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.
January 22, 2015 · 9:00 am
What lessons does Dr. King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail have for the city attorney in Bloomington? Take a look at my recent article in Al Jazeera:
Today’s civil disobedience continues MLK’s legacy
When protest targets injustice, public officials, police and prosecutors make choices about where they stand. Prosecutors can exercise their discretion to charge or not to charge, to seek a token sentence of community service or to try to hammer protesters with the full weight of available penalties.
January 19, 2015 · 7:00 am
© alexskopje – Fotolia.com
If the first casualty of war is truth, the second is freedom to speak. Since the massacre at Charlie Hebdo, government repression of political speech has accelerated, and so have attacks on Muslims.
France arrested at least 54 people for “glorifying” or “defending” terrorism in the week after Charlie Hebdo — none of whom were even alleged to be connected to the attacks. Continue reading →
January 17, 2015 · 9:33 pm
Selma, the movie, makes a powerful and inspiring call to action. Without glossing over divisions in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, Selma focuses on courage and commitment, and connects the movement then to the movement now. Continue reading →
January 13, 2015 · 9:49 pm
During the first week of January, two more ships were abandoned by their crews, leaving hundreds of migrants stranded at sea, reports NPR. The ships carry anywhere from 400 to 800 people. Continue reading →
January 13, 2015 · 5:01 pm
Minnesota’s One State, One License coalition got an early start, rallying at the legislature on the session’s opening day. The coalition wants all Minnesota residents, regardless of immigration status, to be able to take the driver’s license test and qualify for a license. They also want all licenses to look the same, without special marking for immigrants’ licenses. Continue reading →
January 12, 2015 · 5:00 pm
UAW mural at Ford Plant by Jonathan Haynes, used under Creative Commons license
The Ford plant’s departure leaves St. Paul with 125 acres of prime land on the Mississippi River. That’s an opportunity to build what St. Paul is calling a 21st Century Community, a “livable, mixed use neighborhood that looks to the future with clean technologies and high quality design for energy, buildings and infrastructure.” In an online forum, the city is asking for feedback as planning proceeds. The questions posed: Continue reading →
January 11, 2015 · 10:55 am
Photo by by Joroen Bosman, published under Creative Commons license
“But should they really publish such things?”
I want to say that’s the wrong question, but it’s not. I want to say that the question about Charlie Hebdo today is not whether they should publish such things, but whether they should be killed for publishing such things, or any things. The answer to the latter question, of course, is easy and clear.
My mother’s question, however is a different question, and the answer to her question is more complicated, bogged down in the distinctions between freedom and propriety and morality and legality, confused also by understanding what “things” Charlie Hebdo or any satirical publication has targets and why, past, present and future. Her question is worth serious consideration, especially by those of us who write, who publish, and who advocate for our political beliefs. Continue reading →
January 6, 2015 · 9:28 pm
During the coldest week of the year, I’m looking at luscious red tomatoes on the cover of a recently-arrived 2015 seed catalog. Ever since I was a kid, seed catalogs have arrived in the depth of winter, filled with hope, promising that vegetables and fruit and flowers will roll around again. In deepest winter, a farmer’s fancy turns to spring. Continue reading →
January 5, 2015 · 12:54 pm
I’m writing this post at Kopplin’s Coffee, a local (St. Paul), family-owned business where the new year brought good news for workers:
“As of January 1, 2015, we will begin paying our employees not just a living but a livable wage. … As the owners, we are an integral part of Kopplin’s, but so too are our talented employees. … As we seek to create this alternative to standard ‘service industry’ chains, we choose to provide fair compensation (exceeding the “living wage” of $9.69 in Ramsey County). This validates the good work of our employees and creates a more stable and equitable pay environment for these people who bring beauty into our lives with the creation of their hands.”
Apart from Kopplin’s, where the coffee and the company are always good, here’s a round-up of the good, the bad and the ugly in labor-related news as 2015 begins. Continue reading →
January 4, 2015 · 4:53 pm
Racism pervades all of American society, not just police interactions with people on the street. Even when people are not consciously racist, their actions show bias and that bias affects Black Americans every single day. Yet many, maybe most, white Americans do not see or understand or believe in the constant and corrosive effects of racism. The January 4 New York Times Upshot section listed some of the many studies showing bias in action in employment, apartment rentals, cardiac care, graduate education, used car sales, jury verdicts and even eBay auctions. Nothing new there — but a powerful reminder of the need to keep on talking, writing and educating people. Continue reading →
Mary Turck