Today is International Women’s Day, and this is Women’s History Month, What follows fits the themes, in my opinion.

Much of this blog is from my long-time friend, Annelee Woodstrom, native of Germany, 96 years young.  That follows below.  At the end of the post I add my own comments.

I recommend an upcoming on-line workshop on Forgiveness.  I’ve enrolled.  At the very least check it out.  It begins next week, four sessions, all online.  Here’s the workshop; and here’s more about Louisa.  For those who don’t know about Louisa’s work, her next complimentary session is Thursday, March 23 at Noon and will be offered via Zoom.  Apply at her website.

And here are two commentaries on the Sunday event at Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, Alabama.  Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American; Joyce Vance’s Civil Discourse, both columns for March 5, 2023.

Now, Annelee’s letter, what she would like to say to potential Republican nominee Nikki Haley, sent me in a real letter! on Feb. 23.  The contents are shared with her permission:

Dear Nikki:

In your announcement running for Republican candidate for president in 2024, you stated “In the America I see, the permanent politician will finally retire,” said Haley, who served as U.N. ambassador during Donald Trump’s presidency. “We’ll have term limits for Congress. And mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old.”  [from Politico by Kelly Garrity, 2/15/23]

Do you remember the elderly who had great impact on the world around the time they had celebrated their 75th birthday?

You would do well to remember Gloria Steinem, 88, who through her work earned the title of Hero of Feminism and without her you most likely would not be where you are today.

Let us recall those who had no brain tests; many were over seventy; they changed for the better the way we live today.

Religion:

Buddha died when he was abut 80.  Buddhism is one of the world’s major religions over 400 million followers.

Pope Benedict died at 95  1.3 billion Catholics world-wide.

Martin Luther, the reformer, who died at 63, has millions of followers world-wide (over 800 million Protestants, about 80 million Lutherans).

Politics

Gandhi died. assassinated, at 78 – remember the changes he brought to India?

Sir Winston Churchill died at 90 – He inspired and led England to victory against Germany in 1945.

Konrad Adenauer, 91 when he died, called the oldest head of government – was leader of Germany after WWII.

President Biden is 80; his predecessor, who wants to run again, would in his 80s in much of a term as President.

Humanitarians

Albert Einstein,who died at 76, is considered as one of the greatest and most influential physicists in the world.

Mother Teresa, who lived to 87, ministered to the world’s poorest.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, recently 82, guided America and the world through Covid-19.

Timeless Beauty

Michelangelo, lived to 88, for centuries his paintings  have inspired artists throughout the world.

The Brothers Grimm,  Jacob and Wilhelm, 78 and 73, at their deaths.  Their fairytales are enjoyed by children world-wide.

All of these 70 plus people, and countless others, contributed selflessly to today’s world and they enriched our lives.

Today’s grandmothers seventy’s and eighty’s take care o their grandchildren and great grandchildren while their parents work.

Nikki, millions over seventy built America to what it is today.  I resent your statement.

I am an immigrant who in 1947 spoke five words of English.  Since my family refused to join the Nazi Party, my formal education ended after 8th grade.

In 1967, I was married, had two children and attended college; in 1970 I fulfilled my life’s dream.  For twenty-two years I taught High School English, psychology, mass Media and I managed two libraries.  In 1998, after years of home care, my husband died.  At age 72 I wrote “War Child” published in 2003.  In 2007, “Empty Chairs” was published.  I was 91 in 2017 – “And So It Was” followed.

I am 96.  I truly believe that we must remember our past history and we must strive to learn from it or we will be condemned to repeat it.

Annelee Woodstrom

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POSTNOTE by Dick Bernard.  I’m 100% northwest European ancestry.  In other words a white man.  That is my disclaimer for writing anything about this topic.  Most everything about me appears to set me on the wrong side of the issue of Women’s rights, native rights, etc.  Not so.  I’m by no means alone.  I’m only one of a very large crowd….

I noted that Annelee’s historical celebrities were 13 men and 3 women (I include Annelee as a wonderful representative of her crowd).

I assume that Annelee basically listed the first people who came to mind, which is fair enough.  But her list seems to show that only men were worthy of recognition for most of recorded human history including in our own country.  A more fair list would be at least 50-50, men and women, throughout history.

A given:  roughly one-half of the population is men, the other half, women.  In the United States, women did not achieve the right to vote until 1920, and the Equal Rights amendment to the constitution has not yet been ratified, and we’ve been a country for over 235 years.

(In the family archive, not immediately accessible but it will appear here soon, is a wonderful/awful photo of about 20 women in 1940s North Dakota.  It was a group of Church ladies, including my grandmother, and unlike most photos of the time every woman was identified on the back of the picture.

There was just one problem: Every single woman was identified as “Mrs. somebody or other”.  Not one had a first name.  One of the women, I later learned, likely didn’t have a known husband, but had a family, and a surname.  That was how it was.)

Freed slave African-American men achieved the right to vote long before women.  Of course, that experiment came to an early end in the reconstruction south, not to return for a great many years.

I did a quick internet search: about 75% of Americans are white; 63% of Americans are Christian – of course these definitions are very subjective because even within those demographics there is great variety.  None of the above subdivisions are monoliths – not all white men think alike, for instance.  Nor do women as individuals march to an identical drummer.  Stereotypes are self-defeating.

In the first U.S. election in 1790 less than 2% of the population of 3 million voted.  2.4 million of these were free, 600,000 were slaves.

We are one country, likely one of the most diverse in the world.  Those of us who can vote certainly should vote, very well informed.  We are liable for the results through our action or inaction.

A FINAL FOOTNOTE:  Ironically, one of the readings at my church, Basilica of St. Mary, on February 26 was from the book of Genesis, presumably but very unlikely authored by Moses; more likely by some unknown scribe or storyteller, a man or men sometime long before the Christian Era (BCE).

The text for Sunday was Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7.  this is the Adam and Eve and the serpent and the apple narrative….

What was left out of the reading were sections 2:18-24 (where woman was created out of man’s rib) and Ch 3:16-17 (where Eve takes the fall for eating the forbidden fruit, condemning she and her husband….)

This is not an easy reading in these times.  The Priest, who I  respect a great deal, in his sermon pointed out the missing pieces, added that even the Bible includes another creation story; and he also referred to one other creation story among many others outside the walls of the Christian Bible.  There is more than just “Adam and Eve”.  I think the decision of the Priest to flesh out a bit more of the story was important and enlightening.

Read all of the sections in your own Bible, if you have one, or on-line if you don’t.

We have the right and the responsibility to look beyond mere words for meaning.

Have a good International Woman’s Day.

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As I was writing this a most interesting article came in authored by George Takei and Todd Beeton on the topic of Christian Nationalism.

Anyone who knows me in person knows that organized religion has always played a very important role in my life.  Belief in a higher power has never been an issue for me.  Who, What, How even Whether the Higher Power does his/ her/its thing is not a big deal for me.  There is something beyond us, beyond our comprehension as mere mortals.  Our fate is ours to make, manage, enhance or destroy within the bounds of our own being and background.

Organized religion has always played a role in social systems; by no means always positive or constructive role.  Look at War and Religion is not far in the background.

As I publish this, I think of what seems to have been almost an anthem in my own imperfect life: John Lennon’s “Imagine” here sung by John himself in 1972.

This morning at coffee I watched a lady draw this obviously heart-felt sketch of the Ukraine flag. It was touching.  As she was returning to sit down, I complimented her.  She also remarked on the tragic situation in Syria.  Watch, listen, speak, support, encourage….

COMMENTS (more at end of post):

from Christina: Thank you for sharing your blog with us. That Annalee is so impressive. You know some interesting people!

There is so much happening these days, I can almost understand relying on Tweets, Texts, Mimes and such to avoid paying attention. Just in my own tiny corner of the world, following is some recent

In State of the Union, Feb. 7, I chose to focus on Education policy as I learned it, as opposed to how it is being advanced by the Governor of Florida.  In the last few days came some comments, by Laurie Hertzel, Rich Lowry and Marion Brady, which I feel richly deserve your time.  They are included in the comments section of the blog.

A Year of War (Ukraine), and Snow Days (the recent blizzard), both accessible here, have both had interesting comments added since publication.

The President’s Day blog mostly focused on President Carter.    He was dismissed by critics during his presidency, but more and more his great service to the country both during and after his presidency is being recognized.  Some interesting additional commentaries have been added at the blog.

Sunday night, I watched a film, online: Beyond the Divide, about division and then dialogue between Vietnam war veterans and the peace community in Missoula MT. Regardless of your bias, on whatever issue finds you polarized against someone else,  you will find this film informing and inspiring.  The film is about 90 minutes.

There continue to be very informative easily accessible commentaries on national issues.  The Weekly Sift, most recent, comments on Rep. Greene’s not-so-novel notion about dividing the U.S. into Red and Blue.   My summary: be very careful what you pray for, if you agree with her nonsensical proposal.

Joyce Vance gives a clear-eyed lawyers view of what’s ahead legally on particularly the Georgia election case.

Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American are always worthwhile, and almost daily; ditto for Jay Kuo’s Status Kuo.  It’s worthwhile to stay informed; a responsibility of a citizen in this country of ours.  And stay actively engaged.  This is no time to sit on the sidelines.

I won’t predict the Alex Murdaugh verdict.  If the lawyer were Raymond Burr, and the show Perry Mason, justice would be administered right after the commercial…and it would be Mason’s genius that would win the day.  As I write, the jury is being taken to see the scene of the crime.

POSTNOTES: As you know, guilty verdict for Alex Murdaugh.  I didn’t follow much of the actual trial; it seems evident that lying was not a useful character trait when push came right down to shove.   Lives destroyed and his in ruins.

Fact of the matter: we all lie, often to ourselves.  That’s doesn’t make it right.  Some make it a very bad habit, and ultimately pay for it.  Someone – I think it was one of the Nun’s I had in elementary school – taught us a lesson years ago.  There are two kinds of lies: Omission (leaving something out of the story); Commission (telling a whopper).  It stuck.  Watch your step.

It was noted, quietly, and very positively, that the Judge in Murdaugh trial was African-American.  In South Carolina.

Also yesterday, a military hero from Vietnam was granted a richly deserved Medal of Honor from service years ago. African American, officer, PhD….

There remains a long way to go, but slowly but certainly positive change is happening.

in progress

5:30 a.m. Feb 23: I was up at my usual time, about 5 a.m., when I heard a quiet ‘clump’ at the front door.  It was the sound of the newspaper being delivered, which meant the paper had been delivered.  I walked down, turned on the outside light, and sure enough, there it was, and evidence that the car had driven up our driveway, in fluffy pretty deep snow.

It was completely calm and not terribly cold.  The temperature is 16, prediction of precipitation is 90%, through this morning.  The wind, which I felt was non-existent, is measured as 14 mph somewhere.

Thus goes the great blizzard of 2023, as predicted for Wednesday night till Friday.  I’ll keep you posted.  The paper just delivered headlines: “Hunkered down for storm” “Resident urged to ride out 2nd wave at home” “Travelers hope to dodge the weather.”

(Yesterday 10 o’clock was time it was supposed to start snowing.  It began at 3 p.m.)  Many planned accordingly.  A friend wrote a brief e-mail about 6 p.m.  Our area weather-god  “Paul Douglas got into a yelling match…he was being  called on the weather…some canceled plans today and blamed Paul Douglas. WCCO radio.”

So goes the drama of life.  I don’t scoff at predictions, which I think are usually pretty accurate.  We’re still a very long way from the initial prediction of over 20″, and the less temptation or need to get out the better.

5:56 a.m. our driveway is being plowed.  Maybe my usual trip for coffee?

8:45 a.m. walked to the mailbox and decided against leaving.  Noted the hat on the grill on our deck and took the photo below.  It’s evidence of snow, obviously, and also lack of wind – at least here

Feb. 23, 2023 8:45 a.m.

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Wednesday’s St. Paul paper listed the 24 worst snowfalls in this area.  I had witnessed 5 of them, the worst the 1991 Halloween blizzard, 28.4″,  At the time I lived in Hibbing, and my recollection we got 36″.  #5 was Dec  10-11, 2010 – the blizzard that collapsed the Metrodome.  #14 was last month, January 2-5, 2023, dubbed “The Big Mess”.  (It was.)

Having lived in this area my entire life, I could go on and on, without embellishment, about storms.  We all have the stories.  This one, so far, has been very odd, at least here, as witnessed by the ‘hat’ on the grill.  Friday it will be history, and the march to Spring continues (as I’ve pointed out earlier, I start Spring on Feb. 1)

Have a great weekend.

ND Blizzard, Lamoure Co, ca 1916. Rosa Busch her four oldest children, all girls.  Below, same day same place.  Top of the hill from left, my Mom, Esther, then about 7; Lucina, about 9.  In front, Grandma Rosa, Mary, about 2, Verena about 4.

The temptation is to contribute personal stories: “Blizzards I have known”.  If we’ve lived here, we all have them.  One that has always intrigued me is a recollection of an 1860 blizzard in what was later to be the state of North Dakota, remembered by the near-victim, French Priest, Fr. Joseph Goiffon, here, page range 471-77  (link to the stories follows end of 3rd para).

A bonus “forward” received this week from a friend.  In pdf format:   Inspiration from a friend  Excellent point to ponder.

COMMENTS:  

from Deb: We definitely didn’t get the blizzard but lots of people didn’t get plowed out. It was safer to stay home and off the roads these last 2 days. Hope you stayed safe as well.

from Rich: You are spot on about North Dakota blizzards! I, too, was disappointed in the recent storm. Photographs of snow banks reaching the roofs of buildings, and the legacy of guide ropes from the house to the barn are part of my family story. To be fair, there wasn’t much to interrupt the prevailing winds.

from Norm: I was stationed at the Minot AFB for nearly two-years before heading over to SEA (Thailand) in late 1967.

PRENOTE: There are several comments to the Valentine’s Day post.  Check them out here.

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Thursday evening an organization in which I’m active, Citizens for Citizens for Global Solutions MN, presented a very informative Zoom-cast on the assassination of a human rights advocate in a country you’ve probably never heard of, Eswatini, (formerly Swaziland).

Before the talk, I watched a one hour recommended film, “The Unthinkable”, and I participated in the very informative talk and discussion with human rights attorney HADAR HARRIS,  speaking about Swaziland and the recent assassination of the human rights attorney THULANI MASEKO.  The Unthinkable film is accessible here.  Both Film and talk are very much worth your time, and thought provoking.  About two hours in all.

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Political killing (violence) of all sorts is not unusual.

Killing someone’s reputation (character assassination) is as deadly as physically killing someone.  As I listened and watched I thought about two other situations I found analogous, from personal experience.

First, in December, 2003, I spent a very powerful week in Port-au-Prince,  Haiti, less than three months before the Feb. 2004 coup deposing Pres. Jean-Bertrand Aristide.  Ours was a study trip organized by those who supported Aristide and his attempts to bring democracy to that impoverished country in the wake of the Duvaliers.

Six of us saw and learned a great deal.  Ours was a peaceful and very full trip but, simply recounting from my memory, here are some happenings  before, during and after that trip.

Not long before we arrived in Haiti, a representative of a growing Microfinance organization, which we visited, a man whose name was Amos, had been kidnapped, held for ransom and killed.  It seemed a ‘message’ was being sent to the organization, which survived and is today well known and effective.

We met a literacy leader at a successful school, who was assassinated a couple of days after we met him (we probably heard the gunfire that killed him while driving near the national palace).  At the time of the coup, a charismatic Catholic Priest we met was arrested and thrown in prison, and then exiled to Florida – basically, it appeared, to get him out of the country, since he was free in Florida where I met him again two years later.  It seemed he was seen as being more dangerous just being alive in Haiti.

Another cleric, Episcopal, I met there, was allegedly killed by poison a year later.  An Aristide government official we had met with had to flee the country, and of course the Aristide’s were removed, unceremoniously, dropped off in central Africa, out of sight, out of mind….

I was back  to Haiti, this time with the same Microfinance group, in 2006.  This time the trip was into the interior.  Again, a peaceful journey.

Of course, it is impossible to connect dots officially in these kinds of situations.  But we still traveled safely that year. I wrote about both visits and my reflections are accessible here.

What has troubled me ever since 2003, is that U.S. hands, and Canadian and French, were all over the destruction of the Aristide effort at democracy.  It seemed that “power to the people” was dangerous to our capitalism.

Cleansing Haiti of democracy doesn’t seem to have worked very well for Haiti in recent years.  Haiti is not a destination  due to safety concerns.  It is a do-not-travel-to country.  This is in marked contrast to the Haiti I visited in 2003 and 2006.

Second, my final thoughts on Thursday were about ourselves, what is happening in present day United States of America.

For our entire history, our country has been blessed by, and struggled with,  the Rule of Law.  Law itself is, of course, imperfect, and it is slow if one believes in due process, innocence until proven guilty, evidence, etc.  But imperfect is much better than the alternative – lies, snap judgement, etc.

Political character assassination is the preferred killing instrument here, now, though weaponry (guns) is certainly always on the table.  Every one of us has a seat in the theatre every day; we are all participants whether we think we are or not.

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At the very end of the Zoomcast I raised a comment about us for the speaker, articulating my concerns, which she found to be relevant, and she responded.  You’ll have to tune in for it.  I hope you do.

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Sunday night watch the first episode of the Rudy Giuliani Story on MSNBC “When Truth Isn’t Truth“.

On State of the Union day Feb 7 I decided to focus on public education policy given the Governor of Florida’s heavy-handedness.  It is becoming even worse.  I can’t make Florida’s policy, nor even our state or local school district.  Neither can anyone else…as individuals…nonetheless we have a lot of power if we choose to exercise it.  About all I could/can do is what I did, which is here, simply a narrative of where I come from and why.  I have distributed this broadly, beyond the addressees, including here.  I encourage you to do something similar in your own words at your own place. Public Education0001 is the letter. I urge you to not sit on the sidelines on this, or any issue.

COMMENTS (more at end of post):

from long-time friend: If that notion that you commented about, shown below is troubling to you, then consider the fact that we are supportive of Israel’s attempts to exterminate the Gaza Palestinians via starvation, and our support of the British in overthrowing the Iranian Democracy that was set up after their revolution against the British that ended in 1949, and the Iran Contra where we encouraged Iraq to attack Iran, then provided arms to both sides that enhance the killings, and our unnecessary invasion of Iraq in 2003, resulting in an estimated 64,000 deaths during the night of “Shock and Awe”, mostly civilians, and most of which were women and children again.  That war and its aftereffects took the lives of around a half million by some estimates, and again, mostly women and children.  Unfortunately, we are not a country of good people.

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“What has troubled me ever since 2003, is that U.S. hands, and Canadian and French, were all over the destruction of the Aristide effort at democracy.  It seemed that “power to the people” was dangerous to our capitalism.”