Preparing for Super Tuesday in Minnesota: February 27, 2024

Read the first section below, first, then take the 20 minutes to watch this recent interview with President Biden.  Carol, who sent this to several of us says: “I just watched this and it made me much more comfortable with Biden’s “age.”  The interview has been watched near 2 million times.

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Super Tuesday is March 5, and Minnesota is one of the states.  If are a Minnesotan and you read nothing else in this post, look at the links in the 4th and 5th paragraph below.  My personal opinions are below the photo.

As reported in USAToday  Dec. 29: “The states conducting elections on 2024’s Super Tuesday include Alabama, Arkansas, Alaska, California, Colorado, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota (emphasis added), North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia” .  This is Minnesota’s first official “play” leading to election Nov. 4.

But March 5 isn’t the first act, and this blog post is intended to spotlight the biennial Precinct Caucus, which will be in Minnesota communities Tuesday, February 27, with preliminary training for assorted citizen facilitators on February 20.  In my local Senate District, Woodbury and South Maplewood, there will be a training on February 20 in the early evening, for anyone wishing to get their feet wet in the political process. The details can be found in the links above the photo.

Information from the Minnesota Secretary of State can be read here.  Itincludes links to caucus locations, and applies to Republicans and Democrats and other organized groups equally.  It’s worth taking time to read.

My own community location is at the Woodbury High School.  Here’s the general information for my own district: Democratic Caucus Feb 27 2024.  Other districts have their own information.

1961 Darleen Hartman, Dick Bernard, Doug Daugherty, Mary Canine Valley City State Teachers College.

Personal Opinion: Those who know me well, know that I have been politically involved for most of my adult life.  My role has solely been as citizen.  Disclosure: I am older than President Biden and very strongly support him.  What follows is my message to today’s young people, who will make or break their own future.

The above photo (I am second from left) was taken my last month of college in 1961.  I had turned 21  a short while before, which meant, in those days, that I wasn’t eligible to vote in the 1960 election.  Then came a couple of years in the Army.  Thereafter began a pretty regular practice of involvement in local politics,  precinct caucuses, more recently followed by Primary Elections.

The precinct caucus and the pre-meeting are excellent opportunities to meet candidates, learn about issues, and in general prepare for the primary March 5 and the general election itself, Nov. 5..

I’m in the home stretch of life and for a long-time now, while staying active myself, my mantra has become a plea for young people  to take responsibility for their future, much of which will depend on who they select to represent them in government.

The first memory I have of this attitude was about 1987.  My first grandchild was six months old and I was at a conference in Colorado.  We were asked to introduce ourselves, and  I said my focus would be the generation which included my granddaughter.

That was 37 years ago.

Last week in an e-mail conversation with a friend, also retired, I concluded my note with this: “it is our “kids” who need to take charge and will reap the benefits or pay the price for upcoming decisions, and we’ll no longer be in the picture.”

Every one of we elders have “been there, done that” like the kids are going through now, and will continue to go through.  Inevitably they will grow old themselves.

We elders owe to our youth passing on the burden of responsibility to them for their own future.  They will make mistakes, like we did.  But they have to learn the old-fashioned way, by doing.

Another personal mantra: we citizens whether we vote or not, or for whom, collectively share the credit or the blame for the results we see running our state and nation and locality.  The hair shirt of a participatory democracy is taking responsibility for action and inaction.

This is your country…and mine, and ours.

Let’s work together to make it better.

ADDENDUM:

I watched Super Bowl LXVIII last night.  It was a game worthy of a title contest between San Francisco and Kansas City.

I’m not known as someone who follows professional sports.  I had no allegiance to either of the finalist teams.  I suppose it was Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift, neither of whom I have followed in the past, who attracted my attention last night.

Thinking about the game after the fact, one piece of data sticks in my mind about last evening: four ‘stars’, Taylor Swift (34), Travis Kelce (33), Patrick Mahomes (28) and Trey Smith (23).  (In parens are their individuals ages.)

Taylor, Travis and Patrick are well known.  Trey, plays for the victorious Kansas City Chiefs,  I ‘met’ Trey  as the feature of a full half page photo on the front page of the sports section of todays Minneapolis paper.  He was in tears at the end of the game last night.

The four folks exemplify for me, the future of our country.  It makes no difference what their particular ideology might happen to be – they represent the best and the brightest.  Evolving leaders with many years ahead.

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This morning – February 13 – I got to thinking back to the recent film, Oppenheimer, about the advent of the Atomic Bomb, and its relevance to today’s assault on Truth.

As those of us of a certain age know, the Atomic Bomb and its relatives initially existed as mathematical theories until a live test in the New Mexico desert in the summer of 1945.

Not even the experts knew what might happen at the first detonation.  The action had consequences of many kinds which live on to this day.

We are living an analogous circumstance today, possibly even more dangerous than The Bomb.  It is The Truth (alternative ‘facts’).  It is virtually impossible to know what is real, and what is a fiction.  AI (artificial intelligence)  has erupted and an already bad situation has become much worse.

When I was a youngster, there was a simple definition for a lie: basically making up a story; or telling only parts of it.  I remember a Nuns definition: Omission or Commission.  It was a sin.

Now there are no boundaries, zero, none.  Vestiges of the old days remain, like Rules of Evidence, perjury and the like, but in the Wild West of the First Amendment and media, however defined, anything goes.  We have to choose what to believe.  Maybe what Carol sent me (at the beginning of this post) is true – I have to make the initial judgement.  I trust Carol, I have lots of experience over the years with how Joe Biden has been as a leader.  The video is consistent with how I’ve gotten to know him.  But the ‘cat and mouse’ game is constant.

Oppenheimer and his generation worried that the bomb they created would set off a chain reaction ending life as we knew it.  So far, we’re still here, and it’s only been used as a weapon twice, but threatened often.

We can ask ourselves the same question about a landscape without Truth.

Other recent posts: Israel-Palestine update Feb 5; and Junior High 1966-67 -Feb 10

I also highly recommend the new film, “Killers of the Flower Moon“.  It is a true story, and long, but very stimulating food for thought.  Similarly, The “Boys in the Boat” film is outstanding.