About Mary Turck
News Day, written by Mary Turck, analyzes, summarizes, links to, and comments on reports from news media around the world, with particular attention to immigration, education, and journalism. Fragments, also written by Mary Turck, has fiction, poetry and some creative non-fiction.
Mary Turck edited TC Daily Planet, www.tcdailyplanet.net, from 2007-2014, and edited the award-winning Connection to the Americas and AMERICAS.ORG, in its pre-2008 version. She is also a recovering attorney and the author of many books for young people (and a few for adults), mostly focusing on historical and social issues.
December 11, 2016 · 12:23 pm
Minnesotans demonstrate in support of refugees – 2015 (Photo by Mary Turck)
UPDATED 1/25/2017 When Donald Trump targeted “sanctuary cities,” threatening to cut off all federal funding, what was he talking about? Turns out – as usual – that the answer is more complex than the sound bite. Here’s a quick primer on sanctuary, both in misnamed “sanctuary cities” and in the real and resurgent sanctuary church movement – and a note on what Trump’s January 25 Executive Order fails to do. Continue reading →
December 5, 2016 · 9:31 pm
Today, tomorrow, this week, this month is a time to celebrate a remarkable victory for Standing Rock. Continue reading →
December 3, 2016 · 9:52 pm
Graphic by Rini Templeton
The Dark Rigidity of Fundamentalist Rural America: A View from the Inside, with its repeated and eloquent denunciations of “rural, Christian, white America” has gone viral in the past week. When I read it, I got angry. Demonization of “rural, Christian, white America” seems just as bigoted as denouncing Muslims as fanatical jihadists or Jews as world-controlling conspirators. Continue reading →
November 29, 2016 · 8:36 pm
Lots of news from the water protectors at Standing Rock, so here’s a quick update on:
- police repression
- continuing encampment
- Army Corps of Engineers actions (okay, this is more of an educated guess – I doubt that the Corps itself knows what it’s doing)
- three calls you can make
Continue reading →
Filed under environment, human rights, police and crime, race
Tagged as #NoDAPL, Army Corps of Engineers, civil rights, Dakota Access Pipeline, human rights, police brutality, police violence, Standing Rock, treaty rights, water
November 25, 2016 · 3:56 pm
Photo courtesy of MN State Judicial Branch “Find a mentor – find someone you like and ask them to be your mentor.” – Anne McKeig
Growing up in Federal Dam, population 108, Anne McKeig never met a lawyer. She and her brothers spent most of their time outdoors: roaming the family’s 40 acres, building forts, tending three big gardens, hunting and fishing. At age 13, she started working, first washing dishes in a supper club and later waitressing. Continue reading →
November 25, 2016 · 3:51 pm
L-R: Bo Thao-Urabe and Kaoly Ilean Her Photo by Mary Turck “We are the experts on our lives and on our needs. Women have to speak up. Women have to organize if we want to elect someone who will care about us.” – Kaoly Ilean Her
The first Hmong candidates to win elected office were Minnesota women: Choua Lee on the St. Paul school board in 1991 and Mee Moua in the Minnesota Senate in 2002. Now, in 2016, Minnesota has the first Hmong women’s political action committee: Maiv PAC. (“Maiv” is pronounced “my,” which is a term of endearment.)
Continue reading →
November 23, 2016 · 9:24 pm
Communications prof Melissa Zindars posted an exposé of fake news, complete with a list of “False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and Satirical ‘News’ Sources.” Then, reports the Los Angeles Times, she took down the list, as “a safety measure in response to threats and harassment she and her students and colleagues had received.” That’s the power, and the peril, of good reporting in a time when fake news wins elections and earns big bucks. Continue reading →
November 21, 2016 · 12:02 pm
A series of charts published by Vox compares prices for 11 different medications and medical procedures.
Example: “Humira, a medication for multiple forms of arthritis, skin conditions, and inflammatory bowel diseases, costs three times as much in the United States as in Switzerland.”
Continue reading →
November 14, 2016 · 2:37 pm
Four thousand people gathered in Minneapolis on November 9 to protest against Trump’s election. Photo by Fibonacci Blue, used under Creative Commons license.
Yeah, I get it. Wearing a safety pin is a quick-and-easy way to show that you support all the people getting slammed by the rising tide of racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. When I grew up, safety pins were a very temporary and unsatisfactory fix when something badly needed mending. Right now, the whole fabric of our community and nation badly needs repair. So here are some things you can do, right now this week in Minnesota, that go beyond the safety pin: Continue reading →
November 9, 2016 · 7:58 am
(courtesy of Rini Templeton)
Trump’s win – and the magnitude of the Trump vote across the country and in Minnesota – is a triumph for ignorance. And hate. And fear.
But — we go on. So what next? Continue reading →
Mary Turck