Minnesota – Page 21 – Thoughts Towards a Better World

#703 – Dick Bernard: "Filing Cabinet" for The Hennepin Co Plaza United Nations Flag Issue

March 27, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, History, International Relations, Media, Minnesota, Politics, War /by dickbernard

POSTNOTE: The primary originating document is the blogpost for March 5, 2013, which is accessible here. Added material is dated.
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UPDATE September 17, 2014: Relevant and current documents about this issue:
1. A 20+ page pdf of documents related to this issue can be viewed here: UN Flag Henn Co MN001 (pp 1-22). The first page lists the documents which follow. Inadvertently, 4 USC par 10, the intended final page, is not included. Accessible here: Flag Code Sec 10 (p. 23).
Two flag photos below were referenced, and sent to, Hennepin Commissioners with August 12, 2014 letter.
2. Sep 11 and 17, 2014 correspondence: Henn UN Flag Sep 17 14 (pp 24-30).
HISTORY DOCUMENTS, 1965-2013: UN flag Mpls Historical001

Flags at U.S. Bank Plaza, Minneapolis MN, Sep. 17, 2014. Hennepin Government Center in background. Four of the six flags appear to be corporate flags, along with U.S. and Minnesota. All flagpoles appear to be identical in height.

The American flag in procession with others at International Day, Concordia Language Villages, Bemidji MN, August 8, 2014

July 23, 2014, at Truck Stop near St. Cloud MN

ONGOING INFORMATION ON THE HENNEPIN COUNTY PLAZA UN FLAG ISSUE
(Click to enlarge any photo)

Where the United Nations Flag used to fly before being removed after March 27, 2012. Photo taken May 7, 2013

ACTION REMOVING THE UN FLAG FROM HENNEPIN COUNTY MN PLAZA March 27, 2012: UN Flag Res 3-27-12001
To the best of our knowledge, UN Flag had flown continuously at the Hennepin Plaza site for 44 years, from May 1, 1968, forward.
The 2012 vote was unanimous – all seven Commissioners present on March 27, 2012 voting yes (unless otherwise indicated, all Commissioners (bold-faced) remain on the Board as of August 14, 2014.)
Commissioner Opat Moved adoption
Commissioner Stenglein Seconded the motion*
Commissioner Dorfman**
Commissioner Randy Johnson
Commissioner Callison
Commissioner McLaughlin***
Commissioner Jeff Johnson***
* – Commissioner Stenglein appointed CEO of Minneapolis Downtown Council in February, 2012, starting new job on June 1, 2012; in June, 2013, Stenglien left the Downtown Council position for unknown reasons (news article here).
** – Commissioner Dorfman resigned as Commissioner in Feb. 2014 to take another position.
*** – in the posted Minutes for 3-27-01 these individuals are listed as not present; but the official record of the meeting shows them both voting Yes on the motion.
Commissioner Linda Higgins was elected to Stenglien’s Hennepin County Commission seat in the November, 2012 election and thus had no involvement in the original action.
I wrote at length on the issue on March 5, 2013 here.
Friday April 12, 2013, I hand-delivered two letters to all Hennepin County Commissioners, and the uninvolved in the issue but nonetheless parties at interest, the Mayor and City Council of Minneapolis. The relevant portions of the letters is here: Henn Comm Ltrs 4:12:13001 As of July 15, 2013, there have been zero responses to my questions. A third request for the information was mailed on July 13.
The listing of all Hennepin County Commissioners, their districts, and office addresses can be found here.
Here’s a photo of the flags at Hennepin County Government Plaza taken Tuesday April 9, 2013, from the same steps where Gov. Elmer L. Andersen spoke May 1, 1968, on the virtues of World Citizenship and flying the flag of the United Nations at the Plaza.

Flags on Hennepin County Government Plaza April 9, 2013

CONTINUING INFORMATION ON THE HENNEPIN COUNTY/UNITED NATIONS FLAG ISSUE:
Former Governor Elmer L. Andersen’s speech at the United Nations Flag Raising at the Minneapolis City Hall May 1, 1968: Elmer Andersen I Trust..001
Timeline of Historical Events in the year 1968: 1968 Timeline001

The Hennepin Co Plaza flags as seen from inside Minneapolis City Hall April 12, 2013

UPDATE April 2, 2013: United States, Minnesota and United Nations flags et al, at Fairview Southdale Hospital, France at Hiway 62, Edina, April 1, 2013
(click to enlarge)

One year ago today – March 27, 2012 – the Hennepin County Board quietly passed Resolution No. 12-0167, rescinding Resolution 86-7-539 and directing “to fly at the Government Center North Plaza solely the flags of the United States, Minnesota and Hennepin County, in compliance with the U.S. Flag Code.”
I wrote at length on the issue on March 5, 2013. That commentary is accessible here. In that commentary I noted on March 5 that “I’m still searching for more facts” on the U.S. Flag Code, and contemporaneous with my column I wrote my Congresswoman and both MN U.S. Senators seeking more definitive information on the legislative history of that Code.
Sen. Franken’s office was first to respond to my request, with 40 pages of information, including the Congressional Research Service (CRS) document on the United States Flag prepared by John R. Luckey, Legislative Attorney, February 7, 2011. (Citation on the cover: Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov RL30243). Two pages of this report included highlighted sections (see attached pdf U.S. Flag Code (portion)001). In addition, a dozen pages of Legislative Documents were included, including this statement by then ND Sen William Langer, May 12, 1953: Flag Code (1953 Langer 001. Also received, another dozen pages of Congressional Record entries between January and June, 1953 Flag Code (1953 Cong) 001. All of these pages are included.
Some personal observations, at this point:
1. Whoever initially advised Hennepin County Commissioners on the U.S. Flag Code in 2012 was speaking opinion and not fact:
A. The Section of the code cited, 7, relates to the flag “when carried in a procession with another flag….”
B. In addition, the CRS analyst notes later that aforementioned Section 7 contains two subsections on point and these provisions appear to be contradictory (Subsections 7(c) and 7(g).
2. In reading the assorted documents, including the rhetoric in the Congressional Record, I noted these facts:
A. The Flag Code was originally passed June 22, 1942
B. The amendments to the flag bill, particularly relating to the United Nations flag, were first proposed on August 22, 1951, in the 82d Congress. They were ultimately passed in the 83d Congress in the Spring of 1953.
C. The key legislative actors at the time appear to be these: U.S. Sens Martin, Hendrickson, Knowland and Langer; Reps Reed (Illinois), Gross and McDonough.
D. The bill finally passed apparently included this language: “(b) Whoever knowingly violates the provision of this section shall be fined not more than $250 of imprisoned not more than six months, or both.” (Flag Code (1953 S 694) 001) To my knowledge, no such penalty language remains in the Flag Code, and apparently has not appeared there for many years.
3. I am old enough to remember well the post-WWII days of the police action in Korea, Sen. Joe McCarthy…. I was a teenager in rural ND when the 1953 amendment was passed. There was near hysteria, then, about allegations of “Communists”, including additional animosity towards the very existence of the United Nations. What happened in Hennepin County a year ago has all the appearances of a latter day manifestation of the same paranoia that caused our country so much grief in the Sen. McCarthy era.
It appears that the Hennepin County Board made its decision March 27, 2012, on at minimum incomplete information, perhaps without any debate. All but one of the Board members who approved the initial action remain on the Board, and it is time to reopen this file, and give the issue of the United Nations flag the dignified and public hearing it deserves.
POSTNOTE: As noted in the March 5 column, I had not paid much attention to flags, generally, including their arrangement, etc. This has changed. Recently I spent some time at a hotel in Orlando FL. The hotel is part of a world-wide chain, and I noted the flags out front: the U.S. flag, posted slightly higher than the Florida flag, with the Corporate flag in equal standing to the Florida flag. Flags do carry a message about us….
Here they are (click to enlarge):

Hotel, Orlando FL, March 24, 2013

Flags at Lincoln Center Elementary School, South St Paul MN Apr 16, 2013

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NOTE MAY 3, 2013: This page is the permanent “filing cabinet” for information about the events which began March 5, 1968, with the Declaration of World Citizenship by the City of Minneapolis and Hennepin County.
On World Law Day Wednesday, May 1, 2013, the Minneapolis Star Tribune carried two commentaries directly related to World Law Day and the United Nations Flag, written by Dr. Joseph Schwartzberg of GlobalSolutionsMN.org and Minneapolis resident Jim Nelson. The United Nations Association of Minnesota is on record about this issue: UNA Position001
The evening of May 1, at Gandhimahal Restaurant in Minneapolis, 40 attended a dinner celebrating World Law. Here is a blogpost written about the event.
UPDATE August 20, 2013: Correspondence between a Henn. County Commissioner and Dick Bernard: HennComm08162013001
UPDATE September 11, 2013 here.
UPDATE December 19, 2013: Dec. 11, 2013, I sent the following to the Hennepin County Commissioners: Henn Comm Dec 11 13001 The mailing included the Dec 11, 2013, letter (in original misdated Nov 11, 2013) plus the Dec. 29, 2012, letter. In early November, 2013, I was made aware of a 1965 Declaration of World Citizenship signed by President Lyndon Johnson which directly relates to this issue. The post about that Declaration is here.
UPDATE June 14, 2014: My blog post for June 14 makes reference, and links, to this issue and post. I haven’t raised my question with the County Commissioners for some months, but will again.

#701 – Dick Bernard: Personal Lessons Learned (and re-learned) at the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize Forum

March 11, 2013/1 Comment/in Community, Education, Minnesota, Peace & Justice /by dickbernard

Events like the recent Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College are extraordinarily difficult to plan and then implement (let’s say “stage manage”). You don’t want the advertised event to be advertised to start at 11 a.m., only to have it begin at 11:45, etc.
In all respects, the Forum was impeccably planned.
Having said that, my most important learnings from such events tend most often to come from side-events that cannot be factored in to the planning. Here I want to list some that come immediately to mind. (None of these are unique; at the same time, they are good reminders….)
Dr. Paul Farmer’s autograph line: I had never met Paul Farmer, nor heard him speak in person, so his talk was a must-see, and it made sense to get an autograph. I got in the line at 4:30, and 4 1/2 hours later found myself, finally, at arms length from Dr. Farmer, with the four books I had brought along.
Turns out that Dr. Farmer walks the talk of his essential message, that “without equity and justice there cannot be peace.” His reasoning, I gather, is that if somebody cares enough to want his autograph, they have a right to expect some of his time.
I think most of us came to realize this, after facing a seemingly eternal wait.
I met some people in that line who I would not have met before, had we been shuffled ahead rapidly to get our ten seconds with the author (“next, please”).
But the most important learning was about patience, and our general lack of it in our society. And thinking of those peasants in Haiti who stood in line for hours, after hours more walking, to vote for their candidate Aristide, without any certainty that they would even be able to cast a ballot at all. Or more directly to the point, remembering when we visited Farmer’s Zanmi Lasante Hospital at Cange, and saw the very long line of very sick people waiting for just the possibility of getting some medical help for an ailment that was probably about to kill them. Some had been there for, perhaps, days.
Then, that line to get a signature on a book didn’t seem so long at all.
(click on photos to enlarge them)

Finally, after 9 p.m., the autograph…and an opportunity for conversation with Dr. Farmer

A short conversation with a College-age friend: Some weeks ago I got an out-of-the-blue e-mail from a young man who I’d met at the 2010 Peace Prize Festival. He was, then, an exchange student from a foreign country. He re-introduced himself to me at the Forum, and in our brief chat said he had not gone home after high school because it was deemed to be too dangerous for him. We didn’t have time to fill in the blanks, but we didn’t need to, either.
With all of our complaining about this, that and the other, the United States is still a mecca for those seeking relative peace and freedom. There are LOTS of warts, and we are responsible for plenty of instability elsewhere, but we need to build on our positives.

Tawakkol Karman and interpreter

Listening to Nobel Laureate Tawakkol Karman (You can watch/listen on-line here: I found it a bit difficult to get into Ms Karman’s Laureate address at the end of the Conference. Formal public speaking did not yet seem to be her forte, yet, (give her a little time) and, I suppose, she didn’t have a raft of what I would call “Mother Theresa one-liners”.
While she spoke and understood English very well, it was her personal preference to speak in her native Arabic (which I applaud). We English speakers are used to being the dominant language, but by no means is English the only world language. Others are proud of their languages too – we are a richer world for such diversity. (Here you can find Dr. Joseph Schwartzbergs effort to demonstrate 41 different languages affirming human oneness. Dr. Schwartzberg was at Mrs. Karman’s talk.)
Towards the end of her formal remarks Ms Karman began a song – a chant – that had ignited the peaceful revolution in Yemen for which she won the Peace Prize. She seemed to become more alive, and the crowd alive with her. It was dramatic and it was very, very powerful.
It brought to life a piece of advice I heard in a eulogy for a friend at his recent funeral. He had been an English teacher, and he taught some writing. His advice to fearful writers was simple: “write what you know, and write from the heart”. Ms Karman spoke what she knew, but it was when she truly spoke from the heart that she was truly speaking.

Robin Wright

Robin Wrights message: I wasn’t sure what to expect from Robin Wright. Turned out that her familiarity with the Middle East and North Africa went back as far as 1973.
Her analysis of the drivers in the contemporary Islamic World (which you can also hear/see on-line here), was extremely interesting. Succinctly, you don’t make change today by doing things the way the old men did them, and the old women understood and accepted them. She listed drivers of change in the Islamic region that the previously dominant leaders do not understand as drivers: theater, even comic books.
Come to think of it, that dynamic of change does not stop at national or ethnic boundaries, and the old men used to ruling, including in our society, are running scared.
Nonetheless, the transition from Arab Spring to a new reality will be rocky and difficult. True, deep change is hard, a process to a hoped for destination.
Somebody asked, would there be a woman president in that region? Robin observed that there has never been a woman U.S. president, and that in many respects the Islamic world is far ahead of us in this respect. Even the most repressive regimes need to pay attention to the women.
Finally (only because I’m out of time to do this), the composition of the audience was very interesting.
There were many young people – doubtless heavy on university students, but nonetheless taking a weekend at a conference, and definitely engaged in the proceedings. There is (in my opinion) a disconnect between what I would call the traditional peace and justice community and today’s kids. There needs to be much attention to build relationships and learn how to communicate with each other. I think the responsibility for this change lies primarily with the elders, and that we need to go more than half way…the old ways, especially in communication, are changing too rapidly. Failing to find common understandings about many things will weaken an ever more crucial movement.

#700 – Dick Bernard: the 25th Annual Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College, Minneapolis MN. The Power of Ideas: People and Peace

March 10, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, Education, Health, International Relations, Minnesota, Peace & Justice /by dickbernard

UPDATE: Additional thoughts written on March 11, here.
Some photos are included at the end of this post. Click on any photo to enlarge.)

Some of the audience at one of the 35 Seminars at the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize Forum

My colleague blogger, Grace Kelly, asked me as we were leaving the Forum today, if I planned to write about the last three days.
Sure.
Then comes the real problem: how to summarize a very rich three days into a few words, when I had to miss some portions of the first two days, and when I was there, there were often far too many options….
Augsburg solved a good part of my problem: the major addresses were all live-streamed world-wide, and are already accessible on-line, and some other portions of the program were also video’d. The segments are listed here in reverse order shown at the website. Together they are a dozen hours or so of unedited video, which you can watch at leisure. Take your time. I’d suggest bookmarking this post and coming back to it from time to time. Take all the talks in, one at a time.
Recommendation: watch at least the first ten minutes or so of each video, including the introduction of the speaker, to get an idea of the speakers expertise and thrust. Pick and choose as you wish. But don’t stop there. For just one example, the power of Tawakkol Karman – what would motivate me to give her the Peace Prize were I the judge – shone through in the last ten minutes. Someone you thought dismiss at first may be very interesting and turn out to be absolutely fascinating, or their issue compelling.
Here is the bio information on the speakers, as listed in the Program: 2013 Augsburg NPPF001. (Nina Easton, Lois Quam and Peter Agre presentations were apparently not filmed, or there may be technical or proprietary reasons they are not on-line.)
10 and 11 (in this order) NPPF Festival Parts one and two (The Nobel Peace Prize Festival, for and involving about 1000 5th through 8th grade students from the Twin Cities. Both Nobel Laureates Muhammad Yunus and Tawakkol Karman speak to the students in this segment, as does Andrew Slack of the Harry Potter Alliance. Music provided by Cowern Elementry, No. St. Paul MN; Valley Crossing Community School, Woodbury; Burroughs Elementary School, Minneapolis. Editorial: One has to be having a really, really bad day to not enjoy the annual Festival!
9. Business Day Opening. Muhammad Yunus 2006 Nobel Peace Prize (Laureate Yunus talk begins at app. 42 mins.)
8. Food Security Panel. Chris Policinski, President and CEO of Land O’Lakes; David MacLennan, President and CEO, Cargill, Inc; Jeff Simmons, President, Elanco, moderated by Frank Sesno, Director, School of Media and Public Affairs, George Washington University.
7. Development, Humanitarianism and the Power of Ideas. Erik Schwartz, Dean and Professor, and Brian Atwood, Professor, Humphrey School of Public Affairs University of Minnesota.
6. Sex and War: Doomed or Liberated by Biology. Malcolm Potts, Bixby Professor of Population and Family Planning at the University of California, Berkeley. (intro begins at 12 mins.)
5. Dr. Paul Farmer, Co-founder of Partners in Health and chair of the Department of global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. (intro begins at 12 minutes). Since 1983 Dr. has devoted his life to public service to those who have least to offer in return, particularly in Haiti and Rwanda, but worldwide as well.
4. Hip Hop evening featuring Omar Offendum, Syrian-American, and Brother Ali Begins with intro at 13 mins, and artist appears at 17 minutes.
3. Robin Wright, Senior Fellow, US Institute of Peace. Focus on the Islamic world of the Arab Spring. Begins at 21 mins.
2. The Woman Behind the Nobel Peace Prize, Bertha von Suttner. speaker Anne Synneve Simensen. Begins at 12 minutes
1. 2011 Nobel Laureate Tawakkol Karman of Yemen (NPPF Closing. Intro starts at about 18 minutes.)
The address by Nina Easton does not yet appear to be on-line.
High Points and Low Points of the Forum?
The Nobel Peace Prize Forum is a truly high-class operation. There were no “low points”. One might have preferences, and it is impossible to attend most of the available sessions…but I give the event and the speakers – all of them – high marks. They were all unique. As is true with anyone in any audience at any program, each offering resonates in different ways to different folks. This only adds to the richness.
With its international live-streaming of major talks, the Forum is accessible to and becoming known world-wide, and can only grow ever more important as an international networking opportunity for those interested in the very complicated issue of Peace in our ever more complicated world.
In many ways, everyone whose name was on the “marquee” at the Forum has paid the high price of leadership. The conference theme,”The Power of Ideas”, has real meaning. The speakers have been “on the court”, and not the sidelines.
I came home each day tired, but energized. The forum was high value for the cost.
I draw energy from the unexpected. For instance, those of us who wanted Dr. Paul Farmers autograph were in for a treat – he likes to visit with the people who want autographs. But this meant, for me, a 4 1/2 hour wait in line, but also an opportunity to visit with a couple of students from a local university. 4 1/2 hours is a long time. But it was worth the wait.
(Earlier Grace Kelly had noted the very large number of college students in attendance, quite the contrast from our normal surroundings. These were young people interested in the issues addressed.)
For the content, watch/listen to some of the archived talks.
Attached is a pdf of most (not all) of the daily agenda items: 2013 Augsburg NPPF Sem002.
A few photos (click on any to enlarge):
Peace Prize Festival (for Grade 3-8 students):

Students in Exhibit Area at Peace Prize Festival

Students from Valley Crossing Elementary Woodbury

First Graders from Burroughs Elementary Minneapolis, always a hit.

Lyle Christianson (seated) with his daughter, Janice Johnson, Burroughs First Grade teacher, and Lynn Elling, co-founder of Peace Prize Festival at Augsburg.

Paul Farmer signs autographs with Paul and Natalie (second from right) and two other collegians from Northfield MN

Yours truly gets his autograph, 4 1/2 hours after joining the line. It was worth the long wait.

Colman McCarthy on How to be a Peacemaker

#699 – Dick Bernard: Listening to the Governor of Minnesota

March 6, 2013/0 Comments/in Economics, Education, History, Minnesota, Peace & Justice, Politics /by dickbernard

Yesterday noon we, along with several hundred others, braved Twin Cities roads to gather at a lunch at McNamara Alumni Center at the University of Minnesota.
The speaker was Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton.
(click on photos to enlarge)

Gov. Mark Dayton, March 5, 2013, University of Minnesota First Tuesday.

The event was the Carlson School of Management’s “First Tuesday” and the large audience seemed mostly to be Twin Cities business representatives. University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler was one of the dignitaries in the audience.

A portion of the audience at First Tuesday March 5

It was a most interesting hour. Gov. Dayton spoke, referring a number of times to this handout which we all received: Guv Hndout Mar 5 2013002. At the end, he answered questions and listened to advice from the floor, presented at random through several portable microphones. He was with us for over an hour; then departed to talk with another group somewhere else.
The tension of driving to the event after 8″ of snow, was worth it.
Governor Dayton knew his audience, and he politely but certainly took the offensive.
Judging from the tens of thousands of communications I see, from left and right, and politically disinterested, we are a society that takes non-negotiable positions, basing our judgements on our understanding of our one or two most important issues.
Contemporary society is complex, so we citizens mostly revert to simplicity. We don’t want information unless it supports our position.
It is a dangerous attitude, shared by far too many.
Gov. Dayton, as we Minnesotans know, comes from a very prominent Minnesota business family; spent part of his early career as a school teacher in inner city New York; and has spent most of his adult career in public service in the state of Minnesota.
He has an impressive portfolio. Still I sometimes hear him ridiculed for various unfair reasons.
But he knows bottom lines and good public policy.
The Governor was in a serious mode, yesterday.
His anchor story was of meeting with a dozen or so of Minnesota’s most prominent big business leaders not long ago. It was one of those fancy, private dinner meetings somewhere.
He marveled, he said, at how these very sophisticated captains of Minnesota business and industry seemed not to budge from their respective certainties, even when confronted with pesky facts that didn’t support their positions. (Think assorted mantras: “business is being forced to leave our state due to high taxes” and the like.) Belief seemed to trump reason.
They were stuck (as we all can be) in their belief about reality.
Sitting there, I could better understand people at my level being mired in our own unrealities, than these anonymous Big Shots who privately had the Governors ear for an extended period of time.
We ordinary people have to struggle to get to “facts”; these Captains of Minnesota Business have boatloads of employees in their corporations who, if they were hired for and allowed such, could be truth tellers.
But hearing the truth is inconvenient, and even these business leaders apparently wouldn’t publicly budge, even in the face of contrary evidence from the Governor of their state.
Gov. Dayton spoke as a confident leader, in command of his narrative, unquestionably competent including addressing questions from the floor.
The Governor commented about Minnesota’s flagship University of Minnesota, and said he had gathered data which demonstrated that the UofM did as well or better in its accomplishments than the sum of the eight major universities in Boston – little places like Harvard, MIT and the like. His very prominent businessman Dad once told he and his siblings: “if you put all your eggs in one basket, you better take mighty good care of that basket.” But, he said the UofM, and public institutions in this state, have suffered from policies of austerity; and the state suffers as a consequence.
His Tax proposals are intended as informed thoughts and invitation to debate on alternatives to the pesky realities of our state, where for too many years we have relied on shell games, like shifts, to pretend we are doing well financially, supposedly “balancing our books”, when in reality we were digging ourselves a deep hole from which we now have to fashion a way out.
At the beginning, the Governor was greeted with polite applause.
At the end, there was a standing and sustained applause, joined by most in the audience, applause which did not seem forced.
It was a good day.

March 5, 2013, McNamara Alumni Center at University of Minnesota. Audience listening to Governor Dayton.

#698 – Dick Bernard: The Hennepin County Commission, Minneapolis Mayor and City Council and the UN Flag, 1968 and 2012.

March 5, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, History, International Relations, Minnesota, Peace & Justice, Politics, War /by dickbernard

This “filing cabinet” including much more background for this issue is at March 27, 2013, the link is here.

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NOTE TO READER: This long post is an effort to convey information, and opinion, about a specific issue I wasn’t aware of, in a community other than my own: an essentially covert act by a government entity to remove a UN flag which had flown quietly with the U.S. and Minnesota flags over Hennepin County Plaza for 44 years, 1968-2012.
I was not seeking to find the issue. To some, the issue described may seem small and insignificant, and it was and remains a non-mandatory issue for the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners – they can do what they wish to do. Nonetheless, to this writer, the voluntary action described illustrates simply one example of a careless action, ignorance of history, and a (possibly) inadvertent and very negative change in tone of leadership in our civil society.
As a society, we choose our own fate through actions of leaders we freely elect. As individual citizens we either seek to change the status quo, or we sit idly by. Simply voting (which includes not bothering to vote informed, or to even vote at all) is only the first action of a responsible citizen. An accumulation of seemingly small actions can have an irreversible long term impact.
It is important to keep our leaders accountable. For Hennepin County residents here is an opportunity.
(click on all photos to enlarge them)

Flags at Woodbury Veterans Memorial near Woodbury City Hall March 2,2013

Sometimes research leads to unexpected results.
In December, 2012, I finally discovered the documents I needed to document a very important event in Minneapolis in March and May, 1968. They were in the archival records of Minneapolis Mayor Arthur Naftalin (1961-69) at the Minnesota History Center. There were many pages about the 1968 Declaration of World Citizenship of Hennepin County and the City of Minneapolis. Found in the file was Lynn Elling’s‘s history of the event, written in late May, 1968: Henn:Mpls Decl Mar 68001
These documents answered my previously unanswered questions – they were exactly what I was looking for: World Law Day May 1 1968001.
Days after my discovery, unsought and completely unexpected, came a link to an April 2012 Nick Coleman commentary about a March 27, 2012, action by the Hennepin County Board, removing the United Nations flag as one permitted to fly at the Hennepin Co. Government Center, Minneapolis. That issue instantly attracted my attention, and while I’m still searching for more facts, today, March 5, 2013, seems to be the appropriate time to bring the issue to public attention.
March 5, 1968, 45 years ago, was a significant day in the history of Minneapolis and Hennepin County. On that day the Board of Commissioners of Hennepin County, the Minneapolis City Council, and then-Minneapolis Mayor Arthur Naftalin unanimously recognized “the sovereign right of our citizens to declare that their citizenship responsibilities extend beyond our city and nation. We hereby join with other concerned people of the world in a declaration that we share in this world responsibility and that our citizens are in this sense citizens of the world. We pledge our efforts as world citizens to the establishment of permanent peace based on just world law, and to the use of world resources in the service of man and not for his destruction.”

Later, a bi-partisan who’s-who in Minnesota signed the declaration as well.
This Declaration, by “the first American community to take such action”, further requested that the Municipal Building Commission “proudly display the United Nations flag on suitable occasions at the main entrance to the City Hall and the main entrance to the new county building.”

Minneapolis/Hennepin County MN Declaration of World Citizenship signed March 5, 1968, dedicated May 1, 1968

On May 1, 1968, then as now, Law Day, a large group of citizens, including at least 27 Mayors of Hennepin County communities, met at the City Hall to publicly celebrate the Declaration and publicly raise the United Nations flag alongside the American flag. A new flagpole had been raised for this purpose. In Minnesota the observance came to be known as “World Law Day”, as shown in a May 1, 1968, cartoon in the Minneapolis Star: World Law ‘toon My 1 68 001

Keynote speaker May 1 1968, former Minnesota Governor Elmer L. Andersen, proudly supported the flag raising.
Among other remarks he said the raising of the United Nations flag “represents a commitment to cooperation among nations for world peace, to belief in the common brotherhood of all men of all nations, and to aspirations for a world community of peace, freedom and justice under world law.” His speech can be read here: Elmer Andersen I Trust..001

Elmer L. Andersen (center), Mayor Arthur Naftalin (right) and unidentified person with the UN flag before raising May 1, 1968

The United Nations Flag was raised on the new flagpole next to the U.S. flag, a symbol of community and non-partisan friendship with the world. Certainly, proper flag protocol was followed. The flagpole gave permanence to the word “suitable” in the earlier resolution.
That UN Flag, and many successor flags, to my knowledge, probably flew consistently until March 27, 2012, when the Hennepin County Board, quietly in the consent agenda, and likely with no public hearings or even internal debate, directed that the UN Flag be taken down permanently. The directive stated that “solely the flags of the United States, Minnesota and Hennepin County” be raised, “in compliance with the U.S. Flag Code.”
The 2012 Board Resolution is here: Henn Co Res 3:27:12001
I discovered this resolution at the end of December, 2012, and immediately took issue, as a citizen, by writing the Members of the Hennepin County Board: Bernard Ltr 12:2912001. I learned that six of the seven had been on the Board at the time of the earlier resolution; apparently four of them had voted on the resolution, all in favor.
I have received no response from any Board member which in itself is not especially surprising, since I don’t live in Hennepin County, but it nonetheless significant (see comment about Arthur Naftalin, below).
To date, the only rationale I know of, provided by the Board to a citizen of the county, is that flying the U.N. flag in some way goes against the U.S. Flag Code Section VII, Paragraph C. This statute is easily accessed on the internet. The cite from Statute seems to apply only to the U.S. flag “when carried in a procession with another flag”.
The flagpoles at City Hall were stationary, certainly by no means in “procession”. Whatever the case, the Code in question has no penalties for even egregious violations – its tenets are superseded by freedom of speech.
There is nothing illegal about the UN flag. it is a legitimate flag. The UN is headquartered in New York City, and a prime mover for the founding of the United Nations was the United States, led by people like another former Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen. The U.S. has been a dominant player at the UN since its founding. The UN is hardly an enemy nation, though it is portrayed that way by some who seem governed by fear.
There are people who just despise the United Nations, and they won on March 27, 2012. The UN flag was quietly taken down at Hennepin County Government Center.
There is no need for the issue to remain quiet.
The decision makers, the Hennepin County Board, need to hear from citizens. Only in that way will an unfortunate decision be reversed and a proud day, May 1, 1968, be once again honored.
I’d suggest that an appropriate occasion to re-fly the United Nations flag and publicly re-affirm the 1968 Declaration of World Citizenship is May 1, 2013, Law Day.

POSTNOTE:
A BIT OF HISTORY
Prime movers of the 1968 Declaration, and a later similar Declaration of the State of Minnesota, were Minneapolis businessmen Stanley Platt and Lynn Elling. Now 92, Lynn still lives in Minneapolis, and remains active. Lynn was the MC of the May 1, 1968, event, and later described the process leading to the Declaration: Henn:Mpls Decl Mar 68001

Lynn Elling at Minneapolis City Hall May 1, 1968 opening the event where Minneapolis and Hennepin County declard themselves World Citizenship Communities, and where the United Nations flag flew alongside the U.S. flag.

Lynn Elling at Minneapolis City Hall May 1, 1968 opening the event where Minneapolis and Hennepin County declared themselves World Citizenship Communities, joining perhaps 1000 other world communities, and where the United Nations flag flew alongside the U.S. flag.

Lynn Elling with the Minneapolis Declaration at Minneapolis City Hall, Dec. 22, 2012. Photo compliments of Bonnie Fournier of the Smooch Project

In 1971, the State of Minnesota also declared itself a World Citizen. Again this was completely non-partisan. The Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial spoke to the concept of World Citizenship then.

THE UNITED NATIONS FLAG DOES CONTINUE TO FLY TO THIS DAY.
Travel two miles east from the Hennepin County Government Center to Augsburg College Campus and you’ll see the United Nations flag proudly flying amongst four others, properly displayed in relation to the U.S. flag. Those attending the 25th Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg this weekend will see the flags flying, alongside I-94.

Augsburg College, Minneapolis MN, March 3, 2013. UN flag is at center

Augsburg is not unique. Minneapolitan Jim Nelson, who was at the May 1, 1968 dedication, spent his career at Honeywell, where the UN flag flew every day.
THEN AS NOW A SMALL GROUP ATTEMPTED TO BULLY DECISION MAKING.
In 1968, after the dedication, some enraged citizens demanded that the UN flag be removed. On Feb. 7, 1969, Mayor Naftalin wrote colleague Mayor Joseph Alioto of San Francisco affirming the importance of the Declaration. In relevant part, he said “we were pleased to issue our proclamation, although our action has not met with universal approval judging from some of the mail it has prompted.” [there were perhaps 15 negative letters, only three from Hennepin County citizens]. “However, I am still convinced the proclamation has much merit as a symbolic step towards world peace and I view it as being in the best interests of our city, county, state and nation.” (s) Arthur Naftalin, Mayor.
Interestingly, and in contrast to subsequent action by the members of the 2012-13 Hennepin County Board, Mayor Naftalin wrote individual and respectful acknowledgement letters to every one of those who complained about the Declaration of World Citizenship, regardless of where they were from, or how abusive the tone of their letter (and there were some “hum-dingers”). (I have copied the entirety of the relevant files).
Mayor Naftalin was connected with the greater world; he recognized he was more than leader of just a major city, but himself a World Citizen. I wonder about today’s Hennepin County Board.
WHY I FEEL THE FLAG ISSUE IS AN IMPORTANT ONE.
Perhaps like most people, I do not customarily notice flags, their placement, etc.
This incident has caused me to look more closely at flags I see displayed.
The photo at the beginning of this post is from Woodbury, my home, and in that setting the U.S. flag is set considerably above all of the other flags (primarily military banners – Army, etc.) One might call the Woodbury display a “War Memorial”.
At Augsburg, on the other hand, the flags are in compliance with the Code, but at equal height, neither subordinate nor superior. They more befit the theme of “Peace” within and among nations. There is an entirely different tone.
There are notes of irony, for instance: doubtless there are “State’s Rights” people who might logically demand that their State flag be set higher than the national banner, while at the same time demanding that only the U.S. flag be revered.
Emotion too often trumps reason.
The flag debate is a debate about the tone of our society. How we see ourselves as compared with others.
This is an important question to be considered and discussed.
*
Questions? Information that you know that would help further enlighten myself or others on the issue?
Send to
Dick Bernard
dick.bernardATiCloud.com
or
6905 Romeo Road
Woodbury MN 55125-2421

NOTES

NOTE February 14, 2016: For the past three years the Hennepin County Commissioners, most of whom were on the Commission at the time of the official action March 27, 2012, on many occasions have refused to give an honest answer about why they took down the flag (Note: it had nothing to do with their consistent narrative: legality.)

UPDATE: March 6, 2013: This post was reposted in MinnPost on March 5. A comment there notes a very slight error on my part in describing the location of the Woodbury Veterans Memorial. That error has been corrected below. I am in close proximity to that Memorial every day, and, in fact, am a member of the local American Legion Post involved in the development.
Re Hennepin County, Mr. Elling indicated yesterday that a group of citizens raised $6,000 in 1968 to purchase the flagpoles for the U.S. and United Nations flags at Minneapolis City Hall. This was serious money back then.
The Twin Cities Daily Planet has now also picked up this post.
Questions? Scroll to very end of this post for my contact information. I’ll try to answer.

#694 – Dick Bernard: Guns, yet again.

February 23, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, Guns, Minnesota, Politics /by dickbernard

Recently, it seems, I’m fixated on Guns. Mebbe so. It is an important topic. (Additional recent posts at Feb. 3 and Feb. 19, 2013)
I’m an active blogger; this is #694 since March, 2009.
Put the letters “Guns” in the search box, and up pop 27 blogposts which apparently use the letters “guns” somewhere within their text. I’m not inclined to argue with word search, but, of the references it gives, a half dozen of those posts were not about guns at all (#104, 465, 473, 533, 588, 598); three are by guest writers; seven are post the Newtown CT massacre. There are headings like Binghamton NY, Tucson AZ (Gabby Giffords), Aurora CO, Newtown CT, earlier sites of gun carnage by an individual (there are others I would have written about too).
The reader can decide if I’m fixated on the topic of Guns, or someone with a very rational concern….
February 21, I did make an appearance at the street theatre which was the Gun Hearings at the Minnesota State Senate, in the Hearing Room under the Capitol Rotunda. I wrote and have photos of the event here (scroll to the lower half of that post).
The February 22, Minneapolis Star Tribune, headlined “Groups battle over gun checks” on page B1 (you can read it here). (I notice, in the on-line version of the story, that they used a photo of the same guy I caught a little earlier in line – holstered pistol on right hip….)
Today’s editorial in the STrib was about the Gun issue.
Guns are hot. Deservedly so.
Of course, news in our society is predictable: “if it bleeds, it leads” seems still the mantra. So does conflict, as in “Groups battle over gun checks” (the STrib headline).
I was at the Thursday “battle”, and as best I could determine the only war was over who had the most buttons, and the gun side did win, it appeared. Maybe that’s why the guy is smiling in the photo, sporting his “Self Defense is a Human Right“:
(click to enlarge)

His button seemed more common than the more pleasant appearing opponents: “Minnesotans Against Being Shot”:

But my musing on this topic went in a differing direction when I saw the Star Tribune report on the hearing I had just attended.
In Minnesota, it is legal to carry a firearm into the Minnesota State Capitol: “When the legislative session opened in January, there were 523 [licensed permit-holders with right to carry weapons into the capitol]…”As of [February 21] that number had spiked to 723…By comparison, in 2012 there were only 56 new gun-carrying notifications during the entire year.”
(Star Tribune Feb 22)
There were lots of orderly people in those throngs waiting to get into the hearing on Thursday.
How many of them in the line were packing heat, like the now famous guy in the two photographs, mine and the STrib (see below)? (He seems to have been uniquely public about his right to bear arms.)

In line. Note the holstered handgun

What if all those 723 authorized to be armed and dangerous were in that line on Thursday, and their collective feelings of needing to defend themselves led to a group need to enforce their right to bear arms, and they did so?
What would happen?
Of course, nobody knows, but whether an organized armed insurrection to take over the State Capitol, or a Keystone Cops caper, the results would not have been pretty…and predictable.
“Self defense” works better in theory than it likely would in fact.
Gun sanity needs to replace the current rush to insanity.
Just my opinion.

#693 – Dick Bernard: Dan Moriarty, Substitute Teacher, and teacher in so many ways who "ate his Spinach"

February 22, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, Education, Family History, Minnesota, Peace & Justice, Quietings /by dickbernard

UPDATE 7:00 p.m. February 22: Dan’s funeral was very fitting of his rich life. Here is the program for the funeral, on page four you’ll find Dan’s biography: Dan Moriarty Program 001. Here is a Facebook album of some photos taken at the Funeral today.
This morning I plan to attend the celebration of the life of Dan Moriarty at his funeral at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in St. Paul Park MN. Judging from the tributes in his published obituary, Dan’s life is one to celebrate. (I’ve just reread those tributes. They’re very worthy your time, particularly if you’re feeling down, today, for any reason.)
I first met Dan when I joined the staff of Minnesota Education Association (MEA) in 1972. Doing the math, he was then about 48 years old.
Next Tuesday, my oldest son is 49. How time does fly.
Back in 1972, Dan was a seasoned MEA staff person – one of the very few – and I was the greenest of greenhorns, 16 years his junior. When he died I was still 16 years his junior…the age gap doesn’t change…until one dies. Age is all relative. We’re all on a trip, with the same ultimate destination. Hopefully, we make the best of the journey and, as I once heard a minister eulogize another teacher who had died much too young, in a car accident enroute to Boys Nation: that we “live before we die, and die before we are finished….”

Dan surely did “live before he died”.
I’m now long retired from MEA, and what remains from my long career with MEA is a single box in our garage.
After learning of Dan’s death, I took down that box to see if there was anything that might mention Dan’s name, and much to my surprise I came across a 10 page publication of his, published in 1993, after he’d gotten involved in substitute teaching in several east metropolitan area school districts. Below is a photo of the cover of the booklet. Here is the booklet in its entirety: Dan Moriarty “Subbing”002. Many who knew Dan, including the former recipients of his “Grandpa stories”, will doubtless recognize Dan in his advice to other aspiring substitute (and, indeed, regular) teachers. At the top of page 5: “Grandma’s Law: If you don’t eat your spinach, you don’t get your dessert.” (Somewhere I have a copy of his Grandpa Stories too, though for the moment it remains in hiding.)
(click to enlarge)

Many of the tributes to Dan, readable in his obituary, came from students who knew him only as an occasional “substitute teacher” in South Washington County, S. St. Paul, Hastings or Inver Grove Heights.
Obviously, he was the very essence of teacher, in the most positive sense of the word. A son of Enderlin, ND, he made a difference.
We who were colleagues of his on the staff of the state teacher’s union also have many fond feelings about him, still retained many years after he left MEA staff ca mid-1980s. Here are 17 former colleagues, speaking about Dan: Dan Moriarty
I can’t say I knew Dan really well. On the other hand, I knew him plenty well enough to know that he was comfortable in his own skin, and he set out to be a contributor to whatever part of society he happened to be part of. This ranged from WWII service as a Marine, to working for his Church, to advocating for teachers, to teaching, to family history, his family, and on, and on, and on.
Every one of us, in one way or another, have made, and are making, our own contributions to the world in which we live. If we’re lucky, in somebody’s cardboard box, somewhere, lies a positive memory or two of us, probably one we think was no big deal.
Maybe our emotional mood right now is such that we don’t think we made a difference.
Trust me, everyone has, and will….
Dan would probably be surprised at the attention he’s gotten these last few days, and shrug all the compliments off.
But I think he’d smile, too.
He was just out to do his best.
And he did.
The world is a better place because he was with us.
Farewell, Dan.
And to the rest of us: if there’s someone out there who made a difference in your life, and is still living, now is a good time to say, as Dan would, a gentle “thank you”.
Related: The Bottom Line of Teaching, here.

#692 – "Sahn Pahl", some points of view on pronunciation of French words

February 20, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, Family History, Immigration, Minnesota, Quebec/French-Canadians /by dickbernard

A fellow Franco-American, Jerry Foley, sent around an interesting letter from a Quebec visitor which he saw in the February 11, 2013, St. Paul Pioneer Press, entitled Sahn Pahl. Several of us, all with an interest in the general topic of being of French ancestry, or speaking or familiar with the language, weighed in with their points of view.
Here’s the originating letter:
“Have you ever noticed there are a lot of French names for places in Minnesota? The state motto is “L’Etoile du Nord” for a reason. I know people think of the area as having such a strong Scandinavian history, which it does, but it seems a lot of people here, and elsewhere, don’t seem to realize that, in terms of non-Native-American European settlement, St. Paul itself, and much of the rest of Minnesota, were originally explored and settled by French and French Canadians.
This history is represented in many names around Minnesota, from St. Paul to Lake Vermilion. Take a look online sometime and see just how many names in Minnesota are French and discover what a rich French history the state has.
I recently visited St. Paul (pronounced “Sahn Pahl”) to do some genealogical history for my family. I have many relatives who lived in and around St. Paul in the 1800s and many are buried in some of the old Catholic cemeteries around the city, complete with headstones totally in French. During my interaction with locals here, I was constantly being “corrected” for my pronunciation of common French terms and names. For example: I pronounced Brainerd as “Bray-Nair” the actual pronunciation and a much prettier sounding place than “Brain Nerd.” Don’t you think?
I pronounced St. Cloud as “Sahn Cloo,” St. Croix as “Sahn Kwah,” Duluth as “Doo loot,” Hennepin as “Ahn Pahn,” Nicollet as “Nee coh Lay,” Robert Street is “Row Bear,” Mille Lacs as “Meel Lahk,” Radisson as “Rahdee sohn” and Pepin as “Pay Pahn.”
I could go on and on as Minnesota is full of French names, but I think you get the idea. All of these pronunciations are actually the correct way to pronounce these words. So, hey, give it a try, Minnesota! Now I don’t even dream that people in Minnesota will start to pronounce these names correctly all the time, but I propose that on one day a year, everyone at least tries to. So, from here on out, I proclaim Feb. 20 pronounce-it-correctly-in-French day in Minnesota.”
Miah Saint-Georges, Saint-Aime, Quebec, Canada
Like most of we French-Canadians, Jerry sports mixed ancestry: Irish and French-Canadian (for me, it’s French-Canadian and German). For you?
But because we live in a country that has truly been a melting pot for most of its history, the pronunciation dilemma, among many others, makes it difficult to maintain some kind of true ethnic identity.
The letter was shared among the members of the steering committee which helped bring the fruition Franco-Fete in Minneapolis September 28-30, 2012. Several persons commented.
Reader. What is your opinion?
(click to enlarge)

Dr. Virgil Benoit speaks at rededication of graves of Pierre and Martha (Gervais) Bottineau at Red Lake Falls MN August 24, 2000

Dr. Virgil Benoit Prof. of French at the University of North Dakota and IFMidwest: Like the author of the article regarding pronunciation of place names, many persons are surprised that with all the names that reflect historical presence so little of that history seems living. The author would have to spend a little more time studying the complexity of the matter, and it would be good if his interest were met with a growing interest among those interested in the heritage of French and French Canadians in the Middle West. Pretty hard to be taken very seriously when so quickly passing by.

Graves of Pierre and Martha (Gervais) Bottineau, Red Lake Falls MN August 24, 2000

And here is Mary Ellen Weller, from the foreign state of Wisconsin!
Tous et toutes (one and all)
Let me just add another perspective from the standpoint of the historical power of naming. After all, the native peoples had names for most of these places before any Europeans came.
Then, there is the evidence of power shifts among these Europeans in the many place names that were simply translated from French to English as the British took over. Rainy Lake (Lac de la pluie) is a good example.
As a French teacher, I’m all for good pronunciation but I delight in the survival of so many French place names and value that far more than proper pronunciation.
Jon Tremblay, of St. Paul, who has a web presence at ToutCanadien.com*: Those who know me may be shocked by my reaction to this story. I’m satisfied with the status quo, that is, the local pronunciation.
“Proper pronunciation” is going to differ from one Francophone to another, be it Canadian or French. There is no one proper pronunciation, contrary to what some may foolishly and arrogantly believe.
The local Anglicized pronunciation makes it ours. You can tell if someone is a native Minnesotan by how they pronounce the name of a town, river, lake, county… Mispronunciation of the original language is also not something unique to French. We say “New PrAYgue” and not “New PrAHgue” for New Prague. We say “Shisago” and not “Tchisago” for Chisago. We say, “A-no-ka” and not “A-no-KA, which would give you away as an outsider right away. Lake “L’Homme-Dieu” is slaughtered beyond all recognition in French to the point of making a Francophone burst out laughing, but it’s OUR pronunciation.
I think the important thing in all of this is to remember where the names originate and give credit where credit is do. You’re not going to change the way people pronounce these names, but you could cause them to have a deeper appreciation of where they come from, which would include knowing the pronunciation in the language of origin.
* – And speaking of the web site, something I have not mentioned to anyone to date is hopefully on 4/1/2013 I will have the first of 4 books available for purchase (cheap). This will be a “Jump-Start Guide” or a “Crossing-over Guide” for those who learned France French and now want to understand Canadian French. Based on the number of requests I’ve had to provide this, I think it will be very popular and a good seller.

Old Cemetery rural Dayton MN Sep 2012 cemetery is maintained, but assorted gravestones no longer are above graves. This was a French-Canadian area.

Here’s filmmaker Christine Loys, responding from France:

Definitely interesting, not only the article, not only the fact itself… but people’s reactions to it….
I keep surprised by [some] not wishing to have a proper pronunciation… It shows a strong will of being themselves, of building an identity that is really their own identity… but to me it seems like if I decided to speak English with my own pronunciation that only the French who speak English could understand… I have been through that sort of attitude amongst French people living for many years in the UK. Some of them would never pronounce proper English and therefore would never be well understood by the English although the quality of their language was very good…
In Quebec, you’ll find an accent but that is easily understood by the French. You will always find stronger accents but even in France there are some strong accents that I can’t understand properly. It comes from old people who have never traveled out of their village or who have never met anybody else than their own family.
In Quebec, you will find many many people with the standard French accent… listen to the radio or the television and I have traveled in Quebec before and you will be surprised but it is true…. as well as in many schools… Those who make the effort, understand that it is a way of opening to the world…and it does not affect their identity… Some others would react like “I am Quebecois and that is how we are”. Fair enough for them.
The idea is that a language is for communication and if you limit it to your area… you lose too much…an accent is fine (and very nice) but not if it prevents your communication with the external world…. I think.
Of course, we are here talking about a community who has this very special definition of being American and having mostly partially French and Canadian origins…not only a community but a state…and finding an identity so many years later based only on very older origins is a challenge that I can try to understand.

Minnesota-Dakota War Veteran Tombstone at old Cemetery rural Dayton MN Sep 2012

Pierre Girard. In my opinion, except for Polish and French, most foreign names and words are pronounced phonetically. One has to have some knowledge of French to know which letters are pronounced and which are silent. Then the rest of the pronunciation is regional and who knows who set the rules for local dialect. Take the capitol of South Dakota for instance. I think all English speaking people would know how to pronounce Pierre correctly, and not as Pier. Most folks pronounce Louisville, KY correctly but then say St Louis, MO instead of “San Lewee”. Then there is Beatrice, NE. It is really pronounced “Be-AA-trice” for some strange reason. Part of the reason that many French words are pronounced incorrectly has a lot to do with the majority of “Americans” speaking only one language and that we are not the most educated nation on the planet.
These are thoughts and not excuses.
In Chippewa Falls the French name Clottier was pronounced Kloocky by the old French people as well as the pie tourtiere was pronounced “tooquere” by my dad’s French relatives. I heard folks at Our Lady of Lourdes pronounce it the same back in the old days when Les Canadienne Errants sang there.
Last (and least) from Dick Bernard: My Dad was 100% French-Canadian, so I’m 50% deeply rooted in things French. But I knew nothing about my ethnic heritage until I was over 40 years old; and did not meet my first-language French-speaking Manitoba relatives till I was over 50. Similarly, elements of the French culture also passed me by. I do not remember a single ND town in which I grew up where there was any visible French presence (including geographic names). German Catholic, Scotch Methodist, Norwegian Lutheran, Syrian Muslim, yes…but not French-Canadian.
Very recently, I came across a “Survey of N.D. Education” which I wrote for my College (Valley City State Teachers College) newspaper over 50 years ago, July 5, 1961. The second paragraph said this: “…the first school in what is now North Dakota was established at Pembina in the year 1818. It was run by the Catholic church – being used for the education of the children of the French settlers at Pembina, and it lasted for only five years. the “classroom was usually a settler’s home, and no school building was constructed in Pembina until 1876.”
At the time, I had no notion of the cultural and historical significance of that paragraph.
My favorite, accidentally discovered, French-derived Americanism is “booya”, the more or less ubiquitous summer picnic staple for churches and organization. Throw everything in the pot, and at serving time it comes out “booya”. A year or two ago I got curious about the word. Here’s what a google-search turned up.

#690 – Dick Bernard: The run-up to the Iraq War, 10 Years ago.

February 16, 2013/0 Comments/in History, Minnesota, Politics, War /by dickbernard

Early today a friend sent a link to a commentary about massive world-wide demonstrations against the pending War against Iraq on February 15, 2003.
It brought back memories of those times for me. There was a big march in Minneapolis (photos included in this post) in which I participated.
(click to enlarge)

Feb. 15, 2003 Lake Street Minneapolis MN

Hennepin Avenue Minneapolis 2/15/2003 at the Lowry tunnel

The actual bombing of Baghdad – “Shock and Awe” it was dubbed – came about March 20.
There will be a one-hour retrospective about the war on Iraq on Rachel Maddow’s show on Monday night (8 p.m. CST MSNBC).
Only the most hardened war worshipers will be able to honestly say that the Iraq War was for a good cause and worth it.
Only those most hardened protestors will be able to declare their protests to have ended up in victory – to have made a significant difference. March after march in the ensuing months and years didn’t bring the troops home, and they’re still in Afghanistan and our nations economy almost destroyed by the reckless philosophy of fighting a war, supposedly without sacrifice, on the national credit card.
But both sides will likely declare their opposing narratives about Iraq and Afghanistan to be correct, and on we’ll go.
Among the other photos I took that day are these three, which each evoked certain thoughts and feelings:

Feb 15, 2003, Minneapolis

Feb. 15, 2003, Minneapolis

To my knowledge, there were no marches in the Twin Cities on February 15 or today, remembering the 10 year anniversary.
If there had been one, I’m not sure I would have gone. I burned out on demonstrations for the sake of demonstrating some time ago.
But I think the Peace Movement remains very much alive, only in a different form than how it was, then.
Particularly, I note the sign that says 65% of Americans are against the war.
I don’t know the source of the data for that number, but it fits with my recollection of the national mood back then, and it fits the national mood even more so today.
The neocons had their war, and in large measure have gone silent, except for occasional belligerent eruptions about how important it was to do this, that or the other, even without being able to show reasonable cause or positive long-term effect of invasion, bombing, torture and the like.
I was active then for Peace and Justice (I took those photos ‘on the street’, part of the marchers). I’m even more active now. I just do things a bit differently. Maybe I’m typical, maybe I’m the odd duck.
But I think we’re slowly on a more positive course, and with joint efforts, we can make this a more peaceful and just world.
That last message, “We will REAP what we SOW“, could end up being true.
We need to be the cause in the matter to prove it wrong.
It’s in our court, as individuals, in many tiny and not so tiny ways.
WE are the cause in the matter of our future.

#689 – Dick Bernard: 55-54, Five OT's….

February 14, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, Education, Family History, Minnesota, Quietings /by dickbernard

Now and then we go to watch 8th grader Ryan and his B-squad teammates play basketball. We’ve done this since he started in Woodbury Athletic Association (WAA) a few years ago.
Odds are that we haven’t watched a future State All-Star in any of these years. These are kids who like to play basketball, and each year you can see their skills develop: dribbling, passing, shooting, teamwork….
It’s fun.
Yesterday afternoon, Ryan’s team was playing Oak-Land, on their home court at Woodbury Middle School.
It was a fast moving game, and interesting (which, to me, means “close”). Towards the end, I thought Oak-Land was pulling away – as I recall they were up by 7 – but the Woodbury team tied the score, and the game went into overtime.
(click to enlarge photos)

Then a second overtime; then a third, a fourth, a fifth….
Overtimes started out at three minutes, then were reduced to two minutes, then came the fifth overtime, only a minute in duration.
Pressure was on. Perhaps there were 50 or so of we spectators there, and we became more attentive and animated. Such happens in close contests.
Then came the final free throw.
Of course, there’s no announcer at these games, and no high tech scoreboard technology saying who’s shooting, so it was just a Woodbury Middle School kid standing on the free throw line at the east end of the court, shooting two.
His first missed.
Then the second. Tension was on. I was trying to take a snapshot so could only listen to the results, and I knew by the cheering that the ball had found its target!

I doubt anybody from either side left the gym unhappy after that game. It was good, healthy competition and everybody played their best.
Thanks to the kids, the coaches, the ref, the fans, the public schools.
The kids congratulated each other, and off we all went.
It was good.