Peace & Justice – Page 16 – Thoughts Towards a Better World

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#808 – Dick Bernard: Some thoughts on "Black Friday"

November 29, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, Economics, International Relations, Minnesota, North Dakota, Peace & Justice, Quietings, War /by dickbernard

Yesterday, Thanksgiving, was an especially good day. It included “An Interfaith Celebration of Thanksgiving” at Basilica of St. Mary co-officiated by Ministers of Westminster Presbyterian Church, Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church, Plymouth Congregational Church, the First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis, the Imam of Masjid Al-Imam, the Rabbi of Temple Israel and, of course, Pastor of Basilica of St. Mary.
It was an inspirational hour. One of the officiating clergy read, early on, a brief but highly inspirational poem, Otherwise, by Jane Kenyon.
“Otherwise” is a very powerful reminder not to take what we have for granted…and not to expect it to be permanent. In particular, note the final sentence of the poem.
(click to enlarge photos)

Pastors at the Interfaith Celebration of Thanksgiving at Basiiica of St. Mary Nov. 28 2013

At the Interfaith celebration. 500 programs were printed, and they ran out long before the service began.

Of course, shortly before this years American Thanksgiving, there were two other happenings of great significance:
1) a breakthrough in the years-long stalemate between the U.S. and Iran signals a chance for progress. Of course, those whose power depends on enemies and potential war are not pleased, but I think the beginnings of an agreement is very good news indeed.
2) and Pope Francis I issued his highly publicized teaching, putting ‘meat on the bones’ of changing the tone of power in the Catholic Church. I haven’t read the entire document as yet; a friend who has, recommends it highly. You can access it here.
Then there’s “Black Friday” that uniquely American Exhortation to Shop to Achieve Business Success (“Profit”) during the “Christmas Season”.
Many have answered the call….
In my corner of the universe, the business Christmas Season began at my local coffee shop about November 1, when Holiday napkins first appeared, and the background muzak began to include a sprinkling of Christmas songs.
Today begins all-Christmas all-the-time, I suppose.
We’ll put up the tree next weekend, Cathy tells me, and it will be, as usual, nice, though it forces me to relocate my favorite chair. Oh well.
But for me the best “Christmas presents” of all have already been received, as noted above.

#806 – Dick Bernard: Beginning the Crazy Circus about Negotiations with Iran.

November 26, 2013/0 Comments/in History, International Relations, Peace & Justice, Politics, War /by dickbernard

Here is a sketch map of the environs of Iran, related to Minnesota: Iraq environs ca 2005001. I sketched this in 2005 during the Iraq war to give myself some context to Iraq and its region.
This is a good time to reacquaint oneself (or get acquainted for the first time) with the geography of Iran. Here’s the CIA Factbook entry about this very large county at the edge of the Middle East and south Asia.
Personally, I applaud the positive developments between the U.S. and Iran. Any effort to stabilize the relationship between our two countries is very worthwhile.
For the great majority of us, an effort to directly negotiate some agreement with Iran about anything is very good news. It has been many years since the U.S. – Iran relationship collapsed. It goes back to the U.S. sponsored overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected Mossadegh government in 1953; followed by our support of the Shah; and then, of course, the hostage crisis at the American embassy in Teheran at the end of the Carter administration.
One of the vivid memories of my life was going to see President Carter at a political event in Minneapolis in the Fall of 1978, and having to walk through a chanting phalanx of (presumably) Iranian protestors with grocery bags with eyeholes over their heads. At the time, if I recall correctly, the Shah was hospitalized at Rochester, and he had long symbolized the very worst aspects of the relationship of the U.S. with Iran, this very large and sophisticated south Asia country with a very long recorded history.
For some in our country, good news about more positive relationships with Iran is very bad news. As Cuba has been since Castro’s successful revolution about 1959, Iran is a convenient enemy. In a political context, for some, Iran is a very useful bogeyman. President George W. Bush identified it, along with Iraq and North Korea, as “the axis of evil” years ago. Of the three, Iran is the only scary enemy left (N. Korea is a very odd special case). And to some it is absolutely essential to have a viable enemy, for all sorts of nefarious reasons.
The big issue this time seems to be the nuclear issue: Iran’s supposed pretensions to build its very own nuclear bomb. Predictably, Israel, with its own major nuclear arsenal, is again politically drum-beating against Iran.
I won’t get into that argument.
Just a few days ago, unrelated at all to Iran, came a very interesting internet link with a history of nuclear testing in use in the world. It is well worth the seven or so minutes to watch.
It gives powerful context to the nuclear menace. Note who has “the bomb”…. It’s a good time to re-learn some old lessons.
Here is the text which accompanied the link:
“TIME LAPSE MAP OF EVERY NUCLEAR EXPLOSION EVER ON EARTH
Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto has created a beautiful, undeniably scary time-lapse map of the 2053 nuclear explosions which have taken place between 1945 and 1998, beginning with the Manhattan Project’s “Trinity” test near Los Alamos and concluding with Pakistan’s nuclear tests in May of 1998. This leaves out North Korea’s two alleged nuclear tests in this past decade (the legitimacy of both of which is not 100% clear).
Each nation gets a blip and a flashing dot on the map whenever they detonate a nuclear weapon, with a running tally kept on the top and bottom bars of the screen. Hashimoto, who began the project in 2003, says that he created it with the goal of showing”the fear and folly of nuclear weapons.” It starts really slow — if you want to see real action, skip ahead to 1962 or so — but the buildup becomes overwhelming.”
Here is a link with an estimate of the current nuclear arsenal by world country. It gives an idea of who has what.
The always good “Just Above Sunset” provides a good capsule of opinion about the Iran developments as viewed by politicians. You can read the posting about Iran-U.S. here. We need to be actively and directly engaged with our political leaders, always.

#803 – Dick Bernard: Letters remembering a War.

November 18, 2013/0 Comments/in International Relations, Minnesota, Peace & Justice, War /by dickbernard

A number of years ago a friend of a friend started a Red Cross project she’d heard about somewhere. The goal was to send Holiday greetings to service men and women who may not get any mail from anybody.
It was a worthwhile project, and when I learned about it, I volunteered.
Today, I finished writing personal messages to 40 unknown service people somewhere in the world. Within the next few days the organizer of the project will collect about 1,000 cards from numerous volunteers like me and forward them to the distribution center.
There are rules: no glitter, no specific religious messages, no inserts or full names and addresses…each of these make sense. So I hand-wrote a note to all 40, following the rules, and sent the cards off to my friend today. It will be my first and last contact. They won’t know me; I don’t know them.
The project reminds me each year of a similar project in the winter of 1991, near 23 years ago. There were different rules, then, and results.
In January of that year the U.S. went to war against Iraq. It was code-named Operation Desert Storm.
I happened to note in Newsweek magazine that civilians could write to military in the theater, and so I did. There were no rules about names, etc., so I included my address, including my own background as a one-time member of an infantry company.
Some time later, much to my surprise, I received a letter from a PFC in the theatre, an infantryman*. It was dated January 9 1991, posted January 14. He said he’d spent three years at the University of Minnesota, History major, then dropped out and enlisted in the Army for two years. It was bad timing for him: Good duty in Germany changed to going to Saudi Arabia and then Iraq. “So far we’re just bored here, but as you know the 15th [of January] is fast approaching. To be honest I’m scared of war. At this time I would rather be on the West Bank of the U[niversity of Minnesota].”
(click on photos to enlarge)

Because he gave his address, and circumstances, I decided to go down to the West Bank Cedar-Riverside neighborhood and take some photos for him, the day the invasion of Iraq began, early Feb. 1991. Here are two, by what was then called the New Riverside Cafe. Here is an additional group of photos taken the same day, same place, in February, 1991: February 1991001

Cedar-Riverside Minneapolis early Feb 1991

Sign at New Riverside Cafe early Feb 91

As wars go, Desert Storm was a short one. A military release the PFC sent me gave the beginning and ending dates as 16 January and 28 February, 1991.
On 8 March came the second letter from him, followed by four more with the last 6 April 1991.
The March 9 note, the third letter, is particularly descriptive: “…Now the war is over and we are just waiting to go home…I stand only 20 meters from a destroyed artillery piece. The U.S. totally destroyed the Iraqi army.”

Letter from Iraq Mar 9 1991

Note: this is March 9, 1991. The next Iraq War would not begin for another 12 years, in 2003, and that was over 10 years ago.
War seems not to be a recipe for Peace. War simply seems to beget the next war. We’re still at what seems to be perpetual war.
Today I went down to the building at which I took the 1991 photos (above). It is now called the Acadia cafe.
Today, upstairs in what used to be the Coffee House Extempore one finds the office of the Twin Cities chapter of Veterans for Peace.

Cedar-Riverside, Minneapolis, November 18 2013

Same place, different perspective. See VFP on upstairs windows.

“Let there be Peace on Earth, and let it begin with me.”
* – Two years ago I decided to try to locate the PFC, and I did. We made contact one time and I sent him the originals of his 1991 letters. Given his address, he appeared to have done well in life. I expressed interest in meeting, but nothing happened. There has been no contact since.
Included with his letters, the PFC sent an Awards program after their part in Desert Storm. In very succinct terms it relates the twin realities of a GI’s life: lots of nothing to do, worrying about what’s ahead; then a short burst of terrifying combat.
In this units case, the term of the war was from 16 Jan – 28 Feb, 1991. On 26 Feb his unit “crossed the berm marking the Saudi Arabia and Iraq border”, then “drove north 60 miles” into Iraq. On 26-27 Feb 1991, the unit engaged in combat with Iraqi forces and “gained an additional 40 miles and were the first Infantry Battalion…to advance into Kuwait.”
UPDATE
from Kathy Garvey, Nov 20: Thank you for your cards, we really appreciate the 40 cards you wrote for the troops. Last year we were told one guy wrote to us saying this was the only card he could hold in his hand; all the others were emails. Many of the cards go to the hospitals and that’s why we were told no glitter for health reasons.

#801 – Dick Bernard: Obamascares. The Insanity of it all.

November 15, 2013/1 Comment/in Community, Economics, Family History, Health, North Dakota, Peace & Justice, Politics, President Obama /by dickbernard

Last night, while watching the Daily Blathers (some call it “evening news”; a good friend, yesterday, referred to it more precisely and accurately: “CBSNBCABCFOXCNN”), I set to the task of sorting through the paper flotsam and jetsam from my Uncle’s apartment in rural ND.
Like tens of thousands of others, yesterday, and over time, I was trying to sift and sort through mail, receipts, records, etc., that some friend or relative was no longer able to deal with, due to death, disability, or otherwise.
As I sorted, the blather on the evening news programs was about President Obama’s contrition about the (insert your own words) continuing rollout computer problems of (insert your own descriptor), otherwise officially known as the Affordable Care Act.
Just three days earlier my Uncle had made an undesired but necessary move from assisted living, his home in town for the last six years, to the nursing home down the hall. His stuff stayed behind for someone else to deal with: an oft-repeated story everywhere in this country, every day.
In one box was the specific reminder of why he and his sister moved to town in the first place:

It was a folder given to him after successful open heart surgery in April, 2006. The surgery was the only reason he’s still alive, but (in his opinion) that surgery is held as the reason he never fully recovered and could not return to his lifelong occupation of farming. Whether this is so or not can be argued forever. Nonetheless, he held off the grim reaper for what is now an additional seven years. While he couldn’t farm, his general quality of life was pretty good. And at near-89, why should he still want to farm?
Of course, the surgery, and virtually all of the other medical costs for other dilemmas since then, have come under the protective umbrella of Medicare and supplemental benefits of North Dakota Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
What gave him the wherewithal to financially survive, indeed thrive, as an independent farmer was the Medicare program signed into law in the summer of 1965 by President Lyndon Johnson. That earlier version of “Obamacare” was scorned then, too, as socialized medicine, and it was spared withering coverage by the “blathers” of the time by, likely, two main factors: 1) fewer and less technologically advanced news media outlets; and 2) media reporters who were more conscious of reporting news, as opposed to dispensing propaganda.
Now we are engaged in the great unCivil War of simply trying to implement a new imperfect insurance program (and even more imperfect computer program) that will cover more people more efficiently and effectively than the hodgepodge of legitimate and scam “insurance” that now faces America, and excludes from coverage tens millions of Americans, but not my only surviving Uncle and Aunt, who benefit from an assortment of programs which thankfully exist in their time of need.
We’ll get through this hysteria, I hope. For me, a survival strategy will be to quit watching the endless analysis, the faux news, about ACA, at least as portrayed on CBSNBCABCFOXCNN. It is all a bunch of dangerous nonsense.
POSTNOTE:
In the same ‘sifting and sorting’ session last night, we watched an excellent special of CNN on the approaching 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Familiar faces appeared there: Walter Cronkite, Lyndon Johnson, on and on…. Just a short while ago CBS celebrated the 50th anniversary of the 30 minute evening news program inaugurated on CBS by Walter Cronkite in the year 1963. Oh, how things have changed.
COMMENTS: one in the comment box below, and the following as well
from Corky: Just finished my 5 year repeat “internal flushing” of the colon yesterday and apparently good news. Now as to the news pundits who state that all these citizens really like their insurance . Or like the movie , the way we were or something like it.Is America brain dead? When you look at medicare billing and the significant reduced cost by medicare administration and the really miniscule and late payments by the insurance carriers . A $200 Dr. office billing and medicare reduces to $70 and medicare supplement F pays less than $20 (3 months after office visit), shows me the system is very busted and hooray for any proposed changes to health care. Michael Steele GOP guru even said this morning that constructive changes need to be proposed by GOP legislators! Did I hear that comment correctly or am I hearing impaired?
from Tref D: Just a lot of hot air on all sides. Eventually I hope it will work out for many folks.

#792 – Dick Bernard: The Gospel of the Soprano

October 27, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, Family History, Minnesota, North Dakota, Peace & Justice, Quietings /by dickbernard

Friday evening my 88 year old Uncle and I went down the hall to visit his sister and my aunt in the Memory Care unit at the Nursing Home/Assisted Living facility in a small rural North Dakota community. It was a short trip, under a single roof. My Aunt, at 93, is most likely not suffering from severe dimentia, but nonetheless the placement is appropriate. She’s been in the unit for about a year.
My Uncle and I just went to visit. My Aunt was working on a puzzle. (photo at end.)
It was supper time, and two other ladies were at the same table, one familiar to me, the other not, perhaps a recent resident.
“Emma” was attempting to engage, but not succeeding. The second lady was easily understood but not allowing for much visiting.
We may have looked or sounded annoyed: at some point you don’t know what to do. Those knowing someone with any variation of dimentia understand.
The man assigned to evening duty came around. I’d talked with him during an earlier visit. He’s a retired teacher in the town, and as I recall, he willingly took his job more as a service than as a job. He had a relative – perhaps his Mom? – who was or had been a patient in this very facility. Maybe, it has since occurred to me, she was Emma….
For whatever reason, he entered the conversation: “Emma stood in front of me for 20 years in our Church choir”, he said. “She had a wonderful Soprano voice.” He mentioned one particular piece which required a phrase one octave higher than the usual, and it was Emma who would sing it, beautifully.
As I recall, Emma had nodded off.
Off he went to other duties, and our visit continued, helping my Aunt finish a puzzle (she’s good with puzzles) and then we left.
And all the next day, driving 300 miles back home, I kept thinking of that brief but powerful encounter in the Memory Care section of the Nursing Home.
This morning Cathy and I went to 9:30 Mass at Minneapolis’ Basilica of St. Mary as usual.
Fr. Greg Welch was celebrant and homilist, and today’s Gospel was Luke 18:9-14, the well known passage about the righteous Rich Man and the repentant Tax Collector (I knew is as the Pharissee and the Publican story).
Fr. Welch, in his own comments, chose to focus on the Pharisee, and drew us into the Pharisee’s circle, as it were, with a simple parable of his own.
He opened with a simple comment: when he was young, he grew up in a family that assumed the kids would go to college. There was no need to discuss this reality. For many other families, college is not even a dream, he said. It is not part of their reality for financial or other reasons.
Those of us in those pews are mostly pretty privileged, and Fr. Greg wondered aloud about the wisdom of a country criticizing “Obamacare” while 32 million people are without health care, and no alternative being offered; about cutting food stamps while considering military expenses to be essential; about people, including the homeless holding those cardboard signs on street corners, needing a job not being able to find one in which they can earn a living.
The open question, not directly addressed, was to each one of us: “where do YOU fit into this picture?”
It was an applause worthy homily; we in the pews were very, very quiet.
I’ll let the Memory Care attendant know about this blog post, and perhaps he will tell me what motivated him, on Friday night, to tell us about Emma, the lady whose grasp of what we take for granted is very limited.
At any rate, he sang a magnificent Soprano for us on Friday afternoon. It is a message that will stick with me.
(click to enlarge)

My Aunt and Uncle with the completed Puzzle, October 25, 2013

UPDATE Nov. 3, 2013:
Today’s Gospel was the story of “Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man” (Luke 19:1-10). Our Pastor, Father Bauer, gave an excellent homily interpreting the Bible story.
As with the previous Sundays text and interpretation, this Gospel fit into todays news, which included, this past week, the mandatory cut in “snap” funds at the federal level – I think they’re called food stamps.
There is a lot to talk about….
Also, this past week, came a review of what is likely a very forgettable book, by Bill O’Reilly, which essentially attaches the crucifixion of Jesus to taxes, and another “Christian” who labored mightily to prove that “government” is not “people”, when that is all that government ever is or has been….
It takes all manners of tortured interpretation. But the reality is, there are those of us who have, and we have an obligation those who have less.
Some day we may find ourselves in the same position of needing help.

#779 – Dick Bernard: The not-so-simple art of international diplomacy (and other similar things)

September 26, 2013/0 Comments/in History, International Relations, Peace & Justice, Politics, President Obama, War /by dickbernard

A short while ago I was looking for the oldest e-mail I had from a recently deceased friend who was anti-war to the very core of his being. It turned out to be a Nov. 10, 2005, e-mail asserting “26 lies by Bush people” about the Iraq War during the George W. Bush administration. If you’re interested, here are the 26: Bob Heberle Nov 10 2005001
About the same time (Sep. 12) came an e-mail to a group from another anti-war friend about the tense Syrian situation: “what is the true reason for [the U.S. planning on] invading Syria or lying to the American people? Regardless of the reason for lying would that not constitute reason of impeachment if not for lying then for war mongering?” Of course, this related to President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry.
Then, just a day or two ago, President Obama spoke at the U.N., and his counterpart President, Rouhani of Iran, spoke at the same venue. But they didn’t meet.
And yesterday came another e-mail listing President Obama’s top 45 lies in his speech at the U.N. Apparently Obama is the champeen liar, and the folks listening to him at the United Nations are easily duped.
All the above assertions come from what most would describe as the Left. Of course, the Right is no stranger to assertions of Liar as well…but these were Lefties talking.
So, rush to judgement on the President? Not so fast.
What’s one to do about all this lyin’? Or is it lying at all?
Who has ever said “my, you look nice today”, when you know he or she doesn’t….
Introduce me to someone who says they don’t lie, and I’ll show you a liar. Of course, this includes me. We all fudge.
During the “26 lies” and “lying…for war mongering” time a couple of weeks ago I got to thinking about the reality of bargaining about anything…and bargaining at the global level is bargaining big-time. I spent a career in bargaining situations. They’re all about the same…the sides feel each other out for interminable periods. Through it all they bob and weave, deception is expected. Like bargaining in a market somewhere.
Bargaining is a complex process.
Starting with the most recent near meeting at the UN between Rouhani and Obama, there was comment about how the two avoided meeting in person. There was no hand-shake, even.
Charley Rose asked President Rouhani about this in an interview which played in part on CBS This Morning today. Essentially, Rouhani said that things like a Presidential hand-shake take time: Iran and the U.S. have had no direct relationship for 35 years, he said, going back to the end of the Shah of Iran and the subsequent hostage situation. He could have gone back further, to 1953 and mentioned the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian President Mossadegh engineered by the CIA. He didn’t go there.
But everyone at the international diplomacy level, you can bet, understood exactly what he was saying. Stuff like hand-shakes and photo ops and joint statements take time. In due time they will take place. Most of the action now is behind the scenes, between diplomats who know the game…and each other.
Things happen fast. As I was writing this, in came an announcement that Secretary of State John Kerry and his counterpart from Iran will be meeting further on what seems to be another whirlwind and positive development on the middle east situation. First such meeting since 1980, it was said. No cigar, yet, but things are looking a little promising within the international community, and now not only about Syria, but about Iran, too.
And about those “lies” Obama supposedly told in his speech at the UN: With hardly any doubt, everybody in the room knew the context and intent of those remarks, which were most public and part of the international record so long as there are records available.
History will be the judge of what or whether these “lies” were.
And in the lurching way that such things work, perhaps we are witnessing some positive history for a change.
In my opinion, very important global changing actions are taking place at the international level, and the Obama administration is a very important part of that, as are other world government leaders.
None of them are naive, and they are dealing with each other as diplomats need to deal: cautiously, perhaps deviously, above all respectfully, all the while trying to satisfy the rabble out there that is the population of all of their countries.
I see hope more than I see “lies”.
Just my opinion.
Comment
from Wilhelm R, Sep 27, 2013
Your “opinion” seems to be based on a set of assumptions which you do not state or have to state. You let your reader assume them. Could it be that today assumptions are personal and discretionary but not binding on anybody else. It used to be, that assumptions where the foundation on which societies and cultures where built upon and acted as “touch stones” for debate and discussion. Without them we are back in the depth of scholastics which pried itself to be able to take any position and successfully and logically argue its point. In such an environment nothing can get done and nothing can be resolved, everything is relative. In such an environment one does not even have to touch on the essential point a discussion partner raises but instead, all one has to do is to change the assumptions and begin the – an – argument anew. This also seems to lead to a situation where there is no need for taking responsibility for one’s own actions or demand responsibility from anybody else for their actions. May be this explains today’s tendency to urge us to “look forward” and not waste time with looking backwards what has been done has been done… This makes of course perfect sense since one has to assume that those actions were based on different assumptions and those assumptions where and probably still are as good as anybody else’s. They just seem to be lurking around to be picked up by a willing mind. With this however anything goes and justice is what power dictates or allows you to project. ( We seem to be back in the golden age Metamorphosis by Ovid writes about “Aurea prima sata est aetas, quae vindice nullo ….. The age of the golden rule where the gold rules) So what are we crying about. It behooves us – whoever us might be – to obtain and exercise power! … Just my thoughts but willing to not just state but defend them any time …..
from Dick: I like your first two sentences. I have noticed for a long time that hard and fast ‘sides’ develop where only one point of view is entertained, thus no argument, or even listening to another point of view. I’m not sure who reads my columns, here. It is more than a couple, that’s for certain. I try to keep the posts to newspaper column length (ca <700 words), and I write them as if family will read them, many of whom would be in direct opposition to me, ideologically. Re lying, as one who grew up and still is Catholic, the Nuns did a good job on the Lying piece to we younguns. As I recall it, there were two general types of lies: of omission (leaving out some important data); and commission (a whopper). Of course, as one ages and sees communication in action on many fronts, you say infinite variations on those two general themes, but those were two words I remember, for some reason! from NYTimes Bulletin, Sep 27 3:01 CST:
Obama Says He Spoke to Iran’s President by Phone
President Obama said Friday he had spoken by phone with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, the first direct contact between the leaders of Iran and United States since 1979. Mr. Obama, speaking in the White House briefing room, said the two leaders discussed Iran’s nuclear program and said he was persuaded there was a basis for an agreement.

#778 – Dick Bernard: The Affordable Care Act, President Obama Cares

September 25, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, Economics, Family History, Health, History, North Dakota, Peace & Justice, Politics, President Obama /by dickbernard

Today at the gym I was treated to Sen. Ted Cruz doing his filibuster to supposedly protect Americans from the evil Affordable Care Act (called “Obamacare” by some).
Recently, a majority of the U.S. House of Representatives, for the 42nd time, I believe, voted to repeal Obamacare.
Those who follow this issue know the rest of the story behind these two symbolic – and very sad – actions, where ideologic rigidity and scarcely hidden hatred for the President drive decision making to attempt to destroy programs which will impact positively on everyone in this country.
Sen. Cruz, during his filibuster, spent time reading Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham” to his daughters, and expounding on the symbolism of Star Wars.
I know Cruz is young, but didn’t know how young (I decided to look him up): I have two children older than Cruz is. Dr. Seuss was a household staple in our house; when Star Wars came out in 1977, it was an instant addiction for my oldest son, and I took him to the first showing, and didn’t discourage him from attending the movie many times.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with being young – years ago I was his age, too. But….
Up against the negative fantasies of Cruz et al, abuts a far more positive reality for the tens of millions of people of this United States who are about to have access to affordable health care. Apparently, this is seen as a threat to freedom: creeping socialism, which rhymes with communism, and is a synonym for evil amongst people who should know better, including those who have long reaped the benefits of Medicare and Social Security, or even of corporate and large employer medical care plans, and just don’t get it…and if the Tea Party has its way, will never get it.
So be it.
The people I don’t understand – well, I do understand, but it stretches credulity – are the young people (my oldest childs age – near 50 and down), who feel they don’t need health care, and don’t want to pay for somebody else’s medical problem.
Fools.
Just a couple of hours ago a friend came up to me to tell me about another mutual friend, Tom, who’s healthy as can be, a professional tennis coach, and was doing his daily 20+ mile solitary bike ride yesterday. He stopped at a fast food place for a snack, and choked on the food. Long story short, he had no ID on him, an ambulance picked him up and took him to hospital. He’s in a coma, and the prospects of any kind of recovery at all are dim. It took some hours for his wife to find out why he was so late, or where he was. Likely she used another society institution, 911, or a call to the police department, another civic institution we hope never to have to encounter. They were her safety net in this metropolitan area of 3 million.
When this unknown man was picked up yesterday, there was no question about paying a bill. Our country doesn’t allow people to die on the street.
Maybe that’s why the cynical young say “I don’t have to pay for insurance; they’ll pay for me if I need it”.
Maybe they’re (very sadly) right.
But what if everyone had this selfish attitude?
I learned my lesson about insurance very early, two weeks after I got out of the Army in 1963.
My wife was a new teacher, then, and coincident with my return home she had to quit teaching due to an undiagnosed kidney disease which would ultimately take her life two years later.
I could have gotten hospitalization insurance before she was diagnosed, but “couldn’t afford it”. As it turned out, she was uninsurable even then. Her condition was, it turned out, almost life-long pre-existing. Back then, I learned about things like public welfare, and the role of the greater community as a protective umbrella.
Yes, there are people so selfish and cynical that it doesn’t occur to them to consider themselves part of society. Rather, they prefer to cling to the fantasy that they, and only they, are in charge of their destiny, and everyone else should have the same responsibility.
Fools.
That’s how I see Ted Cruz Inc.

#777 – Dick Bernard: War as Hell; and the International Day of Peace.

September 22, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, Family History, History, International Relations, Minnesota, North Dakota, Peace & Justice, War /by dickbernard

(click to enlarge photos)

Zander, on his Dad’s shoulders, expertly expounds on the importance of protecting the environment (see below) at the Peace Site rededication September 22, 2013

These Five Peace Actions were focus of the Peace Site Rededication Sep 22, 2013

“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”
― Abraham Lincoln
remembered by Minneapolis Park Commissioner Brad Bourn on Sunday, September 22, at Lyndale Peace Park.
Saturday, September 21, was the Annual United Nations International Day of Peace. In Minneapolis, I attended the observance of the day on Sunday, September 22, at the beautiful Lyndale Park Peace Garden (See Lynn Elling, below). An organization in which I’m involved, World Citizen, rededicated the Garden as a Peace Site. The ceremony and attendant activities were most impressive and meaningful. The Peace Garden was first dedicated as a Peace Site in 1999.
Sunday’s event, and other recent happenings bring to mind the subject line of this post.
Three days earlier, I had reason to make a brief stop at St. John the Evangelist Church in Wahpeton ND.
I arrived there about noon, and as I parked the car, I noted a U.S. flag-draped casket being taken from the church to a waiting hearse. I was not there for the funeral, so I didn’t know who had died, but I rather hurriedly took this photo (click to enlarge)

After a funeral, at Wahpeton ND, September 19, 2013

Entering the Church, I found the person in the casket was an 89 year old man, Dale Svingen, and on the table was one of those “please take one” handouts entitled “The Australian Soldier”, a recollection of World War II. The recollection can be read here: Australian Soldier001. It speaks well for itself.
War is Hell, but it builds camaraderie and team spirit and solidarity. War destroys, but connects….
The experience led me to thinking of a recent visit with my friend, Padre Johnson, a man with many gifts.
Recently, I met with Padre and he gave me a copy of a remarkable sketch he’d done from a photograph from one of the deadliest battles of the Vietnam War (below). Padre mentioned that he’s the guy in the helmet in the foreground, and in an accompanying note to me said that Adm. Elmo Zumwalt – a name very familiar to military of the day – said, a dozen years ago, that this sketch was “the most powerful artists rendition of the Face of War that he has ever seen.” Padre Johnson’s text accompanying the sketch is here: Padre J Viet Combat003

photo copy of Padre Johnson sketch from 1968, used with permission of the artist.

War is Hell, but it builds camaraderie and team spirit and solidarity.
War destroys, but connects. Padre was enroute to the same convention of Special Forces he’d been keynote speaker for when Adm. Zumwalt made his comments. Padre’s mission is Peace, has been so for many years, including in Vietnam where as a Medic he didn’t differentiate between friend and enemy when it came to treating casualties of war. They were all persons to him.
Which leads to the gentle observance of International Day of Peace September 22, 2013.

I took my friend, Lynn Elling, to this observance. Lynn is, among other things, founder of World Citizen, the organization rededicating the Peace Site at the Peace Garden.
A Navy officer in both WWII and Korea, Mr. Elling, 92, has been a lion for peace ever since he saw in person the horrible remnants of war at Tarawa Beach, and later at the Museum remembering the bombing of Hiroshima.
Mr. Ellings role this pleasant Sunday afternoon was simply to relate his story to whomever wished to stop by. He also gave his comments on the importance of everyone being, truly, world citizens. We are, as he likes to say, all travelers on the spaceship earth….

Lynn Elling, at right, visits with folks about his experiences and beliefs, Sep 22, 2013

I could add many more stories about veterans I have known. Some I’ve written about: Frank Kroncke went to prison for his actions against the Vietnam War. In my mind, he’s a combat veteran, no different than those folks in Padre Johnsons picture. Bob Heberle, who recently died, was also a veteran.
They, too, saw War as Hell. And they, too, made connections with people.
I note that all of those listed above are men. In relevant part, they come from a time when combatants – warriors – were men. They come from the era of the Draft, where military was not voluntary; where disagreeing with the Draft was a punishable offense. I was one of them: U.S. Army 1962-63; today a member of the American Legion.
At the International Day of Peace, Sunday, most of the participants and organizers were, I noted, women. But by no means exclusively.
With the possible exception of Mr. Svingen, who I don’t know except for the writing included above, all the other veterans were and are staunchly for peace in all of its manifestations.
I see lots of hope for peace, if we all work together towards that objective.
As I said after Bob Heberle’s funeral, “let’s talk, all of us who are interested in peace and justice.”
We need to. Let’s work for a more peaceful world.

How about having your organization become a Peace Site?

A women’s drum group brought gentle resonance to the Peace Day celebration Sep 23

Two scenes at the Lyndale Peace Park, Minneapolis, September 22, 2013

#775 – Dick Bernard: A Fond Farewell to Bob Heberle, Veterans for Peace, "Let There be Peace on Earth"

September 14, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, History, Minnesota, Peace & Justice, Quietings /by dickbernard

The old St. Joan of Arc Church in Minneapolis was filled to overflowing today, the crowd there to remember Bob Heberle, a man of many talents but above all a passionate advocate for peace and justice.
(click on photos to enlarge)

Bob Heberle Service St. Joan of Arc Minneapolis MN Sep 14, 2013

The program for the Memorial Service is here: Bob Heberle Sep 14 2013001. His bio and suggested memorials is on page four of the program.
The essential word from/about Bob was, according to Fr. James Cassidy, “Gratitude“.
This caused me to think back to my 2012 Christmas message at this space, where I included an absolutely remarkable video on the topic of “Gratitude”. I hope you can access and watch it. (You can find it on YouTube, search Louie Schwartzberg Gratitude). It is ten minutes of beauty and inspiration. Perhaps Bob saw it last December when I sent it to my list, of which he was part for many years.
For those at the Mass celebrating Bob’s life, there are many memories.
I’d like to share some brief thoughts, one of which I know Bob and I would disagree on (he was on my e-mail list for years: when I searched my ‘from’ file on my computer, this is the first e-mail I found from him (there may have been others, earlier, but, you know, computer crash….”): Bob Heberle Nov 10 2005001. It wasn’t planned this way, but the e-mail tends to exemplify past tensions continued to the present day.
Bob and I had so many parallel paths: teaching, teacher union activism, Veterans for Peace, on and on and on. But while our paths were parallel, they rarely intersected directly till the last few years. He apparently attended the meeting of Vets for Peace; I didn’t. Usually I would see him at Vets for Peace gatherings at the USS Ward at the Veterans Service Building (Nov. 11) and Memorial Day (Vietnam Memorial at the State Capitol).
He was no wallflower, but at these events he melted in, I’d say.
I couldn’t find any specific photos I took of him at those events.
In recent years I’ve found myself seriously at odds with what is called the “Anti-War Movement”, Bob’s “branch of service”. That didn’t make he and I antagonists at all; or me an antagonist of the movement itself. But I have lobbied for at least a conversation about the real differences I see between the impact of the words “Anti-War” and “Pro-Peace”. Bob and I irritated each other about what was, to each of us, an obvious truth. But we had the same objective: Peace and Justice
I’ve said it.
That’s all that needs to be said. Except I’ll now, sadly, take Bob Heberle off my e-mail distribution list.
At the end of todays service we all sang “Let There Be Peace On Earth” which reminded me of my Christmas letter in 1982, written a week after I was at the dedication of the Vietnam Memorial on the Mall in Washington DC. You can see the letter here: Vietnam Mem DC 1982001 The cover of that Christmas letter said: “Let There Be Peace On Earth”….
Bob Heberle is one of many heroic presences in my life, willing to witness for a better world…and if you look at the flag on this post, it is Thoughts Towards a Better World.
Au revoir, Bob.
Let’s talk, all of us, who are interested in peace and justice, and find better ways to work together.

Vets for Peace Memorial Day at Vietnam Memorial MN Capitol Grounds May 24, 2013

Ending of Vets for Peace gathering, Memorial Day, May 24, 2013

POSTNOTE Sep 15, 2013: I can’t shake from my brain the thought that someone, some reader, will wonder to themselves “will anybody come to my funeral?” Bob was, apparently, a hard act to follow.
Perhaps to give a little context, six years ago it fell to me to be custodian for a relative, Mike, who was essentially friendless (and didn’t go out of his way to do friendship). He was mentally ill the last 25 years of his life, on permanent disability, but “walking wounded”.
Before he died, I found in his papers his final instructions to the local funeral home in a city far from here: “As far as any funeral service, that would be nice. However, I doubt if I would have more than two or three people attending. I guess I am kind of a lone wolf.”
He died Nov. 7, 2007. His prediction was pretty close. There were six of us at the cemetery when his ashes were buried; there were, however, perhaps 30 or more at an informal service at the assisted living place he lived his last few months. Few knew him.
But Mike has had a lasting impact. So has Bob. So has everyone else who I’ve witnessed walking the final mile. They all have something to teach we, the living.
And we should not care who might come, or not, to our performance on earth, rather do the best we can with the time, talent and riches we have remaining on earth.
COMMENTS:
from Chante W, Sep 15, 2013: Thank you, Dick … for being honest and with heart.
I couldn’t stay for the bell ringing as I was posting the flag at the Mendota Pow Wow. I hope he was well represented ~ as I saw many VFP’ers there. [NOTE: there seemed to be about 15 of us standing in Bob’s honor at the Bell Ringing]
I am with Veterans For Peace because of Bob. He got me introduced to folks and really made an effort for me to feel comfortable enough to tell my story. That is not to say there wasn’t some irritation along the way and disagreements about the office, ect., but there was never any grudge holding or animosity … I really appreciated his being willing to get out there and best as he could, make a difference. I loved him dearly as I do most of my brothers.
Thanks again ~ Hugs