October 13, 2015 · 11:53 am

Deporting to death: U.S. and refugees

Syrian refugees drown, washing up on beaches in public view. Central American refugees, deported back to the countries they fled, die out of sight, out of mind. The Guardian highlighted three cases of young Honduran men who were murdered shortly after being deported. They are three among many, says The Guardian, referring to a study by a San Diego State University social scientist who has identified 83 such cases in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala since January 2014. Continue reading →

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October 11, 2015 · 3:52 pm

Celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day in Minneapolis and St. Paul

Photo of 2012 Indigenous Peoples Day celebration in Berkeley by Quinn Dombrowski, published under Creative Commons license.

Photo of 2012 Indigenous Peoples Day celebration in Berkeley by Quinn Dombrowski, published under Creative Commons license.

Yes — October 12 is Indigenous Peoples Day in the Twin Cities! Celebrating means recognizing the legacy and continuing contributions of Native Americans to this country and state. As Congressmember Keith Ellison said last year, during the Minneapolis debate:

“The very foundation of the United States, the theoretical concept of it, offered to our nation by the Iroquois Confederacy, as we were told growing up, ‘Oh, this is from the Greeks.’ We weren’t told about the Iroquois Confederacy, but we learned about it. And now that we have established Indigenous Peoples Day, every child – whether that child is Native, or whether that child is not – will learn the truth about where America really, really comes from.”

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October 4, 2015 · 6:57 pm

Half-staff: Oregon to Afghanistan

[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.

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October 3, 2015 · 8:10 pm

Dear NRA Member: Please resign

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.

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September 28, 2015 · 9:47 pm

Migrants and memes

May 1, 2006 - Minneapolis

May 1, 2006 – Minneapolis

While the Syrian refugee crisis holds world attention, immigration changes within the United States continue to come slowly, if at all. In this month’s news: Continue reading →

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September 27, 2015 · 6:49 pm

Syrian suffering, refugees continue: U.S. response is small and slow

Syrian refugees' camp in Cappadocia, Turkey. Photo by Fabio Sola Penna, published under Creative Commons license. 

Syrian refugees’ camp in Cappadocia, Turkey. Photo by Fabio Sola Penna, published under Creative Commons license.

In an eloquent cri de coeur, Lina Sergie Attar wrote about the agony of Syria:

“Now, the everyday violence and death Syrians witness is no longer recorded in full force unless events surpass the daily ‘acceptable’ quota of death—like it did on August 16 in Douma, after more than 100 people were killed by a regime aerial attack on a crowded marketplace. These kinds of mass tragedies, like the chemical weapons attack in 2013 and the Daraya massacre in 2012, capture the world’s attention—headlines, outrage, condemnation—for a few moments before Syria’s suffering once again fades to white noise. When the country has been reduced to smoldering ashes and its people have been forced into a mass exodus to new countries and new homes, our capacity to document—to speak or write and chant—dwindles. History collapses into a simple etcetera.”

More than four million refugees have fled Syria. Millions more remain inside Syria, but no longer in their own homes, internal refugees forced to flee for their lives. Continue reading →

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September 22, 2015 · 8:41 am

Private prisons, public shame

In May the state of Washington contracted with the GEO Group, one of the largest for-profit prison companies in the U.S., to move up to 1,000 inmates from the state’s overcrowded prisons to its correctional facility in Michigan, thousands of miles from their homes and families. This makes family visits and connection with the community harder, though studies show that inmates who receive more visits are less likely to re-offend after release. Continue reading →

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September 20, 2015 · 7:06 pm

Pope-check: Where does Pope Francis really stand?

Is Pope Francis a breath of fresh air, throwing Vatican windows wide open to the world again, heralding a new day for the Catholic Church? Or is he a cafeteria progressive, choosing only certain social issues — environment, refugees, the poor — and maintaining a hard line on others —acceptance of LGBT people, role of women, anything to do with sexuality? Continue reading →

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September 19, 2015 · 3:42 pm

Good news: Growing communities and gardens

Monarchs loved the bright red zinnias in the Merriam Station Community Garden

Monarchs loved the bright red zinnias in the Merriam Station Community Garden

Monarchs fluttered through the giant red zinnias during the Merriam Station Community Garden Day. A few people listened to the program as I wandered through the gardens, snapping photos of pumpkins and flowers. Some 70 well-tended garden plots occupy this spot, a block north of I-94 and not many blocks east of my home. Volunteers run the sign-up and clean-up details for the community garden. People grow vegetables and flowers in their individual plots, and also donate food to Keystone Midway Food Shelf, both from individual plots and from a plot dedicated to producing for the food shelf. Continue reading →

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September 13, 2015 · 7:28 pm

Hmong American Farmers Association grows farms, families and futures

Yao Yang explains use of trellis

Yao Yang explains use of trellis

As I drive south on Highway 52 on a sunny Sunday afternoon, city and suburban landscapes give way to long vistas of corn and soybeans. Half an hour from home, I see rows of kale, lettuce, tomatoes, Brussels sprouts, flowers and other vegetables marching across neatly tended fields. That’s my destination: the Hmong American Farmers Association (HAFA) open house, celebrating two years on their Dakota County farm. Continue reading →

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