Politics – Page 7 – Thoughts Towards a Better World

Dick Bernard: Changing a Light Bulb

February 24, 2017/0 Comments/in Minnesota, Politics, Technology /by dickbernard

Minnesota State Capitol February 10, 2017

Two weeks ago we toured the newly renovated Minnesota State Capitol building. Renovation of the now 112 year old facility had been needed for years. Of course, renovation costs money, which means politics, which means delays, which means higher costs, which mean political advantage (or disadvantage). But that’s another story.
This is about a light bulb.
We entered the Minnesota Senate Chamber to see a “drama-in-progress” (photo below, click to enlarge).
A workman was replacing a light bulb in the rotunda of the Chamber.
(click to enlarge the photos)

Minnesota Senate Chamber February 10, 2017

I can’t speak for my fellow visitors, but I hardly noted the excellent guide and her associate, a current Minnesota legislator, as they talked about the newly refurbished chamber.
I was watching this skilled workman, and his “sideman” off to the left, as the bulb was removed, and then replaced.
As easily noted, one missing bulb stands out.
Of course, this brought to mind one of the variations on the very old joke: “how many [government employees] does it take to replace a light bulb?” Well, in this case, two were visible.
But where in the wings are the others? The people who ordered the light bulbs, who stored them, who make decisions about them – on and on.
I sent the photo to three friends who are engineers, corporate types, and, of course, I got the expected responses (they know I’m a retired “union thug”).
We had a little bit of fun with this. One of them wondered if these bulbs were energy efficient LED bulbs. Well, from my perspective on the floor, I didn’t know. And it hadn’t occurred to me to ask the question. Just watching these guys work was a great plenty for one day! I was glad I wasn’t on the ladder.
But, I’ve always been curious about such things, so the question nagged at me. I couldn’t find the answer in the routine ways, so the following Friday I went back over to the capitol, and asked the people staffing the capitol tour desk.
The quick answer was, yes, that the bulbs were in fact LED. Of course, they are ordered in large quantities, and on occasion there is a bulb that is defective. It may work, but might be a bit quirky, perhaps flickering.
The staff member also mentioned that the bulbs, which occupy the same spaces as their predecessor bulbs for all these years, were too intense, if at full wattage, so much like the dimmer switch at home, the power is tamped back a bit.
He also volunteered that there remain other examples of lighting in the Capitol which are not amenable to LED. Some fixtures still use fluorescent, he said.
So…I ask myself…were we looking at government waste, or efficiency, that February day? Or does it really matter. Down below that rotunda a large number of committed citizens, State Senators, debate the large, and sometimes very small, issues of the day and help make our state one that works pretty well, mostly, including through power shifts.
So, “how many [people] does it take to change a light bulb?”
I would say, all of us.
Have a great weekend.

On to the next bulb, Feb. 10, 2017

The occupants of the State Senate Chamber, 2017 session of the Legislature.

Dick Bernard: One month.

February 19, 2017/0 Comments/in Community, History, Politics /by dickbernard

Feb. 20: For a long and very good summary of the issues check this “weekly sift”, here.
*
Today ends the first month of the term of the 45th President of the United States. This means there are only 47 months – 98% of the term – to go.
In a one mile race, our country has finished about 100 feet. The next crucial election day is Nov. 6, 2018, about 19 months away.
We will not be living within a “four-minute mile” these coming months, and if the first month is at all a prelude, this will be a very, very long four years.
What does one write about when a consensus already is that a prudent person cannot believe anything that this President says, at any time, about anything? Certainly, on occasion this old man now and then in the White House occasionally tells the truth, sometimes even deliberately. But it is all but impossible to separate truth from fiction from his assorted declarations.
Best I can tell, lying has been the basis of his career “success”.
In my little corner of the world, I receive lots of “must reads”. One of them is here: by Andrew Sullivan. Sullivan spent most of his adult life, including now, as a political conservative.
People like me – liberals – are quite certainly despised by this President as losers, not even worthy of acknowledgment. Our issues are to be dismissed and ridiculed. We are ‘enemy aliens’. All one needs to note are his choices for Cabinet level positions, his closest political advisors and their orientations on issues. His truth is outing itself.
The temptation, even this early in what appears to be a very dark time in our history, is for the average citizen to say and do nothing, to stay “under the radar”, to keep from going mad ourselves.
Please don’t succumb to inaction.
The solution lies within each one of us, one small, positive, courageous action at a time, where we live. This has always been true. A favorite quotation of mine is this one from Margaret Mead: “Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.”
More here.
I hope we don’t give up; that instead we become and remain incessantly active, impacting on those who in turn can impact up the chain of power up the line.
To this end, former U.S. congressman Barney Frank recently authored some advice to citizens which is worth reading. (You can read it here, and it is also reprinted below.) Frank co-authored the endangered Dodd-Frank bill attempting to rein in, a bit, Wall Street and the high finance industry.
Earlier Posts about this Presidency beginning in 2017 here.
POSTNOTE: I was refining my always imperfect thoughts (above) early this morning, then I went back to bed. I awoke to a vivid dream, one of those one remembers, though the specific details are never quite as they appear while you’re sleeping.
Three of us were in some intense conversation about actions for change: myself, (born before WWII); an activist lady I know who’s about one generation younger than I, and a third participant, younger, of a millennial age (roughly 20s-40s).
Doubtless this blog generated part of the dream; perhaps it came from learning that Barney Frank’s column came from a very successful Millennial website; perhaps a Millenial-age speakers comment at a Thursday evening meeting I was asked to convene played into the dream, as did my own union history in my 20s and 30s in the turbulent 1960s and 1970s as well.
The dream ended with a realization that what people like myself bring to the table in the current year is the voice of experience; and we have to speak with that well-informed voice. But it is the people younger than us who are going to decide whether or not they are willing to learn from the successes and the failures of the past as they go into their own future.
The new U.S. President, who is younger than I, from early baby boom years, does not seem inclined to learn from, or value the past; nor do most of his “Make America Great Again” followers who represent his base and seem committed to the slogan on the bumper sticker I see now and again, “We’re spending our kids inheritance….”
It is, in reality, up to todays Millennials, who will rise or fall by their own actions now and in the future, to rise up, and really pay attention to future consequences of present actions.
I can only sound the alarm.
* * * * *
SOME POINTERS FROM BARNEY FRANK
received Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017 from Harold.
After 32 years in the House of Representatives, here is my advice on how people opposed to President Donald Trump’s assault on our basic values — a majority of those who voted last November — can best influence members of Congress.
Done the right way, communications from citizens can have a significant impact on legislators, even when they claim to be immune to “pressure.” (“Pressure,” in legislative jargon, is the expression of views with which legislators disagree, as opposed to “public opinion” — the term used for sentiments that reinforce their own.)
The key to doing it right is being clear about the goal, which is to persuade the Senator or Representative receiving the communication that how he or she votes on the issue in question will affect how the sender will vote the next time the legislator is on the ballot.
This means the following:
Make sure you’re registered to vote — lawmakers check.
Many office holders will check this, especially for people who write to them frequently. Elected officials pay as much attention to those who are not registered to vote as butchers do to the food preferences of vegetarians.
Lawmakers don’t care about people outside of their district.
You can only have an impact on legislators for or against whom you will have a chance to vote the next time they run. In almost all cases, this means only people in whose state or district you live. Senators or representatives whose names will not be on the ballot you cast are immune to your pressure. There is a small set of exceptions — representatives who want to run for a statewide office in the next election will be sensitives of voters throughout their states.
Your signature — physical or electronic — on a mass petition will mean little.
You are trying to persuade the recipient of your communication that you care enough about an issue for it to motivate your voting behavior. Simply agreeing to put your name on a list does not convey this. I have had several experiences of writing back to the signer of a petition to give my view on an issue only to be answered by someone who wondered why I thought he or she cared.
The communication must be individual. It can be an email, physical letter, a phone call or an office visit. It need not be elaborate or eloquent — it is an opinion to be counted, not an essay. But it will not have an impact unless it shows some individual initiative.
Know where your representative stands.
If you have contact with an organization that is working on this issue, try to learn if the recipient of your opinion has taken a position on it. When I received letters from people urging me to vote for a bill of which I was the prominent main sponsor, I was skeptical that the writer would be watching how I voted.
Communicate — even if you and your representative disagree.
On the other hand, even where you are represented by people whom you know oppose you on an issue, communicate anyway. Legislators do not simply vote yes or no on every issue. If enough people in a legislator’s voting constituency express strong opposition to a measure to which that legislator is ideologically or politically committed, it might lead him or her to ask the relevant leadership not to bring the bill up. Conflict avoidance is a cherished goal of many elected officials.
Say “thank you.”
If your Representative and Senators are committed to your causes, you should write or call to thank them — not frequently, but enough for them to feel reinforced.
Enlist the help of friends in other districts.
Your direct communication with legislators outside your voting area will have no impact. But you do have friends, relatives, associates etc. Find out who the potentially influenceable legislators are on issues of prime importance to you, think about people you may know in their constituencies, and ask those who share your views to communicate with those who represent them. On an extremely important issue, get out the list to who you mail holidays cards or important invitations and ask them to communicate with their legislators.
To repeat the essence of point 5, if a legislator who you might have expected to vote differently — e.g. a Republican who votes no on a Trump priority — votes as you have urged, send a thank you.
— Barney Frank, former Democratic representative for Massachusetts.

Dick Bernard: Killer or Healer? A Decision We All Need to Make

February 13, 2017/0 Comments/in Community, Haiti, History, International Relations, Peace & Justice, Politics, War /by dickbernard

Sunday’s homily at Basilica of St. Mary was a powerful commentary on a portion of the Gospel of Matthew: “You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with brother will be liable to judgment.” (full text MT 5:20-22A, 2728, 33-34A, 37).
Fr. Harry, a retired Priest of the Diocese and frequent celebrant and gifted homilist at Basilica, wove his message not around physical killing, but the more common, now almost ubiquitous and unfortunately acceptable practice of “killing” others by actions other than a gun or similar. He talked of a couple of old guys, once friends, who hadn’t talked to each other for decades, though they worked in the same building, who were more or less forced into contact by the marriage of their respective granddaughter and grandson…and in the process of renewal of their long interrupted relationship couldn’t even remember what caused the fracture in the first place….
So it goes.
Driving home, for some reason, I got to thinking of a homily I had heard in a Port-au-Prince Haiti Catholic Church on December 7, 2003. Six of us were in our first full day in Haiti*. The congregation of the church was financially very poor, but vibrant. The Priest, Gerard Jean-Juste**, was a charismatic preacher, and this particular day, he knew he had a target for his message in we six visitors from the United States, an hour or so flight away.
(click to enlarge)

Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste and parishioners at Ste. Clare Parish Port-au-Prince Haiti December 7, 2003 (Dick Bernard)

Fr. Jean-Juste saying Mass at Ste. Claire Dec 7 2003 (photo by Dick Bernard)

He didn’t look at us – we really hadn’t met him at this point, but he knew we were there – but his message about the role of our wealthy society in the U.S. – to be the “killers” or “healers” of this desperately poor country – struck home. He supported the democratically elected President of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide; and by the sundry means available to it, the U.S. was in the process of “killing” this president whose constituency was the poor. Rather than helping (“healing”) the poor. We were making it all but impossible for Haiti to compete in any way with their very wealthy neighbor, our own country. Democracy in Haiti was competition, and could not be tolerated. With “friends” like us, who needed enemies?
While there weren’t dead bodies in the street – at least not a great number of them – nonetheless, they may as well have been: farmers who had grown rice were forced out of business by U.S. undercutting Haitian farmer prices, and then dominating the rice market…things like that.
I got to thinking of a recent visit to our towns bookstore. I was looking for a book of meditations for a friend whose wife had recently died. Walking down an aisle, I was stopped short by a sign, which so struck me I went back to the car to bring in my camera and click this photo:

Book Display December, 2017

I googled the author and found quite an array of books, almost all dark topics: about killing Patton, …Kennedy, …Lincoln, …Jesus; similar about the attempted killing of Reagan; in effect, the killing of Hitler and the Nazis, and per the picture, killing “The Rising Sun” in WWII; the Next Nuclear War….
Clearly, killing was O’Reilly’s selling point for his books. There is a polarity in this country in which many enshrine the idea of killing an enemy: a political opponent, “al Qaeda”, on and on. We sort of enjoy killing. It is politically very useful to have an enemy to kill.
Similarly, I am sure, there is a “healing” niche as well, with a completely different audience….
A friend of mine, a migrant from another country, here for many years, but not yet a citizen, described us well, recently. The U.S., he said, is a polarized country, where we largely exist in “bubbles”, like those two old guys that had no relationship whatever for many years, until some unplanned event brought them together again.
I’m on the “healer” side of this polarity. At the same time, I say we have to find ways to constructively communicate with the other side as well.
“Killing”, whether physically or by character assassination, is no solution. In assorted way, the assassins described in the books ended up dying themselves, either individually (like Lincoln’s assassin) or on a larger scale (Nazi Germany).
“Killer” or “Healer”? I’ll take “healer” any time.
TUESDAY, VALENTINE’S DAY: a shining moment when “healing” held sway.
* – More about the trip, if you wish, here.
** – Jean-Juste was on the “wrong” side in the battle with the U.S. Less than 3 months after our meeting him, he was imprisoned, then deposed to the United States, where he ultimately died, effectively in exile. President Aristide was deposed and taken out of his country by the United States. It was a sad lesson for me, on my first visit to Haiti.

Dick Bernard: Three weeks after inauguration day. Letters to Judd

February 9, 2017/0 Comments/in Economics, Family History, History, Labor, North Dakota, Politics /by dickbernard

More on the topic of the 2017 Presidency here.
(click to enlarge)

The town in which we live, Woodbury MN, would be considered a prosperous suburban community just east of St. Paul. Sometimes I refer to it as “suburban 3M”, since 3Ms headquarters are nearby and many highly skilled employees live here. Politically, we’re probably a “purple” place: our State Senator and one of our two state legislators are Democrat and female; the other side of the district had a hard fought race between two women: one Democrat, one Republican. The Democrat (we call Democrats DFLer – Democratic Farmer Labor in Minnesota) is a young African-American professional woman; our town of 62,000 has a significant number of Muslims, primarily highly educated professional people.
I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was, yesterday, to see our local paper, the Woodbury Bulletin, carry a front page and very long column by Youssef Rddad on the WWII internship of the Japanese in America, with a headline “Does Trump order echo the past?”
Meanwhile, back in Washington…. A good daily summary I look forward to every day is found in Just Above Sunset, a retired guy in Los Angeles. The last number, overnight, is titled: “The Persistence of Nonsense“. [Feb. 11: the most recent posting, again overnite, is chilling and important, here. Avoiding reality is not a good option…for us.]
Here at home I had occasion to pull down one of the boxes of farm “junk” – part of the last remaining residue of my grandparents 110 year farm in rural North Dakota.
I was looking for the book about the 1997 Red River Valley Flood (which is here, somewhere), but instead, sitting on top, was a 64-page pamphlet, “Letters to Judd”, originally written in 1925 and, according to author Upton Sinclair, “reprinted in 1932 and 1933. I might have rewritten it, but I thought you would learn more by reading it as prophecy.”
It would count as “prophecy” for the first decades of the 2000s as well.
Upton Sinclair was a prolific author, a Socialist, once a candidate for Governor of California. You can read the entire 1933 pamphlet here.
The pamphlet I have is the 1933 edition, and five pages can be seen here: Letters to Judd002
Take the time to read the first couple of letters. I think you’ll want to continue to the end.
Grandpa Busch was about 53 – my oldest sons age – when he picked up the book in 1933. His area, North Dakota, was in the hard times of the Depression. He had lost, or was about to lose, part of his land.
I’ve gotten to know a lot about Grandpa and Grandma and their family over these past many years.
Grandpa came to the prairie in 1905 to be somebody. As so often happens to the little guys (and gals), greed of bigger shots than he put the brakes on his aspirations. The Non-Partisan League beckoned; later he was one of the first to join and become very active in the North Dakota Farmers Union.
But I think he was always on the conservative side, not happy with “loafers” who got government jobs in the CCC and WPA and such (even though a nephew was in the CCC). He was a gifted tinkerer, convinced that inventing stuff – he had patents – would sail his families boat, though it never did.
It would be great to have a conversation with Grandpa about “Letters to Judd” – how he came to learn about it; what he thought of it…. He lived on 34 more years, on the same farm, always a dreamer, a tinkerer.
Letters to Judd is about the battle between concepts: Capitalism versus Socialism. We are in a society where Capitalism has won, but have we…?
Read the pamphlet, think about what you’ve read, share it, have a conversation.
What part do you play in our future.
COMMENTS:
from Corky: Letters to Judd is interesting read. Economic analysis is interesting. I understand the plight of farmers much better now.
from C: How sad. We watched the movie Grapes of Wrath last night on [TV]. You couldn’t help but cry at what they went through. I kept thinking of our refugees. I know we shouldn’t live in fear, but I can’t help it. I fear what is happening in our country. Is this the coming of Hitler’s dictatorship time? I hear how, ” this and that” is being investigated and it gives me hope but it’s so slow in happening. It’s like I read where a president was told “Don’t piss in the pot we all have to eat out of”. The women in congress speak up but the only men that speak up are Democrats, Senators Tim Kaine, your [Mn Sen.] Franken, and Republican John McCain.
from Emmett: As I read through the material, I found that it paralleled the story of my family. My dad suffered from a hernia and wore a truss, as did Judd. Our house was also made of a couple of houses brought together, and then other additions were added later. Much of what is said sounds a lot like what my dad said. And much of what is said is still happening today (automation). The letter writers would be shocked by what is currently happening in this electronic world we live in. It is interesting as to how people can witness the same thing and yet process it in such different ways. All this makes me think about Mitt Romney and his comment about makers and takers. You have a work force making things and the wealthy executives of the company take the profits for themselves leaving little for the makers. Yet from Mitt Romney’s perspective, he was the maker by virtue of his investments, while the 47%, made up largely by poor underpaid makers were the takers in his mind. I was thinking that this should be sent to Trump. But I’m not sure he has the intellect to digest it all. All this makes you understand the passage of Glass-Steagall, to protect us from the wealth crooks that caused the Great Depression and the Bush Recession.
from Peter: Here is a letter I just sent to my extended family. I encourage everyone to follow the link and take effective action
Love
Peter
*******
Family,
It may have been awhile since you heard from me about other than births, deaths or marriages.
We are confronted with an administration that seems bent on harming as many as possible of the most vulnerable among us. Most of you saw this coming, and opposed it, but here we are.
Today immigration raids have begun in earnest, tearing apart families all over America. I had seen this under the previous administration, when I participated in a workshop in Boston with teenagers who often came home from school to find the front door missing and their parents gone. In Boston. In America. But this is now set to “surge”, according to ICE.
This can’t be accomplished by haranguing people who already agree with us, which is what happens when we blog or use the Book of Faces. One way that might have real impact, however, is to erode their corporate support, as outlined below. Because, although corporations are not democratic in any way, they exist because we put up with them, regardless of politics or law. And we don’t have to put up with them. They live under the Rule of Money, not the Rule of Law, and in that country [Money], we have considerable, innate power.
The history of the list, and those included on the list, is GrabYourWallet.org/about.
We are seeing a massive power-grab by the likes of Bannon, who is a dyed-in-the-wool white supremacist. He is now attacking Planned Parenthood, the golden goose of his hate-spewing career, now that he is running the White House. That person knows no limits, and believes in an an ultimate war between the few people he likes, and the rest of humanity. The President, as is obvious, is a loon who is easily steered by such manipulators, and will be discarded – a last great trumpian spectacle – when his puffery ceases sufficiently to distract the nation from the deep substantive changes his backers are making to our system of governance.
We are all needed now. Meanwhile, as Joni Mitchell sang:
“The gas leaks
The oil spills
And sex kills…”
Love,
Peter
PS- as with all links in emails, paste it in your browser, don’t click on it here!
from Fred: Here is [a] Kipling poem The Sons of Martha and the note my friend sent. If you want to see Upton Sinclair’s comment [on the poem] just google reviews of the poem*.
“I’ve seen this cited in a couple of places on the web as a key to (at least some of) the psychology of the 2016 election. It’s called “The Sons of Martha”. Biblical reference is Luke 10. Notes here.”
Rudyard Kipling (1907)
The Sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited that good part;
But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother, of the careful soul and the troubled heart.
And because she lost her temper once, and because she was rude to the Lord her Guest,
Her Sons must wait upon Mary’s Sons, world without end, reprieve, or rest.
It is their care in all the ages to take the buffet and cushion the shock.
It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care that the switches lock.
It is their care that the wheels run truly; it is their care to embark and entrain,
Tally, transport, and deliver duly the Sons of Mary by land and main.
They say to mountains “Be ye removèd.” They say to the lesser floods “Be dry.”
Under their rods are the rocks reprovèd – they are not afraid of that which is high.
Then do the hill-tops shake to the summit – then is the bed of the deep laid bare,
That the Sons of Mary may overcome it, pleasantly sleeping and unaware.
They finger Death at their gloves’ end where they piece and repiece the living wires.
He rears against the gates they tend: they feed him hungry behind their fires.
Early at dawn, ere men see clear, they stumble into his terrible stall,
And hale him forth like a haltered steer, and goad and turn him till evenfall.
To these from birth is Belief forbidden; from these till death is Relief afar.
They are concerned with matters hidden – under the earthline their altars are –
The secret fountains to follow up, waters withdrawn to restore to the mouth,
And gather the floods as in a cup, and pour them again at a city’s drouth.
They do not preach that their God will rouse them a little before the nuts work loose.
They do not preach that His Pity allows them to drop their job when they damn-well choose.
As in the thronged and the lighted ways, so in the dark and the desert they stand,
Wary and watchful all their days that their brethren’s ways may be long in the land.
Raise ye the stone or cleave the wood to make a path more fair or flat;
Lo, it is black already with the blood some Son of Martha spilled for that!
Not as a ladder from earth to Heaven, not as a witness to any creed,
But simple service simply given to his own kind in their common need.
And the Sons of Mary smile and are blessèd – they know the Angels are on their side.
They know in them is the Grace confessèd, and for them are the Mercies multiplied.
They sit at the feet – they hear the Word – they see how truly the Promise runs.
They have cast their burden upon the Lord, and – the Lord He lays it on Martha’s Sons!
* – Upton Sinclair: from “The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915.(Under this title the English poet has written a striking picture of the social chasm. He figures the world’s toilers as the “Sons of Martha,” who, because their mother “was rude to the Lord, her Guest,” are condemned forever to unrequited toil. “It is their care in all the ages to take the buffet and cushion the shock.” The poem goes on to tell of the ignorance and torment in which they live—while the Sons of Mary, who “have inherited that good part,” live in ease upon their toil.
“They sit at the Feet and they hear the Word—they know how truly the Promise runs.
“They have cast their burden upon the Lord, and—the Lord he lays it on Martha’s Sons.”
But it appears that for a long period of years Mr. Kipling has refused to permit this radical poem to be reprinted. Under the circumstances, all that the editor can do is to state that it may be found in the files of the New York Tribune and other newspapers throughout America having the service of the “Associated Sunday Magazines,” on April 28, 1907. The editor ventures to doubt if there exists a more dangerous social force than the man of genius who turns his divine gift to the crushing of the efforts of his fellowmen for justice)”

Dick Bernard: The 15th day after inauguration.

February 3, 2017/0 Comments/in Family History, History, Immigration, Media, Minnesota, Politics, War /by dickbernard

Related Posts accessible here.
Sunday till Thursday, the end of January, the beginning of February, 2017, we were visiting a friend who has lived for over 50 years in a northern Minnesota town of under 2,000. We have been there before – we are friends for many years. It is always a pleasant visit.
Of course, we’re in the beginning of different political times, and this was a few days to notice things. For starters, I noticed a small photo of our friends “Gentleman Soldier” (below) who she had met in the aftermath of WWII in Germany, and later married, and lived and raised their family in rural America, for over 50 years, till he died in 1998.
I asked to borrow the 2×2 1/2″ photo, and scanned it. It is below (click to enlarge).

“Gentleman Soldier”, rural Germany, 1945.

It got me to thinking about those authoritarian days our friend and all Germans became accustomed to the 1930s, the days which ultimately left their country in ruins, and themselves, starving.
Back in the beginning, in the 1920s and 1930s, communication was primitive compared to today, not much difference between Germany and the U.S. There were newspapers, of course, and other printed material; there were telephones, but seldom used, and telegraph was more likely and reliable for emergency use. Radio was in its infancy (the first American radio news broadcast was about 1920).
Today, of course, all is different. Makes hardly any difference where you live, you have hundreds of choices of media.
We watched cable and regular news on the channels she preferred. We read the newspaper and the magazines she received, etc. It was just like at home. We could watch the beginning of the new administration in Washington just like anybody else. The new President couldn’t contain himself, with yet another reference to “fake” news (it seems to mean, that which does not flatter him).
Our friends rural community is like (apparently) most during this election time: basically conservative Republican. In the just completed election, the now-President won about 60% of her counties vote.
These would probably include the old guy (maybe my age or younger) who was railing away at the town bowling alley which doubles as the morning coffee hangout. He was raging against those present day immigrants and refugees taking free stuff that belonged to him. His friend didn’t seem to agree with him, but wasn’t about to argue.
The rural town dates back into the late 1800s, and was virtually 100% settled by immigrants from Norway and Sweden but, I guess, he thinks those immigrants were somehow different than today. My guess is the anti-immigrant guy comes from that immigrant stock.
Our friend shared last Sunday’s church bulletin from her church in town. She said the pastor was a veteran, two tours in Iraq, one in Afghanistan. His words are well worth the time to read in their entirety: Pastors message Ja 29 17001 I wonder how the flock received his words. And how many other pastors are pondering how to approach the business of politics in this new American environment.
Our friend also shared what was obviously a hand-made Christmas card with a beautiful piece of art painted on a piece of cloth. It was from a friend with whom she had shared a deeply personal tragedy many years before.

Light in Darkness

Her friends Christmas letter was profound, in part saying:
“My birthday on November 8th began with chilled champagne and the expectation of emotional celebration It ended with the appalling realization that life as we know it will never be the same – in the worst ways. With each new nomination and each middle-of-the-night tweet, the darkness has become more real and more frightening.
The Gospel of John contains no stable scene – no manger, angels, shepherds. No Christmas pageant script. It’ short and to the point: in the beginning was the Word…the light shines in the darkness…the Word became flesh….
In the midst of our discouragement we also sense the fires within to be torchbearers. We will surround ourselves with people we respect who will inspire us and light the way for us to think and act outside our comfort zone. We will donate more time and money to the organizations that support the values we hold dear. We will treat the environment with care. We will contact our legislators. We will be advocates for the people who will undoubtedly suffer discrimination, fear, and injustice under this administration. We will do what we can to welcome the stranger and feed the hungry. We will be the intentional in showing kindness and compassion.
We will do our best to be reflections of the Light. The Light that shines in the darkness.
Let your light so shine.”
POSTNOTE: In the last 30 miles to our friends town last Sunday, I got to thinking: there were, after all, almost 66,000,000 of us who voted for the candidate who won the election, but lost the electoral vote. What if, what if, every one of us committed, each week, in the next year, to do a single action aiming to positive change in direction of our country?
That would come out to nearly three and one half billion (3,500,000,000) actions.
How about it?
And I must also share this commentary from page 47 of the January 30, 2017 Time magazine: Time Jan 30 2017001. It speaks for itself.

Dick Bernard: The Eighth Day

January 28, 2017/0 Comments/in Community, Politics /by dickbernard

Other related posts here.
from Fred: This Dutch film about The Donald is hilarious. Check it out. You need to have a Facebook account to open it. It is subtitled in English.
And this, via Joyce, is on a more serious side.
*
Friday was the eighth day of the new administration in Washington. The biblical seven days of creation come to mind…which literalists believe were 24 hours each; while the overwhelming majority, including my own Catholic Church, have long ago accepted reason and science over belief in the literal words of Genesis.
(click to enlarge)

If you watch the news, you’ve gotten an eye, and ear, full this first week. It has been a bit like being struck by a tornado. You know you’ve been hit, and you’ll be seeing lots of damage, but you need to figure out what needs to be done, first.
The new god is in the white house, and has spent the week smiting those of us who didn’t come around to proper thinking. We’re losers, we lost. Get over it. But he doesn’t look very chipper…there is a certain lack of confidence and enthusiasm which shows, already. And it’s just the start of a four year sentence at hard labor.
Being President isn’t easy.
Rogues in the people’s government who might deviate from the official company line are being silenced (there will be lots of favorites, here’s one that just surfaced). Whole classes of people – and countries – are being singled out to be watched and and their immigrants excluded. But it’s not easy to manage 325,000,000 people, much less 7 billion.
It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that we’re basically good, decent people: Spectator001
For the time being, “alternative facts” (and media) have become ascendant. The traditional media has become the enemy, and is spending its time trying to decide how best to deal with this. When a national administration adopts as “fact” what we used to see as humorous satire like the “newspaper” the Onion provided, and boatloads of people believe the fiction, society itself is at risk.
Yesterday we subscribed for the first time ever to the New York Times on-line. It is an investment, not a cost.
We have long subscribed to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, whose editorial policy for the last number of years has become what I would characterize as moderate right.
It is the newspaper delivered to our door every day, and will continue to be so. I used to be published there once in awhile in columns, or letters, sometimes letter of the day, but it has seemed foolish to even submit opinions there any more. I don’t fit their formula.
Granted, large, even small, newspapers have to be selective – they can’t publish everything. But if you watch them over time, through changes in ownership, as I have, they lean like trees in a wind though, unlike trees, they can pick which “wind” direction they prefer.
I can’t say for sure exactly how large a constituency this new bunch which has temporarily taken control of our country really represents.
Mostly, it would appear that one out of four of those who actually voted on Nov. 8 are the relatively hard core “base”, and most of them resonated to one or more of the over-the-top themes of the new rulers campaign rhetoric.
This new guy would slay abortion; he has decreed that not one single terrorist will cross our borders (apparently we have plenty of our own bad people in our own country, in our own white Christian skins.)
Henceforth the world, it seems, must become second fiddle to our own even more exceptional country. We will build that wall, and the Mexicans will pay…. And on and on and on.
Climate Change…? Belief trumps facts, it seems. Fossil Fuels? When will we learn?
Be watchful and very, very wary.
If my reading of the data is even close to correct, three of four of us are not on the same page as the new ruler and his minions, and the single person who admired his every promise is not very vocal (and is unsure about the wisdom of his or her vote).
Most of his followers voted for him because of his promise on their one single issue, or because they believed the false narrative about his opponent, and very few are in solidarity with him on every promise that he made to them in his blitzkrieg to the white house.
We can’t be silent, now, in our own ways, and in our own places.
The solution is every one of us, daily, in some way outside of our comfort zones. What we do matters, and it doesn’t have to be dramatic.
For me, ending this day, I suggest rereading WWII German Rev. Martin Niemoeller who after the war often said, in sometimes different specific ways:
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
COMMENTS:
from Bob: Dick, thanks for writing and sharing your perspective. You are fresh air in this newly polluted country. Keep me on your mailing list.
I wish the media would be more to the point on some issues. Trump wants to “build a wall”. But in fact he is merely finishing a wall, started by Bush, 700 miles of it done, and parts done more than once. And no matter what the cost or who pays for it, it is as much a waste of money as any bomb dropped anywhere. It does not touch on the root causes for wanting a wall, it does not advance humanity, it speaks loudly of hate instead of friendship and cooperation amongst cultures.
And as for a trade deficit, that is not Mexico’s doing. It is the greed of Americans who are wealthy enough, or who easily borrow money so they can “own” three cars, four TV’s, cell phones, iPads, drink too much expensive liquor, and cry foul when the price of milk goes up 10 cents a gallon. Check out today’s Strib editorial by a reader explaining who is responsible for the trade deficit with Mexico.
from Sandy: [We are] headed for Mexcio Zijuatenjeo here for two weeks and I hope we can get back in the country because perhaps the wall will be built while we are gone (what an idiot he is and my dad would be so upset right now with Donald Trump in office.)
from Paul: Thanks, Dick. I especially appreciated the Spectator article. It gives me hope.

Friday, January 20, 2017. Some Thoughts Towards A Better World

January 20, 2017/0 Comments/in Community, International Relations, Minnesota, Peace & Justice, Politics /by dickbernard

Related posts: January 6, 10, 13, 24, 25, 28, Feb. 3, 9.
Today, an event is happening at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.
Some thoughts.
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(click to enlarge photos)

Participants at Third Thursday divided into small groups to take a quick look at one of the three treaties under discussion. This is one of the groups.

Last night I was at a meeting of 27 people, sponsored by Citizens for Global Solutions MN. I’m VP of the group, so I know the back story of this “Third Thursday” progam. The program was recommended before the Nov. 8 election; it turned out to be a very interesting discussion around three important United Nations documents: “The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women”; “The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child”; “UN Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities”. (the links cited are very lengthy point of source documents. We worked from summary documents provided by the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center. See photo below).

At such conversations, you rapidly learn about how complex seemingly simple things are; and in two hours we could barely scratch the surface.
After the meeting, I gave Dr. Joe Schwartzberg a ride home. We debriefed the evening, and the implications of what is ahead. Joe is an International Emeritus Professor at the University of Minnesota, and an acknowledged expert of the United Nations System. His recent book, “Transforming the United Nations System. Designs for a Workable World“, would, in itself, occupy several weeks of discussion in a book club setting. I know, I participated in such a group a couple of years ago.
Such is how it went for me the night before todays inauguration.
*
We are a nation of very good people, generally. Look around you. Most recently, this fact was brought home to me in the January, 2017 issue of the Washington Spectator, a small publication to which I have long subscribed. You can read it here: Spectator001. We also live in a world chock-full of very good people. People in my group wonder what we can do now and later. Here is a guide. I’d suggest passing these along, and printing both out for future reference.
*
So, what to do today, being among the category of citizens some would call “losers”; and taunt “get over it”?
I looked on my always messy home office desk Wednesday night to see if there was something there which demonstrated my feelings at this point in our history. I found two items:
(click to enlarge)

Nobel Peace Prize Forum, Bloomington MN 2016, and button, Liberty and Justice for All, acquired at some time in the past.

Perhaps today would be a good day to relisten to one of the speeches given by Kailash Sadyarthi at last June’s Nobel Peace Prize Forum. You can access it here. You will note there are four separate talks available, including his keynote, plus other powerful talks from the same Forum. (Information about the 2017 Forum is here. They are always outstanding. If you can, attend.)
What will be today, will be. President Obama leaves office with a 62% approval rating; his successor enters with a 32% approval rating.
The first official acts by the new President will likely be as advertised: to begin the attempt to dismantle the Obama legacy: “Obamacare”, and on and on. It makes little sense, but what do I know?
I don’t know anyone who is going to DC for the inauguration.
I know two people, both women, one from Minnesota, one from New Mexico, who are going to Saturday’s Womans March. One, a grandmother, will be accompanied by her adult granddaughter. “Leaving early Friday morning for DC. On a bus. Turning around after the March/rally, and heading back home. My adult granddaughter is going with me, along with some friends. Gonna be wild and crazy heading east. Heading home, I expect lots of sleepy people. Me, for one.”
While I have soured a bit on the effectiveness of protests, we plan to join the St. Paul MN link – 10 a.m. at St. Paul College.
Those of us of the peace and justice persuasion possess an opportunity now. It is also a challenge. Too many of us have sat back and pretended that someone else would carry our message for us; and complained if it wasn’t carried exactly or as far as we had wished.
The ball is in our court now, in every place that we live, and in every group that we are a part of.
*
This is our country, too. And we are very big assets to this country’s quality of life. Let’s be witness to that.
I look around and without trying very hard I see hope. Two of many additional examples, just within the last day or so:
1. Tuesday came a long message from a young friend, Walid, who has set a course to make a difference. In part he said: “I really think hope is stronger than fear. There are a million reasons to justify killing, hate and crimes. As a refugee I tell you that I will have a better and more passionate crowd if I go out there and say I’m going to the middle east to fight, there are less passionate and more nay sayers when you say I’m going to the middle east to work for peace. Peace sounds too naive till it actually happens. The results of peace are far stronger than the results of hate. The process of creating peace is way harder and more complicated than the process of generating hate and wars.”
(NOTE: I have personally noted, too often, that even the peace and justice community seems sometimes to revel more in conflict than in seeking resolution, which requires compromise. It is something we need to own ourselves.)
2. Yesterday morning, my friend George, a retired teacher, among many accomplishments, stopped by the coffee shop and asked if he could have a couple of minutes. He made a proposal, too lengthy for this blog, but essentially described here*. He’s donated $500, I’ve put in $50…because he asked. And I’ve sent his proposal to 15 people who I thought would be particularly interested in it.
Succinctly, he learned of this project by a simple Facebook search to see if anyone was around who he remembered from an early teaching experience 48 years ago. He happened across this project, coordinated by one of his former students, who, like him, was also a former Peace Corps Volunteer.
That’s as simple as it gets, and we all are in proximity to similar opportunities frequently. We are all in many network.
There is lots of work to be done, and we can do it one small bit at a time.
* – A little more about the proposal. Ten kids need to raise $30,000. They are from the Greenway School district, which is, according to George, a series of tiny communities between Grand Rapids and Hibbing MN on the Minnesota Mesabi Iron Range. Their communities include such places as Taconite, Marble, Calumet, Pengilly, Trout Lake Township, Iron Range Township, Greenway Township, Lawrence Lake Township and Nashwauk Township. More than 53% of the 1,000 students in pre-K to 12th grade qualify for free or reduced lunch.
POSTNOTE:
I dropped Joe off at his home. We said good night. He waved good night; upstairs I saw his partner, Louise, wave as well. Great folks, great friends.
Back home, an e-mail came from Arthur Kanegis concerning his now complete film, “The World Is My Country” about “World Citizen #1”, Garry Davis. This is a film that everyone who cares about making a difference should watch for and promote. The website is here.
For those interested about todays center-of-attention:
1. 1999 Thoughts from conservative icon William F. Buckley, as reported in Red State.
2. Just Above Sunset for Jan. 19, 2017. Always a good summary of current events.
SATURDAY, JAN. 21Just Above Sunset summarizes comments on inauguration day.
COMMENTS:
from Kathy: Today I am caught between appreciating the “peaceful transfer of power” mentality, which I appreciate and respect and the urgent need to push back, speak out, etc. weird day…so sorry to see grace and wisdom lift off in the helicopter.
from Robert: Thanks for sending “my thoughts on inauguration day” and related thought-provoking items. You should have been a prof at UM leading philosophical seminars, etc., as you excel at such. America will survive Trump and cronies but will be damaged in many ways, large and small, as will the world. 2020 can’t come soon enough.
Best wishes for a winter filled with discussion with passion.
from Richard: Thanks for sharing. I agree with you 100, maybe even 110 %. I think, unfortunately, you and I, and many other geezers, dreamers, of our age and history, simply don’t get it. We completely misunderstand the modern world, the connectivity, the lack of interest in “facts”, or “truth”, and the fascination with entertainment, action, the fight, and the inability or interest in processing words.
Make your argument to me on pinterest, or youtube. If not, you are simply meaningless. [Some years ago, my teachers union] sent me to Yemen, with [a colleague], and then to Egypt. I was happy to survive, and after looking at classrooms of 160 kids in [a large Middle Eastern city], that don’t even exist anymore, I was never more humbled, and still feel that way. Our issues are small blips on the radar screen. Glad to know you are well, and still busy in retirement. I admire the commitment! Keep at it, but recreational travel is also a good idea.
Response from Dick: Great to hear from you, a “voice from the past”!
I do “have a life” beyond the blog, etc., and I understand completely your frustration about communicating across the generation and informed citizen gap, and today’s fascination with (really) nothingness as opposed to substance. Indeed, we came from a time in the relatively recent past where informed citizens and idealism seemed to be more acceptable than now (at least from the public information/disinformation frame). I have one former friend who keeps me well stocked with disinformation. I don’t block him, only so that I can see the subject lines – what the alt right is spreading via YouTube, etc. Horrible stuff.
Folks who know me well, now, would probably agree that I remain in the struggle and a main objective is to get young people (like we were, once) very actively engaged in their own future. After all, it is THEIR future.
There are lots of Walid’s out there. We just have to get them engaged, and get out of their way! (I am reminded of a retired Pastor friend, Verlyn S., who in the 1960s found himself as a minister to/with college students in varied college and university settings. This was in the turbulent years of Vietnam, etc.
Late in his life (he died a number of years ago), he received a distinguished achievement award, and I was in the audience when he gave his brief remarks. He said something I’ve never forgot, though I can only paraphrase from my memory: back in his young Pastor days, he wasn’t protest oriented, though he was a supportive pastor to the students of his faith. He said, from his recollection, that back then, like now, the vast majority of the students were mostly about the business of surviving college – just like today. Perhaps two percent (2%), he estimated, were activists, the protestors of the day. He said this to an audience who was getting discouraged. It didn’t then, and doesn’t now, take 100% to make a difference. As Margaret Mead so famously said years ago: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”
From Christina, to her kids: I like Keillor’s thoughts on religion [link here]. I have shed more tears during this transition period than I want to even admit. I cried when Obama gave his farewell speech, I cried when he had the farewell ceremony for Joe Biden. I cried at the inauguration listening to Trump say things will now be different. It won’t be just talk but no action, thinking of all the things Obama has done. How Trump was able to walk into a much better place than what Obama walked into when he was inaugurated. I cried when the Obama’s left on the helicopter for Andrew’s air base. I cried when I saw the group that met them when they got there. I pray that God will Bless him for all he has done and I thank God that He Blessed us with 8 years of of his presidency.
from Emmett: On the plane ride home from Palm Desert, I was reading through information on the seven deadly sins that I had collected to support the notion that humans are a very unique life form when it comes to morality. Few of any of those sins relate to any other life form on earth. In any event, as I was reading through the material, the thought that was running through my head was: How can the people that support Trump and the GOP leadership consider themselves as religious conservatives? They represent the worst of humanity. We have Paul Ryan wanting to take away health care and funding for the needy. And then there is Mitch McConnell whose actions indicate a complete void in principles. And then Trump himself. I was visiting with a doctor from the VA this morning and he was telling me about an interview of Trump and his daughter. The daughter was asked what she and her father had in common and answered “Real Estate and Gold”. When asked the same question, his response was “Sex”. I had not seen that interview, but had seen one where he was talking about one of his granddaughters and commented something about hoping she will have nice breasts. They talk about draining the swamp, which they may eventually do, but first they have to collect enough scum from the swamp to fill those 3,000 to 4,000 government jobs to complete his administration. And when I was watching the Walid Issa film, I was thinking the same thing about Netanyahu as being as scummy as Trump.

#1203: The Time of Donald J. Trump begins one week from today.

January 13, 2017/0 Comments/in History, Politics, War /by dickbernard

Donald Trump becomes U.S. President on January 20. I’ll recognize that he is President, but in the 14 inaugurations since I turned 21 (then, the voting age), this one will pass me by minimally noticed. I’ve come to know Trump far too well for over a year: from his own mouth and Twitter; I’ve learned about his “base”, from his choice of issues and slogans at his rallies, and from trash e-mails from his most ardent supporters. I have learned about his future direction, from noting who he has selected for his inner circle. I don’t think he can change.
One shouldn’t set aside the shameful way the Republicans (and Trump) dealt with Hillary Clinton for years and years. They were terrified of her. I hope she doesn’t back away. And the same Republicans did everything in their power to damage the legacy of President Obama. In that, they also failed, regardless of what they do to try to slash and burn his accomplishments, like the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”).
Following is my opinion, and I emphasize, it is only my opinion. But I don’t think I’m alone.

Germany, 1954

Wednesday, I happened by the television which, at the moment I came by, was the hearing for Rex Tillerson as Trumps Secretary of State designee.
Tillerson has an appropriate high level executive look and bearing, of course. “When he talks, you listen”. He had just received a “softball” question from a Senator along the lines of “how many countries have you visited?” Tillerson wasn’t sure – perhaps about 40, he said. Then he was asked about how people he had met in these countries perceived American foreign policy. He was diplomatic, of course, but the suggestion was that the people he talked to wanted change.
It was an innocuous vignette, but it drew me in. There are about 193 countries in the world, and there are over 7 billion people. Tillerson certainly had talked to some people who had opinions, as have we all, but who were these people, and what would that prove? He has a particular area of expertise. There is not a single decision ever made by any person in high level decision making in government that has not been wrong in some observers mind. It is a reality of the public leadership.
More interesting to me is that Tillerson’s entire working career has been with what is now ExxonMobil, and I recall he was recommended for the job by, among a few others, Richard Cheney, former U.S. vice-president and before that U.S. Government official and Halliburton chief executive.
One might recall that Halliburton did very well during the good old days of the Iraq War. Cheney was a central and crucial part of the team promoting and prosecuting that disastrous war which still involves us.
Behind the easy questions and the unchallenged answers lies much more to the story of not only Tillerson, but every other Trump appointment to his Cabinet. It is a club of, by and for the already rich. The “swamp” is just being refilled.
I went about my other work of the day.
*
About the same time as the Tillerson hearing, the network cut in to the Trump news conference at Trump Tower in New York City. I wasn’t watching that, but later reports spoke for themselves. The media, and the people who watch them, face a real dilemma in these coming long, long weeks and years: Trump is money in the bank for them. He’s a draw, and that is what networks want: viewers, aka generators of advertising revenue.
On the other hand, as evidenced by that first press conference, he is trashing selectively media who are critical of him, broadcasting the label “fake news” – which is red meat for his base. At the same time, he has benefited by “fake news”. It has become hard to discern what to believe….
By now, everybody who pays any attention at all to Trumps routine has to know that the prudent person cannot believe a single word he says, regardless of how fervent he is in declaring its truthfulness; nor how often or loudly he repeats it. Parts of what he says might be true, most likely not. He gives meaning to the phrase “caveat emptor”, “let the buyer beware”. And he is not yet even in office of President.
Serial lying and out and out bullying has served Trump well. And coupled with being a charismatic pitchman, comfortable with the media and a media celebrity elite, about to become the most powerful person in the world, and caring only about himself and his ego, this makes for a potentially lethal combination…for us all.
People best beware of being sucked in. This is not a time to be disconnected.
It will be interesting to see how the media in general deal with the contradictory objectives: making money, and responsible reporting.
*
Speaking only for myself, my specific on going concern is this:
In my fairly long life, I have never seen such a scurrilous, dishonest, down and dirty campaign against a person, as I saw waged against Hillary Clinton. This was waged for years against Hillary Clinton, personally, and in fact continues.
Similarly, a war was declared on President Barack Obama as he became President of the United States, with Republican efforts to block his success. In spite of all of this, the Obama administration was successful. You would never hear such a word from the Republicans.
I see no need to be respectful of those who engage in reprehensible behavior. You expect campaigns to be hard-fought, but not the scorched earth we have experienced for the past many years.
Personally:
1) I have no interest in validating Trumps daily declarations by being part of his audience. Personally, I am sick and tired of the daily dose of Trump, and my limited television viewing, almost all of ‘news’, is decreasing, and I am letting my news anchors of choice know this. I almost never have been surveyed; I have to write a real letter as a real person to another real person. It needs to be done. I have done this in the past. These letters are read.
2) The crucial actors in this continuing circus will be the members of Congress, both Senate and House. It is not enough to be silent. If there are any ways to give witness, such as the pending million women march in your area, go for it, and let your congressperson and senator, and, for that matter, your state legislators and Governor as well. The “nice person” who is your own local congressperson or whatever has a record which deserves scrutiny between now and the next election. He/She most cares about reelection.

Germany 1998

What’s Ahead with an Authoritarian President?
No one knows, of course, what Trump will actually do, which is especially worrisome to those who are “in the know” at the highest levels. No one knows, even the Republican leadership who embraced him, what he might do, or when, or even how. Perhaps he doesn’t know….
I think that recalling Nazi Germany is useful, just as a caution.
First, Americans in general are moderate, nice people. We know that. My most recent issue of the American Spectator (January, 2017) is highly worth the time to read in its entirety: Spectator001.
So were most of the Germans in the awful time after WWI, even in time of desperate poverty. People are people, universally.
My mother was 100% German, both grandfathers migrated from Germany to the U.S. in the 1860s, and I have German cousins who I have visited. A dear friend of mine was 7 years old when Hitler and the Nazis consolidated their power in 1933. She was 18 when the Germans surrendered in 1945, their country in ruins, millions dead and displaced, the dreams of a 1000 year Reich gone after a dozen years.
Beginning in the 1920s, it was Hitler’s aim to “Make [Germany] Great Again”, with all that entailed. In 1933, the Nazis took control of the government. The dream lasted perhaps ten years….
Years ago I got serious about my roots, both German and French. In the process of gathering data from anyone and everyone, a relative in Illinois sent some photos taken by another relative in Iowa who visited the home farm in Germany in 1954.
One of the photos is at the beginning of this blog.
This was nine years after the war, and judging by the other photos, it was obvious from the photos reconstruction had not been completed. This was not the prosperous Germany we see today. The visitor was taken around by horse drawn wagon. (The farm I saw in 1998 was very prosperous.)
The photo is of a shrine in the yard of the ancestral farm house. I asked about it when I visited the cousins in 1998, and I took the followup photo during my visit there (the one immediately above). The statue remains identical to this day, I believe.
I was told that four men of the farm had been drafted into the German Army in WWII, and the statue to the Blessed Virgin was raised as a prayer of sorts for their safety in the conflict.
They all came home, apparently intact and uninjured, but none of them had ever, according to my relative, said anything about their experience. It was a forbidden topic. They had all died, their stories buried with them.
My German friend, Anneliese, had a similar story with a different ending. Her father and mother refused to join the Nazi Party (which benefited those who became members), and he was drafted into the Army, and was last seen about Christmas in 1944. He worked on a road crew as an engineer, I believe, and they think he was killed in Russia, but are not sure, and the search continues for closure.
In effect, he received a death sentence for his resistance to the Nazis.
Can Nazi Germany happen here? These are different times, and as I’ve noted, we are a different society. In answer to my own question, I don’t think so…but never in my wildest imagination could I envision a crude egotistical dishonest billionaire becoming our President, either.
1933 Germans, while just coming out of deep poverty after WWI, were susceptible to the same
messages as 2016 Americans were: anger, resentment, identifiable enemy (in one case the Jews, in another Muslims, illegals….) And the resentment was fanned by a charismatic leader with a great pitch who promised he and they would “Make America [Germany] Great Again”.
There are similarities and differences between 1933 Germany and 2017 America, but the reality is that there is a far closer relationship than we care to revisit.
To start, it took lots of good Germans in the 1930s to get and keep the Nazis in power. In the beginning the Nazis were a nuisance; later, people self-silenced.
In the end, as Martin Niemoeller often said so famously, in sometimes different specific ways:
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
The Thousand Year Reich was destroyed. We have the potential of doing the same to ourselves.
The temptation is to pretend that we aren’t vulnerable; or to say in many ways, “there’s nothing I can do anyway”, and then prove the point by doing nothing.
This is our country, and our future, and now is not the time to pretend that all will work out, that Donald Trump will change his stripes, and “Make America Great Again” (as if it isn’t already a great country.)
COMMENTS:
from Leila: I keep waiting for someone to stop this trainwreck.
from Bill: I am committed to a total boycott of all TV on 1/20/17. I will find something else productive to do instead.
from Jan: well stated and we cannot be silent in the days ahead!
from Joni: I shared to my wall with comments. Thank you for once again articulating so clearly and eloquently what my heart and head feel.
from Suzanne: Thank you for the post…..I will be in DC for the women’s march.
from Nancy: So, my question is why are we as a nation being forced to take Drumpf’s punishment? He has shown himself to be unfit for the office and the responsibilities. He shouldn’t be inaugurated.
from Annelee, Jan 15: (Anneliese is referenced above, and is the lady who grew up in Nazi Germany. Her comments are shared with her permission.)
Your blog today gives me and those who read you what was there all the time, but I and some us didn’t see it till now.
I have been thinking about TRUMP—and the more I think, the more he scares me. WHY?
GERMANY 1933 is coming to America—will the people notice?
Why was I so blind????
…Don’t shut [Trump] out, listen to all he says, does— [my] Papa and Uncle Pepp knew [about what was happening in our town in Germany] but most of the time they kept quiet—
…When you say the media?? He uses it so skillfully already: he said, “The media spreads false news, just like it was happening in NAZI Germany.”
People to this day fear Nazi Germany— His supporters surely gobble that up and remember the bad media.
It wasn’t the media that gave the story about Russia knowing negative things about [Trump]; it came from Britain.
Did he correct that he was wrong? Never!
I wish someone could have looked into the papers he had displayed [in envelopes at his news conference which] showed he is giving his business to his sons— I bet they were empty [envelopes].
The similarities of the 1933 promises Hitler made, look the same as what Trump is proposing.
Give the population some good times and then, when you have them convinced that you are the best— you can do what you want.
What frightens me the most is how he already blames and attacks the press. If our press is not free, the non-thinking population is sucked in and set for doom.
NOTE from Dick: I have known Annelee for 14 years, and she has spoke and written extensively about how it was to a young person in a small German town during the time of Hitler. When the Third Reich took root, it was dangerous to talk to the wrong people. Annelee (her name was changed when she came to America in 1947) is completing a third book on her 90 years of life experience in Germany and the U.S. In fact, I met her when I read a review of her first book in 2003. Her website is here.

#1202 – Dick Bernard: President Barack Obama

January 10, 2017/0 Comments/in Politics, President Obama /by dickbernard

POSTNOTE: Here is President Obama’s farewell address.
I remember, this evening, two events:
1. The day I first heard then Sen. Barack Obama speak at Target Center in Minneapolis MN, Feb 2, 2008
(click to enlarge)

Candidate Obama February 2, 2008, Minneapolis MN

Crowd welcoming Barack Obama at
Target Center Minneapolis MN Feb. 2, 2008

2. The day we heard Michelle Obama speak powerfully at Macalester College in St. Paul MN October 13, 2008. I specifically remember the call to the students “cell phones up!” – an organizing technique I did not know about. It was a powerful afternoon.

Michelle Obama at Macalester College St. Paul MN October 13, 2008

Tonight in Chicago President Obama will give his farewell address to the nation. I will watch it in its entirety.
It will speak for itself.
*
After the speech:
I wrote down a single quote near the end of a remarkable speech by the President of the United States: “the most important office in a democracy: citizen”
It is no secret to anyone who knows me: after seeing Barack Obama in Minneapolis in early February, 2008, a few days later, at the precinct caucus at Oak-Land Junior High School in Lake Elmo, I wrote “Hillary Clinton” as my own presidential preference for 2008. I thought she had more experience for the hardest job in the world.
But I was impressed with this U.S. Senator from Illinois.
In my opinion, President Obama under the light of history will go down as one of our greatest and most transformative presidents. He and his family are, and will continue to be, class acts.
Tonight he passed the baton to all of we citizens. The ball is in our court, as it has always been. We get what we choose by our own action…or inaction.
Organizers, which President Obama is, know that change is never easy. There are always bumps in the road. But progress continues so long as people have the courage to witness.

President Obama, Chicago, January 10, 2017

Michelle and Malia Obama, Chicago, January 10, 2017

Biden and Obama on stage Chicago Jan. 10, 2017

RELATED POST: December 6. There will be other related posts at this space in coming days. Check back.
POSTNOTE: Overnite, from Just Above Sunset, here.
SOME BRIEF ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS:
Those who know me well, know that I admire President Obama as being a classic community organizer. Of course, this trait of the president was derided, and is still not understood, by ideologues and purists of all stripes. To be an organizer is to be a wimp, ineffective….
More by accident than anything else, most of my work career would be defined as organizer. More or less, my assignments were to groups which were approximately 1,000 people, organized into subgroups, and having to deal with other outside groups.
I’d say I deserve at least journeyman status in organizing, from experience more than anything, but anyone who has ever been an organizer knows that you are dealing with a very imperfect whole, and you are constantly looking for ways to make small nicks in the existing status quo for each and every individual and subgroup within your jurisdiction. To attempt to ignore some constituency, however irrelevant it may seem, is dangerous. And you really have no “power” as such. This includes the President of the United States, whoever he (hopefully soon, she) might be, whether he’s an organizer or not.
An organizers job is reality based, and is truly a game of inches.
Idealists, on the other hand, of whatever stripe they might be, follow the “birds of a feather flock together” rule. If you associate only with the like-minded, your view of reality is impeded, and your influence minimized.
Sometimes, often, emotion intrudes, overwhelming reason or anything else that makes sense. The body politic, whether in some small committee in a church somewhere, or the United States of America, makes a stupid decision that they will come to regret. But at the time the decision is made, they are satisfied with their shortsightedness.
Perhaps President Trump will be a brilliant statesman and bring peace and prosperity to all.
It is not likely.
He doesn’t come from a collaborative background. Anyone who watches TV knows him very well, and his base of support also.
We shall see.
POSTNOTE: Here’s the talk given by VP Joe Biden Jan. 12, 2017 after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Dick Bernard: The New Year, 2017, and the Millennium Canons

January 6, 2017/0 Comments/in International Relations, Politics /by dickbernard

Flag drawn by 5th grade student, early October 2001, in aftermath of 9-11-01

This morning I was preparing for a planning meeting, tomorrow, of an organization in which I’ve* long been an active Board member.
One of the preliminary papers to read was a “”Youth Statement”, produced by youth leaders” before 2004, “…to guide the organization’s leadership on how to outreach to younger members and activists.”
Four lines down, in the third paragraph, these “youth leaders”, unidentified in any way, but probably mostly “progressive” in ideology, declared “we do not trust government. We did not grow up with JFK, FDR and the New Deal. Instead, we grew up with the Vietnam War, Watergate, Iran-Contra, and a steady stream of campaign finance scandals. Government has taken advantage of our generation. And so, most of our generation is reluctant to buy into….”
Since the Vietnam era began in 1961, one presumes these “youth” were as old as their early 40s when the “Statement” was written, and are now 13 years older.
Their disconnect with “government” was disconcerting. Who, other than them, and all of us, was “government”? Who, other than them, and us, have created the mess they seem to disavow as their own? How could they officially buy into the notion that “government” was bad; that government was against them, rather than the reality that “government” is each one of them – the very essence of democratic governance?
A couple of days earlier, a friend had sent a Jan 3 Editorial from Bloomberg News titled “A patriotic response to populism”. I read it, and commented back “of course, they’re being “fair and balanced”, but one must never forget that the [anti-government Republican] guru, Grover Norquist, and his lieutenants like Karl Rove and Tom DeLay, had a deliberate strategy to make Americans become disgusted with their government. The collapse of the integrity of the congress was intentional, on the part of the Republicans, to make simpler a takeover of that very same government they despised.”
Today, Jan. 6, 2017, is in my mind the beginning of what we citizens have (it seems) asked for, indeed demanded.
The leaders of the American intelligence community go to Trump Tower today to report to Donald Trump on their findings about Russian meddling in our election; the incumbent President seems to have more confidence in Julian Assange and Vladimir Putin than in America’s own intelligence community. We will wait, today, for Trumps Tweet(s) about the meeting.
This seems to be the destination we willingly have arrived at: a declaration to “drain the swamp” seems to have translated, already, into refilling the exact same swamp with even worse characters.
Those “youth leaders” quoted above are, it would appear, representative of most of us.
We are going to have a very long couple of years, at minimum.
As for the “Millennium Canons” in the headline:
January 1, we were at Minneapolis’ Orchestra Hall for a performance by the always magnificent Minnesota Orchestra.
The first piece on Sundays program was a piece called Milliennium Canons by Kevin Puts (b. 1972). The full Minnesota Orchestra did a great reading of the piece. Millennium Canons premiered June 19, 2001, to, the composer states “usher in a new millennium with fanfare, celebration and lyricism….”.** His composition succeeds. Our version was 7 minutes.
The Canons were a statement of celebration of the dawning of the new Millennium in 2000.
Less than three months after the premiere, came 9-11-01 and we have, ever since, in my opinion, descended into a “swamp” of our own making, in which we are still stuck. We are terrorized, fear ridden. The swamp is ourselves, no one else.
It is up to “we, the people” to recover our bearings, to become again, the re-creator of a government which too many of us have chosen to despise.
We are our government. Let us never forget that.
* – My personal ‘slant’ has been very public and well known since I began this blog in March 2009. Related to the recent American presidential election, see here.
**(The relevant program note is on page 19 (4th page of attachment), here: MN Orch Jan 1 2017001 Also included with the link is a neat essay on Resolutions in the program booklet by Kim Ode. The latter is the last page of the attachment.)
POSTNOTE: There is a great plenty of information available on the pre-inaugural “dance” in Washington. A favorite source for me, a condensation of the primary stories of the previous days news, is Just Above Sunset. The two most recent posts, “American Tribal Warfare”, and “Paranoid and Vindictive Men” relate directly to this post.
COMMENT
From Nancy: I’m disappointed that the main thing you took — the only thing you shared, at least — from the document is dissatisfaction that these former youth had checked out of what they “should” be tuned in to. Youth leaders [there] were expressing why it’s hard to pull in their peers. Their historical experience is their reality. These youth are sincerely trying to explain to older generations why their message [wasn’t] resonating widely with their generation. A message that they are deluded to think government isn’t them is not hearing them.
You said the youth were unidentified — they were identified as “youth leaders of the then-named… members and activists.” And I’m sure they would have been in their 20s, not 40s.
… Date [of the document] indicated as 1997, with two later essays added.
If we want to reach youth, we’ll have to listen to them, not judge their wrong thinking. I shared the document with that intent; sorry if that was misunderstood.
Dick Response to Nancy: I have long maintained that youth have to be their own future. Our generation seems intent on dismantling any safety net of entitlement they have – at least many of them – had to rely on. I also agree that we need to find ways to communicate across the chasm now existing (multiple ways of communicating; differing priorities….) The young people will pay the consequences if they stay unattached from their own future. (I see a lot of exceptions of course, and perhaps there are as many activist young people now as there were back in the activist days of the Vietnam War era. But they seem more individualist, now, than then.)
The youth quoted above really represent all of us, really (at least the working majority who seem to control the election.)
I had seen the statement I quoted before, but never the date of 1997.
Perhaps it is impossible to find a “ground zero” for the Republican anti-government strategy.
First I remember is Ronald Reagan’s very successful declaration that government IS the problem in the run-up to the 1980 election. He probably didn’t come up with the refined version of that himself. Grover Norquist, et al, have a long history, long pre-dating even 1997. He and others were real active College Young Republicans, I believe. (DeLay, Rove, Lee Atwater, too, I believe.)
First time I ever connected this particular set of dots was back in the late 1990s, when I first read a bio piece in the Washington Post, while at a meeting in Washington DC, about Karl Rove, George W. Bush, et al, the first time I read about the 2000 election to come; thence about Lee Atwater in Life magazine, when he was nearing death. I noticed him thanks to Rove and Atwater’s close association as Young Republicans. Best I understand, the Young Republicans were trained to be utterly ruthless – most anything went.
There has been a very long active campaign against government by the Republican party. At the moment the Republicans have won: in control of a government they declare is worthless.
That’s the way I see it. It’s part of the necessary conversation.
POSTNOTE, JAN. 7: After writing the above I looked at my file from 2000, on the Bush/Gore presidential race. Within were two articles which helped define my assertions, from the Washington Post on Karl Rove in the summer of 1999; and a Life magazine profile on Lee Atwater in February, 1991. Rove and Atwater were working together as Young Republicans at least from 1972 on, perfecting their tactics on the road.