#529 – Dick Bernard: Day Three Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College, Minneapolis. Global Issues

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After reading my post on Day Two, a friend asked a perfectly reasonable question: “What is the takeway for you each year you attend this Forum?”
My answer: exhausted as I am, back home after the third and final full day of the Forum: I feel, as I’ve heard said in another context, “touched, moved and inspired” – an energized exhaustion. I’m ready to go another round, and when the next Forum convenes at Augsburg (March 7-9, 2013), I’ll be there, Lord willing.
I’ll likely do a fourth post in the next few days, attempting to summarize the many takeaways from this years Forum. These takeaways will all be simple: in short, I came to conclude, as I was driving home an hour or two ago, that the Forum’s official theme: “The Price of Peace”, is essentially an identical twin of the occasional play on the phrase that I heard the last three days: “The Prize of Peace”. They are tied to each other.
You can’t win the prize, without personally and individually paying the price. Peace is not a spectator sport, where you simply pay for admission and watch the action.
In many and diverse ways the assorted speakers and performers demonstrated these ‘twins’. But that’s for later.
As before, video of today’s major sessions, featuring F.W. deKlerk and Naomi Tutu (Desmond Tutu’s daughter), are archived here (see first two programs archived there).
A small photo album of my experience today is below.
I need to comment, briefly, on former S. Africa President F. W. deKlerk, this years honored Laureate.
I’m like most people: there’s far too much information, too many issues, and too little time to absorb more than a smidgen in particular areas or passions. In this manic 21st century, we all become ‘specialists’ in our own bias or interest. This causes intellectual shortcuts about everything else which result in generalizations that often are not fair or accurate.
I’ve been involved with Augsburg and the Peace Prize program for the last four years, and when I heard that F. W. deKlerk had been engaged as speaker for this years Forum, I wondered why.
Apartheid came to mind of course, and we’d seen Invictus (excellent), and most everybody knows about Nelson Mandela, and I wasn’t aware Mandela and deKlerk were co-laureates in 1993.
September 15, 2011, I wrote Forum Executive Director Dr. Reed a short memo: “I know F.W. deKlerk has been engaged for the 2012 Forum/Festival. This summer I had occasion to read Naomi Klein’s NYTimes Bestseller “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism”. It might be good for you to take a look at Chapter 10 of that book pp 245-275. Its “Democracy Born in Chains: South Africa’s Constricted Freedom. The book, now a few years old, is widely read, and in many ways prophetic of our present day.”
Said book wasn’t especially kind to post-free election South Africa.
So, I had “[pre]judged the [deKlerk] book by its cover”.
Rushing to judgement is always a dangerous proposition.
Yesterday, President deKlerk made my day, as described in yesterday’s post, here. Here he was, a real human being sitting three feet or less from me, one of the most important persons I’ve ever been in proximity with, identifying with and obviously moved by those First Graders singing from the heart….
Last night we were one of those privileged to meet him in person, and have our photo taken with him. Lynn and Donna Elling were with us – we had our photo taken together – and I gave Mr. deKlerk my card which features the website, A Million Copies, which honors the immense contributions to peace of Mr. Elling and Prof. Joe Schwartzberg.
President deKlerk put the card in his pocket, and if I’m lucky he’ll take a look at the site sometime.
The two personal close calls with the human being deKlerk opened up a greatly enhanced listening space for me when I heard him speak this morning. His remarks on-line speak abundantly for themselves.
As for me, I’ve learned once again that important lesson: never pass up the opportunity for personal contact with someone you don’t think you’ll like. Maybe you might learn something…about yourself.
Thanks Nobel Institute, Augsburg College, and everyone who made this years Forum possible.
It was great.
Other summary learnings in a followup post. The previous posts are at March 1 and March 2.
Here are a few photos from today (click on photos to enlarge):

Nobel Laureate and former South Africa President F. W. deKlerk addresses the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, March 3, 2012


Heatherlyn (left) and John Noltner (right) teamed for a great session on music and peace, one story at a time. The room was packed.
John Noltner’s website, APeaceOfMyMind.net; note . Heatherlyn’s as well.

Geir Lundestad, Director of the Nobel Institute in Oslo, gave a fascinating and informative talk on the history of controversial Nobel Peace Prizes.


Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Institute here

LaJune Lang and Nadifa Osman led a packed workshop on The Price of Peace n the Horn of Africa


International Leadership Institute here (per Judge Lajune Lang); and Nadifa Osman

#528 – Dick Bernard: Day Two Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College, Minneapolis. Education Day.

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Tonight on return from a long day at Forum events, I opened an e-mail from my retired friend and colleague John Borgen. In the e-mail was a link to this song sung by a young person with a spectacular voice, Jackie Evancho. Somehow, it fits like a glove the earlier part of the day, and transcends individual sectarian beliefs with a universal message from young people to us all.
*
The first part of today’s agenda was the traditional Nobel Peace Prize Festival for K-12 students, now folded into the new format of the Forum.
Kennedy Center at Augsburg College was crowded with school kids at 11 a.m. I had found a chair in the second row in front of the podium. To my left First Graders from Burroughs Elementary in Minneapolis were beginning their welcoming song. On the opposite side of the gym this years honoree, 1993 co-(with Nelson Mandela) Nobel Laureate F. W. de Klerk of South Africa, had arrived with no fanfare in a darkened auditorium.
The song had just begun and Mr. de Klerk walked briskly and inobtrusively toward the center of the room, and sat down directly in front of me, gazing intently at the children to his left. I couldn’t resist taking this photograph which, to me, speaks the proverbial thousand words (click to enlarge).

F. W. de Klerk at Augsburg College March 2, 2012


Burroughs Elementary First Graders, March 2, 2012


It was the beginning of another magnificent day. (The entire opening session, and all the other major sessions at the Forum are accessible on-line here. It is the opening session for Day 2, and is 32 minutes. It was announced by someone, yesterday, that people in 46 different countries had checked in on the on-line program at some time or other during the day. This is what the internet looks like!)
Mr. de Klerk was visibly moved by the kids performance. He commented on how those youngsters moved him in his remarks to the audience, primarily students, parents and their teachers.
As a fellow grandfather, I related.
I have been to previous Festivals, and heard other Nobel Laureates comment similarly.
Kids affect their elders this way. Regardless of ones fame, or ordinariness, almost all of us are aware that we are leaving a future to our kids, and it is coming to be their turn, and hopefully they’ll be kind to us, and hopefully they’ll remember what we left them fondly, and not bitterly….
Day Two is best observed through watching the previously mentioned video files archived on line. The thoughts of Andrew Slack of the Harry Potter Alliance; Joe Cavanaugh of Youth Frontiers; and noted rapper and writer Dessa, plus some some outstanding workshops filled out a marvelous day. Through the magic of still-youthful (born 2005) YouTube, you can easily find examples of Dessa’s music – just enter the name Dessa in the searchbox. (The Forum was the first I’d ever heard of her – she is a mightily impressive 30-year old.)
Though her remarks to the audience I was with were brief, she connected and she registered with me and with the audience. Arriving home in the evening, I tuned in the website, and Dessa was finishing her talk to a (probably) youthful, enthusiastic and attentive audience at the Forum’s evening session.
Listen to the keynotes on line if you can. If you can tune in on only one, I’d highly recommend Joe Cavanaugh of Youth Frontiers.
Hope for our future was with those kids and all of the speakers I saw and heard today.
I think it was Cavanaugh who compared the Millenials with the Greatest Generation: they are poised to do what needs to be done for our and the planets survival.
“Slow down”, he advised us all, remembering his father’s frequent admonishment to the youthful in-a-hurry kid, and reflecting the frantic pace and data overload of today.
Here’s a small album from today (click on any to enlarge):

Andrew Slack of Harry Potter Alliance, March 2, 2012


Student display area for exhibits on past Nobel Laureates March 2, 2012


Student group Exhibit at Peace Prize Forum March 2, 2012


Some of the enthusiastic and knowledgeable students exhibiting March 2, 2012


Two students with a powerful rendering of a poem about the bombing in Birmingham, 1963


Dessa


Joe Cavanaugh of Youth Frontiers


Parul Sheh, Humphrey Fellow and Youth Empowerment leader in India, speaks in one of the workshops March 2


Cowern School singers at closing ceremony of the Festival portion of the Forum March 2


Melvin Giles, "Mr. Peace Bubbles", presents a small Peace Pole to F. W. deKlerk at Education Day, Nobel Peace Prize Forum, March 2, 2012


Report on Day One here, and on Day Three, here.

#527 -Dick Bernard: Day One, Business and Art and Music Day, at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College, Minneapolis MN

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UPDATE March 8, 2012: A personal photo album from the entire Nobel Peace Prize Forum is accessible here.
A wonderful Jazz combo from Augsburg College opened the 2012 Forum, first with a fine rendition of John Lennon’s Imagine, and Sting’s We Work the Black Seam Together.
It was a neat beginning to a superb day, jam-packed with thought provoking talks and workshops on the general topic of Business around the Forum’s theme: “The Price of Peace”. We came home very tired and very satisfied.
There is no adequate way to condense six jam-packed hours into 600 words or less. Here’s an attempt.
The first day was fully subscribed.
In the general sessions, Alf Bjorseth, chairman of Scatec As, gave a highly informative talk on “Renewable Energy:The Business of Renewing Peace & Stability”; Republic of South Africa Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, discussed the role of business in stabilizing the wider world and local communities as well; at the close, South African Sakumzi “Saki” Macozoma, five year veteran of infamous Robben Island Prison, talked about Business and the Price of Peace in Post-Apartheid South Africa. (click on photos to enlarge.)

Alf Bjorseth, at right, with Johnathan Mann, March 1, 2012


S. Africa Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool and responder panel March 1, 2012


Sakumzi "Saki" Macozoma Mar 1, 2012


All three of these talks, which were live streamed around the world, are archived and are already available for viewing on-line at the Forum website. They are all well worth the time. Bjorseth and Macozoma’s talks were followed by q&a expertly moderated by CNN’s Johnathan Mann. Ambassador Rasool’s talk was followed by a responder panel moderated by Caux Roundtable founder Stephen Young and including Roger Conant (International Investment Advisor), Doug Tice (Minneapolis Star Tribune), and Carol Kitchen (Land O’Lakes).
The sessions for the next two days will be live-streamed as well.
Attend if you can. Register on-line here.
Between major sessions today were a wide array of workshops.
My choices were Business Innovators as Pillars of Peace; and Feeding 9 Billion.
The Feeding 9 Billion workshop was especially interesting, organized by Land O’Lakes, and expertly presented by five persons.
The meeting room was packed to standing room only, and after brief and interesting presentations by five very impressive people, one a native of Kenya, we divided into small groups.
I joined the group facilitated by Bob Beck, a Regional Agronomist (Illinois), Winfield Solutions. There were perhaps a dozen in his ‘circle’, and it was most interesting to note the demographics of our group, and the assorted opinions expressed on various issues relating to U.S. business assistance in other parts of the world. Two women in the group, one Ethiopian, one from India, had strong opinions; others fed in as well with assorted points of view. Beck handled the conversation very well.
Even in 15 minutes discussion, it was possible to conclude that the issues addressed are by no means simple. Words like “honesty”, “trust”, “government”, “business” swirled around. When you sit in circle with people of differing points of view you can learn something. Points of disagreement? Of course, there are those. In human society, where differences are where it’s at, in-person consideration of other points of view is essential.
South Africa has emerged as the informal general theme for this years conference, and Thursday and Friday I’ll hear F. W. DeKlerk speak. DeKlerk won the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela. DeKlerk and Mandela together, and the imperfections of the last 19 years in S. Africa, demonstrate that reaching peace is hard work, and a forever process; slow, but better than the alternative.
Sitting next to us at today’s closing was a young Black man. My spouse struck up a conversation with him. He was a Fulbright scholar from South Africa….
Did we solve the world’s problems today? Will we tomorrow, or Saturday?
Of course not.
But it was great to be a participant in today’s Forum, and I expect the same Friday and Saturday.
Attend if you can.
Follow up posts on Day Two and Day Three are found here and here.

#526 – Paul Miller and Dick Bernard: Haiti, remembering eight years ago

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About this time of year in 2002, Paul Miller and I met each other at a meeting, and we learned we lived in the same community.
Paul was already active in the cause of Justice for Haiti, and over the coming months he began to urge me to visit the island Republic with him. It took a while. Though I was a geography major, I needed to re-learn where Haiti was, and a little about it.
Finally, Paul won me over, and on December 6, 2003, we landed in Port-au-Prince, just in time to see the democratically elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide begin to fall to a foreign state sponsored coup d’etat, which ended with President Aristide and his wife being spirited out of the country in the middle of the night, early Feb. 29, 2004, aboard a U.S. aircraft, with a final destination in the Central African Republic. (I guess, though I don’t recall it, that I’m the one who told Paul that Aristide had been taken out of the country.)
Our week, December 6-13, 2003, was an extraordinarily rich learning experience, which gave lots of direct context to assess the later reporting, which left out the positives we had experienced: our context simply didn’t fit the official U.S. narrative….
For those with an interest, there’s tons of information readily available from the Aristide government point of view. Don’t stop with the “official” U.S. narrative.
Following the photo (click on it to enlarge) are’s Paul’s thoughts, and following those, a link to my own reflections written late December, 2003, on our memorable week in Haiti, December 6-13, 2003.

Group visits with Michelle Karshan, President Aristede's foreign press liaison, Dec 11, 2003. From left: Jeff Nohner, Paul Miller, Rita Nohner, Michelle Karshan, Rita Nohner, Fisher, Dick Bernard


Paul Miller, February 29, 2012:
“Seems like yesterday, but also seems like a really long time ago
Haiti, 8 years later
I remember very well where I was when I learned that President Aristide had left Haiti in the early morning hours of February 29, 2004. It was my “where were you when you heard JFK was shot” moment, although I have that memory, too. It was at Caribou Coffee in Woodbury, Minnesota and my friend, who had traveled with me to Haiti in December of 2003, 3 months earlier, informed me that news reports were saying that Aristide had left Haiti. LEFT HAITI? No way, was my first thought. I did not think that Aristide would ever abdicate his presidential term in Haiti by his own choice after the 1991 coup against him and his 1994 return. Stunned and devastated would accurately describe how I received this most depressing news.
The facts would come to show that my instincts were right. President Aristide had no intention of leaving Haiti on that night or on any night during the remaining time of his presidency. Clearly he DID NOT leave that night of his own volition. You can choose to believe whatever you want to believe about US actions on this day and about US actions towards Haiti on any given day. However, if you choose to value the truth, then you will accept /learn that the facts show that Jean Bertrand Aristide was removed by US force/s and yet another coup d’etat took place in Haiti. The only real evidence offered of an alternative scenario are the self serving statements from those at the top of our government, chiefly George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and the sycophantic Colin Powell.
It’s not ancient history, like a lot of our nefarious actions towards Haiti. It was 8 years ago. Yesterday it was announced that President Aristide is being investigated for drug violations. Our hypocrisy really knows no bounds. What a coincidence that once again we are challenged to question Aristide’s integrity and ethics rather than to be reminded that there was a US sponsored coup that undermined Haiti’s hope for democracy and stability on this day, 8 short years ago.”
Dick Bernard reflections written late December, 2003: accessible here.

#520 – Dick Bernard: A Million Copies

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Sometimes, something is just too good to wait.
This morning I had the opportunity to re-union in St. Paul with Marion Brady.
Marion and I were long time members of a quality education e-list maintained by the National Education Association (NEA). We “met” on-line in the mid-1990s, and had only seen each other in person one time, when I stopped by his home literally across the river from Cape Canaveral in January, 2003.
Though it had a long run, the e-list passed on, as such lists do, but we continued to visit from time to time on-line.
Here’s we two today: Marion is the guy on the right (click to enlarge).

Dick Bernard, Marion Brady February 18, 2012, St. Paul MN


Our hosts, Wayne Jennings and Joan Sorenson, served a great breakfast, and we had a great conversation, one of those that makes time race by. Both Wayne and Joan were long-time innovative educators in Minnesota History of Ed Reform in MN. Wayne founded in 1987, and till 2000 owned, a Minnesota organization, Designs for Learning, long involved in facilitating institutional change in education.
We covered lots of ground in our time together.
Marion had been up to speak to a convention of an organization called MN Association of Alternative Programs. Wayne is ex-officio on the Board of MAAPMN.
I’ve been a fan of Marion’s work for many years. Though he’s retired far longer than I, he really never quit teaching and learning and writing. And his ideas make a great deal of sense. His on-line presence is here. He’s the absolute model of persistence – promoting his philosophy to whoever will listen, and achieving some success. He just keeps going, going and going….
For some years, Marion has written columns for the Washington Post’s Answer Sheet section. Ordinarily, he passes them along to me.
All of his columns for the Post, and many others, are accessible here.
It was a comment about one of those columns that caught my ear near the end of our visit.
I had mentioned the Answer Sheet, and he was telling me about a recent column he had written, December 5, 2011, that had gotten such an unbelievable response that the section editor had requested permission to interview the unnamed source to make sure that she wasn’t defending a piece of creative fiction.
Succinctly, Marion’s topic was what most would consider to be somewhat boring – testing of student proficiency.
This particular column, he was told, had gone viral, and there had been 1.1 million hits in the first 48 hours. Yes, a MILLION.
By now you’re curious, doubtless, so here is the specific column, with a link provided to the editors note about the results of her efforts to verify its contents.
For those of us who toil pretty anonymously in the vineyard of opinion, this column by Marion Brady is an object lesson in the value of persistence. Some day when you least expect it, you get noticed, and noticed, and noticed some more.
Of course, you don’t win the race unless you show up and run in it, but it happens more often than we imagine.
Earlier we had gotten around to talking about a landmark settlement achieved by a largely unknown group of women called the Women’s Equity Action League (WEAL) in the late 1970s.
Joan and I discovered we had both worked with what was called the Minnesota “WEAL Agreement” (WEAL Agree MN Nov 77001 )which has had a long term huge impact on practices to hire women as school administrators and social studies teachers in Minnesota public schools.
The agreement was an attempt to implement Title IX – affirmative action for women – in public education. A shero in common was Margaret Holden, then local president of WEAL.
What is common today was a very, very hard slog back then.
Joan mentioned the famous Margaret Mead quotation about the impact of small numbers of people: “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
I had just given them my card, which refers to that quote at the top of my website page, and suggested they take a look there, AMillionCopies.info, where that very quotation has been sitting quietly for the last four years – just waiting for today.
Congratulations, Marion, and Joan, and Wayne, and all who plug along.

Dr. Wayne Jennings, Joan Sorenson, Marion Brady February 18, 2012


“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

#519 – Dick Bernard: The 2012 Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College, Minneapolis

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Tuesday I was privileged to attend a preview of the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College, Minneapolis MN.
All I can say is “be there”. And if you plan to be there, enroll now. I will be surprised if there is room for walk-ins the days of the Conference, March 1-3. All details are here. This will be an extraordinarily rich world-class conference. Those of us who attended the preview received a 12-page summary of a jam-packed agenda. It would be folly to try to choose a high-light, any day. You need to visit the site to get an idea of the wealth of options available.
There will be ‘tracks’, by day:
Business Day is Thursday, March 1; also on March 1 is a specific Arts and Music Day track.
Friday, March 2 is Education Day, the first portion called by its previous name “The Nobel Peace Prize Festival”, This years Festival is the 17th annual at Augsburg. (The history of both Festival and Forum are here.)
Global Studies Day is Saturday, March 3.
If there is a specific ‘theme’, this years seems to be South Africa, which plays a prominent role each day.
South African F. W. de Klerk, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate with Nelson Mandela in 1993, is this years honored Laureate. Naomi Tutu, daughter of Desmond Tutu, will give the closing Call to Action address. Saki Macozoma, who spent five years in South Africa’s Robben Island prison for anti-apartheid activities, will keynote Business Day.
de Klerk, Mandela, Tutu, Macozoma, Robben Island: perhaps an infamous history, but the perfect illustration of the Forums theme: “The Price of Peace”.
A major workshop on Global Studies Day might sum up this years Forum: Dr. Geir Lundestad, Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute and secretary of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, will speak on “Controversial Nobel Peace Prizes: Successes or Failures.”
Run, don’t walk, to register. All information is here.
A Personal Aside: now available on demand or through DVD is a new documentary film we were privileged to see last May. It is titled I Am, the Documentary, and my post about it can be found here. It would be great preparation for this years Forum….
If you believe that the idea of achieving Peace is naive and unattainable, visit a website that highlights the work of two individuals who set out to make a difference, and have…. It is here.

#517 – Dick Bernard: Why I don't quit the Catholic Church

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Each time I express an irritation with the Catholic Church, a few friends will write, in assorted ways, “why not just leave?”
I always answer in assorted versions of “you can’t change an organization from the outside. You have to slog away within the system.” Plus, except for the hierarchy, whose clear obsession is temporal power, the “Catholic Church” as an institution has never done dirt to me, and has been an immense contributor on many levels to social justice in this country and in the world. Its representatives in the form of Priests, Nuns, Parish Workers, etc., might vary in talents and abilities, but by and large they really, really care about the essential Jesus mission as expressed in the beatitudes. I can’t leave that for some greener pasture that may not be any greener.
So I slog on.
Yesterday, at the exact same Mass where we got “The Letter” and “The Notice”, there was a second collection for retired Catholic Religious. This is an annual collection, and this year there wasn’t a speaker, rather a flier, in Spanish and English, in each pew. The flier speaks for itself: Abp religious retirement001
There is a particular sentence I noted: “… worked for years for small stipends. Their sacrifices now leave a substantial gap in retirement funding.”
The translation from English to English is simple: the Nuns who built the Roman Catholic social service system took vows of “poverty, chastity and obedience”, and when it came to retirement time, many of their orders had almost nothing to sustain their retirees, at about the same time as vocations were dwindling to the present status which is almost nothing. So appeals which tug at the heartstrings come out each year. While I don’t know the exact relationship, I do know that orders of Nuns could be very aggravating to the hierarchical structure. They were not easily manipulated.
The rules were not as severe for Priests, but, in my viewing, the same attitude of service and social justice tended to apply to them as well. I remember many truly wonderful Priests.
I wrote out my check for $50 yesterday. It should have been more, but it was probably well above average….
In the old days it was a source of pride for a family to produce a Nun or a Priest or in some cases a Bishop.
Some of these folks were legendary.
If you look at photos of the Civil Rights marches in the 1960s, Priests and Nuns were conspicuous by their presence, and if you looked behind the scenes, the local Bishops were telling them to stay where they were supposed to be, and that was not on the protest line.
I recently did a blog post about a Priest ordained in 1973 who said his informal mentors were Priests active in the rights movements.
And those Catholic hospitals? It was groups of Nuns, basically. Ditto for Catholic womens colleges, and Catholic schools.
Sister Rose did her damndest to teach me how to play piano in 5th grade in Sykeston ND. She failed. But not long afterwards, Ms. Stone, classically trained in a prestigious conservatory ‘out east’, tried again, and she failed, spectacularly. It wasn’t the teacher, it was the student!
I can NEVER repay those nuns who took my first wife into their Grand Forks ND hospital for two months in early 1964 when we had NOTHING. We were a charity case. They took us in….
So these Bishops and the rest who are the moldy fruit on top of the Church cabinet, can try to leverage their temporal power and attempt to pass their beliefs on in political skirmishes and laws and constitutional amendments. But I’m going to stick with the struggle in the place where they can be made most uncomfortable. They can ignore people like me, they can threaten us, but they can’t get rid of us…unless we leave.
I know there are other people within the institution who are outspoken in their own ways. We don’t all agree on exactly what to do, but we’re in agreement that the status quo with these Bishops is not the best we can do.
So, here I am.
(click on photo to enlarge)

Nuns at a cookout in Sykeston, ca 1959


E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post wrote a good column on this topic today. It is accessible here. Thanks to Bruce who highlighted it in a comment on yesterdays post.

#512 – Dick Bernard and Jack Burgess: "…There ain't no power like the power of the people, say WHAT?…."

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Is there change in the air?
Sometimes you just have to take the time to look…and then you need to double down, and go back to work, hard, hard work. Yes, I said “go to work”. Human nature seems to minimize accomplishments, and denies how much work is necessary to make changes, and to sustain changes once made.
But it is interesting to watch what is happening.
At the end of this post is a column written by a retired teacher leader in Ohio LAST YEAR. It is instructive for today.
More currently:
1) The Komen Foundation badly miscalculated the little people who make it a success, and even with ‘spin’ will have trouble recovering. It has tarnished its ‘brand’. There are tens of thousands of words out about it. Suffice to say, Komen blew it.
2) Employment numbers are up, and they’re distressing to the critics of Obama who wish to exploit hard times. No, they’re not up enough, but they are up. Yes, there are plenty of additional problem, like wages, and attacks on organized employees, but the numbers are up. Personally, I think they reflect some recognition by the business sector that people need money to buy the stuff that generates business profits, and the biggest market is right here in the USA. Cynically, I might say that much as they would have liked to, they couldn’t hold the recovery hostage until Obama was thrown out in November….
3) Over a million people in Wisconsin signed a recall petition against Gov. Scott Walker, and these were actual paper petitions, collected by real people – not clicking a box on an internet link. Recalls are tough, tough, tough sells, and there’s a lot of work ahead. But the volley across the bow was damned strong.
4) And in Ohio, what the year ago column talks about, a year made quite a difference, and the Republican Governor and legislators found out that they couldn’t run roughshod over the people affected.
There are other many other ‘snips’ I could write about, like the few billionaires organizing their zillions of $$$’s to rule us all, permanently, and I could write a whole lot more about what those “power of the people” folks – people like me – have to do, but that can wait. Watch this space for more on Minnesota Precinct Caucus day Tuesday, February 7.
And attend and participate in your caucus.
And “Here’s a piece that appeared in the Chillicothe [OH] Gazette, back when we were demonstrating at the Statehouse against SB 5, which would have taken away much of what Bob, I, and thousands of others worked so hard for, way back when.”
Jack
Labor Peace or Labor “War”?
A column by Jack Burgess
3/8/11
Overlooked in the furor over Governor Kasich’s efforts to take away rights and benefits from Ohio’s public employees is the question of what life would really be like if he is successful. Apparently, he and his supporters hope that teachers and other public employees will just “get over it,” and learn to live with less salary and benefits, as well as less input into educational policy. Reality check time. Government offices and schools across the state will be staffed with unhappy people with no official channels for their complaints or suggestions. The probability is that Ohio will endure what used to be called, in the days before collective bargaining was legalized, “labor unrest.”
Pardon this old history teacher for pointing out that, as William Faulkner said, “The past is not dead. It isn’t even past.” While we need history books to remind us of the robber baron era when workers were shot for going on strike, there are plenty of folks around today who can remember what it was like before public employees had rights. They can recall when married women weren’t allowed to teach. Later, women teachers, married or not, had to resign if they became “with child.” As recently as 1967—before a moderate Republican Ohio government changed it—elementary teachers, who were almost all women, were paid less than secondary teachers, who were more often men. Almost all administrators were men. Women were allowed to be elementary principals, but rarely high school leaders or superintendents. Teachers’ unions have successfully advocated for the rights of women and girls in education. If bargaining were abolished, would national civil rights laws keep the reactionary Republicans who now run Ohio government from discriminating again?
Of course, men who taught before collective bargaining and the right to file a grievance, can remember when a male teacher could be told his sideburns were too long, and sent home in embarrassment to shave. How would administrators, pressured to get test scores up, and equipped with power that couldn’t be challenged by unions, treat their staffs? In one school in the “good old days” before unions, teachers, who were regularly berated over the P.A., system hung a sign on the teachers’ lunch room that said, “Incapable Fools Club.” At a faculty meeting, when a teacher disagreed, she might be told, “Shut up and sit down!” These attitudes, so common when school boards and school administrators had unlimited power over teachers, not only kept a lot of self respecting people out of teaching, they sometimes led to abuses of children. Maybe most important, they deprived schools, and the children for which they exist, of teacher input into educational decision making.
After all, teachers are the real educational experts. It’s the teacher who works with the children, day in and day out, while many administrators get further removed every day from the realities of the classroom. It was the teachers’ union, in Columbus for instance, that negotiated the creation of the alternative schools, as well as the requirement for libraries in every school, and lower class sizes at the lowest grade levels, so that children could get enough teacher time to get off to a good start with reading, math, and the other basic subjects. Unions in Columbus and elsewhere also fought racial segregation, and while Columbus may have been a bit unique, teachers everywhere always push—through their unions—for what children need.
And here’s a point that has yet to be discussed in the media. What will happen to the unions if they can’t officially represent their members? They’ll probably do what they did in the past—continue to represent their members as best they can, unofficially. OEA, AFSCME, SEIU, and the other unions will still have their staffs, their offices, and most of their members, now sad and angry. They will not just fold up and go away. Thankfully, the Governor can’t nullify the U.S. Constitution, which will still give public employees the rights of free speech, public assembly, and the right to petition the government for “redress of grievances.” If teachers can’t file official grievances over any of the thousand problems they face, they’ll probably find other channels. What if all the teachers in a school district—several hundred or several thousand—go to the school board meetings to present their views? Or present them around the buildings, on the public sidewalks? They can’t be fired or fined if they’re on their own time, on public property. And if dozens call in “sick,” how would management know who was and who wasn’t? How could they all be fired and replaced? There’s a shortage of science teachers and some of other subjects, now. Firing good teachers would, thus, punish the kids and the community.
Before legal collective bargaining, when teachers and other public employees demonstrated for things they and their students needed, school boards found the demonstrations—and the logic of the unions–most uncomfortable. Ultimately, school boards around Ohio, and in much of the nation, found it made good sense to negotiate or bargain with their teachers, so informal bargaining was born. But the process was messy, not regulated, and subject to mistakes and abuse by all parties. That’s why the collective bargaining bill was passed in 1983. And it worked, reducing the number of strikes and other problems.
Now, if Governor Kasich and his supporters win this fight over public employee bargaining, it looks like we’ll go back to those days when creative union leaders and courageous public employees risked fines and jail time to be heard. But they won’t go away. The choice is not between unions and no unions, but between labor peace, as we’ve mostly had since 1983, and labor unrest. We’ve seen what that unrest looks like around Ohio’s Statehouse in recent weeks.
And this is aside from the blow that will hit Ohio’s economy when 350,000 lower and middle income people have less money to spend in their communities.
Jack Burgess is a retired Chillicothe teacher and former Executive Director of the Columbus Education Assn., as well as Chief of Arbitration Services in Ohio’s Office of Collective Bargaining.

Lynn Elling, World War II and Korea Veteran, Businessman, World Citizen

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NOTE: This post originated in November, 2007, titled LYNN ELLING: A MILLION COPIES MADE: Visioning a New Declaration of World Citizenship, by Dick Bernard.  Originally published Nov. 5, 2007 at Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers, of which Dick Bernard was then President, slightly revised February 3, 2011, and December 3, 2012, and has been updated by addition several times, most recently Nov. 22, 2020.  Mr. Elling died in Minneapolis MN, February 14, 2016.  

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I don’t know why Ed McCurdy chose the line “a million copies made” for his circa 1950 peace anthem, “Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream”.
Nor do I know why John Denver especially liked that song (a 1971 rendition performed by him on the U.S. Capitol steps is still available on YouTube.)
All I know is that I heard Lynn Elling lead us in singing that song back in the spring of 2007; and that the lyric “A million copies made” has stuck with me.
Who is this Lynn Elling?
And what does he have to do with peace and justice?
Plenty.
As a young LST (Landing Ship Tank #172) officer in WWII, Lynn Elling saw the horrors of War closeup in the South Pacific, at places like Tarawa. The history of LST 172 is here: Lynn Elling LST 172001,
Later he was recalled to service, and served in the Korean conflict, also on an LST.

Lynn Elling on USS LST 172 in the Pacific, 1944

Born in 1921 and a life long Minnesotan, after WWII Elling entered the insurance and financial planning business with Lincoln Life, becoming very successful in the profession. But early in his post-war career, he was discouraged and almost quit. Selling is very hard work. At a critical point in his early professional life, 1947, a workshop leader, Maxwell Maltz (Psycho Cybernetics) unlocked the door to Lynn’s future success. Maltz taught that if one could visualize a goal in technicolor, 3-dimension and stereophonic sound, the goal could be achieved. Elling listened, and followed Maltz’s advice, and it worked.
But Elling never forgot what he’d seen and experienced on that LST in the south Pacific in WWII.
Assorted experiences after WWII, including the service in the Korean conflict and visiting Hiroshima in 1954 and again in 1963, and opportunities to meet with and get to know people like Thor Heyerdahl (Kon Tiki), Norman Cousins, and many others, led to Lynn’s life long passion to build a culture of Peace and World Citizenship. Through leaders like MN Gov. Wendell R. Anderson, and mentors like Minneapolis business executive Stanley Platt, his wife Martha Platt, former Minnesota Governor Elmer L. Andersen and others, Elling was encouraged in his efforts.
His enduring monument is World Citizen, Inc.. World Citizen is a long-time member of Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers (MAP).
In the Fall of 1967, Stanley Platt and Lynn worked with then-Minneapolis Mayor Arthur Naftalin on a Declaration of World Citizenship, patterned on a then rapidly expanding program called “Mundialization” of cities particularly in Japan, France and Canada. Mayor Naftalin took the lead on the initiative, and on March 5, 1968, Minneapolis City Council and Hennepin County Board of Commissioners approved the resolution and the Declaration was signed by numerous parties. Here is a photo of a copy of the 1968 Declaration:

This was the first such declaration by a United States City. Signers of the Declaration and twenty-eight mayors from area communities attended the public declaration on Law Day, May 1, 1968.
Signers of the Declaration were: Chair, Henn. Co Board of Commissioners Robert Janes; Mayor of Minneapolis Arthur Naftalin; President Minneapolis City Council Daniel Cohen; Gov. Harold Levander; Oscar Knutson, Chief Justice Minnesota Supreme Court; Eli Kahn, President Minnesota Rabbinical Association; Congressman Don Fraser; Chairs of Minnesota Republican and DFL parties, George Thiss and Warren Spannaus; Aux. Bishop of Catholic Archdiocese James Shannon; Irene Janski, President of MN League of Women Voters; President MN United World Federalists, Sidney Feinberg, Minnesota State Bar Assoc; Harold Greenwood Jr, United Nations Association of Minnesota.
Former MN Governor Elmer L. Andersen spoke at the ceremony that day, very proud that the occasion marked “the first flying of the United Nations flag by Minneapolis and Hennepin County, [and] the first such declaration and UN flag flying by any major community in the United States. Thus this becomes a deeply significant occasion in our nation’s history. It represents a commitment to cooperation among nations for world peace, to belief in the common brotherhood of all men of all nations, and to aspirations for a world community of peace, freedom and justice under world law.“
In the same speech, he said “that we must look upon all the peoples of the world as one community, and we must find a way to operate under a body of world law to preserve peace.” (quotes from pages 151-52 of I Trust to be Believed, significant speeches by Elmer L. Andersen edited by Lori Sturdevant 2004). Text: Elmer Andersen I Trust..001

Elmer L. Andersen speech, City Hall, Minneapolis, May 1, 1968. Photo by Donna Elling

Gov. Elmer L. Andersen (center left) with Minneapolis Mayor Arthur Naftalin, May 1, 1968, Minneapolis City Hall. Photo by Donna Elling.

Lynn Elling speaks at May 1, 1968, ceremony at Minneapolis City Hall. In foreground, holding the Declaration, is Warren Spannaus, then Chair of the Minnesota DFL party, later Attorney General. Phot by Donna Elling.

Lynn’s passion for peace continued with another remarkable achievement in the spring of 1971 when 26 prominent leaders, including all notable Minnesota Republicans and Democrats, and then-UN Secretary General U Thant, signed a declaration of World Citizenship whose major proviso recognized “the sovereign right of our citizens to declare that their citizenship responsibilities extend beyond our state and nation. We hereby join with other concerned people of the world in a declaration that we share in this world responsibility and that our citizens are in this sense citizens of the world. We pledge our efforts as world citizens to the establishment of permanent peace based on just world law and to the use of world resources in the service of man and not for his destruction.”
Coming as it did during the darkest times of the Vietnam War, the 1971 bi-partisan Declaration is remarkable. Similar declarations were entered into in several other states and many communities.
See amillioncopies.info for more information about the entire declaration, which includes the signatures of all its very prominent signers.
In 1971, the Vietnam War raged on. It was difficult for most Americans to visualize an end to the deadly conflict. For those old enough to remember, the late 1960s and early 1970s was a time of deep division in this country. American youth were dying by the thousands in southeast Asia, as were millions of fellow world citizens in southeast Asian countries.

Here’s a Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial about the 1971 Minnesota Declaration:

Also accessible at the website is [the Elling led] 1972 film, “Man’s Next Giant Leap”, featuring John Denver and many then-notable Minnesota leaders, whose sole purpose was Peace Education for children and adults.
In 1972, Lynn and others founded World Citizen, Inc; in 1988, Peace Sites became integral to World Citizen. Peace Poles have been publicized by World Citizen for many years.
In 1996 Lynn Elling co-founded the Nobel Peace Prize Festival, later part of Nobel Peace Prize Forum, at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. The programs continued until 2018.
As so often happens, after a flurry of attention, the remarkable 1971 declaration literally ended up in a closet, its immense significance unnoticed by later generations.
Lynn Elling never forgot the 1971 declaration and in the spring of 2007 put it back on the table.
Today, of course, we are confronted by circumstances even more compelling and troubling than visited the U.S. and the world in 1971.
Today war is almost an abstract reality for many of us, something that seems to have no apparent negative consequences for us, mostly affecting people we’ll never see face-to-face, with fewer of ‘our own’ dying in places far away, no military draft facing young people, our war financed on a national credit card for our grandchildren to pay.
In a real sense we are playing a deadly video game. Additionally, we are beset with other potentially calamitous problems ignored at our peril. No longer can we pretend that our problems are confined to some other place far away, or even controllable by our own will. We are vulnerable in a way that we do not want to understand.
There has never been a greater need for world citizenship than there is today.
When Lynn secured his last signature on the 1971 declaration, achieving mastery in the space race was still a priority. Today, our very survival as human beings is rooted on what is happening on our own planet in all ways: human relationships, resource depletion, increasing inequities between peoples, climate change…the list goes on and on. Today’s priority must be right here on the sphere we call home – the earth. We are part of the global community; isolation and domination are no longer options.
Lynn Elling deserves immense credit and admiration for not only his accomplishment in 1971, but for reigniting the issue for today’s world.
Thanks, Lynn, for all you’ve done.
To all of you, stay tuned as we “retool and refuel” Lynn’s dream and take it, as he likes to say, “to the stratosphere”.

Lynn Elling World Service Authority Passport Photo 1975

Lynn Elling World Service Authority Passport Photo 1975

UPDATE, May 7, 2016:
LYNN ELLING, Minneapolis MN, died February 14, 2016, a few days short of 95 years of age. You can read his obituary here. A followup feature obit was published in the Minneapolis paper on February 25, 2016, can be read here. See also Celebration May 1 2016001 of his life on May 1, 2016.
Mr. Elling was a giant for peace. My personal attempts to summarize his life can be read below. My knowledge of his work, very minimal at first, expanded with virtually every visit during the 9 years I was privileged to know him.
He was a remarkable missionary for Peace, born of his experience during and following World War II. (More here: Lynn U.S. Navy001)
On May 14, 2014, as part of an archival project focusing on Peace Elders in Minnesota, Ehtasham Anwar and Suhail Ahmed, both of Pakistan, did a 57 minute video of Mr. Elling recalling his years as a peace activist.
The unedited film can be viewed in its entiretyat AMillionCopies.info.  The occasional voices in the background are Ehtasham (doing the interview) and Dick Bernard.
My comment about the interview, as it appears at the YouTube site, is: “Mr. Elling was 93 at the time of this interview in Minneapolis, MN May 14, 2014. I was privileged to be part of the interview planning and process, and from time to time I’ll interject a comment or question in this film. The interviewer is Ehtasham Anwar, then a Fulbright/Humphrey Fellow at the University of Minnesota Law School Human Rights Center. This interview was part of a project to interview ten elders in the peace movement. Mr. Elling’s was the second interview in the series, which was completed in mid-June, 2014. This video is unedited – it is essentially raw video – thus no effort has been made to correct content. I knew Mr. Elling for seven years before this interview. His memory as shared in this video was basically very sound, based on my own knowledge of his work, and past events. Any errors can be excused. He was a man who “walked the talk” for his passion of peace. He died February 14, 2016, days short of his 95th birthday. He was promoting peace until his death.”
Mr. Elling identified particularly with several organizations which still exist in the Twin Cities:
* World Federalists, now Citizens for Global Solutions MN.
* United Nations Association. It was during his time with UNA that he produced the film “Man’s Next Giant Leap” in 1972. The film, which can be viewed here, features singer John Denver and many Twin Cities civic and community leaders.
Mr. Elling served at one time as President of both of the above local organizations.
* World Citizen, was an organization he founded in 1972, and in which he was active until his death. I would say World Citizen was always the organization of which he was most proud.
* He was one of the Charter Members of Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers, founded 1995-96.
* In 1996, Lynn co-founded the Nobel Peace Prize Festival an annual event for years, and later was merged with the Nobel Peace Prize Forum.  He participated in these events until his final years.
* Mr. Elling was a Founding Member of the U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation. He was been nominated for that organizations annual Peace Prize for 2016. The application letter is here: Lynn Elling nom Apr 2016001
* annually, Mr. Elling participated in the re-dedication of Jefferson High School in Bloomington MN as a Peace Site, and indeed at other places. His passion for peace sites was avid, from the time he first learned of the concept in 1982.
* Concordia Language Villages at Bemidji, at which he dedicated as a peace site in 1996, and annually participated in a rededication of that most impressive peace site.
* As a Naval officer in WWII who saw the horrors of war, Mr. Elling would share the ideals and aspirations of the Veterans for Peace.
* perhaps more than anyone else, Mr. Elling was instrumental in the flying of the United Nations flag at what is now the Hennepin County Government Center, May 1, 1968. The flag flew there, next to the United States flag, until March 27, 2012. Here is what Lynn wrote about the history of the flag in May, 1968: May 1 1968 UN Flag Mpls001.  Much more about this issue can be read here.
He is at Peace. His mission must continue.
Dick Bernard
dick.bernard@icloud.com
May 16, 2016
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UPDATE December 11, 2013: Personal statement: Dick Bernard.
I initiated A Million Copies website in March, 2008. At the time, I had known Mr. Elling for only nine months. As time passes, he continues as a most remarkable and committed seeker of Peace in our world. For the interested reader, place the words Lynn Elling in the search box of this blog, and you will find many other posts which refer to him in one way or another. He walks the talk for Peace. I’m honored to know him. Here is a recent summary of his experience/work for peace over the last 80 years: Lynn Elling Timeline 1943-2013. The most recent post which relates specifically to Mr. Elling is about the U.S. Declaration of World Citizenship signed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. You can read it here.
UPDATE June 20, 2012: Lynn’s spouse of 68 years, Donna Elling, passed away June 1, 2012. Here is a blog post about Donna and Lynn and their family, first posted on the day of her Memorial Service June 13, 2012.
UPDATE January 4, 2013: During the fall and early winter of 2012, I found more information particularly about the Minneapolis/Hennepin County Declaration of World Citizenship March 5, 1968. That information has been added to this post, including some photos of the May 1, 1968, dedication ceremony taken by Donna Elling.
I met Lynn Elling in June, 2007. In November of that year I wrote the below commentary for Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers (original here), and in March, 2008, I rolled out the Million Copies website tribute to Lynn Elling and Professor Joe Schwartzberg, which remains essentially identical to when it was first published.
Both Mr. Elling and Dr. Schwartzberg remain with us, and both remain very, very active in their respective passions.
This seems to be a good time to update the original commentary about Lynn. (Changes to original text are minimal. The photographs are new additions.)
March 1-3, 2012 inaugurates the new Augsburg Nobel Peace Prize Forum, incorporating the long existing Nobel Peace Prize Festival, also at Augsburg, in which Lynn had a major co-founding role, and through the years has been a remaining powerful and crucial presence as both worker and fund-raiser for this major event.
Lynn and his spouse, Donna, still live in south Minneapolis. They celebrated 68 years of marriage last fall. Below are photos taken September 22, 2011, at their home; and in February, 1972.
(click on all photos to enlarge them)

Lynn and Donna Elling September 22, 2011

Lynn and Donna Elling World Service Authority Passport photo February 7, 1972

Lynn and Donna Elling World Service Authority Passport photo February 7, 1972

Lynn remains very active in working for an enduring peace, particularly with children’s programs such as Peace Sites, also here, and listing here: World Citiz Peace Sites001. And Peace Education.
Donna and Lynn, congratulations and best wishes to you both.
UPDATE April 17, 2013: Here is an abbreviated timeline of Lynn Elling’s efforts for World Peace: Lynn Elling Timeline001 It is much abbreviated.
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Memorial Day 2013, Lynn Elling with family at their Lake Cabin, celebrate Donna's life and inter her ashes at the base of a favored tree.

Memorial Day 2013, Lynn Elling with family at their Lake Cabin, celebrate Donna’s life and inter her ashes at the base of a favored tree.