Happy Bill of Rights Day

Read this today from the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Like muscles or foreign languages, these rights need to be exercised or they risk atrophy.

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Imagine if they canceled Independence Day.

What if the federal government declared that July 4th was no longer a holiday? We would be told to report for work, cancel fireworks displays and picnics, and go about our business the same as any other day.

There would be outrage. Americans would be angered by the suggestion that we shouldn't celebrate freedom. Not recognize Independence Day? Why, that would be un-American.

And yet we do the same thing every Dec. 15, the birthday of our Bill of Rights.

In embracing these fundamental freedoms in 1791, we set ourselves apart from all other nations on the planet -- then and ever since. It is one of the most important days in American history, yet almost no one takes the time to reflect on the importance of Dec. 15.

What does it say about America that we zealously celebrate our government's Declaration of Independence from another government and totally overlook the American people's Declaration of Independence from their government?

It's not as though no one ever attempted to give this day the respect it deserves. On Aug. 21, 1941, a joint resolution of Congress called on President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to designate a day in honor of the Bill of Rights.

On Nov. 28, 1941, the Los Angeles Times reported that "President Roosevelt today called on the American people to observe Dec. 15 as 'Bill of Rights Day,' to cherish the 'immeasurable privileges which the charter guaranteed' and to rededicate its principles and practice.

"An appropriate kickoff celebration was planned at the Waldorf Astoria featuring actress Helen Hayes and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Nine days after FDR's proclamation, though, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and everything else took a back seat to World War II. This was the holiday that got away, and it's never been properly recognized since.

This year marks the 220th birthday of the Bill of Rights, and it would be nice if all of us could take a little time at dinner tonight to ask our kids what they know about these freedoms, and help them understand why it's such a significant day.

Beyond the teaching opportunity, there's also a little something in it for young Americans ages 14-22.

The Knight Foundation is funding a scholarship opportunity called "Free to Tweet."

Students who wish the First Amendment a happy birthday by tweeting about the importance of these fundamental freedoms today are eligible to compete for one of 22 scholarships (one for every decade since ratification).

They just have to use the hashtag freetotweet. Full details can be found at www.freetotweet.org.

The irony is that most of us honor July 4th because we believe it's a day on which Americans secured their freedom. But the truth is that the Declaration of Independence really only secured freedom for white and wealthy men.

It took freedom of speech, press, religion, petition and assembly -- the five freedoms of the First Amendment -- to lead to suffrage for women, the emancipation of slaves and equality for all.

Please join in celebrating freedom today. It's long overdue.

Ken Paulson is president of the First Amendment Center and the American Society of News Editors, and a founder of 1 for All. He wrote this article for McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Flag Day

Well, it's happened: I received my initial placement this past Friday here in Washington. If you haven't heard by now, we will depart the United States in September 2012 for Haiti, where I will be working in the embassy in Port-au-Prince.

 

 

 

Friday was an interesting day, to say the least. My mom and dad had driven from Milwaukee to be here, and Kate was able to get away for a few days as well, arriving amidst a late summer thunderstorm Thursday night. Unfortunately, Tommy and Sophie were unable to get away for Flag Day (as the somewhat informal ceremony is called), but Sophie will join Kate next week for the more formal swearing-in ceremony on Oct. 21.

 

 

 

There are 93 of us in our "class." Every American should know about these people. Most are younger than me (a few are even recent graduates of four-year schools, so they are about 23 or 24), but a few are older, like me taking on a second (or even third) career, this time in service to our country.

 

 

The median age is about 31. Their experiences are amazing, unbelievable even. Many have worked in embassies or consulates before, working as interns while in graduate school or in various other paid positions. Almost all of them speak at least one additional language (some as many as four or five!), some of them very difficult or obscure (ever heard of Hausa before?). Most have graduate training or degrees, often in international relations, international development, international affairs, international planning, international organizations, political science or the like. They have attended amazing schools like Georgetown, American University, Princeton, Columbia, the U.S. Military Academy, Yale, Brown, Johns Hopkins, Wellesley and Minnesota State University at Moorhead (two of my new colleagues went there!), among many others.

 

 

About 15 are former military, and about the same number are former Peace Corps volunteers. We have several who worked in education at various times in their pasts, at least four or five who have worked on Capitol Hill, two or three who have worked at the United Nations, a couple journalists, a couple from finance and IT, and we even have a few lawyers. I can say with certainty that these are highly qualified, highly motivated people who are about to do the work of the country overseas. I am proud to call these people my friends, and you should be proud that they are serving all of us at a very high level.

 

 

Similar groups of Americans go through this program six or seven times a year, and now staff US missions all over the world, yet few Americans have any idea who they are or what they do. Rest assured, these are good people doing difficult work in trying, even dangerous conditions. Not every post is comfy like London or Paris, and sometimes even those aren't always so comfy (think metro bombings in London back in 2005). More Americans should know about them.

 

 

Flag Day is highly unusual. Suffice it to say that few people ever find out the trajectory of their careers in a more surprising and public way than this. First a little background: There are 93 of us in our class, and on day three or so of orientation, we all received a "bid list" containing 93 different posts in which we might serve around the world. Each of us bids on all 93 posts, not by assigning them a number 1 to 93, but by categorizing them into three groups: high, medium or low. After we submit our bid lists, other experienced career foreign service officers (serving a D.C. tour in a position known as a career development officer) match the 93 of us with the 93 posts. (A sampling of possible posts included places like Tel Aviv, Israel; Accra, Ghana; several positions in Jakarta, Indonesia; Georgetown, Barbados; several positions across Mexico; New Dehli & Chennai, India; Nicosia, Cyprus; Geneva, Switzerland; London, England; Melbourne, Australia; several posts in Brazil; Kingston, Jamaica; Caracas, Venezuela; several posts in China; a few posts here in Washington, D.C. and Havana, Cuba, to name just a few.)

 

 

There are preferences taken into consideration -- for things like family makeup, languages already spoken, interest and desire to serve in particular places, stuff like that -- but largely we are matched with a position based on the needs of the United States Department of State. Then, this match is revealed - very publicly and quite surprisingly - near the end of orientation on Flag Day.

 

 

The 93 of us gathered this past Friday in a large conference room here at the George Schulz National Foreign Affairs Training Center in Arlington, Va. (This is where we do the bulk of our training in preparation for overseas posts.) Another 100 or so family and friends made up the balance of the audience to witness this spectacle. The ceremony is a little more informal, in that all of us had bingo cards to mark as we discovered where our new friends were going, there were lots of high-fives and hugs, even a few tears (some for joy, some not so much). The staff brings in a large supply of table-top-sized flags representing the various posts from our bid list, and after a few short remarks, the anxiety and tension ramps up to some pretty remarkable levels. An image of a flag is displayed on the big screen behind the speaker, and our class mentor (Ambassador Marcia Bernicat, most recently ambassador to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau) holds a little flag in her hand. The crowd shouts out the name of the nation to which the flag belongs (sometimes getting it wrong), and the presenter says: "I have a consular position in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, starting in June of 2012, for ...." Not until that very moment does anyone know where they are heading for the next few years. We have been researching posts and countries, working on the various tasks as part of this new career, waiting and dreaming about this moment for months - even years. There is more than a little adrenaline flowing at this point, and as you might imagine, some are a little more shocked than others with the results (certainly not always in a negative way). It is quite a scene to behold, not to mention in which to take part.

 

 

So another milestone of sorts has passed in this journey. I started this process in February 2009 when I took the foreign service officer written exam for the first time. More than two-and-a-half years later, after two trips to D.C. and another to Latvia and untold hours of study, practice and worry, our little family will be heading off to Port-au-Prince next year.

 

 

Yes, I took bonus points in the Russian language in order to get the job, and as such I have committed to serving in a Russian-speaking post at some point early on in this career, but there was only one Russian-speaking post (Moscow) on our bid list, and another person with more skill in the language won that post. A Russian-speaking post will come in the future, sometime after Haiti. Over the next 10 or so months I will be learning French and Haitian Creole (how cool is that?), learning the ins and outs of my new position as a consular officer (things like family-based immigrant visa processing that deal with adoption, HIV/AIDS issues, and waivers; adjudicating non-immigrant visa cases; providing passport services to a large community of Americans in-country; and dealing with a large variety of issues such as arrests, Medevacs, abandoned children and kidnappings (!), to name a few), taking basic first aid and personal safety courses, and generally preparing myself for this exciting new opportunity. Oh, and all the while working together with Kate to figure out what to do with the house, the dog, the kids, etc. Should be an interesting ride.

Six Degrees of Separation

45 degrees north latitude runs through (among other places), the Twin Cities area which I have called home since 1991. We moved to Minnesota from the Milwaukee, WI area in August of 1991, and now I find myself almost exactly 20 years later, leaving everything we've built up the past two decades for the great unknown.

As of September 7, 2011, I have begun a journey of my own "six degrees of separation," as I have driven 1100 miles east, landing solo at 39 degrees north latitude in Rosslyn, Virginia (just across the river from the Washington Monument). I'll be here through some time in the summer or fall of 2012 as I prepare for my first post overseas as a newly sworn Foreign Service Officer, in the service of my country somewhere out there on the planet, and likely a whole lot more miles & lines of latitude and longitude away from my Midwestern home than I am now.

This is the story of the first leg in this journey, my trip from Bloomington, Minnesota to Washington, DC via St. Peter, MN and points in between, explained through this little movie I made (apparently I'm unable to upload the actual film, so here's the link to the YouTubes):

http://youtu.be/lvx94Fe_ACc

On the passing of stray comets, and the Minnesota Twins

Well, the Chinese are supposed to have said "May you live in interesting times," and so it begins for us. All the waiting, and working, and patience, and waiting has come to this: An offer of a position in the US State Department as a Foreign Service Officer, to begin the 163rd A-100 Orientation class on Monday, September 12, 2011.  In a surprising little twist, the Chinese gave me a little clue in advance, as the night before my offer arrived, we had Chinese carry-out from our local pot sticker purveyor.  My fortune cookie that night?  "Good news of long-awaited event will arrive soon."  No kidding.  #1 daughter's fortune cookie that night?  "In dreams and in life, nothing is impossible."  Again, no kidding.  And #1 son's fortune cookie that same night?  "Getting together with old friends brings new adventures."  Really, what are the odds?

The planets have aligned themselves such that (and perhaps with the assistance of a stray comet or two), one door has now closed and another opened in this chapter of my life. I'll soon be off to Washington, DC after 20 years in Minnesota, to start a new career after 17 years of teaching high school social studies, with the ultimate result that the family and I will find ourselves living in some far off foreign land. Interesting indeed.

About three years ago, some friends and I decided to puchase a season ticket package for the Minnesota Twins, during their last season in the baseball non-friendly confines of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis. The goal was that we'd have an 'in' on seats as current season ticket holders when the new stadium (Target Field) opened a year or so later. That plan worked out wonderfully, and we saw some great baseball that inaugural season at Target Field.

I have been a baseball player and fan my entire life, and like baseball players the world over, I am not a believer in tempting fate. Rituals and superstition abound in the game, and ballplayers simply do not spit in the face of the baseball gods. In this vein, and after a great 2010 season, I re-upped my commitment to the group, and put down some cold hard cash for 2011 tickets, actually adding my name to another group and getting tickets in their section, too. The logic here goes like this: By putting down several hundred dollars on tickets for a season lasting most of a year, I would go so far as to guarantee myself a job that would take me away from the Minnesota Twins and the tickets I just purchased. It's kind of like getting your car washed to guarantee rain.

And so the 2011 season began, and before I knew it the Twins were 20 games under .500 by June 1st, off to their worst start in years. With that in mind, I decided at the end of the school year to make a last ditch effort at controlling my fate as a candidate for the Foreign Service, and took off for a month in Daugavpils, Latvia to try and pick up enough Russian language skills to pass a telephone language test, which would earn me bonus points for my candidacy and allow me to move up on the Register. It just so happens that as I arrived in Latvia, the Twins decided to start a little run of excellence, just as I was unable to make use the tickets I had for three or four games.

As it turns out, my decision to attend classes in Latvia worked out swimmingly. I returned to Minnesota on a Wednesday in July, and took the phone test that same week, at 800 am on Friday morning. By the Wednesday July 20, I learned that I had indeed passed the language test (again with the passing of stray comets), and my position had improved considerably on the Register, vaulting me to #4 of 100 or so, up from #42 just a day earlier. Not only had I avoided a non-existant pennant race, I managed to learn enough Russian to boost my odds of a job with the Department of State just as my candidacy was about to expire. (My first candidacy had just expired in June 2011, and my second would have expired in January 2012, but when would I again have the time to learn the language well enough to get that boost while working full time?)

I fully believed my odds of an offer for September were about as good as the Twins winning the AL Central again this year (offers for the September class were extended starting in late June while I was struggling away in Latvia), but really thought I had a shot at the January class.

Shortly after my return from Latvia, the family had a nice little chance to reconnect as we had a family reunion over a long weekend in Wisconsin, and then the four of us proceeded to spend a week hiking, sight seeing, and generally being hangers-on at a wilderness medical conference in Big Sky, Montana with my sister-in-law and her husband, the coordinator of the conference. We returned to Minnesota on Sunday, July 31 to an empty refrigerator and bare cupboards, so we visited our local Jimmy John's, after which Kate ran off to buy some groceries for the upcoming week. While shopping, some cretins stole her wallet. Credit cards, cash, the wallet itself, and the love notes from the kids when they were little. Welcome home.

That day and the next we spent considerable time filing police reports, calling credit card companies, and generally fuming at the bad luck that put Kate in the wrong place at the wrong time for the criminal to spot her purse in the grocery cart. Blast.

While out with #1 son doing some shopping at Costco the next day (August 1st), Kate sent me a text. "Are you busy on September 12?" she asked. I wracked my brain (I was used to that by now): Was it an anniversary? We did start dating in September, after all. No, that was the 15th. Hmm. What was she asking me? Then it dawned on me: That was the first day of the A-100 Orientation class! I had left my email account open, and she saw the offer show up in my inbox! Suffice it to say, the people shopping and working at Costco must have thought #1 son and I were totally bananas as we basically danced our way through the aisles high-fiving each other over and over.

It's been a whirlwind month since that fateful day in early August (and a rather crazy summer overall), with lots of emails and reams of forms, and lots of clothes shopping and other preparations. And now the time is nearly here, with my departure from Minnesota only days away. We struggled emotionally moving #1 son into his college dorm for his freshman year a few days ago, and #1 daughter is about the start her senior year of high school without me around to nag her about homework, college applications and preparing for the ACT. Other than a fabulous going-away party held here at Xylon Road, there has been little time for frivolity since notification of the offer. That includes the Twins, whose games I normally track in the daily paper and watch on TV four or five times a week (when I'm not at the ball park). But not to worry: by the time of my return from Latvia the Twins had gone back to their early season mediocrity, and in the end, I only made it to two or three games all season. My last tickets are for September 28th - the last game of this dismal season - but when I check my schedule for fall, I see that I'm a bit busy that day.

Anyone want to buy two tickets to the Twins game September 28th?

June 1989

As many have recognized, 1989 was a monumental year across the globe, not least of which was due to the marriage of two young recent (and I mean recent) college grads. That, however, has nothing to do with this post.


In June of 1989 - 22 years ago this week - the Chinese government took violent military action against a massive, unarmed, largely peaceful group of young people (many of whom were not much older than I was at the time). They had been gathering in Tiananmen Square since April, and after months of requesting talks and demanding reforms from the Chinese government, their movement was squashed by tanks and armored personnel carriers.

In their memory, I offer this:


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tankman/view/?autoplay

Jeff Widener (C) 1989 http://www.jeffwidener.com/h/

On the Anniversary of Tbilisi, 1989

Tbilisi commemorates April 9 tragedy [ 09 Apr 2011 17:53 ]

Tbilisi. Nizami Mammadzdeh – APA. Today, Georgia commemorates the anniversary of the tragedy took place on April 9, 1989. According to APA Georgian bureau, local citizens assembled outside the parliament and commemorated victims of the tragedy. Chairman of Georgia’s Parliament David Bakradze also attended the action.

Today, an assembly was held in Azerbaijanis’ Cultural Centre by the participation of youths, intellectuals and public representatives. Chairman of Centre Fazil Hasanov spoke about his memories on accidents occurred 22 years ago.

Member of the Georgian and European History Teachers Association Nargiz Nabiyeva noted that the fates of South Caucasus’ countries were alike: “The testament of Peter I are being fulfilled in this region, especially in Georgia and Azerbaijan. 9 April and 20 January accidents prove it”.

Former Soviet Army cracked down on peaceful demonstration in Tbilisi on April 9, 1989. The soldiers used unknown gas against the demonstrators, which killed 21 peaceful civilians.

# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #

As a young college student, I was in the midst of a two-week trip to the USSR in the spring of 1989, only months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The main photo on this page is of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, and was taken on this short tour of this massive nation.

As it happened, I was in Tbilisi only days before the Red Army decided it was important to flex it's massive military muscle - again - by crushing largely peaceful, unarmed civilians, both figuratively and literally. I was only in Georgia a short time (three or four days), but the people were extraordinarily gracious and welcoming. Our small group shared meals and libations with many people who set a table fit for a king, not simple American college kids.

One particularly effusive gentleman was very excited to meet real, live Americans, and couldn't wait to show off the photo of Ronald Reagan he kept in his wallet. Yes, in his wallet. Next to the photos of his own children. Did I mention it was a photo of Ronald Reagan? I couldn't have been more surprised if he had a photo of Robin Yount (shortstop & outfielder for the Milwaukee Brewers) tucked away in there.

As the 25 of us were leaving Tbilisi in our bright orange Intourist bus for the train station heading off to Sochi in southern Russia (home of the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympics), we happened upon a rather large gathering of people marching down the middle of the street on which we were traveling. Not knowing exactly what was going on, and as the bus slowed to a stop in the middle of the street, our professor inquired with the driver about this unusual sight. He had no idea (so he said), and the next thing we knew our bus had been swallowed by the crowd.

Here is a short series of photos I took of the people as they proceeded down the street towards us:

Shortly after our bus came to a stop as the crowd approached.

We discovered as the crowd reached our bus that they were really protesters risking their lives by speaking out and by displaying a Georgian flag.

The crowd smiling and giving us the 'thumbs up' sign once they discovered we were Americans.

Within days of our departure, the Red Army marched into Tbilisi and shelled the city and its citizens, as the wire service noted above, killing 21 people. As then, I recall this anniversary with great sadness, and hope none of the wonderful people I met were victims.

THINK

This is a little bit of shameless self-promotion, but still it's pretty cool.

http://www.ibm.com/ibm100/us/en/

Web-nesday

Kinda checked out lately, but found this in an ancient email and thought, "Hey, today's Wednesday!"

Ah, the good ol' days...

Here you go:
http://www.usdebtclock.org/

Web-nesday Special

Found the following on a yellowing old paper in the files. Try making your non-English speaking friends read this aloud, and see how long they remain friends:

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy.
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh here my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script receipt, show, poem and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes and reviles;
Scholar, vicar and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet.
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven.
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed but allowed.
People, leopard, towed but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp and cork and work.

Pronunciation - think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough -
Though, through, plough, or dough,
Or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

Web-nesday

Here's an interesting map of the United States showing the "Geography of the Recession."

Find your county, then hit play and watch the fun!



Not sure how verifiable this actually is, but from the ten seconds of research I did on the Intertubes, it sure looks accurate.