Propaganda

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What is Ukraine’s history?  Here is an 8 minute PBS video on the topic which is very interesting.

Several commentaries about Russian disinformation have come by recently.  I invite you to read them.  I have some personal comments at the end.  This is not a simple topic.

A couple of days ago a long-time friend sent the following to two of us.  We all generally agree on things political.  The article is here, translated from the original Russian.  The pull quote from the article is hers:

“Everything that Russia has done for the West, it has done at its own expense, by making the greatest sacrifices. The West ultimately rejected all these sacrifices, devalued Russia’s contribution to resolving the Western crisis, and decided to take revenge on Russia for the help that it had selflessly provided. From now on, Russia will follow its own way, not worrying about the fate of the West…”

A day later came another, a post in Politico, from an activist friend, about youth in Russia (if you’re 22 or less the only Russian President you’ve probably ever known is Putin, who’s been President all but four years, 2008-2012,` since 2000.)

Today, yet a third, from “The Weekly Sift”, a thought out commentary titled “Why the Russians did it”.

There are more, but let these suffice for now.

My comments:

My earlier posts on the topic are here (the first Feb. 16).

I was surprised that the Russians actually invaded Ukraine.  I have not been surprised by the atrocities and the disinformation.

In my opinion, President Biden’s administration of the horrible situation has been admirable.  Of course, there are endless opinions about that.  The presidency is a lonely place.  The restraint by the president, means we have so far avoided a broader and even deadlier war, notable after over a century of deadly wars.  [April 11: Heather Cox Richardson has an excellent column about the press and Biden, here.]

It is easy to kick around the United Nations but the assorted coalitions which have evolved with the UN over the years have done and are doing yeoman service under awful conditions, and not only with respect to Ukraine.  Without the UN and the abundance of other organizations, like WHO etc, the situation would be much worse.

My country, the United States of America, enters this conflict without clean hands – something easy to ignore when things are cast as good versus evil, and evil is always the other party.

The U.S. is given considerable credit for the perfection of propaganda, going way back to the yellow news media, Pulitzer, Hearst et al, and the campaign eliciting citizen support for World War I through the Creel Committee.   One character on that committee staff has always fascinated me: Edward Bernays.  His expertise in manipulating public opinion was copied by others, like Joseph Goebbels.  We Americans are hypnotized by advertising, which is propaganda, pure and simple.

Most of the codes of conduct for war, like the Geneva Convention, and terms like “war crimes”, are largely inventions around the 20th century.  Before 1900s, brute power ruled.  So it was considered fair game to depopulate our country of its indigenous persons.  That didn’t meet the definition of genocide, which came later.

The 20th century was the century of making war more and more deadly, especially to civilians.

We can’t avoid talking about our role in Vietnam, and later Afghanistan and Iraq.  Etc.  But these topics almost never come up in any context from any quarter these days.   But they’re in the very near background – out of sight, but not out of mind.

And, of course, the United Nations was never designed to have united power.  Five nations: the U.S., United Kingdom, France, Russia and China, have power of veto over most anything of substance.  The rules do not apply to those five, the winners of WWII.  This was intended at the start, and hard to change.

And when the 45th president of the United States took office, he clearly favored authoritarians like Putin.  He ran for reelection and got 74,000,000 votes, and while he lost by 8,000,000 he will never admit it.  And people are still covering for him.  This says too much about our own citizenry.

There are lots of valid reasons for an American to be cynical about America at this point in our history.

I am an American, and I give a damn.  I respect my country with all of its abundant faults, which I think we have to acknowledge and deal with.

I have long been active in an organization now called Citizens for Global Solutions which has a very long history.  Both the State and National work at being a voice for positive change in our world.  We are a small voice, but we are a voice.  Take a look at both state and national and consider getting involved.  see the most recent national newsletter which has some excellent commentaries.  Some food for thought.

Putin and Russia are serious problems, but ‘we, the people’ are an even larger problem, and paradoxically the only solution to our current malaise.

Be on the court as an individual.  It’s the only solution.

That’s my opinion.  What’s yours?

COMMENTS (more at end of post): 

from Carol: This is my 2 cents, and you likely won’t agree with me.  It’s long – please free to share all, part, or none at all.  I think we as a country have to get more involved – with overwhelming Ukrainian air support, not the “boots on the ground” stuff.  The Ukrainians are doing an awesome job on the ground themselves.  And I have now sent a message saying that to my senators, representative, and the White House.

You are correct that Biden did an extraordinary job of rallying our allies so far as sanctions, and donations of military equipment.  And apparently the Ukrainians are putting what the West has sent them to very good use.  Their patriotism, and determination to defend their country, are awe-inspiring.  Their president is awe-inspiring.  We cannot just continue to watch while their whole democratic nation (a democracy we encouraged) is demolished.
I say this partly because of the brutal massacres in Bucha (I’m sure the same is happening in many other cities we can’t see yet), the horrific attack on refugees at the train station (after they were specifically advised to flee the area) and, to tell the truth, partly because of that chilling article from Russia.  When I first saw the article, the poster said that the author is someone close to Putin and it would not have been published without his approval.
The article also reveals their plan of shoving the “Russia haters” into the west of the country, into a kind of non-country, subject to Russian regulations and controlled by Russia’s military.  They intend to assassinate Ukraine’s leaders, and punish or kill many of its people.  There will be no “Marshall Plan,” it says, for the former Ukraine – they will have to rely on Russia for any help.  There are references to European and U.S. culture, which they’d love to wipe out.
Putin has made no secret of the fact he wants to restore the U.S.S.R. to its former glory.  Poland, it is said, is on his list.
Biden, et al. keeps assuring everybody that Putin will not take “one inch” of NATO territory.  Well, if he’s successful in Ukraine, what’s going to stop him?  The West is sitting on its hands solely because he has nukes, and has threatened to use them.  Is that going to change?  I realize that NATO is a defensive organization.  However, individual countries do not need NATO’s permission in order to act here.
The U.S. had little problem with invading Iraq for absolutely no reason – and in getting involved elsewhere where it was hard to tell the good guys from the bad (as you pointed out).  This time it’s obvious who the villains are, but here we sit hoping that we don’t anger Putin by giving Ukraine TOO many weapons that are TOO bad.  I believe if we do not confront Putin now (at a time when his own army has taken quite a beating), we will be forced to do so down the road.  Then it will be harder – and there will have been a lot more innocent lives lost plus destruction of most everything in sight.  I don’t believe he intends to stop unless, like all bullies, he’s made to.
As far as the threat of a nuclear attack, are we all supposed to just let any nuclear-armed country now have their way with any neighbors they might choose to exterminate?  China, perhaps?  Or maybe North Korea might decide to annex South Korea.  This is a terrible precedent.  That’s a world I think none of us want to live in.  Putin knows that many of the world’s nuclear weapons are all pointing at him.  He may be a fool, but he’s not about to have his legacy be the annihilation of Russia.
Response from Dick: At the beginning, you say “you likely won’t agree with me”.  Not so.  We are witnessing evil at work; unfortunately, it is and has been at work also in our own country, since the beginning of our history.  In Putin, I see ourselves.
The solution has to be thoroughly debated, and is being debated, appropriately, even in the anti-war Left, of which I’ve been part since our response to 9-11-01, which I felt to be insane, and we proved it with a 20 year unwindable war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
So, I’ve become sort of an orphan on the left, by choice, at this moment.  I just don’t think we’ll ever be able to end war, but I hate war.  Ukraine is an example.
A few weeks ago, came a couple of local articles on a peacemaker list of which I’m part, and I’m linking them here: Facts over ideology.  Basically, I resonated with most of the “Facts Over Ideology…” piece by Terry and Andrew, and told them so.  Mike’s response seems to reflect the basic more Left position, which seems to be that anyone is more pure than the U.S. and if they said they were antiwar, so they were.
At this very moment, in our Citizens for Global Solutions group, we are working to decide how to engage in the long-going debate on ratifying the International Criminal Court, which the U.S. has never agreed to join.  (See #2 in the link above.)
What seems apparent to me, my personal opinion, is that the powers that be in the United States, which is the Senate, do not want to be bound by such statutes which may find us culpable of war crimes ourselves.  Note the comment in said #2:  “in 1998 the US was one of only seven countries – along with China, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Qatar, and Yemen – that voted against the Rome Statute. US President Bill Clinton signed the Rome Statute in 2000 but did not submit the treaty to the Senate for ratification. In 2002, President George W. Bush effectively “unsigned” the treaty, sending a note to the United Nations secretary-general that the US no longer intended to ratify the treaty and that it did not have any obligations toward it.”    Presidents cannot do such things by themselves, and “we, the people” through our representatives stand in the way.
See also Peter’s comment below as well.
We are only individuals, but this war will be fought in November at the American ballot box.  We can’t stand idly by.
Thanks much for feeding in.

from Terry and Andy to the Peacemakers group, meeting today (April 12):

A friend pointed out this article on Juan Cole’s site yesterday.  I thought it was good – it is tough for us to be on the same side as the mainstream. I’ve seen that sentiment from a number of friends.  But we have to recognize there are multiple imperialisms – the US is not the only imperial power. And sometimes the US is not the worst actor in the room.  The author has included very good background analysis on Putin, NATO, and Ukraine.  I hope you find the article useful.
Peace, Terry

The Left has to Recognize Russian Imperialism in Ukraine or it is Trapped in Americocentrism

Excerpts:

 It is tough for leftists to be on the same side as the mainstream. We can easily feel at those times that we’re missing something, that we’re letting down the struggle, that by ganging up even on an admittedly bad actor we’re helping strengthen the nemesis at home, allowing it to appear as the good guy.
But for leftists to be more concerned with the security interests of a great power—in this case, a right-wing militarist power that supports itself almost entirely by the mining and selling of planet-killing fossil fuels—than with the desires of a small people hoping to secure their independence and not be invaded, is scandalous. Leftists never treat the peoples marginalized by western imperialism in such a dismissive way.
Almost no one on the left has supported the war. But saying “Down with the Russian invasion” and then turning immediately to blaming America, and only America, for provoking it is almost the same. Not only does it show a lack of basic understanding about Russia, it is also a stunning betrayal of the most basic internationalist principles. If we want to support the right of self-determination to America’s neighbors, we can’t deny the same to Russia’s. If we’re not able to recognize multiple imperialisms, we are guilty of the same kind of Americocentrism for which we castigate others.
from Fred:  [This link] carries information about the Russian army and its complicated recruitment issues dating back quite a ways. At the bottom of the piece, is a link about modern US and Israeli missile defenses that is also good.
from Carol: Tim Snyder commentary, Russia’s Genocide Handbook.
More from Terry, April 13: I know Terry, personally, and yesterday she was involved in a zoom meeting of an organization of which I’m a member, but I didn’t attend the meeting.  Afterwards she shared some resources you may wish to review.  She’s been involved in issues like this for years, most recently with Russian involvement Syria, which in many ways seems a companion study for what is now going on in Ukraine.
“As promised, sharing with you a couple of resources I mentioned in the chat. Please let me know if you have any questions about these. And of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg, something to start with. 
1. For those interested in learning more about the history of Ukraine, I recommend checking some works of Timothy Snyder. Here are his book recommendations and here is his bio and website. There are also some lectures and videos on his website. 
2. For a very brief overview of key events that explain historical context leading up to the war, I recommend this summary done by Razom, a group of Ukrainian and Ukrainian-American activists in the US. You can also donate to their causes on their website, they are one of the largest Ukrainian activists movements in the US.”

 

 

Rebirth

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This may appear to be a ‘miscellaneous’ post.  It is not.  If you have any interest in heritage, in my case, French-Canadian, you will possibly find something of interest within…something which may jog your own memory.

On the other hand, you may not be interested.   There’s plenty of very serious stuff to consider, but let’s divert for a week or two.

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My sister, Flo, seems to have a family trait which I share: “reuse and recycle”.  So when I got the below postcard from her a short while ago, it reminded me of the premiere event we attended at the rural Minnesota resort, Val Chatel, probably back in the 1970s.  The postcard says this: “Vikings!  A two hour live play on a magnificent outdoor stage surrounded by the beauty of the Northwoods.  Fascinating family entertainment, colorful costumes, exciting music and spectacular dance.  All new ampitheater located at Val Chatel on County Road 4, 16 miles north of Park Rapids, Minnesota.”

Postcard advertising “Viking” at Val Chatel, rural Park Rapids MN, ca 1970s

It was a nice night; the mosquitoes were manageable, and the Vikings did cross the lake, and land!  A nice evening.

Such spectacles are hard to maintain in rural areas.  “Vikings”  is in the category of ‘long ago’, now.  Val Chatel, then a happening place, descended nearly into ruins, and when I googled it recently, I found it is being resurrected as part of a public land trust for a park by a private donor.  That story is interesting in itself.

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A popular Quebec song is here.  (It’s satire, but within satire is truth….)

The remainder of this post is primarily links about history and heritage.  If you are interested, these are interesting pieces for your spare time.  If not, have a good Easter and Spring.

  1. A group from my French in America organization is preparing a book about over 70 French-Canadian families from Quebec who settled in rural Dayton MN, about 25 miles up the Mississippi River from downtown Minneapolis.  Two of those families were mine, Blondeau and Collette.  Here are some snippets of information I submitted about these families who came west to Minnesota territory in the mid-1850s, before Minnesota became a state: Dayton Blondeau Collette  The document is three pages.  Here is a tintype of my great grandparents, Clotilde Blondeau and Octave Collette, after their marriage at St. Anthony (later part of Minneapolis) July 12, 1868.  They spent almost all of their. long married life at Oakwood North Dakota.
  2. Along similar lines, three years ago I and many others heard a fascinating two hour talk by historian John Vanek about the history of Benjamin Gervais, born at the end of the 17th century in Quebec, and his wife, Genevieve Laurence, born early in the 18th century, one of the very first families to settle what became St. Paul at the beginning of the 1840s.  The two-hour YouTube video is here.  It is very well worth your time if you have even a small interest in voyageur days, how people lived and moved, and the settlement from what became todays Winnipeg to St. Paul.  The presentation was filmed at the Little Canada Historical Society in September, 2019.
  3. Finally, some years ago I was privileged to meet a gifted friend from French Canada.  Over the years, Emilie, who now lives in Montreal, received a grant from the National Geographic Society to develop a significant exhibit on the matter of ancestry and diversity.  This week she sent collaborators a brief video, about three minutes, describing her project as it is to date, and a photo (below) of one of the exhibits she is developing for NatGeo, a large quilt.   In my opinion, hers is a very important project, and I look forward to seeing more about it.  Her brief summary gives much food for thought.  This is shared with her permission.

Finally, the title of this post is “Rebirth”.  Spring.  Easter…. Your choice.

I thought it appropriate to share the flowers (below), planted by my Aunt Edithe at her then-home in rural LaMoure ND.  She had been in assisted living, then in Nursing Home for some months when the 2013 growing season came, and the flowers came to their own conclusion and grew of their own volition, with no outside help.  Edithe died in 2014 at the age of 93.  She lives on is these flowers.  Who do you remember, this day?

Aunt Edithe’s untended voluntaries at the ND farm May 17, 2013.

Have a wonderful Easter.

COMMENTS:  More at end of post.

from Emilie (see #3 above):  So nice to hear from you, and thank you so much for sharing your blog with me. I am honored to be mentioned in it. I am awaiting answers for the exhibition. It might be with National Geographic, a partner institution, or a different outcome. The decision isn’t mine. I will keep you all posted as soon as I know.Have a lovely weekend.

from Fred: You Frenchies are getting organized. You and your group have helped generate a lot of interest. As I mentioned to you, the stories related are not nearly as well known about the Brits and Old Stock Americans.

I’d like to get an audience like that speaker on the Gervais family had. Of course they were almost all related. It was a very well organized and illustrated talk; liked the maps.

Kudos on your voice appearance [in Emilie’s preview, I have two very brief appearances at about 2 minutes in]. I could pick you out. It was wise not to have actual photos shown for security and other reasons.

from David Vermette, author of the book “A Distinct Alien Race, the Untold Story of Franco-Americans” (simply search the title.  This is a very well received and worthwhile book with many reviews.)

David’s comment: Your blog post and book project both sound interesting.
I read a good book that might also interest you: “Les Voyages de Charles Morin.” It is a diary of a French-Canadian who leaves his home and travels all over N. America before settling in Argyle, MN where he becomes one of the elders of the town. It’s not fiction but a translation of Morin’s journals. It’s a fascinating peek into the mind of a person who was very like our ancestors. I reviewed the book but the review is behind a paywall. Here’s another review by Susan Pinette. If you have not read Candace Savage’s “Strangers in the House” I also recommend that one, too.
Thanks for getting in touch and please do let me know when your book is released.
Note to David and all from Dick:  David’s review of the Morin book appears to be of the French academic translation of the diary.  Morin’s great grandson Jim Morin, has published an English version of the same diary, “Charles Napoleon Morin Memories of My Travels and Adventures”.  This is also available on the internet.  I have this version and it is very interesting.  Jim Morin lives in the Twin Cities, and has given a talk on the book for the French American Heritage Foundation.  I couldn’t attend, but I understand it was very interesting.
The Dayton book referred to above will probably be available later in the summer, and details will be at the website of the French-American Heritage Foundation.

Teamwork

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Recently, there have been a blizzard of happenings.  In each, some aspect of “Team” surfaces.

First, Ukraine isn’t mentioned below but, to be clear, what is happening now in Ukraine has to be world priority #1, and each of us is integral to this.   We cannot sit idly by.  Do something.

Second, Global Minnesota has an open to the public program on Thursday, April 7, on World Health Equity.  All information is here.  The agenda looks very interesting.  Do check it out.

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For me, for the first time in years, I prioritized Basketball – both the semis and finals of the Final Four Men’s NCAA, and the finals of the Women’s NCAA.

These were some of the basketball teams I watched: Villanova, Kansas, Duke, North Carolina, UConn (Connecticut), South Carolina, St. Peter’s (Jersey City NJ), Texas Tech.  (Of course, the “Kansas” team members are not all born and raised Kansans, et al.)

I also watched part of the Oscars, a little of the Grammy’s, and heard about the successful union organizing that won employee representation at Amazon in New York, as well as settlement of a strike in Minnesota.

And on and on I could go.  As you know, lots going on.  LOTS of teams.

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Then there’s “Team USA”:  Us.  In this most recent time frame came the Senate Judiciary Committee, yesterday voting 11-11 on recommending a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.  One can legitimately wonder how in the world a country which nurtures this kind of division can thrive.  Our elected political representatives at every level are US.

Earlier this afternoon President Biden signed an Executive Order expanding the very popular yet still maligned “Obamacare”.  I watched Presidents Biden and Obama as they talked about that.  Here are the remarks as they appear on the White House website.

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We live in a Team World- I’d say it’s part of being human.  This is never perfect.  Every one of us knows from personal experience how teams work…and don’t…and why….

Winning teams aren’t divided against themselves.

Our own country – Team USA – is obviously in such a state of division at this time.  It is unhealthy for our future.

The basketball teams are obvious examples of working together.  Such teams aren’t perfect, as we can see.  Just watch the 40 minutes of any game.  Easy shots are missed.  On and on.  But generally, you see an extraordinarily well-oiled machine working together, passing, shooting, rebounding, supporting….  Like all of us, athlete personalities differ, but their skills complement each other, and they know and respect this.

Of course, all teams are  imperfect.  None of the winning NCAA teams listed above could thrive if there was only a star, or an outstanding coach, or only people who could dunk, or could shoot free throws.  Winning teams have people with varied skills.  Yes, they have egos, but in the end analysis, they blend their talents towards an ultimate objective.

The same applies to other groups.  I watched only parts of the Oscars, but I know that on the road to Best Picture, or whatever the honor, there are a huge number of people, collaborating to do the work leading to the Oscar which is given to one or more people.  Every success worth anything results because of a Team.

In our country, and in our world, disagreement is inevitable.  It is apart of the human condition.  But division is disabling if not resolved.  Resolution is a basis of relationships generally.  The assorted versions of Win/Lose are always losers for every one including the winners.

And “team” is more than just the ten players on the floor at the NCAA game.  They are everyone on the bench and in the stands.  We all have a role, and it’s not bystander.

I still think that Margaret Mead said it best: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”   We all make the difference.

POSTNOTE same day: Tonight we watched Ken Burns new film on Benjamin Franklin.  Outstanding.  Check your local PBS station.

Colm’s Mom

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PRENOTE:  My Comments on the Ketanji Brown Jackson hearing in Senate Judiciary this past week, here.

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Last Sunday, my sister in New York State invited family members to visit the live webcam overlooking the business street in Park Rapids MN.  We agreed to rendezvous there by phone at 2 p.m., at which time my Park Rapids sister and her husband would make their cameo appearance on line, for 15 minutes.  They followed through.  You can see them standing behind the cars in mid-street (the normal parking pattern on this street in Park Rapids).  There wasn’t much drama!  On the other hand, it was an interesting view of small town Minnesota.

Park Rapids MN 2:05 p.m. March 20, 2022

My brother John, lunching with a friend during a break in biking in San Francisco, was on line.  There was the usual sibling banter, including John, who said:  “I was sharing the live stream with my friend Jim as we were having lunch in San Francisco. His comment?  “Why are those people blocking traffic by standing in the middle of the road?”

Soon Flo and Carter’s 15 minutes of fame ended, and back to our respective lives.

Afterwards I got to thinking back to this street, which is very familiar to me, as Flo and Carter have lived their entire 50 years of marriage either in or near Park Rapids.

Park Rapids is a tourist town and those streets will be busier in fairly short order.

I got to thinking particularly  about a Lumberjack Days Parade on this very street, probably in the early 1980s.  The webcam looks south.  On the day in question I was probably two blocks down from the Ben Franklin.

This was an annual parade – maybe it still is – and the year I’m thinking about a lady and two of her kids from Belfast – Catholics, one of them Colm – were visiting a family at a nearby lake, and they came into town for the parade.

This particular parade had an especially elaborate unit from somewhere, which every block or so reenacted an Eliot Ness raid on the Capone operation in Chicago during Prohibition.

This was an active unit, lots of yelling, and running around, gunshots (blanks of course), and the like.

It was very entertaining, but not to the lady from Belfast, which at the time was still in what has come to be called “The Troubles”, where gunshots and lack of safety in the streets terrified residents, including Colm’s Mom.

The parade most all of us saw as entertaining was traumatizing to the visitor from Belfast.

The recollection reminds me that what we are watching play out in Ukraine and surrounding countries, is no entertainment to the millions of victims living there, while we can watch at our leisure on television.

Ukraine is the latest chapter of a deadly century particularly in Europe.  We are well advised to learn from past mistakes, which is not simple when some think that replaying the same movie, as happened on that street years ago, will yield different results.

A QUICK LOOK BACK AT THE WARS IN EUROPE IN THE 20TH CENTURY

In the home farm “junk” I have a 20 page booklet published in 1965 by the C.S. Hammond Company entitle Atlas of World War II, 20th Commemorative Edition.

Below is a photo of one of the maps in the booklet.  Here is the same map in pdf: Atlas of WWII 1965. (The text partially obscured by the bomb at upper left: “Europe’s Troubles in the 1920s”)

C.S. Hammond 1965 from Atlas of WWII.

The text from the booklet is brief and worth reading in its entirety: Atlas of WWII 1965 text.  No author is listed, but the general information is consistent with my understanding of the years described.  Note especially carefully the 1920s map, which does not include Ukraine and further identifies the various countries at the time.

It may be irritating, but in my opinion today’s national leaders have learned from deadly history and are working to prevent a reprise of the deadly wars of our past.  It’s not easy….

COMMENTS:

From Peter: I just posted this on opednews. There have been millions of refugees who had no public voice, except insofar as it served some nefarious interest to promote them. This group had concerns we rarely hear about from the people themselves.  Since bombing cities as flat as Dresden is the strategy of choice for all modern military actions, it’s a safe bet that most refugees share these views.

Justice

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This afternoon Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson made her debut to be “the first Black woman to be put forward as a justice.”

Judge Jackson has been confirmed at least twice for other positions by this same Senate Committee.  Watch for the strutting of the opposition as the questioning goes on this week.

If confirmed, as I think she will be, she will be the first ever African-American woman on the high court.  Historically this demographic has gotten short shrift.  Black men became eligible to vote and hold office long before women generally were granted suffrage in 1920.

Black women have arrived, particularly in recent years.  They are visible and they are active and they have waited far too long, in my opinion, for equality, however that word is defined.

I wish Judge Jackson well.

Last Sunday, enroute home from church, I took a drive past the vacant block which once held several minority owned businesses, including GandhiMahal, owned by my friend Ruhel Islam.

The block was burned to the ground two years ago, a few days after the George Floyd murder not far away on May 25, 2020.  To my knowledge, no one has been charged in the arson case which took out all of the businesses on the block, including the U.S. Post Office on the corner.

The next week, June 1, 2020, the then-President of the U.S. took advantage of the tragedy with a photo with a Bible at the church across the street from the White House….

Sunday, there wasn’t much point in taking a photo of a vacant lot at the beginning of spring in Minneapolis.

Across Lake Street remains a badly damaged building, still standing, but un-rehabilitated for some reason or another.  I will not get into speculating.  The last week of May 2020 was a major catastrophe for south Minneapolis, and reconstruction takes time and is never easy.

I noticed at the building, street art remaining intact from two years ago, and in particular noted the top line of text, below: (“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”)

March 20, 2022, at Lake Street and 27th Ave S, Minneapolis MN.

Stay actively engaged.

POSTNOTE: Heather Cox Richardson, March 21.  Excellent.

March 26, 2022: I managed to watch portions of the hearings.  I didn’t make it a priority.  It is important for the combatants, perhaps, but mostly it is the Senate’s version of street theater…and not very good theater at that.  Much of the bluster will show up in election advertising back home in coming months and years.  “Made for TV” sound bites.

I’m not a lawyer, but in my work years my normal duty involved working with, against and around lawyers.  I know how the Law operates.

My criteria for judging the outcome of a case was whether or not the ruling made sense.  Usually, it did.  Probably it still does.

But an old legal saw comes to mind: here’s one version: “If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell”.  If you watched the hearings, you know who yelled like hell.

(The 2022 Senate Judiciary Committee has 22 members, half Democrat, half Republican.  15 of the 22, 8 Democrat, 7 Republican, are lawyers by training.  18 of the 22 are men; only one of these is non-white; 10 of the 11 Republicans are white men, etc. The Democrat side better reflects America, in my opinion.  Here’s the Senate data, covering our entire history of 235 years.)

Ketanji Brown Jackson deserves appointment.  In normal times – say 20 years ago – there would be no question about the outcome.  These are not normal times.

During the week I called up data on the votes on justices for the Supreme Court.  This is from the Senate website.  The chart is worth your time.

Of course, Judge Jackson, if appointed to the Supreme Court, will be the first African-American woman ever to become a justice on the Supreme Court.  The overwhelming number of justices over history have been White Men.

Judge Brown Jackson is making good history, regardless of the final vote.  People in power normally don’t give up any of their power voluntarily.  Change is happening, albeit slowly, but change is happening.  Our country will be be the better for this.

COMMENTS:

from Joyce: an on-point commentary by Heather Cox Richardson.

Printemps (Springtime)

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If you even the tiniest interest in Ukraine and world geopolitics, there is a talk I would urge you to watch, which I listened to Thursday night.  The talk was presented by Thomas Hanson, a retired career U.S. foreign service officer, and is 1 1/2 illuminating hours.  The YouTube link is here.  The organization sponsoring the program is one I’ve long been part of.  Your choice.  Carve out the time.  You won’t regret it.  You won’t regret it.  Redundancy intended.

I would personally much prefer to imagine a world without war, and a gentle Spring.  Unfortunately, we live within imperfection and this Springtime has to be a time to be in touch with very real  imperfection and tragedy.  Keep informed.

*

Sunday morning at 10:33 a.m. Spring arrives in my city.  We’re at about 45 degrees N latitude, which means that our counterpart in the Southern Hemisphere is entering the first day of Fall.

Across the sea, in Ukraine, the territory between Odessa and Kyvv is about the same latitude and geographic location as the area between my Twin Cities and Winnipeg.  Which is to say, if you live here, you could be living there, in terms of usual weather patterns.  The midwest and southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan was  a hospitable new home for tens of thousands of “Germans from Russia” who in the early 1900s found themselves no longer welcome in then-Russia.

Spring to me, this year, is the blackboard at the coffee shop, which I see most every day.

Caribou Coffee March 17 2022

Nothing fancy, for sure, but colorful and personal.  Like spring is.

Everyone glancing at this post will have their own definition of Spring.  For me, “Spring” began on February 1 – it always does.  I figure January is the most difficult month, and while there is winter weather still ahead, it won’t last as long, nor be as difficult.

March can be counted on for some difficult snowfalls; it is later in April, when Spring begins to take root, so to speak, and usually later in May before there is reasonable assurance of no killing frost.  Spring is a fixed date, not a fixed event!

It is all variable, of course, but spring is a time of rebirth, and being outside is desirable.

I expect some springtime poetry from Molly, as for other seasons.  She sent her own list the first offering a few days ago, which I offer below with thanks.

“Hi Friends,

This is a bit different from the usual bursts of poetry, as the offering includes just one poem,  just below my name.

I have always loved Aldo Leopold’s book A Sand County Almanac. In fact, in 1967, when I was at UW-Madison working on certification to be a biology teacher, I was lucky enough to be introduced to the book by a professor who had been a student of Leopold’s!

My favorite essay in the book is the one for this month, titled “March; the Geese Return.”  In fact, a few snow geese have been sighted here in MN, as have swans, eagles, various ducks, some sandhill cranes, and –today–a red-winged blackbird in the metro area. The 3rd week of March in MN is when the big flocks of geese usually start.

So, that essay is here: Leopold Geese Return . If you enjoy it, check out the book… Your library probably has it; the book will also probably include other Leopold essays, beyond those in the Almanac section, depending on the edition.

Blessings of the advancing season, & hugs, and keep your eyes and ears skyward…

Molly

————–

To the Thawing Wind

Come with rain, O loud Southwester!
Bring the singer, bring the nester;
Give the buried flower a dream;
Make the settled snowbank steam;
Find the brown beneath the white;
But whate’er you do tonight,
Bathe my window, make it flow,
Melt it as the ice will go;
Melt the glass and leave the sticks
Like a hermit’s crucifix;
Burst into my narrow stall;
Swing the picture on the wall;
Run the rattling pages o’er;
Scatter poems on the floor;
Turn the poet out of door.

–Robert Frost

COMMENTS:

from Fred: This is a forward another reliable source of war news. It’ more analytic and really interesting. I’m going to send along a fairly new review of the tactical situation in Ukraine from the other source you’ve seen. At the link is a tactical and strategic summary of the Ukraine war so far, from a US website that is a pretty good source for military developments worldwide.  Although the editors have worked with the US armed services for years, particularly in the area of wargaming and simulations, they’re frequent and candid critics of Pentagon policies and practices.

Fred also passes along another interesting source of ongoing news about what is happening in Ukraine.

Bill B. sent the always interesting ISW daily update although there’s not too much action. As usual they cover the status in all parts of Ukraine and the Russian progress or lack thereof.
Be sure to check out Zelensky’s generous offer to Russian troops.
Bill also noted: “In Minnesota, spring road restrictions are going into force just now.  Paid a lot of attention to that when I was in DNR. Means mud season is on.  Probably the same in Ukraine.”
from Carol: “The Story of Fascism in Europe” by Rick Steves showing on ch. 2 [Twin Cities PBS] during Pledge Week.  It’s terrifying.  Dick: I think if you’re a member you can access this program on demand.  I have seen it more than once.  It is very much worth your time.  We need to be reminded of this ugliness now and then.
from Paul: Mir in Russian [see below], it was so important to them after their WW2 experience. I thought maybe Macron might help hear what he said and advise something to Mr. Putin, and Putin has apparently said the fall of Communism was one of the greatest tragedies in the world, and it looks like he’d like to restore the larger sphere of influence of Russia when it included other Soviet countries. Ukraine may have been one then. Moldova, Belarus and other places may have been part of the larger Soviet Union as well. His way of restoring it militarily is pretty bloody so far, since Ukraine has had a taste of freedom.  [Mir, per google: “For a Russian, the word “Mir” holds meaning, feeling, and history. It is sometimes translated into English as “world,” or as “peace,” or as “village,” but a single-word translation misses its full significance.”]

 

 

St. Patrick’s Day

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POST NOTE March 18: Last evening I was one of 25 who were privileged to an on-line talk by Thomas Hanson on Ukraine and geo-politics generally.  The talk was 1 1/2 hours and can be watched on-line, sponsored by Citizens for Global Solutions.  It was extraordinary and highly recommend it.  Here’s the link to the online recording.  If you have even the slightest interest in the topic of the future of our world, you need to take the time to watch this one.

*

I wish you a great day.  Today, overlaying the annual celebration, there are plenty of serious problems facing all of us.  I hope you read on.

PRE-NOTE:  Interesting program on-line tonight, Thurs Mar 17.  Details and pre-register here. Scroll down to Human Rights Forum on The War In Ukraine.  Another topic, same date, similar topic, here.

*

Back in the early 1900s, someone sent my ND farm Grandma or Grandpa a birthday postcard.  Neither have a dollop of Irish, to my knowledge, but they had Irish neighbors and friends.  The old card is very appropriate for March 17, 2022.  Grandma and Grandpa were children of immigrants, as was my other Grandma.  My other Grandpa was himself an immigrant.

*

Yesterday, the President of Ukraine spoke to the United States House and Senate.  Thanks to Carol, here is the recording.

In honor of today, here’s a wonderful video sent by Molly of a music performance in Odesa Ukraine a few days ago.  It is four wonderful minutes.  Molly: Odesa Opera Chorus singing Va Pensiero on Saturday … This newspaper clip describes it, if you’ve forgotten the context: “The musicians performed a programme of music outside the 19th-century opera house, including Ukraine’s national anthem and ‘Va, Pensiero’ from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, Nabucco.

Also known as the ‘Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves’, ‘Va, Pensiero’ is sung in the third act of the opera when the Israelites have been captured and imprisoned in Babylon.

Poignantly, the chorus includes the lyrics, ‘Oh my country so beautiful and lost!’.”

…

Tears seem a worthy accompaniment to this beauty and courage.
Blessings of the day,
Molly

I’m not a green beer guy.  Today, breakfast with a 100% Irish friend.  It is a breakfast two years delayed.  We were to meet March 17, 2020, at the same restaurant, which closed that very morning – Covid-19 had officially arrived.

We all have our stories of the Covid-19 years, still with us.  For me,  my last public event for a long while was ushering at Mass on March 15, 2020.  By the end of February, we’d gotten the message – this was serious business.

For this St. Patrick’s day, I offer, following, some items to think about, relating to events still swirling around us today.  Have a great day.

Covid-19:  New York Times recently had an excellent commentary on the history of this deadly disease.  This is 10 pages, but well worth your time and reflection: Covid-19 Two Years Plus.  Try to put aside your own ‘spin’ and think back to your own thinking and history during this intense time in our history.

Have we learned anything from out of the two-year nightmare? I think so.  The tone of society seems better in general (though from the news you wouldn’t think so.). I just go by what I observe on the ground day-by-day and what I hear from others.  We need to keep working at it, though.  There will be successor crises, rest assured.

Ukraine: from Molly (also, see above): Ever since the horrific invasion of Ukraine started, I have had this well-known part of John Donne’s Meditation XVII in my head; it repeats as new reports continue to appall us and break our hearts. So, here is that short piece–which creates such a powerful sense of prayer, and connection, and loss. 

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any Manor of thy friends or thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind. And therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee
from “Meditation XVII” in Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, by John Donne
Personally, I watch this Ukraine tragedy very carefully.  I think President Zelenskyy and the international community, including the President Biden administration, is handling an impossible situation very well.  It seems as if our leadership, seen and unseen, have learned from the folly of past wars, and cooler heads, likely on all sides, are seeking resolution to this conflict by other means than escalation of force vs force.  No one wants a repeat of the abundant tragic engagements of the last 100 years.  Every decision will be vigorously supported or condemned.  It is good to have basically steady hands at the rudder of the ship sailing in rough seas.
I recall my Army time in the Fall of 1962 when I happened to be on active duty during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  In October, we watched President Kennedy address the nation from a barracks room at Ft Carson, just outside Colorado Springs Colorado.  (The area was one of the presumed bullseyes, should some missile be launched from Cuba – an active fear.)
Other than short-term aggravation, we soldiers never actually went anywhere.  Later, if I recall correctly, we learned that Kennedy and Khruschev had a little conversation in the then-version of on-line, and neither wanted to escalate to a true crisis.  The conversation was brief and private.
With thousands of variations, what they and their advisors did,  then and now, is the function of diplomacy, even more particularly in today’s complicated world.  As we know, the resolution was by no means perfect, but it worked.  Drastic actions have drastic consequences.  Best to limit the temptation to blow the hell out of the other party….

Religion, too:

Finally, a serious matter.  Anyone who follows this blog at all knows where I am with religion.  Spiritual matters matter to me.

All is not well with so-called organized religion in our time and place.  Earlier this week, Joyce sent a commentary, to which I responded “This is absolutely outstanding!  Yes, I read the whole thing”.  I would highly recommend not only reading, but thinking about the observations.  It’s titled “How Did Christianity become so toxic?”.  The author is one who is very precise with his words.  Take a look.

Speaking as an individual, there are many culprits within what I would call “organized religion”, which includes my own denomination.  The main ones are those who manipulate religion for temporal power, in my opinion.  Look at wars, and usually religion is somewhere in the very near background.  This remains true now, in this time of individualizing everything.

I heard one striking example a number of years ago.  I was listening to Krista Tippets program, then called “Speaking of Faith”, or such.  Her guest was a prominent evangelical preacher, I think in Oklahoma, who had built a large congregation on a theology of hellfire and damnation, where bad people, presumably the unsaved, not in his pews, went, and hell wasn’t a pleasant place.  People flocked to his messages.

All this changed in an instant one evening in 1994 when the pastor, a black man, was watching the evening news and watched a segment about men, women and children streaming out of Rwanda, at the time of the genocide there.

At this instant, his definition of Hell changed: these refugees were in hell on earth.  This was no longer a matter of Hell being down there.  Real people were living in it, our neighbors, ourselves.

The next Sunday, his message changed to reflect his new awareness.

His change of heart was not well accepted.  His flock began to disappear, and by the time he was on Tippett’s program, he was starting over, a new ministry, new place, new philosophy.  I wish I could remember his name, but I don’t.

“What would Jesus do?”  with Christianity today?

Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

COMMENTS:

from Carol: Interesting.  When we were in Norway, we toured one of their “stave churches” – very old very primitive buildings.  It had crosses on the roof, plus the old pagan dragon symbols.  Our guide said that when king so-and-so took over Norway, he was of the Christian religion, so overnight everybody had to become Christian.  However, he left the old dragons up also so they’d feel more comfortable.  Carol also adds another comment unattributed:

New empires often bring new religions (which usually complete the circle by justifying the new imperial order). But community practices change much more slowly than military or political power structures. So old practices get woven into the new mythology and the new belief system, as if they had been part of the new religion all along. The annual fertility rite of a pagan deity continues, but instead is blessed by a Catholic saint.

from Larry: Dick, I think the minister you were writing about is Carlton Pearson, graduate of Oral Roberts U, who went a different way.  from Dick:  You’re likely correct.  The minister was identified as being a graduate of Oral Roberts.  I was just listening, so didn’t catch his name.  He was in the process of re-inventing his ministry, in which he either had been or was a Bishop.

from Rich: “The Great Gate of Kiev” from “Pictures at an Exhibition.” I place this music from the classical genre, apart from the Ukrainian anthem, as the “go to piece” related to the Ukrainian spirit.

Reflection

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Three weeks ago today was my surgery.  I’ve been home for over two weeks.  Yesterday I did my first walk, and found to my pleasant surprise that I could do the previous 2 1/2 miles in its entirety, only slightly slower than pre-surgery.  Questions welcome.

This morning, another post-op appointment, this time with Rehab doctor, who said no rehab was needed – I’m basically strong, she said.  Before the doctor, a nurse took my vitals, and had with her a young woman who said this was her first day in a training setting.  The young woman is aiming for EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) and no doubt she’ll be a good one.  Every one of us had to begin at the beginning….

In the afternoon, a surprise in-person visit with my sister and her friend Malcolm.  Mary is a retired Nurse Practitioner in New York State, still engaged in the profession largely due to needs generated by Covid-19; much of work in nursing home settings.  She acknowledged some problems with job-related PTSD.  The job of medical caregiver particularly in Covid-19 times has been stressful.  Her work goes back 60 years, in a great variety of settings….

I have said since the outset about this current issue that by quirk of fate, my surgery and recovery were in the same hospital and likely the same Ward where my first wife died 57 years ago – The University of Minnesota Hospital in Minneapolis.

One of the first things I did when I left the hospital was to write a heart-felt thank you letter to my physician, surgeon and the nurse manager of the station in which I began recovery.  I included the memories I had written about those long ago very difficult years:  memories I had written in 1981-82 for our sons 18th birthday; memories of how it was to be very sick from kidney disease then.

I have decided to include you as recipients of these memories, if you wish.  They are in two parts: Barbara and Barbara (2).  We can all identify formative events in our own lives.   A major one for me was the years described, 1963-65.

Dick, Tom and Barbara Bernard, August 1964. This is the last family picture. Barbara died less than a year later.

Lives indeed go on.  Barbara didn’t have the opportunity.  Tom is now 58.  Someone who read the documents I wrote long ago wondered how I could possibly have remembered all the detail.

There’s much to that story but I think I am possibly in soul-space with those folks in the Ukraine who coincident with my hospitalization have become refugees, out of control of their present and uncertain about their future.  Like these refugees, there have been millions similarly situated to our small family in 1964, and doubtless there are similarly indelible memories.

*

Tomorrow is the memorial for Dr. Paul Farmer, who recently died suddenly and unexpectedly at 62.  I plan to tune in, and invite you too as well.  Details are accessible here (#3).

 

 

Events to Note

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Today is International Women’s Day.

The following is self-explanatory.  I am planning a followup on my impressions near three weeks after surgery.  This will likely be titled “Reflections” and publish on Sunday March 13.  Check back at the blog on Sunday, or later if not there.

  1. Louisa Hext is offering a free on-line workshop on Forgiveness, Thursday, March 10, 6 p.m.  All details here. I am familiar with Louisa’s work and the Forgiveness Project, and I recommend this.
  2.  PLEASE NOTE DATE.  PREVIOUS INFO FROM ME WAS INCORRECT.  THE DATE IS MARCH 17.  MY APOLOGIES. Important on-line talk on Thursday, March 17, 7 p.m. CT, featuring Thomas Hanson program, all details here.  As with Louisa, I have heard Thomas Hanson speak, and he is a very well-informed voice.
  3. Dr. Paul Farmer memorial on-line is Saturday, March 12, 10-noon ET.  Details here. 
  4. I am adding material about Ukraine periodically.  I try to emphasize items less likely to be seen in the general media.  The Ukraine blog is here.  Most recent additions are at the beginning of the post.

Ukraine

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March 11, 2022:

from Stephanie:  I don’t think you are on facebook — I post way too much, I think, but there are a few posts I have made recently that I think might interest you.  The first is from a friend who is a psychologist in Moscow.  He had posted on facebook a petition signed by more than 100 Russians, listing their names and professions.  It has since been taken down…I don’t know whether my friend took it down, or facebook, or if it is blocked by Russia. Here it is:

FRIENDS, YOU CAN COPY IT, POST IT ON YOUR PAGE AND SIGN IT.
ADDRESS OF THE RUSSIANS
“Compatriots!
Russia’s war against Ukraine is a SHAME.
This is OUR shame, but unfortunately, our children, generations of very young and unborn Russians, will also have to bear the responsibility for it. We don’t want our children to live in an aggressor country to feel ashamed of their army attacking a neighboring independent state. We urge all citizens of Russia to say NO to this war.
We do not believe that independent Ukraine is a threat to Russia or any other state. We do not believe in Vladimir Putin’s statements that the Ukrainian people are under the power of “Nazis” and need to be “liberated”. We demand this war to end! “
It is incredibly brave of these people to post this, as they have put a target directly on them and their families.
The second, posted below, is something I posted a few days ago:
In 2007, I went to the Republic of Georgia to teach negotiations skills to 22 members of the teachers’ union. On the evening of July 4, my hosts held a wonderful outdoor dinner to celebrate my country’s holiday. The setting was beautiful, overlooking the capital city of Tbilisi. The city lights sparkled. My hosts predicted that the lights would soon go out. Why? Because the US embassy was hosting a party with many important Georgian guests – and the Russian government, which supplied electrical power to Georgia – wanted to remind everyone of the power it held over that country. The struggle is now in Ukraine but it is real for the nations that once made up the USSR. Please stay updated, contribute to worthy relief organizations, and understand that this fight stretches far beyond the borders of Ukraine.
One of the participants in the class, an attorney for the union, was recently elected to the city council in the second largest city in Georgia. Her son, who was 8 or 9 at the time I was there, attended the classes because it was summer and he was too young to stay home on his own. He became our “mascot”! I have stayed in touch with him and his mom…he is now in law school. His mom is in the minority on the city council…54% favor Russian ties; she and the other 46% are definitely against. The 46% wanted to hang a Ukrainian flag from the city hall; they were opposed…but the did it anyway. They are having demonstrations daily throughout the country and are, again, so brave in the face of what would be frightening retribution from Russians.

March 9, 2022:

from Howie:  not about Ukraine, but could as well be.  Here

March 8, 2022:  from time to time I will continue making additions here, from other than major media sources.  Here are a few from the last few days.

from Norm: from friend Barry Levy M.D., MPH:

I thought you would be interested in my letter to the editor of the New York Times about Ukraine last week [follows]:

The explosive weapons attacks that are killing and severely injuring Ukrainian civilians are attracting much media attention. Whenever explosive weapons are deployed in war, civilians are likely to be killed and severely injured, even when they are not targeted.

But most civilian deaths in war result indirectly from damage to civilian infrastructure, resulting in reduced access to food, safe water, medical care, electric power, communication and transportation. Civilians become ill and die from diseases, malnutrition, and maternal and neonatal disorders. At especially high risk are mothers and young children, people with disabilities and older people.

It is critically important that steps be taken now to protect civilians and critical elements of civilian infrastructure, and to deliver humanitarian assistance to those in need.

Barry S. Levy
Sherborn, Mass.

The writer, a physician, is a past president of the American Public Health Association and an adjunct professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. He is author of the forthcoming book “From Horror to Hope,” about the health effects of war.

I’m also writing to let you know that I have authored a book, entitled From Horror to Hope: Recognizing and Preventing the Health Impacts of War, that will be published by Oxford University Press next month. More information is [here]..

from Carol:

A Ukraine refugee photo

from Remi, some of his ancestors from Ukraine, sends this sketch of some of his family links to Ukraine.  This only one of many assorted links between what is now Germany and Ukraine: Three of my mother’s grandparents came from Landau Ukraine, Russia, now called Shyrokolanivka, about 55 miles northeast of Odessa.. Their ancestors came from Landau Alsace, now Germany, in 1809. The other grandparent (a grandmother) came from Krasna Ukraine Russia, now Krasne, about 70 miles southwest of Odessa. Her ancestors were Warsaw colonists. They left German states, mainly Saarland, between 1785 and 1795 to settle in Prussian Poland. In 1814-1815 they went to Krasna in Bessarabia that the Russians had just taken from the Ottomans. My mother’s father was born in Caramurat, a Tatar town in Romania, about 50 miles from Russia.I have enclosed a depiction of a funeral there at about the time of his birth. His father had come from Landau Russia and his mother from Krasna. His German patois had many French, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian,Yiddish, Tatar and Romani words embedded in a fossilized Saarland-Alsatian  dialect. His ancestors dressed like Russians and had adopted many Russian traditions and folk remedies. I have attached a photo of one of his grandfathers in Romania wearing a Russian shapka (hat), third from left.. Also of his great  grandparents in Russia with cross necklaces and prayer books. He came to Canada in 1907. My mother’s grandparents on her mother’s side came from Landau, Russia to Canada in 1901 through Ellis Island, New York.

Photos from the olden days in Ukraine:

from Annelee:  Former President Donald Trump called Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine savvy, the work of a genius.  Fox Commentator Tucker Carlson and several Conservative Republican Senators agreed with Tucker and said that it was the right of Putin to invade the peaceful, democratic Ukraine so Putin could  restore Russia to it’s former greatness.

Millions of American citizens, the  European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada firmly stood/stand against such wrong support.
It is reassuring that our current Democratic administration stands and supports the courageous Ukrainian Nation as they fight Russian aggression.
We, Americans are infected with disunity.  Hopefully, our elected officials will put personal ‘get even’ atmosphere aside, and bring forth what they were elected to do: Republicans should work together with Democrats and our elected president. Only then, will we again be America one Nation under God.

from Rich: Surgery and Covid ended my tenure with the Minnesota Orchestra’s Audience Services. Thus our paths have not crossed for several years as they did at the door to the concert hall.

Thank you for your remarks on Ukraine. When I read them I wanted to be sure you were aware of this moment with the Met Opera. The arts have always been there for us. Hope remains!

March 6, 2022:  Great friend Lydia sends  a couple of personal recommendations for those who wish to be involved in Ukrainian humanitarian efforts:

“People in Minnesota that want to help with HUMANITARIAN AID to Ukrainians fleeing or still in-country, can donate to:
UKRAINIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY CENTER
301 Main Street NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413
FEEDING REFUGEES: Chef Jose Andreas’ organziation (has helped after natural disasters in the past–such as HAITI):
WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN
200 Massachusetts Avenue NW, 7th Floor
Washington, DC 20001
I’ve already donated to BOTH of these organziations. Please publish, post & share!“
Today’s Washington Post has an important article advising on our approach to Ukraine and the future of democracy.  It is by Robert Gates, and can be accessed here.  WaPo, NYT, Minneapolis Star Tribune and other very legitimate news organization generally require at least an on-line subscription.  Consider supporting these most important portals for democracy.
This is a time for deep reflection and vigilance.  The struggle is between authoritarianism and democracy itself.  A large percentage of our population has had a flirtation with authoritarianism these past few years, and they seem not yet to have learned its downside.  We are not Russia nor China, and we should never forget the basic values that created our nation in the first place.

PERSONAL UPDATE, March 4: Two weeks ago today I was in surgery for colon cancer at University of Minnesota.  Nine days ago I came home.  Healing is going well, but it is not the “piece of cake” one would like.  Anyone who’s a veteran of major surgery can doubtless attest!  I am active every day, but still require lots of rest.  I try to follow recommendations, and I will take it easy.  Thank you for your interest and support.  Personally, it was good to be invited to and attend Ash Wednesday with daughters Lauri and Heather and Lauri’s family, and Cathy.

*

Thursday evening I listened to a phone message from my long-time friend, Jim, calling from his home on a beach in a deeply rural part of deeply rural Molokai, Hawaii.  Jim has lived on the island for many years, and enjoys its isolation and deeply rural character.

If you want to get away from it all, you go to a place like Molokai.

I talked in person with him this afternoon.  It was a good conversation.  Ukraine entered the conversation, but was not the main reason for the call.  We’re just catching up.

That is how it is in today’s world.  We are all connected, instantly, regardless of where we live.  There is a blessing and a curse to all of this of course, and source of infinite threads of conversation.  It was good to hear Jim’s voice, from Pukoo on the east side of Molokai.

*

from Carol, Mar 5:  a Ukrainian rfugee

Ukrainean refugee

UKRAINE: I have struggled with how best to engage with and for the Ukrainian people, and yes, for the Russian people now under siege by their own dictator.  I am still thinking about this.

Just now, I decided what better a tribute to Ukraine from me, than Minnesota musician Peter Ostroushko.  There are many selections at YouTube. Here’s one of his best, from a 2004 performance of his 1995 composition Heart of the Heartland.    Peter died Feb. 24, 2021.  He lives on in his music.  [Lydia sent an interesting MinnPost article about the Minneapolis Ukrainian community of which Peter was part.]

I am including with this post, just a few off the beaten path commentaries which have come from/about Ukraine.  You know what you’ll know from the TV.  These are items which may or may not catch the wave of news priorities.  They are not prioritized here.  I’ll expect to do a few more posts like this.

I agree with parts and disagree with others in these writings.  That is very normal in debate in a civil society.  We are a huge, complicated world, and our institutions reflect this.  There is no magic pill to solve everything, or even most things, but when any individual, institution, country or coalition of countries deems itself above, or in domination of, common Law regulating a civil society,  we are all in trouble.

We are not immune from criticism: In my Feb. 16 post, Preparedness, about war looming in Ukraine, I said this: “war or threat of war, or an enemy, is very helpful politically no matter the country or the system or the time in history.  Chris Hedges War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002) always comes to mind at times like this.  This came along about the time of our Iraq misadventure – a solution to 9-11-01.  War is Good…not, but yes…it is useful to politicians currying favor with people like US.”

A most common institution for humans, by whatever name or whatever tradition, is marriage – where two people in some way or another pledge common cause.  A long-time Catholic Priest friend and I were discussing this some days ago in a post hospital conversation.  I said to Vince that a good share of his work as a pastor was probably dealing with marital conflict within his own flock.  He laughed.  If two of us have troubles between ourselves on occasion, how can we expect 194 countries and over 7 billion people to just get along?  We are a work in progress, and we will always be so.  The tribal alternative is one which cannot be accepted.

Have a good weekend.

received from Molly: “Stay Calm”, by Tom Nichols in the Atlantic: Tom Nichols, Stay Calm, The Atlantic

from Fred, March 6: Interesting details [here] about the Russian military and its organization.

from Carol, a letter from a young person in Kharkiv:

“I can’t sleep tonight. Not that I slept well for the last 6 nights but tonight is particularly heartbreaking. My home city is being destroyed by Putin. I am not going to put pictures of horror, it’s plenty of them on bbc. Instead I will tell the world about Kharkiv. 

So Kharkiv is educational and scientific centre, it has 59 (!) universities! 59! We call the city “students’ capital”. One of them is one of the oldest in Ukraine, been partly destroyed today by missile from Putin. Another – National Law Academy, my alma mater, is in Ukraine’s top law universities (I am being polite here, it’s number 1))) Commentaries to National laws made by academics of the Academy are being used in the courts, that’s how highly they are rated. 
Kharkiv is heavy and military industry centre, there are factories to build tractors, tanks, plane turbines etc. You can see why Putin is so desperate to occupy it.
Kharkiv is arty and not only with clever and funny graffiti but with more than 20 (!) theatres including one philharmonic. I am glad my mum went to the philharmonic theatre just few days before the invasion. I have also personal dear memories and stories connected to it. At the high school I have been asked to do a journalistic project – to write about one of the heritage in danger sort of sights. I chose philharmonic theatre. At that time it was in a horrible state with leaking roof, needing immediate renovation as it’s hall was a copy of one of the halls in Tuileries Palace. Being roughly 15 years old I found the main conductor at the time (the head nowadays) and asked for a video interview. Being a very passionate about the theatre person he agreed. We made a lovely video showing how important it is to restore our city and national heritage. I don’t know how much of a difference it made but years later the philharmonic theatre with amazing architecture has been renovated. Guess what, you know already, don’t you? Yup, Putin dropped the bomb on it today. 
Kharkiv is also a centre for trade. We have Barabashovo market which I think is called the biggest in Eastern Europe! It is huge indeed. 
Recently Kharkiv also became an IT capital of Ukraine, having had a nickname of Ukrainian Silicon Valley. 
And last for this post but not the least my school of yoga – Ukrainian Federation of Yoga has started there. Our studio was located right next to the local government building, on the Freedom Square. No need to say what happened there today…
But you know what? I AM OK. Seriously. I know that we will rebuild it and that Kharkiv is free = Ukrainian. Just wanted my English speaking friends to know more than “second biggest city”.” 
Citizens for Global Solutions, a state and national group I’ve long been part of, issued its own commentary on Ukraine today.  You can read it here. Note especially the first two articles.
COMMENTS:
from Peter: me on Ukraine here.
from Judy: Thank you Dick for the update……….yes, surgery recovery is longer than expected.  If they told us what to expect they fear we would not follow thru on the surgery…………….you will get there!

As for Ukraine, I do not know what to say.  On September 23, 2012 I visited Babi Yar outside of Kiev and now its memorial has been attacked.  It is the first of the WW11 sites I have visited that has seen a follow up of this nature.

I am stunned that we have learned so little as a society This is a time when a joint lecture with Michael and Joseph would be so helpful to us all.

We shall stay in touch.

from Jane:    Glad you are healing.  Sorry you seem to believe the BS about Ukraine.  NATO has been crossing Putin’s red line deliberately for the past eight years.  Trying to provoke a fight.  Well they got one — and the Evil Globalist Bastards couldn’t be more pleased.  What is WRONG with the “left” these days!  First the COV$D myth and now this.  So frustrating.
response from Dick: I understand where you are coming from, let’s leave it at that.  We’ve been friends on-line for years.
Covid is very real.  My five days in hospital were roommate with a young man, a ‘long hauler’, who’d passed over 40 days in hospital, and had no early prospects for release.  He’d been fully vexed when infected by someone who’d been exposed and probably didn’t know.  He was very scared.  I considered it a blessing to meet him.  Obviously he wasn’t contagious; his problem was with the aftermath.  He has multiple serious pre-existing conditions.
from Fred: My friend Bill has been sending me precise daily Ukraine combat briefings. You’ll see the source. Well worth a look. Of course, Bill adds his own analysis of the situation with a study of the German invasion of Poland and points east! Also quite insightful.
Here’s the current day’s map of the Ukraine situation, which accompanies the daily assessment published by UnderstandingWar.org.  If you follow the narrative:
  • the Russians have made quite limited progress in recent days,
  • they’ve sent for reinforcements from the Eastern Military District (eastern Siberia), and
  • the analysts can’t make sense of their strategy.

The map similarly conveys the general impression of an unconcentrated, unfocused, overambitious plan of attack that has stalled in the borderlands.  Of course it’s still early days, and I don’t really have enough knowledge to generalize, but in 1939 the Germans were in the outskirts of Warsaw within a week, not hanging about the periphery of the country.   As the map below shows, their attacks all promptly penetrated deep into central Poland and converged in the heart of the country, bypassing much of the Polish Army in the western bulge.
Here is the March 8, 2022 map
The failure to make deep penetrations may have something to do with the reorganization of the Russian Army around Battalion Tactical Groups.  Each of the various offensive thrusts itemized in the UnderstandingWar.org campaign narrative is being carried on by 12 to18 BTGs.  These are relatively small (800-man) units consisting of a company of tanks, three companies of mechanized infantry, two or three artillery batteries (tube or rocket), plus antiair and antitank support.  They have a lot of firepower for their size, and are manned mainly by professional soldiers. The BTG concept was evolved in the wake of the Chechen debacle, and was used effectively in the Donbas War to give the pro-Russian militiamen mobile support against the Ukrainians.  The trouble with BTGs is that 1) they are small and can’t stand casualties, 2) they lack such supporting elements as medical and maintenance detachments, 3) they are relatively independent and don’t combine particularly well into larger units, and 4) they were designed to reinforce local militia and guerrillas, while depending on them for intelligence, reconnaissance and security.  So they are perhaps less than ideal fighting formations for mass invasion of a hostile country.  Here in PDF format is a US Army publication describing their strengths and weaknesses in considerable detail.
This suggests that if the Ukrainian army still possesses something like a mobile masse de manœuvre, it might be able to strike a really telling blow against one of the Russian battle groups.  The most obvious target is the group on the extreme Russian right, that detached comma-shaped blob north and west of Kiev. It consists of some 15-18 BTGs.  It has been described in several accounts as confused, bogged down, and in the throes of reorganization.  On the west side of the Dnieper, it is to some extent cut off from the rest of the Russian Army.  It is operating on the Belarus border, where it is very likely deprived of the intelligence and security support that BTGs are supposed to get from locals.  And perhaps most importantly — something I haven’t seen anyone mentioning so far — it is backed up against the great Pripet marshes, which extend along the Belarus-Ukraine border from the Bug to Kiev.  The western end of the swampland is indicated on the German campaign map above.  On Google Earth you can see it easily, extending from Brest-Litovsk to Kiev; and the worst and most roadless terrain lies directly in the rear of that right-flank Russian battle group northwest of Kiev.
I don’t have any idea whether the Ukes have been able to assemble an army corps behind Kiev, or whether they’re in any condition to stage a real counteroffensive.  But if they are, the destruction, against the Pripet marshes, of the disorganized Russian battle group sent to outflank the capital would be a worthwhile objective, and might even alter the course of events.
If the world were properly organized, we’d be discussing this over drinks in front of a fireplace in the smoking room, with maps hung on the wall.  What’s the fun of armchair generalship in the absence of armchairs?