A friend asked who I plan to vote for in the Minnesota Primary Election Tuesday, August 14.  More on that towards the end of this post.  If you’re Minnesotan, here’s the page to find the candidates who are on the ballot in your precinct for the primary.

Some personal observations:

It is easy to complain about  “politicians”, and “government”, and “bureaucrats”, and “taxes” and all of that, but a civilized society is essential to everyone, and in a diverse society, as ours is, we should be thankful that there are people willing to put their names and their opinions out there, and run for office – any office.

Freely elected representative “Government” civilizes.

We weaken ourselves by increasingly being a nation of individualists.  We can, now, ally within “tribes” of special interests, where members are in synch with each other, and can pretend other points of view do not exist.   This doesn’t square with “community” in the greater sense…but we are in community, nonetheless.

We are also a deeply and hopefully not fatally polarized society  When society plays the game as if the winner is the Super Bowl Champ, entitled to the spoils of victory, and the losers count for nothing at all, everybody loses.  You cannot thrive.  (The American Civil War – the ultimate Super Bowl – had winners and losers.  10% of then-Americans were casualties and we still haven’t recovered.  It was a necessary war, yes, but in its wake were unresolved problems still vexing us.  How would Abe Lincoln have dealt with the aftermath had he not been assassinated?)

Succinctly, speaking of the present day, there are more points of view than my own; others have needs that I don’t have, or can’t understand.  These differences are ignored or dismissed at peril.  Somebody has to help sort this out.  It is those “politicians” – and yes “bureaucrats” – in “government” who daily must take up the task of attempting to reconcile the irreconcilable.

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We take elections for granted in this country, and it is a very dangerous habit.  The July/August 2018 AARP Bullletin (illustration above) notes that only 50.4% of Minnesota’s eligible population even bothered to vote in the 2014 midterm election…and Minnesotas participation was greater than three of its nearest neighbor states.  (More detail here.  A pdf of the graphic is here: Election 2014002)   Considering the entire United States, only 36% – about one of three – of those eligible even bothered to vote in 2014.

Primaries, such as ours, next week, attract even less interest and thus participation than the General Election, and when one considers those who actually vote, with minimal knowledge of what their chosen candidate has done or is likely to do, you have a frightening scenario, which leads to what we are facing now in this country, and what’s ahead long term for today’s young people, who will inherit what we leave behind.

Which candidates, at all levels for all offices, win on November 8 makes a huge difference.

The actions for success need to be personal; the results will be collective.

VOTE, VOTE WELL INFORMED, URGE OTHERS TO REGISTER AND VOTE, IN EVERY ELECTION.

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The Minnesota Primary.

Like it of not, we are a two-political party nation.  With very few exceptions, after the Primary results are announced probably all successful candidates will have been endorsed by either the R or the D.

The D stands for Democrat (in Minnesota, DFL).

My opinion: at this time in our history, and for the foreseeable future, the only reasonable party, the party this country needs to have in charge, are people who stand for election as Democrats.  (This is the first time in my political life span that I have said this – I value the two-party system.)  

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In my view, at this time in our history, the R is not what it used to be.

R is not Republican.

For several years, R has increasingly meant Radical Party (I’d even add Right and Religious), and the moderate R’s know this is true.  There is no room for a Dwight Eisenhower.  Nixon would in many ways be considered a “liberal” by today’s true-believer Radicals in today’s Republican power structure.

An endorsed R is, by all odds, a disciple of the Trump philosophy.  Trump himself is a creature of the Right, his success dependent on endorsement by the Republican establishment in 2016.  This is not an accident of history: it has been evolving for many years.

Republican used to be a perfectly respectable political party.  It was….  At this time it is not.

The goal of the kingmakers of the Radicals has been single party dominance and control of all government at all levels: people like myself deemed irrelevant and dis-empowered.  This is no secret and goes back 30 years or more; names like Norquist and Gingrich, and many others have facilitated this.  2018 is their zenith, thus far.  Their leadership despises the very government they wish to control.

For the good of the ordinary people of this country, these kingmakers of the Right must be reined in.  This will happen only if voters change our own exceedingly sloppy behaviors as the employers of those selected to manage our democracy.

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To answer my friends question: in the DFL Primary and General Election I will vote for the Democrat who has, in my view, the most reasonable chance of success in November.  And if my preferred candidate does not prevail August 14, then I will vote for whomever the DFL party chooses to officially support.

In the Primary, my choices for statewide office:

U.S. Senator: Amy Klobuchar

U.S. Senator Special Election: Tina Smith

MN Governor and Lt. Gov.: Tim Walz and Peggy Flanagan

MN Attorney General: Mike Rothman

(There are perfectly reasonable and respectable alternative DFL candidates: There is lots to recommend Richard Painter for Senate; Lori Swanson and Rick Nolan, and Erin Murphy and Rick Nolan for Governor/Lt. Governor; several DFL candidates for Attorney General, Debra Hilstrom, Tom Foley, Keith Ellison.  But in the end I can cast only my single vote for each office.)

A PERSONAL AND IMPORTANT FOOTNOTE:

I would correctly be identified as a Democrat for nearly all my adult life, though I was not active politically till in my 30s.  I see the DFL and Democratic party as by far the most reflective of the “community” role of government.  Of course, this makes Democratic politics quite messy – lots of points of view.

Hubert Humphrey catches my bias well: “The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those in the shadows of life — the sick, the needy, and the handicapped.”  (Quotation 11-1-1977, note Government here.)

But some my most important political role models have been those who are now the extinct persons who would be proud to be called “Progressive Republican”.  There are many of these folks.  My list would include Harold Stassen in his influential days; it would include Gov. Elmer L. Andersen, who I counted as a personal friend; it would include Dwight Eisenhower, president in my high school and college years.

POSTNOTES:

There continues to be a flood of misinformation in public “media”.  For a tiny example: I know trash is being sent around using my e-mail address.  I receive it myself, and the ultimate insult is that I cannot block it because it is from, supposedly, myself.

Disinformation and misinformation is epidemic.  The antidote is to ignore it.

I treated myself to three books on a recent vacation.  Two were about politics and very interesting historical perceptions of the practice of politics in both the most positive and negative senses.  They are both carefully researched histories, heavily footnoted, and illuminating.  Check them out.

Patriot Hearts, published 2017,  is about 1917 in Goodhue County MN (Red Wing and area) in the run-up to the U.S. entering World War I.  The book can be ordered through Minnesota History Center bookstore.  “Passion and Prejudice” are its key words.  It is about patriotism run amuck.

Stassen Again is about Harold Stassen, who became a punchline for jokes, but who, between 1938-58, in his 30s and 40s, was a power actor in American politics, and a man with a passion for peace.  This book was published by Minnesota Historical Society Press in 2008, but gives plenty of food for thought for today.

COMMENTS (including in the blog comments section at the end):

from Phil:  Dick–thanks for your reasoned and straightforward opinion about politics today and in MN in particular.

from Jerry: Thanks for your comments, Dick.  I agree wholeheartedly.  You picked the same candidates as I intend to support.  What a disruptive time in American history.

from SAK: Thanks for that Mr Bernard.I note from the voting map that although the figures are low in general, still southerners are less likely to vote than northerners especially Alaska were presumably elections provide a welcome break & excitement during the long cold winters J!

A brief review  of Patriot Hearts I found on the  internet:

While world war raged in Europe, an America divided by ethnic, political and nationalist unrest struggled to come together. Nowhere were tensions greater than in Minnesota, then under dictatorial control of a temporary seven-man commission—arrests for treason multiply, watchful secret agents are on duty, a U.S. Supreme Court justice condemns the state’s “policy of repression.” Patriot Hearts details the ongoing clashes between superpatriots and their rivals, the political left, pro-Germans, and those less than “100% American.” Readable, relevant and carefully researched, this study supplies a fascinating supporting cast of radicals, seditionists, spies, firebrand farmers, profiteers and provocateurs who combine to tell an extraordinary story of Minnesota’s home front during the stormy 1917–18 war years.

[Dick:  here is another, longer, review from a recent issue of the Journal of the Minnesota Historical Society: Patriot Hearts001]

I wonder if there is a bit about the Protestant-Catholic divide in the book? Happily it is much less of an issue now but US history hasn’t been innocent in that respect – British history of course was far bloodier & Catholics suffered many episodes of repression & even carnage. Protestants suffered in neighbouring France bien sur! The “superpatriots” mentioned above  can claim that Catholics’ allegiance is to the Pope! This was used to defeat democratic candidate Al Smith in 1928 for example. It was much less of an issue in 1960 of course.

[Dick: this book was more about a clash of ideologies, and stoking fear of nationalities, rather than religion.  At the same time, at this period in history, the Ku Klux Klan was rearing its head, and in not too long Catholics became a major target in Minnesota and elsewhere.]

Throughout history it is more frequently members of minorities & those defending them who suffer persecution & assassination – Martin Luther King, JFK, Abraham Lincoln, MalcolmX . . .? Aristotle’s call for moderation (the golden mean) is as vital as ever: extremists tend to be obviously more violent. Extreme leftists as well as rightists – e.g. McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist.

With the rise of the internet & social media polarization, radicalization & hence extremism are on the increase; a report by a UK parliamentary committee last week concludes that the “wild west” world of social media & fake news etc is a serious threat to democracy. It made some very strong recommendations.

You also raise the important issue of individualism which some are referring to as hyper-individualism.

Another book I would heartily recommend is Age of Anger by Mishra. [Dick: I have read this book, and it is an outstanding review of the topic, as politically used.]

‘But Mishra’s governing idea that the world is afflicted by what Albert Camus astutely called “autointoxication, the malignant secretion of one’s preconceived impotence inside the enclosure of the self” isn’t off the mark.’

Good luck & may the best candidates win.

from Norm:  Good observations, Dick.

My father was in the state senate for 18-years before losing in a primary to another DFLer following a re-districting where two incumbents got thrown into the same new district.

I agree that in view of all of the demands and expectations put on and have it is great that many good people do run for office and, if successful initially, stay around to run for re-election.

I know that elected officials, i..e. politicians to most folks are easy pickings for folks who want to have someone to blame for this or that situation that has befallen them or their community.  Criticizing public employees is also easy pickings for the same reason.  The GOP candidate to fill Franken’s unexpired seat includes something about “do nothing bureaucrats” in her main TV ad.  As a former bureaucrat, I know that is not true in my long experience but I also recognize that making such claims regarding politicians and public employees is red meat for many folks…so making such claims is an effective campaign tool.

Good choices for the 14th as well!

from Pete: I like Keith Ellison a lot, but I’m afraid he would not do well in greater Minnesota.

from Peter:  I had a thought or two about all this, and went to the website, and could not see any comment buttons.  [Dick: There is a comment button.  Note comment at end of post.  Check again.]

Here’s something…

The book I’m working on tries to make the case that we each have sufficient power to save our world; that there was a major paradigm shift around 2014 that made possible the ascent of our current President to power; and that it matters where we direct our gaze. It was when the information markets tanked. They were displaced by a market nobody quite understands, the Audience Market.

Once the global networks penetrated the “last mile”, one person could send a billion people into “fight-or-flight” in seconds. That is a power that no human has ever had in the history of the world. Now, at least one human does hold that power.

A human brain reacts before we can begin to think. When we hear there might be hordes of drug-crazed rapists swarming over the border, a percentage of people get terrified. When a million people have such strong emotional reactions at the same time, well, we all saw what happened.

Fortunately, along with catastrophe, our networked society has brought a real possibility for humanity to survive the deadly, accelerating impacts of chemical changes in our upper atmosphere. We are developing the potential for real-time communal response that is quick enough to keep up with our rapidly deteriorating situation. Think of a flock of birds, or a school of fish.

Your attention is now your vote. Appeals for it are like appeals for your money. We take responsibility for our own attention whenever we notice how precious — how essential to our being — is each moment of awareness. There is some ground to cover, in harnessing this incredible artifact to save our world, and that work has started, and it begins with each of us, and it begins again in the next moment.

We are all equal citizens of continued human existence. Our attention is our only asset. It is enough. Individual-ity will never disappear, but individual-ism must. Otherwise, we are already extinct.

The stakes are really that high now.

Dick:  After publishing this, I went to a retirement party for a respected DFL legislator.  At least a couple of people had already read the post.  One commented that Richard Painter is anti-union; another referred me to a commentary on Lori Swanson, which you can read here.  The commentary is very long,  It is not complimentary.  I simply provide it for anyone interested.

I do not know Lori Swanson personally, and did not contribute to her campaign thus far, though I had (and have) positive feelings about her capabilities to lead a complex state.  I had written her on a couple of occasions, and received obviously personal and well thought out replies.  My only context for Richard Painter was his early and outspoken ethical concerns about the Trump operation.  I knew he was Republican.  He spoke out when few were being outspoken, and he was an informed critic.  His point of view is being supported by people on the progressive left who I respect.

Personally, I think conversation is essential at this time in our history, and not only between “birds of a feather”.  There is no perfect person; our society is far from perfect.  What we have now is abominable.

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Wednesday, friends held a retirement event for our retiring State Legislator JoAnn Ward.  (Photo below.  Behind JoAnn is our State Senator Susan Kent).  “A good time was had by all”, as the weekly news report in the older days country newspaper would say.

JoAnn’s watchword, I think, would be “civility“, of which there is very little in today’s politics.  She’s taken her job of representing all of us very seriously and did a great job.  The same can be said of Sen. Kent.

I am very impressed with the young man who will be the candidate I’ll vote for as JoAnn’s successor.  More about Tou Xiong here.  If you’re in the area, for sure read “about Tou”.

Joann Ward August 8, 2018

“If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with them.  Then he becomes your partner.”  Nelson Mandela

Minnesota Orchestra Program cover, July 21, 2018

Sometimes I stumble on things, such as last night at the Minnesota Orchestra.

We were unable to attend the last program in our subscription series, and had a deadline of August 1 to select an alternative.  There were two Beethoven’s upcoming, and we invited our neighbor, Don, to pick the date, if any.  He said July 21.  And so he and I happened to be at Orchestra Hall for the finale of what must have been a great day of celebrating the Centennial of Nelson Mandela’s birth: July 18, 1918.

This morning, Basilica’s newsletter “cover story” was a column by Janice Andersen about a Basilica group visiting South Africa a few months ago.  You can read it here: Andersen – S. Africa002.

Sometimes I just stumble into history.

Nelson Mandela is such a universally recognized person these days that any link I provide would be superfluous.  Choose your own.  He went from Prisoner to President of South Africa; and the white person who peacefully transferred power was then President  F. W. de Klerk, who with Mandela earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.    You can revisit their respective perspectives in 1993 here.  You can access each of their Nobel Lectures at the time they received their award.

de Klerk is the forgotten man in this duo.  He is the South African white leader whose lot it was to peacefully transfer power to Mandela, beginning the process of change to a new way of looking at the matter of race in this country where Apartheid became a universal symbol of repression.

On a poster at Orchestra Hall was a very brief sentence describing de Klerk’s role.  In another poster, and in the work Harmonia Ubuntu, World Premiered on Saturday, was the Nelson Mandela quotation that leads this post.  (More about the work here: Harmonia Ubuntu001)

In another “stumble” back in 2012, I had an opportunity not only to meet F. W. de Klerk in person at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, but to hear his own statesman’s address as a laureate.  (Mandela was not in attendance; he was in fragile health and died about a year later.)

But I had an additional and unique opportunity to actually see de Klerk express his emotions in a most innocuous way at the Peace Prize Festival.

Strictly by chance, I was seated in the second row in the gymnasium at Augsburg.  At my right, came de Klerk and the group that was ushering him around.

There was some unheard conversation, while waiting for some first graders to sing a song, and de Klerk, obviously insisting, came and sat directly in front of me, raptly paying attention to the always captivating young singers.

I could see a grandfather sitting there in front of me, much more than just a VIP….  It was a memorable moment of peace that I will not forget.

F. W. de Klerk, March 2, 2012, Nobel Peace Prize Festival Augsburg College Minneapolis MN . The students who he was watching at his left also show in the television screen in this photo.  Photo by Dick Bernard.

de Klerk and Mandela are not the only statesmen on opposite sides who have won the Peace Prize.  The prize, I think, recognized the risks both leaders had to take to accomplish even a small amount of change.

The risk was a huge one for the designated leader of South Africa, de Klerk.  Nelson Mandela had already paid his own great price.

As everyone knows, progress comes in increments and not in bunches.  S. Africa is not a perfect society.  It wasn’t.  Neither are we.

But South Africa will never be the same again.

Democracies do not work by themselves.  They depend on citizen involvement and risk taking.  We get what we deserve.

Mandela and deKlerk and many others have made and will continue to make a big difference, everywhere.  But as Gandhi so correctly said, long ago: “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.”

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This years Nobel Peace Prize Forum comes up Sep 13-15.  Give yourself a treat.  All information here.

The Minnesota Orchestra makes a two week, five venue, tour to South Africa in August, the first ever for a United States Orchestra.  Check their website for more information.

Dr. Maureen Reed, former Executive Director of Nobel Peace Prize Forum, begins her second year teaching about Nobel Laureates in September.  Program details about Out of the Lab and Into the Fire: Scientists and the Nobel Peace Prize are available here.

The First Graders, March 2012, Nobel Peace Prize Festival, Augsburg College, Minneapolis, photo Dick Bernard

COMMENTS:

from a friend of classical music: 

Thank you for the perspective.

Many Orchestras in the US have spent the year recognizing the work of Leonard Bernstein on what would be the 100th anniversary of his birth (Both Bernstein and Mandela were born in 1918). I find a touch of irony in the Beethoven played last night during the Mandela recognition and on their tour of South Africa.

There are many spins on the intent of the content in the Beethoven 9. But I do find a touch of coincidence that Bernstein conducted the 9th in Berlin on Christmas Day in 1989, celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall. The cause of freedom and social justice seem to be ever-present. At that time, Nelson Mandela was still in prison and would be freed in about seven weeks on February 11, 1990.

from the net …

Last weekend I sang the praises of the film about Fred Rogers, “Will You Be My Neighbor”, which we had seen last Sunday.  Kathy wrote: “RBG also uplifting and worth seeing.”

“RBG“?  It is the documentary about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  We saw it yesterday at the Edina Theatre and highly recommend it.  If you are mired in depression about the state in which we find ourselves, RBG is a very good movie to lift you up, and get on the move again.  RBG seems to be at the end of its theatre run, but it will continue to be accessible in the many ways you can now access film on-line and in video.

July 12, 2018

“If it is to be, it is up to me.”

A U.S. Senator relayed this old saying on national television, a few days ago.

He was talking not only about himself, and his colleagues, but most especially to anyone of us who are concerned about where we’re at as a country.

For all of us deeply concerned about the status quo, “If it is to be, it is up to [us]”.

Giving up is not an option.

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Best I can count, today is the 50th since life changed in the most drastic possible way for grandson Bennie and his family.  Three days ago he was transferred to Gillette Hospital in St. Paul for rehab.  Two days ago he became a teenager: 13.  Ten of us celebrated his birthday in a conference room at the hospital.  His Aunt Ann made some wonderful cupcakes.

I marvel at the near 37,000 visits to Bennie’s Caring Bridge site.  I will let the family fill in the blanks at Caring Bridge from time to time.  It is not easy to compose these posts, so there are delays.  The family knows many are out there, caring.  Thank you all.

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This weekend officially ends civilian life for grandson Spencer, heading for U.S. Marine Basic Training in California on Monday morning.  Another life change in a family.  We saw him Wednesday, along with most all of the rest of the family, including his cousin and Aunt, Lindsay and Jennifer from Colorado.  We’re proud of Spencer, though I hope the only outcomes of military for him will be positive, rather than war in any of its aspects.

My friend, Lyle, now in mid-80s, still flies the Marine flag at his home.  He’s the most gentle yet committed guy I’ve known.  He started post high school life as a Marine, as has Spencer.

January, 1962, I was in Spencers position, heading off to Army Basic Training at Ft. Carson CO, not knowing, then, that the unit to which I’d be assigned was preparing for the Vietnam War.  Luckily, for me, I was in and out very early.  My Company saw deadly duty some years later in Vietnam, so I was told.  37 casualties.  War is not a video game.

These days I’m a Vet for Peace, whose national conference is in St. Paul in a few weeks.  I think I’ll attend.

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I can remember when “life after high school” began for me – at least in terms of orienting to the future.

It came when granddaughter Lindsay was born in 1986.  Life is far more than thinking about today.

It is the grandkids generation who will wonder, what were we thinking…?  We’re creating their future, today.

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POSTNOTE: Today’s Just Above Sunset “A Clear and Present Danger“.  Each of these posts is valuable, and free.  This is our country, under attack, and it is up to us to do more than we think we can to change course.

Most every time my spouse goes to an evening meeting or get-together I tell her I’ll be dining out at a four-star restaurant.   Usually, my trip is to left-overs, or on occasion the neighborhood McDonalds, for a hamburger and small fries….  My “threat” is always an idle one.

This has taken on a far more serious tone in recent weeks.  Since grandson Bennie had the accident,  his parents, and on occasion some other family members, have been guests of the Ronald McDonald House which is part of the hospital in which Bennie is a patient.  It has been a godsend for them in the past six weeks, as it has doubtless been for thousands of others since the idea took root in 1974.

Of course, on every trip to McDonald’s you’ll see a discreet invitation to leave some change for the Ronald McDonald House.

But it was an abstract idea for me until I saw it in action.

About a week ago I dropped into the local McD’s for the usual, and saw the above sign on the door.  I came back later with a case of water and a check – not a huge one, but more than a little….

In the endless bombardment of awful we are subjected to every day, the Ronald McDonald House is a reminder of the great reservoir of goodness that surrounds all of us, ready to help when we least expect it.

Below is a discreet photo of Bennie and his parents less than two weeks before all of their lives changed in an instant.  I’m glad I took the photo.

Have a great, gentle, day today.

Thank you, McDonald’s, for a great idea.

May 13, 2018. Mother’s Day. Bennie and family in foreground.

COMMENTS

from Kathy: Good morning, Dick. I am proud to say my Dad was a founding board member of the RMH and my sister Jane a more recent active Board member. They both were McDonald restaurant  owners in St Paul area.  The home has provided TLC to so many children’s families.

from Bonnie: I’ve been following Bennie’s journey on Caringbridge and pray for him everyday and as he comes to mind.  What a arduous journey for him and for his parents and for all of you—well, for all of you who love him.  I’m glad there is one ray of light in this journey.

from Joni: RMH was a godsend when we found ourselves out of state with Parker in IU-Purdue several years ago.  A very worthy organization indeed.

All best wishes to everyone this day, whatever your status as a “Dad”, past, present, future.

To me, for a long time now, the term “father”, as “mother”,  is far more than biological or legal.  We are all, at times, “Mom”, and “Dad”, and all the rest.

Today, of course, in my world Bennie remains front and center. Here’s the most recent update, posted June 15.  The past day (June 16) was significant, and the next week, or two, or three, or whatever will be very significant, whatever that word means.  No one knows for sure….

My own Dad had his own “mantra”, “take it as it comes”…he had his reasons to adopt this wise outlook.

It’s now three weeks for Bennie in intensive care.

When this began, I linked to an inspiring piece of video called Gratitude.  Here it is again.

Cherish each moment.

Have a great day.