When Republicans Are In Charge

     Photo by Van Winkle Law Firm

      (www.vwlawfirm.com)

North Carolina is one of my favorite states and places to visit
I’ve had extraordinary fun in Raleigh, Charlotte, Camden,
Columbus, Ashville and Pinehurst. The 2014 U.S. Open Golf
Championship will be played at Pinehurst’s wonderful #2
course. I had planned to attend. In protest, I think I won’t go.

Let us consider an example of what happens when this new brand of Republicans are in charge and then ask ourselves two questions: (1) Could it happen on a national basis if Republicans were in total charge? (2) Could it happen in my state if Republicans were in total charge?
by Charlie Leck

At this point, ideally, you should go read this NY Times editorial, The Decline of North Carolina, that appeared in this powerful and famous newspaper on 10 July 2013; however, since many of you will not want to, I'll summarize the important editorial for you…

A significant number of people in North Carolina have begun observing “Moral Monday.” These people gather on Mondays to demonstrate and protest “the grotesque damage that a new Republican majority has been doing to a tradition of caring for the least fortunate.”

You know, conservatives – especially conservative politicians – like to talk about honoring American traditions. One of the great ones, it seems to me, is our nation’s willingness to care for those who are down and nearly out.

I think conservative Republicans have forgotten this tradition. Oh, my! Not all Republicans. I know some of the best of them – men and women who are true to real conservative core values but who also deeply believe is caring for those in our society who are less fortunate and unable to climb up on the big, steady American bandwagon that moves toward success and comfortable lives.

The realistic understand that there will always be a segment of society that has not been fortunate – that is down on its luck – that has encountered serious set-backs – that has failed in ways that are not due to a failure to try. It may be what Jesus meant when he is quoted in the scriptures as saying, “The poor we shall always have with us!”

There are a large number of people in North Carolina who fear that their state is forgetting this. Certainly, the state’s legislative body seems to have forgotten a deep, abiding tradition to care for the less fortunate. The NY Times editorial says…

“But the bad news keeps on coming from the Legislature, and pretty soon a single day of the week may not be enough to contain the outrage.”

Republicans control both the executive and the legislative branches of government in North Carolina, giving them free hand to do pretty much what they want in terms of legislation. The NY Times describes what’s happening down there as “a demolition derby, tearing down years of progress in public education, tax policy, racial equality in the courtroom and access to the ballot.”

Here is what the Republican Party has done in North Carolina and what it could do in state after state in the south and eventually in the conservative states in the north; and this would create such havoc in blue states that its expenses would rise uncontrollably as people flock into them to escape a brand of politics that I can only call unAmerican.

Last week North Carolina ended unemployment benefits for 70,000 of its residents. In a short while they will end them for 100,000 more. The remaining North Carolinians on unemployment will have their checks cut by a third. Unemployment in North Carolina is the fifth highest in the nation. It was the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce that convinced the legislature to do this.

Then the North Carolina legislature has weakened an already shaky education system and, in the long run, that will only hurt any recovery from the high unemployment rates that North Carolina is experiencing. Teacher pay is falling dramatically in North Carolina. The state legislature wants to remove all limits on class sizes. Many are predicting that a teacher exodus will follow. So, of course, will the quality of education in that state.

·         The legislature in North Carolina repealed the Racial Justice Act.

·         They refused to expand Medicaid.

·         The look to reduce taxes on the wealthy while raising it on all others.

·         The state senate in North Carolina has voted to close all the state’s abortion clinics. The House is looking at it. The Governor will sign it.

·         The legislature wants to, and probably will, impose voter identification laws and cut back on early voting (while many states are moving to expand such voting). It’s protection insurance for all ultra-conservatives.

Remember?
It was not many years ago that progressives were taking note and hope in North Carolina’s acts of compassion, thinking this state might become a beacon for the entire south. Now comes the dismantling of all that hope.

Take note!
This is what Republican conservatives like Tom Emmer and Michel Bachmann support. Off-hand, casually, they will say they don’t, but an examination of their campaign comments and their voting records will show they do.

This is what could happen nationally with Tea Party types in charges. America could be dragged down into the ditches of despair and disrepair.

This is the kind of politics the horrible Koch Brothers fund.

America, beware!

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[UPDATE] The Texas State House of Representatives has approved, on strictly party lines, a new abortion bill. The State Senate could vote on it sometime on Friday. The new law would ban abortions after 20 weeks and only allow abortions in surgical centers.…

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Osama bin Laden’s Thoughts as American Helicopters Approached

A Talking Point Memo (TPM) of the last couple of days proved absolutely fascinating to me. It’s about the 2011 U.S. Special Ops raid on the mysterious compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Mission’s purpose: Kill Osama bin Laden.
by Charlie Leck

The blog's title is not meant to be a set-up for a joke. We really can now know quite precisely what Osama bin Laden was thinking when the American helicopters were approaching. His first thought was that a storm was approaching. He and his youngest wife stepped outside onto a terrace. His ears told him! He knew!

The tyrant gathered some of his family around him. He prayed. He read a few verses from the Quran. He then urged everyone to leave his room.

How did it go down?
Turns out the movie didn’t have it exactly right nor did most of the reports about the operation by American news sources. Now the Pakistani government has received a special report from the Abbottabad Commission it appointed to investigate what happened and how it happened. The TPM summary of that report is terribly fascinating and also surprising in a couple of places. You can read it here.

  

“Bin Laden had been spending the evening with Amal Ahmad Abdul Fattah al-Sadah (photo above), a 29 year old Yemeni woman who was the youngest of the international fugitive’s three wives. The two originally thought the commotion outside was an incoming storm and went on to the balcony to investigate, but the moonless sky made the outdoor surroundings pitch black. When Sadah reached to turn on a light, bin Laden said, ‘No!’”

There are more surprises in the report and you will likely find it fascinating to read. For instance, bin Laden’s eldest wife, Khairiyyah Sabar, claims that the invaders made off with her husband’s will.

The report charges the Pakistani government and its agencies of law enforcement with “incompetence.” It also calls the American military invasion of the compound an “act of war.”

The TPM memo is only a two or three minute read, but it is also fascinating in every way. If you want to read something more extensive, you can go to this ABC News account about the commission’s report. The ABC story highlights these key points in the report…

·         Report finds comprehensive failure to detect bin Laden and CIA presence

·         Bin Laden was pulled over for speeding in Swat but matter was quickly settled

·         Bin Laden wore cowboy hat at Abbottabad compound to avoid detection

·         Evidence from wives paints picture of frugal, secluded life

·         Bin Laden children were never allowed to leave Abbottabad compound

·         Bin Laden took charge of children's' religious education and playtime

·         Bin Laden women observed strict purdah (seclusion from men) from age of three

Osama’s loyal wives…
It’s clear from Reuter’s news reports in 2012 about the U.S. interviews of Osama bin Laden’s wives that they remained and still remain incredibly loyal to him. The women would not cooperate with the U.S. agents. Amal Ahmad Abdul Fattah al-Sadah, a citizen of Yemini, showed signs of fury and would not cooperate with the American interviewers. All three wives remained fiercely loyal to their husband.

When the Pakistanis had gotten all the information they were able to drag from the three wives, they were sent, along with the eleven children, back to Saudi Arabi. The wives had been convicted in Pakistan’s criminal courts for entering the country illegally.

Best Account of Osama bin Laden’s last night
came from the author of a biography of the terrorist’s life (The Osama bin Laden I Know), published in 2006. Peter Bergen’s account, The Last Days of Osama bin Laden, was published by the New American Foundation and, if you wish, you can read it here. If you want to read something more substantive about bin Laden’s last days, this is the place to go.

  

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If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

     Following the play, my date produced

     this pencil drawing for me!

Friday past I had a neat date for the theater. We went to Minneapolis, had a terrific lunch and took in a matinee performance. My date was impressed. I bought her a little trinket in the theater’s gift shop as a remembrance and then I took her home to her mommy!
by Charlie Leck

Nothing like a terrific play to lift one’s spirits. This week, at the magnificent Minneapolis Children's Theater, I saw a remarkable production of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Talk about a play with energy! This, baby, is what the play is all about –E-N-E-R-G-Y!

I give – right here in public – four giant stars to the Children’s Theater Company for its most recent production. Two actors carry the play from beginning to end (with a remarkable, brief appearance of another who plays the mirror image of one of the two stars). They keep up a frantic pace of movement and gymnastics for the entire two acts. The dialogue is good and its clear as a bell.

I checked around and looked at the audience during the first act. Hundreds of children were on the edges of their seats, laughing out loud and giggling mightily and constantly. At times they shouted warnings and advice. My date was hopping up and down and clapping constantly. She gave me absolutely no attention. She only had eyes for the actors.

Reed Sigmund played the boy. He’s a solid, large fellow and the play’s director put plenty of gymnastic movement on his plate. He did a fantastic job matching physicality with the smaller and much lighter mouse played by Dean Holt.

Here you can see a moment or two of the whirlwind action on stage!

At the little gift shop maintained by the theater, I allowed my date to pick out any little trinket she wanted. She bought a little, stuffed mouse and immediately gave him le nom de la renommée, Cookies.

Before the show, the two of us had lunch in the theater’s wonderful little, mezzanine restaurant, which has a delightful children’s menu. We both enjoyed it thoroughly. We sat right along a glass wall that looked out over the entrance to the theater and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Below us we could see some breath-taking chandeliers that really capture a child’s fancy.  

You can visit the Children Theater web site here!

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (the play) was based on a book with the same title by Laura Jaffe Numeroff (adapted for the stage by Jody Davidson) and directed at the Children’s Theater by Peter C. Brosius. The music was composed by Victor Zupanc.

My little date (my granddaughter) had read the book some time ago and was very interested in seeing the play while she was visiting at my home. She says the book is a winner also.

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Women Keep Minnesota Sports Bearable

I’m a sports fan. It’s not everything to me, but it’s an important part of my life. Lately, around here, the stink has been nearly unbearable what with the way the Timberwolves, the Twins, the Vikings, the Wild and the Minnesota Gophers main sports teams have been failing. The Lynx and the Gopher women’s hockey team have had enormous success, however, and I find myself becoming more dependent on these women to salve the ego injuries I receive from all the other teams.
by Charlie Leck

It’s difficult to find the Lynx games on television. Y’all – even those of you in New Mexico and South Carolina – know who the Lynx are don’t you? I watched most of the Lynx game on television yesterday. They destroyed the Mercury by 32 points. Maya Moore had 23 points and Linsay Whalen was her usual, brilliant self running plays and distributing the ball.

As a result of yesterday’s fine game, the Lynx remain snuggly and smugly in first place in their conference. They’re playing championship type basketball. Thank goodness.

Only the miserable Chicago White Sox keep the Twins out of last place, but the Twins are battling them with everything they’ve got to take over that spot.

The Vikings, Minnesota’s most popular sports attraction, languish and have been for a decade or so. They appear to be rebuilding with some semblance of success, but that’s only in the eyes of a die-hard fan. There is every chance they’ll sink again this year without the kind of quarterback leadership they must have.

The Timberwolves have a couple of players (Rickey Rubio and Kevin Love) who keep the fans coming to games so that they have reasonably large crowds at Target Center. Another bad year and that will come to an end and they’ll be playing to nearly empty seats.

The Wild had a moment of glory when they made it to the playoffs last season. The Chicago Blackhawks put an end to that run very quickly by pummeling our national hockey team. That’s the first time the Wild have been to the playoffs in years.

Friends of mine around the country – other sports junkies – are starting to snicker at me about my faithfulness to something less than excellence.

These are dog-days around here when it comes to sports. The University of Minnesota women’s Gopher hockey team brought us a great degree of pride this past season. They won the national championship and lost only one game in the entire season. They won 49 consecutive games behind their star, Amanda Kessel. The women outscored all their opponents last season 216 to 36. Man, that’s impressive. The problem is, the team is rarely on television and, therefore, one can’t even watch them closely and get in on the back-thumping nor onto the pride-fulfilling bandwagon.

The Gopher football team? Ugg! The national sports commentators are picking the Gophers for last place this season.

The Gopher men’s or women’s basketball teams? Yuk!

Well, yesterday, the Twins lost to a Canadian baseball team and dropped further down in the standings and raised the level of stink to an almost unbearable level. Very soon, in one of the most beautiful ballparks in the world, they’re going to be playing to mostly empty seats. We’ve begun to call them the Twinkies again. Most recently they dropped four home games in a row to the hated and evil N.Y. Yankees. Doing that tends to leave many Minnesotans in a state of depression and skunkieness.

These are terrible times to be a Minnesota sports fan. However, Vikings training camp opens in a couple of days and I’ll read every line of the reports that flow in to various newspapers and I’ll get my hopes up for awhile. You have to remember, the Vikings have gone to the Super Bowl four times – yes, four times – and they managed to lose all four of them.

It’s tough being a Minnesota sports fan. The Lynx won the national championship two years ago and the Gopher women’s hockey team won the NCAA championship this past season. That’s all we’ve got to hang our hats on.

Even my favorite tennis player got thumped yesterday at Wimbledon. No joke!

I’ve started to read Proust as a substitute for watching sports.

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On the Verge of Peace

America seems always to be walking nervously, on shaky legs, along the ledge of war. Wherever we turn as a nation there are, at any given time, the possibilities of war.
by Charlie Leck

What say you about Egypt? Syria? Shall we involve our troops? [Troop is such an impersonal noun isn’t it? It is a man – that troop – or perhaps just a boy or a young woman.]

There seems always the temptation to get involved. Some presidents – perhaps most of them – have been unable to avoid the entanglements of war. When I look at my life time alone, no president has been free of its draw; not Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Barack Obama.

Does that not seem remarkable to you? Incredible, perhaps? Throughout my life-time the nation has been almost constantly at war (even when we tried calling them other things, like police actions). There have only been some short periods of lull when it seemed our nation was not engaged in war. And even in those years there was the constant, tense and formidable threat of war.

The fool says...
...the United Nations has certainly done no good in the matter. The wise man counters that it would have been immensely worse – these last hundred years – without the U.N. to broker peace.

Let the United Nations make decisions about Syria and Egypt! We should not be unilaterally deciding to send weapons and/or troops into any of these engagements or places of disruption. These are not decisions for Senator John McCain to make – nor for President Obama, for that matter. Let the nations of the world decide what is right and just amongst nations and within nations.

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Your Neighbor’s Ox

    Sometimes we let the sheep come up from the farm to our

    backyard to mow the grass on the hillside behind our house.
    We do not use chemicals on our grass, so it's very good eating.
    The little electric fence behind which they're confined is
    something they'd go right through if a predator threatened them.

What would happen if we all caught this disease of being neighborly and kind to one another?
by Charlie Leck

“You shall not watch your neighbor’s ox or sheep straying away and ignore them; you shall take them back to their owner.” (Deuteronomy 22:1)

I was attracted to this piece of scripture that came this week from Sojourners. I guess it has to do with all the sheep we keep around here. It reminds me of a middle of the night call we received during the late-winter before this past one. It was about 3 a.m.. I answered the ringing phone by our bedside.

“Mr. Leck, this is officer Anderson with the West Hennepin Safety Department (police).”

“Yes?”

“Are you missing any sheep, sir?”

“I don’t know, really!”

“Well, sir, I think you are. I’m up here on your road, north of the highway and across from the golf course. We have a situation, sir. There are about 60 sheep out on the golf course up here.”

Well, groaning, I rousted my wife and we rose. Officer Anderson turned out to be a delightfully nice man and he spent nearly two hours with us, rustling sheep and getting them to wander down the road and back onto the farm and into safe pasture. My wife and the policeman worked well together. I tried my best not to get in their way.

No damage was done to the golf course and life moved on toward the next adventure. I wrote a letter to the police department, praising the officer. I wanted to give him some cash, too, but it is strictly not allowed. A lesson came from it, however (and by “it” I mean the kindness of the officer). He could have been the sort of cop who would just sit in his warm, cozy car (with flashing lights broadcasting possible danger ahead) and done nothing but scowl at us. That would have been a nightmare. His kindness was rather an extraordinary gift.

Yesterday (Tuesday, 3 July), on Facebook, a wonderful friend of one of my daughters -- a friend who I find delightful and full of fun, produced an entry describing a bit of a nightmare connection she had at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport (MSP). It’s a big, strung out airport and she, with two small boys, had only 17 minutes to make a connecting flight all the way at the other end of the terminal after exiting her arrival flight.

“A totally nice guy,” this sweet young lady wrote, “who was on the same itinerary, helped me carry Nathan’s bag, so the four of us just ran and barely made it with four minutes to spare.”

I like stories such as that one. I like to hear about people being kind and helpful to other people. Why not? Life is short, and it can also be tough, and it helps out along the way to show kindness and helpfulness to each other.

That’s all. It’s a simple blog with a simple point, but how incredibly important it is.

And then, on the other hand, the writer of Deuteronomy also says…

“You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.”                                                                  (Deuteronomy 25:4)

Go figure!

Perhaps this little verse from Psalms is also a reminder to us to share our blessings with attitudes of love and kindness...

I know that the Lord maintains the cause of the needy, and executes justice for the poor.
(Psalm 140:12)

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Minnesota Soldiers in the Civil War

This battle flag of the State of Virginia was captured by the 

First Minnesota Regiment during its charge at Gettysburg 

against the attack by Confederate General George Pickett
on July 3, 1863. It is cared for today in the museum of the 

Minnesota Historical Society. The flag was captured by a

private of the First Minnesota, Marshall Sherman, who later
received a Congressional Medal of Honor for his extraordinary

heroism for taking the flag at great danger to himself.   

(photo: Minnesota Historical Society)

Today begins a 3-day anniversary celebration of the Civil War battles at Gettysburg. Minnesota stands proudly today as one looks at the battle accounts from Gettysburg.
by Charlie Leck

Minnesota became a state – a member of the Union in 1858. It was a time of great political unrest in the Union. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published in 1852, was still an incredibly popular and well-read book. It was much discussed among the white settlers who had come to Minnesota. Even then it was being called “the most popular book in America.” It had been carefully read by President Abraham Lincoln. Upon meeting Mrs. Stowe, Lincoln is said to have declared: “So this is the little lady who started this great war!” Popular opinion in Minnesota opposed the slavery and injustices depicted in the novel and favored slavery’s immediate abolishment.

The admired singing group, the Hutchinson Family Singers, had come to Minnesota a few years before statehood and the family founded the city of Hutchinson. Their intention was that it would become a utopian settlement with no sin, including no hard-drink and no gambling. Because the singers were a part of my wife’s family tree, we have personally learned a great deal about these troubadours who roamed across the border states singing harmonized abolitionist songs in churches and other community settings. They were often threatened and regularly run out of towns, but they were wildly popular with more liberal abolitionists. The singers were popularly and well-received in Minnesota and they kept on singing for another decade after the end of the Civil War.

The accepted opinion in Minnesota ran against the institution of slavery. The newly settled families of the state could sense that the nation was moving closer and closer to war. A significant divisional headquarters of the U.S. Army had been established here because of the threat of violence among the Native Americans. A significant facility, Fort Snelling, had been built by the Army along the Mississippi River at the point where it was joined by the Minnesota River. Troops were trained and billeted there.

When word came to Minnesota that southern secessionists had attacked a small U.S. military fort on a coastal South Carolina island and, with it, the announcement that President Lincoln was calling for volunteers to defend the union, Minnesota boys and men were quick to respond and to volunteer. Over the next four years, no state in the union would provide a higher percentage of its men than Minnesota. Many of them were young men, just out of boyhood, who came to Fort Snelling for training and then transportation to various hot spots of the war.

Minnesota’s record in the war between the North and the South is a proud one – even remarkable – even astounding.

Why Gettysburg?
Gettysburg is the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the entire Civil War. At Gettysburg, more than 30,000 soldiers were left dead or seriously wounded by the battles. The intense confrontations came at the hottest point of summer. During Pickett’s Charge on July 3 it was nearly 90 degrees.

There was no rain during the 3 days of the battle (July 1 through July 3); however, it rained heavily on the July 4, seeming to wash the battle fields of their horrible blood.

But, why did it happen in this area in the south central region of the massive state? Part of the answer has to do with the roads. It was a town on the rise and its population was growing rapidly. Three newspapers were published there and there were two major institutions of higher learning. The road system that led into and around Gettysburg was among the most modern in the young nation. Ten significant roads led the way into Gettysburg. It was inviting for the southern army.

Three days of battle!
For three days the two armies slugged each other with the best and hardest punches they had. The fighting began on July 1st at McPherson’s Ridge on the battlefields today called Oak Hill, Oak Ridge, Seminary Ridge and Barlow’s Knoll. It is difficult to imagine the size of the forces that encountered each other. Approximately 50,000 soldiers were involved and roughly 15,000 of them were killed, seriously wounded or captured.

The battles on July 2nd were the deadliest and costliest of the three. The battles took place at Devil’s Den, Little Roundtop, the Peach Orchard, Cemetery Ridge, Trostle’s Farm, Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Hill. The battles involved more than 100,000 soldiers and twenty percent of them were killed, wounded or captured.

Pickett’s Charge, so famous in Civil War history, involved more than 12,000 confederate soldiers.

More than 160,000 troops were present at Gettysburg.

See the battle through the eyes of one Minnesota soldier!
Sgt George Buckman, a soldier in the First Minnesota Regiment, kept a thorough daily diary of the three days of battle. Remarkably, it is possible to read the diary (thanks to the Minnesota History Society). You can even read it on-line because the StarTribune, our local newspaper, has published it at http//www.startribune.com/buckman. Buckman faithfully recorded his experiences nearly every day during the entire Civil War. For those deeply interested in the history of great war between the North and the South, these diaries are enormously important. They make fascinating reading and I was totally absorbed in them as I read.

The First Minnesota Volunteer Regiment
was made up of the first troops gathered, organized, trained and sent off to the war. This regiment saw action in most of the major battles of the war. It fought in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. It had a remarkable reputation for toughness and for not backing down in the face of the most horrid possibilities. Yet, it was at Gettysburg that the Minnesota troops famously distinguished themselves and won such a reputation for enormous courage.

On the second day of battle at Gettysburg, the First Minnesota was assigned to General Winfield S. Hancock. They helped the general hold the Union line as Confederate troops advanced against them. The first Minnesota was outnumbered by more than three to one. On the open ground of Cemetery Ridge, the First Minnesota fought the Confederates at close range and they held their ground.

On the third day of battle the First Minnesota helped to repulse Pickett’s Charge and that essentially ended the Battle of Gettysburg and marked the beginning of the end of the ugly war between North and South. Hundreds of Minnesota soldiers died in the three days of battle and hundreds more were wounded. The regiment itself was nearly destroyed.

In February of 1964 the surviving officers and enlisted troops of the First Minnesota Regiment, then numbering only slightly more than 300, returned to Minnesota and were treated like conquering heroes in all the Minnesota towns along the way to Saint Paul. In April, this small representation of the huge regiment of volunteers that went off to the war assembled one last time at Fort Snelling. They held a final parade and then they were dismissed from service with the nation’s great thanks. Corporal Henry O’Brien and Private Marshall Sherman received Congressional Medals of Honor for their actions at Gettysburg on July 2, 1963. (See photo at opening of blog!)

No state sacrificed more than our state did in the effort to preserve the Union. In terms of numbers, that is documentable.

In celebration of the 150^th anniversary of the great battles at Gettysburg, the Minnesota History Society has unveiled an enormous and remarkable display of historic items surrounding the activities of the First Minnesota Volunteer Regiment. If you are a Minnesotan, it should not be missed. It will make you proud indeed!

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