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by Mary Turck • 10/2/08 • Over the past month, both Sheriff Bob Fletcher and St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman referred to “guns and bombs” that “anarchists” brought to the RNC. The massive local, state and federal security presence is credited by both men with saving the city of St. Paul from the people with guns and bombs. But who were these people and how many guns and bombs did they bring?

Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office booking records for the week of August 30-September 5. show seven weapons or explosives-related arrests during that time. Five of these look like regular, everyday arrests, such as domestic assault. Only two seem even remotely connected to the RNC. These two are arrests for possession of explosives. The two people arrested were a 22-year-old Texan arrested at 5:15 a.m. on September 3 and a 20-year-old Minnesotan arrested at 11:16 p.m. on September 3.

But arrest is only the first step. After an arrest, prosecutors weigh the evidence and file charges. Three people have been charged with possession of Molotov cocktails by the U.S. Attorney. No one has been charged with illegal possession of guns related to the RNC.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s office reports ten felony cases related to activities during the convention. None of them involve guns or bombs. (The RNC 8, who were charged with conspiracy to commit a riot, were not charged with committing crimes during the convention.)

Some people who were arrested on the bridge on September 4 say that they saw police confiscate a gun or guns from others on the bridge. I’ve heard this from journalists whose reports I trust. The Ramsey County Sheriff’s booking records show no weapons charges filed for that night. Perhaps the individuals with guns were Minnesotans legally toting their registered and concealed-carry-permitted guns. Perhaps they were undercover officers who were legally carrying weapons. I don’t know, but it seems fairly unlikely that police would fail to charge a protester with possession of an unregistered or illegal weapon.

I have not heard a single report of any protester or anarchist actually shooting a gun or exploding a bomb during the RNC. Our civic authorities credit the police with this success. I am sure they are correct. I am sure we all owe a vote of thanks to Sheriff Fletcher for protecting the city of St. Paul from destruction and guns and bombs and anarchists and peaceniks and … well, anyone else who is a threat to public order and decency.

I have not heard of a single lion or tiger or bear running amok in the streets of St. Paul during the RNC. I personally want to thank Sheriff Bob Fletcher and all of the security forces from Homeland Security, the FBI, and the Secret Service for protecting us from lions and tigers and bears.

by Mary Turck, TC Daily Planet
A giant, red phone rolled up to the offices of Senators Klobuchar and Coleman bright and early on Monday, July 5. The phone, and the people accompanying it, delivered a message: stop FISA.

As the Minnesota Independent explains, the FISA amendments bill “would grant immunity for telecoms that break the law in the course of cooperating with the feds and grant the executive branch additional surveillance powers.”

Breaking it down—Congress already granted broad and sweeping surveillance and wiretap powers to the executive branch. Telecom companies went even farther than the law allowed, bowing to every demand the federal cops made, without warrants of any kind. Now Congress is going to give them a free pass. Warrants? We don’t need no stinking warrants!

FISA is one of the major issues waiting in Washington as congress returns to work this week. The House passed the bill by a 293-129 margin in June, and now it is the Senate’s turn to tackle the bill. According to the Red Phone people, “If passed, the FISA Amendment would grant sweeping new powers to spy on innocent Americans. It legalizes mass, untargeted and unwarranted spying on our phone calls and emails, even when they have no connection to terrorism. ” Both MN senators have said they’ll support FISA.

A second major issue awaiting congressional action is a tiny bureaucratic tweak to health care. Every year, payments to 600,000 doctors serving Medicare patients are cut—unless Congress acts to stop the cuts. This year, the cuts went into effect on July 1, because Congress was too busy bickering to pass the legislation needed to stop them. The
American Medical Association says the cuts have put the country “at the brink of a Medicare meltdown.” The House passed the bill—HR 6331—by a veto-proof majority of 355-59. In the Senate, 60 votes were needed to cut off debate and get to a vote. The alignment was 59-39, with two non-voting Senators. Senator Kennedy is hospitalized, and Senator McCain on the campaign trail.

Of course, this is one small vote on one small issue—whether doctors will get paid slightly more to treat Medicare patients—and it will not resolve larger health care issues facing the nation. On the larger issues, Minnesotans are joining people in 45 other states in the Health Care For American Now! coalition. The kick-off press conference is set for Tuesday, July 8 at 11 a.m. at La Clinica, the West Side Community Health Services at 153 Cesar Chavez Street in St. Paul. According to the organization’s press release:

Funded by a $40 million grant from the Atlantic Philanthropies, the campaign will organize citizens to ask elected officials and policy makers to declare if they believe in quality, affordable health care for all or if they think everyone should navigate the system on their own. Between now and election day, the group plans to spend $25 million in paid media and have 100 organizers in 45 states.

(Written for TC Daily Planet)
“Stick your political correctness up your ass.” So begins one of the comments we recently received (and posted.)

We post almost every legit comment that we receive. By “legit,” I mean comments that are not spam or advertising/self promotion. The very few that we refuse to post are overtly racist, probably libelous, or personal attacks of the “I know him personally and he is a crook/liar/shoplifter/child abuser” variety.

Obviously, we print a lot of comments that we disagree with. We do so in the interest of fostering dialogue and civic engagement. I’m not sure this always works. At times, comments seem downright nasty.

Two recent comments pose the issue clearly:

Troy Wodele, 5/20/08 • I have a very difficult time reading news on both the Star and Tribune and the Pioneer Press’ websites, primarily because of the comments sections at the end of the article. Invariably, I find myself reading them, despite the fact that most of the rants are racist, sexist, and ill informed. I’m not sure why the two papers put up with this type of discourse. They are not required to post every response, so why do they?

In addition, as an educator, I am also appalled at the grammar and spelling that is displayed in many of these comments.

Marcia Lynx Qualey, 5/21/08 • Why do newspapers—and I’ll add the St. Cloud Times to the list, as they hosted hundreds of hateful comments after the recent service-dog story—allow their websites to become forums for unmoderated hate? They certainly wouldn’t allow that to happen in print. Interactive doesn’t have to mean “anything goes.”

It’s damaging to the community and does not fit with a responsible media-outlet’s mission.

The Des Moines Register has given a great deal of thought to on-line conversation. They have come up with some guidelines that look pretty good to me:

Our updated standards make the distinction between offensive opinion and offensive approach.

As we are alerted to them, we reserve the right to remove comments including these types of specific information or language:

– Libel. In general terms, that means a comment that includes a false statement of fact that actually harms a person’s reputation (as opposed to insulting or offending them). …

– Sexually explicit or crude sexual comments about someone.

– Threatening statements or statements that suggests violent acts against someone.

– Crude comments about a child.

– Swearing or obscenity.

– Derogatory phrases to define a group of people.

– Nasty name-calling (language such as “moron” and “white trash”).

But we will allow opinions some will find offensive.

We will allow conversation that is simply strident in tone.

We will allow criticism of public officials.

We will allow criticism of people who are subjects of stories.

We will allow opinions that some may find offensive about tough social issues around race and sexual orientation, as long as they don’t include the kind of specific language described above.

I like the tone of the Des Moines Register policy, though it goes farther than we do in limiting comments. Other suggestions for limiting comments include:

1) require registration for anyone posting a comment
2) refuse to post anonymous comments
3) put up a button that readers can use to flag “objectionable” comments

I’m not sure that we need a more defined comment policy, but I’m open to conversation about it. Comment away!

The Republicans are coming. So are the media. And the Anti-War Committee, RNC Welcoming Committee, Women Against Military Madness, ANSWER, the Call ‘Em Out Coalition from Detroit, the Latinos Against War from Los Angeles, the Madison Ragin’ Grannies, and probably hundreds of other protest groups.

The Republicans estimate that 45,000 people will show up for the convention. Their estimate includes 15,000 national and international media, but doesn’t include the protesters. A small oversight—maybe no one told them. Estimates of the number of protesters range from 20,000 to 60,000.

We invited editors, writers, organizers and city officials to a meeting on May 27 to talk about RNC coverage: issues, stories, sources, suggestions. The amount of information people had was impressive, and inspired me to put together a little quiz.

Convention quiz:

1) How many of the following organizations can you identify?

RNC-WC
CUAPB
AWC
YAWR
SPPD
WAMM

2) If you were a downtown business, would you

a) tell your employees to work from home so they don’t have to fight their way through the Republicans, lobbyists, press and protesters to get to work
b) close your doors until September 5
c) hire a helicopter to deliver employees from a safe zone at the St. Paul airport to the rooftop of your building

3) True or false: The Secretary of Homeland Security declared that both conventions are National Special Security Events.

4) The number of extra police officers being assembled for convention security is:

a) 1000
b) 3000
c) 8000

5) The RNC COA is:

a) the Committee On Acronyms – somebody’s got to keep a list.
b) Cherish Our America, a group organizing patriotic counterprotests
c) the Chapel Of America, which will be open 24 hours a day during the convention
d) the Committee On Arrangements, now headquartered in downtown St. Paul with 100 employees from across the country.

6) How will the Daily Planet cover the RNC?

a) articles from citizen journalists
b) re-published articles and videos from community media partners
c) a blog with stories from lots of different people
d) all of the above – and maybe more. What can you add to the mix?

by Mary Turck, 5/14/08 • A vegan tofu scramble, pancakes, vegan caramel rolls, scrambled eggs and tortillas, and more—the breakfast spread at the Green Institute was more like a bounteous buffet than the continental breakfast promised on the Bike/Walk to Work Week Web site. And I was ready for it, after biking over from St. Paul, passing the Daily Planet office on my way to the celebration.

When I arrived, they had just run out of plates, but the supply was quickly replenished. Almost 120 people biked to the Green Institute breakfast, and four walked. This was one of a dozen locations across the Twin Cities offering free breakfast for people who biked or walked to work.
breakfast on the roof

Breakfast was served on the roof, where we enjoyed a view of downtown Minneapolis, the new bike/pedestrian bridge over Hiawatha Avenue, and the LRT line. Rooftop gardens surrounded the large, round table, and rows of solar panels stretched southward.

Breakfast on the roof

I arrived too late to have breakfast with the mayor (who also biked to Bedlam’s breakfast), but two young women from South High School were there. South expected more than 200 biking students, and had extra bike racks ready in the athletic field. Two other breakfast guests were on their way to the University of Minnesota.

Roof garden at Green Institute

Even if you missed the Great Commuter Challenge on Monday and the breakfast on Wednesday, you still have a chance to catch several Bike/Walk events.

Rooftop solar panel array

The Freewheel Midtown Bike Center Grand Opening is Thursday morning at 7 a.m. in Minneapolis, on the Midtown Greenway between Chicago Ave. and 10th Ave. S. The bike center will offer a place along the Midtown Greenway where cyclists can get repairs, rentals, bathrooms, showers and more.

Walkers get their turn over the weekend, as the Minnesota Historical Society offers walking tours of Summit Avenue, focusing on the architecture, social history and current preservation issues of the historic neighborhood.

Sunday brings the renaming of the Midtown Greenway Bridge, which stretches across Hiawatha Ave. and the light-rail transit line. The bridge is being renamed in honor of former U.S. Rep. Martin Olav Sabo.

For more information on these and other events, go to the Bike/Walk Week Web site.

I’m sure that high gas prices and a long-delayed end to winter gave an extra boost to this year’s Bike/Walk Week. If you haven’t yet tried biking to work (or to the grocery store, or the library, or to run errands), give it a whirl. You’ll be glad you did.

• by Mary Turck, 4/27/08 • The little boy began kindergarten already behind, explained Lynnell Thiel. He had never been to preschool, he knew only 14 of his letters, and he just didn’t seem to be making any progress. Luckily for him, Johnson Elementary School on St. Paul’s East Side has a tutoring program, provided by the School Sisters of Notre Dame. After six weeks of one-to-one tutoring four times a week, he knew his whole alphabet – and could sight-read 42 words. That little boy is now ready for success in school. His story is part of Achievement Plus, an 11-year-old collaboration between St. Paul Public Schools, Wilder Foundation, the YMCA, Ramsey County and the City of St. Paul.

The story came from an April 25 brown bag lunch meeting sponsored by the Committee on the Achievement Gap. Achievement Plus now operates in three St. Paul schools – Dayton’s Bluff and John A. Johnson elementary schools and Cleveland junior high school. (Next year it will add North End elementary. Monroe was initially an Achievement Plus school, but did not remain in the program.)

According to Thiel, who is one of three Achievement Plus staff, the program uses a community school model that includes:

• School as a center of community life
• School, families and community partnering to educate children
• Open to students, families, and community members with extended hours throughout the year (One school reported 387 evening and Saturday events in an eight-month period.)
• Educational opportunities for families and community (such as basic education or English classes for parents)
• Array of services for families and communities (including on-site dental clinics and mental health services and family rooms that offer services such as emergency food or parenting classes)

The Achievement Plus schools have high levels of poverty, as measured by free and reduced-price lunch eligibility. They began the program well below the district-wide levels on student achievement tests. They have high numbers of students beginning school with limited English proficiency. In short, the Achievement Plus schools are not easy targets for success.

When it began 11 years ago, the program focused on providing support services for students and families. After a few years of support services, no clear pattern of student achievement was seen, according to Wilder Foundation researcher Dan Mueller. So changes were implemented.

Achievement Plus added a strong focus on standards-based academic achievement, including high expectations for all students and increased professional development days for teachers. In addition, Dayton’s Bluff was “reconstituted,” with big changes in staffing and administration beginning in 2002.

Today, both Dayton’s Bluff and Johnson elementary schools can point to dramatic improvements in student achievement, measured by MCA tests.

In 2000, Mueller said, only 12 percent of Dayton’s Bluff students met MCA test standards. By 2005, 66 percent of Dayton’s Bluff students tested as proficient on MCA tests. Johnson’s improvement was measurable, but less dramatic, especially since Johnson did not start from as far down as Dayton’s Bluff. Absenteeism has dropped, and school staff report fewer disciplinary problems and better school climate.

Parts of the Achievement Plus model – such as involvement by the East Side Learning Center tutoring program and the East Side Neighborhood Development Corporation and the East Side Family Center – now extend to other schools in the district. Community partners, including the East Side YMCA, are crucial to delivering the broad array of services to students and families.

Today, school staff strongly believe that Achievement Plus improves student achievement. That’s a marked change. In 2001, less than 40% of teachers believed the program was effective. By 2007, about 90% said they think the program working.

The most important lessons of Achievement Plus can be found in the conclusion to the written report on the program, “The Journey to Reform,” which summarizes the first eight years of the program. The conclusion identifies two “intangible qualities present in thriving projects or programs,” as:

“An attitude that all students can learn if all the pieces are in place to assist them. …

“A belief that when the larger community works together, anything is possible.”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu came to Minnesota this week as part of a youth weekend. The teenagers of Youthrive and PeaceJam were not even born during the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, or when Archbishop Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. After apartheid ended, and after the election of Nelson Mandela as South Africa’s first black president in 1994, Archbishop Tutu directed his country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Archbishop Tutu opened Friday night’s talk with a self-deprecating story about recognition.

“I was in San Francisco a few years ago,” he said, “and a lady came up to me and was very friendly and effusive and she greeted me very warmly, ‘Hello, Archbishop Mandela.’ Sort of getting two for the price of one.”

His topic on Friday night was “Making Friends Out of Enemies.”

“One of the benefits of not being young is that you are permitted to repeat yourself,” he said. “Most of the things that most of us say aren’t exactly brand new.” Perhaps not, but the Nobel laureate’s message bears repeating.

He opened, as good preachers do, with a story.

Adam is in the garden. And there he was having a great time with the animals and gamboling all over the place, but God looked on and said. uh-uh. It’s not good for that guy to be all by his lonesome.

And God said to Adam, “Well Adam –”

Adam said, “Yes?”

“How about choosing a mate for yourself from the animals?”

So God let animals pass in front of Adam in procession and God said, “What about this one?”

“Nope,” said Adam.

“And what about this one?”

“No.”

“And this one?”

“Not on your life!”

And God say okay, and put Adam to sleep. And as the story goes, out of Adam’s rib, God created this delectable creature.

And when Adam awakes, he looks and says “Wow!” and “This is what the doctor ordered!”

It’s a story that is meant to convey a very profound truth about you and me. That you and I are incomplete, that we can’t, in fact, be human in isolation.

In solitary confinement, as it were.

I wouldn’t know how to be human except by learning it from other human beings. I need you in order for me to be me. I need other human beings in order for me to be human. …

The totally self-sufficient human being is, in fact, subhuman.
…
One of the sayings in our country is … “A person is a person through other persons.”

We are family.

I thought that, speaking to this friendly audience, Archbishop Tutu was preaching to the choir. When he reminded us that what we spend on defense systems could provide clean water and enough to eat for every person on earth, we agreed. But as he continued, the tough part of his message became clearer.

“We all belong to this incredible thing,” he said, “God’s family, in which there are no outsiders. Every one, every single one, is an insider.”

He continued in a litany of inclusion:

“God will draw all, all, all, all in this extraordinary embrace

“Rich and poor – all. …

“Black and white and yellow and red, all, all, all, all. …

“Clever and not so clever, all. …

“Gay and lesbian and so called straight, all, all, all. …”

“George Bush. [pause] “Yes, all, all, all!”

(Remember–that’s the Archbishop’s message, not mine. I don’t pretend to come anywhere near living his message, but I do think it’s worth hearing.)

The short question-and-answer session confirmed the challenge implicit in the end of his litany. Archbishop Tutu preaches a call to really love our enemies—all of them. He challenges us to look for goodness in each enemy, and to treat them and speak of them with respect.

Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe?

” Zimbabwe used to be our showcase. President Mugabe was really a star. When he won his first election, many people feared there was going to be revenge against the colonists, the white Rhodesians as they then were. One of the most amazing things was that they didn’t have that retribution. Ian Smith remained a member of parliament for donkeys’ years. ….

“Something happened. Something snapped in him, I think. And we have seen this nightmare that has become Zimbabwe. And now …

“I still hope that his peers, the heads of state in Africa, could exert pressure on him to … step down with dignity.”

The legacy of George Bush?

Again, the archbishop sidestepped an opportunity to denounce a person.

“I lunched with Mrs. Bush. She’s quite something else. On Burma, she is fantastic. When I spoke with your secretary of state, on the issue of Burma, the United States is on the side of the angels. And so many people are going to remember Laura Bush and her concern about Burma and Aung San Su Kye. “

In this dark year, sliding simultaneously into depression and election, the archbishop’s message offers a profound challenge. Without giving an inch on principles and politics, he still calls for a reconciliation and love.

“An enemy is a friend waiting to be made. An enemy is really a member of my family.”

If all the heat generated by community debates over biomass, biofuels and green energy could be channeled into the grid, the Twin Cities could go petroleum-free any day now. Unfortunately, we have no way to harness that energy to light the streets or run the trains. Instead, vehement and sometimes vitriolic discussion sometimes narrows the focus of the debate to what’s wrong with one source of energy, rather than a broad analysis of costs of various kinds of energy and conservation.

Any evaluation of fuels and energy production needs to include a multi-factor analysis. While there may be more, I believe every analysis must include at least four green factors:

• 1 – Source/production: Where does the fuel come from? How is it grown, mined, harvested, produced?

• 2 – Transportation/distribution: How, and how far, does the fuel travel from where it is produced to the place it is used to generate energy? How, and how far, does the energy travel to the consumer?

• 3 – Energy generation: What happens at the point of energy generation? What costs, financial and environmental, are associated with energy generation?

• 4 – Emissions/wastes/residues: What byproducts are left after energy generation? Where do these by-products go?

Source/production

Ethanol offers a local example of the need to consider source and production costs. Ethanol was touted as a green fuel, especially here in the Midwest where major grain companies (think Cargill, ADM) convinced many farmers that raising corn for ethanol would increase corn prices, neglecting to mention that most profits would still accrue to the grain traders.

Arguments in favor of ethanol generally focus on the end product, a less-polluting fuel. Looking at the source and production of ethanol raises different environmental questions. Intensive corn production depletes the soil and requires the use of petroleum-based and environmentally-destructive fertilizers and pesticides. Any environmental accounting for ethanol has to include the pollution of rivers, lakes and groundwater by fertilizer run-off and pesticide residues. Irrigation sucks groundwater reservoirs, and, in some areas, contributes to the emergence of sinkholes. Replacing smaller farms with miles-long cornfields cultivated and harvested by diesel-powered giants results in human costs to community and to local businesses.

Sounds grim – but then look at the production costs of coal, including strip-mined landscapes and dead miners. No fuel comes without cost. My point is not that ethanol is evil, but that accounting of environmental costs and benefits must not stop at the filling station nozzle or the refinery, but instead must reach back to the cornfield and community. In order to compare fuels, we need to look at all the costs and all the benefits.

Transportation/distribution

Transportation and distribution of petroleum, even domestically-produced petroleum, has clear costs. The Alyeska Pipeline Service Company boasts, that the 800-mile-long Trans-Alaska Pipeline “has successfully transported over 15 billion barrels of oil.”

And then there were the unsuccessful transports, notably the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, which spilled 11 million gallons of oil in Prince William Sound, and the 2006 pipeline leak, which spilled at least 250,000 gallons of oil on the Alaskan tundra. In between, according to the Christian Science Monitor, “about 500 oil spills have occurred in the Prudhoe Bay oil fields and along the 800-mile pipeline each year.”

The environmental costs of transport have to include the destruction of wildlife habitat by the pipeline’s construction and maintenance, the oil spills, and the diesel emissions from truck transport to gas stations and other consumers.

Few fuels come without some kind of transportation impact on the environment. The current system of electricity generation relies on massive production at centralized places and then delivery of electricity through transmission lines. Even discussion of wind energy focuses on large “wind farms” that would produce electricity to be shipped elsewhere. In contrast, decentralized production of electricity by home solar panel arrays, smaller-scale windmills or backyard bio-diesel operations offer alternatives that have different costs and benefits.

Energy generation

What does it take to turn fuel into energy? Burning comes immediately to mind, but nuclear power plants, wind farms and solar panels all produce energy without burning. Any ranking of fuels needs to include an analysis of the place and method of energy production. Environmental factors at the point of production may include the machinery used, the use of water for cooling or for co-generation of steam heat, and other factors that don’t come immediately to my mind.

Garbage, aka refuse-derived fuel (RDF), raises particularly difficult questions. Before becoming fuel, garbage is processed into the “fluffy” RDF. That processing should be part of the cost analysis. Then RDF is burned, and its burning typically raises two other issue: it needs to be co-fired with some other fuel (such as coal) and it gunks up (technical term) the incinerator, raising maintenance costs. Granted, most environmental arguments against RDF focus on the emissions factor, but these production/generation factors are also part of the equation.

Emissions/wastes/residues

Carbon emissions, contributing to global warming, are part of everyone’s consciousness in the green energy debate.

Toxic chemical emissions, such as mercury, also figure in the equation for some fuels. Micro-particulates emitted from smokestacks as a consequence of burning anything clearly contribute to health problems in the community. Scrubbers and filters can eliminate many harmful emissions, and need to be considered as part of any debate.

The residues of energy productions, from ash that gets landfilled to nuclear wastes that continue to pile up, present their own environmental issues.

And, in conclusion … Much more could be said, but this post is already too long. My point is—green energy issues are complicated. All of these factors need to be part of the discussion and part of the calculus for decision-making.

[originally posted 3/18/08]

“This Marine … watched the commander, who had given us the order to shoot anyone on the street, shoot two old ladies that were walking and carrying vegetables. He said that the commander had told him to shoot the woman, and when he refused, because they were carrying vegetables, the commander shot them.” Winter Soldier testimony of Jason Wayne Lemieux, honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant in the Marine Corps after serving three deployments to Iraq, including the invasion, and four years and ten months in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Military veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan testified at Winter Soldier in mid-March, giving their eyewitness accounts of the war and of atrocities committed by U.S. troops. Winter Soldier 2008, organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War, was modeled after the historic 1971 Winter Soldier hearings held during the Vietnam War.

Tom Paine said in 1776: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”

The Winter Soldiers have risked their lives to serve and protect their country in a war that they found did neither. Instead, the conduct of the war disgraced the ideals they held and the war created more enemies for their—and our—country. Now back at home, they displayed their patriotism by testifying in the Winter Soldier hearings.

March 19 is the fifth anniversary of the U.S. war in Iraq. Nearly 4,000 U.S. soldiers and more than 4,000 coalition soldiers have died. More than a hundred thousand Iraqis have lost their lives. More than four million have lost their homes, their jobs or their schools.

Last week, the president who sent soldiers into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan talked to some of the troops in Afghanistan via video. He said that he was “a little envious” of them and, “If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed.” Bush continued, “It must be exciting for you … in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger.”

Lemieux could tell him about the “fantastic experience.”

“I don’t have anywhere near enough time to tell you every related experience that I had in Iraq, but in general, the rules of engagement changed frequently, contradicted themselves, and when they were restrictive, they were either loosely enforced, or escalations of force, as shootings of civilians were known, were not reported because Marines did not want to send their brothers in arms to prison, when all they were trying to do was protect themselves in a situation they had been forced into, where there was a constant ambiguous and deadly threat, and any citizen of the country that they were supposedly liberating could have been wearing an explosive vest.

“With no way to identify their attackers and no clear mission worth dying for, Marines viewed the rules of engagement as either a joke or a technicality to be worked around so that they could bring each other home alive. Not only are the misuse of rules of engagement in Iraq indicative of supreme strategic incompetence, they are also a moral disgrace. The people who have set them should be ashamed of ourselves, and they are just one of the many reasons why the troops should be withdrawn immediately from Iraq.”

This week, people are mobilizing against the war, across the state, across the country, around the world. Some of the Minnesota observances and demonstrations are listed below.

Many people do not believe that demonstrating does any good. We could argue the question. But the least that we owe to the courageous Winter Soldiers is to listen to their words. You can hear them on Democracy Now. Here are the links:

March 14 Democracy Now
March 17 Democracy Now
March 18 Democracy Now

In the words of Thomas Paine: “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered.”

Protest events in Twin Cities

6:30 p.m. (Potluck and Program) Macalester Plymouth United Church. 1658 Lincoln Avenue, (one block south of Grand Avenue and just west of the Macalester College campus), St. Paul. Public Talk: Winter Soldiers of Today: Wes Davies and Brandon Day, Iraq Veterans Against the War and Sami Rasouli, Muslim Peacemaker Teams, just returned from Iraq, speak on the 5th Anniversary of the War and Occupation

[Originally posted 3/13/08]

by Mary Turck, 3/13/08 • Growing up, I heard my mother admonish us, time and time again, to light one candle rather than cursing the darkness. She meant that we ought to do something. Any effort to make the world better would accomplish more than giving up in despair.

Today, as we face climate change around the globe, air quality alerts at home in Minnesota, depletion of water resources, and all of the myriad environmental challenges, we need to remember those candles. We need to make changes in lifestyles, transportation, energy use and consumption in order to live more sustainably.

In today’s TC Daily Planet, Brian Peterson explains one of the more complex approaches to change in Cap and trade: Why you should care, what you need to know.

Last week’s Neighborhood Sustainability Conference at Augsburg offered voices of hope. MTN collected several voices from the conference at its Sustainability 08 page.

The Twin Cities have many programs, people and organizations working on issues of sustainability. One of the voices speaking about sustainability and hope in the Twin Cities is Jay Walljasper. His book, The Great Neighborhood Book: A Do-it-Yourself Guide to Placemaking, (reviewed here) tells stories of sustainable neighborhoods. He spoke at the conference last week – see and hear him here.

And then, if you want to light a symbolic candle, or a practical fluorescent light, take the Minnesota Energy Challenge, and join in being the change we all need to make together.