Gaza: It's Hard To Be Indifferent

King of the beasts in Florence, 2023

I had a traumatic experience when I was eight or ten years old. I was walking out near the woods behind Stafford Elementary School when a scene captured my attention in the bramble at the edge of the woods. Three teens were assaulting a fourth. I'd heard screams and out of curiosity altered my course to get a closer look at what was going on. 

At that time we always differentiated between "the big kids" (teenagers) and "us". The guy lying on his back made eye contact with me and began calling out for help. I was between 50 and 100 feet away, trying to process what I was seeing. The youth on the ground had evidently been stripped because his underwear, pants and shirt had been throw up into the branches of the tree above him. Of the three teens who were standing, two were holding the fourth down, and the leader of the pack appeared to be whipping the captive one on the groin area with a fistful of branches. This last one turned and made eye contact with me, making a direct threat if I said anything.

Over the course of a lifetime I have met several people who witnessed violence and did nothing other than regret later that they either didn't intervene or didn't say anything. It's a hard experience to process. 

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The above story came to mind when I think about what is happening in Gaza. Can we really watch this horror and say nothing, do nothing? 

Here is an excerpt from Chris Hedges' substack that was published yesterday: 

Gaza is a wasteland of 50 million tons of rubble and debris. Rats and dogs scavenge amid the ruins and fetid pools of raw sewage. The putrid stench and contamination of decaying corpses rises from beneath the mountains of shattered concrete. There is no clean water. Little food. A severe shortage of medical services and hardly any habitable shelters. Palestinians risk death from unexploded ordnance, left behind after over 15 months of air strikes, artillery barrages, missile strikes and blasts from tank shells, and a variety of toxic substances, including pools of raw sewage and asbestos. 

Hepatitis A, caused by drinking contaminated water, is rampanr as are respiratory ailments, scabies, malnutrition, starvation and the widespread nausea and vomiting caused by eating rancid food. The vulnerable, including infants and the elderly, along with the sick, face a death sentence. Some 1.9 million people have been displaced, amounting to 90 percent of the population. They live in makeshift tents, encamped amid slabs of concrete or the open air. Many have been forced to move over a dozen times. Nine in 10 homes have been destroyed or damaged.   

I find the devastation in Gaza is heartbreaking. Yet, here in the U.S., life goes on, tra-la-la. From the beginning it seems there was nothing any ordinary citizen could do to persuade our government leaders to stop sending bombs.

Apartment blocks where families lived, schools, hospitals, universities and even places of worship have been obliterated. This destruction extends to cemeteries, local shops, and offices, leaving the community without vital structures that support daily life. 

One article I read mentioned the economic toll on Gaza. I couldn't imagine any kind of organized economy in the midst of this rubble. According to Hedges, unemployment is nearing 80% with the gross domestic product plummeting by nearly 85%. Here is an October 2024 report from the International Labor Organization that puts this in perspective.

Then there's the ban on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. Israel has cut off a critical lifeline. This agency, which predicted that clearing the rubble will take 15 years, had been one of the few sources of basic humanitarian supplies, food, and services for the people of Gaza. 

Again, what disturbs many of us is this feeling of helplessness about it all. 

As for the future, what next? It's not going to be a cakewalk. 

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Source and stimulus: The Chris Hedges Report

Superman in the Bones: A Tale of Trauma, Crisis, Resolution and Meaning

College is a period of life in which a vast horizon of experience is set before us to explore. From philosophy, psychology, history and the arts to mathematics, physics and cosmology, we're given the opportunity to discover new ways of thinking, new experiences and new paths to explore. In literature, I discovered Herman Hesse and Kurt Vonnegut. In theater I discovered Ionesco's Rhinoceros and a relatively unknown play called Superman in the Bones. The latter especially made an impression on me.

The upheavals in philosophy during the twentieth century produced unanticipated disruptions that influenced all the disciplines. Superman in the Bones is an evocative response to this, exploring resilience, grief, and the lasting impact of historical trauma on individuals and communities. 

For decades I searched for the play so I could read it and understand its impact on me personally. Today, upon finding a summary of the play and its themes, I recognized why it made such an impression on me. The arc of Superman in the Bones follows a journey of reckoning with grief, trauma, and resilience. For me that trauma was the death of a very close friend.

What follows is pulled from a summary of the play and its themes.

The play opens with a vivid sense of history's weight on the characters—personal, familial, or communal. The metaphor of "Superman in the bones" is introduced, symbolizing hidden strength within fragility. An inciting event—a death, discovery, or confrontation—shakes the status quo, compelling the characters to face their pain and search for meaning. 

Through memories, dialogues, or symbolic scenes, the play explores the characters’ inner worlds. The weight of the past impacts the characters' relationships, creating tension between isolation and the need for connection. The characters begin to grapple with the idea of resilience, questioning societal expectations of heroism and whether they can live up to these ideals.

The turning point is a moment of crisis which forces the characters to confront their deepest fears, vulnerabilities, or unresolved losses. The crisis results in an emotional catharsis in which the characters either break under the weight of their grief or begin to transform it. (Is this what Adam Driver is experiencing midway through Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis?)

In the aftermath, the characters begin to integrate their grief and trauma into their lives, finding a sense of balance. The strength implied by the "Superman in the bones" metaphor begins to manifest—not as invulnerability but as a nuanced, hard-won form of resilience.

The play concludes with a sense of hope, not in forgetting the past but in learning to live with its legacy. The story closes with a moment that affirms connection, hope, or the enduring spirit of humanity despite the weight of tragedy. Essentially it is a story about moving from despair to a hard-earned sense of meaning.

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A Visit with Sue Dugan Moline, Author of The Lake Turned Upside Down

Because I was born in Cleveland and raised in New Jersey I'm routinely asked how I ended up in Minnesota. Answer: In 1976 I came to attend a Missionary Training Center in Bloomington called Bethany Fellowship. 

Sometime early in my freshman year I heard reference to a traumatic event that occurred several years earlier, a massive F4 tornado which took 15 lives, many of them part of the Bethany community.

When I learned about it, it surprised me at how little information there was. No one talked about it and most people are too polite to pry. We only knew it was something that happened and a lot of people were killed.

Somewhere along the way I learned a few bits and pieces. The story of how Pastor Brokke failed to make it to the cabin and his son lay on top of him became an almost legendary tale, as well as the manner in which the cabin was lifted from its foundation and thrown directly into the lake. The images were vivid and painful, but always in absence of context.

This year I finally had all my questions answered and my narrative corrected. The details had been compiled in a book by someone who was there, Sue Dugan Moline. For some reason I'd thought that the entire Bethany staff had gone to a lake up near Brainerd, like a summer retreat, and this deadly tornado struck. As it turns out, the outing involved only three Bethany families. (And the lake where they had gone was in Outing, MN, the center of the state and not the Northwest.

When I first learned of Sue Dugan Moline's book, I very much wanted to read it. Perhaps in part because I personally knew some of the survivors who experienced it. Though Sue's father was a popular teacher at the school, teaching classes on Homiletics and the Book of Acts, I can't recall him ever making a single reference to it. And although this event was long ago and far away, the book made it feel like yesterday. 

 

EN: The Lake Turned Upside Down is an incredible story of the fifth deadliest tornado in Minnesota history. How many people from Bethany or Bethany related people were there at Roosevelt Lake that day?

Sue Dugan Moline

SDM: 28 people total were at the four Bethany cabins that week. At the time of the tornado there were 22 people on the property. Six had left shortly before the tornado. The 28 were either living at Bethany or were relatives of Bethany staff who had reserved the cabins.  

 

EN: What was the occasion that brought these three families there that week?

SDM: The cabins were available for Bethany staff member vacations for up to two weeks each summer. The Harold Carlson family was in Cabin #1 with two sons (Darrel and Dale) and his in-laws, Rev. Arthur and Minnie Olson.

 

The Dugan family had cabins #2 and #3, one reserved by my parents Toby and Vonnie Dugan, and one reserved by my grandma Edith Dugan with her youngest children Diane and Terry. The Dugans also had brought a Bethany pop-up camper for extra sleeping space. The two-week vacation was a Dugan family reunion with our out-of-state uncles and aunts staying with us -- Ken and Barb Dugan and sons (Ron and Don) from Canoga Park, California, and Rev. Dick and Priscilla Dugan and 3 kids (Sheila, Shane & Sharon) from Huron, SD.  18 of the 28 were Dugans. 

 

The last cabin was reserved by Rev. Harold and Cathy Brokke and their two sons, Dan and Paul.  

 

EN: 15 people were killed in the superstorm. How many died from the Bethany group?

SDM: Seven of the deaths occurred on the Bethany property, 12 total were killed in the Outing F4 tornado. The other three deaths occurred in other tornadoes that same day (The Northwoods Tornado Outbreak, as it is called by the NWS).  

  

EN: What prompted you to write this book?

Divers were called in to search the lake for bodies.

SDM: Curiosity is what prompted me to start asking questions. I realized that I had a very limited memory of the event and always wondered what other survivors remembered. But I was a rather shy and self-conscious young person and did not find it easy to ask questions of other survivors. After both of my parents had died, I realized that if I didn't ask questions soon, there would be nobody left to ask or at least memories intact. At that point, five survivors had already died and Harold Carlson and Cathy Brokke were both in their 90s.  

 

Although I never intended to write a book, just the sheer volume of stories that I collected from survivors, first responders and people "up north" compelled me to document them.  I had become a "clearing house" of sorts for the August 6, 1969, tornado and people were very interested in the story. 

 

EN: What surprised you most when you began assembling all these stories?

Debris where one of the cabins had been.

SDM: I was surprised how willing everyone was to talk about their memories. I was also surprised by how interested the central Minnesota area was in the story and information I had collected. I think my story was covered by 7 different newspapers across northern Minnesota and many people responded to me with their individual memories via phone calls and emails.

 

EN: You shared that people chose not to talk about what happened that tragic day. How would have things been different had these stories been shared in the years that followed? I’m thinking of the 70s.

SDM: I have not thought about that. My book might have been longer, or perhaps I would not have written it. I do wish I could have interviewed my parents, my two uncles, and Pastor Brokke. The story would have been more complete. My uncle Dick Dugan did write an article or two after the event and the death of his daughter Sharon. And Dan Brokke wrote an article for a youth magazine. So they were comfortable sharing their stories. 

 

But 45 years later when I met with Bethany classmates for breakfast at Perkins (every 2-3 months), I asked them if they had ever heard the story and they had not. They knew a few details, but we did not talk about it as classmates. I think part of that era was politeness in not bringing up painful issues. In the long run, talking about it was very therapeutic and filled in so many details for our children and grandchildren. 

EN: There were four cabins that the families were staying at. When the tornado suddenly came, most of the people attempted to gather in the one cabin. Why that one? How many were in the cabin when it was lifted up and tossed into the lake? Where was everyone else?

SDM: Cabin #3 was at the bottom of a very, very steep hill. Both cabins #1 and #2 were at the top of the hill, high above the lake. People were taught to run to the lowest area in a storm or tornado. Because of that my Grandma Dugan and family from cabin #1 ran down the hill to our cabin because it was low-lying, right at lake level.  The Brokke's ran over from cabin #4 -- probably mostly to warn us that they had seen a tornado. Their cabin was furthest west and the tornado was coming from the west.  Two of them stayed in cabin #3 (Cathy & Paul), but Pastor Brokke and Dan stayed outside and hit the ground. 

 

EN: Was there any “safe place” there? We have over 10,000 lakes in Minnesota with cabins around them. Can something like this happen again and how can people prepare, to avoid a similar outcome?

SDM: There was no safe place on the property. Being thrown into the lake actually saved lives. If we had more notice, we probably would have headed up the hill to cabin #1, the older original cabin that did have a walkout basement facing west. We all would have died. That cabin was also completely destroyed and only 9 cement blocks remained intact in the walkout basement. Evy Carlson and her parents, Rev. Arthur and Minnie Olson, were violently killed. We don't know where they were when the tornado hit -- perhaps trying to get down to that walkout basement via an outside stairway, but they were all killed.  

 

Some people now will build "safe rooms" in their cabins where the high water table will not allow a basement. My daughter and son-in-law built a lake home in Crosslake and we have a "safe room" between the home and garage, totally encased in cement. As well, communication via cell phones allows people to follow the weather and radar. In 1969, there were no civil defense sirens in the town of Outing, Minnesota.

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