North Dakota – Page 9 – Thoughts Towards a Better World

#771 – Dick Bernard: Heritage. The Parish Picnic

September 8, 2013/2 Comments/in Community, History, Minnesota, North Dakota /by dickbernard

NOTE TO SUBSCRIBERS AND FREQUENT VISITORS TO THIS SITE. PLEASE SEE NOTE AT THE END OF THIS POST.
Enroute to Mass at Basilica of St. Mary this morning, Cathy, my wife, told me that the annual parish picnic was today. That was news to me, though I usher at the Church. But they’re always fun.
Along the way we chatted about parish picnics we had known: me in rural North Dakota, and she in St. Paul.
They had common elements, these picnics: “potluck” meals (“bring a dish to share”), games for kids, and for adults, like the ever-popular cake walk; maybe somebody playing some music. “A good time was had by all” would be a usual and accurate descriptor.
I thought of one particular photo from my past: the only picture I know of from a parish picnic, at St. Elizabeth’s in Sykeston, North Dakota, probably from 1959, when the new Church was about completed. Here is the photo:
(click on photos to enlarge)

Sykeston ND, on the St. Elizabeth school grounds, circa 1959

One of the ladies was holding, along with the Nun, something brought to the event. It could have been a cake. Something was heating in the pot. One of the ladies was wearing a hat – in those days, most of the ladies wore hats, all of them inside the Church, that’s for sure!
But the whole essence was community togetherness, relationship building over a hotdish, or a piece of cake or pie.
Cathy mentioned “Booyah”, something I never heard of out on the prairie but which is still a staple at big gatherings particularly in these parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Some years ago I had occasion to look up the history of “Booyah”, and this is what I found. You’re never exactly sure what you’re going to get in a dish of Booyah, but it is likely to be pretty good!
Today’s event was more downtown big city, as one would expect at a major church on a major downtown Minneapolis street, but the principles are exactly the same. Get people together, often strangers (as we met today), and let people get to know each other over a casual meal.
For us, today, it meant meeting a young lawyer and Delta Air Lines ticketing agent and their three year old son who hailed from Louisiana and North Carolina respectively, and met in New Orleans several years ago, and now live in North Minneapolis. We had a great visit.
For us it was Famous Dave’s today, and not Booyah, but what difference does it make? It was a great time in the city!

Basilica Parish Picnic September 8, 2013

Famous Dave’s dishes up the goodies at Basilica September 8, 2013

NOTE TO SUBSCRIBERS AND OTHER VISITORS TO THIS BLOG:
As blogs go, mine is very active, varied, and probably fairly small in readership. But I am always surprised by now many people actually stop by, and particularly comment, on one topic or another. A recent example is the Syria post of September 3, which would mostly be seen at the time it is published, but to which later comments have been added. This happens frequently.
In addition, over the history of this blog, I have found myself quite without intending beginning informal series on a particular topic. For instance, this is at least the 8th post in recent years specifically relating to some aspect of “heritage”. A very major current issue for me is the situation with the Minnesota Orchestra. Etc.
With this post, I am going to work harder to connect blogs of like topics, and to simply suggest to everyone who is a reader to bookmark some topic in which they might have an interest, so that they can check back once in awhile to see if there are additional comments.
This blog began as an experiment. It has sufficient history now to be a bit better organized.
Here are some topics. If there are several posts on a topic, the post highlighted below is more-or-less the index blog, from which all other related posts are linked. There are a number of other series, but most of these are on issues which have come and gone.
Thanks for checking in.
Matters relating to French-Canadians and French in America (September 1, 2012, a starter site for a planned French-American Heritage Foundation website)
Heritage (Oct 5, 2011, 1st of several)
Mary Ann Mahers Peace Corps Experience in Vanuatu South Pacific (Nov. 10, 2012, a continuing blog of Mary Ann’s experiences)
Minnesota Orchestra Lock-Out (Aug 30, 2013, is anchor post. A major ongoing issue since October, 2012.)
On Growing Older, (May 5, 2013, and continuing in other posts.)
Remembering Sykeston ND (May 4, 2013, several posts linked from the original post)
United Nations Flag Issue at Hennepin Co MN (March 27, 2013, ongoing issue)
Valley City State Teachers College Memories late 1950s early 1960s (Jan 2, 2013, all related are linked within this post)

#763 – Dick Bernard: Congratulations, Tom and Jennifer, at your 25th Anniversary. "For everything, there is a season."

August 23, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, Family History, Health, Minnesota, North Dakota, Quietings /by dickbernard

(click to enlarge photos)

Rick, Joan and Ron reminisce, August 21, 2013

Today is son Tom and Jennifers 25th wedding anniversary.
Congratulations to you both.
Achieving 25 years together is one of those significant accomplishments, not easy to attain. That’s long enough to experience both the unknown and unknowable. For a couple to reach 25 years together is a significant achievement, as anyone who has ever been in any relationship can attest.
For just a single example, Tom’s Mom, Barbara, and I married 50 years ago this year: June 8, 1963. Neither of us were expecting that she’d spend almost all of our very short marriage ill, dying little over two years later, July 24, 1965.
Roughly half-way through that brief marriage, Tom was born. He will turn 50 in a few months.
I became a single parent early.
Just two days ago I was out to Anoka, our first home after Barbara died, part of a reunion of fellow staff members of Roosevelt Junior High School in Blaine MN. I had signed a contract to teach there three days before Barbara, died, and I began teaching there scarce a month later, doing my best to cope, with the substantial help of new friends in my new home, far from ND, where we had lived the earlier years of our lives. I was there seven years, moving on in an unexpected direction which occupied my next 27 years.

Roosevelt Jr. High School, Blaine MN, Summer, 1968. Photo by Dick Bernard

I told a colleague, Wednesday, that I still have not pieced together the events of that month of August, 1965…I guess it’s like living through a disaster: you remember it happened, but not exactly what. Survival trumps memory.
The picture which leads this post, was taken at that reunion two days ago: three of my colleagues from those early years. The photo started life as a mistake, but under the circumstances it is an ideal representation of times past. I taught with these folks. They are about my age. They can represent everyone I’ve ever known on the path of life thus far.
Earlier that same day, August 21, I received an e-mail from someone in Maryland, whose Mom remembers my parents, most likely in 1939-40, when they lived in Valley City, North Dakota, essentially next door to her then-young Mom and Dad. It caused me to dig out the earliest photo I have of myself, with my parents, 73 years ago in Valley City:

Henry and Esther Bernard with newborn son, Richard, May, 1940, Valley City ND

Her Mom has to be somewhere near 100 now.
(It’s odd what such pictures sometimes bring to the surface. For those of a certain age, who can forget the coal chute, whose door is visible behind the crib.)
We all know, as we age, priorities begin to change, often due to circumstances we couldn’t anticipate; often because our perspectives change.
Anybody whose life begins to approach old age is reminded of this when more and more frequently we attend someone’s funeral, or visit someone we know in a Nursing Home. To paraphrase the Bible phrase Ecclesiastes 3: 1-15, Weddings are replaced by Baptisms are replaced by Graduations are replaced by Weddings…. For everything there is a season. Fall is as certain as Winter, as is Spring and then Summer.
Last Saturday, at another reunion of former colleagues from the ever-more distant olden days of work with the Minnesota Education Association (1972-2000), an early must-do was to read a partial list of colleagues who had departed this life. It is an ever longer list. Each name, as read, brought back memories to all of us in attendance.

John reads the roll of departed colleagues, August 17, 2013

We were all young, once.
Enroute home on Wednesday, an unexpected detour on the freeway gave me an opportunity to stop in and visit a retired minister I’ve known and been good friends with for the last ten or so years.
Till very recently he, another friend and I have had a long-standing date, once a month, to meet for coffee and conversation.
Earlier this summer, William collapsed in Church, ending up in a convalescent facility.
Yesterday, I stopped to visit him there, and he’d been transferred to an assisted living facility, so I traveled a few more miles to visit him there. Returning home seems not an option for him any more.
Three short months ago, William and his wife had certain routines. He’s well into his 80s, now, so they knew the odds of change increased every day.
But we never like to anticipate the winter of our lives, whose evidence I increasingly see at funerals and memorials for people that I know.
Had Barbara lived, earlier this summer we might have celebrated our 50th anniversary. Such possibility was not to be.
“Lord willing”, as Dad would say, my 75th birthday is not far in the future. Wednesday night came a call that my once-young Uncle Vince is hospitalized once again. He’s made it to 88, but the slope is ever more slippery. At some point, reality becomes undeniable.
The family script mitigates against he or I or anyone within seeing 100, but that’s okay.
Contribute in some way to others lives today.
There may not be a tomorrow.
Happy anniversary, Tom and Jennifer.
We’re proud of you. We love you.

Barbara Sunde Bernard, June 8, 1963 – July 24, 1965

Dick Bernard and Barbara Sunde Wedding June 8, 1963, Valley City ND, with families.

#750 – Dick Bernard: "Detroit"

July 23, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, Economics, History, North Dakota, Politics /by dickbernard

MORE: See followup post July 24, 2013, here.
For a long well-written summary of “Detroit” and (alternatively) “Pittsburgh”, check this. (I’ve been to Detroit several times between the 1960s and 1987; to Pittsburgh several times from the 1960s to 2011.)
In yesterday’s e-mails came a long and hideous recitation of the problems in “Detroit”. It was what I expected – the guy who forwarded it, forwards similar stuff frequently: a dozen hideous photos of destroyed places in Detroit, surrounded by an endless recitation of words like “corruption”; and helpful words like “illegals”, “Muslims”, “Mexicans”, “Sharia Law”…. “Detroit” is one scary place.
The preface to this “forward” apparently came from two, perhaps three, different people, exactly as stated:
“Maybe you’ve seen this one before. Pretty scary stuff…….L”;
“This may be construed as racism which is not the intent.The devastation of a once vibrant city in the US today is appalling….DETROIT IS THE FUTURE OF U.S. AND CANADA”
“After 5 Democratic Black mayors in a row [three are in jail and the other too have been indited] all for theft, fraud,lying and other meriad [sic] charges, what result would be expected?
The city is now in bankruptcy and now run by a bankruptcy chief appointed by the Michigan State Governor and the debtors will get 10 cents on the dollar.—D”
All the invective is to be expected, and typical of the venom sent around, e-mail box to e-mail box.
Granted, “Detroit” is a disaster, but far more complex than conveyed by racist invective. It is a very large example of a failure of far more than just a city or its citizens, as pointed out very well by Michelle in a comment at the end of this post.
As it happens, the guy who sent this to me graduated from the same tiny high school in the same tiny North Dakota town in the same year I did. We were classmates. In fact, both of us were in the same town a short time ago for a 100th anniversary of the local school, which has been closed for eight years, likely never to open again.
It was a nostalgic couple of days. There is an unexpected opportunity, now, to compare our little town with “Detroit”.
Our North Dakota town is typical of hamlets everywhere. Put together, they would equal or exceed “Detroit” of far-right legend: vacant buildings, etc., etc. There may not be the crime, but there is a logical reason for that: what self-respecting crook would waste their time in these tiny places? Maybe a meth lab in some abandoned country building, or such.
But these thousands of unfortunate little places share a great deal in common with Detroit. They are casualties of our “free market” system and their survival depends on the ever fewer people who live within their bounds, many of whom survive on hated things like Social Security and Medicare, and are in no way equipped to rehabilitate a disaster beyond their control.
The larger community, called State or Nation, has for all intents and purposes deserted them.
In the little town where my classmate and I were on July 6, there always was a single block Main Street with a few outlier businesses. When I returned there 55 years ago, there were, best as I recall, 13 businesses on that Main Street. Today there are two – at least I think there are two, there may be only one. (There were a few businesses on side streets years ago; all but one has disappeared today.)
The rest of the town is similar. The empty school, left to its own devices, as it likely will be since it is expensive to heat, even minimally, will just continue to deteriorate and ultimately become uninhabitable – just like many Detroit buildings.
While in my little town, I did an informal count, and it appeared that only a bit more than half of the buildings I knew as a youngster remained 55 years later.
There is no way up for this little town for which I, for one, have fond memories. And I think it’s a typical small North Dakota town.
It is really no different than Detroit, except that it is small and anonymous….
As for “Detroit”, it has become a stock hate word for overtly racist commentary like the forward I received.
Read Michelle’s comments, below the photo, and give this some thought.
We all, in one way or another, have helped create Detroit, and my little town….
(click to enlarge – this photo is from another little town in which I once lived.)

A decaying North Dakota public school, 2007.

Comment from Michelle, July 23, 2013:
I lived and worked in the heart of African American communities in St. Louis during the late 80’s-early 90’s. And like a good liberal, white Minnesotan, tried to make positive changes in an urban city that, while not as bad as Detroit, had and still has it’s share of challenges – it’s still the murder capital of the midwest. Like St. Louis, Detroit is surrounded by super-wealthy suburbs that exist in isolation with no “metropolitan planning commission” like we have here in MN. Again, I would say that here in MN, while people sometimes feel the Metro Planning Commission seems meddlesome, our good government nature here has allowed our communities to thrive by helping to balance resources regionally vs. let cities battle it out on their own.
My perspective is this – like what I experienced in St. Louis, everyone is to blame for Detroit – This is not some “bad Republican corporate white man problem.”
The State of Michigan should have put a regional planning and development commission together a long, long time ago.
The business community should have diversified from automobile dominance many, many years ago.
The unions should have worked harder to disassociate themselves from the “mob” and other illegal activities that still plague the biggest unions.
African American communities should have worked harder to find and groom strong, moral leaders who when they got their chance at running Detroit, which many, many did, could have been more effective in representing the true needs of the community.
And “liberals” like us on this email blog… could and should remember that business is not all evil – we need to champion strong companies to fuel our inner cities and speak out against corruption in the unions when we see it as well.
On issues this big – the complete collapse of a major American city – we all share blame and it’s a wake-up call for the future.

#749 – Dick Bernard: Dr. Soren Kolstoe, naturalist, outdoorsman, poet.

July 21, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, History, Nature, North Dakota, Quietings /by dickbernard

Depiction of Dr. Soren O. Kolstoe at entrance to Kolstoe Hall Valley City (ND) State University

A while ago I was researching answers to a 1957 North Dakota test for high school Juniors and Seniors about North Dakota History, Geography and Government.
Reviewing a 1963 Geography text by Bernt L. Wills I found a number of poems about North Dakota outdoors written by Soren Kolstoe, a name familiar to me from my days at Valley City State Teachers College. Dr. Wills was clearly taken with Dr. Kolstoe’s sensitivity to the land and fauna of North Dakota and wanted to include some of his work in his book.
The poems intrigued me and I set out to try to find out more about Dr. Kolstoe and his work. Thanks to Shirley Lindsay, daughter of “Koley’s” (Dr. Kolstoe’s) close friend, hunting buddy, and legendary Dean of Men Lou Bruhn, I made contact with a couple of Dr. Kolstoe’s children, one of whom sent me a signed book of poetry, Lyrics of the Prairie, written by Dr. Kolstoe years ago (access to all poems below the photos).
Dr. Kolstoe was also legendary at STC. He joined the faculty in 1924,and retired in 1958. (Turns out he was 70 when he retired, and I’m 73 now, which gives one pause.) A few weeks after his retirement I began my college career there, so I didn’t know him personally, though he was still an advisor to the Fraternity I joined in 1960. But he was larger than life, even as a retiree.
[UPDATE July 27, 2013, the Kolstoe family shared with me a 2003 memo written by a staff person at Concordia College, Moorhead, about Dr. Kolstoe’s bio: Kolstoe,Soren-History]
A residence building at present day VCSU is named after him.
Here is an undated photo of Dr. Kolstoe; a second of him ca 1959 in the college yearbook; and of the hall named for him, and following the photos are Dr. Kolstoe’s poems and some comments of Carolyn Kolstoe, wife of Dr. Kolstoe’s son, Ralph, himself one of two Kolstoe sons who achieved, like their Dad, PhDs in Psychology.
(click on photos to enlarge them)

Dr. Soren Kolstoe, undated, at a State Fair in ND, with his display of wild bird eggs.

“Dr. S. O. Kolstoe enjoys EBC informal initiation” EBC section of 1960 Viking Annual, Valley City State Teachers College

Kolstoe Hall Valley City State University July 5, 2013

The family has given permission to share Dr. Kolstoe’s poems about North Dakota wildlife and environment, and because of their number – over 60 poems – they are presented here in three sections. (The first three pages in each are identical). It is believed these may have been published ca 1965, but that is uncertain.
Part 1: Lyrics of Prairie #1001
Part 2: Lyrics of Prairie #2002
Part 3: Lyrics of Prairie #3003
Here’s Carolyn Kolstoe, June 19, 2013 (shared with her permission): “I am delighted to know that you have enjoyed my father-in-laws’ poetry. He published this booklet of his love of North Dakota and the pleasures that he found there. [He sold the book] while he was displaying his bird egg and stuffed animals collection at state fairs. [Dr. Kolstoe] received his BA at St. Olaf, Northfield, MN, and his PhD at University of North Dakota. He taught at VCSTC for many years, then in retirement, was hired by the North Dakota Wildlife Federation to visit any school in the state to show slides and read poetry of animals of the state. We were living in Grand Forks when he came to visit the schools there.
He was born in Haugesund, Norway, January 4 1888, and died in Grand Forks ND February 12, 1978. [Sons] Oliver is living in CA, John is in Montana, and Ralph [Carolyn’s husband lives, depending on season, near Bemidji MN, Marco Island FL or Grand Forks ND]. Ralph retired from the UND Psychology Dept after having taught there for 35 years.
Soren’s egg collection was donated to the state of ND and while it was owned by Soren, it was one of the largest collections in the United States. He had the eggs boxed by the number in a usual nest, bedded in cotton with a glass cover. Many were displayed in the museum near the State Capitol in Bismarck. I am not sure where they are presently.”
Dr. Kolstoe had a special permit to do the egg collecting.
Anyone wishing to get a message to Dr. Kolstoe’s family can simply write dick_bernardATmsnDOTcom, with Kolstoe in subject line.

ND Wild Roses between LaMoure and Berlin ND, July 7, 2013

#748 – Dick Bernard: Two American Flags. What does the "United" in United States of America mean?

July 19, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, Guns, History, North Dakota, Politics /by dickbernard

At the end of this post is the link to President Obama’s talk on the importance and implications of the Martin/Zimmerman case, and other links and comments.
*
July 6, enroute from Sykeston to Jamestown ND, I saw a huge American flag to the right, and a sign leading to Historic Ft. Seward just above Jamestown. I decided to stop and take a look.
(click on photos to enlarge)

Ft. Seward, near Jamestown ND, July 6, 2013

Ft. Seward, it turns out, was a short-lived obscure post Civil War encampment, largely built to secure the westward expansion of settlement through Dakota Territory. A YouTube video claims Gen. Custer was there before Little Big Horn. Maybe so, though he embarked from Ft. Abraham Lincoln in what is now Mandan ND area in 1876.
Nonetheless, the Stars and Stripes very impressively fly over the James River valley, with the substantial help of the constant North Dakota wind.
Much devotion is given our national banner. We pledge allegiance to “the flag of the United States of America“.
These dis-united days in our Republic, I sometimes think a more appropriate description might be the “dis-jointed state of Americans”. Even the term “balkanized” is too tame, since we are a society that has become fragmented almost door-by-door over infinite topics, the most recent highly publicized one being the case of State of Florida vs George Zimmerman.
We are, basically, very good, and very caring people. But we can, and do, these days tend to fragment ourselves by our selection of what information to let in and keep out of our seeing and hearing.
We make our case on what we believe, and associate only with others with similar beliefs, others beliefs be damned.
On a societal level, many can and do “State-shop” to find out where they have the most rights and least responsibilities. More of us have the financial means to personalize our selections than perhaps any society in human history, including our own U.S. society of the not too distant past.
We reverence winning, with little concern for those who lose, and the winners get stronger and more dominant every day….
In the process we have come to possess, in my opinion, a very dangerous luxury which in time will come to destroy us if not monitored and adjusted. We are less and less a “society”, a “United States” than a society of individuals. We don’t have to talk with or listen to anybody who doesn’t agree with us. We can attempt to legislate our personal opinion (called a “win”) in the short window of opportunity available; but the temporary win leads to potential for a later loss.
Earlier today, a friend and I talked a bit about the “olden days” in which we lived, before even television, before telephone converations were private.
People were much the same, then as now, but did not possess the dubious luxury available to too many now: of “winning” their notions of a perfect world, unaccountable to others not as fortunate as themselves.
Where from here? Here’s an alternate view visioned by some unknown person at a past time.
About 20 miles before Ft. Seward on that same July 6, I decided to take a short side trip in tiny Pingree ND, a place where my family had lived for a single year, 1942-43.
On the side of a deserted building, there, was the project of somebody, sometime, expressing an ideal that we might well pay more attention to. It is a stylized American flag – the second flag referred to in the subject of this blog. I took a photo, note the text:

Pingree ND July 6, 2013

Since its beginning in 2009, I’ve captioned this blog, “Thoughts Towards a Better World”.
The photo of the flag with a message captures the spirit of that thought nicely.
Additional Notes:
In the matter dominating the air in recent weeks, Florida v. Zimmerman, today came a very interesting description of how Abraham Lincoln viewed “stand your ground” in 1838, 175 years ago, long before he even thought of becoming U.S. President. (What he said is in the last couple of paragraphs, but the entire article is well worth reading in context with the present day.)
Also, today, President Obama spoke from the heart about the need for a national conversation on the issue. The video of his remarks is here. An editorial about the Presidents remarks from the New York Times is here. Lots of the comments from anonymous types are as revealing as they are troubling. Racism is alive and well in our society.
My personal thoughts on Martin/Zimmerman filed on July 15, 2013, here.
Comments:
from Shirley, July 20, 2013: Morgan Freeman – I agree! (link here)
from Dick, in response to Shirley: Good one. And it’s even true! http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/blackhistory.asp
One of many best lines in the Presidents talk was the reference to his daughters and their generation (which would be my grandkids generation). By and large, the kids get it far better than we ever will.
Unfortunately, I doubt we’ll ever reach the ideal posed by Morgan, who’s an immensely successful black man.
We have an entire history as a country to deal with. We were founded as a state that depended on slavery.
But, we march on, by bits and pieces. Thanks much.
Here’s a very long and excellent column about the President’s Talk, yesterday.
from Jeff, July 20:
The cult of individualism in the large sense (not the one referred to by right wing moral majority types) is a major factor in our nations changes.
You know that sociologists have studied the lack of communal civic engagement, i.e. the decline of bowling leagues, neighborhood groups, organizations like Elks, Kiwanis, etc.
I believe that conservative 1% and the ethos of the supreme court’s conservative majority supports dis-unity and balkanization in its reverence for states rights, and individualism(selective of course).
This is expressed thru the decline in societal spending on public education at all levels. I honestly believe this is if not expressed but implied in the entire Conservative political movement from the 60’s thru to today. (Maybe demography will eventually override it, maybe the current Republican tea party etc is the final “stand your ground” act of this before a different peopled nation overcomes it.)
Basically in the past 20th century there were two places where all people commingled and had to “put up ” with each other. The first was the armed services which thru the draft put everyone together. The second is/was the public school system.
The Draft was done away with more by the left, the public school system is being starved by the right.
from Mike, July 20:
Your comments are often thought provoking and always interesting. I’m not surprised the state’s case was poorly presented. In trying a case, the attorney must believe in the justice of his case. Did the Assistant DA trying the case really believe his cause was just? We can’t read his mind, but we look at how his argument was presented.
The case was in Florida, after all.
From Dick, in response to Mike:
I think the Florida folks did what they could. I spent a career representing people, and a constant was second-guessing oneself, and being second-guessed. It is an imperfect deal, but the best we’ve got.
From Bruce, July 20:
I’ve just finished reading Ann Petry’s, The Street. I’m not sure why I choose to read it, but I was on my way out of town and needed some reading material to distract me from our worldly condition. It was written in 1946 and it’s about racism in America. I wasn’t thinking about the Zimmerman trial or the “Stand your Ground” laws at the time I saw the book on the shelf in our downstairs hallway. I remember buying it several years ago and not having read it, so I decided to try it out. What a surprise. Take all the crap of the Zimmerman trial, “Stand your Ground”, and Obama’s off the cuff, candid talk on race, and forget about it and read this novel.
For those who think racism in America has improved since the time Petry wrote this novel, think again. I think Obama should read this book before he talks about racial progress. What we’ve done as a society is disconnect racism from the over-riding American Values. We’ve separated it from materialism and competition for material wealth which provides power to dominate. We default to the position that in America everyone regardless of race, etc. should have the opportunity to achieve material success. So we create civil right laws, fight wars to make sure the right to opportunity is achievable. We don’t question the underlying cause of racism in America, which is the quest for materialism that is supported by the free market place, and places everyone in competition for material success. I think that should have been the conversation that Obama should have started with his gifted rhetorical skills. To put it bluntly, it’s the economic system of capitalism and the free market place that the president supports that is responsible for how we treat each other.
The Street, along with The Great Gatsby, and Howard Zinn’s, The Peoples history of America, should be on everyone’s reading list. The President’s message was for those who want to feel good. It wasn’t based in truth. It obscured the truth.

#746 – Dick Bernard: The George Zimmerman case: An Action with Consequences, for Zimmerman, (and perhaps, even, Possibilility for something positive.)

July 15, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, Guns, History, Media, North Dakota, Peace & Justice, Politics /by dickbernard

UPDATE: This post, reposted on the Woodbury Patch, has thus far attracted 29 comments pro and con.
*
For anyone interested in a much longer summary of news after the George Zimmerman verdict Saturday, here is an interesting recap of reactions entitled “Insufficient Justice”.
Yesterday, my friend, Greg, a retired Prosecutor, asked me if I was surprised by the verdict in the Trayvon Martin death by gunshot last February.
I said “yes” – I had thought George Zimmerman would at minimum have gotten some ‘slap on the wrist’ punishment. After all, he’d killed an unarmed person who, it turned out, was minding his own business.
I asked Greg the same question back – was he surprised? “Not at all”, he said. He lived a career with the reality that prosecutors face every day in our system: the issue of proof “beyond reasonable doubt”.
Personally, I think there is some significant “silver” – a glimmer of hope – beyond the dark cloud of what was a legal murder of an innocent teenager in Florida 16 months ago.
We are a TV ‘soundbite’ nation where news comes our ways in those annoying crawlers on the TV screen or equivalent; or in very short snippets of news reports repeated over and over and over. Or Twitter feeds….
This blog, at this point 198 words, is too long for most citizens.
You’ve come this far: give me 400 more words of your time.
1. We’ll likely never know how Mr. Zimmerman really feels now, many months after he chose to pull his weapon and kill Trayvon Martin. Without that weapon, that night, he probably wouldn’t have engaged Martin; or if he did, the result at worst would have been what usually happens in a normal fight. All the gun accomplished was to destroy two lives: the young man who was killed that night; and the successful (and legal) perpetrator who will now be used for awhile by those who feel he helped their cause; but who inevitably will be discarded, becoming a nobody, if anything less attractive to a potential employer.
I do wonder how he really feels…we’ll likely never know that.
2. There is an opportunity presented, here, for a deep national conversation, person-to-person, town-by-town, about many things.
Is Florida a safer place because of the gun laws that spawned the Trayvon Martin killing? Will the incident encourage people to move to Florida?
Is the marketing of fear that increases gun sales solely a benefit to the gun industry? After all, it is hard to imagine that vigilante gun owners will be much encouraged by the very real life sentence given Mr. Zimmerman in the wake of the incident in Sanford FL. He is free, but how free is he, really?
3. Will this tragic incident encourage more talk about the down-side of increasing attempts to increase “states” and “individual” “rights” (as opposed to acknowledging the positive role of a responsible (and responsive) federal government and citizens who are as aware of their responsibility to society at large as to their rights as individuals?

We like to pretend we don’t need government: that government gets in the way, particularly the farther away it is.
Is this so? Recently I did a 850 mile roundtrip to reunion places I was visiting in North Dakota. In my summary blog piece about the trip I chose to focus on Interstate 94, which began construction the very year I started college in 1958.
We Americans live on these highways.
In my trip I traveled:
550 miles on Interstate 94, the granddaddy of Federal projects
154 miles on U.S. 52 and 281
140 miles on N.D. and MN State Highways
a tiny handful miles on county roads and city streets.
You can guess which roads were least desirable. There’s reason I chose the Federal highways whenever possible.
I don’t need to explain any more.
Let’s talk.

#743 – Dick Bernard: Remembering Donald Koller, and a kid memory of The Lone Ranger….

July 3, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, Family History, History, North Dakota /by dickbernard

UPDATE July 12, 2013: In memory of Don Koller, and granddaughter Samantha, and Donald’s parents Alma and Michael Koller. (See note from Rosella Koller below the photo; received July 11, 2013.)
(click on photos to enlarge)

Don Koller and Sam

I asked Rosella for more information about the photos. Rosella: That was our Granddaughter, Samantha. When she was 10 she had a double lung transplant. She got married in our home, in July of 2012. Passed in October in our home. We knew she was getting sick again, but surprised she died so suddenly. Don died Dec. 12, 2012. We have two other grandchildren, Danille, she came with us when we met [you] at the Mall of America. And we have one grandson Brenton. Rosella

Graves of Alma and Michael Koller, St. Elizabeth’s Cemetery Sykeston ND July 6, 2013

*
I began this series about Sykeston ND, intending to write only a single post. This is the 7th, and I won’t guarantee it’s the last….
Note: There are six other posts about Sykeston:
Feb 11, 2013: “Sykes High, oh Sykes High School”
May 4 (the main article): Thoughts on Sykeston High School at its Centennial
May 9 A 1957 Social Studies Test
June 12 Remembering Sykeston in late 1940s
June 28 Snapshots in History of Sykeston
June 29 Sports in 1950s small towns in North Dakota
Two of the certainties of life for all of us are that our life will end, and we don’t know when, or how. That we don’t know the answer to the “when or how” question is, in my opinion, a blessing.
So, it was a surprise to learn, in a June 28 e-mail, of the death of Sykeston kid friend Don Koller. Donald was one of about a dozen people I was trying to be in touch with about Sykeston memories in anticipation of this weekends Centennial of the Sykeston School.
His wife, Rosella, wrote: “I thought you would like to know Donald passed Dec 12 of last year 2012”.
We are all familiar with these kinds of messages. I had lost track of Donald for many years until a few years ago when somehow or other one of his daughters located me with a question. Some years later – I have a photo somewhere – Donald, Rosella and some of their family met me at Mall of America and we had a delightful visit. Obviously, I had a working e-mail address.
I looked up Donald’s name on the internet to see if there was an obit. There was one, it is here. They had lived for years in Armada, which is a village about 50 miles north of Detroit, and 50 miles east of Flint. I recall Donald mentioning that he had been in the military for quite a number of years, and then in the automobile industry for a career. (His brother, Robert, says it was the Army, and Chrysler Corporation respectively – Robert was a 27 year Army veteran.)
For some reason, I remember Donald’s affection for gardening.
I asked Rosella about cause of death: “He had quadruple bypass in 2008, they put pace maker at that time, and he was diabetic, in beginning of last year they put him on Coumadin, and got worse, in and out of hospital every month of last year. He was falling a lot, in Dec he fell and must of hurt his head, had a brain bleed, he had surgery of the head. He never recovered died December 12th, thank you for asking.”
Robert Koller, July 1: “I was a student of Sykeston High 1944 thru 1948. Your Dad was the Principle at that time. My brother Donald told me that he had been in contact with you. That was quite a while ago for sure. I have always enjoyed the history of Sykeston. Mr Huss was the janitor/caretaker while I was there and he and my father both came from the same place in Austria…(July 2) “Once when I was home I took Donald with me back to Ft. Gordon, Georgia where I was stationed. I was in the Army for 27 years and retired from it at Ft Lewis, Washington in 1976…After awhile Donald joined the U,S, Army and I took him to South Carolina where he had to report. After that he was in the Detroit area where he met Rosella. After they were married they went to Germany.”
Such is how personal history happens and starts to come together.
The 1940 census of Sykeston, which I have only recently accessed, shows Martin Huss, 57, to be from Austria; and Michael Koller, 56, from Hungary…. Donald apparently was almost exactly my age, as he doesn’t appear in the census, which was taken in early April, 1940. Neither was I.
His siblings, Jane (15), Robert (9) and Mary (2) are all listed. The census lists his Dad as employed by the WPA – the Depression was still on. His mother, born in Wisconsin, was 40. Jane had been born in Montana.
Donald and I likely met in First Grade at St. Elizabeth’s School in 1946. As I recall, Grades 1 and 2 were together; and Grades 3, 4 an 5; and 6, 7 and 8. I had completed 5th grade when we moved. I recall being in their small house only once, and meeting his Mom and his sister. I never met Robert or his Dad or his older sisters, to my knowledge.
As kids can be, we boys tended to be found at the same places, doing the same things. I recall nothing dramatic – when I had to make my First Confession I recall really struggling to figure out some sin to confess! I just knew I had to confess something. Best I could come up with, that first time, was saying “darn”….
But, kids being kids, I would suppose that at one time or another we qualified individually or collectively for one of my favorite old-time words, “rapscallion” (rascal).
I have been developing a list of kid memories, perhaps for another column sometime, but there is one specific personal memory of Donald Koller (he would have been “Donald”, as I was “Richard”, then).
The 1940s were radio days – there was no such thing as television out in North Dakota. And there were books, and comic books, if you could afford one, occasionally.
A favorite, back in those days, was the Lone Ranger, and his faithful sidekick, Tonto.
Here’s a piece of recreated radio from back in the day….
For some reason, Donald was always the Lone Ranger, and at least on some occasions I was enlisted as his Tonto. We’d “gallop” – we knew how horses ran – a few blocks, hitting ourselves on the rear-end (we were, after all, also the horse on which we were riding), me dutifully a bit behind him. At some point it’d be “whoaaaa, big fella” and we’d take on some imaginary adversary behind some bush or tree, and then be off again.
Why I remember that, and why with Donald, specifically, I have no idea.
But I do.
Six years away from Sykeston, and we came back for my senior year in 1957-58.
Don was in my class, and he is listed as “President”, but there is no picture of him. I don’t recall re-engaging with him as in the Lone Ranger days. At about mid-year he dropped out and to my recollection joined the Army, and the rest is history.
But I’ve never forgotten him.
I think we all wonder, once in awhile, if our having been around has made any difference to anyone…. It does, Donald did.
Thanks for the memories, Donald.
Rosella Koller can be reached at rosekollerATyahooDOTcom; Robert Koller at robertDOTkollerATcomcastDOTnet

#741 – Dick Bernard: Remembering the "Field of Dreams": Sports in 1950s small town North Dakota

June 29, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, Family History, History, Minnesota, North Dakota /by dickbernard

Other posts in this series:
Feb 11, 2013: “Sykes High, oh Sykes High School”
May 4 (the main article): Thoughts on Sykeston High School at its Centennial
May 9 A 1957 Social Studies Test
June 12 Remembering Sykeston in late 1940s
June 28 Snapshots in History of Sykeston
July 3: Remembering Don Koller and the Lone Ranger
*
One week ago today I was at a baseball game featuring 5th graders from Apple Valley and Bloomington, two twin cities suburbs. The game was at Kent Hrbek Field, a ballpark named after the Bloomington native and Minnesota Twins legend which is perhaps two miles from the old Metropolitan Stadium, where, as a kid, Hrbek developed a love for the game that became his profession, including two World Series championships.
What drew me there was grandson Parker, birthday partner of mine, who’s a mighty good ballplayer for his eleven years, and on this particular day was catcher. He lives for baseball.
(click to enlarge)

Parker Hagebock, catcher, at Kent Hrbek Field June 22, 2013

“Back in the day”, in assorted North Dakota tiny towns, before television, and far out of range of any major or minor league sports, I developed an appreciation for sports, so it is easy to watch the assorted games we see from time to time.
A week from today, I’ll be out in Sykeston for the celebration of the Centennial of the High School, and it seems a good time to remember sports, as I knew them, emphasizing Sykeston.
As for Sykeston itself, here are the 1950 and 1958 school yearbooks, each having a few pages about the athletic programs in that tiny school:
1950 – Sykes Hiawatha 50001
1958 – Sykes Hiawatha 58001
There aren’t too many pages to “leaf” through to find the four or five pages in each yearbook which talk about Athletics as reported by the student editors of the time.
For years Sykeston’s main claim to athletic fame (to my recollection) was the 1950 Boys Basketball team (you can read about it in the yearbook) which won 3rd in the North Dakota Class C State Tournament. This was a big deal! I was not yet ten, and though I was at the tournament in Valley City, I can’t say I was that attentive.
More recently, Sykeston native Travis Hafner, became a noteworthy Designated Hitter for the Cleveland Indians. He graduated from Sykeston High School (class of 12 or so); my senior class was about 9…. There was no high school baseball program at Sykeston. Travis did his learning later.
Sykeston did have baseball, though not publicized in the yearbooks.
In those long ago years, Sykeston, like most places, had a town baseball team – men from teenage on up who played neighboring town teams on Sunday afternoons. It was a big social event for the communities.
In Sykeston the ballpark was, and perhaps still is, on the southwest edge of the town. There were no “stands”, and people parked along the base lines, hopefully not to be hit by an errant foul ball.
I don’t recall practices between games – I might be wrong. We came to play, usually just on Sunday. There were some good “country” ball players in those little towns: they could hit and field very well. But it’s a long leap up and out of the country to the minor or major leagues. “Pronk” Hafner was one of the lucky ones.
Personally, I loved sports.
It interests me to observe that I didn’t offer sports memories as most memorable in my young life. I was pretty good, in a sense, but I didn’t score a lot (other than my first game in 8th grade: 34 points, and second game, 32) or the time I made 12 of 14 free throws in a game somewhere. Rarely did I score over 10 points.
But like many small town kids, I participated, and dreamed, and listened to games on the radio.
We really didn’t have much of a choice but to participate, I guess. For a team sport, you needed a team, of boys, and sometimes most all of the boys in the school suited up.
There was girls athletics as well, but these were the days when girls played half-court only. And there were cheerleaders, and townfolk cheering on the local team in every community.
I find only a few photos of me “back in the day”. Here they are, for posterity.
Your own memories?

Frank and Dick Bernard, circa 1955, at Antelope Consolidated school near Mooreton ND. First try at American Legion baseball.

Ross ND Basketball Team 1953-54. Dick Bernard, 8th grader, kneeling second from right

Ross ND marching band in a parade in Williston ND 1954. If a school was lucky, a teacher had some knowledge of music, and there was an opportunity to at least learn the basics of an instrument!

Grandson Parker and Grandpa Dick June 22, 2013

#740 – Dick Bernard: Snapshots in the history of Sykeston ND

June 28, 2013/1 Comment/in Community, Family History, History, North Dakota /by dickbernard

Other posts in this series:
Other posts in this series:
Feb 11, 2013: “Sykes High, oh Sykes High School”
May 4 (the main article): Thoughts on Sykeston High School at its Centennial
May 9 A 1957 Social Studies Test
June 12 Remembering Sykeston in late 1940s
June 29 Sports in 1950s small towns in North Dakota
July 3: Remembering Don Koller and the Lone Ranger
*
This post will be of particular interest to people with a specific interest in Sykeston ND history.
A week from today, the celebration of the Centennial of the Sykeston High School is in its first day. I graduated from this tiny school in 1958, and since May 4, have been remembering various aspects of the school and the town and the times of the 1940s and 1950s. The first post, with links to two others, is here.
I’ve done lots of family history over the years, and by now I know myself: once I open the memory gate, one thought begets another, and this “chapter” visits a bit of the history of Sykeston in the year 1951; which then begat an idea to revisit the history of Sykeston as it was in 1940, through the eyes of the United States Census.
Most of the content of this blog will be the links. I hope you take the time to look.
1951.
In an earlier chapter I had sought out a visual image of Sykeston back in the 1940s, and came across this Geological Service map of the town in 1951:
(click to enlarge)

Sykeston from a USGS topographic map, 1951. (www.usgs.gov for this and other maps.)

This gave an opening to try to reconstruct, through the memory of a then-11 year old, who lived where in this tiny town. Of course, an 11 year old’s range tends to be very limited, and interests immediate and focused, and mine certainly was. But I’ve tried to reconstruct that year, and recently I sent the Sykeston 1951001 street grid to a dozen people, along with a list of who I thought lived where in the town. Thus far, three contemporaries, none of whom currently live in Sykeston, have taken the bait, and helped fill in the blanks, resulting in this incomplete but surprisingly full list: Sykes residents 1951001 (Each of these links is a single page, easy to print out.)
1940.
Having done as much as I could with 1951, it occurred to me that the 1940 United States Census had not too long ago been released to the public, and I could probably get more information from that document. Indeed, it took not too much effort to find Sykeston, Wells County, North Dakota. The link is here. It is eight pages in all, and can be printed page by page if one wishes.
Today I elected to reduce the information on those eight pages into a more user friendly form, and the three page pdf is accessible here, naming everyone who lived in Sykeston in 1940, and giving some tentative generalized data for the interested reader: Sykeston ND 1940 CensusRev Note particularly the Preliminary Statistics on page three. They say a lot about the life and times of what was probably a pretty typical tiny U.S. town in 1940.
There is a great deal to be said about 1940 compared with 1951. I will only say that I was surprised at the apparent change in the population of Sykeston in the eleven year period, in the midst of which was World War II. I had expected to see mostly the names that I knew in 1951 on the 1940 list. There were some, but not many, and that surprised me.
For persons acquainted with Sykeston this can be the launch for some interesting conversations at reunion.
Tomorrow: Remembering the Field of Dreams. Sports in 1950s small town North Dakota.

#736 – Dick Bernard: The Traffic Lights

June 22, 2013/1 Comment/in Community, Media, Minnesota, North Dakota, Quietings /by dickbernard

As everyone in the Twin Cities knows, the last two nights have been interesting, to say the least. Powerful, fast-moving thunderstorms raced through our neighborhoods with high, straight-line winds and brief but torrential rains. The Star Tribune headline says 250,000 are without power this morning.
I was at Gandhi Mahal restaurant in south Minneapolis about 8 p.m. last night and the proprietor, Ruhel, said what was happening outside reminded him of days in his native Bangladesh, when the high winds and heavy rain would make for perfect mango-picking weather: the wind would dislodge the ripe ones from the tree.
Our conversation had been interrupted when he raced out to help bring in the sidewalk cafe furniture. He returned, soaked.
Enroute home I had to change route once – a flooded intersection. It was an interesting trip.
But I think this morning about traffic lights in our town, both Friday and Saturday early morning.
I am a creature of habit, leaving early for morning coffee on heavily traveled city streets.
Yesterday, the traffic lights were out at two places along my route; in early afternoon at another; this morning at yet another place (photo below, click to enlarge).

Out of commission traffic lights at Radio Drive and City Centre in Woodbury MN 8 a.m. June 22, 2013

In none of the instances were there any means of traffic control: no temporary stop signs, not even volunteer traffic cops. We were all on our own.
I marvel at the order that instinctively prevailed at even the busy intersections: People stopped, took turns, no horns blared.
We were all strangers acting completely civilized towards each other.
We were, I thought, acting like people in our society typically do (which is very much unlike the “it bleeds, it leads” enemies-not-friends mentality of what passes for news these days.
We are, in the imperfect way of humans, a good team when competition is well tempered by good old Kindergarten-wisdom – be nice.
Just a few days ago, I read an article which seems pertinent for this space, this day, about becoming and being a team.
It was in the Summer 2013 Alumni Review of the University of North Dakota, and was Chapter One of a new book, , “Eleven Rings, The Soul of Success“ by UND graduate (1967) and legendary NBA Basketball Coach Superstar Phil Jackson who holds 11 NBA Championship Rings.
You can read Chapter One here, if you wish: Phil Jackson on Success001
It has some good lessons about how successful teams (like our society at those traffic lights in Woodbury) can work, well.