#956 – Dick Bernard: Speaking of Peace, Paul Chappell

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This day I chose to spend my time at an all-day workshop, “Waging Peace in Difficult Times”, facilitated by Paul K. Chappell, West Point Graduate, Iraq vet, former Army Captain, author and peace educator.
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Paul Chappell, at First Unitarian Society (FUS), Minneapolis Nov. 15, 2014. The event was co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace Chapter Chapter 27 and FUS Social Justice Committee.

Paul Chappell, at First Unitarian Society (FUS), Minneapolis Nov. 15, 2014. The event was co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace Chapter Chapter 27 and FUS Social Justice Committee.


There were 26 of us in attendance, 10 who I knew. Chappell’s presentation was very stimulating. He is a great teacher (which involves much more than simply presenting information).
Based on my own personal experience, I would very highly recommend attendance at any of Paul’s Twin Cities talks, as follows:
Sun. Nov. 16, 9-10 a.m. at Plymouth Congregational Church, Minneapolis, “Why is peace possible?”
Mon. Nov. 17, program begins 6 p.m. at Landmark Center, St. Paul, “Is World Peace Possible?” (Here is the flier for Nov. 17: Paul Chappell001)
Tue. Nov. 18, 11:30-1:00 p.m. at Veterans Ministry Roundtable at Our Saviors Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, “Creating your own inner peace as a veteran”.
Typically, I attend sessions like this as a listener/learner. This doesn’t leave time for note taking. I am more interested in where the conversation leads me. This was certainly true today. Likely the other participants had their own “ah ha” moments like I did. For assorted reasons known to us all, we have unique components to our own life experiences.
My family history is immersed in military service: Dad’s brother, Frank Bernard, went down with the Arizona at Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. He had been a crewman on the Arizona for near six years. My brothers and I are military veterans, me, a two year Infantry enlisted man 1962-63; they both career Air Force officers, including Vietnam. To make an entire list of family members who served would be a long recitation.
In some of the gatherings from the ancestral ND home farm I just came across a Dec. 13, 1945, Christmas card from a neighbor of my grandparents, who was in service at Scott Field IL. He was one of many who finished high school in 1945, and left immediately for the service.
I think the sender of the card was cousin or brother of one local boy who, Grandma wrote Aug 20, 1944, was “killed July 2 on Saipan in action.” She sent that letter to her son, a Naval officer on a Destroyer in the Pacific. The potential cost of war was never far from people in my own family. On the other hand, a human consequence of war – one of many – is to dehumanize the other “side” with all the predictable consequences….. (Even talk about war is very complicated. More about the end of WWII from the family perspective here:Atomic Bomb 1945001)
My “takeaways”, when I left this afternoon, were simple:
1. To pass along a strong recommendation to everyone to take the opportunity to hear Paul Chappell in person sometime the next three days.
2. To stay engaged in the witness for peace, as opposed to defense of endless and deadly war, while recognizing that the issue is very complex with many differing opinions. (Even in our own group, all peace people, there were differences of perspective.)
Personally I’ve been active in peace and justice community since October 2001. I could see no good coming out of bombing Afghanistan.
But my witness goes a bit further back. Particularly, I close with a portion of my year-end “card” written in November, 1982:
Bernard card 1982001 Note especially the second page.
Part of the Paul Chapelle workshop group November 15, 2014

Part of the Paul Chapelle workshop group November 15, 2014

#954 – Dick Bernard: Armistice Day 2014

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The Armistice Day Bells, St. Paul MN Nov. 11, 2014

The Armistice Day Bells, St. Paul MN Nov. 11, 2014


This morning I attended the annual Vets for Peace observance of Armistice Day at the USS Ward monument on the Minnesota State Capitol grounds.
It was a bone-chilling day with a numbing wind, and on the way home I stopped at my favorite restaurant for a cup of coffee and a day old cookie (cheapskate that I am). Going to pay my tab I saw that the restaurant, in honor of Veterans Day, would give veterans for 50% of ordinary price, but you had to show evidence of service. Darn. Here I’d not only had a cheap meal, but my dog tags were at home….
Armistice Day? Veterans Day? Remembrance Day? They all commemorate the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, when WWI, the War to end all Wars, ended.
It is no accident that the Vets for Peace, mostly vets of the Vietnam era forward, call their observance “Armistice Day”, while the official observance is called “Veterans Day”. The link hidden behind the words above gives the story of when the U.S. dropped “Armistice” in favor of “Veteran”. It was not a subtle change.
Our outdoor observance attracted about 30 of us today, less than usual, in substantial part due to the weather. On the other hand, this was a very good crowd especially given the weather.
But the gathering was its usual inspiring self, ending with an assortment of bells being rung 11 times to remember the 11th, 11th, 11th of the year 1918.
A moving rendition of the World War I poem “In Flanders Field” was offered by one of those in attendance.
"In Flanders Field the Poppies Grow...." Nov. 11, 2014 St. Paul MN

“In Flanders Field the Poppies Grow….” Nov. 11, 2014 St. Paul MN


One of the speakers announced the death, yesterday, of a young man, Tomas Young, 34, who I had never heard of. I read about him when I returned home, and this link includes a short article and a 48 minute video well worth taking the time to read and watch.
Mr. Young, who enlisted in the patriotic wake of 9-11-01 to go fight the “evil doers” in Afghanistan, ended up in Iraq and was near fatally wounded on his fourth day in combat there. The video continues the story.
Today I remembered the first Armistice Day observance I attended here. It was Nov. 11 of 2002, out at Ft. Snelling. I remember it particularly because a year earlier, Nov. 11, 2001, we were at Gatwick Airport in suburban London, about to head home after a vacation in London. At 11 a.m. on that day the public address announcer at Gatwick asked for two minutes of silence – of remembrance – for those who gave their lives.
We could hear a pin drop, literally. Not even a baby cried. I reported that at Ft. Snelling a year later to an attentive group of people who were all strangers to me.
The English take this day of peace seriously.
Today, those of us who served and got lucky and didn’t have to deal with the messiness aftermath of war, personally, can cash in on the sacrifices of others in our seeming endless wars. But there are huge numbers of “walking wounded”, homeless, etc. One of them, Tomas Young, died young yesterday.
Vets for Peace looks for some other way to resolve conflict than rushing into combat. Great numbers of us have been there, done that….
I end this column with the song that we started with this morning: an anthem of peace, sung here by John Denver, “Last night I had the strangest dream”.
"Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream...." Nov. 11, 2014, St. Paul MN led by Sister Bridget McDonald CSJ

“Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream….” Nov. 11, 2014, St. Paul MN led by Sister Bridget McDonald CSJ

#935 – Dick Bernard: War. Its variations.

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It’s been a rough week for the National Football League (NFL).
First comes the indefinite suspension of Baltimore Ravens Ray Rice after the violent incident with his “then-fiancee” in a hotel elevator. Then, this mornings banner headline in my local paper, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, about Minnesota Vikings star “Adrian Peterson Indicted” for disciplining “his 4-year old son by beating him with a “switch.””
There is the news that dominates the airwaves and the internet; then there is the down on the ground news, talk among friends, about such things.
There is a disconnect.
One good friend remembers that when he was a kid his Mom pretty regularly used the “switch” on him, or something else if the switch wasn’t handy.
Another friend wonders what happened earlier in the elevator that wasn’t caught on film.
Such musings are only for safe company. There is no “other side of the story”.
These are two great guys, sincerely wondering….
Then there’s the National Football League, may as well be called America’s Corporation, probably one of the most financially successful and well known businesses.
Its ultimate objective, let’s be honest, is to cover its financial assets.
The NFLs product is sanctioned team violence. Football is a violent game – a war on a field.
(Thursdays Star Tribune had an editorial about head injuries in prep sports. Of 13 sports, Football had 42% of the injuries (second was girls soccer with 9%).
Pro football without Goliaths colliding would be boring for fans.)
There’s a devil’s dance going on.
Then there’s the main national event: the center ring: the American War against whomever, and who is to be held responsible for that war, however defined.
Currently, the contest is about what to do about ISIL, et al. It is the almost perfect storm, given that it comes less than two months before the 2014 election and the issues and complexities great..
By the Constitution of the United States, it is the Congress who has the sole power to authorize war. Constitution of U.S.001 (see page 9). The trick is how to make President responsible for what the Congresspersons would like to have happen, but do not want to own.
It is a real quandary.
We Americans elect our leaders by voting (or not showing up on election day).
We like our wars, so long as win them, at no cost to ourselves.
Today is the 200th anniversary of the Star Spangled Banner, our national anthem, “bombs bursting in air”. Look at the entertainment that sells best. A strong focus on violence is popular.
But we’re eternally ambivalent. Our entry into WWII was delayed because Congress wouldn’t commit to war.
No war was ever declared in Korea, which was a police action.
An assortment of War Powers Acts especially since Vietnam have in effect amended the Constitution so that the Congress can pass off its responsibility for war-making to whomever is the sitting President. If its our guy, one thing; if its not, its another.
With respect to the abundant mess in Syria-Iraq and environs with ISIL, there is no right answer, though all pundits on whichever ideological side represent their analysis as the correct one.
The President of the United States, who is not running for anything in November, is, I believe, correctly assessing the situation, and has been for some years now.
He is interested in protecting the institution of the Presidency, but he is also interested in the Congress doing its job of making the crucial decisions about war and peace.
Our local congressperson is the point person who we need to elect carefully on Nov. 4. They should not be able to weasel-waffle out of declaring themselves.

Thursday, September 17th is Constitution Day in the U.S. Linked here is one of many sources of information. Take time to read our founding document: Constitution of U.S.001

#929 – Dick Bernard: Aiming at the Moon (and hitting ourselves); a thought on redefining how we see relationships with our world, and about the matter of changing attitudes..

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Early Wednesday morning, August 21, I was heading out for coffee from my motel in LaMoure ND, and a sight begging to be photographed appeared a few steps to my left, and I couldn’t pass on it. Here’s the snapshot. The waning moon appeared to be in the “bullseye”.
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August 21, 2014, 6:15 a.m., LaMoure ND

August 21, 2014, 6:15 a.m., LaMoure ND


I’m very familiar with the sight: I stay often at this motel. August 10, on a previous trip, I’d taken a photo of the permanently on display Minuteman Missile you see in the photo. But this one, with the moon as the bullseye, was unique. I just looked up the Phase of the Moon I photographed that day: here.
More about this missile at the end of this post.
My trips to LaMoure, these past months especially, have always been work, both physical and emotional. I go into a “news blackout”, basically, too busy to read a newspaper; too tired to even watch TV news. So it wasn’t until I arrived home late on the 21st that I learned of the decapitation of the American journalist in Syria by an ISIS person with a distinctly British accent; and I saw the image of some ISIS hotshots showing off with some American tank, either purchased or captured in Iraq and now part of the ISIS arsenal.
Suddenly our omnipotence does not seem so potent. The radicals in ISIS seem far more dangerous and ominous than al Qaeda a few years ago, essentially thumbing their collective noses at us, using our own weapons and tactics, and we can’t do a thing about it. So we debate around the edges of the true reality, which is we can no longer control the world, and our past actions have consequences. We now debate on whether or not we should pay ransom to rescue captured journalists or others, and we face the prospect of dealing with shadowy enemies who look and talk just exactly like us. (“American” are very diverse, should anyone not have noticed. The traditional order has irreversibly changed.)
This is a very complex situation in which we find ourselves, even worse than our no-win Iraq adventure which began in 2003 with bragging that we had won that war less than two months into that awful and deadly and endless conflict (which still continues).
We now have to live within the world which we have made.
When I got home this week, I decided to review the history of the Minuteman Missile, which was a creature of my time in North Dakota.
August 10, 2014, LaMoure ND

August 10, 2014, LaMoure ND


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We Americans love our weaponry: the Biblical “Ploughshares” doesn’t seem to have a chance against “Swords”. We’re so strong, armed so well, peace runs a far distant second to the advantage of overwhelming military superiority – or so goes the conversation. Look for Monuments to Peace in your circuits. And to War. And see who wins. (One organization I support whose sole mission is a Peace Memorial is here. Check it out.)
Googling “Minuteman North Dakota” just now brought forth a North Dakota Historical Society site which for some odd reason is dedicated to President Ronald Reagan.
The Minutemen were children of Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson during the Cold War, and were planted between 1961-67 in the heat of the Cold War (Reagan was in office much later, 1981-89).
When you’re talking man-up, whose name is attached to manning-up matters, I guess.
I see lowly ploughshares memorialized from time to time, but they’re seldom named for a person, compared with war memorials, they are minuscule in number.
FDR was President when the Nuclear Age was born; and Truman was President when the Atomic Bombs were first used, and Eisenhower was at the helm when other weapons of mutually assured destruction were developed and tested.
Actually, all the military toys ought to be dedicated to “we, the people” who fund, and indeed have insisted on their development through our Congress, which by action (or inaction) authorizes endless war and military investment.
(Changing this reality is not simple: for instance, my Grandmother on the ND farm* 10 miles from that Missile in the photos, was joyful when the A-Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945(Atomic Bomb 1945001). Her bias was her son, an officer on a Destroyer in the Pacific. She wanted him home safe. The U.S. War Department, then, rhapsodized in public relations releases that this deadly bomb might be the key to ending war forever.
And Saturday night I was at a Minnesota Twins baseball game with a family group which included my granddaughters father-in-law. He’s a great guy. Much of his career as an Air Force enlisted man was making sure those ND Minuteman sites were secure….)
As a country we have supported these symbols of our supposed omnipotence, without regard to partisan designation. It is dangerous for a politician to speak against War.
Now a few countries, especially the U.S. and Russia, are awash in nuclear weapons which, if ever used, even one, by some lawless renegade leader or thief, will take a long step towards mutually assured destruction of everyone downwind.
The conventional wisdom back then, that our strength was in military superiority, was not only wrong, but stupid.
We’re in a hole of our own making, and best that we figure out it’s worth our while to not only stop digging, but try other means of co-existing.
We’re part of, not apart from, a much bigger world than just within our borders.
Change can happen, but it always happens slowly. Be the one person who is, as Gandhi said, “the change you wish to see.”
* POSTNOTE: On that same farm, in the yard in November, 1957, I and others watched Sputnik as it blinked on and off in the black night ski. In those days, newspapers carried maps of where you could see Sputnik. In my memory (I was 17 then, and a senior in high school), the trajectory was from SSE to NNW, but I could be wrong. Sputnik was a big, big deal. Earlier, in early teen years, Grandpa would rail on about the Communists, who were sort of abstract to me, then, but it fits, now, with my knowledge of the great Red Scare, Sen. Joe McCarthy, HUAC, etc. And earlier still, would be the Flash Gordon novel which somebody had bought sometime, and was pretty ragged, but featured the Ray Gun (early Laser fantasy?), and Flash Gordon’s conflict with the evil ones. I have recently been going through all of the belongings of that old house, and I keep looking for that ragged old Flash Gordon book, but my guess is I won’t find it….
UPDATE AND COMMENT:
long-time good friend Bruce F responded to my post as follows:
I wonder,Dick, how these rag-tag radical groups in SW Asia can out gun and defeat government armies that we train and supply.
My guess is that in one form or another we supply and train them. In order to be the world’s largest arms dealer, the military industrial machine needs to work both sides to continue to expand profits.
Comment:
The key word in Bruce’s comment (to me, at least) is the word “we”. Who is “we”? And when?
Otherwise I’d agree with what seems to be the general thrust of Bruce’s comment: the unwieldy entity called the “United States” (primarily we citizens, collectively), have allowed this to evolve.
I doubt ISIS (or ISIL) or the “Caliphate” will have a long life. It will not become a new North Korea.
The regional situation is extraordinarily messy. It is difficult to identify who is “friend” or “enemy” at any particular time. The latest ISIS casualty publicized in this area was a graduate of a local Minneapolis suburban high school in 1990 who embraced a radical philosophy about 10 years ago.
The President of the United States is stuck in a quandary, which delights his enemies. There is nothing he can do which will not be legitimately criticized by someone. The U.S. Congress, which should be making the key decisions per its Constitutional obligation to make policy on War, generally, will continue to escape and evade its responsibility.
But it remains we Americans who through our own lack of engagement have helped create the monster which we now can scarcely understand, and hardly know how to turn around.

#923 – Dick Bernard: Policing. Alternative ways of keeping the peace.

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My too-frequent trips out to North Dakota, with a side trip last Thursday and Friday to Bemidji, yield numerous ideas for blog posts, all kept on a list of possibilities for sometime.
Today, the first post after my return, current events in Ferguson MO interfere.
One week ago at this space I wrote about the outpouring of emotion about a policeman killed while making a routine traffic stop in a neighboring community. You can read it here.
This week the news has been dominated by a deadly incident in St. Louis suburb Ferguson MO, where a policeman shot and killed an unarmed teenager. There have been other recent incidents involving excessive violence by police. A long and excellent summary is here.
In last weeks post, at the end, I included a May 27, 2014, proposal by my friend, Grace Kelly, about recognizing positive policing policies. It seems a good time to remind readers of that proposal, and invite you to read and share the proposal, and help towards positive results in your community.
Best I recall, Ms Kelly’s sensitivity to gross over-policing dates back to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul in early September, 2008, when the police appeared armed and very dangerous to quell protests. Who can forget the gunboats in the Mississippi River at St. Paul, supposedly there to protect against river assaults by protestors? This was a very bad time in our town.

This and following from Greg and Sue Skog, at time of Peace Island Event described below Sep 2008.

This and following from Greg and Sue Skog, at time of Peace Island Event described below Sep 2008.


There was a single garish reminder of that time in the funeral procession of hundreds of police vehicles last week: One of those monster anti-something vehicles came up the street along with the normal police cars.
It did not fit.
It stood out. Very negatively.
Grace was a leader in the successful campaign to replace the then-Ramsey County Sheriff with a much more positive Sheriff, Matt Bostrom, in 2010. We see the difference every time there is an incident here. Tone is extremely important.
Like last weeks overwhelmingly positive tribute to police, this weeks overwhelmingly negative indictment of police overreach in Ferguson MO is a time to reflect, and Grace Kelly provides the opportunity to those who will look at her proposal. Please do.
Every single one of us can make a positive difference, where we live.
Comment
from Greg H, Aug 15:
A year ago or so I caught the testimony of a local police chief before a Congressional committee. In part, he chronicled the increase in fire power of the weapons issued to his patrol officers, in a small community.
The latest upgrade was to a weapon similar to that used in the Sandy Hook school shootings.
The police chief explained to the Congressional committee members that the reason for his community spending money to equip patrol officers with more lethal weapons was simply to prevent his officers from being out gunned by the bad people.
Just today we learned the suspect in the murder of the local police officer during a traffic stop had told a woman friend days earlier that he planned to kill a cop. He also told her he had been smoking meth for several days.
As to Ferguson, I prefer to wait for the facts of the confrontation between Mr. Brown and the officer before reaching any conclusions.
Early Sep 2008, Mississippi River, St Paul MN photo by Greg and Sue Skog

Early Sep 2008, Mississippi River, St Paul MN photo by Greg and Sue Skog


POSTSCRIPT:
Here are my memories, written September 8, 2008, in the aftermath of the heavily militarized security at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul MN. Personally, I walked in the major protest march (peacefully), but most of my time was in a major Peace Island Conference a group of us had organized which ran for the two days of the Convention, about three miles from the Republican Convention site. Our conference was so peaceful that even activist media didn’t cover us – the drama was down the street at the Xcel Center where the Republicans were meeting.
A GREAT END TO A LESS THAN STELLAR WEEK IN THE TWIN CITIES
This past Thursday, Sep 4, shortly after noon, I decided to deliver a large box of unused “Vote in Honor of a Veteran” buttons back to the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office, which is near the State Capitol Building (Watch for a future post on those buttons). When I arrived there, the youth protest gathering was commencing at the Capitol steps, and there were plenty of assorted kinds of police in evidence. But all was quiet.
I parked in front of the State Office Building, put on the warning flashers, got the large box out of the back seat, and began to walk up the front steps. A Minnesota State Trooper came out from behind a pillar, with his soft drink in hand, and I said I was going to the Secretary of State’s office. “Got a bomb in there?”, he said in an off-handed almost joking manner, and didn’t even venture a look inside the box (I guess I didn’t look like a terrorist), I went in, dropped off the box, and left. (Somebody could probably cite him for dereliction of duty, but for me he was the good face of the police this past week.) I decided not to stay for the demo, since I wanted to get over to the Peace Island Picnic, and legal places to park was an issue where I was, and it would have been a long walk to and from.
Driving my route to get to Harriet Island, I went down Chestnut Street, below the Xcel Center, and there were swarms of police preparing for the afternoon duty (today’s paper says there were apparently 3700 police in all, marshalled for the Republicans party in the twin cities – obscene overkill in my opinion.) Shepard Road was open, more police, and Jackson Street, and Kellogg to the Wabasha Bridge, and when I got to Harriet (now and forever more Peace) Island at 1 p.m. there was a great plenty of quality parking. There were few people in evidence, plenty of room to park, and a huge plenty of hotdogs, pork, cake, and on and on and on. It looked like it would be heaven for someone looking for a free meal (and it was). There was a box for contributions towards the event cost, and I hope they did well on collecting. (Coleen Rowley’s acknowledgements to all those who contributed their talent to Peace Island Picnic follow this text.)
Down on the river bank at Peace Island it was a chilly afternoon, overcast, breezy, maybe in the 60s. But it was about perfect for a gathering in many ways.
The Rowley’s were there, and, initially, perhaps 100 of us strolling around, and then the music gig began, first with Larry Long, no stranger to folks in these parts, joined by Pete Seeger’s grandson, Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, for a medley of songs beginning with Down by the Riverside, then This Land is Your Land, then Lonesome Valley, and on. The two musicians by themselves were phenomenal, the power for the speakers and instruments was solar (and stellar), and even in the overcast worked impeccably all afternoon.
The afternoon was off to a great start. In my initial planning for participation in the Picnic, I was going to stop by for awhile, go home, and come back later in the afternoon to help be part of the giant peace sign. But it was such a mellow place, this Peace Island, that I decided to stay the day.
I went back to the car to get my outdoor canvas chair, and settled in by the flagpole to the 9-11 victims, just to the musicians left, and with a clear view of the river. I was ready to settle in for one of the most relaxed afternoons I’ve ever had.
There could not have been a more peaceful place than Peace Island this day. The crowd grew, but slowly.
Tuesday’s Robot, a really good local group, followed Larry and Tao, and they were to be followed by a continuous succession of musicians all afternoon; there was some great jam session music going on as the afternoon progressed. I counted up to 15 musicians together at one point in the afternoon.
There were some bizarre twists, to be sure.
Patrolling the river just beyond the musicians was a gun boat – I kid you not – a Coast Guard vessel with mounted machine guns fore and aft. It appeared to be protecting the tour boat Johnathan Padelford as it carried passengers, probably delegates to the RNC, up and down the Mighty Mississippi. It was so bizarre as to be funny. (It’s in the slide show I previously sent.) I guess you never know what “tear-wrists” are going to be gunnin’ up or down the river to take out whomever…maybe that’s why George and Dick didn’t show in the twin cities.
At one early point, four SUVs ominously drove down a sidewalk in our area, all full of police, one with the back door open, as if they were preparing to raid our small assemblage, but they just slowly moved on.
To our west, a bunch of the police gathered, apparently for their souvenir photo, with, it seemed, the downtown St. Paul Skyline probably behind them. The gunboat arrived, apparently to be part of this photo op of “what I did on my vacation”.
Around 6 or so we all assembled into a giant peace sign. I’ve seen the photograph of all of us in this peace sign, and I’m sure that in a short time it will be published on Huffington Post or maybe even here on P&J. It was a very clear shot. I could even make out myself, on the back portion of the circle, a few folks to the right of the upright portion of the peace sign.
Together, Peace Island Conference and Peace Island Picnic turned out to be phenomenal and totally peaceful events. Together, they merited only the tiniest bit of news coverage – Peace Island Conference with 350 registrants none at all; Peace Island Picnic with about 1000 meriting only a few dismissive and inaccurate comments in the Pioneer Press On-line edition, bad enough so that a correction was apparently printed this morning in the print edition of the paper.
The message is “if it bleeds, it leads”. The anarchists, hated as they are by so-called ‘civil society’, were essential to the police state mentality that became St. Paul and Minneapolis this past week. Those anarchists should get thank you notes from the Republican Party, and the powers-that-be in our town. Without them, there wouldn’t have been any news. And while they’re writing thank you notes, maybe the likely abundant agents provacateurs should be on the thank you list as well. One of the persons on the march who was doing lots of photography, was quite certain she saw one person who had been egging on the Iraq Vets Against the War during the Labor Day protest march, breaking a window later in the downtown area – if so, he was probably arrested, and quietly released….
For us, the mantra for each of us has to become “I am the Media”. It is of absolutely no value to kvetch about what they aren’t doing. We have to become, as Gandhi said, ‘the change we wish to see in the world’. There is no alternative.
Let Peace Island become a continuing part of our conversation for sanity in our country and world.
From Coleen Rowley, Sep 6, 2008:
Wow!! Really good, Mr. Bernard! I’d like to forward the photos to my list too. I’m going to copy Mr. McGovern, Ann Wright, Tao, Larry Long, Sara Thomsen and Emma’s Revolution also as they figure in a few of your pictures.
If only there’d been a little more sunlight for the picnic. I think the cold weather was perhaps as much of a deterrent as the RNC bridge closings/traffic problems and the police intimidation.
With just a couple of “no-shows”, most of the info about musicians on our website turned out correct. Neither Clyde Bellecourt nor Dorene Gray made it for the opening water ceremony. And Mitch Walking Elk didn’t make it either. But I think everyone else listed did. The solar panel trailer was from Minnesota Renewables. David Boyce is the contact and as a power source, it worked absolutely great. The sound system was run by Doug Lohman of the Armadillo Sound Co. and it also got big compliments. (David Rovics had sung at the “March on the RNC” which didn’t have a good sound system and he said Doug’s was top notch. Doug used to do the sound for years at St. Joans.) The great grilled pork was made by Brian Huseby and his brother on their unbelievably large but portable grill. They grilled about 275 pounds of pork roast and 1200 hotdogs and almost all was eaten. (We did have a lot of buns left tho’.) We got free barbeque sauce from the Ken Davis company; donated French bread from New French Bakery; baked vegetarian beans at cost from Java Live in Faribault and also donated fruit from Co-op Warehouse and coffee from Equal Exchange.
We just had a great committee who did this all—not a lot of meetings—I think the grand total was only six—but we divvied up tasks well according to each person’s unique expertise.
Guess what? Tao already committed to coming back if, God forbid, St. Paul should ever host another RNC and we need to try and return to good neighborliness and sanity. Coleen R.

#920 – Dick Bernard: Some brief comments on two items of "old" news.

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1. The Central American Children as Illegal Immigrants.
July 12, I filed a post on this topic: here.
As I clearly state in the post, I had very little information about the specific facts of the issue.
My basic note was that this is a complex situation, and I included an inset map showing how difficult it would be to simply get from Central America to the United States.

Adaptation of an old map to show relative scale of Central America to Minnesota. 1961 maps

Adaptation of an old map to show relative scale of Central America to Minnesota. 1961 maps


So, where are we today, three weeks later?
The U.S. Congress delayed its five week recess by a single day to pass a bill on Friday which everyone knew would go nowhere, except into political campaigns. It was a total act of political theatre, taking no action on a crisis, preparing for the election in November. The Saturday Minneapolis Star Tribune carried a story on page four about the impasse. You can read “Congress exits after a display of dysfunction” here: Congress 2014001.
Way down towards the end of the article: “By traditional measurements the 113th Congress is now in a race to the bottom for the “do nothing” crown” [passing- “just 142 laws – 34 of them ceremonial…The original “do-nothing” Congress of 1947 and 1948 passed 906 laws.”
2. Israel/Gaza Strip and Ukraine.
July 26 I filed this post. The day I wrote the post, there was one Israeli casualty, later increasing to 13, with hundreds of deaths in Gaza.
About a week later, there is a catastrophe in Gaza, and the Israeli population by and large supports the Israeli government in this internal war.
Yesterdays Just Above Sunset gives a good rundown of the awful current situation there.
We think in shorthand about such places, if we think about them at all. Israel, a place I visited in 1996, is a state less than one-tenth the size of Minnesota, mostly desert, with about 8 million people (Minnesota population 5 million). Gaza is about a dozen miles square in size (it is rectangular), and has nearly two million people, growing very rapidly.
There seems some Israeli fantasy that an entire population of Gaza can be bombed into permanent submission; some even think it can be eliminated. History teaches over and over that it just doesn’t work that way. The saying goes: “What goes around, comes around.”
But…what do I know?
In Ukraine, things are more quiet. International experts are at the site of airplane disaster, picking up body parts and belongings of those killed.
Politically, things seem a bit quieter, and that is always good. It is easier to negotiate quietly than through news media.
It’s a nice day here. And a birthday party soon for a 15 year old.
Life is good.
But that depends on where one is, and on their own particular point of view.
Keep engaged.
POSTNOTE: here’s an uncomfortable commentary on Israel/Gaza.

#917 – Dick Bernard: The Hermit as Metaphor for US. With Comments from Wilhelm and George about Israel-Gaza and the Ukraine-Russia situation.

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My summer has taken on something of a theme: most of my thinking, and a great deal of my time, has related to an old farm 310 miles away. My Aunt Edithe, born there in 1920, died in February; and her brother, my Uncle Vince, is in Nursing Home Care and no longer can even visit the farm on which he lived for over 81 of his 89 years.
It’s fallen to me to deal with the multitude of issues that relate to such a transition. This is not a complaint: it is simply a reality.
On the road there’s no computer for me (a deliberate choice), and usually no TV (too tired), and ordinarily no newspaper either (available, but otherwise preoccupied). So in a small sense I’m like that hermit I came across in the Tarryall section of the Rocky Mountains during Army maneuvers in 1962. He lived in an isolated log cabin, no electricity, no phone, and once a month he walked to the nearest town far off in the distance, to provision up. One of his provisions was the entire previous month issues of the Denver Post. Each day he would read one of the newspapers. So, he was always up to date, just 30 or so days behind.
(click to enlarge photo)

Hermit Shack at Tarryall Rocky Mountains Colorado June 1962. Dick B in photo. Visited with the hermit, but didn't have the nerve to ask to take his photo.

Hermit Shack at Tarryall Rocky Mountains Colorado June 1962. Dick B in photo. Visited with the hermit, but didn’t have the nerve to ask to take his photo.


In the hermits mind, perhaps, what happened out there in the world was not his concern. He had his patch, his cabin with door and window, his dog, his goat, and all was okay. Some day he’d die and when he didn’t show up in town, somebody would go out to recover his carcass.
His life was in control. He seemed pretty happy, actually.
Sometimes I think we Americans, in general so privileged and so omnipotent in our own minds, think that we can pretend that what’s happening inside our tiny sphere is all that matters; and if we do care, in any event, we can’t do anything about it anyway, so why bother?
Of course, it matters, and we can impact on it, but once settled in to routine, as the hermit was, we tune out. In the end, it will be our own loss that we didn’t pay attention.
In recent weeks I’ve written here about the Central American immigrant crisis; and the Israel-Gaza catastrophe at the same time as the downing of the Malysian Airliner over the Ukraine.
*
Even when I’m off-line the material just keeps flowing in to my in-box, and back home I take some time to just scroll through. Sometimes something catches my attendtion.
For instance, yesterdays Just Above Sunsets here goes into a too-little known facet of certain Christians and Israel.
A friend, Wilhelm, who grew up in Germany, made some pertinent comments about how he sees the Israel situation.
“I feel I have to reply to [some] remarks [seen quoted in] “My favorite blogger’s commentary about the Israel-Palestine situation”
According to [the quote] the Germans had the right to defend themselves against the French Resistance or the Russian Partisans even if it was inadvisable or strategically not the right thing to do. Or even the final destruction of the Ghetto in Warsaw after several and seemingly unending up risings. But maybe I have it all wrong here. The difference might be the reason why people are put into a ghetto in the first place. Some reasons might be legitimate, some might not? I really do not know.
But the I read the following: Israeli lawmaker Ayelet Shaked published on Facebook a call for genocide of the Palestinians. It declares that “the entire Palestinian people is the enemy” and justifies its destruction, “including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure.”
She quoted Uri Elitzur, who died a few months ago, and was leader of the settler movement and speechwriter and close adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there.”
It strikes me that this could have emanated from Berlin at a earlier time just as well .
But if I am right then this is also relevant:
“Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as allowing itself to be “governed” without opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct. It is certain that today every honest German is ashamed of his government. Who among us has any conception of the dimensions of shame that will befall us and our children when one day the veil has fallen from our eyes and the most horrible of crimes – crimes that infinitely outdistance every human measure – reach the light of day?” First Leaflet -The White Rose Society – Munich, 1942
A little later, Wilhelm sent this:
Chris Hedges as usual cuts through the fog of propaganda and handwringing. His article is well worth reading!
Then, last night, George, a retired electrical engineer and native of Hungary, wrote about his experience as a young man in the Hungarian Army, then part of the Warsaw Pact nations.
There is nothing unusual here, especially for anyone who’s been in the U.S. military, but George’s commentary gives an unusual perspective into the relationships between powers, and how people in the military operate:
“Even in the old Warsaw Pact Countries, like Hungary, ROTC University students received training in operating and servicing anti-air defense/attack systems. During summer we did our practical training. As an EE [Electrical Engineering] student I was training to both eventually manage the servicing and train regular enlisted men to operate this kind of equipment at the combined arms battalion level while being assigned as a technical officer to the staff of a combined arms division. If I did my job properly by age 30 I could have been promoted to a Brigadier (1 star) general level and be in charge of the ‘heavy arms artillery regiment’ of the division (ground attack mobile rockets and long range artillery).
The Soviet military and its Warsaw Pact allies after WW2 were gradually reorganized into combined arms divisions (tanks and mechanized infantry) using the old WW2 German Panzer Division as the model!
To save on costly training and extra manpower the country’s civilian and military manpower was completely integrated based on the University trained ROTC graduates. University education was free and was supported by free scholarship to all accepted into a university program. Women were encouraged to go into medical and law professions and did not go to summer training camps. We did have several women in my EE faculty who attended military class-room instruction but not the summer’s practical training camps.
I don’t know what they did instead of learning how to goose-step, learn to live with an always dirty rifle (as per my drill-Sargent), and go on 3AM to 9PM full backpack load walkabouts! — George (ex-staff Sargent of the ex-Hungarian Peoples Republic Army)
PS. The only time Soviet military’s training, tactic and weapons systems were tested was the 1973 war waged by Egypt and Syria against Israel. These armies were trained and equipped by the Soviet Union. Initially they beat the Israeli army and air force. On the Golan, Syria’s Russian Style Army took the Golan Heights and was within ~20 miles from reaching the Mediterranean Sea. Its APC [Armored Personnel Carrier] mounted mobile SAM’s [Surface to Air Missiles] managed to neutralize Israel’s vaunted Air Force and only because the 2nd-wave Iraqi Divisions were halted by the Kurdish army in the mountains of Northern Iraq did Israel survive! They were eventually destroyed by the Israeli army reinforcements from the Egyptian front. The Egyptian Army was also trained and equipped by the Soviet Union. They re-crossed the Suez canal and their light infantry used Soviet wire guided infantry portable missiles to hold back the Israeli tanks while the Egyptian Soviet T55 tanks were also shipped across using Soviet bridging equipment and barges. This deployment was covered by Russian heavy SAMS from fixed positions on the Egyptian side of the Suez Canal and also destroyed most of the Israeli air force! The Israeli army had to withdraw into the Sinai mountains and because of a technical problem of the T55 tanks they managed to halt and eventually destroy the Egyptian Army. The T55’s guns could only be elevated ~15 degrees because they were designed for the flat German and Russian plain. The Israeli tanks looked down on them from the Sinai escarpment and destroyed most of the Egyptian tanks at long distance who could not even defend themselves! Also the heavy duty Russian SAMs were not mobile and could not protect its mobile tank units when outside their range. So now the Israeli air force came back into action and completed the destruction of the Egyptian tanks! An Egyptian general predicted the outcome of this battle but President Nasser, with Soviet advice, overruled him.
After the initial battles both sides were fought out and needed new equipment to continue. President Nixon did not believe the huge losses suffered by Israel and did not want to completely destroy Egypt, a Russian ally! He was worried that the Soviets would directly intervene by sending troops and that the local war could grow into WW3! We sent our U2 spy plane to survey the battle field as did the Russians send their equivalent plane. Both the USA and Russia started resupplying their respective allies and also ‘advised them’ to start peace negotiations! The most complicated position was that of President Nasser’s whose direct order, against those of his general’s led to this disaster! So the Egyptian public was never told about the disaster that was disguised as a great victory! This was also the reason why President Nasser was the only one on the Arab side who accepted the Israeli Peace offer, originally proposed by Secretary of State Kissinger. He even went to Russia to start the negotiations on behalf of President Nixon.
George’s comments remind me of our own longstanding relationship with Israel, an unhealthy co-dependency which enables the current behaviors. History dies hard (but in this business of killing each other with every more sophisticated means must end, otherwise we’ll all be goners.)
*
Then, there is the radical rabble that is feeling its oats in our own United States. Given their own surface-to-air missile, they’d launch it somewhere on our own ground.
There is an interesting, troubling video about goings on at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, the monument to where President Kennedy was assassinated. You can access it here. Its a ten minute watch, and one can only wonder what goes on in these folks minds….
We are a nation, and a world, of very decent people.
But sitting on the sidelines is an invitation to extremists to take over.
POSTNOTES:
From Wilhelm, Jul 26: “If I was an Arab leader I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal, we took their land. It is true that God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we come and we have stolen their country. Why should they accept that?”
That statement—which would certainly outrage the current government of Israel and most of its supporters–was made by David Ben Gurion (1886-1973), revered as the father of the State of Israel.
If that is the case where is the call for justice
No peace possible without justice.
In light of what Ben Gurion admitted it sounds a little timid to ask for divestment or boycott of anything associated with Israeli Settlements. It seems the whole State of Israel is responsible for the policy and should be held responsible. This means any action has/ should include all of Israel or it is but self serving window dressing. Another action that says we are ding something and occupy the moral high ground but we are not doing any harm or damage.
The above quote was taken from the article:
OK. So, What Would You Do About Hamas? By Barry Lando
Just something to consider as one ponders what to do, what to do ….
Wilhelm

#914 – Dick Bernard: Political Shorthand.

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It’s near 100 days to the 2014 United States Election (by my count, the actual 100th day is next Sunday. Election is November 4, 2014.)
What will you do, each day, to participate actively in your responsibility as a citizen. It is an important question, each individual needs to answer for him or herself. We get what we deserve….
I’m fairly involved in politics. It is interesting (and often, frustrating). A few examples from the last few days.
Saturday I elected to go to the town hall for my local legislator. It was a nice summer day, and only about a half dozen of us were in attendance. All in the room were men, except the legislator, a woman; depending on one’s point of view, half in the room were “good guys”, half not.
Though I don’t go to all such gatherings, they are always interesting, even though they are predictable. As usual at this one, in attendance was the young guy filming everything. He calls himself a “tracker” for a special interest group that is much more for getting rid of taxes and regulation on business than on its stated goal, “jobs”. The hope, I gather, is to find some ‘sound bites’ for his advocacy group to use against the legislator in later campaign ads.
One well-groomed and dressed young guy, who looked to be college age or not far beyond, complained about “massive tax increases” and companies moving out of the state, and asked that the Minnesota version of the Affordable Care Act be “scrapped” – pretty standard talking points of the right, never supported by any data. What does “massive” mean? I don’t know. Likely he doesn’t either. It is a good, scary word, that’s all.
Even with only six people in the room, there’s no time to waste on debate of a single misleading word, so we moved on.
It was caught on video, of course.
I had to leave after 45 minutes due to another commitment. All was very civil. The legislator, now well experienced in such meetings, handled things very well.
But it was an example of what I would call “Political Shorthand” – saying nothing while suggesting everything: “companies are leaving our state….”)
And I’m speaking about the audience, not the legislator.
The first lesson a lawmaker learns is that we’re a diverse society. Some try to ignore that, at all of our peril.
Media, of course, is a crucial part of American politics.
The previous evening, sitting in my favorite chair, I watched the CBS evening news cover twin tragedies: the disastrous shooting down of a Malaysian Airliner over the Ukraine; and the even worse disaster between somebody and somebody else – let’s say “Israel” and “Hamas”, whoever they are, in terms of making stupid decisions anyway.
It struck me at how casual and comfortable I was, watching news about terrible tragedies taking place a long ways away.
We Americans view war as an abstract sport, though we are very active participants.
CBS was trying, I suppose, to be “fair and balanced”. They chose to focus on one Israeli casualty from the Hamas missiles; and four Palestinian young people killed on a Gaza beach by Israeli fire from a boat. It seemed a rather false equivalence: at the time hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza had already died in the latest round of war; hundreds of Hamas rockets had managed to kill one Israeli.
In the Ukraine, the issue was who was to blame for the near 300 deaths in the airliner in a contested part of the former Soviet Union.
As for Israel/Palestine, there have been, in this single conflict, far more Palestine deaths than the casualty list from the plane. In many ways, Israel is an informal 51st State of the U.S. What is our complicity in the tragedy. And, how do we define the word “our”?
Important.
After the legislators session, I went to my barber, a very good long-time friend, and he was certain about who was to blame for both. We had a good conversation.
Listen for the political and media “shorthand”. It is constant, apparent,
Dad, forever the teacher, would say “two wrongs don’t make a right”, and he’d be correct. But he was talking to kids when he gave that admonition. What about nations dissing each other, and wholesale killing?
It’s near 100 days till the election of 2014. Get on the court, actively, every day, wherever you happen to be.
POSTNOTE: My favorite blogger has a long overnite commentary about the Israel-Palestine situation. Here it is, if you’ve interested.

#913 – Dick Bernard: Politics, Money and Media

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$1 million equals about 20 cents per Minnesota resident (5.4 million population; triple the population in 1905)
$1 billion equals about 3 dollars per United States resident (314 million population)*
Dollars002
Earlier this week I was visiting with my local state Legislator, Rep. JoAnn Ward. Rep. Ward is an outstanding Representative: very intelligent and hard-working. She takes her job seriously. She’s running for her second term, which means she has a record, which means “opportunity” for the “tar and feather” crowd who hate government (even while campaigning to take over that same government they despise.)
The Minnesota Republicans have rolled out their first generic television ad about the Democrats, and it has mostly children and young adults complaining about Democrats wasting the state money building a palace for themselves in St. Paul.
The first target, the first apparently politically exploitable “fact”, is the vote to spend $77 million dollars to build a new office facility for the State Senate. How dare they build a palace for themselves? So goes the argument.
Well, the office space has long been needed. We’ve been a state since 1858, and government and society itself has become more complex, and there are more people who demand more service from their government. Anybody who has been to the State Capitol during the legislative session, particularly to visit a lawmaker, knows that legislators and their staff are packed in like sardines. The State Capitol itself is over 100 years old – opened 1905 – and now undergoing badly needed and extensive renovation, a well over $200,000,000 process which began in 1984. It has the same internal area as it had when it was constructed, and, of course, in 1905, things like computers and such had not yet been invented.
As best as I can gather, adequate facilities for lawmakers at the Capitol have been an issue for as much as 40 years, and under active discussion for 30. But when politics rears its head, and “government” is the issue around which to organize, it takes political courage to remodel an old house to fit current needs….
Rep. Ward and her colleagues don’t even office in the Capitol. Her office and those of the vast majority of State Representatives are in the State Office Building, a non-descript, bustling (and also busting at the seams) facility, one block (and about a quarter mile walk) from the Capitol itself.
Ain’t nothing fancy, that’s for sure.
But as JoAnn and her colleagues know, they will be mercilessly tarred and feathered for doing what needs to be done, allocating funds for an office facility that is not even for them. It is part of the increasingly insane political theatre in this country, fueled by very big money and all the the media big money can buy.
At the beginning of this post I noted two numbers, which I think are crucial to keep in mind as politicians trot out millions or billions in indictments against this or that.
For instance, that Minnesota Senate Office Building project will cost about $15 per Minnesotan, and it is a one-time project, needed, that will far outlive us.
At the national level, a billion dollars is about $3 per American.
Political advertising is just that, advertising. If you believe the ad on its face, you deserve what you get.
Best to exercise your own mind, and get involved in politics, learning who your candidates are, what they really stand for, helping them out in the many ways available to you, without being begged.
We – each and every one of us – ARE politics. Not voting, or simply opting to criticize those in office, is no escape from our own accountability.
Vote, and vote very well informed, at local, state and national levels.
* Of course, someone will say that dollars do add up. Of course, they do.
1 trillion dollars equals about $3,000 per United States resident.
By far the largest component of the United States budget is something called “defense”. Here’s some well researched and reliable data.
It is said, reliably, that the short and long term costs (including disabled veterans) of our 2003 to present War in Iraq and Afghanistan will ultimately reach near 3 TRILLION dollars.
Yes, we do have our priorities, don’t we…?
COMMENT:
from State Rep JoAnn Ward (referenced in the post): The point of housing the Senators in one building is important. If the public wants the Senators to cooperate, collaborate, and coordinate, then they need to have ready access to each other. We need a modern building to accommodate the current needs of the state government and for the public to access their legislators.

#908 – Dick Bernard: Anniversaries of Two Wars…and the beat goes on.

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UPDATE to Fortnight for Freedom: several comments are included at the end of the post.
The last few days have marked two significant anniversaries.
June 28 marked the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand which led, a month later, to the awful World War I.
Today, July 2, is the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
WWI – “the war to end all wars” – was the first of the truly deadly world wars. A letter in Tuesdays Minneapolis Star-Tribune noted that 568 Hennepin County (Minneapolis and environs) residents were killed in WWI, their deaths remembered by Victory Memorial Drive in Victory Memorial Park along the northwest boundary area of Minneapolis.
WWI begat WWII, and after WWII came Korea, then Vietnam, then Iraq…. War doesn’t stop war; it only aggravates problems that erupt in new and different ways.
The evening of June 21-22, 1964, marked a beginning of the heavy lifting of the Civil Rights Movement. Three young people, James Earl Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, were gunned down in Mississippi – deemed by the KKK t be trouble makers out to register people to vote.
By no means was theirs the first deadly incident in the Civil Rights movement, nor the last, but it was a wake-up call moment, impossible to ignore. It was a watershed moment.
(click to enlarge)
Risking Everything001
The wars continue: The invisible al-Bagdadi, holed up somewhere, seeks a Caliphate in Syria and Iraq area. Odds are, his life span is not long, and his dream will fail.
At home here in the U.S.of A at Independence Day, it’s no secret at all that efforts are being made to roll back hard-won Civil Rights, voting, immigration, etc.
It seems so hopeless. But is it?
Back in March I decided to drop in on a session at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum conducted by Professor Mary Elizabeth King, a veteran of the Civil Rights heavy lifting years.
The room was full of students that day, nonetheless I wondered about the state of student activism today, so after the session I wrote Dr. King a letter.
On May 13, I received a personal communication from Dr. King, much of which I reprint here, with her permission. Hers is a very interesting and hopeful analysis, coming from the trenches of the Summer of 2014 (and 1964), so to speak.
Dr. King:
“The amount of student activism today is far greater than in the heyday of SNCC [Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee], which some historians are now calling the most significant group to emerge in the USA after World War II. Young people are vastly more engaged. The success of the Dreamers (the movement of young Latinos that dramatically succeeded in their quest for an end to children born in the USA of “illegal” parents being forcibly detained), is a model for good planning and strategizing that beats anything that went on in the civil rights movement. This year, you will see an astonishing degree of mobilization around the 50th anniversary of the Mississippi Freedom Summer (in which I worked). In FL, NC, MS, OH, and TX hundreds of organizers will be working on voter registration, expanding education, pushing against the privatization of prisons and working to curtail the school-to-prison pipeline, and more work against deportations. I’ve just been with 45 of these key organizers in Geogia, and in depth and breadth they are in some ways more advanced than we were in their ability to plan and strategize. I, therefore, feel optimistic.
Dr. King continued at some length:
Isolated groups around the world now have some access to transnational electronic activism. Even if they are weak in their ability to reform their governments, they can cause what social scientists call a “boomerang” pattern, bringing about pressure from networks across the world (most recently visible as Nigheria’s Goodluck Jonathan did nothing about 276 abducted girls until storms of electronic protestation around the world exerted pressure on him, sufficient to get the UK, France, and USA to send personnel). This could not have happened 20 years ago.
More than 400 degree programs, centers, or institutes in the USA are dedicated to the building of peace. Peace and conflict studies is the fastest growing field of all the social sciences worldwide; in my experience it is driven by the young.”
On Martin Luther King, Dr. King recommends a new book: “In an Inescapable Network of Mutuality,” ed. Lewis V. Baldwin (Cascade Books, 2013).
Her letter also included the postcard about Risking Everything (see above photograph). She suggested “that you spread word of this remarkable book of carefully selected documents from the 1964 Freedom Summer. Every library should have it.” (At this writing, the website listed on the card is down for maintenance. Try it later.)
Back in the 60s, Dr. King concludes, “We had almost no books, other than Gandhi’s autobiography and King’s Stride toward Freedom. Today a wealth is available and much of it downloadable.”
Mistakes will be made, as witnessed by Tahrir Square mistakes, and the Occupy movement, both of which had promising starts.
But activism is alive and well.
Thank you, Dr. King. I’m glad I asked the question.
UPDATE, July 3: Overnight came Just Above Sunset with an analysis commentary about 1964 and 2014.
It is impossible, of course, to see how the long term will play out on the matters of voting or immigration or most anything else, but personally I see the climate now as very different from 1964. The Rights advocates in 1964 were starting from 100 years of inaction following the Emancipation Proclamation and it was a hard slow dangerous slog in the south. Armies of demonstrators made it possible for Lyndon Johnson to take the courageous steps necessary to get the act passed, though he well knew the consequences for the Democrats “for the next generation”.
Rolling back the clock to the good old days will be, in my opinion, a suicidal mission for the angry people who give face to the anger in places like Murieta CA.
A photo clip last night showed the California protestors brandishing American flags almost like weapons against the bus. It brought back flashback moments for me to early October, 2001, when I went to my first anti-war demonstration at the State Capitol, and across the street were flag-brandishing very angry people protesting the protestors.
It will be interesting to see the crowd at the 4th of July Parade tomorrow…the one we always attend. It is the crowd I always watch, more than the parade. The folks along the street are America….