Tag Archives: Minneapolis

Flags, etc.

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Posted by on in collaborating, Historical, Inner Struggles, Personal goals, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

June 14, 2021- Today was Flag Day, an often overlooked commemoration of the adoption, on June 14, 1777, of the Stars and Stripes as our national pennant. The flag, to me, is something to be honoured and respected. I am proud to offer a salute, or to stand with my right hand over my heart, when it is presented at a public event. By extension, I will also stand in silent respect, if I am in another country, and ITS flag is similarly presented.

A candidate for local office has been showing a photograph that depicts his opponent waving a flag that is tattered, at a public event of a few years ago. If this is authentic, I object to that other candidate’s ignorance. If it is altered, the shame goes to the man who is showing it around. As for those who stomp on, burn or spit upon a national flag, this may be regarded by the judiciary as free speech, but it is no more worthy of respect than is a stream of profanity.

Flags may be symbols, yet symbolism has value. The most strenuous exercise, in the history of mankind, has produced a society which has slowly, often with excruciating pain, approached its stated ideals. Many of those ideals have yet to be fully realized, and there have been many times, which deserve to be acknowledged, studied and corrected, when the behaviour of the ruling class, and those underneath them, went counter to the stated guiding principles of our national experiment.

In my journey next month, Tulsa will be on the itinerary, on the way east, and Minneapolis will be on the route back west. My heart is heavy, yet hopeful, for this nation which will guide the world spiritually, in years to come, much as it has guided the world economically and politically, in times past.

The flag is a symbol-of the ideals towards which we work, perseveringly.

The Road to 65, Mile 243: Film Festival

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Posted by on in Social

June 29, 2015, Prescott-  Wednesdays are days for me to look back at the week to date, and recall what I have missed yacking about. The Prescott Film Festival took place for five days, last week.  Like other such gatherings, the PFF presents the works of budding cinematographers and veteran producers, alike.  Sometimes, there is a theme to a Festival.  This year, I noticed a fair number of entries dealing with social trauma, and positive ways to face the issue.

I attended Sunday afternoon’s presentation:  “The Starfish Throwers”.  It featured three very different souls, who dealt with the needs of the destitute, in their respective cities.  A young man in Madurai, India, despite resistance from his family, focused on feeding and grooming the residents of his city’s sidewalks and roadsides.  A retired teacher in Minneapolis, using some of his own resources, and donations from food banks, prepared several freezers full of sandwiches to give to that city’s homeless.  He spent his nights, year-round, checking on the men and women, and making sure they were in a shelter, on the worst of the winter nights.  A young girl, with her family’s steadfast help, grew vegetables and fruit, on some garden plots around Summerville, SC, and prepared the food to give to that area’s needy.

In each case, there were the naysayers, whose position was, essentially, “Hey, we’ve got ours.  Let the lazy ones work for theirs.”  In each case, the naysayers were roundly ignored.  In Madurai, a housing shelter, with skills training and modern hygienic facilities, was built by the young man’s foundation.  In Minneapolis, growing numbers of people, from residents of retirement homes to school children, became involved in the food preparation and distribution efforts.  When the retired teacher needed time off to take care of his health needs, the director of the YMCA stepped up and covered for him.  When the girl was confronted by a critic, she expanded her efforts to include feeding elderly cancer patients, who, in turn, gave her unequivocal support.

This film didn’t win the Festival’s “Best Picture” vote, but it reminded me, again, of the potpourri of ways we can help those less well-off than us.  Few of us have unlimited funds that we can just donate to whoever asks.  Each of us, though, can throw a starfish back in the sea, in our own way.