainted through a column he’d written in the Anoka Union.  He was a good writer, and I looked forward to his columns, many of which I kept, including the one that is [below, following this response].  It too, speaks for itself.

 

At some point, in some other context, I learned of the problem that (so far as I know) may still be a problem in American society: people with money (or their heirs) developed strategies to protect their assets so that when it came time to go to the nursing home, their inheritance was protected and the state (“we, the people”) would pay the bill.  Of course, this was a perfectly “honest” strategy.  I seem to recall legislated efforts to close that loophole – probably they still happen – but my guess is that someone with a good lawyer and tax man can figure out ways to shelter their funds while the state pays the lion’s share of their costs.

 

The business of making money is rarely a kind and gentle one.  The astute capitalists figure out ways to figuratively pick people’s pockets.  One of those groups ripe for the picking is, likely, the older age health care sector, which is why the Free Market guy is so compassionate towards the future needs of baby-boomers: there’s lots of money to be made from them….

 

As for myself, for a long time I’ve had what I understand to be the “top of the line” Long Term Care insurance (another lucrative business).  Whether it is more than I need, or if there is a loophole that will deny me essential coverage because of something I didn’t notice, or if it becomes prohibitively expensive to maintain – all of these and other questions are unknown to me, now.  I can’t afford the necessary lawyers and accountants.  And I’m perhaps more astute about this than the average consumer.

 

Bottom line for me is that the profiteers are the ones who have driven the health care industry into the state of crisis in which it now finds itself.  I’m skeptical about the gushing “honestly and courageously” statement near the end of the editorial.  Altruism is of little matter, so long as plenty of money is made, and there is nothing to be lost if they’re hypocritical by criticizing the government at the same time as they’re making sure the government keeps their own trough plenty full.

 

No doubt your editorial is getting wide circulation in the “right-of-center” world….

 

Sincerely, Dick Bernard

 

Enclosure: Editorial of former MN Governor Elmer L. Andersen, then newspaper publisher, in the June 2, 1995, Anoka County Union:

“For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1995, the state Department of Human Services had a budget of $9.2 billion.  That is an enormous amount of money and an incredible responsibility to administer.  Commissioner Maria Gomez, a highly qualified and dedicated professional, has issued a “Report to the Public” that, in plain straightforward language, states the mission and priorities of the department under federal and state law.  Copies of the report are available by calling 612-297-5627.

 

Money flows through County Human Services units, supervised by the County Board of Commissioners and directed by a professional social worker.  Services are also purchased from non-profit church related and other community welfare agencies.   There are misconceptions which the report seeks to correct with clear factual statements.

 

Foremost in the minds of most people is the question.  “Where does all that money go?”  Health Care related expenditures account for 72.7% of the entire total.  By far the single largest item is nursing home care for the elderly.  It has become a part of our culture to place older people in nursing homes at public expense.  The nursing home industry has responded with facilities and programs that provide a variety of services to meet needs in generally pleasant situations.  Increasing population as well as an increasing percentage of older people and an increasing percentage of them in nursing homes, plus rising costs of everything results in soaring expense.  The department is encouraging a program to aid older people to live independently and thus postponing the need for residential care.

 

Aid to Families with Dependent Children is 8.7% of the budget.  All other programs account for 13.2%.  Child care is only 1.2%, Food Stamps .7 of 1%, work readiness .4%. Minnesota Supplemental Aid .9% and “other services” still smaller.  It should be observed that to “get people off welfare” affects relatively small budget items, is welcomed by recieipents and administrators alike but may not accomplish as much as hoped because of the nature of disabilities and will require up front investment.

 

We can be proud to be part of a society that is concerned for the well-being of every individual but we must realize it is a huge, complicated and costly operation.  People who read the report will understand better all that is involved.”

 

Minneapolis Star-Tribune Editorial July 22, 2009

Don’t ignore costs of long-term care

 

The symposium sponsored by a right-of-center Minneapolis think tank was an unlikely place to propose a new federal tax and an even unlikelier place to find agreement that it’s time to consider one.

 

Yet that was the situation of a thoughtful gathering on entitlement programs – Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security – conducted recently by the Center of the American Experiment.  The conservative Minnesota participants – Chuck Chalberg, Laurence Cooper, Tom Kelly, Peter Nelson and moderator Mitch Pearlstein – called passionately for cost containment as baby boomers age.  Toward the end of the program, when the subject of long-term care came up, things took a surprising turn.  Kelly, a Dorsey and Whitney attorney who’s chairman of the Minnesota Free Market Institute, shared perspectives from his parents’ and grandmother’s long-term care experiences.  “We should…simply say that if you have the good fortune to live into the twilight years when you require this care, it will be provided for you.”  Pressed by Pearlstein on how to pay for this, Kelly replied: “We would have to have a tax…the same as we do for Social Security.”

 

It was a striking exchange, one calling attention not only to long-term care costs, but also the opportunity afforded by our shared experiences to explore meaningful solutions to the challenges of caring for the nation’s elderly and disabled in years to come.  Most families have seen up close how costly and frustrating the process can be.  More than just about any issue, there’s common ground on which to build real reform: policies that reduce reliance on expensive institutional care and encourage more personal savings.

 

Whether that involves a new taxpayer-supported social insurance program remains to be seen, and it’s too early to support any type of tax.  But make no mistake, it’s time to act.  The nation’s long-term care system is in crisis.  The reason is that far too few Americans save for long-term care expenses, yet the majority of them will need it – nearly 70 percent of people over age 65 will require this kind of care at some point.  Private long-term care policies pick up just 7 percent of the nation’s long-term care costs.  Those without insurance go through their savings and then turn for help to Medicaid, the $360 billion-a-year medical care program for the poor that is administered jointly by the state and federal government.

 

Medicaid’s costs are unsustainable.  In 1971, Medicaid consumed 0.7 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product.  That total had climed to 2.1 percent by the early part of this decade.  Long-term care services comprise about one-third of the program’s total spending and are expected to consume dramatically more dollars as baby boomers age.  Despite the money spent, and despite recent policy fixes, families remain frustrated by the program’s institutional bias.  It’s designed to put people in nursing homes, not keep them in their own homes.

 

Minnesota is fortunate that its politicians understand the issue’s urgency.  In the state Legislature, Rep Laura Brod, R-New Prague, and Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, teamed up admirable this spring on a bill that would have allowed Minnesotans to open up tax-advantaged savings accoutns for long-term care expenses.  The bill wasn’t passed during the 2009 session, but it deserves a second change in 2010.  While a small step, it’s a start in getting more people to save for their own care.

 

Newly installed U.S. Sen. Al Franken, who sits on the Senate’s Special Committee on Aging, also understands the issue’s urgency.  Just days after taking office, Franken told the Star Tribune that long-term care must be part of the health care reform debate going forward, and his ideas bear watching as he offers specifics.

 

The new Senator’s focus is welcome.  Even during this summer’s historic health care reform discussions, long-term care has unfortunately remained an after-thought.  The U.S. House bill, introduced last week, essentially ignores it.  On the Senate side, Sen. Edward Kennedy has introduced a program that calls for Americans to voluntarily pay long-term care premiums into a new government-run long-term care insurance program.  That program, called the CLASS Act, deserves a higher-profile debate than it has gotten.

 

Kelly and his colleagues at the Center of the American Experiment symposium spoke honestly and courageously about long-term care.  Their conclusions are correct.  Drastic action is needed and all options must be on the table.  More blunt talk is needed if the nation is to continue providing the quality affordable care its most vulnerable citizens deserve. 

 

#58 – Health Care Policy: Some Unpleasant Realities to consider

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This post is #2 of 13 on this topic: The others are at July 24, 27, 29, 30, 31, August 1. 2,5,6,7,10,15.  A final summary commentary is at October 9, 2009.
Note the index for previous commentaries, including #56, published on July 24, 2009.  #56 includes the “talking points” the Republicans in Congress will be taking home with them for town meetings in the upcoming recess.  It is important to understand these, and some counter arguments (included), to be well informed in this debate.
Today I am (I think) very well insured.  This has been true for many years.  (I say “I think” because one never knows for sure what surprises lurk in the fine print, not to be found until you find a specific coverage is excluded for some reason.)
I wasn’t so fortunate as  to be insured in my early adult life.  Following are two stories from my own experience.  I think they’re worth reading.
Story #1 – submitted recently as an op ed to a major newspaper, and as of today not printed.
Today the front-and-center issue is Health Care, tomorrow it will be something else.  At the end of the day, we the people will get what little we deserve for our short-sightedness.  Our legislators do our bidding: it’s called getting elected or re-elected.
We make unwise choices all the time, without considering the possibility that those choices may have dire consequences for ourselves or others we love.
Consider one real example: my own.
In mid-October, 1963, fresh out of the U.S. Army, I took a teaching job in Minnesota.  My young wife had just started her first teaching job in another district.  There was no such thing as group insurance in those days.  We were in our early twenties and healthy…we thought.  When the hospital/doctor insurance man came calling, I couldn’t afford the hospital plan, but I did get the doctor portion.  (Had I been “smart”, then, and gotten the hospital portion, it probably would have disqualified “pre-existing conditions”, just as today.)
Two weeks after I started teaching, my wife had to quit her teaching job for health reasons.  Four months later our son was born…two of those months my wife was in a hospital 70 miles away.  She was hospitalized for several weeks after the birth. From then on she was either almost totally disabled or hospitalized. [*]
By May of 1965 her only possibility for survival was a kidney transplant, and one of the few hospitals doing that procedure then was the University of Minnesota Hospital.  We had no insurance.  They finally admitted her.  I’ll never forget our wait for that decision at the hospital.
Two months later, July 26, 1965, she died in that hospital.  She didn’t live long enough to get the transplant.  At 25 I was widowed, parent of an infant, newly employed as a teacher in the twin cities, and owing the equivalent of almost four years wages primarily for medical expenses, not counting the charity of hospitals or clinics who never billed us for services they knew we could never afford.
In October, 1965, I made a list of debts and made an appointment with an attorney to file bankruptcy.  It was something I didn’t want to do.
I never filed bankruptcy.
After a long wait, North Dakota Public Welfare picked up two-thirds of the medical bills – the University of Minesota portion; and a local North Dakota Community Hospital forgave another portion.  I was able to survive.  I could make a long list of other institutions that saved me from financial disaster that two years.  I was a charity case.
If anything, I have tended to be over-insured since that long ago time.  I am one of the lucky ones who had access to insurance through a group plan during my work years and can now afford the necessary supplements to Medicare today.  (I hope I have the right coverage, which covers the right things, whenever….)
But I’ll never forget when reality slapped us in the face in two very hard years, 1963-65.
There is no excuse in this still prosperous (and very self-centered) society of ours to not fully cover every citizen, and to have our government be the provider.  After all, government is “we, the people”.
Those who think they’ve got this all figured out, and can cover every contingency by their own great planning, consider the possibility: you might be wrong.  Or that child or grandkid or cousin or nephew or friend of yours might need the benefit you said it wasn’t the governments responsibility to provide.
Those legislators we elected are in the end analysis going to do our bidding on health care and other issues.
Let’s encourage them to make wise, and not stupid, decisions.
* – Updated October 9, 2009: Four months before she died, we thought she might be pregnant – which would have certainly been a death sentence for she and the child.  Abortion would have been the only solution to save her.  She turned out not to be pregnant, but this close call has made me, an active Catholic, irrevocably “pro-choice”.

Story #2

In August, 1994, I was in Cebu City, Philippine Islands.  Cebu City was and is a major city of nearly a million population.
One day my wealthy host was taking me on a tour, and at one point he made a statement which I have never forgotten: “In the Philippines, if you’re rich you can get as high quality medical treatment as anyone in the United States.  If you’re poor, you die.”
He made the statement in a matter of fact way, and we didn’t pursue the topic.  Later we went to Catholic Mass.  Cebu City claims the Cross of Magellan, who arrived in there in 1565.  It is the seat of Philippine Christianity (Catholicism).  My host and his family were devout Catholics.
That evening, we guests were given a ride to a tourist attraction overlooking the Cebu City area.  It was dusk, and by the time we arrived at the overlook, it was dark.  Along the unlit road up the mountain were occasional fires, and gatherings of poor people, their homes and shops often in the ditches.  It gave dimension to the cityscape off in the distance, far below.
No one seemed to catch the irony of the moment: a wealthy family taking American visitors through the midst of abject poverty to a tourist attraction.
A few months earlier, back in the states, Harry and Louise, the darlings of the anti-Health reform folks in the United States, had teamed with the middle class to beat back health care reform, derisively called “Hillary care”.  Three months later, the Republicans overwhelmed the Democrats in the 1994 Congressional elections, remaining in control of the Congress for a dozen years, and getting control of the White House from 2001 through 2008.  Health related industries became a cash cow for the already wealthy.  What was bad in 1993 has likely become worse, overall.
The Health Care Reform initiatives that were passed in recent years further enriched the already  rich, and created renewed pleas for true reform of a massive and ailing industry.
Now the Republicans and the Health Industry are calling for not rushing into “reform” (“let’s do it right”) while at the same time doing everything in their power to obstruct and confuse and disrupt responsible attempts to make positive changes.  Immense amounts of money are tossed into efforts to confuse the middle class who’ll pay the price.
The contemporary version of Harry and Louise has been created for media use, and success will be measured by failure of reform, which will then be termed a success….  It’s how simple propaganda works.
The desperately poor we saw in Cebu City that night had nothing, and had no clout whatsoever.  If they were sick, they had no choice.  In good Catholic Cebu City, they either got well on their own, or they died.  The rich could fly to Manila, or on to Japan or San Francisco for top shelf medical procedures.  The poor died in the ditches.
We in the United States still have means to impact the system and prevent our descent into third world status.  But do we possess the will to fight off the profiteers and the big corporations who look on Health Care as a profit center?  I’m not at all sure we do.
We have more clout than those poor Filipinos.  But will we use it?
Its our choice: to believe the propaganda, and go with the flow…or to get engaged in fixing a broken system.
If you are the one percent of the population that is considered wealthy, or if you think you will be, then there’s perhaps not much to worry about.  Like the guy in the Philippines, you’ll get your care.  But if you’re a part of the other 99, including pretty prosperous, then you better be very concerned about what’s ahead, and get engaged.
Caveat emptor.
Update: July 26, 2009
After posting this item we went, as usual, to the 9:30 Mass at Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis.  This particular Sunday the celebrant was Fr. Greg Miller from St. John’s University, and the Gospel was the one about the Loaves and the Fishes, and Fr. Greg’s general topic was “hunger and thirst for justice”.  He talked on three themes, all from the previous weeks news:
The Professor Gates/Cambridge police affair and its message about continuing injustice in this country.
The need for Universal Health Care
The need, also, for Immigration Law reform
I suspect someone wrote the Archbishop complaining about Fr. Greg’s meddling in politics.  No matter.  A long-time pillar of the Catholic Church – one reason why I remain an active member – is its commitment to Justice (which is very different from Charity).

#57 – Dick Bernard: The Politics and Practice of Race

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The New York Times (NYT) “Breaking News Alert” came in at 3:03 PM ET on Friday, July 24, 2009.  The headline: “Obama Says He Regrets His Language on Gates Arrest“.
Anyone stopping by this internet space knows what the flap is about.
There is nothing so sacred to a political figure these days as “staying on message”.  President Obama could regret his final remarks at the news conference on Wednesday even if for no other reason than it deflected news from his main message on health care reform. 
Personally, I think President Obama’s statement and his anger and the defense of his friend were appropriate and right on, and I hope the statement in the NYT release that “Mr. Obama said he had talked to the arresting oficer and hoped the case could become “a teachable moment” to be used to improve relations between minorities and police officers” is a substantive statement.
I have no beef with police, generally.  They have a generally difficult job.  Having said that, police do screw up, and screw up very badly, and knee-jerk support of the police no matter what is uncalled for.  As for non-white “others” like Professor Gates,  generally they are not cut any slack.  If a mistake is made in their arrest, most often it comes to light long after the fact, if at all.  On the one hand, there seems a presumption of innocence for the police; on the other, a presumption of guilt for others, especially non-white.
This issue is considerably closer to my mind than it might otherwise be because last week I was involved in an intercultural conference whose venues included a rural ND Catholic Church basement, and a Community College on an Indian Reservation.  There were a number of times when I felt distinctly uncomfortable to be a white man, solely because of what I symbolized and represented.  (The feeling was embarrassment, and, perhaps, helplessness…what has happened, has happened.  I benefitted from being part of a privileged class, I learned its ways, and it is likely impossible to move completely past it.)
Involved in the conference were a number of people who were called “Africans”, because that’s what they were.  They were likely better educated than myself; they were there because French was their first language; they were all extraordinary people.  But when they came into the Church basement in rural North Dakota there was, among the assembled locals, well, you know:  “What do I say?”  “Who are they?”  That kind of thing.  (It evolved into a good discussion, and church lunches are always good!)
At the conference, at Turtle Mountain Community College http://www.turtle-mountain.cc.nd.us/, the focus was on intercultural relationships between French-Canadians, Metisse (in the old days, “half breeds”, “mixed blood”) and Native Americans (“Indians”, “natives”, “indigenous”), there was also tension: questions not asked; questions asked but not answered….  The steps to honest dialogue are slow and halting. 
The Metisse hero, Louis Riel, was hanged in Canada in 1885, and for years was a reviled symbol of a failed revolution; today he is a cultural icon in the same society that considered him a bitter enemy.  Apparently there is a Louis Riel Day in today’s Manitoba, much as there is a Martin Luther King Day in the U.S.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Riel
The “Indians” on the Turtle Mountain Reservation have a casino, which brings good and bad to their society, and they have a confidence and assertiveness which can be uncomfortable.  It happens that way when attempts are made to level playing fields.  The assertive minority can be assumed to be  “uppity”.  For the dominant culture, uppity would be called confidence; and, of course, white males have been taught that  our “place” is superior.
I am confident that as a society we are moving away from the worst of the racist aspects that have so long identified us.   But we have a long, long, long way to go.  The incident in Cambridge, and President Obama’s response highlight this.
Change will not be easy – it never is.  I remember a long ago handout at a conference.  It was called the “Change Curve”, and it said that on the way to something better than the status quo “steady state”, the road is difficult.  In fact, in the early going things seem to be getting worse than better (think routine things like quitting smoking, or losing weight….).  Persistence brings good results, but it takes persistence.
Whatever happened in Cambridge MA in a residential neighborhood has become world news. 
To me, that occasion should be greeted as an opportunity to deepen and intensify the dialogue on race matters in this country.
Update: July 31, 2009
Yesterday, July 30, the President, the Professor, the Policeman and the Vice-President met at the White House.  The same day, the woman who had called 9-11, Lucy Whalen, made a public appearance.  The recording of her initial call has been released.  She never mentioned race in her call, which was a very calm, simple reporting of only facts that she could observe.  It remains to be seen if the incident will be viewed as an opportunity for dialogue, or as an opportunity to attack, divert attention from other issues, and divide Americans.   Now there is insistence that the lady also meet with the President; and complaints that she was not invited to the men-only meeting.  These do not seem to originate with the woman, who comes across as simply a citizen who was trying to do what was right.  Stay tuned.

#54 – Dick Bernard: "The Eagle has Landed", and Walter Cronkite

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Forty years ago today my attention was riveted on a man setting foot on the moon.  Six years earlier, November 22, 1963, a television news anchor named Walter Cronkite helped us through the agony of one of the darkest moments in my lifetime: the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  Somehow it seems almost fitting that the anniversary of the moon landing (July 20) and the death of the broadcast icon (July 17) came within days of each other. 
Recollection of these separate events brought attention to the past, and to inevitability of time passing, and with it, change.
I was a young school teacher the day President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas.  My even younger wife had a few weeks earlier left her own teaching position due to what turned out, less than two years later, to be a terminal illness.  November 22, 1963, she was pregnant with our first child.  
November 22, 1963, we lived in an upstairs apartment in a house near my school, and a short time before that sad day we had purchased (on credit) a 9″ black and white television.  At $10 a month, the television payment stretched our meager budget, but it was at least a window to the outside world for my wife.
That time in history is well documented and I would not pretend to add to any accounts about the person, Walter Cronkite, or the event on which he reported that day, the assassination of a President.
In those years, long before cable, internet, and hundreds of television channels, most country folks lucky enough to have television, perhaps had access to one or two channels whose signal came from very high transmission towers many miles away.  What we saw, then, would not pass anyones muster for quality in this day and age.  I know we received CBS, and thus heard and saw Walter Cronkite’s reporting  on the unfolding events during that dreadful time in our nation’s history.
Cronkite died last week at 92.  Shortly before November 22, 1963, he had celebrated his 47th birthday.  He seemed like a pretty old guy to me, then.  Our first child, Tom, was born February 26, 1964.  At his last birthday Tom turned 45, nearly Cronkite’s then-age.  Time flies…one notices….
July 20, 1969, is another day vivid in my memory.  I was enroute home from a visit with my parents in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and following the moon landing on the car radio.  Sometime in mid-afternoon, along U.S. Highway 2 between Grand Forks and Bemidji MN, I pulled over along the highway at the exact time the actual drama of the moon landing took place.  It was a powerful moment.  I had only the announcer and my imagination to help me live that moment.
Back home in suburban Minneapolis a few hours later, I watched Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon: “that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.  I did my best to take a photograph of the television screen when Armstrong was on the moon.  Somewhere I have a copy of that photograph, in what passed for color in those days.   The image I saw that night has been replayed numerous times this day.
Those events in 1963 and 1969 were only two of the innumerable memorable events of the 1960s.  It was in many ways a tumultuous decade, but even more significantly it was a relatively carefree and simple time.  The seniors in the high school classes of 1964 were the first high school graduates of the post-war “baby boom”. 
With all the problems of the decade, people had a sense of optimism about the future.  1984, the year portrayed in George Orwell’s novel of the same name, was 15 years in the distant future when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.  Today, that same year is 25 years in the past and we have come too close to experiencing some of the prophesies of that story.
Next year ends the first decade of the 21st century.
How will future generations remember us?  How optimistic about the future can todays youngsters be?

Two 1960s postage stamps

Two 1960s postage stamps