December 8, 2015 · 12:55 pm

How to radicalize ‘impressionable young Muslims’ in America

 

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“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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December 1, 2015 · 11:08 pm

Day 16 of #4thPrecinctShutdown: Still strong in Minneapolis

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The day after Mayor Betsy Hodges, Congressmember Keith Ellison, City Council members Barbara Johnson and Blong Yang, and an assorted group of “community leaders” called for an end to the protest on Plymouth Avenue, the protesters are staying strong. 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 24, 2015 · 1:43 pm

Stand up, fight back: March after white supremacists shoot protesters

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UPDATE 10 p.m.: A huge crowd marched from the 4th Precinct to downtown Minneapolis Tuesday afternoon, unintimidated by the white supremacist shooting of  five protesters on Monday night. As of Tuesday evening, police have three young white men in custody. A Hispanic man was arrested but then released, as he was not at the shooting scene. For more, see Star Tribune article. [This article has been substantially revised and updated, following the march.]

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November 22, 2015 · 7:06 pm

Telling truths about Jamar Clark, Minneapolis police and #BlackLivesMatter

Nekima Levy-Pounds, Erica Mauter, Bill Lindeke, and Karen Wills: these are just a few of the eloquent voices I’ve been reading over the past week. They’ve written through the police attacks on demonstrators on November 18 and through the political and police debates going on all over the Twin Cities media. I know it’s hard to keep up with the news — just compiling the information for this post took me all of Sunday afternoon. So, if you want good information and don’t want to spend all day searching  for it, here’s a brief recap of the week’s events, followed by links to and quotes from some of the best of this week’s statements and analyses. Continue reading →

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November 17, 2015 · 11:01 pm

Justice for Jamar

Tony Webster Frantz Fanon photo

Photo of banner outside the Minneapolis Police Department fourth precinct by Tony Webster. Published under Creative Commons license.

First Day of Spring - Curt Gowdy State Park - Wyoming

Someone called police early Sunday morning. Domestic assault, they said. Paramedics helping the victim, and a man interfering with them, they said. Did he want to talk? To fight? Maybe even to apologize? We don’t know. We do know that police acted, taking Jamar Clark away from the paramedics. Minutes later, the 24-year-old black man lay on the ground with a police bullet in his head. 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.”

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