Peace & Justice – Page 14 – Thoughts Towards a Better World

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

March 20, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, History, International Relations, Peace & Justice, War /by dickbernard

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

Bicycles at the University of Minnesota Mar 8, 2014

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

Ryan, May 25, 2001

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

#12 Feb 23, 2014

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

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

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

#860 – Dick Bernard: A "Charter for Compassion". The "rubber hits the road".

March 15, 2014/2 Comments/in Community, Peace & Justice, Quietings /by dickbernard

(click to enlarge)

Mastery October 2003, William front and center

Sometimes fragments of life intersect for all of us, and are an opportunity to relearn, or learn for the first time. Here’s a personal example. Perhaps you might think of one or more of your own….
This post begins with an e-mail ‘thread’ a week ago today, about something called the Charter for Compassion, which I’d not heard of. The entire thread, which is not too long, is here, if you wish: Charter of Compassion March 2014Rev Reference is made to a “handout on the golden rule” from Janet McTavish of Duluth area. That is here: Golden Rule – McTavish001
Life goes on.
Then came yesterday.
In the afternoon I suggested to Cathy that we make our usual Lenten trip over to the famous Lenten Friday Fish Dinner in the church basement of St. Albert the Great Catholic Church in south Minneapolis. We went, near beginning time of 4:30. Already the place was packed, and we were in group D, waiting our turn, entertained in the sanctuary by an excellent pianist.
As always, the fish dinner was a great event, the usual simple fare of such church dinners, but with all the energy a gathering of diverse people can generate, just by their presence. Each time – yesterday was no different – we “run into” people we know who, like us, just show up to be part of the community.
One leaves St. Albert’s Fish Dinner energized. It has that way about it.
But this particular day, I made a fateful choice for earlier the same afternoon. I said I was going to go over to visit William at the Nursing Home. It had been six months since our last visit – you know how these things go – and I was feeling very guilty, and not even sure that he was still there. I called his number, and there was no answer. I called the home, and “yes” he was, so at about 2 p.m. I made the half hour trip across the city, reflecting, rehearsing, how this “Prodigal Son” might reenter an important relationship….
Who is William?
I didn’t meet him till the summer of 2002, when he helped convince me to enroll in a workshop of the Mastery Foundation at an area Retreat Center. He was a nice guy, early 70s (a couple of years less than my present age), a retired Methodist minister.
I went and was enriched. There are three photos from 2002: one at the beginning, and the other two at the end of this post. (I’m at left, kneeling, in second row of the top photo.)
A year or so later, William, myself and a lady who’d been in a later workshop, met and decided to try to meet once a month just for coffee, and a tradition began which went on for a long and satisfying time. As such things go, gaps began to occur in our meetings; one or another would miss from time to time; sometimes more than a month went by. William had to stop driving, which further complicated matters, and then he ended up in the nursing home after collapsing at church one Sunday.
I went to visit him a couple of times but then, “radio silence”, till yesterday.
I’d guess, reader, you’ve “been there, done that”, sometime. As time passes, reunion becomes more and more difficult. “How can I do this?”
It is just how it is.
William was in the same room as before. His roommate had fallen right before I got to the door, and couldn’t get up. An orderly was entering the same time I did, and helped the helpless roommate.
William seemed asleep, a shadow of the man I last saw six months ago, and he was slight, then. Pictures of family were above his bed (unfortunately, behind him, not where he could see them).
One notices such things.
I went to the desk, got a piece of paper, and wrote a note, saying I’d come back. I have to admit feeling relieved that I wouldn’t have to encounter myself, to him, in person, just then.
But when I went back, he was awake, and we reconnected in the tentative and awkward way such things happen. An attendant raised the bed a bit at his request.
He’s 86 now. No dreams of ever moving to assisted living with his spouse, Fran, as they hoped would be true six months ago.
I said I had a picture of him from 2002, and he said he’d like that, “just a 4×6”, he said. It’s at the beginning of this post, you’re looking at it; I’ll give him the other two, below, as well: of him, as MC at the closing dinner that year, and of Fran and two other assistants at the workshop.
We shook hands, once, twice, and then, a third time…and I was on my way.
Compassion begins with small steps, and isn’t dramatic.
You don’t need a Charter, I guess, or a dramatic highly public Resolution to care. Compassion can be very hard, and has to be re-learned, again and again and again, one person, one action at a time. And maybe that’s why I’m writing this, today. Maybe, some day, I’ll be gifted with compassion from someone else, when I need it….

Fran (at left) and other assistants Oct 23, 2002

William, MC at closing dinner October 23, 2002

Oct 23, 2002

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

March 9, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, History, International Relations, Links, Minnesota, Peace & Justice /by dickbernard

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

Laymah Gbowee, March 9, 2014

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

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

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

Minnesota Boychoir March 9, 2014

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

#856 – Dick Bernard: Day Three, Nobel Peace Prize Forum Augsburg College, Science and Health Day

March 8, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, Minnesota, Native American, Peace & Justice /by dickbernard

Days One and Two: here. Sunday, March 9, program noon to 5 p.m. here.
UPDATE: All live stream talks at this years Forum “by Nobel Peace Prize Forum” are archived and immediately accessible in their entirety via google plus on YouTube here. By my count there are 13 talks on video thus far, and there will be at least two more today (Sunday March 9).
Today’s (March 8) Forum was stellar.
Personal takeaway: The theme of this years Forum, “Crossing Boundaries to Create Common Ground” holds consistently, and while I was exhausted at the end of the day, and the topics I heard were very serious, I went home feeling hope for the future. The grassroots (all of us) matter.
Todays two keynotes by Dr. Deane Marchbein U.S. President of Doctors Without Borders (Medicins sans Frontiers) and Dr. William Foege, best known for his major contribution to eradication of Smallpox, were superb. They were transmitted world wide live to an international audience, and appear in the video section referred to above. Both talks – indeed all the talks – are very well worth the 1 1/2 hours each. Also, check out Dr. Foege’s book on the eradication of Smallpox: “House on Fire: A Fight to Eradicate Smallpox”.
(click on all photos to enlarge)

Dr. Deane Marchbein, American President Doctors Without Borders, March 8, 2014

Dr. William Foege, March 8, 2014

In between, I had to choose between an assortment of workshops, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon, both 1 1/2 hours.
I’m not sure what the other workshops would have offered. Whatever the case, I made two great choices.
“Crowdsourcing to Create Common Ground” sounded interesting (live-streamed and archived here), and indeed it was, featuring four young academics, two with us, the others live-streamed from England, and from Denmark, talking about bridging the gap between past and future methods of finding common ground on questions of all kinds. Speaking as an older person in the midst of college age kids, I found the presentation very well done, and left with a great deal to think about. There are plenty of on-line links relating to the concept Crowdsourcing.
Here are a couple of photos (click to enlarge)

Live on-line from Oxford, England. Once the connection was made, communication was clear and conversation seemed easy.

Many thanks to Dr. Lucy Fortson of UofMN School of Physics and Astronomy; Caren Cooper, Cornell Lab of Ornithology (both on-site), Finn Danielson of Monitoring Matters Network; and Nordic foundation for Development and Ecology, linked in from Denmark; and a representative from zooniverse (in the photo) speaking from England.
In the afternoon, I attended a powerful (and very troubling) session entitled “Crossing Boundaries to Create American Indian Health Equity”. Speaker was Dr. Donald K. Warne Professor of Public Health Program a the North Dakota State University. Dr. Warne is Oglala Lakota who grew up in Kyle SD on the Pineridge Indian Reservation. The first two sentences of the seminar descriptor describes his session well: “We don’t have to travel to the 3rd world to find 3rd world health status. Health indicators of American Indians are shamefully low.” As part of life’s passage, many of us go to poor foreign countries to do good, which is great. In our backyard, at home in our own country, are many trapped in poverty.
Dr. Warne made his points gently, but firmly. His presentation was very clear and troubling, and the audience, largely students, was very attentive. I wish everyone could hear his talk.
I gathered Dr. Warne would be glad to have contacts from people with an interest in the topic: donaldDOTwarneATndsu.edu.

Dr. Donald Warne, March 8, 2014

#855 – Dick Bernard: Day Two: Youth Festival, and Law and Business Day, Nobel Peace Prize Forum Augsburg College March 7, 2014

March 7, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, Minnesota, Peace & Justice /by dickbernard

PRE-NOTE: The Nobel Peace Prize Forum continues Saturday and Sunday March 8 and 9. Details here. I highly recommend the Forum, an annual tradition at Augsburg College. My thoughts on Day One (Dalai Lama) here.
Prime takeaway: Peace is a process, one person, one action at a time, which has immense cumulative effects. The guests know this, and convey this in one way or another in their talks. Everyone in every power pyramid, regardless of how seemingly insignificant they might be portrayed, or feel, has an equal stake in making our world a better place.
This morning I was walking towards Augsburg College with Tom Morgan. We parted company at Oren Hall, and he suggested that I take a look at the Peace Quilt Labyrinth there, an exhibit arranged by Janet Bear McTavish.
Thus began a usual great day at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, now in its 26th year, bringing the community together to focus on the issue of Peace.
The basic message of the labyrinth, a series of 44 beautiful quilts, was the shared message of all faiths: what is often called the “Golden Rule”. Within the exhibit was this handout: Golden Rule – McTavish001
Janet (her maiden name, Bear, is actually German, she said), was completing setting up the labyrinth, but was most gracious, spending some time with me. Here are some photos from this must-see exhibit at Oren Center at Augsburg College, Minneapolis.
(click to enlarge)

Janet Bear McTavish with one of her quilts in the Labyrinth

Entry panel quilt

My personal choice this first day was the Youth Festival, long a part of the Forum, open to students, this years focus grades 4-12. This years Festival co-sponsor was Youthrive. They did an expert job, including as MCs.
(The Youth Festival is not on the public program and by invitation to schools. I know of it from several years active involvement in it.)
Several hundred students were inspired by dynamic Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee (Liberia, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize); and Dr. Deane Marchbein, American President of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders, Nobel Peace Prize 1999). Ms Gbowee is keynote speaker at the Forum on Sunday afternoon; Dr. Marchbein is keynote speaker on Saturday morning. Videos of their talks will be on-line at the Augsburg Peace Prize website soon.)
I have become accustomed to pleasant surprises at the Nobel Forums.
This year, along with the Quilts, another highlight occurred when Leymah Gbowee asked that the houselights be turned off; then asked the kids in the bleachers to turn on their cell phone lights. Here was the result:

cell phones on at Melby Hall, Augsburg, Mar 7, 2014

The message of Ms Gbowee to the kids was simple: “you, the young people, are the light of the world”; a simple, powerful encouragement to everyone that they, individually, make all the difference.
Both Dr. Marchbein and Leymah Gbowee connected with their young audience, and one can imagine that lots of these kids and their teachers and parents went home inspired to light up their own worlds in a positive way, as we all can light up our world. (A few more photos at the end of this post.)
After the Youth Festival, I attended one of the workshops of Law and Business Day, and also the final talk of the afternoon. Both were worthwhile.
Looking for something worthwhile to do this weekend?
It’s not too late to attend and participate in this years Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College. You won’t regret it.
Gallery. Click on any to enlarge.

Leymah Gbowee poses with kids after her talk.

Dr. Deane Marchbein, Doctors Without Borders, shared her experiences with the student audience

from left Keith Nelson of Best Buy, Jothie Rajah of American Bar Association, Judge John Tunheim, U.S. District Court, and Wilhelmina Wright, Justice of Minnesota Supreme Court, discuss complexities of The Global Rule of Law: Crossing Boundaries.

Ira Bremmer President and Founder of Eurasia Group gave his views on international developments in Eurasia.

The First Graders from Burroughs School worked their annual magic.

Dr. Geir Lundestad (at left), Executive Director of Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Institute, and Lynn Elling, center right foreground, co-founder of the Youth Festival 17 years ago, were honored guests.

World Citizen display at Peace Prize Youth Festival March 8.

The Festival of Nations, a long-standing program of the International Institute of Minnesota, was invited to publicize its annual Festival in St. Paul, May 1-4, 2014. Its 2014 theme: “Peace Among the People”.

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

March 1, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, History, Minnesota, Peace & Justice, Quietings /by dickbernard

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

February 28, 2014/0 Comments/in Haiti, History, International Relations, Jane Stillwater, Peace & Justice /by dickbernard

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

Map of Haiti, December 2003

Port-au-Prince Dec 2003

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

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

At Ste. Claire after Mass Dec 7, 2003

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

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

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

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

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

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

#848 – Dick Bernard: "Vatigate" on PBS Front Line

February 25, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, Media, Peace & Justice /by dickbernard

We just watched a powerful hour and a half about the Catholic Church – my lifelong Church – on PBS’ Frontline.
Do take the time. You can watch Secrets of the Vatican here.
I will comment later.
UPDATE: Sunday, March 2, 2014
A week ago, prior to knowing that this program would play, came an unusual announcement at my Church, Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. Next Sunday (today), it was announced, was the day of the Annual Catholic Appeal, a long-standing program to raise funds for certain programs, like helping Catholic Schools and the like. Very normal. What was unusual is that the Priest emphasized that this year a specific Foundation had been set up to receive donations so that 100% of the funds would go to the appeal. Trust in the Archdiocese by potential givers is apparently perceived to be low, and they wished to create a firewall of sorts to assure contributors that donations would not be used for other purposes.
Later in the week, the Diocesan paper, The Catholic Spirit, made the same declaration, and today it was repeated again.
How much, if anything, Frontline had to do with this is unknown to me. But it certainly had to have been known as an upcoming event.
We watched the entire Frontline program, and it was indeed compelling.
At the same time, I viewed it from the context of having been an advocate for teachers for an entire career.
Mischief can be made with how data and images are used.
I recall a pretty successful attempt to demonize teacher unions (my own career) by making examples of outrageous teachers who, it was suggested, couldn’t be fired. These few bad examples were made to misrepresent the entire profession, and the union to which they belonged.
In a country with several million public school teachers organized into teacher unions, it is absolutely certain that there will be bad apples somewhere in the batch.
But do they represent the entirety of the profession?
Absolutely not.
And do they at least qualify for due process? Of course.
With this in mind, I watched the kinds of incidents that were the focus of Frontline; what kind of film clips were used, and how often these clips appeared; who spoke and what they said….
Doubtless the program was “fact” based, but was it objective? That is not so sure.
It is possible to cherry pick facts to create a story that is not, in fact, truthful.
And as we who still go to Church know, the Catholic Church, like any institution anywhere, is a complex institution, and it is no more fair to typecast it on the basis of some truly outrageous incidents and people who might in reality be aberrations, rather than representative of the whole.
I have no problem with exposes, but there has to be better context.
The importance of the new Pope to me is that he can, and apparently is, working quietly but publicly to change the tone of leadership ‘at the top’.
This doesn’t mean that his predecessors were evil people.
What it might mean is that things they let fall through the cracks, or may not have felt were important, were crucial oversights, and have created the black-eye that my diocese and the Vatican itself has to deal with.
UPDATE Tuesday March 4, 2014 viewing the film, Philomena:
This afternoon we finally took the time to see the film, Philomena, the extraordinarily powerful film about the efforts of an older woman to find her out-of-wedlock son who had been taken from her at birth at a Convent in Ireland, and was later adopted by Americans.
If you’re one of those who’s been curious about this film, but have not yet seen it, take the time.
Philomena lays out the complexities of humanity, and indeed the dangers of labeling a larger group (say “church” or “nation”) without regarding the individual parts of a whole: the people themselves, at various stages in their own lives.
Life is not simple.
Personally, as I watched, I kept thinking of a statement I had made to a friend a few days ago on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Haiti.
I had been there before the coup, and met several people who were adversely affected, some murdered, or character assassinated or imprisoned for one reason or another, including alleged personal failings.
I remarked, in an e-mail to my friend: “we all have our public, and private, and hidden, lives, I suppose” as simply a general caution, including to myself.
As Philomena and the others portrayed in the film demonstrated powerfully, each of us have our own aspects, unique, and changing over time and circumstance.
Judging becomes risky, but at the same time is unavoidable, and sometimes justified.
See Philomena if you can. You won’t regret it.

#844 – Anne Dunn: A Minnesota Ojibwe Woman Remembers a 2003 March for Peace in Toulouse, France and "The Children's Fire"

February 15, 2014/0 Comments/in Anne M. Dunn, International Relations, Native American, Peace & Justice, War /by dickbernard

On February 15, 2003, the day after Valentines Day, peacemakers began a march that encompassed the world in an international protest against war! In almost 800 cities in 60 countries from 12,000,000 to 15,000,000 people took to the streets with a collective purpose.
At least one million marchers turned out in Britain, one million in Italy and two million in Spain, as people expressed their anti-war sentiment. Two hundred thousand rallied in San Francisco and New York. About 100,000 turned out in Paris, France. [Ed. note: see photo of the Minneapolis protest on Feb 15, 2003 at end of this post.]
The protests were organized to “follow the sun” from Australia to the US. Across the world the challenge came in many languages.
They say it was the first global demonstration, and the cause was to prevent war against Iraq. The war had not yet begun! No, the world was saying, we will not endorse Bush’s War. But the rubber-stamp congress would.
Although it was unseasonably cold, about 12,500 marched in the streets of Toulouse, France, to support the effort that encircled the earth. They came with balloons, banners, bulletins, badges, and babies. Quick-stepping mothers were pushing bundled babies in covered prams and fathers were carrying rosy-cheeked toddlers on their shoulders. White haired couples held hands as they strolled along.
Protestors came from across the social and political spectrum. There were representatives of democracy, socialism, communism, anarchy, business, labor, civil rights and the environment. There was at least one Anishinabe/Ojibwe Grandmother Storyteller from the Leech Lake Reservation marching the cobbled streets that day.
Yes, I was there in a borrowed ski jacket! Helene bought me a red and white checkered keffiyeh for the occasion. I tied it around my neck as I marched for solidarity and peace!
The keffiyeh is a scarf traditionally worn by Palestinian farmers to protect them from sun, cold and dust. During the Arab Revolt of the 1930s it became a symbol of nationalism. It’s prominence increased in the 1960s with the Palestinian Resistance Movement and its adoption by Yassar Arafat. He usually wore one of black and white.
From time to time the marchers joined their vigorous voices in loud anti-war chants. The words bounced around in the long stone canyons and shivered against the high windows. Some downtown residents opened their doors and leaned over their balconies to wave at the passing crowds.
As a river of people filled the streets of downtown Toulouse, traffic was brought to a standstill at several intersections. Drivers sat inside their stranded vehicles waiting patiently for the masses to pass.
Police kept a low profile and no law enforcement brutality was reported.
A statement was released the following day which proclaimed: We don’t just say ‘no’ to war, we say ‘yes’ to peace, we say ‘yes’ to building economic and social systems that are not dominated by central banks and huge financial institutions. We don’t just say ‘no’ to war – we demand an end to massive resources being squandered on the military while billions are made poorer and poorer as a few reap huge wealth totally disproportionate to any labor or ingenuity of their own.”
At one point in the march a man approached me and said his friend wanted to be photographed with the Ojibwe woman from Minnesota. Although I was quite surprised that my presence had been so noteworthy, I was more than willing to accommodate the man! Soon a short man with white hair, rosy cheeks and a cheerful smile was standing beside me. We shook hands, our photo shoot was over and he melted into the crowd.
A man standing nearby asked, “Do you realize who that was?”
“No,” I replied, ”I do not.” I had no interest in his identity. For me, it was just an encounter with a friendly stranger. It had no political significance.
But the man wanted me to know, so he went on speaking. “That was the chairman of the communist party!”
It was of no importance to me for I was marching with my friends, who were Socialists.
I flew home the following day. Like everyone else that had participated, I was exhilarated at the prospect of peace instead of war. But the leaders did not heed the wisdom of the people. So the infamous, barbarous, illegal, unnecessary and poorly conceived ‘shock and awe’ began. We became hopelessly entrenched in an unjust war. Children who were just 7 years old then, are old enough to enlist now.
Bush and his cohorts were beating a big war drum and telling loud and careless lies to the American people. The mainstream media did little or nothing to promote truth, justice and peace. Journalists simply swallowed the party line. Now we all know that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and there was no reason to destroy their homeland and murder their children with bombs.
Many will say we failed to purchase peace with people-power. They will say we did not avert the disastrous invasion and bloody occupation of Iraq. They will say we did not sustain the momentum of the march. They will say we went home and gave up.
But we are holding the ground for future generations to stand upon by protecting their constitutional right of dissent. We continue to confront our communities on the issue of unsustainable militarism, which is buried deep in the bloody earth upon which this nation has been built.
For the welfare of unborn generations we must redirect military spending to create jobs, invest in schools, housing and renewable energy.
Solidarity requires that we communicate with other peoples of the world, not the rich elite who are planning for their own continued dominance! We must lift ourselves up high and stand tall enough to see beyond the barriers of tribe, race, language, culture, class, and nations.
(click to enlarge)

Anti-War Demonstration Minneapolis MN Feb 15, 2003

UPDATE from Anne Dunn, February 17, 2014
The Children’s Fire
Anne Dunn
Like many people today, I’m deeply concerned about the land and have often wondered what kind of a world we are leaving to our grandchildren. Anishinabeg were told by Creator that we were the caretakers of this land and for thousands of years our ancestors took care that the resources were not exploited. But that position was usurped by the European invasion.
Since the Leech Lake Reservation is located within the boundaries of the Chippewa National Forest, there are many Anishinabeg who feel it is time that traditional standards of stewardship be adopted here and now.
Because… in the beginning there was the land, seemingly endless stands of white and red pine, innumerable streams and sparkling lakes; and there were the peoples of the land… the Anishinabeg. The great forests are gone now, plundered for profit… the streams and lakes are under siege. The peoples of the land stand poised and expectant… awaiting their season of respect and restitution. When a new and honorable history can be written with dignity and truth.
For decades, environmentalists have warned that our planet has limited resources. Yet, we continue to destroy that which we must preserve if our children and their children are to live well on Turtle Island.
The beautiful balance of nature no longer exists. Animal habitat is steadily encroached upon and the plant kingdom is increasingly threatened.
We can no longer allow our ecosystems to be compromised. We cannot allow the fate of earth, our island home, to be determined by the well-funded lobby of powerful corporations motivated by selfishness and greed.
The Hopi tell a story of The Children’s Fire, which promotes the concept that no one should be allowed to do anything that adversely affects our children.
It is said that the children’s fire must be forever guarded by the elders… the grandparents. But how do we guard the children’s fire? By getting out of bed and doing what has to be done. By standing alone in difficult places to give the children of tomorrow a good life in a good land.
One day the children will know that in the beginning… man, animals, birds and plants lived together on our Turtle Island in a beautiful balance of nature. The needs of all were met in the bountiful world they shared.
However, man became increasingly aggressive and began to abuse the rights of the plant and animal kingdoms.
Therefore, the harmony between them was destroyed. Many animals died needlessly and whole families disappeared.
But man continued his exploitations until he brought great hardship and strange diseases upon himself.
We will tell the children how the plants, which had remained friendly toward man, responded to his needs by providing remedies for all his diseases. Every herb and root produced a cure for man’s many ailments.
But, as was his nature, man’s aggressiveness and greed threatened to deplete the natural supply of health-giving plants.
If we continue down this road we will undoubtedly succeed in creating an environment so hostile that the survival of mankind will be jeopardized. It will be said that this generation extinguished the children’s fire.

Sunrise Oct 2014

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

January 30, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, Economics, Haiti, History, Labor, Minnesota, Peace & Justice, Politics, President Obama /by dickbernard

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

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

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

The “doorway” to the room

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

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

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

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