Resigning, and then running
From: Judy Martin, Annandale
I have been a longtime Minnesota Pioneer Park member, along with my husband, and elected board member since 2015. I’ve tried unsuccessfully to change bylaws and procedures of the board. I am resigning my board of director position due to the inability to resolve bylaw issues.
I love Pioneer Park. I’m the chairwoman for Halloween committee. I plan on running for president and or secretary on Sunday, Sept. 11, at the park’s annual meeting.
On about the problem, off on cause
From: Daniel P. Schultz, South Haven
I write in response David O’Fallon’s editorial in the August 17 edition of the Advocate ("We Need to Treat Humans Like Humans.") Mr. O’Fallon is the president of the Minnesota Humanities Center. He says that we’re more-and-more connected technologically, yet increasingly isolated, deprived of the beauty of the humanities, and polarized as human beings. He describes our hunger for others to be deeply present to us, and for us to be present to them.
In our cold, unreceptive culture, this profound thirst for real presence and holy beauty is growing. But we can’t nurture others enough if we haven’t been adequately nurtured. Even people who need help most, and ask for it, may be left alone or pushed away. Personally, I think that half of people in the West are now unaffirmed (inadequately nurtured). O’Fallon says we need courage to reverse this trend. But how can we find it when we all have strong tendencies toward the things that get in the way: cowardice, stupidity, greed, pride and immorality?
O’Fallon seems certain that our certainty is what causes division. I think it’s sin, spiritual blindness, and pride. Our divisions and unhappiness have increased – and the humanities (the arts and architecture) have declined – as devotion to Christ and Mary have waned. Being in the dark doesn’t make one more respectful of others. Religious insight is light. I can see that I deserve hell, and that Jesus has saved me through the tenderness of Mary. This certainty makes me think better of others.
Mr. O’Fallon describes the danger of "staying within a tight group of people who only agree with one another." I agree that it’s good to emphasize what we all share in common as human beings. But modern America is too divided – not very authentically diverse. Many of us are easily offended or hurt, especially by political or religious discussions. So understandably, we talk mostly about weather and sports or other trivia.) We can’t even agree on what constitutes gender, or even humanity itself, despite basic biology and genetic science.
So we all need a special circle of people whom we can trust with our inner selves, and with whom we share similar insights into reality. It’s not a judgment on those outside our bubble, or who aren’t healthy for us. Though we’re all within one another spiritually, we can’t be friends with everyone until we reach Heaven. Even among people with similar beliefs, true friendship seems to rare in our individualistic culture, especially among men, and also between the sexes.
The author sees that we’re increasingly at odds with each other. It’s a raw and infected wound; and art for art’s sake, or better secular education or programs, will not heal it. But we can heal through the perfect nurturing of the mother of God. She loves each one of us, individually, far more than all mothers, put together, have ever loved their children. She’s our only hope of finding the supernatural unity and beauty of our savior. Calling on her name, there’s nothing to fear, and nothing is hopeless.
Thursday, Sept. 8 (Mary’s Birth), Monday, Sept. 12 (Mary’s Name), and Thursday, Sept. 15 (Mary’s Sorrows) are all celebrations the mother of Christ, of us, and of the creative arts. These are opportunities for calling out to her for affirmation, in order to know the creator’s presence within every human.