Dick Bernard: Killing Obama; Committing Suicide

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POSTNOTE Monday June 26: Saturday morning I first saw the three word message on the public blackboard at my coffee place. Six hours later was an added message, also shown below. This morning someone else had written a few words in defense of taxes. Overnight came Just Above Sunset about the disastrous consequences of getting rid of Obamacare. Get involved. Speak out.

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Public messages at coffee, June 24, 2017

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PRENOTE to readers: I found an additional photo of Whitestone Hill which I have inserted in the May 31 post (here); Also, there have been a couple of contrasting and passionate opinions expressed on Castile-Yanez, which you can read here. Additional comments are solicited.

POSTNOTE June 23: If you have time this weekend, read this column.
If you do Facebook, see Barack Obama’s Official Facebook page for his position on the issue.

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Today’s newspaper had a bland headline about the Senate Republicans summary Health Care proposal. This is the secret document that hardly anyone, including Republican Senators, have even seen; for which there have been no hearings, which will be called up for a vote with possibly no debate at all, before the July 4 recess.

It is being rushed through, my opinion, mostly to make a “win” for somebody (the Republican “base”, Trump…); but more important to open the door for huge tax cuts for the very rich. The biggest victims will likely be what might be called Trump’s core constituency, people who won’t be able to bob and weave within the new system, whatever it turns out to be.

There is an easy comparison:

In 2009 and 2010, after over 40 public hearings and endless opportunities for open debate everywhere, the Affordable Care Act (quickly and derisively dubbed “Obamacare”) was enacted. Immediately there were endless repetitions in the House of Representatives to “repeal Obamacare”.

The Affordable Care Act was never perfect. Anything negotiated has problems. (Anything NOT negotiated is far, far worse.)

Consider a system which is, they say, one-sixth of the total American economy…you “don’t turn” such a system “on a dime” – a whim.

In addition, however, to the theater of ritual repeal in the Congress, every means available was and has continued to be used to assure failure of the Affordable Care Act at federal and state level.

Obamacare just refused to die, and we, the people, actually found that it was working well, which has simply intensified the process to kill it and replace it with something much worse, with the savings to go towards tax cuts for the already excessively wealthy.

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The contrast in process in 2009-10 and today could not be more stark. Even the most cursory review of the available literature about the long terms goals of “repeal and replace” with something new are frightening. But few seem to care. We will learn who the beneficiaries are.

There is an interesting thread of brief comments at the end of this post. Note what “A” and “B” have to say. They are people just like you and me.

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The victims of this and other political games will be today’s young people. And that’s where the “committing suicide” comes in.

Theoretically, the U.S. is a participatory democracy with free and fair elections, open to all, plenty of debate beforehand.

The ascendance of greed as a primary virtue, and the accompanying lack of interest in being well informed or even participate politically, are ultimately our ruin, unless we step in, as individuals, in all the ways we can. “There is no free lunch”, my elders used to say. Too many of us have become adept at gaming the very system on which we ultimately depend.

An example of the quandary: A couple of days ago a friend sent a column by David Leonhardt in the June 20 New York Times.

My friends intro to the column was three words: “If liberals voted.”

Leonhardts first paragraph, in part, said this: “…an extremely short political quiz: What percentage of American citizens between the ages of 18-24 voted in the last Congressional midterm elections in 2014?”

I followed the rules and guessed 40%. Make your own guess before checking the answer.

You have to read the first few paragraphs of the most interesting (and depressing) column for the answer to Leonhardt’s question, with more information as well.

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The Republicans ultra right wing is close to fulfilling their fondest dream, “killing” Obama (and all he represents, including liberals like myself).

The traditional way we tend to deal with bad news is to blame someone else for it, and to shift responsibility from ourselves to someone – anyone – else. I can hear the litany already…but the ball is in each and every one of our own “courts”. We are the solution, or we are the problem.

In a dictatorship we might have more of an argument for avoiding being in action. But we’re still in a basically free society…which without our action, is killing itself. The most vulnerable among us, including those who are too young to vote, will in the long run be the first to pay the price.

The wealthy will pay too – it will just take a little longer.

As for the rich, how many yachts do they need? And what good will their tax cut do for them, or for anyone else?

Everybody has a part to play.

Play it.

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More on the same general issue, here. I always recommend this long and six days a week resource on national politics. The price is right: it’s free, delivered after midnight.

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Here is a conversation starter: some comments from routine e-mail traffic between two friends, yesterday and today (I am neither A nor B):

A. “It’s been (and continues to be pretty) very difficult to be [part of] a health insurance carrier that’s chosen to stay in the exchanges. It’s risky and lots of strategic discussions, contingencies, and last minute changes have made for frustration and long hours.”

B. “Wish everyone would realize that insurance is for the unexpected, get coverage for that possibility, and be covered if/when it happens. We [all of us] are so tuned to having something for little or nothing that we forget that someone will pay when we don’t. Sorry it hits your industry so hard. Personally, I’m glad I’ve reached the “golden years” and only have to stay as healthy as I can, happy when I don’t have to use the insurance that you and yours now subsidize. Thank you!”

A. “Very wise words! People do not get it. The corollary is that if you think that everyone doesn’t deserve and therefore won’t have health insurance, think again. We all pay for one another’s health care costs whether we have insurance or not. From my perspective, why not do it right. Not sure that we know what right is yet but pretty sure we’re not heading that way.”

B. “Every day I’m grateful that we were able to help [our son] stay ensured, even when he was between jobs, as a young man. When his disease process became critical, at age 35, it was love and good fortune that he was married and insured under [his wife’s] family plan. Still, if he had lived, they would have faced a life-time limit on medical care and drug costs. Single payer health care for all is the only way I see out of this terrible dilemma of escalating health care costs.

The ACA was only workable if everyone had to pay in and even that didn’t work. Health care costs are exorbitant here in the US, likely because we demand luxury treatment for everything, but don’t expect to pay for it. Helping people to stay healthy and understand there are choices to be made in anticipation of end of life should be givens in health care.”

A. “The ACA was only workable if everyone had to pay in and even that didn’t work.

Partly it didn’t work because it wasn’t really enforced and the consequences of paying were low. Our chief Actuary, who is not an ACA proponent said that if you want people to buy a plan, price the penalty at the same rate as the cheapest ACA compliant plan in the market. It’s a good idea.

There were (are) loopholes that you could drive a truck through and people used them. They’d also do things like buy a cheaper bronze plan, have a child and switch to the richest plan when the child was born (allowed under the ACA) and have the birth paid as if they’d been paying premium for the more expensive plan all year. People would not buy plans then get sick and find a way to get a special enrollment period that allowed them to buy a plan to cover their often pricey treatment. I could go on about the reasons that it didn’t work well but I think that there were absolutely ways to tweak and improve.

The gamesmanship was unbelievable.”

Death to Affordable Health Care?

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POSTNOTE June 15: Today’s Washington Post has a very worthwhile column by E.J. Dionne: “The GOPs fantastically anti-democratic quest to kill health care in the dark”.

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Of one thing there is hardly room for a question: the current Republican leadership seems to HATE the very concept of health care for everyone. Indeed, the Republicans seem always to have resisted the idea. I looked this morning at the Wiki entry on Social Security amendments (those intended to lead in the direction of health care for everyone). Take a glance at the “History” section. Note who initiated the ideas, and who killed them….

One of the first actions of Donald Trump was to attempt to kill “Obamacare”. It failed, even in the House of Representatives, who hate the Affordable Care Act.

On my birthday in early May, 2017, the House of Representatives rushed a vote for a new Health Care bill before its impact could be scored by the Congressional Budget Office. The rush job passed, and the scoring by CBO was as bad as anticipated. It would have devastating impact. (I wrote a bit about my feelings in the second half of my birthday post, here.)

Now the Senate Republican leadership is doing a stealth move to try to advance a Health Care bill essentially without hearings before July 4 recess. Odds are they will succeed, if iron party discipline holds.

If you haven’t paid attention to this matter, do so. The overnight Just Above Sunset gives another good summary. There is no semblance of involvement of the “American people” unless you’re an insider within the majority camp.

It is simple to contrast the open Debate during the Affordable Health Care Act back in 2009-10, with the present day travesty. In 2009-10, everything was in the open, for many months. I recall such delightful pieces of information as, for instance, page 1014 of a Draft pulled out as an example of how terrible AHCA would be. Even if the page was true, and a current version, it was hopelessly biased, but it was allowed in as part of the public conversation.

I searched my own blog file and under “Affordable Care Act Obamacare” there are multiple entries, especially August 2, 2009, which lists a dozen posts relating to the debate then raging.

At minimum, there were about 18 posts between July 24, 2009 and March 23, 2010. I’m sure there are more, just lacking the key words for the search. The intention was to have full and open debate. You probably have your own memories of that year of Town Halls and loud voices.

Now we’re seven years later. The goal, this “Kill Obamacare” round, is to have no debate, so that people may not see what they are about to lose.

The consequences for the disadvantaged are very real and very stark, whether they happen in the next six months or the next two or more years.

Notice.

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A closing note:

Last Sunday I was at one of those graduation parties so common this time of year. These are places to catch up with folks not seen since the last reunion.

This particular day, I met a niece who was perhaps early grade school when I first met her, and now is an accomplished Nurse who has for a number of years worked in Intensive Care in a major public hospital.

It is my practice to avoid “politics” in any way possible at these kinds of gatherings…best to enjoy the sandwich and the cookies and leave with humor intact.

This day, my niece was wanting to engage in conversation about health care, and how complex a field it is, and how, in effect, we are not a country who leaves people to die in the streets.

If a person is in crisis in her city, they will get care in her or another hospital.

I related my own story, from the summer of 1965, which appears in the previously cited May 4, 2017, blog.

After our meeting it occurred to me that there was a particular intersection of events during that terrible summer of 1965…something I hadn’t told my relative; something I wished I had:

Barbara, my wife, died July 24, 1965, at 22 (kidney disease), and we buried her on Saturday, July 29, in Valley City, North Dakota.

The next day, July 30, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the legislation which among other things brought to life Medicare and Medicaid.

“What a difference a day makes”, goes the song.

July 30, 1965, Medicare and Medicaid were the farthest things from my mind. Survival with an infant was everything, then.

We can’t go back to those “good old days”. We are the only ones who can make a difference.

From experience, I can attest that no one should hope that the Republicans fantasy of less federally established and financed medical care and lower taxes for the already wealthy become the new law of this land.

#1266 – Dick Bernard: Comey-Trump, The Sculpture Garden, and 23 and Me

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1. Comey-Trump: There may be a few people in the U.S. who don’t know or care about the James Comey – Donald Trump matter.

I do.

One of my U.S. Senators, Amy Klobuchar, sent her e-list a ten minute interview she did on CNN about the matter. You can view it here. This is well worth your time. Sen. Klobuchar took office as U.S. Senator in 2007, previously County attorney in Minnesota’s largest population county (which includes Minneapolis), and (her words) “I’ve known Jim Comey for years (we were law school classmates!) and know him to be someone of great integrity.” She is highly respected and well informed.

Just Above Sunset gives an excellent summary of the last two days here.

2. The Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden opens today at 10 a.m..

Those who follow this blog know I wrote about the Scaffold controversy on May 31, and a followup post on June 2.

There are 22 comments at the May 31 post, the most recent ones (22A and 22B) from myself, brief personal observations about my own perceptions of Native Americans and how they evolved over my own life. The June 1 post includes links about the controversy through June 8.

3. Finding my DNA. After a long period of procrastination, I finally did the DNA test in May. I personally decided to do the 23andMe assessment only because it seemed more comprehensive than Ancestry (which I also feel is fine). Ancestry tends to focus on family tree matters, it seems. I’ve had my family tree for years.

I got my results from 23 and Me this week, and I am very glad that I made the investment. In a later post I will talk more about this. At minimum, the information is a snapshot of me for my descendants. Questions to me about this are welcome. dick_bernardATmsnDOTcom

Dick Bernard: Overwhelmed.

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Some thoughts

This post began as a draft on May 7, 2017, and included only the next paragraph and the photograph below. That was 18 days ago. I decided to wait with more until the Congressional Budget Office had scored the hastily passed bill “Killing OBAMAcare” (the title of the initial draft of this post). Now you can read the details of the scoring, and some of the summary of the last few weeks news via my favorite blogger, Just Above Sunset, which publishes six nights a week, the most recent reaching me at 2:01 a.m. my time. Your can read the entire post here. Consider a free subscription….

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May 7 – Some day there will be an official iconic photo of the victory scrum at the White House on May 4, 2017. For now, this will do:

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Celebrating the first step in replacing Obamacare, White House, May 4, 2017, from front page of Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 5, 2017.

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May 25 – When I saw the “victory” photo, I thought back to endless group photos over the years, long before the days of thousands of images to pick from. In any group were those who didn’t want to be there, but felt obligated to show up; those who were in the picture but deliberately stayed hidden, and on and on and on. That’s what I saw in the photo….

Today I changed the headline of this blog to “Overwhelmed”.

“Overwhelm” has always intrigued me – there must be a “whelm” out there somewhere. I looked the word up. Here is a little discussion.

Well, these are times that people like me do feel “whelmed” to the point of “overwhelmed”: there seems no way to get ahead of the abundant craziness, where “winners” seem to want to rub it in on “losers”. Resolving disputes is for the weak, or so it seems to go. Raw Power rules.

So, our “First Winner” meets the Pope at the Vatican, yesterday; not long before he’s giving affirmation to the President of the Philippines who feels justified in going around executing people presumed to be guilty…. The so-called “Freedom Caucus” in the House of Representatives is another similarly important story.

Going through some old papers yesterday I came across an old handout entitled “Why nobody loves a pessimist”. Take a look. It is here: pessimist002. Well, it is a pessimistic time for people like me, but I remain an optimist about the future.

Then take some time figure out some “doable” things you as an individual can do towards a better world. There are thousands upon thousands of options to be engaged. A week ago the American Refugee Committee distributed a neat pamphlet which laid out the general theme. You can access the pamphlet here, at the top of the page.

POSTNOTE: Pessimistic as the outlook may seem, crank up her optimism and stay in the quest for a better world.

Towards the end of the above referenced Just Above Sunset, there is some important and simple current and credible data: about 4 in 10 Americans consistently still support the President, however, in the past few months those who strongly support him have gone down from about 3 in 10 to 2 in 10.

That leaves 6 in 10 who seem inclined to another way of doing the nation and the world’s business.

That 6 of 10 is all of us, and it’s up to us.

POSTNOTE 2: Just Above Sunset, about NATO and Trump, etc. published early Friday, May 26, here.

#1255 – Dick Bernard: Thoughts at 77. “The World is My Country”

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Related: here and here.

Today, I’m 77.

This anniversary has something of a “ring” to it.

Those who’ve seen me recently will attest I’m still mobile. I passed the cognition test at my recent physical; so far the frowns from the doctor are not too serious…but on the other hand, there are a few miles on this jalopy! When you get to this age, you notice that you’re no longer 15, which our 6th grandkid, Parker, is, today as well.

Parker is a baseball player, and a very good one, so in recognition of our mutual birthdays, here I am (on the right) with my brother Frank, about the time I was 15, in 1955.

Richard Bernard, at right, circa 1955, with 9 year old brother, Frank.

Grandpa Bernard is my gift to myself today. He is the only grandparent of mine who has a place on YouTube, with ID. You can see Grandpa here for three seconds at about 4:14, kibitzing while they pave Main Street in Grafton ND in 1949.

He was 77 that day in 1949…. He had eight more years to live; his son, my Dad, almost made 90.

Time marches on.

I have always liked “The Station”, which Ann Landers popularized, as a teaching about living life: The Station001.

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There may be some of my age, or even beyond, who can honestly say that their road of life has been straight and uncomplicated. That they planned their life, and the plans all worked out.

Those who know me, know that my life had its ruts and other assorted dilemmas.

Today, one very serious topic:

“Out in Washington D.C.”, probably today, will be the vote in the House of Representatives to kill “Obamacare”, which in the years subsequent to enactment in 2010 was symbolically slain by the House of Representatives more than 50 times. Ironically, it was the Republicans who first gave the intentionally derisive nickname to the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

I don’t know what the vote will be today. One thing is certain, a vote to kill ACA will not be about improving medical care for people.

Within the last few days, comedian Jimmy Kimmel related his own very powerful story. His monologue is probably still accessible here, about his new son, William. Do watch these 13 minutes.

I also have a story about the unexpected.

It happens that last Sunday a group of us were debriefing the World Premiere of the film “The World Is My Country”. The film highlights the dilemma of being stateless – without papers – in this world.

Sundays discussion reminded me of a time in my own life when my family and I were uncovered by medical insurance, and I talked about it in our discussion of the film.

For myself, it was a 26 month period in 1963-65. It began with my marriage to Barbara June 8, 1963; it ended with her death from kidney disease July 24, 1965. When we married I was near the end of my time in the U.S. Army; when she died we had a son, about 1 1/2; I had just turned 25 and she was 22. We had no insurance and I owed in medical bills nearly four times my then annual salary as a teacher. I faced bankruptcy.

In those years there was no group insurance in the area of our employment; even if we had had full insurance, she would have likely been ruled uninsurable because of pre-existing conditions unknown to us till four months into our marriage.

In the case of Jimmy Kimmel and his wife and son, they had the best coverage available in the most ideal medical setting possible. Until their baby was born, all was going well.

In our case, I will never forget the time spent in the lobby at the University of Minnesota Hospital in late May, 1965, waiting for some unseen people to decide whether they would admit my wife, an economically indigent patient, for a desperately needed kidney transplant. It was both terrifying and humiliating.

In our short marriage Barbara and I had lived in three states, and several counties in those states, and in no case had we satisfied what was usual then: a one year residency. It was a struggle to get into a hospital, then, in the end, with huge bills I couldn’t pay, a very close call with bankruptcy. Would welfare cover the bill? And if so, how much, and which unit of government?

Finally, much of the bills were paid, allowing me to avoid bankruptcy.

But I felt what it was like to be in the horrible world of the uninsured.

Today, in Washington D.C., they advance the process of interfering with the lives of millions of fellow citizens…a matter of spite, and greed. They are fools.

As Kimmel said, there is no reason why any person regardless of circumstances should be uncovered in our society.

I hope it doesn’t happen. If it does, it is a disgrace.

Dick Bernard: Thoughts at 100 Days of “Make America Great Again”

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A Message to all of us from Pope Francis, TED Talk: “The only future worth building includes everyone.” filmed April, 2017

This afternoon, Saturday, April 29, for those in the Minneapolis area or environs, and have some time open in late afternoon, take in the film “The World Is My Country“, part of the International Film Festival at the St. Anthony Main Theater, an inspiring true story about Garry Davis, “World Citizen #1”. Show time is 4:50, buy tickets early; be there at least 20 minutes before the doors open. Click on the above link for all details. This is the last chance to see this World Premiere, here.

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Compassion and Competition
“Senator [Hubert] Humphrey walked back to his desk, picked up a long pencil with a small eraser at its end, and said in his famous high-pitched voice, “Gentlemen, look at this pencil. Just as the eraser is only a very small part of this pencil and is used only when you make a mistake, so compassion is only called upon when things get out of hand. The main part of life is competition, only the eraser is compassion. It is sad to say, gentlemen, but in politics compassion is just part of the competition….”
Recounted in the book Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life by Henri J.M.Nouwen, Donald P. McNeill, Douglas A. Morrison. Image Books/Doubleday c 1966, 1983 pages 5&6.

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Today is 100 days. If you’re reading this, and follow politics even slightly, you know what “100 days” means.

I haven’t written about politics for a long while though I pay close attention every day…I hope you take the time to read this post, including the links, and, agree or disagree, give my musings some thought, and get into action.

Whether you agree with me or not makes no difference to me. Be well informed, and act.

My bias, first: We American live in what we have created. We own this polarized society, and as owners we are the only ones who can change our course.

The below snapshot I took a week ago at my usual early morning “office” carries own message, based on individual interpretation.

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“Make America Great Again” April 21, 2017

April 27, 2017, at day 98 of the first 100, the President was quoted, about the job of President of the United States thus far: “I thought it would be easier”.

Normally, this would be a simple statement to accept at face value. But I found myself thinking, “Why did he say this, now? What does he mean? Being President of the United States is the most difficult job on the planet. He had to have known that!”

From day one in Donald Trumps campaign, beginning long before 2015, the serious sounding and dripping-with-sincerity bald-faced lie has been the norm for the man. Shameless lying is his signature. He is a con man and nothing he says deserves to be taken at face value. What a terrible state of affairs for us all. To believe him, even when he looks us square in the eye, intoning “believe me” and similar, is to believe the most practiced and convincing of carnival barkers, now the most powerful person in the U.S.

Personally, I feel we, the people of the United States, made a terrible decision on selecting our national leadership November 8, 2016. Ultimately, the consequences will be most felt by the very people who voted into office, by their action, or inaction, an authoritarian U.S. President who certainly seems to be the most unprepared, dishonest, selfish and least informed President we have likely ever had whose primary expertise is “smoke and mirrors” deception with the sole goal of personal financial gain. Teaming with a U. S. Congress whose main interest is the already very wealthy, it is clear that no “swamp” was “drained” last November – the reverse seems more true. The alligators are more numerous and vicious….

I predict that in the longer term, even the greatest beneficiaries, the wealthiest among us, will ultimately regret the apparent decision to further enrich the already excessively rich. And few will ever admit we collectively failed ourselves Nov. 8, 2016.

Here is a favorite photo from just before November 8, 2016…. It still speaks a thousand words about us, as it did to me when I took it in Rochester MN five days before the election.

Sign in Rochester MN Nov. 3, 2016

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A Memory: An attempt to put myself into the bigger picture:

I know these posts have a diverse readership, more than sufficient to make these posts worth my time to compose and send.

I simply ask you to consider how you feel about the direction of your state and your country and your world at this point in your life; and, most importantly, to consider how you fit in the picture going forward from today. “The ball is in our court”; everyone of us are part of the team that will determine our own future as a country, and that of the world in which we live.

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We Americans, are affected by the history of our now 230 year experiment in democracy. One just doesn’t wash off the legacy of slavery, exceptionalism, the New Deal, etc. All of our shared history, written or unwritten, affects us daily. We are the sum of our history which has its positives and its negatives.

To attempt to put my arms around this huge matter, I visualize a basketball game in a tiny school gym when I was a kid in rural North Dakota sometime in 1953-54.

The game came back to mind six days ago, at a movie theater in Minneapolis MN.

In tiny North Dakota towns back in 1953-54, boys basketball was a staple. The team usually wasn’t championship calibre, but game night was important to the town.

Often, there were scarcely enough boys to come up with five players and perhaps three or four substitutes.

Girls? Sometimes, rarely, there were girl teams. But mostly the role of girls was to cheer lead the boys at the game. It was the women’s “place” in the game. It was the boys who were on the court, in the competition against some other town.

This single night in 1953-54, I remember the court. There are teams, there are two benches; there are a few local spectators, cheering on their team. And there are the rest of the people – the vast majority, even of this tiny town and surrounding area who, for various reasons, are absent.

We were the visiting team that night, which in those days meant we were our only cheerleaders. The small crowd was for the other team.

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Every one of us can visualize similar teams of all sorts we’ve been on, or around, and we can remember the teams that worked and the ones that didn’t. We might remember some of the the team players: the star, the ball hogs, the gifted, generous, selfish and abusive and on and on and on. We know what worked, and what didn’t, from experience. We know….

In that long ago game was a player who I first met for the first and only time on that basketball court back in 1953-54. Of course, at the time, he was just another guy identified by a number on his basketball uniform.

I next met this man a second time perhaps a dozen years ago. His name was Martin Olav Sabo.

He and I were in a conference room in downtown Minneapolis, he at the head of the table and me part of a group meeting with him. In the process of comparing notes, we discovered that we had once played basketball against each other in the tiny gym in his hometown of rural Alkabo, North Dakota, sometime in 1953-54 school year. (Here, you can actually see the school in which we played against each other over 60 years ago.)

Meeting over, Mr. Sabo and I went back to other things in our respective lives.

From a farm kid, Martin had become a very prominent citizen in my state. Before he died he was honored by having a building at his Alma Mater, Augsburg College in Minneapolis, named for him.

He had been a Minnesota State Representative 1961-1979, and after that a U.S. Congressman in Washington, from Minnesota, from 1979-2007. He and countless others made politics an honorable profession.

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I think of Martin Olav Sabo today because last Sunday I had the honor of presenting to his wife, Sylvia, a copy of the Minnesota Declaration of World Citizenship which Mr. Sabo and many others of both political parties in Minnesota proudly signed in March, 1971. You can view an 8 minute film clip about that Declaration here. His signature is on the second line, the House Minority Leader; in the first line above him, is the name of the Senate Majority Leader, Stanley Holmquist, who speaks in the film about the need for the Declaration of World Citizenship.

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Back then, and today, everyone of us were invited to participate in making our world a better place, from the simple act of voting, to actually becoming one who impacts on decisions.

Today are many openings for players on the court in our town which is called our country, our World.

How about you getting more practiced, more involved?

Basketball “rescued” from certain death in a shopping center parking lot April 24, 2017

“TEAM” AMERICA?

Why write about Basketball, when the topic of this post is so obviously politics in the United States of America, April 29, 2017?

Today, like that single night back in 1953-54, our entire country, and the world itself, is that “town”, and every single one of us are a crucial part of the cast of characters with roles that we may not be able to simply visualize or define. What I am doing for my team is important, but even more important, how is my team building a better and greater community for everyone, everywhere, far beyond my individual computer screen?

Of course, Basketball (and other team sports), like politics, involves competition, and winning and losing. Hubert Humphreys quotation at the beginning of this post was an expression of this reality. (Humphrey was a small town S. Dakota boy.)

Maybe it is the nature of humans to celebrate winners, not losers. We want the trophy, the prize. Cooperation is boring. As Sen. Humphrey pointed out, Compassion has lesser standing. Workers for compassion toil in the shadows of the news, until there is some catastrophe like a tornado, and then the attention is only fleeting.

But even in competition, team sports of all sorts need and value cooperation – “teamwork”. Anybody who knows team sports knows the problem when one of superior standing is allowed to “hog the ball” in one way or another. Ultimately, everybody loses including, most certainly, the supposed “winner”. Similarly a coach who is in it for him or herself alone, will not be a coach for long. Successful teams enroll and support everyone.

We also know that inevitably “winners”, even the best, ultimately lose. There is only one NBA champion each year. Very, very rarely are there dynasties, and they don’t last. So to with national dynasties: history is littered with the ruins of grandiose notions.

There seems a natural tendency to equilibrium, even in the simplest of matters.

Back in those long ago years, we kids used to play “king of the hill” on a snowbank or such. Whoever got to the top won, and instantly became a target for the others. The reign wasn’t long. And what was the point of winning? Not much, if viewed in the longer term.

Next year the Super Bowl (professional football) is here in the Twin Cities. Other than being disruptive to the lives of almost all of us who have to drive the roads, etc., the crowd in the arena will be only the tiniest of a portion of the entire population. Only a few can actually watch the gladiators in person, and most of these will probably follow most of the action on giant screens in the arena itself. Inside the stadium, “super boxes” will separate the most successful from the others.

Just attending the Super Bowl is a prize for winners, on the field and in the stands. It lasts a few hours, and then what?

Only one team will leave the field with the gigantic rings symbolizing victory, to be stored in a safe place. Of what real value is that ring, long term, to its owner, and his heirs?

*

Beyond who won, and who lost last November, and beyond the polls that give instant assessments of non-reality, comes the life we all are living real time.

Succinctly, every one of us, everywhere, are all part of the team, from the greatest to the least, wherever we live in the world.

We best never forget that.

*

A final thought:

Recently, I received an excellent summation on the practice of politics from a Liberal, a major elected officer in my state, who sent a quotation delivered by a Conservative Governor of Minnesota back in 1961.

The quotation was from inaugural address of newly elected Governor Elmer L. Andersen, already a wealthy man, and veteran state legislator, who said this to his House and Senate colleagues and, by extension, to his fellow citizens of Minnesota:

“May I say that my approach will not be one of extreme partisanship. It never has been. It will be my purpose to work with both groups of both houses, and with every individual legislator in achieving constructive legislation.

I am convinced that our people want and are willing to support a strong elementary and secondary school system’ they are proud of our great universities; they realize the importance of the state colleges and junior colleges. Likewise we want an excellent mental health program, a forward-looking correctional program, fine highways, humanitarian welfare programs, and all of the other essential services state and local government provide. However, it is essential that we have jobs and payrolls if we are to have the revenue to support all this.”

My correspondent said in conclusion “Governor Andersen was a remarkable leader, and we need more of his public-minded spirit and across-the-aisle consensus-building in all levels of government.”

I very much agree.

Competition? Fine. Mixed with a very large dose of Cooperation, working together for the betterment of all.

Get involved. There are many ways. Choose your own method, and get to work. We are the solution.

Dick Bernard: Three Opportunities At 100 Days of MAGA

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The end of April marks the 100th day of MAGA (“Make America Great Again”).

If you are even a tiny bit concerned about our future as a planet of people, here are three programs that are worth your time, more information accessible at GlobalSolutionsMN.org (Global Solutions Minnesota*) All information at home page of this website.

1. Tomorrow (Thursday) evening, April 20, at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church, Minneapolis, Dr. Roger Prestwich speaks on “Brexit, the EU and rising European Nationalism.” 6:45 p.m. Free and open to the public.

(click to enlarge photos, double click for greater enlargement.)

2. Sunday afternoon, April 23, is the World Premiere of “The World Is My Country“, the amazing story of Garry Davis, World Citizen. Show time is 2:30. Best advice to be ticketed and at the theater no later than 2:10 p.m. St. Anthony Main Theatre, Minneapolis. More here (link to theatre box office in second paragraph). Box office 612-331-7563 Tickets required for this event.

Garry Davis (on screen from Vermont via Skype), Lynn Elling, film producer Arthur Kanegis and another guest share thoughts on the pursuit of world peace at St. Anthony Main Theater on January 6, 2013.

3. Monday evening, May 1, at Gandhi Mahal Restaurant, Minneapolis, Shawn Otto addresses “Science, Law and the Quest for Freedom in the Age of Trump.” Mr. Otto’s book, “The War on Science. Who’s waging it, why it matters and what we can do about it” has just won the 2017 Minnesota Book Award for non-fiction, general. Shawn Otto is well known and respected in the Science community. Reservations required for this limited seating dinner meeting. $25 per person, $15 for students. Reserve by contacting Dick Bernard, dick_bernardATmsnDOTcom, or by mail at Box 25384 Woodbury MN 55125, or 651-334-5744. This is the 5th annual of the re-initiation of World Law Day, which began in 1964, and went on for about 30 years in the Twin Cities. Each event is filled with opportunities for stimulating conversation.

Shawn Otto August 10, 2016

* – all these events are sponsored by Global Solutions Minnesota, an organization of which the writer of this post is vice-president. We wish we could claim foreknowledge in planning these events at what is ever more apparent, a crucial moment in history, but all three came together in the random way that such things happen.

We need to be well informed. These are excellent, in differing ways, for us to inform ourselves not only about problems, but solutions, and how we can impact as persons.

Absolutely, these will be excellent events, chock-full of good and especially timely information, led by presenters who are very knowledgeable.

If you can’t go to all three, how about sharing the wealth, and find someone else to cover the other two, then talk about what you learned afterwards!

For those with an interest in the preservation of a global community, peace and justice, these can seem like very dark days. Each of these sessions will stimulate participants who wish to be more knowledgeably involved.

Dick Bernard: Planting Onions…and Glorious Flowers

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Today’s post is a recollection about my Aunt and Uncle. Shortly, we leave for a few days vacation. This computer will lie quiet for awhile. The following post has nothing to do with politics…then again, it may have everything…. At the exact same time I was composing this, among many critical issues, the most important of all, “repeal and replace” “Obamacare” has erupted in our nations Capitol. Insuring all of we citizens against catastrophic medical costs is a very, very big deal everyone needs to care about. In my view, the launch of this supposedly new plan is like launching a nuclear bomb against an unsuspecting people…. Here is a long and readable summary to read on this issue, if you wish. I will write later on my deep personal concerns on this matter. More in coming weeks.

Vincent Busch May 7, 2013


(click to enlarge any photos)
“Forwards” are not always welcome, as anyone who does e-mail knows.
Sometimes, like a couple of days ago, comes a gem, one such reaching me from a North Dakota farm near my ancestral farm at Berlin ND, a blog post by Rachel Held Evans received and forwarded to me by a good friend.
What caught my attention was the headline: “…Planting Onions*….”
What attracted my memory was remembering a row of onions I watched being planted by my Uncle Vincent May 7, 2013. (See photo which leads this post).
Uncle Vince was 88 at the time, and this visit he had a compelling need to plant some sweet onions in the now nearly vacant one acre garden he and his sister Edithe had kept alive long after the rest of the nine family members who had lived there, helping with and enjoying the fruits of the garden, had passed on.
Now there were only the two of them. and for seven prior years they’d lived in assisted living in town. But near every day they’d drive out to the old farm, and every spring was the ritual planting. Every year, the actual planted area decreased, but every year the entire acre was cultivated, to keep weeds at bay.
Now the gardeners were down to my Uncle, and he had very little energy left to expend. But once again he had plowed the ground, preparing the soil, and now it was time to plant something.
Six months earlier his sister had been admitted to the Nursing Home, and Uncle Vince now had to come to the farm alone. This year about all he was managing to plant were a couple of row of sweet onions. In his quiet way that pleasant day in May, I seemed to be witnessing almost a religious rite, near grief: a nod to a past that was rapidly disappearing.
It was while looking for the photo that leads this post that I came across another photo of something else I had seen at the same farm, a few minutes earlier that May day, as we drove up the lane, past the long vacant farmhouse.

Aunt Edithe’s voluntaries, May 17, 2013


Those and other flowers were Edithe’s passion, and probably in a previous year she had planted them, and here they were, unattended, but beautiful nonetheless, adding life to the house and surroundings..
No one had been by to remind them that it was time to bloom; they paid no mind that no one was weeding around them, or making sure they had water; or that they had an audience to admire them. They just were….
It seems to me, now, four years later, that both Uncle Vincent and those flowers were sending their own messages to us, about things like reverence for the land and tradition, about devotion to the better sides of our nature. Many other messages can be conveyed. They are for you to contemplate yourself and, if you wish, to share with others as well.
Have a great day.
* – Ms Evans post talked about “revisiting Madeleine L’Engle’s Genesis Trilogy,” and being “struck by how forthcoming the author is about her own fears around raising children during the Cold War. She writes of one particularly worrisome season: “Planting onions that spring was an act of faith in the future, for I was very fearful for our planet.”
In her Mar. 1, 2017 blog post, Ms Evans commented: “Planting onions” has come to signify for me the importance of remaining committed to those slow-growing, long-term investments in my family, my community, and the world, no matter what happens over the next four years”.
POSTNOTE
Time went on after that May visit to the garden.
In mid-July I made another visit to Vincent and Edithe; and once again Vince and I went to the old farm between Berlin and Grand Rapids.

July, 2013 in the garden


Vincent told me the rows of sweet onions were no more – he had gone out to the farm by himself, after dark, to plow the garden, and by mistake plowed them under.
It was clear to everyone that Vincents memory and general health were failing as his sisters had.
My next trip, in September, it was even more clear.
In November, 2013, Vincent joined Edithe in the memory care unit at the St. Rose Nursing Home in LaMoure. In Feb, 2014, she died at 94. Almost exactly a year later, in Feb, 2015, Uncle Vince passed on, having just reached 90.
At the lunch after Vincent’s funeral, neighbor farmer Pat Quinlan recalled the onion sandwich Vince had given him one day when he was over helping. It was the funniest of stories, as the photo below attests. Probably Vince would have squirmed, but it was all in great humor. Vince was who he was. In life, he would appear to be just an ordinary farmer with a small farm. But he was oh, so much more….

Pat Quinlan (at right) remembers the onion sandwich, February, 2015


We have only our own images of what heaven might be like.
Perhaps there is a garden and flowers and gentle breezes there.
Meanwhile, here on earth, let’s do what we can to make this world a better place for all of us.

Edithe and Vince in their garden July 27, 2007


Flowers and Onions, July 27, 2007


Edithe and Flowers, July 27, 2007


Edithe with the flowers from the garden July 27, 2007

#1241 – Donna Krisch: Diary of a Working Visit to El Paso. A Lenten Reflection

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“SNIP” Feb. 27: “We decided on a menu of macaroni & cheese with tuna and peas, spaghetti and a carrot/yellow squash combo and apples. I started the meal and all at once was joined by a woman from Honduras who really knew how to cook. I speak basically no Spanish but could understand very well that I had not cooked the vegetables correctly. We were then joined by a woman from Brazil so none of us spoke each others language but we all knew the language of human.”
NOTE FROM DICK BERNARD: A long and very powerful witness to the less publicized side of our neighbors in Mexico and Central America by retired teacher, Donna Krisch. (She and I “share” North Dakota roots, and an Aunt, long deceased.) I hope this essay diary of two weeks in El Paso is shared broadly. All photos, excepting Statue of Liberty, by Donna Krisch, click on any to enlarge. Guest columns, such as Donna’s, are always welcome here. dick_bernardATmsnDOTcom for information.
DONNA KRISCH
Wednesday February 15, 2017
Today four Basilica of St. Mary (Minneapolis MN) members plus myself will leave for El Paso Texas to help in a shelter on the Mexico/Texas border. We have two nurses in our group and the rest of us will help however we can. The people coming to the shelter are seeking asylum from violence in their own countries. We have heard most are coming from the countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
Thursday, February 16, 2017
We arrived in El Paso yesterday afternoon. During our stay we will be staying at a beautiful, old convent of the Loretto Sisters directly across the alley from the shelter where we will be working.

Arriving at El Paso


Clothing room at the shelter


Dormitory for volunteers


When we arrived at the shelter a Brazilian woman with two small children was being taken to the airport to catch a flight to Boston to meet family having spent the night at the shelter. The morning was spent getting a tour of the facility, and sorting clothes that were collected by the Basilica children. In the afternoon, we met with Eina Holder, director of the shelter. She gave us a brief history of the shelter and an update on what we can expect to be helping with during our stay. In December, there were some days where up to 150 asylum seekers stayed at the shelter mainly from Central America and Brazil.
People coming to the border are questioned, fingerprinted by Border Patrol and processed at a facility an hour away. Some are required to wear an ankle bracelet with a tracking number and a phone call is made to a family member or friend vouch for them and send them travel money.
ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) will bring them to one of 3 shelters. Nazareth Hall receives asylum seekers on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and people will stay for 1-3 days and then either travel by bus or plane to meet family somewhere in the US. In the last few weeks the number of people seeking asylum has dropped so significantly that two of the shelters will be closing next week. Starting Monday, Nazareth Hall will be the only short-term shelter open. No one can explain why. Some possible reasons we heard were increased border patrol and also the new administration’s stance on immigration.
We have been treated so kindly by everyone we have met.
Friday, February 17, 2017
This morning we went to the shelter at 9 AM. Our work for today would be to continue to organize clothing, disinfect and disassemble cots, and organize the storage room full of supplies.
At noon, we attended a peace gathering in front of the El Paso courthouse. We were introduced to Fr. Peter & Sr. Betty. Fr. Peter is 94 years old and Sr. Betty is in her 80’s. They have devoted their lives to the work of the poor in Central and South America. They currently live and work with the poor in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso. It was as if we were in the presence of saints. Each Friday they are among a small gathering of people that bring their tattered peace signs and stand on the corner for an hour.
After lunch, we went for a tour of Annunciation House. This shelter houses people seeking asylum that need to have more than 24 hours to figure out where to go. Some may stay for months. It is run by volunteers and houses up to 100 if needed. Upstairs in the house we saw the dining room and kitchen. Eina our guide then took us into the chapel which also serves as a bedroom when the shelter is crowded.
On the wall behind the make shift alter was a cross made of metal boxes each containing a shoe found in the desert where people might have crossed.

Cross of shoes found in the south Texas desert


One of the shoes in above photo


The story Eina told was of a young child traveling with her mother. The mother had written the phone number of the relative in America where they would go to live with in ink on the child’s hand. Along the way, the mother died. When the little girl was finally found, she was holding her fisted hand very tight. When she finally opened it the phone number was smeared so no one could decipher the number.
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Today started when Eina, the director of the shelter where we are working took us to her church to meet some of the young teenagers that came unaccompanied to the border and are now at Southwest Key a facility for children and teens.
Three times a week, they host groups of 10+ youth to come, play games, do a prayer service and have a meal like pizza and soda. Each week groups of youth ages 3-17 come to Rico center for three hours away from the detention center. This ministry is named in honor of the priest’s nephew who was murdered in Mexico.

Poster at Rico Center


Seeing these young people not knowing what they have been through, what they have seen, who they left behind at home was very moving for all of us. We prayed with them and for them. When we were leaving, the young woman leading the group thanked the “white people” for coming.
After lunch, we returned to the shelter to finish up tasks to be ready for people arriving on Monday.
*In 2015, there were 75 shelters that house children along the US-Mexico border housing approximately 14,365 unaccompanied minors. Rico ministries and the detention centers collaborate to provide this program for youth in detention. Their future is unknown, they may be deported, they may reunite with another relative. If a pair of siblings comes to a center and one turns 18 they will be separated and the 18-year old will go to adult detention. You have to ask yourself what kind of a nation does this to children.
Sunday, February 19, 2017
Beautiful sunny morning in El Paso. Eina picked us up for mass at 11:30 and we drove across town to El Buen Pastor parish in Horizon City, a suburb of El Paso. The church is in one of the poorest neighborhoods of El Paso and is surrounded by a very wealthy suburb.
When we arrived. the church was already filling up 45 minutes early. I have never felt so welcome in a Catholic church. The priest welcomed us during the sermon and we were thanked by the entire community at the end of the mass. During the handshake of peace, a little 4-year old boy came over into our pew, crawled through the entire pew, and shook everyone’s hand. After the 2-hour long mass we purchased 80 tortilla’s, to deliver to the farm workers at their center in downtown El Paso.
When we arrived at the farm workers center we were greeted warmly by a man named Carlos Marentes who runs the center. The center is located on a corner where farmers will pick up day laborers to work in the fields if there is work. They have lockers and showers and sleep on the floor. At midnight, they arise and stand out on the street and wait to be picked up if there is work. Of all we have seen so far this for me was the most difficult. Grown men with skin like leather, sleeping on the floor. Maybe it was because of growing up on a farm but I saw in those men my brothers and uncles and really for no other reason than luck is there life so very different.
We introduced ourselves and they introduced themselves and the Mexican state they are from. We then joined hands and said a prayer. One of the men I was holding hands with was missing half a finger and another I am sure must have Parkinsons Disease.
The work they were doing tomorrow was picking hot chilis. Apparently, they pick by the 20-gallon container and for each one they fill they get a chip which will then be exchanged for money. The plants are low growing so if you are tall you need to crawl through the fields on your knees. We were told by the end of the day their hands feel like they have a fever. Carlos thought they may also be planting onions. To do that they poke their fingers into rock hard ground and put onion plugs in each hole. For all this earn an average of $6,700 per year (just over $500 per month).
Monday, February 20, 2107
Our day started this morning at 9:15. We cleaned this huge gathering room called the Sala. After packing up the 40+ cots and them stashing them away we sorted through a great number of toys, vacuumed the rug to get ready for the next group of travelers. We received instructions on how the intake process works.
At 1:30 an ICE van pulled up to the shelter and dropped off 4 families with a total of 9 people. Usually the processing center feeds them lunch but when they arrived they had not eaten. The group were a father and son from Brazil who were going to Boston, a young mother with a two-year old and a seven-year old from Guatemala going to Florida, a mother and her 16 year old son from Guatemala going to Nebraska, and a father and his 10 year old daughter going to North Carolina.
After a short interview one of the workers tried to call their US families waiting for them. We then helped them find a new change of clothes, show them their rooms and help them find the showers.
Every Monday a local church brings a delicious meal of beans, rice and shredded beef. One of the men that brought the food sat down at our table and talked about why he does this work. He told us that 5 years ago he was an engineer and very successful owner of a construction company when he had a heart attack. He was lying there close to death when he decided his life had to change. He decided he needed to give back because his life had been so good so he now makes and serves dinner every Monday night at the shelter.
Things we found out about the families: the Brazilian man decided he wanted to go back to Brazil. He had left two daughters behind. For him to do that he would not ever be able to get back into the US again, plus he would need to go to a detention center until a whole planeload of detainees needed to go back to Brazil. The mother with her 16-year old son was pregnant with him the last time she saw her husband. The 10-year old little girl was complaining of her legs hurting and the dad just said that yesterday they had spent the entire day running.
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Today seemed like a long day. We started at 10:00 with a meeting to write a shopping list for the shelter and then purchase the food. Three of the families from yesterday are waiting for bus tickets sent by their receiving families. The father and his ten-year-old daughter will be leaving on the bus at 4.
The process when families arrive looks something like this. The director of the center and one of our Spanish speaking volunteers do the initial intake (finding out what papers they have, finding out who to call to receive them, etc.) From the office, they are taken to their sleeping rooms.
Next, they are taken to a used clothing room to pick out one set of clothing because they literally come with the clothes on their back. The final stop is the shower where they each are given a hygiene kit with everything they need. After they shower we give them sheets and blankets to make their beds.
Today the refugees did not get dropped off by ICE until about 3 PM so by the time they finished everything another church group had come in with the evening meal which we shared with the families. After dinner, we helped them make their beds and get settled in.
The group that arrived today were two families from Brazil. One of them was a father and his 1½ year old son. They left Brazil because they had witnessed what he called a “massacre.” His wife and their older daughter will come soon maybe tomorrow. The reason they came separately and not together was they would have been separated at the border. The father would have gone into a detention center and the mother would have come to the shelter with the children. The other two families were from Guatemala.
One was a nineteen-year old mother with a 3-month old baby the other family was an older mother with her six-year old daughter. The young mother and her baby were both extremely dehydrated so even though the baby was trying to nurse the mother had no milk to give. The baby screamed uncontrollably for most of the early evening. Although complete strangers the older mother stayed with the younger mom through the night to make sure she and the baby got plenty of fluids… amazing compassion.
We had the chance to see for the first time the electronic ankle bracelets. I had imagined maybe a small band. They are at least two inches wide, battery operated and the batteries need to be recharged on a regular basis or ICE will start looking for them.
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Nazareth Hall got the call that 32 people (12 families) would be coming to the shelter by early afternoon so we sorted clothes, got bed linens ready and made sure we were prepared for their arrival.
This has been the largest group to come in since we came here. This time a huge white ICE bus arrived. We all felt a bit more prepared for what needed to be done.
During intake, I noticed a woman and two children. Throughout the process tears were streaming down her face and her two little girls were patting her on the back. Apparently when they arrived at the border her husband was taken away to detention and she and the girls were sent on. Everyone was once again very hungry so we served snacks while they were waiting to do their paperwork. While everyone was waiting, we noticed many of the people did not have shoe laces. Apparently, they are taken away when they arrive.
We left the shelter at 5:15 to attend a memorial mass in honor of Juan Patricio. The young man was killed outside the Annunciation House Shelter 15 years ago. We walked through luminaries that lined the sidewalk to the spot he was killed. We sat on benches in front of a makeshift altar outside. The mass was attended by many young people and many older adults.

Walk for Juan Patricio


Mass at Annunciation


Thursday, February 23, 2017
Many of the asylees [those seeking asylum] were leaving the shelter early in the day to go to the bus station.
Today people were leaving to be reunited with families in Maryland, Florida, New York and many more places. Because they will be riding the bus for several days and have no money the shelter sends them with a travel bag. Travel bags are made up of a blanket for each, sandwiches and fruit, snacks, water, and if they have children some sort of toy and pages to color. Some bus trips take over 36 hours. They are also given a winter coat if going to a cold climate state. Once the bags were made we started preparing for a new group of asylum seekers.
At 10:30 we got the call that 15 people (7 families) would be coming in the afternoon. After everyone was settled we put travel bags together for each family.
Tonight, we had an invitation to go to dinner at Villa Maria. This is a home for woman in crisis that need a place to stay until they can get their lives together. Women with mental issues, addiction and homelessness come to this shelter. Women from a variety of age groups live at the house. They usually stay up to two years.
Recently, however, women are being pushed to move out more quickly due to reductions in money from HUD [U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development] The home is run on grants and a fundraiser each year. We had the opportunity to sit down with the women and enjoy a wonderful meal that they had prepared. This special place houses 22 women and offers support and counseling, job training and access to classes at a community college. It is a very calm place with a courtyard in the middle.
We are so impressed with the organization, the planning and collaboration of these shelters. All of the resources are donated and all the staffing of the centers are volunteer.
Friday, Feb. 24, 2017
We got a call this morning that Nazareth Hall will be closing today because of an inspection of the attached nursing home. All asylees will be taken to Annunciation House until further notice. We are glad to have an afternoon to rest.
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Matthew 25: 35-40
For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty
And you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you made
me welcome; naked and you clothed me; sick and you
visited me; in prison and you came to see me.
. . . I tell you solemnly, in so far as you did this to one of
the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.
This is the reading Rubin Garcia referred to as we met with him this morning. What we thought would be a 20-minute meeting lasted 2 hours. Rubin Garcia started working with the immigrants 40 years ago when he quit his job and with the help of the archdiocese of El Paso opened Annunciation House. He has since opened many shelters as the need arose in the immigrant and the asylee community. All of the shelters including staff are operated by donations.
He started off by saying we probably should take down the Statue of Liberty.
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
The words ring hollow.

Statue of Liberty New York City harbor late June, 1972


Joni and Tom Bernard at Statue of Liberty, late June, 1972 (Photos by Dick Bernard)


Mr. Garcia believes that the church has failed to raise awareness for these most vulnerable people. The clergy need to start talking about Catholic Social Teaching. After 40 years and countless groups of people coming to the border to raise their own awareness nothing has changed.
In 2014 the first wave of immigrants arrived. They arrived in south Texas and because of the numbers immigration asked Rubin Garcia to house people in El Paso. He agreed with the stipulation that he would receive no money from the government so the government would have no leverage over these people.
From October 2016 thru January 2017 the arrivals of people needing shelter went up to 1,000 refugees a week. Since the new U.S. administration has taken office the numbers have dwindled significantly. Mr. Garcia thinks people are not coming because of new U.S. immigration policy and posturing. He said there is no official policy on who gets detained, and who doesn’t. The number of government run and private detention centers has risen with the surge.
In Mr. Garcia’s words our new President changed mindsets with the power of fear and the power of repetition of lies. He repeated the terrorist threat many, many times during his campaign. Mr. Garcia said we should ask ourselves how we feel about the leader of our country given absolute freedom to lie. What do we tell our children? He compared the terrorist threats to car accidents. Since 2011 there have been 80 deaths due to terrorists and 600,000 deaths due to car accidents. So, should we ban cars? Do we fear the car companies for making cars?
He encouraged and challenged us to talk to our neighbors, both however they voted about what is already happening in America. Find out what people are afraid of in regards to immigration. He also encouraged us to sit down with our pastors and ask them how we should be responding as Christians.
His biggest fear at this time is that the U.S. will set up immigration courts at the border and no one will be granted asylum. Once turned back they will be in Mexico which does not have the accommodations to house Asylees.
Sunday, February 26, 2017
This morning we have an invitation to visit Sr. Betty and Fr. Peter in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. We are to cross the San Antonio bridge from El Paso, Texas to Mexico. Sr. Betty assured us she would meet us at the bottom of the bridge. We had a difficult time finding the right bridge and when we asked the response was always, “You’re going to Juarez??”

Fr. Peter and Sr. Betty and Cathy.


For over 5 years starting in 2005 Juarez was known as the murder capital of the world but in the past few years murders have dropped considerably. It was the city Pope Francis chose to visit in 2014. In any event, we were happy to see Sr. Betty at the bottom of the bridge.

Juarez, Mexico, border city of El Paso TX


Housing from the street in Juarez


Going from El Paso to Juarez was quite something. Crumbled streets, very primitive housing almost appearing to look like the site of a city that had been in a war. We made our way by bus to the little house and yard that Sr. Betty and Fr. Peter rent.
It seems like an oasis in the middle of a desert but is located in one of the poorer boroughs of Juarez. They served us eggs from their chickens and we talked about their years working for peace and justice in Central and South America and for the past 20 years living in Juarez. At 94 years of age Fr. Peter continues to say mass at one of the boroughs in Juarez. Sr. Betty at 84 has classes for women on her porch. She took us out to her backyard to show her chickens, and the tomatoes she had just planted. In their back-yard they have a covered area where she has made memorials to various groups of people that have been murdered. She has painted murals and listed all of the names of these people. There are murals for slain journalists, murdered women, students and men and people that have died in the desert.
Juarez has had many problems over the past few years. Early in the 2000’s American companies set up Maquiladoras (factories). A Maquiladora is a factory run by a U.S. company in Mexico to take advantage of cheap labor and lax regulation. Workers usually work 6 days a week for an average of $6.00 per day. When they first began workers especially women were drawn to these factories. There is a reason we can buy cheap goods in America. Sr. Betty was telling us that one of the companies was John Deere. The same job if done in America would earn a salary of $25.00 per hour. Hardly a living wage.
Monday, February 27, 2017
It is hard to believe this is our last day to work. We got a call that Annunciation House was receiving 39 asylum seekers (12 families) and needed help. About 2 PM ICE came with two white buses and dropped them off. It was basically the same procedure as Nazareth House with the exception that the men would stay at Annunciation Shelter while the women and children would walk two blocks to Casa Theresa. Some of the Basilica group stayed to help find clothing for everyone and I went to Casa Therese to make beds. Once beds were made there was dinner for 22 that needed to be made.
We decided on a menu of macaroni & cheese with tuna and peas, spaghetti and a carrot/yellow squash combo and apples.
I started the meal and all at once was joined by a woman from Honduras who really knew how to cook. I speak basically no Spanish but could understand very well that I had not cooked the vegetables correctly. We were then joined by a woman from Brazil so none of us spoke each others language but we all knew the language of human. The Honduran woman’s 10-year old son squeezed limes to make a beverage.
When everyone had their plates filled we all joined hands and said grace. It was truly a moving moment, I will never forget.
While this was taking place, the people were registered and given medical treatment if they needed it.
The stories of some of these women will stay with us forever. One woman carried her paraplegic son on her back the entire way from Honduras. Another woman and two children had wandered through Mexico trying to get to the border for the past 3 months. They slept in woods and would beg to sleep in people’s yards. At each place, they were told they needed to leave after one night. Another young girl maybe 12 or 13 year of age said her whole body hurt and was stiff. Apparently, there is this holding facility called the icebox because it is so cold at night where people can only be detained for 24 hours but she had been there for a few days.
Over the past two weeks not once did we see a potential terrorist. These are the poorest of the poor looking for a life free of violence. They come with their children, they come to be reunited with family, they come to make a better life for their families. Everyone I talk to in Minnesota seems unaware that this is happening here at our border. How can we the richest nation on the planet turn our backs on our brothers and sisters.
Thank you to the Sisters of Loretto for their hospitality and all the people we encountered during our time in El Paso. This is an extremely generous and caring community that works tirelessly to make life better for the poor.
POSTNOTE FROM DICK: Politics and Compassion are very uneasy companions. A dozen or so years ago I came across a succinct and very powerful explanation of the relationship between politics and compassion, made by then U.S. Senator, and former U.S. Vice-President Hubert Humphrey. You can read it here. I read it some months after a powerful visit to Haiti, and after the Iraq War had commenced. The brief paragraph or two spoke many volumes.
Donna Krisch reflects on the very human side of the migration (refugee) story.
Others with the microphones and media and levers of power much stronger than Donna or myself can better publicize “illegals”, “drugs”, and the seamy underside of immigration. The comment by Rubin Garcia (above) brings it home: “He compared the terrorist threats to car accidents. Since 2011 there have been 80 deaths due to terrorists and 600,000 deaths due to car accidents. So, should we ban cars? Do we fear the car companies for making cars?”
Back at the beginning of the worst of the Great Depression, 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt made a statement that deserves repeating, over and over and over: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”.
We are a nation of immigrants and descendants of immigrants. Even Native Americans, the first immigrants, initially came from somewhere else.
The only ancestor I personally knew who was an immigrant from another country was my grandfather, Henry Bernard, who came to North Dakota from Quebec about 1894. His only language when he arrived was French, and he had a first grade education. Doubtless it took years for him to speak English fluently.
He died when I was 17, and I knew him well.
Four of six of my great-grandparents immigrated to America, long before the Statue of Liberty became the welcoming beacon (and lest we forget, the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France.) My circles – all of our circles – are full of immigrants.
We do not honor ourselves by our present day fear-filled approach to people whose only sin is, as proclaimed at the Statue of Liberty, “yearning to breathe free”. We will, one day, be called to account….

Dick Bernard: The President Speaks….

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There is a great deal to be said, after last night. Some of my opinion follows (there will be more said as time goes on.) A distillation of national opinions I always like is Just Above Sunset, this mornings edition here.
1. Probably the best commentary about the President’s speech last night is that the New York Stock Exchange index is up 341 points as I write, to over 21,000.
Personal opinion: when the Stock Market is “Bullish on America”, the people who cannot afford to play in it, which is the vast majority of us, should be very nervous. The big shots smell money to be made – lots of it. The upper echelons of Capitalism have always thrived during crisis times, including economic collapses (“buy low, sell high”) and most especially, war. The rest of us don’t have the resources or the expertise to play the game. Not that long ago, it is best to remember September, 2008. After eight years of war and false “prosperity”, even the Bush administration was very worried that the economy was going to collapse, and it very nearly did.
President Obama inherited a huge economic hole in 2009, and did his best, against united opposition, to fill it. Best this not be forgotten, ever.
The current occupant inherited his self-reported success coming into the Presidency from the work of President Obama, and he is now claiming the victories as his – and has a floor from which to begin to construct the next basement. All indications are that the sole objective is more riches for the already very, very rich, and panic for the rest of us.
The major issues I am and will be watching:
2. The Assault on “Immigrants” of all sorts, and on the Right to Vote and Participate in Democracy. An excellent long article about what is ahead is this one from New York Times Magazine.
We are a nation of immigrants. And we have a habit of assaulting newcomers: Catholics, Irish, Germans, Jews etc., etc., etc.
Yesterday, I did a quick “trip” through my own immigrant history:
One Grandfather was an immigrant (1894). I knew him well.
Of the Great-Grandparents:
Four of six were immigrants (early 1850 to early 1870s)
The other two Great-Grandparents remained in their home country.
Yesterday, about the time the President was speaking, a friend wrote an e-mail on return from two weeks at a U.S.-Mexico border facility, including this: “I have never had an experience like this… Last night a woman came to the shelter from Guatemala who had carried her paraplegic son to the US. What is happening is truly horrific.” I have asked my friend to write more, and I hope she will, for this space.
Meanwhile, back home here in the good old U.S. of A, I could watch on none other than the National Geographic Channel a series on “Border Wars” which makes it seem like hordes of Mexicans and evil others are invading us. It is easy to see how such stories get spread. All you have to do is watch TV. There is no perspective at all.
By personal feeling, I’m an internationalist: we are not and cannot be a free-standing king of the world. We are part of the greater world, subject to global things, like climate change, disease and the like, and we need to come to grips with our role as a world citizen.
We will see how an authoritarian leader who is cozy with the White Christian Nationalist philosophy will deal with supposedly inferior others, as he “makes America great again”.
3. The Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”). To my recollection, there was not a single Republican vote in favor of the Affordable Care Act when it was enacted. Then there were over 50 ceremonial repeal actions in the House of Representatives. “Obamacare” was hated.
Now there is talk about improving this supposed “disaster”, which people have come to value.
The real victims, if the act is repealed, then substantially changed, will be the people who struggle to survive. These are people who have no political power. People like ourselves have to stand up for them…and by extension for ourselves.
4. Our “White Christian Nation”. Make no mistake, this administration is warm to the white nationalists, for reasons which are easily noted by even casual study of the news.
In point of fact, we have never been a “White Christian Nation”.
Those who came before essentially eliminated the native Americans, here long before us; and then banished the survivors to “Reservations”, and if the Reservations happened to be on valuable land, new Treaties were signed, or the land was simply taken. One opinion, here: Native Am Genocide001
This is our white legacy. Most of us, including myself, have benefited from this action, which mostly took place in the 1800s, but was true from the beginning.
Can we forget the African slaves who built this country, and Chinese coolies, and French-Canadians laborers in mills of the northeast, exclusion of Jews, and on and on and on. Slaves were counted as people only to the extent that they added to the population, and thus political power, of several states. It was right there in the Constitution of the United States. (Article I “Representatives…shall be apportioned…according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound for service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other persons.” (This language was eliminated by the XIV Amendment of 1868, over 80 years after adoption.)
Last night we were at a school concert in what is essentially a “white” community, but in the choirs I saw African-American kids and at least two girls in traditional Moslem dress, singing like all the others.
The “Christian” piece is equally a fallacy, as if Christ would Bless such as we have done in his name.
5. Finally, there was a play for, shall we say, “kumbaya”, last night. Let’s all get along and unite this country. This rings a bit hollow after eight years of out and out (and acknowledged) obstruction of everything President Obama attempted to do. And Obama was criticized by his own supporters for wanting to work cooperatively with the other side of the aisle. It didn’t work.
COMMENTS WELCOME. dick_bernardATmsnDOTcom. More as time goes on.
from Florence: The President speaks and I can’t believe one word of what he says, for good or for ill. He has made a bed of lies and we lie in it, some simply hoping that the one thing they believe from the President’s mouth is the truth. As supporters of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) we just received their most recent magazine enumerating the huge increase in acts of violence based on whatever the perpetrators choose to hate. Meanwhile President Trump is now the darling of Andrew Algin’s The Daily Stormer declaring itself to be “America’s #1 Most Trusted Republican News Source”, previously touted as “World’s Most Visited Alt-Right Web Site.” For myself, I’m committed to at least one contact a day to an elected official, including the President, expressing my position and asking them to support it. In February I out-did myself with 40 contacts! They need to hear from all of us!
from Jeff: From Paul Krugmans column on Monday:
“Inevitably, one hears some voices urging everyone to cool it — to wait and see, to try to be constructive, to reach out to Trump supporters, to seek ground for compromise.
Just say no.
Outrage at what’s happening to America isn’t just justified, it’s essential. In fact, it may be our last chance of saving democracy.
Even in narrowly partisan terms, Democrats would be well advised to keep listening to their base. Anyone who claims that being seen as obstructionist will hurt them politically must have slept through the past couple of decades. Were Democrats rewarded for cooperating with George W. Bush? Were Republicans punished for their scorched-earth opposition to President Obama? Get real.”
from Gail: I agree with you on all of this, Dick!
from Joe: Thanks for the blog. I have no quarrel with anything you said,
from Bruce: As I see it, Dick, from the western most tip of Santa Rosa Island in Pensacola Bay, these times they are a-changin. The opportunity for progressive change is real. I think we( real progressives) need to organize around Bernie’s Revolution or the Green Party, Laurence Lessig’s “Mayday”(money out of politics), support/ strengthen Medicade/Medicare, and social security. All of the above groups are active & well run. Other than that what can I say…maybe we can even get Medicare for All.
from George: Those who have stock mutual funds also are prospering. That includes many of the middle class.
from Corky: How interesting that the stock market news of advances seems to take away the pain of 30 deaths and especially the children in Yemen. “Follow the $ I guess.” Where are our humanitarian priorities?
from Annelee: I agree totally with your blog on the President’s speech. I forwarded your blog to at least 20 people here and Germany. I added: As a nation where have we been? Where are we going???
Wish I would be as informed as you are.
from Tom: Dick….Thanks so much for your article. My comments would be these:… As I listened to the President’s speech to Congress, despite the comments that it was “presidential, I could not help but think of two quotes: 1) “His actions speak so loudly that I can’t hear what he’s saying” and, more famously from Protestant pastor, Martin Niemoller in Germany (1946), (#2) “First they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Communist. then they came for the trade-unionists and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade-unionist etc..etc…..Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me”….Could this really happen here?
Thanks again, Dick.
from Carl: “The rest of us don’t have the resources or the expertise to play the game.” I have to disagree with you on only the wealthy will benefit. My son is a welder at John Deere Seeding Group here. Do you have any idea what the stock market going up has done to his 401K retirement plan? He is not a high paid employee as there is no union or other competition. I personally believe every working citizen should have a 401K retirement plan for retirement. I have an education fund for each of my grand children that they get when going to college through Edward Jones.
That fund went up 12% since the first of January. I think the stock market going up has benefited the majority of the average working citizens.