Today is Armistice Day.  The U.S. media report it as Veterans Day; in England it is Remembrance Day.

All are the same,  At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, hostilities officially ceased, ending WWI.

There were hopes and dreams that we would move beyond war, but as we know peace is not guaranteed.  And WWII can be said to have been birthed by the humiliation of Germany at the end of WWI.

Thus by the midpoint of the 20th century millions of persons were dead; countries essentially destroyed, on and on.  And, of course, WWII didn’t end war; neither did successor wars of various kinds in various places, including in our own country, among ourselves.  And on this Armistice Day conflicts rage in various places.  As the song lyric goes “when will we ever learn?”

The commemoration I attended today was at the Victory Memorial in North Minneapolis , 44th and Victory (Washburn) Ave N.  It is a very impressive monument, deserving a visit.  I’d guess there were 40 or so of us there.  Vets for Peace Ch 27 did the annual ringing of the bells – 11 repetitions.

As it happens, perhaps intentionally by initial design, at precisely 11 a.m. the monument itself cast its shadow down the sidewalk at right.

War and Peace is probably an eternal quandary among humans.  A reality seldom approached; often encouraged.

Today’s commemoration came less than a week after a nation divided voted for national leaders in the U.S.  Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago still rages; Israel/Gaza, on and on.  “Peace Now” has a good ring for me, but it is not quite so easy to achieve as to declare, as WWI and all the others prove.  There are plenty of power hungry people ready to exploit the human emotions of fear and loathing.  Best we can do, probably, is to witness to peace by our own lives.

Today’s event was quiet but nonetheless profound.

I’m glad I chose to go.

POSTNOTE:

This morning long-time friend Michael Knox sent this about his dream of a U.S. Peace Memorial.

Please take a moment to look at this, and consider donating.  I’m one of the founding members, and the initiative has been in progress for near 20 years.  Take time to learn about it.  And consider contributing to it.

POSTNOTE 2 Nov. 12: The matter of Russia/Ukraine, Jews/Palestinian specifically; Yemen, Sudan….

How to deal with the issue of Ukraine is a quandary for the anti-war crowd, which is essentially the Veterans for Peace membership and emphasis.  This is not a routine matter, given the presumptions of how the next President of the U.S. will deal with the matter.

Just for a little context,  if you’re interested, here’s the first post I did about the pending Russian invasion of Ukraine mid-February, 2022.

Paradoxically, eight years earlier, in 2014, I did a post referring to both Ukraine and Gaza.  You can read that here.

Most recently, September 13, I was privileged to be at the Optimist Club in Roseville, where a group of visiting students from Ukraine reported on their recent visit to the United States – a break from the tension in their country.  Twice previously, in the summer of 2022 and 2023, I was similarly privileged to be at gatherings of two other groups of Ukrainian students.  For all of these kids, in the past two years, what is happening in their country is not something casual.  It’s more than just a sound bite.

“Peace now” has a powerful ring to it, but it is not quite as simple as it seems.  I vividly recall the TV images of Russian tanks gathering near the border of Ukraine in the winter of 2022.  I recall the earlier encroachments by Russia into an independent Ukraine in the times of Crimea and 2014.  There are all sorts of ‘yah, buts’ on every side of every conflict, of course.

The non-violence answer is not simple.

I remember a Nobel Peace Prize Festival at Augsburg College some years back where Dr. Joe Schwartzberg, a personal hero of mine, and I were in the display area for students attending the festival.   I don’t recall the specific year, but this particular day our neighbor was the local representative of the Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence.

We were discussing non-violence, and of course we thought we were among friends with our colleague from the Gandhi Institute.   The man set us back, posing a question: what if you were charged with defending your property and someone threatened to take it from you by force?  What would you do?

We were rendered more or less speechless.  The nonviolent answer would be to give up; the more reasonable answer is to defend.

I don’t remember the exact year, nor the name of our colleague friend representing the institute.  But I’ll never forget the conversation, and it applies as much today as it did then.

First commentaries: Letters from an American 11:18 p.m; Civil Discourse, 11:19 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024.

The contents of this post were written before polls opened on Nov. 5.  A post on the results will follow within a couple of weeks, likely before Thanksgiving.  I’d invite anyone to include their own observations in the followup.

I have no idea what the results will be.  The general theme has become quite clear over time: one philosophy is oriented to the past; the other to the challenges and promise of a better future.  (I’m from the past, and cast my ballot for the future.).

About all I’ll say, going into tomorrow, is that I’ve never seen such a stark contrast in vision; one looks back; the other looks ahead.

The photos below represent my visioning going in.

On the good old days side: a few days ago a relative sent a picture of the last remnant of a blacksmith shop in a tiny North Dakota town.  Blacksmith was an absolutely essential rural business.

All that was left of the shop, opened over 100 years earlier, was what you see in the second photo. Indeed, most of these small towns have barely survived.  I know.  I came from them.  The shop itself (first photo) came with the founding of the town about 1905, and is shown in 2010, over 100 years later.  Such is how life goes.  The persons who worked in this blacksmith shop had a hand in building a future unknown to them at the time.  They are all gone.

Blacksmith shop Berlin ND Sep 2010

Remains of the blacksmith shop pictured above, October 2024

We know what was.

The future, of course, is ahead.

120 years ago, the people who worked in and were customers at the blacksmith shop could hardly imagine our world of 2024.  Similarly, we now have to image 120 years from now….  We, especially the youth, have no choice but to look, and live, forward.

I choose to symbolize the future through a new book I just learned about two weeks ago at the annual breakfast of Fresh Energy, an organization you should know about.

The cover of this new and hopeful book, by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, just published in September, is below. PBS interview with the author is here.  The book is readily available and well worth your time.  It speaks to the younger generation which will inherit what we leave behind.

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I have done three other posts in the last few days if you wish. The Great Depression begins; Watching Congress October 31, 2000; and Community.

COMMENTS (more at end);

from Jim: Good one, Dick!  Best wishes in the aftermath.

from Ruth: Very disappointed that Trump was elected President and Republicans got the Senate.  Very depressing for the world and allies like Canada.  Very bad for Ukraine.

from Joan: I’m sickened and so disheartened by the results, I can’t believe it.

Halloween, Tuesday, October 31, 2000, we were in Washington D.C., and had hopes to visit the Capitol.  But it wasn’t prime time.  The 2000 Election was one week away, and the odds of seeing much was pretty low.  I called the office of our then-Congressman, Bill Luther, and discovered that there was a session of the House of Representatives that evening.  He would have tickets that we could pick up to visit the House and sit in the Gallery.

We picked up the tickets and at 7 p.m. joined a small group from some other places to see the goings on for perhaps an hour.  It was not impressive.  A Congressman was seemingly talking to a camera, C-Span,  about Ergonomics; two groups of legislators were in their separate corners, chatting about whatever.  Nobody seemed to be listening to the speaker.  A Congressman actually came up to the gallery and spoke briefly to us, basically apologizing for what we were witnessing below, which seemed dysfunctional.

On return home, I wrote Rep. Luther and asked him if we could get a copy of the Congressional Record for the day, and very soon it came in the mail.  The cover is above.  I have kept it for the last 24 years, and this week decided to take a closer look at it.  I’m glad I did.

I won’t bore you with the content of this single day report of the Congress (House and Senate) of the United States, but it was helpful to me to do a quick review of it.

The document is 165 pages, 58 for Senate and 92 for House.  (The other pages were Extensions added after the session adjourned, and a Daily Diary).

It didn’t take long, navigating this record of a single day in Congress, to understand that the effort to govern a nation of over 330,000,000 people (280 million in 2000) by an institution of 435 elected representatives is not an easy thing.

The OSHA/Ergonomics speech was found on maybe two pages beginning at H11670, starting at about 1900 hours (7 p.m.)  The evening session began at 6 p.m.  Assorted representatives went on the record about assorted things, witnessing to the assorted concerns of their constituents back home.

The Congressional Record is the official record.  Representatives have a month to correct or append to the record, before it becomes the official record of the day.

The session we observed included names of representatives, some of whom are still serving.  Every single one of them has to run for reelection every two years; their next stop would be back home to campaign.  District boundaries for the legislators we saw would change as a result of the 2000 census; they changed again after 2010 and 2020,

Back home the Sunday before the 2000 election, we voted.  For President, the candidates were George W. Bush and Al Gore.  This was the election not settled until Dec. 12 by the U.S. Supreme Court.  Key was approximately 500 vote win in Florida, among several million votes cast.  Al Gore conceded, though he would have had a substantial legal case to defend himself.  Life went on.

Next Tuesday, every Congressperson is again up for election.  Who we select to represent us in Congress and the Senate, and their equivalents at the state level, are as important as the President, and our state Governor.

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The few minutes with that old Congressional Record was an opportunity to reflect on how complicated a country we are, and how marvelous it is that we function pretty well in such a diverse community.    Governing is extremely difficult.

In the last 24 hours I have probably seen about 100 people, most who I do not know, who in my tiny share of the universe probably have hundreds of priorities, most different from my own.

We live in an immense community (our state, country and world), where our individual wants often compete with others, and we need to share space with everyone else.  “We” is much more than “Me”, and that rabble on the House of Representatives floor on October 31, 2000, was simply demonstrating that, live.

In those 20 years I have seen a deterioration in even that imperfection I witnessed that Halloween night – where we’ve divided into tribes, where the game is more and more win versus lose.  It is not healthy.

There is much more to be said.  Let this suffice for now.

Today is 7 days to the 2024 Election.

It is also the 95th anniversary of the generally accepted first day of the Great Depression, October 29, 1929.  Letters from an American does about as good a job as possible summarizing that dark time in American history here.  The Great Depression ground on till almost the advent of America’s entry into WWII.  World War II brought full employment and lots of death and destruction to the entire world.  (There are various other dates of significance in late 1929, but the 29th was a day which was a major alarm.)

Not everybody suffered, but most of the damage was to ordinary folks like ourselves – our ancestors.

I do family history, and over the last 40+ years I’ve come to an unusually direct contact with how the Great Depression really impacted on my own ancestral family from North Dakota.  I only offer a few snips from a much longer and enduring history.

Harbingers of bad times began in the 1920s. “The Roaring Twenties” was a time of false prosperity.

Case in point: my Dad graduated from high school in 1927, and was planning to go to university in the fall.  Earlier in the same month of his graduation his father’s employer went out of business with no safety net for employees – his dad was chief engineer; and at almost exactly the same time, the bank holding all their savings also closed.  (I don’t think the two events were related, but the results were very difficult for them.)

The situation for my Mom’s parents was similar.

Grandpa Busch was a farmer with aspirations.  In 1928, he was one of the first members of the North Dakota Farmers Union, and immediately became a local activist.

In the junk at the farm after Uncle Vince died I found an old bank statements for an account opened in January, 1929.  There were only 14 checks actually written.  Here is the final one in the account.  The check design was an expression of optimism for the future.

In the 1920s Grandma and Grandpa bought some more acreage to expand their farm.  By the 1930’s they couldn’t pay the mortgage, and things got so bad that the family story is that Lucina, the oldest, a young teacher, saved the rest of the farm by at least paying taxes in the worst years.

There was lots more evidence of the hardship of the end of prosperity.  Back in the early 2000s I was musing with my Uncle Vince about a magnificent Cottonwood Tree on the east edge of their property, and he recalled the events of 1934, the year the tree was planted; in his memory, the worst year of the 30s.  He was 9 years old….  The story remains on line, and is worth your time, here.

Both of my families survived the Great Depression, but both were badly damaged and never fully recovered.  Every family has their own story.

One of many farm sayings I heard growing up comes to mind: “don’t count your chickens before they hatch”.

“The Ground Game” is each one of us, person to person.   There is a huge amount at stake on November 5.  The Centennial of Black Tuesday is in 2029.  How will reality look then?

 ELECTION INFORMATION: Minnesota related; and National information.

Related Post: Fascism 1945, here.

This is my final paragraph, my final thought, before sending this post October 26, 2024.  Our nation, the United States, has survived 237 years of sometimes very messy democracy – a nation which has embraced diversity in all of its forms, and a rule of law, embracing the secret ballot.  We are on the precipice of throwing it all away to what amounts to a dictatorship which will force conformity and result ultimately in anarchy.   The solution – the future – lies with each one of us, now: the right to vote.  E Pluribus Unum.  Out of many, one.

There’s not much more to say:  where I stand.  I’m proud to be a Democrat and voted October 14.  My opinion: at this time in history, there is no “Republican Party” worthy of the name.  Anyone who is running for office who carried the myth of a stolen election in 2020 does not deserve a single vote in 2024.  MAGA has been and is a destructive force, anti-democracy and freedom.

Nov. 5 will be the “family photo” of the United States of America – all of us, especially who we choose as as leaders at all levels.  We all have a single vote.

Why should I care enough to bother to vote?  Personally, Nov. 5  I’ll be halfway through my 85th year.  Under the best of circumstances, my trip is near over.  But my vote won’t be about me.  My vote is for those who’ll be left behind.

It was a personal wake-up call to learn that Kamala Harris is younger than my first child; as is Tim Walz.  (The three are all 60, a normal age for political figures now and before.)

Five days after Nov. 5, my youngest grandkid turns 18 .   They, and everyone after them, also have to deal with the results of Nov. 5.  The youngest is not old enough to vote Nov. 5.

This year especially, kids of any age, whether they vote or not, informed or not, are voting about their future. (When I was 18, voting age was 21. Todays kids have a privilege I didn’t have at their age.)

My advice is simple: before you vote, know why you’re voting for the persons you choose for every office.  If you haven’t already voted, VOTE as if your future – and not only yours – depends on it.

There is a stark choice this November 5: a government for all the people; or a government for one person and the tiny sliver of the population who already have far too much, and want still more….

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Lately, the words Hitler and Fascism have officially entered the conversation.  I looked up the word Fascist in my blog word search, and I think this may be a post you may want to read, the one from July 19, 2016, (Republican National Convention) written eight years ago, before the 2016 election.  (Hitler died at his own hand shortly after his 56th birthday, and right before Germany surrendered, essentially destroyed by WWII.  His 1,000 year Reich dream lasted less than a dozen years.)

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There is much left to say.  Next posts will likely be posted about the time the first polls close on the evening of Nov. 5, and morning of Nov. 6.  Check back. Have a great day.

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Side topic: Brian sends along a fascinating four minute view over part of Manhattan and Brooklyn.  No politics, but just a fun piece of Drone view of the city.  Here it is.  Enjoy.  Thanks, Brian.

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PERSONAL POSTNOTE: After I had finished this post, I saw two troubling pieces of data.  This morning one correspondent sent a notice including a group photo of a bunch of international leaders which included, best I could count, 36 people.  I responded: “Unless I miss something, 34 are men, all but two are white, 1 seems to be Arab.  How many are autocrats?  How many truly respect democracy?”  The group, BRICS,  included people like Putin….

Later, came a piece of data on the upcoming election, which indicated that only 36% of white men would likely vote for Harris/Walz.  This was only data from somewhere.   But it seems consistent with other data.  Nothing was noted about the other 64%.

White men – my gender and color – are definitely an issue, most likely largely because they’ve always had the power, and think they are entitled to it, even if they aren’t.  Played out, their’s is a smug, stupid, mindset.

At the same time, what puzzles me is that the alternative to Kamala Harris et al is very likely the most flawed human being ever to be nominated for the office of President by either major party.  He has multiple indictments, convictions, could never be a reliable witness because he has no boundary between truth and lies, flourishes with cultivating fear and loathing and retribution, and has spent four years sowing chaos.  On and on and on.  He will be a disaster for all of us if elected, especially for his internal enemies which probably even include people like me.

The old saying applies: Caveat Emptor.  Let the buyer beware.

Vote now or Nov. 5.

POSTNOTE 2 5:20 A.M. Oct. 24:  Take the time to read this from Heather Cox Richardson, just received..

COMMENTS (more at end of post): 

from Molly:  Thanks, Dick, for another fine post.