#395 – Dick Bernard: Day Five of the Minnesota Shutdown. Compromise; Reason vs Belief

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My 1979 Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary (p. 374) says this about the word “Compromise …compromised…compromising:
1) to adjust and settle (a difference) by mutual agreement, with concessions on both sides.
2. to agree: to accord [Obs].
3. to lay open to danger, suspicion, or disrepute: to endanger the interests of.
4. to surrender or give up (one’s interests, principles, etc.)”
An alternative second definition is “1. to make a compromise or compromises. 2. to agree.” Then comes a third: “Compromiser. one who compromises or believes in compromise.”
Oh how easy. Oh how impossible.
The word “compromise” will become the word of the day, week and month as people weigh in on how to settle the dangerous disagreement that has shut down the State Capitol.
In our current political society, when it comes to the most committed on each side, “compromise” has come to mean weakness (“4. to surrender…”) rather than mutual strength “to adjust and settle (a difference) by mutual agreement…”. I have watched this evolve for many years, particularly given my career work environment which required parties who were sure of the rightness of their position to finally come to some agreement about their differences. Yes, one side could bludgeon the other side into an undesired agreement, but that was a short term solution that often bit back, hard.
In our obsession with winning, we have become a society of losers. The endless parade of words over the last days, wherever I have looked, all have essentially the same direction: “if only the others would agree to my interpretation of what is best for this state (and we could substitute “country” as easily) all would be good.”
Only if I win, will I be satisfied. Only if the other party comes more than half the way, first, and admits defeat, will I come to an agreement.
It doesn’t work that way, folks.
We learn the real strength of “compromise” and we learn it very soon, or we’re in trouble.
At this moment in history, there is a “winning” side, and it is identified by the general term “radical right wing”. Its cover is the name “Republican”, but it is not Republican in any traditional context. It knows how to “win”, by use of words, by absolute refusal to compromise except on its own narrow terms, by substitution of basics like facts and reason with things like belief.
We see its calculation of its strength, and then its application of brute force in the use of that strength, to obstruct or deny the legitimacy of any other point of view.
Very carefully it has carved out its winning strategy, and it has worked…so far.
But as we are beginning to find out, through the government shutdown in Minnesota, and the rapidly approaching latest crisis in Washington D.C., we are living on the brink of disaster.
We learn to compromise, or we slowly die the death of a thousand cuts.
I tend to be an optimistic sort.
My optimism is being sorely tested.

#394 – Dick Bernard: Day Four of the Minnesota Shutdown. A Parade. In a time of orchestrated hate, I'm Liberal, and proud of it.

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July 4 UPDATE at end
Directly related: June 27, here.
The hate mail about President Obama is starting to come more frequently into my e-mail in box. Predictably (and falsely) Governor Dayton is already being blamed for the Minnesota budget stalemate. It is reported that some Republican legislators jeered him when he announced the shutdown last Thursday night at the Capitol.
No class.
It must be the 4th of July.
We’ll likely do, today, what we most always do: go to the town parade in Afton a few miles east of here. It’s a quaint parade you can watch twice if you wish, since the units double back down the same main street.
There will be a color guard, and we’ll stand, and I’ll doff my Vets for Peace hat, then will come the usual. This is an off-year politically, so I don’t expect a lot of politicians. There will probably be even fewer than usual since they’d probably rather not be too out in the open, this soon after the shutdown. We’re nice people here, and there’ll likely be no hissing or such, but I still don’t think the usual complement of politicos will be on the main street. If we go, I’ll report back on what I observe.
I am interested in the hate mail (that’s exactly what it is). Usually it comes via people who I know, who are generally in my age range. Rarely does any personal message come with these “forwards”, so I don’t know why they are being forwarded to me. Sometimes, I think, they are interested in what I might think of this or that. But I don’t know that, usually.
My policy has become to respond, each and every time. The most recent one was an insulting parody of the oldie “Casey at the Bat”. There was no message whatsoever other than an insult of Obama.
I happen to be proud of the President, and I say so. He’s doing a great job under far less than good conditions.
I can make the same comments about Governor Dayton in my state.
We are a country filled with seething bitterness, most of it taught. It is not healthy…for us.
Last evening we watched a special about the complexities of Abraham Lincoln’s early political career and the relationship of he and his wife. In the 1860 election he won the presidency with 40% of the vote, and after he was elected 7 states seceded from the Union. And he’s the most revered President in our history…I believe the first Republican President. It could be argued that he opened the door for President Obama through the Emancipation Proclamation.
Succinctly, Lincolns political career has a lot of similarities to Barack Obama’s.
A friend’s letter to the editor in the June 30, 2011, Minneapolis Star Tribune says it as well as anything I’ve seen:
“A June 29 letter writer claims that Barack Obama “was the most inexperienced president the United States has ever elected.
Actually, Obama’s eight years in the Illinois Legislature, during which he sponsored more than 800 bills, and his two years in the U.S. Senate are similar to Abraham Lincoln’s eight years in the Illinois legislature and two years in the U.S. House of Representatives. Rather than looking at years in office, I prefer to look at a candidate’s understanding of public policy and his or her positions on what those policies should be.”
Joyce Denn, Woodbury
I probably can’t change the angry e-mailer attitudes. It’s a free country and they can vent all they want, whether through cartoons, parodies or out and out lies.
But that doesn’t mean I’m going to cower in a corner and pretend I’m something I’m not.
Liberals are demonized too. And I’m one of them, and I’m proud of what I am. We’re good, solid, upstanding people.
Do I know people on the left who are prone to sending insults and engaging in ugly behavior too? Of course I do. Probably roughly in the same proportion as on the right. But they don’t have the financial backing to spread their insults as broadly.
Money does talk, very, very loudly.
Have a good 4th, and work towards a renewal of respectful political discourse.
Politics was tough in Lincoln’s day, too. But they did debate respectfully, or so I hear.
Other recent and related posts can be accessed here.
UPDATE
Just back from the Afton Parade. From all appearances, more spectators than previous years. There was not a single unit that featured political leaders. Normally there’d be up to a half dozen. One very angry looking guy drove a red Corvette on which he’d draped two “Don’t Tread on Me” flags, without any explanation. If he had a message no one could figure out what it was.
A guy about my age struck up a conversation. He mentioned that one of their daughters works in a program for fetal alcohol syndrome that is dependent on state funds, and she is on furlough. Enroute home we noticed that the ubiquitous signs for the Minnesota Lottery were lights out: the Lottery has been suspended.
Everybody was very polite to everybody else. I think we all know we’re in a rotten kettle.
Tomorrow the holiday is over, and we all need to get to work.

Afton MN July 4 Parade. Color Guard.

#393 – Dick Bernard: Day Three of the Shutdown. The Republicans take the state of Minnesota out on strike.

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We’re in day three on the picket lines; most of us just don’t realize it. (Previous posts at June 30 and July 2, 2011. Recent related posts here and here.)
The “just say ‘no’ ” bunch leading the Republican party may come to learn a lesson that they’ve probably not had to encounter before.
When midnight passed and July 1, 2011, began, a shift occurred and the Republicans are no longer in control of anything. And I personally hope that Governor Dayton gets the support from people like me to truly negotiate, yes, but hang tough for the principles he articulated on our behalf.
I don’t have a fact file on the issues, though I follow political developments more carefully than most. Essentially, I think the Minnesota shut-down boils down to this (United States take note): since he began his campaign for Governor, Mark Dayton, ironically from the wealthy class, has said that the wealthy can afford to, and must, pay more#, to help get us out of the hole religiously dug by veto after veto in the Pawlenty years, as well as by pledges to say “no” to taxes to fund the services the less wealthy need and/or large blocs of Minnesota citizens, including the wealthy, have come to expect as a service of their ‘government’#.
The wealthy, on the other hand, while small in numbers have become an immensely powerful – and protected – special interest. Already awash in money, they apparently need more. At the end of the pre-shut down bargaining Gov. Dayton apparently was willing to make his proposal apply to only 7,000 (of over 5,000,000) of Minnesota’s wealthiest citizens – the true millionaires.
Succinctly, the Grover Norquist playbook has worked in Minnesota – for now.
What’s ahead?
Each of us have our own experiences – our own ‘expertise’ – and this is one of those times when I can share something from my own bank of ‘life’ experience.

More by circumstance than design I spent the vast majority of my professional career representing employees in collective bargaining which culminated in the right to strike. I wasn’t a ‘rock star’ in the trade (frankly, I don’t know any, on either side of the bargaining table), but I was a journeyman, with a big variety of experiences up to and including strikes.
There is a danger in making generalizations, but an observation I have always made is this: up until the moment the strike began, the employees had the leverage of the threat of the strike.

As the strike began, the dynamic shifted. Once out the door and on the street, the problem now became – for both sides – to figure out a way to get the employees back in to work.
Invariably, in the first few days, there was lots of rhetoric, and on the picket lines lots of esprit d’corps – “there, we’ve showed ’em”. But before too long reality settled in: we’ve got a problem here. The ranks on both sides knew they had a big problem on their hands: “what do we do now?”.
Ultimately, every dispute settled. Rarely was the face of the losing side rubbed in its defeat. After all, the parties needed to work together. Sometimes relationships bounced back quickly; in others, bitterness lasted for years.
Now we have an entire state on strike – a strike called, ironically, by the same party that abhors unions and employee right to strike.
At 12:01 a.m. on July 1, 2011, the Republicans are, ironically, “labor” in this shutdown scenario. Actually, this began the moment they adjourned back in May. Now, they cannot force anything.
Governor Dayton is speaking for the people of Minnesota when he says the rich have an obligation to do more, and a policy of ‘slash and burn’ of government is not in the peoples best interests.
I applaud him for his stand.
He deserves support.
And I hope that both a reasonable settlement, and a chastened Republican party, will help lead us back from the precipice that is called “winners” and “losers”.
Unfortunately, at this moment, I’m not very confident. We aren’t hurting, yet.
Day Four (July 4th) at this space: A liberal views the problem.
# – There never was a plan to ‘soak the rich’. One of the last items I saw yesterday was this schematic of Gov. Dayton’s vs the Republican legislatures stand on the issue. There was no intention to make the wealthy folks paupers in rags on the street. Source: Heather Mertens, Executive Director Protect Minnesota
Read about the impact of the different budget versions:
Legislature’s proposed income and property tax increases for:
A single parent making $27,000: $677 per year
Couple making $50,000: $887 per year
Couple making $335,000: $716 per year
Couple making $500,000: $716 per year
Governor’s proposed income and property tax increases for:
A single parent making $27,000: $0 per year
Couple making $50,000: $0 per year
Couple making $335,000: $775 per year ($2 per day)
Couple making $500,000: $5,270 per year ($14 per day)
(Source: MN State Rep. Rena Moran’s office, based on Dept. of Revenue Projections)

#392 – Dick Bernard: Day Two of the Minnesota Government Shutdown

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I expect to regularly comment on the Minnesota Shutdown at this space. Check in once in awhile. Related post for June 30 here.
In the evening of Day One of the Shutdown, we took our Grandson Ryan to a Minnesota Twins vs Milwaukee Brewers game at Target Field.
It started very nastily, with a two hour weather delay, and ended well after midnight with a Twins win: 6-2. Very tired, but all good.
The weather (photos below, click to enlarge) give evidence of an opportunity I had for two hours to see lots of Minnesotans in action less than a day after the government shutdown.

Target Field, Minneapolis MN, shortly after 7 p.m. July 1, 2011.


Torrents of rain on Target Field July 1, 2011


After the deluge, and before 'batter up'


Minnesota nice prevailed on the filled concourses during the two hour delay. Beer sales were apparently very brisk, as evidenced by long lines at the men’s restrooms. Even though the storm seemed potentially ominous (it ended relatively benign), there was no sense of panic. The Stadium is very well constructed for this kind of contingency, it appears, and the facility personnel were well prepared. Whatever one might feel about the Stadium itself, it was built in the present with an eye towards future possibilities, including unpleasant ones, like bad storms. That’s what infrastructure is all about.
But you couldn’t tell, Friday night, that Minnesota Government was essentially shut down. That non-response is to be expected. It takes days, weeks, sometimes months to come to grips with a hugely unpleasant reality: when Future becomes Present, and you can only wish you did things different back then in the Past. I thought back to an extremely difficult time in my own life, when burnout caused me to leave a secure job and become unemployed without access to unemployment insurance. It was initially rewarding. I desperately needed the break. But as time went on, and the grim realities of no money and no job set in, there was more a sense of panic. This began about 29 years ago, and it is a time I will never forget. Present indeed becomes Future, and if you don’t look beyond today, you’re living in a fools paradise.
Back home after the game a flooded e-mail box with assorted comments about the shutdown.
One particularly caught my eye. I am close enough to the sources of credible political commentary to on occasion get material like what I saw later in the day here, which is most likely genuine. The Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial this morning seemed to verify the reality of the e-mail.
I have been around collective bargaining of all sorts for many, many years, including death’s door negotiations to avoid strikes.
One of the rules, which does not even have to be written, is that you don’t bring to the table at the end of the process items that you know will not be negotiated by the other, unless that is your intended purpose: to find an excuse to walk out…and then blame the other side for what was, in fact, your own intended purpose.
This apparent proposal is full of these items. Add an apparent refusal to even consider Gov. Dayton’s priority of additional taxes on the very wealthy (at the end, those with over $1,000,000 incomes), and there is no place to bargain. If in fact it is true, which is likely, the Republican negotiators either were hopelessly naive, or, more likely, desired the outcome which was headlined on July 1, as “SHUT DOWN”.
Regrettably, few people really pay attention to politics, except for sniping, negative comments about “them”. And in this polarized political environment, the tendency is to shut out reasonable arguments that don’t represent your “side”. So, at this point, few people are interested in anything past the sound bites they might see on the evening news or in a headline; and too many are caught up in that most shallow mantra: “we don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem”.
If this thing doesn’t settle, soon, the body politic will begin to come to grips with a very harsh reality, much as I did 28 years ago. Back then an important (and I believe, still, necessary) decision for my own mental health went awry, later creating serious problems affecting only my tiny (in relative terms) personal universe. We’re now making serious problems for our entire country, for everybody.
There’s a big difference between derailing an entire train, and one person jumping off of it….
ADDITIONAL COMMENT ON DAY THREE: Of course, everything would be immediately solved if one of the negotiating parties dropped their demands and conceded to the other. That has been an obvious potential problem since the day after the election in 2010 more than eight months ago; and it is the ‘sound bite show’ – if only THEY or HE would concede, we could settle this thing in a moment.
I was glad when they went behind closed doors to try to settle things without news release and fanning flames.
It didn’t work. It remains the only potential for success.

Ryan with "t c". He got his hat autographed!

#391 – Dick Bernard: A Demonstration at the State Capitol

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Years ago I heard a ‘rule of thumb’ that has seemed to be reasonably well borne out in reality.
It was said that for every one person who actually physically shows up at some demonstration or other, that person represents 1,000 others who feel likewise, but can’t attend for reasons like work, too far away, etc., etc., etc. In other words, one person equals more than one person, be it a rally, or a letter to a legislator, etc.
Today I went to an “Invest in Minnesota” rally at the State Capitol. We’re a dozen hours from either a settlement or a government shutdown.
I would guess there were about 300 at the rally – small by most standards, but understandable. It was from 10-11 a.m. on a work day. Only people like myself could participate. In my perception, it was a good rally. Here is my small photo gallery of the event. My favorite, a guy in a wheelchair wearing a tee-shirt which you can possibly make out in the slide show: “Homeless against Homelessness”. It says a lot in a very few words.
The speakers were the usual, and the event was only an hour – plenty long on a hot and uncomfortable Capitol steps.
One speaker summarized it well. She noted that the legislature seemed to be on record to ‘hold harmless’ public education (and thus, children). But if this involves (as it does) taking money from other programs affecting children then this political strategy is not effective. I thought to myself that this is a bit like saying we’ll save your shirt sleeve, but if we do, we can’t afford buttons for the shirt.
For those of us in Minnesota, the stakes by now should be very clear and are very real.
A key message was to “call your legislator” urging support, in essence, of Gov. Dayton’s stand for investment in Minnesota. Don’t know who your Representative or Senator is? Here’s the link for both State House and Senate. Do it now, not later. Tonight is the deadline.
My message will be: I support Governor Dayton and I believe that our wealthiest citizens can afford and should be required to chip in and help those in society who will be most hurt by the proposed legislative cuts.
Contact Governor Mark Dayton as well.
How about your message?
And while you’re at it, why not contact at least one or two or twenty others and ask them to do the same. Now.
It will help.

#390 – Dick Bernard: Getting to a settlement

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As I write, 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, June 29, 2011, my spouse, Cathy, is down in the ‘grand canyons’ of downtown Minneapolis, representing our homeowners association at a last ditch mediation to attempt to resolve a matter involving several hundred thousand dollars. Actually, it’s high-priced lawyers who are representing all sides in this now nearly three year old case; Cathy is there as the Association President.
This is the first time Cathy’s been in such a proceeding and it will be interesting to hear her report by phone from time to time today. I have career long experience in this drill of attempting to settle issues, so I know how this process can work, or not….
Enroute to Minneapolis, Cathy drove within sight of the Minnesota State Capitol where a political stalemate is within a day of causing a major government shutdown at midnight June 30. I won’t predict whether they’ll settle or not. I hope they do. Wisely, the leaders of the parties have at least agreed to go behind closed doors, attempt to reach an agreement, and avoid creating a circus atmosphere. (There is a distinct and very important difference between what is happening here, and what happened in Wisconsin back in March. There, one party controls Governor, House and Senate; here the Governor is one party, the House and Senate another.)
In one corner, here in Minnesota, are a motherhood-and-apple pie appearing Young Mom-kind of person who is the Senate Majority leader; and a Jack-Armstrong-All-American [farm] Boy look-alike who’s House Majority Leader. In the other is the wealthy scion of one of Minnesota’s most prominent families, who’s experienced personally the downsides of life, and has scads of political experience. Both sides have a lot of support. There is a huge amount at stake if they can’t settle their differences and come to an agreement that can then justify a special session to ratify the terms of their agreement.
On the outside are ‘we, the people’: the people my Dad used to call ‘kibitzers’ or ‘sidewalk superintendents’ – knowing little or nothing, but having absolute kinds of opinions about what ‘they’ should or should not do, or, alternatively, attempting to wash our hands of the responsibility for the train wreck that we are witnessing not only in our state, but in Washington D.C.
I have my own opinions about what should be done to solve the logjams, but they are just opinions, like everyone elses.
I’m not sitting in those talks that are going on in assorted ways in assorted places. I’ve been in all sorts of similar settings, and I know the heat is on all of those leaders to get something constructive done.
I do have an opinion about what needs to change if we are ever going to go back to the kind of country we used to be:
So long as we choose to consider only one side of the story, and to listen to only one sides point of view, and associate only with people of like minds, we are going to stay paralyzed.
So long as we adhere to a philosophy that declares that our truth or belief alone must prevail, and that we must reject any other beliefs or truths, we will continue to fail.
So long as we have a notion that if we can just say ‘no’ long enough that we will get what we want, at the others expense, we are doomed.

I see little glimmers of hope, but the glimmers are small.
I hope Cathy comes home with a report of a tentative settlement in the mediation today; and that there is no government shutdown tomorrow night in Minnesota.
We need to get ‘er done.

#389 – Dick Bernard: Killing the President, and all of us.

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On frequent occasions, something in a news source catches my eye, as did this one, on Saturday. Most of us won’t all get to see these attack ads. They’re carefully targeted to certain places in the country where they are likely to do the most good (translated “bad”) against Democrats and the President of the United States.
And most of the funding will not come from small donors: it will come from people with a lot of money to invest in their special interest – keeping and increasing their personal wealth and power.
Early this morning came this always well done compilation on another side of the supposedly evil and inept government story. (The commentary is fairly long but an appropriate headline might well be: “attacking government is attacking ourselves, particularly in these troubled economic times”.) It’s worth your time.
The business of attack ads has become “as American as Apple Pie”.
The worst thing that could happen for the Republican party would be for the Democrats, especially the President, to be perceived as succeeding, so their goal remains to enhance failure. It is a cynical and effective strategy.
The only differences between now and, say, 40 years ago, is that political lying is now more accepted, and the sophistication of delivering the lies is immeasurably greater. These are dangerous times for any semblance of “the truth”.
It is killing us all, and we’re the only antidote, by refusing to buy the garbage called political advertising that is passed off as informing us.
There are endless examples…I see them most every day.
A few weeks ago I had an interesting exchange with a good and valued friend of mine in a neighboring state.
It began with one of those ubiquitous internet “Fwd’s” trashing someone I’d never heard of with text and a selected group of 13 photographs of protest signs seen at a demonstration in the recent past.
The “Fwd” had come from a younger relative of hers, who figures he knows me as a “liberal”, and he said: “Why don’t you send this to Dick Bernard and have him apply his liberal spin on it to tell us how this is all made up and these are all good righteous peaceful people.”
I took the bait.
The photos in the “Fwd” were of signs carried by (apparent) union members at a large demonstration in Los Angeles.
I’ve been in lots of demonstrations in my life and, while I rarely carry signs, it is inevitable that you’ll see signs – and people – which seem sort of out on the edge. Usually, their intention is to attract attention, and these 13 signmakers had succeeded.
The text accompanying the photos blasted a particular Union, specifically the former President of that Union, and was intended to portray the President of the United States as this union leaders lackey, and this union – of low-paid service workers – to be dragging the President around by the nose by spending an outrageous sum to get him elected.
I did the best I could to dig through to the “facts” (which is almost impossible with these kinds of things), and shared this with my correspondent. At minimum the “Fwd” was unfair and dishonest, but that was its intent. Further, it was intended to spread virally across the country, and get people outraged at the President and Unions.
Ironically, the total amount apparently contributed by over 2 million members of this union to helping elect president Obama was about the same ($28 M, about $13 per union member) as what Karl Rove will spend in the first round of attack ads against the President in the next few months ($20 M, mostly from a tiny group of very wealthy donors – see lead article) and that is just the down payment – the election is, in political terms, light years away.
My friend and I closed our conversation: “I JUST DON’T LIKE ALL THESE PROTESTS, PERIOD“, my correspondent said, and that was our last contact about it.
I made a final comment:
“I have been in lots of protests, though rarely with signs. They are part of freedom of speech, like units in parades in general are (watch your 4th of July parade this year, if you have one).
Going back to what started this particular conversation – the 13 signs at the [union] protests – I got to thinking of it in this way: Surely in [your town of about 2000] there must be one person you know (or know of) that the townspeople wish would just leave (hopefully it’s not you!) Most towns I’ve lived in I can think of such a ‘character’…
The way I think of those signs and the people who made and carried them is sort of similar to the above example: what if the symbol of [your town] became the town character.
Or, as importantly, what if that town character actually had a valid story that needed to be told – even if the townspeople didn’t like the story?
That’s how the ‘networking’ of these demonstrations goes. It is what demonstrations are covered, and what parts of the demonstrations are emphasized by the person(s) covering them.”
We – all of us – are the “Government” we like, or despise.
There are facts in there somewhere. You aren’t going to get them from political attack ads this coming year.
It is work to get informed. But worth the effort.

#388 – Dick Bernard: Gay Marriage in New York State

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Early last evening I was watching my usual news program and a guest was talking about how New York Legislature was about to pass a law authorizing same sex marriage in the state of New York. I’ve been around political decision making for long enough, and closely enough, to question the judgment of a premature announcement of a bill which would be, but had not yet, passed and was still questionable…one doesn’t announce a victory with ten minutes left in, say, a basketball game.
But announced it was. And it happened. And it apparently has already been signed into law by its architect, Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
There will be countless opinions flooding the news on this issue. Here is my small ‘squeak’.
This is great news, long overdue. As I understand the law, my Catholic Church doesn’t have to marry Gays; neither can it block Gays from getting married.
This is a very big deal on a great many levels. To me, it is one more piece of evidence that sanity is beginning to return to the political conversation – and by “politics” I mean “people”, generally.
I’m straight, and I thus have no direct personal “frame” to understand the Gay perspective. But that’s the most important reason why such a Law as this is good.
Even most religious leaders who despise what they consider the Gay lifestyle seem to agree that God approves of Gays – at least they admit this on paper. But they don’t understand how it is to be Gay, thus they attempt to throw the theological “Book” – their interpretation of the Bible – at it. “Belief” is made to reign.
I really don’t care if my local Archbishop doesn’t like this new Law, or if my local legislator recently went with the majority to deliberately bypass Minnesota’s Governor and authorize an initiative on the 2012 election ballot to enshrine into our Constitution a provision making gay marriage unconstitutional.
New York went with common sense last night.
(I wonder if our Legislature rules are similar to those in Roberts Rules: where decisions made can be reversed if people who voted on the prevailing side move and second to rescind their previous action. If so, maybe this is still a possibility. In fact, I had this as one of my possible questions at a Forum with Legislators a couple of Mondays ago.)
What happened in New York State overnight was a huge big deal. It won’t make the issue go away in other places. But it will be instructive; and it will empower people like ourselves to speak more confidently and informed about this issue.
I think of two evenings ago, at our annual suburban political party picnic.
This years event was in relative terms lightly attended, largely due to chilly and uncertain weather. We had the usual political speakers, but the first one was very unusual for us. Teresa Nelson, Legal Counsel of the Minnesota branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, addressed us about two issues she felt were absolutely critical for basic civil rights in the upcoming year.

Teresa Nelson, June 23, 2011


The first issue was the proposed constitutional amendment on marriage; the second was another proposed constitutional amendment on a voter id bill whose only purpose is to suppress citizen right and ability to vote. Both are, among many others, national initiatives appearing in many places in slightly different forms.
We citizens have work to do in the coming months. Too many of us have not been engaged. If this applies to you, now is the time.
I offer one last thought on the marriage issue:
My hobby for 30 years has been family history.
In the course of researching my French-Canadian side I came across the marriage contract between my first Bernard ancestors in Quebec, in the year 1730. The translation of this contract is Quebec Marriage Cont001
It is worth taking the time to really analyze this contract: who it was with, what it says, etc. (Here’s the summary: the 1730 document was a civil contract, between the parties and the State, to be followed, two weeks later, by the religious Matrimony….)
Of course, Quebec then was an exclusively Catholic country, so the marriage ultimately had to be finalized in the Catholic Church.
But the U.S. is not Quebec. And the Catholic Church in today’s Quebec is, I’m told, all but completely irrelevant….
UPDATE: This over nite blog post does a good job of defining what’s going on with the political decision making on this and other issues as well.

#387 – Dick Bernard: Politics, the business of talking and listening and seeking agreement when agreement doesn't seem possible.

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Last night I watched President Obama’s thirteen minute address to the nation on Afghanistan.
I felt it was a thoughtful speech, and it takes no long leap to state that every word, every inflection, everything, was very, very carefully put together for presentation to a diverse and immense world-wide audience including friends and enemies alike. This was not some soapbox kind of oration. Words do matter. Even its brevity fit within YouTube standards (which, in turn, fit within our national attention span, which is, regrettably, very short.)
We watched the address within our usual news show, and a 13 minute speech doesn’t do much damage to an hour program, so, of course, the end of the speech was followed by the grave analysis of what the President said, or didn’t say, or should have said, etc. All of this was to be expected. Ditto the commentaries that will flood the internet, etc., etc., etc.
I respected the analysts last night, but I didn’t stick around to hear their very predictable analysis. They were there to buttress their ‘truth’ as they perceive it to be. If only every one felt the same.
The speech came after a rather significant ten or so days for this individual blogger.
Included was a very respectful hour on a recent Saturday with Sen. Al Franken, his aide, and 20 of us, sharing views on critical issues like Israel/Palestine; Afghanistan draw-down; military spending. Sen. Franken gave us an hour of his time – a rather precious commodity when his constituency is 5 million people. You learn quickly that a focused hour is a very short period of time, and about the best you can expect – which is the best of all – is an opportunity to take the measure of each others feelings, thoughts and perhaps, even, gaps in information, including in one’s own information. Twenty different sets of ears, even if ideologically in general agreement, hear the exact same thing in twenty different ways. Imagine how complex it becomes at President Obama’s level, or at Senator Franken’s.
(click on photo to enlarge)

MN Sen. Al Franken, June 11, 2011


A couple of days later I listened to a briefing by three Minnesota State Legislators giving their views of the intense negotiations now taking place to avoid a government shutdown on June 30. Again, these were ‘birds of a feather’ – people I would ideologically agree with, though not from my district. In assorted ways they conveyed the complexities of the issues to be addressed.
“Reform” is an oft-bandied about term, and one gets the sense that most of us are in favor of reform only if it makes our position stronger; we rail against it if we fear it will weaken our relative position. Of course, politics enters in to these conversations, and negotiations of differences in a fishbowl is a contemporary reality that (even coming from a proponent of open government) leaves something to be desired.
There is something to be said for being forced to sit together, privately, until something is resolved that both sides can own.

Legislators briefing citizens June 13, 2011


There were several more meetings on substantive things these past ten days. At each, the result was the same: if you sit with others of different views, you can learn something. But you can’t isolate yourself with ‘birds of a feather’ and expect to either possess the ‘truth’ or to prevail in your argument within a larger society.
The day before President Obama’s speech, two of us met with a young woman, a Senior this fall at Swarthmore College, who has taken on a most interesting task for a senior thesis: to talk to people about how they talk about our involvement in Iraq, past and present. Allison is a young person from both conservative and liberal roots in a rural midwestern state, going to a College in a major eastern city. She is involved in what I believe is a major project of major importance to us all.
If we can’t listen to and value and learn from each others opinions, how can we expect to resolve anything, politically or otherwise?

#385 – Dick Bernard: A 2:43 Speech: "Last Night I had the Strangest Dream". A matter of Climate Change and Other Things.

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UPDATE/SUPPLEMENT June 19, 2011, here.
As we all do, I dream, and I just awoke from a dream whose essential message I remember. This doesn’t always happen.
I want to share the dream, and speculate from whence it came.
For some reason I found myself as king# of the world, only for a few minutes, able to direct people who were influential decision makers.
Since only a few run things in this world of ours, I didn’t have to speak to all 7 billion people, only to a few. We were in a large, stark, room, and the few of us could gather in a corner. Perhaps there were a dozen of us. Significantly, there were no women# in this directed conversation.
We gathered in a square, each bringing our own platform, which seemed to resemble a school desk such as a student would occupy. They were of random design, these desks. Again, we were all men#.
All gathered together, I gave the direction, which for some reason sticks vividly in my mind.
Each person in this square had precisely two minutes and 43 seconds to say what they had to say. No rebuttal, no debate. Two minutes and 43 seconds.
Then I woke up.
There are people who make their living interpreting dreams. I’m not one of those people.
The back story of my dream perhaps came a few hours earlier when I, along with perhaps 70 others, men and women, participated in a powerful one and a half hours with world climate expert Professor John Abraham of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. He started his talk with a satellite photo of the world, specifically Africa; he ended his presentation with photos of his two daughters, age four and five, who are, he said, the reason he’s devoting his professional life to the crisis of climate change. He is, after all, making their future, and that of their descendants. Africa in particular, and the coming generations will reap the consequences of human activity, especially during the period of the Industrial Revolution.
It was a powerful evening.
I wonder if, when I read this aloud, I’ll come out to two minutes and 43 seconds.
*
“Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream”? I first heard John Denver sing that song years ago; it most impacted me when Lynn Elling led us in that song in June, 2007. It was a moment, that one in 2007, that changed my life.
You can listen to John Denver’s rendition at my website A Million Copies. There you can also read about Lynn Elling, and also about Dr. Joe Schwartzberg’s Affirmation of Human Oneness. Dr. Schwartzberg was in charge of last nights meeting, and at the beginning, we read his Affirmation of Human Oneness, appearing at the website in the 41 languages into which it has thus far been translated.
On reflection, my dream was not at all strange.
How about for you?
What would you say in your two minutes and 43 seconds, and to whom would you say it?
Most importantly, then what will you do to put that 2:43 into reality? Not, what will you order others to do, but what will YOU do?
This is an especially important question to the women. Men have mucked things up royally, and perhaps terminally. Women can turn things around perhaps more effectively than any group of men can.
It’s time to act.
Some Resources:
Dr. Abraham’s climate science organization website is here. There is a lot of content accessible here.
A website he recommended is CoolPlanetMN. And another, Minnesota Environmental Partnership.
The organization Lynn Elling founded in 1982: World Citizen. The organization sponsoring last nights event with John Abraham: Citizens for Global Solutions MN. I am privileged to be part of both groups.
(Click on photos to enlarge them.)

Dr. John Abraham, professor, School of Engineering, St. Thomas University, St. Paul MN


Dr. Joe Schwartzberg, President Citizens for Global Solutions MN, Professor Emeritus in Geography, University of Minnesota, June 16, 2011


Extra Special Thanks to Lee Dechert who made this program happen.

Richard (Lee) Dechert introduces Prof. Abraham June 16, 2011


# – A woman friend challenged me on these references. The references were intentional, and as I remembered the dream. It is we men who have and continue to run our world into the ground. More and more women are involved, but until women make the election to take the lead, past mistakes will continue to be made.