#853 – Dick Bernard: An Opportunity to Talk With (not At, or Down to) Public Education, past, present, future

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This morning, while waiting for my car to be serviced, I noted the Business Section of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Leafing through it I came across an article by Chuck Slocum, about two personages involved in Public Education policy in Minnesota in the early 1980s. The article is headlined: Minnesota Education Duo: 3M CEO Lew Lehr and [then Minnesota Governor] Rudy Perpich.
Back home, my wife, a retired 3Mer, noted the article, and I said I’d already read it. “Interesting article”, she said.
Indeed. Interesting.
I know Mr. Slocum, not as well as I’d like to, and he’ll be specifically noticed by myself when I publish this blog, as will all of the people I can identify within public education, including the “education establishment” and retired, not only in Minnesota.
My career was in MN public education – primarily as teacher union staff (MEA, now Education Minnesota).
Mr. Slocum references a 1984 Study by the Minnesota Business Partnership (MBP): “Educating Students for the 21st Century”. My file copy of this now near-30 year old report can be read in its entirety here: MBP 1984 Education001 (Here is one page that I missed making the aforementioned pdf: MBP 1984 58 businesses002)
I first heard reference to this Study at a meeting of MEA Staff about November of 1984, and was last involved with it in about August of 1985.
In 2005 I dusted off the report, sent copies of it to the Minnesota Public Education establishment of the time, and urged them, as I am again urging them, and MBP et al, “that this might be an excellent opportunity to review the [now 30] years since the MBP report, and perhaps even get into dialogue about what happened, and didn’t happen, and why.“ (There were lots of dreams, and my suggestion was to look at the reality of what happened in the intervening years.)
From 1984 to today, and indeed before 1984, it has been my observation that the establishment, in this case, Big Business, and Public Education leaders, are better at declarations and positioning than dialogue, and as a result, fences go up, rather than walls come down about how best to do public education which is, after all, about children and their future in our society.
A little personal history:
Back in 1984, as Mr. Slocum might similarly recall, the process went like this, for me.
We learned about this report at a Union staff meeting. It had been published, and we were immediately put into a reactive mode against it.
I personally challenged our knee-jerk reaction at the union staff meeting in question, and afterwards called the Business Partnership and asked if I could have 50 copies of the report to take home to my Iron Range locals.
The answer was yes, and I recall going to the MBP office in the IDS Center in downtown Minneapolis to pick up the box of reports. Mr. Slocum came out of his office; I took the reports home, and gave them to my teacher leaders, who were far less than pleased with the indictment they felt against their work with students. Over the coming months there were some tiny and unsuccessful attempts at dialogue, including at the then-MEA Summer Leadership Conference in the summer of 1985.
But these attempts were perfunctory.
You don’t do dialogue past monologues, unilateral declarations, or fighting issues in the newspaper.
As stated, 20 years later, I tried again to encourage dialogue. I didn’t hear a thing from anybody.
Most recently, four years ago, by accident, I happened across an MBP official at a meeting. He and I had tried to facilitate a conversation about the MBP Report at a teacher meeting back in 1985. I was glad he came to the gathering at a Minneapolis hotel; but it wasn’t the time for a civil conversation. The bitterness of the teachers was too close to the surface.
It happened that in the 2010 conversation, conversation quickly turned to the latest clearly business centered initiative, to get rid of “bad” teachers, and essentially gut seniority and disempower unions. There was a petition going around….
The beat continues.
Mr. Slocum, in a conversation in recent years, said he and MBP were “proud” of what they did in 1984. And perhaps the pride was justified.
But it all fell apart because it was a talking down to, rather than dialoguing with, the institution they were criticizing.
Maybe they’re still proud.
I hope the folks talk….
A SNIPPET FROM THE PRESENT:
We have eight grandkids in Minnesota public schools.
Not long ago one of them, a 9th grade boy, said he couldn’t read handwriting.
This led to a realization that kids weren’t taught cursive handwriting any more. This puzzled me. I still handwrite letters I think are most “important”.
Very recently I was visiting with a middle school administrator who affirmed that they don’t teach much handwriting any more. The reasons given: computer keyboards are the way to communicate, but even more important, the dominance of testing, which makes subjects like handwriting a frill.
This troubles me….

#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”.

#850 – Ed Ehlinger: It’s the Little Things that Count

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Every now and then a true gold nugget appears in my in-box, and this evening was one such nugget, from Dr. Ed Ehlinger, Commissioner, Minnesota Department of Health. His commentary is presented here with his permission. Wonderful Sharer of Story Anne Dunn, to whom he refers in his writing, is a long-time good friend of mine, and she has posted on several occasions at this blog. You can access her posts here.
Dr. Ehlinger, shared Feb. 23, 2014:
Greetings,
“I will tell you something about stories . . . They aren’t just entertainment. Don’t be fooled. They are all we have, you see, all we have to fight off illness and death.”
Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony
I was worrying about all of the big things that were facing me in the upcoming day when I left home on a recent sub-zero, cloudy, and dreary February morning. It was one of those days that prods one to question the reasons for living in Minnesota. To make matters worse, I was now stuck in a traffic jam on Interstate 94 where it crosses Hiawatha Avenue. Most of the gray exhaust rising from each of the cars idling on this highway turned parking lot was creating an environment that was not quite pea soup but more like dirty dishwater left in the sink overnight. The remainder of the exhaust was freezing on the pavement creating a black ice that made whatever movement there was hazardous and stressful.
The longer I was trapped in this traffic jam the more irritable I became. It was dawning on me that I was going to be spending a large chunk of time in my car in one of the gloomiest parts of town on one of the gloomiest days of the year. The irony of the presence of such ugliness as I sat stranded over a street named after a famous American Indian, whose name evokes images of nature’s beauty, was not lost on me and made my frustration even more intense.
That thought, however, momentarily took my mind away from I94 and Hiawatha Avenue and transported it to a storytelling session that I had attended over twenty years ago. Despite the fact that it had occurred so long ago, I could vividly recall the setting – a small cottage nestled in a small clump of trees in the middle of a preserved patch of prairie just south of the Twin Cities. The cottage was decorated with hand-crafted furniture, fabrics, and art. It was a magical place that gently coaxed stories out of people. It was the antithesis of I94 on this gloomy morning.
One of the storytellers made a particularly vivid impression on me. Her name was Anne Dunn, an Ojibwe woman from Cass Lake, MN. She had made the trip to the Twin Cities solely for the storytelling session. She knew it didn’t make any sense for her to come all that way just to tell a story or two but she had a feeling that she had to be there – so she was.
Her story was about a young man who had gone on a Vision Quest. Just before he departed, an elder approached him and advised him that over the next three days he should pay attention to the little things around him because they might hold something special. The young man said that he would and then departed with hopes of having a great vision that would give him some purpose and direction in his life.
When the young man reached the top of the hill that he had chosen for his quest, he set up his camp and began the fasting and prayer that he hoped would lead to his vision.
For three days he waited. No dreams came while he slept. He looked for signs from eagles, wolves, bears, or deer but nothing appeared. He gazed at the sky looking for clouds or thunder and lightning but nothing was visible to him. He looked at the trees and the rocks and the hills but he saw nothing but the landscape. He prayed, and even begged, for a sign but nothing came that he could recognize. Finally, exhausted and in despair he gave up his quest and headed back to his people.
Upon entering the village the young man was met by the elder who had talked with him before he left. The elder asked about the Vision Quest. The young man dejectedly replied that it was a failure; nothing had happened. He felt depressed and cheated.
The elder asked him about the bird. The young man replied that there were no birds.
The elder asked him again about the bird. The young man again replied but this time with some impatience in his voice that there were no birds. He had looked diligently for three days for signs of eagles, hawks, loons, or even owls but none had appeared.
For the third time the elder asked him about the bird. By this time the young man was beside himself. He screamed that there were no birds, that the place was barren, and that his whole Vision Quest was a waste of time.
The elder quietly asked “what about the bluebird?”
“O, that pesky little thing,” the young man replied. “He kept bothering me. I tried to chase it away but it kept coming back. After a while I just had to ignore it because it was interfering with my Vision Quest.”
As he was talking, the young man suddenly remembered the words of the elder before he had left on the Vision Quest -”pay attention to the little things.” With great despair he realized that he had disregarded this advice. The bluebird was trying to tell him something but he didn’t pay attention because he was looking for something more dramatic and spectacular than the appearance of a lowly little bluebird.
The young man went away and cried with the realization that he had wasted a golden opportunity.
Just then, I was jolted back to the present by a horn sounding behind me. The traffic had begun to move and, for the person behind me, I had been too slow to respond. I slowly pushed down on the accelerator and caught up with the flow of traffic. The cars were now moving but the murkiness and glumness of the surrounding city-scape remained. My mind went back to the advice of the elder in the story – “Pay attention to the little things around you. They may hold something special for you.”
At that moment I looked up through the dirty gray air toward the sun that was slowly rising directly ahead of me. Around the sun a glorious rainbow had appeared and was forming an arch over the road. The rainbow was created by the exhaust and polluted air which moments before I had been cursing.
I began to smile as I noticed that the most vibrant color of the rainbow was blue – a blue that matched the hue of a bluebird’s wing. At that point I knew that I was one of the reasons Anne Dunn came to the Twin Cities. I needed her story even though it took 2 decades to understand that. To paraphrase Leslie Marmon Silko, I needed her story to fight off the frustration and stress that was not leading to health. Her story also assured me that the big things in my day would take care of themselves if I stopped worrying and simply paid attention to the little things all around me.
It turned out to be a great day.
The 2014 legislative session starts this week. That’s a big thing. While we deal with that, let’s be sure to pay attention to the bluebird on our shoulder.

#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.

#839 – Dick Bernard: The First Day of Spring! "Jeans and Plaid"

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For more years than I can remember, February 1 has always been my unofficial first day of spring. Yes, I know: Punxsutawney Phil (and Grafton Pete) have not yet even predicted the end of Winter, but no matter. After January leaves the territory, while there will be bad weather ahead, it doesn’t last as long and is never quite as bitterly cold.
February began with another funeral, this time for my wife’s long-time friend, “Cliff the Barber“, who died a few days ago from cancer.
It was the longest funeral service I’ve ever attended, but also one of the most festive and meaning-filled. The church was packed to standing room, and forever the theme of this funeral will be remembered: people, men, women and children, were asked to wear plaid & jeans, and they came through. The church was packed with plaid and jeans. And in the midst of sorrow, much joy. Cliff was a very special person.
(click to enlarge)

Before the service Feb. 1, 2014

Before the service Feb. 1, 2014


Everybody brings their own story to life’s table, and Cliff was no different. He was an ordinary guy who lived near his entire life in the east St. Paul neighborhood. He was one of those single chair barbers working for many years in his small shop at the corner of McKnight and Minnehaha just north of 3M.
“Pretentious” would not describe Cliff.
He was also a pretty fair neighborhood musician, for many years a staple with his guitar at Sunday services. The slide on the screen for much of the service was his guitar leaning against a wall.
Cliff's guitar, Feb. 1, 2014

Cliff’s guitar, Feb. 1, 2014


During the service and at the end, a pretty good bunch of musicians, “Blue Grass Friends” brought both music and joy to the memorial.
Blue Grass Friends, Feb 1, 2014

Blue Grass Friends, Feb 1, 2014


In a sense, this week, the end of my winter, and the beginning of my spring, has been full of music.
On Monday, legend Pete Seeger passed away.
Just yesterday, local legend Larry Long wrote a tribute in the Minneapolis Star Tribune to Pete Seeger.
In part Long said this about Seeger: “He carried the memories of the people in the songs he wrote, the songs he sang, the stories he told and the decisions he made daily to stand for justice from wherever he stood.”
I think that there was no real difference between Seeger and Gebhard and Long. In their individual and unique ways they brightened (and brighten) the world around them.
Service over, we joined the long line to get Brats and Kraut and Beans in honor of an ordinary man, and in honor, in effect, of us all.
At the back of the room, difficult to hear above the chatter, was a blue grass jam session a-going.
At Cliff's lunch....

At Cliff’s lunch….


Welcome to Spring!
Cliff's former barber shop at northwest corner of McKnight and Minnehaha, St. Paul MN. It's now owned by the beauty salon next door. Note sign in the window.

Cliff’s former barber shop at northwest corner of McKnight and Minnehaha, St. Paul MN. It’s now owned by the beauty salon next door. Note sign in the window.


Directly related to Cliff and family: here

#838 – Dick Bernard: Poverty. Seeing Reality, and Consequences of Ignoring that Reality.

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The below, above the postnote, was written Tuesday, January 28, before the Presidents State of the Union.
The public relations battle around the State of the Union of the U.S., by far the richest country on earth*, will likely be around, in one way or another, America’s middle class, the haves and the have nots, the wealthy and the super-wealthy and the 99%…. The 1% always seem to seize what they consider the high ground. Where are the 99%, and why? That’s for side discussions.
1. Sunday, we took our 9th grade grandson over to Basilica of St. Mary to help with the preparation of the Undercroft (fancy word for Church Basement) for a program called Families Moving Forward, a partnership of a number of Churches who offer their facilities for a week to give overnight housing to temporarily homeless families. This particular week, there are four families who have taken up residence there, one with four children. These are families where someone is working for pay somewhere. At least one of the families has been told, since September, that they have an apartment, but the apartment owner keeps delaying their move-in, now five months later**.
It’s the “other side of town”, literally, from us. We’ve worked on occasion with this program. Our grandson was along because one of his class assignments was to volunteer for at least six hours at something. Sunday afternoon was a part of those six hours, setting up the undercroft.
(click on all photos to enlarge)

Tubs of sheets, pillows, et al, ready for set up. They're kept at the Church for use every few weeks. Volunteers do laundry at end of the week.

Tubs of sheets, pillows, et al, ready for set up. They’re kept at the Church for use every few weeks. Volunteers do laundry at end of the week.


A two bed room, probably for Mom and child. Note the privacy walls.

A two bed room, probably for Mom and child. Note the privacy walls.


The "doorway" to the room

The “doorway” to the room


Even knowing the reality these families are living this week, and some have for many weeks, and even actually being there, setting up those rooms, the exercise is still an abstract one difficult for me to fully comprehend.
Even in the worst times – and I’ve had some – I’ve never been “homeless”. And now I’m fairly ordinary retired “Middle Class” and definitely not “poor”, though I had a couple of very close brushes with that state in my adult life.
A couple of hours after arriving, we left the Undercroft for a windy, chilly, Minneapolis. A number of homeless folks, adults, were in the entrance to the Basilica, warming up before going back out on the street. They’re likely out on the street today as well. I’m in comfy circumstances here at home writing about them, all of whom will be functionally “homeless” tonight in below zero weather.
2. Ten years ago, December, 2003, I was in Haiti for the first time. Haiti, then and now, is among the poorest countries on earth, less than two hours east of Miami, Florida.
One evening, our driver invited us to his home on a hillside overlooking prosperous Petion-ville. I took the below photo from the roof of his small cement block house on the side of the hill. His wife and young child were delightful hosts. The hill neighborhood was, I would guess, reasonably middle class by Haiti standards. I don’t know how his place fared in the earthquake in January, 2010. I do know the family survived.
Hillside homes above Petion-Ville (above Port-au-Prince) Haiti December, 2003. Taken from the roof of one of the concrete block homes by Dick Bernard

Hillside homes above Petion-Ville (above Port-au-Prince) Haiti December, 2003. Taken from the roof of one of the concrete block homes by Dick Bernard


When I took the picture, my focus was on the neighborhood around our hosts house.
Today, I’m focused on the houses you can see at the very top of the hill, separated by walls and fences from those below. Your computer may allow you to zoom in on them.
Haiti has fabulously rich people too: they move comfortably between the U.S. and France and other places and back to Haiti. They’ve made their wealth in various legal ways, and they still make the rules. Haiti in that regard is not much different than the ideal United States as envisioned by the advocates for the worthy wealthy.
The very rich live within, but harshly separate from, the very poor nearby.
3. There is seldom attention to the downside of a huge gap between rich and poor. Sooner or later, as in Haiti, the rich become prisoners with in their own country, living behind walls with their own armed guards to remove any suggestion of the rabble invading. They cannot truly live free. I’ve seen the same in another third world country.
There are a lot of other consequences like, the poor cannot afford to buy the stuff that adds to the riches of the rich…. Poverty has consequences even for the rich.
It’s not a healthy state, and we’re moving in this direction, perhaps more quickly than we’d like to imagine.
We need some perspective, soon, and serious attention to closing this gap.
Polls now show that I’m not alone in my concern. Americans don’t mind wealth. They do mind an ever more greedy approach to personal wealth and power. We’ll see in November if they act on their attitudes.
* The United States as a country has 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s wealth. Haiti, referred to in #3, below, has .142% of the world’s population, and .008% of the world’s wealth. (Data from Appendix 1 of Transforming the United Nations System by Dr. Joseph Schwartzberg, United Nations University Press, 2013, comparing Population and Gross National Income)
** Some years ago at the same Basilica Families Moving Forward, four of the guests were a family of four, husband, wife and two teenage daughters. The drama of the evening was the husband being criticized for causing the family to lose the chance at an apartment, where they failed to make an appointment. Listening to this, it turned out that the husband had two jobs and one car, and the apartment was difficult to reach, and they lost their chance at housing….

POSTNOTES Thursday, January 30:
This mornings Just Above Sunset, always very long, gives a most interesting perspective on the general issue of rich and poor. If you wish, here.
Tuesday afternoon, we took our grandson and his Mom to “Twelve Years a Slave“, the powerful film about a free Negro from Saratoga NY who was sold into slavery into 1841, was a slave until 1853, and lived to write and speak about the terrible experience.
It is not a comfortable film. Nonetheless, I strongly recommend it. Ryan, our grandson, who asked to go to it in the first place, pronounced it good as well.
For me, watching, the film made lots of connections already known, more clear. Plantation owners felt no shame whatsoever in their entitlement. They drew their support from the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament), the good old days, when Masters were men and women were subordinate and slaves were slaves, property.
We were born as a slave nation over 200 years ago, and we’re far from over it today.
But neither are we going back to where we were.
My class, “old white men” tend to vote to go back to the “good old days” – last presidential election I recall President Obama lost to Mitt Romney in this class getting only 40% of their vote.
But they didn’t prevail. And their numbers will continue to decrease, at an increasing rate.
This doesn’t prevent some of them to continue to be very bitter. I get some of the “forwards”, and even some personal invective once in awhile.
But the “times, they are a’changin’ ”

#836 – Dick Bernard: A Community Meeting

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Tonight President Obama presents his State of the Union message to Congress. I will watch it. Here’s a preview.
Sunday night my favorite blogger, a retired guy in Los Angeles, Alan, succinctly described the history of the State of the Union in the first few paragraphs of his six-days-a-week blog, Just Above Sunset. You can read that here.
A week from tonight, Tuesday, Feb. 4, here in Minnesota, is a far more important meeting in every community, the Precinct Caucuses. I urge you to attend yours. I wrote about this last week, here. Most every state, I reckon, has something similar, albeit called something else or at different times.
Do attend yours. It is at these meetings that citizens begin the future, for good or ill, through becoming political party delegates, passing resolutions, etc.
In between the caucus and the State of the Union comes the very difficult job of managing our complex society, through numerous democratically selected entities: legislatures, school boards, city councils, etc….
Three days ago, I attended a meeting in suburban Oakdale, where four local legislators, Senators Kent and Wiger and Representatives Ward and Lillie met with interested constituents to report on what they were doing. About 40 of us answered the invitation and attended.
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Rep JoAnn Ward addresses a question at the Community gathering Jan. 25, 2014

Rep JoAnn Ward addresses a question at the Community gathering Jan. 25, 2014


from left: Rep. JoAnn Ward and Sen. Susan Kent, Minnesota Senate Dist (SD) 53; Rep. Leon Lillie and Sen. Chuck Wiger, SD 43 Jan 25, 2014

from left: Rep. JoAnn Ward and Sen. Susan Kent, Minnesota Senate Dist (SD) 53; Rep. Leon Lillie and Sen. Chuck Wiger, SD 43 Jan 25, 2014


These meetings happen periodically everywhere. I found out about this one through being on an constituent e-contact list for my state Representative.
At this 1 1/2 hour meeting, we were invited to submit questions in writing to which any or all of the legislators could respond. You didn’t even have to listen carefully to discern that administrating an entity, in this case a state with over 5 million citizens, is not easy, though the tendency in our media saturated society is to describe problems and solutions in sound-bite certainty.
Not so.
As I remember, here are the issues brought up, briefly, on Saturday. And this was just in 1 12 hours. Just this list gives an idea of the multitude of issues “on the table” at our state legislature:
1. A proposed re-purpose of a Benedictine Nun facility in Maplewood for use as housing for women transitioning from desperate situations. This Tubman Center project is a major proposal before the 2014 legislature and is in our area. As described in one source I read: “Transitional housing is supportive housing that helps fight the homeless problem in todays society. Transitional housing is generally for a limited time period. Stays can be from two weeks to twenty four months. Transitional housing provides people with help after a crisis such as homelessness or domestic violence.”
2. The crucial issue of early literacy education for youngsters.
3. A need to increase the Minimum Wage.
4. Discussion of the recent roll-out problems of MnSure.
5. The always-issue of Transit, with discussion of the Gateway Corridor Study. Our District is between Wisconsin and St. Paul, and I-94 runs through it, so this is a crucial issue in this area, with lots of ideas of how best to address the need. This issue is a good example of the need/requirement for cooperation between government entities at all level, from the local to the national government. In a complex society, we cannot be free agents, though some would like this “freedom” to be so.
6. Partnership and assistance with a new Research and Development facility or 3M, whose corporate headquarters is in our legislative district.
7. The Bullying Bill. This is a column in itself, and Sen. Wiger, a legislator for 19 years, and before that a school board member, was particularly passionate: “there will be a bullying bill”, I recall him saying. The present law is only 37 words and badly needs redefining in many ways. Bullying is destructive behavior, and while it adversely affects only 2% of students, nonetheless that is a huge and unacceptable number. I wrote about this issue in June, 2012 for the Journal of the Minnesota School Boards Association (MSBA). If interested, here it is: Bullied MSBA Journal001.
8. Making legislators aware of concerns about the Minnesota Orchestra 488 day long Lockout which ends Feb. 1.
9. Exempting retired military pay from State Taxes
10. Labeling of Genetically Modified products.
11. Judicial Retention election procedures
12. Changing the Electoral College
13. The 5% Campaign related to disabled persons.
14. Addressing the problem of insurance coverage for persons with chronic Lyme Disease. Some people don’t just get over Lyme Disease, but insurance limits are sometimes a problem.
In addition, there were several strictly local issues: sidewalks in Maplewood; redevelopment at Tanners Lake and the old Oakdale Mall, etc., etc.
All of this in an hour and a half….
Get on your legislators communications list, thank them, help in whatever ways you can.
They are, like their colleagues at other levels of government, representing all of our interests as a society.

#834 – Dick Bernard: The March 1 & 7-9, 2014 Nobel Peace Prize Forum, Augsburg College, Minneapolis MN "Crossing Boundaries to Create Common Ground"

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Tawakkol Karman, Yemen, co-recipient of 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, speaks at conclusion of 2013 Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College.

Tawakkol Karman, Yemen, co-recipient of 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, speaks at conclusion of 2013 Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College.


This year is the 26th annual Nobel Peace Prize Forum, now permanently sited at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. Link to enroll, and all of the promotional material for the Forum can be viewed here*. (This years Forum is sited at three different venues: Augsburg, the University of Minnesota, and the Minneapolis Convention Center (March 1, Dalai Lama),. The place of each event is noted within the program. Augsburg and UofM facilities are just a short walk apart.)
This morning, along with 15 others from the long-standing group, People of Faith Peacemakers (POFP), I was privileged to hear Forum Director Maureen Reed take us through this years Forum agenda, which includes four Nobel Peace Prize Laureates who will be in attendance. Together we spent a rich hour of discussion about the Peace Prize. The handout from Dr. Reed is here: Nobel Forum 2014001
The African Development Center near Augsburg and the University of Minnesota hosts POFP.
Dr. Maureen Reed, Jan 22, 2014

Dr. Maureen Reed, Jan 22, 2014


The Nobel Peace Prize Forum and allied Youth Festival have a very long and rich history in the Midwest and especially at Augsburg College. Here are links to the histories of the Forum and the Festival, which is now part of the Forum.
The Forum at Augsburg College is the only event outside of Norway which is allowed to use the Nobel Peace Prize name.
Originally, the Forum was rotated between the five Norwegian Lutheran Colleges in the upper Midwest: Augsburg, Concordia College in Moorhead, Augustana College in Sioux Falls, Luther College in Decorah IA, and St. Olaf College in Northfield. Three years ago the decision was made to concentrate efforts in a single location, and to partner with other institutions and businesses. Judging from the first three years, the change in structure was a benefit to all, and through in-person attendance and live stream video the Forum now reaches tens of thousands of people around the world.
This years Forum includes as guests and presentors Laureates His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet (1989), Dr. William Foege of Medecins Sans Frontieres (1999), and Leyma Gbowee of Liberia (2011). The 2013 winner, Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will present two workshops at this years Forum.
Registration is open, and $46 per day, with lower fees for students. The tuition cost covers less than half of the actual cost of the Forum.
As one who has been to a number of years of the Forum/Festival, I can attest that participants will get far more than their moneys worth.
Act now.
Spaces fill very quickly, and enrollment is limited. The daily calendar as known at this moment is here.
* – The Youth Festival is not open to the public and is specifically for middle and high school students. Spaces are filled by application from schools.
People of Faith Peacemakers Jan 22, 2014

People of Faith Peacemakers Jan 22, 2014


At the Nobel Peace Prize Festival opening March 5, 2009. Augsburg College Minneapolis. Photo: Dick Bernard

At the Nobel Peace Prize Festival opening March 5, 2009. Augsburg College Minneapolis. Photo: Dick Bernard

#831 – Dick Bernard: The Metrodome Deflates….

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One previous post about the Minneapolis Metrodome is here. It was written on the occasion when the weight of snow tore a hole in the roof, and the cover collapsed.
Yesterdays news in the Twin Cities seemed to be dominated by the deflation of the Metrodome, home since 1980 of the Minnesota Vikings and the Minnesota Twins, as well as a long history of other major and not so major events. It was a soft beginning of the structures demolition: no explosives here; they simply turned off the engines that kept the dome inflated and it slowly settled to its death.
It was too cold, I suppose, to be much of a tourist destination, but the advice was to stay away and watch the event on TV: you can watch a time lapse here,all of 26 seconds. Here’s a one-minute intro to the future of the Metrodome area. (Both pieces are preceded by 15 second ads: the cost of watching….)
Yesterday afternoon, enroute to a meeting in northeast Minneapolis, a crash in the Hennepin-Lyndale area tunnel was causing traffic delays so I took an alternate route which led past the newly deflated Dome. There was almost no traffic, and I stopped in a vacant parking lot and took a photo for posterity.
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Metrodome looking southwest, Jan 18, 2014

Metrodome looking southwest, Jan 18, 2014


The Metrodome, occupied in 1982, was a perfectly functional facility. A main claim to fame I recall is that it was completed earlier than expected and built under budget.
I am not a pro football fan. I recall attending only two events at the Met, both Minnesota Twins (baseball) games, the first with my now-son-in-law the year it opened; the second some years later with my Dad. One time only, in the early 70s, I attended a Vikings game at Met Stadium (now Mall of America). This was before the days of jumbo screens above the action, and I was in the cheap seats, three rows or so up along the third base line, which was the back side of the end zone.
Those of us sitting there couldn’t see anything. We could watch the ball in the air when a pass was thrown; and watch the yard markers move. And we paid money for the privilege. It was enough for me.
That was then, one stadium ago.
Soon there will only be a hole-in-the-ground and a new palatial structure will take its place in downtown Minneapolis a year or two down the road.
The side show events, like the Monster Trucks, etc., will have to find another home. The Vikings will play their home games next year a couple of miles away at the University of Minnesota, outdoors.
As it happened, perhaps not so coincidentally, the day previous to the demolition the Vikings announced a new coach for next year. This new coach, like all new coaches before him, will bring refreshing and needed change, it is said, and the possibility of a Super Bowl victory, or so goes the hope-springs-eternal narrative.
But along with the new coach, the Vikings need a new Quarterback, too. That is the second leg of the Sacred Stool.
The third leg, of course, is the Owner, who oozes charm and money, but is loyal only to Profit – a shark.
Pro football is an ultimate capitalist prize, and the new stadium is mostly a perk for those who can occupy the most expensive boxes, not even required to associate with the rabble in the seats below.
Next year is the 54th for the Minnesota Vikings. Two new stadiums and a succession of New Coaches over the years has never led to a Super Bowl Championship….
Maybe the 55th year will be the charm, or the 56th….
Back in the fantasy world:
Today is the semi-final day where four teams vie for the 48th Super Bowl two weeks from now.
One thing is certain: love it or hate it, the U.S. comes to a halt on Super Bowl Sunday. It would take a nuclear conflagration at home to divert public attention.
Computer traffic will drop off to next to nothing here at home, nobody either sending or reading e-mails. The nations attention riveted on the Super Bowl of advertising!
It is as it is.
The earth movers are about the process of constructing a new Arena for the Gladiators of the North, the Minnesota Vikings.

#830 – Dick Bernard: Dr. Joe Schwartzberg on Transforming the United Nations System, Designs for a Workable World.

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UPDATE JAN 22, 2014: Dr. Schwartzberg has kindly provided the essence of his talk on January 16. You can read it here: Dr. Joseph Schwartzberg TRANSFORMING THE UN, Talk at St. Joan of Arc.
 Dr. Schwartzberg emphasizes this isn’t a script, more an outline of his remarks.
UPDATES, including comments, will be added at the end the text. There is also a “responses” feature.
An earlier post about this book was published Jan 2, here.
More about Dr. Schwartzbergs work here and here.
January 16 over 40 of us had the privilege of hearing Dr. Joe Schwartzberg (Schwartzberg Bio001) introduce his new book of ideas on Transforming (rather than “Reforming”) the United Nations System. (Schwartzberg Endorsement001)

Dr. Joe Schwartzberg Jan. 16, 2014

Dr. Joe Schwartzberg Jan. 16, 2014


Schwartzberg UN Book002
How does one summarize two rich hours, during which even the author of this important new book could only scratch the surface of its content?
Impossible.
Best advice: buy the book (information at end of this post), and make a winter project to read it all; agree with it, disagree with it, dialogue about it, have study groups talk about it, but make it an opportunity to learn about an ever more important international institution trying to help 192 nations and over 7 billion people have a future.
The United Nations is far more than simply two simple words created 68 years ago in the “never again” rubble of WWII. The institution remains crucial to our planetary survival: a few hours after the Thursday meeting a front page headline in the Minneapolis Star Tribune read “Climate risk is critical, U. N. warns”, quoting a near-final draft report of the Nobel Peace Prize winning U. N. affiliated Agency, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: STrib Climate Change001
In its 400 pages, Transforming the United Nations System, Designs for a Workable World (hereafter “Transforming”) sets about the task of describing the UN system, and making suggestions for improving its capacity for dealing with relationships between nations in an incredibly diverse and ever more tied together and dangerous world.
It is an academic work, and I predict it will get more than a cursory look at UN and other government and non-government agencies concerned about global issues and solutions to those issues.
Since the post-WWII days of its forming, when five victor nations and 48 others, led by the United States, created the United Nations, and later set up its headquarters in New York City, there are now 192 state members in the United Nations. These states are of almost unfathomable diversity: from a nation with less than 10,000 population to one with far in excess of 1,000,000,000 population; from extraordinarily rich, to very poor, all of us occupying the same speck of the small planet earth. And no longer are we separated by geographic distance or even geographic boundaries.
What happens one place, affects others….
*
Here are some small additional contributions to the conversation about the United Nations (I welcome your additional comments).
Only once in my life have I been at the United Nations in New York City. It was late June, 1972, and we were on a family trip.
A few days earlier we had been in metro Boston at a college, I think it was Clark College (now University) if memory serves, and we saw a gigantic globe on the grounds.
After leaving the UN that cool and overcast day in June we went down the street, almost literally, and saw the still under construction World Trade Center towers, and then went out to see the Statue of Liberty. The snapshots I took then are below, and in a way they represent the promise and the quandary of the present day world in which we live: little over 40 years ago in time, but so very far away in so many things that directly impact out future.
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United Nations late June 1972

United Nations late June 1972


Giant globe, Boston June 1972

Giant globe, Boston June 1972


Twin Towers late June 1972

Twin Towers late June 1972


Joni and Tom late June 1972

Joni and Tom late June 1972


New York City from the Statue of Liberty late June, 1972

New York City from the Statue of Liberty late June, 1972


We saw other places of great historic significance on that trip. Boston, Philadelphia, etc. A trip now near 42 years ago, not to be forgotten.
(Best as I can determine, from Transformation, 59 of the current 192 UN member nations have joined since my visit in 1972. The original UN nations numbered 53 in 1945.)
*
The United States is one of the UN’s 192 member nations, quite young at 227 years, no longer having the luxury of isolation and and the now-fantasy of our exceptionalism (though some would still wish this to be so).
In one sense the U.S. is definitely “exceptional”. In Transforming, the data on pages 338-345 show the United States as having less than 5% of the world population, and near 25% of the Global National income. No other country among the 192 even approaches a 10% share. China, at about 9% is second. We are exceedingly wealthy, and prone to lose perspective. Even our poor are relatively wealthy….
The U.S. is the most generous country in funding the UN: we provide 22% of the UN budget according to the book.
Best as I can determine, the current UN budget is about 5.5 billion dollars, not including peacekeeping and funding for several major UN agencies, which are separately organized and funded, but nonetheless considered UN projects. With world population at about 7 billion, this means less than $1 per year per person is allocated directly to the United Nations by member states.
If 5.5 billion and 22% share is accurate, the U.S. contributes about $1.1 billion to UN operations this year, meaning, divided by our 310 million people, that we each contribute about $4 per year to fund this agency. (The most recent state of Minnesota biennial budget is about $63 billion for a population of less than 6 million.)
Of course, every fact is open to argument.
But as a country the U.S. is so rich, it is difficult for even ordinary folks with ordinary income to comprehend how unequal we are.
*
Like most citizens, I have only limited knowledge about the world perspective. I think I’ve been to about 13 countries in my lifetime.
Since 2012, I’ve had a real gift from my sister, Mary Ann, who’s been a Peace Corps Volunteer in another United Nations member nation, Vanuatu.
According to the data in Transforming, Vanuatu, in the United Nations since 1981, has a population (251,000) about two-thirds the population of the city of Minneapolis MN, and a negligible Gross National Income.
Since her posting at Vanuatu in the fall of 2012, Mary Ann has provided regular updates on her experience there. You can view her commentary here.
More personally, my first hand acquaintance with the UN country of Haiti began in 2003 about the time the political turmoils were about to take down the democratically elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. February 28, 2014 (the actual date was February 29, 2004) is the 10th anniversary of the coup d’etat that led to the exile of President Aristide.
While Haiti has been a member of the UN since the beginning (1945), the near 10 million population island nation has both a dependence on and less than desirable view of the United Nations, and particularly UN member states the U.S., France and Canada which quite demonstrably interfered with its democracy, and officially give only lip service to helping Haiti succeed as an independent nation (Haiti is the land of thousands of NGOs [non-government organizations], coming from everywhere, to help with everything, not always constructively or cooperatively).
There are many connections between the U.S., the UN, and Haiti, not always direct, or easily sorted out, and not always negative, but always mysterious.
On one occasion on our 2006 trip we met with a French speaking Canadian police representative, a very nice man, whose job it was to train local police representatives in the interior city of Ench (Hinche). He was funded through the UN, which in turn was funded by Canada, which may have been supported by the United States. It was all a mystery.
On the same trip, while having a tire repaired on one of our vehicles, we met with some Nepalese soldiers on break in a park in Mirebelais, not far from their post. They were in a UN vehicle, and nice kids. Nepal is a poor country, and being part of a peace keeping force would be, at least, a job for these young military representatives. Likely some Nepalese soldier unknowingly introduced Cholera into Haiti; this was translated into the UN’s fault.
And of course the devastating hurricanes and the deadly earthquake in January 2010….
Between 2004 and 2006, especially, I maintained some web resources on Haiti, still accessible here.
March, 2006, Ench Haiti

March, 2006, Ench Haiti


*
Some summary thoughts:
In sum, we need each other. But relationships, individual needs and aspirations, and how to accomodate them, can be very complicated. And the UN is a part of a solution….
It is easy to kick around the United Nations, that supposedly sinister force some allege has unmarked helicopters about to force World Government on them. (These are the same types who would encourage their “sovereign” state to pull out of the United States.) “UN” can be and has been used as a convenient hate word.
But we are, like it or not, living in an interdependent world where isolation does not work as a national strategy, and then are extremely negative consequences for the strong, if we do not care a lot about the weak.
In a very real sense, the tragedy of 9-11-01, symbolized by the Twin Towers, pictured above when they were still under construction, is simply a signal that we are not isolated on a big rich island bordered by oceans; nor insulated from the rest of the world. Nor is the welfare of the rest of the world of no concern to us.
For just a few examples: man-induced global climate change does not respect borders; disease epidemics are a daily and exportable possibility from anywhere in the world at any time; the vulnerability of the internet is a reality; the possibility of dangerous mistakes or intended outcomes of genetic modification which will affect us all. These are among the things we, as citizens of this small planet, need to pay attention to.
With all its faults, the United Nations has made the world a better place, and would be sorely missed were it to disappear.
*
Buying Dr. Joe Schwartzberg’s book:
I can connect you directly with Dr. Schwartzberg. Just send me an e-mail: dick_bernardATmsnDOTcom. I’ll get the message to him. Include information such as mailing address and phone.
Or, you can order directly from United Nations University Press, here is the link.
*****
Columnist Eric Black wrote about Joe Schwartzberg and the book in MinnPost on Jan 14, 2014: link is here.
from John B, Jan 20: Congratulations to Joe Schwartzberg for his thought provoking and visionary prescription for transforming the United nations. There is little chance for the ideas to be enacted anytime soon, but in time, possibly. One of the most moving experiences of my life was visiting the UN headquarters in New York about six years ago. I was struck by the vision of possibility and, at the same time, a sense of hopelessness as I thought about how difficult it is for powerful nations, like the USA, to share the power it has with other nations.
Joe is a treasure. He is first of all a thinker and a powerful teacher. He is an example for all educators who embrace their discipline (geography in his case) and use their knowledge and understanding to project transformational ideas into the world. Thanks , Joe.