"The Wind," by Nathan Bolls (Elder RiverSoul)

 

     As is normal for this time of year, we’ve had some strong wind days in Kansas during the past 3-4 months.  But, just as for heat, or its absence, cold, or for the force of gravity-- we know the existence of wind only by its actions.  No one has seen the wind, but “when the trees bow down their limbs, the wind is  passing by.” 

     A common reminder of wind from decades past was the presence of numerous windmills drawing groundwater for humans and livestock. The modern wind-driven turbine is increasingly being used to generate electrical energy. On hot days, we always welcome a cooling breeze.

     Most of us are enthralled by the rare glassy smooth, mirrored surface of some lake or stream, but most usually the wind, to some degree—sometimes violently—is pushing the surface into waves.  I’ve heard that, because of the long north/south “fetch” of the Tuttle Creek Reservoir in Kansas, a strong north or south wind can push the water into waves five-six feet high.  Some days no sort of boat normally purchased in this area is safe out on the reservoir.

     Strong wind currents from various types of storms have caused many airplane and ship wrecks and brought untold amounts of destruction to human lives, homes, schools, churches, factories, businesses and infrastructure, and trees.  The sea off Cape Hatteras, part of the coastline of North Carolina, has been called “The Graveyard of the Atlantic.”  I live in “Tornado Alley,” an area that encompasses much of the Midwest and the South, and increasingly the Upper Midwest and East.  Our Atlantic coast is known as “Hurricane Alley.”  And in California, residents dread the annual onslaught of the Santa Ana winds.  In New England, it’s the windy “Nor’easter” storms that can especially cause trouble.  Many Kansans, and surely including numerous MLH residents, have tales to tell about the effects the wind had on topsoil during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. 

     One of the countless examples of the regionalism of awareness and of attitudes is that the Dust Bowl was an abstraction for this pre-teen farm boy during the 1930s in the Missouri River Bottomlands some 100 miles east of Kansas City.   I recall one day, early dusk, when I was walking with my Dad from the barn after he had milked our Jersey cow.  I asked him about the unusually orangish sunset sky.  He remarked that it was “just Kansas blowing by.”

     One prediction from students of climate change is that storms from driven winds will increase in both number and intensity.  It seems that we are seeing that trend now. The insurance industry is reeling from the deluge of claims brought from the greatly increased damages sustained from such storms; we now speak of an increased number of storms and of billion-dollar storms.  And the industry has been forced to realize that both wind and water have to be considered when assessing damages from hurricanes.

     However, without the effects of wind, we would not have certain of the natural spectacles we enjoy.  The huge piles of sand we see in Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado are the result of winds blowing for eons of time across the broad, flat and dry San Luis Valley west of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, picking up and piling sand up against the western flank of those mountains.   And wind surely played a major role in forming the giant dunes of the Sahara Desert in Africa, those of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan, as well as the dunes we sometimes see in other deserts and along some seacoasts. 

     Another type of soil displacement results in what are called Loess Hills (pronounced luss), a German word meaning “loose,” which refers to a gritty, yellowish-to grayish-tan type of soil often made up mostly of sand and clay.  These sediments can be found blown into hills in eastern China, north-central Europe and in our own Midwest.  By far the largest assemblage of loess hills in our Midwest is the 200-mile long strip (up to 25 miles deep east-to-west) in Iowa just east of the Missouri River.  Some of these hills are 250 feet high, among the tallest known.  

     In the Midwest, the Loess Hill story began some 25-30 thousand years ago when the great ice sheet covering the Midwest as far down as the NE corner of Kansas began to melt and recede from the area.  As the glaciers melted—mostly during summers--water filled the Missouri River Basin.  With winter and reduced melting, the water level in the basin dropped, and large amounts of silt were left behind, exposed.   Much of that silt was swept up by the strong winds of that time and dropped mostly just east of the Missouri River, in western Iowa.  This cycle was repeated over thousands of winters until about 12,000 years ago. 

     A road cut through a loess hill shows the lack of that stratification into layers of clay, flint or chert, limestone, shale, dolomite, etc., that we see in a typical Flint Hills road cut.  Loess soil is very loosely organized and easily subject to erosion.  People have settled in these hills, but much care has to be taken with how the soil is disturbed or tilled.

     No wonder our language is permeated with words and expressions related to the concept of moving air.  We sometimes speak of a strong wind as a blow.  We speak of a puff of this-or-that, describe as all puffed-up someone who is mouthy, boastful or cocky.  We blow up tires and also blow them out by hitting a sharp object while driving; blow off a person, meeting, idea, or an opportunity; blow up a balloon.   We blow up at someone, blow up things with explosives, while our plans and dreams sometimes blow up. We speak of having the wind at our backs.  We test the wind when we float a new idea.  But all is not lost; we do blow kisses to loved ones and friends—on the wind.

--submitted by Nathan Bolls (Elder RiverSoul)

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"Favorite Anonymous Quotes" submitted by Elder Myster E

 

Image by Grae Dickason from Pixabay

"In the midst of a crowd create your inner sanctuary."

Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay

Destination is the same for all.

Why the discord

when getting along

is practice for the distance?

Image by John Hain from Pixabay

"How full is your treasure box before your gratefulness begins."

Anonymous quotes submitted by Myster E

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"Child Labor--An Egregious Business Practice of the Past?" by CD Burr

  

Library of Congress photo and description:   "Manuel, the young shrimp-picker, five years old, and a mountain of child-labor oyster shells behind him. He worked last year (1911). Understands not a word of English. Dunbar, Lopez, Dukate Company. Location: Biloxi, Mississippi." photographer Lewis Wickes Hine, 1874-1940,

Is child labor an egregious business practice of the past, where children work long hours without breaks or work in hazardous conditions?  

No.  It continues today, in 2025. 

Consider the following quotes from the Department of Labor website: 

"Since 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor has seen an 88 percent increase nationwide in children employed illegally. In fiscal year 2023, federal investigators identified 955 child labor violations nationwide with 5,792 children at risk – including 502 working in hazardous occupations illegally – and assessed more than $8 million in penalties for employers found in violation." 

"In fiscal year 2024, we concluded 736 investigations that found child labor violations, a 23% decrease from the previous year. We found 4,030 children employed in violation of the law, a 31% increase since 2019, and assessed more than $15.1 million in penalties, an 89% increase from the previous year."

The violations include children under 18 working six days a week, running hazardous machinery such as meat-processing machines, 14-year-olds driving forklifts or vehicles, and breaks only if the child works an eight-hour shift. 

According to the EPI (Economic Policy Institute), six states have tried to weaken child labor laws, but advocates are fighting back.   The Guardian reported that in March 2025, the Trump administration abolished US funding for nearly 70 programs that fought to end trafficking and child labor in other countries.

The lure of cheap child labor is greater than ever.  

Find your cause and fight back.

CD Burr

This essay also appears on CD Burr's Writer Blog

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"'White Old Lady Privilege' and Encounters with the Police" by Elder D

On Sunday, as I was driving home from church, I was pulled over by a state trooper for speeding.  I got the ticket and went about my business.  I wasn’t angry at the situation, just a little bit annoyed at myself.  But then again, I have been driving for over 50 years and this is only my third speeding ticket, so I’m not doing too badly. 

I thought about my very first speeding ticket in Texas--

I was a freshly minted second lieutenant in the US Army, driving my new car from my post in Louisiana to see a friend in Texas.  In the middle of nowhere, Texas, at the bottom of a steep hill, was a police officer. I was sure I picked up a little speed going down that hill, but it wasn’t by much.  

The officer had on a Smokey Bear hat and tinted glasses.  He looked formidable.  He ordered me out of the car, put my hands on the car roof, and "spread ‘em."  He proceeded to frisk me, but it seemed like more of an opportunity for him to feel me up.  He shouted at me that I was a liar and I needed to go to court to figure this all out.  

I was really afraid- 

I had no idea why he was acting this way--all I did was drive a little fast.   I mean, he could do whatever to me in this vast open space with no traffic, no buildings, nothing around.  Back then, there were no police body cameras or cell phones.  I remember being so shook up, so afraid, probably crying, and he finally let me go.  Was all that really necessary?

 

Fast forward 40-plus years--

I am a white-haired senior lady in Kansas, driving my newish car, when I get pulled over.  The trooper was professional and kind, and I admitted that I had been distracted and was speeding. No need to do anything other than show my proof of insurance and my driver’s license, and I was on my way.  I apparently did not seem to pose a threat.

White Old Lady Privilege--

 

I thought about how being a middle-class, white, over-60-year-old woman gave me some privilege.  Unlike when I was that cute young thing back in the day.  Unlike the person of color who might get pulled over for simply “driving while black.”  Or maybe the undocumented brown person who now faces deportation because he was pulled over for a broken taillight.  Or the person who struggles financially, who now needs to figure out how to pay that $153 speeding ticket due in 30 days.  Do I pay for food or for the fine?  Or that international college student who now faces expulsion from school and deportation back to her home country just because she was speeding 10 miles over the speed limit.

 

White Old Lady Privilege.  I got a good lesson this week.  How can I use this privilege to help those without it?  That’s a lesson for the rest of my life. 

Submitted by Elder D

First image: Adobe stock photo

Second image by Charlie Yoon from Pixabay

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"Keeping History Alive with Travel" by Sandi McCoy Kramos

 

A mass grave at the Bergen Belsen concentration camp in Germany reads: 

"Here Rest 5000 Dead" (Photo by Greg Kramos)

Keeping History Alive with Travel

Many years ago when my cousin, Jill, and I were traveling in Germany, we told a German friend whom we were visiting that we wanted to visit a concentration camp. The friend expressed some dismay at this. To bolster her argument against visiting a place where Nazi’s imprisoned and killed Jews and other citizens they considered undesirable, she asked, “Do you make a point of visiting places where American soldiers killed Indians?”

She had a point, and she changed some of my thinking about history…  just not in the direction she intended to change it. 

Instead of talking us out of visiting Sachsenhausen concentration camp outside of Berlin, she convinced me that sometimes it’s important to visit places where humans have demonstrated the worst of their humanity as a reminder – both to remember and honor those who were mistreated, and to remember and learn from the mistakes we hope won’t be repeated.

Why We Should Pay Attention to the Dark Side of History

Throughout history, there are numerous examples of positive human behavior and achievement. It’s why we love visiting art museums to witness the amazing creativity and beauty of the human spirit. It’s the same with observing stunning architecture, eating delicious food, and visiting sites where someone has acted with inspiring courage or generosity. Humans really can do incredible things.

Humans also can do incredibly horrible things, especially to each other. Much of the time, most of us want to turn away from the horrors humans inflict upon each other. The desire to look away shows you have a heart and can feel empathy for the suffering of others. 

Sometimes, though, our curiosity overrides this impulse. Hence, the popularity of true crime television shows and podcasts!

If we always look away from the pain, there is a risk of losing both our empathy and all of the hard-won wisdom that comes with it. As George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” But it’s also important to not let our curiosity become an obsession and override our empathy.

Keeping History Alive

There are many people – not just my friend but leaders of countries – who would prefer to whitewash history and only show the parts that they consider noble and glorious. Doing so, however, does a disservice to society.

Sure, we all wish we were perfect, so it’s not surprising that many want to believe their culture or their country is perfect. We also all know that no one is perfect. No person. No country.

Trying to ignore the mistakes and problems of the past flattens out the depth and meaning of a place. Much like living with a cardboard cutout of your spouse would mean less arguing over shoes left by the front door, or whose turn it is to carry out the garbage. That cutout could also stay perfect and never age, but I’m pretty sure you could never love it the way you do your actual, flawed partner.

Here in the US, we have a long, dark history of slavery, inequalities, and abuses of power. That history has prevented us from attaining the ideals created by the founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence.

I wish our history was different. But it’s not. And trying to ignore that history won’t make it go away.

Recognizing and learning more about my country’s dark history will hopefully help me recognize current problems of inequality, whether in my country or in my neighborhood. We can’t address a problem if we can’t see it. Knowing more about history helps us see those problems as they occur today.

Doesn’t It Make You Feel Bad?

If you visit a World War II concentration camp, I hope it makes you feel bad. I also hope you feel bad if you visit the Sand Creek Massacre Site in Colorado, or the slave quarters on a former southern plantation. 

Feeling bad isn’t necessarily a bad thing. 

As I said before, feeling sad or angry when you learn about the atrocities committed in such places is a sign that you have a heart and can feel empathy for your fellow human beings.

Sometimes, visiting these places can also make you feel good about humans. Not because of the hatred and prejudice that were exhibited, but because of what can happen in spite of all of those negative actions.

For example, when I visited Sachsenhausen, and many years later the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, I was overwhelmed by feelings of sadness and anger at how humans could treat each other. I also experienced a feeling of awe in considering the strength and tenacity of the individuals who survived those camps. I’m amazed how they didn’t give up entirely on the human race, and they were able to go on and live creative and productive lives!

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

– Viktor E. Frankl

The Bad Parts Don’t Cancel Out the Good Parts

We currently live in a “cancel culture” in which celebrities who do or say something unacceptable are often boycotted or shunned on social media. I think our friend, in discouraging my cousin and me from visiting a German concentration camp, may have had a fear of something similar happening – she may have been worried we would no longer enjoy Germany or the German culture once we had witnessed the dark side of their history up close.

It’s important to remember that cultures, like individuals, are complex. 

Yes, Nazi concentration camps are a horrific piece of Germany’s history that should never be repeated. That doesn’t mean there aren’t parts of Germany’s history that should also be celebrated. For example, knowing that concentration camps exist didn’t keep me from enjoying the beauty of castles along the Rhine River.

And visiting a concentration camp didn’t keep me from returning to Germany for two later visits. And I hope to visit again in the future.

Here in the US, there are some individuals who believe we should hide our history of slavery, racism, and discriminatory policies like Jim Crow laws and red-lining. Some even feel that learning about racism makes white children feel bad and therefore shouldn’t be taught in schools. 

There are politicians trying to cut funding to museums and historical sites that share this dark part of our nation's history. Unfortunately, they are failing to accept that, like it or not, it is part of our history. And in failing to recognize it, they are taking away the opportunity to recognize the resilience of individuals who survived these experiences, as well as opportunities to celebrate when the American experiment of democracy has overcome these problems and lived up to its ideals.

Recognizing that racism existed and still exists in the US doesn’t mean forgetting there are good things about American culture as well.

A field of 168 empty chairs represents those killed in the Oklahoma City bombing with 19 smaller chairs representing the children who were killed (Photo by Greg Kramos)

Dark Tourism

Much of what we have been discussing is referred to as “dark tourism.” There are actually some travel industries that focus on visiting places of tragedy and death, and there are some individuals who choose primarily to travel to these areas around the world.

Getting out of balance isn’t healthy. For example, ice cream is great, but a diet consisting of nothing but ice cream will eventually land you in the emergency room. Similarly, focusing your leisure time on all of the worst things that human beings have done to each other probably isn’t going to be good for your emotional health.

Just as it’s important not to hide our dark histories, it’s important not to celebrate or fetishize them.

Respect

If you google “dark tourism,” also known as morbid tourism, you’re likely to find some criticism of the practice. This criticism isn’t so much about the belief that we should try to erase negative parts of history as it is about individuals who revel in the human tragedy of these areas. This is not the empathetic response we were talking about earlier.

Finding enjoyment in others’ suffering, even if that suffering was long in the past, is not a healthy or respectful human response. Indifference is not much better.

These are the tourists whom you see in the news getting in trouble for trying to take a piece of human bone from an archeological dig at a mass killing site. Or the Instagramer shamed online for taking a goofy selfie at Auschwitz. 

The problem is not that they are visiting places with a dark, inhumane history, but that they are doing so in a disrespectful manner. 

Most people when they travel are focused on things they enjoy. No problem with that. Many often travel for experiences or knowledge, even if some of that involves exploring painful parts of history. There’s also no problem with that. 

Being disrespectful, however, is a problem.

Regardless of why you travel, it’s important to show respect for others’ history and culture. When visiting a site where past tragedies have occurred, respect means remembering it was real human beings who suffered and died there. Remember you’re visiting, in part, to keep the memory of what they experienced alive.

How We Can Help

In many parts of the world, including in the US, there are political leaders who would like to erase parts of the past. As brave, wise travelers, we can fight back. How? By doing our part to keep history alive.

In addition to all of the fun things you have planned during your next travel adventure, do some research about the history of the area and consider visiting places that are less well-known but important to history, especially the history of minorities or marginalized people. 

Also, check out museums and historical sites in your local area. Too often, we put off visiting local tourist activities because we feel we already know the history, and there isn’t any urgency to visit when we know we can go see it anytime. But often, being able to actually see and touch places where significant events occurred in the past brings the history alive for us. For example, visiting the Brown v. Board of Education Museum in Topeka, just an hour from where I live, brought more meaning to the event than just seeing old newspaper articles ever did.

Travel is one of the most powerful tools we have to preserve our history, deepen our understanding of it, and inspire action toward something better. When we choose to confront history honestly—not just its triumphs but also its tragedies—we honor those who came before us and equip ourselves to build a better future. So go ahead, keep planning those castle tours and market strolls—but don’t shy away from the places that make you pause, reflect, and feel.

What events in history, including sad and painful episodes, would you like to learn more about? Are there historical sites you can plan to visit during your next travel adventure?

--Submitted by Sandi McCoy Kramos, a licensed clinical psychologist and a lifelong traveler. "Keeping History Alive with Travel" can also be found on her blog, Brave Wise Traveler. Find more interesting articles and tips for traveling at https://bravewisetraveler.com/

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Let Us Not Become Weary..."

 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9

Image by Nicky ❤️🌿🐞🌿❤️ from Pixabay

A favorite quote, posted on Facebook April 18, 2025

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"Quote about Careless People" in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel: The Great Gatsby

 

"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they made."
--Nick in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel: The Great Gatsby.

Posted on Facebook 4/3/2025

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"My Visit to Communist East Berlin in 1968" by CD Burr

 

Off to Berlin (1968)  I was thirteen. 

My dad, an Army chaplain, was stationed in Germany from 1967 to 1970, and several times a year, he would pack the family into our 1966 Chevy Impala for a week-long vacation, driving on autobahns and over steep Alpine roads.  We toured at least thirteen countries during our three-year stay. I have fond memories of every visit, but one destination holds a firm and passionate grip on my memory: Soviet-occupied East Berlin, a communist stronghold that Mom and I visited in the spring of 1968.  

Mom invited me, at 13, to go with her and a group of officer's wives on a tour of the divided city of Berlin, which was like an island surrounded by communist East Germany.   We planned to stay in U.S.-occupied West Berlin but to get there, we had to travel over seven hours on a train--through the night and through communist East Germany.  Even though our sleeper cabin was comfortable, traveling through a communist country terrified me.  I had been taught at an early age that communists were the enemy, harboring nuclear weapons that could destroy American cities.  Mom and the other women in our group assured me we would be safe but I was nervous. 

In the middle of the night, when the train stopped at an East German depot, I peeked through our cabin curtain.  I instantly recoiled at the sight of armed communist soldiers in black coats holding long rifles and scanning the length of the train. Earlier in the day, I had been reading “The Diary of Anne Frank,” and the soldiers within fifteen feet of my window reminded me of Nazis who murdered the young Jewish girl and her family. Would they shoot me for spying on them? I flopped back on my bunk, wide-eyed and rigid, until the train slowly moved forward with a clackety-clack that kept me awake until dawn.

We disembarked in West Berlin, where the United States, Britain, and France secured sections of the former capital of pre-war Germany. We stayed three days in plainly decorated but comfortable and secure American military lodging. 

West Berlin--Modern, Friendly, and Free

When we ventured into the modern and friendly city of West Berlin, I soon forgot we were on a fragile island surrounded by a communist country. It was a modern, bustling city restored with the help of the US, French, and British after bombs decimated it in 1945. In 1968, it showcased neon lights and contemporary, tall glass buildings. I stepped onto the first moving sidewalk I had ever seen and was in awe of the up-to-date, colorful mini-skirts and leather knee-high boots in shop windows. In the center of downtown, the bombed-out and blackened carcass of a cathedral, the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, stood erect and defiant next to a contemporary hexagonal-shaped church. The contrast was startling. 

1968 Berlin, from a postcard I saved

I had many conflicting feelings during our stay in Berlin.  I felt like an adult when Mom told me to stand tall as I followed the women into a dance hall one night and dined with them in a swanky restaurant at the top of a high-rise tower on another evening. I felt like an eight-year-old after she ordered me to scrunch down as she bought tickets for children under twelve before visiting museums and boarding tour buses. I was entranced by mummies and Egyptian artifacts, especially the 3,000-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti displayed in a museum, and filled with dread as our tour bus drove past the bunker where Adolf Hitler took his life at the end of the war.  We were told that some people think he fled to another country — an idea that horrified me.  Could he still be out in the world plotting more destruction and evil?*   

The Berlin Wall and Communism

The most embedded and distinct memories of our Berlin trip stem from the sights we saw from our tour bus, traveling alongside the Berlin Wall — a part of the Soviet-influenced Iron Curtain. The wall bore the scars of the communist rapid takeover in 1961 when Soviet soldiers herded people out of their homes at gunpoint, marching them away from an invisible line dividing east from west Berlin. Under the Soviet Union's direction, the wall grew solid and menacing, fracturing family units and splitting friends apart for years.  In 1968, communication between family and friends separated by the wall was forbidden—no visits, no phone calls. Those trying to scale the wall were shot, a number that reached 140 by the time the wall came down over twenty years after our visit.

Photo of memorial taken with my Kodak Instamatic 

Crude components of the hastily constructed 1961 Berlin Wall remain etched in my memory from my visit 57 years ago: bricked-over doors and windows of homes and businesses, old stone walls topped with shards of glass, and memorials featuring crosses and photos. In 1968, the wall encircling the free Western part of the city had been expanded outward from the bricked-up building facades by the Soviets, who planted explosives, installed flood lights, and spread razor wire and spikes. Armed soldiers surveyed the grounds from the towers.  

After an hour, our guide informed us that the next loop of our tour was located behind the wall, through the streets of East Berlin. If the idea was too frightening, he warned, now was the time to exit the bus.  No one would be allowed to get on or off the bus once we passed through Checkpoint Charlie, the guard station.  I chose to stay with the group of American women, who repeatedly assured us that we were safe.  I was tense but curious, and I reasoned that I would have amazing photos to share with Dad after we got home.  I didn't hear the instructions not to take any photos.

Our bus inched its way up to Checkpoint Charlie, on the edge of the Berlin Wall, past the razor wire and x-shaped barriers into East Berlin, and came to a stop.  Two stone-faced Soviet soldiers boarded and walked down the aisle, asking for our passports. They warned us not to get off the bus or open the windows to speak to anyone outside.  My heart pounded as I witnessed them take the stack of passports off the bus and into an office.  Would they give them back?

As the bus rolled away from Checkpoint Charlie, I worried that we would be detained on the communist side. East Berlin seemed hungry to imprison more people. We left behind a vibrant, colorful metropolis and entered a grim cityscape devoid of color and high-rises. The experience has always reminded me of The Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy woke up in monotone Kansas after dancing and singing through technicolor Oz. Only East Berlin was not Kansas. 

The east side seemed lost in time, displaying acres of World War II charred and crumbled ruins. Many lots resembled prison grounds, with concrete gray buildings, gray sidewalks, and gray dirt yards devoid of grass or trees.  Street after monochrome street yielded an apocalyptic emptiness.

 World War II ruins in East Berlin. (Mom scolded me and took my camera after I took the photo.)  

Where were the people? I wondered about the young girls who lived there, who couldn't watch TV or listen to the radio, who probably didn’t know about the Beatles, miniskirts, or bell-bottom jeans. During the hour-long tour, we observed a few late-model gray automobiles and fewer than a dozen pedestrians wearing gray or black coats.  No one looked in our direction.  

When we returned to Checkpoint Charlie, Soviet soldiers ordered us off the bus while armed men inspected the entire vehicle—inside, back, front, and on top. They checked under the hood and beneath the undercarriage with long-handled mirrors on wheels. What if they found someone?  Would they shoot them in front of us? We had learned how escapees hid in dug-out cushions of car seats, so it was no surprise they checked everything. 

At Checkpoint Charley.  I'm relieved to be back in West Berlin

1986 and the Fall of the Berlin Wall

I never thought I’d see that secure wall collapse, but almost twenty years later, I witnessed what I thought was a miracle.  In 1986, President Reagan demanded that the Soviet Union “tear down that wall,” and then it happened on November 9, 1989. I watched the live newscast from my home in Arizona. People danced on top of the walls and hugged relatives they had not seen in 28 years! Tears flowed down my cheeks as I jumped up and down with them, hugging my startled children. 

Seven years after the wall disappeared, a distant cousin whom we had never met had grown up in communist East Germany and now had the freedom to travel to the US. We had no idea we were related to someone on the other side of the wall.

Authoritarian Communism and the Free Press

What I witnessed in Berlin as a young teenager was extreme authoritarian communism, and the experience cemented within me a deep gratitude for my country — a democratic republic that values "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."  By 1969, I was concerned about our country after seeing photos of war protestors burning the American flag.  I thought these young Americans should tour East Berlin; perhaps then, they would be more grateful for our country!  But when the Kent State students were shot while peacefully protesting in 1970, I wondered--how is the brutality of shooting peaceful protestors different from being shot in East Berlin for scaling a wall?  

One hope I had as a teenager for the East Germans was knowing that the United States broadcasted democratic ideas and news to people imprisoned behind the Iron Curtain.  A few who listened to contraband radios in secret might spread the word that they have not been forgotten.  It was part of the Voice of America, known as Radio Free Europe, which was active around the world-- until recently.

President Trump has withdrawn funding from the Voice of America, which had always been dedicated to objective reporting.  In his view, the press is the enemy of the people. Our president's promise to end Voice of America brings back all of those old images of a brutal and authoritarian East Berlin: where people were jailed without due process, where a free press was nonexistent,  where people could not visit their relatives a few miles away,  and where dissent and freedom of speech were prosecuted. In contrast, the United States' Constitution emphasizes a free press, freedom of speech, and due process in its courts of law.  Those ideals — democratic ideals — have often been in jeopardy with past administrations, but the present administration's glaring hostility toward these rights is unprecedented. 

President Trump has not only smashed his iron fist through the First Amendment's clear guidance about the free press, he has denigrated people like me who have decided to vote for moderate Democrats. He calls Democrats "radical lunatics" and "communists," which is misleading and horribly disrespectful to American citizens, especially to those of us who have witnessed authoritarian communism.  

I refuse to be intimidated by strong-man rhetoric. Through my vote and words, I will defend the free press, freedom of speech, social justice, and civil rights. 

Furthermore, I am NOT a Communist.

--CD Burr   

*  Alternate Soviet-influenced conspiracy theories surfaced immediately after Hitler's death and continue to this day.  Reliable witnesses, however, claim the bodies were recovered from the bunker and burned to ashes.  After extensive research, West Germany declared Hitler dead and issued a death certificate in 1956. 

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"Two of My Favorite Quotes about Faith and Spirituality" by Elder Debuli

 i

Iona, Scotland, is home to one of the oldest religious centers in Western Europe.
Image by TLMDesign from Pixabay

"An essential feature of rebirthing within the Christian household will be to remember that the well of truth is not ours.  It is deep within the earth and deep within the heart of humanity.  Our role is to be a servant at that well.  --  John Philip Newell, a poet, scholar, teacher, and former Warden of  Iona Abbey. 

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"We can only get rid of anxiety by being content to miss something in almost everything we do.  If we are too eager to have everything, we will almost certainly miss the one thing we need." --Thomas Merton, American Trappist Monk and writer (1915-1968)

submitted by Elder Debuli

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"A Voice Loud and Clear" a poem by Elder Myster E

I had a dream.

I was in a house of God

where Christ's Word was heard

loud and clear:

"Love your neighbor

Resist your greed

Fight injustice

Help ones in need

Oppose all violence

Care for the Earth . . ."

I woke up

in a world loaded

  with lies and hatred

with hope.

--by Elder Myster E

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"Dying Parents and the Legacy of Love" by Elder D

 

A few months ago, my mother (photo on left) passed away unexpectedly.  She had fallen and hit her head, causing a brain bleed.  After a few days of going in and out of consciousness, she was taken off life support and died peacefully, surrounded by family members and her pastor.  It was a good death, a peaceful death, something she was ready for at the age of 87.  I just don’t know if I was ready for it.  

Our family has been blessed with good health.  No one in my family of origin had died or had a serious illness.  We took our good health for granted.  

As a family, we all get along, keep in touch, and visit one another regularly.  We were six kids and mom and dad, all coming together occasionally from all over the country, celebrating holidays and special occasions.  And then it changed in an instant.  

It caught me off guard at how much life changes when the glue that was mom is no longer around.  No pep talk phone calls, no cards in the mail, no shoulder to cry on.  No good advice on how to continue raising my own adult kids.  

How many of my own friends "of a certain age" have lost their parents? Most all of them have lost at least one parent. I have been sympathetic, but I couldn’t really imagine the hole that it can leave in your life. 

Now it is "us kids'" turn to take care of dad.  This pillar of a man--take charge, work hard, good provider--has been reduced to a shell of his former self.  He is lost without her.  His ache is palpable. 

We six take turns to stay with Dad for weeks at a time, so that he is never alone.  It’s what we do as a family.  And in doing so, we sadly see a near future when we will become orphans, and what will need to be done to dissolve the family home where so much love and life was shared. 

It has made me more conscious of what I need to do and plan for my own kids upon my passing.  They will have each other, and for that, I am grateful.  I will do my best to prepare them for a world in which they become "the elders" and carry on our family legacy.  

I am grateful for the life I have been given, and for the promise and hope of reuniting in heaven--continuing the legacy of love through eternity.  

--lovingly submitted by Elder D   

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