Image by 401(k)2012, published under Creative Commons license.
UPDATED 3/18/2015 – Poor people belong in cities, not in suburbs, and definitely not in mine. Sleep in your car, on a sofa in your cousin’s house, under a bridge — anywhere but next door to me. These messages came across loud and clear in a spate of recent articles focused on housing for low-income people.
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Photo by Minnesota Historical Society, published under Creative Commons license
Time to stir up a batch of Irish soda bread and hunt up a green shirt for St. Patrick’s Day. You don’t need an Irish ancestor to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, which is lucky for the tens of thousands of Bavarians celebrating in Munich, the marchers in Long Beach, California’s Irish-for-a-day parade, and all the Minnesotans eager for any excuse to get out and celebrate after a long winter.
My Irish ancestors, like my other great-grandparents from Germany and Luxembourg, came to Minnesota without documents. Most Minnesotans have undocumented ancestors, descending from immigrants who came before quotas were set in 1921, and before immigrants needed documents. Continue reading
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Photo by Michael Coghlan, licensed under Creative Commons
An advance for voting rights for felons who have served their time and good news about the effectiveness of Minnesota drug courts were in the news recently. Continue reading
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Just about a week ago, the Department of Justice issued its scathing 102-page report detailing the racist and unconstitutional practices of Ferguson courts and cops. I read some of it at the gym, some on buses and trains, and finally finished it tonight. The report is as appalling as it is important, and it should be required reading and study in criminal justice classes, especially for future police officers. (Click on link at end of article for full report.) Continue reading
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Reverend Dr. Barbara Holmes, now president of United Theological Seminary in Minnesota
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends inexorably toward justice.” So preached Martin Luther King, Jr. and abolitionist Unitarian minister Theodore Parker before him. The Selma anniversary celebrations this weekend showed both the importance of activism in moving the arc over the past 50 years and of the urgency of continuing protest and pressure. Diane Nash’s protest was inspiring,President Obama’s speech was eloquent, and Rev. Barbara Holmes brought home her personal story and continuing witness. Continue reading
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When I was in my twenties, I hung out with a bad crowd — nuns, priests, social workers, probation officers, lots of left wing activists. Newly graduated from law school, I had a job and a two-bedroom apartment, which made me feel rich for the first time in my life, and also made me easy prey for the plea to become a foster parent. Continue reading
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Never mind the Minneapolis Miracle — St. Paul had it all this weekend, with grand openings for the Ordway’s new concert hall and the new Goodwill store on University Avenue. Admittedly, I visit Goodwill far more often than the Ordway, but I did get to the free open house on Sunday afternoon, and the new Ordway is just as impressive as the old. Of course, any place that has a gentleman in a top hat and caped coat opening the door for me is pretty darned impressive. Continue reading
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Photo by SEIU Local 925, published under Creative Commons license.
National Adjunct Walkout Day drew attention to the situation of the majority of U.S. college professors, two-thirds of whom work as adjuncts, at lower pay and mostly without benefits. The Washington Post reported that the day raised awareness, “more often by word of mouth than by people actually refusing to teach a class.”
Scroll down for reports from around the country, and further for links to information about adjunct faculty and organizing. Continue reading
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© Manuel Carmona – Fotolia.com
Adjunct teaching horror stories started circulating after the death of Margaret Mary Votjko in 2013. She died at age 83, alone, sick, penniless, almost homeless, after being let go from her 25-year job teaching French at Duquesne University. Daniel Kovalik’s moving column in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette explained that for years, “Margaret Mary worked on a contract basis from semester to semester, with no job security, no benefits and with a salary of between $3,000 and just over $3,500 per three-credit course.”
Wednesday, February 25 is National Adjunct Walkout Day, a day organized to draw attention to adjunct professors and to efforts to unionize and gain better wages and working conditions. Equity for adjuncts is an urgent issue, for faculty and students alike. Continue reading
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The Facebook post linked to charges of “deaths, sex abuse, and blunders in screening, training, and overseeing foster parents at the nation’s largest for-profit foster care company.” My first reaction was disbelief: a for-profit foster care company? I remember my own days as a foster parent of teenagers, and the financial and emotional challenges of caring for them. How could a company make money on foster care? And why would anyone think it’s a good idea to place kids with a company whose purpose is to make money from them? Continue reading
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Mary Turck