War – Page 6 – Thoughts Towards a Better World

#1072 – Dick Bernard: September's Song, "When the days dwindle down, to a precious few…." Don and Stan and Ted and Jessica and all of us.

October 17, 2015/0 Comments/in History, International Relations, War /by dickbernard

Woodbury MN Oct 2015

It was quite a week, including Thursday at the Minnesota Orchestra where our 87 year old friend, Don, and I, watched 92 year old Stanislaw Skrowaczewski conduct Schumanns Concerto in A Minor for Cello and Orchestra, Opus 129, and Bruckners Symphony No. 7 in E major. MN Orch Oct 15 105002.
I go to concerts to listen to music; this concert was great…so said the reviewer. Age hasn’t dimmed the maestro’s baton!
The Bruckner Symphony itself is over an hour, and conductors don’t take breaks in their duties. Occasionally the maestro would hold on to the support bar behind him (the bar extended in height by about a foot, likely specifically for him), and I noticed an unused chair beside the podium – just in case? But on he went; and apparently tonight as well.
At the intermission Don and I were talking about keeping on, as Stan is doing: “when you stop doing things, you die”, said Don, with the voice of experience that I, trailing him by a dozen years, can more and more relate to.
Like all elders, Don has his rich stories. Most of his career he worked keeping track of railroad cars for the Northern Pacific RR in the days before computers. But in his younger days, his credits include at least one small dinner party with actress Elizabeth Taylor, and sitting in Joan Crawford’s seat at the Oscar’s one year (she was unable to attend). He was most impressed by Audrey Hepburn, who he met more than once in Hollywood.
Pretty good for a native of St. Paul’s Frogtown.
For Don, for Stan, it’s now past September, and September’s Song fits.
But as we know, there are lots of Stan’s and Don’s around in the world, from, let’s say, March till late December….
A week earlier I’d been at the same Orchestra Hall with Grandson Ted, now 15, and an aspiring musician.
We went to a Jazz concert in the Atrium, and Ted especially watched the drummer, as he’s been asked to be the drummer for his schools jazz band this year. He’s got lots of musical talent, and drummers have a big job. He’s up to it.
The previous night, two of us old-timers were up at our Alma Mater in Valley City ND, to meet Jessica, the first recipient of a class scholarship we have worked on the last couple of years.
Jessica, a most impressive Senior, preparing to be an elementary school teacher, made my day. I was her age, at that college, once…. (photo at end of this post)
Two days later, good friend Joe, another 87 year old, convened a major conference in Minneapolis which went splendidly Oct 9&10. It was, literally, his conference. I wrote about it here. The Workable World conference will, I predict, live on far past October 10, and far beyond Minneapolis…. It will live on, especially, in the abundance of young people who were there; who left with much to think about, and act on.
I saw Joe two nights ago, in a group where a young woman, Mnar, spoke powerfully about “Muslims as the other” in this country. Afterwards Joe wrote some of us about his experience: “[Her] presentation not only shattered a number of stereotypes about Muslims and women, but also provided some much needed lessons about the slanted way we get — or fail to get — the news.”
*
The past few day, in a physical sense, have been tiring. I am ready to “couch potato”. But that lasts only a little while.
Last night I gave in and joined Lynn, 94, for dinner. Lynn will die with his passion of world peace on his lips. He will never, ever quit.
Rebekah and her friend Quinn, students at a local University, brought him to our meeting, and the four of us had a too short conversation which needs to continue.
It was an inconvenience to meet last night, but it was one of those meetings I will remember far beyond last evening.
I think of a sign I saw at my coffee shop yesterday morning, and photo’ed especially for Joe.
It is below. It applies to every one of us, regardless of age.
It’s now October, and there is still hope….

Dick, Jessica and Carl, October 7, 2015

#1071 – Dick Bernard: Getting perspective on the UN System at 70.

October 12, 2015/0 Comments/in Community, History, International Relations, Peace & Justice, War /by dickbernard

Those remaining at the very end of the second day of the conference. Photo by Claude Buettner

Click to enlarge any photos.

Keynote speaker W. Andy Knight, and artist R. Padre Johnson’s well known art work of the Family of Man. Padre was at the conference.

First things first: it is impossible to summarize the Workable World Conference I attended on Friday and Saturday, October 9&10, at the University of Minnesota.
Here is the program booklet: Workable World Speakers Oct 9-10 2015. The entire conference, every speaker, was videotaped for later use, and later there will also be proceedings published for posterity. Check back at this spot in some months, and I’ll include an update.
I attend meetings frequently, both to learn something, and to give support to the process. It is much like the synergy of a basketball game. The team can play the game, but it helps a great deal to have someone in the stands – an audience. But it has been my experience that there are always “ah hah” moments, small or large insights that flow out of some comment, or an amalgamation of several comments: learning moments; insights.
There were a lot of these for me Friday and Saturday.
(click to enlarge)

Charlotte Ku and audience, Saturday Oct 10, University of Minnesota

At some point in the proceedings it occurred to me that there were roughly as many registrants for the conference (over 200), as there are countries in the UN (193), so I began to imagine each of us in the hall, including the speaker, as a “country”.
Of course, all is not alike between countries. One of we audience members, for instance, would control 25% of the Gross National Income of the entire world; another has 20% of the world’s humanity. (These are the U.S., and China, of course.) (This data an much more from Transforming the United Nations System by Dr. Joseph Schwartzberg. I highly recommend it.)
Then, there are those in power positions (I was one of these, controlling the portable microphone!) And, of course, those who registered but never came to a session, or could be there for only a short time for one reason or another.
Whatever the case, this was a melting pot of sorts: experts, critics, supporters, all with a common interest in ideas about the United Nations System.

One speaker, in answer to a question, described the UN at 70 to be much like an airplane over New York City which has a problem with a wing which has to be repaired on the fly.
This provided rich imagery for me, about how the immensely complex business of the United Nations is an endless series of crises to manage amongst people with different priorities.
What if, I thought to myself, we in that audience at Cowles Auditorium had some problem dropped on us, and there was no one to decide except ourselves?
Given how people can be, it could be a dicey proposition to even decide on a simple matter. It’s easy to despise “government”, but one sort of government or another is essential to individual and group survival.
The conference was expertly moderated by Prof. John Trent of the Centre on Governance at the University of Ottawa; Maryam Ysefzadeh and Tim O’Keefe of Robayat helped quiet our minds with gentle Persian music.

Maryam Yusefzedah and Tim O’Keefe Oct 10, 2015

We were reminded that the United Nations was a creation of a specific moment in time, post World War II. Change is required for any such organism, and indeed change is happening in small increments and in less than obvious ways (from the bottom up, for instance.)
But imperfect as the institution is, it is far far better than the alternative of no United Nations.
That is my main takeaway. With all its fault, the United Nations is essential to our future as a planet…and I think the collective speakers and audience and most of the rest of humanity know and appreciate that.

Prof Robert Johansen of the University of Notre Dame spoke on the dilemmas and realities of Peacekeeping in the contemporary world.

POSTNOTE from Dick Bernard: As one would expect from an academic conference, there were many comments of note, that stick in my mind: here’s a single one for starters. A speaker talked about the U.S. role as present day hegemon (which I define as “big dog”) of the planet. Of course, there have been successions of hegemons over the centuries, and ultimately they all overreach – something of a nation version of the Peter Principle: each rising to their level of incompetence, then collapsing….
It was observed that President Obama, in his role as leader of the U.S., has been working to tamp down a bit the U.S. tendency to interfere in everything, everywhere. This diminished interference can be interpreted by some as weakness, but at the same time, it is a strategy that helps to keep the U.S. as primary hegemon of the planet. In an odd, but logical way, the actions of President Obama support the objectives of the very people who are most critical of him as being weak and ineffective. And at the same time, those who would promote a more aggressive policy of particularly military engagement in the world would act against the U.S. own hegemonic interests.
At least for me, there was a lot of food for thought in this observation, such as I heard it stated.

#1070 – Dick Bernard: Bombing the Hospital in Afghanistan. Who's at fault about the killings in Roseburg, Oregon…?

October 7, 2015/0 Comments/in Community, Guns, History, War /by dickbernard

If you watch the news at all, it is not necessary to define the very recent topics in the subject line, at least in the terms that they have been reported, and your personal feelings about them.
In my opinion, both give we Americans an opportunity to take stock of ourselves: how each and every one of us fit into construction of our image as a country.
Of course, the simple narrative is to blame somebody else. We know how this goes. We have lots of practice. Left, right, center, it is virtually never ourselves to blame: it is somebody else, most always one person. “Obama” bombed that hospital, some would say. That gun-obsessed mother of the gun-crazed son who killed the students at the Roseburg Community College is now the target.
Tomorrow it will be something else, local, regional, national, international. “Whose fault? Not mine! He (or she) is to blame.” Never us as a nation of individual citizens.
*
For me, regarding the endless war in which we find ourselves mired, most recently the tragedy at the Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Afghanistan, Day One was not 9-11-01, but it came soon after, in early October, 2001, when the decision was made to bomb Afghanistan (though the real objective was, we learned later, Iraq).
I keep few newspaper clippings, and refer back to these infrequently, but here is the one that I kept the day after the bombs began to fall on Afghanistan in early October, 2001:Afghanistan Oct 7 2001001
Just read the article, and put yourself in it, then, and since then, to today. How would you have answered those survey questions then? Why? How would you, now?
What politician of any party could have been anti-war then, or indeed, today? It would have been political suicide for almost 100% of the politicians, then. Even today, it is high risk to actively advocate for peace.
We are a war-sodden culture: war is our national tradition. And it is killing us.
*
As for the gun issue, the polling data seems to favor doing something about unrestricted “firearms in every pocket, makes no difference who has them or where”. We apparently don’t buy the unrestricted “freedom” mantra. Still the gun culture prevails. For a politician to be for gun regulation of any kind is a guarantee of political assassination by the likes of the National Rifle Association. And their “target practice” has been very effective.
Unfortunately, “we, the people”, every one of us, assure, by our inaction, that our elected representatives will do nothing to stop the insanity in which we find ourselves with guns.
Every one of us have good reasons (in our mind) why we don’t do anything to change the course.
That Mom in Roseburg, Oregon, like that Mom in Newtown CT – the mother of the serial killer of elementary school children there – might be complicit in the crime of her son, but she is less guilty than the entire body politic who allow this insanity to continue.
We are the ones who need to be indicted.
*
Till we act, as individuals, the gun industry and those who exploit the fear-obsessed to move the “war as the answer to all our ills” narrative will continue to rule the roost.
Fear, after all, sells.
We are a good country, filled with very good people – just look at your own self, and the vast majority of your friends and neighbors in your town.
But we continue to fail, by our inaction. It is our inaction at home that assures our bad image abroad.
It’s up to us, not to anybody else to change our countries direction on War and Guns and so many other issues. We cannot delegate this responsibility to someone else.
Until each of us act, minority rules.
*
Some useful resources:
On guns: The Brady Campaign and Americans for Responsible Solutions are good, credible sources deserving your attention and support.
On policy, just read that short article about American attitudes in early October, 2001. Politics is People, and every person counts.
Personally, my favorite daily source of a summary of national and international current events is Just Above Sunset, an indefatigable blogger in Los Angeles. It’s a long read, but a great summary of what’s going on six days a week. Check it out. Todays, “Whistling Past”, is about the Afghanistan quagmire. Here. Yesterday’s, “Only in America”, is about guns.

#1061 – Dick Bernard: September 11

September 11, 2015/0 Comments/in Community, History, Immigration, Media, Peace & Justice, Politics, Technology, War /by dickbernard

NOTE: I’ve added a postnote to this post.

Nuclear weapons, from display at Hiroshima Nagasaki Exhibit at Landmark Center, St. Paul Aug 23, 2015

Seventy years ago today, September 11, 1945, my mother’s brother – my Uncle and Navy Lieutenant George Busch – was on board the Destroyer, the USS Woodworth, which had anchored the day before in Tokyo Bay. (WWII was over, the surrender signed nearby on September 2, 1945.)
I know this from the ship daily log books which I had requested back in the 1990s. Uncle George was on the Woodworth, from January, 1943, through the end of the war, till docking in Portland Oregon October 20, 1945, thence reentering into American civilian peace-time society.
Presumably on September 11, 1945, those on the Woodworth had an opportunity to take a look at what was left of Tokyo.

from Bombers over Japan WWII, Time-Life Books 1982, page 198

Perhaps some of them – perhaps my Uncle George? – did as my Dad’s cousin and best man, Marvin, an Army veteran, who was field promoted to Colonel by the end of the war, and was for a short time head of a Prefecture on Japan. He told me once that his first act on reaching Japanese soil was to “piss on it”. So it is with showing dominance over enemies after conquest, and disrespecting the vanquished, even though his Prefecture was far from the seat of things militarily – it was just a rural area in northern Japan.
The war in the Pacific had been a vicious one for all, and in addition, Marvin’s cousin, my Dad’s brother Frank, had gone down with the Arizona at Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.

Marvin and Frank, circa 1935, probably Oakwood ND

There have been lots of September 11ths before and since 1945.
September 11, 2015, in addition to the obligatory nod to THE 9-11, will probably feature, on TV tonight, the endless commercials attacking one of our MN Congressmen who apparently is not condemning the Nuclear Agreement with Iran and is viewed as politically vulnerable. One ad ends with a horrific fireball, a “mushroom cloud”, as if it is some unique invention to be pioneered by the Iranians if we don’t see to it that they’re kept under our heel. Such propaganda is expensive and persuasive. We have become slaves to sophisticated media messages which are difficult to escape.
But there are alternative realities as well. Tomorrow somewhere in the Twin Cities a large number of new citizens will proudly take the oath, and graduate to full citizenship in the United States. It is doubtless a ritual shared in all countries, all that differs is the precise way it is done.
And these new citizens will be proud of their new citizenship, as they’re proud of their own homeland, and are likely more aware than the vast majority of us about what it means to be an “American”. They’ve had to study our system, and they are knowledgeable. Sorry, more of us aren’t as aware….
We all will do as we will do today, and tomorrow and next week and on and on and on.
Three simple suggestions:
1. To become acquainted with the organization Green Card Voices, which is doing very significant work to bring to life those who have spent years as Green Card holders in the U.S. enroute to citizenship.
2. If you’re in the Twin Cities, take time to go to the Landmark Center in St. Paul, and see the exhibit provided by the City of Nagasaki about the bomb and its affect August 9, 1945. It is a relatively small exhibit, but if you pay attention to it, you’ll easily be there more than an hour. It’s on till November 28. The schedule is here:
(click to enlarge)

3. To pick up and reread, or read for the first time, George Orwell’s “1984”, published in 1949, which I probably didn’t see till college days. It is rather disquieting to translate his novel to present day American terms: actors like “telescreen”, “Proles”, and all of that. (I looked up September 11, 1984, and there really wasn’t all that much happening that particular day. But Orwell was in many ways a visionary, and most of us are todays Proles, who allow life happen to us without much regard to the consequences.)
Each one of us has a certain command of our own “ship”, and we can impact positively or negatively on how it sails, and how it impacts ourselves, and others.
Have a great day.

Same source as above, Aug. 23, 2015

POSTNOTE: After publishing the above I watched the 9-11-2015 evening news which, as expected, emphasized again, on this 14th anniversary of 9-11, the continuing national mourning of what seems to be our now perpetual “Pearl Harbor”.
No “mushroom cloud” ads appeared, as erroneously predicted by myself, perhaps because a concerted effort to stop the deal failed in the U.S. Congress on Sep. 11 – a date probably specifically strategically selected for the vote.
No doubt, we experienced a tragedy 9-11-01, but the biggest tragedy of all is our continual obsession of the need to be in control; and the seeming narrative that the only way to prevent war is to be stronger and more threatening than the other party in preparing for the next war…more or less the narrative of George Orwell’s 1984. We seem to need to have an enemy to validate our existence. We are made to live in constant fear of some other.
9-11-01 took the lives of 3 Minnesotans, it was reported tonight. In the 2000 census there were 4.9 million Minnesotans. (There were 281 million Americans in 2000.) After 9-11 has come continuous war, Iraq, Afghanistan, ISIS/Syria, with all the attendant loss of life and disruption of normal lives, including the present day refugee crisis. ISIS/ISIL is a direct outgrowth of our actions in Iraq, including regime change.
We don’t seem to learn, we need to change the conversation, beginning within ourselves.
I wonder if we have the capacity to do this….

#1059 – Dick Bernard: The Little Kurdish Boy who Drowned, continued.

September 7, 2015/0 Comments/in International Relations, Peace & Justice, War /by dickbernard

Saturdays post brought an emotionally powerful response from our friend, Annelee, who grew up in Nazi Germany and was 18 when the war ended in May, 1945. Her comment, here, is worth reading, carefully, and applying to our own lives.
Sunday morning, enroute to Church in downtown Minneapolis, I met two buses whose signage said their destination was “State Fair”. Today, Labor Day, is the final day of the 12 day gluttons paradise. I like the Minnesota State Fair, and indeed was there last Monday, and if the spirit moves me I may go for a couple of hours early today as well.
(click to enlarge)

Minnesota State Fair, August 31, 2015

Meanwhile, back in reality-land, the picture of the drowned little boy is a haunting one, and if I end up at the Fair today, my view will be modified by events of the last few days in Europe and the Middle East.
A thought came to mind: last Monday I indulged in my once a year addiction there: deep fried cheese curds. They were advertised as having the same price as last year, $5.00, a “heckuva deal”, but the container seemed smaller than previously – perhaps a marketing strategy, less curds for the same dollars. Whatever. I bought ’em, and ate ’em and, as always, wondered why, afterwards. See them next year….
It also occurred to me that if everyone of us in the U.S. ponied up $5.00 one time, it would raise over $1.5 billion to bring help wherever needed. My $5 could be that single order of cheese curds that I certainly don’t need.
Meanwhile “over there”, the World Food Programme – one of the spinoffs originally part of the United Nations – announced it was out of money to provide minimal food relief to Syrians in refugee camps. This may have been to spur donations. It survives through international donations, including from the World Food Programme-USA.
On the news Sunday afternoon it was suggested that the U.S. State Department has devoted $4 billion to help alleviate the situation, but I’ve learned in the past to not trust numbers without more elaboration. I looked at the Department of State website and while it is a very interesting site to review, nowhere did I find such a declaration.)
Of course, I doubt many at the Fair tomorrow would think about giving up even $5 of their fun budget to help the refugees who are in Europe and those in desperate need in Syria and elsewhere. It is all so confusing. “Who can I trust with my money” is a common, and even rational, question.
And even the apparent U.S. Federal Aid of, they say, $4 billion, which seems generous, might be at least partially allocated to, for instance, the Department of Defense for war. (Though I don’t have facts on this, this isn’t a hypothetical concern. I once tried for nearly two years to get the Department of State to break down for me its own news release granting $50,000,000 Aid to Haiti in late 2003. They simply would not comply, though by the time I finally gave up, I had learned that the $50 million had gone to the Department of Defense to protect American interests, and to U.S. AID (Agency for International Development), the latter almost certainly for political destabilization of the then-sitting and democratically elected government in Haiti that the U.S. didn’t like. But it was very obvious that no one wanted me, or anyone, to know where that $50 million really went, if it existed at all.)
My sole point in all of this: I am not – none of us are – in a position to constructively change world policy on humanitarian aid in times of crisis, even if we know it is crucial. A few months wait for someone who is starving doesn’t work for the starving person. The money needs to be there, somewhere, to get used when it is needed. An at-best confusing system of assorted charities dealing with emergencies is not adequate. That is why I need to lobby harder for national and international systems, like a more effective and empowered United Nations, that is ready to step in whenever and wherever there is a humanitarian crisis as is now the case in Syria. Only there can my $5, or $10, really make a difference right away.

U. S. Navy Country Current Aug. 31, 2015, Minnesota State Fair

A final note: on that Monday at the Fair, I came across a wonderful U.S. Navy Country and Bluegrass music ensemble (above). They were so good, I came back to a second show at the Fair. You can catch them in several segments on YouTube.
At one point the leader recognized his fellow servicemen and women, “taking care of business” around the world to protect our American way of life. His was an applause line, of course, as when he asked we veterans to stand and be recognized as the service anthems were played. But herein is one of our national dilemmas. As a nation we are incomprehensibly wealthy compared to most, and our great wealth blinds us to the needs of others, including the poor in our own country, and our obligations to devote more of our resources in others behalf.
Are we able to learn? Can the little Kurdish boy who drowned help teach us a lesson that will endure?
POSTNOTE: Our initial contribution – $100 – today goes to the American Refugee Committee. They know the trade, and I know them from experience.
Comments, if you wish, to dick_bernardATmsnDOTcom.

#1058 – Dick Bernard: The Humanitarian Crises that we watch on Television. That little Kurdish boy who drowned….

September 5, 2015/0 Comments/in Community, History, International Relations, Media, Peace & Justice, War /by dickbernard

It was heart-wrenching to see this picture in an e-mail this morning:
(click to enlarge)

Here is the text of the e-mail: “Join us on Sunday, September 4 [6?], at Minnehaha Park [Minneapolis MN] to DEMAND an end to inhumane treatment of refugees, an end to tight border regulations and border walls, an end to police abuse of refugees and immigrants everywhere.
While a little Syrian boy didn’t survive his journey to safety around the world, the image of his body washed up on Turkey’s shore did. Images are not enough. As hundreds of thousands of people undertake the dangerous journey to Europe’s asylum, we must take to the streets to demand the world support them and keep them safe.
MEET AT MINNEHAHA PARK AT 11:45 TO BEGIN THE RALLY. BRING SIGNS AND SMALL DONATIONS FOR MOAS (MIGRANT OFFSHORE AID STATION) WILL BE COLLECTED AS WELL.
REPRESENTATIVE KEITH ELLISON WILL BE HOSTING HIS LABOR DAY PICNIC AND WE HAVE A CHANCE TO REACH A WIDE AUDIENCE.
See our facebook page for more info.”
I’ve watched on every newscast the last couple of days first, the Turkish policeman carrying the lifeless body of this three year old Kurd who, with his mother and brother, drowned attempting to reach freedom. Yesterday and in today’s news we see the anguished young father returning to war-torn Syria to bury his wife and children, saying he does not plan to leave home again: he had left to help save his childrens future; now he has nothing but memories.
The news is full of stories about the tens of thousands seeking refuge from war-torn Syria in other places. We seem to say, “not our problem”….
What troubles me, as an ordinary American, is how insulated I am from these harsh realities. It is so easy to deny our place within the family of man, Watching the news images doesn’t affect me – we see so much of this so often on the tube, but most of us rarely experience anything like it, personally or through people we actually know.
We are isolated from an awful reality of so many. And life goes on: go to the State Fair, the last summer weekend at the lake, etc., etc.
For some reason, the TV image of the Turkish policeman carrying the lifeless Kurdish child reminded me of a long ago photograph from the Fargo Tornado Jun 1957003. The previous day a deadly tornado came through Fargo and West Fargo, killing at least seven people, including this little girl:

Of course, ten years ago came Katrina, devastating, particularly, New Orleans.
Ten years later, all is not back to normal, though everyone tries to put a positive face on our response to that tragedy, short and long-term.
It’s old news. So easy to forget.
Many years ago, perhaps sometime in the 1990s, an African-American minister put things in their proper context for me. I need to revisit his lesson….
By random chance, I happened to be listening to Krista Tippett’s Speaking of Faith (now called On Being) on Minnesota Public Radio, and her guest was a former evangelical Bishop down south somewhere.
He had built a very large congregation, based largely on expert preaching about the reality of Hell. He filled the hall, so to speak.
One day, at home, he happened to be watching the television news and saw the procession of refugees from the Genocide of Rwanda (1994). In the picture were children.
At that moment, he said, his definition of Hell changed, and the next Sunday, so did his message: Hell was not down there, for bad people; rather it was right here on earth for those poor refugees, particularly those innocent children.
For him, it had dire consequences. His congregants didn’t come to Church to hear messages like “hell on earth” as applied to real persons like themselves – that was too close to home for them, apparently.
His congregation quickly declined, and he literally had to start over.
I don’t remember his name, and thus I can’t find archival record.
For a moment, though, he changed my attitude, and it is good that I can remember it at least the anecdote now, and get more personally engaged.
We are, all of us, part of a much larger world, than just our home, town, state, or nation.
We best not forget that.
NOTE: Follow up post published on Sep 7, here.
COMMENTS:
from Alberder: This was a powerful post. Thank you.
from John: The hell on Earth part is true. The refugee/migration crisis of today will only get worse. But just imagine how much money is being made by the military industrial complex.
from Annelee who grew up in Nazi Germany, whose father refused to join the Nazi Party, then was drafted into the German Army as a road engineer:
Time moves on, the little Kurdish boy’s drowning, the Turkish policeman holding his lifeless body, the inconsolable father will shake most people up for a while — little will be done and people will move on with their lives glad they are not in the refugees situation.
I am guilty too of moving on with life —but memories of my past will not leave me.
I remember 1945 when 3 million Sudetenland Germans [what is now western Czech Republic] were forced to leave their homeland; when residents of what became East Germany left their homes and lived in refugee camps for a decade or more.
As you know I have a little doll house chair that keeps my memories alive. Today, my aunt Lisbeth is so much on my mind [one of those expelled from Sudetenland]. I still can see her when she handed me the little chair— she took it from her home— even though she had lost everything— she thought of me.
“Papa? may I ask why God leaves us so alone? I am NOT losing my faith, just questioning?????”
I watched 2020 last night when the Holy Father [Pope Francis]—spoke via phone to homeless and refugees.
A young man told his life story: His Mexican father brought his family to Texas where they worked to have a better life. The young man attended school in Texas— when he applied to attend the university, it was found that he and his family were illegal immigrants from Mexico. He and his family were deported to Mexico where they live in a homeless shelter.
Germany has so much to be ashamed of — from 1933-1945 — but I am proud that Germany will take 800,000 refugees to ease the suffering of people who were caught in a web not of their making.
———————————
My niece Manuela was here [from Germany]: I always tried to console Mama when she wished we would learn what happened to Papa [Annelee’s father, who refused to join the Nazi party and was drafted into the Germany Army to work on road construction – he was an engineer]. I always said that maybe it was better not to know.
Manuela: “I always wanted to know what happened to my grandpa [Annelee’s Dad] during or near the end of the war. I had it researched, which is costly, but possible now. here is what I have learned so far:
[Annelee’s Dad] was taken prisoner by the Russians during March 1945—-
He ended up in Siberia where he with other German prisoners of war built roads.
After 1945 Poland demanded German Prisoners from Russia —Papa was selected with a great number of other prisoners to be sent to Poland —- Poland sent these prisoners to Auschwitz.
While there they were killed to avenge all the Jews that Germany had killed at Auschwitz.”
NOTE FROM DICK: This is a particularly profound commentary on the reality of war. Annelee has been to Auschwitz four times, and never knew what Manuela, her niece, has revealed. The Jewish population of Poland was virtually obliterated by the Nazis; but a similar number (though fewer as a percentage of the population) of Poles were killed as well. Annelee’s “Papa” did the right thing, refusing to go along with the Nazi line, but was punished by the victors anyway. Those of us who feel we are insulated simply by virtue of thinking righteous thoughts have best think about this again. We are part of whatever system we happen to be in.
from Larry, in Fargo ND: Excellent piece on the refugees, Dick. Your comparison of the photo of the three-year old from Turkey with that photo from long ago is, sadly, appropriate and thought-provoking. As Shakespeare wrote, “what is past is prologue.” Truer words, unfortunately, were never written.
from Jeff: Good piece.
The photo was one of those that ends up changing minds. (starting to see some help for these unfortunates in EU)
As to yr preacher who had a change of view on “Hell”, I do remember that, think there was a magazine piece on him a few years back.
We apostates prefer to point to the continuing occurences of bad things happening to innocent people of course as proof of the absence of a “just” god.
Since the death of this innocent child alone, much less the people found suffocated in locked trucks, or hacked to death in Rwanda, Nigeria, (add your location), defies certainly the logic Of St Augustine and Aquinas, but certainly extinguishes the dim light of faith for many of us as well.

#1055 – Dick Bernard: Dealing with Differences. The Iran Nuclear Agreement, the Koreas, North and South, et al

August 27, 2015/0 Comments/in International Relations, Peace & Justice, Politics, War /by dickbernard

POSTNOTE, AUGUST 28: Here is the video of the entire two-hour program on the Iran Nuclear Agreement, on which I comment, below.
A few hours before attending a two hour “Round Table” on the Iran Nuclear Agreement Monday night, I was talking with a friend, who at the same time, was monitoring tweets from another friend at some political conference somewhere. A prominent Minnesota legislator was speaking at the time, and he commented, according to the tweet, that “in my district, the only acceptable vote [on any legislation] is NO”.
He would have been talking, of course, about his “base”, the majority of voters who elected him to the legislature from their district. They obviously aren’t into the give and take of what I consider healthy politics: healthy debate accompanied by compromise to reach an always imperfect resolution. Rather their idea seem “my way or the highway”. You win or you lose, and all that matters is winning…. A certain recipe for conflict where, ultimately, everyone loses.
A few hours after the Round Table, on Tuesday morning, I noted at the top of page A4 of the Minneapolis Star Tribune the below photo, which was surrounded by a long article, “Talks yield deal to ease Korean Tensions”.
(click to enlarge)

Minneapolis Star Tribune Aug. 25, 2015

Clearly these representatives of enemies of over 60 years were negotiating to resolve an issue; face-to-face with a handshake to seal a doubtless imperfect deal to both sides.
The image particularly struck me because a dozen hours earlier I watched and listened to another group of four men, talking pro and con about the Iran Nuclear Agreement before a couple of hundred of us at the Cowles Auditorium at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. The below photo is representative of many that I snapped of the group.

August 24, 2015, at University of Minnesota. From left, Terrence Flower, Oren Gross, Tom Handson, William Beeman

Each photo would have seen the four characters in a somewhat different light. Photos are simply “freeze frames”, in these digital days easily manipulated to convey the desired “spin”.
The content of the Monday gathering was no particular surprise: polar opposites invited to express their positions. A good summary was provided by Eric Black who covered the session.
William Beeman and Oren Gross apparently were the main spokespeople for the pro and con side: both were well informed and convincing; the room was probably filled with partisans, one way or the other who didn’t need convincing. Everything was very civil, but there was no bargaining, not so much as “you have a good point”….
While the Monday session was strictly a talking at, rather than talking with, exercise, it was a very worthwhile use of my time, I felt. At two hours, it is too long for airing on on-line media, which is a shame. It was very interesting to hear these four panelists talk about an extraordinarily complex topic – the multilateral Nuclear deal with Iran – to an audience which was, likely, split in its opinions about whether the deal was “good” or “bad”.
We all had an informal ballot we could fill out, assessing whether the two hours changed our individual minds on whether the deal was good or not. I answered “no”. My guess is that my answer was by far the most common vote.
We were not there to negotiate; rather to listen and learn a bit more.
Of course, this was intended, but it is also very representative of an unfortunate reality in our nation today. We are a nation filled with sound bite certainties. We make judgments based on our own fragments of information about all manner of simple and complex issues.
I happen to be in Beeman’s corner on the Nuclear deal issue (Beeman, Iran Nuclear001), but always willing to listen to other points of view.
As for “getting to yes”, those four folks (photo above) from “axis of evil” North Korea; and shining star of capitalism South Korea best represent the harsh reality of actually doing a deal, where the status quo, even on relatively simple issues from a global perspective, is difficult.
The actual negotiations for the Iran Agreement of course is infinitely more complex, but the very engagement of our countries participation and leadership in the process is worthy of congratulations to all negotiating parties.
Negotiations is part of everyones life. Why should negotiating international differences be any different?
POSTNOTE: RELATED, Note the October 9-10, 2015 Workable World Conference on Transforming the United Nations System. Details here.
Here is a link to a year-long series of posts related to international issues on this, the 70th year of the United Nations.

#1054 – Dick Bernard: Tom Atchison's Memorial; and two upcoming events

August 24, 2015/0 Comments/in Community, International Relations, Peace & Justice, War /by dickbernard

Saturday I went to the Memorial Service for Tom Atchison, deceased earlier this month at 93. His picture from many years earlier is below; his brief bio is here: Tom Atchison002.

Tom Atchison, undated photo

Tom and I got along very well, serving together for three years as President and Treasurer of the Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers (MAP) 2005-2007 (his service with MAP far pre-dated my own; I believe he was one of the founders of the now 20-year old alliance.)
I didn’t know till the memorial that Tom was “absolutely critical to the start of Wolf Ridge Environmental Center which began on Earth Day, 1969″ and has since given educational programming to “over 500,000 people”.
One of my own remembrances of Tom seems pertinent here. Sometime during our working relationship with MAP, I distinctly remember him sharing with me that when he graduated from Princeton in 1944 as a physicist, he was offered a job with the “Manhattan Project“. That project, of course, is synonymous with “The Bomb”; and Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
He declined the opportunity, and spent the rest of his working career as a “rock guy”, a research scientist with the U.S. Bureau of Mines; and spent his spare time working for a better world in peace and with justice for all.
Strange indeed how decisions made, or not, live on for all of us.
Tom’s generation is now rapidly exiting.
We tend to read and see, still, the war stories of those who served in the military (yes, Tom was a Naval officer in WWII and then in Korea, retiring from the Naval Reserves in the 1960s).
Too seldom is it recognized that great numbers of these veterans lived on, and in one unsung way or another committed to the need for peace for the survival of all of us.
I am privileged to have known many of these unsung heroes.
There is much more to be said, of course. There always is.
Farewell, Tom. You done good!
POSTNOTE:
(click to enlarge both pictures. Text of both is here: Fliers001
Sunday, we went to a small but incredibly powerful exhition at St. Paul’s Landmark Center entitled “From War to Reconciliation: Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Exhibition”. The exhibit runs August 22 – November 28, 2015. Here’s the information:

Today the debate continues, on the pros and cons of the Iran Nuclear Deal. We’ll be at the below session this afternoon. Be there if you can.

It is ironic to me that for some reason the awful results in 1945 of the most deadly weapons ever invented are now, 70 years later, presented as justification for some countries, especially our own, to hold on to immense stockpiles of even more deadly weapons, while at the same time demanding that others be denied the right.
It is hardly rational to talk the talk of Peace, while insisting on being armed to the teeth, and threatening, in effect, Hiroshima and Nagasaki like solutions to today’s international problems.
We should be the ones “beating the swords into ploughshares” as a witness to the intrinsic evil of war, especially of nuclear and similar weapons designed to destroy us all.

Nuclear weapons, from display at Hiroshima Nagasaki Exhibit at Landmark Center, St. Paul Aug 23, 2015

Same source as above, Aug. 23, 2015

Cuba? Very important too. Here’s what I wrote to President Obama and my Senators and Congresswoman about the relationship between Iran, Cuba and ourselves….
Sens Klobuchar et al re Iran and Cuba

#1050 – Dick Bernard: Nagasaki, August 9, 1945. A Message to the Peace Movement.

August 10, 2015/0 Comments/in Community, International Relations, Peace & Justice, War /by dickbernard

Woodbury MN Aug 30, 2008, Kathy Kelly (kneeling, in black, in front), with group.

Most everything has been said, many times, about the deadly ending of WWII at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The second atom bomb exploded over Nagasaki, Japan, 70 years ago yesterday (August 9, 1945). It was scarcely news in the public sphere yesterday.
It occurred to me that while I knew plenty about the deadly events in Japan, I’d never really checked where the cities actually were, to give some context. So, here’s where Hiroshima and Nagasaki are in relationship to each other, and to Tokyo. (While looking at the map, note the proximity of the Korean Peninsula and Japan.)
There is another piece of context usually missed.
Recently I was watching a re-broadcast of the last segment of Ken Burns, War, about the end of World War II. The U.S. possessed two A-bombs, it was said, and if Japanese surrender hadn’t come after Nagasaki, the war would have continued.
What if a third bomb had been available then, and a decision had to be made to use it? Or four, or ten, or 50 were available and “needed”? Would we have bombed Japan essentially out of existence? Would that have brought lasting peace?
Japan is not a tiny country; even then it was very heavily populated (about 80 million, one-fourth the current population of the United States). Today it has 127 million people, about 40% of U.S. population.
Alternatively, what would have happened if no A-bombs had been available to drop on Japan at the awful, bitter, end?
There are many opinions, all speculative, to answer these questions – what we think might have happened.
We now possess a huge arsenal of deadly weapons that are too frightening for someone sane to actually use in war, yet we continue to insist on keeping this huge stockpile, and condemning others who even consider the possibility of having even one of their own.
One wonders what we are thinking? Or, whether we are thinking at all.
Yesterday there were events commemorating Nagasaki, and speeches about what it means to us as a civilization. But mostly, August 9 was off the radar.
But not all was quiet.
Yesterday, a group of which I am a founding member, the U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation, awarded its 2015 Peace Prize in Los Alamos NM, where the atomic bomb experiment became a deadly reality in 1945.
This years award winner, I learned overnight, was Kathy Kelly, who we hosted overnight August 29, 2008, when she and seven others were completing the last day of a walk from Chicago to St. Paul to witness for peace (Photo begins this post, above). Several folks from the Twin Cities area joined the group for their last several miles, ending at the College of St. Catherine.
Kathy’s group was very impressive and committed, I recall. Kathy obviously continues her quest for an enduring Peace in the world.
While people today generally yearn for Peace, the public atmosphere seems far more one of hopelessness than hope, in effect: “What can I do? Nothing.”
That 1964 movie, “Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”, comes to mind.
Still, there is a massive and ready market for peace in our country and around the world.
But the salesforce for peace – people like Kathy and the Peace Memorial Foundation – have to drastically change their marketing strategy, in my opinion. This will take much introspection, and retooling of tactics. Otherwise a noble message will continue to be marginalized, and those who “Love the Bomb” will remain dominant.
But all is not hopeless:
For the first time in many years, there are active and efforts at the highest levels of government to change the conversation about relationships between the United States, and Cuba, and Iran; indeed all countries. Building such relationships had seemed hopeless, but they are proceeding, and that is very good news.
My friend, Ehtasham Anwar in Pakistan, has his own driving dream of a peaceful world, and he has the drive to achieve his dream. He and I and others visited here in June; his goal for us is a United States Alliance of Peacemakers.
94-year old Lynn Elling, Naval officer in WWII, witnessed for peace at the Concordia Language Villages at Bemidji MN last Friday, rededicating the World Citizen Peace Site his organization established years ago. Sometimes his quest seems quixotic, impossible, but he’ll never quit.
Peace activities continue between St. Paul MN and its now 60 year friendship with sister city Nagasaki, Japan.
In early October, 2015, another friend, 88 year old Dr. Joseph Schwartzberg, witnesses for peace with a very important Creating a Workable World Conference in Minneapolis.
These folks and many, many others simply need to coalesce together, in concert, towards a common goal: a peaceful and sustainable world.
As the song some years ago so clearly said, “We Are The World” (The long version).
POSTNOTE: a powerful eight minute video received from a friend, today.

#1049 – Dick Bernard: August 6, 2015: The Atomic Bomb at 70. Reflecting on Peace.

August 6, 2015/0 Comments/in Community, History, International Relations, Peace & Justice, War /by dickbernard

PRE-NOTE: The U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation will award its 2015 Peace Prize in Los Alamos NM on Sunday August 9. The event will be live-streamed. You can access information here.
Numerous observances have been and are being held on this deadly anniversary of the first use in war of a nuclear bomb: Twin Cities of St. Paul/Minneapolis; St. Paul; other events in many places. Consider joining something, somewhere.
Some quotations from Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer and Charlie Chaplin on the Atomic Bomb.
Related post: here.
(click to enlarge all photos)

Peace Plaza Fountain, Rochester MN Aug 4, 2015

Today is the 70th anniversary of the first use of the Atomic Bomb over Hiroshima, Japan, the first of only two uses of the deadly bomb as a weapon of War (Nagasaki was August 9, 1945).
The United States is the only country to have ever actually used the bomb in warfare.
The United States and Russia have over 90% of the total arsenal of nuclear weapons worldwide. The U.S. alone has over 7,000 nuclear weapons, hardly a good example of disarmament. Only 9 of over 190 world countries have nuclear weapons.
My personal reflections about August 6, 1945 was written ten years ago. That column was published in the August 6, 2005 Minneapolis Tribune: Atomic Bomb 1945001
Of course, there were differences of opinion about The Bomb in 1945, in 2005, and now. I won’t solve those arguments here.
My intention is simply to open space for dialogue and reflection.
The most recent American Legion magazine (I’m a military veteran and long-time Legion member) has a long article defending the assertion that being armed to the teeth with thousands of nuclear warheads is good, essential even, for U.S. national security. I think such a notion is insane, but here’s the article from my copy of the magazine: Amer Legion A-Bomb001
Both articles represent a reality, then and now, of how a world divided inevitably fails: the downside of powerful people cultivating enmity and division among peoples to achieve and maintain dominion, power and control anywhere. In war, ultimately, everyone loses. Each war is progressively more dangerous. In many ways we now live on a planet without borders. We are at the point where we risk destroying everyone and everything.
But division for the purpose of asserting dominion is, unfortunately, a tactic that is still useful, though never long term. Study any in a long line of those who lusted after long-term victory, power and control, including in our own country.
*
Emphasis on peace is a hard, but much better, road to travel. Peace is a process of inches, never simple. But we see evidence of it every day, everywhere.
I saw it on display Tuesday at the “Peace Plaza” in Rochester MN, just down the street from the famed Mayo Clinic, through whose doors enter people in medical crisis, from many cultures.
Tuesday is best conveyed in pictures (click to enlarge them):
1. The older man, likely Arab, sitting quietly next bench over, feeding the birds with bread crumbs kept in his pocket.

Rochester MN Aug 4, 2015

2. The man and woman, likely father and daughter, who spoke quietly, conversing in Spanish.

Rochester MN Aug 4, 2015

At one point the younger woman, obviously a very gifted dancer or gymnast, posed for her Dad in front of the Peace Fountain, and he took her photo with his iPhone.
3. And finally, the crowd that began to swell nearby, for some unknown reason. But it was obvious that they were proud to be together:

Rochester MN Aug 4, 2015

Turned out, they were together to celebrate successful completion of a summer project to set up mini-libraries in Rochester, for the purpose of quietly improving literacy. There was a ribbon cutting, and the Mayor read from a childrens book.
After they left, I looked at the fruit of their labor – the mini-library which will remain on Peace Plaza, cousin to (apparently) many others around Rochester, and in other places.
War was not welcome in Rochester, on Tuesday…a typical scene everwhere.

Rochester MN Mini-Library at Peace Plaza Aug 4, 2015

So, which reality will dominate us forward from today? Peace, or permanent and unending war or threat of war? Neither can be successfully imposed unilaterally. Both require negotiation of differences towards and compromise, such as the recent and difficult negotiations with Iran.
Watch the emphasis of the questions and responses of the first presidential debate tonight. This is the face of America that the rest of the world will see.
*
Our planet cannot survive war.
Any two people in relationship must negotiate differences, constantly. Why should it be any different among nations?
Neither choice is easy. There are downsides, as my relatives conveyed in their letters (above commentary) back in the summer of 1945. Though it is never perfect (it is, after all, negotiation) reaching an imperfect agreement is far better than the alternative.
Peace takes work, lots of work; and it takes an ability to understand, appreciate and negotiate differences, including amongst “birds of a feather” who seem to have the same basic beliefs, but are hampered by the same competitive power struggles that hobble societies at large.
Peace will continue to happen neighbor-to-neighbor; town-to-town; but it also must happen all the way up the line through the leaders we select by our action or inaction at the local, state and national level.
My opinion: a huge stockpile of nuclear weapons in our arsenal is not a deterrent; it is an expression of national insanity.
There is a better way. Let’s work towards it.
*
POST NOTE: This week was also National Night Out in the United States. This is a week to highlight neighborliness in our communities.
Doubtless the event I witnessed at Rochester’s Peace Plaza on Tuesday was related in some way to National Night Out; and was the culmination of an activity that began in March.
People prefer peace. We ordinary citizens are the one who must lead the conversation about peace everywhere, including in our world.
Let’s rid ourselves of the illusion, as the Aircraft Carrier below, that massive weapons of war reflect any solution to anything.

A United States Aircraft Carrier, Summer 2015, too often the kind of symbol that represents our image to the rest of the world.

COMMENTS:
from Joyce D Aug 6: from Juan Cole, Informed Comment (Includes President Obama’s speech, August 5, 2015.)
from Norm H: Thanks, Dick.
Some good food for thought and the basis for some serious thinking and reflection.
I am one who does think that dropping the A-Bomb twice on Japan was absolutely necessary and really the only way to eliminate the need for an invasion of Japan that would have resulted in thousands and thousands of US casualties. In spite of their significant losses of land, men and material as the Allied forces marched up the Pacific towards Tokyo, the Japanese military was till not convinced that waving the white flag was a better alternative than preparing to defending the homeland from the pending Allied invasion.
And, dropping the two bombs did bring Japan to the table and the end of the war even though there were still members of the military who wanted to fight on till the death literally and figuratively.
The problem with all of the above is, of course, that it opened the proverbial Pandora’s Box of the potential for nuclear warfare….and lead to many years of détente and the Cold War…with the operating theory being that at least in terms of Russia and the United States, if each nation could theoretically destroy the other given their respective nuclear arsenals, that “peace” would exist.
As an Air Force intelligence officer during that time, I was particularly aware of the reality of that situation.
Of course, once the Box had been opened, other countries began to develop nuclear weapon capacities which began to challenge…perhaps only in a minor way…the integrity, if you will. of détente.
The Cold War ended and historical researchers will no doubt spend time trying to sort out whether Russia was actually ever as strong as the US claimed as justification or its arsenal and defensive capability build-up in terms of nuclear weapon capacity let alone the ability to deliver those weapons during that period of time.
So, while I have no doubt what-so-ever given the situation in 1945 that the dropping of the two bombs was necessary, the result was the opening of Pandora’s Box which could never again be closed on the matter.
On the other hand, many countries were developing the nuclear weapon technology so it was just a matter of time before some country either used it or used the threat of its use as leverage for some strategic position or policy.