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#713 – Dick Bernard: Some thoughts after World Law Day, May 1, 2013

Thursday, May 2nd, 2013

About 40 of us gathered at the Gandhi Mahal Retaurant last evening, May 1, to Reflect On World Peace Through Law.

The event was one of those that just came together; in this case, less than three weeks. Law Day has been a part of the American tradition since at least 1958, when President Eisenhower proclaimed it, and in fact Law Day was made part of U.S. Law in 1961.

Of course, May 1 has many different emphases:

There is the annual May Day Parade in South Minneapolis, both serious and whimsical – we often attend: (This year it is Sunday May 5). I highly recommend it.

As a Catholic kid in the 1940s, I remember May Day for May Baskets, and “Mary, Queen of the May”; May Day is a long-time international Labor Day. In the Communist days in the USSR and the Soviet bloc, May Day was a day to parade out military hardware in huge parades….

I suppose someone knows exactly why President Eisenhower proclaimed Law Day for May 1, 1958. My personal speculation is that the proclamation had something to do with the successful launch of Sputnik by the USSR in October, 1957. There needed to be a counter to the Soviet May Day.

Whatever the reasons, competing themes give an opportunity to fight over what May Day is or should be…

The May 1 event I was part of was an opportunity to reflect on World Law and its relationship to Peace.

As best as I can tell “World Law Day” has been a particularly Twin Cities interpretation of Law Day (and a most relevant interpretation).

May 1, 2013 evolved into an opportunity to honor the contributions of our elders who possess much accumulated wisdom.

World Law Day was formally celebrated in Minneapolis-St. Paul from at least 1964 through 1996, and was largely the creation of several persons, including Lynn Elling. (page four of the 2013 program has a timeline: Law Day Prog May 1 2013001

David Brink (93) former President of the American Bar Association was our speaker May 1; an impromptu decision was made to call the event the “1st Annual Lynn and Donna Elling Symposium on World Peace Through Law.” Donna passed away in June, 2011, but Lynn, at 92, was there, less than 24 hours returned from two weeks in Vietnam with his adopted Vietnamese son, Tod.

(click on photos to enlarge)

Lynn Elling May 1, 2013.

Elder Rev. Lyle Christianson introduced Mr. Brink; Rev. Lowell Erdahl and Joe Schwartzberg, other prominent elders in the peace and justice community were in attendance, and an in-preparation film about World Citizen Garry Davis, 92, and ailing was screened after the event.

If there is to be a “2nd Annual” World Law Event on May 1, 2014 (it’s a Thursday), will depend on the interest of those who attended May 1, and others whose interest may have been stimulated by two commentaries in the May 1, Minneapolis Star Tribune. The commentaries, by Joe Schwartzberg and Jim Nelson, lay out the history and in effect the case for a continuing World Law Day.

Take the time to not only read the commentaries, but to add your own comment. And get active.

Where do you stand?

And if you’re a Twin Citian, consider giving Gandhi Mahal some of your business. They are serious about community orientation (and an excellent restaurant, too!)

Posted in Community, History, International Relations, Minnesota, Peace & Justice | No Responses »
Tags: david brink, gandhi mahal, garry davis, jim nelson minneapolis, Joe Schwartzberg, lowell erdahl, lyle christianson, Lynn Elling

#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

#674 – Dick Bernard: The War for Peace…

Monday, January 7th, 2013

UPDATE Jan. 7, 2013: note comment at end from Garry Davis.

Sunday I was privileged to be among nearly 100 people invited to a private preview of a very special eye-opening film, which has the potential to inspire the public with a new way of looking at the world.

In the documentary, which is still in development, World Citizen #1 Garry Davis engaged us with his fascinating life story. A riveting story-teller, he told us how his quest for a different kind of world began during World War II, when in the wake of his own brother being killed in action, he found himself killing German brothers and families in B-17 bomber runs on German cities.

He couldn’t see any sense in killing others to avenge the killing of his brother and this changed his life. He came to see no real sense in even national borders. In the end, he felt, people have to relate to other people, and figure out ways to get along, otherwise our human world cannot survive. Borders were artificial fences, especially as they defined countries.

His actions made him controversial.

The in progress film about Davis, which I think will be a very important one, develops the story of what happened later in Davis’ life, and how his commitment to peace could be a template for us all.

The screening was co-sponsored by Global Solutions Minnesota, World Citizen (founded by Lynn Elling and others in 1972), A Million Copies, and Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers. The Film Society of Minneapolis and St. Paul was also co-sponsor and great host for the event, which was presented in their theater at St. Anthony Main, Minneapolis.

Of course, life is not always simple. Paradoxically, on the same Sunday of the screening, another “war” was about to break out.

President Obama is nominating former Sen. and Vietnam War veteran Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense, and the issue appears to be drawn on whether Hagel will be sufficiently tough as a representative of American interests. Much will be said in coming days. Here’s a good summary of the first salvos.

This nomination battle is well worth watching.

Garry Davis is still very much alive, at 91, and at the screening on Sunday was Minneapolitan Lynn Ellling, near 92, who remains a lion in the quest for World Citizenship and Peace.

After the screening, about half of us stayed for an interesting Skype conversation between Garry Davis and Lynn Elling and others on the topic of world citizenship.

(click on photos to enlarge)

Garry Davis (on screen from Vermont via Skype), Lynn Elling, film producer Arthur Kanegis and a guest share thoughts on the pursuit of world peace on January 6.

Such a topic, Peace, is not a simple one, and there are differences of opinions of how one achieves lasting Peace, but the importance lies in the potential good of the conversation, and of working together to resolve differences.

Garry Davis – and his counterpart Lynn Elling – experienced War up front and very personally in WWII, and neither considers War an option for achieving Peace.

In the War paradigm, which the upcoming debate over Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense is all about, the only conversation will be about the Power of one nation to dominate others, in my opinion.

I had seen an early draft of the Davis film in October, 2012, and it caused me to do reflecting on my own about the issues raised, long before the January 6 preview.

Indeed, Davis was and still is “controversial”.

So, too, were Nelson Mandela who endured years of prison before becoming a world hero; and more recently Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Laureate from Myanmar who couldn’t accept her award in person for fear that she wouldn’t be allowed back in her own country, and endured 21 years of house arrest within her own country, and made one of her first public international statements to the Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College in Minneapolis in March 2012. Most recently, she had as a house guest, President Obama.

There is a very long list of “controversial” people who have made a difference and can be role models for us.

Being controversial is often very desirable and good.

I also remembered a couple of sentences written by Martin Luther King Jr. in his book, Why We Can’t Wait, published in 1964, shortly after the assassination of President Kennedy.

King had not long before endured the Birmingham Jail and some months later gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the Washington DC Mall.

He wrote this in his book:

“I am reminded of something President Kennedy said to me at the White House following the signing of the Birmingham agreement.

“Our judgment of Bull Connor should not be too harsh” he commented. “After all, in his way, he has done a good deal for civil-rights legislation this year.”

Immediately following these sentences, King says this, a message to all of us: “It was the people who moved their leaders, not the leaders who moved the people….”

We of that generation tend to forget a crucial fact: at the time of this conversation, Martin Luther King Jr was 33 years old; President John F. Kennedy was 46.

When Lynn Elling MC’ed the event where Minneapolis and Hennepin County became the first World Citizenship city and county in the United States on May 1, 1968, Lynn was 47 years old. Three years later, in March, 1971, Minnesota as a state became World Citizen. Mr Elling was heavily involved in both actions, which were non-partisan and had a very impressive list of bi-partisan supporters.

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

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

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

Minnesota Declaration of World Citizenship March, 1971. photo courtesy of Bonnie Fournier, Smooch Project

The future is with the young. We need to help them choose a path which will give them a positive future.

UPDATE Jan 7. 2013: received from Garry Davis:
Hi Dick,

Great blog! Loved it! So happy you referred to my personal “history” site ( a real archaic opus compared to what one sees today, but still containing some interesting archival material). For instance, under “World Citizenship Movement & the World Government,” in the 3nd para. starting “In 2 years over 750,000 people registered, etc.” you will note “In June, ‘mondialized’ Cahors.”

This small southern French town (famous for its wine) actually started the “Mundialization Movement” from which the 1971 statement of “Mundialization” of the State of Minnesota derived followed by the State of Iowa on October 25, 1973. (For the full list see here). [NOTE: Minneapolis and Hennepin County MN mundialized March 5, 1968.]

Colonel Robert Sarrazac, former Maquis during WWII and my principal “organization” in Paris, was the author of the first “Mundialization” declaration.

Maybe a footnote could be added to fill out this important item.

Looking forward to having the pleasure of meeting you in the Spring.

Warmly, in one global village,

Garry

Posted in History, International Relations, Minnesota, Peace & Justice, Politics, War | No Responses »
Tags: garry davis, Lynn Elling

#579 – Dick Bernard: Donna Elling

Wednesday, June 13th, 2012

This afternoon Donna Elling, 88, will be remembered at First Universalist Church in south Minneapolis. We’ll be there, and I expect there’ll be a large crowd. She richly deserves a tribute.

I can’t say I knew Donna well, except through others voices and memories. When I met her and her husband, Lynn, five years ago, her memory was already in decline, but there was no question that she was a classy lady, a partner with her husband since their marriage in 1943, and a loving parent, grand, and great-grandparent.

I got to know Lynn much better than Donna in these past five years. But as I retrace that time, I had many occasions to see Donna. Where Lynn was, so was Donna, always gracious and friendly. Donna was always there, also, in Lynn’s conversation stream. They had a rich 68 years together.

Others can and will relive and recall her long and productive life much better than I.

Some years ago Lynn shared with me his photo album and I made photo copies of some of the pages.

Yesterday, at a meeting, I shared two photo pages of Donna taken from that album. One is below, and both are attached as a pdf Donna Elling 1953001. Appropriately, the magazine is for June 21, the time of the soon-to-occur Summer Solstice.

(click to enlarge photos)

In my own photo files, there are surprisingly numerous photos of Donna, since where Lynn was, so was Donna to be found.

For her farewell I choose this photo, from September, 2011, at their home in south Minneapolis.

Lynn and Donna Elling, September, 2011

In Peace.

The family has chosen World Citizen, the organization Lynn founded in 1982, as a preferred memorial, and I would ask consideration of Lynn’s ‘driving dream’ which included places (as their home was) as Peace Sites. All information can be found at World Citizen’s website, here.

Do take a look.

Another of Lynn Elling’s passions was the Nobel Peace Prize Festival, now integrated into the Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College, Minneapolis MN. One of the last photos I have of Donna and Lynn together was taken at a reception for 1993 co-Nobel Laureate F. W. deKlerk of S. Africa.

from right: Lynn and Donna Elling, F. W. deKlerk, Cathy and Dick Bernard, March 2, 2012

UPDATE June 16, 2012:
Donna had a marvelous celebration of her life on June 13. I’d estimate approximately 300 friends and family attended.
Here’s a great slideshow remembering her life.

Lynn remembers Donna, his spouse of 68 years, at the Memorial Service June 13, 2012

Posted in Minnesota, Peace & Justice, Quietings | No Responses »
Tags: Donna Elling, Lynn Elling

#518 – Dick Bernard: The Ask.

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

A day or so ago I answered the phone and a little-person voice announced herself as “Susie”.

Susie? I thought it was a misdial. Then her mother came on, and I learned that I was talking to granddaughter Lucy, all irrepressible five years of her.

Her sisters, Girl Scouts, had convinced her to call us to alert us to Girl Scout cookie time. As I type this blog, their Mom is on the way to our house with the goods, just in time for Mardi Gras.

Earlier today, I stopped at Lucy’s aunts school. We were comparing notes. Joni said that she’d recently seen Lucy, and the first words out of her mouth were “how many boxes?”

Ah, salesmanship, and marketing….

It all reminded me of an occasion a year ago when I was part of a small group meeting with a top executive at a major company to cadge a donation for the Nobel Peace Prize Festival (now Forum) at Augsburg. The last member of our group, a nationally known figure, came into the lobby, and his first statement was, “what’s the ask?” What did we want from this appointment? He knew the trade.

Yes, we made the sale that day. It helps to have people along who know how selling goes….

I never was in the sales profession, but I admire good salespeople, and from time to time I pick up useful tips, like “what’s the ask?”

The guy who called the meeting that day was my friend Lynn Elling, then 90, who is a retired and successful salesman (financial products, Lincoln Life).

Recently he and I were visiting and he felt inclined to describe the sales process, simplified. He said (and this is useful for any of us selling anything), that the rule of thumb was that it takes three calls to get an appointment, and three appointments to get a sale. Most of us don’t have the stamina to jump through those hoops.

Then he described the Sales Pyramid, which is very simple, really: 1) you must know something (“credential”); 2) you must disturb the client; 3) then you propose a solution; and 4) you close the sale.

Oh so simple.

Noting Lynn Elling's reminisences of selling...Jan. 2012

I thought back to other little ditties relating to selling: to get a sale you must sell the product “7 times in 7 ways”; if you want a successful event, remember three F’s: Food, Fun, Family.

A survival skill for me in my early career was to internalize “patience and persistence pays”.

And as we all know from experience, a good “sale” is one where both the salesperson and the customer win, and months later the customer is glad he or she ‘bit’. We all know what that looks like.

Not so cool is when the objective requires that one side win, and the other lose…(very much like contemporary politics).

Of course, all of the strategies, even the good ones, don’t always work.

Recently a retired minister friend recalled a pitch someone had made to magnate Curt Carlson. His colleague was very nervous, and couldn’t get to the point. Mr. Carlson intervened, and coached the minister along.

The pitch was made, and Mr. Carlson responded, “I decline….”

Good luck Girl Scouts.

Oh yes. We’re now the owners of ten boxes….

UPDATE April 22, 2012: Recently I was visiting my friend, Lynn Elling (see above), and he had by his side the autobiography of CNN founder and mogul Ted Turner. In the book, Call Me Ted, Lynn said that Turner’s mantra for success was very simple:
“Early to bed,
Early to rise,
Work like hell,
and Advertise.”

Makes sense to me.

Posted in Family History, Minnesota, Politics | No Responses »
Tags: girl scout cookies, Lynn Elling

#511 – Dick Bernard: Lynn Elling, World War II & Korea Veteran, Businessman, World Citizen

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

UPDATE June 20, 2012: Lynn’s spouse of 68 years, Donna Elling, passed away June 1, 2012. Here is a blog post about Donna and Lynn and their family, first posted on the day of her Memorial Service June 13, 2012.

UPDATE January 4, 2013: During the fall and early winter of 2012, I found more information particularly about the Minneapolis/Hennepin County Declaration of World Citizenship March 5, 1968. That information has been added to this post, including some photos of the May 1, 1968, dedication ceremony taken by Donna Elling.

I met Lynn Elling in June, 2007. In November of that year I wrote the below commentary for Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers (original here), and in March, 2008, I rolled out the Million Copies website tribute to Lynn Elling and Professor Joe Schwartzberg, which remains essentially identical to when it was first published.

Both Mr. Elling and Dr. Schwartzberg remain with us, and both remain very, very active in their respective passions.

This seems to be a good time to update the original commentary about Lynn. (Changes to original text are minimal. The photographs are new additions.)

March 1-3, 2012 inaugurates the new Augsburg Nobel Peace Prize Forum, incorporating the long existing Nobel Peace Prize Festival, also at Augsburg, in which Lynn had a major co-founding role, and through the years has been a remaining powerful and crucial presence as both worker and fund-raiser for this major event.

The histories of both Festival and Forum are here.

Lynn and his spouse, Donna, still live in south Minneapolis. They celebrated 68 years of marriage last fall. Below is a photo taken September 22, 2011, at their home.

(click on all photos to enlarge them)

Lynn and Donna Elling September 22, 2011

Lynn remains very active in working for an enduring peace, particularly with children’s programs such as Peace Sites, also here, and listing here: World Citiz Peace Sites001. And Peace Education.

Donna and Lynn, congratulations and best wishes to you both.

UPDATE April 17, 2013: Here is an abbreviated timeline of Lynn Elling’s efforts for World Peace: Lynn Elling Timeline001 It is much abbreviated.

LYNN ELLING: A MILLION COPIES MADE: Visioning a New Declaration of World Citizenship
by Dick Bernard
Originally published Nov. 5, 2007 at Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers , slightly revised February 3, 2011, and December 3, 2012.

I don’t know why Ed McCurdy chose the line “a million copies made” for his circa 1950 peace anthem, “Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream”.

Nor do I know why John Denver especially liked that song (a 1971 rendition performed by him on the U.S. Capitol steps is ‘front and center’ at amillioncopies.info.)

All I know is that I heard Lynn Elling lead us in singing that song back in the spring of 2007; and that the lyric “A million copies made” has stuck with me.

Who is this Lynn Elling?

And what does he have to do with peace and justice?

Plenty.

As a young LST (Landing Ship Tank #172) officer in WWII, Lynn Elling saw the horrors of War closeup in the South Pacific, at places like Tarawa. The history of LST 172 is here: Lynn Elling LST 172001,

Later he was recalled to service, and served in the Korean conflict, also on an LST.

Lynn Elling on USS LST 172 in the Pacific, 1944

Born in 1921 and a life long Minnesotan, after WWII Elling entered the insurance and financial planning business with Lincoln Life, becoming very successful in the profession. But early in his post-war career, he was discouraged and almost quit. Selling is very hard work. At a critical point in his early professional life, 1947, a workshop leader, Maxwell Maltz (Psycho Cybernetics) unlocked the door to Lynn’s future success. Maltz taught that if one could visualize a goal in technicolor, 3-dimension and stereophonic sound, the goal could be achieved. Elling listened, and followed Maltz’s advice, and it worked.

But Elling never forgot what he’d seen and experienced on that LST in the south Pacific in WWII.

Assorted experiences after WWII, including the service in the Korean conflict and visiting Hiroshima in 1954 and again in 1963, and opportunities to meet with and get to know people like Thor Heyerdahl (Kon Tiki), Norman Cousins, and many others, led to Lynn’s life long passion to build a culture of Peace and World Citizenship. Through leaders like MN Gov. Wendell R. Anderson, and mentors like Minneapolis business executive Stanley Platt, his wife Martha Platt, former Minnesota Governor Elmer L. Andersen and others, Elling was encouraged in his efforts.

His enduring monument is World Citizen, Inc.. World Citizen is a long-time member of Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers (MAP).

In the Fall of 1967, Stanley Platt and Lynn worked with then-Minneapolis Mayor Arthur Naftalin on a Declaration of World Citizenship, patterned on a then rapidly expanding program called “Mundialization” of cities particularly in Japan, France and Canada. Mayor Naftalin took the lead on the initiative, and on March 5, 1968, Minneapolis City Council and Hennepin County Board of Commissioners approved the resolution and the Declaration was signed by numerous parties. Here is a photo of a copy of the 1968 Declaration:

(click to enlarge)

Minneapolis/Hennepin Co MN Declaration of World Citizenship March 5, 1968

This was the first such declaration by a United States City. Signers of the Declaration and twenty-eight mayors from area communities attended the public declaration on Law Day, May 1, 1968.
Signers of the Declaration were: Chair, Henn. Co Board of Commissioners Robert Janes; Mayor of Minneapolis Arthur Naftalin; President Minneapolis City Council Daniel Cohen; Gov. Harold Levander; Oscar Knutson, Chief Justice Minnesota Supreme Court; Eli Kahn, President Minnesota Rabbinical Association; Congressman Don Fraser; Chairs of Minnesota Republican and DFL parties, George Thiss and Warren Spannaus; Aux. Bishop of Catholic Archdiocese James Shannon; Irene Janski, President of MN League of Women Voters; President MN United World Federalists, Sidney Feinberg, Minnesota State Bar Assoc; Harold Greenwood Jr, United Nations Association of Minnesota.

Former MN Governor Elmer L. Andersen spoke at the ceremony that day, very proud that the occasion marked “the first flying of the United Nations flag by Minneapolis and Hennepin County, [and] the first such declaration and UN flag flying by any major community in the United States. Thus this becomes a deeply significant occasion in our nation’s history. It 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.“

In the same speech, he said “that we must look upon all the peoples of the world as one community, and we must find a way to operate under a body of world law to preserve peace.” (quotes from pages 151-52 of I Trust to be Believed, significant speeches by Elmer L. Andersen edited by Lori Sturdevant 2004). Text: Elmer Andersen I Trust..001

Elmer L. Andersen speech, City Hall, Minneapolis, May 1, 1968. Photo by Donna Elling

Gov. Elmer L. Andersen (center left) with Minneapolis Mayor Arthur Naftalin, May 1, 1968, Minneapolis City Hall. Photo by Donna Elling.

Lynn Elling speaks at May 1, 1968, ceremony at Minneapolis City Hall. In foreground, holding the Declaration, is Warren Spannaus, then Chair of the Minnesota DFL party, later Attorney General. Phot by Donna Elling.

Lynn’s passion for peace continued with another remarkable achievement in the spring of 1971 when 26 prominent leaders, including all notable Minnesota Republicans and Democrats, and then-UN Secretary General U Thant, signed a declaration of World Citizenship whose major proviso recognized “the sovereign right of our citizens to declare that their citizenship responsibilities extend beyond our state 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.”

Coming as it did during the darkest times of the Vietnam War, the 1971 bi-partisan Declaration is remarkable. Similar declarations were entered into in several other states and many communities.

See amillioncopies.info for more information about the entire declaration, which includes the signatures of all its very prominent signers , as well as Lynn’s current proposal.

In 1971, the Vietnam War raged on. It was difficult for most Americans to visualize an end to the deadly conflict. For those old enough to remember, the late 1960s and early 1970s was a time of deep division in this country. American youth were dying by the thousands in southeast Asia, as were millions of fellow world citizens in southeast Asian countries.

Minnesota Declaration of World Citizenship March 1971

Here’s a Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial about the 1971 Minnesota Declaration:

Also accessible at the website is [the Elling led] 1972 film, “Man’s Next Giant Leap”, featuring John Denver and many then-notable Minnesota leaders, whose sole purpose was Peace Education for children and adults.

In 1972, Lynn and others founded World Citizen, Inc; in 1988, Peace Sites became integral to World Citizen. Peace Poles have been publicized by World Citizen for many years.

In 1996 Lynn Elling co-founded the Nobel Peace Prize Festival, now part of Nobel Peace Prize Forum, at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. Both remain. (The link to the Peace Prize Festival is here; in 2012 the Festival becomes part of the Forum, and the history of both is accessible here.)

As so often happens, after a flurry of attention, the remarkable 1971 declaration literally ended up in a closet, its immense significance unnoticed by later generations.

Lynn Elling never forgot the 1971 declaration and in the spring of 2007 put it back on the table with a proposed update to fit the present day. Lynn is grateful to Dr. Joseph Schwartzberg, professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota, who prepared the current proposal.

Today, of course, we are confronted by circumstances even more compelling and troubling than visited the U.S. and the world in 1971.

Today war is almost an abstract reality for many of us, something that seems to have no apparent negative consequences for us, mostly affecting people we’ll never see face-to-face, with fewer of ‘our own’ dying in places far away, no military draft facing young people, our war financed on a national credit card for our grandchildren to pay.

In a real sense we are playing a deadly video game. Additionally, we are beset with other potentially calamitous problems ignored at our peril. No longer can we pretend that our problems are confined to some other place far away, or even controllable by our own will. We are vulnerable in a way that we do not want to understand.

There has never been a greater need for world citizenship than there is today.

When Lynn secured his last signature on the 1971 declaration, achieving mastery in the space race was still a priority. Today, our very survival as human beings is rooted on what is happening on our own planet in all ways: human relationships, resource depletion, increasing inequities between peoples, climate change…the list goes on and on. Today’s priority must be right here on the sphere we call home – the earth. We are part of the global community; isolation and domination are no longer options.

Lynn Elling deserves immense credit and admiration for not only his accomplishment in 1971, but for reigniting the issue for today’s world.

Thanks, Lynn, for all you’ve done.

To all of you, stay tuned as we “retool and refuel” Lynn’s dream and take it, as he likes to say, “to the stratosphere”.

Posted in History, Minnesota, Peace & Justice | No Responses »
Tags: ed mccurdy, joseph schwartzberg, LST 172, Lynn Elling, maxwell maltz, world citizen

#496 – War Horse…Imagine Peace

Wednesday, January 4th, 2012

We went to an outstanding movie at the local theater yesterday: Steven Spielberg’s War Horse. My spouse asked me more than once, “are you all right?” It is one of those films that elicits strong emotional response. I would guess I wasn’t alone among the surprisingly large crowd in the dark, quiet theater.

War Horse opened Christmas Day and is set in WWI England and France. There are a great plenty of reviews. Take your pick.

My personal reviewer – the friend who urged us to see the movie – was my friend, 90 year old Lynn Elling, born shortly after WWI and a veteran of the Pacific war in WWII, an officer on an LST in both WWII and Korea, who saw in person the carnage at places like Tarawa (WWII ship biography for LST 172 at end of this post).

Lynn saw War Horse opening day. The Elling’s Christmas letter, received pre-release, urged receivers to see the film.

Lynn’s visit to Hiroshima in 1954 cemented his lifelong dedication to seeking enduring peace in our world; he is tireless in his quest.

Lynn Elling aboard LST 172, 1944

(click on photos to enlarge them)

Lynn’s story can be found here.

Sure, War Horse is simply a story, as are most movies we attend. But it elevates the better side of humanity.

I would suspect its timed release on Christmas Day in some way was meant to mirror the oft-told story of the Christmas Day Truce on the WWI battle lines. There are endless renditions of this true story. Here’s the portal to them – take your pick.

There is truly an opportunity for peace on earth, and it is the people like ourselves who will make it happen.

See War Horse for yourself. I don’t believe the two hours and twenty minutes will disappoint.

Lynn and Donna Elling Sep 22, 2011

The account of service of LST 172 in WWII, below (click to enlarge) and in pdf form here: Lynn Elling LST 172001

Posted in Community, History, International Relations, Quietings, War | No Responses »
Tags: LST 172, Lynn Elling, missouri valley bridge and iron company evansville indiana, war horsestephen spielberg, world citizen, WWI

#451 – Dick Bernard: Hummingbird. Lynn Elling and Wangari Maathai

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Wangari Maathai died September 25, 2011, in a Kenya hospital. I never met her, or knew much about her. I wish I had.

My friend Lynn Elling asked retired Minneapolis teacher Nancy Paxson to send along Ms Maathai’s obituary and her wonderful and inspirational recitation “I will be a Hummingbird”.

Lynn faces serious surgery Monday, October 10, and at 90 is an eternal optimist. “Can’t” or other negative talk is not part of Lynn’s vocabulary. That hummingbird had nothing on Lynn Elling, especially when it came to his absolute passion for peace.

As Monday approaches for Lynn, I want to share a memory that he shared with me recently.

Lynn is founder of World Citizen, and co-founder of the Nobel Peace Prize Festival, an annual event at Augsburg College in Minneapolis.

Each year since 1996, the Peace Prize Laureate of a preceding year has been invited to attend the Festival at Augsburg, and several laureates have attended.

Dr. Maathai was awarded the Peace Prize in 2004 for her Green Belt movement in her native Kenya, and she accepted the invitation to come speak to children at the March 2006 Augsburg Peace Prize Festival.

All was ready for the Festival except for the heavy snowstorm which brought the Twin Cities to a standstill. In early morning, the Festival organizers cancelled the event, and Dr. Maathai was marooned at the West Bank Holiday Inn in Minneapolis.

As Lynn recounted, he and several others managed to get to the hotel and at least give Dr. Maathai some company. She was in tears. She had so wanted to address the children at the Festival. Of course it wasn’t possible.

She made a huge contribution to the betterment of her country and the world in her lifetime.

The same can be said for Lynn Elling, though his accomplishments were more local.

Dr. Maathai’s Hummingbird lives on, thanks to Lynn.

Best wishes, Lynn, as you face your surgery next Monday.

Lynn and Donna Elling, September 22, 2011

More about Lynn Elling here.

UPDATE October 13, 2011:
After posting this item, my wife and I were on an out of town trip for the following six days.

Lynn’s surgery appears to have been successful, and he is back home.

On October 6, Nancy Paxson sent an e-mail, received on my return, which further comments on the snowy day in Minneapolis in early 2006: “Hi, I treasure recalling that day. My husband & I drove through the deep snow to her hotel and were honored to be included in the group to go to her hotel room. The Ellings were there, as well as Joe [Schwartzberg] and the Augsburg camera guys who video taped her telling the hummingbird story and greeting the festival children, all to be shown in April when we held the rescheduled festival. I have pictures of that morning in her hotel (someplace ) and sent copies to Ellings and others. My Keewaydin [school] Peace Choir was prepared to honor her, so she asked me to sing bits of the songs for her, and we presented her with a lovely photo book of trees and wrapped it in one of those rainbow bandanas that the peace choir wore to perform. She was tickled at that, because when she was in Japan, they had a tradition of gifting in lovely cloth wrapping. I forget the term. I was a special day, and I have shared it with many students over the years, as we study the laureates.”

And, of course, in the past few days three women, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen, were named the Nobel Peace Prize Award Winners for 2011. According to the Nobel official site, their Awards are “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.”

Posted in Peace & Justice, Quietings | No Responses »
Tags: augsburg peace prize festival mn, Lynn Elling, wangari maathai

#385 – Dick Bernard: A 2:43 Speech: “Last Night I had the Strangest Dream”. A matter of Climate Change and Other Things.

Friday, June 17th, 2011

UPDATE/SUPPLEMENT June 19, 2011, here.

As we all do, I dream, and I just awoke from a dream whose essential message I remember. This doesn’t always happen.

I want to share the dream, and speculate from whence it came.

For some reason I found myself as king# of the world, only for a few minutes, able to direct people who were influential decision makers.

Since only a few run things in this world of ours, I didn’t have to speak to all 7 billion people, only to a few. We were in a large, stark, room, and the few of us could gather in a corner. Perhaps there were a dozen of us. Significantly, there were no women# in this directed conversation.

We gathered in a square, each bringing our own platform, which seemed to resemble a school desk such as a student would occupy. They were of random design, these desks. Again, we were all men#.

All gathered together, I gave the direction, which for some reason sticks vividly in my mind.

Each person in this square had precisely two minutes and 43 seconds to say what they had to say. No rebuttal, no debate. Two minutes and 43 seconds.

Then I woke up.

There are people who make their living interpreting dreams. I’m not one of those people.

The back story of my dream perhaps came a few hours earlier when I, along with perhaps 70 others, men and women, participated in a powerful one and a half hours with world climate expert Professor John Abraham of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. He started his talk with a satellite photo of the world, specifically Africa; he ended his presentation with photos of his two daughters, age four and five, who are, he said, the reason he’s devoting his professional life to the crisis of climate change. He is, after all, making their future, and that of their descendants. Africa in particular, and the coming generations will reap the consequences of human activity, especially during the period of the Industrial Revolution.

It was a powerful evening.

I wonder if, when I read this aloud, I’ll come out to two minutes and 43 seconds.

“Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream”? I first heard John Denver sing that song years ago; it most impacted me when Lynn Elling led us in that song in June, 2007. It was a moment, that one in 2007, that changed my life.

You can listen to John Denver’s rendition at my website A Million Copies. There you can also read about Lynn Elling, and also about Dr. Joe Schwartzberg’s Affirmation of Human Oneness. Dr. Schwartzberg was in charge of last nights meeting, and at the beginning, we read his Affirmation of Human Oneness, appearing at the website in the 41 languages into which it has thus far been translated.

On reflection, my dream was not at all strange.

How about for you?

What would you say in your two minutes and 43 seconds, and to whom would you say it?

Most importantly, then what will you do to put that 2:43 into reality? Not, what will you order others to do, but what will YOU do?

This is an especially important question to the women. Men have mucked things up royally, and perhaps terminally. Women can turn things around perhaps more effectively than any group of men can.

It’s time to act.

Some Resources:

Dr. Abraham’s climate science organization website is here. There is a lot of content accessible here.

A website he recommended is CoolPlanetMN. And another, Minnesota Environmental Partnership.

The organization Lynn Elling founded in 1982: World Citizen. The organization sponsoring last nights event with John Abraham: Citizens for Global Solutions MN. I am privileged to be part of both groups.

(Click on photos to enlarge them.)

Dr. John Abraham, professor, School of Engineering, St. Thomas University, St. Paul MN

Dr. Joe Schwartzberg, President Citizens for Global Solutions MN, Professor Emeritus in Geography, University of Minnesota, June 16, 2011

Extra Special Thanks to Lee Dechert who made this program happen.

Richard (Lee) Dechert introduces Prof. Abraham June 16, 2011

# – A woman friend challenged me on these references. The references were intentional, and as I remembered the dream. It is we men who have and continue to run our world into the ground. More and more women are involved, but until women make the election to take the lead, past mistakes will continue to be made.

Posted in Climate Change, Environment, Media, Nature, Politics | No Responses »
Tags: climate science, Joe Schwartzberg, john Abraham, John Denver, Lynn Elling, Richard Lee Dechert

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