July 6, 2025 Peace Garden 855 Aurora St. Paul MN.  Photo Lauri Flatley

July 2 came one of those e-mails we all have seen.  Sender Terry Burke’s subject line to the mailing list of the Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers: “Sad News”.  The content brief: “We learned tonight that Melvin Giles passed away yesterday.”  Terry’s e-mail continued:  “We were very fortunate to know and work with Melvin for many years. It’s hard to believe this has happened.  I spoke briefly with Jane and Robin tonight.  Jane worked closely with Melvin on several projects and wants some space now to deal with this news – she has asked not to have any texts, emails or phone calls at this time.  We will of course devote part of our meeting on Tuesday to share remembrances.”

I looked an obituary and found the first one in the St. Paul Pioneer Press: Melvin Giles July 4 2025.  Melvin apparently died in his sleep.  He was only 66 years old.

I was privileged to know Melvin for the last 19 years.  In the twin cities, where he lived, the vast majority of people would have no idea who he was.  On the other hand, most of them probably saw him in a long-running commercial urging people to become Organ Donors.  I found a YouTube short video featuring Life Source.  His promotion of organ donation is here (3 minutes).  The video was made in his tiny neighborhood Peace Garden, at 855 Aurora in St. Paul, just east of the intersection with Aurora in the old Rondo-Frogtown neighborhood.

The celebration of Melvin’s life will be through Brooks Funeral Home, though there is no information there as of this moment.

I wrote about Melvin at this space in March, 2012, here.  In June, 2014, two Fulbright Scholars from Pakistan interviewed Melvin in his Peace Garden.  You can view it here, scroll down to Melvin Giles.  The video is Melvin as he is, in his own words.

Melvin’s Peace Garden 855 Aurora Ave St. Paul MN

Two items for this 4th:

The flag at Ft. McHenry MD, summer of 1999.  Keys original handwritten text of the Star Spangled Banner can be viewed here..  I visited the Fort, which is at the entrance to the Baltimore harbor.  Here is the National Park Service brochure: Ft. McHenry MD.   

Flag over Ft. McHenry MD July 1999 by Dick Bernard

Here is a very important writing by retired Appeals Court Judge J. Michael Luddig about our Declaration of Independence.  Take the time to read this in its entirety.

This is no time to relax, or to give up.

Park Rapids MN July 4, 2025 Parade.  My sister and her husband are carrying the banner.

Today is Canada Day.  Here’s the Canadian national anthem in English.  And in French.

A piece of intriguing “junk mail” is worth a quick look if you have interest in some aspect of Canada genealogy, HERE.  Access is free through July 2, presumably at indicated cost thereafter.  At minimum you can see some potential sources of information.

I am 100% lifelong United States nativity.  So were my dad and mom.

But Dad was 100% French-Canadian whose verifiable ancestry, and thus mine, went back to 1618 in Quebec.  And our first ancestor born in North America was the daughter of a Nipising woman and French man.  And Dad’s roots were all originally from French Canada, all in North America before the English defeated the French at Quebec in 1759, and thus before 1776, and the revolution which ultimately led to the United States of America.

My root family came from Quebec to what became the Twin Cities beginning in the early 1850s; then to what was to be North Dakota in 1878; then some of the migrants to the province of Manitoba about 1900.

I’m proud of that heritage.

Today, many of my known cousins, and innumerable other unknown cousins, are celebrating Canada Day, north of the border.

I’ll leave it at that.  Anyone with more interest might want to look at my cousins Remi Roy’s recent book on his family history (and thus, mine, too), and at the same time at a similar history I compiled in 2010.  You can find both HERE.  At the website, click on library, then click on Books, scroll down to Roy-Collette history by Remi Roy, and Bernard-Collette by myself.

Have a great day.

COMMENTS:  also, note end of post, below.

from Fred:  Enjoy the holiday. It will be the last.

POSTNOTE June 24, 2025: a summary of Iran-U.S. political history up to today, here.

*

To help orient you:

pdf of the below: Iran Lebanon Israel area

Tehran Iran to Jerusalem Israel: here (about 1,150 road miles).  That’s about the same distance as from St. Paul to New York City.   This is also a good opportunity to get a fix on the Strait of Hormuz, on the southeast side of the map by Oman.

Iran is more than twice the size of Texas and has about three times as many people.  (about 91 million people in more than 600,000 square miles,

Personal opinion: the bombing yesterday was a catastrophic blunder.  But we are stuck with its consequences long term.

(I saw no good end with our aggressive response to 9-11-01.  20 years later, a generation, our official military engagement with Iraq-Afghanistan ended.  And there are some who think we should still be there….

The same prediction applies to what has happened in the last several days, and as I predicted at the Israel response to the Hamas after Oct. 7.)

No side owns “righteous”.  All sides are “enemy” to the other.  There is never, and there never will be, a “winner”, as I think we will see evolve over the near and distant future.

POSTNOTE:  Many have connections to this conflict.  For instance, I have a grandson who’s an active duty Marine.  He’s nowhere near this area, but his life will doubtless be affected in coming months.  Another American relative is on active military duty in Ukraine.  We don’t know the exact assignment but he’s been there for a long while, and is not yet home.  Personally, I was in the U.S. Army during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October, 1962, so I have some first hand experience, which I recently wrote about here.

Regardless of personal or family experience, everyone of us has a stake in what is happening right now.  Get actively involved.

COMMENTS (more at end):

from Joyce, a.m. June 22: What my Rabbi wrote about the bombing: Tonight I want to share what is weighing on my heart. I know I won’t say everything just right, and some of it might not sit well with you — but I speak from a place that honors different truths that exist at the same time.  First, my prayers are with all of us for strength. The US has now bombed Iran and no one knows what the morning may bring. My heart and prayers are with my people, nearly half the Jewish worldwide population who live in Israel and who – alongside Palestinian Muslim and Christian Israelis, Bedouin, Druze, Christian, and Buddhist Israelis and residents and visitors – are in harms way. And for Jews around the world who unfairly face antisemitism based on the actions of Israel and based on the whole complicated mess of this most ancient hatred, may we remain resilient and safe. My prayers are with all Americans who had no vote in this decision and who will face what will come. My prayers are with all Iranians who have suffered too long from this theocratic regime. My prayers are with all Palestinians in Gaza who have suffered too much from Hamas first and foremost and from the most rightwing government in Israel’s history, regardless of how defensible any actions might be. My prayers are with all Palestinians in the West Bank, who face violence from rogue Jewish settlers and an IDF that at times turns away and is at times complicit. And my prayers are with the 22 living hostages in Gaza including Omri Miran whose father and wife I met in Hostages Square a year ago. We will not forget you. And may grieving families bury the 31 murdered hostages held in captivity soon and speedily.

And even with all this, my heart heavy with the reality of war, tonight my prayers are for peace. This is not the prayer for peace I prayed in the 1990s. It is a more tired and wary prayer but nevertheless sanguine about what might emerge from this defining moment.

from Sue, in response to Joyce’s forward: This prayer is full of all the things we are feeling today (and for the last year and a half). No one is untouched by the racially- or tribally-inspired hatred that leads to the violence that we have seen and are seeing increase in the Middle East. We are all victims as we see our world become rougher, coarser, and less compassionate; as we watch our children and grandchildren grow up in the “new normal” created by Trump, Hamas, Netanyahu, Assad, and the theocratic rulers of Iran. And the latest threat of widespread war, and even nuclear war, makes a mockery of our prayers for peace. I wish I shared the author’s sense of hope.

from Judy: Thank you Dick for this piece.  This is a scary time and one I could never have imagined in my lifetime.

from Claude: Thanks for a great post, Dick…Iran has closer to 91 million people according to a Google search. It is a big, strong country and we just launched an act of war against it.

from Brian:  Thanks so much for your post.    As far as I can see it, Iran almost asked for this.  They’ve said they want to destroy the USA and Israel.  No go.

from Ryan: A song from a young balladeer in Arkansas, a voice of the new generation,  (if you’re fortunate, as I was, the next song in rollover on YouTube is Simon and Garfunkel from 2009, “Sounds of Silence”.)

from Molly, forwarding a Facebook post bt Anne Lamott.

I said to the kitty as we were getting up this morning, “I wish I had better news for you.” I didn’t want to get out of bed, but I had to let the dog out. And I turned on the news: Shock and awe again, same old same old; here we are. possible end of the world, or at the very least, horror. Sigh. Panic. Numbness. Rage. Hopelessness.

So now what? Well, again, same old same old. We do what we’ve always done after unfathomable brutality, from going to war on Iraq to the shootings at Sandy Hook to Uvalde.

After the election last year, feeling complete defeat and fear, I asked myself what I could possibly do to help. After a second cup of coffee, I smote my forehead and remembered I can write.

This morning, feeling complete terror about what bombing Iran will unleash, on what it will be like for America to live in a pariah nation, I dug out some posts I wrote on earlier mornings after, and have cobbled together this inadequate response:

At some point we will get back to marches and registering voters, but today? Today we can unleash waves of love on each other, our families and communities and even our extremely disappointing selves, because love is bigger than any bleak shit and barbarity that the world throws at us. We will have hope again, because of this love, because we always do again, eventually. We have to remember that today. Susan B Anthony’s great niece said in times of horror and hopeless, “We remember to remember.” We remember having come through the apparent end of the world other times, and of having resurrected.

What is helpful right away is to stick together in our horror, grief, anxiety and cluelessness. We cry or shut down, we blame, despair, rage, pray; gather in community, or isolate. I recommend that we do this today. Some of us won’t be able to eat at all, some of us will eat our body weight in ice cream and fries; some of us can’t turn off the TV, some of us can’t turn it on. These are all appropriate. Today we just keep the patient comfortable.

If you don’t know what else to do right do, do love: take a big bag of food over to the local food pantry. Don’t forget Oreos for the kids and Ensure for the elderly. Walk around the neighborhood and wave or hug everyone and pick up litter. My husband Neal said that everything true and beautiful can be discovered in a ten minute walk. Love and beauty are truth.

Talking and sticking together is usually the answer. We become gentler, more patient and kind with each other, and that’s a small miracle. It means something of the spirit is at work. For me, it is grace made visible. It doesn’t come immediately, or by bumper sticker, and it doesn’t come naturally. What comes naturally is rage and blame. Blame R Us. But Grace bats last.

We never gave up on peace and love before, and we won’t now. We’ve always even danced again eventually, with limps. But it’s the “eventually” that feels so defeating. It takes time for life to get itself sorted out. I so hate this and do not agree to this, but have no alternative, because it is Truth: healing and peace will take time. And in the meantime, always always always always, we take care of the poor. This will help you more than anyone else, and put you in Jesus and Buddha’s good graces.

After an appropriate time of being stunned, terrified and in despair, we sigh and help each other back to our feet. Maybe we ask God for help, or Gus, the great universal spirit. We do the next right thing. We buy or cook or serve a bunch of food for the local homeless. We give a few dollars to the vets and mothers begging at busy intersections, no matter our tiny opinions on their hygiene or enterprise. We return phone calls, library books, smiles. We donate money as we are able. We practice radical self-care and say hello gently to everyone, even strange people who scare us. We go to the market and flirt with lonely old people In the express line with their coupons. It can’t be enough but it will be.

I have no answers but do know one last thing that is true: Figure it out is a bad slogan. We won’t be able to. Life is much wilder, complex, heartbreaking, weirder, richer, more insane, awful, beautiful and profound than we were prepared for as children, or that I am comfortable with. The paradox is that in the face of this, we discover that in the smallest moments of taking in beauty, in actively being people of goodness and mercy, we are saved.

By now the entire nation knows about the killing of a Minnesota State Legislator Melissa Hortman and her husband in suburban Minneapolis, and the earlier near fatal wounding of another legislator, Sen. John Hoffman, and his wife a few miles away.  The suspect has been apprehended, and here is the cover of this mornings Minnesota Star Tribune.

In today’s e-mail queue came Garrison Keillor’s near daily column to which I subscribe. IMPORTANT NOTE: to access, go to Garrison Keillor’s Substack and open his June 15 column.  It is an important writing in my opinion.  (If all else fails, following is the complete text of this writing: Garrison Keillor June 15, 2025.)   I’ve been a fan of Keillor’s for many years.  He grew up a mile from where Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed.  He writes from Manhattan where he now lives, speaking as only he can about realities of today’s political ‘conversation’ in our country.

Page one of Minnesota Star Tribune June 16, 2025

I know the area of Champlin and Brooklyn Park very well (the locales of the shootings), but my context goes back 60 years, when the towns were evolving into the suburbs they have become.  My first twin cities home was in Anoka, in 1965-66, one block from the Mississippi River.  Literally, across the bridge was Champlin, where the Hoffman’s settled later.  I often drove through then rural Brooklyn Park, the home of the Hortman’s.

I represented the teachers in that area for nearly ten years, including those at the school where the Hortman’s and Hoffman’s children likely attended years later.

While I don’t recall ever meeting Rep. Hartmann, I do recall a legislative briefing at some point and I am quite certain that the legislator who spoke was then-Rep. Hoffman to a group of senior citizens.  It was just a meeting, of course, but at times like this we try to make presonal  connections if possible.

I’ll say no more at this point.

Those who know me best would likely verify that I am not inclined to rush to judgement.  Largely this comes from my work history of representing people in disagreement with someone else.  I’ve made mistakes on this, certainly – a consequence of living a lot of years – but I try to let the truth evolve through people who know more than I about what is going on.

This is a matter of great immediate consequence to those of us in Minnesota, to others not so much.  Though the general issue is of huge long-term  consequence to all of us wherever we live.

POSTNOTE:  Here is some information on the nationwide demonstrations on Saturday.