War – Page 14 – Thoughts Towards a Better World

#744 – Dick Bernard: Some Proposals for this Fourth of July

July 4, 2013/1 Comment/in Community, Peace & Justice, War /by dickbernard

Today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune has a good quiz to test your knowledge of the U.S. The column, including link to the test, is here.

Heritage House, Woodbury MN Summer 2013

Today, July 4, is supposed to be a simple kind of day in the U.S. My daughter described it well: “grillin’ and chillin'”.
This particular July 4 is a tad more complicated, if one wants to pay attention to complexity. Edward Snowden is a man sort-of without a country in the Moscow airport; the President of Bolivia was detained somewhere since his plane was suspected of harboring Snowden; and then there is something going on in Egypt, whether bad or good depends on the interpretation. A good long summary of Egypt is here for anyone who wishes.
And then there is a matter of our own less than pristine history. A surprising post I saw yesterday about a monument to a major American mistake in one war came in yesterday. The writer is not a “usual suspect” for this kind of essay. You can read A Memorial to a Mistake here.
We don’t like to own mistakes….
There is tradition for us, today. Ordinarily the theme is some variation of War, down to the Fireworks tonight “the Bombs Bursting in Air….”.
A pretty typical musical version would be this song sent to me by a friend not long ago. It is very patriotic. Good tune. But I left this comment “Such an angry self-righteous song. I’m an honorably discharged Army vet from a family full of military vets. My uncle went down on the Arizona at Pearl Harbor. Saddam Hussein and bin Laden were our useful “friends” years before 9-11-01…how soon we forget. I’m lifelong U.S. and I love this country; but we are part of the world, not above it or in dominion over it.”
I’ll see if my comment is “approved”. I posted it July 2, 2013 at 8:30 p.m. CDT.
I’m a patriotic guy, but my patriotism is canted somewhat differently than the singers and fans of that song.
Just for consideration, I’d like to propose looking at some alternatives to a war-based celebration of our Independence.
All you need to do is to take a look, and make up your own mind:
1. I’m proud to be a Founding Member of the U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation.
The Founder of this foundation, Dr. Michael Knox, is a friend of mine, and he noticed some years ago on a visit to Washington D.C. that there were no end to memorials to War, but reminders about Peace were in short supply.
Michael and I do not agree in all particulars about his project, but we are totally on the same page about celebrating Peace at least similar to our obsession with War.
Take a look, and consider becoming a member of the Foundation, and letting others know about this fledgling and important group.
2. A photographer and journalist I know, John Noltner, is continuing a nationwide project for which he has already achieved significant success.

I asked John for something I might add to this post. Here are John’s words about his project:
“What does peace mean to you?
It’s a question I have been asking people for the past four years for a
collection of portraits and personal stories called A Peace of My Mind.
The goal is to find the humanity in every person…even our adversaries.
Perhaps through hearing the stories of some who are like us, and others
who are quite different, we will be able to see past the rhetoric that
confounds our national dialogue and develop a more compassionate way of
engaging with the world…in our own families, our neighborhoods, and the
international community.
To hear some of the stories of people working toward peace, follow this link.”
Invest some time in learning about this project, and consider contributing to its success.
3. The Snowden affair reminds me of someone I’d never heard of till a couple of years ago, Garry Davis, who was a U.S. bomber flight crew in World War II. And after his brother was killed aboard a Destroyer off Italy, his bomber group bombed one of Germany’s large cities.
Davis could not get out of his mind the sense that one senseless killing – his brothers death in War – simply begat another – his bombing Germans.
He knew there were innocent victims down there below him, people like himself, and like others he knew. After the War he decided to renounce his U.S. citizenship and became a Citizen of a World, with tragi-comic results. He became a citizen of everywhere, but was accepted as a citizen nowhere.
He had idealistic intentions. His only crime was wishing to renounce war between nations as a solution to problems, and for a time he had a huge following of people equally sick of war, having just experienced World War II.
People working together to solve problems became Davis’ mantra.
His is a fascinating story. He is still living, but at 92 frail. Indeed, a movie of his life is in preparation – I’ve seen a long preview of it. You can watch the trailer here.
Watch the trailer – it’s 7 minutes – and consider contributing to the completion of this very important film of witness to peace. Here’s the link to do so.
4. Peacestock. Finally, for interested persons in the Twin Cities area who are interested in the policy topic of Peace, consider Peacestock on July 13, in rural Wisconsin not far from Red Wing MN. Here’s the link for that program. I’m a long-time member of Veterans for Peace.

#724 – Dick Bernard: Memorial Day

May 27, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, Family History, Media, Minnesota, North Dakota, Peace & Justice, Politics, War /by dickbernard

U.S. flag at Hennepin County Government Center, May 7, 2013

“I decided to ask about the flag. The first person, a receptionist answering the phone, had no idea why the flag was there; the person to which I was first referred had no idea either. The third person I talked to said the flag had been there for years, and had been put up in the wake of 9-11-01: “they had to do something“, she said.”
Memorial Day is an important day for me. I almost always participate in some way. For the last ten years or so, you can find me at the grassy area adjacent to the Vietnam Memorial on the State Capitol grounds in St. Paul (9:30 this morning). Normally there will be about 50-100 there; the original organizer and many of the participants are Vietnam War vets (I’m a Vietnam era Army vet – I didn’t realize that at the time, 1962-63, but I was). The sponsoring organization is Veterans for Peace, a group I’ve long belonged to for many years.
This morning will be a somber, gentle time. There’s “open mike”, and almost certainly someone will pop up to defend war, and we’ll listen respectfully.
It’s that kind of bunch.
Almost certainly, a few feet away from our site, right after we adjourn, the more military remembrance of Memorial Day will take place, uniforms, martial music and the like. This is also a tradition.
The observances are the same, but very separate, marking unity and disunity….
Over 100 miles north of here at Big Sandy Lake, today, my 92-year old friend, Lynn Elling. and his family will dedicate a place for the ashes of his beloved spouse of 68 years, Donna. Donna died last June, and it was a family decision to bury her ashes on this weekend, near their lake cabin.
Lynn, a Naval officer in the Pacific in both WWII and the Korean War, became and remains a lion for Peace, becoming a regular protestor during the Vietnam War and a very large presence for alternatives to War, especially related to Law Day May 1, and Peace Sites. Perhaps a culminating event for him was two weeks in Vietnam last month, with the Vietnamese orphan he and Donna adopted from My Tho Orphanage in 1973. Tod, now 43, went on this grueling excursion with his Dad, April 15-30. It was something Lynn seemed compelled to do, this year. Some of his words about the trip are written at the end of this post.
My memories of war past are quite vivid also. Quite often I remember one or another.
Most recently May 4, 2013, the first Memorial Day I remember came to mind. It was on the grounds of Sykeston ND High School, and it was Memorial Day, 1946. I remember it as a six year old. Others there would remember it differently, including my Dad, whose brother was killed on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941; or my Uncle George, my Mom’s brother, who had just months earlier returned from three years as a Naval officer in the Pacific, and taught in the high school.
There were the wooden crosses on the ground, and the traditional rifle salute. It was a never-to-be forgotten memory.
And another memory, 36 years later, November, 1982, when by chance I happened to be at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington on the weekend it was dedicated: Bernard card 1982001
That, too, is never to be forgotten.
So it goes. I could add more memories. So could you.
But the conversation needs to go on about what it is we are considering or remembering or celebrating or whatever we are doing this Memorial Day.
This is a prime time to enter, and not leave, an essential conversation of what we are about as a nation: are we a place permanently gripped by fear of possible “terror”; or are we a nation working together towards a time of peace.
If you’ve got some time, here’s a long post I read just this morning which may help bring the debate into focus. It is long, but sometimes long items are useful.
Terror, and it’s first cousins Fear and Loathing, are useful emotional hooks on which to hang the argument for perpetual war.
I think there’s a better way. Indeed, there has to be a better way, otherwise we cease to exist.
Make this Memorial Day a Memorable Day.
ADDENDA:
Some of Lynn Elling’s memories of the trip of he and his son, Tod, to Vietnam, April 15-30, 2013:
The trip that Tod and I took to Vietnam April 15-30 was an incredibly wonderful experience for both of us. The local hardware store owner, Jim Logan, lo and behold, made all of the arrangements including round trip tickets, hotel reservations, etc etc, once we knew what our basic plans were.
We took off from the Minneapolis airport on the 15th and landed in Chicago. There we had a 2 1/2 hour layover and when it was time to head for the gate the captain of our plane identified me and escorted us right ahead of everyone so we were the first to board the plane. The reason for this was that I had written to the CEO of United Airlines and told him our story, which was referred to one of his lieutenants. We were treated royally by UA during more of the flights with them.
We had a 5 hour layover in Hong Kong and got into Vietnam in the middle of the night on the 16th. The hotel was modest but very nice. Very few people, even at the hotel, could speak English but we got along okay.
We ate most of our breakfasts and some of the dinners across the street at the hotel over there–great food and more people who could speak English.
After visiting several key areas in Ho Chi Minh City, which were very impressive, we checked out after 5 days and headed south to My Tho with a cab driver that could speak English. The trip lasted about 2 1/2 hours. Again the hotel was nice and the food was good. After two days of exploring we found the Catholic Church, school and former orphanage that Tod stayed in for his first three years. The Mother Superior and two other nuns provided great hospitality and we had the opportunity to visit several classrooms. The kids went wild over Tod, sang songs and we very friendly though they only spoke Vietnamese.
In most of the areas that we visited they have very few stop signs and the traffic involved motor scooters and bikes going quite fast and carrying a number of people–even small children and babies. In order to cross the street I would hold Tod’s arm and we would start walking very slowly. We never had any problems or witnessed and accidents because they were all very careful not to come too close to us. It was a fantastic experience.
One day we went by boat out to an island in the bay and there went ashore, had refreshments and walked about 2 blocks through the jungle in the rain. We finally came to another boat landing with long, narrow canoes that had seats only about 7 inches from the hull. Can you imagine me trying to get down the stairs and finally sitting down in this boat without falling in the river? I was ready to call it off but Tod said, “Dad, you’re okay. I will help you along.” So I started down the slippery slope, wondering if that might be the end of our trip, but I made it. We took off with 3 other passengers and a female paddler in the front and a male paddler in the back. We went through the jungle and expected to see crocodiles and other wildlife. This is where the Americans fought the Vietnamese during the war and the Vietnamese had a substantial edge. Again, this was a great experience.
UPDATE 11:30 a.m. May 27
Veterans for Peace at Minnesota Vietnam Memorial
(click to enlarge)

Barry Riesch at 2013 Veterans for Peace gathering at MN Vietnam Memorial.

Memorial organizer Barry Riesch set out to lower our expectations this morning. This and that hadn’t worked out: no musicians, guy who was going to set up the sound system hadn’t showed, etc.
I’ve been to a lot of these gatherings. Each year they’ve been better, and this year was the most outstanding one yet. Sometimes that’s how failures go….
Perhaps, tonight on Twin Cities KARE-11 news, you’ll see a snippet from the event. A cameraman spent a lot of time with us today.
Becky Lourey, whose son Matthew died in Iraq eight years ago yesterday, spoke incredibly movingly about her son and survival. During her talk she mentioned going through his duffle bags, sent home to his widow, and finding his poncho, which she took out of a ruck-sack and wore during much of her talk. She shared with all of us a recent e-mail regarding her son, sent to another of her sons. It speaks for itself: Lourey Mem Day 2013001 The website is here.

Becky Lourey May 27, 2013

The event closed, as it always has, with a solitary bagpiper walking into the distance playing “Amazing Grace”.
I thought, how appropriate a time to start changing the conversation. But how difficult that will be.
In our culture, to change conversation has come to mean to win, which means someone else has to lose.
You don’t change a conversation by planting feet righteously in cement, but actually listening.
Are we up to the task?

Close of todays Memorial

Postnote: There was no dissenting voice today, had there been he/she would have been welcome to speak. The usual event which followed Vets for Peace didn’t happen this year. Likely it was at some other place.

#722 – Dick Bernard: President Obama's May 23 Speech on National Security, a day later

May 24, 2013/1 Comment/in History, Media, Politics, President Obama, Technology, War /by dickbernard

I wrote before the speech yesterday. That story is accessible here.
The video and transcript of President Obama’s speech are both now accessible here. In my opinion, his speech, yesterday, was of far more than normal importance, and how the body politic deals with the abundant messages, long term, is of great importance to our country.
Two aspects of yesterdays speech were of greatest interest to me.
1. The encouragement to look forward, not backward: to truly put 9-11-01 in the past, where it belongs.
9-11-01 has been drilled into our individual and collective psyche, whether left or right or in-between or having no specific opinion at all.
Reminders of our rear-view-mirror view are not hard to find.
For just a single example: not long ago I was in the Hennepin (MN) Government Center, Minneapolis, the seat of Minnesota’s largest county. In the atrium area was an immense American flag with no signage about why the flag was there.
(click to enlarge)

U.S. Flag at Hennepin County Government Center April 12, 2013

I decided to ask about the flag. The first person, a receptionist answering the phone, had no idea why the flag was there; the person to which I was first referred had no idea either. The third person I talked to said the flag had been there for years, and had been put up in the wake of 9-11-01: “they had to do something“, she said.
I’m still trying to flesh out the entire story of that flag; but my point is, that the reason that flag exists has nothing to do with anything other than the shock of an event that happened almost a dozen years ago…and most likely the vast majority of people who see it have no notion whatsoever about its personal story. It may as well be hanging at half-staff….
I witnessed essentially the same backward looking devotion to 9-11-01 four years ago at the International Peace Garden in the Turtle Mountains of North Dakota-Manitoba. That story is here.
When do we let go, and move on from 9-11-01? That was, I think, one of the Presidents prime messages to everyone, yesterday.
2. The significance of the protestor at the speech:
My spouse had told me someone was protesting at the Presidents speech, and later I saw the entire incident involving the protestor, Medea Benjamin. I’ve met Medea Benjamin, in September, 2008. She wouldn’t remember me. But she would if she looked up her name at the Registry of the United States Peace Foundation website where the entries are listed alphabetically, and checked Dick Bernard here (my entry is right after hers).
Memo to self: I need to gussy my bio up a bit! She and I approach the business of changing opinions a bit differently, but we’re in the same trade.
Consider becoming a Founding Member of the Peace Foundation yourself. I’ve been a Founding Member since 2006. Very few people I know who should be supporting this Foundation have taken the time to join.
But I digress: Medea is a career protestor; her reputation is built on protesting. That is what she does, her job, her role. I’ve known others like her.
The odds that the Secret Service and the President were unaware of her presence yesterday, or of what she would probably do during the speech, are infinitesimally small.
She may not have known, but I feel the Secret Service certainly did. She’s hardly a stranger in protests.
I’m pretty sure I saw one of her colleagues with her in a TV cut yesterday; she’s another activist who used to be in the Foreign Service.
Obviously I don’t know, and no one likely will ever know for certain, but my guess is that Medea was a useful part of the Presidents speech yesterday. Indeed, rather than ignoring or criticizing her, or even looking annoyed, he acknowledged her argument.
The anti-war left should be grateful. The President didn’t have to either allow or (in effect) participate in her performance. He’s made the same point she has before yesterday.
(Back in the 1990s, I recall being in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House, and witnessing one of those ‘made for TV’ demonstrations, where everyone in the ‘performance’ knew the rules, and the objective – to get on the evening news. The police were there, and the protestors, and the coordinator/spokespeople for the protest, and the paddy wagon, and a few media, and everyone was calm and well behaved. But at a certain appointed time, the demonstration took place and the protestors were arrested and hauled away.
Succintly, in my opinion, what people saw on television an hour or so later that day was simply street theatre, made for television.
And that time it was an important issue, too.)
And finally: one of my e-list noted that Ms Benjamin has a new book out, on Drone Warfare. Here’s the link if you’re interested.
But the issues raised by President Obama are very important. Do watch the speech or print out the transcript, and go to work.

#721 – Dick Bernard: Drones, etc. Todays President Obama speech on U.S. Security Policy

May 23, 2013/0 Comments/in Guns, History, International Relations, Politics, Technology, War /by dickbernard

UPDATE 4 p.m. CDT: Here are the printed remarks given by President Obama today. Apparently there was no live video.
*
On occasion – this is one of those occasions – I deliberately do a post before some kind of major action which can be anticipated.
This morning, perhaps even as I write (9:40 a.m. CDT), the President is already speaking about Drones and other things related to National Security.
But, at this writing, I have no idea what President Obama is going to say on the issue of Drones, Terrorism, etc., except that I believe it will be important, and I will watch it in its entirety today. The White House website will likely carry the address live, and it will be archived, uncluttered by chatter by pundits or news media interpretation.
I’ve written a few times about Drones. All of the links which mention the word “Drones” are here. The December 13 & 20, 2011, postings drew particular “fire” from people who I’d usually consider allies: folks in the Peace Community. The post and the comments say what they say.
I’ve noticed that President Obama has, in past months, challenged the U.S. Congress to establish policy on use of Drones.
My guess is that he will again do so today.

But it is not in the best political interest of Congress to take unto itself its Constitutional responsibility of Declaring War, or acting on such policies as when, whether or how to use such weapons as Drones. (Constitution of U.S.001, see Article I Sec 8)
Easier it is to blame the President at the time; or to use the President as cover (it depends on whether the President at the time is my party, or yours).
Personally, I would eliminate War. But since eliminating War is not a reasonable possibility, perhaps I’d agree with changing the rules of engagement to fighting war like they did in the good old days: down and dirty, hand-to-hand and very, very personal combat.
In my bookshelf is a volume I found in a box at my ND Grandparents home some years ago. It is ambitiously entitled “Famous and Decisive Battles of the World. The Essence of History for 2500 Years” by Brig Gen Charles King copyright J. C. McCurdy 1899. I wrote about this book June 5, 2012, including a list of the 52 battles, culminating, naturally, with the Spanish-American War of 1898.
Of course, we’re no longer in those good old days when people trudged around with primitive cannons and did not have airplanes or huge megaton bombs…or drones, or cellphones, or computer technology.
We take for granted high-tech in our own daily lives.
Why should warfare be any different?
The rules of engagement have changed.
Listen to the Presidents speech, but most important, make your voice be heard with policy makers you elect.

#716 – Dick Bernard: Syria

May 7, 2013/1 Comment/in International Relations, War /by dickbernard

I have been watching the news, and very often the tragedy of Syria is front and center. I know a few Syrians, and I know they are in pain, and I know of the horrors of civil war, though I’ve never been through one.
It has occurred to me that Syria has been too abstract for me. The images roll by, and roll off….
Tonight I dusted off my National Geographic Atlas of the World (7th Edition, 1999) to get a better sense, once again, of the country and the region of which it is a part.
(click to enlarge)

The scale of the map, it is said, is 110.5 miles to the inch. To find approximately 110 miles on this map, find the “S” in the word Syria, and roughly between the “R” and “I” would be 110.5 miles.
The CIA Factbook shows Syria to be about the same size as North Dakota, with a 2013 population of 22 1/2 million (North Dakota population about 700,000). Last I recall, I seem to remember 80,000 as the number of deaths so far in this war.
The news tonight emphasized the pressure neighboring Jordan is experiencing from refugees from Syria. Other times we’ve seen other things.
The analyses of what is happening and what has been, or should be, done are endless.
The tragedy of the Syrian people becomes simply visuals we can watch on television.
That I know at least one person who is Syrian, but hasn’t lived there for years, who has relatives and friends who have been victims of the war in Syria, helps with understanding. But should that be a necessary pre-requisite for being engaged as a citizen? I think not.
I remember watching the Vietnam War similarly in the 1960s. The technology was a bit more primitive then, but otherwise basically the same as now. Iraq, too, engaged me. We were militarily involved there.
With Syria, it is simpler to be less engaged. It seems more abstract.
War is evil, always, but complicated.
Some years ago I remember a radio program I happened across where an evangelical preacher, an American of African descent, had an epiphany while watching the refugees, particularly the children, flee Rwanda in 1994. His large congregation liked his hellfire-and-damnation sermons; when he came to the pulpit and described hell as being on earth for those refugees in Rwanda, his flock began to evaporate.
I often wonder about him.
As I wonder about us, comfortably distant from the horror and the tragedy of war, anywhere.
So, this small post is simply an invitation to learn the geography of one tragic locale in this world, and a small invitation to get personally engaged in something bigger than yourself.
Perhaps that’s the best we can do.

#712 – Dick Bernard: Office of the President

April 25, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, Economics, International Relations, Media, Politics, War /by dickbernard

Tonight I was at the meeting where my wife, Cathy, completed the last of many terms as our Homeowners Association President, and before that on this Association Board, and another before that.
She left the Board only because she’d done more than her fair share over many years. There was no competitor, and no one asked her to quit. She got some very nice applause and compliments.
There are millions of Cathy’s out there, taking on responsibilities that no one else really wants. They all, whether good, bad or indifferent, deserve applause for what they do for all the rest of us.
(click to enlarge)

Cathy Bernard, April 25, 2013, presiding at her last Association meeting.

Down in Texas, same day, the George W. Bush Presidential Library was dedicated. All the living Presidents were there. Whoever the incumbent, whatever the position, however petty, being President is a tough job.
Cathy did a great job all these years: she was a hands-on President. It wasn’t always easy. She knew the 96 units; she had to deal with the usual problems brought forth by the 96 occupants (some of which are in foreclosure, owned by the bank).
You don’t know what the problems will be in being an organization President. Some had gripes about this or that tonight. But they weren’t griping about her; they were griping about this issue or that for which, if they owned a free-standing home, they would be solely accountable for solving – or not.
Meanwhile, down in Texas, today was G. W. Bush’s day.
Somebody said that the word “Iraq” was not mentioned once; someone else that the public opening will be May 1, the 10 year anniversary of “Mission Accomplished” – the day we “won” the Iraq War 43 days after it started….
Of course, the scale of problems the Bush Administration and the others had to deal with are more complex than those that Cathy and her small board had to contend with.
The only real difference, in my opinion, is the certainty that the G.W. Bush reality between 2001-2009 will be massaged so much to be unrecognizable, set up against the reality of those long, long eight years.
For the tiny most privileged few in our country, the eight Bush years were magnificent: he was probably the best President in History, according to them, and if they look at only the short term (which is all they care about: we Americans have very short memories.) A while back someone sent this pretty dramatic graphic on income equality in this country, from the San Jose Mercury News. It is worth watching it to the end.
The tiny minority has it all, money wise, in this country. They could easily fund the Bush Library. He deserves it, according to them.
What surprises me, constantly, is that the people who are being economically left behind tend to vote for the ones who create and massage the income inequality.
Do watch the video graphic about income.
The issue is not what Obama is going to do about it; it is what you and I are going to do about it.

#711 – Dick Bernard: Disabling the Winning Formula, working to change the usual conversation

April 24, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, Family History, History, International Relations, Media, Peace & Justice, Politics, War /by dickbernard

Last Friday my second post about the aftermath of the Boston Marathon came shortly after the identity of the suspects in the bombings were given faces and names.
Subsequent there have been tens of thousands of words about, especially, the one surviving suspect in the case, a true-blue young “Caucasian” (white, in other words), from the very region which gives Caucasian its name. The indicted young man has a funny name. While a naturalized citizen he’s an immigrant, a Moslem from a Moslem country. And his brother, now deceased, went to Russia at some point for reasons as yet unknown, but feverishly speculated about.
The tragedy is no longer the story. The alleged perpetrators provide endless spin especially for earnest sounding politicians and the media. The blather is constant.
The Boston Marathon tragedy has been reduced to digestible sound bites, depending on the desired message and audience: “MOSLEM”, “MOTHERS SONS”, “IMMIGRANT”, “FRIEND”, “CHECHEN”, U.S. CITIZEN, etc.
Words are dispensed to humanize, or de-humanize, persons. Are they of our “tribe” or theirs?
So, while the brothers are white, there is a desire to taint them by geography, by possible association, and on and on.
What is happening in this case is not new, of course.
However dangerous, “us vs them” is politically useful and has a very long history. The reach of all forms of media now makes it more dangerous than ever.
Sunday, at Catholic Mass, the first reading (which is required in every Catholic Church) was from ACTS 13:14, 43-52, in which “The Jews…stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their territory.” The reading is here: 1 Acts 13001
It bothered me to hear that Epistle (it comes once every three years) since I thought my Catholic Church was getting past labeling the Jews in its official narrative.
The Bible is a big book, and there are plenty of choices of readings. Why this one?
Fourteen years ago, April 26, 2000, we were among 40 Jews and Christians on a “Millennium Pilgrimage of Hope” which led us to places where Christianity truly went off the rails: places like Auschwitz-Birkenau and Terezin and Plaskow (the locale of the film “Shindler’s List.)
To say ours was an intense two weeks was an understatement: Christian and Jews together at the very places of some of the worst horrors of the Holocaust.
Back home, some months later, one of the Jews on the trip sent a review of a book on Oberammergau Passion Play (“Hitler’s favorite passion play…” which had its own impact. You can read the review here: Oberammergau001
Some years earlier, on the 60th anniversary of the first Atom bomb at Hiroshima, I had occasion to write a column for the Minneapolis Star Tribune about my grandmother Rosa’s reaction to the bombing of Hiroshima and then Nagasaki.
Rosa was a saintly kind of woman, and her reaction to the bombs was “Hurrah, the old war is over!” At the time, she had a son on a Destroyer in the Pacific theatre; a son-in-law who’d been killed at Pearl Harbor; a nephew next farm over who was a Marine officer in the Pacific; and a neighbor who had been killed in combat “over there”.
For her, the war had become very personal.
I wrote in the column that to Grandma, and most of our American “tribe” I would guess, “the war was very personal, in the person of their brother, their son, their nephew, their neighbor; those on the other side were simply “the Japs”.” (The column can be read here: Atomic Bomb 1945001
If we care about the future of our “kind”, which is humanity itself, wherever these humans live, we best learn to become a world community and reject the attempts to blanket label others and threaten war at every real or imagined time of crisis.
We need to deal with criminal behavior as just that: criminal behavior.
There was never a good time for war; today, the time for war is truly past.

#709 – Dick Bernard: The Boston Marathon

April 16, 2013/1 Comment/in Colorado, Community, Family History, History, Media, Minnesota, North Dakota, Technology, War /by dickbernard

Yesterday morning, before 9 a.m., I was at the gym exercising at my usual place. Behind me, visible in the mirror, were two women, exercising beside each other and quite loudly chatting.
One of them mentioned to the other that her husband was in Boston, running the Marathon, checking in from time to time.
A few hours later I heard the news of the bombs at the finish line at the Marathon. This probably changed the woman’s conversation. Perhaps I’ll read in the Woodbury MN news something about this today or maybe next week…. Such is how communication goes these days. Instant and worldwide.
I got to thinking about two happenings in my own life.
Back on April 20, 1999, I was in the car on the freeway in north Minneapolis when I heard that there had been shooting at a school in Littleton, Colorado.
Littleton. That was where my son and family lived.
Soon enough, I learned my granddaughter, then 13 and in Middle School, was safe. No cell phones then. It was via e-mail.
I tried to find where Columbine high school was on the then-version of Mapquest. The school location on the map was misplaced, I soon learned. My son and family, it turned out, lived only a mile from the high school, and later he said he probably had seen the two killers the previous day in a local McDonalds restaurant – just three of the customers at that time, that day.
But in those days, communications was not quite so convenient or instant (though it was pretty good.) There were cell phones of a sort, but not ubiquitous like now. There was cable, but not hundreds of stations vying on the competitive edge for news. I don’t think I was thinking, then, about what has since become something of a mantra for me: “too many news people, too little news.”
Then I thought back further, to December 7, 1941, when my Uncle – Dad’s brother – went down with the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor.
I was alive then, just 1 1/2, so I didn’t pay much attention.
Dad told me about his memories of that awful time years later. They didn’t know for certain that his brother, Frank Bernard, had died until some weeks later. The time was so chaotic that I don’t think there was even an organized Memorial Service for Frank. His parent were in Long Beach for the winter and had no car (they traveled by train, then), his sister in Los Angeles, and his brother in rural North Dakota. Making even a phone call was not a routine matter. No television. Less radio. The news coming via newspaper – I have the clippings.
We tend to forget that.
And now we are besieged for hours upon hours by repetitive images of the same exact thing; by speculation by experts about who done it, and why it was done. Everybody with their own agenda for communicating whatever it is they choose to communicate.
We’re a big country, and such incidents will happen from time to time.
We used to worry about the Russians bombing our school in central North Dakota in the 1950s; now, well you know….
We need to get a grip and keep things in a bit better perspective.
It was bad, what happened in Boston, yesterday.
As a city and as a nation and as a world we’ll survive it.
We really have it pretty good, here.

#706 – Dick Bernard: Meeting the Space Age, up close

April 1, 2013/0 Comments/in Family History, History, International Relations, Technology, War /by dickbernard

I suppose the space age began for me sometime in late October or November, 1957.
We were visiting my grandparents at their farm in south central North Dakota, and the Fargo Forum had published the expected track of the Russian satellite Sputnik, which had been launched October 4, 1957, igniting the space race and intensifying the Cold War of those good old days.
Right on schedule, and on the exact predicted course, Sputnik appeared to all of us gathered on the lawn of the farm house under the dark star-laden country sky – at least you could tell it from the stars as it “blinked” on and off as it tumbled across the heavens, reflecting the sun earthward.
The rest is, as they say, history.
And what started as Cape Canaveral and became Cape Kennedy, and then again became Cape Canaveral on which stood Kennedy Space Center, became famous for generations of ever bigger and more impressive rockets, triumphs and disasters.
I’d visited there with my then-13 year old son, Tom, in June, 1977.
And on March 13, 2013, I went back with 13 year old Grandson Ryan, and his friend Caleb, to once again do the tour of Kennedy Space Center. Here is a Facebook Snapshot Gallery taken on the day of our visit.
While there, I learned that there was to be a launch on April 19. I had never seen a launch, and as it evolved, I was visiting a relative perhaps 30 miles down the coast, and excused myself to go north for the launch of an Air Force Atlas, watching it from the Indian River-side property of my friends the Brady’s. They’ve watched launches from their property since the early 1980s.
March 20, 2013, was my first.
I would like to say the launch was an amazingly impressive sight – the launch I saw – but it was not very dramatic. We saw liftoff at 5:20 p.m., and my snapshot is essentially the view that those without binoculars had from the Brady’s.
You had to be attentive for the telltale speck of light off on the horizon. My host knew about where it would launch, which helped.
(click to enlarge – look for the orange dot near the horizon!)

Launch March 19, 2013

We watched liftoff till the evidence of the vehicle disappeared, which seemed to be more or less the time that the first sound waves reached us, a minute later. This meant we were about 12 miles from the launch pad.

The last photo before the launch vehicle disappeared from sight.

The more astute observers got a closer view, as reflected in the below photo on the front page of Florida Today Newspaper on March 20. You can see the video behind the photo on the Florida Today website, here.
There can be endless debate about the space program, and the purpose of this particular launch; whether it was a waste a money, or a vehicle for good…or for evil….
For me, it was rather exciting to actually see this one launch, probably the only launch I will ever actually see in person in my lifetime.

Photo from FloridaToday.com March 20, 2013

For more on the U.S. space program, a good “launching” place is the NASA website, here.
Equally interesting, in the same area and enviroment, is the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, one of America’s finest. In a sense, at least, wildlife and high technology seem to co-exist just fine.

#703 – Dick Bernard: "Filing Cabinet" for The Hennepin Co Plaza United Nations Flag Issue

March 27, 2013/0 Comments/in Community, History, International Relations, Media, Minnesota, Politics, War /by dickbernard

POSTNOTE: The primary originating document is the blogpost for March 5, 2013, which is accessible here. Added material is dated.
*
UPDATE September 17, 2014: Relevant and current documents about this issue:
1. A 20+ page pdf of documents related to this issue can be viewed here: UN Flag Henn Co MN001 (pp 1-22). The first page lists the documents which follow. Inadvertently, 4 USC par 10, the intended final page, is not included. Accessible here: Flag Code Sec 10 (p. 23).
Two flag photos below were referenced, and sent to, Hennepin Commissioners with August 12, 2014 letter.
2. Sep 11 and 17, 2014 correspondence: Henn UN Flag Sep 17 14 (pp 24-30).
HISTORY DOCUMENTS, 1965-2013: UN flag Mpls Historical001

Flags at U.S. Bank Plaza, Minneapolis MN, Sep. 17, 2014. Hennepin Government Center in background. Four of the six flags appear to be corporate flags, along with U.S. and Minnesota. All flagpoles appear to be identical in height.

The American flag in procession with others at International Day, Concordia Language Villages, Bemidji MN, August 8, 2014

July 23, 2014, at Truck Stop near St. Cloud MN

ONGOING INFORMATION ON THE HENNEPIN COUNTY PLAZA UN FLAG ISSUE
(Click to enlarge any photo)

Where the United Nations Flag used to fly before being removed after March 27, 2012. Photo taken May 7, 2013

ACTION REMOVING THE UN FLAG FROM HENNEPIN COUNTY MN PLAZA March 27, 2012: UN Flag Res 3-27-12001
To the best of our knowledge, UN Flag had flown continuously at the Hennepin Plaza site for 44 years, from May 1, 1968, forward.
The 2012 vote was unanimous – all seven Commissioners present on March 27, 2012 voting yes (unless otherwise indicated, all Commissioners (bold-faced) remain on the Board as of August 14, 2014.)
Commissioner Opat Moved adoption
Commissioner Stenglein Seconded the motion*
Commissioner Dorfman**
Commissioner Randy Johnson
Commissioner Callison
Commissioner McLaughlin***
Commissioner Jeff Johnson***
* – Commissioner Stenglein appointed CEO of Minneapolis Downtown Council in February, 2012, starting new job on June 1, 2012; in June, 2013, Stenglien left the Downtown Council position for unknown reasons (news article here).
** – Commissioner Dorfman resigned as Commissioner in Feb. 2014 to take another position.
*** – in the posted Minutes for 3-27-01 these individuals are listed as not present; but the official record of the meeting shows them both voting Yes on the motion.
Commissioner Linda Higgins was elected to Stenglien’s Hennepin County Commission seat in the November, 2012 election and thus had no involvement in the original action.
I wrote at length on the issue on March 5, 2013 here.
Friday April 12, 2013, I hand-delivered two letters to all Hennepin County Commissioners, and the uninvolved in the issue but nonetheless parties at interest, the Mayor and City Council of Minneapolis. The relevant portions of the letters is here: Henn Comm Ltrs 4:12:13001 As of July 15, 2013, there have been zero responses to my questions. A third request for the information was mailed on July 13.
The listing of all Hennepin County Commissioners, their districts, and office addresses can be found here.
Here’s a photo of the flags at Hennepin County Government Plaza taken Tuesday April 9, 2013, from the same steps where Gov. Elmer L. Andersen spoke May 1, 1968, on the virtues of World Citizenship and flying the flag of the United Nations at the Plaza.

Flags on Hennepin County Government Plaza April 9, 2013

CONTINUING INFORMATION ON THE HENNEPIN COUNTY/UNITED NATIONS FLAG ISSUE:
Former Governor Elmer L. Andersen’s speech at the United Nations Flag Raising at the Minneapolis City Hall May 1, 1968: Elmer Andersen I Trust..001
Timeline of Historical Events in the year 1968: 1968 Timeline001

The Hennepin Co Plaza flags as seen from inside Minneapolis City Hall April 12, 2013

UPDATE April 2, 2013: United States, Minnesota and United Nations flags et al, at Fairview Southdale Hospital, France at Hiway 62, Edina, April 1, 2013
(click to enlarge)

One year ago today – March 27, 2012 – the Hennepin County Board quietly passed Resolution No. 12-0167, rescinding Resolution 86-7-539 and directing “to fly at the Government Center North Plaza solely the flags of the United States, Minnesota and Hennepin County, in compliance with the U.S. Flag Code.”
I wrote at length on the issue on March 5, 2013. That commentary is accessible here. In that commentary I noted on March 5 that “I’m still searching for more facts” on the U.S. Flag Code, and contemporaneous with my column I wrote my Congresswoman and both MN U.S. Senators seeking more definitive information on the legislative history of that Code.
Sen. Franken’s office was first to respond to my request, with 40 pages of information, including the Congressional Research Service (CRS) document on the United States Flag prepared by John R. Luckey, Legislative Attorney, February 7, 2011. (Citation on the cover: Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov RL30243). Two pages of this report included highlighted sections (see attached pdf U.S. Flag Code (portion)001). In addition, a dozen pages of Legislative Documents were included, including this statement by then ND Sen William Langer, May 12, 1953: Flag Code (1953 Langer 001. Also received, another dozen pages of Congressional Record entries between January and June, 1953 Flag Code (1953 Cong) 001. All of these pages are included.
Some personal observations, at this point:
1. Whoever initially advised Hennepin County Commissioners on the U.S. Flag Code in 2012 was speaking opinion and not fact:
A. The Section of the code cited, 7, relates to the flag “when carried in a procession with another flag….”
B. In addition, the CRS analyst notes later that aforementioned Section 7 contains two subsections on point and these provisions appear to be contradictory (Subsections 7(c) and 7(g).
2. In reading the assorted documents, including the rhetoric in the Congressional Record, I noted these facts:
A. The Flag Code was originally passed June 22, 1942
B. The amendments to the flag bill, particularly relating to the United Nations flag, were first proposed on August 22, 1951, in the 82d Congress. They were ultimately passed in the 83d Congress in the Spring of 1953.
C. The key legislative actors at the time appear to be these: U.S. Sens Martin, Hendrickson, Knowland and Langer; Reps Reed (Illinois), Gross and McDonough.
D. The bill finally passed apparently included this language: “(b) Whoever knowingly violates the provision of this section shall be fined not more than $250 of imprisoned not more than six months, or both.” (Flag Code (1953 S 694) 001) To my knowledge, no such penalty language remains in the Flag Code, and apparently has not appeared there for many years.
3. I am old enough to remember well the post-WWII days of the police action in Korea, Sen. Joe McCarthy…. I was a teenager in rural ND when the 1953 amendment was passed. There was near hysteria, then, about allegations of “Communists”, including additional animosity towards the very existence of the United Nations. What happened in Hennepin County a year ago has all the appearances of a latter day manifestation of the same paranoia that caused our country so much grief in the Sen. McCarthy era.
It appears that the Hennepin County Board made its decision March 27, 2012, on at minimum incomplete information, perhaps without any debate. All but one of the Board members who approved the initial action remain on the Board, and it is time to reopen this file, and give the issue of the United Nations flag the dignified and public hearing it deserves.
POSTNOTE: As noted in the March 5 column, I had not paid much attention to flags, generally, including their arrangement, etc. This has changed. Recently I spent some time at a hotel in Orlando FL. The hotel is part of a world-wide chain, and I noted the flags out front: the U.S. flag, posted slightly higher than the Florida flag, with the Corporate flag in equal standing to the Florida flag. Flags do carry a message about us….
Here they are (click to enlarge):

Hotel, Orlando FL, March 24, 2013

Flags at Lincoln Center Elementary School, South St Paul MN Apr 16, 2013

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NOTE MAY 3, 2013: This page is the permanent “filing cabinet” for information about the events which began March 5, 1968, with the Declaration of World Citizenship by the City of Minneapolis and Hennepin County.
On World Law Day Wednesday, May 1, 2013, the Minneapolis Star Tribune carried two commentaries directly related to World Law Day and the United Nations Flag, written by Dr. Joseph Schwartzberg of GlobalSolutionsMN.org and Minneapolis resident Jim Nelson. The United Nations Association of Minnesota is on record about this issue: UNA Position001
The evening of May 1, at Gandhimahal Restaurant in Minneapolis, 40 attended a dinner celebrating World Law. Here is a blogpost written about the event.
UPDATE August 20, 2013: Correspondence between a Henn. County Commissioner and Dick Bernard: HennComm08162013001
UPDATE September 11, 2013 here.
UPDATE December 19, 2013: Dec. 11, 2013, I sent the following to the Hennepin County Commissioners: Henn Comm Dec 11 13001 The mailing included the Dec 11, 2013, letter (in original misdated Nov 11, 2013) plus the Dec. 29, 2012, letter. In early November, 2013, I was made aware of a 1965 Declaration of World Citizenship signed by President Lyndon Johnson which directly relates to this issue. The post about that Declaration is here.
UPDATE June 14, 2014: My blog post for June 14 makes reference, and links, to this issue and post. I haven’t raised my question with the County Commissioners for some months, but will again.