Memory

      Memory is such a funny, random experience. Sitting in my recliner in the OFH I can see the bus stop across the street. It's a busy stop with people taking and alighting from the bus regularly. The afternoon/evening chef at the OFH commutes by bus. He times his departure from the kitchen in time to catch a particular bus. The stop is on a busy street; West 7th Street which is also MN 5. 

   Looking at the bus stop brought back memories of riding the bus in California. For a year and half I was stationed at Camp Pendleton in southern California. My cousin, Marjorie (Negstad) Dahl lived with her family, Jasper, Carol and Betty, in Lakewood, CA., which is between Long Beach and Los Angles. Marjorie's father and my uncle, Sam Negstad, lived with his wife Josie, in nearby Bellflower. Many weekends while stationed at Camp Pendleton I spent with these relatives.

   To get from the base to their home I travelled by bus, actually three buses. The first bus took me from my barracks, which were inland several miles, to Oceanside. At Oceanside I rode a bus up Coast Highway 101 to Long Beach. Then I transferred to a city bus to get to my relatives.

   Here's the funny part about memory. I have clear memories of the bus ride. What I can't remember is how I initially figured out the route. Nothing in my boyhood on the farm prepared me for navigating bus schedules. 

   Those family connections were a treasured part of that time in the Marines. The Marine Corp also allowed me to visit another cousin who was missionary in Japan. That's a story for another time.

Takk for alt,

Al

   This is what Camp Pendleton looked like from our barracks.

Chauvinist

      A couple in the OFH sponsored, what Joanne would call a "friend raiser", for Lutheran Social Service (LSS) of Minnesota today. It was held in the club room. Sitting at a table I naively said "Now we'll find out who is Lutherans."  Marilyn, seated on my right replied "I'm Jewish." Diana and Gayle on my left both said "I'm Catholic."  How chauvinist of me! It reminded me of a story from Joanne's days as president of LSS of South Dakota/

   LSSSD annually held a banquet during the legislative session for Lutheran legislators. Included in this banquet was Stan Adelstein, who is Jewish. His inclusion was because he was serving on the LSS Board of Directors. At each place setting at the banquet was placed a gift box. As the guests opened their gifts they discovered Black Hill's Gold Crosses. Stan opened his box with trepidation fearing finding a cross. When he opened the box he discovered a Black Hill's Gold Star Of David!

   Stan has never forgotten that gift. Later, while I was Pastor at St. James Lutheran, Crystal, MN., he spoke at a Sunday service. Included in his remarks was the significance of that gift.

Takk for alt,

Al

Bird dog!

      This morning Kaia and I were returning from out daily walk to the park at about 7:00. Kaia was walking calmly by my side on the leash in spite of the springer that had emerged from the OFH in front of us and was rudely barking. Perhaps about fifteen feet from the OFH door Kaia plunged toward the foundation plantings. What did she see or smell? A bit of investigation revealed a northern bob white quail (see picture below).

     During my Iowa years while hunting pheasants we'd occasionally flush coveys of quail. But, in the heart of St. Paul, Minnesota, and all alone, it seemed seriously out of place. Puzzled I told the story of seeing it at the OFH Veteran's coffee this morning. Nic explained that sometime ago, perhaps a year, a neighbor had released number of the birds in the neighborhood. While walking Nic had heard the quail calling to each other. At least one has survived.

   The OFH lies below a bluff the crest of which holds woods that run for a significant distance, perhaps a mile. A few blocks down from the OFH is the Mississippi River the banks of which are heavily forested. With such cover deer coyotes, fox and turkeys are commonly seen.

Takk for alt,

Al

Bob White

Progress?

     This morning one of the readers of this blog, Nancy, told me she's ordered Jon Fosse's Septology. The other reader said she's not ready to read it. That's progress in my missionary endeavor to increase readership...50% of my readers!😀 

    In the shopping heart of the Highland Park neighborhood of St Paul, where the OFH is located, is a Half Price Bookstore. Yesterday's research showed they had no copies of either Hamsun or Fosse. There was one copy of Roy Jacobsen's The Unseen, the first of four books in his 'Ingrid series'. 

   In two relocations, first from the Golden Valley House to downtown and then from there to the OFH, much stuff was shed. Frequently I've remarked that I don't miss any of it. Now a caveat. Most of Knut Hamsun's books were on my shelf. Since learning the Fosse received the Noble Prize re-reading Hamsun's The Growth Of The Soil, for which he received the Nobel, appeals. If I had it I'd add it to the stack of books that await reading. I see that Goodreads has it on Kindle for $2.99. With my recent end to a subscription to Parnassus First Edition Book Club I think I will afford it.

Takk for alt,

Al

A Learning

     Reading history books, and also biographies, is always a reminder of how little I know. On a vacation past in the Finger Lakes Region of N.Y.,  Lisa visited the Oneida Community. She brought back a book for me. That book is both biography and history. Reading it revealed how little I knew about this community, though from my childhood, I was familiar with Oneida animal traps. Oneida tableware was also in my consciousness.

    Pierrepont B. Noyes, 1870-1959,  was born and grew up in the community. His book My Father's House: An Oneida Boyhood tells that story. Pierrepont, known as Pip, was a son of the founder (John Humphrey Noyes 1811-1886) of the utopian community, though his mother was not the founder's wife. In the community there was no marriage as that was seen as too exclusive. Attempts were made to practice eugenic selection in procreation.

   Pip was 10 when the commune gave way to a joint-stock corporation. This perfectionist Christian community seemingly worked well for the first generation of joiners. With the second generation the commune collapsed both from internal dissention and outside pressures. Moving to a joint-stock corporation was well thought out and was relatively smooth.  

   As an adult Pip had an illustrious career even serving as the "coal czar' of occupied Germany after WWI.  His memories of life in the commune are largely positive giving a mostly favorable account. The transition from the protected community to the 'outside' was not easy but the leaders wisely assisted in the change. 

   It's a bit of interesting history that I'm glad I read.

Takk for alt,

Al

  

The Oneida Mansion House, in which the community of 300 persons lived.  It's now a National Historic Landmark and history museum. 

I quit!

     Yes, I quit smoking! It was in 1963 when the Surgeon General's Report on the serious health effects of smoking was released. Happy to have that behind me and it was before we were married. That's not the quit referred to in the title of this blog.

    For something over a year I subscribed to Ann Patchett's Parnassus First Edition Book Club. Every month subscribers receive a first edition book selected by Ann. What prompted this quitting? Three factors coalesced in making the decision.

    First and foremost there were too many selections which didn't appeal to me. Paying for hardcover books that weren't appealing didn't seem economically wise. These first edition books were signed by the author. Perhaps at age 30 collecting first edition signed copies would appeal. Now that I'm approaching the age of Methuselah there is no desire for collecting anything except my social security check.

   This put pressure on MJV who remains a subscriber. She can tell me when a selection is of such value I should find it and read it. We don't always agree on books, she refuses to read Septology, but that's a minor flaw. Her reading erudition is fine.

Takk for alt

Al

Trouble Ahead

        Tom and Sue spent two weeks volunteering at "my" Thai school. Recently we had a 90 minute zoom call where they reported on their experience. They had a wonderful experience and once we were able to connect via What's App for some live conversation.

      Thailand has draconian lese-majeste laws make it illegal to criticize anything royal. In the last election the party that won largest majority has been blocked from leadership by the army. Now the court is ready to rule that the party must disband because it want to revise the lese-majeste laws. With this thwarting of the popular will pressure will build. By blocking reform via democratic voting it likely means that change will only come by revolution. There's trouble ahead.

Takk for alt,

Al

     BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s Constitutional Court ruled Wednesday that the progressive Move Forward party must cease advocating amending the law on royal defamation — a decision that leaves the party vulnerable to being dissolved.

The court’s nine judges deemed it unconstitutional to advocate a change in Article 112 in the country’s Criminal Code — also known as lese-majeste law — which protects the royal institution from criticism by imposing severe penalties on those found to violate it, including up to 15 years in jail per offense.

Critics say the law is often wielded as a tool to quash political dissent. Student-led pro-democracy protests beginning in 2020 openly criticized the monarchy, previously a taboo subject, leading to vigorous prosecutions under the law.

Since those protests, more than 260 people have been charged with the offense, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights.

The Move Forward party came in first in the 2023 general election, campaigning heavily on making an effort to amend Article 112, along with other democratic reforms. The win suggested Thai voters were ready for change after nearly a decade of military-controlled government.

But the military-installed Senate effectively blocked the party from power when they refused to approve then-party leader Pita Limjaroenrat as prime minister. Senators said they opposed Pita because of his intention to seek reforms to the monarchy.

In July, Teerayut Suwankesorn, a lawyer associated with royalist politics, petitioned the court to block Pita and the Move Forward party from seeking to change the law. He argued the election campaign proposal to amend the law on royal defamation violated a constitutional clause against seeking to overthrow the system of constitutional monarchy.

“The court unanimously voted that the act of the two accused exercised the rights and freedom to try to overthrow Democratic System under His patronage … and order to cease all opinions including speech, writing, publishing, advertising to amend 112,” read the court’s ruling.

Both the party and its critics say the decision paves the way for follow-up legal action that could see the party dissolved.

Move Forward supporters believe the conservative royalist establishment seeks to eliminate the party as a political force through rulings by courts and state agencies such as the Election Commission, which are staunch defenders of the status quo.

But agitation for a more liberal atmosphere surrounding discussion of the subject has grown since the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in 2016.

Speaking at a news conference Wednesday after the court’s ruling, Pita was asked if it marked an end to efforts to reform the harsh lese majeste law.

“It’s an opportunity lost, that we can use the parliament to find different views and an opportunity to find the consensus building for such an important and critical and fragile issue, that parliament would be the best place to do it, and we lost that opportunity today,” he responded.

“What’s my message to the voters?” he said. “We’ve tried our best and we have a very true intention of finding the proportionality of law between the protection of the monarchy and the proportionality of freedom of speech in the modern Thailand, so we’ve tried our best.”

Pita had been suspended from the legislature pending the court’s ruling on whether he violated the election law by owning shares in a media company. He was the executor of his father’s estate which included stock in a company that is the inactive operator of a defunct independent television station. Thailand’s Constitutional Court ruled Jan. 24 that Pita did not violate the law and can retain his seat in Parliament.

Pita has stepped down as party leader after his suspension so that a party colleague could become leader of the parliamentary opposition.

Earlier Wednesday, the Bangkok South Criminal Court convicted a prominent political activist of defaming the country’s monarchy and sentenced her to a two-year suspended jail term under Article 112.