First, the city council refused to allow public testimony about the police shooting of Jamar Clark. Then, without notice to protesters and their supporters, a council committee voted to open its meeting to immediate public testimony about the Fourth Precinct protests. The people present and ready to testify? Opponents of the protest, of course, including Police Federation head Bob Kroll. This is not what democracy looks like. Continue reading
Filed under human rights, race, Uncategorized
It’s coming. Paul Huttner says so.
“It’s way too early to pinpoint specific storm tracks and inches, but it’s worth saying there is the potential for several inches of snow somewhere across southern and central Minnesota by Monday night. … what could be a significant slop storm with heavy wet snowfall accumulations from late Monday afternoon into Tuesday morning.”
That means sidewalk shoveling and snow emergencies, and that most intractable of St. Paul snow problems: unplowed alleys clogging with snow or turning to icy, impassable ruts.
Filed under St. Paul Notes, Uncategorized
Father Hennepin at the Falls of St. Anthony – described by Scott Russell in The Circle: “The painting shows Father Hennepin at the falls, renaming it after his patron saint. The term “discovers” is wrong. Hennepin stands in a position of authority, towering over the people sitting below him, when in fact he was a Dakota prisoner at the time. At right, the painting shows a half-naked Dakota woman carrying a heavy pack. Her lack of covering is historically inaccurate and offensive, an apparent effort to show her as uncivilized.”
Last week’s blog post on offensive, racist, and historically inaccurate art in the Minnesota Capitol sparked an intense and informative discussion between Joline Gitis, who advocated keeping the art in place in order to “provide important opportunities to discuss painful chapters in Minnesota’s history–chapters that might otherwise be glossed over or ignored” and Scott Russell, who argues that the Capitol is a place where “art should inspire people, not make some feel excluded.” Both offered thoughtful, respectful arguments, in a dialogue that played out on Facebook. I found their dialogue thought-provoking and received their permission to share it here. Continue reading
Filed under race, Uncategorized
Photo by L.C. Notaasen, published under Creative Commons license
We need stories of hope, as we remember not only Paris but also Beirut and Garissa University in Kenya and Baghdad and Syria. Karuna Ezara Parikh wrote a poem reminding us that Paris is part of a whole suffering world. In the Facebook post of the poem, Parikh writes that “… the words #SyrianRefugeeCrisis are just as devastating as #PrayForParis. It’s time to pray for humanity. It is time to make all places beloved. It’s time to pray for the world.”
Filed under Uncategorized
St. Paul turkey on St. Anthony Avenue
This week’s news is going to the dogs — and the turkeys, turtles, camels, reindeer, donkeys and sheep. Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Photo by Clyde Robinson, published under Creative Commons license.
[UPDATED 10/6] I saw the flag flying at half-staff today, and wondered — could it be because of the 19 22 medical personnel and patients killed by a U.S. bombing raid that repeatedly hit a hospital in Afghanistan on Saturday? No, of course not. The United States would never fly a flag at half staff for a mistake made by our own military, no matter how many doctors and nurses and children were killed. The flag is flying at half-staff because of another tragedy, the shootings that killed nine people at Umpqua Community College in Oregon. Two tragedies, one perpetrated by an individual acting against all laws and morality and the other, an official act done by our government in our name.
Filed under Uncategorized
Photo by Jay Phagan, used under Creative Commons license.
I grew up on a farm, with rifles and shotguns leaning on the back wall of our home’s entryway, boxes of shells on the windowsill. My grandpa, dad, uncles and brothers all hunted. Many of my relatives still hunt, but guns no longer sit casually, unlocked and unguarded. Just as hunters in our family have changed the way their guns are stored, so the country needs to change our gun laws. In order to do so, every responsible gun owner needs to withdraw their support from the NRA, which has repeatedly obstructed all efforts to regulate or even to study regulation of guns in this country.
Filed under Uncategorized
Photo of forensics lab by Tym, published under Creative Commons license.
The Star Tribune reported last week that more than 3400 Minnesota rape kits have never been processed, characterizing the number as “part of a continuing national scandal.” Nationwide, the number of unprocessed rape kits may reach the hundreds of thousands.
A similar Cleveland Plain Dealer investigation, ongoing for the past five years, revealed serial rapists who were never prosecuted because rape kits were never processed. That, says Columbia Journalism Review, “means that every unsolved case is even more likely to be another rape waiting to happen, and that removing even a single rapist from the street eliminates an ongoing threat.” Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
My father, Howard Turck, died on July 30, after a long and gallant struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was a blessing to his family and his community, and we mourn his passing from us. With other family members, I spent much time with him in his final weeks, and we said goodbye to him today. I have posted the eulogy I gave at his funeral on my Fragments blog.
I’ll return to News Day tomorrow.
Filed under Uncategorized
Screen shot from YouTube video of President Obama’s eulogy for Reverend Clementa Pinckney
I love playing with words in puns or poetry, and working with words to build accurate descriptions and stories of the world, to sketch out parameters of relationships and agreements, to define rules and contracts and compacts. I love the way words resonate, passion in the mouths of preachers and the soul-catching rhythms of hymns.Words purely amuse and amaze as they flash and dance in the back-and-forth of humor and repartee. I believe in the power of words to communicate and cajole and convince, to create visions of new worlds.
Today was a day for words of power: the Supreme Court decision on marriage equality and President Obama’s eulogy for the Reverend Clementa Pinckney. Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Bombing schools and hospitals is a war crime. Deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure is a war crime. Yesterday’s fulminations from the Führer in the White House go beyond war crimes to announce that he intends genocide: the wiping out of an entire people and civilization.
ICE is only one of the federal agencies surveilling people. Federal surveillance reaches far beyond immigrants. Federal agents use massive databases, facial recognition, cell phone photos, and license plate records. Beyond surveillance, they target and threaten people involved in protests, bringing the full weight of federal power to bear on individuals. Their actions often remain […]
Five years after the violent attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters, the attacks on democracy and on elected officials continue. Yesterday, two politicians currently under attack by the Trump administration spoke out with anger and eloquence.
The New York Times today has plenty of coverage of who, how, when, and where the United States illegally attacked Venezuela and abducted its president and first lady. But that’s far from the whole story. A few easily overlooked but essential facts: For informed insights on the consequences of Trump’s attack on Venezuela, see:
50 USC Ch. 33: WAR POWERS RESOLUTION §1541. Purpose and policy (a) Congressional declaration It is the purpose of this chapter to fulfill the intent of the framers of the Constitution of the United States and insure that the collective judgment of both the Congress and the President will apply to the introduction of United […]
Mary Turck