“The World Is My Country” , an inspirational film.

One Page flier here:World Is My Country004The World Is My Country002 Jan. 26 – Feb. 1.
Sign up for pass code here. Include “CGS” in registration box.
You can probably watch the film on your home television. Everybody’s system is unique. Ask your nearby tech whiz – grandkids are great sources – to help you connect one to the other. Here’s an on-line tipsheet.
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January 26 through February 1, 2018, the new film, The World Is My Country, will be available, free, on-line, in a special password-protected site for Citizens for Global Solutions. You’ll be able to share the CGS password with others, so they can see the inspiring story of Garry Davis, “World Citizen #1”. I strongly encourage you to at minimum view the film, and to share this communication about it.

I first learned of Garry Davis and plans for this film project in 2011, and from early on have remained active as a volunteer in, and contributor to, the project.

In the fall of 2012, I showed a very early draft of the film to a dozen high school students in St. Paul – I wanted to see how they’d react to a story told by a 90 year old man, about his adventures which began more than 50 years before they were born. It was there that I observed that this story would attract and keep the interest of young people. The World Is My Country is a permanent demonstration to today’s and future generations that citizens can and do make a difference.

All ages, I have learned while watching subsequent audiences view the film, find the film both interesting and inspiring.

The World Is My Country is the story of a young song and dance man who enters World War II as a bomber pilot. His experiences caused him to rethink the notion of war as a means to solve problems. Garry Davis is that man, and he tells his story in person at age 90. The film features rare footage of events like the opening sessions of the United Nations in Paris in 1948, and the passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. More than half of the film is devoted to addressing the idea of solutions which are open and usable by ordinary citizens as ourselves.

Citizens for Global Solutions (CGS), an organization in which I’ve long been active, has been involved since the beginning and sponsored the very successful World Premiere of “The World Is My Country” at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival in April, 2017. The filmmakers were very pleased with the success of this CGS sponsorship – as you can see here. That’s why they are offering this free week – to invite others to help sponsor the film at other film festivals, or even hold their own mini-film festival showing three or more uplifting films about global solutions. The free-week movie will state that it is a Film Festival Screener and can’t be copied or reproduced.

I helped arrange for Twin Cities public TV (TPT) to see the screener – and they liked it so much they want to broadcast it. However, TPT can’t do so until the filmmakers raise $35,000 to upgrade rights to the historic footage from “Film Festivals Only” to “All Rights and Media.” Arthur Kanegis, the director of the movie, explained to me that footage houses have preserved all the amazing historic footage in cold storage over the decades. Therefore, they charge high prices for filmmakers to license it. His plan is to raise the money by getting lots of people involved in showing it in film festivals around the country. He hopes viewers will pre-order the DVD and buy screening kits, T-shirts and other items to raise the funds needed to be able to show the film on PBS stations across the country, show it in theaters, and distribute it on sites like Netflix and Amazon.

To pre-register for the free week click here and spread the word. Also, look for the website and password at this blog on January 19. This special film will accessible to anyone with the password and access to the internet from January 26 to February 1.

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The most recent newsletter of Citizen for Global Solutions MN can be read here: CGS-MN Newsletter 2018 January final. The national CGS website is here.

POSTNOTE

Coincident with the film is a year long exhibition entitled 1968 at the Minnesota History Museum in St. Paul. It is a very interesting exhibition.

Directly related to both the film and the exhibit was a project of a bipartisan group of Minneapolis-St. Paul area leaders from 1964 forward which directly connected with Garry Davis, including in 1968. You can read and watch evidence of this project here (Lynn Elling, and the film Man’s Next Giant Leap); and here.

A history of Minnesota’s efforts with World Citizenship can be read here: Minnesota Declarations002, especially pages 3-10.

Related Post, Sunday Jan. 7, here

2018 – A New Year? Or Just 2017 (continued)

COMMENT FROM KATHY: My favorite quote from the holiday season is this: “They thought they could bury us. They did not know we were seeds.” A lot of “they’s” there but helps my activism health.

Picture an eagle flying with only a single wing, or with simply a head…. photo by Dick Bernard, October, 2008, at dedication of gift by Mary Lou Nelson at Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

Happy New Year.
A good friend, who always prefers anonymity, sent this message, received at 9:25 p.m. Dec. 31:
“Hi Friends,
Enjoy this New Year posting from Cindy Crosby, who teaches prairie ecology, prairie literature near Chicago, with her beautiful photos (my favorite being of course, the cranes in the rainbow…).
One of the comments below this post really appeals to me:
“Happy New Year… May Hope scatter like seeds and take root where restoration is needed.

Amen to her wish.
And to taking breathers for beauty in the year ahead.”

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New Years Eve I did my rough draft of what I’d like to say in this New Years Day post. This is what I wrote:

“Competition v Cooperation; Individualism v Community.” This is how I see my America, January 1, 2018.

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There are endless variations to these words, of course.

Saturday afternoon I turned on the TV to find, on the National Geographic channel, a program in progress on the 1980s.

In the few minutes I watched, personalities such as Ronald Reagan, Jane Fonda and Bill Gates were featured. Columnist David Brooks dubbed the 1980s as the decade individualism took root in America. A clip of Reagan showed him uttering the now-very mortal words “Make America Great Again”. Yes, Ronald Reagan.

Where, how, were you in 1980? Here I am, in January, 1980. The only time I’ve ever been briefed in the Cabinet Room off the Oval Office. We were working to reelect Jimmy Carter….

(click to enlarge)

Dick Bernard at the White House, January 16, 1980

Yes, Jimmy Carter was then, and still is a personal hero of mine. Of course, 1980 was not the best of times to be President. Carter had to deal with those hostages in Iran; there was the problem with oil. A few months later, in Detroit, was the first time I ever paid $1.00 for a gallon of gasoline.

We once again learned we were part of, rather than apart from, the world. We seem to continue to have difficulty understanding that we are part of a global society, not an exceptional island in the sea.

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In 2017 we elected the ultimate individualist, Donald J. Trump, to take charge in the United States of America. Trump would have been 33 when 1980 began. He made “Make America Great Again” his mantra.

As 2017 ended we seem to be on a course in direct opposition to the slogan.

Perhaps as 2018 begins, think about how you see individualism around you, indeed within you.

Individualism is a pretty picture if you are Donald J. Trump. It is the pits, if you’re struggling to find even a tiny place in such a world of winners and, mostly, “losers”, mostly not there because of their own failings.

This huge gap exemplifies 2018 for me. Do we continue the road to national ruin, or do we begin to recover more national sense of community? Every one of us has to be part of this process.

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We – all of us – will make the New Year “happy”. There is no “passing the buck”. We are a democracy, which gives citizens the complete responsibility of electing those who govern us at all levels. Many of us are learning, finally, that voting for somebody is not a “oh what the hell” exercise, an option to be exercised or not depending on our whim at the moment. Voting has consequences.

2018 is the year of state level races for legislatures and Congress everywhere. Don’t sit these races out. They are crucial. Know who and what you are voting for. There are ten months available to you.

Changing our course is not an impossible task. Here is the 2016 Presidential Election, summarized.

About 60% of eligible voters actually voted in 2016. That means 40% didn’t vote at all, for various reasons.
of those who actually voted:

46.1% 62,984,825 – Donald Trump
48.2% 65,853,516 – Hillary Clinton
4.7% voted for other candidates

Yes, we are a divided country. But change is possible. It simply takes work.

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POSTNOTES:
My final post for 2017 is here.
Here’s Just Above Sunset’s look at 2017.

COMMENTS:
from Norm: Excellent commentary on the current state of affairs and what we all have to do about changing things going forward.

from Tony: Thank you for your posts. They are very insightful.

from David: This should be a time of optimism and hope. Not so much this year. Here is an opinion piece by Ted Gup, a journalism professor at Emerson College: Fire and Fury001 It was in the Washington Post last August. Keep up the good fight.

from Joyce: I particularly enjoyed the picture of you in front of the White House on Jan. 16, 1980. That was a momentous day for me, as well; I went into labor with Rachel, my oldest, who was born shortly after 1AM on the 17th!

from a long-time friend:

from Marie: Thanks, Dick, for sharing your thoughts and passing on inspiration from others. May we learn compassion, take deep breaths, then move forward in confidence, in community, and with integrity. Blessings of light and hope for the New Year!

from Bob: Dick, I enjoy reading your posts and your eternal,optimistic perspective and outlook. Largest assembly ever for our Solstice ritual. Given the time we titled this one “Community…Come Unity; We Have Light to Share”. Indeed, we must never hesitate to speak out, to offer help, to try to change mindsets. We do have light to share and bringing that light to others who choose to harm others, or the earth, is a lofty but necessary challenge.
May 2018 be your year of more Peace.

Three men in conversation as 2017 ends:

Picture an eagle flying with only a single wing, or with simply a head…. photo by Dick Bernard, October, 2008, at dedication of gift by Mary Lou Nelson at Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

Dec. 22 I posted about Gratitude. In short order, long-time friend SAK, “across the pond” in Europe, responded in his usual eloquent way:

“To be sure, Mr. Bernard, very discouraging indeed but thanks for “keeping on keeping on”! (his comment continues at end of this post)…

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Later the same day, three of us, relatives, all men, sat in conversation. One (not I) brought up “Tax Reform”, which had just passed the U.S. Congress.

The initiator, mid-40s, Husband and Dad, works for a major U.S. Corporation, progressing in his corporation in the usual way. Almost immediately on Tax Reform passage a memo had come to employees in his corporation: they would all receive a $1,000 bonus; the employee minimum wage would be increased to $15 an hour.

The second in the conversation, mid-50s, single Dad, is out of work. He had a contract job with a major international corporation which recently ended after one year. There were no performance deficiencies, and the need for his job continued. He was best qualified for it. Regulations, he said, terminated him. They don’t wish to be stuck with a permanent employee. He can reapply in six months for another temporary contract, if there is a position available, which doesn’t help him. His options are very limited. So his mood was not upbeat. I think “depressed” might be the best descriptor.

I was the third person. So, what do I say? We’re middle class, retired, pensions. medicare, social security. My pension was negotiated by my union and management years ago. It is fully funded and presumably secure. It happened in the 1970s, when such things were possible. A mutual fund I hold which has a few dollars in it increased in value by 22% in the last twelve months. This kind of performance is very pleasing to the Mar-a-Lago constituency, along with major league cuts in taxes….

If you’re a “lucky ducky” in the market, including retirement funds these are good days, indeed. Most pensions and 401ks and the like are in the stock market.

These can also be very deceptive days.

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Just in my circle of three people on Dec. 22, there were three very different stories. I could relate other stories as I keep hearing them. We don’t have to listen or observe carefully to know them. The gap between the haves and the have nots is alarming, and will get worse.

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How do the three of us who had that conversation see the dawn of a New Year, Jan. 1, 2018? Not the same way, I can guarantee.

How do you? How do tens of millions of others?

There are a million ways to engage in the New Year. Those of us in the “haves” have to engage in behalf of those who have little, and no extra financial or psychological or physical energy to do what needs to be done.

Happy New Year.

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(continued from beginning of post):
Aneurin, known as Nye, Bevan (UK politician, member of parliament & holder of various cabinet positions) said: “The whole art of Conservative politics in the 20th century, is being deployed to enable wealth to persuade poverty to use its political freedom to keep wealth in power.”

That art has been further advanced by the U.S. in the 21st century. Many have pondered why so many are so easily persuaded to vote against their own interest.

The question is not new. In his essay, “The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude of 1576”, Etienne de la Boetie wrote: “Plays, farces, spectacles, gladiators, strange beasts, medals, pictures, and other such opiates, these were for ancient people the bait toward slavery, the price of their liberty, the instruments of tyranny“.

Today, it’s smart phones, celebrities, bogey (N. Korea, Russia . . .), TV series and opioids etc. We should also add: lies.

Trump promised to drain the swamp and that’s exactly the opposite of what he is doing – indeed I don’t even think he can do otherwise.

There is hope though (de la Boetie again): “Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces.

Another year is going by so may I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy and Healthy New one.”

Seeing this, Fred responded:
It reminds me of two direct American corollaries. In the wake of the Andrew Jackson revolution (1828–1836) and his VP Martin Van Buren (1836-1840) and the slight but scary elevation of the common man, conservatives wondered how they would ever again convince the masses to vote against their own interests. In 1840 the Whigs chose their own version of General Andy Jackson: William Henry Harrison also a hero of the Indian Wars and the War of 1812. The Depression of 1837 hurt Van Buren (chanted the Whigs, “Van, Van is a Used up Man”).

Whigs presented the hero of Battle of Tippecanoe as a commoner who lived in a log cabin, a simple guy also advertised as a “hard cider” drinker (the quaff of the common man). In reality he was the son of a wealthy, prominent Virginia Planter and signer of the Declaration of Independence who had bequeathed WHH slaves. His VP, John Tyler, also Virginia-born scion from a leading family, was a States Rights man and conservative dream candidate. “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” won the popular vote narrowly but took the electoral vote resoundingly, 234-60. Of course, Harrison died a month after taking the oath of office and Tyler served out his term. Later, during the Civil War, Tyler served in the Confederate Congress. This was one of the most successful political frauds in American history and it put two of the American elite in office.

Then there was the incredible 1876 campaign. Post-Civil War Reconstruction continued with US troops still remaining in the South. The Republican U.S. Grant administration, along with its lingering taint of corruption, was leaving office. The GOP ran Rutherford B. Hayes and the Dems, after 26 years out of the White House, responded with Samuel Tilden. Tilden won the popular vote but garnered an electoral vote lead, 184-165, just one vote short of victory. There was a major problem with the 20 remaining electors. Both parties claimed all 20.

Congress, which was charged with authorizing vote authenticity, couldn’t reach agreement. To settle the issue, a supposedly bipartisan commission was appointed—eight GOP members to seven for the Dems. Republicans prevailed (who could have figured) and recognized GOP electors. The House of Reps, in control of Democrats, refused to accept the decision; the Republican Senate found it eminently fair. A behind-the-scenes compromise was reached. The solid Democratic South, with northern Dem acquiescence, agreed to accept Hayes as president and US soldiers in the South were withdrawn. Reconstruction would end and the rights African-Americans put in jeopardy. We all know how that turned out.

from David: To quote an old saw, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” I think people will support/vote for policies that seem to go against their own self interest for a few reasons. One, they think they are the right thing to do. An example would be progressives such as Bill Gates or Warren Buffet supporting higher taxes on the wealthy. Or peons like me, voting “Yes” in the last school bond election.

Another example would be poor folks supporting policies such as reduction/elimination of the “death tax,” aka, inheritance tax. They know that they aren’t subject to it but in their dreams, when they win the lottery, etc., they don’t want it to affect them.

I also think that a whole lot of people have bought into the idea that “big gummint” is the reason for their ills. It’s easier than looking in a mirror.

Then, of course, are the idiots who just believe the simplistic bullshit coming from the likes of Trump, Joe McCarthy, Huey Long, Joe Soucheray, Juan Peron, etc.

The country’s survived worse ( I think) than the current craziness. Let’s hope for continues resilience.

And TV Host Joe Scarborough, in a column in the Washington Post 12/28/17, passes on a recommendation from Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, here.

Tax “Reform”; Robert Mueller

Today is one week to Christmas Day. Who wants (or has time) to be bothered with taxes and criminal investigations?

Read “Gifting America” if you wish. I recommend your taking the time. Then decide what you are going to do…and when…or if….

It’s “Christmas future” we’ll all be facing, possibly about to be snuck in the back door.

Picture an eagle flying with only a single wing, or with simply a head…. photo by Dick Bernard, October, 2008, at dedication of gift by Mary Lou Nelson at Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

Yesterday in Alabama

Picture an eagle flying with only a single wing, or with simply a head…. photo by Dick Bernard, October, 2008, at dedication of gift by Mary Lou Nelson at Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

There have been several comments to yesterday’s post about the Dec. 12 U.S. Senate election in Alabama. That post, and the comments were all written and published hours before the polls closed in Alabama last night.

If we choose, the Alabama election can be a learning opportunity for every one of us, about most everything about the contemporary political process in the United States: how it works; how it is functional and dysfunctional; how each of us fit into “politics”.

In a recent post I referenced retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connors project on restoring Civics literacy. Take a look, here. Engage yourself, and help engage others.

POSTNOTE: Much more, if you wish: “Stars Falling On Alabama Last Night”

Thoughts on the Day of Alabama

PRE-NOTE: My comments on Alabama are “below the fold”, following the “headlines”, as well as several comments from others which were added before the polls closed Tuesday evening….

This post is about Politics. For those who do not like talk about politics, any time you see the Eagle, below, you’ll know what follows.

Picture an eagle flying with only a single wing, or with simply a head…. photo by Dick Bernard, October, 2008, at dedication of gift by Mary Lou Nelson at Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

Those who follow this blog know I comment on politics frequently, and I will continue to do so.

If you don’t like the topic, when you see the Eagle, simply move on. But I hope you remember my essential definition of a functioning eagle: two wings and a healthy body and head….

For today, I decided to look up in my home dictionary the assorted definitions of the family of words, “Politics”.

(click to enlarge)

(For a printable pdf of this definition: Politics defined001.)

My personal opinion: people are politics, nothing more, nothing less. We get exactly what we want especially in a democracy where, presumably, we have a right to choose, collectively, who will represent us.

We cannot pass the buck.

Politics is all of us. In our democracy, politics has consequences, far beyond the vote.

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THOUGHTS ON THE DAY OF ALABAMA

Today is an important election in Alabama. Sometime later today we will learn how Alabamams define “politics”.

Only once have I actually been to Alabama. It was on the July 4 weekend in 1966. I was a summer school student at UofIllinois (Normal), and took a solitary trip south, through East St. Louis, through Memphis, through Oxford, Mississippi, east into northwest Alabama, and back to Normal through Tennessee and Kentucky and southern Illinois.

1966 was not a kind and gentle time in the deep south – sometime not too long before a civil rights leader had been assassinated along the same freeway I was driving south from Memphis into Mississippi – but even with a new Volkswagen and Minnesota plates, I recall no nervousness. The red clay stands out in memory; Tupelo, birthplace of Elvis Presley, does too.

Today, I know only a single Alabaman. I think he grew up in Michigan and married a North Dakotan, a relative of mine. He’s a gracious gentleman senior to me, and Saturday I got his annual Christmas card.

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So, today I leave the Alabama election to those in Alabama. Though for only a year, the election for interim U.S. Senator in Alabama is a very big deal election, with state and national implications.

Alabama represents us.

What I will watch for today is how many eligible voters actually cast ballots, and for whom the ballots are cast. There will be endless ‘slicing and dicing’ of these returns into segments – race, gender and so forth – but in the end it will be how many will actually vote. I would like to know how many of those votes are truly well-informed….

Alabama will be something of a marker for me about whether or not we have learned anything in the past tumultuous year.

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Christmas is almost here.

Our friend, Bud, lies in a hospital bed facing emergency quadruple bypass surgery most likely tomorrow. We visited him a few hours ago, happening by chance to be with him in the room when the doctor delivered the very bad news.

Bud’s notion of “future” changed in an instant a few days ago.

As a nation, we are facing our own crisis, on many fronts. How will we respond?

I met with a good friend yesterday and talked more about my eagle with two wings and a reasonable head analogy. He’s a retired guy, a number of years Democrat, born, raised and most of his life Republican from a conservative state. He and I agree there has to be a better way of dealing with each other in this (formerly, in my opinion) great nation.

That’s where I’m at in this election day in Alabama.

COMMENTS:
from a friend of more than 60 years: I marvel at how our GOP has changed over my lifetime. I remember the heated debates my Dad and his brother had over politics. His brother was a Democrat because he loved FDR for all that he did for our two families, getting us out of the drought and depression. Dad hated the Democrats because of a group within the party called the Southern Democrats. These were racists who hated Lincoln for freeing their slaves. So the Democratic party was really a Big Tent party containing the extremes ranging from these southern racists on the right and the liberals on the left and a smattering in between. The party experienced continual chaos. The GOP, on the other hand, was a center right progressive party.

I have been a life-long registered Republican and have watched its transformation over the years. With the Civil Rights Act of 1965, some of these southern racists became disgruntled with the Democratic party and moved over into the GOP in 1968. Then came the big shift [by those] referred to as the Reagan Democrats, where the remainder of the southern racists moved into the GOP. These racists now call themselves Evangelicals, and now they make up the majority of the GOP. The last statistics that I have seen put these southern racists at about 17% of the registered voters, with another 9% of the GOP made up of more moderate voters. These southern racists are people with which I have nothing in common, yet I have remained a registered Republican with the hopes that some intelligence will creep back into the party.

It was interesting to note that in 2008 with the election of Obama, the Southern Poverty Law [Center] reported an increase in hate groups from around 400 to around 1400. Most of the growth in hate groups consisted of Klu Klux Klan chapters, and most of those chapters in the bible belt. The KKK originated during the reconstruction period after the Civil War, and many chapters formed alliances with local law enforcement. Their hatred not only was focused on African Americans, but also at non-white Protestants as well as Jews, Native Americans and even newly arriving Southern European immigrants such as Italians.

One of the things that I have grappled with as the party transformed is the changing economic posturing. So I chose to split conservatism into economic conservatism and social conservatism. The social parts I leave to the individual to address as long as they don’t try impress their antiquated beliefs upon others. From an economic standpoint, if you look at the administrations leading up to and creating the Great Depression as well as the recent Great Recession, they are all GOP administrations practicing conservative economics. Add to that those famous words coming out of the mouth of George H W Bush; “read my lips, no new taxes”, followed by tax hikes, all because of the mess created by the Reagan Administration tax cuts and the philosophy of trickle-down economics. History has shown that conservatives do not know how to govern when it comes to economics. I don’t know whether they really believe that tax cuts to the wealthy will really trickle down, or whether they know that the greedy wealthy people will just keep the resulting riches, and that the voters are too ignorant to understand it all. The unfortunate part of the tax cuts and tax increases is that the tax cuts are made for the wealthy and the tax increases are levied on the working class. The result of such activities is that in 1980, the middle class made up 70% of the population, while the impacts of the tax cuts and the following tax increases have reduced the middle class to around 25%. And now we are potentially facing another crisis as the result of the tax cuts that are currently being pushed by the GOP.

Well, that’s the end of my rambling for one day, and anxious to see how the Alabama election goes. Take care my friend.

Response to my friend: Nothing wrong with emotion – I wish there was more passion, mixed with a willingness to dialogue openly with others of differing points of view. We tend to separate into our affinity groups – the people that share our point of view. It is easy to do in these days of Facebook, et al; is not healthy for our society, when people like your Dad (who I was privileged to meet) and his brother could argue politics, but still worked and lived together in the same community.

(There was the same kind of tension in my own family. My grandfather on my mother’s side apparently had some problems with Roosevelt, in part because of “loafers” who he saw on work crews planting trees on his land in the 1930s. Earlier in his life he’d been active in the Farmers Union movement, one of the first North Dakota members and activists; and before that an active supporter of the socialist Non-Partisan League which reacted to the excesses of big business on North Dakota farmers. There still remains a State Bank of North Dakota and some other entities from that experiment in the teens and 20s of the last century.

On the other side, my Dad’s brother was in the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps). In 1935 he managed to join the Navy, another government job, and six years later went down with the Arizona at Pearl Harbor and along with the other dead there became a hero. It is said that Grandpa had ill feelings towards the Japanese…. Such is how feelings and debates go.)

We could argue exact percentages in your writing. The only thing you missed – perhaps you didn’t know – Catholics were a big target of the Ku Klux Klan especially in the later 1920s, including in our own state.

It is an honor to be your friend.

from Norman: Nice commentary on the special election today in Alabama.

Given its long history as a red state…how long as it been since Sparkman was one of its senators?…it would be an upset in Moore were not to win today thereby assuring that the Republicans will retain that seat so as to help the tower man with small hands and all “make America great again!”

They need that seat to maintain their seat given the their small majority margins especially when they try to get legislation through that is divided along party lines.

The Democrats on the other hand foolishly pushed Franken to resign with granting him due process of any kind to take the moral high ground or whatever other motivation was behind their responding to several anonymous complaints.

Kind of ironic as so many Americans…I would like to think the majority of us…still believe in due process…the right to see and hear one’s accuser …before judgment and is made.

So, the Republicans played this much better in terms of pragmatic politics given that in all likelihood they will retain the Alabama seat while the Democrats put themselves in the position of possibly losing the Franken seat on 2018 while enjoying a filler in the seat without any seniority in the interim.

That was a rush to judgement to take the “higher ground” and from a pragmatic political viewpoint…you have a political party to win elections so that you can set the agenda…nothing more and nothing less…and to potentially give up a senate seat in a closely divided senate without giving the accused the benefit of due process is just plain politically stupid and something that will come back to haunt the Democrats for a long time.

Response to Norman, from Carol: I don’t totally agree with “Norm.” This is what the Republicans said when they elected Trump, and are saying more now- Trump may be a hot mess but it’s the PARTY, doggone it, and he’s OUR hot mess. Nothing else matters.

I saw a posting last night by someone in Alabama who didn’t like Moore at all, but he was voting for “the seat.” (I responded that we don’t vote for furniture.) No political representatives are going to be perfect – and whether or not Franken should have resigned is kind of a different argument. (I think he would have been very vulnerable in the next election. I also think Dayton is making a big mistake appointing his lt. governor who basically nobody’s ever heard of.) But I think the Republicans would have kept Charles Manson in office to save “the seat.” It’s not a football game. Integrity matters.

Response to Carol, from Norm: Thank you, Carol, for your response.

Yes, integrity matters and to me that means giving everyone accused of whatever the right of due process which was not granted by the many Democratic senators who rushed to judgement regarding the complaints many of them anonymous.

The bottom line here just as the Republicans so well know is “do we have the votes?”, nothing more and nothing less that that.

As such, if the good folks in Alabama decide to elect Moore which appears very likely, then that is who they want to represent them…and more importantly they need that seat in such a closely divided senate.

The Democrats may have taken what they thought was the so called “moral high ground” by pushing Franken to resign…or to state that he plans to resign in the future…without granting him due process…that was absolutely appalling no matter how “well intentioned!”

Bottom line here is does a party have the votes or not, nothing more and nothing than that as that is what a political party is for and only for that reason, i.e. to win elections and ideally to win the majority in a legislative body and to hold the state and national executive offices as well to be able to press its public policy agenda.

Everything else is irrelevant in my view.

We can sit in the corner having claimed the high moral ground whining poor us ain’t it awful while the other side that has the votes passes tax “reform” legislation that we don’t like, adopts immigration reforms that we do not agree with, and tries to overturn almost every major public policy change that President Obama accomplished during his eight years in office.

We may well feel that right is on our side during such moments trying to tell ourselves that it is the principle of the thing that counts while the other side dismantles and/or repeals much of the public policy programs that we worked hard to get adopted and strongly feel are important parts of the fabric of civilized nation.

On the other hand, since we don’t have the votes, so what?

“Evil Triumphs When Good People Do Nothing”

POSTNOTE, Dec. 8: A thought provoking commentary of the last days, here.

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These thoughts seem random, even to myself. Hopefully, you’ll find some “hook” for thought and conversation.

(click to enlarge, from June, 2000)

With Al and Franni Franken at a political event in Lake Elmo MN June 15, 2006.

Middle of the night I awoke with a few words in my head: “evil triumphs when good people do nothing.” I remembered a quotation similar to this from some past time, and, as I often do, I looked those words up on the internet.

There is no definitive answer; there are many possibilities.

Probably the closest I can come is Edmund Burke, here:

“Thoughts on the cause of present discontents”.
“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”

This was in 1770, when the word “men” was the word for power, when storm clouds were gathering in the insolent colonies in North America. It is a good quote.

Perhaps the problem is who commands the use of the words. We are all “bad”, perhaps even “evil” to someone. In a forced choice, even on a very bad day, hardly anyone would self-describe themself as “bad”, most preferring “good”. As Mitch Daniels, President of Purdue University, discusses effectively in a column headlined in today’s Washington Post,
“Is anyone ever wrong anymore?”

*

The first e-mail today was my favorite digest of daily national news, “Just Above Sunset”, this one titled “The Next Enlightenment”, focusing on Time Magazines Persons of the Year, “The Silence Breakers”. Todays Sunset is worth a full read. Donald Trump, Roy Moore and Al Franken are prominent in the cast of characters.

Earlier this past evening I had written two good friends – both women – about my feelings about the issue du jour as it seemed to be developing re Franken:

“I try to separate emotions from rational thought in this. I admit it is not easy, as both a man, and as a person who admires Franken for lots of reasons.

Without belaboring the point, I think what most troubles me in the “sex” cases, of all sorts, over a lot of years, is the tendency of people to leapfrog over due process, where someone is presumed guilty based on allegations, without hearing, for offenses that occurred years ago, before even running for office. Ironically, the only people who will get their due process are Trump, who can afford to obstruct and delay any charges against himself forever; and Roy Moore, whose followers don’t care if he’s guilty or not.

So, on we go….”

*

Picture an eagle flying with only a single wing, or with simply a head….

I began this post yesterday afternoon, with a tentative title “The politicization of sex”. The draft contents of the blog when I woke up this morning are below, unchanged. Maybe this will give some impetus for conversation.

Sen. Al Franken is probably soon to be political history (I write before he speaks publicly). he has been politically killed – that is exactly what is happening. I wonder if champagne glasses are clinking in the office of D. J. Tice, editorial page editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, who wrote about Al Franken’s new book back in August, as follows. Tice did not seem much of a fan of Franken.

I happen to think that Sen. Franken has been a very good Senator, a credit to the United States of America. The American people – and I mean that regardless of station in life – have lost an articulate witness. And the issue is strictly a political issue. If sexual allegations were applicable to all, Donald J. Trump would be long gone already; and Roy Moore would also have disappeared from public view, rather than endorsed as the next U.S. Senator from Alabama.

A few days ago, about when the Franken thing erupted – shortly followed by the Keillor thing? – I had occasion to dust off a sermon made by a Presbyterian Minister at a prestigious church in St. Paul in Feb. 1999. You can read it here: Morality and Civility001. The homilist was Dr. John M. Miller, and I think this person is the same as the John Miller who delivered the remarks in the wake of the Bill Clinton impeachment.

If you read the remarks, and I hope you do, note especially the last page (of the six) where this Christian minister, near 19 years ago, laid out his concerns. The six pages are worthy of discussion.

If I’m correct in my ID of the minister, apparently Dr. Miller didn’t last very long at House of Hope.

*

It would be nice to have a “Christmas spirit”.

I’m experiencing the opposite….

COMMENTS:
from Joe:
Folks might want to respond to the Doug Jones [Alabama candidate] requests for contributions…

from Jane: As I said to them, this is murky territory all around. All allegations are not equal and all sexual harassment is not equal. Franken’s acts are distasteful, but I and many woman friends feel that these allegations are not proven to be true and pretty mild compared to all the other Mighty Men who have fallen. That includes the president (no cap on purpose.)

I am afraid that Franken will be the sacrificial lamb so Congress and followers can stop talking about the harassment of women. There needs to be deep and frank discussion and decisions on how to deal with this problem. They lack a policy of procedures for addressing this in Congress. Thus the response seems to be more based on 2018 elections than anything truth-finding or justice. Should these cases for elected officials and potential elected officials always automatically go to the Ethics Committee to be proven? Does confession and apology avoid this step? Then what are punishments that actually fit the crime?
I very much disagree with forcing elected officials out of office on hearsay. That is not how the judicial system works, and I wouldn’t think that is how the legislative system should work.

A side note. Here in SE MN our state legislator Greg Davids, was investigated for fraud. No one forced him to resign. There was some scooting around the law and threading needles that allowed him off the hook and should not have. They were very blatant charges, but his party never asked him to resign. Were there loop holes in the ethics investigation? Yes.

None of this is easy, but Congress needs a plan to patrol itself.

from Peter:T he broad range of behaviors that now constitute “sex” in various contexts reminds me of the speed limit. As a professional driver, I am constantly being passed, and not legally or skillfully, by drivers who sometimes express annoyance at me, some by getting a foot from my bumper. I pull over to let them pass when I can. One stopped, and I said, “Is there some problem?” “I’m trying to go the speed limit.” “Well, it’s fifty right here, so you were.” the boy roared away contemptuously. However, my point is that the police can just dip into the traffic stream any time they need to boost the revenues a little, because nobody but me pays any attention to the speed signs.

Yes: I’m implying that an awful lot of men have a history, somewhere in their past, of unpleasantries such as groping, propositioning, and much, much worse. Almost all of my close female friends say they have experienced this, and many more than once.

And in the current atmos-Fear, it no longer matters whether a story can be verified. That is a symptom of a paradigm shift I’m writing about these days, which occurred when technology allowed one person to drop a million or so others into terror and xenophobia in the same moment. It is the number of eyeballs looking at something, and not what that something may or may not be, that now is the most lucrative commodity. Aggregated attention is power.

I am afraid we will see a lot more of this kind of attack, whether it is actually a counter-attack or just an assault, before humanity gets it right; and a lot of good people will be injured, both the accusers and the accused. All political figures’ personal histories are now being mined for such information. This is going to change the makeup of leadership, but it will not necessarily be an improvement.

from Fred: Feeling sad with lots of mixed emotions. I had hoped that Senator Franken might be chosen as a VP candidate next election cycle as I thought he had the fortitude to ask the tough questions and to speak out on the issues and get to the truth. So not only do I mourn that he is not sitting in the Senate representing regular people like me I mourn the dream I had of the future. Anyone that has watched him work in committee knows that he did his homework and asked the questions that needed asking in a way that demanded respect. He was one of us in a lot of ways.

from Lydia: As a feminist since age 14 (almost 45 years) & as a survivor of child sexual abuse (age 9 to 12), while a teen sexual harassment by adult men (age 13 to 17) & sexual assault/rape twice (at 20 by a stranger–he bragged that I was “# 19”) & by a “friend at age 25…I am APPALLED at the SCAPEGOATING of Sen. Al Franken–by mushy spineless “liberals”. Even if the allegations are true (& I have big DOUBTS, given the first accuser LEEANN TWEEDEN has been a right-wing FOX News commentator who worked with Sean Hannity to SMEAR 2 Obama Admin. people(Shirley Shrrod & Van Jones) based on LIES)—these allegations are so minimal. These allegations of KISSES & butt-pats TRIVIALIZE serious sexual harassment on the job much less those who are predators against girls (like ROY MOORE) and the epidemic of sexual assault/rape where TENS OF THOUSANDS of rape kits gather dust & are NOT E4VEN TESTED in pooice departments across the country. “Date rape”, “acquaintance rape” & on-campus sexual assaults are DISMISSED without serious investigation—& the perpetrators are free to continue.

But, AL FRANKEN–a CHAMPION of women’s rights and equality is BURNED AT THE STAKE? It’s disgusting. The Democrats claim is that now they will be “pure enough” to go after ROY MOORE if he’s elected to the Senate. What fools! The Republicans will give Moore a pass–since he’s “a Godly man” who has been falsely accused for political reasons”.

Pressuring Franken out of office was a terrible thing to do that makes no wpman safer & in my view will only bring us closer to (inevitable?) BACKLASH on this whole topic. Soon enough we will no longer be discussing HOW to address rampant sexual harassment in the work-place or sexual violence in our culture. It will be back to (Big) Business As Usual. WHAT A WASTE that a decent Senator has been lost (& I disagreed with Franken on some issues–he ws never anti-war & he bows to Israel as does EVERY politician)—but, at least Franken GAVE A DAMN about every day people…when so many of those we elect (regardless of political party) serves the powerful & serves themselves. I hope Minnesotans will write Senator Franken at his St. Paul office and THANK HIM FOR HIS SERVICE. (I already did).

from Bruce: A wise man once told me that “good triumphs over evil. Nobody, however, thinks they are evil.” That I think is where we are today in the United States of America.

Observation #2: The argument that Al’s transgressions are not as bad as Moore’s or Trump’s is a version of “lessor evil politics” that has over the last 20 years given us the mess we are in today.

Observation #3: Democrats think that Al’s transgressions can be overlooked because of his politics, but have difficulty accepting that Republicans think the same thing about Trump and Moore. I suspect the Republicans practice the same hypocrisy.

Another observation is there isn’t due process in political discourse. To suggest there is is to blur protected speech. In the Franken mess, I suspect Al realized his political days were numbered and that he soon would be forced to resign from the beginning. At that point, he should’ve made the proactive decision to apologize to Franni, Tweeden and all those he inappropriately touched. He should’ve said he was ashamed by his caddish behavior and embarrassed by the rationalization that it was his privilege. At that point he should’ve said he was stepping down because today in the 21st century that way of thinking and acting was wrong and didn’t belong in the US Senate. He then should’ve demanded president Trump should do the same and that Roy Moore doesn’t belong in the US Senate either, and that he was going to form a movement to eradicate this type of behavior. But alas he didn’t. If he did history would’ve been kind to him, however he defaulted to the conventional political approach using apology-nonapology and waiting to see how many shoes would drop before he was forced to resign. It would’ve taken courage, but that is a virtue that today doesn’t exist in American politics.

from Florence: I’ve wondered often about what moved the women to come out now as victims of Sen. Franken’s “sexual over-reach”. Whatever their motive, I’m pretty sure that their grievances would have been (and maybe were) trivialized and/or dismissed. How have each of you handled these situations in your life whether as a victim or friend or confidant of a victim? Personally I never talked about my earliest “Me, too.” experience until I was over 40 and given a voice at a Take Back the Night circle. I was over-whelmed at the caring and support I received as I shed the bucket of tears I never could prior to then. Other sexual transgressions against me throughout my life made me wary and very protective and, fortunately, the perpetrators knew I was in charge of my own person. Did I tell anyone else? No, only my husband, after we were a committed couple.

Was I willing to give Sen. Franken a bye? Yes, and I wrote to him asking him to stay on as our Senator, but to “mind his manners” into the future. Others have disagreed with me. Their voices have prevailed. History will be the judge as to the prudence of Sen. Franken’s decision to resign, obviously with understandable reservations, and the DFL Feminist Caucus insistence that it was necessary to maintain the party’s integrity around the issue of sexual abuse.

from Jane (see previous comment, above): Here is a link to a woman writer who echoes my thoughts.

from Alan: Al Franken has been an extremely great Senator for Minnesota and these United States. Every other Senator would have let Sessions, the AG, mget by with lying but not Franken. The second woman that accused him of groping was during a picture at the State Fair. When my wife and I looked at that picture of that woman, she had the happiest look on her face as possible, and she was complaining? If he was squeezing her buns, it must have felt wonderful by the look on her face, but I don’t think he was. She wanted a picture with him and that is why she looks so happy. The Democratic Senators and others that have told him to resign are wrong, very wrong. They have railroaded him he decided to get on the train. I am going to write him a note asking him to jump off the train, but to fill out his term and run again in 2020. There is no one in the Senate to take his place and to do as well as he will do for Minnesota and the country.

On Eagle’s Wing

Yesterday was the first day of Advent. It is variously observed in Christian churches; it seems especially emphasized in the Roman Catholic, my particular tradition. So, now we’re in Advent, Christmas is little more than four Sundays away.

I planned a reminiscence about a simpler time for yesterday. It is premature. Too gentle. Perhaps next week.

(click to enlarge)

Picture an eagle flying with only a single wing, or with simply a head….

*

The “Tax Reform” of the most smelly variety which passed the U.S. Senate early Saturday morning keeps interfering with my “Christmas Spirit”.

Even before the final version has been cobbled together, the bill is being sold as a great Christmas gift to all Americans. The reality will be that it is indeed a gift, but only to the richest Americans and the big corporations.

In the longer term, the next few years, thanks to this bill, our country will incur a huge additional financial debt, which will be paid by the poor and the middle class, and future generations. The victims of the bill will be the same people who are the fuel – “the Christmas Shoppers” – of the American economy.

If the Democrats had passed an identical bill, they would be crucified. The bill is classic “bait and switch”.

The facts are and will be available to everyone; but too few will care to learn, and act. Caveat emptor. Let the buyer beware.

*

I keep thinking of a favorite hymn, “On Eagle’s Wingsby Michael Joncas. You’ll notice the title of this post misses the “s” on “wing”. That is not an error.

The song has a religious tack, but no matter. No one owns the majestic eagle.

I have for a long while compared our political system to an eagle. Twice, recently, I have included an October, 2008 photograph of a sculpture of an eagle at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum*. The photo leads this post.

It goes without saying that a functioning eagle needs all of its parts working together. A bird with only one-wing cannot fly; similarly, a bird with no wings and only a head, will not survive predators in the alien environment in which it is forced to live. Any organism in our natural world is similar, including human beings. To function, “right”, “left” and “center” must work together.

Enter the “political” sphere.

Here we are: the tip of the right wing has managed to move its agenda in Congress, to give the “head” – the President – a “win” before his first year ends. To do this it rendered the left wing powerless. “Nuts to you!” This is not a new phenomenon in American political warfare. It has been developing for years. Two single votes on Saturday night made the difference. Two votes. Iron discipline of the right wing led to its “win”.

In the real world of nature, such a creature as our current “win-lose” politics would be doomed to crash. Every part would die, including that “right wing”. I think this is our contemporary political world – a system facing certain death.

As I’ve said, there is plenty of evidence about the long term effects of this “tax reform” bill, but for the short term the politically disengaged ordinary people will be led to believe that this fraud is to their advantage. Too late will they learn the reality.

The little people – that is 99% of us – still have one weapon: our vote, in each and every election. It takes much more than that vote to change course, but a well informed vote is absolutely crucial.

If we are sloppy about our use (or misuse, or non-use) of this franchise, we have no excuses.

It’s time to get to work, and stay at work. 2018, and 2020, are not that far away.

* – The Eagle in the photo has an interesting history. I was privileged to be in attendance at its dedication by my friend Mary Lou Nelson in October, 2008, at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. It is still there. Here is how it is described.

Eagle’s are powerful birds, symbols of power. The sculptor called his work “hunter”, as that is what an eagle is – a hunter. Mary Lou, a wonderful peacemaker, chose to give that symbol of power a kinder and gentler descriptor: “messenger of peace”. She was speaking, if I recall correctly, about how we might improve as a nation, at that time at war in Iraq.

Even predators at the top of their food chain hunt only as much as they need. They do not wantonly kill or gorge themselves or take more territory than they need. Nature is efficient. We might be the same.

POSTNOTE: As I clicked publish on this post, into my mailbox came this post which you might take time to read on this chilly and windy and snowy (in my town) day.

POSTNOTE 2: After publishing the above, I embarked to a workshop I was to conduct about 40 miles from here. The roads were terrible. I cancelled after taking 90 minutes to drive what usually would take 15 minutes. No need for details….

I made it to a favorite restaurant in Edina, and there was one table open, and I had breakfast before attempting the drive home (which was much more normal).

At the table next to me were two young people, I gathered both were in late teens, out of high school, a young man and a young woman. Just two kids ‘catching up’. It was impossible not to eavesdrop. I was by myself. The table on the other side was occupied by another couple, but they weren’t visiting.

More than once the conversation between the “kids” veered into politics. And the one thing I would share was the comment the man made, that he had been very active politically in 2016, but he was too young to vote. The conversation went from here to there and back again. They were nice kids.

I thought to myself, these kids are the ultimate victims of what is happening in both national and state government. They just won’t realize it for a few years when things we took for granted, like Medicare and Social Security, have been strangled or otherwise diminished in favor of privatization.

And I remembered a piece on the news last night. The new tax bill will probably benefit the Donald Trump family by a billion dollars (elimination of the death tax), and perhaps save the Donald himself perhaps a million dollars.

Quite a Christmas present, indeed.

But for whom.

COMMENTS:
from Paul: the Grover Norquist plan is playing out.

from Dick, in response: Yes, it is. Norquist was promoting his plan long before those kids I mention above were born.

A new 9-11: “Tax Reform” Under Cover of Night….

Picture an eagle flying with only a single wing, or with simply a head….

Last night the U.S. Senate facilitated, on a strict party-line vote, a forseeably disastrous end game: to steal from the poor and middle class as a giveaway to the already super-rich. The implications are, for ordinary Americans, worse by far than 9-11-01.

The public has a very short time to weigh in on this initiative with their own representatives. The bill was hurriedly passed with virtually no public view, much less input. All that remains is for the Senate and the House of Representatives Republicans (the Republicans are all that matter, here) to reconcile their differences, which are helpfully laid out in this mornings Washington Post.

This is how CNN sees what is being proposed.

This is not the first ‘stealth’ effort by the Republicans. Twice they failed to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (derisively called “Obamacare”), using the same strategy. Now they’ve hidden the down-the-road repeal of such programs within the latest bill, which virtually nobody has really seen, including those who voted for it last night. The ‘bait and switch’ is pretty obvious: the damages will not really take effect until after the next election, with short term sweetness in 2018.

For those who contend that the Republicans are doing only as the Democrats did to pass what came to be called Obamacare in 2010, never forget that Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was publicly debated for a year before its final adoption in 2010. See especially the section on “Healthcare Debate 2008-2010 at this link.

Haters of Obamacare would send me extracts from, let’s say, page 1023 of some draft, allegedly proving the Acts dangers. You can’t share pieces of last nights action. Some pieces were handwritten in by people not long before the vote.

Here is the New York Times summary of what happened overnight: NY Times Dec 2, 2017001. The same NYT shares the vote by Senator last night: here.

Those who passed this bill depend on a sloppy and lazy citizenry.

I’m old enough to possibly be gone before the bad news within the plans of this bill hit the young folks who will be most adversely affected by its provision, and the satellite initiatives to slash other programs like medicare to pay for the immense deficits it will create. The young need to figure this out for themselves.

I’ll do what I can….

POSTNOTE: I question not at all the issue of needing to “reform” taxation. This has been an obvious problem for years. The problem is that this is a country with differing points of view, and it is dangerous to cede to one radical side control of this or any issue.

POSTNOTE 2: An afternoon mailing from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Dec. 2.

“While most of America was sleeping last night, the Senate Republicans jammed through their terrible tax bill.

I wish I could tell you all of the awful things that are in it, but I’m still reading the bill myself. The Republicans released the bill only a couple of hours before the votes started last night. There were no hearings. There was no debate. In fact, they were literally sending around edits in hand-written chicken scratch minutes before we had to vote.

But we do know that the big Republican donors are popping champagne today. This 500-page bill is a massive tax giveaway to billionaires and giant corporations, paid for by America’s working families. It attacks college students. It sabotages the Affordable Care Act and threatens health care for millions of Americans. It opens up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling in Alaska. And who knows what else is buried in there?

That’s not how you make tax policy, health care policy, or any other policy in the United States of America.

This Republican-controlled Congress doesn’t work for working families. It works for corporate lobbyists and campaign donors in backroom deals and 1:30 AM votes. This is corruption – plain and simple. And this corruption is hollowing out America’s middle class and tearing down our democracy.

But we cannot – CANNOT – give up. The other side has concentrated money and concentrated power – but we have our voices and our votes. And there are a lot more of us than there are of them.

We need to fight harder than ever to protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. When this tax scam causes the national debt to explode because billionaires and giant corporations don’t pay their fair share, the Republicans will say – “Sorry!” There’s no money to pay for the things that affect working families. Remember that when the sequester cuts kicked in during 2013, cancer clinics had to turn away patients from their chemotherapy treatments – and that was just fine with the GOP.

And we need to fight harder than ever to elect Democrats who will fight for working families – not for those who can afford to hire armies of lawyers and lobbyists. Not a single Democrat in the House or the Senate has voted for this terrible tax scam. If we want to change policy in America, we have to change the people who are in the room fighting for those policies.

It’s been a brutal week. This is a David vs. Goliath story, and this time David got his slingshot shoved down his throat – sideways. But even though we won’t win every fight, we won’t win what we don’t fight for.

Stay in this fight. We need you.

Thanks for being a part of this,

Elizabeth”

Nuclear War

To be clear, this post is not about North Korea (though it well could be). One cannot imagine what “dotard” and “rocket man” (Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un) will do. This is a very dangerous time, led by very dangerous men.

Rather, this post is, once again, about the weaponization of Sex in America. If you’re reading this, I don’t need to fill in the blanks. You know them.

So, yesterday, Matt Lauer and Garrison Keillor joined the fallen. And they are front page news. There will be the usual clucks of righteousness.

There may be someone out there who thinks that all of this just happened through some painful overnight revelation by victims.

Rather the revelations are strategically timed, from data gathered over many years, just waiting for the right moment to light the fuse and disrupt and confuse…and sow and nurture fear (“am I going to be next?”).

As a good friend of mine, senior citizen female, said the other day (with her permission to share): “… by the time someone is old enough to run for president (or another higher office), they likely have “history.” (Either that, or they haven’t lived much – in which case, they’d probably not be a candidate in the first place.) And of course, then the skeletons-in-the-closet hunters come out in force. I wouldn’t want anybody digging in MY closet, either.”

She could have said “or anything” as well, but Garrison Keillor had not been decapitated at the time she wrote.

Long and short, Sex has been Weaponized. It is useless to try to identify ground zero, or who the sleaze bags are who have weaponized it. They won’t out themselves, and will deny the credit, even if deserved. It goes back quite a number of years now. It is a useful weapon.

Of course, its value as a weapon depends on people like us to give it meaning.

It is up to us to deal with this ourselves, in our own circles.

Wednesday (before the Lauer and Keillor “bombshells”) I had occasion to dig out one of items I have kept on file, this one for the past 17 years.

This one, a sermon, is six pages, and was delivered by the minister of a prestigious St. Paul Church, who specifically wanted it shared at the time, regardless of one’s political persuasion. It seems appropriate for today. Here it is: Morality and Civility001

POSTNOTE:
from Jeff: “All Administrations, I suppose, are more or less corrupt; certainly the depth of corruption this one has reached is scarcely suspected as yet, even by
Its enemies.”

1871, Whitelaw Reid, Managing editor of the New York Tribune

COMMENTS:
from Madeline:
I concur, and I read the excellent sermon you included.

from Judy: I didn’t read the whole sermon, but I think he was saying that some things are immoral, others illegal, and Clinton didn’t do anything illegal. Sexual harassment in some cases is illegal. But I am convinced that Senator Franken and Garrison Keillor did nothing illegal or immoral. I am so upset that we are rushing to judgment about these fine men. What happened to due process

Yes, I have been the victim of sexual harassment. All women my age have been.

from Jeff, re Postnote: This history of that time period is very interesting.

The Republican party was splintering between the Radical Republicans (in favor of remaking the country from the South to the West in the image of the North and the Northern Midwest), and the “Liberal” Republicans who were previous to the war staunch upper class abolitionists… they were the intellectual elite and some of the financial elite and were in favor of the return of the Gold Standard, ending Reconstruction in the south and allowing a return to stable White controlled states there, and were anti-immigrants as they saw immigrants as a power block for corrupt politicians, they also in concert with wishing for a return of white control of the South were in favor of restricting suffrage (and that worked pretty well for them in the South)

Democrats were split as well… between those that were the old Confederates, some urban Democrats particularly in NY city who aligned with Tammany Hall and German and Irish immigrants; and Democrats of a Jeffersonian/Jacksonian type, mostly rural in favor of paper money, inflation and the sanctity of the small farmer and small businessman.

from Florence: I’m perplexed by how Trump seems to be walking away free from his transgressions. I look to the machine that got him elected. The article you shared affirmed that. Thank you!

Response to Florence, from Dick: First, Trump is much too useful to the radical right wing; and if he goes, we’re left with Mike Pence who’s even more useful in the longer term, especially with court judges. Second, his entire history is to countersue, and any potential litigants against a very wealthy man who has teams of lawyers who challenge everything know how hard that is.

BTW, this is not simply a woman’s issue, though women for reasons we both know have borne the brunt of this throughout human history.

from John: Your thoughtful suggestions to deal with sensitive issues of sex and power should make many folks think. Where are we going? As a people, and as human Beings? We all need to think.

from Joyce: Excellent, Dick!

from Christine: Very interesting!

from Michelle:
My word of the day – DISCERNMENT.

noun
noun: discernment
1.
the ability to judge well.
“an astonishing lack of discernment”
2.
(in Christian contexts) perception in the absence of judgment with a view to obtaining spiritual direction and understanding.
“without providing for a time of healing and discernment, there will be no hope of living through this present moment without a shattering of our common life”

We seem to have replaced discernment with simple “judge everyone the same-ness.” We seem to have lost the ability to judge well, to indeed no longer take time to discern one thing from another. No, it’s not the same to drink 5 drinks and drive, as it is to drink 1 drink and drive. No, it’s not the same to accidentally hit someone with your car and drive away, as it is to hit someone accidentally with your car and then stay to help. In the first example, it’s true that both include drinking and driving. But JUDGMENT is used, and we know that drinking 5 is much worse with greater effects than drinking 1 drink. In the 2nd example, it’s true that both include accidentally hitting someone. But in the first, someone drives away and doesn’t accept responsibility. And in the 2nd, someone stops to help, accepting that something happened. We DISCERN and discover that indeed, while there are similar acts here – they are NOT the same.

So take sexual harassment. I would say – No, it’s not the same to pull your pants down in front of an unwilling employee, as it is to hug someone too low and put your hand on their buttocks. While we need to take this issue seriously, I feel we also need to practice the lost art of discernment and using good judgment to determine justice in these situations, and to be able to reflect, heal and move ahead with greater knowledge.

from Catherine: I do think we are reacting to an age-old problem in an insane and unfair way, tossing aside one’s right to a proper defense and forgetting that every wrong or perceived wrong cannot be categorized as all of the same criminal degree. Worse for us, how dare MPR remove all of Keillor’s contributions to our culture? That punishes us, not him. Like all women I’ve experienced sexual harassment since I grew breasts, but as irritating and insulting as it was, most of it was not especially traumatic. It’s not reason enough to destroy lives and the future work of men who have grown up and learned better. I realize this doesn’t apply to serial creeps and child molesters. I also think that this is just as much politically motivated as anything else. We have to take this case by case and examine it all with care. I’m all for strengthening women and ending bad treatment and harassment but we don’t have to drive people to suicide.

from David: Count me among those who don’t see a conspiracy to bring down liberal (or, for that matter, conservative) men or causes. Many changes come about through the long, hard work by their proponents. Often those struggles involve decades-long work with seemingly little progress being made. Then, along comes some seminal event or moment that changes the dynamic. Rosa Parks comes to mind. Or, perhaps a better example, America’s sea change in attitudes towards marriage equality.

Alabama senate candidate Roy Moore claims that accusations against him are made up, the women are all lying and doing the bidding of the anti-religious liberals. Al Franken admits to boorish behavior recorded on film but “can’t remember” details of other events.

Are we to believe that the women making these accusations have just now decided that it’s politically expedient to come forward? Or, that they shared their stories earlier, but a lid was kept on the information until the time was ripe to bring down a political opponent?

I believe a better explanation is that the atmosphere has changed and women (and a few men) are now feeling more empowered, and safer, to step forward with their experiences. Absent evidence to the contrary, attributing political motives to their difficult decisions to come forward, sends the message that advancing our political agenda trumps our values.

Response from Dick: I think the value of this business is that there is conversation now taking place. As I’ve mentioned, I had a little head start on this, having to represent school teachers back in the mid to late 1970s and 1980s when the issue first raised its head. In these cases, due process takes a big hit. I try to keep in mind a simple fact: there are hundreds of millions of (let’s admit it) sexual beings out there, called humans, male and female. Balance that against the numbers of alleged perpetrators and presumed victims all now coming forward at about the same time. One has to wonder….