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#704 – Dick Bernard: “You oughta go tah, Nor Dakota…”*

Friday, March 29th, 2013

* – Once upon a time, the North Dakota promotional anthem (at least as I remember it). I can hum it still. Wish it were on YouTube….
But the title “masks” a more serious message, today.

Recently, within a day or two of each other, came two links: one from a present day and lifelong North Dakotan; the other from a born and raised, but many years out-of-state North Dakota native.

Here is one, an article and photo album from The Atlantic magazine about the oil boom in western North Dakota.

I’ve seen quite a number of articles, photos and commentaries about the second boom in ND’s Williston Basin (I lived there, at Ross as an 8th grader, in 1953-54, so experienced mostly the down-side of it, then). I wonder, often, about the true “cost-benefit analysis” of the boom: there are big (money) benefits, yes, but what are the short and long-term and huge costs, not just in money terms….

The below photo is the other, following by a day the North Dakota legislature and Governors action outlawing abortion, deliberately pushing the envelope on the matter of State’s Rights (one would presume) 40 years after Roe v. Wade.

Both the article and the photo come from fellow alumni of Valley City State Teachers College ca 1960-62.

Both the article and the photo, in my opinion, illustrate that all is not all that simple in the state of my birth, my home for all but 28 months (21 of those in the U.S. Army) of my first 25 years of life.

I’ve been absent from North Dakota for the last 48 years, but North Dakota is a very big part of me. The first family member saw the Missouri River at Bismarck with Gen. Sibley’s forces in 1863; my descendants have lived in what was to become North Dakota since 1878.

When I began this blog in 2009, I decided to include two photos on the home page. One is of a North Dakota country road between Berlin and Grand Rapids and my uncle and aunts beloved dog Sam (dec 1995).

The other (below), looking north from Hawk’s Nest west of Carrington ND, was taken at the time of the Sykeston community reunion in July, 2008, also the 50th anniversary of my high school graduation from Sykeston High School.

(click to enlarge)

From Hawk’s Nest, July 2008

Photos, it is often said, speak thousands of words.

The landscape from Hawk’s Nest is the North Dakota I remember. The billboard above, likely a creation of photo shop technology, has a far more harsh message about North Dakota in this Easter week, 2013.

The billboard “photo” speaks its own volumes.

Early this week the North Dakota legislature passed, and the Governor signed, one of the most draconian anti-abortion measures ever passed anywhere in the country. There are thousands of words, including the Governors own, about the intention of these laws and the upcoming citizens initiative in the state of North Dakota. The months ahead will determine the wisdom – or stupidity – or unbridled arrogance – of North Dakota’s elected leadership.

The people will decide.

What the folks at the capitol building in Bismarck may not have adequately considered, however, is that most of we North Dakotans by birth and upbringing, no longer live in North Dakota, and may have our own stories, and our own ability to impact on the decision making in the state that we may not, now, physically live; but whose geography and history lives on in each of us.

This goes for me as well.

I left North Dakota in May, 1965, for a very simple reason: my wife was dying. In fact, she died at the University of Minnesota Hospital two months after we crossed the North Dakota-Minnesota line. Three days before she died I had signed a contract for a new job in the Twin Cities, and except for visits, I have not gone back to my “home state”.

But I do go back every year, and will, again, go back in May.

My heart is always there, in North Dakota.

But, back in 1965, only two months before I left North Dakota, the possibility of abortion needed to cross the minds of Barbara and I. I wrote about how this came to be in one of my early blog posts, which has a simple heading “Abortion”, and was filed in October, 2009. You can read it here.

Even then, we had no available legal options.

Today, I can add a small financial “voice” to the upcoming struggle in ND, and will do so; and I am still deciding what to convey to the ND Governor and Legislators representing the many towns that I lived in back then, including Elgin, from which my wife left in an ambulance near the end of May, 1965.

Gov. Dalrymple and the prevailing legislators may consider themselves to be clothed with great authority.

The people will speak….

I’d ask you to consider passing this commentary along to others.

Posted in Economics, Environment, Family History, History, North Dakota, Politics | 1 Response »
Tags: hawks nest, north dakota oil boom, north dakota prohibition of abortion 2013, ross nd, williston basin

#703 – Dick Bernard: The Hennepin Co Plaza United Nations Flag, World Citizenship, World Law Day (May 1) and related topics.

Wednesday, March 27th, 2013

NOTE MAY 3, 2013: This page is become the permanent “filing cabinet” for information about the events which began March 5, 1968, with the Declaration of World Citizenship by the City of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, and continue on. The primary document is the blogpost for March 5, 2013, which is accessible here. Added material will be dated, and begins ‘below the fold’ after the hotel flag photo below.

On World Law Day Wednesday, May 1, 2013, the Minneapolis Star Tribune carried two commentaries directly related to World Law Day and the United Nations Flag, written by Dr. Joseph Schwartzberg of GlobalSolutionsMN.org and Minneapolis resident Jim Nelson.

The evening of May 1, at Gandhimahal Restaurant in Minneapolis, 40 attended a dinner celebrating World Law. Here is a blogpost written about the event.

Flags at Lincoln Center Elementary School, South St Paul MN Apr 16, 2013

Here’s a photo of the flags at Hennepin County Government Plaza taken Tuesday April 9, 2013, from the same steps where Gov. Elmer L. Andersen spoke May 1, 1968, on the virtues of World Citizenship and flying the flag of the United Nations at the Plaza.

(click to enlarge any photo)

Flags on Hennepin County Government Plaza April 9, 2013

UPDATE April 2, 2013: United States, Minnesota and United Nations flags et al, at Fairview Southdale Hospital, France at Hiway 62, Edina, April 1, 2013
(click to enlarge)

One year ago today – March 27, 2012 – the Hennepin County Board quietly passed Resolution No. 12-0167, rescinding Resolution 86-7-539 and directing “to fly at the Government Center North Plaza solely the flags of the United States, Minnesota and Hennepin County, in compliance with the U.S. Flag Code.”

I wrote at length on the issue on March 5, 2013. That commentary is accessible here. In that commentary I noted on March 5 that “I’m still searching for more facts” on the U.S. Flag Code, and contemporaneous with my column I wrote my Congresswoman and both MN U.S. Senators seeking more definitive information on the legislative history of that Code.

Sen. Franken’s office was first to respond to my request, with 40 pages of information, including the Congressional Research Service (CRS) document on the United States Flag prepared by John R. Luckey, Legislative Attorney, February 7, 2011. (Citation on the cover: Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov RL30243). Two pages of this report included highlighted sections (see attached pdf U.S. Flag Code (portion)001). In addition, a dozen pages of Legislative Documents were included, including this statement by then ND Sen William Langer, May 12, 1953: Flag Code (1953 Langer 001. Also received, another dozen pages of Congressional Record entries between January and June, 1953 Flag Code (1953 Cong) 001. All of these pages are included.

Some personal observations, at this point:

1. Whoever initially advised Hennepin County Commissioners on the U.S. Flag Code in 2012 was speaking opinion and not fact:
A. The Section of the code cited, 7, relates to the flag “when carried in a procession with another flag….”
B. In addition, the CRS analyst notes later that aforementioned Section 7 contains two subsections on point and these provisions appear to be contradictory (Subsections 7(c) and 7(g).

2. In reading the assorted documents, including the rhetoric in the Congressional Record, I noted these facts:
A. The Flag Code was originally passed June 22, 1942
B. The amendments to the flag bill, particularly relating to the United Nations flag, were first proposed on August 22, 1951, in the 82d Congress. They were ultimately passed in the 83d Congress in the Spring of 1953.
C. The key legislative actors at the time appear to be these: U.S. Sens Martin, Hendrickson, Knowland and Langer; Reps Reed (Illinois), Gross and McDonough.
D. The bill finally passed apparently included this language: “(b) Whoever knowingly violates the provision of this section shall be fined not more than $250 of imprisoned not more than six months, or both.” (Flag Code (1953 S 694) 001) To my knowledge, no such penalty language remains in the Flag Code, and apparently has not appeared there for many years.

3. I am old enough to remember well the post-WWII days of the police action in Korea, Sen. Joe McCarthy…. I was a teenager in rural ND when the 1953 amendment was passed. There was near hysteria, then, about allegations of “Communists”, including additional animosity towards the very existence of the United Nations. What happened in Hennepin County a year ago has all the appearances of a latter day manifestation of the same paranoia that caused our country so much grief in the Sen. McCarthy era.

It appears that the Hennepin County Board made its decision March 27, 2012, on at minimum incomplete information, perhaps without any debate. All but one of the Board members who approved the initial action remain on the Board, and it is time to reopen this file, and give the issue of the United Nations flag the dignified and public hearing it deserves.

POSTNOTE: As noted in the March 5 column, I had not paid much attention to flags, generally, including their arrangement, etc. This has changed. Recently I spent some time at a hotel in Orlando FL. The hotel is part of a world-wide chain, and I noted the flags out front: the U.S. flag, posted slightly higher than the Florida flag, with the Corporate flag in equal standing to the Florida flag. Flags do carry a message about us….

Here they are (click to enlarge):

Hotel, Orlando FL, March 24, 2013

The Hennepin Co Plaza flags as seen from inside Minneapolis City Hall April 12, 2013

CONTINUING INFORMATION ON THE HENNEPIN COUNTY/UNITED NATIONS FLAG ISSUE:

April 14, 2013
This issue will remain an active one until it is re-addressed. As information becomes available or changes, it will be posted here.

Friday April 12, 2013, I hand-delivered two letters to all Hennepin County Commissioners, and the uninvolved in the issue but nonetheless parties at interest, the Mayor and City Council of Minneapolis. The relevant portions of the letters is here: Henn Comm Ltrs 4:12:13001 As of May 3, 2013, there have been zero responses to my questions.

The listing of all Hennepin County Commissioners, their districts, and office addresses can be found here.

Former Governor Elmer L. Andersen’s speech at the United Nations Flag Raising at the Minneapolis City Hall May 1, 1968: Elmer Andersen I Trust..001

Timeline of Historical Events in the year 1968: 1968 Timeline001

Where the United Nations Flag used to fly before being removed after March 27, 2012. Photo taken May 7, 2013

Posted in Community, History, International Relations, Media, Minnesota, Politics, War | No Responses »
Tags: Hennepin County Flag Issue

#699 – Dick Bernard: Listening to the Governor of Minnesota

Wednesday, March 6th, 2013

Yesterday noon we, along with several hundred others, braved Twin Cities roads to gather at a lunch at McNamara Alumni Center at the University of Minnesota.

The speaker was Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton.

(click on photos to enlarge)

Gov. Mark Dayton, March 5, 2013, University of Minnesota First Tuesday.

The event was the Carlson School of Management’s “First Tuesday” and the large audience seemed mostly to be Twin Cities business representatives. University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler was one of the dignitaries in the audience.

A portion of the audience at First Tuesday March 5

It was a most interesting hour. Gov. Dayton spoke, referring a number of times to this handout which we all received: Guv Hndout Mar 5 2013002. At the end, he answered questions and listened to advice from the floor, presented at random through several portable microphones. He was with us for over an hour; then departed to talk with another group somewhere else.

The tension of driving to the event after 8″ of snow, was worth it.

Governor Dayton knew his audience, and he politely but certainly took the offensive.

Judging from the tens of thousands of communications I see, from left and right, and politically disinterested, we are a society that takes non-negotiable positions, basing our judgements on our understanding of our one or two most important issues.

Contemporary society is complex, so we citizens mostly revert to simplicity. We don’t want information unless it supports our position.

It is a dangerous attitude, shared by far too many.

Gov. Dayton, as we Minnesotans know, comes from a very prominent Minnesota business family; spent part of his early career as a school teacher in inner city New York; and has spent most of his adult career in public service in the state of Minnesota.

He has an impressive portfolio. Still I sometimes hear him ridiculed for various unfair reasons.

But he knows bottom lines and good public policy.

The Governor was in a serious mode, yesterday.

His anchor story was of meeting with a dozen or so of Minnesota’s most prominent big business leaders not long ago. It was one of those fancy, private dinner meetings somewhere.

He marveled, he said, at how these very sophisticated captains of Minnesota business and industry seemed not to budge from their respective certainties, even when confronted with pesky facts that didn’t support their positions. (Think assorted mantras: “business is being forced to leave our state due to high taxes” and the like.) Belief seemed to trump reason.

They were stuck (as we all can be) in their belief about reality.

Sitting there, I could better understand people at my level being mired in our own unrealities, than these anonymous Big Shots who privately had the Governors ear for an extended period of time.

We ordinary people have to struggle to get to “facts”; these Captains of Minnesota Business have boatloads of employees in their corporations who, if they were hired for and allowed such, could be truth tellers.

But hearing the truth is inconvenient, and even these business leaders apparently wouldn’t publicly budge, even in the face of contrary evidence from the Governor of their state.

Gov. Dayton spoke as a confident leader, in command of his narrative, unquestionably competent including addressing questions from the floor.

The Governor commented about Minnesota’s flagship University of Minnesota, and said he had gathered data which demonstrated that the UofM did as well or better in its accomplishments than the sum of the eight major universities in Boston – little places like Harvard, MIT and the like. His very prominent businessman Dad once told he and his siblings: “if you put all your eggs in one basket, you better take mighty good care of that basket.” But, he said the UofM, and public institutions in this state, have suffered from policies of austerity; and the state suffers as a consequence.

His Tax proposals are intended as informed thoughts and invitation to debate on alternatives to the pesky realities of our state, where for too many years we have relied on shell games, like shifts, to pretend we are doing well financially, supposedly “balancing our books”, when in reality we were digging ourselves a deep hole from which we now have to fashion a way out.

At the beginning, the Governor was greeted with polite applause.

At the end, there was a standing and sustained applause, joined by most in the audience, applause which did not seem forced.

It was a good day.

March 5, 2013, McNamara Alumni Center at University of Minnesota. Audience listening to Governor Dayton.

Posted in Economics, Education, History, Minnesota, Peace & Justice, Politics | No Responses »
Tags: gov. mark dayton

#698 – Dick Bernard: The Hennepin County Board and the UN Flag: Tearing down a flag, with scarcely a public notice. A sad act, diminishing our community.

Tuesday, March 5th, 2013

UPDATE: March 6, 2013: This post was reposted in MinnPost on March 5. A comment there notes a very slight error on my part in describing the location of the Woodbury Veterans Memorial. That error has been corrected below. I am in close proximity to that Memorial every day, and, in fact, am a member of the local American Legion Post involved in the development.

Re Hennepin County, Mr. Elling indicated yesterday that a group of citizens raised $6,000 in 1968 to purchase the flagpoles for the U.S. and United Nations flags at Minneapolis City Hall. This was serious money back then.

The Twin Cities Daily Planet has now also picked up this post.

Questions? Scroll to very end of this post for my contact information. I’ll try to answer.

NOTE TO READER: This long post is an effort to convey information, and opinion, about a specific issue I wasn’t aware of, in a community other than my own. I was not seeking to find the issue. To some, the issue described may seem small and insignificant, and it was and remains a non-mandatory issue for the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners – they can do what they wish to do. Nonetheless, to this writer, the voluntary action described illustrates simply one example of a careless action, ignorance of history, and a (possibly) inadvertent and very negative change in tone of leadership in our civil society.

As a society, we choose our own fate through actions of leaders we freely elect. As individual citizens we either seek to change the status quo, or we sit idly by. Simply voting (which includes not bothering to vote informed, or to even vote at all) is only the first action of a responsible citizen. An accumulation of seemingly small actions can have an irreversible long term impact.

It is important to keep our leaders accountable. For Hennepin County residents here is an opportunity.

(click on all photos to enlarge)

Flags at Woodbury Veterans Memorial near Woodbury City Hall March 2,2013

Sometimes research leads to unexpected results.

In December, 2012, I finally discovered the documents I needed to document a very important event in Minneapolis in March and May, 1968. They were in the archival records of Minneapolis Mayor Arthur Naftalin (1961-69) at the Minnesota History Center. There were many pages about the 1968 Declaration of World Citizenship of Hennepin County and the City of Minneapolis. Found in the file was Lynn Elling’s‘s history of the event, written in late May, 1968: Henn:Mpls Decl Mar 68001

These documents answered my previously unanswered questions – they were exactly what I was looking for: World Law Day May 1 1968001.

Days after my discovery, unsought and completely unexpected, came a link to an April 2012 Nick Coleman commentary about a March 27, 2012, action by the Hennepin County Board, removing the United Nations flag as one permitted to fly at the Hennepin Co. Government Center, Minneapolis. That issue instantly attracted my attention, and while I’m still searching for more facts, today, March 5, 2013, seems to be the appropriate time to bring the issue to public attention.

March 5, 1968, 45 years ago, was a significant day in the history of Minneapolis and Hennepin County. On that day the Board of Commissioners of Hennepin County, the Minneapolis City Council, and then-Minneapolis Mayor Arthur Naftalin unanimously recognized “the sovereign right of our citizens to declare that their citizenship responsibilities extend beyond our city and nation. We hereby join with other concerned people of the world in a declaration that we share in this world responsibility and that our citizens are in this sense citizens of the world. We pledge our efforts as world citizens to the establishment of permanent peace based on just world law, and to the use of world resources in the service of man and not for his destruction.”

Later, a bi-partisan who’s-who in Minnesota signed the declaration as well.

This Declaration, by “the first American community to take such action”, further requested that the Municipal Building Commission “proudly display the United Nations flag on suitable occasions at the main entrance to the City Hall and the main entrance to the new county building.”

Minneapolis/Hennepin County MN Declaration of World Citizenship signed March 5, 1968, dedicated May 1, 1968

On May 1, 1968, then as now, Law Day, a large group of citizens, including at least 27 Mayors of Hennepin County communities, met at the City Hall to publicly celebrate the Declaration and publicly raise the United Nations flag alongside the American flag. A new flagpole had been raised for this purpose. In Minnesota the observance came to be known as “World Law Day”, as shown in a May 1, 1968, cartoon in the Minneapolis Star: World Law ‘toon My 1 68 001

Keynote speaker May 1 1968, former Minnesota Governor Elmer L. Andersen, proudly supported the flag raising.

Among other remarks he said the raising of the United Nations flag “represents a commitment to cooperation among nations for world peace, to belief in the common brotherhood of all men of all nations, and to aspirations for a world community of peace, freedom and justice under world law.” His speech can be read here: Elmer Andersen I Trust..001

Elmer L. Andersen (center), Mayor Arthur Naftalin (right) and unidentified person with the UN flag before raising May 1, 1968

The United Nations Flag was raised on the new flagpole next to the U.S. flag, a symbol of community and non-partisan friendship with the world. Certainly, proper flag protocol was followed. The flagpole gave permanence to the word “suitable” in the earlier resolution.

That UN Flag, and many successor flags, to my knowledge, probably flew consistently until March 27, 2012, when the Hennepin County Board, quietly in the consent agenda, and likely with no public hearings or even internal debate, directed that the UN Flag be taken down permanently. The directive stated that “solely the flags of the United States, Minnesota and Hennepin County” be raised, “in compliance with the U.S. Flag Code.”

The 2012 Board Resolution is here: Henn Co Res 3:27:12001

I discovered this resolution at the end of December, 2012, and immediately took issue, as a citizen, by writing the Members of the Hennepin County Board: Bernard Ltr 12:2912001. I learned that six of the seven had been on the Board at the time of the earlier resolution; apparently four of them had voted on the resolution, all in favor.

I have received no response from any Board member which in itself is not especially surprising, since I don’t live in Hennepin County, but it nonetheless significant (see comment about Arthur Naftalin, below).

To date, the only rationale I know of, provided by the Board to a citizen of the county, is that flying the U.N. flag in some way goes against the U.S. Flag Code Section VII, Paragraph C. This statute is easily accessed on the internet. The cite from Statute seems to apply only to the U.S. flag “when carried in a procession with another flag”.

The flagpoles at City Hall were stationary, certainly by no means in “procession”. Whatever the case, the Code in question has no penalties for even egregious violations – its tenets are superseded by freedom of speech.

There is nothing illegal about the UN flag. it is a legitimate flag. The UN is headquartered in New York City, and a prime mover for the founding of the United Nations was the United States, led by people like another former Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen. The U.S. has been a dominant player at the UN since its founding. The UN is hardly an enemy nation, though it is portrayed that way by some who seem governed by fear.

There are people who just despise the United Nations, and they won on March 27, 2012. The UN flag was quietly taken down at Hennepin County Government Center.

There is no need for the issue to remain quiet.

The decision makers, the Hennepin County Board, need to hear from citizens. Only in that way will an unfortunate decision be reversed and a proud day, May 1, 1968, be once again honored.

I’d suggest that an appropriate occasion to re-fly the United Nations flag and publicly re-affirm the 1968 Declaration of World Citizenship is May 1, 2013, Law Day.

POSTNOTE:
A BIT OF HISTORY
Prime movers of the 1968 Declaration, and a later similar Declaration of the State of Minnesota, were Minneapolis businessmen Stanley Platt and Lynn Elling. Now 92, Lynn still lives in Minneapolis, and remains active. Lynn was the MC of the May 1, 1968, event, and later described the process leading to the Declaration: Henn:Mpls Decl Mar 68001

Lynn Elling at Minneapolis City Hall May 1, 1968 opening the event where Minneapolis and Hennepin County declard themselves World Citizenship Communities, and where the United Nations flag flew alongside the U.S. flag.

Lynn Elling at Minneapolis City Hall May 1, 1968 opening the event where Minneapolis and Hennepin County declared themselves World Citizenship Communities, joining perhaps 1000 other world communities, and where the United Nations flag flew alongside the U.S. flag.

Lynn Elling with the Minneapolis Declaration at Minneapolis City Hall, Dec. 22, 2012. Photo compliments of Bonnie Fournier of the Smooch Project

In 1971, the State of Minnesota also declared itself a World Citizen. Again this was completely non-partisan. The Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial spoke to the concept of World Citizenship then.

THE UNITED NATIONS FLAG DOES CONTINUE TO FLY TO THIS DAY.
Travel two miles east from the Hennepin County Government Center to Augsburg College Campus and you’ll see the United Nations flag proudly flying amongst four others, properly displayed in relation to the U.S. flag. Those attending the 25th Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg this weekend will see the flags flying, alongside I-94.

Augsburg College, Minneapolis MN, March 3, 2013. UN flag is at center

Augsburg is not unique. Minneapolitan Jim Nelson, who was at the May 1, 1968 dedication, spent his career at Honeywell, where the UN flag flew every day.

THEN AS NOW A SMALL GROUP ATTEMPTED TO BULLY DECISION MAKING.
In 1968, after the dedication, some enraged citizens demanded that the UN flag be removed. On Feb. 7, 1969, Mayor Naftalin wrote colleague Mayor Joseph Alioto of San Francisco affirming the importance of the Declaration. In relevant part, he said “we were pleased to issue our proclamation, although our action has not met with universal approval judging from some of the mail it has prompted.” [there were perhaps 15 negative letters, only three from Hennepin County citizens]. “However, I am still convinced the proclamation has much merit as a symbolic step towards world peace and I view it as being in the best interests of our city, county, state and nation.” (s) Arthur Naftalin, Mayor.

Interestingly, and in contrast to subsequent action by the members of the 2012-13 Hennepin County Board, Mayor Naftalin wrote individual and respectful acknowledgement letters to every one of those who complained about the Declaration of World Citizenship, regardless of where they were from, or how abusive the tone of their letter (and there were some “hum-dingers”). (I have copied the entirety of the relevant files).

Mayor Naftalin was connected with the greater world; he recognized he was more than leader of just a major city, but himself a World Citizen. I wonder about today’s Hennepin County Board.

WHY I FEEL THE FLAG ISSUE IS AN IMPORTANT ONE.
Perhaps like most people, I do not customarily notice flags, their placement, etc.

This incident has caused me to look more closely at flags I see displayed.

The photo at the beginning of this post is from Woodbury, my home, and in that setting the U.S. flag is set considerably above all of the other flags (primarily military banners – Army, etc.) One might call the Woodbury display a “War Memorial”.

At Augsburg, on the other hand, the flags are in compliance with the Code, but at equal height, neither subordinate nor superior. They more befit the theme of “Peace” within and among nations. There is an entirely different tone.

There are notes of irony, for instance: doubtless there are “State’s Rights” people who might logically demand that their State flag be set higher than the national banner, while at the same time demanding that only the U.S. flag be revered.

Emotion too often trumps reason.

The flag debate is a debate about the tone of our society. How we see ourselves as compared with others.

This is an important question to be considered and discussed.
*
Questions? Information that you know that would help further enlighten myself or others on the issue?
Send to
Dick Bernard
dick_bernardATmeDOTcom
or
6905 Romeo Road
Woodbury MN 55125-2421

Posted in Community, History, International Relations, Minnesota, Peace & Justice, Politics, War | No Responses »
Tags: Arthur Naftalin, Augsburg College, Elmer L. Andersen, Hennepin County Declaration of World Citizenship 1968, Lynn Elling, Minneapolis Declaration of World Citizenship 1968, Nobel Peace Prize Forum, Stanley Platt, United Nations flag Minneapolis 1968

#696 – Dick Bernard: Pope’s remembered

Thursday, February 28th, 2013

Today, Pope Benedict XVI officially resigns, the first Pope to do so in hundreds of years. It was a wise decision, and hopefully a good precedent to be followed in future years. The official (church approved) story of Benedict XVI was this handout, which was available at Basilica of St. Mary last Sunday: Pope Benedict XVI001

I won’t make any predictions about Benedict XVI’s successor. I understand that all of the electors – the current College of Cardinals – were appointed either by Pope John Paul II or Benedict XVI, so anyone wishing for dramatic change, even minor change, will probably be disappointed.

John Paul II‘s Poland was overrun by both Germany and Russia, and his boyhood home, Wadowice, which we drove past in early May 2000, was less than an hour from Oswiecim (Auschwitz-Birkenau), so his political imprinting was very strong; Benedict XVI came of age in Adolf Hitler’s Germany, and the Catholic Church was at its authoritarian best then and there. The emergence of a new John XXIII from amongst the current Cardinals is not very likely. Indeed, John XXIII surprised the world after his election in 1958.

One thing is sure: the Chair of Peter, the fisherman who was the first Pope, could not have imagined the world of 2013. I’ve been at the supposed spot on the Sea of Galilee where the mantle was passed to him. Then was a simple time. Even today, looking out over the large lake-size “Sea”, you can imagine what it might have been like, then, over 2000 years ago.

Now, we’re about seven billion humans; one billion of those who are called “Catholic” by some criteria or other, probably 10% of those Catholics, at best, much care what the Pope decrees. The Papacy is a complex institution, at best. But it still has a very big microphone, and proclaims to speak with authority.

I’m lifelong Catholic, active. Even at age 72, the succession of Popes I’ve experienced is a short list:

Pius XII (1939-58) was Pope during the entirety of my growing up years. It was his face that was on the wall of the Catholic Churches and Schools I attended.

John XXIII (1958-63) was Pope during my college years. Vatican II was on his watch, beginning officially after I completed college (1961). But even in college times, the ecumenical breezes were blowing. I noticed recently in the 1961 College Annual at Valley City State Teachers College, that I was one of ten on the Inter-Religious Council. A few years earlier, such rapprochement would have been unacceptable, regardless of denomination. Catholics, Methodists, Lutherans…all in the same room? Astonishing!

Paul VI (1963-78) doesn’t excite any particular memories, though it was in his time that birth control was rendered sinful, even though his advisors advised that there were no theological problems with birth control. We’re still struggling with that teaching. Basically, Catholics have ignored it ever since. I recall watching portions of his funeral while at my brother’s home in Salt Lake City in August, 1978.

John Paul I (1978) died after only one month as Pope. The circumstances of his death remain controversial.

John Paul II, the Polish Pope, (1978-2005), had a long reign.

One time in my life, October 14, 1998, I saw John Paul II in person, in the Popemobile, at the Vatican in Rome. (Facebook album of seven photos here.) I can attest that even if in an ideal position, as I was, long before the Pope appeared, attempting to take a photograph of the Pontiff, even a poor one, is not an exercise in sacredness. You either photo, or pray, not both. The best potential photo was this one:

(click to enlarge)

John Paul II October 14, 1998, Vatican, Rome

In the Facebook album there is a second photo where you can actually see the Pope, but I don’t think the Pope would have selected it as one of his favorites.

Benedict XVI (2005-13) now ends his time in the Papacy.

I wish him well.

Those of us who are Catholics – really we are the “Church” not the Pope or the Vatican – will carry on, regardless of who the White Smoke announces, shortly.

Posted in Community, Family History, History | No Responses »
Tags: benedict xvi, papacy, pope, Pope john paul II, vatican

#695 – Dick Bernard: Mike, VCSTC’s Mr. Moore and a lesson in Civics and Freedom of Speech; and the problem of “Judging a book by its cover”.

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

I met Mike when he was about 14 years old. He was my new girlfriend, Barbara’s, brother, 4 years younger than she. I don’t remember much about him then. Their younger brother, David, then 4 or so, more sticks in my mind. He was a really nice little kid.

This would have been about 1961, in Valley City, at their little house just south of Mercy Hospital.

Forty-six years later I was with Mike when he had his last meal at the hospital in Fargo. A few hours later he died, last survivor from his immediate family. I was his brother-in-law and had become the “go-to” guy and friend. At that last meeting I was able to show him what I still feel was the death certificate for his Dad, and where his Dad was buried. It seemed a very important deal for Mike. He knew nothing about his father, who’d left when he was two years old and there had been no contact at all after his parents divorced.

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Mike, May 2007. His last few years he was paraplegic as an effect of aneurysm surgery – a high risk of the needed procedure.

In my memory, Mike always seemed “odd man out” in the family. In his last months, I made it my mission to try to find out, at least, who his Dad was. (The likely father died when Mike was about 9, turned out, and had been living about 150 miles from Valley City.)

From early on, Mike’d been on his own, so to speak. He probably reminded his Mom of his Dad; and his sister and brother were easier to be with. Mike could be mean.

Mike lived most of his final years a block from the walking bridge near the college in Valley City. Up the block was a funeral home; across the street was the Sheyenne River. Till she died in 1999, his Mom lived with him in the little house.

Mike would have been noticed in town, not necessarily in a positive way. He was a loner, sometimes odd looking, nocturnal. He seldom shopped, but seemed to tend to buy doubles of things: two pairs of the same kind of shoes, two identical coffee makers; two bottles of Coke…. He’d been mentally ill for many years, but was one of those who if they take their meds can get along. I gather he went through his own drug phase, sometime.

We all know people like Mike. People whose unattractive “cover” masks a “book” within. Often I see a woman pacing a small indoor mall near here. She is in her own world, seemingly oblivious to her surroundings, pacing quickly, talking loudly to herself. Recently, I asked a friend who works there about the woman. “She drives her car here”, she said, shaking her head. The lady probably takes her meds and is no danger to anyone, including people on the road.

For Mike, inside his “book” was great intelligence, and a refusal to give up.

He graduated from Valley City High School in 1965. When the few of us buried him in 2007, one of his high school teachers, Annie Haugaard, legendary Valley City teacher, said that Mike had been a good boy, a good student. She felt it important to say that about Mike. She knew a bit about him, inside that cover….

To my knowledge, no one attended his high school graduation as his sister, my wife, had just been admitted to University Hospital in Minneapolis with what turned out to be a terminal illness. All attention was on her, deservedly so. If someone went to the graduation to honor him, I haven’t heard about it.

Mike went on, and got his teaching degree at Valley City State Teachers College. Sometime in 1966-67 he had Mr. Kenneth Moore as a history teacher.

After graduation, he got a teaching job in ND, quite a distance from Valley City, in a school large enough to have 17 seniors. He taught there 1 1/2 years until he was fired. Thence he was drafted into the Army, where he served for two years, was given a secret clearance (which he honored, believe me), and was discharged as a Specialist 5th Class – a high ranking for a two year enlisted man. He had wanted to be a career man, but someone(s) in the little town where he had taught sabotaged his chances to continue in the military. The general allegation was lack of patriotism.

Mike (at left) 1972

I know all this, because when I was cleaning out his house, which he’d lost when he stopped making payments, I found among his meager belongings five copies of a 22 page statement from a military interrogatory at his base in Germany, dated 23 March 1972. The copies were almost unreadable (a one page sample is here:Mike transcript 3:1972001 ) For some reason, that interrogatory was important to him; as was his Army uniform, which I found crumpled in a dresser drawer. The uniform now resides in the Archives at the North Dakota History Center in Bismarck, with Sp5 affixed to the shoulder.

I’ve read through the interrogatory several times, and given the questions asked, and the persons cited by name, Mike ran afoul of someone(s) in his employing school district, basically for the sin of allowing kids to talk about their opposition to the Vietnam War, then raging. He was assigned to advise the school paper, and apparently kids wrote about maybe going to Canada to escape the draft, etc., and he wouldn’t censor them. Some of the complainants are named in the interrogatory. Into the mix came the name of Kenneth Moore of VCSTC whose teaching methods were, according to Mike, “to get people to think”. “It was through him that I probably got some of my teaching ideas specifically talking about current events, rather than by just lecturing….” (interrogatory)

The interrogatory goes on and on.

An allegation is made about how Mike himself may have threatened to go to Canada to escape the draft. In response to a question he says “When I first came in [the Army] I didn’t want to be in…But to tell you the truth, since I’ve gotten out of basic training I have nothing really of consequence against the Army. As a matter of fact, of all people, I even talked to the Sergeant Major a few days ago about going to Airborne School….” He had never even thought about resisting the draft or going to Canada; but he hadn’t prevented kids from expressing themselves, however.

The charges, however groundless, apparently created a quandary for the military, which gave him a security clearance and promoted him to a high enlisted rank given his short term of service. Sometime around or after the Munich Olympic Games (August-September, 1972) he separated from the service with an honorable discharge after two years of service.

He never talked about the military again, to my recollection. And until I found that uniform crumpled in a dresser drawer, I didn’t know he had any artifacts of that time in history.

I have tried to find out whatever happened to his VCSTC teacher Kenneth Moore, with no success: it’s too common a name and from long ago. Apparently, Mr. Moore was only at VCSTC that single year, 1966-67, a year when the Vietnam War was truly raging. It was not unusual for young instructors to have short tenures at VCSTC: they were continuing their education. But I’m pretty sure that Mr. Moore’s teaching was noticed, and perhaps not positively, in those tense days when free speech wasn’t particularly free.

When I think of judging people these days, I tend to think back to my brother-in-law Mike, who in our brief visits taught me more than he ever learned from me. I salute him.

You’ll find him lying at rest with his mother and brother at Valley City’s Woodbine Cemetery. His sister, Barbara, is up the hill at St. Catherine’s cemetery.

Postnote: Some years before he died, he left brief instructions with the funeral home which handled his arrangements: “As far as any funeral service, that would be nice. However, I doubt if I would have more than two or three people attending. I guess I am kind of a lone wolf.”

In the end, at graveside, there were 6 of us. And later at the assisted living facility in which he lived his last few months (the 2007 photo above was taken there), perhaps 40 or 50 residents gathered for a very nice memorial service.

He may have been a “lone wolf”, but he was not alone. If looking in on his goings-away, he was probably surprised, and you might have even seen a little smile.

Photo by Mike at 1972 Olympic Games, Munich

Olympic Flame at 1972 Munich Olympics, photo by Mike.

Exercise Tip Sheet from Mike during a period of hospitalization in the late 1970s (Note to self: use it!): Mike exercise tip sheet002

Posted in Community, Education, Family History, History, North Dakota, War | No Responses »
Tags: VCSTC

#690 – Dick Bernard: The run-up to the Iraq War, 10 Years ago.

Saturday, February 16th, 2013

Early today a friend sent a link to a commentary about massive world-wide demonstrations against the pending War against Iraq on February 15, 2003.

It brought back memories of those times for me. There was a big march in Minneapolis (photos included in this post) in which I participated.

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Feb. 15, 2003 Lake Street Minneapolis MN

Hennepin Avenue Minneapolis 2/15/2003 at the Lowry tunnel

The actual bombing of Baghdad – “Shock and Awe” it was dubbed – came about March 20.

There will be a one-hour retrospective about the war on Iraq on Rachel Maddow’s show on Monday night (8 p.m. CST MSNBC).

Only the most hardened war worshipers will be able to honestly say that the Iraq War was for a good cause and worth it.

Only those most hardened protestors will be able to declare their protests to have ended up in victory – to have made a significant difference. March after march in the ensuing months and years didn’t bring the troops home, and they’re still in Afghanistan and our nations economy almost destroyed by the reckless philosophy of fighting a war, supposedly without sacrifice, on the national credit card.

But both sides will likely declare their opposing narratives about Iraq and Afghanistan to be correct, and on we’ll go.

Among the other photos I took that day are these three, which each evoked certain thoughts and feelings:

Feb 15, 2003, Minneapolis

Feb. 15, 2003, Minneapolis

To my knowledge, there were no marches in the Twin Cities on February 15 or today, remembering the 10 year anniversary.

If there had been one, I’m not sure I would have gone. I burned out on demonstrations for the sake of demonstrating some time ago.

But I think the Peace Movement remains very much alive, only in a different form than how it was, then.

Particularly, I note the sign that says 65% of Americans are against the war.

I don’t know the source of the data for that number, but it fits with my recollection of the national mood back then, and it fits the national mood even more so today.

The neocons had their war, and in large measure have gone silent, except for occasional belligerent eruptions about how important it was to do this, that or the other, even without being able to show reasonable cause or positive long-term effect of invasion, bombing, torture and the like.

I was active then for Peace and Justice (I took those photos ‘on the street’, part of the marchers). I’m even more active now. I just do things a bit differently. Maybe I’m typical, maybe I’m the odd duck.

But I think we’re slowly on a more positive course, and with joint efforts, we can make this a more peaceful and just world.

That last message, “We will REAP what we SOW“, could end up being true.

We need to be the cause in the matter to prove it wrong.

It’s in our court, as individuals, in many tiny and not so tiny ways.

WE are the cause in the matter of our future.

Posted in History, Minnesota, Politics, War | No Responses »

#687 – Dick Bernard: “Sykes High, oh Sykes High School of Dreams Come True….”

Monday, February 11th, 2013

Note to reader: This is one of a series of posts spawned by recollections of attendance at Valley City (ND) State Teachers College 1958-61. This and the other items are (or will be) permanently accessible at January 2, 2013.

I was a tiny town kid. Sykeston High School, class of ’58, included eight of us. A ninth had dropped out mid-year to join the Air Force. (The subject heading for this blog was the School Song, written in 1942 by two students. Sykeston School Song002) The previous year I had attended Antelope Consolidated, a country Grades 1-12 school near Mooreton, and the Senior Class numbered two: a valedictorian and salutatorian. The smallness didn’t seem to hold us back: long-time U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan was fond of recalling that he graduated 5th in his class of 9 at Regent, in far southwest North Dakota.

Most of us at VCSTC were from tiny towns. In contemporary terms, even Valley City (2010 population 6585) would be considered nothing more than a town; John Hammer, a colleague freshman in 1958 from the surrounding Barnes County (2010 population: 11,066) said that in his high school times, aside from Valley City itself, there were 16 school districts with high schools in Barnes County – perhaps one high school for every 300 total people.

Sykeston was probably pretty typical of those hamlets many of we students called “home”. In 2008, after my 50th high school reunion (held coincident with Sykestons 125th anniversary), I managed to cobble together the data about that high schools graduating classes from the first, in 1917. You can learn a lot about ND from that graph including the fact that my high school closed in 2005, leaving behind only the stately building from 1913.

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Sykeston HS build 1913, photo in June 1958, Dick Bernard.

Valley City State Teachers College, then, was big-time for me, a country kid. It was founded in 1890, and was part of a State College system supervised by a Board. Here is the 1960 Board: ND State College Bd 1960001

Old Main VCSTC 1959

STC’s sports teams, then, were excellent, and the 1959 annual, in the Basketball section, notes the competition. The ND State Colleges played that year were: Wahpeton, Ellendale, Bottineau, Mayville, Minot, Bismarck & Dickinson. Some of these were Junior Colleges. Private Jamestown College was next-door arch-rival. VCSTC also played University of Manitoba, and S.D. schools Huron and Aberdeen.

Here is the current roster of North Dakota State Colleges. Ellendale long ago “bit the dust”. Devils Lake and Williston may or may not have existed in 1958. I’m not sure.

For whatever reason, I seem to have developed early an interest in what “school” in North Dakota meant, even back in college and early post-college years.

In June, 1961, for some reason I did a little research piece about the history of North Dakota Public Schools and published it in the Viking News which I then edited. I can remember writing the piece, but not why I chose to do it, though I don’t think it was an assignment. You can read it here: VCSTC ND Educ Jul 5 1961001. On rereading it, I think I was basically quite accurate. I probably used the college library sources for research.

In February, 1965, during one of those vaunted three-day blizzards in western North Dakota, I whiled away my time in our tiny apartment doing some more research on Changes in the Small Schools of North Dakota. I used the simplest of resources: the North Dakota School Directories and census data. Blizzard over, for no particular reason, I submitted the unpolished piece to the North Dakota Education Association which, much to my surprise, printed it in the April, 1965 issue: Changes in ND Small Schs001.

Later that month, an editorial about the article appeared in the Grand Forks (ND) Herald – a minor brush with fame.

It would be interesting to see someone update that 1965 blizzard-bound “research”.

Posted in Community, Education, Family History, History, North Dakota | No Responses »
Tags: antelope consolidated, barnes county nd, sykeston nd, valley city nd, valley city state teacher's college, valley city state university

#681 – Dick Bernard: The Courage of Voices; beginning a Community Conversation on Restoring and Building Relationships

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013

I’m not long returned from a most remarkable nearly two hours at Washburn High School in south Minneapolis.

The reason several hundred of us were in the auditorium tonight was an unfortunate event that happened January 11 at the school, and still looms large in the local news in this large metropolitan area, and even larger in racially diverse Minneapolis public schools. (Here is the FAQ distributed to those of us who were at the meeting: Washburn HS faq Jan 13001)

Succinctly, several students – I gather there were four – took a small doll with a black face, put a string around her neck, hung the doll over a railing, took a picture and posted the picture on Facebook.

Predictably and appropriately the incident stirred outrage, but thankfully no violence (that I know of).

Tonights community gathering was a significant effort by the school district to begin the difficult process of dialogue to not only deal with the incident, but to use it as stage for growth of a more caring community in the future.

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I was proud to be there, if only to accompany my friend, Lynn Elling, nearing 92, who graduated from Washburn in 1939, and has great interest in peace in general and peaceful relationships in particular.

The evening news in a while will perhaps give two minutes to summarize an intense hour and 45 minute series of comments by students, community members and school staff.

There is no way that they can capture the feelings and emotions of actually being there.

Certainly, I can’t capture the essence of the evening. Indeed, everyone there probably left with their own perceptions of what happened, and what didn’t….

For me, the power of the evening was the courage of the voices who rose to speak from their own values, their own truths.

They did not all agree with each other; but the tone was civil and the almost electrically-charged auditorium atmosphere was orderly.

There were, perhaps, 20 speakers in all, reflecting the great diversity of the community, both the school, and at large.

Of all the comments I heard, perhaps the most powerful was from a Japanese exchange student at Washburn, who confessed being worried about attending the school before enrolling last fall, but was now completely a part of the student body.

Her colleague students gave her rousing support.

It took courage for her to stand before the room and state her truth. She was just a few feet from where I was sitting.

By no means was she the only one with a message. There were dissonant notes, but there were no sour notes.

Everyone was their to speak their own truth; to be ‘on the court’.

And everyone else was clearly listening.

In such an atmosphere, one could almost anticipate occasional boos, or disruption of some sort.

There was none. Washburn last night was a community, not a bunch of individuals with agendas.

There were more speakers than time available to hear them.

Meeting finished, we filed out to go home.

I got the sense that the real meeting was just beginning, and that there would be long term and very positive results.

Thank you, Washburn High School and the Minneapolis Public School community.

Posted in Community, Education, History, Minnesota, Peace & Justice | No Responses »
Tags: washburn high school minnesota

#680 – Greg Halbert: “The Right to Keep and Bear Arms”?

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013

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Banana Clip AR, as seen Jan 22, 2013, in Minneapolis MN at the Seward Cafe

Dick Bernard: The Gun Issue is on the table, and that is good. Unfortunately, much of the conversation is as much based on reality as the above painting, which I saw in the Seward Cafe on Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis today. The painting does get at a reality, however…. The ladies in the below photo (same place and time) were having a civil conversation “under the gun” so to speak. If only we all could approach the gun conversation in the same civil manner.

There is lots of good information available, if one is interested in learning. The following is an example.

Recently I had occasion to send around to my own e-list a “Was the Second Amendment Adopted for Slaveholders?“, by MinnPost columnist and long-time well respected writer on Government issues Eric Black. The column links to a longer academic paper by Carl Bogus.

Both are worth a read. At minimum, read the last two paragraphs of Black’s commentary.

Greg Halbert, a good friend, fellow church usher and retired prosecutor, is on my list, and read the items, and provided his own summary view, in a note to Mr. Black.

Here is Greg’s note to Eric, with an appended additional note to myself.

I encourage you to read the Eric Black column and his accompanying links as well.

Greg Halbert to Eric Black Jan 19:

Very much enjoyed your article on the Second Amendment; you educated me greatly, as I am sure it educated many other people who read your piece.

There is another point regarding the right to possess firearms that troubles me. I receive numerous emails from conservative people who claim they have a right to possess a firearm for possible use if and when government becomes tyrannical.

Nothing much, that I have come across, is discussed regarding this claim. Our Revolutionary leaders believed the British government had become tyrannical so they launched the Revolutionary War. But, in doing so they committed treason against the king. Fortunately they won the war and gained independence from Great Britain. Had the British won the war, George Washington and others could well have been executed.

So here we sit in 2013 with certain citizens of the United States fearful the U. S. government will become tyrannical, so they possess firearms and ammunition for use if such tyranny develops.

The difficulty I have is just how is this tyranny defined? How will you, me and others know when our government becomes tyrannical? It is left unsaid, but I presume gun toters think they as individuals will determine when the government has become tyrannical. Then what?

Do these Second amendment worshippers actually think they will take on city police departments, county sheriffs, the national guard, FBI, etc?

Do people who assert this right to possess firearms for use against a tyrannical government understand that treason is another word to describe their actions if they ever come to that?

This tortured line of thinking has escaped any careful examination.

Greg Halbert to Dick Bernard Jan 19:

These so-called super patriots fail to appreciate they are really contemplating treason with this talk that they need arms and ammo to be prepared for response to a tyrannical government. Who determines the government is tyrannical? Anyone? Isn’t that anarchy? Sorry, I am running low on question marks so will close.

Posted in Community, Guns, History, Politics | No Responses »