Norm's Work on the Birth Certificate Project

My dad retired a couple years ago and now keeps a busier schedule by volunteering as "the recess dude" at the church's school, driving the van for the Memorial Blood Center, guiding tours at the Mill City Museum, and entering birth and death information for the Minnesota Historical Society. For this last bit, he was asked to write a bit about his experience, which I thought interesting to share.

I enjoy working at the History Center on the birth certificate index project. I've always been pretty quick on the keyboard and this gives me a chance to keep my fingers in shape. The MNHS staff members are so very friendly and appreciative of the work done by volunteers that it is a pleasure to keep coming back.

I've been interested in names for a long time. My name, Teigen, is a fairly simple name but people frequently get the pronunciation of the first two vowels wrong. Pronouncing Teigen is the same as pronouncing Heidi. “ei” in northern Germanic languages like Norwegian and German is pronounced “ī”. “ie” in these languages is pronounced “ē.” An example is Tietjen in German.

I know from my own experience how important it is to me to get my name right. I want to get the names right for all of the people whose names come across my view. One's name is an important part of who one actually is.

I think that a name is an integral part of a person's identity. My maternal family name in Norway was Larson. When the family came to the States they found it very confusing to find so many Larsons. The name was changed to the little village where they came from, Tjernagel. Coming from that little village in Norway was so important to them that they wanted to perpetuate it in America. (I've wondered why it wasn't confusing in Norway to have all of these Larsons.)

I knew going into the project, that Minnesota was a land with diverse peoples. I didn't realize how diverse our state is until several weeks of work on the project had gone by. Lots of people from many different lands and cultures came to live here. Their names are found in the birth records. That is very interesting to me.

There isn't a lot of time to reflect on the names that are entered. It is a pretty fast-moving project. Child's last name, first and second names, mother's maiden name, date of birth, and whether public record or not, doesn't take much time. Once in a while a few things catch my eye. The twins Harold and Gerald, and, Ana and Johanna made me chuckle. So too did the parents who named their child Easter Lillie.

The "no public record" or illegitimate births, though rare, usually catch my attention. What stories might there be in the lives of these women? The mothers are young, most often in their teens. The fathers and their places of residence aren't usually listed. Married mothers are listed "Housewives." The unmarried mothers are frequently listed as "domestics" or even "servants." What sorrow for those young women who most usually were born in another country not so many years prior to the record date.

One such birth occurred when the father was in France with the Army. Did the couple ever get together as a family when the war was over? Did the father survive the war?

In one county, I don't remember which county it was, the frequent deaths of infants in the great influenza epidemic are listed. Such records were not required by law, but in this county someone listed them. I didn't do any counting as a I might have done if I were doing a research project, but it seems to me that there were very high rates of infant mortality in those awful years.

-Norman Teigen

9/11 Four Years Later

I just spent some time on the Promenade, spilled a toast, and thought about the anniversary. They put up lights on 9/11 every year now.

The Quakers had a special meeting, opening the house at 9 for a potentially 3-hour session for those interested. I sat for 2 hours, and two threads came up in testimony that I was particularly interested in.

The first thread had to do with humility. Mostly dealing with a humbling experience, a retreat from arrogance, and the feeling of smallness. Yet as the testimonies were laced in despair, I couldn't to help to think that if we aren't so powerful as we think, as we gain an appreciation for the powers of nature, or moments beyond our comprehension, there should also be a enhancement of beauty. Just as there is more powerful and ineffable forces in our lives, that which we take for granted ought to be more fragile, and thus more cherished and wondered at.

The second thread had to do with ghosts. My term, not others. But it ties in with the first thread insofar as, in the modern era there are more ghost like experience around us, and yet I tend to believe less in them. But besides feeling the presence of the dearly departed, we have artifacts, letters, pictures, movies, recordings and so on. The departed continue to haunt us, but we call it memorial, remembrance, reflection.

This morning for me, the ghost was the Times publishing this letter from Spalding Gray, whom I was deeply fascinated with prior to coming to New York, and deeply sad at his suicide.

They print:

Spalding Gray, the actor and monologuist, died in 2004. The following letter, which he wrote in the aftermath of 9/11, will appear in "Life Interrupted," a published version of the monologue he was working on at the time of his death.

For 34 years I lived with you and came to love you. I came to you because I loved theater and found theater everywhere I looked. I fled New England and came to Manhattan, that island off the coast of America, where human nature was king and everyone exuded character and had big attitude. You gave me a sense of humor because you are so absurd.

When we were kids, my mom hung a poster over our bed. It had a picture of a bumblebee, and under the picture the caption read:

"According to all aerodynamic laws, the bumblebee cannot fly because its body weight is not in the right proportion to its wingspan. But ignoring these laws, the bee flies anyway."

That is still New York City for me.

There are points I could preach on from today, but I'll pass. It is enough to feel heaviness and regret to know that we didn't respond correctly as a country, and it took a far greater catastrophe to put this into perspective.

Judicial photo ops are still phoney

Who didn't wake up Sunday and think "you've got to be sh*tting me!"? I had resigned myself to accepting that John Roberts would ace his confirmation hearing. He's got real credentials, but no really offensive, Borkian track record. Let's face it, more conservative than Sandra Day O'Conner, he's no Scalia.

But Chief Justice? No, I'm sorry, Bush does not have the political capital to push that one through. The answer that he does not have much of a federal track record is fine for confirmation, but you better be damned if you think that's good for the highest judicial position in the country. And keep in mind that he could hold that position for 40-some years.

It is imperative that Bush's stamp on the Chief Justice is only 5-10 years of a John Paul Stevens service... since Scalia and Thomas won't make it through... or better not.

So what could dampen my opposition the most? Well how about seeing John Robert mourn Rehnquist's death by serving as a pall bearer. Nothing says you're qualified to replace them, than to bury them. No...stop... you're really pulling at my heartstrings....clearly Roberts is the heir...he must be so devestated... in fact, he is doing us a favor... puh-leaze.

Amazing how the Spin Machine can whip this one up in a few hours.... if only they could devote some of that energy towards something useful, like FEMA, or alternative energy. What other parlor tricks does the lap dog do?

A Final Word on Schiavo

The news is full of the Schiavo autopsy, and how her brain had atrophied to half its normal size, that she was blind, and that should could not swallow on it is own. Democrats feel like it's vindication, and Frist makes no apologies, though unconvincingly denies he made diagnosis from a video tape.

My friend Sully asks the good question "Why is this front page news?" Besides it being as much of a bookend as possible to a circus story, he has a very good point for two reasons I can think of.

First off, that this became a national issue, and thus news, in the first case is rediculous, and I imagine only served to make advocates for intervention all the more bold. Secondly, no autopsy result changes how inappropriate federal intervention was.

But few republicans are going to talk those points up. Tom Delay warned that these judges will pay and now has little to say. There Bush's hypocritical line about choosing life... with blissful disregard to the lives he ended as Texas governor.

But one GOP politician has thought about this more: Mel Martinez, a major advocate for intervention is quoted "I really probably come to the view this has to be more resolved at the state level, seems like the kind of issue the state courts deal with." Indeed, I thought that was the usual GOP take all along.

But I don't see this changing anything. We have had an adminstation and congress that insists that lies are true dispite overwhelming evidence time and time again, the economy, weapons of mass destruction, the environment, campaign finance, judicial nominees. What opposition is there? Well, Democrats don't take it to the brink, they don't push back hard enough, lose elections, and compromise on extreme judges.

I guess this is news since it's another bit of crow to serve, too bad there's so much other folly to feed their egos that they'll hardly blink at this.

A Papal Epiphany

I know today has been busy... but one last thought:

I've been thinking about all the interest in Pope speculation, especially among non practioners and unbelievers, and why it may be important for non-catholics to care about who the new Pope may be. With today's naming of Pope Benedict XVI, that importance came in sharp relief.

Besides International NGO's, Corporations, and elected officials in their native lands, Catholics in South America, Africa and Asia are also deeply impacted by the Pope, as that's where the church is growing. So if we're concerned about AIDs in Africa, we should be concerned about Pontiffs that refuse to encourage contraception, even as their new found congregations are dying of it....By "it" I mean AIDs, though the church isn't discouraging the myth that people are dying of contraception



PS. On a happier note we are totally digging Andrew Bird's "The Mysterious Production of Eggs" something we have recent experience pondering.

An incapacitated pope versus a dead pope

Italy is revisiting the attempted murder of the Pope in 1981. While other news sources indicate that Pope is now being fed by a nasal tube. Given the Vatican's stance on the Schiavo ordeal, we can safely bet that the pope will not be issuing a DNR order.

Which begs the question? Which is best for the Catholic church? A dead Pope is replaced, but an indefinately incapacited pope lingers, and does nothing to respond to worldwide abuse by clergy or the popularity of the Da Vinci Code.

The New York Post calls for .... restraint?

I couldn't believe it when I spotted it this morning on the train... "Enough" The New York Post's editorial took the front page today. Notably:

Congress, to its discredit, added endgame drama to the debate. So did President Bush; it was not his finest hour.

It was always the courts — state and federal — that should have had the final word in this dramatic tragedy.

How ironic that the people fighting on the extremes of both sides brought about a consensus in the middle.

The macabre circus that has put Pinellas County, Fla., on the global map is no longer about Terry Schiavo. It is about a revolution in the medical arts that has eroded all the old certainties about life, and about death.

Tomorrow Fox News will lead the way towards real news, and real reporting...

Connecting Dots

Thank goodness for folks who put together dots. That is often known as drawing lines, which can help us determine the hypocrites among us. From torture to the right to live, the name Bill Tierney wouldn't have stuck out in my mind otherwise. Thank you Whiskey Bar.

Jihad in Florida

Among the sordid elements of covering the protests at Woodside Hospice House, are the signs that many of the protesters brandish. Some of the glumier protestors seem to curse this callous goverment of godless people, and threaten that God may show His fury at said country. It's as if our country wasn't already attacked by people who thought ours is a callous government of godless people. Please don't encourage any more attacks.