History – Page 21 – Thoughts Towards a Better World

#819 – Dick Bernard: The Book Thief, book and movie, a recommendation

December 27, 2013/2 Comments/in Community, Education, History, International Relations, War /by dickbernard

Yesterday we took our 14 year old grandson to see the film “The Book Thief”.
All of us had read the book: Ryan, two years ago in 7th grade; ourselves, much more recently.
We’d all recommend both the book, and the movie, still in theatres, certainly to come in assorted ways to your home.
The story is set in small town Nazi Germany, beginning 1938, and follows a young girl, Leisl Memminger, orphaned by circumstance, living with a poor couple who haven’t joined the Nazi party.
The book is narrated by the Angel of Death and is highly readable. The movie faithfully tells the story. I’d easily give the film four of five stars.
This is a story about War, and a lesson in how Wars impact on innocent persons.
War is not a single dimension, us versus them, as Death reminds us.
POSTNOTE:
That 14 year old Ryan was with us at the movie helped to give us context with Leisl, of similar age in the movie.
And it especially helped, in our case, that our friend Annelee Woodstrom, who gave us “Book Thief” in the first place, was a 12 year old in 1938 Nazi Germany.
Annelee was born in 1926 in a small town in Germany, and grew up in Nazi Germany, leaving Germany only after the war was over, in 1947. And Annelee’s book about her growing up, War Child, published 2003, has a similar narrative. Annelee was under those Allied bombs in Munich, and almost under them at Regensburg. Her War Child, too, is well worth a read.
War or Peace is a choice we humans make. It makes sense to choose Peace. Too often, we choose War.
(click to enlarge)

Dove, original painted by President Jimmy Carter

from the 2013 greeting card from the Carter Center

WW II Poster

from a card published by the Battle of Normandy Foundation. The card is “an authentic reproduction of a historic U.S. Armed Services Recruitment Poster fro World War II Artist: Smith and Downe.

#818 – Dick Bernard: A Christmas Tree Decoration. Some thoughts about Christmas time.

December 25, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, Family History, History, Quietings /by dickbernard

Directly related posts to Christmas 2013 are linked here.
Each year my spouse, Cathy, enjoys decorating our Christmas tree, and every year one of the first decorations up is one of the most plain, made by myself, some years before she and I even met.
Here’s both sides of the decoration:
(click to enlarge)

1977 Christmas Card

I remember all of the details surrounding this small card. It came to be during a difficult period in my life.
Back then, I had a printer do about 50 of these cards, and I used the U.S. mail to send them to a select group of family and friends.
The homemade card became a tradition for me, continuing in one way or another for, now, 36 years.
But it is a difficult tradition to continue.
At the beginning, the process was very simple and straightforward: you did something, and either hand-delivered or U.S. mailed it using addresses in your address book.
By the 1990s e-mail became common; and then came the present day explosion of means of communicating with the frustrating outcome that most of us have experienced in one form or another:
Fewer and fewer use U.S. mail and traditional cards exclusively. Each year there are fewer of these arriving in our mail box.
There’s e-mail, and assorted internet options, such as this delivery means, or others like Facebook, Twitter, and on and on and on.
Most people come to have their own personal preference for receiving/sending messages…and (probably) dislike other means.
I’m one who still likes letters, but most of my letters, this year, will happen after Christmas responding to others who sent cards, notes and Christmas letters.
Then there’s the Facebook crowd – I have lots of “friends” there, but I have never gotten comfortable with how best to use the medium, and as a consequence rarely even visit my Facebook page.
It’s my loss, I know, but I have only so much time.
Then there’s Twitter, Linkup, and all the rest. Great tools (I hear) if used.
Years ago I seem to have coined a phrase that remains true today: “there are more ways to communicate less”. This is enshrined on the internet going back to Nov. 2008, but it actually has its origin for me several years before that.
Christmas Day is now about over in my part of the world, so once more to everyone who might possibly be in reading distance, I hope you had a Merry Christmas, and that you have a great New Year.
POST THOUGHTS ABOUT THE ALLEGED “WAR ON CHRISTMAS”:
When I did my card in 1977, there was no thought of including or excluding the Christian idea of Christs birth as the origin of Christmas. I was and remain an active Catholic; I noted just now that Kahlil Gibran was a Maronite Christian from Lebanon.
The Christmas tree apparently has Christian origins. Initially, the personal tradition was to cut a genuine tree, and suffer through the latter days of needles on the carpet, etc.
For the last many years, the tradition here has been an artificial tree, fancily decorated by Cathy, who will continue looking for new and unusual ornaments. She does good work:

2013 Christmas Tree at the Bernard home.

We accompany the tree with a traditional nativity scene, carved olive wood, which I purchased in Israel, from a Palestinian merchant, in 1996. It is accompanied by Mary and Joseph carved by a Haitian ca 2003.

2013

Some years ago my Uncle allowed me to borrow a collection of several hundred post cards sent to the North Dakota farm in the very early 1900s. This was a very Catholic family. I looked through the cards, and discovered the topic of Christmas, and other, greetings back in that period in time. You can read the entire article here. Of the 111 “Christmas cards” in the collection, less than 10% had a religious theme to them. This contrasted with Easter cards, which were about 40% religious.
We are and we have always been a diverse country in terms of religious beliefs.
“War” is a relatively recent construct, at least as it is played out in the media.
May there be Peace on Earth, and Good Will towards ALL.

#817 – Dick Bernard: The Eve of Peace as a real Possibility.

December 24, 2013/2 Comments/in Community, Family History, History, International Relations, North Dakota, Peace & Justice, War /by dickbernard

Yesterday as I leafed through the Minneapolis Star Tribune I noted the obituary of John Eisenhower, the son of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces at the end of WWII, and later two term President of the United States. John S.D. Eisenhower001
What especially drew my attention was this comment, made about young Eisenhower’s aspirations on graduation from West Point in 1944: “John Eisenhower hoped to see combat as an infantry platoon commander, but his father’s fellow commanders, Gen. Omar Bradley and Lt. Gen. George Patton, feared the impact on his father if he were killed in action or captured. He was assigned to intelligence and administration duties in England and Germany.”
That there was concern about Eisenhower’s emotional reaction if something happened to his son is not surprising. What did surprise me was the expression of very human feeling by two high level commanders about their even higher level commander was specifically mentioned in the obituary itself. Perhaps that is why the on-line obituary differs from the print edition linked above. We like our war heroes to have a ‘take no prisoners’ attitude.
But War kills, in more ways than just physical death.
All who have ended up in battle somewhere, or lost a friend or relative to war, know this.
Just last Friday, I had displayed models of the USS Arizona and the Destroyer Woodworth DD 460 at the local Caribou Coffee, and a lady came up and recalled her Dad’s visit to Dachau after the liberation of that horrible death camp at the end of WWII.
She said he never wanted to talk about what he’d seen.
I asked for her address, and later that same day sent to her a recollection of a visit to that same camp, at the same time, by another GI who, his niece told me some years ago, was tormented by the experience for the rest of his life. His writing and photographs are here: Omer Lemire at Dachau001
Within Omer’s text is this quote: “…we received word (posted on the bulletin board) from Generals Patton and Eisenhower, encouraging us to visit newly liberated Dachau Camp in order to witness for our children and grandchildren the horrible destruction between human beings…”man’s inhumanity to man”. I believed that we would be witnessing a historical event but had no idea what I was about to experience. This singular event changed me for the rest of my life….”
Tomorrow is Christmas, and celebration of the birth of the Prince of Peace.
This season, for the first time in a long time, I see significant openings for the pursuit of peace, in small and not so small ways. I referred to this in my December 7 post, here.
The route to Peace is rough and ragged, but it is certainly a better option than staying on the rutted path of War, the practice to which we have too long been accustomed.
In all the ways you can, make this season truly a season of Peace.
Merry Christmas.
Today, relook, or look for the first time, at the recounting of the Christmas Day Truce during World War I. There are many writings about this. Pick one or more from this menu of choices.

#815 – Dick Bernard: What we did on our vacation: A not-so-ordinary Road Trip from North Dakota to California, 1941

December 22, 2013/1 Comment/in Community, Family History, History, North Dakota /by dickbernard

“We did some visiting in North Dakota before we left for California…June 22, 1941 at Long Beach. The first time we had our family together for seven years, and also the last….”
Merry Christmas! This blog quite naturally follows two previous blogs about 1940: here and here. UPDATE Dec. 24 post, also related.
Today would have been my Dad’s 106th birthday (born Dec. 22, 1907). Today, his daughter, my sister Mary Ann, arrives on the Big Island of Hawaii from Vanuatu for a visit with her kids and grandkids and our niece Georgine and partner Robert. Her last 15 months in the Peace Corps is chronicled here, the most recent post, Dec. 18, at the end.
It seems a perfect day to recall a June, 1941, trip I took with my family from rural North Dakota to Long Beach California. The narrator is my Dad, Henry, RIP Nov 7, 1997.
I was one year old at the time. The travelers were Grandma and Grandpa Bernard, Mom and Dad, and I.
We traveled by car.

Here’s some background and the “cast of characters”: my parents were age 33 and 31 at the time of the trip; my oldest grandparent, Grandpa Bernard, was 69 (I’m 73, as I write); the youngest, Grandma Busch, was 57. Grandpa Bernard had a love for machines. Fixing a car enroute would have been no problem for him. Mom’s siblings, my Uncle Vince and Aunt Edith, were 16 and 21…. Dad’s sister, Josie, would have been 37; his brother, Frank, 25.
By 1941, Bernard’s were no stranger to travel: Grandpa migrated to North Dakota from Quebec in the 1890s, and in 1898, sailed to the Philippines via Hawaii to be a soldier in the Spanish-American War. Grandma and Grandpa had first gone to Los Angeles in November 1935 for daughter Josie’s wedding. They likely traveled by train, visiting people they knew in Oregon along the way. Beginning in 1937 they became a regular part of the North Dakota winter community in the Los Angeles area, living in Long Beach.
Josie’s husband, Alan Whittaker, had died after surgery only three years or so into their marriage, about 1938. In 1939 she took a major cross-country automobile trip with friends, documenting the route on a 1939 American Automobile Association road map (see below).
For the geographic inclined, here’s a map for reference. The Red and Blue lines are explained here: Josie Bernard trip 1939001
(click to enlarge any photos)

U.S. map showing the 1939 trip route, and the beginning and end points of the 1941 trip.

In 1940-41 Dad was a school teacher in rural Rutland ND. His parents home was Grafton, but since 1937 they had spent a lot of time in Long Beach/LA area where there was already a relatively large North Dakota population.
Mom’s parents lived on a farm near Berlin ND.
Invited by Dad’s parents to go west with them, the decision was made to go to California to visit their daughter and sister, Josie Whittaker, who had lived in Los Angeles since the early 1930s, and was widowed. An apparently unanticipated bonus was to also be able to see their son and brother Frank Bernard, whose ship, the USS Arizona, berthed in nearby San Pedro June 17 – July 1, 1941.
A first stop on the 1941 trip was at the farm of Mom’s parents, Rosa and Ferd Busch:

Henry Bernard, Rosa Busch, Richard Bernard, Josephine Bernard, Ferd Busch, at the farm June, 1941

Many of Busch family, and neighbors, pose with the Bernards June, 1941. Note particularly Edith, 3rd from left; Mary, 4th from left, and Vincent 2nd from right. Dad, Mom and Richard (me) are roughly at center.

Dad, Henry Bernard, recalled the trip in a written memoir in February, 1981. Here is his recollection:
“The grandparents Bernard had not yet seen Richard so in the spring of 1941 they came from California to see us [at Rutland Consolidated school in SE North Dakota].
They spent a week or so with us and then said that they would buy us another car if we would drive them back to California and spend some time there. We were happy to get this gift so we managed to get to Fargo with our old ’29 Chevy and went to Ford and Dad bought us a ’36 V8 Ford*. It was used but in good condition. It even had a radio in it. [Note the so-called “suicide” back doors. This was our family car for the next 10 years.]

Grandma and Grandpa with Richard and car for the California trip May, 1941

We did some visiting in North Dakota before we left for California…then on through the Black Hills of South Dakota and then on through Wyoming where we saw our first oil wells, and continued on to Salt Lake City and I remember stopping at a motel at St. George UT. Early in the morning I could hear water running and I got up and behind the motel there was an irrigation ditch running full of water. That was the first irrigation I had ever seen.
We continued on and reached Las Vegas after dark. We saw all the neon lights of the gambling dens but we were interested only in rest. Had a good supper and then to bed. We had heard that the desert crossing was an adventure and were warned to get started early so we did and made the crossing with any great incident. I remember stopping at a filling station about the middle of the desert and among other things asked for a drink of water This was reluctantly given as water had to be hauled in from miles away.
We reached Long Beach in due time and stayed with the folks in their small apartment. I recall that it had three rooms and a bath and also a front porch. It was set in the alley and there were several attached apartments somewhat like the modern condominiums. It was about two blocks from the beach and we could put on our bathing suits and walk to the beach with ease.

Richard on the beach, Long Beach CA June 1941

[My sister] Josie was living in Los Angeles and we saw her frequently. We were surprised one day to hear that “the fleets in” [San Pedro] and shortly after my brother Frank [crewman on USS Arizona] came over. He had leave and several times he was in port we had a chance to visit with him and go on trips here and there. Little did we realize that Pearl Harbor was only six months away. [Grandma wrote on the back of the iconic photo of the trip, below: “Taken June 22, 1941 at Long Beach. The first time we had our family together for seven years, and also the last. This is where we lived.”]

from left, Henry and Josephine Bernard, Josie Bernard Whittaker, Frank, Richard, Henry and Esther Bernard

I remember one time we were riding around the suburbs of Los Angeles that we came by an area of Japanese homes. Each one had huge radio aerials and Frank said that was sure they were in communications with the home land. he already felt that we were going to be in the war soon. Security was heavy with the fleet and we did not get a chance to visit the Arizona, the ship on which Frank was stationed. We would be just curious but not spies like the Japanese.
We left Long Beach on July 5 for the long trip back home. Up the California coast to Oregon and Portland where we visited the Krafts and also the Battleship Oregon [then in repair at Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton WA] and on through Montana and then stopped at Amidon [ND] to visit people we had met there while teaching [1937-39] and then back to the Busch’s before getting on back to Rutland Consolidated where I would be teaching a second year.
I had a chance to do some shocking of grain and threshing before school started. This little bit of extra income was certainly welcome.”
Little more than three months later, Frank Bernard lay dead in the hulk of the USS Arizona.
War was on for the U.S.
Lives had changed dramatically, instantly.
POST NOTES:
How long a trip was it? Assuming Jamestown ND to Long Beach CA, Long Beach to Seattle WA, and Seattle back to Jamestown, and just doing Mapquest as a guide, that single trip was 4268 miles, under far different driving and vehicle conditions than we’re accustomed to today. It is unknown the exact number of days enroute, or in Long Beach, but the assumption is we were gone at least a month, at least ten of these days basically in the automobile, no air conditioning, seat belts, gps, automatic transmission, cruise control, four-lane highways…. It would not have been a simple trip.
Dad was 73, my present age, when he wrote his memoirs in 1981. If you’re thinking you should do something similar, it’s not too late!
Esther’s brother, George (not in the family picture), finished college at Mayville and became a Naval Officer on the Destroyer Woodworth in the Pacific 1943-45, docking at Tokyo Sep 10, 1945. Melvin Berning (the 13 year old to my left in the family picture above, double cousin to my mother, next farm over) saw his brother August off to the Army. August Berning became a Captain in the Pacific theatre.
Unknown to everyone in the pictures, the summer of 1941 was to be the last of peacetime for over four years….
Twenty-five years later, in the summer of 1966, my parents essentially duplicated the 1941 trip with their two-year grandson, my son, Tom. His mother had passed away a year earlier, and I was in summer school at Illinois State U (Normal), and my parents were the sitters-in-residence for Tom. They, along with my brother John and sister Flo, drove to LA (by a different route, if I recall right), thence up the coast and back to ND across Montana as before. Florence was about to begin two years in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic, as her older sister, Mary Ann, is now past half way in her own later-life tour in the same Peace Corps.

George Busch and Jean Tannahill wedding Thompson ND May 20, 1944. Vincent Busch, George’s brother, was best man, 19 years old at the time.

Josie (Bernard) Whittaker and group at Hilo HI May 2, 1969

Models of the USS Arizona and USS Woodworth, Frank Bernard and George Busch’s ships in WWII. The Arizona was 608 feet long; the Woodworth, 381 feet. The models were made out of wood blocks by good friend and colleague Bob Tonra in 1996.

#814 – Dick Bernard: Visiting Frank Lloyd Wright's Windmill

December 20, 2013/0 Comments/in Environment, History, Nature, Quietings /by dickbernard

As usual, I was lolly-gagging a bit behind the rest of the group as we toured Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin East near Spring Green WI on October 16.
Like the rest of my species, picture-takers, whether rank amateur (me) or professional, we tend to fall behind because we see this or that that would make, we feel, a good picture. Like a photo of those folks in the tour group I was now lagging behind who were looking at something as yet unknown to me.
They seemed to be a good picture:
(click to enlarge)

At Taliesin, October 16, 2013

Maybe that’s why they don’t allow indoor photography on tours at Taliesin, which the brochure immodestly (and arguably, accurately) describes as “the greatest single building in America”. Taliesin brochure 2013001
And then I saw what the rest of my group was looking at: the most unusual windmill I had ever seen.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Windmill

Coming from a rural background, I had plenty of familiarity with farm windmills, but none that looked quite like this one.
Our expert tour guide noted (as I recall) that Wright’s neighbors, way back when he designed this windmill, thought his was a dumb idea. Here this thing was, near the top of a windy hill overlooking the Wisconsin River, enclosed in a wooden structure.
Surely it would blow over.
Apparently the windmill proved everyone wrong: it survived a century. Yes, the original boards rotted away over time, and were replaced, but Wright’s windmill stood on, blended in with its environment. It was much like Wright, perhaps, a bit more classy (and much more quirky and famous or infamous) than its neighbor windmills up and down the roads of rural Wisconsin.
Wright was an obviously greatly gifted guy.
The very word “Taliesin” evokes Wrights philosophy, per the faq’s about Taliesin: “When Wright designed his own home in the valley in 1911, he gave it the Welsh name Taliesin, meaning “shining brow.” Frank Lloyd Wright placed Taliesin on the brow of a hill, leaving the crown, or top, open.”
Wright had his faults (don’t we all?), but I like his apparent philosophy of designs that blended with, rather than dominated, their surrounding environment.
At the gift shop, I almost bought a t-shirt (I didn’t. I already have too many of those, unused), which I thought was pretty neat:

Have a great Christmas and New Year in 2014.

Near the school of architecture at Taliesin, October 16, 2013

#813 – Dick Bernard: The Archbishop [possibly] takes a fall.

December 18, 2013/2 Comments/in Community, History, Minnesota /by dickbernard

Related: my Oct 20 2013 post, here.
For up to date information from the same basic source I’ll see about this situation, check the headlines here.
I am writing this intentionally before reading anything other than yesterdays 2:40 p.m. Minneapolis Star Tribune headline “[St. Paul-Minneapolis] Archbishop Nienstedt denies inappropriately touching boy in ’09”. This was later followed by an e-mail “headline” from a friend at 6:48 p.m. “All I can say about this is ‘WOW’. If the allegation is true, it explains a lot about Nienstedt’s demeanor. Even Jeff Anderson [litigator who has done well in representing victims of clergy abuse], has the good sense to not ‘pile on’ and let this ball of string unravel. How can [Nienstedt] not resign after this??”
Having said this, and freely admitting that I have had zero affection for this Archbishop since he came here about seven years ago – we knew what we were getting from his very public job performance in his previous Diocese – I urge restraint in rushing to judgement.
Personally, I thought since the beginning that this Archishop was a very bad ‘fit’ for this Diocese. He came in with a very aggressive and public agenda that played out in a potentially very negative way in the last election (only Minnesota’s voters thwarted his wishes to amend the constitution of the state.)
But my impulses to cheer publicly for his problems are muted. I’d rather he be gone but if he goes under this circumstance, a possible victim of a witch hunt, some misinterpreted touch, I will not be pleased.
We don’t need witch hunts. (And as noted above, I know nothing more than what is in the first paragraph.)
My concern here is born out of long experience representing public school teachers in this state (1972-2000). Some clients were “guilty as sin”. But some turned out to be not guilty of anything, other than an opportunistic complaint made about them by a student. And there were all shades in between. (There were few actual cases; they were very rare given the immense number of human interactions possible in public education, but once revealed they, like today’s likely front page headline, dominated the news, and sullied everyone around them, including the accused, whether ultimately guilty or not.)
The same is true when Priests and Ministers are accused: there are few, there is a rush to judgement, the reputation of their peers is also sullied.
Teaching, like ministry, is a very public activity with lots of human contact – a necessary part of the job – and when the Laws were passed codifying unacceptable behaviors, it was more than Priests and Ministers who were caught in the net. There were people from whom I, on occasion, received the first call including the first call from a jail somewhere.
It was never pretty, and even those accused who may have been guilty of something, were given at least due process protection, then quietly gone.
But at this moment I mostly think of the ones who I represented who were innocent, and were guilty only because of mal-intent of an accuser(s), or of a rush to judgement interpretation of someone.
That was never pretty, either, and false accusations destroyed some people I represented who I knew only in context of their particular cases.
They had been set up….
When you’re accused of a sexual offense in this society, there seems to be no “innocent until proven guilty”. You are presumed to be guilty.
And that’s what I worry about here: tried, convicted, sentenced…by accusation.
*
Next Wednesday, Christmas Day, I’m usher at the Mass where Abp. Nienstedt was supposed to be the celebrant.
Frankly, I wasn’t looking forward to his appearance.
Doubtless, now, he won’t be there on Christmas Day, but I won’t celebrate his absence either.
There will be a great plenty of rushing to judgement in the next hours and days, that is for certain. A couple of hours from this writing I’ll be meeting with a good friend for a customary Christmas breakfast, and doubtless she and I will talk a lot about this case: we share background in representing those accused, and we share the history of some of the cases I once had to deal with.
Doubtless there will be restaurant table talk at tables around our own about the same topic.
The allegation will be the hot topic of discussion today.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
Comments? Have at it.

#812 – Dick Bernard: The Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra "Christmas Party"

December 16, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, History, Labor, Minnesota /by dickbernard

The Musicians Website: here
The “filing cabinet” for all previous posts about the Orchestra Lock-Out here.
Sunday, we attended “A Tschaikovsky Spectacular, Eiji Oue Returns with Jon Kimura Parker, piano and the Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra” at the Minneapolis Convention Center Auditorium. Here is the entire program for this marvelous event: Mn Orch Dec 15 13001
At the conclusion of the afternoon, I tried to “catch” Maestro Oue at 1/30 of a second with my camera.
Such a feat was impossible. This was the best I could do:
(click to enlarge all photos)

Maestro Oue recognizes the musicians at the conclusion of the program Dec. 15, 2013

Reflecting on that poor photograph, it probably catches the exuberance of the moment and, indeed, of the concert itself.
Maestro Oue was glad to be back in Minneapolis and Minnesota, visiting from the Orchestra he currently leads, the Barcelona Symphony in Spain, and the Orchestra was in great form.
Words tend to get in the way of the feelings of yesterday afternoon.
At one point, I was remembering the first “Locked Out” concert, in the exact same auditorium of the Minneapolis Civic Center, October 18, 2012.
That date seemed so long ago and far away. Then, near 14 months ago, I think all of us thought this absurd Lock Out would quickly be resolved and the season would resume soon, but it continues, with no end in sight.
For a moment, yesterday, I thought of titling this post, “A Concert by an Orchestra in Exile”, but that isn’t accurate: the Prisoner, now, is the entire Board of the Minnesota Orchestral Association, bunkered down in their fancy, newly renovated Orchestra Hall three blocks from where we were sitting, watching their beloved Pot of Money supposedly to guarantee the unknown future.
Perhaps, I thought, the Board had, rather than locking their orchestra out, locked themselves out, the end game as yet unknown. The band plays on….
At the end of intermission, Principal Cellist and Negotiator Tony Ross, rose to give what has become a customary report on where things stand at the moment, including the schedule of programs for the winter and spring, 2014: Mn Orch Wr-Spr 2013001
He noted that attempts to reach a path of resolution are ongoing, and every day something happens, much (as he said, “thank god”,) not appearing in the media.
Towards the end of his talk Tony said that Maestro Oue had asked him to stop by his dressing room before the previous evenings concert, and, he noted, that such appointments are seldom relished by musicians, who steel themselves to be reminded of some sour note or other…like being called into the Principals office!
This time, though, the meeting was different. Maestro Oue had a gold bracelet, given to and worn by Barcelona’s own Pablo Casals over 50 years ago at a White House concert. Casals daughter had (I seem to recall) given Oue the bracelet as a gift. The Maestro, in turn, loaned the bracelet to Tony Ross for the concert: a charm for the performances. Tony brought the bracelet out of his pocket for all of us to see. It was a magic, totally unexpected, moment, in a magic afternoon.
I wondered, as I have wondered before, where the exalted Orchestra Board would be now if they had decided, some years ago, to have intermission visits with we in the audience about their supposed financial plight, rather than doing their best to keep their real plans a secret from us in those crucial recent years.
But this would presume that they had an interest in saving their world-class orchestra, rather than replacing it with unknown fancies of their privileged imaginations.
The last chapter of this conflict is not yet written, and I am hoping that Tony’s suggestion that there are back-channel and serious talks going on between Orchestra negotiators and the Board is not a fantasy of mine. As witnessed by upcoming programs, the titans of the music world are wanting to come here, and perform with the Locked Out Musicians.
We have a treasure worth keeping; and these Orchestra members who are now doing double and triple duty, only one part of which is making beautiful music, are to be commended.
Play on!
And, audience members, contribute and support in all the many ways that you can, the restoration of this beloved Orchestra as an icon of this community.

Maestro Oue caught at a reasonably quiet instant at the conclusion of the concert Dec 15

Comment from Jim F. Dec 16:
Sorry, Dick, but I think the musicians themselves have condemned themselves to failure. their last missive, at that meeting, said they are committed to working it out with the present board and getting back to work under that same leadership.
It will not happen. Will not. Will not.
The orchestra itself could be saved, but only if they recognize that fact — that there is no possibility of continuing a first-rate orchestra under that board and that leadership. That board and those leaders will accept nothing other than unconditional surrender, and failure to recognize that and to turn away from that leadership means the orchestra as we know it will die. Or has died.
It’s part of a syndrome that has overtaken the people of this country and is taking the entire country down. It is the belief that nothing can be done without the leadership and approval of the very rich rich. The whole damned population has become dependent on them, is paralyzed without their approval. “Oh, no. We can’t do anything without them.”
from Charles A, Dec 16:
Good morning Dick,
The view here is the the MOA [Minnesota Orchestral Association] and Mr. Henson have encountered a resistance stronger then they anticipated. This resistance might be an immovable force in the form of a musicians union. I have only encountered one published piece that addressed the broad union influence, but I think that it certainly deserves more attention.
I do not think that the MOA truly understood the collective and broad reaching influence of this form of labor organization. In this case, the union is not just a local seeking a contract, but a national and international organization representing artists world-wide.
Because of this lock-out, and until an agreement is reached …
… There will never be a union musician on the Orchestra Hall stage. This “never” includes jazz, Broadway, classical, international soloists and free lance musicians.
… Starting another MOA sponsored orchestra would not be possible should the current ensemble be disbanded. Any young and promising classical musician that would play for such an ensemble would be forever black-listed in a traditional hiring process elsewhere.
As the struggle has continued, this unexpected union presence has brought, and will continue to bring pressure on the MOA, and their ability to meaningfully sustain the newly renovated Orchestra Hall.
It is in this way as audience members that our support of the musicians is a major influence. Selling out their “indie series” concerts is a must!
Thank you for your continued comments and support.
a satirical piece from someone who wishes to go by “a Friend”, Dec 16:
A Satire (probably) (we hope)
BREAKING NEWS:
SOLVING THE ORCHESTRA STAND-OFF!
Today, the Orchestral Association Management and Board responded to concerns of City Hall that they are not fulfilling their obligations to provide cultural programming per promises made when they successfully petitioned for a multi-million dollar bonding bill to renovate the Hall.
After months of locking out the professional Orchestra musicians because unionized labor would not agree to proposed radical artistic changes plus 30% salary cuts, Management announced a contract with a new orchestra. The Alt Kuhschwanz High School Band is eager to begin what will be a short season on January 10th and 11th. This breakthrough will allow music fans to hear the music they love once again! For their inaugural concert, the musicians are preparing a program made up entirely of the works of John Phillip Sousa, the respected American composer.
The Mayor and the City Council of Alt Kuhschwantz, a farming community in the Red River Valley, enthusiastically joined their School Board in supporting the offer to the High School Music Department. In a show of civic pride, the Council committed pay the Band’s school bus expenses for transportation to the Metro area for the entire concert season.
Rumors continue to swirl around the selection of the Alt Kuhschwanz musicians. Some critics wonder why a contract was not offered to one of the larger high schools or community colleges in the Greater Metropolitan Area–perhaps one with a music department large enough to support an orchestra, or perhaps one which had actually won some awards in the recent past.
In response, online social media sites indicate that directors of several orchestras from metropolitan high schools were, in fact, approached about possible contracts. However, deals fell through when directors insisted that they retain artistic control of the programs, rather than leave selection of music to the current Orchestral Association Management. In a Q & A on its website, Management stated, “We’ve already made that mistake with the previous Orchestra. We will design our own concerts to maintain our current audience, and to reach out to younger groups as well. Of course, maintaining artistic integrity is absolutely paramount. It’s the core of our commitment to our community, our patrons, and especially our donors. Our upcoming schedule and reset business model will also assure our return to a positive revenue stream.”
The January concerts will be followed by 4 more performances: February (Music of Rent), March (Miley Cyrus and Friends), April (Prince: A Retrospective), and April (Rap and Hip-Hop: Their Roots in the Baroque Tradition). Concert dates will be announced on New Year’s Day. Barring complications, a full 2014-2015 season is also foreseen.
The Orchestral Association Board has strongly endorsed Management’s solution to the ongoing, sometimes acrimonious impasse. “The money we save on travel, instrument maintenance, full-page newspaper ads of justifications, and soloists will easily allow us to schedule another season, beginning in September,” stated their spokesperson. Management and the Alt Kuhschwantz Band are already soliciting ideas for concert themes.
The Orchestra’s website has information regarding tickets, donating, or suggesting a theme for a 2014-15 concert. Photos & bios of the Alt Kuhschwanz young musicians will be posted soon.
from Maryann G of Save Our Symphony MN, Dec 16:
Thanks Dick. A wonderful, beautiful blog post. We will be posting your blog about the concert on our SOSMN FB page today. Thanks again.
from Andrena G, Dec 16: Wasn’t certain if you knew about this gig tonight.
from David T, Dec 16, re Andrena’s comment, etc: We were at the Dakota last night and the guy who introduced last night’s group was really talking up Peter Kogan. I’ve heard that one of the things that makes the Twin Cities a desirable place for classical musicians in the SPCO, the Minnesota Orchestra as well as other smaller classical ensembles is the opportunities to play other styles of music. Also, there are a lot of commercial opportunities due to the area’s advertising firms.
You just wonder how the whole Minnesota Orchestra thing is going to shake out. Clearly, a big step forward would be for the head of the association to step aside. He’s become the symbol of intransigence. You’d think he’d want to avoid becoming known as the guy who helped kill the orchestra.

Christmas 2013: Thoughts before a Birthday and a Funeral

December 7, 2013/0 Comments/in History, Minnesota, Peace & Justice, War /by dickbernard

A directly related post will be published at this blog on Sunday, December 22.
COMMENTS to this post begin below the photographs.
Acknowledging that there are differing views about the very notion of Christmas, and about Christmas letters such as this, I offer a few thoughts today, December 7, 2013.
Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays, and so on.
Seventy two years ago today, my Uncle Frank Bernard died on board the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. The U. S. entered World War II the next day.
I’ve written often about Frank (just place Frank Bernard in the searchbox at the blog). Here’s one post with many photos of him in Navy days, plus some family history memories.
But today and this season I remember someone else as well.
Yesterday, December 6, 2013, we were driving by Ft. Snelling, and the giant U.S. flag there was flying at half-staff. I wondered why, but not for long. Being honored was Nelson Mandela of South Africa, who had died the previous day at age 95.
Later in the afternoon I happened across a powerful Nelson Mandela/South Africa story, Miracle Rising, on the History Channel. You can watch the two hour program on-line, here. It is a good reminder not only about the rugged road to peace, but also the stark contrast with the alternative path, which is most always the far more deadly path of war.
Uncle Frank was one of the first Americans to die in WWII. By the time WWII was over, two of his cousins, one a soldier from Manitoba, the other a four year old in Manila, died in the midst of combat. In all there were about 50 million casualties worldwide from that single war, over a million of them from the United States, over 400,000 of these deaths from among 16 million Americans who served, as Frank did, in one or the other branch of service.
History always seems to begin at a particular point, selected by the owner of the historical narrative. It might be useful to consider why the Japanese decided to attack the Americans at Pearl Harbor – there is a longer history in play. As there are reasons that Hitler managed to gain enough of a following in Germany to take control and wreak havoc in his dozen years in power. Pearl Harbor didn’t just happen; neither did Hitler.*
There were pre-existing conditions.
This Christmas, 2013, there appears to be an opening for a new way of looking at international relationships, and relationships within our own society. Pope Francis offers a new approach; efforts to find a way to end a long history of animosity between the U.S. and Iran show considerable potential for success if allowed to evolve; a major issue of chemical weapons in Syria seems to have been resolved. Of course, there are bumps in the road everywhere that change is attempted. Change is never easy. But an alternative to war ought to be embraced for our long term good. War only begets the next – and worse – war.
In South Africa, it took more than simply Mandela to bring stability to race relations in a time of change. In 1993, F.W. de Klerk won, along with Nelson Mandela, the Nobel Peace Prize for helping change the direction of South Africa. He needs to be recognized as well. And Desmond Tutu, another giant for peace in South Africa, won the Peace Prize in 1984.
Peace is a process. Let us continue moving forward.
And have a great Holiday season.
* – History is always pre-dated by earlier history. For example, Uncle Frank’s father, my grandfather, was one of the soldiers who went to the Philippines in 1898 to liberate the archipelago from the Spaniards. The Spaniards, by then, had all but surrendered, but the Americans stayed on fighting Filipinos who weren’t pleased with the new occupation by the United States. The Philippines became the U.S. outpost in the Pacific, threatening what Japan considered its sphere of influence. Frank’s uncle Alfred Collette was also in that war, in the same Company, and later came back to Manila about the time of WWI, and became quite successful as a businnessman. It was his daughter, named after my grandmother, who was killed in the liberation of Manila in early 1945.
As for the Germans and Hitler, the humiliation of the Germans by the WWI surrender terms, and the resulting abject poverty of many Germans, made Hitlers ascendancy much more likely.
One war simply begat another.
POSTSCRIPT:
This years message is 37th in an unintended series that began in December, 1977.
In the 1982 message I included this quotation on Risk, which I believe is from Leo Buscaglia:
(click to enlarge)

Leo Buscaglia quotation

in 1982 my personal focus was on the last sentence “only a person who risks is free”; this year, for lots of reasons, I fix on the sentence directly above: “chained by their certitudes they are a slave”….
POSTNOTE TWO, December 9, 2013:
I published this post on Saturday, and made a list of other persons/groups to send it to on Sunday. But Sunday came and went. Something held me back from increasing the circulation of this message about the value of Peace and the inefficacy of War.
But War is a difficult issue to confront; it is so basic to our very meaning as an American, even World, society.
While it kills us in many ways, and is never other than a short-term solution, War seems a preferred option to Peace. Even our vocabulary is war-centered; our national spectacle, professional football, is an orchestrated War celebrating Winners at most any cost. Casualties are a part of the sport.
Mandela preferred the always messy option of Peace (“Reconciliation”, it was called) and while that peace was, and remains, imperfect, it was certainly preferable to the option of indiscriminate killing of enemies within ones own country.
Last night War and Peace came together for me in a most unlikely way.
I was watching CBS TV’s Sixty Minutes – delayed as it usually is by an National Football League game – and both featured segments fit together, for me, like a glove. They are headlined, respectively, “Survivor” and “Mandela”, and they are both worth watching, though it is Survivor that leads to this postnote.
“Survivor” tells the story of one of those celebrated “Seals” whose entire unit was wiped out in 2005 in an engagement with the Taliban in Afghanistan. The sole survivor survived only because of an ordinary Afghani, a villager who chose to save rather than kill or let die the U.S. enemy in his midst. They, the Afghan and the Seal, are, for good reason, good friends today. The Seal lost all of his buddies; the Afghan is targeted by the local Taliban…. The story fit like a glove the “Three Questions” story sent by John B as a comment to this post (see above).
There is an alternative to War, and it is Peace.
Peace will not come through leaders – they are in various ways guided by historical narratives, most all of which emphasize War.
In a real sense we have to be the politicians who are the leaders, recognizing at the same time, the pressures facing them to not change the status quo.
Mandela, for whatever reason, took a big risk – Reconciliation – and we are celebrating that aspect of him this week.
Choose Peace. It is a great choice.
Have a great day.
Marry Christmas.
POSTNOTE: We have been privileged to hear, in person, both Desmond Tutu and F. W. deKlerk. At the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Festival at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, I sat directly behind him and watched his engagement with first graders who were singing at the time. Later Cathy and I were photographed with him.

F.W. deKlerk watches First Graders sing at Augsburg College Nobel Peace Prize Festival March 2, 2012

Dick and Cathy with F.W. deKlerk, and Donna and Lynn Elling, March 2, 2012

COMMENTS:
UPDATE Dec 8, from John B: From LifeTrekCoaching, Provision 837 Three Questions: Three Questions Life Trek
Dec. 8, from Flo H: It wasn’t until this morning that I noted that yesterday was Pearl Harbor Day. I was still focused on Nelson Mandela’s significance in moving S. Africa from apartheid to freedom for all. Wish it also meant that all was now good, but we “invaders” here in the United States still have a long ways to go to treat respectfully, in a spirit of Peace with Justice, the Native Americans who were here before us.
Dec. 8, From Shirley L: I really appreciated your Christmas 2013 blog.
I’m taking the liberty of sending you a copy of the message Cal and I sent out this year.
(click to enlarge)

Message referred to above.

To completely understand it you have to know that the card itself has on the front a large blue Christmas ornament with the word PEACE across it.
The message printed on the inside is simply Joy to the World.
That didn’t seem sufficient…so I added our message on the left side in the card.
It’s a bit off-beat. But I like to get people thinking! and listening!
Best Christmas wishes to you.
from Florence M, Dec. 9: Thank you very much, Dick. Very thoughtful and informative. I am glad I am on your list.
from Lorna M, Dec 9: Thank you so very much for your message. My wishes to you and yours for a Blessed Christmas and New Year.
All the blessings of Christmas to you.
from Emmett M Dec 8, 2013: A very thought provoking message that brought to mind a couple of other
thoughts for you to ponder.
1) – When I saw 1977 [referred to above], it brought to mind that the Voyager spacecrafts were
launched that year. Voyager II was the first to be launched with an
objective to explore the four outer massive planets. Then came the launch
of Voyager I with the objective of reaching interstellar space. I apologize
if I have already sent you the attachment, which is a write-up that I
prepared for my banker who is fascinated by this stuff.
(click to enlarge)

Illustration referenced in above text.

2) – On the subject of Mandela, I am always put off by the hypocrisy that I
see in the world. Obama commented about his high regard for Mandela for
ending apartheid in South Africa, and yet he is one of the world’s greatest
supporters of Israel with its apartheid. Even Netanyahu, the King of
Apartheid, is going to South Africa for the Mandela services.
And on the subject of Israel, I am amazed by the ignorance of the Americans
when they talk about Palestinian peace talks. If they only took an
objective look at American history they could understand that there will
never be peace for the Palestinians. Think about all the peace treaties
that the invaders of America had with the Native Americans, then consider
how few of those treaties with ever honored by the invaders. The Zionist
movement in Israel is focused on continued expansion. I have a write-up on
what I titled “Churchill’s Ugly Monster”, that I will send you if I can
remember where I put it. You pointed out that wars beget wars, and that is
certainly true in the Middle East. Churchill, the worlds biggest scumbag in
the eyes of Roosevelt, is responsible for all the problems that we see in
the Middle East.
I could go on, but I have a higher objective right now. I give generously
to major relief organizations. But now I’m pondering that old question, “Am
I doing the right thing by fighting starvation?”. This might strike you as
odd, but when I did the right-up on the Voyagers, it dawned on me that by
the time Voyager I passes the next star (a sun like ours), 40,000 years will
have past. By that time we will have gone through another Ice Age and the
survivors will probably again be talking about Global Warming. When that
next Ice Age comes along there will be less habitable lands and there will
be massive human deaths do to starvation, wars for control of limited foods
supplies, and due to pandemics through tightly populated societies. To avoid
this, it is imperative that we get our human population back down to 3 to 4
billion. Putting aside natural disasters, providing relief to massive
populations will only result in increased populations and the deaths of our
descendents. And that is also really true in the case of natural disasters.
If people didn’t live in the areas hit by natural disaster, they would not
need relief.
Most of the problems in the world are caused by humanity, and what I am
wresting with today is the composing of a letter to the relief entities that
I support. The message is that humans are irresponsible about managing
their population, mostly due to antiquated religious beliefs and cultures.
So the big question is how to delicately pose the subject of population
control, knowing that many of these relief organizations originate in the
religious communities that foster the huge population growth that the world
is experiencing. They don’t seem to understand that we are but specks on
this puny third rock from the sun, and it has no obligation to us. We are
nothing more than a bunch of parasites that are indiscriminately doing
damage to a health earth. If you have any good thought on this subject, I
would appreciate hearing them.
In the interim, Happy Holidays to you and your family.
from Fred J Dec 11, 2013: Really liked your yearly message. After all these years, you are the first person I’ve met who had a relative on the Arizona.
In keeping with the spirit of reconciliation t[hat] permeates your piece, I present three brief vignettes about the war in the Pacific.
About 15 years ago my wife and I met a US navy lieutenant during a flight to Honolulu. She invited us on a personal tour of the Pearl Harbor naval facilities and lunch at the officers club. Also went out to the Arizona Memorial. It was our second visit but just as sobering as the first. The three of us stood there silently looking at the long list of names. A boat with about 20 Japanese tourists pulled up. They walked to the Memorial and also stood in respectful silence looking at the names. We left first. Though we shared no words with the Japanese, it was evident our feelings were identical.
We visited Okinawa a few years back and took an island tour. It was fascinating to me since I had read about the fighting on and around the island since I was a child. There had been a girls school there during the war and its students, ages about 8 to 18, were impressed/volunteered to serve as nurses when the US forces invaded. Most were killed during the fighting. We met one of the few survivors from the school in a small memorial dedicated to those young students. Class photos of all the girls were posted on the wall. As the battle was ending in April 1945, many of those still alive decided to join the soldiers they were with in committing suicide. Through an interpreter the survivor told her story. She had been stunned by artillery blasts and captured. US medics helped her recover. After all she went through, the survivor went on to live a full life and showed no animosity to the nosy American (me) who talked with her.
Japan has constructed a memorial and museum on its southern-most home island of Kyushu dedicated to the Kamikaze pilots of the Second World War. It is located on the one of the airbases used by the Japanese in their suicidal attacks on units of the US navy. Photos of hundreds of pilots line the wall. They are revered for their service even if museum reps we talked with during our visit say they were misguided. In this case it appears—remember we were just there a couple of hours and perhaps our hosts were just trying to be polite—that the Japanese had to go some major reconciliation with their own national leadership and wartime culture.
Had your uncle survived the bombing and the war, I wonder what he would make of all this.

#810 – Dick Bernard and Paul Miller: Remembering a Memorable Trip to Haiti, December, 2003

December 6, 2013/0 Comments/in Haiti, History, International Relations, Links, Peace & Justice /by dickbernard

(click photos to enlarge)

Map to approximate scale by Dick Bernard; map rendering by Paul Miller.

Backpack, Haiti Dec 2003. 18 Mai is Haiti’s Flag Day, a day of national pride.

Ten years ago, early morning on this date, December 6, 2003 – a Saturday – I waited to board our flight from Minneapolis to Miami and thence on to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. There were six in our party, led by Paul Miller of Woodbury: Jeanne Morales, Andy Fisher, Jeff and Rita Nohner, and myself. Except for Paul, none of us had ever been to Haiti, a mysterious place to me.
Eight days later we returned: a life experience which forever changed me, for the better.
Late 2003 was a time of national pride but also great political turmoil in Haiti. Within three months, February 29, 2004, the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had been overthrown by a U.S. backed and (very likely) orchestrated coup d’etat. We travelers apparently associated with the wrong friends (all very decent people, supporters of the Aristide administration, all doing very good things for ordinary people in Haiti.) I recall no personal times of tension, though we traveled freely to many places in Port-au-Prince. But by my count, one person we met was murdered outside the Presidential Palace two days after we met him; two persons we met ended up arrested before the coup (one of these “killed” by character assassination); at least two others went into exile at the time of the overthrow; another was killed by poisoning about a year later.
There was plenty of violence around and about in the land. In the manner of political narratives in media-rich countries like our own, the violence was falsely attached to President Aristide loyalists. “On the ground” in Haiti, it seemed to be the other way around: a legitimate government itself was under attack.
I wrote about our journey a few weeks after I returned. The writing remains on the internet here. Subsequently, I wrote about the coup d’etat, and about other things relating to Haiti, including a powerful 2006 visit to the interior of the country. Those links can be found at an outdated but nonetheless pertinent site here.
In 2008 came the summer of four hurricanes hitting Haiti broadside; and, of course, the horrific January 12, 2010, earthquake. Times have not been easy for Haiti.

Haiti’s future at Sopudep School ten years ago, Dec. 2003

Rea Dol (at right) talks about Sopudep School

Paul Miller, our group organizer and leader, to whom I will always be grateful for the opportunity to visit Haiti then, and later, offered his recollections on December 4, 2013: “As anniversaries go, this one is daunting. Ten years ago I led a group of conscientious US citizens to Haiti to see first hand the conditions that existed there. It was my 7th trip to Haiti. It was my most significant trip because we met with people directly engaged in Haiti’s struggle to have a voice in its political affairs amid very real threats to their lives. Having the right to determine your own political leadership is not a lot to ask for but it wasn’t to be. Three months after our visit, Haiti’s fledgling democracy had been usurped, again, by the country that claims to be the leading defender of freedom worldwide. It was shocking to be told on the morning of February 29, 2004 by my friend Dick Bernard, that President Aristide had left Haiti. As events go, this one is right up there for me. I remember where and when I was told, just like I remember where I was when JFK was shot in 1963 and where I was when the earthquake struck Haiti in 2010.
It’s impossible to believe in the good intentions of your government when you understand what they have done, in our names, to the least of us, our brothers and sisters in Haiti. The coup that reportedly caused thousands of deaths didn’t feature the nifty slogan that came with the USAID tents after the 2010 earthquake that stated that it was a gift from the American people. This “gift” from the American people didn’t get advertised, you had to choose to see the truth. It’s a choice most of us don’t like to make because we want to think of ourselves as a voice for the voiceless. It’s a noble illusion that most of us hold on to despite the mountains of evidence that suggests otherwise. As our friend, Father Gerard Jean-Juste, said about our government during his impassioned homily during our visit to mass in 2003, “they help the killers, they don’t help the healers”.”
As time went on, a slogan “start seeing Haiti” took on real meaning for me, and doubtless for the others as well.
Today I maintain a listserv for passing along occasional items about Haiti.
Paul Miller, who now lives in Northfield MN, remains, with his daughter Natalie, very active in Haiti Justice activities. His website is here.

Hillside homes above Petionville. This area was among those devastated in the 2010 earthquake. Particularly note homes of the elite, on the top of the ridge.

POSTNOTE: thoughts in a letter written by myself some hours after the above was posted.
“There are endless memories. It was a gentle experience. The people we met were marvelous, including the poor. But it was a time of intense political turmoil. Th U.S., with support of Canada and France, was determined to get rid of the democratically elected President Aristide and ultimately they succeeded three months later. In a sense, I lived behind the sound bites that passed for “information” in the States. It was not a routine trip – perhaps a little bit like wanderng around in Benghazi, or Damascus, or Cairo today – except the enemy was our own government, determined that Aristide had to go, and bankrolling his opposition who in turn paid people to organize demonstrations or kill people, etc.
But, honestly, never did I feel the slightest personal tension.
I do remember the last afternoon and evening in Port-au-Prince.
I was resting and fell asleep at our residence, awakening with a start to a lot of yelling nearby which sounded ominous.
Turned out that next door to our residence was a soccer field, and the players were arguing about a disputed call. That was it, an argument on a soccer field.
So, life went on. The last day we had to dodge an occasional burning tire in the street. The last night we stayed in the Hotel Oloffson made famous by novelist Graham Greene in The Comedians and spent a couple of hours listening to a well known Haitian band, RAM. The next morning we went to the airport and headed home. In Miami, the Miami Herald headlined the instability in the Haiti we had just left.
I could go on and on. We had experienced the Ugly American policy first hand, and the story would continue….”

#809 – Dick Bernard: The 1940 Census. An Advent Opportunity for Dialogue About Government and People Like Us and Relationships, generally.

December 1, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, Economics, History, Labor, North Dakota, Peace & Justice, War /by dickbernard

UPDATE NOV. 3. NOTE COMMENT FOLLOWING THE POST
Today is Advent for many Christian churches of the western tradition. Some would call it the beginning of the Christmas season culminating with Christmas Day, recalling the birth of Jesus.
At Midnight Mass, December 25, Luke 1:14 will be the Gospel reading. Here is the first part of the text, from my Uncle’s 1941 Bible:
(click to enlarge)

St. Luke, beginning of Chapter 2, from “The New Testament” St. Anthony Guild Press, 1941

This is one of the very few times that a “census” is mentioned in the Bible, accompanying the final days of Mary’s pregnancy and the birth of her son, Jesus.
*
A Thanksgiving note from someone I know very well caused me to look back at the 1940 census of a tiny North Dakota town in which we lived for nine years in the 1940s and 1950s. I had printed out the census some months ago just to see who lived there, then.
This time, a sentence in the note caused me to look at this census in more detail. “It’s great to have been raised in the rural upper midwest in a nuclear family of modest means but rich in an extended family, deep faith and devoted to getting up in the morning and going to work during a time when if you didn’t work you didn’t eat.”
This is an example of the “good old days” narrative I often see in those “forwards” of one kind or another: life was so good, then. There is room for a great deal of dialogue within that single sentence.
Reality was much more complicated.
1940 in the United States came at the end of the Great Depression, and before Pearl Harbor forced our entrance into World War II a year later. It was a time between, which people born from about 1930 forward experienced in full, from the disastrous Depression to victory in War (with over 1,000,000 American casualties, over 400,000 of these deaths; 50,000,000 World casualties overall).
Before the Depression came the disastrous World War I, and the following false prosperity of the Roaring 20s; after WWII came the Baby Boom beginning 1946. The first “Baby Boomer” turned 65 in 2011.
In 1940, Social Security was a baby. The Act passed in 1935; the first Social Security check was issued to an American in 1940.
I was born a month after the census taker knocked on my parents door in April 1940, so I personally experienced the time and the values through the experiences of my family and extended family. But I didn’t take time, until now, to get a little better view of who we were, back then.
I think the little North Dakota town I spotlight in 1940 was really a pretty typical slice of the U.S. population, then. Here it is:
272 was the population of the town
There were:
78 households
39 residents had the occupation “housewife”, a very hard job.
113 were employed in “industries” including:
23 in assorted kinds of government sponsored and paid relief as:
14 in WPA*, and 4 more in WPA related NYA*
4 employed in CCC*
1 employed in AAA*
3 were U.S. postal workers (federal government).
9 were employed by the local public school
6 were listed in the separate and distinct enclave of the Catholic Priest and Nuns and Housekeeper. For some reason, the census taker felt a need to separate this group from the remainder of the town population! It was as if these six were part of a separate town within the town.
100 of the people of the town – more than a third – had not been born in the state of North Dakota. Of the population, 26 had been born in 11 different foreign countries; 74 had been born in 16 different states.
And, not to forget, most of the population were children unable to fend for themselves.
If you’re counting, about a third of the working age population was in government employment in 1940.
One of five were on some kind of Federal Relief work projects. Much evidence of these projects still survives everywhere in our country.
The federal involvement in the towns welfare (in a real sense) was essential to the towns survival and the countries recovery from Depression. Of course, even then, some, including relatives of mine, disliked these programs as make-work for “loafers” (as one relative described them); and some detested FDR – it was as it was, then.
And now.
The debate rages similarly today, I suppose.
Looking back, I would say that the biggest difference between then and now was that in 1940 in small towns and neighborhoods everywhere, people were forced to have a greater sense of community. There was not much choice about being isolated. You lived with who was there, unlike todays increasingly fragmented world where we think we can live in our little pods and avoid responsibility for others, or escape some how or other bad times.
So be it.
It is something to consider, and talk about, this Advent season.

Remants of a 1934 CCC tree planting project in rural North Dakota, photo Sep 2013

*
There are numerous links to talk more about any of these projects.
WPA – Works Progress (later Projects) Administration, established 1935
NYA – National Youth Administration, established 1935, within WPA
CCC – Civilian Conservation Corps, established 1933
AAA – Agricultural Adjustment Administration, established 1933, helped farmers survive the Depression
COMMENT from Rick B, Dec 2: Interesting Read….But, I think one of the key components that Dick misses is he only focuses on the “town” residents relative to the region “residents”. Small towns were the hub for all the rural local farmers which numbers where significant relative to the “town” residents. It certainly was the case during the 1960’s and sure it was the case in the 1940’s.
In the small town school I attended, farm kids outnumbered town kids 2/1.
Our town was around 300 population.
Hence, if you break down the demography of a small rural town community, it should be the entire community. Government and social worker percentage was not what Dick portrays.
RESPONSE from Dick Dec 3: Of course, ’tis true what you say. I could have printed out the census for the surrounding rural townships, but enough was enough for this post!
I was small town North Dakotan for my first 21 years, then came back and taught one year in small town ND, and I’m often back and forth…including a not so simple day of driving yesterday from LaMoure to suburban St. Paul. In fact, in this little town (and all the others we lived in) my Dad was Superintendent of Schools, and often my mother taught elementary as well.
I try to keep my posts within somewhat manageable length, and shorthand always leaves something to be desired.
I got close to expanding on the single Agricultural Adjustment Act person who, of course, impacted on probably all of the local farmers in a positive way. And I thought about bringing in the County Seat of the town which was also an important part of the network bringing the feds to the locals. As was the state, assorted agencies, etc.
My most important point, personally, was to remind readers of the “good old days” school of thought that back-in-the-day lots and lots of common folk depended on programs such as I described during the Depression and War years . The tragic and difficult times seem ‘edited’ out in “good old days” narratives.
In addition, this little town had (in relative terms) a large Catholic school which, as noted in the blog, seemed to puzzle the census taker, and was set apart as something of a town unto its own self. I went to that particular Catholic school for my first five years. (One other year, in another town, I also went to Catholic School, and five of the other years had either my Mom or Dad as one of the public school teachers. So, I sometimes note, I’m a product of Home and Parochial schools.)
Relationships in little towns could be very complicated, indeed, but in the end, usually, if someone experienced a crisis, most would chip in to help.
It was an interesting exercise to look through those eight pages of census data for Sykeston!
POSTNOTE:
After writing the above, I happened across a fascinating television program about those olden days. It’s Jerry Apps Farm Story, and you can watch it on-line here. In my case, I saw it as part of a fundraiser for Minnesota Public Television. It was very interesting.
As I watched the storyteller remember his life on the farm, in context with my own life, and what I had just written, I came to think that these times, particularly the days of horse farming and World War II, were immensely difficult. Some would say they built “character”, but I doubt that even those hardy folks, the now elderly survivors, would recommend them to any one today, nor would many today accept those conditions for themselves. It is todays “illegals” and foreign sweat shop workers who bear the brunt of the backbreaking work and the risk so common in the “good old days”.
There is a pretty profound disconnect, I’d contend, in those who argue the “good old days”, but wouldn’t want to live in those same good old days again….
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Then, a little later the same evening came a marvelous video about “Worn Wear”, well worth the 28 minutes watching time. The friend who sent it on, Shirley from Chicago area, included this note:
“Dear Friends and kindred spirits alike….
I can’t recommend this video enough! It is impressive on so many levels. Please take the time to watch it.
I hope you are able to find a few moments to watch this profound mission statement from a most reliable enterprise, Patagonia.
For all of us who try to reduce, re-purpose, patch and move towards leaving LESS of a footprint on the planet, I am asking you to pause and reflect. How many of us actually look at a used article of clothing and think about the stories behind the stuff we wear?
To quote just one gentleman in this video: Well worn clothing is like a journal.
Let us take the time to think about creating a simpler life as we embark upon the season of consumption and gift giving.
Watch WORN WEAR. As soon as you can.”
(I wrote Shirley back: my favorite winter coat is now over 30 years old. People who know me will attest…!)