Politics – Page 18 – Thoughts Towards a Better World

#891 – Dick Bernard: Election 2014 #2. Running for Election, a Team Activity

May 30, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, Minnesota, Politics /by dickbernard

These posts will continue at approximately one per week till the November 4 election. #1 is here.
Thursday I was at a meeting that included my State Legislative Representative, Joann Ward, MN District 53A.
I asked, off the cuff, how many people live in your District; and how many households (“doors”) there are.
Population: 37 to 39,000
Households: 16 to 20,000
Most every Minnesota legislative District has similar numbers. Rep. Ward’s is relatively compact, being a suburban district, major parts of two suburbs.
She is a first term legislator, the incumbent, and between now and November 4, six months from now, she has to figure out how to reach in some fashion or other, as many as possible of the people who might vote for her, or her opponent*.
On the official paperwork, she is the one running for legislator; actually, it is every single one of her constituents who support her re-election who are “running”. (She has been an outstanding legislator, but those two words bring a new dimension to her candidacy this year: she has a record. Incumbency is its own curse, particularly in this intensely polarized political age!)
If she runs by herself, without lots of active support from the constituents who elected her last time, it will be difficult. “Nature of the Beast”, these constituents, most of them, including her strong supporters, at this moment, are paying no attention to the coming election, concentrating on other things, like summer at the cabin.
It is a dilemma.
I happened to be at the local Convention at which she was nominated March 31, 2012.
Here is a photo of her first stump speech, seeking nomination. (click to enlarge)

JoAnn Ward with her family March 31, 2012, local political convention.

I had a very small advantage over the delegates to the Convention that day. For a brief time, 13 years earlier, JoAnn and my paths crossed, and I saw her in action as a school volunteer helping bring to fruition a successful Community Conversation About Public Schools, a pilot program I was coordinating in her local school district (at the time I lived elsewhere).
She was one of those who stood out, even then: the kind of person you remember.
Most of the delegates really had no idea who she was March 31, 2012; and she had likely had really no idea about the realities campaigning for election. I would bet that then, and probably often since, she and her family have wondered “why did I do this?”
Running for office, especially as a newcomer, is very difficult. Serving in office is no walk in the park either.
We had agreed to do a fundraiser for her during that summer, and it was considerably less than successful: we invited over 20 people; only a couple of them came. Probably a half dozen of us sat in our living room.
But, thinking back, that tiny event was, like all other events, crucial for her. It was an opportunity to practice talking about Issues in front of Real People. It was like that first speech we’ve all had to give sometime, in front of people, in 5th grade, or high school, or at church, or wherever, only worse: you have no idea who is in your audience, or what questions they are going to ask, and governing a state, much less a nation, is exceedingly complex work.
I’ve watched JoAnn Ward these past months, and she has served us with distinction.
This will not deter her opponents, who will paint her in an extremely different way.
There are many ways by which we who voted for her last time – there were 11,932 of us – can help her retain her seat in 2014.
Campaigning is not rocket science: it is people helping people. We each can help.
But we can’t wait till November, or next month, or sometime later to do so.
Ditto for every other candidate in every other district in every political party everywhere: the Candidate is not the one running for Election; the Constituents are….
Get off your duff, find out who’s running, help them in every conceivable way that you can, starting with letting them know you’re willing to help.

* Joann Ward’s first election to the Legislature, 2012.
23807 – Registered Voters as of 7 a.m. election day
11932 – Votes for JoAnn Ward
9269 – Votes for her opponent.

#889 – Dick Bernard: Working Towards Peace: A War Well Worth Fighting

May 28, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, History, International Relations, Minnesota, Peace & Justice, Politics, War /by dickbernard

RELEVANT ADDITION TO THIS POST, added May 29, Just Above Sunset, here.
UPDATE to May 26 post, first paragraph, here.
NOTE: Previous 889, Dad’s Flower, will be 890 for May 29, 2014
(click on photos to enlarge them)

Bill McGrath, Northfield MN, sings Pete Seegers “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” May 26, 2014

Today, President Obama speaks at West Point. The previous days he’s been in Afghanistan and at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. My intention is not to report on what’s already been, or will be, said. You have many independent sources. The White House website will have the actual words. My favorite re-capper of the previous days news six days a week is Just Above Sunset, including the May 27, 2014 post, “Most Likely to Succeed”, from which I take the below pull-quote from the 5th paragraph playing on previous and following paragraphs about graduating from high school, and our propensity to self-select into “tribes” and persist in the insanity of talking “war”.
“…there are no quiet nerds who no one noticed in politics, or not many of them. The job is to display the tribe’s norm, and personify them. For example, Democrats don’t like wars, on principle – we should fight them when we have to, but not fight the when we don’t have to. Obama, long before he ran for president, famously said he wasn’t opposed to all wars, just dumb wars. He had Iraq in mind, not Afghanistan, but even that was heresy to many…Democrats see the sacrifice of our soldiers as worthy of great honor, but often sad. This appalls Republicans. In a nation of warriors the heroic cannot be sad. War makes us who we are, and feats of derring-do to overcome evil [is] pretty damned cool – and we can’t show weakness. That’s a tribal norm and also Obama’s problem. Putin has walked all over him. Everyone has walked all over him. McCain would have bombed Iran the day he took office. Mitt Romney would have eliminated capital gains taxes and then bombed Iran the day he took office. Obama is talking to Iran, and it seems they will end their nuclear weapons program, but he’s doing it the wrong way. Obama should have bombed them. Our military is awesome, from awesome individuals to our whiz-bang secret gizmos – the tribe has said so. We are a Warrior Nation after all – not a nation of diplomats and thinkers.” (emphasis added)
The U.S. functions as a two-party country, Republicans or Democrats, much to the chagrin of purists who’d like more options, but when we watch, listen or read commentary about moving away from deadly combat to solve world problems to something more rational, like negotiations, the commentary will be spun one way or another: Fox News vs MSNBC, etc. And the conversation becomes “Warrior” versus “Diplomat”, or other softer words.
My natural affinity group is “Progressive”, which in days past counted amongst its ranks legions of high profile and highly respected Republicans; but these days seems an outlier on the left who seem to consider both Republicans and Democrats to be twin evils against Peace when, in fact, there are huge and substantive differences (“warriors” versus “diplomats and thinkers”).
The right wing warriors, the Tea Party, have essentially frozen the Republican party in a perpetual radical mode: progressive types need not apply.
On the left, there will be scant celebration of a move to a new reality in our relations with the world: Obama has sold them out; there will still be troops in Afghanistan; and until every sword is beat into ploughshares the protests will continue.
I’m a ploughshares guy who, on the other hand, can see little common sense in not accepting that incremental improvements in a dismal status quo are, indeed, improvements, not simply the lesser of two evils. Since the beginning of his term, I’ve been impressed with President Obama’s skill in managing this impossible to manage country.
Today, most my friends on the Left (and that is where my friends are, mostly), will say about Obama’s words “there he goes again”. You can’t compromise with evil”. Of course, the other side says the exact same thing, though they define “evil” a bit differently. But the Right is more entrenched in positions of power in politics; while those on the Left migrate to fringe groups which have no power at all, except the purity of their position – a story we know all too well.
I’m sure I’ll find disagreement….
My good friend, Ehtasham Anwar, who’s just completing a year of study in the United States before going back to his South Asia home country sees this pretty clearly, I feel. He is troubled by the dichotomy he has experienced: at home in his country, signs of the U.S. “hegemony” are everywhere – us meddling in their affairs in sundry ways. Here in the U.S., on the other hand, he sees a population full of marvelous, peace-loving people. It’s a troubling contradiction to him.
Why the difference?
Can we as a country truly export our best and truest “face”, the face of Peace?
Working towards Peace: it’s well worth truly dialoguing about, often, very seriously, friend-to-friend, opponent-to-opponent. Read Just Above Sunset for a start.

Barry Riesch at the Veterans for Peace Memorial Day at the Vietnam Memorial at the MN State Capitol May 26, 2014

COMMENTS:
Joyce D, May 28 (commenting on a Letter to the Editor in the St. Paul Pioneer Press May 28)
Original letter follows this response.
Just some quick addenda and a correction to “Blaming Obama” (Letters, May 28.) I would add to the writer’s defense of President Obama the facts that Obama successfully got the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks (GWB, it should be remembered, declared he really wasn’t all that interested in getting Osama bin Laden,) ended our heinous policy of torture, ended the misbegotten war on Iraq and is in the process of ending the war in Afghanistan. At the same time, President Obama used diplomatic means to rid Syria of most of its chemical weapons and to halt nuclear development in Iran, without committing us to more wars. He improved America’s standing in the world, he enabled millions of Americans to access affordable health care for the first time and, though the VA still has an unconscionable backlog, that backlog was dramatically decreased under Eric Shinseki’s leadership, despite the influx of war veterans and the refusal of Republicans in Congress to fund the VA adequately.
The correction: Obama did not vote against invading Iraq as a US Senator. In fact, at that time Obama was still a member of the Illinois legislature. He did, however, speak out forcefully against attacking Iraq, something few politicians had the courage to do. Our current Governor, Mark Dayton, was one of the few brave legislators who had the guts to vote against that damaging war of choice.
The Pioneer Press letter: Blaming Obama
James R. LaFaye, St. Paul
It is impossible for me to read the diatribe in Monday’s Pioneer Press “Opinions” and remain silent. The author is typical of so many hardcore anti-Obama dissidents — long on opinion and short on facts. Ever since Barack Obama became our president, his critics have been dead set on blaming everything but the Civil War and Lincoln’s assassination on him. I am sure the letter writer is able to afford his own health care coverage unlike the millions of uninsured Americans who benefit from the Affordable Care Act. Its critics insist on calling it “Obamacare” simply to engender disapproval among like-minded individuals.
“Our foreign policy is a joke.” I guess he would prefer that we return to the policies of the previous administration whose response to the 9/11 tragedy — which occurred on their watch — was to invade Iraq under false pretenses when the perpetrators of this greatest domestic terrorist attack in American history were not even from that country. Maybe the letter writer is upset we haven’t invaded any more countries during Obama’s presidency, like Syria or the Ukraine, to demonstrate America’s invincible might.
Finally, although I am as deeply saddened and upset about the VA debacle as any American, to blame this situation on Obama and the Democrats is absurd. A cursory investigation of the VA’s (or its forerunner’s) history in providing health care services to our Veterans will quickly reveal a long history of malfeasance going back to the Civil War, WWl, WWll, the Korean War and Vietnam, which obviously included many Republican administrations. The current tragic conditions at the VA are only aggravated by the great number of returning disabled veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, neither of which wars are attributable to our current president. In fact, as a senator he voted against invading Iraq.
Bruce F, May 28: I agree with you and the Sunset guy about the tribal differences between Democrats & Republicans, Obama & McCain /Romney. I also understand the incremental differences that pass for progress, which displeases me more & more as I move into the last quarter of my life. I think what your friend Ehtasham doesn’t understand is that the friendly American people don’t make foreign policy. That policy is made by corporations through officials that are elected by the friendly American people. The corporate interests are seen as our national interests. It appears to me that both Democrats & Republicans, Obama & McCain/Romney understand that. The hegemony your friend sees is directed through soft power(Obama & the Democrats) or hard power(McCain/Romney & the Republicans). Whether hard power or soft, they are meant to dominate America’s competitors. Make no mistake, hard power will be used by both Democrats & Republicans when soft power options are not effective. Although, the Republicans are less patient.
Peter B, May 30: There are competing narratives gushing at us from every screen and earbud and woofer and tweeter in our environment as the “news cycle” cycles. There is a flavor of opinion for every taste, and a level of sophistication, of nuance, of validation, to satisfy the most rigorous intellect. And not a byte of it makes any difference: let me know when the wars end, the hungry are fed, and the refugees returned. And I’m not being cynical, that is the possible future in which I live and work. I’m just not holding my breath.
Because. Because, you see, all this patter, these “competing narratives” are competing, but not for credibility, as one might assume. but solely for attention. And quantity is what matters, not quality. Any attention, as long as it is of sufficient focus and duration to pay off the advertisers and provide marketing data. That amounts to about a nanosecond apiece, about the amount of difference one person’s opinion makes in any of this. The system does not care what you think, or how you respond; they have what they want before you blink one eyeball.
This system is terribly effective at disabling any seriously dissenting view, that is, any contagion of thinking that might interrupt the parasitic extraction of wealth, by converting any such expression into yet another contender for eyeballs, drowning in the waves of professional reaction to the previous set of reactions to the carefully shallow and belated stories on the Feed. If you have trouble with this notion, get some app like Ghostery on your browser, and see how many marketing analysis ‘bots are tracking you on your favorite political websites.
Omitted from entertainments like NPR and Fox is any insight into the background of this endless repeating sequence of purportedly unrelated disasters; that, or a pale simulacrum of it, is the purview of bloggers in the hierarchic layers of op-ed websites, or bestselling authors flogging this week’s disposable insider look at the Real Deal, or indy filmmakers exposing the seamy undersides of fatcats. By the time one burrows down into the dense language of psuedo-academic think-tanks or even actual academic research, even if the funding trail is transparent, there are only about forty people in that space who can grasp such complexity, or simplicity maybe. And they’re only talking to each other.
All this is quite integral to the machinery of our modern corporate feudalism, because the main purpose of this segment of the enterprise is to entertain us. That means, occupy our attention, encapsulate public discourse; it is far more valuable commodified in the Attention Economy than for any informative content it may hold. And if you wonder how to tell if you are in one of the back-eddies or blind alleys or dead-end sinkholes of irrelevancy for intellectual discourse referred to here, don’t worry, you are: that is what the publishing industry, the telecommunications industry, the entire higher education system, and the internet, have become: that’s where you can still get paid by the word, or actually, the letter.
While we argue over whether Obama is what we think he is, or does what we think he’s doing, the global oil and banking extraction industries grind on, now seamlessly integrated with “our” government, which provides infrastructure and military backing. This is not some sinister world domination scheme concocted by some secret fraternal order. Or maybe it is: but this does not matter at all. As with all such machinery, its highest purpose, the driving force behind it, is no more than to preserve and perpetuate itself, at all costs. It has no functioning awareness or concern for humanity, its creators. Now that it is set in motion, it will run until we stop it, or until there are no commodities left to exploit. And like some retrovirus, it is very, very good at extracting energy even from serious attempts to disable it. We work for it, we feed it, and it feeds some of us, more or less.
This is a problem.

#888 – Dick Bernard: Memorial Day and Disabled Survivors of War

May 26, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, Family History, History, Minnesota, North Dakota, Peace & Justice, Politics, War /by dickbernard

UPDATE May 27, 2014: Here’s a Facebook album of photos I took at the Veterans for Peace Memorial Day observance at the MN State Capitol Vietnam Memorial yesterday.
A very worthwhile summary of the tension which seems to surround the Memorial Day observances (Pro-War or Pro-Peace) can be found here. It is long, but very worthwhile.
TWIN CITIES READERS: join with the Veterans for Peace today at 9:30 a.m. at the Vietnam Memorial area on the State Capitol Grounds for the annual Memorial Day reflections. I have attended this observance for years. It is always moving.
May 29 UPDATE: Thoughts after the Memorial on Monday May 26
After the annual Vets for Peace Memorial on the Minnesota Capitol Grounds Vietnam Memorial, I went home to try to reconstruct my attendance at these events over the years. Almost certainly they go back to 2003, which was about when I was becoming an activist for Peace, and was a new member of Vets for Peace. I didn’t make all of the Memorials: sometimes I was out of town; but if in town, I’d be there. Ditto for Armistice Day each November 11, most often at the USS Ward Memorial in the same neighborhood; the first one, though, at Ft. Snelling.
2014’s observance was better than last, which was better than the year before, and the year before that…. Slowly, surely, the observance grows in attendance and in quality.
My friend, Ehtasham Anwar, from Pakistan and a Humphrey/Fulbright Fellow at the Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota, counted 150 of us at the observance.
From the first Pete Seeger song by Bill McGrath of Northfield, to Taps at the end, the one hour event was its usual quiet, powerful self, with memories, both of the structured sort (reading the names of the fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan), to individuals recalling their own victims of war, both living and dead.
Jim Northrup, Objibwa author and Vietnam vet spoke powerfully about his personal family history with the Vietnam War. It began with memories of watching Albert Woolson, the last survivor of the Civil War in parades in Duluth, “surrounded by pretty girls” – pretty cool for young Northrop. Then memories of the War itself, abstract demolished by reality. Seeing John Wayne appear and as immediately disappear in a cameo appearance on a battlefield somewhere over there….
One of the vets rang a hand-made bell eleven times, remembering 11 a.m., on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, when Armistice was declared in the “War to End All Wars”.
We adjourned, quietly, and went our separate ways.
There were no gun salutes. It was all about Peace.
At the wall, at the end, organizer Barry Riesch and myself found that we both knew, in different ways, one of the names on the wall, Joseph Sommerhauser, killed 1968. He was Barry’s classmate; and he’s my long-time Barbers brother. Tom, my barber, was also a Marine in Vietnam.
So is how it goes with circles, only through gatherings like this can dots be connected.
(click to enlarge photos)

Barry Riesch identifies name of Vietnam casualty, Joseph Sommerhauser, May 26, 2014, at the Vietnam Wall, MN State Capitol Grounds.

Original Post for Memorial Day 2014
About three weeks ago, my wife and I stopped downstairs after 9:30 Mass at Basilica for our usual coffee and conversation.
This particular day we joined a man sitting by himself at a table. He was a very dapper older gentleman, well dressed, wearing a boutonniere.
We introduced ourselves. He gave his name. I’ll call him Roger.
Roger, it turned out, grew up in an eastern state and was drafted during the worst parts of the Vietnam War. He was a Conscientious Objector, and went into alternative service aboard a Hospital Ship just off of Vietnam during 1968, one of the deadliest years of the Vietnam War.
He told his story that morning at coffee. He came home from the war, and went to work in the medical field. All went okay for something over 20 years, then PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) took hold. His personal hell was compounded because no one would believe him; he was, after all, “normal” for over 20 years. It took a long and very frustrating time to verify his career-ending disability.*
We shared contact information before leaving coffee.
Later in the week, came a packet from my new friend, including several photos, three of which are below.

Hospital Ship Sanctuary late 1960s

“Roger” is in this picture, 1968

Gen. Westmoreland visiting the ICU on the Hospital Ship.

I’ve seen him each Sunday since, and each Sunday he’s wearing that boutonniere, dressed very well.
This day, Memorial Day 2014, at 9:30 a.m. at the Vietnam Memorial on the State Capitol Grounds, I may see Roger, who I invited to the annual Vets for Peace Memorial Day observance. Each year this observance grows in numbers of participants. It is always impressive. Whether or not he chooses to come, I’ll dedicate the day to him.
I’ll also bring to the observance two new friends from Pakistan, Humphrey/Fulbright Fellows in the University of Minnesota Human and Civil Rights Center, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. I have been assisting them in identifying Americans to interview on the topic of Peace. The interviews, their stories, and their perceptions of America both from at-home and here are most interesting, and perhaps a topic for a later post.
But these are tense times in the issue of care of the desperately wounded coming home from combat oversees, particularly Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
This evening 60 Minutes had a powerful segment on PTSD programs. You can watch it here.
There is a great deal of political controversy, lately, about the Veterans Administration Hospitals. My Grandfather Bernard died in a VA Hospital in 1957; so did my physically and psychologically disabled Brother-in-Law, who I spent time with at three different VA hospitals during assorted confinements. A VA Nurse I know is an outspoken advocate for better funding of health care in the system. Etc.
Still, the entire system, especially the Director, former Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki, and, of course, the President of the United States, is under attack as this Memorial Day dawns because of assorted outrages at a number of VA Hospitals in that immense system. Rather than fix the problems, the political strategy is to demand that the top guy be fired, and blame the President (and Democrats) and reap political points in the process.
Disgusting.
If you’re interested (I hope you are) a long post on the topic I would urge you to read is here. There is a short comment of my own at the end.
I close with this personal comment: we are a nation that seems to revere war, when war has never and will never solve anything; and it is war that will ultimately kill us all. We have created and continue to refine the monster that can kill us all.
What I look for is the day when we can celebrate the death of war: now that will be a cause for celebration!
We Americans, indeed the vast majority of all citizens everywhere in the world, are a peace-loving people. Just look around at your friends, neighbors and communities. The vast majority of us do not celebrate war.
But it will take our individual work to end our national obsession with it, and to reduce the numbers of our fellow citizens killed or mortally and permanently wounded by it.
Let us make Memorial Day a day to celebrate Peace.
* – POSTNOTE: My barber, a retired man, is a Marine veteran of Vietnam. His brother died at 18 there; his name is on the Wall in DC and Minnesota. In Vietnam my barber was one of those who went into the tunnel system constructed by the enemy – he was willing and had the build for it. This was in the 1960s.
Tom and I talk a lot while I’m in his barber chair, and in recent years he’s talked about claustrophobia as a fairly recent and disabling issue for him. It sounds odd, coming from him, a former tunnel rat, but it is truly a problem for him, and he receives treatment from the VA for it.
War, it turns out, never ends.

#882 – Dick Bernard: Jim Oberstar, Congressman, Citizen

May 10, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, Labor, Minnesota, Politics /by dickbernard

Jim Oberstar May 21, 2011

Those of us in Minnesota know that Jim Oberstar died May 3, 2014, and if we’re interested in politics, we know a lot about this veteran of the United States Congress from Minnesota 8th Congressional District who was defeated by a Tea Party upstart in the 2010 election, and then retired.
Here’s the biographical sketch of Mr. Oberstar, who served 18 terms in Congress, beginning 1975, and before that was an aide to long-time Cong. John Blatnik.
It is common to rail against “Washington”, as Mr. Oberstars opponent did, successfully, in 2010. The new representative served a single term in Congress, and was defeated in his reelection bid.
There is a great deal of good in “Washington”, and Jim Oberstar exemplified that positive quality, so missing in Congress these days.
I lived in Hibbing from 1983-1991, representing Minnesota Iron Range teachers, and I had infrequent but always positive occasions to meet with Cong. Oberstar. Oberstar was himself a “Ranger”, as fluent in French as he was in English; a recognized expert among his Congressional colleagues especially on Transportation issues. He was caught in the “throw the bums out” hysteria of 2010. He may have taken his reelection too much for granted, or maybe he was ready to retire anyway – he was already in his mid-70s.
May 21, 2011, just a few months after he was retired, I was privileged to be with a group of Democrats in the DFL Senior Caucus at our annual meeting.
Oberstar graciously accepted the invitation to speak to our group, and gave a powerful and persuasive defense of Social Security, a topic of real interest to us.
The photo at the beginning, and those below, are some photos I took at that meeting.
There were lots of good reasons why he shouldn’t be bothered coming to speak to our group, but no matter, he was there, and he was prepared as he would have been for any hearing in Washington.
We all have benefitted from the likes of Representative Oberstar. May the more positive tone of the past return….
(click on photos to enlarge)
All by Dick Bernard, May 21, 2011, Maplewood MN.

Jim Oberstar May 21, 2011

Dwayne King, John Martin, May 21, 2011

May 21, 2011

#881 – Dick Bernard: Election 2014 #1. Six Months to the 2014 Elections in the United States.

May 8, 2014/0 Comments/in Politics /by dickbernard

These posts will continue at approximately one per week till the November 4 election. #2 is here.
Minnesota voter turnout in recent years:
2006 – 61%
2008 – 78% (Presidential year)
2010 – 56%
2012 – 76% (Presidential year)
Comment below….
Yesterdays edition of the local Woodbury Bulletin carried a Letter to the Editor headlined “Minnesotans face fork in the road”. The writer was “the Republican candidate” for one of our local state legislative districts. She is running to hopefully replace the current Republican representative who is not running again.
This is a local issue, so no need to bother you with details except…(see NOTE at end).
But there is a story in this, applicable to all of us.
The erstwhile candidate, in her letter, predictably blamed the Democrats for all the sins of the town, state, nation and world, and in a relatively short letter managed to convey all of the sound bites of Republican rhetoric, while saying nothing about herself.
Her website is up and easily found, for those who will look, and even there you have to look and find out much about who she really is: a very conservative Republican operative who has been very active in the party and, in fact, was Deputy Chair of the State Republican Party during the time when it was wracked with scandal, almost went bankrupt, and managed to lose the governorship, and majorities in the Minnesota House and Senate.
The Democrats are the ones who’ve had to clean up abundant messes left behind by her crew.
Hers was hardly a glorious tenure as a Very Important Leader of the State Republican party, but she’ll market herself, convincingly, as just a nice local Mom and Churchlady, etc., a person who really, really cares.
So goes American politics everywhere, as it goes into full gear here and everywhere else in our democracy.
A few days ago I was visiting with a friend from a country whose name most every American would recognize. He’s been here about a year now.
He had earlier observed that in his own country there is much animosity towards the United States.
By no means has our nation been a benevolent presence there, mucking around in all sorts of ways in the nations local and regional affairs.
Then he came here, for a year, and he marvels at how nice the people he and his wife and child meet, Americans, are.
Why the very real difference between how America is perceived there, and here?
The answers are complex, certainly, but I said that in our democracy it is we citizens who pick the people who represent us, and we far too often do a very sloppy job of that.
Far too many of us don’t vote at all; and many of us who vote have not the slightest clue of who we are voting for; or we in one way or another convey to even our preferred candidates an attitude: “go ahead and run, but don’t expect any help, physical, financial or otherwise, from me. You’re on your own.”
I’ve written a lot about politics at this space, and something I wrote January 7, 2014 seems worth revisiting. You can read it here.
My succinct opinion in all of this is that everyone of us who are eligible to vote (whether we vote or not makes no difference) deserve exactly who and what we get in all of the many offices we elect this November.
This is an uncomfortable truth.
Here again is the Minnesota election turnout for the four cycles preceding 2014 (and Minnesota is a high-turnout state)
2006 – 61%
2008 – 78% (Presidential year)
2010 – 56%
2012 – 76% (Presidential year)
2014 – ?
The 5% lower voter turnout in 2010 had immense consequences for Democrats and their more leftward colleague Progressives who in disproportionate numbers did not vote at all, or voted for candidates who had no chance of winning, while an energized Tea Party went to the polls and had far more influence than their numbers should warrant in many places. The margin leading to a tip of the legislature to the Republicans in 2010 was in the hundreds of votes.
We deserved exactly what we got. Unfortunately (in my opinion), so did the rest of the citizenry who will have reason to rue the day that they elected individualists to represent us all….
Get to know the candidates and the issues for all of the offices. Go to the meetings. Contribute time, energy and money to the candidates of your preference.
And ignore the damned billions in media ads. They are all dishonest. And we’ll be barraged by them for the next six months, to an extent never seen before.

NOTE: As pointed out by a current legislator in our town, folks tend to be turned off by what is seen as “partisan” wrangling. It is a difficult question. In this state, Republican politics is still dominated by Tea Party “take no prisoners” and “no compromise” policies, and to pretend that isn’t so with the candidate described above is to pretend that this can be dealt with in a non-partisan even-handed old-fashioned way.

#878 – Mohammed Fahimul Islam: Democracy Crisis in Bangladesh

May 1, 2014/0 Comments/in International Relations, Politics /by dickbernard

Pre-Note, Dick Bernard: Today is Law Day in the United States, a tradition begun in 1958 with President Eisenhower, still part of U.S. Law, now little known or remembered.
Beginning in 1964 Minneapolis businessmen Stan Platt and Lynn Elling set about developing a new tradition called World Law Day which went on for many years.
The following contribution seems appropriate for this years World Law Day.
There are 193 countries in the United Nations. Bangladesh, an Iowa-size country halfways, around the world from Minnesota, with a population more than half that of the United States, is one of those countries. Indeed, then as part of British India, it was one of the original 50 signers of the United Nations Charter in 1945.
Ruhel Islam, who operates the deservedly popular GandhiMahal Restaurant in Minneapolis, is always about peace. So, when he sent a recent detailed e-mail from his cousin, former Bangladeshi diplomat M. Fahimul Islam, about democracy problems in his native Bangladesh, I paid attention. Rather than interpret his words, and those of his cousin, they are here presented as written.
But first, Bangladesh.
It was, long ago, East Pakistan, part of the British Empire on which, at one time, the sun was said to never set. It is seldom in the news, and my first need was to find it on the map. Here’s from the 1987 Readers Digest World Atlas, the clearest rendition I could find here at home:
(click to enlarge)

Bangladesh (in green) surrounded by India. 1987 map.

Here’s what the CIA Fact Book says about Bangladesh. The country is slightly smaller than Iowa in geographic size, but its population is more than half that of the United States. In geographic location and general climate the country is much like Florida.
Without other elaboration following is, first, how Ruhel introduced the item he sent about the political crisis in his country; then the post, which is quite long, with links.
Obviously, Ruhel would like this shared broadly, and he would like actions by individuals and groups to call attention to his nations dilemma.
REQUEST FROM RUHEL ISLAM:
April 9, 2014
Dear Friends,
As a United States citizen of Bangladesh origin, I am deeply concerned at the turn of events that have been taking place in Bangladesh and would like to bring these to your notice with the objective of gaining due attention of the United States Government.
Attached with this letter, are documents outlining severe atrocities unleashed on political opponents, civil society and media personalities by the current Bangladesh Awami League regime headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed. Current government’s wanton violation of human rights with absolute impunity is a huge slap to international conscience and obligation to international law. Current Bangladesh government stands accused of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court at the Hague by a European human rights group.
I believe a strong intervention by the international community will assist in countering this anarchy and bring back democracy and rule of law in Bangladesh. The inalienable rights enshrined in the US Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are in great jeopardy in Bangladesh. I seek your assistance in this movement. Being the most important and trusted friend of Bangladesh, I believe, the United States can play a significant and effective role in reversing the downward slide of democracy and human rights condition.
Sincerely yours,
Ruhel Islam
Background included with above letter, from Fahimul Islam:
The Biggest Rigged Election in Bangladesh (1)
The current Bangladesh Awami League (BAL) regime of Bangladesh headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina claiming to be liberal and secular has unleashed a harsh crackdown on whoever opposes the policies of her Government. Her Government itself is plagued by severe legitimacy issues. Her political opponents, civil society, media or even distinguished personalities like Nobel Peace Prize Winner and founder of Grameen Bank Muhammad Yunus have not been able to escape the wrath of her Government. (More, here.)
Though a fully participatory election is considered as a cornerstone of a functioning democracy, BAL regime has imposed a Government which has sprang out of a farcical election on 5 January 2014 boycotted by major opposition parties. Of the 300 seats up for grab, 153 were declared unopposed disenfranchising more than half of the registered voter and with a parliament with virtually no opposition party since they have become part of the government. (Source: from 7:30 to 8:20 min here)
The 5 January election was the most bloodiest one in Bangladesh’s history with more than 20 people dead only on the election day and hundreds more leading upto the election. Influential UK magazine The Economist commented that “….her country’s democracy is in a rotten state…..It does not give Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League, ……much of a basis for another term.” (Source here)
United Nations (UN) as well as western democratic Governments including United States (US) have expressed their disappointment at the 5 January election. Their rejection to the whole election process was manifested in their refusing to send any observer to monitor the election. Soon after the election was over, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his outrage at the election related violence. US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf expressed Washington’s disappointment with the parliamentary elections. (Source here).
Opposition boycott and all the uncertainty regarding general election in Bangladesh is rooted at a controversial fifteenth amendment to the Constitution by the previous BAL dominated Parliament that scrapped the constitutional provision to hold general elections under a Non-party Caretaker Government (CTG). According to an International Crisis Group report this amendment ‘…has been AL’s most controversial political act, ….’ It further states that it ‘…has made the country’s most sacred document into a casual plaything for partisan interest’. (Source page 4-5 here.)
As the government lacks legitimacy and popular support, it has embraced a policy of oppression and is gradually eliminating or maiming opposition political operatives all around the country by employing repressive measure such as extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearance, torture, arbitrary arrests etc. During the period of ‘so-called’ Interim Government installed by Sheikh Hasina which was headed by none other than herself, 267 people died of which at least 221 were killed by the security forces with another 10,000 injured.
Extrajudicial Killings:
According to Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), a legal aid and rights group, extrajudicial killings by law enforcement agencies claimed 179 in 2013 alone. Following the controversial 5 January 2014 election, number of such killings has risen. Due to the crackdown on the media, the exact number could not be ascertained, however, according to Odhikar, the leading human rights organisation in Bangladesh,at least 39 people were killed in the name of ‘crossfire’ in January alone. (Source here)
Most ominous sign of this phenomenon is that it seems to have the blessings of the Government as one sitting Cabinet Minister termed it as ‘necessary’.
Brad Adams, Asia Director of the Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said that “We are seeing a frightening pattern of supposed ‘crossfire’ killings of opposition members in Bangladesh. …” In a statement in January HRW urged upon the government to initiate investigation into a recent spate of alleged extrajudicial killings by security forces. There has been no investigation into a single incident so far undertaken by the government. (Source here)
Amnesty international also documented targeted killing in custody in its 2013 report. (Source: .24 sec to 1:18 minute of (Source here)
Enforced Disappearance:
To avoid allegation of extrajudicial killing, the current regime has resorted to a new technique in the form of enforced disappearance that leaves no footprint to substantiate the allegation. Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in its 2013 Report stated ‘…..complaint mechanism is simply suicidal for families of disappeared victims: police refuse to register complaints alleging atrocities committed by any law-enforcement agency and instead proceed to intimidate complainants incessantly.’ (Source: Page 8-9, ‘BANGLADESH: Lust for Power, Death of Dignity, AHRC Report 2013)
The pattern of the enforced disappearance is documented in AHRC’s Weekly Roundup 23 released on 27 March 2014. (Source: Watch 7:50 min to 10:15 min here.)
Torture and ill treatment in custody:
According to Amnesty International, “ Torture and other ill-treatment were widespread, committed with virtual impunity by the police, (Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), the army and intelligence agencies. Methods included beating, kicking, suspension from the ceiling, food and sleep deprivation, and electric shocks. Most detainees were allegedly tortured until they “confessed” to having committed a crime. Police and RAB allegedly distorted records to cover up the torture, including by misrepresenting arrest dates.” (Source here.)
Arbitrary Arrest of opponents:
Government takes into custody anyone who opposes the government in fictitious cases. As we speak, the top brass including the Acting Secretary General of the largest opposition party (legal opposition party in the last parliament) Bangladesh Nationalist Party are in custody implicating in cases of rioting in incidences where they were not even present. Their petition for bail gets summarily rejected by the partisan judiciary. Even the government appointed Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission has criticised the government for arresting the opposition leaders without any specific allegation of wrongdoing which he considered as a breach of human rights.
Crackdown on Media and Civil Society:
Government has dealt heavy handedly with the media. They are cracking down on any print or electronic media that are critical of their activities and even shutting the concerned media outlets, raiding their office, arresting the editor and/or reporters. Two Bangla (Bengali) daily newspapers and two television channels with links to the opposition, have been shut down. (Source here.)
In April 2013, police arrested Mahmudur Rahman, the editor of Amar Desh literally dragging him down from his office. He has since been incarcerated without any judicial redress or any conviction. In August, Adilur Rahman Khan of Odhikar, a leading human rights group of Bangladesh was arrested under a draconian Information and Communication Technology Act and was denied bail several times before being granted bail in October that year. Activity of his organisation has almost come to a standstill as he is under constant government surveillance. (Source here.)
The International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED), in a meeting in Geneva in late March 2014, called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to address the intensifying government attacks against human rights defenders in Bangladesh. (Source here.)
Politicisation of the Judiciary
Current regime has blatantly politicised the judiciary which could have been the last bastion of reprieve from government oppression. Political loyalty, rather than seniority or competence has taken precedence in appointing assistant attorneys general, judges even the in the case of Chief Justice. By mid-June 2012, 7,000 cases were dismissed under political pressure; 22 BAL members, sympathisers, or sons of ministers and leaders have been pardoned in political murder cases. (Source: p6, Bangladesh: Back to the Future, Crisis Group Asia Report No. 226, 13 June 2012)
Rigging of Election:
The BAL regime resorted to widespread rigging even in the one sided election of 5 January 2014. Evidence of rigging and widespread irregularities by the ruling party operatives in collusion of the election officials is documented and presented here.
The current regime has not let up their rigging performance in the recently held non-party local government election which was held on different stages. In the first two stages, BNP-backed candidates won in huge numbers that hardened the resolve of BAL regime to snatch people’s mandate and turn back the overall tally in their favour. Some of the evidences of rigging and irregularities are chronicled at these links: here, here, here and here.
Disproportionate use of Force:
HRW has highlighted the heavy handedness of the security forces in repressing anti-government political programs and agitations in a video here.
International Action So far:
Not a single Western democratic country including USA congratulated the new government that came out of the farcical 5 January 2014 election.
US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations held a hearing on Bangladesh on 11 February 2014 where US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs made a statement reiterating US’s call for a free and fair election. (Source here.)
UK Parliament debated the situation in Bangladesh by their Backbench Business Committee on 16 January 2014 where MP’s expressed their concern at the current situation in Bangladesh. (Source here.)
EU Parliament on 15 January 2014, adopted a resolution condemning the killings and widespread violence in the run up to and during the election and called on the government of Bangladesh to immediately halt all repressive methods used by the security forces. (Source here.)
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop in a statement of 8 January 2014 called on all sides of the political divide to make way for a ‘fully contested and transparent election as soon as possible’.
(Source here.)
Role of USA:
We acknowledge with deep appreciation pro-active US engagement in the democratic as well as development process of Bangladesh from the time of our Independence. We also acknowledge numerous humanitarian operations run by active US man and women in uniform and without uniform during dire days after natural disasters that Bangladesh is prone to.
Bangladesh has a historic tie with the US as US embraced Bangladesh with an open arms and helped rebuild the war-torn country soon after its Independence. Over the years, the tie has strengthened and diversified in different fields. The US is the biggest investor in Bangladesh and the largest single country destination for Bangladeshi apparel, Bangladesh’s largest export. Two-way trade stood at h $6.1 billion in total goods trade during 2013. The US exported $712 million. Bangladesh’s export to the US totaled a staggering $5.4 billion. (Source here.)
Bangladesh being one of the largest Muslim majority country with a democratic credential and active and vibrant civil society could have been a beacon of hope and a role model of peace and amity amidst many other Muslim dominated countries gripped with endemic violence. But unfortunately, the current BAL regime has turned Bangladesh into a killing field and a fertile breeding ground for extremism and radicalism due to the absence of an atmosphere conducive for flourishing a culture of democracy, mutual respect and tolerance. Bangladesh’s geographic location as the connector between South Asia and South East Asia makes it strategically important for the US to see Bangladesh remain stable and democratic and not supply jihadists in other parts of the world. But the current suffocating atmosphere where state sponsored terror is the order of the day, it would be just a matter of time before the oppressed population take up arms against the tyrant regime with possible regional or even global spill over effect.
Bangladeshi migrants living in the US and contributing in its society and economy strongly hope that the US Government would continue to put pressure on the Bangladesh Government in light of the US State Department statement following the farcical election and eventuate holding a free and fair election that can be monitored by international observers. We are heartened to notice that the US Government has imposed a restriction on individual officials of the notorious Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) from receiving US training and assistance. It may be mentioned that a European human rights group the International Coalition for Freedoms of Rights (IFCR) filed a case against the Government of Bangladesh on 4 February accusing it of crimes against humanity in the form of murder, torture and forced disappearances. (Source here.)
It is extremely disheartening for us when we see the personnel of the forces accused of gross human rights violations and atrocities in Bangladesh are engaged by the United Nations in its acclaimed peacekeeping operations in troubled areas of the world. It is interesting that personnel who brutalise their own people are entrusted by the UN to protect people from atrocity in other countries.
I, as a US citizen of Bangladesh origin urge you as my local representative to kindly take my case against the current oppressive regime of Bangladesh to the appropriate authorities of the US Government so that necessary and effective action can be taken by US alone or in collusion with other Western Democratic countries and international organisations to force the current Bangladesh regime to make way for political conciliation leading to a credible election without any further delay, suspension of atrocities, release of political prisoners and withdrawal of politically motivated cases against the opposition political leaders and civil society members.
The Biggest Rigged Election in Bangladesh (1)

#876 – Dick Bernard: The new Saints…and the real ones.

April 28, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, History, International Relations, Peace & Justice, Politics /by dickbernard

Two recent Popes were officially declared as Saints on April 27. Here is the flier which we Catholics could pick up yesterday at Mass, probably at all churches: Sts Jn XXIII and JP II001.
They’re very different folks, these two new Saints. John XXIII would be my fave by far. He became Pope five months after I started college, and gave meaning to the word “ecumenical”. Back in those good old days of the 1940s and 1950s, being Christian didn’t mean getting along in any sense of the word. Denominations emphasized the differences, and did things to ensure that their young uns had little to do with each other. Until mobility started mixing nationalities, even Catholic Churches (and others, too) were largely ethnic: Norwegian Lutheran; French-Canadian Catholic, etc. Times have changed, thank goodness. Things aren’t perfect by any means, but better, in my opinion.
I got closest, physically at least, to John Paul II. In the fall of 1998 I was in Rome, and managed to get a place next to the Pope’s route through St. Peter’s Square and got a closeup view of this increasingly infirm man. Two years later, late in the evening of early May 2000, enroute to Krakow Poland with a group of Catholics and Jews on pilgrimage to holocaust sites, soon to include Auschwitz-Birkenau (at Oswiecim), I convinced the tour leaders to have the bus go through Wadowice, Poland, to the very near proximity of the place where John Paul II grew up.
We didn’t stop, of course, it was late at night. Later I was to learn that Oswiecim (Auschwitz) and Wadowice (John Paul II’s home) are only 20 or so road miles apart, with Auschwitz actually a few miles closer to Wadowice. Of course, the Polish Jews were essentially obliterated by WWII; Polish Catholics were also killed by the millions. And after the war, Poland became a satellite Communist state of the Soviet Union.
One can understand how JPII’s attitudes developed (and were, in my opinion, manipulated) by the anti-Communist forces. He was never viewed as a particular friend of Liberation Theology in the Global South, for instance; and his ultimate successor, Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger, was even less so. As I say, “Communism” was a useful word….
But that’s a debate for someone else, some other time.
There are two new official Saints in the Catholic Church, both with their fan clubs.
Another publication caught my eye at Basilica yesterday.
It was the usual weekly newsletter and the cover story, by Janice Andersen, Social Justice coordinator, bears reading. Jackie under the bridge001.
We lose something in the adulation of certain individuals who are set apart to symbolize something or other, as is the case with the two Popes who were just canonized.
In small and large ways, every day, everywhere on earth, there are endless examples of ordinary people, Christian or not, doing extraordinary things, and thinking nothing at all about it. It is just who they are.
My guess is that most all of us once in awhile are in this category of “saint”. There are no books of miracles attributed to us; that’s not the point.
We put one foot in front of the other and do our best.
That’s sainthood to me.

#875 – Dick Bernard: Visiting History…including in the making

April 26, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, History, Minnesota, Native American, Peace & Justice, Politics /by dickbernard

NOTE: See postnote about Hubert Humphrey at the end of this post.
Friday I decided to attend the Panel and Global Webinar “Living the Legacy of Hubert H. Humphrey” at the University of Minnesota Law School. The event celebrated the “35th Anniversary of Humphrey Fellowship Program..web-streamed for access by the other 15 Humphrey campuses and for Humphrey alumni around the world.” I expected an interesting program – previously I had attended the 25th anniversary in 2004 – but this years was particularly interesting.
The old history was recalled in a video by President Jimmy Carter (1977-81). The program was established in honor of Hubert Humphrey after his his death in 1978. In addition, Fridays program also recognized “the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. Hubert H. Humphrey regarded the Act’s passage as a crowning achievement of his political career.” Seven of Humphreys family circle spoke as briefly as any Humphrey can speak (which is to say, 5 minutes means 10!) But everyone’s remarks were very interesting about their Dad, grandchild, uncle….
Two Humphrey alumni spoke (more a bit later).
Leading off the second panel was Bill Means, Lakota Elder and Board Member, International Indian Treaty Council.
(click on photos to enlarge)

Bill Means, April 25, 2014

Mr. Means, a powerful Native American leader, had just come from the Minneapolis City Council, which had just voted to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day in Minneapolis. It was, he said, the culmination of 50 years of effort.
I was always aware of the American Indian Movement, but never an active part of it, but I recalled a May, 1990, Pow Wow I’d attended in Minneapolis, and a page of the program booklet from that day which I published in a newsletter I edited in the summer of 1990. It speaks for itself: Heart of the Earth My 90001
I had taken quite a few photos that day, 24 years ago. Here are two. I believe the lady in the wheelchair is the legendary Meridel LeSueur. The event apparently recognized The American Indian Movements Heart of the Earth Survival School

Possibly Meridel LeSueur, May 26, 1990, Minneapolis MN

Speakers at Pow Wow May 26, 1990, Minneapolis MN. Is that Bill Means speaking?

Part of the backdrop behind the speakers, May 26, 1990

Mr. Means gave a short but powerful talk on April 25. He along with other powerful Native American leaders like Leonard Peltier, Dennis Banks, the Bellecourts and many others, brought attention to the native community ‘back in the day’ 50 or more years ago.
He said, I recall, that there are about 375,000,000 Indigenous Peoples in the world today. That would be about 5% of the worlds population, and more than the entire population of the United States.
Another speaker, Kaka Bag-ao, a Humphrey Fellow from 2006-07, powerfully talked about her post Humphrey career in the Philippines, including a powerful video of a 1700 kilometer (about 1000 miles) walk to Manila by many indigenous farmers successfully protesting seizure of their small farms for use as a golf course. At issue, it seemed, was 144 hectares of land – about 344 acres. The powerless got the attention of the powerful, but it wasn’t easy. Hopefully, I will be able to include the link to the video at this place soon.
Edmon Marukyan of Armenia (Fellow 2009-2010) had a similarly inspirational message to this and previous years Humphrey Fellows.
Among the many Humphrey family members, the one who impressed me the most was the youngest, Jordan Humphrey, Humphrey’s grandson. He was born a number of years after Humphrey died, and he’ll be a worthy representative of his grandfather.
It was a good day.
I’m glad I went.

Jordan Humphrey, April 25, 2014

POSTNOTE: About the time of the 25th anniversary of the Humphrey Fellows program in 2004, I came across an old recollection about Hubert Humphrey, and his reflections on politics, competition, and compassion. It became my 2004 Christmas message, and it can be read here. (The link is immediately after the painting at top of the page.)
The three visitors were visiting then-Senator and previously Vice-President Humphrey about compassion in politics. They recalled Humphrey saying this: “Senator Humphrey walked back to his desk, picked up a long pencil with a small eraser at its end, and said in his famous high-pitched voice, “Gentlemen, look at this pencil. Just as the eraser is only a very small part of this pencil and is used only when you make a mistake, so compassion is only called upon when things get out of hand. The main part of life is competition, only the eraser is compassion. It is sad to say, gentlemen, but in politics compassion is just part of the competition….”
Humphreys was a powerful message: it takes more than being compassionate to implement a policy of compassion. Politics, with all of its nastiness and competition, is a necessary part of the process of successfully implementing compassion. Walking the talk can be messy.
But Humphrey lived compassion through his deeds, not just his words.
One family member recalled that when HHH was nearing death, he made a point of calling his archrival, President Richard Nixon, urging Nixon to come out of self-imposed isolation and attend Humphreys funeral. Nixon had for a short time been Humphreys U.S. Senate colleague and later defeated Humphrey in the 1968 election, and resigned from the Presidency in 1974.
It was not mentioned, and I do not recall, if President Nixon came to the funeral in St. Paul, but the point is that the gesture was made. Humphreys “eraser” never hardened.
RESPONSE FROM LINEA PALMISANO, 13TH WARD REPRESENTATIVE, MINNEAPOLIS CITY COUNCIL April 28:
Thank you for this message, Dick.
I took some time here to read your blog post.
Frankly, I worry that the way this has been “messaged” in the media, and even shown through your blog post about we have ‘changed’ the day for the city… we are adding to Columbus Day at this point, to add recognition of Indigenous Peoples. We haven’t changed it the way most people outright said. These small increments will take some time, and a part of me fears that the actual language of what was approved last Friday is not what a number of the public speakers in the indigenous communities have made it out to be. I hope that come October, folks don’t feel anyone has pulled the wool over their eyes, so to speak.
I really, really liked reading about the Humphrey event and your pencil message. I have written it down and taped it beneath my computer screen. “… it takes more than being compassionate to implement a policy of compassion. Politics, with all of its nastiness and competition, is a necessary part of the process of successfully implementing compassion. Walking the talk can be messy.”
Thanks for reaching out.
Yours in Service,

#871 – Dick Bernard: "The Mountaintop", revisited

April 13, 2014/0 Comments/in Community, Education, Health, History, Minnesota, Politics, President Obama /by dickbernard

Sometimes seemingly unrelated events just fit together, like random pieces of a puzzle that together make a confusing mess make sense.
For me, such a convergence happened on Friday in three bits; preceded by two larger and more publicized national events.
I just happened to be at an intersection where they came together, connected, at least to me.
The events:
Friday morning, first, a briefing about education legislation at the State Capitol by the Executive Director of the outstanding parent public school advocacy group, Parents United.
Two hours later the appointment with the Tax Man, to square accounts with the IRS and the State of Minnesota for 2013.
Seven hours later, attending a powerful play about Martin Luther King’s last evening alive, “The Mountaintop”.
A day or so before came the resignation of Jean Sibelius of the Department of Health and Human Services. This was a hate feast for some; a celebration of the alleged failure of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), when the actual results have been very much the contrary: millions more Americans now have health insurance despite desperate attempts to kill the beast labelled “Obamacare”.
(Of course, in these kinds of things, facts really don’t matter. I heard report of a recent survey done on the street: when asked to compare ACA and Obamacare, ACA was the winner – even though both are the exact same thing….)
And about the same time, the recognition of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, passed 50 years ago this year.
All these events fit together, at least in my seeing them converge on me.
The tax man told me that State and National government wanted about 20% of our taxable income (which differs, of course, from actual “income”).
Minnesota is a relatively high tax state: about a third of that 20% went to Minnesota; the other two-thirds to the United States of America.
That tax doesn’t seem excessive to me. Before the tax appointment, the early morning event talked about the state of legislation for Minnesota’s children in public schools – about one of every six persons in our state of well over 5 million.
Those kids range from those tiny few who recently got perfect scores on the ACT, to the 13 year old in our town who is in jail today for violence against someone in her family and hasn’t been in public school but a few weeks all this school year and whose self-made future is very much in doubt, out of control.
Triumph or Tragedy: all of those kids are our future, regardless of their ability or disability or where they happen to live. And this goes for most every other service to which we allocate tax dollars.
Certainly there are inefficiencies – show me the system, including the most outwardly perfect nuclear family, that is completely efficient…I doubt, frankly that such a family exists.
Government of, by and for the people makes for a civilized society; the opposite is anarchy, hardly a recommended route.
Which brings me to “The Mountaintop”, which has been to four cities now, and if it comes to yours, do see it. It’s at the Guthrie Theatre through April 19.
The 90 minute play explores what might have transpired on the evening of King’s last day alive, April 3, 1968, in a motel room in Memphis, between King and a hotel Maid.
Of course, no one knows what might have happened had MLK himself lived on – he would now be 84, by my arithmetic.
The fact is that he didn’t live on, except through all of us who learned from his message and need to carry it forward.
These are not especially good days for the Civil Rights ideals expressed back in 1964 and before.
But there is a base built, and with some conscious effort by those of us who care, there will never be a return to the terrible old days, even given the immense gulf now existing between rich and poor – far worse than then.
But it is each of us who need to be on that “Mountaintop” MLK left, April 4, 1968.

#868 – Dick Bernard: A Declaration of INTERdependence

April 7, 2014/0 Comments/in History, International Relations, Minnesota, Peace & Justice, Politics /by dickbernard

It was a nice day on Saturday, and I had gone to downtown Minneapolis at the invitation of my friend, Lynn Elling, who gave a brief talk to Business students at St. Thomas University’s downtown campus.
(click to enlarge all photos)

Lynn Elling on April 5 at St. Thomas University Minneapolis

His is a near life-long passion for peace, for survival of the human family. This was born of his experiences as a WWII and Korean Navy officer; later viewing Hiroshima in the 1950s.
He walks the talk. His is a story with many chapters, and hidden pieces continue to be revealed as he goes through the archives of his 93 years.
This particular day he had along a recently re-found Declaration of INTERdependence, authored by Henry Steele Commager in 1975, and co-signed in support by the bi-partisan political and civic establishment of Minnesota May 1, 1976: Decl of INTERdependence001. (Click on the document to enlarge it; a link with some of the history of Interdependence can be seen here. Scroll down for the Commager declaration, the one affirmed in the Twin Cities in 1976.)
This was not the first Declaration signed by these leaders or others. The first one he showed me back in 2007 was a Minnesota Declaration of World Citizenship (1971) 1971 film produced by Lynn Elling is here). In 2012 it was a Declaration of World Citizenship for Minneapolis and Hennepin County (1968). And the most recent earlier discovery was President Lyndon Johnson Declaration of the U.S. as a World Citizen (1965), also affirmed by Minnesota leaders of the time. All of these were largely the doing of Lynn Elling and another Minneapolis businessman, Stanley Platt. In the case of the Hennepin County, Minneapolis and Minnesota Declarations, the United Nations was given special recognition, accompanied by the flying of the UN flag at the Hennepin County Plaza (1968-2012) and also over the State Capitol in St. Paul.

Supporting signatures on May 1, 1976 Declaration of Interdependence

What has struck me about each of these new (to me) discoveries, is that they happened at all, all coming during the era that we call “Vietnam”.
While the focus then was on making war (or anti-war); there was more than lip-service given to peace by political leaders, in this case, through acknowledging and building upon our InterDependence with the rest of the planet.
Today we remain mired in the era of presumed self-reliance, freedom from other than personal responsibility, victory by the strong, the vestiges of American “exceptionalism”. It is no accident that I publish this on the day of the NCAA Basketball Championship – celebrating the best of the best; only one in a series of such celebrations in our society, where individual or group excellence is rewarded, and national strength and dominance is hi-lited for a single winning team for one moment in time.
Commager and others back in a very difficult time in our national history set about to hi-lite another course; find another way for planetary survival.
We need to re-energize this ethic, for our survival as a planet.

Lynn Elling April 6, 2014

After Saturdays meeting, I crossed the street from St. Thomas to Target Corporations World Headquarters, I paused to take a quick snapshot of downtown Minneapolis. Many of the conversations which led to those older declarations took place in downtown Minneapolis amongst business, political and civic leaders.
Back in that St. Thomas classroom, Mr. Elling reported later, many students wanted to meet him, having photographs taken with him.
Such conversations need to happen over and over again….
We have no choice. The survival of more than simply the human family is at stake.

Minneapolis MN April 6, 2014

A final thought: we are a country basically run by what is called the “business model”, primarily of, by and for the benefit of business.
There are many aspects to this “business model”. Ascendant, especially today, is power through competition – “winning”. Money is the primary value.
Between 1965 and 1976, in the Twin Cities and Minnesota in particular, a very large group of businesspeople and others apparently embraced the intent of the declarations cited above. For a moment in time there seems to have been more highlighting of the power of positive relationships, local, national, international
There remain, doubtless, very large numbers of businesspeople and others who would still embrace this, but a much harder edged individualistic winner take all ethic seems to have taken control, at least for the moment.
Here’s to a new Declaration Generation, where action goes beyond simply declaring intent.
I think the base is available for getting back to this idea….
POSTNOTE: the model which took substantial root in the Twin Cities and elsewhere back in the 1960s and 1970s was inspired by a national group called United World Federalists – not a political party, rather a philosophy of national cooperation. You can read the history of this national organization here (see WFA 1947-97 History). GlobalSolutionsMN.org is the local successor of WFA.