#622 – Dick Bernard: 9-11-12

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9-11-2001 seems to have become a permanent fixture in the American psyche. I offer a reflection a little different from what appears to be typical this day.
On this anniversary of 9-11-2001 the front page of the Minneapolis paper had a photo of a beam of one of the collapsed NYC towers as it is exhibited in a park in rural city in southwest Minnesota.
I wondered how this would have played post-December 7, 1941. Who would have suggested dismantling my uncle Franks tomb, the USS Arizona, with parts taken here and there as monuments in various places?
I cannot imagine even a serious thought, then, of desecrating the relic that was the USS Arizona and shipping pieces here and there as relics of war.
To this day, to my knowledge, the Arizona rests where it was destroyed, undisturbed. I’ve been there.
I also wondered how this debris will be looked on by some successor to our civilization coming across this rusted beam in a remote town 150 or 1000 years from now.
It will be puzzling to the visitor to what remains of the United States.
Like everyone, I would guess, I remember exactly what I was doing at the time I heard of the Towers being hit on 9-11-01. I didn’t see it on TV until late in the afternoon of that Tuesday.
The event had a strong personal impact: when I established my first web presence in April 2002, I chose for my Peace and Justice page two photos I’d taken of the twin towers in June, 1972, right before they were completed. A year later I wrote a reflection that remains at that same place on the web.
I remember.
(click to enlarge)

The Twin Towers NYC late June 1972.


NYC skyline June 1972. Photos by Dick Bernard


I wonder what we have learned since 9-11-01.
Sadly, it seems we have learned very little.
On 9-11-01 we seem to have had two forks in the road to recovery from the attack of 19 terrorists.
We could have done the normal thing: after the shock wore off, normally a short period of time, we would have begun to regroup, to learn from what happened, to not react. We could have even found ways to reconcile and for certain not indict an entire religion and race for the vicious attack perpetrated by a few.
Of course, we didn’t do that.
Almost unanimously, our country took the other fork, by far the most popular route: a combination of negative emotions such as revenge, or exploiting an opportunity…. We ended up injuring ourselves almost fatally in many ways. We damaged ourselves far more than the terrorists damaged us on September 11, 2001. Afghanistan Oct 7 2001001
Fast forward to the current day.
The photo of the tower beam on display in Marshall jarred me a bit, but did not surprise because three years ago, at the Peace Garden near Dunseith ND, bordering Canada and the U.S. since 1934 as a Garden of Peace between our two nations, I saw one of those monuments of World Trade Center rubble on the grounds.
I wrote my feelings about it in 2009, and it is archived here.
At the same post, as an Update, much more recent, is a column written this summer by James Skakoon of St. Paul. After his own visit to the Peace Garden, with the same reaction as mine, he happened to find my column on-line, and his comments speaks for itself.
But the bottom line is that it appears likely that we will be solemnizing the tragedy of New York City in 2001 for the immediate future as a monument to War, not Peace. We are compounding our loss from the tragedy.
I hope that there is thought given to changing the emphasis from continued emphasis on war, to more emphasis on the need for peace.

#610 – Dick Bernard: The Dakota Conflict (the so-called Indian War, or Sioux Outbreak, of 1862-63)

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UPDATE August 18, 2012: Here is a note about this ten-part series in today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune: “LEARN MORE: This series “In the Footsteps of Little Crow,” can be downloaded in a 10-chapter e-book for Apple, Kindle and Nook e-readers startribune.com/ebooks. Miss an installment? Find the entire series, plus photo galleries and video, at startribune.com/dakota. Coming Sunday [August 19]: Minnesotans family stories from 1862.”
I would venture that most students learn history as I did: from a book, with one side winning, the other losing. And the winning side was the one supported by the author of the book, and the authorities who authorized the book to be used, and taught, in a certain way. That’s how history has always been – a story – and if the teacher dared to teach some alternate view, even if more accurate in hindsight, that teacher would probably not have a job next year.
That’s why I find the 150 year retrospective about the Dakota Conflict refreshing. This week is an opportunity to revisit that time in our history.
Sunday, the Minneapolis Star Tribune began a six part series on that they now call the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862-63. The series is entitled “In the Footsteps of Little Crow” and can be followed on-line.
I have a particular interest in this War, since one of my ancestral family was involved in it as a soldier; and a direct outcome was the final treaty that led to the family homestead land in northeast North Dakota. I wrote a bit about this two years ago, here. His enlistment document on 6 October 1862 is here: Samuel Collette Oct 62001. Note the scratch outs on the form. He was born in Canada, not the U.S,; his term of enlistment was for a year, rather than three months.
Introducing the series in the Star Tribune is this commentary by editor Nancy Barnes, and an editorial “Dakota War Story can aid the healing”.
There is an ongoing exhibit on the War at the Minnesota History Museum in St. Paul. I posted briefly about this exhibit at this space on July 1. It is a powerful exhibit, well worth seeing. It causes reflection. It makes the simple much more complicated.
Star Tribune editor Nancy Barnes, in her column (previously noted), includes this most pertinent quote from a 1924 history book authored by historian Solon J. Buck: “In the history of the nation the Sioux Outbreak is only an incident, while the Civil War is a major event. In the history of Minnesota, however, the relative importance of the two is reversed.”
Samuel Collett, Great-Grandpa’s half-brother, arrived in St. Paul from Quebec in about 1857, just before statehood, and ultimately settled in Centerville. He is almost certainly the reason the rest of the family followed to old St. Anthony in the mid-1860s.
Samuel enlisted in the Army at age 22 on 6 October 1862 and was discharged 28 November 1863, serving in Co. G, First Regiment of the Minnesota Mounted Rangers. I’ve seen no pictures of Samuel – they were apparently all destroyed in a house fire some years ago – but the Narrative of the First Regiment of Mounted Rangers to which he was assigned is recorded in Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars 1861-65 pp 519-524, published in 1891 by the Pioneer Press Co*.
The narrative, written in January 1890 by Captain Eugene M. Wilson, is, of course, solely from the point of view of one person on one side of the conflict. It’s first long paragraph sets the stage, and is my small contribution to this conversation:
“This regiment was recruited in the fall of 1862, on account of the urgent necessity of having cavalry for the purposes of the Indian War then being prosecuted in Minnesota against the Sioux Indians. In the month of August previous this merciless and savage foe had perpetrated a massacre all along the frontier that, for extent of mortality and horrible details, was without a parallel in American history. The Sioux were naturally a fierce and warlike race, as their name “Cut Throat” implies. They undoubtedly were suffering some injustice from the neglect of the general Government, which was then bending its every energy to the suppression of the great Rebellion, and was excusable for failure to carry out treaty obligations with the Indian tribes with the promptitude that had characterized its actions in times of peace. But this formed no adequate excuse for an outbreak of war, and not the slightest apology for the fiendish outrages that spared neither infancy, age nor sex, and that followed even death with mutilations so diabolical and obscene that common decency forbids their publication….”
This is, of course, ‘war talk’, about an enemy. At the time the book was written, it was likely the only accepted point of view, unburdened by another ‘side’ to the story.
Nonetheless, it was into this attitude that people like Private Samuel Collette volunteered to serve.
I plan to read the story this week. I hope you do, as well.
* This book is part of the Minnesota Historical Society Library collection. The chapter, and additional writings about the soldier and campaign, are found in the family history, “The First 400 Years: Remembering Four of the Families of Henry Louis Bernard”, compiled by Dick Bernard, 2010, also in the collection of the MN Historical Society, pp 23-26 and Appendix 1. The story of the Old Crossing Treaty is found on page 269 of this same book.
Other relevant articles in the family history book: pp 245-268.

#589 – Dick Bernard: The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862

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Saturday we attended the opening of a major interpretative exhibit at the Minnesota History Museum about the War between the Dakota Indians and the United States of America.
This is a very well done exhibit, and very well worth ample time to both look and reflect.
The Minnesota History Center is easily accessible, on Kellogg Blvd, between the State Capitol and Cathedral in St. Paul.
All details are available here.
UPDATE:
from Bill Klein: Dick, thanks for the info re this exhibit. I plan to attend.
I had one of my special life experiences when as an 8 year old I attended the 75th Anniversary of this uprising in New Ulm in 1937.
After an reenactment at the New Ulm program I approached a very old Indian man and made the childish comment of how bad the Indians were only to hear this man who must have been in his 90s say to me “Little boy, you must remember there are 2 sides to every story!”
This lesson has stuck with me my entire life. Especially in my career at 3M in managing several large laboratories but also in many other areas of life.
As an adult I also have read about how our State government and white Indian agents in many cases behaved so badly towards these Indians. America’s treatment of people of color–Blacks, Indians and West Coast Japanese -Americans are shameful stains on our Country’s character.
Enough said.
UPDATE: July 10, 2012:
Dick Bernard: I saw this interesting commentary in the Twin Cities Daily Planet for July 9.
One of the first members, to Minnesota, of one of my French-Canadian ancestral families, was a private in Co G of the 1st Regiment of the Minnesota Mounted Rangers in Oct 6, 1862-Nov. 28, 1863. Samuel Collette arrived in St. Paul area from Quebec the year before statehood, 1857, and served a full year beginning when he was about 22. A family historian years ago gave me Samuel’s military documentation, but unfortunately all family records, including photographs, were later lost in a house fire.

#586 – Dick Bernard: Election 2012 #26. Dr. David Schultz: Wealth vs Democracy: The Battle for America's Soul.

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Preliminary Note from Dick Bernard: At the Annual Meeting of the Minnesota Chapter of Citizens for Global Solutions June 21, 2012, Dr. David Schultz gave an important talk entitled “Wealth vs Democracy: The Battle for America’s Soul”.
Rather than attempting to summarize what he had to say, I asked Dr. Schultz if he would be willing to share the actual outline of his remarks with our group and the readers of this blog.
Dr. Schultz graciously agreed.
The outline, 6 pages in all, is here: Wealth v.democracy talk June 21 2012
The richness of his presentation, including the many questions and dialogue after his formal remarks, cannot be completely captured in written form. At the same time, he made some important points which deserve discussion within all ideological communities. Your comments are solicited.
(click to enlarge photos)

Dr. David Schultz, June 21, 2012


Part of the group at the June 21st meeting


From the June 21 program announcement: “David Schultz, a professor in the Hamline University School of usiness, is the author or editor of more than 25 books and 90 articles on American politics, campaigns and elections, media and politics, and election law. he is frequently interviewed by local, national and international media on these subjects. His most recent book is Politainment: The Ten Rules of Contemporary Politics.
Occupy Wall Street brought renewed focus to the growing gap between the rich and poor and the power of wealth in the United States. The battle is not simply one between the haves and have nots, but over the political soul and future viability of American democracy. At a time when progressive groups are fragmented and solutions for reform are scattered, [Dr. Schultz’] talk describes both what is politically viable and imperative for the people to creat a “Second progressive Era” to restore democracy.”
A previous talk by Dr. Schultz, including the outline of his remarks, can be found here.
Dr. Schultz blogs regularly Schultz’s Take, here.
For other posts relating to Election 2012, simply put those two words in the search box, click and a chronological list will come up.

#585 – Dick Bernard: Visiting History

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Some months ago a cousin I’d never met in person, JoAnn (Wentz) Beale, wrote from California, suggesting that we get together when she came to an event in her home town of Grafton ND. It was a great idea. Her grandmother, Elize Collette Wentz, and my grandmother, Josephine Collette Bernard, were siblings, raised on the home farm, still owned by Maurice D. and Isabell Collette, just west of Sacred Heart Church in Oakwood. Maurice is the son of Elize and Josephine’s youngest sibling, Alcide.
JoAnn and I spent the better part of an afternoon and early evening visiting the sites of our Collette family history.
It was a most enriching day.
Maurice D showed us around, and JoAnn posed on the site of the Collette home which was occupied from about 1885 till 1978, when Collette’s built a new home just to the south. Here’s JoAnn, June 25, 2012, on the site of the old house. (click to enlarge)

JoAnn Beale on the site of the Octave and Clotilde Collette home, Oakwood ND June 25, 2012


I found a few earlier photos from that same farm yard a few years earlier:

1954 photo, Unlabelled photo summer lunch in the farmyard just to the south of the old house. Apparent identities as known. Isabel Collette probably took the photograph. At right: Bonnie and Maurice Collette; at the end Margaret (Krier) and Alcidas Corriveau; (couple in between not known); at left Beatrice and Alcide Collette; at end of the table Josephine and Henry Bernard. The other persons are not known, and the photo is not labelled.


Alcide and Beatrice Collette with Donald David, in the farmhouse, probably in 1956.


Photo old Maurice D Collette house with new house in background. Photo taken in 1979, looking southeast; new house was built in 1977-78. Old house was torn down about 1981.


JoAnn and I spent time, of course, in and around the magnificent Sacred Heart Church, which is due to be closed within the next two years. I’ve put together a small Facebook album of photographs taken on June 25 here. That’s Maurice D. Collette with JoAnn in one of the photos in front of the church. (The entire Centennial History of the parish, from 1981, can be accessed here.)
I’ve been to Oakwood many times, but until June 25 had never actively sought out the site of the old St. Aloysius School, and found it, at least as represented in the driveway and the flagpole, and the lumber used to build two homes on the site, about a block north of the church. Across the street remains the Grotto. All these are in the Facebook album.
We had a cool drink with Maurice in the tavern across the street from the Church, then took a little tour and back to Grafton.
Before dinner, I took a solitary drive to see the little house at 738 Cooper, the only place I ever knew as my grandparent Bernard’s home.
This time, for the first time in my life, there was no house there.

former 739 Cooper Avenue, Grafton ND, June 25, 2012


It caused me to think back to other photos of other times at that little house down the block from the Court House in Grafton.

Henry and Josephine at 738 Cooper Ave, Grafton, probably early in the 1940s


Grandpa and Grandma on the front porch, probably late 1940s. Here's where they watched the world go by, at least on Cooper Avenue.


Grandma Bernard "myself in the kitchen" at 738 Cooper.


Undated photo of a meal in the living room at 738 Cooper. Note photo of their son Frank Bernard on the wall behind them.


In the last photo, I can’t help but think of the time, at Thanksgiving I think, where Grandpa, among other occupations an old lumberjack, taught we kids how to clean our plates…by licking his own plate clean. My guess is that Grandma Josephine had a bit of advice for him later, but the memory was cemented in our mind. Ah the memories….
Grandpa had an immense amount of pride in his service in the Spanish-American War in the Philippines, 1898-99. Down the block from 738 Cooper was the monument to his unit in that War. Five of his comrades died in a battle at Paete P.I., and apparently two more died shortly after returning home. They are reflected on the monument, which was raised in 1900.
Here is one photo of the monument. A few others are here, on Facebook.

Spanish-American War monument at the Walsh County Court House, June 25, 2012. In front of the monument is a smaller monument to those who served in other wars. Let us work for Peace.


There is a necessary postnote to this post on a family history.

We cannot escape the reality of getting older. The wonderful lady who really helped give me much impetus to begin this family history years ago is very near going into a nursing home at age 92. I visited her on this trip. When I began this journey 32 years ago, she was a huge resource. Now she is completely vulnerable, confused, cannot live alone, and is obviously scared of what is a necessary change for her.
Others who helped with the history have died; still others are very ill.
This trip, and the great meeting with my cousin from California, remind me that if there is work to be done on family matters, now, not tomorrow or next month or next year, is the time to do it. We just don’t know when it will be too late.
Thanks, JoAnn, for the idea of (as my Dad liked to say) “a face-off”!

Winding down after a most enriching day travelling the "roots road": center is JoAnn (Wentz) Beale, at right, Dick Bernard, at left JoAnn's cousin Kasey (Kouba) Ponds. At the Market Place on 8th in Grafton, June 25, 2012

#575 – Dick Bernard: Election 2012 #20. A History of "Decisive" Battles in Warfare

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Today is election day in Wisconsin; five months from today is the United States General Election.
There is a serious question embedded in the following: how do we change American political warfare before we are all – winners and losers and, indeed, country – lying dead in the weeds?
The past couple of generations of Republican politics, more or less 40 years, perfected by people like Lee Atwater and Karl Rove and their many disciples, has been based on principles of Warfare. Negative emotions of people, as fear and loathing, are harnessed and used as the bullets to kill the opposition. Now unlimited and almost totally unregulated money has entered the conversation. Somehow the following commentary seems most appropriate for today, the day Wisconsin decides. I keep thinking of two books….
For some years my bookshelf has held two old books I found some years ago in a box at my Grandparents North Dakota farm.
Both have copyrights of 1898.
One, 592 pages, by U.S. Senator John J. Ingalls (Kansas) is entitled America’s War for Humanity “A Complete History of Cuba’s Struggle for Liberty and the Glorious Heroism of America’s Soldiers and Sailors”.
The second, which is the focus of this post, by Brig. General Charles King, is Decisive Battles of the World, and highlights, in its 956 pages, 52 “Decisive” battles in the history of Humanity. His “Decisive Battles” are listed at the end of this post.
Curious to me is why these books ended up on the farm of my Mom’s parents, which my grandparents established after migrating from southwest Wisconsin in 1905. I don’t know anyone on that ‘side’ of my family who was actually in the Spanish-American War.
More logically, they’d have ended up on the shelf of my other grandfather, Henry Bernard, some hundreds of miles away, who, seven years earlier, was in the Spanish-American War in the Philippines. It appears he was in the same unit commanded by author General King, and at the same places in the Philippines. But King’s book focuses on a battle in Cuba, and not the Philippines.
Ah, the unanswerable questions the very existence of these volumes on a North Dakota farm bring forth!
A more obvious “decisive battle” than the others is the last in King’s book – the 52nd. It is the battle for Santiago Cuba, including the famous story of the Charge up San Juan Hill, with the iconic Colonel Theodore Roosevelt (who in the book is one of four officers pictured, but is the only one in civilian clothes). The others: Major Generals H. W. Lawton and Adna B. Chaffee; and Brig. General Leonard Wood. The Spanish-American War was the war of the authors generation, and of his own participation. This last chapter is written by Henry F. Keenan. Keenan himself is an intriguing character. Why he writes this chapter is unknown. The first few pages are here: Santiago Decisive Battle001
Here’s the Battle for Santiago Map, as published in the book: (click to enlarge it). The invasion began at a place called Baiquiri (yes, the word Daiquiri is also mentioned in the book!)

Page 918 of Decisive Battles of the World by Brig Gen Charles H. King, U.S.A.


The 64 page chapter about Cuba is not quite the standard stuff of war histories written by the victors. The conquest of good (us) over evil (the Spaniards); the heroism and losses of especially the officers (though nothing is said about the schoolboy story I learned of the charge up San Juan Hill led by Teddy Roosevelt.) The natural elements – heat, water, terrain – seem more an “enemy” than the Spaniards, but, whatever….
The Spanish-American War was a triumph of public relations, begun by the mysterious sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor and nudged along by what came to be called “yellow journalism”. Then came the rush of volunteers to serve, including my grandfather Bernard in the Philippines (“remember the Maine“); and ending, as the author vividly states, “In nearly every one of the thousands of newspapers published throughout the United States, the participants and victims of the Santiago campaign contributed personal observation of the battle; the combined testimonies, if ever collated, would give definite account of every instant of time from the moment the armada left Tampa, until the flag of the republic was flung out over the civic palace of Santiago….”
All that changed over the 2500 years of warfare were the weapons of choice.
Here’s how the weapons of 1898 were described: Sp Am War weapons001
Decisive Battles skips the 20th century because the 20th Century had not yet begun.
War has continued, and the rules of war have only changed, including in Wisconsin, today, where the war is counted in Dollars spent on campaigns and management of misinformation and disinformation. Words have become the weapons. Last I heard, the Democrats are heavily out-gunned in at least the money war: 7 1/2 to one (though those numbers are themselves moving targets.)
Likely no one will physically die, at least directly of the election, but most definitely the intention is to Win, not Lose, a 21st century “Civil War” of a new kind….
But is a “win” in war “decisive”? Maybe, but only for the moment.
As General King had no way of knowing, Santiago turned out to not be “decisive” at all, at least for the peasantry who remained poor. Then someone named Fidel Castro took over Cuba in 1959…and now an American of Spanish Cuban descent, Florida U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, is being prominently mentioned as a possible Republican vice-presidential candidate in the U.S. presidential election…politics does make strange bedfellows.
But even in War, even the victors ultimately lose.
We can make the Rules of War less relevant in the political battles to come.
Brig-Gen. King’s notion of the 52 Decisive Battles of the World:
Marathon 490 BC
Thermopylae 480 BC
Plateau 479 BC
Leuctra 371 BC
Mantinea 362 BC
Arbela 331 BC
Cannae 215 BC
Zama 202 BC
Cynoscephal 197 BC
Manesia 190 BC
Pydna 168 BC
Pharsalia 49 BC
Philippi 42 BC
Chalons 451 AD
Tours 732 AD
Hastings 1066 AD
Jerusalem 1099 AD
Acre 1191 AD
Cressy 1346 AD
Orleans 1429 AD
Constantinople 1453 AD
Leipsic 1631 ad
Lutzen 1632 AD
Vienna 1683 AD
Narva 1700 AD
Pultowa 1709 AD
Blenheim 1794 AD
Ramilies 1706 AD
Gudenarde 1708 AD
Leuthen 1757 AD
Kunersdorf 1759 AD
Torgau 1760 AD
Bunker Hill 1775 AD
Saratoga 1777 AD
Marengo 1800 AD (first of five Napoleonic battles)
Austerlitz 1805 AD ” ”
Jena 1806 AD ” ”
Auerstadt 1806 AD ” ”
Waterloo 1815 AD ” ”
The Alamo 1836 AD (expanding United States)
Chapultepec 1847 AD ” ” ”
Balaclava 1854 AD (Europe)
Malvern Hill 1862 AD (first of five U. S. Civil War)
Manassas 1862 AD ” ”
Chancellorsville 1863 AD ” ”
Gettysburg 1863 AD ” ”
Nashville 1864 AD ” ”
Five Forks and Lee’s Surrender 1865 AD ” ”
Gravelotte 1879 AD
Plevna 1877 AD
Port Arthur 1894 AD
Santiago 1898 AD
By my counting, here are number of his decisive battles by time period:
13 – BC
2 – Pre-1000 AD
6 – 1000-1500 AD
13 – 1600-1800 AD (two American)
18 – 1800-1900 (five Napoleon, six Civil War, two against Mexico)
Directly related to this post: here.
For other political commentary, simply place the words Election 2012 in the search box and click.

#573 – Dick Bernard: Three Memories on Memorial Day 2012. Frank Peter Bernard, Henry Bernard and Patricia Krom

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SEVERAL UPDATES, INCLUDING PHOTOS at end of this post.
I’m at the age where death is an increasingly regular visitor to my circles. This Memorial Day three deaths come to mind.
The first came when I was 1 1/2 years old, when my Uncle Frank Peter Bernard went down on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor HI. He was 26 years old, and I had “met” him in Long Beach CA five months earlier, at the end of June, 1941.
(click on photos to enlarge them)

Henry Sr, Josephine, Josie, Frank Peter, Richard, Henry and Esther Bernard, Long Beach CA late June, 1941


I’m the family historian, and I recall no talk, ever, about any kind of funeral or memorial service for Frank.
He was from Grafton, ND. On Dec. 7, 1941, his brother, my Dad, was a teacher in the rural ND country school called Rutland Consolidated; his sister lived in Los Angeles; and his parents were wintering in Long Beach CA. Indeed, according to my Dad, they were not sure, for some time, whether or not Frank was dead. His good boyhood and Navy friend, John Grabanske, was reported to have died, though later was found to be very much alive (and lived on, well into his 80s). Here’s my Dad’s recollection, as recounted by myself 50 years after Pearl Harbor: Bernard H Pearl Harbor001
The closest I have to a “memory card” about a formal remembering of Uncle Frank is a long article in the February 17, 1942 Grand Forks (ND) Herald, reporting on a large ND picnic somewhere in the Los Angeles area on about February 12, 1942. Such picnics were common in those days – a gathering of winterers and transplants.
There is a poignant passage which I quote here in part: “A touching incident occurred during the program. [The counsel for the Republic of Poland in Los Angeles] read a press report telling of the death of a young man of Polish descent at Pearl Harbor, the young man being a native of the Grafton area. When he had finished reading a man and his wife arose in the audience, the man asking if he might interrupt for just a moment…the man [my grandfather] said the report of the boy’s death later was found to be in error, but that the man actually killed at Pearl Harbor was the pal of the boy mentioned in the first press report. “The boy killed,” said the man, “was our son!”…The entire audience arose and stood in silence for a moment in honor of the dead hero and the parents who made the sacrifice.”
Uncle Frank’s grave, on the USS Arizona, is probably among the most visited cemeteries in the world. I know his sister, my Aunt Josie, visited there in 1969, but my Dad and his parents never had that opportunity.
The next funeral I remember is for that same Grandfather of mine, who died May 23, 1957 at age 85. I was 17.
His funeral was in Grafton, on May 25, 1957, and many people came to his funeral.
Grandpa was a Spanish-American War Veteran, Philippines, 1898-99. We still have the flag in recognition of his service.
It has 48 stars. Alaska and Hawaii had not yet been admitted as states. It is the flag we raised on a flagpole the family purchased at Our Lady of the Snows, Belleville IL, after Dad died in 1997. We raised the flag on Memorial Day, 1998, dedicating it to Grandpa’s sons, my Dad and Uncle Frank. (Here’s an interesting piece of research about percent of Americans who actually serve in the Military)

Dedication of flagpole with Grandpa Bernards 48 star flag, Memorial Day, 1998, Our Lady of the Snows, Belleville IL


Plaque for the Our Lady of the Snows flagpole, 1998


Time passes on, many more deaths and remembrances of all assorted kinds.
The most recent came on May 19, 2012, in Langdon ND, a memorial service for my cousin Patricia (Brehmer) Krom. Pat actually passed away in Las Vegas on January 25, and there was a memorial service there at that time, but the Langdon area was her home, and my Uncle Vince and I went up for the Memorial Service.
All funerals are alike; all funerals are very different. Pat’s was no exception.
I doubt I will ever forget the eulogy at Pat’s Memorial, given by her husband of 42 years, Kent.
He retraced two lives together in a truly memorable way, one which any one in any relationship for any length of time could immediately relate to; from the first awkward dance at Langdon High School, to her death at only 62 years of age.

Pat Brehmer Krom's life, May 19, 2012


The details are unimportant, except for one which I will always remember. As I recall it, regardless of how their day might have gone, it was a frequent occurrence for exchange of a simple expression of affection: “I love you Kent Krom”; “I love you Pat Brehmer”.
Can’t get better than that.
Arriving back in LaMoure, before I left for home, I picked up a new flag for the flagpole at Vince and Edith’s residence, Rosewood Care Center.
Friday, May 25, at 10:30, they dedicated the new flag to the memory of Patricia Brehmer Krom.
Happy Memorial Day.

Spring at Redeemer Cemetery near Dresden ND May 19, 2012 near the grave of Mary and Allen Brehmer


UPDATES:
Memorial Day, which began as Decoration Day in post-Civil War times, has a long history. Ironically, it was born of what was likely America’s deadliest war ever (in terms of casualties related to the entire population). Americans slaughtered other Americans.
Here are some impressions of today received from individuals. Possibly because the day has an over 140 year history, and because the means of war has changed so much in recent years, making war almost impersonal (see the Pew Research above), there are differing interpretations of what Memorial Day means: is it an event to be solemnly remembered, enjoyed, celebrated, etc.?
How we look differently at the meaning of Memorial Day is good reason for increased conversation among people with differing points of view.
From Susan Lucas: Dick, at the end of your blog you say, “Happy Memorial Day.” I’m afraid I don’t find this day a happy one. The three flags represent our three sons. I’m just so sorry that so many in our society regard Memorial Day as the first day of summer and a three-day weekend to go to the cabin. Anyone who visits Fort Snelling or any other national cemetery can truly appreciate why we have a Memorial Day. While Tom did not die while actually in the service, as the original “Decoration Day” was meant to be, the day should honor all who have been in military service. It’s a day to honor their memory. I question whether it should still be a national holiday when, as Pew Research suggests, so few families are actually impacted by military service anymore.

May 27, 2012, at Ft. Snelling Cemetery from Susan Lucas


From Carol Turnbull: Beautiful!
Scouts observing Memorial Day at a Cemetery in South St. Paul MN, doing upkeep of graves, and placing flags at the stones of veterans.

Scouts at So St Paul cemetery May 28, 2012


Daughter Heather and granddaughter Kelly at grave of Mom and Grandma Diane in So. St. Paul May 28, 2012


The annual commemoration by the MN Veterans for Peace at the State Capitol Grounds, St. Paul MN. Many Vets for Peace, but no means all, are Vietnam Veterans. I have been part of Veterans for Peace for over 10 years.

Veterans for Peace near MN Vietnam Vets Memorial on the MN Capitol Grounds May 28, 2012


Local VFP President Larry Johnson at the MN Capitol area observance May 28


Gita Ghei, whose father was caught in the conflict in western India (a civil war of sorts) at the time the British transferred authority to Indians.


Vet Jerry Rau performs a composition on May 28


Commentary here from Digby related to a Veterans for Peace event in southern California.
Other commentaries on the label “hero” as a topic of contemporary political warfare are here and here.
Of course, such a term is a moving target. In the 2004 Presidential Election, candidate John Kerry, whose military service and heroism in Vietnam was ridiculed by “Swift Boating” negative ads, was made to seem the opposite of what he was: a serviceman who had done his job above and beyond the call of duty. I agree with the assessment that the word “hero” is often misapplied in todays political conversation. Personally, I’m a lucky Vietnam era veteran. I served during the first Vietnam War years 50 years ago, and can prove it. I did everything I was asked to do, and I never left the United States. Indeed, we were preparing a reactivated infantry division for later combat in Vietnam, but in our frame of the time, we had no idea that such a war was developing. We simply did our jobs. If that is heroism, so be it.
But, then, John Kerry was far more a hero than I every thought of being, and he was viciously ridiculed for his service….
President Obama spoke at the Vietnam Memorial on Monday. I had the lucky privilege of having been at that Memorial the very weekend it was dedicated in the Fall of 1982. Vietnam Mem DC 1982001
A little photo album of my service time as a “hero” at Ft. Carson CO can be found on the internet, here. Note my name in the first paragraph, click on the link to the album, and open the link to a few of my “Photographs of 1/61….” in 1962-63.

#572 – Dick Bernard: Election 2012 #18. Four days without the "news"

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Last Friday I took a four day one thousand mile trip related to family matters in North Dakota. The trip included a visit to an Aunt and Uncle and a drive to a family funeral near the Canadian border. Over half of the trip was by myself, which always makes a trip seem longer, at least to me.
The 450 mile portion of the trip with my Uncle – my Aunt was not feeling well and stayed home – was a pleasure, albeit connected with a sad occasion: the final memorial and burial of one of my cousins.
There was lots of time for us to just visit, in the country manner.
In those four days there were scant idle moments. If I wasn’t doing something, I was sleeping. Such is how it goes.
As I age, it takes longer to recover from these trips, but they all have their pleasant aspects: “visiting”; arriving at the assisted living facility to find a couple entertaining the residents with karaoke; taking a side trip enroute home from the funeral to see the dikes attempting to hold the ever-swelling Devils Lake from flooding even more territory (my Uncle seriously tempted to stop to do some fishing); going to church; doing some routine work on the home farmstead; experiencing a whole lot of old-fashioned hospitality….
In 1000 miles, 450 of it essentially new territory for me to actually see, one sees a lot of interesting things, and much beauty, even in an ever more sparsely populated state like my home state of North Dakota.
Something else happened this trip.
I didn’t watch television, listen to radio, or even read newspapers, not even the local weekly, The Chronicle, which I am in the habit of buying when at my relatives town. The Chronicle is a throwback to the ‘old days’. Indeed, when it is published tomorrow, I will appear as “news” in the community events section of the paper. I was a visitor, after all, and such things are noticed in those not-always mythological “towns that time forgot and the decades cannot improve” of Garrison Keillor.
*
Then I arrived home Monday night and was reunited with the real world conveyed through television and newspaper.
This particular time, the evening of May 21, 2012, the battle was still raging over what Mayor Corey Booker of Newark NJ had passionately opined on one of the Sunday morning news program. The topic is irrelevant, but the outcome was predictable.
Because the statement was passionate, probably not scripted, and because Mayor Booker is identified as partisan, favoring one candidate for President over another, the statement was quotable, and it was instantly manipulated into useful sound bites for political advertising and partisan commentary, and required response from the other side.
The statement seemed to have basically swamped the news cycle of this particular day in history. It had even outlived the traditional one-day ‘moment of fame’.
Mayor Booker’s major sin, it seems, was that he was honest in his expression of opinion. Honesty in politics is truly politically dangerous, We seem to not only expect, but demand, that our politicians be dishonest.
I had come back from my isolation in “Lake Wobegon” to the battlefield of today’s contemporary politics where the objective is for one side to win, by making another lose; the elevation of an ever meaner and nastier side of what passes for political conversation in this country.
We witness it all, most of us from an easy chair in front of a television screen, too many of us picking up our reality from one extremely partisan side, or another.
It is not a winning strategy for our country, our larger community.
Election 2012 is looming.
Either we are part of the solution, or part of the problem…and the solution is not demolishing by any and all means the opposing ‘other’, or dismissing the other point of view.
We are, after all, part of a very large family of humankind.
*
Monday early afternoon, visit over, it was time to head back to “the Cities”.
Out the window at the assisted living facility I had noted that the American flag on the flagpole was badly frayed from too long in the North Dakota wind.
Down to the hardware store I went, and picked up a replacement which will be posted in time for Memorial Day, in memory of cousin Pat, and for all of us.
Happy Memorial Day.
*
An album from May 18-21, 2012: (click on photos to enlarge)

Karaoke program at Rosewood


Remembering a life at Langdon


A little lunch after the service


The ritual photo at Mom and Dad...and Sisters...grave at Dresden


spring


Wimbledon


Bedstead and old harnest in the haymow of the old barn


In the old barn. Dad helped make these beams when the roof of the old barn blew down July, 1949.


1915 Stanchions for milking cows


An old stove in a shed


where the old house used to be, from the haymow of the barn


Uncle Vince planting tomatoes

#553 – Dick Bernard: Election 2012 #10 – Enlisting the Middle Class (Proles) to kill itself.

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I’m very near 72 years of age. The people of my and my parents generation created the Middle Class, and have been huge beneficiaries of it, in endless ways, from Medicare to the GI Bill to Unions, and on an on and on. For the younger generation, as Joni Mitchell’s popular song goes, they may not “know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone….”
Still, the “Army” to destroy the Middle Class we enjoyed seems to have been recruited from the same older generation. I see this in endless hateful, destructive and dishonest “forwards” from people I know from my generation and older.
I review and respond to the “forwards” I get. The vast majority are lies, pure and simple, from manipulation of photographs to manipulation of data. So little “truth” comes around, including TV ads, talk radio and the like, that only the foolish will believe any of it.
These days I think a great deal of a book published in England in 1949 entitled “1984” by George Orwell. It is a famous book, and everyone should read it again, especially those who send those forwards. Orwell’s model apparently was the post-WWII Soviet Union of Stalin, with elements of Hitler’s Germany.
It is pretty clear to me, these days, that unfettered American Capitalism would like to achieve the same objective – easily manipulated, passive and compliant Proles – that 1984s “Big Brother” did by using the same methods.
We are todays Proles.

The book, 1984, first came into my life when the actual year 1984 was far in the future and television was in its infancy and still a novelty.
Computers and ease of editing of images and text was unknown at the time I first read 1984.
But 1984 was about all of these things. “Telescreens” were everywhere, broadcasting what Orwell called the “two minute hate” frequently and at any time. These also doubled as surveillance cameras, recording every persons every move.
Nobody, nothing, was safe from Big Brother.
There was even a new language: “Newspeak”:
“WAR IS PEACE”
“FREEDOM IS SLAVERY”
“IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”.
Big Brother thrived because of cultivated fear of an unseen enemy he could describe, far away. This enemy was one to be feared and hated, and Big Brother was the only savior.
In my opinion, 1984 has become the playbook for contemporary Right Wing politics in this country of ours. The book simply reflects the exploitable weaknesses of humanity, and those don’t change.
I think of this 1984 every time I see the latest insulting and lie-filled “forward”; or see some example where information is manipulated so that some imagined “failure” of the President (or Democrats, or Unions…) is manufactured.
Indeed, since President Obama has been inaugurated, the mission of his enemies has been to make him fail by any means necessary, and then shamelessly lie about why the failure occurred. Similarly, my “class” – liberal, Union, is similarly characterized. Newspeak 2012: “Failure is Success”.
In 1984s world, the citizenry (Proles) was dominated and completely controlled and settled into a life of happy mediocrity: the housewife happily hung out the wash to dry; entertainment was getting drunk on cheap gin in the neighborhood saloon.
Nobody trusted anybody. The Two Minute Hate and “Big Brother is watching you” were very effective.
The main character, Winston, took a stab at breaking out of the mold, and for awhile seemed to be succeeding.
It is useful to remember the ending scene of 1984. Winston is personally confronted by his greatest fear. He surrenders to the fear. He “sees the light”.
The book ends with these words: “He loved Big Brother”.
POSTNOTE: Orwell died in 1950 only 46 years of age and only a year after publication of 1984. He ends his book with Big Brother still in complete control.
Is it so simple in the real world…? Well, we can read history. A long succession of “Big Brothers” learned their omnipotence was not permanent. Many of them ended up dead, and not of natural causes.
What is our fate as a nation? We American Proles will decide, beginning in November, 2012 by how we vote, or whether we vote at all.
We choose if we succeed or fail as a society.
Directly related: here and here.

#539 – Dick Bernard: Thinking about Peace, near a vigil against War

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Today, March 19, is a tragic anniversary. As my friend, Wayne Wittman, of Veterans for Peace put it: “On March 19, 2003, after a terrific bombardment called “Shock and Awe” we and the other nations we could coax to join us launched an invasion of the sovereign independent Nation of Iraq.”
Our Conductors of War in 2003 likely had the same idea as the Japanese did, December 7, 1941, when they bombed Pearl Harbor: ‘we’ll show ’em our awesome might, and they’ll surrender’.
We all know how the attack on Pearl Harbor worked out for the Japanese; Shock and Awe in Iraq didn’t do so well for we Americans either.
War is the triumph of short-term emotion: stinking, not sound, thinking. But War sells easier than Peace, albeit with a far greater long-term cost.
Yesterday the local Vets for Peace advertised a gathering at the Cathedral of St. Paul followed by a gathering at the USS Ward “First Shot” Memorial near the Veterans Services Building in St. Paul.
I’m a Vet for Peace, I’ve been to many events, and I traveled to the Capitol grounds planning to join the group, which appeared to be about 20 people.
I was there this year, but the attendees probably didn’t know it.
I decided to look at this years event through a somewhat different lens.
Near the First Shot Memorial site is large sculpted soldier called “Monument to the Living…Why do you forget us?” dedicated May 22, 1982.
(click on photos to enlarge them)

March 18, 2012


I’ve seen the sculpted work many times – in fact, I’ve photographed it. It is evocative and haunting.
But this time, for the first time, I noted the date of 1982. Later that same year, strictly by coincidence, I was in Washington D.C. the weekend the Vietnam Memorial was dedicated on the National Mall Vietnam Mem DC 1982001. I was there for a time that weekend. Seldom has there been such powerful emotion on display. I’ve been back there many times.
Between the “Why do you forget us?” sculpture and the State Capitol is the Minnesota Memorial to the Fallen remembering American war deaths in Vietnam 1962-73. I’ve been there many times as well, almost always at Veterans for Peace Memorial Day events. Sunday I looked a little closer.
I found the inscription for Army PFC Joseph Sommerhauser, killed 1968 in Vietnam. He’s the brother of my barber, himself a Vietnam vet, a Marine. Every now and then Tom and I talk about his brother. On the face of the memorial, above Josephs name, is the inscription “We were young, we have died, remember us“, Archibald MacLeish.
Indeed.

For the first time I stopped by the Directory of names on the wall, and this day I looked through it for names of casualties from towns in which I was living at the time of this deadly war.

Here’s what I found:
1962-63 – the few first casualties. (In 1962-63 I was in the Army myself none of us knowing that our newly reactivated 5th Infantry Division (Mech) was preparing for the war in southeast Asia. Some of my snapshots from this era are accessible here See “Photographs of 1/61 in and around Ft. Carson”.)
1966 – William Wilber, age 18, of Anoka was killed
1968 – Charles Clitty, age 19, of Spring Lake Park was killed.
In eleven years of the Vietnam War, only two people from towns I’d lived in were among the fallen. Even in that deadly war, few actually died in my sphere (two of my brothers are Vietnam vets…both lived.)
Of course, in those years, I believe you counted only if you died in a combat zone. Those permanently and totally disabled by war injuries, mental illness, agent orange or such are not reflected on the wall. They don’t include later homelessness, PTSD, suicide or the like. They don’t include the civilian casualties, like the 16 Afganis mowed down by an American soldier on his fourth combat tour in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Nor do they include the damage to the national sense of morality, not to mention pocketbook.
Those who died and listed on that wall are, tragically, the lucky ones.
War is criminal.
Back in the Vets for Peace circle, there appeared to be about 20 or so [one who was there says 35] hearing short talks on topics which I have doubtless heard many times before.
I drove by the VFP gathering on my way out of the area about 2:15, and had this thought which I have had more and more frequently lately: The circle, today, needs to be turned around, and the people in it need to seek out and get in conversation with the other folks who can’t see the problem with war, cuz they weren’t in it, or they don’t know anybody who died over there….

At the First Shot Memorial March 18, 2012



“Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.”