News Day

Back in the eighties, when we traveled back and forth to Central America and protested the various U.S. involvements in wars there, we heard noises outside the house. Small noises in the night. And clicking noises on phones. Continue reading →

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Eight Jewish teens beat a 17-year-old Arab boy almost to death in Jerusalem’s Zion Square on August 16.  This week, reports the New York Times, “The education minister instructed all junior high and high schools to conduct a lesson on the episode” as the new school year began. The educational response to the hate crime won’t “solve the problem” but it seems like one right response. What would a similar, pro-active response to racism — or bullying or homophobia — look like here?  Continue reading →

Yesterday I went to the MARCH and Vote NO on Photo ID to Protect Rev. Dr. King’s Legacy Event. A couple of the usual nay-sayers had objected in advance to calling this Dr. King’s Legacy Event. They said, among other stupid things, that Dr. King’s legacy has to do with human rights and not with voting rights. Continue reading →

Yes — my Twitter account got hacked today. I responded to a direct message from a name I knew, and tried to sign in to my Twitter account. Big mistake — next thing I knew, I started hearing from Twitter followers that they had gotten the same weird message rom me. Continue reading →

Even setting aside the stadium debates and subsidies (and don’t we wish we could?), lots of public money goes to subsidize private business. Corporate subsidies are “officially justified in the name of keeping jobs in the state, attracting new businesses to areas that need help the most, and spurring new job creation,” according to a just-released report from the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability. In fact, the report finds, public money often supports moving jobs out of the inner cities and increasing racial employment disparities. Often the corporations getting public subsidies don’t even live up to their promises to create new jobs — anywhere in the state. Continue reading →

Three stories stand out in this weekend’s reading: one dream and two nightmares.

The dream deferred

Children go with their parents, and more than a million children entered the U.S. with their parents and without permission to stay. But stay they did, some finding out only after they graduated from high school that this country they believed to be their own was ready to deport them back to lands and languages they did not know. Continue reading →

On August 17, 1862, as the United States fought our bloody Civil War, another civil war began in Minnesota, pitting native Minnesotans against immigrants, Dakota against European. Today Governor Mark Dayton ordered that all flags be flown at half staff on August 17, “to honor the American soldiers, Dakota people, and settlers who lost their lives in that war.” (See Governor Dayton’s entire proclamation in sidebar.) Continue reading →

Words are not enough. The front page of the anti-bullying task force report quoted from a listening session participant who said, “There needs to be more behind the posters than just tape.” The task force recommendations agree, calling for a new Minnesota law and school policies to prevent bullying. Continue reading →

I wrote this for the TC Daily Planet – but I’m reposting here with a special request: if your son or daughter, nephew or niece, grandson or granddaughter is heading back to college in the fall, take a minute to remind them to get an absentee ballot and vote.

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