Politics

POSTNOTE, Thursday: Seen this morning, a great t-shirt “Immigrants Make America Great”  Simply search by name, and you’ll find lots of variety.

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Monday I helped to represent the DFL Senior Caucus at the DFL booth at the State Fair.

Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) location at the Minnesota State Fair, Monday, August 26, 2019

Generally – I’m not a regular volunteer at, nor am I unfamiliar with, the DFL booth as I stop there each year.  The booth is busy, buttons and t-shirts for sale (the ones I bought and wore at the end of this post).  The centerpiece this year was the soybean poll of presidential preference, since half of the Democratic party seems to be running for President.  At the time I was there, Elizabeth Warren seemed to be easily the front-runner.  Voting was a controlled process: one bean per person.  You needed to ‘register to vote’ – no dumping of thirty beans for someone by a single person, for instance.

Those going through represent Minnesota, generally very polite, all manner of ages, etc.  This year one guy stopped and challenged we “communists, socialists”.  A year or two ago an older lady came through who was so noticeable I watched her from entrance to exit.  She seemed very angry at the very notion of Democrats, and as she muttered through the building it was as if she was attempting to exorcise us out of existence – as an occasion of evil.

But overwhelmingly, people are polite, decent people, like most everybody I see every day.  The outliers, of course, get the headlines on the news, of course.

Before going to the fair I wrote down a personal list of issues – there are a great plenty, as you know.  We’re a large complicated country where it is a losing proposition to stand your ground for a single issue…but it seems there remain a lot of single issue people out there.  We want it all; we can’t have it all.  Actually, while I pay little attention to the debates now, the debates are a good forum in which to see the potential candidates formulate their message.  I compare/contrast the Democratic mass of candidates with the scrum that debated at the Republican pre-season in 2016.  There is no comparison when it comes to civility and issue definition.  (My soybean vote went to Amy Klobuchar.  Again, as I say, it is a long way to Nov. 2020.)

In my list of issues I tried to look ‘bigger picture’.  For instance, the gun issue is a very big one, and important.  But looking on the bright side, it is still presumptive murder to kill someone else, regardless of motive.  The odds of escaping punishment (including the killer killing himself) is almost zero for perpetrators of mayhem.

There is lots of room for ideals here; all I’m saying is that the reality might be more elusive than we might think.  Take pure pro-life, for instance.  As we all know, the prohibition movement which sought to rid the land of demon run had a wild success initially, followed by massive corruption, and ultimate repeal of the very initiative which had passed a few years earlier.

Down the list I go.  Maybe sometime later I’ll flesh out the others on my own personal list.  No issue is easy, but none are impossible IF one works at their resolution.

As for the “communist/socialist” nonsense, and it is nonsense, those who seem to bark most about it are most dependent on social programs like medicare and social security and the like, not to mention municipal services, etc., etc., etc.  I speak of old people, like me.

It was a pleasure to be in the DFL Senior Caucus booth at the Minnesota State Fair with my colleagues, Georgiana and Jim, on Monday.  We saw a lot of really nice people.

My first buttons for 2019-2020

 

 

Weekend Reading

Yesterday began the annual Minnesota State Fair.  It is stiff competition, especially if the weather is nice, which it apparently will be.  I’ll be going on Monday myself.

But, not everybody goes, nor does everybody live in Minnesota, and if you happen to have the time read Nikole Hannah-Jones 20-page New York Times essay on the 1619 Project, on the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first slaves in America.  Here’s the link.  This first appeared August 14, 2019, and is (my opinion) a very important addition to the conversation about race and racism in our country.

(It is possible that this won’t connect for you.  I don’t know.  We’re subscribers to the Times, and sometimes subscription is required.  But whatever, if you can get the essay, take the time to follow it.  It is good and necessary learning.)

I also personally recommend the Washington Post on-line subscription.  Both papers have very long and distinguished history as journals.

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I dedicate this post to my friend, Rosa Bogar, who died a year ago.  Rosa, a native of Orangeburg, S.C., dedicated much of her adult life to cultural understanding and acceptance. She merited a special obituary in the Minneapolis paper last year:Rosa Bogar Mpls STrib001.  

POSTNOTE:  Growing up in North Dakota in the 1940s and 1950s, it was easy to evade the ‘race’ conversation, if it even occurred to anyone to raise the issue.  It was rare to come across anyone who looked “black” – I recall seeing one African-American person at a distance in a park in Fargo when I was a kid, and it amazes me to this day that I remember this.

On the other hand…in the mid-1990s a young African-American woman asked me if I’d be willing to do a reflection at our Church on Martin Luther King Day.  I said yes, and then sat down to think about the issue as I knew it from my childhood.

Of course, there were the black stereotypes – who of my generation does not remember the story of Little Black Sambo, for just a single example.

But more to the point, our race to discriminate against was “Indian” – Native American – and I recalled the occasions when we passed by Ft. Totten Reservation near Devils Lake ND, and my mother in particular being most concerned when we went near the reservation – what she feared, I know not, since nothing ever happened, but the fear was noticeable.

I’m grateful to the lady who asked me to do that reflection now 25 years ago.  I don’t think we ever get over racism – it is part of all of our histories.  Best we can do is to understand how it has surfaced in our lives, in remembered, and unremembered ways.

I’m grateful for this opportunity to revisit this.

POSTNOTE 2:  Newt Gingrich weighed in, of course.  Here is the response as shown in tweets to the author of the article.

 

 

The Assassin.

Maps are from Grandma Bernard’s Catholic bible, 1906.  All of the maps in this Bible can be seen here: Bible 1906005.  Each pdf map can be enlarged substantially.

Each time, the outrages get worse, so I won’t say we’ve seen it all.

The most recent, with this most recent resident of the White House, is the tweet effectively assassinating two members of the U.S. Congress planning to visit Israel/Palestine.  He knows what his intent was: to not only destroy them, but everything and everybody who represents in any way their point of view, including their religion.

My choice today is this:

  1.  There is a deliberate effort, these days, to kill others by assassination.  Physically killing the other is not proper, so we assassinate their character or presumed intent, and can feel self-righteous about this.  But it is assassination, nonetheless.  Since the current conversation is about a visit to Israel by two Moslem Congresswomen, the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin November 4, 1995, is worth revisiting.   In that instance, I happened to travel to Israel in January, 1996, when the tragedy was still very ‘fresh’.
  2. It seems a good time to revisit the Biblical area in dispute.  My 1906 Bible is the oldest one I have, and it was printed long before the artificial creation of what is now called Israel.  So enjoy reviewing the old maps.
  3. You might want to review the Ten Commandments.  There are two “Christian” versions, and of course, you can find interpretations of both (Catholic/Lutheran and Protestant).  Just put in your search engine Ten Commandments Catholic Protestant, and look at more than the argument you prefer.  (It was a Jewish rabbi, doing a workshop with a Catholic Priest, who pointed out to us that there are differing renditions of these commanments.)
  4. Best I know, Christian, Jew and Moslem share most of the elements of their idea of religion.  They along with all other religious ideas are all human beings.  The common element of wars in one way or another almost always involve beliefs, which are based on interpretation of words, often played out by extremist actors who, in our present day, ‘take the law into their own hands’ to eliminate the evil ‘other’.  I had an interesting opportunity to explore the quandary 14 years ago, and wrote a little paper afterwards, if you are interested: Mercy001.
  5. To those who believe that “white” is right, a friend sent me an interesting graphic the other day about the origins of humanity.  You can view it here – scroll down to second illustration.

POSTNOTE, 5 PM:  I published this blog before going to church this morning.  At church, the Gospel text was provocative and on point, in my opinion.  Our pastor gave his own perspective on what the text means.  Here it is, as I saw it in print:

What the writer of Luke meant is open to interpretation.  This text could be a good beginning for a Bible Study Group about our current state of affairs in the United States of America.

A beginning thought: we are all parts of relationships, whether we wish or not.  Nothing in a relationship is certain except, likely, that not everyone thinks alike.  But one thing is quite certain: a successful relationship presumes that each party has a stake in it.

Now, we have a country in which one person by force of personality (and abetted by Twitter and television), presumes to control outcomes, not only in domestic politics but foreign relationships.  It is a recipe for disaster.

Let’s talk.

POSTNOTE 2, 4 AM:  For a very interesting and longer analysis, read this mornings Just Above Sunset, “The White Guy With the Shiny Teeth”.

COMMENTS:

from Jeff:  I didn’t know this, but apparently there was a mirror image of this matter during Obama’s administration,  An Israeli Knesset member was denied entry to the USA for a visit.    Certainly interesting.

Re your 4th point… interesting that Eid el Adha Muslim holiday ended last week, supposedly celebrates the end of the visits to Mecca, but also commemorates the faith of Abraham in his obedience to God to sacrifice his child.

from Judy: As usual Dick, excellent and very helpful.

from Carol:  As you may know, I was raised rightwing conservative evangelical (altho’ we didn’t have all the terms back then… we were just, you know, “right” as opposed to those Lutherans and such who were all wrong – and Catholics, of course, were akin to heathen).  So all this just makes my blood boil.  What many people don’t understand is that doubting (i.e., thinking for yourself) is considered “of the devil.”  They believe what they’re told, by their religious authorities.  And their following now of Trump IS cult-like.  There’s no other explanation for how they can ignore all his totally anti-Christ-like behavior (and I don’t mean swearing in a rally…)  It’s – as he would say – SAD.

I have relatives who are there.  This has divided my family into cousins who are “fairly sane” and some who probably never were but it sure now is obvious
from Fred: Excellent commentary Richard. Reminding me of the assassination of Rabin is particularly significant. I was shocked that I hadn’t considered it in years. Thanks for including the maps. I gave them a careful review.
From Jerry:  Hi, Dick.  Thanks for this reflection.  I was at family reunion this weekend.  My 75 year old evangelical minister gave the Sunday reflection.  Much of it reflected on the enemy Muslims who are  great threat to our Christianity.  Lee is, of course, a Trump supporter who travels the country preaching.

Immigrants

It’s been a long week.

Eight months ago I was starting the process of recuperation from heart surgery, and among the very kind visitors were Donna and Rich Krisch, good friends from Basilica and activists in the cause for decent treatment of those have come to be called ‘illegals’ from anywhere.

They brought me a gift:

We all have different habits and styles.  I’m a reader, but very often a book like this has to find its right time…and now is the time to read its several hundred pages.  I have no doubt it will be enlightening, and I invite you to take a look as well.  Thank you, Rich and Donna.

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My personal thoughts are at the end of this post.

First, I note I’ve done 36 posts over the years that relate to immigration in some way or other.  A quick search brought back a guest post from Richard Bigelow, a man in border Texas, which I published in July, 2010.  You can read it here.

Nine years is yesterday, but light years ago.  I didn’t recall how I met the author, nor was there any piece of paper floating around that was evidence.  All I’m sure of is that he wrote the piece, and I had his permission to post it, since it was nestled at this site.

LATER: it turned out I still had the authors e-address.  I wrote him, and his address turned out to still be active.  He reminded me of how we met, and sent the below update, with permission to reprint the above, and his additional comments which follow.  Richard grew up in rural Colorado, and still lives in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas, a few miles from where my parents lived for a number of years in the 1970s and 80s.

Richard, August 10, 2019: “All of my comments in that letter [2010 blog, above] still apply. I try to share my sentiments with people nearly daily but I  am frustrated by all the fear and misinformation whipp[ed] up by this administration. 
Immigration issues continue to need thoughtful, bipartisan discussion and problem solving by people of good will but it doesn’t seem to be happening. 
We who live along the border continue in our bicultural world, crossing back and forth as needed for work, play, shopping, medical care, visiting friends and family etc. The lines for crossing are longer making for more hassle. Most of us are not afraid and refuse to buy in to the fear agenda. I personally am more afraid in downtown Houston or of the posibily of running into one of crazy racists at Walmart emboldened by Trump’s rhetoric. They no longer have to wear a sheet over their heads. 
No one who knows the situation believes a wall or fence will make a difference. In fact a wall will probably make it easier for the asylum seekers because the river is so serpentine they have to build it on land inland from the border. The “bad actors” will not be affected because the Cartels have good technology, planes, boats, and submarines. Thousands of cargo trucks cross on the bridges daily and can’t all be inspected. I also understand that you can still buy false documents for a few hundred dollars. 
One of my biggest concerns is how we are losing our place as the world leader in human rights. My wife and I vacationed in Eastern Europe this Spring and found people of good conscience wanting to understand. I didn’t have many answers. 
So, we keep plodding along with Church and human rights groups helping where and when we can and hoping/working for some relief in 2020.
Please feel free to use any or all of my comments then and now.”

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SOME FINAL THOUGHTS: Speaking personally: we are a paralyzed society at this moment.  I am just one of all of us, and I know many people, and my entire career was negotiating differences.  There is virtually no opening for any negotiations now.  We believe what we believe, on most everything.  We are stuck in ‘lose-lose’.  It is our luxury, and it is also our albatross.  We live in bubbles of sameness, which help perpetuate the illusion that we are right, and they are wrong.

There are infinite variations from person to person, of course.  But there is a common kind of bottom line mentality that I sense, in effect: “I’ll negotiate everything but [that top priority I slavishly hold on to]”  Makes not much difference the issue, or which ‘side’ one is on, something is non-negotiable, and we don’t hold ourselves accountable for our own biases.

The people who we call Congressmen, Senators, on and on, reflect us as if we’re looking in a mirror.  If they’re worthless, they’re just being who we want them to be.  We have a President, now, who believes his  “country” is his base, which I don’t think comprises one-fourth of the electorate.  Makes no difference – they vote; they won.  But what did they “win”?  Is being President of some of us, President of all of us?

We are such a large country, that there will always be an infinite variety of almost always young, crazed, individuals with weapons who will repeat El Paso and Dayton endlessly.  The odds of any of us individually getting shot is very low, but not infinitesimally low.  And if we happen to be where someone is shooting, the odds are far increased over what they were in the past, in the days before automatic weapons were legal guns in this country; and where the NRA was truly a sportsman and gun safety organization, not an industry mouthpiece.

I heard a speaker once say, “nothing changes, if nothing changes“.  That was 40 years ago, and I’ve not forgotten it.  If there is to be change, it is up to each and every one of us.

We, more so than most anywhere else in the world, are a nation of immigrants.  My Dad failed first grade because he couldn’t speak English when he started school in North Dakota; they spoke French exclusively at home.  My mothers parents and grandparents prayerbooks were in their native German, and while naturalized citizens, in some cases over 50 years, they faced discrimination during WWI in their own United States.

We generally except native Americans from the category of immigrants.  But probably all of their ancestors, albeit thousands of years ago, arrived here from somewhere else as well.  I’ve had my own DNA done.  I’m 100% white male, and my ancestral track goes back to Africa via the middle east, as it likely does for all of us.  It is best we recognize our commonness, not our difference, or we have no chance for a future.

Graphic by National Geographic sent by a friend.  Highlighting of Great Rift Valley added.

Finally, there is the matter of our (the U.S.) being “exceptional”.  We seem to be so, but only in one regard: we are lucky to be exceptionally wealthy, and we will be called to account for this wealth.  The U.S. has less than 5% of the worlds population; and about 25% of the worlds wealth.  Within our borders are people of every conceivable ethnicity, and we cannot pretend that our wealth is to our credit, or our property, closed to others.  There are infinite positive ways for us to share our wealth, and we need to figure this out, otherwise, we will have nothing.

We – you and I – are our future.  There’s no one else.

 

 

KFAI

To my recollection, this is the first time in 10 years and near 1500 posts, that I’ve used this space to fundraise for anything or anyone.  Today, in behalf of KFAI, is unique).  KFAI is truly “public radio” with a long history of service in this community, broadcasting since 1978

You can listen to KFAI on-line hereHere’s the home page, scroll down to “support us”.  Information about the fundraiser is at the website, as is information about the history of the station.  This is a major fundraiser for the station, which is facing major costs at the present time.

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Back in the day, October 26, 1982, to be exact, I made my first visit to KFAI’s then-“studio”, in the belfry of the old Walker Methodist Church in South Minneapolis, where Carmelle Pommepuy and Francine Roche were reveling in the success of ‘Salut a Quebec’ the previous Saturday, a musical extravaganza presented by  La Societe Canadienne Francaise du Minnesota (LSCF), at the College of St. Catherine.  Martin Lavoie, chansonnier from Quebec, and Jean-Guy Cote on guitar, along with Francine Roche, star of the Saturday program and co-host of the program, performed live on the radio, for whomever lived in the listening area of then 10-watt station.  No matter, it was live, local radio to local aficionados of French language programming.

Francine and Carmelle’s program, “Me and the Other” was their creation, and LSCF was their organization.  LSCF made an early donation of $50 to help the program succeed.

The setting that October day was ‘early primitive’ – there’s not much you can do in the belfry of a church with minimal equipment, a couple of turntables and a couple of microphones and almost no space.  I was there as a new member of LSCF.  The emergency exit was down the same stairs you walked up to the ‘studio’.  I thought of this hazardous venue when the old Walker burned down in May, 2012.

Carmelle Pommepuy shares a thought with Francine Roche off-air, “Me and the Other”, KFAI live, October, 1982, photo Dick Bernard

LSCF’s newsletter, Chez Nous, for Dec. 1982, had a brief article about “Me and the Other”, in part: “Their [Francine and Carmelle’s] program…is one of the most popular on the station according to officials of the station (90.3 FM in south Minneapolis).  The show consists of French music and commentary about French Canadian culture.  LaSociete gets lots of publicity.  The program airs Tuesday mornings from 9-11 a.m.

Time goes on and KFAI community radio continues.  The program which Carmelle and Francine initiated continues as Bonjour Minnesota, 8-10 p.m. on Tuesdays.  The successor organization of LSCF, French-American Heritage Foundation, is a contributor to the show.

 

El Paso, Dayton

POSTNOTE, Monday morning: a longer summary of national views, here.  A Bewildered Nation.

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Another weekend; two more tragedies.

Friday afternoon  we were on the way home from a few days at a lake in northern Minnesota.  At a stoplight, we ended up behind a car, whose decorations caught my attention:

If you can’t read the decals, here they are: “VETERAN”; “God Bless Our Troops, Especially Our Snipers”; “Extremely Rightwing”.  It was a Minnesota license plate, which I’ve whited out.

A day later, the carnage in El Paso, and in Dayton.   Separate but equally pertinent, Jeff sent a very interesting article from the Grand Forks (ND) Herald about the fight among politicians and contractors over the spoils for constructing Trumps border wall across from Mexico.  You can read that here.  One snip from the article: “President Donald Trump has redirected $3.5 billion in Defense Department funds to the border project, promising to build 500 miles of barrier before the 2020 election. [ND U.S. Sen.] Cramer said the president has bestowed him with special responsibilities to oversee progress.”  A ND contractor wants the business and has paid considerable tribute for a big piece of the action.

Today’s news pointed out that there have been 251 mass shootings in the U.S. in the first 215 days of 2019. (522 killed, 2040 injured).  Reliable source of data Gun Violence Archive here.

And on it goes.  If you’re reading this, you’ve been following the news this latest tragic disgrace of “America”, my country, too, sold out to so-called “white nationalism”.

Today commented back to my friend, Norm, who’d written his thoughts to another list, as follows: I’ll basically only say this: Human history is littered with the likes of our current demagogue using conflict as a prop, and young killers as the facilitators.  El Paso and Dayton are the latest examples.  The assorted politicians are simply trying to represent what they think their constituencies demand. The price, their reelection, or not.  You know that.  

I’m often led to think back to the duped nationalist, Gavrilo Princip, 19, who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand June 28, 1914, and in so doing lit the smoldering tinder that resulted in the deadly WWI.  Then I think about young zealot and WWI veteran Adolf Hitler, who, at about 30, nursed personal and German grievances about the humiliation and resulting poverty after WWI into what became the Third Reich; the Thousand Year Reich, they said, which lasted about a dozen years more or less.   
It never ends well for the tyrant and the zealot, but the public in one way or another facilitates it in all the assorted ways which are so familiar.  “We, the people” are adept at cooking our own goose….  
None of us will survive if we let past be prelude and pretend it doesn’t matter whether, or how, we vote, and work within the political process, beforehand.
Thanks for the commentary.  All of these events are awful.  I wonder who will be the next perpetrator, carrying Trumps message of white supremacy.

July 27, 2019, Breezy Point, MN

Crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.”

Each year at our resort an Elvis re-enactor (an excellent performer) does a Saturday night program, and this year was no different.  This year, three men showed up with an American flag, and there was a short discussion with “Elvis” before hand, which didn’t seem either tense or friendly; but it didn’t seem part of the plan.  Elvis opened his show with a well done rendition of America the Beautiful, whose lyrics include the “brotherhood” comment.  The show went on.  I don’t think I was the only puzzled witness.  These days, the flag is too often used as a weapon, one side against another.

COMMENTS:

from Norm: Great observations and comments, Dick!  One difference between the Austrian dupe and the German guy is that Trump was elected by Americans to be their president, something that makes me shudder when I think about it.

from Carol: Comments?  I don’t know why you bothered to white out that car’s license plate.  He wants to make a public statement – let him…(Oh, I see someone beat me to the punch on that comment.)

from Fred:  What a dismal few days. I decided not to listen to the president [no ‘sic’ for the lower case ‘p’ please] read to us the words he was incapable of writing. Later I caught a snippet. Think back to the Army–McCarthy hearings when the gentlemanly Robert Welch, in frustration and disbelief, uttered those great words to Tailgunner Joe:  “Have you no sense of decency, sir. At long last have you left no sense of decency.”  [You can listen to the comment here.]

Better yet, check it out on YouTube along with the commentary regarding McCarthy by the peerless, fearless Edward R. Murrow. Such comments are long past due for the current occupant of 1600.  [Murrow’s comment is here.]

from Dave C (DC):  NOTE from Dick Bernard.  Only the first portion of this very long response is included here.  Most of the ten single spaced pages which followed were data about 37 occurrences between 2010  and 2016 in the United States, all of which were familiar to me.  I sent the entire response to DZ (Dean Z, below).  DC’s first paragraph: “Do your homework DZ. The statistics [no source of data provided by DC] show the number of mass shootings in the United States between 1982 and August 4, 2019, by race and ethnicity of the shooter(s). Between 1982 and August 2019, 64 out of 114 mass shootings were initiated by White shooters. The Las Vegas strip massacre in 2017 had the highest number of victims between 1982 and 2019, with 58 people killed, and over 500 injured. 19 by black, 10 by Latino, eight by Asian and 12 by others. The list below is a list of mass shootings from Jan 2009 and Jan 2017. I am sure you can find a way to blame that on the current President….. wait it must have been Bush’s…. Reagan’s….? Sorry to interrupt your liberal parade.

from Maria: Thank you Dick. My heart is broken.

from Jermitt: Thanks for your comments, Dick.

from Judy: Greetings Dick,  I am always grateful for your words of wisdom.  Thank you for your thoughts in the midst of the tragedy that grips the nation.  Peace, to you.

POSTNOTE, Dick Bernard, after the President visits to Dayton and El Paso, Aug. 7, 2019:   Just Above Sunset, overnight, “Not Wanted”, summed up yesterday, effectively as usual.

There have been a number of private opportunities to engage in off-line conversations since I first sent this post, some support what I say, a few angry and challenging.  By no means, however, do I feel like I felt after 9-11-01, when only 6% of Americans felt like I did, that bombing the hell out of Afghanistan was a lousy idea to resolve a serious issue.  It was a lonely time for someone advocating reconciliation and work for peace.

Relevant to this conversation: If you enter the word “guns” in the search box for this blog, you will find that 72 (of nearly 1500) posts since March 2009 use guns in some way in the article.  Since I write these posts, I can attest that in not a single instance have I advocated for an abolition of guns, though I have never purchased or had a gun in my possession.  I certainly do advocate for regulation of weapons….

Kids born on 9-11-01 turn 18 next month.  They  become adults.  Lots of water under the bridge in our country.

In the days since the carnage of last Saturday, I’ve mostly thought of my personal memories of mass murders that made the news.  I’ve done no past research – things like these tend to stick in my mind.

The first two seared into my mind happened in the summer of 1966 :  Richard Speck, who killed the student nurses in Chicago, and Charles Whitman who spread mayhem, shooting people from the bell tower at the University of Texas.  I was in summer school at the UofIllinois at Normal that summer.  The country reeled from these tragedies.

The next that come to mind were, as stated in Just Above Sunset this morning, “the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and George W. Bush’s visit to a mosque after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001….”  Columbine in April, 1999, sticks in my mind, vividly, since my son and family lived, and still do, just over a mile from the high school, and I was there, with them, a week after the carnage.  That one was 20 years ago, and ushered in 20 years of carnage.

There’s been a great plenty of wanton killing in this country of ours over the years, but the era in which we are now seems different, in many ways.  It does seem that this can possibly become a time in history where sanctioned terror can in fact have the opposite, and positive, effect.  As a country, we may be getting sick and tired of accepting an evil status quo.

Sure, it does seem hopeless, but as the saying goes, “it’s always darkest right before the dawn.”  It’s up to us to change the conversation – it’s up to us – and make no mistake, that is going to take lots of individual work on our own attitudes.

I think we’re up to it.

 

PRE-NOTE:  Not related to above, but perhaps of interest to some readers.  Al Gore was in Minneapolis for a workshop (here).  In 2005 we had the opportunity to see his talk about An Inconvenient Truth, then in production; and in 2006 we saw the film.  I wrote about both events.  Here: Inconvenient Truth001

Fools

POSTNOTE, SATURDAY, JULY 27:  If you read nothing else this weekend, read this.  Then decide where you fit in, and take action.  I will be offline from today through next week.

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I am deliberately writing and posting this before the first official words are uttered at the long awaited Mueller appearance in Congress today.

It has already been said that everything anyone needs to know about the Mueller inquiry is already in writing within the report; that Mr. Mueller has already said what he plans to say; that the Justice Department has ordered him to say nothing outside the words on the printed pages of the report.  And of course there is that Justice Department “policy”, apparently, that a sitting President cannot be indicted, written for some reason by somebody without thinking of the consequences of making it applicable to every situation, no matter how heinous.  ETC, ad infinitum.

That the Republican minority will do everything it can to make today appear like a useless exercise is obvious.

Possibly I’ll watch at least part of the real-time deliberations.  Today will be theater, albeit theater with a whole lot of substance.  The report speaks abundantly for itself.  I have a copy of the Mueller Report.  I can read.

I do support the premise of the hearing, of bringing Mr. Mueller to the table even if the hearing itself may be far more for show than for substance.  They already have the substance, in the Report….

My opinion: the current President is as close to a common criminal as we have ever had in the highest office in the land.  It is his hope – and that of his fervent supporters – that he will beat the rap by running out the clock and then be reelected under patently false pretenses in 2020.  Others can – and have already – gone to prison.  Not him.  Yet.

His supporters best be careful what they yearn for.

We are living in a time of false prosperity.  This strong economy is a sham and everyone knows it.  We are reliving the excesses of the post 9-11-01 era, when the advice was to “go shopping”, and the result was the closest call to economic disaster, in 2008, that we had had since the great Depression.

My most important (to me) mention of Trump in a blog was the one for December 17, 2017, the day of celebration for the huge tax cuts passed by a Republican Congress and signed immediately by Trump.  I saw disaster ahead.  The axe will fall…but not until after the next election.  Till then, the giveaways to the right people will be the order of the day.

No matter, apparently.  People like the illusion of free stuff.

Caveat emptor.  Let the buyer, beware.

POSTNOTE: The magic of word find notes that I’ve used Trump’s name in a post 71 times in the 1470 posts that comprise the ten years of this blog.  The first directly related to his coming presidency was one week before Trumps inauguration January 20, 2017.  (The first to mention him at all was March 18, 2010, a reference to “you’re fired”).

POSTNOTE 2, 9:50 a.m. Wednesday July 24:  Reference has frequently been made to the letter from 1000 prosecutors.  I believe this is that letter.

POSTNOTE 3, 8:15 p.m., July 24: I watched the morning session in its entirety and found it very interesting.  As I’ve said on previous occasions, for 27 years, my daily work was dealing with differences of opinion.  The work was with law and lawyers, and in an often political environment.  I’ll say only that I have an informed perspective.

POSTNOTE 4, 9:40 a.m. July 26: The Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel letter on indicting a sitting president is here.

AFTER YESTERDAY, 9:30 a.m. Thursday:  It’s about 24 hours since yesterdays post, before the hearing.  As I note in POSTNOTE 3, I watched the morning session, I’m not a stranger to the kind of scenario witnessed yesterday.  (I have only one previous post about Mueller.  You can read it here.)

It has been and will continue to be mentioned that Mr. Mueller is old – turning 75 in a couple of weeks.  I’m 79.  So he’s “just a kid”.  On the other hand, you pick up some street smarts as you age, which our youth oriented “I want it now” society doesn’t particularly appreciate.

Previously, I said I feel both Mueller and Pelosi were handling things well.   I still maintain that.

Of course, the postmortems are infinite and predictable.  Pundits, analysts and all manner of experts opine about what they would have done differently – it’s probably still called “Monday morning quarterback”.  People who didn’t have to do anything but witness, have all sorts of certain opinions about what should have been done, and wasn’t, and that, in their opinion, cost the game.  Nobody knows….

I’m from the little leagues compared with Mueller, but for 27 years I did similar work, including being the guy in the bullseye (Mueller) in a room full of people with certain opinions, often in direct opposition to each other.  I was the one who was supposed to bring clarity, or some “message from Garcia” or something.  It is impossible.  As I write. I can envision some scenarios I actually experienced in person, as Mueller, in effect.  You do your best and you know you’ll be criticized regardless of what you do.  In the audience were people who knew for sure that I didn’t know what I was doing, but were even more clueless than they thought I was.  I wasn’t sure, myself, that my direction was correct.  But they wouldn’t sit in the same chair as I.  They had the right to criticize.

Ratchet that up thousands of times, and there sat Mueller in the hot seat, everything being analyzed.  He knew this, of course.  I think he also knew that he would have to do it, and he set the day up as much as possible with a meticulously prepared report and an insistence that he was not going to be fooled into going off in this or that direction.

I think the Democrats knew this too. But they also knew that the people actually had to see Mueller’s face and hear his words.

The Republicans did too, but their mission was singular: to do anything possible to destroy him as a witness to one of the awful chapters in American history.

Call it a game, or whatever, everybody knew the realities.

Now, it’s “we, the peoples” turn.  If we choose to turn this into an armchair analysis of “The Apprentice”, we’re cooked.  On the other hand, there is a “rule of law” which has more or less served our country well through our long history.  Trump justifiably has a considerable fear of the rule of law, since the law for him has never been very troubling.  Like rich people do, he has means to leverage “justice” to his ends.  He’ll never say it, but I think he’s justifiably terrified that his goose is near cooked (he used much more colorful language to describe this some time ago).

Those who revere those MAGA hats better keep them for the aftermath, if Trump continues his reign.  We’re digging ourselves a very deep hole, and we’ll need a lot of resolve to recover any semblance of our standing once the feel good days of wasteful tax cuts are replaced by the hard work of getting back on an even keel.  The end game is a few years out, perhaps, at least till after the 2020 election, but watch your wallet.  Sooner or later the piper is going to be paid for the tax cuts we didn’t need.

I’m just one of the little guys.  But mark my words.  We will regret continuing our trajectory down the slippery slope.

COMMENTS (more below in on-line section)

from Kathy: Exculpate, etc. defined.

Dick, responding to Hank (below), July 26:

Good morning, Hank.
A large part of me says “just let it go…don’t respond”.
On the 24th you filed the below comment on my blog post, which I approved, and appears with the blog.  Two other comments more or less referred to your comment.
MaryEllen (below) said  “And, Mr. Toring, the Clinton’s behavior will likewise catch up with them.”  Her comment also is in the blog.
And a third, from a friend of many years whose comment came as a separate e-mail and isn’t included in the blog, in relevant part: “I agree with Hank Toring.   Please explain the criminal things that Trump is guilty of.   What I have heard is the real criminals are Clintons / Obamas / Biden.   I know that the criminal activity they have committed; they are passing the blame to Trump to divert attention from themselves.”   
Both will be blind-copied on this e-mail and thus can respond directly to you if they wish.
Cutting to the chase: pretty obvious you and I possibly have polar opposite political opinions.  That doesn’t bother me  That doesn’t make you right, or me either.  It’s just opinions.  The troubling part is that our country has largely been divided in half, and it is not healthy to pretend that half of the country can pretend to be able to control the other half. There is a certain civil war mentality going on.
1. I strongly supported Obama and both Clintons (and others) and I’m very proud of that.   I took a formal position at the time of Bill Clinton’s impeachment.  I’ve attached the letter (at end of comment, below).  I have seen all manner of accusations against the Clinton’s, Obama et al over many years, and have made a practice of following up on the veracity of the complaint.  The usual source to fact check is here.   I have noticed that snopes.com has joined the enemies list in some quarters – it expresses uncomfortable truths about internet lies; an alternative Christian source that I’ve known of for many years is here.  It is not as comprehensive and it supports the work Snopes does.  And of course there are any number of fact check sources available today.
Long and short, your list of accusations comes with not a single source of accusation that I can fact check.  The accusation is the conviction….  There are, probably, hundreds of these, perhaps thousands, of such allegations, passed along, person to person, accepted as truth when the vast majority I’ve ever seen come up as “false” or at best “mixed”.
Most recently in the nice town of Carrington ND, in the Catholic Church, the Sunday bulletin had a wonderful quotation from Abraham Lincoln.  It was a great quote, one that I would have used in my own writing.  But I checked it out, first.  There apparently was such a quotation, by someone I had never heard of, but it wasn’t Abraham Lincoln.  So it was false in its inference of source.  The words “Abraham Lincoln” gave it undeserved credibility.  I wrote the church about it.
Of course, as I mentioned to you, I do know quite a bit about Haiti, one of your assertions.  Ain’t quite all like it seems in the lie yard of the internet….
2. The “criminal things” of President Trump.  This is more about “innocent until proven guilty”, what we all learned about equal justice under the Law.  This was the intent of the Mueller Report, to establish a base of facts for such things as indictments, etc., leading to exoneration or conviction or whatever.  Anyone who follows such things at all sees what is going on – every effort is and will be made to block getting to the truth, allowing the clock to run out.  Would Trump be found innocent?  We’ll likely never know.  There’s a policy (not a law) that he can’t be indicted while President, as was made clear in the Mueller Report.
So, there’s the polarity: guilt by accusation versus innocent until proven guilty.  Judgement by opinion might feel good in the short run, but in the long run we all will suffer, most especially those who have placed their undying loyalty to the current president of the United States (my opinion).    There has been an ongoing and vicious and successful campaign of building fear and hatred of people like myself, “liberals”, and all of the other associated hate words.  It is as it is.
PS:  The 1998 Bill Clinton letter can be read here: Clinton Impeachment001

 

 

Apollo 11, 50 years later

It was at almost exactly this same time of day, 2:10 p.m., July 20, 1969, that I pulled to the side of Highway 2 near Bagley MN to listen to the drama of touchdown of Apollo 11 on the moon.  Three days ago, I wrote about that event, and events before and after, here.

The astronauts stay on the moon was brief; four days later came a perfect reentry in the Pacific Ocean; a triumphal gathering on a Navy ship.

*

There has been a great abundance of media attention to Apollo 11  this past week.  Of the many factoids was one, this morning:  I think it was Neil Armstrong who gave the odds of their successfully landing on the moon July 20 as 50-50.  But they took the risk anyway.  Amazing.  There was no room for any mistake.  Such would have been a  lot more serious than going in the ditch.

*

In 1970, my friend, Frank, went to Federal Prison for a year, convicted of conspiracy to destroy draft records.  It was the hottest time of the Vietnam War.  He was 26, then, and its impact is still with him 50 years later.  Part of his story can be seen here (second half of the blog).

Meanwhile, back on planet earth, today, 50 years later….

Depending on what news you choose to listen to, you’ve probably heard about the “send them back” message to the four freshman women in the U.S. Congress this week, all of them U.S. citizens; all young women of color, all but one born in the U.S.A., the fourth, a citizen since teen years.

There’s a lot of debate about “illegals” and “racism”.  We don’t seem very civilized these days.

There’s been another incident in the waters off Iran.  Threats.

Today, at the excellent “Peacestock” for Veterans for Peace at Red Wing MN, Ann Wright summarized today’s international “hot spots”:  Iran, N. Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.  These are far more complex than Trump, Pompeo, Bolton et al like to position in their sound bites.  Ann gave part of the backstory for each hot spot, and other current events in this world of which we are becoming less dominant.  She is an expert.

The best advice I can give to all of us is to make a very serious effort to become and stay well informed.  One side of the story doesn’t make for being informed.  I am guessing there were about 150 of us at the Red Wing event, and there was a great deal of active listening.  Col. Wright knows what she is talking about from many years as an American diplomat.

 

Ann Wright at Veterans for Peace, Peacestock, July 20, 2019, Red Wing MN

Just before Col Wrights talk, my friend Dr. Michael Knox presented a video on his passion: The U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation.  You can watch his approximately 6 minute video here.  I have been a founding and active member of this Foundation since I first learned of it in 2006.   Check it out.

*

A couple of days earlier, July 18, I attended an intense and extremely informative talk on the reality of refugees and people seeking asylum.  It was at the Basilica of St. Mary and entitled “When Home Won’t Let You Stay”  (Here is previous post about it.)  James A. Bowey kept our full attention for near two hours of highly informed commentary, with brief highly personal stories of refugees.  If you ever have the opportunity to hear, or have, Bowey speak, take it.  Check out the links.

Bowey made reference to United Nations data, which is worth accessing and reviewing.  Link is here.  There are powerful photos, with accompanying very brief text at his aforementioned site.

At this point in time, according to the UN, there are almost 26 million refugees in the world; in a relative sense, the United States today, accepts almost no one – less than 30,000 per year – which does not even touch the long range problem.  Some estimate that by 2050 there will be 250,000,000 refugees in the world, much climate related.  The U.S. population today is about 330,000,000.)  This is not sustainable.

James A. Bowey at Basilica of St. Mary July 18, 2019

We are in a time of tribalism in this country, and it is not healthy for anyone, regardless of ‘side’.  We have to figure this out, how to dialogue and learn from each other, as we have to figure out another reality: by trying to fence others out, we are fencing ourselves into our own self-imposed prison….  We are a nation of good people, but there is a raw and very mean undercurrent infesting us at the present time.

 

 

Apollo 11

Saturday we were at a family get-together, and grandson Ryan was telling me about seeing the Omnimax film on Apollo 11 at the Science Museum in St. Paul.   Ryan, at the doorstep of 20, was enthusiastic about the film, but didn’t have the historical context, though I had taken he and his friend, Caleb, to Cape Canaveral in 2013, and we had done the full tour.   (They were early teenagers then, and as I told him, they seemed most interested in possible sightings of alligators!)

Apollo 11 did have historical context for me, however, and brought back many memories of that long ago time, when I was 29.  In fact, yesterday I went to see the film (I highly recommend it), and didn’t grasp till a later news report that July 16 was the 50th anniversary of the launch of the rocket that led to the first human footprints on the moon, July 20, 1969.

Of course, there are endless personal memories of this event.  Here are a few snips of my own:

July 20, 1969, we were returning to the Twin Cities from a visit to my parents in Grand Forks ND.  The car radio was on, and we were on U.S. 2, somewhere near Bagley MN, when the eagle (the spacecraft) landed.  I pulled over, and we listened as the spacecraft successfully touched down.

Then we were back on the road again to home (Spring Lake Park MN), and our television brought a far from perfect picture of the events (see below).  I have resisted temptation to enhance my photo – it was as it was, about midnight or so CDT, back then.

July 20, 1969, man on the moon ‘screen shot’ off TV in Spring Lake Park MN

In those years, when we still could have a sense of wonder, and were technologically backward compared to today, such events were awesome.

I was a school teacher then, and had an opportunity to go to a national conference that happened to be in Houston TX in November of 1969.  We had an opportunity to visit the Houston Space Center exhibit about Apollo 11 (photo below).  It was more of a bare  basics operation in Fall 1969 than the later and much fancier operation that I re-visited in 2006.  Of course, it felt much more authentic in 1969, being within a few months of the actual event.

Nov. 1969, Houston TX

Back home, life went on.  In June of 1970, the national travelling exhibit about Apollo 11 came to the State Capitol in St. Paul, and we stood in line to glimpse things, like a real moon rock!  It was a big deal, and we waited patiently for the opportunity.  I saw one website that collects memories from the 50 state tour, here. It doesn’t have anything about St. Paul, so perhaps my photos can join it.  Oddly, searching for internet links, I found one with something I wrote in 2011 about this same event.

June, 1970 Minnesota State Capitol

June, 1970

POSTNOTE:  Watching Apollo 11 yesterday, I was struck by the fact that the images were essentially 100% white men.  There may have been a few women, and non-whites, in the visible upper echelons of the operation, but they were mostly not visible.  1969 was a white man’s United States….   And before 1969 as well.

Back home, yesterday, the big news continued to be the Presidents racist comments, which led to a House of Representatives condemnation of what the President had to say a few days ago against four women Congresspeople.

Of course, there will be debate about this, and the impeachment conversations which are intensifying, as I write.

This president relishes a divided country, where the winners control the losers.  The Civil War was our experience with this; World War I was a world experience of a divided world.  History is riddled with examples of how destructive division is.  Everyone loses.

I remember the days of the past very well.  A year before Apollo 11, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated (Memphis and Los Angeles).  And earlier, John Kennedy who challenged America to get to the moon by the end of the 1960s, died by assassination in Dalles TX.

I am one white man who hopes and prays that we do not revert to these old days before civil and human rights which really struggled into reality in the 1960s and times thereafter.  If there needs to be a battle, bring it on.  Our country will not go back.  We need to work to avoid a repeat of our abundant past mistakes.

Another good commentary from another source today: All Dug In.

Some AARP Magazine memories of Apollo 11: AARP Apollo 11001

COMMENTS: 

from Jermitt: Thanks for sharing your memories of 50 years ago, and tying it into the current situation with Trump and how he continues to throw gasoline on the flames of a divided country.

from Jay: Well-said, Dick. Thanks for awakening my memory of it. I watched the whole thing on TV and I remember it well because it was on my birthday!!

(scroll down for more comments)

 

“And who is my neighbor?”

POSTNOTE:  See reference at last portion, here.  This was singularly one of the most powerful presentations I have experienced.

*

The Gospel on Sunday at Basilica of St. Mary was Luke 10:5-37 (as we saw it, open link below the picture).  “And who is my neighbor?”  Jesus’ response is a direct and confrontive analysis in answer to the question: essence, everyone is our neighbor.

This is a difficult truth particularly for Christians in our country who think that immigrants are inconveniences, not neighbors, not welcome here.

Jesus had no boundaries.

Thursday is an opportunity  to learn more, 6-8 p.m. at Basilica (details below)

PDF of program: When Home….003

Church newsletter descriptor of Program: Basilica Program Jul 19001 “Who is my neighbor?”

Gospel Reading July 14, 2019: Gospel July 14 2019002

There is, obviously, much, much more to say.

We saw an excellent column in the July 5, Minneapolis Star Tribune, whose caption is “Be decent.  Be earnest.  Don’t lose your capacity for shock and sorrow“.  You can read it here: Keeping Focus….001.  I call it “keeping focus”.

Do check out Thursday at Basilica.  I think you’ll find it very worthwhile, in these troubled times.

POSTNOTE:  A good friend of many years recently wrote me, including this statement: “The people who are coming from Mexico were in poverty road & Mexico did nothing to help them – their problem did not start at the US border.”   Just to start a conversation on this particular piece of hopelessly biased news, I sent my friend reputable data about three countries, which you can see here: three countries001 .  The analysis is very, very simple.  The U.S. has less than 5% of the worlds population, and about 25% of the worlds financial wealth; Mexico does not favorably compare with the U.S. in wealth; the refugees seem mostly from Central America and are not “Mexican” at all.  And the countries from which they come are desperately poor, even compared with Mexico, and their poverty in many cases has been aided and abetted by past and indeed present U.S. policy.