Category Archives: Uncategorized

December 28, 2015 · 5:30 am

Holy Innocents and refugee children

December 28 is the saints’ day of the Holy Innocents, an appropriate day to think about refugees today. The Gospel of Matthew tells the story: wicked King Herod wants to kill the baby Jesus. Herod tries to trick the wise men into leading him to the baby, but these foreigners escape from his surveillance and return to their own country. An angel comes to Joseph in a dream, warning of the danger to Jesus. Joseph and Mary and the baby flee the country by night, going to Egypt and staying there until Herod dies. In a rage, Herod turns to murder, killing all of the male children under the age of two in Bethlehem and the surrounding area.

Today, Central American refugee children flee gang violence, every bit as deadly as Herod’s rage. Continue reading →

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December 27, 2015 · 12:20 pm

Stories while we wait

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“I am waiting,” Lawrence Ferlinghetti wrote more than half a century ago, “for a rebirth of wonder.” In this in-between week, waiting for the new year, waiting for normal time to return, I am looking for stories that offer a rebirth of wonder and hope, that could light the dark nights and point to the possibility of a better future. I offer not YouTube cats, but Silent Night at the Fourth Precinct, heroism on a Kenyan bus, a connection between teacher and student. And, if you will, click over to read Ferlinghetti’s poem in full. Continue reading →

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December 14, 2015 · 4:12 pm

Central American child refugee numbers rising again

Refugees welcome

Minnesotans demonstrate in support of refugees

“Shelters for migrant children to open” read the headline. The reality is colder: the number of refugee children from Central America is rising again, and the “shelters” are new federal detention camps, built to “shelter” up to 9,800 children at a time. Continue reading →

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December 13, 2015 · 6:38 pm

Fighting to save Glendale housing in Minneapolis

The latest in the Glendale Public Housing battle: Minneapolis Public Housing Authority is organizing a resident council. That is, the landlord is organizing a tenant council, which is pretty much the same as the fox guarding the chicken coop.

According to Defend Glendale Townhomes, the notice of a Monday afternoon (December 14) meeting was delivered on Friday afternoon (December 11.) Monday’s meeting is set for 1 p.m., further disempowering every working resident of Glendale Townhomes. Continue reading →

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December 8, 2015 · 12:55 pm

How to radicalize ‘impressionable young Muslims’ in America

 

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This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

“Donald J. Trump,”
(speaking of himself in the third person)
“is calling for a total and complete shutdown
of Muslims entering the United States.”

This is how to radicalize “impressionable young Muslims.”

In Irving, Texas, people went to their mosque to worship
and were met with guns
gun-toting protesters
gun-toting anti-Muslim protesters
gun-toting holier-than-thou, more-American-than-thou protesters.

This is how to radicalize “impressionable young Muslims.” Continue reading →

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December 6, 2015 · 9:29 pm

Refugee welcome rally in St. Paul stands up for refugees

refugee rally Terry Burke photo

A few of the approximately 200 people at the rally. Photo courtesy of Terry Burke.

Usually, vigils and rallies and marches protest something. Not today. This afternoon’s vigil at the governor’s mansion in St. Paul celebrated Minnesota as a state that not only tolerates, but welcomes refugees. Organizers thanked Governor Mark Dayton for his statements in support of that long Minnesota tradition. Continue reading →

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December 5, 2015 · 12:41 pm

Minneapolis City Council and Black Lives Matter: Which is what democracy looks like?

 

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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 →

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November 28, 2015 · 10:54 am

Snowstorm coming: Watch out for St. Paul alleys

snowman closeup.pngIt’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.

Continue reading →

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November 16, 2015 · 9:12 pm

Wrestling with questions about Minnesota’s awful art

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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 →

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November 15, 2015 · 8:40 am

Pray for the world, look for the hope

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.”

Continue reading →

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