The 75th year of the UN is 2019-2020.

On October 23, at the James J. Hill House on Summit Avenue, is a very special event.  Details here: The Future We Want001.  Make it a point to attend.  Reservations needed.  Best advice: reserve soon.  Space is limited.  https://www.globalminnesota.org/event/the-future-we-want-the-un-we-need/.

RELATED NOTE: You may have already seen a clip of the powerful address by a young student at the UN today.  Here is more from Dennis Dillon:

If you haven’t already heard Greta Thunberg’s entire address to the General Assembly today, here’s the link to it on the UN website: https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/09/1047052

I’m sure you will very much appreciate listening to her every word (it’s under 5 minutes), and hearing that she pulls absolutely no punches.  Her essential point is ‘shame on you all for taking advantage of the youngest generations and relying on them to have to try to spur us adults into action.’  I’m sure you will be moved by what she has to say.

Taking to heart what she has to say is a first step for us all in trying to practice nonviolence against the violence we are waging on our own planet.  

I viewed the new film “Official Secrets” on Saturday afternoon at the Edina Theater.  It is a film that is engrossing, and its topic is the run-up to ‘shock and awe’ in Iraq which began about the first day of spring in 2003 – a day that should live in infamy for all of us.  Coleen Rowley had an excellent letter on the film in today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune (3rd letter in the queue).  I also referenced it in my 9-11-01 post last Wednesday, with link to the John Rash column.  I’d urge everyone to see the film.  Just remember the name, “Official Secrets”.

Why title this post “Drones”?  We’re in an age where headlines substitute for “information”, which often is disinformation, spoken in headlines.

Why “Drones”?  The same weekend as I saw the film, the apparent drone strike in Saudi Arabia has been front page, and who to call to account for it.  Best advice I can give is to believe nothing from official sources…or even supposedly informed opinion.  The film deals a bit with this rabbit hole.  Caveat emptor.

Most of us have a long history with drones, even if we didn’t call them by that name: my first memory is of a guy on my walking route to the overlook of the Hull-Rust-Mahoning iron mine in Hibbing, back in the 1980s.  I’d often see him there, flying his radio-controlled model airplane.  Some years later, similarly, when I’d be driving in from Apple Valley to Mall of America area, I’d see another guy playing with his model aircraft over a pond beside 77.  His small aircraft had pontoons – a bit more risky for a hobbyist.  The history of drones goes back much further.

Of course, now drones are military grade, and very effective.  And our national delusion was that we are the only ones who can develop and use the technology.

I took the risk of weighing in on the issue of drones some years ago.  The evidence stays on line, here.   Actually, as you’ll note, I’ve written about this issue several times.  The one I’d point to first is #488.  There are plenty of comments, and a followup “chapter two”.

I think my main rationale back then was that, at least, drones were better than ‘shock and awe’ tactics such as we used with catastrophic results in Iraq and other places; better than ‘nuking’ somebody as well.  The issue is very, very simple,  and extraordinarily complex, especially in an age of disinformation and deception at the highest levels.  .

Of course, I don’t know who authorized or pulled off the recent drone strike.  I’m not going to attribute guilt in any particular direction.  But history did not begin with the drone strike on Saudi Arabia.

See the film, think, feel, get involved.

For sure, engage in 10 Days Free from Violence, beginning Friday.

And put on your calendar October 23, a special event at the beginning of the 75th year of the United Nations.  Here is the program: Flier Oct 23rd event JJ Hill House-v4.

And the upcoming Human Rights Forum Oct 28-29 at Augsburg University, Minneapolis.

COMMENT:

from a long-time friend who prefers to speak anonymously: “Interesting article on 9-11. And in reference to your Drones discussion, I think that we are seeing the consequences of the Balfour Project.  I think I shared documentation relating to that with you [see below].  If not, let me know and I will forward it to you.  I believe that pressure from the Religious Right in keeping with the objectives of the Balfour Project is what prompted Trump to pull out of the Iran Nuclear Agreement.”  [here is the article referenced, which I received in March of this year: Lord Balfour Project Lecture.  The lecture is academic and lengthy, but very interesting.  My friend also wrote a summary essay about his knowledge of ISIS.  The two pages are here: The Origins of ISIS_Abreviated]

Habitat for Humanity Construction Crew September 11, 2001, lunch break on the porch.

September 11, 2019, is the 18th birthday for a large number of Americans.  I have not yet come across specific data on how many new 18 year olds there are today.   My best guess, based on the information I can find, I estimate that these new 18-year old adults number about 10,000, and are at the pinnacle of about 75,000,000 people who have joined the U.S. population since September 11, 2001.  Here’s one of the sources I’ve relied on.  The U.S. census office is most reliable.

Between 2001 and 2019 the U.S. population increased from about 286 million to 330 million….  Eighteen years earlier, in 1983, the estimated U.S. population was about 236,000,000.

I have personal feelings about 9-11-01, which I’ll share at the end of this post.  But this particular moment in history I’ve been thinking about these new 18 year olds, who are the vanguard of the post 9-11-01 generation who inherit what we’ll leave behind.  Until today they can blame we elders for stupid decisions.  Now, they’re voting age, and will, like everyone else, decide how or whether to participate in this democracy; and if they decide to vote, whether or not they’ll be informed at all, or will vote for more than just one or two offices.

It is hard for me to relate to the feelings of these young people as their adulthood begins,  I was young once, as well.  On my 18th birthday, I was a senior in high school, 61 years ago, in a tiny town.  I was born at the end of the Great Depression, and right before WWII began for the U.S.  My mentors, in those first eighteen years, were people who in one way or another were impacted by both the Depression and the War.  There were no sit down lectures.  They had lived both.

So, I’ve decided, in this musing, to invite us all, individually, to reflect on this new group of 18 year olds including their nearest preceding similar group – those born in 1983, who turned 18 in 2001; and on ourselves as well.  It’s our shared past, and their future….

We have grandkids in both pre and post-9-11 cohorts.  How are things different for this new generation, than they were for the generation immediately preceding them?  What challenges does this crop have to confront as new adults, which differ from the challenges of their predecessors?  Or of people of my cohort (18 in 1958)?  Or yours?

I’ve started my own list.

For just a single example: I came across an e-mail I wrote on October 17, 2001, weeks after 9-11.  This e-mail was not about 9-11; it was written when I was editing a newsletter for a cultural group of which I was a member.  I had edited this newsletter for 16 years at the time of my e-mail, and it wasn’t until the very end  that the words ‘e-mail’ or ‘website’ were even mentioned.  Oh, there was e-mail, and websites, but they were not common knowledge to the masses at the time.  We sent the newsletter by U.S. mail.  In the e-mail, I said “I have done nothing further on the Web-site idea but it is still a doable idea…So few of our members are on the internet that we couldn’t forget about other kinds of communications….”  We really had only the most vague ideas about this future means of communicating.

It wasn’t until 2004 that “Facebook” appeared; 2005, YouTube; 2006, Twitter.  By now those websites and e-mail are old-hat for the young.  We’re in the wild-west when it comes to communicating between generations, even within our own generation.

Another: These new 18 year olds haven’t had to go to war…yet…but they registered for Selective Service when they applied for their Drivers License.  (There was no such requirement to register to vote at the same time.)

Their previous cohort shed lots of blood in the Iraq War; a legacy war of 9-11; one in which we are still engaged, though there are plenty of efforts to dissociate Iraq et  al  from Afghanistan (where the bombing began in October, 2001, and the killing continues today.)  Far more of our young died in Iraq, than died in the 9-11-2001 attacks; and infinitely more innocent Iraqis and others have died in the middle east as a result of our military adventure, for which 9-11 created a pretext, and which has become a never ending war.

I wish the new 18 year olds well.  “Party hardy” today, if you wish or can, but get engaged in your own future.  It is your life that is at stake.

Photos of World Trade Center New York City, end of June, 1972, by Dick Bernard

9-11-01 FOR ME:

I was participating in a week-long Habitat for Humanity build-in-progress in Minneapolis.  Our turn began on September 10, 2001.  The morning of 9-11 I was driving across the Mississippi River bridge when the announcement was made that a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers.  I didn’t pay all that much attention.  At the build site, later, someone brought a radio, but I doubt any of us had any idea of the immensity of the day until we arrived at our homes later in the afternoon, and saw the news on television.  9-11 brought many unexpected volunteers.  By the end of the week, we had more volunteers than we could use.

I wrote about my reflections on the day a short while later: Post 9-11-01001

A photo I took at our site on or near 9-11-01 leads this blog.  Several times I’ve driven by the completed house in past years, including most recently on September 5, 2019 (below).  The owners of the home have taken very good care of it.

September 5, 2019. “Habitat Home” in south Mpls, which was under construction, Sep 11, 2001

Today, September 11, 2019, I’m going to pay especially close attention to how 9-11-2001 is ‘spun’ by media and others (one of which, of course, is myself).  The matter of Afghanistan, which was our first response to the 9-11 attack, continues as the longest war in which we have ever been engaged.  Lots of effort is expended to somehow detach the reality of all of the other conflicts which, in reality, we began in response to 9-11-01.  Let’s hope that this cohort whose vanguard turns 18 today, has a life worth living in the coming years.  We aren’t giving them a head start….

POSTNOTE: Expect a followup to this post in coming days.  Your contribution to that post is welcomed.  Deadline: this weekend.  Online responses continue below.  A comment via e-mail from yesterday, from Len: “If you want to read a good rendition and perspective on the events of 9-11-01, I recommend Sott Pelly’s book “Truth Worth Telling”.”

POSTNOTE 2, Saturday Sep 14: There has been several comments, presented below.  These will be the ‘followup’ referred to above.  It goes without saying that 9-11-01 was an emotional time.  What was to become this blog began with “P&J” (peace and justice) on a daily basis, sometimes more than once, sharing feelings from an e-mailing list.  Some years ago I gave the first 100 P&J’s to the Minnesota Historical Society.  Perhaps someday someone might want to open the box to see what people had to say ‘back then’.  In the interim, here are four items from the first six months, from the evening of September 11, 2001; September 17; October 8 and April 22, 2002: each is a single page, and speak for themselves. 9-11-01 Aftermath001.

This week, I noted that the news media basically left un-noted the certain outcome of 9-11-01: the pretext for the War on Iraq.  A notable exception I noted in this mornings Minneapolis Star Tribune opinion section, a column by John Rash, which speaks for itself, and is about a movie opening this weekend, “Official Secrets”, which I certainly plan to attend.  Here is the link to the column.

We Americans had a choice to make after the tragedy of 9-11-01.  We made what is always the simplest choice: to find a scapegoat and go to war.  In many and sundry ways, we are still paying for our misadventure.  When will be learn…?

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

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 4^th 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.