Printemps (Spring)
POSTNOTE: April 6, 2026: Sometime today, apparently, we’ll be told what is planned for the people of Iran. I am deliberately writing this before I know the substance of whatever announcement will be made. Other recent posts about the Iran issue: February 23, March 3, 14, 15 note archives at right.
Largely because of a 2003 e-mail that I came across Saturday, my thoughts go back to September 11, 2001, when somebody evil set out to decapitate the United States of America. Anyone born on or after 9-11 has seen the results, including a 20 year war not so fondly remembered. We became our own worst enemy, in my opinion, and it is playing out again in 2026. It is one thing to decapitate an enemy; it is another thing entirely to truly declare Mission Accomplished, as an earlier President declared on May 1, 2003, aboard an aircraft carrier.
Here is the June 16 and 30, 2003 e-mail referred to above: SAK June 16, 2003. SAK is a long time friend in England. At the end of this post is a photo from the same file, of a large peace sign posted on the grounds of Basilica of St. Mary shortly after the Iraq War began in March, 2003.
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Today [April 5] is Easter and among the trove of farm postcards from the early 1900s, this one seems most apropos for today – person to person. (There were over 300 cards in this collection. About one-third related to Christmas; one-sixth, over 50, to Easter and Springtime; the rest an assortment. They were greetings one to another, a small minority religious related. Most of the originals are in the Busch-Berning collection at ND Historical Society. The rest were distributed to family members after our Uncle Vince Died in 2015. I did the jpg’s years ago.)
Springtime card early 1900s
Among Easters I have known, this one is the least hopeful. We seem to be careening into a pit of our own making.
Still, there is reason for seeking good within our own individual sphere, including within ourself as well. Robert Reich this morning spoke richly about this very thing.
My tradition happens to be Catholic, and three times in this past week I was in church. Palm Sunday (March 29) was in a packed church in Hermann MO.
Twice I was at Basilica of St. Mary: Friday night Good Friday) was the annual Tenebrae service, whose speaker this year was the Rabbi from nearby Temple Israel. Rabbi Zimmerman gave an inspiring talk from the Catholic Pulpit. The local Archbishop was in the pews with the rest of us. The Church was packed.
Similarly this morning Basilica was full for Easter Mass.
Everyone knows of the ‘storm clouds’ facing all of us, outside, and while unspoken I get the sense that there is increasingly intense individual reflection about where each person, as an individual, fits into attempting to find a positive resolution.
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COMMENTS (more below):
from Steve: Thanks for your thoughts. This president is not only a historic embarrassment, but also a criminal, convicted of felonious business practices and bribery, and responsible for murders of US citizens on the streets of American cities, as well as for thousands of individuals sent to war or caught in its violence. Just a terrible tragedy.
from Mary Ellen: I also support Peace through communication. The Pope’s Easter Sunday message was a great example for our wayward government to follow.
from Dick: Here is Pope Leo XIV Easter 2026 message.
from SAK: One can only hope Trump will take the Pope’s advice!
“I’m told that President Trump has recently stated that he would like to end the war,” said Leo, the first Pope from the United States.
“Hopefully he’s looking for an off-ramp,” the Pope told journalists outside his residence in Castel Gandolfo, near Rome. “Hopefully he’s looking for a way to decrease the amount of violence.”
from Jay: Yes, no WAR, period! – The Easter card is beautiful!
from Jeff: 3 things always stand out with regard to the Trump handling: Chaos, incompetence and corruption. So this is no exception. An article in the NYT today compared it to the UK’s loss of status in the Suez Canal crisis in 1956, it marked the end of Britain as a world power. Or at least it was the actual manifestation of it. There is talk about Chinese currency being used in much of the world to buy oil, “petroyuan”….if so, its a step towardthe ending of the USD as the reserve currency. Americans have no idea about how this will change things.
from Larry: Dick, thank you. Any comments I might have are probably summed up in the article FELLOWSHIP magazine published a while back. [Felllowship of Reconciliation article is here: Larry Johnson FOR Winter 2025=2026]
from Dick; Larry’s perspective is peace, and the article he sends is well worth your time to read. In the same 2003 file mentioned above are several more pertinent articles, two of which I include here: Robert McNamara on War and War Prayer Mark Twain.
from Jim Klein (more extensive commentary in a separate post April 11, 2026): Sure – OK to publish to your readers. Please identify me by full name. I truly dislike the internet anonymity convention of first names (only) or pseudonyms. I simply do not hit “send” on anything I’m not willing to own.
I am coming around to your thinking that we ALL need more conversation with folks we DON’T always agree with – and ESPECIALLY those with whom we share many values, yet disagree with, nonetheless.
I have been on twin crusades – now roughly a dozen years each – that
A) Democrats do NOT need to be unanimous on ALL issues just to BE Dems, and that we’d be better off as a group and more persuasive to others at the polls if we stopped trying to enforce agreement on viewpoints by “canceling”, shunning, etc.,
and that
B) NO religion, properly viewed and interpreted, should be seen by any of its members (or leaders) as mandating some certain position on any issue of politics. For goodness sake, John F. Kennedy got himself elected President BECAUSE he convinced Catholicism-skeptical Protestant Americans of his day that he would NOT govern as though being Catholic mandated what he would do.
We need to get back to seeing viewpoint diversity as a positive thing in both our politics and in our religions. We cannot learn from anyone who we will neither talk to nor associate with.
POSTNOTE April 8, 2026:. It was hardly a surprise when the latest “breaking News” came about 5:30 p.m. yesterday that there will be two week pause in the threat to obliterate Iran’s civilization. Then we have J.D. Vance in Hungary lobbying for the reelection of long-time autocrat Viktor Orban, and on and on.
We have picked our poison, and too many still seem willing to ingest it. Will our democracy survive?
April 6 (above) I shared a portion of a file I’d saved from 2003, when I was part of a group actively seeking a cabinet level Department of Peace for the United States. Also in the file was a news article about an Iranian who had been awarded the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize. The Minneapolis Star Tribune article about Shirin Ebadi is worth your time: Iran 2003 Shirin EbadiNobel Peace Prize.
Those of us in the U.S. better come to grips with a certain reality. We cannot be spectators. We collectively will be accountable for the financial and other costs of this and other dangerous adventures by our dictator-in-chief. This is not entertainment. It is no time to sit on the sidelines.
Personally, I’m going to start dusting off my memories of Cuba (I’ve not been there, personally), including rereading a chapter of a 1963 college textbook on the history of Cuba. Cuba seems to be next on the menu.
Paul Krugman, Ignorance and Ignominy, April 8
Come on, people. Trump just needs a little conflict in Iran to get the Epstein files albatross off of his neck. So, we lose a few military personnel and lots of military assets when Trump is doing that to cover his bottom. As a five-time draft dodger who has referred to men and woman who dies in the miliary service to their country as suckers and losers, he could care less as long as that albatross if lifted off his neck a least for a while.
We need consistent foreign policies. If it is wrong for Russia to illegally invade and occupy Ukraine, it is wrong for the United States/Israel to wage war on Iran. There is no doubt that Iranian government has been a blatant trouble make in the Mideast area, either directly or through proxies. There has been little accountability. Ideally the United Nations should sort out this long-time problem. If the UN cannot directly bring accountability, then a consortium of countries directly involved should be formed to adjudicate the “root causes” of discord and negotiate a long-term enforceable solution. We should affirm the value of international law, strengthen allied governments and institutions.
As a discouraged World Federalist I both agree with your aspirations and remain unconvinced that our country under the hawkish extreme Republican agenda will be able to pull this situation out of the fire. This two weeks of no combat by either side (if it holds) is really a mutually declared strategic retreat as both sides prepare for the next waves of violence even as they discuss their mutually contradicting negotiating points. How can Iran give up control of the Strait of Hormuz or ballistic missiles as this has been the only pressure points against their enemies who started this unnecessary illegal war with not one but two successful decapitations of Iran’s government? Before the biblical threats from our President I read that Iran wants Congress to pass a law forbidding more attacks as Iran wants a lasting peace, not periodic “mowing the lawn” to use a phrase from the Israeli government. Will this Congress be able to put into law the payment to Iran of about $200 Billion for Reparations (based on an AI session)? I sure hope I’m wrong but what I see of what remains of this nominal democracy suggests stalemate in the negotiations, fury in our demented President, and renewed hostilities which will Continue the destruction of hydrocarbon manufacturing assets in multiple countries. Check back here on Tax Day and describe what you see.