Playing a Very Dangerous Game

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I’m just an old guy with a computer, but I try to be thoughtful about what I write.  This particular post began as a draft on Tuesday morning.  I was going to publish Friday, under the headline “Protests”.  The seeming Declaration of War by the President of the United States. attempting to divide Americans into two warring “tribes”, mine subordinate to his, most recently targeting Seattle, brings this amendment.  Except for the placement of the photos, what follows is virtually identical to the earlier draft.

There is a great deal more to say, but let this be a start.  And if you have the interest, I also recommend three previous  post, Schools (July 22), Racism (July 7) and John Lewis (July 19  ).  Several upcoming posts, the first tomorrow, on contemporary politics from my point of view, will flesh out my feelings on the upcoming elections (plural).  Today’s Just Above Sunset, “That Reality Thing”,  is as always worth your time.

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May 30, 2020. Gandhi Mahal area at 27th and Lake Street Minneapolis MN.  The restaurant would be between the two folks walking, about one block away.  Photo by Dick Bernard

This week the Portland OR protests were daily news.  (See POSTNOTE 4)  Now it seems that troops need to be sent in to save the city from the protestors.  perhaps this is the Current Occupants idea of the convenient war he needs to help win reelection.  We are being played for suckers.

Now the President sends in federal troops – at least people who look like such – into Portland, with plans to send them into other cities supposedly under attack.  And very dark political ads I see every day, with “I approve these messages” from the President of the United States.

I think the earlier military cleanup for the photo op with the Bible in the vicinity of the White House was simply practice for what is happening now, and I am increasingly of the mind that the damage and destruction following the death of George Floyd on Memorial Day was an initial demonstration of using protests as vehicles to discredit peaceful protest through use of agents provocateurs who blended in to commit the acts of mayhem on the streets of Minneapolis.

Beware the bright, shiny objects dangled to disrupt and confuse.

Just Above Sunset  (“The Protection Squadron” July 22) gives a good summary of what is happening, and the danger thereof.

Portland is not hard to fact check.  Yesterday I simply called a friend who lives in Oregon not too many miles from downtown Portland just to get an assessment of reality, which is very different than the sound pieces you get from television or from the presidential podium at the White House.

I have some recent experience.  Here in my own metropolitan area, after Memorial Day, protest erupted in the wake of the George Floyd murder in south Minneapolis (the four policemen involved are under indictment).

The restaurant of a good friend of mine was torched by someone: burned to the ground.  My friend was a pillar of his neighborhood, a very unlikely target of any local.  In fact, it wasn’t until the day after the protests began that his restaurant burned to the ground.

My wife will attest that I worried about rumors that the violence 20 miles away would spread the night I first saw flames on television.  I am embarrassed by that fear I had that first night.  My concern, that night, was white nationalists, exploiting an opportunity to make trouble.  These are the kinds of people we saw taking the State Capitol in Michigan – thugs masquerading as patriots.

The next day, and several times subsequent, I have driven to the area of the protests.  The dominant vision past the wanton damage to what seem to be mostly small businesses catering to the surrounding community, was of a community getting to work to clean up the damage.  The surrounding residential streets were untouched, though I am certain there was plenty of fear in those houses the night of broken glass and flames.

My friend is hard at work beginning the process of recovery and ultimately reopening his restaurant.

Meanwhile the theater of the absurd that is the current White House, tries to conjure up visions of chaos, confusion, and fear of the unknown other. I’ve been thinking of this when I see the clips of the supposed chaos in Portland; the feds in to bring back order; when I know, from my well-informed friend in Oregon, the bigger and much less demonic depiction of what is happening in a small area of Portland OR – protestors, almost all peaceably assembled, with the usual sprinkling of unknown agents provocateurs up to no-good.

I think we witnessed the same in Minneapolis some weeks ago; and in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House even more recently.

Beware the ‘bright shiny objects’, drawing you away from reality.  Make a real effort to learn the facts.

POSTNOTE:  I spent a lot of post-9-11-01 years involved in a group that did plenty of protesting about the Iraq War.  I know the drill.  All is not quite so simple as it seems.  One size does not fit all.  Years ago, I wrote a series that I called Uncomfortable Essays    These were primarily to my friends in  peace, justice, environment, sustainability and global cooperation communities – people I deeply respected and still respect.

The last of these essays were written during a time when I was becoming skeptical of the effectiveness of the method of engagement called protest.  It didn’t seem to be the most effective way to achieve change.  We gathered, heard speeches, walked and went home…and that seemed to be the be-all and end-all for most participants.  The protest seemed to have become the sole action.  If you are interested in what I was thinking then, go to those Uncomfortable Essays (link above), and read #15, 16 and 17 found on pages 37-47, all written in 2012.

To my friends in the movement, of which I remain a very active part, I simply offer the essays as an opinion to consider.  I didn’t, and don’t consider the writings as definitive in any sense.  Basically, though, they were appeals to think things through; to expand action beyond simply making some sign and walking in a street somewhere.

They are especially timely today.

Gandhi Mahal community meeting room July 7, 2020. photo Dick Bernard

Gandhi Mahals aspiration for its community – this room of the restaurant was not destroyed, but like the rest of the block needs to be demolished and rebuilt. Photo June 30, 2020, by Dick Bernard

POSTNOTE 2: Those who know me, know I was no stranger to nonviolent protests and demonstrations, from the wake of 9-11-01 to 2012.  Here’s one such gathering, I think it was in 2006 in south Minneapolis.  I’m the pole guy at right.  I was then President of the Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers.

May Day Parade, Minneapolis, 2006. It was an unseasonably cool day, possibility of rain. The posters, which I have in posterity here at home, were the creation of Dr. Joe Schwartzberg, who is behind me, holding the Citizens for Global Solutions sign. Joe died in 2018.  His work lives on.  See the website The Workable World Trust.  Joe was also one of the founders of Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers, 25 years old this year, and is being recognized at this years National Veterans for Peace Convention August 2-9.  .Registration information here.

POSTNOTE 3: About noon on Saturday I was out and about, and noted a crowd by the Woodbury City Hall.  It was not a large crowd – perhaps a couple hundred – it turned out to be a Black Lives Matter march about to begin.  At one point, briefly, my road trip was delayed while the group crossed a busy cross street.  A young lady, white, probably college age, was the traffic marshall.  She was very pleasant, but no nonsense.  It was a minor inconvenience.  Good for them, I felt.

POSTNOTE 4:  This came from Nancy and was included in my Mary 31 Post, “Learnings”:

from Nancy, May 30:

Here’s a post that I saw on Facebook today — very important message:

‎Jesse Haug‎ to Lowertown, Saint Paul
9 hrs
A reminder that on nights like these, there are multiple distinct groups in action, with distinct goals and behaviors. Do not confuse one with another.

I’d group them into at least 5 categories.

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ACTIVISTS: They have clear goals, at least in their own heads. They are out to be heard and noticed. They may be nonviolent. If there is property damage, it will be targeted. Diff activists may have diff targets, but it won’t be indiscriminate.

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GRIEVING CITIZENS: They aren’t (yet) organized activists. They’re hurting deeply. They haven’t been heard. They have more anger than they know what to do with. They may cause unjust damage, even though their anger comes from a place of justice.

3/
ROWDY IDIOTS: They don’t give a shit about justice. They just want to fuck shit up. They’ll mingle with the activists, even though activists are ultimately a nuisance to them. They’ll come like moths to a light any time things are going off the rails.

4/
CHAOS AGENTS: Like rowdy idiots, they want to fuck shit up. But like activists, they have a goal and are self-controlled. They’re here to escalate, create an opening, make others look bad. Prime examples: alt-right instigators and crooked police. (There’s overlap.)

5/
PROFESSIONAL THIEVES: Whenever there’s chaos, there’s an opportunity to make a buck. Some of the “looting” has actually been well-organized, coordinated hits: post a lookout, designated grabber, getaway car.

6/
There may be more groups I’ve overlooked.

I say all of this to point out the danger of using the word “protesters” for everyone out there tonight. If, for example, you say, “protesters need to stop burning buildings,” which of these groups are you are referring to? Be specific, not vague or generalizing.

Above all, be careful that you do not wrongly ascribe to ACTIVISTS and GRIEVING CITIZENS the actions of the other three groups. That is just what those other groups want.

The need for justice is real. The grief is real. Take them seriously. Respect them.

Addendum: just in case it’s not obvious, the first two groups are the vast majority of people out there — but the last three cause the vast majority of damage.

Schools

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In days, the state of Minnesota will make a decision about school opening for 2020-21.  In some states, schools may already be open.  In our state, most schools open the day after Labor Day.  Usually, the ritual would be as it has always been.  This year is very different, literally and inevitably a life or death matter for someone entering the school as student or staff.

This year is not routine.

There will probably be at least 51,000,000 students in American public schools, maybe 5 million more in alternative learning situations. About 1 of every 7 Americans are school age.  They are unique individuals, virtually all of them under age 18, and in various ways bring home to school with them every day.   In many ways, school is their community.

Add to this immense number of students about 10%, another 5 million or so, teachers and other school staff of all sorts, and millions upon millions of parents and other concerned adults, and infinite variations of opinions and concerns, and you get an idea of the potential for predictable disasters this fall.  All that is unknown is specific dates, times, places.

It is not so simple as saying go back to school.

Of course, there are millions more who depend on the school industry, as school bus manufacturers.  They are not included here.  They do not “go to school” – they profit from it.

“Raise your hand” if you’ve ever been a school staff member, anywhere, any time in history.  Almost certainly you went to a public or private school as a student.  “School” is not a novel concept.

Personally, I taught 8th graders for nine years, mostly in the 1960s in suburban Minneapolis.  I was an 8th grader in tiny Ross North Dakota in 1953-54.  I would venture that kids in the 1960s, when I taught in suburban Minneapolis; were not much different than today’s 8th graders coming back to school this Fall.  Kids were, and still are, kids.

This will be a very difficult year, not easy.  School staff along with medical personnel in particular are on the front lines.  Among great numbers of others: stories clerks if ask sorts.  On and on.  And peoples lives are at stake, of all ages.  We need to work together.

POSTNOTE: I bring a certain amount of experience to this conversation: Nine years as a teacher of 8th graders, 27 years representing teachers, growing up in a home where both parents were public school teachers; as well as two Uncles and three Aunts, all teachers.   Father of a long-time middle school principal; grandfather of nine kids, six of whom have already graduated from high school; 3 still in school, one of them in Special Education because of medical circumstances rising from an accident a couple of years ago.

This doesn’t make me an ‘expert’, but at least as much as anyone else who proffers an opinion on the topic.

 

John Lewis and Larry Long

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Yesterday, Molly sent me a single page tribute to John Lewis.  Take the time: John Lewis (click to enlarge).

On July 24th, 8 p.m., on YouTube and Facebook, troubadour Larry Long presents the premiere film of a live performance of The American Roots Review at the Mane Theatre in Lanesboro MN.  Details here. (scroll down – on right side of page).  POSTNOTE: This program was Friday evening.  It may be archived, along with other programs, at Larry’s website.

There is much more to be said about both John Lewis and Larry Long.  Two witnesses for peace and justice.

A Centennial

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July 24-25, the LaMoure Country Memorial Park at Grand Rapids will be celebrating its Centennial.  All details are here, which includes a link to North Dakota Covid-19 regulations, which will be updated and will be followed.  If you plan to go to this event, please check the website first.

Busch family gathering July 29, 1965. from front left: Tom Bernard, Ferd Busch, Mary Brehmer, Edithe Busch, Lucina Pinkney, Vincent Busch, Florence Wieland, George Busch, Art Busch, Esther Bernard, Rosa Busch.

The Park has commissioned a wonderful memory book about The parks history.  There are over 50 pages of text and photos, bringing to life the 140 years the oxbow area of the James River a mile from Grand Rapids ND, has been used as a social gathering place for settlers of the LaMoure County area.  Seven members of the Busch family in the above 1965 photo appear in the probable 1921 photo at the park entrance (below, from page 32 of the book).

Busch kids and Dad at the entrance to LaMoure County Memorial Park ca 1921. At center are the parks first caretakers, Arthur and Lena (Berning) Parker, the Busch kids Uncle and Aunt.

Here is page 13 of the book: grand rapids chautauqua.  Chautauqua‘s took root for a time in the history of North Dakota and other states.  To this day there is a Chautauqua Park in Valley City, ND, an hour away from LaMoure County; another flourished about the same time along the Souris River near Tolley ND . The Chautauqua featured in this book included appearances by William Jennings Bryan and William Howard Taft.

(Cost of the book, truly a keepsake: $20 plus $3 shipping, check to LaMoure County Auditor, send order to Sonya Albertson, 9856 County Rd 34, LaMoure ND 58458.)

A PERSONAL STORY:

My parents taught in tiny North Dakota towns from 1928 forward.  In their married days, Dad was almost always “Superintendent” – a title with more trouble than status.  That story is here.  I don’t recall a single town in which we had relatives.  Over the years, even though we might visit only once or twice a year, the place with constancy – home – was the Busch farm, about 5 miles from the Park.  Today, 80 years after my birth, all the Busch’s long gone, that piece of ground between Berlin and Grand Rapids remains an honored place in my life.

Dad grew up in Grafton.  He and Mom met at the place I called VCSTC, now VCSU.  In their years it probably was still called the Normal school.  They both started as teachers in ND country schools in about 1928.  In those years, such teachers had minimal licensure requirements, but were expected to continue their education each summer.  Dad finished his degree at Valley City in 1940.  Mom took a detour into ‘homemaking’ for some years, the way it was, then.  In all, they taught a total of 67 years.  One of Mom’s schools is one of the museum pieces on the grounds of the Park.  Her contract, I think for 1932-33, is probably still on the wall of the school.

The Chautauqua story in the book reminded me of a ‘Dad story’ written 1981 about a college memory at Valley City:

“[After high school] we could start teaching after one quarter of college provided that we had taken our senior reviews in high school…I did the usual class work…There were 1200 students enrolled and classes were large…At that time the summer registration fees included the tickets to the Chautauqua that was held each summer in Valley City.  It was near the end of the Chautauqua era and I believe that was the last big one held in Valley City.   We used to walk the distance from the college area to the park every night for the various educational entertainment.  I do remember that many people from the area would come and camp out to take in the activities.  It was the custom.

I don’t remember many of the events that took place.  I do remember Billy Sunday, a fire eating evangelizer, who preached fire and brimstone for about an hour.  I don’t remember much of what he said but his antics were sometimes bizarre.  He would start his sermon very calm but as he warmed up to the occasion he would take off his coat and tie, jump up and down on the stage and sometimes as a climax he would get up on the table and shout.  no microphones so they had to be leather lunged in order for the audience to hear.  I think most people were more impressed with his antics than with what he said.”

Back to the real world of the Park (which is what we called it), likely every time we came to the farm to visit, we went to the park before heading home.  We didn’t know the family lore, then, that Mom’s Uncle and Aunt, Art and Lena Parker, were the first caretakers at the park, and lived in the house at the entrance, or that it was on Uncle Art watch that the auditorium was constructed.  Etc.  In fact, we never met Parkers, since by our time they were long gone to Dubuque IA.

I’m convinced that my Uncle Art, born Oct. 1927, was named for his Uncle Art – that secret lies with Grandma and Grandpa Busch in St. John’s cemetery in Berlin….

When we came to the park, we came as kids, of course, so what attracted us were the rides, which were by today’s playground standards very primitive.  But who noticed, or cared?  They were our first destination.

Grandpa would connect with the old guys tossing horseshoes; Vincent would take us down by the little dam to fish for some bullheads.  Occasionally there might be a ball game, and of course something to eat, before we went back to the farm.  One picture shows folks playing croquet.

In 1993 we had our big family reunion at the park (picture below), and I remember that a week later a record breaking thunderstorm up in the Jimtown area coursed downstream, and the spot where we had stood for the reunion photo was under six feet of water.

Then there’s the above photo, from July 29, 1965.  I always thought that was taken at the park, but more likely it was taken at Florence and Bernard Wieland’s place north of Valley City.  My wife, Barbara, died July 24, 1965, in Minneapolis (kidney disease, age 22), and the funeral was in Valley City on July 29 and every family member was there, from Babbitt, and Tolna, and Dresden, and Hancock, and Chicago, and Dazey, and of course from the Busch farm.  Funerals are common for reunions, and this was no different.  The cake probably was for the nearby birthdays of Edithe and Esther….

Imperfect as the 1965 photograph is, it was essentially the same family posing at the park entrance 45 years earlier, 100 years ago: Ma, Pa and kids born before 1920.  Sitting on Grandpa’s lap was their first grandkid, son Tom, now 56 years of age, and one of those who came to the 1993 reunion.

Thanks to everyone, everywhere, who keeps local community heritage alive and well.  Most especially, thank you to those involved with the LaMoure County Memorial Park.

Busch-Berning Family Reunion, LaMoure County Memorial Park, Grand Rapids ND July, 1993

The Busch-Berning Archival collection continues in process at the North Dakota Historical Society in Bismarck.  The archival collection is 11082.  COVID-19 mitigated against a summer trip to Bismarck to complete the collection, which includes nearly 1,000 photographs from 1800s to 1972.

Ball game at the park, July 24, 1924 (photo probably taken from the roof of the caretakers house near the entrance.)

COMMENTS:

from Sonya:  This is a wonderful read! I love the connections your family had to the park. Many memories have been made at Memorial Park. It has influenced thousands of lives.  Thank you, Dick!

from Christina: My daughter in law gave me the book.  It is SO good.  I read every word.

from Myron: Thanks for sending this link to Memorial Park events. I have been following plans in LaMoure Chronicle. I have been to park many times. They used to have a LaMoure County Play Day when I was in grade school in Berlin. It was so much fun to go to that every spring. I competed in broad jump.  I helped start LaMoure County Summer Musical Theatre at grand hippodrome building in park.

from Darleen:  For a few years I spent the 4 of July at the park with both of my children.  We were there to celebrate the great grandma’s July 4 1896, birthday.  One yr there was a cake decorated as a flag.   Most of her family came.  It was a huge family so I didn’t get to know very many.   They were of [my husbands] maternal side of the family.

Election 2020

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The Minnesota Primary Election begins one month from today, August 11.  Details.

The Democratic Convention is August 17-20; the Republican August 24-27.  Details (weblinks) at the July 1 post.  Other posts on the topic of Election 2020 are at July 3, 7 and 9, and there will be more in coming months.  Check back every week or so.

Years ago I scrawled out a personal assessment of myself and the American Political “Scrum” – the mass of people who make up the ‘body politic” of this country.  I could ‘gussy” this up, I suppose.  But I like it as it is.

You can see “ME?” as I defined myself at the time.  Today, I’d probably move my ‘spot’ a bit more to the left, but not a lot.  Our country seems far more polarized now – I have my opinion, you have yours.

I’ll leave it at that for now.  In coming days and weeks I’ll more define the R and the D from my own perspective, and Biden, and local and state and other races and their importance.

In the end “we, the people” make the difference, and in the end, we all get what the majority of us thought we deserved.

POSTNOTE: This afternoons e-mail brought the following, from Carol, published in July 10 St. Paul Pioneer Press:

“A July 3 letter writer (“Out-of-date lists”) tries to cast doubt on future election results by suggesting since a million dead people erroneously received federal stimulus checks, “mailing out ballots to everyone” could lead to similar results. Stimulus checks were sent out (hastily) based mostly on IRS tax rolls. Recipients did not request them.

The writer seems to imply the state is similarly mailing actual ballots willynilly to those on an outdated list. On the contrary, what we received in the mail are applications for ballots, which we can fill out and return if we choose to. The ability to vote by mail on request (“absentee” voting) has been Minnesota law for some time. The only difference this year is that, because of the pandemic, the state is encouraging this method by sending applications to registered voters.  There are layers of safeguards for voting by mail. Is it possible that someone could receive an application for a recently deceased relative, fill it out using their personal information, forge their signature, mail it in and receive a ballot? Only by risking the very real possibility of going to prison.

I suggest that the writer call the Secretary of State’s Office if there are further things he does not understand. They seem quite willing to answer questions.”  Carol Turnbull

Dick: Absolute certainty: there will be endless scams and schemes to mislead and deceive.  It has already begun and it will only intensify.  Be certain you cast a ballot, and that your ballot will be a well informed one for each and every office for which you can vote.

(I requested absentee for both primary and general this year – possibly second time I can recall doing that.  The process of me (Minnesota) was very easy and quick.)

COMMENTS;

from Rebecca: I like your cartoon of the political scrum.

from a long-time friend ‘out west’: Hi Dick, I am a center-right progressive in the ilk of Teddy Roosevelt and Ike, and as such, I have always been a registered Republican.  Always have been and always will be.  When the southern racists who parked in the Democratic party because of their hatred of Abraham Lincoln moved over to the GOP, I then started voting mostly for Democrats.  But I still find it useful to remain a registered Republican because of the stuff they send me which allows me to understand what they are trying to accomplish, which I can compare with the Democratic position on the same subjects.

from a long-time friend in England:  I am not saying don’t bother voting – democracy only works when people vote after all – but somehow & barring last hour revelations or worse it seems to me the election has been lost for president Trump already. I like your sketch & it feels like you are not the only one who has shifted leftwards even if not by much. It doesn’t take much to reverse the last election.

It also seems to me that president Trump has outlived his usefulness what with tax cuts, decisions regarding the Middle East & stuffing the Supreme Court. To the movers and shakers he has become an embarrassment & a liability. He has been divisive from before day one dividing the world, the US, the administration & lately even his “own party” – assuming he has a party other than himself. Who could have imagined Republicans forming lobbies & action committees to make sure he is not re-elected!? Finally his niece is coming out with a book which indicates the family is also divided.

Here’s what the Financial Times had on one front page this weekend & you would expect conservatives to be attacking her viciously instead while some do have issues with what she wrote (earlier), still on the whole they seem to be of two minds & agree with much of what she professes.  Also, here.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend,

from Steve: I don’t know how I missed sending a note to you after your Political Scum note. I was just going through emails trying to make sure that I hadn’t missed a constituent request or comment. I loved your drawing. I remember making a drawing on a poli sci exam in college., Not as sophisticated or fun as yours, I had fascists and communists meeting as totalitarians at a point on a circle, each arriving by separate paths around the circumference. What kind of circle are we talking about these days. Seems to me that the politics of this administration in Washington is found on a tangent, far from a rational/ideological scheme.

A lighter moment….

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Some while back , I heard the 45th occupant of our U.S. White House practices to perfect his angry demeanor.  He is an actor, after all, and fancies that his loyal subjects like him to display anger, about everything, always, so it makes sense.  No, I can’t prove this, so no need to ask.  It does make sense, from his daily public demeanor.   Luckily, I think, perhaps a third of Americans buy his general approach, but that is small consolation.  He has the throne for now.

Today from a couple of directions from people who don’t know each other, an item from “an Aussie friend”, and another from a good friend in London-town, England.  I present both, below, as received.  You can take your pick as to whose piece was submitted by the Aussie, which by the Brit….

#1

I am trading relatively friendly emails with a couple of Trump supporters & below is my reply to one who proclaimed the remarks by president Trump at Mount Rushmore as “an excellent speech, the best I have heard by an American president in a long time”.

The main thing according to Trump’s supporters is that for once he followed what he was told to say in that oh-so-much-better-than-Lincoln’s-Gettysburg-Address speech. There you go even his supporters have set the bar low enough such that he can pass muster! He is working on a new book – that will also be written for him of course, as the Mount Rushmore speech was – Mein Strumpf (that’s sock in his grandpa’s language, German, because the world can’t wait till he puts a sock in it).

& as I am sure you know, Strumpfs (Smurfs in the UK or Schtroumpfs in France) are blond & so white they are blue like the best diamonds & she is up for it, none of this LGBT or feminism stumff.

In the book he will lay down the 4-year plan to make, sorry keep, America great & they will all live happily ever after:

I am vastly entertained by the choice of sobriquets the other camp has chosen for me! However Joyce as usual can do better with language, e.g.:

“The delegation, present in full force, consisted of Commendatore Bacibaci Beninobenone . . . Monsieur Pierrepaul Petitépatant, the Grandjoker Vladinmire Pokethankertscheff, the Archjoker Leopold Rudolph von Schwanzenbad-Hodenthaler, Countess Marha Virága Kisászony Putrápesthi, Hiram. Y. Bomboost, Count Athanatos Karamelopulos, Ali Baba Backsheesh Rahat Lokum Effendi, Señor Hidalgo Caballero Don Pecadillo y Palabras y Paternoster de la Malora de la Malaria, Hokopoko Harakiri, Hi Hung Chang, Olaf Kobberkeddelsen, Mynheer Trik van Trumps, Pan Poleaxe Paddyrisky, Goosepond Prhklstr Kratchinabritchisitch, Herr Hurhausdirektorpresident Hans Chuechli-Steuerli, Nationalgymnasium- museumsanatoriumandsuspensoriumsordinaryprivatdocentgeneralhistoryspecial- professordoctor Kriegfried Ueberallgemein.”

Please note that Mynheer Trik van Trumps is actually in the original, prophetic eh? (James Joyce: Ulysses, Chapter 12: Cyclops) – I would replace Mynheer with Menhir to stress the phallic virility of El Presidente.

Obelix carrying a Menhir:

#2

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England wrote the following response:

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

  • Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
  • You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?’ If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.

Racism

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POSTNOTE July 11, 2020: from the July 9 New York Times, well worth your time.

[IMPORTANT ADDED NOTE as of Sep. 16,2020 from Basilica of St. Mary, original sponsor to the Racism series described below:

The University of St. Thomas has placed the Becoming Human series on a new platform on their website.

To access the Becoming Human Series, please go here: 

While there is a fee for this series, The Basilica of Saint Mary is offering this series free of charge: The Discount Code is BecomingHuman100

We invite you to utilize this series and share the Discount Code, as needed.

On the site page, go to “Add Course to Cart,” enter into the “Check Out” page and add the Discount Code:

BecomingHuman100. This will remove the fee and you will have access to the series free of charge.]

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Racism is part of me.  It is part of all of us – all of us.

I started to come to grips with this years ago.  The first ‘evidence’ is this little piece I did in January, 1995, for Martin Luther King day at my church: Race, a personal view (click to enlarge).  

The desire to understand more about my own self led to the most recent recommendation, at these pages, several times, to listen to the six talks on “Becoming Human“, presented by six professors at St. Thomas University in February and March, 2020, literally at the beginning of the pandemic.  I saw the first three lectures in person, and watched the last three on line.  If you’ve now decided to watch, here is the link to all of the talks (scroll down to “Featured Resources”).

Where does this Racism business come from?

If we’re honest with ourselves, each of us can come up with plenty of our own examples: how we came to be who we are.

One fairly recent example for me came five years ago out at the North Dakota farm of my ancestral family, which I had to close when our last farm survivor, my uncle Vincent, died.

It was Nov. 14, 2015, and I was at the farm, alone, going about the lonely process of burning left over “junk”, from simple trash, to things no one had expressed any interest in.

Among the possessions in the metal shed was a pile of unclaimed books, none in good condition, certainly no ‘collectors’ editions.  I don’t like to burn books, but the burning barrel was the only feasible destination for these volumes, mostly moldy.

Still, I looked at each before tossing.  One in particular caught my eye:

I had only a vague notion about this book, but the title, “The Clansman” caught my eye.  It turned out to be a 1915 reprint of the original 1905 novel about the Ku Klux Klan, apparently republished on the occasion of the film “The Birth of a Nation” in 1915.  In substantial part, the movie was based on the book.

How was it that I found this book on a small farm in North Dakota in 2015?  Who brought it there?  Why was it kept for near 100 years?  Who read it?  Who saw it earlier and decided to keep it?  The book was stamped as once the property of Moorhead [MN] Public Library.  Other than the book, as best evidence, all the other questions are unanswerable.   Everyone who handled the book before me is long gone.  Here are two photos from the book.

Both photos from “The Clansman”, 1915

I decided to get this book restored, and I read it from cover to cover.  I sought to understand what it had to say; why it was written.

Personally, the biggest takeaway from this volume was a sense that white overseers, particularly in the defeated slave states, were terrified of the freed slaves.  They,  now badly outnumbered, probably felt they would now be treated as they had earlier treated their slaves.

Reconstruction thus became just a continuation of the Civil War.  The statues, this book, other symbols, are the remaining evidence of an attempt to defeat the defeat of the south in the Civil War.  As evidenced by this book on my relatives North Dakota farm, the attitudes migrated out of the south to other places, and still remain alive today.

I have encouraged people to read this volume and mine it as an opportunity to learn, not to pine about going back to the old days of slavery; rather to get better grounded in how serious and long-standing the problem of our history – our racism – is; to think and act about solutions to our 400 year dis-ease..

The book is nothing to fear, though few have taken the bait.

I think the book is worth your time.

Mount Rushmore/Crazy Horse

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Postnote July 6, 2020: “Largely Imaginary Foes”

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The last time I was at Mt. Rushmore was May 21, 2004.  The same day we stopped at Crazy Horse, across the way a few miles.  That day was my 5th visit to Mt. Rushmore; my third to Crazy Horse. (The first visit was 1971.)  On one of the memorable trips,  I had an opportunity to walk right up to Crazy Horse’s head; another time was spent learning a lot about Mt. Rushmore and Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor.  Take the time to learn the long history of the place called the Black Hills.

Below are a couple of pics from 2004, and here’s a map of their relative geographic location.

Tonight Mt. Rushmore is most in the news, and Crazy Horse may or may not merit any mention, so here’s an article about Crazy Horse from the Native American perspective.

Google the words Mount Rushmore for up to the moment comments.  There’ll be lots of words spilled.  Depending on your point of view, many you’ll like to hear, many you won’t.

Crazy Horse 2004

Mt. Rushmore 2004

POSTNOTES:

A brief blog post “Politics”, published July 1.  Also, check “Monuments” at June 12.

July 4th:  Just Above Sunset, “The Odd Fourth”

COMMENTS:

Dick (personal):  I just returned from my daily walk.  Met a guy who said “have a good fourth” and I responded “thank you, and you as well”.  I wondered how authentic each of us were.  It is a very odd 4th this year.

Yesterday we took a short drive over to Afton, a small town whose fame in part is a large marina on the St. Croix River, part of the eastern border of Minnesota.  There is an ice cream store there, Selma’s, which is always a magnet.  This afternoon there was a long line and no apparent social distance or masking.  We didn’t stop.

At the end of todays walk I noticed no flags flying in the neighborhood.  I’ll pay closer notice to flags as the day goes on.  (NOTE: 1:10 p.m. I’ve been ‘out and about’ and there are flags here and there, but simply personal census, it seems like fewer than I normally see.  9:30 p.m.  The rest of the day included another drive including by the ice cream stand referred to above.  The clientele seemed to be minding quite well the recommended protocols.)

from Emmett:  I have also visited the two monuments a number of times and took that walk around Crazy Horse.  I think my last visit was in 2012.  Note that the opening below Crazy Horse’s arm will not get much bigger than the hole that now exists because of geological reasons.  The same is true about the actual location of  his horses head.  The four faces of Mount Rushmore would fit in the area made up of Crazy Horse’s face and hair.  The Crazy Horse monument is really huge.

But for now, the important thing is today’s celebration.  Here’s wishing you and all your family a Happy 4th of July.

from Molly, two short pieces relevant to the day: Molly for 4 July 2020 

from Joyce, an important and very informative commentary from Heather Cox Richardson.

Larry commented in the on-line comments (at end of post) and I responded as follows: Many thanks.  I, too, have been to the battlefield, in 1978, I’m sure it has been expanded since then. As you know, it is ‘off the beaten path’.  And I’ve been to Ft. Lincoln and Custer’s house.  I seem to recall he was a mediocre officer, but he had a genius for PR, like someone else we know.  So, he lives in infamy.  I’m glad that Crazy Horse endures, whether or not it is ever completed isn’t as relevant as that it’s got a very good start.

Larry replied as follows: Yup…we’re on the same page re Custer…nice job on the photos and text on that subject…you do a fine job…I want to get my blog up to date…JUST updated the Hiliners61 blog. I wrote a piece on Custer a few years ago after reading a couple of excellent histories on the battle and the “General.”  They’ve done some nice work with the Indian memorial. Crazy Horse wasn’t so crazy.  In case you feel up to it sometime, here’s the link to that column I wrote.

from Donna: What a time we are living in.  This is a picture of my mom on her honeymoon during the 30’s.

Mt. Rushmore, 1930s.  The wedding couple was from North Dakota.

Some of my ‘office flags’. The others are Philippines and Haiti.

Politics

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Four months – 126 days – from now, Tuesday, November 3, is Election Day.

My “bio” is at right on this page.  The bio fits who I am, personally, politically.

Each and every one of us who are eligible to vote in this country are “politics”.  Period.  There is  nobody, nothing, else.  WE ARE ALL ‘POLITICS’, whatever we think – or don’t – about it.

For those of you who are Minnesotans,here is the key portal.  Everything you need to know about the 2020 elections is found there.  Every state, and most local candidates and parties have their own websites.  Find out who they are for your area, and get engaged.

Here are details about the Republican National Convention.

Here are details about the Democratic National Convention.

An old saying is “the devil is in the details”.  In my opinion, the “details” are each and every one of us; what we do…or don’t…is the ultimate key.

Learn the candidates and the issues where you live.  Every single election on your Nov. 3 ballot is equally important.

Show up.

As always, I solicit comments.  Check back here once in awhile, and watch for more posts as the political season gets hotter.

POSTNOTE:  A definition that comes to mind that I heard in person in June, 1960: Politics 1960 vs 1996001 (click to enlarge) (last para in col. 1): “… in reality [politics] is the lifeblood of American government.  When they tell me that politics is a dirty business I tell them, why don’t you get into politics then and clean it up.”  NY Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, speaking in a Valley City ND city park, June 3, 1960.

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July 2: This mornings Just Above Sunset: Not This Time; Pew Research analyses the 2016 presidential election.

COMMENTS;

from Steve, a member of the MN state legislature:  I remember reading your letter [to my legislators in May, 2020] and I believe I responded [he did]. I’ve referred to your thoughts several times in conversations with both friends and other legislators. Those of us–our circumstances are very similar–who recognize the costs of services and the inability of some to pay a full share, are in an unpopular minority. Our voices aren’t very loud. Three or four years ago, I read Thomas Piketty’s “Capital” and Joseph Stiglitz’s book on inequality. Both said that it’s the tax structure that has created and maintained the inequality in our society, and they were both pessimistic that it would change. Political decisions, they said, are in the hands of the very wealthy and they will control legislation affecting the structure of wealth in this country.

With the help of our research staff at the House, I authored an education finance bill based on Piketty and Stiglitz ideas. I may have told you about it. The idea is to remove the burden of k-12 finance from regressive taxes–property, income and sales–and move it to a progressive system of capital gain, estate and commercial/industrial property. I won’t go into details here–I’m happy to discuss it if you’re interested. It would have reduced homestead property tax across the state by 20%, increased tax on capital gains ABOVE $500,000 to11%, protected farmers andsmall business, and increased estate tax reasonably.
Dicks response:  Thank you very much, Steve.  It is an immensely difficult task to represent those who have less, largely I think, because they can be so easily convinced, through media largely, that other more seemingly powerful people have more expertise, etc., and will take care for their needs.  This is, unfortunately, not true.  Greed rules.  The already rich wish to remain first in line for the handouts, and they are immensely successful at this con (my opinion).  This has happened again within the trillions of  dollars stimulus passed by Congress and signed by the President.  The least needy are first in line, and the massive dollars they receive least supervised by the granting institution – our government.  I keep thinking back to the disastrous days of 2007-08….  We recently saw one of the movies about part of those years.  It’s “The Big Short”, and well worth your time.  There’s another documentary about the money disaster: Wells Fargo, Dirty Money.  There’s a boatload of reviews.
In my opinion, this is not to the ultimate advantage of the rich and the corporate interests they represent, however.  As I pointed out to a good friend, a retired corporate vice-president, capitalism depends on ordinary people spending money on goods that they want.  It makes more sense to provide a system that rewards people with money that they can spend on goods manufactured by companies who wish to profit.
Of course, this makes too much sense and will likely never happen.
The 99% are far superior in their potential power to elect more enlightened legislators…if only they would come to this conclusion and prove their point.  If they don’t, we’re all in deep trouble.

 

Learning

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Check this space for my personal observations about July 1, 2020.

COVID-19: Tuesday, June 23, my Dentist, mentioned an excellent webcast he had watched recently about COVID-19.  I’ve listened to it, and I concur.  Here it is.  It’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford Medical, on the webcast Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson.  Do take the time.  The link is to YouTube.  There are two earlier webcasts with the same individuals.

The webcast, which I would not otherwise have known about, is well-informed, and minimally clouded by personal beliefs or ideological considerations.

It is food for thought.

RACISM:  [IMPORTANT NOTE as of Sep. 16,2020:

The University of St. Thomas has placed the Becoming Human series on a new platform on their website.

To access the Becoming Human Series, please go here: 

While there is a fee for this series, The Basilica of Saint Mary is offering this series free of charge: The Discount Code is BecomingHuman100

We invite you to utilize this series and share the Discount Code, as needed.

On the site page, go to “Add Course to Cart,” enter into the “Check Out” page and add the Discount Code:

BecomingHuman100. This will remove the fee and you will have access to the series free of charge.]

A couple of times, recently, I’ve urged readers to view a six-part series on Racism, and I am doing so again.  The links, from St. Thomas University in St. Paul MN, can be found here.  (Scroll down to the first item, “Becoming Human”,  in “Featured Resources”.  In the series, if you haven’t already watched the six one-hour talks, six white professors talk about several aspects of ‘racism’ as they see it in the U.S., past and present. Two are men, four are women.  That they are all white is intentional and explained in the 6th talk.  I have watched them all, as I watched the above COVID-19 talk.  They are all food for thought and for conversation.

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Of course, there are other topics, and I plan to raise them with greater frequency as the political ‘season’ intensifies rapidly.

Stay tuned.  Watch for comments on or about July 1 below the photo….

Tarryall area Colorado Spring 1962

COMMENT from Jermitt, June 25, re COVID-19: Thanks for sharing your blog.  In a way I have to disagree there is no one steering the ship.  If the World Health Organization had more power, they could have great influence on the leaders of each county (except US as we know how Trump feels about the WHO.)  If that person or group of folks had more power, they could do more to contract pandemics like the one we have now.

 

June 29, 2020:

Dick, re the Racism Series:  I very highly recommend watching and sharing the six-part video series.   I think our country is finally at a place where we can constructively deal with our history.

Jeff sent along a link to a pretty remarkable commentary from the New York Times that gets right to the point, and I hope you read it, you can access here. (Opinion: You Want a Confederate Monument?  My Body Is A Confederate Monument by Caroline Randall Williams NYT June 26, 2020.).   A friend, embarking on a major international project, writes: “Wow, thank you for sharing, this text is very powerful.  I love it“.

As a nation, we need to confront the sordid reality of our entire history, pre-dating our becoming a nation.  The Civil War is only a tiny part of that history.  All of the history is part of all of us, in many ways.

Dick, re the COVID-19 Webcast: I  watched/listened twice to the Uncommon Knowledge webcast from the Hoover Institution at Stanford..  This was a serious and civil conversation about a very serious topic, and was an “easy listen”.  I’d hope you listened as well.  We are all becoming ‘experts’ in this topic from living within it.  Most of us, apparently, will not feel the drastic effects of COVID-19, but hundreds of thousands here, and millions world-wide, will succumb (the U.S. has less than 5% of the world’s population, but have much more than a proportionate share of the victims.) In our country certain groups are ultimately most at risk.  This data is easily found.  But, because a small minority of us will ultimately die of COVD-19, it is easy to dismiss it as a problem, thus spikes here and there, and it will continue on into the fall and winter.  At 80, in one of those “certain groups”, I watch it very nervously, and try to act reasonably, and avoid mistakes.

There are endless opinions, each as valid (or invalid) as the next.  Here are some of my own:

  1. COVID-19 has high-lighted the absolute need for strong federal government leadership with coordinated cooperative effort.  We cannot succeed with competing teams, and efforts delegated out to individual states, as has been our tendency these first months of the pandemic.  We are paying a heavy price.  There are indisputable facts, including that the crisis plans prepared by the previous administration, and passed along to the present, were declined and discarded by the incoming administration, making it necessary to start over.  Divided and fractionated we are all losing.
  2. Ditto for our world-class medical system which has had to weather its own crises in many of its centers, and is now financially struggling, in some cases, for its very survival.  Basic health care for all is under attack in the U.S. Supreme Court at the very time it is most needed by ordinary Americans.  Medical care, too, has to be more centralized and supported.  Disease, too, spreads from one to another, without regard to boundaries.  Early on I observed that most every community has an existing infrastructure prepared for a hopefully very rare crisis:  one such is called a fire department.  In my town of 60,000+ residents, I can only recall a single major fire in many years here…but that doesn’t mean we don’t need fire trucks and the like.  You can’t prepare for crises after the fact.  “Government” has an important role.
  3. At this moment, I think most about the people, like my dentist, whose job involves up close and personal interaction with people like myself, strangers, hopefully honestly presenting ourselves as ‘healthy and well today’.  Obviously dentists work in people mouths – pretty difficult to social distance.  There is no mandatory pre-testing for someone like myself – only a temperature check and a personally completed yes-or-no check list.
  4. One of my daughters is Principal of a Middle School nearby.  Their summer is dominated by making alternative plans for the coming school year.  They are to prepare three plans for varied possibilities.  How does one manage 1000 kids about age 12-14 in community together?  It is daunting.
  5. Then there are the millions of others in the work force, medical and otherwise, who don’t have the luxury I do of not having to go to work, or being able to live in a home with only one other person, and being able to control meetings with others, most of whom are strangers.  We all know who the vulnerable populations are, and why: the poor, folks in low-wage jobs where social distancing is not an option, etc.   We have good friends who own businesses for whom the crises have created serious problems not of their own making.  One of these friends, Ruhel Islam, was front page news in today’s Minneapolis paper.  “My” coffee shop is getting busier, but only take out – “My” table and the others are not available. Everyone deserves our particular consideration in these difficult times, which are by no means over.
  6. Early on I saw a piece of sidewalk art,”we will get through this together”.  And we are.  We cannot pretend we are just individuals.  Here’s the photo, from April 8.

At entrance to Carver Park walking trail, Woodbury MN April 8, 2020.

POSTNOTE: The Photo of the Army guy and the shack:  A long-ago snapshot stuck in my mind is the one included above in this post, taken 58 years ago, May 1962, somewhere in the Tarryall section of the Colorado Rockies.  The subject is myself; a soldier friend used my camera.  We were on Army training maneuvers; it was a nice Sunday, and we had time off.  There was nowhere to go, nothing to do.

We could walk around, and in sight was the abandoned shack, and not far from it, a shack occupied by an authentic mountain man, with his dog and a beast of burden, perhaps a donkey.  Some miles away, down a gradual treeless slope, we could make out a very small town.  If memory serves. it was Jefferson, Colorado, hardly more than. wide spot in the road.

The man was friendly, and we chatted for a while.  (Sorry, I was too bashful to ask to take his picture.). There was one snippet of dialogue that has stuck with me to this day:  the man was describing his simple life, and he said that once a month he would go into Jefferson to provision up.  One of the provisions was always the previous month editions of the Denver Post.  Back at his shack, he would read the Posts, one issue at a time, the oldest first.  This meant he was always up to date, one month behind!

I think of that in this day of constantly ‘breaking news’, available instantly, everywhere.  Back then, I remember musing that if there was  a world-shaking development, it might have happened a month before the mountain man heard about it….

Sometime in my long-ago I came to a personal conclusion that everything does indeed have “a purpose under heaven”.  (Ecclesiastes 3: 1-10).  For me this manifested in a personal epiphany, which has played out numerous times over the years, including now.  As I describe it “there is no such thing as ‘coincidence’.”   Everything has meaning, an opportunity to learn.

Perhaps there is an intentionality to the pandemic, and George Floyd, and that long ago photo I’ve just described and most everything else in our ives.  Just perhaps there is a message worth heeding….

At my coffee shop June 24 “my table” in foreground. I noticed the “Herd”, which likely pre-dated “herd immunity” since the coffee shop is “Caribou Coffee”