War – Page 8 – Thoughts Towards a Better World

#1025 – Dick Bernard: Camp Buell, Dakota Territory, July, 1863

May 10, 2015/0 Comments/in Family History, Minnesota, Native American, North Dakota, Quebec/French-Canadians, War /by dickbernard

On my frequent trips to LaMoure ND, I’ve always passed by a road-side historical marker on the edge of Milnor (about 40 miles west of Wahpeton on Highway 13).
Markers like these are “magnets” for me, but this one I would always pass by – enroute, and too tired – though I think I read it back in the late 1980s, before it had any context for me.
Here’s a photo of the marker, weather beaten but readable. Click to enlarge it.

Milnor ND May 6, 2015

This marker had, it turns out, personal meaning to me: back in 1863 my ancestor, Samuel Collette, was a private in the very unit that camped here, part of Co G of the First Minnesota Mounted Rangers, on their mission to remove the Indians from territory about to be settled, part of the Indian War (now called Dakota Conflict) of 1862-63.
There is no need, here, to either justify or condemn that long ago action. It could be argued either way, and has been, and likely will be. It was a part of history.
The marker itself is now over 50 years old, and it would be interesting to discuss how its contents might be changed, if at all, at this time in history.
Five years ago as part of my French-Canadian family history I included a few pages about this campaign. A portion of those pages can be read here: Sibley Expedition 1863*001
The North Dakota Historical Society has an interesting weblink which describes, briefly, the circumstances and experiences at each of the camps on the Sibley Expedition. You can read it here. Simply use the drop-down menu on the page to find any of the camps, including Camp Buell.
No photos exist of Samuel Collette. Apparently they were all lost in a house fire somewhere years ago. He was an interesting character, coming from Quebec to what is now Centerville in suburban St. Paul in 1857.
In 1862, for reasons unknown, he became part of the First Minnesota Mounted Rangers, thus becoming part of the historical narrative of this part of the midwest.
* – Pages three and four of this link are from a newsletter, Chez Nous, which endeavored to keep alive aspects of French-Canadian history in the midwest. The entirety of Chez Nous can now be read on-line, and is indexed. Go here, click on Library, click on Chez Nous to access both index and newsletter entries.

#1021 – Dick Bernard: Memorial Day, 1946, and the residue of WWII

May 1, 2015/0 Comments/in International Relations, War /by dickbernard

This evening our friend Annelee Woodstrom speaks about growing up in Adolf Hitler’s Germany. I’ve heard her speak several times, and she is always thought provoking. She was 7 years old when Hitler came to power, and 18 when his dream of a 1,000 year “Third Reich” ended, after only 11 years, with the German people ruined as well.
Of course, megalomaniacs don’t seem to learn by the past mistakes of previous megalomaniacs, whether individuals or consortiums of individuals. They always think they have the system figured out: that they won’t make the same mistakes their predecessors made. So, the folks who birthed Project for a New American Century in the late 1990s, probably really believed their own fantasy, and the first project was presented on a silver platter by the 9-11-2001 terrorist attacks: the opportunity to take Saddam Hussein and Iraq in 2003.
We soon learned the reality of that fantasy, but, of course, after a few years of recovery, history can be re-manufactured, and rehabilitated, and so it goes. Some will always contend that Iraq was a success; as there remain here and there some neo-Nazis with similar fantasies.
So it goes.
Dream on. We should be wary of being duped by the might is right crowd. It never quite works out the way they fantasize.
I was five years old when WWII ended, finally, in September, 1945, with the surrender of Japan. I’m old enough to have memories, and there really are no specific memories of those first months of peace. Most likely the dominant emotion of my parents and those of their generation was relief that it was all over. I wrote about what adults felt in a commentary for the Minneapolis Star Tribune in August, 2005: Atomic Bomb 1945001.
In 1945, in tiny Eldridge ND, there was nothing for a five year old to notice. Young kids are limited by their very limited experience.
I know, now, that life was difficult for the adults at the time. Things like Ration Cards, Victory Gardens, relatives, neighbors and friends as casualties in War, made the dominant emotion, likely, similar to my grandmother’s “Hurrah, the old war is over!” in a letter to her Naval Officer son in the south Pacific, even though her exclamation came to celebrate, in a sense, the Atomic Bombs of August, 1945.
Her son, my Uncle Art, graduated from high school in May of 1945, and almost immediately went into the Army, though he never had to serve overseas. He trained at Ft. Carson, Colorado, and was in the Ski Troops, preparing for conflict in more Arctic regions; most likely they knew their training was basically “peacetime” service. Her son, Lt. George Busch, came home at the end of October.
My Dad was now Superintendent in Sykeston ND, and George’s teaching position at the high school there was held by George’s wife, Jean, until his return.
The War was over.
(click on all photos to enlarge them)

Sykeston High School 1958 by Dick Bernard

Then came Memorial Day, 1946.
Somehow frozen in my memory, indelible, was the lawn of the school pictured above. I remember that day, standing about where I stood to take that 1958 photo. I would have been six years old.
On the school grounds there were numerous crosses representing the servicemen lost in WWII from that community and surrounding area. There seemed many.
Between myself and the crosses, facing away from me, were several riflemen, giving the traditional farewell salute.
I don’t recall Taps – that would have required someone who played the trumpet. Years later, in that same space, my brother Frank played a perfect version of Taps, there, or so I understand.
War was over.
For little over a year there was no war, it is recorded. The United Nations was founded in October, 1945. People everywhere were sick of killing each other.
The peace didn’t last. It’s been more-or-less perpetual war ever since; more simmering than boiling, but the next explosion could be the final one for humankind if we don’t figure things out.
If there ever was a time for “power to the people” for Peace, it should be now.
Let us work, hard, together, for Peace.
POSTNOTE:
Fifty-five of us spent a powerful time with Annelee Woodstrom on Friday night. Here’s a couple of photos.

Annelee Woodstrom May 1, 2015

May 1, 2015.

#1019 – Dick Bernard: War is Hell; How About Waging Peace?

April 23, 2015/0 Comments/in War /by dickbernard

POSTNOTE, May 13, 2015: Three Links about WWII I find especially interesting:
America at War (also referenced below): America at War001;
plus two items found at my ancestral North Dakota farm:
1942 War Atlas edited by H. V. Kaltenborn: 1942 War Atlas002;
and
an anti-America-into-War appeal circa 1940-41 from “left-wing” Democrat Montana Senator Burton K. Wheeler: WWII anti-war position001 Gerald P. Nye, quoted, was conservative Republican North Dakota U.S. Senator. The others quoted on the “postal”, Herbert Hoover, Amb. Joseph P. Kennedy, and Col Charles Lindbergh, are well known and speak for themselves.
*
A week from today, 70 years ago, April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler took his own life in Berlin. About a week later, May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered, and the Third Reich became an object lesson of history for all of us.
On the day Hitler died, Anneliese Solch*, then 18, was with her family at home in Bavaria, about the same distance from Berlin, as St. Paul is from Fargo.
The question becomes: what have we learned, from war, after war, after war?
(click to enlarge)

Dominic Collette, Korean War, 1950s (see text for more).

April 17 I stopped in at the State Historical Society of North Dakota (a marvelous museum and archive), and touched base with long-time friend and archivist Jim Davis.
We connect through my work on family history, and conversation got around to my grandmother’s French-Canadian side from Oakwood (near Grafton, ND).
Jim was recalling a long commentary he’d written for the 2009-2011 North Dakota State Government “Blue Book”, remembering one of his interview subjects, Dominic Collette from Oakwood, ND, doubtless a relative of mine.
Dominic’s story about service in the Korean War is gripping, and Jim used his recollections, and asked him for a period photo.
Dominic said, (my paraphrase) “the only photo I have of me is this one: I’m the shoes that you see at the top of the photo”. That’s the above photo which Jim used with his article, part of which appears here**: Korea & Sp Amer Wars001
What mesmerizes me about the photo is not Dominic’s shoes, but the center of the photo, the victim of war, who he is, and who are trying to save his life: a North Korean, & GIs. Enemies, but friends; victims of a deadly struggle, trying to kill, then save, each other. That is war as most combatants see it…us, not us against them.
Back home in the mailbox was the May, 2015 issue of the American Legion magazine***, which calls itself “The magazine for a strong America”. I’m a longtime member of the American Legion.
This particular issue included a long article, “America At War: 1775 – Present”, and I found it particularly interesting. The entire article is here: America at War001 One half of page 32 pictures the death of Dominic Collette’s cousin, and my Uncle, Frank Peter Bernard**** of Grafton ND, on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.
And so it goes.
In the two articles referenced above, there is great room for reflection, discussion and, yes, debate.
I took some time with the America at War article, noting what was included as relevant data, and the immense amount of relevant data that was left out…. War is far more than a carefully selected photograph and a few facts, after all.
The only U.S. Presidents after 1941 without a war on their watch were President John F. Kennedy, and President Jimmy Carter. Of course, this fact can be buried – global tensions will always exist, but do not equate to “War” as the only sure option; there are alternatives, like negotiations.
In the article, the entire period from 1947-1991 is labeled as the “Cold War”. Still, from 1961-63, and again from 1977-81, with near misses (including the Cuban Missile Crisis when I was in the U.S. Army), it was possible to stay away from war. Cooler heads prevailed. And therein should be some lessons for us all.
The only time period since 1941 identified in the Legion magazine article as being without war in the United States was 1946. That was immediately after World War II ended (September, 1945), and the United Nations was founded (October, 1945).
Of course there are people, still, who are terrified of the very idea of nations united for some reason or other; but now more than ever the notion of a United Nations of countries working together is essential to global survival.
Let’s talk.
* – As for Anneliese Solch (now Annelee Woodstrom), she will be reflecting on growing up in Adolf Hitler’s Germany on Friday May 1 in Minneapolis. This is a reservation only dinner, with space still available. More information here: World Law Day May 1 2015
** – In the same article was a segment about the Spanish-American War, in which my grandfather Bernard served in 1898-99 in the Philippines. That segment is also included here. North Dakota lost 17 or 18 men in that war; four of them were from Grandpa’s Company C, out of Grafton.
*** – I’ve been a member of the Legion since the mid 1990s. While I’m a veteran, and I don’t have to belong to the Legion, and I certainly would not be in league with its general philosophy, I’m now a long-time member and will probably continue being so.
**** – In the visit to the North Dakota Interpretive Center I found a monument to all of North Dakota’s war dead, in all wars. At such places, I always look for my Uncle Frank’s name, and there it was:
VIGNETTE

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

“Joseph Paul F. Bernard”?
I’d never heard him described as other than Frank Peter, or “Pete” or “petey” or just Frank. And the first boy born in our family after Franks death was named Frank Peter Bernard, in memory Dad’s younger brother.
Jim Davis looked it up on the archival record. Indeed: Joseph Paul F. Bernard is what it showed, with all other data consistent with my Uncle. I sent Jim a small collection of documents, including Grandma’s own inscriptions about her sons birth and death in her Bible. You can read it here: Bernard, Frank, b & d001
As one can see by the documents, there is some rationale for “Paul”, but “Joseph”? As I told Jim, all I could surmise is that Joseph might have been Frank’s Confirmation name – a common occurrence in Catholic families. And Frank’s Uncle, down the street in Grafton, was Joseph Bernard.
But all of that remains speculation, and the notation on the monument will not be changed.

#1013- Dick Bernard: Flossenburg

April 9, 2015/0 Comments/in History, International Relations, War /by dickbernard

In today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune I read a most interesting column about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the noted German Lutheran Theologian and Pastor, who was part of the conspiracy to remove Adolf Hitler during the dark days of the Third Reich. He died by hanging 70 years ago today, April 9, 1945.
The first paragraph of the commentary noted “Bonhoeffer was hanged at the Flossenbürg concentration camp in Germany for participating in the conspiracy to kill Adolf Hitler.”
The mention “Flossenburg” especially peaked my interest.
For a dozen years, now, I have been privileged to have as a close friend, Annelee Woodstrom. Annelee grew up as Anneliese Solch in Mitterteich, Germany, near the Czech border.
Now 88, Annelee grew up in the time of the Third Reich, and speaks often of her memories then.
She was 18 when the war ended.
A vignette she always mentions in her talks was the time, very near the end of the war, when a group of POWs were marched past the family home. They were from Flossenburg, she said. Until then she didn’t even know there was a prison at Flossenburg, much less that it was a concentration camp, and she admits that fact may be hard to believe.
(Until this moment, when I looked it up, I didn’t know that Flossenburg was just 20 miles south of Mitterteich.)
It is simple to say, now, that “she must have known. That town was only 20 miles away.”
But if you factor in everything about the place and the time and the circumstances, there is little doubt that townspeople knew only what was told to them. Even today, with all of the means of communication we have access to, we are regularly deceived and misled. Think now of some town 20 miles from you, where you don’t know anyone. Even today, lots could go on in that town without your knowledge….
I sent the commentary along to Annelee this morning. Three weeks from Friday, in Minneapolis, Annelee Woodstrom will remember, among many other memories, the end of World War II as she experienced it in Germany (Adolf Hitler killed himself on April 30; VE Day came on May 6, 1945.)
Here is the flier for the event: World Law Day May 1 2015.
Reservations are requested.

#1010 – Dick Bernard: Death and Resurrection. Perhaps a real time for real hope for our future.

April 4, 2015/0 Comments/in International Relations, Peace & Justice, Politics, War /by dickbernard

Regardless of your faith tradition, or your particular beliefs, you know that tomorrow is Easter, and the basics of the Easter story.
Have a good day, tomorrow, today, and every day.
Happy Easter.
(click to enlarge)

Tuesday I wrote with a prediction about the negotiations involving the U.S., Iran, and several other countries: Russia, Britain, France, European Union.
Twice in that post,in slightly different ways, I predicted that: “there will be a deal, imperfect as such deals always are, which will look better and better as time goes on“.
By weeks end, the “resurrection” had come to pass. No one can deny that there has been a major and positive change in relationship, regardless of what happens going forward.
My prediction was informed by experience. Once parties – any parties – agree to negotiate (which begins simply by willing to even be seen in public together just to talk, on anything at all), relationships are bound to change, most certainly for the better. This applies to every such negotiations, from the most minor interpersonal dispute, to, as in this case, a very high stakes international effort to defuse and begin to reconfigure a long time history which goes back to at least 1953.
So, for me at least, the beginning of the end of the dispute went back to the first time there was an unofficial, but very public, meeting of a high Iranian official with a high United States official in New York at the time of a United Nations meeting. I don’t recall the exact date or people or circumstances, but at the time I knew it was more than a casual accidental brush in an elevator or such.
It was a beginning.
So, events this Easter week in the Iran negotiations were a beginning to something which, I feel, can be very good long-term. There is a very long way to go to a complete comprehensive deal (which makes the apostles of doom hopeful), but the change is permanent. There has been a breakthrough.
Of a multitude of opinions I have seen about the Iran negotiations, these two stand out thus far: here and here.
There was another similar “resurrection”, not long ago, with an official change in the U.S. position towards Cuba, a relationship broken almost as long as with Iran, going back to 1959.
The day after I posted about Iran, I took my grandson to an open rehearsal of the world-class Minnesota Orchestra. Ted loves music, and I thought this a good opportunity.
Some time ago, it was announced that the Minnesota Orchestra had been selected as the U.S. Orchestra who will perform in Cuba May 12 and 13.
As the preview for the next season of the Orchestra was being described, one announcement, the coming trip to Cuba, brought enthusiastic applause from the hundreds of us in the seats of Orchestra Hall.
There, too, people know that “times, they are a changin’ “, and with our individual efforts going forward, the positive changes can become permanent. (If you’re interested in Bob Dylan, let this tape roll on. Fascinating.)
Nothing will be perfect – it never is.
But it is certainly appearing that it can be made better, for all of us in the entire world.
Happy Easter.

Now, how about those nuclear powers (the U.S., Russia, Israel and all the rest) getting rid of those nuclear bombs…which we, after all, invented and perfected and still stockpile by the thousands.

#1008 – Dick Bernard: The Negotiations With Iran: "Eve of Destruction" or "Dawn of Correction"?

March 31, 2015/0 Comments/in History, International Relations, Peace & Justice, Politics, War /by dickbernard

Last nights news had a rather dismal looking visual image: a rectangular table in Switzerland, around which were sitting many very serious and not at all confident looking men and women, attempting to come to some agreement about the general issue of nuclear and relationships between their own countries and Iran. The general story was that they weren’t at all sure they could come to a bargained agreement.
Of course, outside the room, were endless talking heads and written opinions about what was being done wrong, or should be done this way…or that…or whose fault it would be if things wouldn’t work out…. As is always true with unilateral arguments, these arguments always were airtight: there was no “other side of the story” to deal with.
Overnight, on another topic, came an interesting sentence from a friend to another discussion group about another much more mundane issue in the city of Minneapolis: “Compromise – something Americans are not very good at.” Indeed.
My predictions: there will be a deal, imperfect as such deals always are, which will look better and better as time goes on. Surrounding the deal will be those on all sides with vested interests to protect, but no “skin in the game” at the bargaining table, who will talk about “sellout”, and all the like. In the longer term, President Obama’s negotiations ability will be seen as a great strength, rather than a perceived weakness.
Many who know me, know I spent most of my working career involved in one sort of negotiations or another, from interpersonal disputes, to fairly large contracts between labor and management, to occasional labor strikes.
I’ve been there, done that.
There were quite frequent “deaths door” bargains where, near the end, the “sides” looked much like the parties mentioned earlier around the table in the Iran negotiations.
By the time this “deaths door” stage of negotiations was reached, everyone knew that their cherished non-negotiables most certainly had to be negotiated; that walking away was no longer a viable option.
They also knew that they would have to face their own particular “public”, who would complain vigorously about the results, and make assorted threats; and that the negotiators would have to say, “folks, this is the best we can do”.
The seasoned negotiators – the ones who’d done this thing two or three times or more – would know that, long term, the imperfect deal would look better and better; a building block for a better bargain next time, where both sides would actually win. That “win-lose”, which is actually “lose-lose”, was an undesirable option.
It is no particular secret that the Middle East is a jumbled up geopolitical mess at the moment, and has been for years. You don’t have to read far beyond the headlines to get that sense. There is a great plenty of blame to go around, abundantly including our own country and others past policies in the region. We like being in control. As stated earlier: “Compromise – something Americans are not very good at.”
As I observed so often in those smaller negotiations in which I was involved, it is necessary to go through the messiness to get to the brighter world existing from a negotiated settlement. But to get there you need to let go of many of your own cherished absolutes, and that is very hard to do. Better that the other side concede.
My prediction: there will be a negotiated agreement, and soon. It will be imperfect, but it will be a beginning.
Yesterday, when I was thinking of this post, after watching Charlie Rose’s interview of President Assad of Syria, and reading about places like Yemen, etc., I thought about Barry McGuire’s old song “The Eve of Destruction”. It’s pretty powerful.
I went to find out more about the song: about Barry McGuire, when it was written, etc., and stopped by the Wikipedia entry which revealed the song was a hit in 1965.
It was there, in the “people’s encyclopedia”, that I learned about another 1965 song, an answer to Eve of Destruction, called “Dawn of Correction” by a group called the Spokesmen.
I’d never heard of Dawn of Correction before, and listened to it, carefully. Very, very interesting point of view, also from 1965. Take a listen.
Directly related, from yesterday, here.

#1003 – Dick Bernard: A Remarkable Evening Remembering the Vietnam War

March 20, 2015/0 Comments/in History, International Relations, Peace & Justice, War /by dickbernard

UPDATE Mar 27, 2014: Bill Sorem filmed the entire event which is available on his vimeo site here. The entire program is about 90 minutes, featuring solely the seven speakers.
*
Tonight I was at a remarkable story-telling session in St. Paul. More later on that. There will be a continuation of the conversation on Thursday, April 9, at Plymouth Congregational Church, 1900 Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis MN. Several pages of handouts from tonight, including the the agenda for tonight, and for April 9, can be read here: Vietnam War Recalled001
(click on drawing to enlarge it)

photo copy of Padre Johnson sketch from 1968, used with permission of the artist. See Postnote 4.

Personal background:
In mid-November, 1982, I was in Washington D.C. for a meeting of a volunteer board of which I was a member.
On Saturday, Nov 13, a member reported to us that she’d seen many veterans of the Vietnam War the previous evening, and they were in town for the dedication of the just completed Vietnam Memorial on the National Mall. Emotions were intense, she reported.
Sunday, Nov 14, 1982, I had several hours between the end of our meeting, and my flight back to Minneapolis from D.C.’s National Airport, and I decided to stop by this new monument. The visit to the wall was an intense one for me as well. I described my experience a couple of weeks later: Vietnam Mem DC 1982001 (See Postnote 1)
I’m a Vietnam era Army Infantry veteran, 1962-63. None of us in Basic Training at Ft. Carson CO ever left stateside; we were simply folded into a newly reactivated Infantry Division which, it turned out, was being prepared for later deployment to Vietnam. At that time, I recall my platoon sergeant wanted an assignment to Saigon. It was considered “good duty”. Later my two younger brothers were Air Force officers who both served in Vietnam, circa 1968 and 1971, one as an F-105 pilot; the other, navigator on military transport planes, some in and out of Vietnam airstrips.
It occurred to me that day at the Memorial that I had never welcomed my brothers home after their tours ended, so I wrote both of them letters in the plane enroute home. Ten or so years earlier they just came back, that’s all.
In more recent years I learned my former Army Company had been decimated in a 1968 ambush in Vietnam. My source was a colleague from the same company, from Sauk Rapids MN, who’d learned this from another veteran who’d later been in the same Company. As I recall, the vet said to my Army friend: “I’ll tell you this story once; never ask me about it again”. (See Postnotes 2 and 3)
Tonights gathering (see page two here, and photo below: Vietnam War Recalled001)
My words are superfluous to the intensity of the messages conveyed by seven speakers in 90 minutes tonight. Below is a picture of the printed agenda. Click to enlarge. I noted someone filming the talks. Hopefully the evening will be translated into an on-line presentation for others to see. Every presentation was powerful.
(click to enlarge)

Agenda, March 20, 2015

Postnote 1: As I was preparing this post, I thought it would be simple to find a link that described the history of the Memorial. In the end, I had to use this Wikipedia entry as a source. Scroll down to find the early history of the Memorial and the controversy surrounding it. At this 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War (April 30, 1975), active attempts are being made to re-invent the Vietnam War as being something other than the disaster that it was. History is never safe, which is why the stories told tonight are so important.
Postnote 2: Some years ago I learned that someone had placed online a website remembering the history of the Infantry Battalion of which my Infantry Company was part. You can access it here, including some photographs I took as a young GI at Ft. Carson CO.
Postnote 3: On Monday evening, March 16, 2015, I was checking into the motel in LaMoure ND. The clerk at the desk, a Mom who I’ve gotten to know in the course of many visits to the town, felt a need to talk this particular evening. Just a short while earlier her Dad had died, at 65. He’d had a very rough life, spending most of his recent years on 120% disability from the Veterans Administration for severe exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. It was falling to her to clean up final affairs for her Dad, and it was not easy.
When I got home I wrote a note of support and condolence to her.
It only occurred to me tonight, writing this piece, that she, and my friend from Army days, were from the same town, Sauk Rapids MN.
Postnote 4: Artist Ray (Padre) Johnson is a great friend, and was a medic in Vietnam during some of the deadliest combat in 1967-68. You can read more about the drawing he did here. The section about the drawing is below the photo of the hearse….
COMMENT Mar 27 from Dick Bernard to Chante Wolf’s presentation: I’ve known and respected Chante for years; heard her speak in person on March 20, and just watched her and the others just now.
I can only speak to my own experience in an Army Infantry Company 1962-63.
In those days, our units were 100% male. I really don’t recall even seeing women. I was engaged at the time, and never “went to town” (Colorado Springs) so never experienced the more raw side of life there.
We were young men, then, and doubtless thought the same as young men of any generation. In my particular units, anyway, I don’t recall the raw sexual commentary even in the drill cadences. We lived in barracks, perhaps 20 to a floor, with zero privacy, one bed next to the other with a bathroom down the hall.
Had there been females in the unit, I have no doubt that the behavior we would have witnessed would have been the same as Chante experienced. But I can speak only from my own personal experience.
I did a quick google search to see if there was more information on the topic. All I can do is add the page of links, fyi.

#1000 – Dick Bernard: Some Empty Chairs. Thoughts at 1000

March 10, 2015/0 Comments/in International Relations, Minnesota, Peace & Justice, War /by dickbernard

Related posts: March 6, 7, 8 and 9 .
(click to enlarge photos)

Was this an empty room about to become full; or a full room which had just become empty? Answer at the end of this post.

This blog began March 25, 2009. You can read it here.
Expressing an opinion on-line wasn’t new to me: that went back to the time immediately after Sep 11, 2001. Perhaps the first was two letters to family and friends in September, 2001: Post 9-11-01001
A few friends now and again suggested that I blog, and here I am, 6 years and 1000 posts later.
Does this every other day exercise matter? (There have been about 2175 days between posts #1 and #1000.)
I can only speak for myself.
Doing this near-daily exercise causes me to think about why I’m saying what I’m saying on any particular topic to a largely unknown audience, talking to more than just myself.
Even the simple act of finding a link to something describing the country of Central African Republic (as I did, yesterday) helps me to broaden my own knowledge.
I feel a bit more alive than I felt 15 years ago.
Before 9-11-01 the world I inhabited seemed more simple than it was the day after. Fear and hatred have overtaken too many of us, with predictable consequences. But many more of us are pushing back, worldwide, albeit too quietly, to change the conversation to one of peace and hope. We may not notice this: the media on which we rely makes its money on bad news; good news is boring….
Shortly before I wrote my first blog 3-25-09 our nation’s first non-white President had been inaugurated. That singular election has changed the complexion of our country forever, and is perhaps the reason for the sometimes bizarre pushback that we are experiencing, including today: the pendulum has moved. Equilibrium will take time. The past some long for is, indeed, past. Thankfully.
All in all, I feel a bit more hopeful than I did after we as a nation freely chose war over reconciliation in the fall of 2001.
Since 2001 the mood of the body politic world-wide has changed in many ways, and our individual capability to make waves – positive waves for positive change – has increased in ways we couldn’t imagine even 14 years ago.
On Woman’s Day, Sunday, I think it was Samran Anderlini, Iranian, peacemaker, who said that for 2500 years the global conversation was dominated by the few who dominated political and military leadership. The conversation, always, was power through dominance in war.
It might well be said that the war “side” still dominates, but they’re running scared.
And people like ourselves, once we get over our timidity and stand for a better peaceful world, will make the difference.
In the caption at the beginning I ask was the room waiting to be filled, or had it just emptied?
It doesn’t make any difference, really.
What makes the difference is that the room, about the time I took the photo, contained one speaker and 75 listeners. The speaker reflected on her life; it was then up to the listeners to define her reflections in a way they could use to impact our world going forward.
A useful speech is always much more than just a speech.
It is we who fill those empty chairs, the listeners, who must make the difference when we leave the room.
During this years Peace Prize Forum the background for every single session was photographs like the one below, of men and women about the task of clearing away deadly weapons of war somewhere, sometime, in our world.
Their task is, we were told, both dangerous, and more and more successful. There is an opportunity to rid the world of chemical weapons.
Now to deal with the nuclear and other insane weapons of destruction.

Clearing chemical weapons from a battlefield.

Positive change is happening. Let’s be part of making it.
A Suggestion: Those who glance regularly at my meanderings on this page know that I frequently link to an Los Angeles blogger, a retired guy like myself, who publishes Just Above Sunset six days a week. Just Above Sunset works at distilling national and international politics through the thoughts of assorted writers. I always find it a useful, albeit lengthy, collection of opinions. Here and here are the offerings from the last two days. Subscribing is free, and the post comes into my inbox about 2 a.m. each day. Consider joining.
Comment:
from Peter in New Hampshire: Funny thing: when you started to blog, the Obama election, was when I stopped. Personally, I could not see myself making a difference that way, just being one of millions of bloggers in a blogosphere. That’s not to say blogging is the problem… But I applaud your insights about what the writing process is. It’s the same for me; I want another venue, though. I think it’s books, but books are different now, so “timely” with a colon and a subtitle, out of date in a week or so. Maybe books are becoming blogs. I know a lot of blogs become books. Anyway I hadn’t written you in a long time, and wanted to respond, stand in awe, be proud to know you.
from Norm in Boston: My sentiments also, what Peter said, “…and wanted to respond, stand in awe, be proud to know you.”
I attend a poetry workshop where everything I write has to be in rhyme and humorous.
eg: Obama advocates breathing,
Dems behind him ally,
Republicans, silently seething,
Each of asphyxia die.
Most everything read at the workshop seems to have abandoned rhyme. Your blog, today, sounded like wonderful free verse.
Thanks for encouraging subscription to Just Above Sunset. Something Alan said awhile back was the idea for the rhyme above.

#997 – Dick Bernard: Day Two at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, Minneapolis

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

Videos of many of the speakers for Mar 6, 7, 8 can be accessed here. Day One, here. See also, Day Three, and March 9 and 10.
Over the years, I’ve developed a habit of not being concerned about the specific speaker(s) or program when I choose to attend an event. I just show up, and what happens, happens. I guess I like mysteries.
Very rarely am I disappointed. Mystery means, usually, opportunity, not risk.
Today, at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum in downtown Minneapolis, the program was a uniformly a great day.
All but one of the program speakers today were unfamiliar to me: I’d never heard of them, actually. Ahmet Ozumcu*, Courtney Rasch*, Muhammad Ashafa, James Wuye, Steve Pinker*. Last year I’d happened to attend a session at which Adama Dieng was speaker, otherwise I would not have heard of him either. (The presentations of those marked with * can be seen in their entirety here. The schedule includes some of Sundays programs, for your reference.)
The organisation of which Mr. Ozumcu is Director-General, the “Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons“, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013.
Courtney Rasch witnessed and led us in a moment of silence for the large number of journalists who have been imprisoned and/or killed reporting from dangerous areas on dangerous topics.
As was true yesterday, the presenters – all of them, with their diversities – were phenomenal.
It was a phenomenal day. I left a little early, basically exhausted, but with a great sense of hope.
As I take time to learn, it is amazing to note the existing and high-quality and active infrastructure for peace and justice that exists everywhere in our imperfect world.
Those presenters on video (see link above) can speak for themselves. A few snapshots of the presenters are below.
A couple of notes on the programs not on video:
Adama Dieng, an immensely impressive gentleman, is Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser of the Secretary-General of the United Nations on the Prevention of Genocide. When last I heard Mr. Dieng, a year ago, he talked about the legal aftermath of the Rwanda genocide in 1994. Today he mentioned he had left Rwanda just days before the 1994 Genocide began. At today’s presentation, he discussed the background of the tragic situation in the Central African Republic, which he described as basically religious-justified animosities (Christian v. Muslim). Mr. Dieng called special attention to a 43 page booklet published by his office, Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes, which is publicly accessible at the link for his UN office (click on his name at the beginning of this paragraph).
I wish that the conversation involving Muhammad Ashafa and James Wuye, moderated by retired ELCA Lutheran Bishop Mark Hanson, was on-line, but it was apparently not scheduled for on-line presentation. The conversation was powerful, and light-hearted, and was interrupted by applause often by a most appreciative audience.
Immam Ashafa and Rev. Wuye are Nigerians from Kaduna, Nigeria. At an earlier time, in the early 90s, they were bitter, probably deadly, enemies. The Immam had lost a teacher and two relatives to Christians; The Reverend had lost much of his right arm to Moslems in one of those mini-religious based wars. The two were on opposite sides. Eventually, almost by accident, they met each other at a gathering, and in a few years time became close friends and now travel the world spreading a message of peacemaking.
It was obvious from how they were with each other that they are fast friends. Indeed, quite by accident, I observed them in the lobby before I knew who they were, and, there, they were very much at ease with each other.
In a way, both men reminded me a bit of South Africa’s Bishop Desmond Tutu: light-heartedly and effectively dealing with deadly serious problems.
But the most surprising and hope-filled presentation for me was that of Prof. Steven Pinker, author of “The Better Angels of Our Nature“. He gave an information packed powerpoint (watch the video) that demonstrated convincingly that, with all our problems, violence in global society is decreasing, and decreasing very markedly.
It was useful to see evidence that all is not going to hell…often in our world where negative publicity is about all that is press worthy, it is easy to believe the worst.
By no means does Pinker suggest that the world is a perfect place.
By no means, though, are things as bad as the “news” likes to portray, and we sometimes like to think, and we can have hope.
I leave this day more hopeful for the future.
POSTNOTE: I elected to attend the breakout session on Minnesota 2015: Global Summit on Democracy for Sustainable Future: Tools, Solutions and Best Practices, October 25-28. From all appearances, this will be a significant and positive event, and I’d urge individuals and organizations to follow, cooperate and indeed participate in developments.
Here is the schedule for March 7 (Saturday) and March 8 (Sunday): Peace Prize Forum Mar 7001. Sundays agenda seems focused on women and peace.
(click to enlarge)

Ahmet Ozumcu, Director General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, 2013 Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Adama Dieng, Under-Secretary-General and special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide.

Bishop Mark Hanson, Imman Muhammad Ashafa, Pastor James Wuye, March 7, 2015

at right, Prof. Steven Pinker, author of “The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined”

#995 – Dick Bernard: Netanyahu at the U.S. Congress, March 3, 2015

March 3, 2015/0 Comments/in International Relations, Peace & Justice, Politics, War /by dickbernard

Back in January I wrote my two Senators and Congresswoman, urging them to not attend the Netanyahu event today – to make a quiet statement (see here: Netanyahu in Paris001.) Two of the three absented themselves (not that I had any influence in their decisions). In my opinion, they chose to not reward Netanyahu and Boehner’s disrespect, by giving undue respect to Netanyahu.
Of course, these lawmakers didn’t miss anything, since everybody had an opportunity to watch the event on television, and they also have staffs. Every word, gesture etc. has doubtless been analyzed. They just weren’t in the room, just as none of us were there.
Netanyahu is an excellent speaker, of course. Excellent speech-making does not necessarily mean that the ideas expressed are the last, or only, word on any topic. No end of tyrants have been charismatic, as we all know. They know how to put words and phrases together.
There are eloquent opposition voices, within the Jewish community, in Israel and the U.S. but they are less likely to be seen.
If you wish, here are the opinions of two:
1. Rabbi Michael Lerner of Tikkun, wrote on Netanyahu and the speech today. Here is his column.
2. Also, today, Alan Eisner of J-Street, commented on Netanyahu and the speech. You can read it here.
I have noted a persistent narrative particularly from the political right that conflict – war or threat of war – is always the answer. “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran” was John McCain’s ditty some years ago, humorous but intended.
An enemy seems necessary, somebody to fight against, to force into submission.
Lerner and Eisner talk about another way of doing business which is embraced by many of us.
War never solves anything. Win today, lose tomorrow…it happens all the time, in all arenas.
Any move towards a negotiated peace is desirable to bombing (or threatening to bomb) the hell out of somebody else, who will always remember, and ultimately get even.
What must not be lost is that Israel is a major nuclear power; Iran has never been and likely will never be. The United States is the only country to have ever used a nuclear weapon against another (Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1945) and is at the top of the heap when it comes to deadly nations.
In the middle east, I fear the possibility of Israeli aggression more than Iranian, even with the current Iranian leadership.
But, that’s just my opinion.
Related opinion here.
An excellent summary of some other opinions nationally here.
Brief PS: My personal world remains focused on my Uncle’s death, now on the residual matters that need to be taken care of. It has been a big change. I’ll go to his town tomorrow, and, of course, he will be gone.
So goes life. We’re here for awhile, and then we’re not.
Do what you can to make a better world while you have the opportunity.