#865 – Dick Bernard: Uncle Vince, Aunt Edith and Dr. Borlaug

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A week ago, out at LaMoure ND, I asked Uncle Vince if he’d like to go for a ride.
I knew what his answer would be: “yes”. As long as I’ve known him, a ride in the country is like ice cream to a kid. Farmers like to take a gander at the countryside, regardless of the season, and comment on what they see, which is lots more than city slickers like myself can hope to observe. The actions of land, water and sky are very important in their daily lives.
That’s the essence of being a farmer: having a feel for ones environment.
Along with me, I had a three-CD set of Benny Goodman’s 1935-39 small group recordings, a recent gift from an 84 year old elder neighbor. Vince was 10 years old in 1935, and sometime in his youth he had learned a bit about the clarinet.
He loves music, so Benny Goodman and clarinet was an additional treat on a pleasant early spring afternoon.
I mentioned that I had seen Goodman and his band in person, in Carrington ND, sometime in 1957-58. In that era, somebody in tiny Carrington managed to book famed national acts like Goodman, and Louis Armstrong and ensemble, who I also saw there in September 1957.
We chatted a bit about that, and then Vince said he’d once met Norman Borlaug. “The Nobel Peace Prize winner?” “How did this happen?”
Vince recalled a time he and Edith were driving on Highway 11 west of Hankinson ND and they saw somebody at roads edge. They stopped, and the guy said he was out of gas. So they gave him a ride back into Hankinson, helped him with the gas, and were on their way again.
In the conversation, it came up that their passenger that day was Norman Borlaug, and that he was out in ND checking on some field work on barley, if I recall correctly.
Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, and Vince knew about him. It seems Borlaug has become controversial. There are assorted opinions about him. You can take your choice.
If you didn’t know the name, “Norman Borlaug”, you would be forgiven. Few outside of the agricultural community probably do.
But the conversation with my Uncle, long retired farmer, now in the twilight of his life, was fascinating to me, in part because through him I have gotten to know common farmers on their farms: how they live, how they think.
Vince was a small farmer by ND standards, but he had a lot of pride in what he did.
And while only high school educated, to this day he reads voraciously, and, if he could, he’d attend this or that farm meeting in his area of the state. He may have been “ordinary”, but ordinary meant extraordinary in so many ways.
He was well read, well educated. He remembered Norman Borlaug from that one brief encounter years ago. I had no doubt that the event happened as described, where described.
There’s the old saw about “don’t judge a book by its cover”, and it applies to my Uncle and to a great many others in all sorts of ways.
The 84-year old man, Don, who gave me that Benny Goodman CD spent much of his work career keeping track of the location of box cars for the Great Northern Railway – this was before computers. This same man, in his small home across the street from us, has an autographed photo of Elizabeth Taylor, dating from the time he was a dinner guest at her home during his days of involvement in the movie industry.
We all have our stories, to be remembered, and celebrated.
Thanks, Uncle Vince, for yours. And Don, as well.

Grain Elevators, Berlin ND, March 27. 2014

Grain Elevators, Berlin ND, March 27. 2014

1000 Pages. 22 Years. Chez Nous and Nouvelles Villes Jumelles

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“FAST FORWARD”: The link to Chez Nous and Nouvelles Villes Jumelles Index is Chez Nous NVJ 1979-2002 2 col Jul 8, 2016. The links to the pages of the newsletter are at the end of this page. A history of the newsletter and La Societe is Chez Nous & La Societe history June 25, 2016.
(click to enlarge)
Chez Nous001
Over a period of 22 years, a succession of volunteer editors recorded stories of the heritage and culture of the French and the Midwest in two newsletters, Chez Nous and Nouvelles Villes Jumelles.

Above (first line) is found the link to the index to the 155 issues, and access to pdf copies of every page of every newsletter – nearly 1000 pages in all.  IMPORTANT: When you find an article in this index which you wish to access, simply jot down the page number and return to this page, and click on the pertinent page range below. EXAMPLE: if the article is on page 87, click on page range 79-104 and when that opens, scroll down to page 87.
A commentary about the production of the 1979-2001 newsletters can be seen here.
Two tips:
1. Occasionally you may see something you wish to print. Near the upper right corner of each page is a handwritten number, usually in red, showing its page number within each file. This will make it possible for you to easily select the page(s) you wish to print, rather than having to print the entire file.
2. The index endeavors to group articles on similar topics. For instance, many people are interested in genealogy: check the index section headed “Genealogy”. Or “Recettes”, “Obituaries”, “France”….
ARCHIVES of the newsletters:
(Click on page range to access the pdf for the pages indicated)
CN – Chez Nous
NVJ – Nouvelles Villes Jumelles
CN 1-26001 CN Oct1979 – Mars81
CN 27-51002 CN Mai81 – Jan82
CNrev 52-78003 CN Mar82 – Jan83
CNrev2 79-104004 CN Mars83 – Oct83
CN 105-139005 CN Jan84 – Nov-Dec84
CNrev 140-170006 CN Jan-Fev85 – Nov-Dec85
CN -NVJ 171-211007 CN-NVJ Jan-Mar86 – Nov86-Jan87
NVJ 898-908001 NVJ Sep and Dec 86
NVJ 909-928002 NVJ Jan-Nov 87
CN -NVJ 212-249008 CN-NVJ Jan-Fev87 – Oct-Nov87
CN -NVJ 250-266009 CN-NVJ Dec-Jan88 – Avr-Mai88
CN -NVJ 267-291010 CN-NVJ Jui-Jui88 – Dec88-Jan89
CN -NVJ 292-309J011 CN-NVJ Fev-Mar89 – Jul89
CN -NVJ 310-327012 CN-NVJ Aou-Sep89 – Dec89-Jan90
CN -NVJ 328-339K013 CN-NVJ Fev-Mars90 – Jun90
CN -NVJ 340-375014 CN-NVJ Jui-Jui90 – Dec90-Jan91
CN -NVJ 376-402E015 CN-NVJ Jan-Fev91 – Mai-Jui91
CN -NVJ 403-430016 CN-NVJ Jui-Jui91 – Dec 91-Jan92
CN-NVJ 431-462018 CN-NVJ Jan-Fev92 – Jui-Jui92
CN-NVJ 463-504019 CN-NVJ Aou-Sep92 – Mai-Jui93
CN-NVJ 505-544020 CN-NVJ Jui-Aou93 – Mar-Avr94
CN-NVJ 545-577021 CN-NVJ Mai-Jui94 – Nov-Dec94
CN-NVJ 578-614022 CN-NVJ Jan-Fev95 – Sep-Oct95
CN-NVJ 615-649023 CN-NVJ Nov-Dec95 – Jui-Aou96
CN-NVJ 650-687024 CN-NVJ Sep-Oct96 – Mai-Jui97
CN-NVJ 688-725025 CN-NVJ Jui-Aou97 – Mar-Avr98
CN-NVJ 726-760026 CN-NVJ Mai-Jui98 – Jan-Fev99
CN-NVJ 761-791 20 yrs027 CN-NVJ Mar-Avr99 -Mai-Jui99
CN 792-829028 CN Jui-Aou99 – Jan-Fev2000
CN 830-861029 CN Mar-Avr00 – Nov-Dec00
CN 862-897030 CN Jan-Fev01 – Nov-Dec01

John Rivard, founder of La Societe Canadienne-Francaise du Minnesota. Undated, probably in the 1970s

John Rivard, founder of La Societe Canadienne-Francaise du Minnesota. Undated, probably in the 1970s

A few more photos of John Rivard, his role and his props! John Rivard ca 1970s001

Memorial Video 2005 (see link below)

Memorial Video 2005 (no longer available)

This post is part of the permanent record now being established through the French-American Heritage Foundation (FAHF), an organization founded in 2013 to continue the tradition of La Societe C-F and other similar groups.
You are encouraged to not only visit the FAHF site, and provide suggestions, comments and materials for use there, but also to share this site with others, and become a participating member yourself, financially and in other ways.
Now, enjoy the news as recorded below!
Dick Bernard, Woodbury MN
editor Chez Nous, 1985-2001 (98 of the issues) and former President of LSCF

#862 – Dick Bernard: An airliner vanishes, Stone Soup, House on Fire, and the 26th Nobel Peace Prize Forum, March 1, 7-9, 2014

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UPDATE Mar 2, 2014: Video of all speeches referred to below should be accessible here.
Noon today is the first day of Spring in Minnesota. It’s been a long enough winter here.

Bicycles at the University of Minnesota Mar 8, 2014

Bicycles at the University of Minnesota Mar 8, 2014


It’s been about two weeks since the 26th Nobel Peace Prize Forum, convened at Augsburg College. “Crossing Boundaries to Create Common Ground” was the theme; purposely acknowledging and bringing together different voices, different points of view.
The format worked well. Mark your calendar for next years Forum, March 6-8, 2015.
Best as I can count, there were 37 different possibilities of workshops and speakers in the four days.
I attended 14 of the 1 1/2 hour sessions, beginning with the Dalai Lama on March 1. It was a phenomenal, exhausting, enriching four days. I’ve spent the time trying to distill my own impressions of over 30 hours into a brief recap. All the major talks likely will later be accessible on-line. If they do go on-line, they are all worth your time.
*
It is also two weeks since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing early in the morning on March 7, 13 time zones east of here: Airline Mystery Mar 7 14001.
Two weeks later, this first day of spring, nobody knows anything for sure. What happened is speculation, including from “experts”.
Coincidentally, a few hours before Malaysia officially announced that Flight 370 was missing, I was at the Forum, among two or three hundred, listening to Ian Bremmer, an international consultant to the powerful on Eurasia, primarily, talking about shifts in international power relationships, the kinds of things we hear about in the news: China, Russia-Crimea-Ukraine*, etc.
Geopolitically, “times they are a’changin”.
That missing American airliner, piloted for a Malaysian airline by two experienced Malaysian pilots, carrying primarily Chinese passengers from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, was probably a routine red-eye flight. Then it went missing. The world community, countries, volunteers, and others sprang into action to try to answer what might turn out to be unanswerable questions.
The search from the beginning has been a community activity – the entire world, literally, becoming the community.
Yes, there have been disagreements about most everything, and everybody has a theory, but what else is new? Such happens in every nuclear family, incessantly: “yes I did”, “no you didn’t”. Flight 370 is just on a much more massive scale, and it is remarkable to watch the world, literally, working together.
Our world is very different from the traditional sphere we grew up within; so is our nation. It is a difficult change for some to adjust to. I hope Bremmer’s talk remains on-line, or returns on-line soon, at the Peace Prize Forum website. For me, his talk will be worth a re-listen, and this time I’ll pay closer attention to his opinions, now, in relation to Flight 370 and what it means. (When he was talking, there had not yet been an announcement about the missing flight. That came several hours later.)
*
Until 370 took center stage, what follows was the essence of my thinking about the just-completed Forum.
There was a general additional tone to the four days of the Forum that led me to think about the below photo of my then-near two year old grandson, Ryan, taken May 25, 2001.
(click to enlarge)
Ryan, May 25, 2001

Ryan, May 25, 2001


In sundry ways, at Augsburg, I picked up the message that we ordinary individuals are the ones who must be the change we wish to see in the world (Gandhi’s quote) and that small groups, as Margaret Mead liked to say, are the key to changing the world for better or for worse.
Liberian Laureate Leymah Gbowee’s keynote at the end of the Forum, March 9, brought things together nicely. Here was a 39 year old Liberian Mom thrust onto the world stage simply because she dared to make a difference in her home country in a time of political crisis. Her then-one year old was folded into her speech. Hers was a practical message, as I would interpret it: “folks, we’re all in this together.”
The day of national or personal omnipotence is past. We’re on this globe together; what happens there, has impact here, and vice versa. There are no boundaries: the internet; portability of disease…. It is a bewildering world for those accustomed to being in control.
There were, I heard, 3200 of us in the hall listening to Dalai Lama on March 1.
He talked, but it is the 3200 of us who have to translate his thoughts and his deeds into action, where we live, that will make a difference.
At the Crowdsourcing session, The classic “Stone Soup” was described…a kettle of water was brought to a boil, and some small stones were the first contributions to the “soup”.
Of course, stones are not edible, even boiled stones. One villager came and dropped in a few carrots, someone else brought beans, and after a while there was a soup for everyone, contributed by everybody…. (“Crowdsource” volunteers with computers and time are helping scour satellite photos of the Indian Ocean for some piece of evidence that may be out there, somewhere.)
Crowdsourcing uses everyone’s talents to get a handle on, and solve some problem or other.
In one of the keynote speeches, Dr. William Foege, one of those considered most responsible for eradicating smallpox as a world disease, talked about a crucial moment in developing a strategy for dealing with the disease in India.
The VIPs were in a community experiencing an outbreak of smallpox, and the discussion centered around whether to target immunize in areas with outbreaks, or blanket immunize entire populations.
A simple villager rose at the meeting, and said that in their village, if a house started on fire, each person would bring their bucket of water and throw it on the fire. It was just common sense. You deal with the fire….
It was a simple piece of village wisdom, made all the sense in the world to the important people there, and Dr. Foege titled his book, “House on Fire”.
Which leads back to that picture of my grandson with the basketball back in 2001.
Ryan obviously had a vision that day – he knew what that hoop was for; his Grandpa – me – had been shooting baskets in that same hoop.
All he needed was a few years, and the patience to grow up a little.
He’s now near 15, loves basketball, is not varsity calibre, but plays actively in the local athletic Association league. He’s fun to watch. He got seven points in one game this year, and he’s learned teamwork in the process: basketball is a great team sport.
#12 Feb 23, 2014

#12 Feb 23, 2014


So it is with us and our world.
We might not be on be on the varsity, but we can play our part, or we can at minimum participate by showing up in the stands. Together we make all the difference. But we have to show up.
In the end analysis, what world our kids inherit will depends on us.
Have a great Spring.
World at Peace Prize Festival at Augsburg College March 5, 2009

World at Peace Prize Festival at Augsburg College March 5, 2009


* – A long, interesting commentary on the Ukraine-Crimea-Russia issue is here.

#861 – Dick Bernard: A Nation of Immigrants. "Footprints in the Snow"

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June, 1972

June, 1972


June 1972, with Joni and Tom

June 1972, with Joni and Tom


Today is St. Patrick’s Day. In a sense, everybody is Irish on this day (or the weekend preceding or following), for assorted reasons. Yesterday at Church was the annual moving rendition of “Danny Boy”. Here’s a recent version from New York City I saw on YouTube: “Danny Boy”. I don’t have a lick of Irish in me, but I wore green yesterday; today they’ll be serving green bagels at the bagel bakery next to my coffee shop…on the other end of the spectrum will be the buses taking patrons from pub to pub…a bad hangover in the offing for many who, like me, have not a lick of Irish in them….
We are definitely a nation of immigrants. Most of us of very mixed heritage. “Americans”.
And the stories are not all pleasant or nostalgic.
The Irish began to flood the U.S. in the 1840s, and the reason was they were being starved to death back home. Here’s Timothy Egan in yesterdays New York Times.
African Americans are descendants of “immigrants” – slaves of course, counted in our constitution as 60% of a person with no rights whatsoever, only as property value to their owner. Article I Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution makes this very clear early on when it defined persons: “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.”
“[A]ll other persons” equaled slaves, of course.
Of course, Indians were an entire other category – they didn’t count as persons at all (The Amherst Smallpox blankets, and such). Natives just didn’t count. As some would still say: “they lost the war. Get over it.”
Amendments 13, 14 and 15 to the U.S. Constitution, all from the 1860s, began to change the reality, but not very well, as we all know.
Some still fight these battles.
Back in November, 2013, an old guy who apparently hates President Obama, got in a little back-and-forth with me, including this gem: “The only reason [President Obama] was elected, was the fact that he is half black. You never hear him talk about being half white.”
Then there’s “Footprints in the Snow”, heading this post.
I’m half German, half-French-Canadian ancestry. Both sides Catholic, which remains my denomination of choice.
Saturday I had a conflict: I was chairing a still-forming organization to celebrate persons who are celebrating various aspects of French-American heritage at the exact same time I had planned to attend a program, “Tracks in the Snow”, sponsored by a group founded in early 2001, in the twin cities, IRG, the Islamic Resource Group.
I’ve enthusiastically supported IRG for several years – I think they serve an important role in helping build inter-cultural understanding.
Their program was very intriguing to me, and I had reserved to attend. It was about 20 minutes from my other meeting.
invitation for email invites jpeg
But I had this conflict.
As the French-American group knows, I finally decided to preside at the first part of the meeting, and ask a colleague, Pierre, to take the last part. Such was agreed, and I managed to visit both.
The speaker at IRG was excellent, and at one point talked about the still-conflict in the interpretation of the word “American” in the United States. We are “Americans”, but as in the days of our founding, there are still these psychological barriers by some to accepting certain others as fully a part.
Enroute home I got to thinking about the title and the artwork for the IRG presentation. I remembered something similar from before.
Back in the 1980s and 1990s I had edited a little newsletter for and about French-Canadians in the Twin Cities, and still have the 1000 or so pages, indexed and organized.
It was easy to find the article, “Footprints in the Snow”, and it is presented here for any who wish to read it: Footprints 1986001*
One program talked about Moslems in America since 1880; another about the French-Canadians in America.
I see some similarities.
Have a good St. Patricks Day.
Here’s to understanding, not enmity amongst peoples.
* – (Betty Morency Hudelson did the art work for Footprints in the Snow. She lived on the Mesabi Iron Range in northern Minnesota. Dr. Benoit, who commented on the article, remains a primary authority on the French-Canadian presence in the Midwest, still a resident of Red Lake Falls MN; Dan Gendreau lived in Blaine MN.)
POSTNOTE: Today is 11th anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War. Yesterday came an interesting transcript from 11 years ago. You can read it here.
There are still some who think we “won” that war, or at minimum, we should keep at completing the win….

#857 – Dick Bernard: Final Day of 2014 Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College.

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Dates for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Forum: March 6-8, 2015
Posts for previous days accessible here.
Today’s short and final session of the 2014 Forum was very interesting, beginning with a debate about the success or failure of the 113-year Nobel Peace Prize Forum, and ending with a very stimulating talk by 2011 Nobel Laureate Laymah Gbowee of Liberia.
In between was the final series of breakouts. My choice from among seven options was a well attended session, “Nonviolent Resistance: Still Relevant?” with Dr. Mary Elizabeth King of the University for Peace. Dr. King’s website is here. Her activism began in the Civil Rights days of the late 1950s and early 1960s.
As with previous days, today’s debate about the relevance of the Peace Prize as well as Ms Gbowee’s Laureate address are accessible on line. You can view them here.

Laymah Gbowee, March 9, 2014

Laymah Gbowee, March 9, 2014


Ms Gbowee’s talk, and her answers in the following question and answer session, were particularly powerful and revealing, much different than I recall the focus of presentation of F.W. deKlerk on the same stage two years ago. The difference, perhaps, is more due to the fact that deKlerk, when he won his award with Nelson Mandela, was a career political actor in South Africa, representing, in effect, the ideology of the international political establishment in the years of Apartheid; while Ms Gbowee rose from common citizen to grassroots activist to one who helped change her nation, Liberia.
Both spoke powerfully from their personal framework of reference remembering their time in history.
And, of course, gender difference and traditional role differentiation between men and women plays a major part in the different ways of speaking, and differing priorities in prepared remarks.
Ms Gbowee had some powerful insights. I highly recommend watching and listening to her presentation.
She chose as her theme “how to reclaim our boundaries for peace”, a variation on the Conference theme: “Crossing Boundaries to Create Common Ground”.
The debate between Geir Lundestad, Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, and Jay Nordlinger, Senior Editor of the National Review, was more predictable. Likely the choice of who you felt won or lost the debate depended on your bias going in.
from left, Jay Nordlinger, Stephen Young, moderator, and Geir Lundestad, March 9, 2014

from left, Jay Nordlinger, Stephen Young, moderator, and Geir Lundestad, March 9, 2014


I happen to think that the Nobel Peace Prize has had a remarkably effective history, given how people organizations work and the fact of its 113 year history.
The Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize is easily the most well known of many variations on the Peace Prize, and, indeed, more well known than the companion prizes awarded by the Swedish Nobel Institute.
Prior to the event I printed out and read a March, 2001, essay by Dr. Lundestad about the first 100 years of the Nobel Peace Prize. It prints out at 25 pages, and can be accessed here.
Jay Nordlingers book about the Nobel Peace Prize can be ordered here.
Of course, Dr. Lundestad’s summary stops at the year 2000.
The Peace Prize recipients since 2000 are as follows:
2001 – United Nations and Kofi Annan
2002 – President Jimmy Carter
2003 – Shirin Ebadi
2004 – Wangari Muta Maathai
2005 – International Atomic Energy Agency and Mohamed elBaradei
2006 – Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank
2007 – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore
2008 – Martti Ahtisari
2009 – President Barack Obama
2010 – Liu Xiaobo
2011 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Laymah Gbowee, Tawakkol Karman
2012 – European Union
2013 – Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
Minnesota Boychoir March 9, 2014

Minnesota Boychoir March 9, 2014


SOME RANDOM PERSONAL THOUGHTS ABOUT THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE:
It is an honor for the Nobel Peace Prize to be criticized. This means they are doing something worthy of notice.
My own life work was public education, and since at least 1950 the National Education Association (NEA) has annually recognized a National Teacher of the Year, chosen from among nominees from state affiliates across the country, who in turn are nominated by millions of their peers at the school building levels.
Teacher of the Year is a grassroots up award.
The Teacher of the Year program has never purported to select the “best” teacher in the U.S.; rather, to honor a teacher who especially well represents the ideals to which all teachers aspire. “Teacher of the Year” is criticized too. But it has been and remains a wonderful program.
So, too, is this the case in the annual selection of the Nobel Peace Prize winner: someone/some agency spotlighted for his/her/their efforts for Peace, consistent with what likely was Alfred Nobels wish as imperfectly expressed in his Will.
To me, personally, it seems that “peace” and “war” are antonyms, not synonyms.
I am not aware of any “War Prize” (except for the t-shirt I occasionally see which declares the U.S. as “World Champion” for “winning” World War I and World War II.
In its imperfect way, the Nobel Committee, in its many incarnations over 113 years, has attempted to select a candidate or candidates who fit the written criteria established by Alfred Nobel himself, in his Will in the 1890s.
We are now a world of near 7 billion population, with near endless variations of increasingly sophisticated ways to destroy ourselves.
A Peace Prize is ever more important, every year, not just once in awhile. Seemingly increased emphasis on grassroots nominees like Ms Gbowee is as wonderful as it is essential.
When Alfred Nobel died (10 Dec 1896), the population of the world was less than one-fourth of what it is today, and humans were infinitely less sophisticated in their ways of destroying each other.
The carnage of war has increasingly been innocent citizens rather than formal military, and we see examples of this in each and every conflict.
In a profound way, someone like Laymah Gbowee exemplifies in effect the “World Citizen of the Year”, doing something noteworthy to make the world a better place, one community, one person, at a time. In many ways she symbolizes a “changing of the guard”, ethnic, nationality, position in society, which threatens the age-old status quo of white male domination. Of course, this increases push-back from those who ran things, but doesn’t change the result.
I have long treasured two timeless quotations which summarize my own feelings on this matter, and which have long began and ended my own website (currently being updated) to two citizens I admire, Lynn Elling and Joe Schwartzberg:
“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
“We must be the change we wish to see in the world.”
Gandhi
Neither Gandhi nor Margaret Mead ever won the Nobel Peace Prize but they, like every one of us, was fully capable of making a difference….

#854 – Dick Bernard: GreenCardVoices.com: A Project to Document our Nation of Immigrants

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One week from today, Wednesday, March 12, a fundraiser to celebrate the power of immigrant stories will be held at Target Field, Minneapolis. You are encouraged to attend, and make others aware of this important event as well. All details, including bios of the speakers, are here.
Your RSVP is requested.
Ours is a nation of immigrants: this is such an obvious fact that it often escapes notice. My own American roots are France (via Quebec) and Germany.
I was reminded of the extent of the immigrant population a few months ago. In the summer of 2013, I had reason to access the 1940 census of the tiny town of Sykeston ND, the place from which I graduated from high school in 1958. In that tiny town (pop. 274, in 2010, 117) in 1940, of the 161 adults 16 listed other states as birthplaces, and 11 were born in countries other than the U.S.
As late as 1940, one of six adults in the town were not native, even, to the state of North Dakota. I wrote a bit about this here, including the worksheet from the actual census here: Sykeston ND 1940 CensusRev, see page 3.
Tiny Sykeston was just one town, then.
Every reader could tell their own story: family members, ancestors, neighbors, friends….
We are a nation of immigrants.
Which leads again to Wednesday, March 12, 2014, 6-9 p.m. at Target Field in Minneapolis MN.
On that day, three immigrants to the U.S. will introduce GreenCardVoices.
All projects have their stories, and GreenCardVoices is no different. This new project already has a history.
Some years ago Laura Danielson, chair of the Immigration Department at Fredrikson and Byron, Minneapolis, decided that the stories of immigrants she knew were so interesting that they deserved retelling, and a coffee table book, Green Card Stories, was published in January, 2012.
The book did well, but over the subsequent months, Laura and others engaged with the book and its stories came to a conclusion: print books, however attractive, have their limits, particularly in these days of exploding technological capabilities to share information far beyond one home or one office coffee table, and Green Card Voices was born just a few months ago.
The project is described here, including a video (this is a video project, after all!).
The dream of the project is to video-document first generation immigrants with more than five years in the U.S. from all of the world’s countries (196 in all). These stories can then be shared broadly in various ways. It’s a very ambitious undertaking, but doable with adequate funding support from persons like ourselves.
By happenstance, I was in attendance at one of GreenCardVoices first public presentations at Hosmer Library in south Minneapolis November 2, 2013. Theirs was a fascinating program, and I am certain the program at Target Field next Wednesday will be fascinating as well. (Roy Woodstrom, librarian at Hosmer Library, is a child of an immigrant – his mother is German). The person who invited me to the presentation is a child of Swedish immigrants. And on we go.
Shepherding the project is Dr. Tea Rozman-Clark, native of Slovenia. Her bio is here.

Tea Rozman-Clark, Feb. 25, 2014

Tea Rozman-Clark, Feb. 25, 2014


RSVP for the Target Field event Wednesday, March 12, 2014.
You’re in for a treat.

#852 – Dick Bernard: His Holiness, The 14th Dalai Lama at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, Minneapolis MN March 1, 2014

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Give yourself a gift this week, and enroll for one or more days of the rest of the Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College, Minneapolis MN (Friday through Sunday Mar 7-9). Here’s up to the minute information.
And since the Dalai Lama speaks from a global perspective, here are some interesting maps to help make a little sense of this interconnected world in which we live.
(click to enlarge snapshots, taken from a distance in less than ideal conditions for photography)

Anastasia Young, Dalai Lama and Tenzin Yeshi Paichang at conclusion of Dalai Lama's presentation

Anastasia Young, Dalai Lama and Tenzin Yeshi Paichang at conclusion of Dalai Lama’s presentation


Written March 2, 2014
We went to Day One of this years Nobel Peace Prize Forum specifically to see and hear the Dalai Lama. The rest of our day was too busy with other events, so we were at the Convention Center for the morning session only…along with 3200 others there to share in a piece of history.
My meager efforts were to try to listen, observe and take a few photos, a couple of which follow.
Most readers probably have at least heard of the Dalai Lama. At this website, there is a link to the entire program we viewed in person. The program begins at 56 minutes with Tibetan dances, with the Dalai Lama speaking at 1:20. Give yourself a gift, and listen in. You, better than I, can interpret the meaning of the formal proceedings.
For myself, I found myself translating His Holiness’ words about Peace to those of us sitting in the comfortable seats of the Convention Center auditorium.
Seating was open, and access controlled by three security stations like you find at all airports.
Anyone wanting to see the best of contemporary American society needed only to look at the very orderly throngs waiting to go through security. We lined up, snake-like, with no ropes, back and forth in the expansive lobby area. We moved slowly but steadily to our destination. More than once one of the security people complimented us on our group behavior. It was an opportunity to either be contemplative and/or to strike up conversations with nearby neighbors. In front of us were two folks from Bismarck ND, a Mom and daughter, who had driven several hundred miles for this event. Being North Dakotan myself, we had a common ground beyond the usual small talk.
Security was for a reason, and as informal as possible. Inside we took whatever seat was available, waiting for the program to begin.
In essence, this crowd practiced the ideals you can hear Dalai Lama speak about in his presentation.
After the obligatory introductions and opening remarks, came time for His Holiness to be introduced. A student from Concordia College, Moorhead, Anastasia Young, had the honor of introducing Dalai Lama. You will note a very moving and humorous moment as she is reading her introduction. An impish Dalai Lama was, in a sense, sneaking up on her from her right, and she wasn’t immediately aware of him.
It was a wonderful moment among many memorable moments.
At the end, shawls were presented to Dalai Lama, and he in turn presented them back, to Anastasia Young, and Tenzin Yeshi Paichang, student at Augsburg, who had delivered the questions to the question answer part of the program. The student had, at two years of age, played two year old Dalai Lama in the 1997 film, Kundun, about his life.
Anastasia, Tenzin, their colleague young people, and indeed all of us who yearn for peace, are the ones who need to carry the Dalai Lama and other prominent peacemaker messages forward.
There is no other way.
Enter Dalai Lama in your search engine, and you will come up with any number of items.
Later in the day, break out sessions talked about many aspects of Faith and Peace. Some weblinks that seemed interesting from the program booklet are these: Forgiveness 360; Nansen Dialogue Network; and the film, Ten Questions for the Dalai Lama.
Tenzin Yeshi Paichang gives question for Dalai Lama to Kathleen Wurzer, conversation moderator.

Tenzin Yeshi Paichang gives question for Dalai Lama to Kathleen Wurzer, conversation moderator.


Presentation and re-presentation of shawls at conclusion of Dalai Lama's conversation in Minneapois

Presentation and re-presentation of shawls at conclusion of Dalai Lama’s conversation in Minneapois


POSTNOTE:
Changing the course of human violent behavior is as essential as it is difficult. Back home, preparing for another event in our home life, I watched part of two History Channel programs, the first about the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; the second about “Superpower”, the notion that America is the one remaining superpower, with a presence everywhere on the planet. In both cases, what came across clearly to me was not our omnipotence, but our impotence about controlling everything, everywhere, any more.
We live together, or we all are, literally, “history”.

#851 – Dick Bernard: Haiti, remembering a December, 2003, visit to Port-au-Prince, and the time before the overthrow of the Jean-Bertrand Aristide government February 29, 2004.

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UPDATE: Yesterday my friend Jane Stillwater reported on a recent short visit to the same area I visited in 2003. You can read her comments, and see some photos, here.

Map of Haiti, December 2003

Map of Haiti, December 2003


Port-au-Prince Dec 2003

Port-au-Prince Dec 2003


Back in the spring of 2002 my new friend, Paul Miller, began to lobby me to join him on a trip to Haiti. He’d been there several times, and while I knew where Haiti was, and that it was a very poor country, that was about it.
Paul kept working on me, and during most of 2003 we read and talked about Haiti, and on Dec. 6, 2003, we landed in Port-au-Prince for an astonishing and eye-opening week [Basic itinerary at end of this post]. I wrote here about that experience on the 10 year anniversary.
We had a full and extraordinarily rich week, ending December 13, 2003. At the end of December, 2003, I reflected on my experience in Haiti.
Our associations that week were with people who supported then President Aristide, and were attempting, successfully, to make positive changes in the lives of the poor. We knew Haiti as one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere and the world; nonetheless we saw hope and pride as Haiti prepared for the bicentennial of its achieving independence from France in 1804.
A few photos from that amazing trip floated to the top of my collection when looking for symbols of Haiti in December, 2003:
(click to enlarge)
Haiti Sculpture Dec 2003005
The Presidential Palace, Port-au-Prince, December 8, 2003

The Presidential Palace, Port-au-Prince, December 8, 2003


At Ste. Claire after Mass Dec 7, 2003

At Ste. Claire after Mass Dec 7, 2003


There are many more photos, of places and people, all conveying pride and even optimism. Nobody expected the end of poverty, but there was discernible pride and optimism, amongst the poor, to at minimum be working towards poverty with dignity; the more real possibility of they and their children becoming literate; and of being recognized as free citizens who could and did democratically elect their President and other officials, etc.
At the end of our week, we stayed the last night at the Hotel Oloffson, made famous in Graham Greene’s novel, “The Comedians”. We sat in the bar listening to RAM, the band of Richard A. Morse. It was in itself a powerful evening. You could almost feel the increasingly intense political intrigue in the bar and on the veranda.
RAM at the Hotel Oloffson, about Dec. 12, 2003

RAM at the Hotel Oloffson, about Dec. 12, 2003


The next day we left, flying to Miami, picking up the Miami Herald story about storm clouds gathering in Haiti: Miami Herald 121303001.
The building storm was, of course, a fact known to us.
While we viewed the common folks going about their lives, we were hearing from the rich assortment of people we met with about the storm clouds gathering which, less than three months later, would end with the democratically elected President of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, being flown out of his country by U.S. aircraft, victim of a U.S. sponsored and supported coup d’etat.
“Freedom” and “Democracy” in Haiti were too much a threat to be allowed by the United States of America.
It was a harsh lesson for me, then and now: my own country could do this to not a dictator, but a democratically elected President of an independent country.
The coup happened officially on Feb. 29, 2004, denying even the ability to commemorate an anniversary at its 10th year, 2014.
Back home, as the coup happened, and the stories abounded, I tried to make sense of what I had witnessed, trying to find some facts among the sea of fictions that flowed, especially, from my own United States government.
In March, 2006, I took another trip back to Haiti. In the time period before I left, I condensed my concerns into a letter to the leaders of three major political influence entities in the United States, and even submitted a proposed op ed to the New York Times (not printed). For those interested, my thoughts remain on line here.
Life has moved on, and my several feet of files relating to Haiti have lain undisturbed for several years.
But this anniversary brings the memories back, and the lesson learned is to be less than trusting of “truth” conveyed through official or even news sources.
A healthy skepticism is deserved.
I was last to Haiti since 2006, but still keep in touch.
Keep seeing Haiti.
The travelers above Petion-Ville, December, 2003. Leader Paul Miller is at left.

The travelers above Petion-Ville, December, 2003. Leader Paul Miller is at left.


The General Itinerary as I recall it:
Stayed at Visitation House
The entire week was jam-packed.
We saw many of the places in the booklet Chemen Kwa Pep Ayisyen, in English, here: Haiti Stations of Cross001
Sunday, Dec 7, Mass at Ste Claire’s, Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste
During the week, some specifics:
Driving tour of sights in the Port-au-Prince area
Dinner at home of our driver above Petion-Ville in Mont Calvare area.
Morning and lunch at BAI, advocacy group for victims of violence, primarily women
Visit Fonkoze, then beginning to mature into the major micro-finance organization it is today.
Visit Methodist Church under construction
Lunch at one of higher-end hotels above Port-au-Prince
Visit Hospice St Joseph
Visit SOPUDEP School Petion-ville
Visit the national television station/studio
Visit Fr Michael Graves at Orthodox Church
Visit President Aristide’s international press liaison
Visit Methodist Church Guest House
Visit Orphanage some distant into the countryside around Port-au-Prince
Overnight at Olaffson Hotel
COMMENTS
from Peter B, Mar 1 (in 2003, this would have been Feb 29, the day of the coup):

In case you still want to put something in there about this:
The evening of the Haiti Coup I got on the phone with the State Department’s “Haiti Desk” and spent at least thirty minutes talking with a guy who was of course parroting the party line written by the Noriega character (not the Panamanian drug king, the State man in charge of the Caribbean)). I tried my best to explain that everybody knew (everybody who looked beyond the Washington Post and the New York Times that is, and could spell Haiti) that the thugs on the border in the DR were about to slam into Haiti, murdering, raping and pillaging, freeing the Duvalier Tonton Macoute killer police to add to the rampage, and destroying a functioning democracy.
He was polite and uncaring through out. I was not hurried off the line. I still can’t figure out how the single phone line to State about Haiti could be tied up by a citizen for that long in the midst of a very big military operation to capture a head of state and deport or kill him. But that’s how it was.
And of course my fears were fully realized, far worse than I ever imagined at the time.
I now understand that the cultural rules of “Market Rule” require that no successful alternative economy be allowed to function, let alone achieve a reasonable life for the citizens of any country. I now understand that the punishment meted out by Washington will be destruction, chaos and unimaginable slaughter. There is no place I am aware of today that is not subject to this other than (perhaps) Russia, which as an oligarchy, plays the game quite satisfactorily with the “Western Powers.”
I further understand that we don’t have a vote that counts on this. And that our elected officials are helpless to change it, because they are immediately drummed out of the halls of government, and if they won’t shut up, they find themselves standing next to a spouse at a news conference apologizing for human trafficking.
We’ve seen it all before. We might possibly escape total enslavement, but probably because the environment will drop on the population first, and we will be once again reduced to roving bands of hunter-gatherers.
Gloomy? So what? Show me some evidence to the contrary. Hunker down. Gonna be a long hard one. The old folks hereabouts say they never have seen weather like this. When Vermonters complain about the weather you know something is up.

#842 – Dick Bernard: An Evening with the Minnesota Orchestra at Orchestra Hall; and watching a family wind down….

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The “filing cabinet” on the Minnesota Orchestra Lockout is here.
Thursday, February 11, 2014
We attended the first post-Lock Out Concert at Orchestra Hall on February 8, 2014. This was an evening of immense emotional energy, with the Orchestra led by the father of Orchestra Hall, Maestro-Emeritus Stanislaw Skrowaczewski. The entire program, eight pages, is here:MN Orch Feb 7-8 2014002 This concert, and the one to follow this weekend (we attend on Feb. 15) seem to be “bridge” concerts between the 488 day Lock Out and a to-be determined future of this “family”, which is the Orchestra Management (MOA), the Orchestra itself (including the Conductor), and we in the Audience.
The Minnesota Orchestra is the essence of the perfection of a team sport: excellent players, outstanding conductor and an engaged audience make the team. The team was cooking on Saturday night.
On Feb. 8 all was in resonance.
I hope the good feelings continue, but….
I didn’t write immediately after the concert as the last three days have been devoted to family matters in ND. My Aunt is, as I write, near death in a fine nursing home. She is 93. In the next room is her 89 year old brother. Neither ever married. They are the last living members of Grandma and Grandpa’s family of 9.
There’s was a musical family, as country families often were. Their Dad was a school-trained fiddler and had a small band for local dances. To this day, Vincent is an excellent singer. Many of the kids and descendants of my grandparents are musical.
For their entire lives until 2006 Vince and Edith lived and worked together on the pioneer farm built by their parents, and when heart problems ended the farm career for my Uncle in 2006, they moved into Assisted Living, and then into the Nursing Home in nearby LaMoure ND. [Note 9:20 a.m. Feb 12: Aunt Edith passed away at 1:05 a.m. The funeral is Saturday. We’ll have to miss the Saturday concert, 5th row center. Anyone interested in the tickets at cost? Inquiries welcome. dick_bernardATmeDOTcom.]
My Uncle and Aunt are very familiar people to me. Often I would spend a week or more at the farm in the summer, helping out with whatever.
They were like all families: connected, yet disconnected. They had different personalities and different skills and different interests. They had their resonances and dissonances.
In other words, they were like the rest of us, regardless of what relationship we might have with some significant other.
With all the magnificence of the evening inside the hall on Saturday night, my thoughts following the concert have more focused on what recovery from the long lockout will ultimately look like for the big “family” that is the Minnesota Orchestra community.
Most of us with any seniority in living a life in any “community”, be it marriage, employment, brother and sister (like Vince and Edith) etc., etc., have at one time or another experienced peaks and valleys. I don’t need to be specific. Think of some instance where you, personally, experienced some huge hurt, followed at some point, and for some reason, by reconciliation.
The reconciliation is its own temporary “high”.
But it is a very temporary high; and to maintain and rebuild and improve requires a huge amount of work and compromise by all parties to have any sense of permanence at all.
So it is going to be with the three-legged stool that is the Minnesota Orchestra: the musicians/conductor, the management, the audience.
If last weekend, and the coming one, are considered to be the end of the past, everyone is sadly mistaken. They are only the beginning of the beginning of a new era with the Orchestra, and everyone will be on edge as this progresses…or not.
There can be no “business as usual” if this enterprise is to succeed long term.
In Saturdays program booklet, I was most interested in the words on the “Welcome” page (page two), pretty obviously written by committee consensus, and I read with even more interest page seven, about Beethoven’s Eroica. Whoever chose Eroica to highlight the first concert back in Orchestra Hall probably chose this work intentionally. Read especially the second paragraph of the descriptor, and the last.
The power of the Minnesota Orchestra to come is going to depend on a true spirit of working together by all three legs of the stool: orchestra, management, audience.
We’ll see how it goes.
And Peace and Best Wishes to Aunt Edith, and to Uncle Vince, in this time of transition for them both.
(click to enlarge)

Uncle Vince "fiddles" with his Dad's farmhouse fiddle, Oct 1992. Grandpa had a country band and learned violin by use of sheet music.

Uncle Vince “fiddles” with his Dad’s farmhouse fiddle, Oct 1992. Grandpa had a country band and learned violin by use of sheet music.


Aunt Edith's flowers August 1994

Aunt Edith’s flowers August 1994


The Busch family 1927 "PIE-ann-o" (Vincents pronunctiation) August 1998

The Busch family 1927 “PIE-ann-o” (Vincents pronunctiation) August 1998


Aunt Edith August 4, 1989, in the old farm house. She is at peace: July 20, 1920 - February 12, 2014.

Aunt Edith August 4, 1989, in the old farm house. She is at peace: July 20, 1920 – February 12, 2014.

#840 – Dick Bernard: Misinformation, The Tyranny of Language: a Suggestion.

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The February 6, 2013, Minneapolis Tribune carried an interesting column in the Opinion section: “What we can learn from abortion decline”, by William Saletan.
The subhead said that “with the [abortion] rate down 13 percent, both sides are right about some of the factors”, and in the second paragraph: “Pro-lifers are right that the decline is a good thing. And pro-choicers are right that what’s causing the decline – and will keep it going, if we’re smart – is women making these decisions on their own.”
You can read the column, here, on your own.
I was less interested in Saletan’s analysis, than the other set of screaming headlines and assertions on the same day about what a little statement in a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report meant about the Affordable Care Act (ACA, aka “Obamcare”) impact on future jobs.
Succinctly, all of the hype seems to focus on one small section on page 124 of a 175 page report (which you can read in its entirety here), “Effects of the ACA on Demand for Labor”, and which you can see summarized in another way here.
In short form, as I saw the gist of the report, many people who presently stay on their job only because they have health care through the company, may now leave that job early, since they don’t need or want to work full-time, and can get lower cost insurance through the Affordable Care Act. The employment reduction, thus, is largely voluntary.
In addition, and I have not seen this mentioned in the screaming headlines, these voluntary quits will leave job openings for people entering or wanting to return to the workforce – lack of job openings is another huge crying need in this country of ours.
In short, the screaming job-killer headlines and soundbites about Obamacare are essentially false; and as suggested in the “abortion” commentary cited at the front of this post, issue groups of all shapes, sizes and ideologies, data mine for the single phrase that supports their case in a report or even an utterance at a hearing somewhere, and ignore the rest of the information that people won’t take the time to read.
We are a society dominated by “headlines”. And opinion-makers know that. People just plainly and simply don’t read in depth, nor consider opposing points of view.
So we are lied to, daily, by misinformation and disinformation and inaccurate summaries of information.
And this is a dangerous trait for the short and long term health of us as a society.
We can defeat this, but it takes a bit of effort on our part, to not take the bait of the whoever is pitching whatever.
Life – take our own as our own example – is complex, day to day, hour to hour, sometimes minute to minute.
In the last day my future schedule changed dramatically for next week. I’ll be gone two or possibly three days attending to a relative near death and her brother who’s lived with her his entire long life. I knew it was coming sometime. All I didn’t know was when. Life is not frozen in time by a headline or an assertion….
An easy exercise, worth taking, is to assess your own life and some occurrence that – because you’re an ordinary person – didn’t translate into headlines.
For one example: I retired 14 years ago from a good job, at 59 1/2. I could do this. My employment carried a very good retirement plan; I could continue excellent medical and dental insurance; and I could explore other options without a lot of fear of starving to death till Social Security and Medicare kicked in.
It was a benefit to me.
It also held benefits for others: I had 27 years of relevant experience, but I was at burnout stage in my job, and I knew I was no longer as engaged or as efficient as I had been.
When I left, somebody new had an opening for the position, perhaps indirectly, as people transferred and otherwise took the position I had left.
Overall, everyone won when I left, including myself.
I think that’s the essence of that short paragraph in that CBO report….
For your own sake, what are your examples?
It takes work to see “the forest” rather than taking somebodies word about “the trees” that make up that forest.
It takes work, but it’s work worth doing.