I've known Allen Quist all of my life. He will be a strong candidate. Al knows politics.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Al Quist running for Congress
I've known Allen Quist all of my life. He will be a strong candidate. Al knows politics.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Mill City Museum - November 2009
On November 13th, the Mississippi was flowing over St. Anthony Falls at the rate of 5900 cfs. The building is the lock #1A, the last lock on the Mississippi going upstream. Boats are raised 50 feet in this lock, the largest such lock on the entire river. St. Anthony Falls is the only waterfall on the entire Mississippi. The Mississippi River starts at Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota.
This roller was pulled from the rubble after the 1991 fire.
The roller was a great advance in the technology of flour milling in the 19th century. The old method of breaking the wheat was the grindstone from ancient times.
The mill got it's power from the Mississippi River. A man-made underground canal brought water to the site and it fell some 35 feet on to a turbine. The turbine spun a crankshaft which was attached to a rope drive which then made the mill machinery work. It was direct mechanical power. Here the rope drive passed from the turbine to the mill interior. The black stuff is oil and you can still smell it. There is much more to this than I understand.
Friday, November 13, 2009
It isn't just the conservative Lutherans in the U.S. . . .
The Russian Orthodox clergy is threatening to cut ties with Germany’s Protestants for electing a divorced woman, Margot Käßmann, as the head of their church.
In late October, Käßmann, 51, was elected to lead Germany’s Protestant church, or Evangelische Kirche Deutschland (EKD), for the next six years. She is the mother of four children but was divorced from her husband in 2007.
However, it appears to be the fact of her being a woman, rather than a divorcee, that the Russians object to.
The leader of the Russian church’s foreign office, Hilarion Alfeyev, Archbishop of Volokolamsk, said the planned celebration of 50 years of dialogue between the two churches, scheduled for late November, would be the last contact between them, according to the Russian daily, Kommersant.
The end of co-operation between the churches appeared to have the backing of Russian media on Thursday, with one paper, Vremya Novostei, writing that “the Patriarch must not deal with the new leader of the German Lutherans.”
Many conservative Protestants in Russia also supported the decision. Alexander Prilutski, the leader of the Protestant church of Ingria – a Christian denomination based around St Petersburg – called Käßmann’s election a “sign of crisis in Western society."
[source: The Local Germany's News in English]
How the Nazis tried to steal Christmas
Jesus would never do for the Nazis. This text is from 1930 and looks at Christmas in the light of racial research.
The Nazis had tips on how to bake cookies in the shape of a swastika.
[source: Der Spiegel]
Hennepin County Poor Farm-Hopkins MN
This farm is long gone. It was located in what is now a residential area and a warehouse complex. I frequently walk through this area on my hikes. There is no indication that this farm ever existed. I learned of the farm by looking at old maps. Much of the farm land has been taken by Hwy 169. The information is from the St. Louis Park Historical Society.
The Hennepin County Poor Farm (located in Hopkins) was opened on January 4, 1865. The 400-acre facility was located about 9 miles from Minneapolis – the county did not want a “temporary rush of idle vagabonds during the winter.” It was the second such facility for the poor established in the State. The first was established in 1854 on the present-day State Fairgrounds.
The original Poor Farm building burned down around May 8, 1878, replaced in 1884 with a wooden building that could serve 150 people. At the time the caseload was 120. In 1895, George W. Coburn became superintendent serving until at least 1906. In 1898 the County’s 400-acre holdings in Hopkins were reduced to 40. In 1905 the population was down to 53 residents.
In the days before the Depression, there was no formal welfare as we know it. Notes from the first two decades of the 20th Century indicate that if a person was truly destitute, the Village might pick up the tab after being reviewed by the Poor Committee:
In 1926, a three floor, H-shaped building was built, made with brick and reinforced concrete, with a capacity of 200. An open house was held on December 8. Around this time, the facility first accepted “bed patients.” Albert Moore was Superintendent, replaced in 1930 by A.C. Ekelund, a successful businessman and banker. The census was 234 “inmates”
Farming operation ended in the 1930’s, and in 1932 the facility hit its peak at 232 residents. Presumably the end of the depression and onset of World War II reduced this number considerably. To be admitted, an inmate had to be certified by his or her township, village or city governing bodies as being unemployable.
The In 1933 the St. Louis Park Welfare Board was chaired by N.H. McKay. Mrs. Edwin Renner served as the Village Federal Relief Worker and ran the Community Fund Work Program. A donor would pay $4 and receive a day's work. In exchange, the worker would receive $4 worth of commodities. In 1939, a similar program was run by the St. Lousi Park Labor Council, which set up an employment bureau in the Recorder's office. The Recorder wrote in the 1933-34 Directory, "We now have a large registration of those who want work, and if any one needs help of any kind, whether of the skilled labor or odd job kind, the thing to do is to call up our office and we will send some one out."
One local relief program involved truck farmers who donated land for the unemployed to farm. The Village paid the workers, and the food went to the needy. Local efforts were quickly overwhelmed, however, and such programs were turned over to the county in about 1933. A similar operation started in the summer of 1933, where needy families would be given garden seed from welfare funds and a plot of land to garden.
In the 1950’s, persons over 65 who received old age assistance were deemed not eligible for the Poor Farm. Most residents were disabled, which made them unable to do chores. In 1954, the average welfare case load was 19-20 families at any one time.
The Poor Farm was on its way to being phased out. In 1950, Hennepin County sold off 12 acres to develop 48 homes. In 1952 the facility housed about 100 people.
The end came on April 15, 1953, when the property (10 acres and the main building) was sold to the City of Minneapolis. The total site consisted of a 2-story main building and many outbuildings. The cemetery was moved and 380 anonymous residents were buried at Woodside Cemetery in Tonka Bay on June 10, 1955. Remaining residents were rehoused in private quarters by the County.
Nine Mile Creek restoration project to begin (Hopkins MN)
Bridge Construction To Begin Over Nine Mile Creek at 5th Street S
POSTED 11/03/2009
As part of the Nine Mile Creek restoration project this winter, the metal culverts under 5th Street S at Nine Mile Creek (west of 11th Ave S) will be replaced with a concrete bridge. The new bridge will allow the creek to pass cleanly under 5th Street S without any waterway obstructions. The construction will also allow for the repair and upgrade of the water
main in that area.
Construction is expected to begin after November 15 and conclude in March 2010. For most of this construction time 5th Street S will be closed at the creek. The detour route will be north to Excelsior Boulevard via 11th Avenue S or Shady Oak Road
[source: City of Hopkins]
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Ft. Hood shooter charged with 13 counts of murder
This just in from the NY Times: "Military prosecutors have charged [the Ft. Hood shooter] with 13 counts of premeditated murder in last week’s shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Tex., a spokesman for the Army criminal investigation division said Thursday. . . .
"The Uniform Code of Military Justice provides the death penalty as a possible punishment for 15 offenses, many of which must occur during a time of war, the center says. All nine men on the military’s death row were convicted of premeditated murder or felony murder.
"There has not been a military execution since 1961, although nine men are on the military’s death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The president has the power to commute a military death sentence, and no military prisoner can be executed without the president’s approval."
[Norman's note: If you missed it a few days ago, read David Brooks column "The Rush to Therapy."] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/opinion/10brooks.html?em
"The Uniform Code of Military Justice provides the death penalty as a possible punishment for 15 offenses, many of which must occur during a time of war, the center says. All nine men on the military’s death row were convicted of premeditated murder or felony murder.
"There has not been a military execution since 1961, although nine men are on the military’s death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The president has the power to commute a military death sentence, and no military prisoner can be executed without the president’s approval."
[Norman's note: If you missed it a few days ago, read David Brooks column "The Rush to Therapy."] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/opinion/10brooks.html?em
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
On the Fort Hood shooter
Writer Tim Furnish has some insight into the shooter at Fort Hood. Follow the link to History News Network (HNN) from George Mason University.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
ULTIMA RATIO REGUM (or, let's not get sentimental in observing November 11th)
The guns spell money's ultimate reason
In letters of lead on the Spring hillside.
But the boy lying dead under the olive trees
Was too young and too silly
To have been notable to their important eye.
He was a better target for a kiss.
When he lived, tall factory hooters never summoned him
Nor did restaurant plate-doors revolve to wave him in.
His name never appeared in the papers.
The world maintained its traditional wall
Round the dead with their gold sunk deep as a well,
Whilst his life, intangible as a Stock Exchange rumour,
drifted outside.
O too lightly he threw down his cap
One day when the breeze threw petals from the trees.
The unflowering wall sprouted with guns,
Machine-gun anger quickly scythed the grasses;
Flags and leaves feel from hands and branches;
The tweed cap rotted in the nettles.
Consider his life which was valueless
In terms of employment, hotel ledgers, new files.
Consider. One bullet in ten thousand kills a man.
Ask. Was so much expenditure justified
On the death of one so young, and so silly
Lying under the olive trees, O world, O death?
Stephen Spender
What's the difference between the Catholics and the Anglicans?
The RCs and the CEs have been in the news of late. Three weeks ago the RCs said that it would be easier for Anglicans to become Catholics. The new procedures caused the Times of London to headline a story "Rome Parks Tanks on Rowan's Lawn." (Rowan is the archbishop of Canterbury).
The Vatican said the new procedure for accepting Anglicans into the Catholic church should be seen "as a generous response from the Holy Father to the legitimate aspirations of these Anglican groups."
Rachel Donadio, writing in today's NY Times, said that "the creation of an Anglican rite within the Catholic Church has been widely perceived as a bold and even aggressive act capitalizing on the weaknesses of the Church of England, which in recent years has been increasingly divided over the issues of female and gay clergy members."
I am studying Benjamin Franklin because the Minnesota Historical Society will introduce a six month exhibit on Franklin later this month. My preparation consists of reviewing Franklin's own work in The Library of America's edition of 1987.
Franklin was a chronicler of his age and he had this to say about the differences between the Catholics and the Anglicans in a speech on the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787. His point on the Constitution is for Americans to accept it "because I expect no better, and because I am not sure it is not the best."
"Most Men," Franklin said, "indeed as well as most Sects in Religion, think themselves in Possession of all Truth, and that wherever others differ from them it is so far Error. Steele, a Protestant, in a Dedication tells the Pope, that the only Difference between our two Churches in their Opinions of the Certainty of their Doctrine, is, the Romish Church is infallible, and the Church of England is never in the wrong."
[source: Benjamin Franklin Writings, The Library of America, 1987, p. 1140]
Division of the cloak- St. Martin of Tours
Division of the Cloak, Simone Martini, 1312-17, Frescom 265 x 200 cm, Cappella di San Martino, Lower Church, San Francesco, AssisiTo view all of Martini's work re St. Martin of Tours, go to Web Gallery of Art, find Simone Martini in the Artists section, and enjoy your tour. http://www.wga.hu/
St. Martin of Tours
St. Martin of Tours and St. Nicholas of Bari, Unknown German master, c. 1450, tempera on wood, 76.2 x 67.3 cm, The Art Gallery of South Australia, Victoria.Martin was born in 316, the son of a Roman legionnaire, in present day Hungary. At the age of fifteen he joined a Roman cavalry unit and became an officer.
Martin is known for the miracle of the cloak. One evening Martin approached the city of Amiens. A half-naked beggar asked him to take pity on him. As Martin had no food or money he cut his cloak in two with his sword and gave the beggar half. The following night he saw Christ, clothed in the half cloak.
The miracle of the cloak was the moment of conversion for Martin. He left the army and began to do the work of God. He was appointed a bishop and founded St. Martin's Monastery ofTours where he died in 397.
[source: Norbert Wolf, The World of the Saints, Prestel Books, publ. date unknown]
Monday, November 09, 2009
Veterans Day 2009 - In Memory of the Sullivan Brothers
We were traveling to Cedar Rapids this weekend to attend a surprise birthday party. We stopped at the Grout Museum in Waterloo. 
A beautiful carillon is on the grounds of the museum.
The Sullivan Brothers were from Waterloo.
How could the Navy allow five men from one family to serve on one ship?
I've read that the Japanese were much better than the Americans in night naval combat.
So, it was a recruiting bonanza for the Navy to have five brothers on one flimsy vessel.
Saturday, November 07, 2009
Iowa streak ends as Northwestern prevails
Congratulations to Northwestern. The Wildcats always beat Iowa in Iowa City, it seems.
The next opponents for Iowa are Ohio State and Minnesota. Both are worthy opponents. I plan to go to the Minnesota-South Dakota State next Saturday at the Bank. I would like to go to the Iowa-Minnesota game in two weeks in Iowa City but it will be hard to find a ticket.
We are in Cedar Rapids attending a surprise 40th birthday party for Scott Sellner. The weather is beautiful. TBH and I went to the Grout Museum in Cedar Falls this morning. I did some walking in the sunshine after we had arrived in Cedar Rapids.
We are looking forward to our Thanksgiving excursion to Chicago. This will be my third visit to Chicago this year.
The next opponents for Iowa are Ohio State and Minnesota. Both are worthy opponents. I plan to go to the Minnesota-South Dakota State next Saturday at the Bank. I would like to go to the Iowa-Minnesota game in two weeks in Iowa City but it will be hard to find a ticket.
We are in Cedar Rapids attending a surprise 40th birthday party for Scott Sellner. The weather is beautiful. TBH and I went to the Grout Museum in Cedar Falls this morning. I did some walking in the sunshine after we had arrived in Cedar Rapids.
We are looking forward to our Thanksgiving excursion to Chicago. This will be my third visit to Chicago this year.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Mill City Museum - wall braces - Nina Archabal
The Mill was destroyed by fire in 1991. Pictured are the steel braces which hold up the remainder of the walls. The story is told that when the fire was still raging, the Minneapolis Fire Dept. was prepared to level the building. Nina Archabal, then and now the head of the Minnesota Historical Society, was able to stop the demolition order. Nina's idea was to preserve what remained of the Mill as a reminder of an important part of the history of Minneapolis.
Greatest Generation - Minnesota Historical Society
TBH and I went to St. Paul for this MNHS exhibit. In this section visitors sat inside a reproduction of an Army glider heading into action on D-Day. Did the plane make it safely? Read on. 
The government sponsored scrap metal drives and the people responded by bringing in their stuff that could be melted down for weapons of war.
This is what a munitions factory looked like.
This is what the war was all about: preserving American values.
A soldier returns home.
The war is over.
These men are photographed at a military induction station.
I can't remember from the exhibit what these people are doing. I think that it must be a pre-war shot from the Depression. Answer to the question raised in the first picture: the glider crashes and everybody is dead.
[come to St. Paul and visit the Minnesota Historical Society]
Monday, November 02, 2009
Norman goes to the Bank
The new football stadium at the University of Minnesota is called 'The Bank.' The official name is TCF Bank Stadium. I decide to go to the 7 PM game against Michigan State. I go early to find a ticket vendor. I buy a $50 ticket for twenty bucks. One poor man from Brainerd has brought his son and bought tickets for seventy bucks apiece from an on-line vendor.
The festivities begin with a parade into the stadium (oops, 'The Bank.') The coach has just walked by and he looks very nervous because there is considerable grumbling among the Minnesota faithful about his coaching ability.
I love the University of Minnesota marching band.
I think that I am standing on the north side of the Oak St.-University Avenue intersection.
The Minnesota Rouser gets the fans pumped up for the game.
It's Halloween and I see some clever costumes.
I arrive early (too early) and I explore the Bank. It's a beautiful stadium.
The band had two really terrific shows, one before the game and one at the half.
These good people tolerated my presence even when I told them that I was an Iowa fan.
Here we go. Minnesota is in maroon and Michigan State is in white. The Gophers are ready to score.
How did this guy make it through all of that traffic? The stadium fans cheer loudly: "And that's six more Gopher points/IN THE BANK."
The Minnesota guy kicks the PAT and it's going well for the Gophers
I'm starting to get cold and I decide to go home. I've seen a lot but I haven't dressed quite warmly enough.
The Gophers are ahead and I am cold. I decide to walk the 1.3 miles to where my car is parked and warm up. It's a pleasant walk but lots of things are happening in the game when I leave. I make it home in about an hour and there is still eight minutes left in the game. It's a crazy, wild game and the Gophers prevail. Go Gophers! I am resolved to put on a heavier set of long johns and a warmer sweatshirt next time.
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Paul Manz
Dr. Paul Otto Manz, internationally celebrated organist, dean of American church musicians, former Concordia, St. Paul professor and composer of the internationally acclaimed motet "E'en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come" passed away on October 28 in St. Paul, Minnesota at the age of 90.
A Memorial Eucharist will be held at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, 700 S. Snelling Avenue, St. Paul, MN on Sunday, November 8, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. with the prelude beginning at 1:30 p.m.
A special choral chapel service will be held on Concordia's campus on Friday, November 13 at 11:00 a.m. in the Graebner Memorial chapel. The service has the theme, "They need no light... for Christ will be their all" and will be a service of comfort and hope in eternal life and a celebration of the lives of Dr. Paul and Ruth Manz. Those in attendance will be invited to join in the singing of "E'en So Lord Jesus, Quickly Come".
Dr. Manz touched the hearts and lives of many faculty, staff, students and alumni of Concordia. He was a Concordia professor and Music Department chair for 19 years (1957 to 1976). He was a pivotal advocate for the creation of a permanent home for music on campus that would include music classrooms, practice rooms and performance spaces-a dream that was realized with the 1974 dedication of Buetow Music Center.
Manz and his wife, Ruth (who passed away in 2008) are perhaps best known to the campus community as the composer and lyricist of the beloved anthem, "E'en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come." With more than one million copies in circulation, this classic motet has been performed extensively by choirs throughout the world and is sung at the conclusion of nearly every major CSP campus event.
[from an announcement by Concordia-St. Paul]
Friday, October 30, 2009
on Lady Wind
My Lady Wind, my Lady Wind,
Went round about the house to find
A chink to set her foot in;
She tried the keyhole in the door,
She tried the crevice in the floor,
And drove the chimney soot in.
And then one night when it was dark,
She blew up such a tiny spark
That all the town was bothered;
From it she raised such flame and smoke
That many in great terror woke,
And many more were smothered.
And thus when once, my little dears,
A whisper reaches itching ears --
The same will come, you'll find:
Take my advice, restrain the tongue,
remember what old nurse has sung
Of busy Lady Wind.
[from Pinafore Palace A Book of Rhymes, McClure's, 1907]
Late-Night Jokes - cont'd
"Former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, is promoting her new book and she's going to appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show. ... Sarah and Oprah. On the one hand, a very powerful woman qualified to be President of the United States, and on the other hand, you have Sarah." -David Letterman
"But if you think about it, Sarah Palin and Oprah Winfrey have a lot in common. They both helped get Obama elected." -David Letterman
"Well, according to CBS News, President Obama has played more golf in nine months than George Bush in nearly three years. Actually, Obama's a good golfer. You know what his handicap is? Joe Biden." -Jay Leno
"Some people are already criticizing the Obama's decision to cut the pay of the executives at companies that received bailout money. They say this could cause a lot of these guys to quit. Because you wouldn't want to lose the geniuses who lost us hundreds of billions of dollars." - Jay Leno
"But if you think about it, Sarah Palin and Oprah Winfrey have a lot in common. They both helped get Obama elected." -David Letterman
"Well, according to CBS News, President Obama has played more golf in nine months than George Bush in nearly three years. Actually, Obama's a good golfer. You know what his handicap is? Joe Biden." -Jay Leno
"Some people are already criticizing the Obama's decision to cut the pay of the executives at companies that received bailout money. They say this could cause a lot of these guys to quit. Because you wouldn't want to lose the geniuses who lost us hundreds of billions of dollars." - Jay Leno
[source: Dan Kurtzman]
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Norman does laundry
I am retired and my spouse works at an office. I do my own laundry. My wife does not allow me to do her laundry even though I occasionally offer.
Norman's laundry tips:
1. Don't let the laundry pile up. Once or twice a month should do the job.
2. Use laundry soap, but not too much. Don't worry if the soap is good for the environment or not. If the soap was not good for the environment, Target wouldn't be selling it. There are more important topics to consider than whether one's laundry soap is good for the environment.
3. Don't bother to separate the clothes by colors. Modern fabrics don't fade. If a man wears clothing that would fade, then he isn't a real man. (Tip: buy your clothes at Northern Tool, Fleet Farm, Tractor Supply, or Fastenal)
4. Cold water works just as well as hot. Use cold water and you will feel better about global warming.
5. Always use the 'High' setting when drying the clothes. Any other setting wastes time. The hotter the better. Drying clothes quickly is more important than worrying about greenhouse gases and all that stuff.
6. Don't pair up the socks. It's a waste of time You can always pair up the socks when you pull them out of the drawer. Spencer's in London sells socks that are designated for either the left or the right foot and it is good to have some of these socks in one's drawer.
7. Hang up the shirts. This helps to minimize wrinkling although retired guys can get by wearing wrinkled shirts. If one worries too much about appearing in public while wearing a somewhat wrinkled shirt, then he doesn't have his priorities straight.
8. It's best to dry the bib overalls outside. The metal clasps make a lot of noise in the dryer. By drying your bibs outside, you will help the cause of global warming.
9. It doesn't matter which day the washing is done. Observing Monday as Wash Day does not make one a more virtuous person.
10. Always clean the filter. One's working spouse should not have to put up with lint in the filter when she does her own clothes.
11. While washing and drying clothes, use the in-between time wisely. Get on the computer and prepare witty messages for one's blog or watch Sports Center re-runs on ESPN for the tenth time.
Norman's laundry tips:
1. Don't let the laundry pile up. Once or twice a month should do the job.
2. Use laundry soap, but not too much. Don't worry if the soap is good for the environment or not. If the soap was not good for the environment, Target wouldn't be selling it. There are more important topics to consider than whether one's laundry soap is good for the environment.
3. Don't bother to separate the clothes by colors. Modern fabrics don't fade. If a man wears clothing that would fade, then he isn't a real man. (Tip: buy your clothes at Northern Tool, Fleet Farm, Tractor Supply, or Fastenal)
4. Cold water works just as well as hot. Use cold water and you will feel better about global warming.
5. Always use the 'High' setting when drying the clothes. Any other setting wastes time. The hotter the better. Drying clothes quickly is more important than worrying about greenhouse gases and all that stuff.
6. Don't pair up the socks. It's a waste of time You can always pair up the socks when you pull them out of the drawer. Spencer's in London sells socks that are designated for either the left or the right foot and it is good to have some of these socks in one's drawer.
7. Hang up the shirts. This helps to minimize wrinkling although retired guys can get by wearing wrinkled shirts. If one worries too much about appearing in public while wearing a somewhat wrinkled shirt, then he doesn't have his priorities straight.
8. It's best to dry the bib overalls outside. The metal clasps make a lot of noise in the dryer. By drying your bibs outside, you will help the cause of global warming.
9. It doesn't matter which day the washing is done. Observing Monday as Wash Day does not make one a more virtuous person.
10. Always clean the filter. One's working spouse should not have to put up with lint in the filter when she does her own clothes.
11. While washing and drying clothes, use the in-between time wisely. Get on the computer and prepare witty messages for one's blog or watch Sports Center re-runs on ESPN for the tenth time.
Some thoughts to consider at this time of the year
A faithful reader of Norman's Demesne forwarded this to me. The original message comes from the Chicago office of Lutheran Social Services of Illinois. The author is Bishop Wayne Miller also of Chicago.
The title of Bishop Miller's essay is "Who is Right . . . Who is Left?" A Word in Season for a Church in Distress.
As many of you may know I have been, for many years, fond of building my sermons around a center point, sometimes provided by a story… more often by a familiar image from everyday experience. And as I was thinking this week about the little story of James and John quarreling on the road and, in general, about the issue of Christian authority, for some odd reason the image that came to mind was… this baseball bat.
Don’t laugh. This is becoming and important piece of equipment for bishops these days… in fact, we have been thinking of replacing the traditional symbol of the shepherd’s staff with something a little more substantially authoritative…
Actually, I suspect that this image came to mind at least partly because of the season of year we are in… World Series and all that… an event that we used to associate with the beginning of a new school year, but which is now more of a Halloween/Thanksgiving sort of experience. There is always a little sadness for me in the World Series, because even though I’m not exactly a fanatic baseball fan… baseball is definitely my game. And I have to admit that I like baseball for exactly the reasons that most people don’t.
I like the slowness of it… the deliberate unrushed pace… the more subtle kinds of strategy in the way a great pitcher works the batter toward a strike out… or maybe the interesting way in which baseball expresses the tension between “right” and “left.” I mean, we take right-handedness and left-handedness as a matter of indifference most of the time.
But choosing to place a bunt down the 3rdbase line over there on the left or the 1stbase line over there on the right can make all the difference sometimes between winning and losing a game, or even a season. And whether you put a left-handed or a right-handed pinch-hitter against a right-handed pitcher is no small thing either.
The batters that have the real advantage are the switch-hitters; that is, the ones that can swing with equal competence from either the right or the left, just to keep everyone guessing.
Of course, the significance of whether you swing from the right or swing from the left should not be unfamiliar to us in this society of ours, where just about everyone these days, is required to identify themselves by whether they approach life from the right or from the left.
We choose the radio station we listen to, for example, or the television news we watch, largely on the basis of whether the person in the box is yapping at us from the left or from the right.
In the health care debate…it seems like just about everyone these days has declared whether to swing at the problem from the right by not changing much of anything or to take a swing from the left by changing just about everything.
Some on the left think that the way to fix the economy is to make more resources available to the average homeowner… or perhaps to those who have no resources at all… while those who swing from the right remain convinced that the help needs to go to the corporate interests that will eventually create the jobs that the people on the left need to sustain all those left-leaning lifestyles of theirs.
And now, of course, in a very dramatic way, in the life of our Church, since the fateful decisions about human sexuality in Minneapolis a few months ago, we face the struggle between a right that is convinced beyond doubt that we have run way outside of the base line on this one, and a left that is equally convinced that those on the right are completely off base. All of which is leaving some of us wondering, “After we finally figure out who is right, who will be left?
The interesting thing about baseball in all this, however… a little detail that you may not have paid much attention to… is that the right hand approach and the left hand approach, as completely different as they may appear, have at least one thing in common… which is that both swings are centered in exactly the same place… a place known to all of the players as “home.” In fact, if either player wanders too far from that same immovable center, they can pretty much count on the fact that in a very short time, they’re gonna be outta here.
The gospel selection appointed for this week finds the sons of Zebedee locked in a dispute about who was going to be on the right and who was going to be on the left-hand side of Jesus in glory. Clearly it was a matter of considerable importance to them. But Jesus sort of avoids the issue of right-handedness and left-handedness altogether, by calling all of his friends back to the center… to a remembrance of the one baptism that they share and the one cup they must all drink and the service to the least that is their common vocation… and ultimately, to the way of the cross…
The way of the cross… which is, and has always been, foolishness to those on the right and a stumbling block to those on the left. Because the cross, rather than resolving all the distinctions between this and that or between right and left, plants us squarely in the center of the paradox… a paradox in which things that appear to be contradictory opposites are, in fact, inseparably connected.
It is, after all, the image of Christ crucified that centers us in the truth that:
Strength is perfected in weakness;
That surrender is the path to victory;
That sacrifice is the path to abundance
That servitude is the path to freedom
And that death is the path to life.
As we meander through life, dodging from left to right and back again, trying to climb up by putting others down, it is the Jesus who makes us his own through water and word and bread and wine… it is this same Christ crucified that relentlessly pulls us back to the center every single day.
Because in those moments when you would rather deny your guilt and sin, it is the cross that calls you back, sisters and brothers…it is the cross that calls you back to confess what you want so much to deny.
And when you are inclined to condemn those who are different from you, it is the cross that calls you to forgive the very thing you are inclined to condemn.
And when you are tempted to follow the Siren song of a world that teaches you daily to cling to so many things that do not give life, the cross calls you to let go of the very things you want most to hold onto.
And when your all-too-human heart calls you to run from the thing you are afraid of, it is the cross that calls you back to confront the very thing you are most afraid to face.
All of which, by the way calls me back to center us once again… here in the midst of this season in which we happen to find ourselves. Because I will tell you honestly that one of the things that is most troubling to me as a bishop in the turbulent time is to see congregations calling pastors or even synods calling bishops purely on the basis of whether their opinions on certain issues swing too far to the left or too far to the right… and so COMPLETELY MISSING THE POINT! They miss the point that the vocation of a pastor is precisely to keep the people of God centered through all the changes in the wind and the passing of the seasons… to keep the people centered in water and word, in bread and wine, and in the image of Christ crucified as the source of our life and salvation… Christ alone, Christ alone, Christ alone. Believe this. Trust this. Bear witness to this!
So today, I ask you, fellow pilgrims and servants on this sacred way, friends and colleagues, teachers and mentors of a lifetime… I ask you to join me now in re-centering ourselves in this glorious but sometimes terrifying vocation we share to call this Church patiently and persistently back to its center when it is inclined to swing a bit too far to the left or perhaps to the right… and in keeping it centered in that cross, to lead it faithfully home.
The title of Bishop Miller's essay is "Who is Right . . . Who is Left?" A Word in Season for a Church in Distress.
As many of you may know I have been, for many years, fond of building my sermons around a center point, sometimes provided by a story… more often by a familiar image from everyday experience. And as I was thinking this week about the little story of James and John quarreling on the road and, in general, about the issue of Christian authority, for some odd reason the image that came to mind was… this baseball bat.
Don’t laugh. This is becoming and important piece of equipment for bishops these days… in fact, we have been thinking of replacing the traditional symbol of the shepherd’s staff with something a little more substantially authoritative…
Actually, I suspect that this image came to mind at least partly because of the season of year we are in… World Series and all that… an event that we used to associate with the beginning of a new school year, but which is now more of a Halloween/Thanksgiving sort of experience. There is always a little sadness for me in the World Series, because even though I’m not exactly a fanatic baseball fan… baseball is definitely my game. And I have to admit that I like baseball for exactly the reasons that most people don’t.
I like the slowness of it… the deliberate unrushed pace… the more subtle kinds of strategy in the way a great pitcher works the batter toward a strike out… or maybe the interesting way in which baseball expresses the tension between “right” and “left.” I mean, we take right-handedness and left-handedness as a matter of indifference most of the time.
But choosing to place a bunt down the 3rdbase line over there on the left or the 1stbase line over there on the right can make all the difference sometimes between winning and losing a game, or even a season. And whether you put a left-handed or a right-handed pinch-hitter against a right-handed pitcher is no small thing either.
The batters that have the real advantage are the switch-hitters; that is, the ones that can swing with equal competence from either the right or the left, just to keep everyone guessing.
Of course, the significance of whether you swing from the right or swing from the left should not be unfamiliar to us in this society of ours, where just about everyone these days, is required to identify themselves by whether they approach life from the right or from the left.
We choose the radio station we listen to, for example, or the television news we watch, largely on the basis of whether the person in the box is yapping at us from the left or from the right.
In the health care debate…it seems like just about everyone these days has declared whether to swing at the problem from the right by not changing much of anything or to take a swing from the left by changing just about everything.
Some on the left think that the way to fix the economy is to make more resources available to the average homeowner… or perhaps to those who have no resources at all… while those who swing from the right remain convinced that the help needs to go to the corporate interests that will eventually create the jobs that the people on the left need to sustain all those left-leaning lifestyles of theirs.
And now, of course, in a very dramatic way, in the life of our Church, since the fateful decisions about human sexuality in Minneapolis a few months ago, we face the struggle between a right that is convinced beyond doubt that we have run way outside of the base line on this one, and a left that is equally convinced that those on the right are completely off base. All of which is leaving some of us wondering, “After we finally figure out who is right, who will be left?
The interesting thing about baseball in all this, however… a little detail that you may not have paid much attention to… is that the right hand approach and the left hand approach, as completely different as they may appear, have at least one thing in common… which is that both swings are centered in exactly the same place… a place known to all of the players as “home.” In fact, if either player wanders too far from that same immovable center, they can pretty much count on the fact that in a very short time, they’re gonna be outta here.
The gospel selection appointed for this week finds the sons of Zebedee locked in a dispute about who was going to be on the right and who was going to be on the left-hand side of Jesus in glory. Clearly it was a matter of considerable importance to them. But Jesus sort of avoids the issue of right-handedness and left-handedness altogether, by calling all of his friends back to the center… to a remembrance of the one baptism that they share and the one cup they must all drink and the service to the least that is their common vocation… and ultimately, to the way of the cross…
The way of the cross… which is, and has always been, foolishness to those on the right and a stumbling block to those on the left. Because the cross, rather than resolving all the distinctions between this and that or between right and left, plants us squarely in the center of the paradox… a paradox in which things that appear to be contradictory opposites are, in fact, inseparably connected.
It is, after all, the image of Christ crucified that centers us in the truth that:
Strength is perfected in weakness;
That surrender is the path to victory;
That sacrifice is the path to abundance
That servitude is the path to freedom
And that death is the path to life.
As we meander through life, dodging from left to right and back again, trying to climb up by putting others down, it is the Jesus who makes us his own through water and word and bread and wine… it is this same Christ crucified that relentlessly pulls us back to the center every single day.
Because in those moments when you would rather deny your guilt and sin, it is the cross that calls you back, sisters and brothers…it is the cross that calls you back to confess what you want so much to deny.
And when you are inclined to condemn those who are different from you, it is the cross that calls you to forgive the very thing you are inclined to condemn.
And when you are tempted to follow the Siren song of a world that teaches you daily to cling to so many things that do not give life, the cross calls you to let go of the very things you want most to hold onto.
And when your all-too-human heart calls you to run from the thing you are afraid of, it is the cross that calls you back to confront the very thing you are most afraid to face.
All of which, by the way calls me back to center us once again… here in the midst of this season in which we happen to find ourselves. Because I will tell you honestly that one of the things that is most troubling to me as a bishop in the turbulent time is to see congregations calling pastors or even synods calling bishops purely on the basis of whether their opinions on certain issues swing too far to the left or too far to the right… and so COMPLETELY MISSING THE POINT! They miss the point that the vocation of a pastor is precisely to keep the people of God centered through all the changes in the wind and the passing of the seasons… to keep the people centered in water and word, in bread and wine, and in the image of Christ crucified as the source of our life and salvation… Christ alone, Christ alone, Christ alone. Believe this. Trust this. Bear witness to this!
So today, I ask you, fellow pilgrims and servants on this sacred way, friends and colleagues, teachers and mentors of a lifetime… I ask you to join me now in re-centering ourselves in this glorious but sometimes terrifying vocation we share to call this Church patiently and persistently back to its center when it is inclined to swing a bit too far to the left or perhaps to the right… and in keeping it centered in that cross, to lead it faithfully home.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Norman walks around Minnehaha Falls
Minnehaha Falls is one of the best known sites in Minneapolis.
People have been coming to look at Minnehaha Falls for 150 years or so.
The pavilion has been around for a long time.
Minnehaha Creek starts in Lake Minnetonka.
This statue of Hiawatha and Minnehaha was put up in 1906.
Minnehaha Falls is about a mile away from the Mississippi. 
This railroad station was the place where Minneapolitans would get off the train and see Minnehaha Falls.
The ginger-bread decoration has been carefully preserved.
The modern light-rail line runs down Hiawatha Avenue within 100 yards or so of this antique depot. This place is just north of historic Fort Snelling, the airport, and the Mall of America.
Mill City Museum - pictures from a rainy day
The Mill City Museum is in downtown Minneapolis. It was raining on my last visit on October 23, 2009.
The next views are of Ruins Court. In 1991 a fire destroyed the Mill and when the rubble was cleared out and the walls shored-up, the Minnesota Historical Society established a museum.
Drawings of old milling machines have been placed on the glass separating Mill Ruins Court and the gallery.
This building was completed in 1889 and was in continuous service as a working mill until 1965.
The building had been unoccupied for 26 years when the fire broke out. The Minneapolis Fire Department reported that the fire was started by homeless people who were trying to stay warm on a bitterly cold February night in 1991.
Norman checks out Westwood Hills Nature Center
This trail is in St. Louis Park MN, a suburb of Minneapolis The trail is about a mile and a half.
It was a beautiful day to take a hike (October 27, 2009)
The wild turkeys didn't seem to mind my presence.
These turkeys might be bothersome to the people who live nearby. They're right at home here.
This boardwalk makes it possible to walk around the lake. Is it Lake Westwood? 
The birds have their own apartments.
Here's an old tree. General Mills HQ is close to this place and this place is the intersection of 169 and 394.
NormBob wearing his Hawkeye hat. Yeah, baby! Eight and oh! We're comin'! We're comin'!
Nearing the end of the walk. I'll have to see what this place looks like when winter comes.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Revolutheranary
This t-shirt was seen at the Caribou Coffee shop at 42nd and Winnetka in New Hope MN.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Pittsburgh Steelers polka by Happy Louie
This song has some real character. I think that I could cheer for Pittsburgh if I had to.
'And those Spartans play good ball' - it's going to be a difficult weekend for my teams
Iowa travels to Michigan State for a night game which can be seen on the Big Ten network. It will be a very difficult game for the Hawks. On Sunday the Vikings go to Pittsburgh to take on the Super Bowl champions.
Every week is a good week if you are a football fan.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Norbert Sellner
— Norbert Sellner, age 87 of Comfrey, died Wednesday, October 21, 2009, at St. John Lutheran Home in Springfield.
Mass of Christian Burial will be Saturday, October 24, 2009, at 10:30 a.m. at St. Paul Catholic Church in Comfrey with burial at St. Paul Catholic Cemetery.
Visitation will be Friday, October 23, from 4:00-7:00 p.m. and Saturday, October 24, from 9:00-10:00 a.m. at Sturm Funeral Home in Comfrey.
There will be a Parish Prayer Service on Friday at 7:00 p.m. at the funeral home.
Father Andy Michels, officiating.
Condolences may be sent via e-mail to www.sturmfh.com
Arrangements are with Sturm Funeral Home in Comfrey.
Norbert Frank Sellner was born February 6, 1922, in Mulligan Township, Brown County, the son of Joseph and Anna Christina (Hillesheim) Sellner. He was united in marriage to Sylvia Zwaschka on April 27, 1943, in Comfrey. The couple farmed in Mulligan Township for a few years until moving to Selma Township where they farmed until retirement. Norbert also worked at the Augustine Butcher Shop until they closed. Norbert was a member of St. Paul Catholic Church in Comfrey, the St. Paul Society and served on the Cemetery Board for over 30 years. He was awarded the Bishop’s Medal of Service for his dedicated work as the cemetery sexton for many years. He was also a member of the Comfrey Lions Club. Norbert enjoyed playing cards and cribbage, watching the Minnesota Twins, his word-search puzzles, and loved a good joke.
Norbert Frank Sellner died Wednesday, October 21, 2009, at St. John Lutheran Home in Springfield at the age of 87 years.
He is survived by wife Sylvia of Comfrey; children: Eugene and wife Bonnie Sellner of Mankato, Beverly and husband Richard Sanders of Rochester, and Deanna Sellner of Des Moines, IA; and grandchildren: Scott (Lana) Sellner and their children Hannah and Emily, Keri Sellner and her son Maxwell, Laurie (Bobby) Riepe, Daniel Sanders, Gregory (Karen) Sanders and their children Ryan and Kyle, and David Sanders. He was preceded in death by his parents; brothers: Hubert, Sylvester, Peter, Aloysius and Raymond; sisters: Mathilda, Josephine and Gertrude; and children: Glen and Dean.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Congratulations to Philip Vangen on 30th anniversary
This blog has just learned that Phil Vangen's 30th ordination anniversary was recently observed in Florida. Visitors to the ordination anniversary were Sharon and Warren Granke and John and Naomi Shep. Congratulations, Phil, for your worthy service to the church.
Phil is the son of the sainted ELS pastor, Luther Vangen. Naomi Shep and Phil Vangen are brother and sister.
Phil and the Grankes are members of the Missouri Synod. John is in the ELCA. These pastors are graduates of Bethany Lutheran Seminary in Mankato. The ELS was greatly diminished when these pastors were led by unfortunate events to leave the synod.
Phil is the son of the sainted ELS pastor, Luther Vangen. Naomi Shep and Phil Vangen are brother and sister.
Phil and the Grankes are members of the Missouri Synod. John is in the ELCA. These pastors are graduates of Bethany Lutheran Seminary in Mankato. The ELS was greatly diminished when these pastors were led by unfortunate events to leave the synod.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Zehen Jahr ein Kind (translation)
For 10 years a child,
At 20 years, a youth,
At 30 years a man,
At 40 years, done well,
At 50 years stationary,
At 60 years, old age begins,
At 70 years, an old man,
At 80 years, no longer wise,
At 90 years, the scorn of children,
At 100 years, God have mercy.
At 20 years, a youth,
At 30 years a man,
At 40 years, done well,
At 50 years stationary,
At 60 years, old age begins,
At 70 years, an old man,
At 80 years, no longer wise,
At 90 years, the scorn of children,
At 100 years, God have mercy.
Zehen Jahr ein Kind
Zehen Jahr ein Kind,Zwanzeig Jahr ein Jungeling,
Dreifig Jahr ein Mann,
Vierzig Jahr wohlgetan,
Funffzig Jahr stille stahn,
Sechszig Jahr gehet das Alter an,
Siebenzig Jahr ein alter Greiss,
Achtzig Jahr nimmer weis,
Neunzig Jahr der Kinder Spott,
Hundert Jahr Gnad dir Gott.
[New York Times: from a funeral oration dating to 1612]
Artwork: Christoph Amberger, Portrait of a Young Man, The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
It's only temporary, but it's great fun. My teams are thirteen and oh!
It was hard to suffer through the Yankee SUH-WEEP (the Twins actually lost all ten games played against the New Yorkers) but football is offering some solace. Will it last? Not likely.
At any rate, my teams are a combined thirteen and oh. The Vikings are 6-0 and Iowa (ranked 6th) is 7-0.
I think that the best teams in college football are clearly Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, LSU, Texas. Oklahoma, and USC. I don't have any illusions about the Hawks being able to compete with those giants.
But, for the first time in a while, the Big Ten is not overwhelmingly dominated by Michigan and Ohio State. The Hawks play four more games. The two road games are at Michigan State and Ohio State. The home games are against Northwestern and Minnesota.
Any one of these four worthy opponents could knock off Iowa. But, for now, it's fun to be 7-0 and ranked 6th.
Is anyone watching baseball? I think that it's a joke to play baseball in this weather. What are the owners thinking? Baseball is a warm weather sport.
At any rate, my teams are a combined thirteen and oh. The Vikings are 6-0 and Iowa (ranked 6th) is 7-0.
I think that the best teams in college football are clearly Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, LSU, Texas. Oklahoma, and USC. I don't have any illusions about the Hawks being able to compete with those giants.
But, for the first time in a while, the Big Ten is not overwhelmingly dominated by Michigan and Ohio State. The Hawks play four more games. The two road games are at Michigan State and Ohio State. The home games are against Northwestern and Minnesota.
Any one of these four worthy opponents could knock off Iowa. But, for now, it's fun to be 7-0 and ranked 6th.
Is anyone watching baseball? I think that it's a joke to play baseball in this weather. What are the owners thinking? Baseball is a warm weather sport.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Death of John the Baptist
The New Testament reading for today in Treasury of Daily Prayer is Matthew 14:1-21, the death of John the Baptist.[ 'Salome with the Head of the Baptist', Caravaggio, Palazzo Real, Madrid]
Friday, October 16, 2009
Reactions to President Obama being awarded the Nobel
"Obama said he will attend the ceremony in Oslo if he's not too busy with the two wars he's conducting." --Bill Maher
"President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The committee said they gave it to Obama partly for his idealism and commitment to global cooperation, but mostly for calling Kanye West a jackass." --Conan O'Brien
"The Nobel committee said they wanted to recognize the president's fine work in bringing peace to a black professor and a white cop through the strategic use of beer." --Jay Leno
"Along with the Nobel Peace Prize, President Obama also gets $1.4 million. Usually to get a check that big, you need to blackmail David Letterman." --Jimmy Fallon
"In a surprise decision, President Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Friday. In other premature awards this week: high school football player Billy Reynolds has been named this year's Heisman Trophy winner; fifth grader Amber Collins has been named Miss America; and nine-year-old Dylan Holt has been named People's 'Sexiest Man Alive.'" --Seth Meyers
[source: Dan Kurtzman]
"President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The committee said they gave it to Obama partly for his idealism and commitment to global cooperation, but mostly for calling Kanye West a jackass." --Conan O'Brien
"The Nobel committee said they wanted to recognize the president's fine work in bringing peace to a black professor and a white cop through the strategic use of beer." --Jay Leno
"Along with the Nobel Peace Prize, President Obama also gets $1.4 million. Usually to get a check that big, you need to blackmail David Letterman." --Jimmy Fallon
"In a surprise decision, President Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Friday. In other premature awards this week: high school football player Billy Reynolds has been named this year's Heisman Trophy winner; fifth grader Amber Collins has been named Miss America; and nine-year-old Dylan Holt has been named People's 'Sexiest Man Alive.'" --Seth Meyers
[source: Dan Kurtzman]
'Fools, Martyrs, Traitors'
I am recommending this book by Lacey Baldwin Smith on the subject of martyrdom in the Western World.It is commonplace in our time for people to label those whom they either like or dislike as 'martyrs.' After an abortion doctor had been murdered in his church, a conservative Lutheran blogger said that he feared that this doctor would become a martyr in the cause of abortion. What foolishness!
The antidote for foolishness is, I think, good reading. The Smith book, as one would reasonably expect, contains a long discussion on John Brown whose anniversary is noted today.
I bought my copy at Half-Price Books in St. Louis Park. It is a 1997 book and I am sure that it is almost universally available. Buy it.
more on John Brown Anniversary
Fellow abolitionist Frederick Douglass recognized in Brown an unparallelled devotion, "I could live for the slave, but he could die for him." Brown had lost two sons in the raid. Another son had already sacrificed his life for the anti-slavery cause in the Osawatomie raid.
Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life, for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and MINGLE MY BLOOD FURTHER WITH THE BLOOD OF MY CHILDREN, and with the blood of millions in this Slave country, whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments,--I say LET IT BE DONE.
For his actions, Brown was quickly tried and convicted of murder, slave insurrection, and treason against the state and sentenced to death by hanging. The simplicity and sincerity of Brown's address after his sentencing astounded listeners on both sides of the issue. While awaiting his fate in the Harper's Ferry jail, he received a sympathetic letter from Massachusetts writer and abolitionist Lydia Maria Child. "I think of you night and day," she wrote, "bleeding in prison, surrounded by hostile faces, sustained only by trust in God and your own heart. I long to nurse you--to speak to you sisterly words of sympathy and consolation."
Brown declined her offer, asking instead that she contribute to the financial support of his surviving family which included two daughters-in-law whose husbands had been killed in the raid. "Would you not," he wrote, "as soon contribute fifty cents now, and a like sum yearly, for the relief of those very poor and deeply afflicted persons, to enable them to supply themselves and their children with bread and very plain clothing, and to enable the children to receive a common English education?"
John Brown - 150th anniversary
Late on the night of October 16, 1859, John Brown and twenty-one armed followers stole into the town of Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) as most of its residents slept. The men--among them three free blacks, one freed slave, and one fugitive slave--hoped to spark a rebellion of freed slaves and to lead an "army of emancipation" to overturn the institution of slavery by force. To these ends the insurgents took some sixty prominent locals including Col. Lewis Washington (great-grand nephew of George Washington) as hostages and seized the town's United States arsenal and its rifle works.The upper hand which nighttime surprise had afforded the raiders quickly eroded, and by the evening of October 17, the conspirators who were still alive were holed-up in an engine house. In order to be able to distinguish between insurgents and hostages, marines under Colonel Robert E. Lee waited for daylight on October 18 to storm the building.
Brown and most of his men were veteran foes of slavery. In 1849, he and his family had settled at a black community at North Elba in New York state. Brown had become increasingly militant during the 1850s in his quest to eradicate slavery. In 1855, he had migrated to the Kansas Territory to become the leader of a band of anti-slavery guerrillas. He lead a nighttime raid in retaliation for the sack of Lawrence, Kansas by pro-slavery forces and helped to liberate slaves and to safely transport them to Canada.
In 1858, Brown drafted a constitiution for a provisional United States government of which he was elected president with which he intended to establish an effective means of freeing the slaves of Maryland and Virginia. Most of his raiders held comissions in the government's army. Apparently, only the black conspirators held no comissions. Even the ill-concieved plan for the raid had been germinating in Brown's thoughts for some time; he had moved to nearby Kennedy Farm in preparation in July.
Brown claimed he, "knew the proud and hard hearts of the slave-holders, and that they would never consent to give up their slaves, till they felt a big stick about their heads," and that a slave-holding community was, by its nature, in a state of war and, thus drastic actions were necessary and justified. His supporters felt they had a moral imperative to take action:
Millions of fellow-beings require it of us; their cries for help go out to the universe daily and hourly. Whose duty is it to help them? Is it yours? Is it mine? It is every man's, but how few there are to help. But there are a few who dare to answer this call and dare to answer it in a manner that will make this land of liberty and equality shake to the centre.
Jeramiah Goldsmith Anderson
July 5, 1859.
In his account of the raid for Century Magazine, Alexander Boteler pointed out that, "…the usages of ordinary warfare had been more than once disregarded, during the day, by the belligerents on both sides." Harper's Ferry mayor Fountain Beckham was clearly unarmed and his hands were in his pockets when he was shot by the insurgents; raider Dangerfield Newby's ears were cut off as trophies; and Jeramiah Anderson was tortured and beaten as he lay dying. Some considered the Harper's Ferry raid to have been the first skirmish of the Civil War:
then and there the first shot was fired and the first blood was shed-the blood of an unoffending
free negro…there and then occurred the first forcible seizure of public property; the first attempt to "hold, occupy, and possess" a military post of the Government; the first outrage perpetrated on the old flag; the first armed resistance to national troops; the first organized effort to establish a Provisional Government at the South, in opposition to that of the United States; the first overt movements to subvert the authority of the constitution and to destroy the integrity of the Union.
Alexander Boteler
"Recollections of the John Brown Raid by a Virginian Who Witnessed the Fight"
Century Magazine
26: 399-411
July 1883.
The raid enflamed the emotions of parties on both sides of the conflict while Northern and Southern press fanned the flames that had been smoldering hotter and hotter with the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, the Dred Scott decision, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Fear and anger had now totally eclipsed any other motivations which had been factors in the battle over slavery.
[source: Library of Congress}
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Christian Century article on current funeral practices is worthy of study
http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=7852
Mattheus van Beveren, Funeral Monument of Lamoral, 1678, terracotta, 73 X 89 x 17.5 cm, Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Bethany Alums featured in today's Brainerd paper
The Brainerd paper ran a story today on a group of Bethany alums picking trash along Highway 371 in Crow Wing County.Go the Extra Section and click on the story about alums picking up trash.
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