Vive La France

By John Freivalds

Published: TBD

Boy do we live in challenging times where our President trashes our closest allies forgetting that they help make America great. N’est-ce Pas? (or in the vernacular ain’t it so!)

It was beyond boorish for President Trump to tweet that if not for US intervention in WWII, the French today would be speaking German. Au contraire. If it were not for past actions of the French, Americans would be speaking English with a pronounced British accent, drinking warm beer, eating kidney pie and suffering through their rigid caste structure. For our history challenged President, the French have come to the aid of the US twice which saved the country from being just another British colony and allowing us to create our democracy. Porquoi?

Freivalds: Is the cabin getaway really worth it?

Published 10/29/2018

By John Freivalds-Coffee by the Lake

Lakeshore Weekly News-SW Minneapolis

There are many huge natural migrations on earth: Canada geese flying south, swallows of San Juan Capistrano heading off to Argentina from California and humpback whales leaving cold Alaskan waters to go off to the warm currents of Hawaii.

Meanwhile in Minnesota we have endless miles-long bumper-to-bumper migrations of Twin Cities residents heading to their cabins up north to “open” them in the spring and “close” them in the fall.

Minnesota Lakes and Rivers Advocates (MLRA) note that “seasonal property owners occupy/utilize their properties on average only 55 days a year.”

Not a Minnesota native, I have been struggling to find out what the attraction is. I have used friends’ cabins two hours away near Hinckley, Rice Lake and Amery, Wisconsin; three hours away in Hayward, Wisconsin; and five hours away in Ely. All are on lakes and all have neighbors right next door and the constant hum of personal watercraft and fat-tire pickup trucks with loud bumblebee mufflers all day long.

Peace and quiet? Do I need to mention the constant and enervating presence of millions of dive-bombing black flies and mosquitoes? And if you are not retired and cannot go up during a weekday, Interstate 35, Interstate 94 and U.S. Highway 169 are packed to the gills going north on Friday and the same going south on Sundays.

All the Zup’s markets in Ely, Babbitt, Aurora, Tower, Silver Bay and Cook are full of cabineers buying sausages surrounded by signs warning you not to put your trash in their dumpsters. And I pity the poor millennials who find that it’s hard to get Wi-Fi up north.

Immigrant bashing began with The Founding Fathers-- not just with Trump

US Postage Stamp from 1960

Published: 11/5/2018

By John Freivalds

Does anybody remember that 1960 was World Refugee Year? I do! I was selected by Secretary of State Christian Herter's bodyguard to represent European refugees at a ceremony at the US Post Office which issued a stamp honoring the year. Unlike the President Trump's constant announcements that an immigrant mob is descending upon America, the ceremony extolled the virtues of immigrants. Yep, I was one. A neighbor of ours in Washington, DC where I grew up was a bodyguard of the Secretary of State. He heard about the ceremony and told Herter I have just the guy, a Latvian, to represent Europe. Here's what the stamp's designer said: "The stamp features a family group facing down a long dark corridor towards a bright exit symbolizing escape from the darkness of want and oppression into the brightness of a new life." Yep, that was America then and it will reappear again.

Latvian, one of the three Baltic languages along with Estonian and Lithuanian, is now listed as a source language by over 100 firms. We’ve come a long way from my youth, when I considered Latvian a smugglers' language. We spoke it at home, but Latvian was a second language even in Latvia, having been suppressed by force-fed Russian. In fact, the Russians of my childhood referred to Latvian as sobacij yazik, or dog's language.

Freivalds: You'll need to know 'whereas-speak' at The Club

Published September 14^th, 2018

By John Freivalds

Lakeshore Weekly News- Savage, MN

Buy low, sell high. The best sale is a good purchase. High prices cure high prices; low prices cure low prices. If you watch the pennies, the dollars will take care of themselves.

Dem's da words of wisdom I learned from my super-wealthy boss at The Grain Exchange, where I worked when I came to Minneapolis many moons ago. The language I learned was short, sweet and precise. I even learned the sign language of trading grain on the floor of the exchange which was even more precise — you know all that hand waving with outstretched fingers and closed fists.