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

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

Garrison Keillor July 4, 2014


Keillor fans July 4, 2014

Keillor fans July 4, 2014


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

#908 – Dick Bernard: Anniversaries of Two Wars…and the beat goes on.

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UPDATE to Fortnight for Freedom: several comments are included at the end of the post.
The last few days have marked two significant anniversaries.
June 28 marked the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand which led, a month later, to the awful World War I.
Today, July 2, is the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
WWI – “the war to end all wars” – was the first of the truly deadly world wars. A letter in Tuesdays Minneapolis Star-Tribune noted that 568 Hennepin County (Minneapolis and environs) residents were killed in WWI, their deaths remembered by Victory Memorial Drive in Victory Memorial Park along the northwest boundary area of Minneapolis.
WWI begat WWII, and after WWII came Korea, then Vietnam, then Iraq…. War doesn’t stop war; it only aggravates problems that erupt in new and different ways.
The evening of June 21-22, 1964, marked a beginning of the heavy lifting of the Civil Rights Movement. Three young people, James Earl Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, were gunned down in Mississippi – deemed by the KKK t be trouble makers out to register people to vote.
By no means was theirs the first deadly incident in the Civil Rights movement, nor the last, but it was a wake-up call moment, impossible to ignore. It was a watershed moment.
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Risking Everything001
The wars continue: The invisible al-Bagdadi, holed up somewhere, seeks a Caliphate in Syria and Iraq area. Odds are, his life span is not long, and his dream will fail.
At home here in the U.S.of A at Independence Day, it’s no secret at all that efforts are being made to roll back hard-won Civil Rights, voting, immigration, etc.
It seems so hopeless. But is it?
Back in March I decided to drop in on a session at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum conducted by Professor Mary Elizabeth King, a veteran of the Civil Rights heavy lifting years.
The room was full of students that day, nonetheless I wondered about the state of student activism today, so after the session I wrote Dr. King a letter.
On May 13, I received a personal communication from Dr. King, much of which I reprint here, with her permission. Hers is a very interesting and hopeful analysis, coming from the trenches of the Summer of 2014 (and 1964), so to speak.
Dr. King:
“The amount of student activism today is far greater than in the heyday of SNCC [Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee], which some historians are now calling the most significant group to emerge in the USA after World War II. Young people are vastly more engaged. The success of the Dreamers (the movement of young Latinos that dramatically succeeded in their quest for an end to children born in the USA of “illegal” parents being forcibly detained), is a model for good planning and strategizing that beats anything that went on in the civil rights movement. This year, you will see an astonishing degree of mobilization around the 50th anniversary of the Mississippi Freedom Summer (in which I worked). In FL, NC, MS, OH, and TX hundreds of organizers will be working on voter registration, expanding education, pushing against the privatization of prisons and working to curtail the school-to-prison pipeline, and more work against deportations. I’ve just been with 45 of these key organizers in Geogia, and in depth and breadth they are in some ways more advanced than we were in their ability to plan and strategize. I, therefore, feel optimistic.
Dr. King continued at some length:
Isolated groups around the world now have some access to transnational electronic activism. Even if they are weak in their ability to reform their governments, they can cause what social scientists call a “boomerang” pattern, bringing about pressure from networks across the world (most recently visible as Nigheria’s Goodluck Jonathan did nothing about 276 abducted girls until storms of electronic protestation around the world exerted pressure on him, sufficient to get the UK, France, and USA to send personnel). This could not have happened 20 years ago.
More than 400 degree programs, centers, or institutes in the USA are dedicated to the building of peace. Peace and conflict studies is the fastest growing field of all the social sciences worldwide; in my experience it is driven by the young.”
On Martin Luther King, Dr. King recommends a new book: “In an Inescapable Network of Mutuality,” ed. Lewis V. Baldwin (Cascade Books, 2013).
Her letter also included the postcard about Risking Everything (see above photograph). She suggested “that you spread word of this remarkable book of carefully selected documents from the 1964 Freedom Summer. Every library should have it.” (At this writing, the website listed on the card is down for maintenance. Try it later.)
Back in the 60s, Dr. King concludes, “We had almost no books, other than Gandhi’s autobiography and King’s Stride toward Freedom. Today a wealth is available and much of it downloadable.”
Mistakes will be made, as witnessed by Tahrir Square mistakes, and the Occupy movement, both of which had promising starts.
But activism is alive and well.
Thank you, Dr. King. I’m glad I asked the question.
UPDATE, July 3: Overnight came Just Above Sunset with an analysis commentary about 1964 and 2014.
It is impossible, of course, to see how the long term will play out on the matters of voting or immigration or most anything else, but personally I see the climate now as very different from 1964. The Rights advocates in 1964 were starting from 100 years of inaction following the Emancipation Proclamation and it was a hard slow dangerous slog in the south. Armies of demonstrators made it possible for Lyndon Johnson to take the courageous steps necessary to get the act passed, though he well knew the consequences for the Democrats “for the next generation”.
Rolling back the clock to the good old days will be, in my opinion, a suicidal mission for the angry people who give face to the anger in places like Murieta CA.
A photo clip last night showed the California protestors brandishing American flags almost like weapons against the bus. It brought back flashback moments for me to early October, 2001, when I went to my first anti-war demonstration at the State Capitol, and across the street were flag-brandishing very angry people protesting the protestors.
It will be interesting to see the crowd at the 4th of July Parade tomorrow…the one we always attend. It is the crowd I always watch, more than the parade. The folks along the street are America….

#906 – Dick Bernard: A "Fortnight for Freedom". The Tyranny of Belief?

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A few hours after publishing this post, I went on my daily walk, and found this in chalk along the curb. It had been placed there since yesterday (I always walk the same route)*.
UPDATE on the photo, June 29: I went by the spot about noon, and no evidence of the chalked saying – it rained overnight. So the photo is the only reminder that it was ever there. One of the truths of accomplishing big things is the adage: “if you can believe it, you can achieve it”. This applies to many things in many ways.
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June 28, 2014

June 28, 2014


At the exact same time as the disastrous sectarian (religious) war in Syria and Iraq, another religious inspired event, an essentially covert religious “war” of its own, is being marketed in the United States. It began on June 21, Summer Solstice, and runs through July 4: a fortnight involving an annual natural phenomena, a national holiday and a religious initiative. It is quite a marketing package.
Today is the half-way point of the official observance; but it will continue long past July 4th, rest assured.
It is called “Fortnight for Freedom” and its marketing focus is on an alleged heavy-handed federal government coming down on poor beleaguered Christians who are, it is suggested, forced to compromise certain religious beliefs to obey laws with which they disagree, such as parts of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare).
Just one example: being required as a company or employee to dispense birth control to others who desire that particular service when ones believes birth control is a sin. It is, indeed, a clash: a demand of freedom for one; with no apparent attention about freedom for the other whose views might differ.
The initiative seems to make so much sense, if you go no further than the surface rationale. As you think more deeply about the implications, though, it is really a tangled web of deception. “Freedom” apparently only applies to those who can then restrict certain others freedoms. Thus Fortnight for Freedom isn’t about freedom at all, it is about domination and control, imposition of beliefs, only without the bombs and bullets. It is about marketing an idea, a belief, as superior to other contrary beliefs.
Here is a description of Fortnight for Freedom. “Fortnight for Freedom” and its companions have come at me from a number of different directions in the last week or so.
Last Friday, the local Catholic Archdiocese newspaper, the Catholic Spirit, had a photo of four earnest looking Bishops on page 11, all intently looking at an iPad above a headline “Bishops focus on religious liberty….” I am Catholic. I get this paper. I know their story….
Catholic Spirit June 19, 2014 p. 11

Catholic Spirit June 19, 2014 p. 11


Here is the article that accompanies the above photo: Bishops focus….002
Technology and Media and Words are wonderful…and awful. The words “Fortnight for Freedom” are not even mentioned in the accompanying article; but the timing of the article is no coincidence.
The Bishops of my Church (I am an active Catholic), have far more than enough “freedom”; there is no need for them to demand even more freedom to take away freedom from others who have differing beliefs than they do, including great numbers who consider themselves, as I do, “active Catholic”.
But this is not just a Catholic hierarchical notion. Last Sunday, a good friend gave me a letter “Standing Together for Religious Freedom, An Open Letter to All Americans“, issued by a Southern Baptist entity, whose first signatory is a Catholic Bishop. The few other signers are, it appears, almost all Catholic or Evangelical Christian leaders of one denomination or another.
This is a top down deal between very odd bedfellows; not a bottom up groundswell. When I was growing up, we Catholics avoided Evangelicals. It was probably also true, vice versa: Catholics were Papists, not Christians.
I see no signers of the Open Letter from mainstream Christian denominations, Jews and Moslems, nor the great numbers of people who do not happen to share a particular belief system. They appear to be only Catholic and Evangelical “leaders”.
There is a bottom line for me in this:
There is a certain amount of “freedom” and “liberty” available. Think of a very large soup kettle full of liberty and freedom.
The Founding Fathers of the U.S. had the right idea about “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” but even for them, then, the concept was essentially reserved to white men with property (including slaves).
At the same time, our founders purposefully and deliberated separated Church and State, an inconvenient truth for some who now actively attempt to rewrite our national history to fit their version of the facts.
We’re now at 238 years of the experiment called American Democracy. It took nearly 200 of those years, some of them very hard years, to come to some fairly reasonable equilibrium about what freedom and liberty meant in practice: ending slavery; securing the right to vote for women (1920) and others (universal suffrage); more universal rights like the Voting Rights Act, Womens Rights, (1960s) etc.
In each of these cases, and others, there was a need to equalize “power”; to share in the wealth of that container of life, liberty and happiness. Each person has a right to that freedom and liberty.
Notions like Fortnight for Freedom want to turn these around; to redefine or to establish new definitions of what “freedom” and “liberty” mean.
Their intent, under the guise of seeking freedom, is to take it away from some as a benefit to others.
To go backwards, not forwards.
Be vigilant.
What do you think?
POSTNOTE:
After I completed the above, I was scrolling through unread e-mails from earlier in the week. This particular one, passed along by Joyce, is particularly telling about the relationship between todays Piety and Power.
As I was writing the above, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Massachusetts law requiring a 35 foot “buffer zone” for protests at abortion clinics violated free speech. It was noted that this same Supreme Court has a much larger “buffer zone” at it own Court in our Nations Capitol, and doesn’t get the contradiction between its own behavior and its own ruling. Here’s a good commentary on that issue.
COMMENTS
from Carol A: Really liked your post, Dick. For a long time, I’ve thought our country has lost its way on the issue of freedom. Freedom without responsibility and respect for others freedom is merely freedom only for a few. Freedom is like individualism in this country. Both need to be balanced and if there is anything we lack, it is balance. We see that in the Tea Party who refuses to address any issue where they might need to compromise. They’re dead set on destroying Obama in whatever way they can. My way or the highway.
I think the issue needs to be discussed and be out in the open. It’s not whose freedom is most important, but how do we balance it with respect for other people’s freedoms.
from Norm N: A link from Time. “Doctors urge more hospitals to perform abortions”.
Response from Dick: Per both Carol and Norm’s comments, I think the weak link in the advocates arguments (i.e. to end abortion, etc) is that it completely dismisses any other point of view, and pretends that a simple solution, perhaps legislatively or by court decision, can be crafted and controlled by advocates for a particular point of view. We are a pluralistic society, and more so than ever, “the other” can never again be driven into silence. Difficult issues require compromise, and compromise requires people to dialogue, truly, with people who have different points of view.
from Peter B: It would be useful if we could be clear about the issue of insurance covering women’s health care: the institutions are not “required as a company or employee to dispense birth control…” Only qualified medical professionals and pharmacists do that.
If I were taking this on, I would focus on the muddying of the waters that is the usual strategy for those who wish to raise these tempests where there is no real Constitutional issue. Whenever they get us to argue the pros and cons of their supposed grievance, they have already won the argument, because they have established in the discourse that there is an issue there. It is bogus.
There’s no “there” there, but as we see, these tactics of confusion and mendacity work all too often. It is a lot trickier to try to argue that a company is infringed upon because its insurance package covers things they don’t like covered (as, I read somewhere, the Hobby Lobby company has provided its own employees for years). People smart enough to make that case face an uphill climb if they want to rouse up people stupid enough to buy it.
I have a good friend who is now in trouble for not paying taxes, forty percent or more of which support the bloody wars of aggression and conquest now conducted in our names, and for private profit. If there is a bright line between the obligation to pay taxes and our religious objections to mass murder, there must be a bright line between paying for health care coverage without discrimination, and our personal religious objections to family planning, etc.
It’s all about what is done in your name, with your money, and the real question is, what’s yours? What constitutes an act for which you are accountable? And to Whom? The definition is completely arbitrary and made up out of whole cloth. It is an impossible question that we had hoped to resolve by just putting it off limits in the Constitution. But language doesn’t hold still. Even the meaning of a comma after “well regulated militia,” has changed.
Now, the Supreme Court has ruled that establishing a perimeter around abortion clinics where people are not allowed to scream in the face of a girl walking toward the building is inhibiting the screamers’ free speech rights, which trumps the girl’s right to walk unmolested down any street in America. (How do they even know whether she is trying to deal with private issues that are hers and hers alone to live with, or just looking for a clean bathroom?) It is (or was) actually only the government that is accountable for any infringement of free speech in the Constitution. It’s a “Congress shall make no law” thing, if I am not mistaken. And what about all those restrictions on protest in D.C.?
We need to work farther upstream than the political conflict itself: literacy and critical thinking skills are the worst casualty of the Education Wars. Democracy cannot stand against ignorance, and you can’t win a shouting match.
from Bruce F: You are correct, Dick, Hobby Lobby’s idea of freedom is based on power & domination. Their entire business model is based on that precept, especially their relations with their employees. The answer for their employees is to unionize. A very difficult proposition for them, but if they were unionized, this law suit regarding the ACA wouldn’t be, along with a whole host of other assaults on labor. Hobby Lobby, like many business, are taking advantage of and thriving in the week economy & labor market to exploited there employees, and it’s in the name of freedom.
I fear a 5-4 decision in favor of the plaintiff.
from John B: Organized religion is a part of the establishment. Most religions espouse the delayed gratification in an after life paradise IF the believers obey the teachings, and we know what that means.
I want to believe there is a higher order to life, maybe even a GODHEAD, but beware of conflating mainstream American religion with freedom. Most religions are dying in a slow and painful manner. Some of them, like certain ones originating in the eastern Mediterranean region are promote despicable social practices. These are the opposite of freedom. As examples, consider the breakdown in negotiations between the Jews and Palestinians or the wars between the Sunnis and the Shias.
I long for a day when a LOUD voice from the sky says: “You guys don’t get it. It was love each other, not loot each other, pray for each other, not prey on each other, share with one another not steal from one another.”
The number one freedom valued in America is the freedom to make money. It is the highest value.
from Jeff P:Well, if this is a major event, its odd I hadn’t heard of it till you
mentioned in this post, but then , as you know , I am a godless apostate.
I think the public at this point, from Ireland to the USA to Germany to
Mexico and most Catholic countries finds the words of bishops particularly
meaningless given the record of the self same clergy in policing itself.
Otherwise , I defer to the Founding Fathers :
History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people
maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of
ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always
avail themselves for their own purposes.
-Thomas Jefferson to Alexander von Humboldt, Dec. 6, 1813.
Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of
the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting
“Jesus Christ,” so that it would read “A departure from the plan of Jesus
Christ, the holy author of our religion;” the insertion was rejected by the
great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of
its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the
Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.
-Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, in reference to the Virginia Act for
Religious Freedom
“What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society?
In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the
ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen
upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been
the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the
public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries.
A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not.”
[Pres. James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance, addressed to the General
Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 1785]
Can a free government possibly exist with the Roman Catholic religion?
— John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, May 19, 1821
.”…the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political
direction.” [George Washington, 1789, responding to clergy complaints that
the Constitution lacked mention of Jesus Christ)
from Andrea G: An excellent read. I couldn’t have stated the issue better. As I scrolled through the letter and the signatures, I wondered how much progress would be made regarding ‘traditional’ social justice issues (poverty, housing, education) if those entities collectively focused on such issues.
from Ray B: When politicians take our tax money and use it in a way that supercedes our basic right to religious freedom must concern us all. Notice and genuine concern through a process starting with the people to stop this downward spiral of our systematic loss of political and religious freedoms must take place. Our well thought out constitution saw the need for democratic freedom and the separation of church and government and must not be tampered with in the un democratic way of this time in our history by those in power and ignore these rights in the name of protectionism with no restraints, all in the name of “the country’s best interests”. Concern for our own people should not be ignored by wars, playing big brother to the world at own demise and financial near insolvency. Our people’s basic rights and the right to jobs, food, safe haven are in our best interest”
from Flo H, Jun 30: I’d never heard of Fortnight for Freedom, but certainly experience the effects of the movement in my community and church. What happened to the belief that, “Your freedom ends where my freedom begins.“? [Ed. Note: Flo didn’t suggest any link, but I’ve added a bunch of links about the phrase.]
from Greg H, Jul 1: I share your sentiments. The conservative tide, at least in the courts, is strong. We will just have to ride it out; I don’t see any alternative.
Curious as I am, I Googled Hobby Lobby to learn if they have any Minnesota stores.
Would you believe their only Minnesota store now is in Woodbury [55125]? Another will open in Maplewood at some point. You may wish to click on this link to view their home page.
response from Dick: We happen to live in Woodbury, about 7 miles from the store. I am not a shopper, so had never heard of this store; my wife is a shopper, but has never mentioned this place. Such is how shopping is. I won’t waste gas or time to even go see the place.
At the home page for Hobby Lobby there is a momentarily appearing ad with two quotations attributed to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson (they are portions of the first and third quotations which can be read here). They aren’t up very long. They are probably like all such quotations: a bit like distilling the Bible into one verse without context….
Here is the wikipedia entry about Hobby Lobby.
I know lots of people who believe lots of things. In our free society, the danger is when someone with a particular belief embarks on a course to impose that belief on everyone else through Law. The only remedy I see, personally, is staying active politically. For someone with the interest, and time, here is a long post that discusses the implications of Hobby Lobby.
* – The sign was very tastefully done, and I have no objections to such an expression at all. When I was taking the photo at the beginning of this post, I noticed a lady in a black car stopped near the corner. Possibly it was because I was standing in the middle of the road! But when she turned the corner, she rolled down her window and said – as if friend to friend – words to the effect “really true”.
She drove on, and I left. It is a safe speculation that she had something to do with the neatly done graffiti.
At home I read Jeff’s comment, below: “…if this is a major event, its odd I hadn’t heard of it till you mentioned in this post….” In my opinion, movements – makes no different the issue or ideology – often take root quietly and unnoticed, until something happens. The lady likely knew about this sign, as did her church, whichever that happened to be, and she was glad somebody (me) was looking at it. And I thought it important to pass the word about it. (The Bible quote is from Mark 9:23, so says the chalk. I have four Bibles here, three Catholic and one the “red-line Bible”, and in each of the four the quotation is worded a little differently. Below are the respective quotations I have. With the Bible, in particular, it depends both on the translation, and the context that is given to certain phrases or passages….)
1. The post on the curb: Everything is possible for one who believes. Mark 9:23. Possible origin of this translation, check here.
2. Grandma’s 1906 Douay-Reims: Verse 22: “And Jesus saith to him: If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.”
3. My 1961 St. Joseph Catholic Edition: also Verse 22: “But Jesus said to him, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”
4. Dad’s 1978 Good News Bible: Verse 23: “Yes” said Jesus, “if you yourself can! Everything is possible for the person who has faith.”
5. From 1989 Revised Standard Version: Verse 23: “Jesus said to him, “if you are able! All can be done for the one who believes.”

#903 – Dick Bernard: St-Jean Baptiste Day June 24. Adding to a conversation about heritage and culture.

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In Minneapolis, this Tuesday, June 24, the Canada Consul-General is hosting a celebration of St-Jean Baptiste, sponsored by Alliance Francaise de Minneapolis. The flier is here: La St-Jean Baptiste la Fete Nationale du Quebec. All are welcome, at a very moderate cost. Unfortunately, I’ll be out of state at the time of Fete de la St-Jean Baptiste. Otherwise, no question I’d be there. It will be a festive event.
My father, Henry Bernard, is 100% French-Canadian, thus qualifying me…and since 1980 I’ve been actively involved in family history matters relating to Dads Quebec (to Dad, always, refered to as “Lower Canada”).*
In 1982, Dad and I and four others traveled to rural Quebec, including Quebec City and Montreal, to make a first visit to the land of our ancestors (QC, Ile d’Orleans, St. Henri, St. Lambert et al). I had, then, only the most basic notions of the family history and traditions of my French-Canadian heritage. Dad was 74, then, which happens to be my current age….
After soupe aux pois (pea soup) at a festive weekend event of La Societe Canadienne-Francaise du Minnesota, some days later we all arrived in Quebec City on the evening of St-Jean Baptiste Day (StJB), Thursday, June 24, 1982. StJB is a major festive event in Quebec, a holiday, always June 24**.
I know Dad pretty well: arriving on the Lower Canada home soil from which his father had come in 1894, (and his grandparents on Grandmas side, 40 and 30 years earlier) was, for him, like arriving in Heaven.
Being a novice in the matter of ancestry at the time, the experience was less intense for me, but no less profound. Three times since I’ve been back, and later immersed myself in family history and the hobby of editing a little newsletter called Chez Nous.
(click on photos to enlarge them)

St. Jean-Baptiste side altar at Cathedral of St. Paul, June 23, 2013

St. Jean-Baptiste side altar at Cathedral of St. Paul, June 23, 2013


In Quebec, this year as all years, June 24 is a major day of celebration. The official notice is here, in French. The document can be translated into English, here. But, no question, they consider this a French-Canadian day***.
So far, I describe a Quebec holiday, primarily French-Canadian, celebrated this year at the home of the Canadian-Consul General in Minneapolis, sponsored by a French-related organization, Alliance Francaise de Minneapolis. We French-Canadians frequently have held smaller celebrations here, most recently June 24, 2013. I wrote about aspects of last year here.
For those with intense feelings about matters French, French-Canada, Canada, and England, (and “Americans”, and “Yankees”, etc) the preceding words can excite some interesting conversation.
An alternative welcoming French word “rapprochement” comes to mind….
Enjoy June 24 and St-Jean Baptiste!
As it happens, I became involved a bit in the “drama” of French and Canadian on St. Jean-Baptiste Day a year ago, after the event of the brand new French-American Heritage Foundation, on whose Board I have served since its founding in 2013.
A year ago, I stopped by the Cathedral of St. Paul to take the above photo of St. John the Baptist, one of the six side altars devoted to national groups, primarily Catholic, who settled in the Minnesota of Archbishop John Ireland’s day.
IMG_1707
I had long known of the altars existence but this day was different: for the first time, then, I really noted the signage identifying the altar:
IMG_1704
It came time to correct, I felt, an error in the sign, and on July 1, 2013, I wrote a letter to the Rector of the Cathedral, Rev. John Ubel, in part, as follows:
“As you know, Archbishop Ireland, whose project it was to build the Cathedral in the early 1900s, had a great affection for both France and the French-Canadians who migrated here in the tens if not hundreds of thousands in the early days of the then-immense Diocese.
It is true that St-Jean Baptiste was a French patron, and it was through the French settlement of Quebec, that this same Saint became patron of the French-Canadians. So, the French part of the sign is correct.
The problem comes with the “Canadian” portion of the sign. It is misleading. Recently I was reviewing the 1940 United States Census form, where census takers were instructed as follows: in the column heading “Place of Birth”: “Distinguish Canada-French from Canada-English, and Irish Free State (Eire) from Northern Ireland“.
In the classic book, Maria Chapdelaine, (Louis Hemon, 1913), there appears this phrase on p. 89 of my English version: “When the French Canadian speaks of himself it is invariably and simply as a “Canadian”; whereas for all other races that followed in his footsteps, and people the country across to the Pacific, he keeps the name of origin: English, Irish, Polish, Russian; never admitting for a moment that the children of these, albeit born in the country, have an equal title to be called “Canadians.” Quite naturally, and without thought of offending, he appropriates the name won in the heroic days of his forefathers.”
I understand that this may not rise to the top of your list of priorities, and perhaps more evidence is reasonably required, but at minimum I would hope you review this matter.”
In the manner of such things, I had no expectation of a response from Rev. Ubel, but he did respond quite quickly and said my argument made sense, and they’d be looking into the matter.
Months passed by. Then, in the mail May 2, 2014, was a handwritten note from Rev. Ubel: “I do wish to write to share with you that we have completed the work to change the signage at the St. John the Baptist Shrine Altar. You were correct and we made the correction.
Many thanks for your patience. We decided to go with French-Canadians, though I certainly understand other arguments. French and Canadians is clearly wrong. We looked at our own historical records of the Chapel.”
I went back to the Cathedral, to see what had been done with the signage:
May 4, 2014

May 4, 2014


I look at this story as not a battle won in any national war; rather an effort to revisit a long history of too-often fractured relationships.
And this year I’ll really appreciate a great deal the efforts of Canada, through Consul General Jamshed Merchant, and Alliance Francaise de Minneapolis, and hope to see continuing and increasing efforts at rapprochement (what a wonderful word!)
* Mom was 100% German ancestry; her ancestors coming to Wisconsin between 1840s and 1860s from what was then Westphalia and Hanover states.
** A week later comes Canada Day, celebrated each year across Canada on July 1. I’d imagine this is a pretty big vacation week in Canada, not just Quebec.
*** St. Jean-Baptiste was early on a favored patron of France, from which my and others French-Canadian ancestors migrated beginning in the early 1600s. One story of that relationship is here.

#902 – Dick Bernard: The Summer Solstice, Reflecting on Global War and Peace.

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“Outtakes” after the photos. Check back in two or three days for additions at that space, and comments.
Today is the Summer Solstice. On June 7, between meetings, I drove over to the Lock and Dam by Minneapolis’ Stone Arch Bridge, and a group of people were rehearsing a dance (see photo). Turned out, they were rehearsing for a free program this evening at the Stone Arch Bridge. Here’s details.
(click to enlarge)

Rehearsing at Minneapolis Lock and Dam Parking Lot June 7, 2014.

Rehearsing at Minneapolis Lock and Dam Parking Lot June 7, 2014.


During 24 hours time period on June 19 and 20, I had the opportunity to both witness and participate in three activities about matters of Global War and Peace. My role was more than ordinary, standing in for Drs. Joe Schwartzberg and Gail Hughes at the Annual meeting of Citizens for Global Solutions, Minnesota, on June 19; and as one of the three panelists about the current Iraq-Syria crisis on Lydia Howell’s one hour Catalyst program on Minneapolis’ KFAI radio on Friday Morning, June 20.
Then, in the afternoon, I dropped by a Community Peace Celebration in the Frogtown neighborhood of St. Paul MN.
The entire radio program is accessible here. It was a stimulating and interesting hour, and the comments of myself, Sarah Martin of Women Against Military Madness, David Logsdon of Veterans for Peace and Lydia Howell speak for themselves. We covered a lot of ground in the one hour available. Of course, each of us left with assorted “soundbites” left unsaid (I’ll add some of these at the end of this post.)
(KFAI, to those not familiar, is a local radio station with a 35 years history which began as a 25-watt neighborhood station in the belfry of the old Walker Methodist Church in South Minneapolis. It is now live-streamed anywhere internet access is available. A look at its programming schedule reveals a most interesting selection not available on most “mainstream” stations. By near-happenstance, I was an on-air guest on KFAI program “Me and the Other” in October, 1982. This program continues as “Bonjour Minnesota” to this day.)
The radio program was about the beating of the war drums, yet again, by certain elements in the United States. As you will gather, if you listen to the conversation, there is difference of opinion about what all of this means. Even peaceniks (I am one, as were all of the others) have differing perspectives.
June 19, at the Citizens for Global Solutions meeting, I had the privilege of introducing colleague, Dr. Bharat Parekh, who took the Millenium Development Goals seriously, and after 9 years of effort is beginning to see significant success in a project to alleviate child malnutrition in, first, the Mumbai (Bombay) portion of his native India.
Dr. Parekh, June 19, 2014

Dr. Parekh, June 19, 2014


A summarized version of Dr. Parekh’s talk will be subject of a later blog at this space.
Succinctly, it takes lots of slogging along to achieve success, even small success, and Dr. Parekh’s determination is beginning to pay off. In my introduction I pointed out two quotations which begin and end the home page of AMillionCopies.info: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.“ Margaret Mead. And, “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.“ Gandhi
Finally, Friday afternoon I dropped by at the beginning of the 18th Annual Community Peace Celebration gathering on the Grounds of Ober Community Center, in St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood. I was there early, and could stay only a short time, but already in evidence were the three Fs of a successful gathering: Food, Fun, Family. My friend, Melvin Giles, is one of the unsung community leaders who put on this successful event. This is yet another example of the truth of the Margaret Mead and Gandhi quotes recited above.
The final photos are all from the St. Paul event.
As Melvin always says: “May Peace Prevail on Earth”.
He and legions of others like him will get it done, one step at a time.
At the Peace Celebration June 20:
Neighborhood musicians June 20, 2014

Neighborhood musicians June 20, 2014


Peace Pole

Peace Pole


among the tables, some items for home gardens.

among the tables, some items for home gardens.


Peace Bell maker and artist at Veterans for Peace table

Peace Bell maker and artist at Veterans for Peace table


Message from Dwight Eisenhower on Peace

Message from Dwight Eisenhower on Peace


“OUTTAKES” from the Radio Hour:
Dick: Four of us had perhaps 40 minutes to share our thoughts. Here is one of my own, too complex to share in the brief time allotted. (The other panelists are asked for their opinion too.)
The current Iraq/Syria conflict seems to be a Religious Civil War, in some respects like our own Civil War 1861-65. I don’t recall ever reading that there was outside (i.e. English, et al) intervention on either side in that war. It was an internal matter to the United States of America.
Some statistics largely gleaned from the 2007 World Almanac and Book of Facts, and other sources.
I invite challenge on any of these numbers, as I am quoting from seemingly reasonable sources, but have inadequate context in some cases about what the numbers include, and thus what they mean.
The U.S. Civil War, 1861-65, including statistics for both “sides”:
31.4 Million Population of U.S. in 1860
2.2 Million Troops in the War
215 thousand Deaths in Battle
780 thousand total Casualties
544 thousand Maximum U.S. troops in Vietnam (1969)
Iraq et al 2003-2008
27 Million Population
200 thousand Iraq deaths in war
2.5 million American troops deployed to area conflicts
4.5 thousand American deaths in Iraq War
32.2 thousand American injured in Iraq War
from Jeff P, June 21: The deaths from usa civil war are over 500,000 , still debated by historians… the problem being that wounded or sick soldiers died, from lack of sanitary conditions.

#901 – Dick Bernard: Back to Iraq; the propaganda mill begins to churn…again.

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Pre-note: three interesting links at the end of this post.
First Comment from Kathy M, June 18: To your point of questioning what our media tells us…You may have heard that the religious leader of Shia Muslims was fomenting violence. This article is considerably nuanced…complexity we Americans tend to overlook.
More comments at end of this post.
It seems time to “re-deploy” a sketch map I made about 2005 of a place then in the news…and now, again: Iraq environs ca 2005001. My college background was geography-centered, and maps like these help me to establish a personal context for places less familiar to me.
Personally, I think President Obama time and time again has exercised generally good judgement in his decision making, given the vast array of pressure points exerted on him from all sides. This will happen with Iraq too. Most every faction on every side will criticize what he does. We are good critics in this country.
Soundbite one: We Americans live in a very complex world, but we are (my opinion) a “sound bite” society. We don’t do complexity well. We seem to decide things based on personally chosen “headlines”.
During significant amount of time together in recent weeks, I had an opportunity, through a number of casual conversation with a Pakistani civil official, another perspectives on America, al Qaeda, Taliban, history, national borders, etc. Of course, a great many significant events have occurred in the last two weeks in his region of the world including terrorist attacks on the Karachi Pakistan airport; announcement of a changing U.S. role in Afghanistan, and, now, ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
Sound bite two: My colleague, nearing the end of his year in the U.S., seems genuinely positively impressed with Americans, generally; but “America”, on the ground in his country and others, is not viewed positively. We are good people, here, he says; but we are justifiably criticized for what is done in our name, there. The U.S. meddles everywhere through our government policies. On the ground, at home; we seem blithely (and dangerously) unaware of what is or has been done. Even our “friends”, as Pakistan is, suffer consequences. At one point he mentioned “55,000 casualties”, though I don’t recall specific context.
Sound bite three, my opinion: We ordinary people trust information from our own “trusted” sources that is not trustworthy, and we do so at our peril. We are a slave of propaganda, intentional or inadvertent. I offer one very recent example:

My long-time mainstream news source is CBS-TV local and national news.
Last Friday night, CBS news anchor Scott Pelley was reporting on the current crisis in Iraq, and among other things brief mention was made of 4486 American deaths in the second Iraq War 2003-2008. There was no context provided. I specifically noticed the number, isolated and specific as it was, and decided to check out the source. The newscast carried no mention of Iraqi casualties, military or civilian, during the same war, or ancillary costs to people “over there”: displacement of citizens, ruined homes and communities, etc.
The casualty number seemed to be an intended, important, stand-alone.
The source of the CBS information appears to be iCasualties.org . If you go there (I hope you do) it is not possible to easily find a home page which, in turn, divulges who maintains the site, or vouches for its accuracy. I had to go to Wikipedia to find anything more about the site: it is here. It seems legit.
There are other “body count” sites, of course. One I’ve known about for years, which seems to have rigorous standards, is iraqbodycount.org At that site, the Iraq death toll for the Coalition Military forces 2003-2013 is 4804. This is identical to the iCasualties number.
But there is a dramatic difference between the two sites in a critical respect: IraqBodyCount records 188,000 “violent deaths including combatants” in the Iraq War, of which 124,598 – 138,916 were “documented civilian deaths from violence”.
If you like “hunting” you can also find Iraqi casualties at the iCasualties site: 60,277. There is a caveat with the information: “This is not a complete list, nor can we verify these totals. This is simply a compilation of deaths reported by news agencies. Actual totals for Iraqi deaths are much higher than the numbers recorded on this site.”
It doesn’t take much looking to determine that there is a huge difference between the data CBS wanted to convey to its viewers (4486 Americans dead), and the horrible reality for Iraqi civilians in the Iraq War (up to 188,000 casualties as a result of the Iraq War). The numbers are for the same conflict, same period of time. And this does not consider the immense displacement of human beings (refugees) who fled one place (say Mosul, now) for safer conditions elsewhere; and disruption of society there. Or deaths related to the war in other countries in the region, like Pakistan.
I am reminded of the long-ago and deadly Vietnam War, where on the daily news we were treated to news reports every day that gave variations of this message about the war: “15 American deaths; 1000 Vietcong killed”. By golly, it said right there on the TV, every afternoon, that we were winning the body count (and thus the war). Mostly, I didn’t question these numbers, nor did many. They wouldn’t lie to me, I said to myself. But how real were they? There is a famous court case, Westmoreland vs CBS, back in 1982, which remains controversial to this day about this. You can google it for more than you’d ever want to know, from assorted sides.
The first casualty of war is the Truth, and CBS last Friday night revealed the need for extra caution in taking at face value anything reported on the news.
It takes more to be a good citizen than to simply be a good person in your neighborhood. Become informed and involved.
As for me, the only certainty of war is that it is killing us in many ways more than just physical death of our GIs. We need to recognize that.
Thanks to respected newsletter publisher Jeff Nygaard, here are two recent articles, here and here, from a long established source which has kept tabs on the Middle East since 1971.
Jeff also gave two examples of what he referred to as “Inadvertent Propaganda” at a recent workshop I attended. Here they are, with his permission: Nygaard Propaganda Examp001
UPDATE, June 18: Another example of messaging, from overnight, long but good: here.
from Norm N, June 18:
Mornin’ Dick,
Mention of the truth in your blog, had me thinking about a quatern I’d written for an adult ed poetry workshop I’d recently attended. What little poetry I write is most always humorous, but a class assignment to write a quatern had me do the following.
Reading your blog I think that perhaps, we and every newscast should begin with Sir Walter Scott’s: “I cannot tell what the truth may be; I say the tale as ’twas said to me. A quatern is a four quatrain stanza poem where the 1st line becomes the 2nd line of the second stanza and so on:
I can’t say what the truth may be,
I say the tale as said to me,
That was said by Wally Scott, he
Transcends the poet bourgeoisie.
With honest doubt the creed I see:
I can’t say what the truth may be.
The truth, tis said, will set you free,
Yet I sit here skeptically.
Am I a slave? Eternally,
With everything to disagree:
I can’t say what the truth may be;
All that’s said is chicanery?
And so be open and be free,
Believe not what the eye can see,
Live a life of skepticity.
I can’t say what the truth may be.
June 18 Washington Post on Humanitarian Crisis in Iraq: here
from Dick: From the beginning of this latest crisis I have recalled a comment I heard at a coffee shop in one of the Sun Cities near Phoenix in November, 2003, after the invasion of Iraq, and the U.S. “mission accomplished”.
The proprietor was Iraqi Christian, from Chicago, earlier from Mosul, and was happy that the U.S. had gone in to remove Saddam Hussein because his regime had not dealt kindly with the many Christians in Mosul.
As it has turned out, the Christians in Mosul and elsewhere have not fared any better since 2003, and certainly not today. The adage, “be careful what you pray for” comes to mind.
from Joyce, June 18, “very interesting history” by Juan Cole.
overnight, June 19, 2014, from Just Above Sunset, “Those Who Have Been There”.

#900 – Dick Bernard: A Ride on the St. Paul-Minneapolis Green Line

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NOTE: There is plenty of “regular” news about the inauguration of the Minneapolis to St. Paul Green Line train Saturday and Sunday. Minneapolis Star Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press, and Twin Cities Daily Planet are three of, doubtless, many.

At the St. Paul Union Station terminus June 15, 2014

At the St. Paul Union Station terminus June 15, 2014


Some personal observations: a ride on the railroad
My spouse, Cathy, takes events like Father’s Day seriously. So, as Sunday loomed, she asked what I wanted to do for the day. I had only a single request: to join the throng that would doubtless pack the Green Line train on the opening, free, weekend. I even entertained the notion of trying to be on the first free ride early Saturday morning. That was a bit nuts, so we ended up going mid-afternoon on Sunday.
It wasn’t that I’ve never been on a train.
Occasionally we ride the Blue Line from Mall of America to Target Field via the Airport for a Minnesota Twins game. We begin the journey with plenty of seating; the return, after the game, begins with everyone packed like sardines.
The earliest train ride I remember was sometime in the late 1940s, 14 miles between Sykeston and Carrington ND, and back, in the single passenger car of the spur line which went from Carrington west to Turtle Lake in the morning, turned around and came back in the afternoon. Sykeston was the second stop. For some specific reason, on this particular day the route was reversed so that townspeople of Sykeston could “ride the rails” to small-but-larger Carrington and back, without staying overnight. There had to be some specific arrangement.
For a little kid, it was fun, including the occasional soot from the stack of the coal fired steam engine a few cars forward.
Once in awhile, rarely, there have been other train rides: as a college student from Valley City to Minneapolis about 1960 for a student union conference. That was an overnight ride, where the train seemed to stop in the middle of nowhere, frequently. Now and then there have been AMTRAK journeys, as St. Louis to Rochester NY; Washington D.C. to North Carolina; St. Paul to Hartford Ct via Rochester NY; Minneapolis to Chicago with my young son in the 1960s.
What are your memories of trains?
So, came Sunday afternoon, beginning at St. Paul’s Union Station. Initially the plan – my plan, as for a moment I “ruled the roost” – was to go the entire 11 miles and 20 stops from newly reopened Union Station to Target Field. I changed my mind. We went as far as the University of Minnesota stop, turned around and came back. The other stations we’ve seen before.
All of the route was familiar territory. It was just nice to see it from a train or, rather, experience it in a train. Westbound we were seated, and could see little; coming back we were standing, and could see little. It was a free day, after all, and train was full of people, including many friendly and polite families with young kids. This was an outing, not a trip to work!
Here’s two photos I took, one while seated; the second while standing. You can tell which is which!
View from the seated position

View from the seated position


...and from the standing position.

…and from the standing position.


Of course, there were a few grousers demonstrating. “STUPID” said one sign on Saturday; “Nobody will ride it” said another demonstrator. Waste of tax money….
Of course, it isn’t like the Green Line is something novel. Trains and subways and the like are ubiquitous, though not as ubiquitous as I’d like them to be.
As one nice person said while we waited at University Station for the ride back: “we drew preliminary plans for this route 25 years ago”. A news comment suggests that the idea was first surfaced 30 years before 2014. Long before that were streetcars.
It took so long because the “auto” interests prevailed. The monopolist who brought buses (big autos) to this area burned the streetcars so they wouldn’t be competition ever again. Later, I seem to recall, he went to prison for something or other.
But the Green Line was fun on Sunday, and when the hubbub settles down, it will be a busy line and enhance everyones quality of life. The grousers will grouse about something else.
Take it for a ride, sometime. I think you’ll enjoy it.
Green & Blue Line001

#898 – Dick Bernard: United States Flag Day June 14, 2014

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PRE-NOTE: Do you have any flag stories – things you remember? I’d like to hear from you.
*
Today is Flag Day in the United States. I’m a bit old-fashioned: a stand and doff-the-hat kind of guy when the American flag comes by. But I see a lot of misuse of the flag as a weapon, too, and I don’t like that.
Take a bit of time today to pay attention to flags you see. Rest assured, there are stories you will witness, if you simply pay attention.
The most notable flag which comes immediately to mind for me is the one I saw flying above Ft. McHenry in Baltimore harbor in late July 1999.
(click to enlarge photos)

Ft. McHenry MD July 1999

Ft. McHenry MD July 1999


This is a replica of the famed Francis Scott Key flag which inspired the Star Spangled Banner.
Flags have a very long history, and usually they were, sadly, battle flags.
In June, 2003, we were taking a tour of the Palace in Copenhagen Denmark, and the tour guide pointed out that the Danish flag was one of the first prominent national flags. At the time, Denmark was a very powerful country, dominating the entrance to the Baltic Sea and thus dominating what we would now know as northern Europe.
Flags have been symbols of national pride, and, sadly, of national division.
Often, “God is on our side” is inserted into the flag, as is the case with the Danish flag.
Back in October, 2001, when the U.S. began to bomb Afghanistan in the wake of 9-11-01, I heard of a demonstration at the Minnesota State Capitol, and decided to go over to see what was going on. At the time, I was not a peace activist, but I was deeply concerned about how we as a nation were responding to 9-11.
The demonstration that night was a small one. I didn’t know anyone, and I don’t recall the specific speeches. To my knowledge, the demonstration was not recorded anywhere.
What I do remember, vividly, was a loud bunch across the street from the Capitol steps, brandishing American flags almost like weapons, and trying to drown out the protestors on the capitol steps.
Some images stick with a person.
Yesterday, I made a trip down to the Hennepin County Government Center (downtown Minneapolis) to revisit another flag which has become memorable to me.
It is a huge flag in the atrium of the tower.
Atrium of the Hennepin County MN Government Center June 13, 2014

Atrium of the Hennepin County MN Government Center June 13, 2014


I rarely have any reason to visit the government center and first noticed this large flag April 12, 2013, while dealing with another flag issue, still ongoing and unresolved (and by no means forgotten by myself).
There was then, and still is, nothing visible to tell the history of this flag.
Back then, in April, 2013, I called Hennepin County and after being redirected three times, came across one person who thought they remembered why the large flag was hanging there: “I think it was put up sometime after 9-11-01. They thought they had to do something….”
I’m not sure that the description of the flag by the person was accurate, but I’m willing to bet that I know more about the history of that flag than nearly 100% of the people who see it, including the Hennepin County Commissioners with whom I’ve been doing battle about my own personal flag issue since I uncovered something untoward about another flag in December 2012…. (see link to March 27, 2013 below).
There is a U.S. Flag Code, which is advisory and has no force and effect of Law (freedom of speech), but which is nonetheless “enforced” in various ways by various people, all proclaiming that truth is on their side; “truth” usually being emotional and power based. My attention to Hennepin County relates to a flag which was taken down by the Hennepin County Board in March 2012, after a 44 year history of flying proudly next to the U.S. flag, having been raised there by all of the prominent politicians of 1968, Republican and Democrat, and community leaders.
The same board members who took the flag down, including one who is running for MN Governor as the endorsed candidate of his party, not only refuse to return the flag to its former status, but for over a year now refuse to answer easy questions about why they took it down in the first place. (The March 27, 2013 blog link gives the rest of that story, for anyone interested. And it is an interesting and distressing story.)
Yesterday, leaving the Government Center, I decided to see the presence of flags in the Plaza and the streets bordering said Government Center.
There were plenty of U.S. flags flying – six I recall. There were several Minnesota flags, and a couple of Hennepin County flags, and a flag of Canada (where the Canadian Consul General has his office).
The champion flag site around that block was the headquarters of a major bank which had six flag poles, including the U.S., State, and three Bank flags, plus a sixth one which I can only describe by the photo I took of it. I asked at the information desk inside the bank about the strange flag, and they didn’t know anything about it. Here it is.
June 13, 2014, Minneapolis MN

June 13, 2014, Minneapolis MN


"sibling" flags of above, June 13, 2014

“sibling” flags of above, June 13, 2014


COMMENTS:
From David T: Your piece reminds me of the so-called “Hard Hat Riot” in 1970. There was a protest in New York City over the Kent State shootings. A group of construction workers, organized by the local AFL-CIO, staged a counter “Love It or Leave It” protest complete with a plethora of American flags. Things got ugly when the two groups converged on city hall. Shouting turned to pushing and shoving to fisticuffs. There’s an iconic photo of a beefy hard hat guy using a large flag pole as a weapon to assault an alleged “hippie.” The photo showed the generational polarization of the day.
Another photo that I recall from the same era shows a group of VietNam war protesters atop a monument in, I believe, Chicago, waving VietCong flags. I’m not sure what message the protesters intended to send with the flags but for many Americans, the message received was that these folks were anti-American. My own opinion was that they were simply naive.
It’s amazing to me what powerful symbols a piece of decorated cloth can become; symbols that can be embraced by groups for good or evil. A survey of KKK rally photos shows no shortage of American flags.
From Shirley L: My dad was always very “flag conscious” and insisted that we display it at all the various times of the year when flags were displayed. He was rigorous about teaching us the right way to display, fold, and store the flag.
In Lake Forest, IL where we live the American Legion is diligent about displaying flags on the local business streets – today they have put out 500 flags! So lovely! They will, of course, be taken down at sunset.
We moved recently to a delightful condo in the center of town – a huge downsizing for us and we are loving it. From our window on the third (and top) floor of the building we can see at least five U.S. flags flying daily! City Hall and banks are the primary locations.
So – Happy Flag Day to you! Thanks for the Flag Day article.

#895 – Dick Bernard: Swiftboating Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, an opportunity to change the narrative on war.

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The week just completed marked the 70th anniversary of D-Day (June 6) but the June 4, 2014, USA TODAY someone left in the McDonalds in Wahpeton ND, marks the true nature of “news” this past week. Indeed, the newspaper carried a long article on D-Day on page three; but the front page lead story was: “Bergdahl under new scrutiny”. A safe assumption: anyone who follows “news” knows who “Bergdahl” is, at least as portrayed in the media.
June 1-8 was a busy and sometimes stressful week for me, so I missed many things. But to the best of my knowledge, as of today, Sgt. Bergdahl has not had the opportunity to say a single public word: indeed, he was in captivity in Afghanistan for five years, and was simply an Army man before that, not called on for interviews. Others for whatever reason and with whatever motive can offer their own “truths”, which may or may not be true. Bergdahl has had no such opportunity.
Having been an Army man, serving in an Infantry Company for a year and a half, most of that as Company Clerk, I know far more than most the general lay of the land in this basic level organization of people, usually more or less 100 people. Picture a tiny town where people are gathered together on a common mission, and even need each other, but don’t necessarily like or even know each other. There can be and there are relationship problems. The reality is not “Hogan’s Heroes” or “MASH”. Even in peace-time.
I will not rush to judgement about Bergdahl, his Dad and Mom or anyone else from the fragments of information available.
In my opinion, Bergdahl is being swiftboated much as Presidential candidate John Kerry (now U.S. Secretary of State) was swiftboated in 2004. No one knows (or may ever know) what the “truth” might be, and the rush to judgement is shameful. The soldier is a useful pawn for those who don’t give a damn about him.
I’m reminded of the Jessica Lynch case in the early days of the Iraq War. Lynch, too, was a POW, similarly misused, but early portrayed as almost a female Rambo, singlehandedly taking on the Iraqis. Later it fell to Ms Lynch to personally reveal the truth about her captivity, which was very different than the fictional account that was spun about her exploits. She had been used, without her knowledge. She was just an ordinary GI found in extraordinary circumstances.
There is, as I suggest in the headline of this blog, an opportunity within the circus of speculation about Sgt. Bergdahl, and that is the opportunity to deal with many important questions which have long faced the United States, and which the action of the Prisoner swap has brought to the public eye. Just a few of these questions: (I have tried to phrase all of these questions in the affirmative; I could as easily phrase them in the negative. They should be answered from both perspectives.)
1. We’re hopefully ending America’s longest war, which began in October, 2001, directed at Afghanistan. (It was the bombing of Afghanistan which caused me to become a peace activist, which was, then a very lonely position. 94% of Americans supported that bombing, and a majority felt it would be a long war. Afghan War Oct 2001001)
Every American owns this war, through our action, or inaction.
What are the components of the “balance sheet” of that war? Wins. Losses. We need to talk about that, honestly.
2. The five Guantanamo detainees released in trade for Bergdahl are portrayed as the face of evil. How can we keep them incarcerated without so much as charges against them? How does keeping them imprisoned make them less dangerous?
3. How does keeping Guantanamo open serve our interests?
4. What conceivable good have we done for ourselves by sanctioning torture?
5. Then there’s the great ado about Sgt Bergdahls Dad speaking a sentence or two in Pushto at the White House. What’s wrong with that?
I have my own answers to each of these, for other settings.
Back to Army man Bergdahl: before I began this post, I read an excellent piece in the New Yorker by Charles Pierce, recalling a piece of Ernie Pyle writing from the front in WWII. This was straight talking Ernie Pyle, talking about straight talking GI’s in the midst of battle. (Pyle was one of the first authors I remember reading as a teenager, out there in North Dakota. He was a gripping read.) Pyle writes, here, about arm-chair quarterbacks of War. Take the time….
The conversation we need to have, in my opinion, is whether to revere War or Peace.
No question in my mind as to which will ruin us (War); and which gives us a possibility for a future on this planet (Peace). As a nation we have revered War. Just look at the monuments: are they primarily related to War or to Peace?
Changing a narrative is difficult. It involves personal change, regardless of “side”. Peace is very complicated – consider your basic family unit co-existing together even day-to-day. But is daily War better? What family survives constant War within?
Let’s talk.
POSTNOTE:
My e-mail on June 2 – which I didn’t see till later in the week – included a very interesting “forward” from a friend about “The Fallen 9000” on D-Day.
I tend to check these things out, and looked at the website which turned out to describe a Peace project on a Normandy beach put up on the occasion of Peace Day, September 21 last year. (Peace Day is September 21 each year).
Take a look.

#893 – Dick Bernard: The VA Hospital System

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My family is chock-full of military veterans, including myself, thus the word “VA” is a readily recognized acronym.
My first living memory of the VA Hospital was Fargo, 1946, where my Grandpa Bernard (Spanish-American War) had his leg removed (diabetes related). He was 74 then, which happens to be my present age…. In 1957, Grandpa lost the second leg, and died, at the same VA Hospital: age 85. He served his country. VA served him.
(click to enlarge)

Josephine and Henry Bernard at VA Hospital Fargo ND 1946 after amputation. I don't think Grandma's strategic position in front of Grandpa's leg was a coincidence.

Josephine and Henry Bernard at VA Hospital Fargo ND 1946 after amputation. I don’t think Grandma’s strategic position in front of Grandpa’s leg was a coincidence.


Later I had plenty of contact with the system between the early 1980s and 2007 (St. Cloud, Minneapolis, and Fargo again) when my brother-in-law was confined, first for mental illness (I don’t think that was military related, though he was an Army vet 1971-72, serving in Germany at time of Munich Olympics disaster); then hospitalized several times relating to major aneurysm surgeries. Especially given the severity of his disabilities, there was nothing to complain about. The system did its best, and its personnel were attentive.
Of course, politics didn’t enter these earlier experiences. Now all there is about the system – is partisan politics: how to spin the crisis.
The VA is a huge, complex system dating back to 1930: an organization whose mission is care of veterans of military service, by people, and thus a place in which, at the micro level, it is 100% certain that flaws will be found, and then magnified. Of course, corrupt people don’t advertise their corruption: such is hard to uncover.
But politically, as now, heads can be made to roll: the big juicy target, the target the one farthest away from the specific examples of corruption. Here it is Eric Shinseke whose head rolled, but the real political target is President Obama (who, paradoxically, is not running for anything this year, but has been made the symbol of his political party in advance of the 2014 election….)
There are other factors, too: I am active in the local chapter of a group called Veterans for Peace and annually attend their Memorial Day observance. These days the stories told are less about horrible battles of WWII; more about homeless vets; vets whose demons of one sort or another control their life: substance abuse, etc.
Grandpa saw combat in the Philippines but to my knowledge he did not come home shell-shocked, mortally wounded psychologically.
Used to be, in the good old days of war, say the Civil War, that you were killed in combat, or badly physically wounded, with minimal access to treatment. It was simple to count “casualties” then in the man-to-man days: killed or (physically) wounded.
Enter the era of new war: Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and their companions.
The number physically killed – at least on our “side” – has been greatly reduced, largely due to technology. Those physically injured are less likely to die, but the cost of surviving is great. We see and hear examples of this all of the time.
Civilians on the other “side” bear the brunt of the killing these days.
Here at home, the incidence of “walking wounded”, post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, now rages due to multiple tours of duty in combat areas, and all the other reasons not necessary to recite here. These are people who may not have been physically wounded, but are all but totally destroyed mentally and emotionally. Pair all of these incidences of need for treatment which an easily documented reluctance by Congress to appropriate needed money to shore up the system, and the supposed scandals down-line at Phoenix and elsewhere pale in comparison.
The systemic problem we’re dealing with here, in my opinion, are a combination of our own casual attitude, as citizens, towards war; and Congress tendency to starve the VA system while playing politics with each and every situation.
We citizens aid and abet by our silence, or our unwillingness or disinterest to learn the facts.
In every system in which people are involved and there is a hierarchical structure, there is the potential for problems. This includes the biggest and most efficient of businesses. The desired alternative is to find the problems and fix them; not the oft-chosen political way, to find a scapegoat, and punish the entire system by firing the boss because of the sins of a few.
Sundays St. Paul Pioneer Press had a great column by Ruben Rosario on this topic. You can read it here.