Congressman Walz and a former student talk to Weekend Edition about their experience:
In 1993, Rep. Tim Walz of Minnesota, then a high school geography teacher in Nebraska, had his class do an exercise in which they ended up predicting the Rwandan genocide the following year. Tim Walz and one of his former students, Travis Hoffman, talk with John Ydstie about the prediction.
Audio is available.
Yesterday's New York Times article about Walz's teaching in Nebraska mentioned that April is the month for marking a number of genocides: Armenia, Rwanda, Cambodia, and quite often, the Holocaust (May 1 this year). Today is Martyrs' Day, a day of remembrance for many Armenians.
Over at SCSU Scholars, conservative blogger King Banaian, whose grandparents fled Armenia, shares a deeply personal memory of the songs his grandmother sang and his own efforts at learning what those songs meant. A bittersweet and worthy post: 93 and remembering .
Last March at the Darfur town hall in Minneapolis's Plymouth Congregational Church, we heard Congressman Walz touch on this project. Now Columbia University J-school prof Samuel G. Freedman write up the full story in High School Project on Genocide Was a Portent of Real-Life Events. It's a moving story about small town kids learning about the way the world can sometimes sadly work:
In 1993, when Travis Hofmann was a freshman of 15, he had traveled little beyond the sand hills that surrounded his hometown, Alliance, Neb. He was the son of a railroad engineer, a trumpeter in the high school band, with a part-time job changing the marquee and running the projector at the local movie theater.
In Travis’s class in global geography at Alliance High School, however, the teacher introduced the outside world with the word and concept of genocide. The teacher, Tim Walz, was determined that even in this isolated place, perhaps especially in this isolated place, this county seat of 9,000 that was hours away from any city in any direction, the students should learn how and why a society can descend into mass murder.
Mr. Walz had already taught for a year in China, and he brought the world into his classroom in the form of African thumb pianos and Tibetan singing bowls. For the global geography class, he devised something far more ambitious than what the curriculum easily could have been — the identification and memorization of capitals, mountain ranges and major rivers. It was more ambitious, too, than a unit solely on the Holocaust of the sort many states have required.
“The Holocaust is taught too often purely as a historical event, an anomaly, a moment in time,” Mr. Walz said in a recent interview, recalling his approach. “Students understood what had happened and that it was terrible and that the people who did this were monsters.
“The problem is,” he continued, “that relieves us of responsibility. Obviously, the mastermind was sociopathic, but on the scale for it to happen, there had to be a lot of people in the country who chose to go down that path. You have to make the intellectual leap to figure out the reasons why.”
So Mr. Walz took his students — Brandon Bell, the wrestler; Beth Taylor, the cheerleader; Lanae Merwin, the quiet girl always reading some book about Queen Elizabeth; and all the other children of mechanics, secretaries and a town dentist — and assigned them to study the conditions associated with mass murder. What factors, he asked them to determine, had been present when Germans slaughtered Jews, Turks murdered Armenians, the Khmer Rouge ravaged their Cambodian countrymen?
“It was different and unusual, certainly not a project you’d be expecting,” Mr. Hofmann, now 31, of Phoenix, remembered recently of the class. “The biggest part was just the freedom to explore things. No matter how abnormal or far-fetched an idea might sound, you can form an opinion. Instead of just going in and having a teacher say, ‘Here’s information, learn it, know it, you’ll be tested on it,’ it was, ‘Here’s an idea, run with it.’ ”
For nine weeks through the winter and early spring that school year, through the howling blizzards and the planting of the first alfalfa on the plains, the class pored over data about economics, natural resources and ethnic composition. They read about civil war, colonialism and totalitarian ideology. They worked with reference books and scholarly reports, long before conducting research took place instantly online.
Most, like Mr. Hofmann, had spent their entire lives in and near Alliance. A few had traveled to Washington, D.C., with the school marching band. A few had driven four hours to Denver to buy the new Nirvana CD. Mostly, though, the outside world was a place they built, under Mr. Walz’s tutelage, in their own brains.
When the students finished with the past, Mr. Walz gave a final exam of sorts. He listed about a dozen current nations — Yugoslavia, Congo, some former Soviet republics among them — and asked the class as a whole to decide which was at the greatest risk of sliding into genocide.
Their answer was: Rwanda. The evidence was the ethnic divide between Hutus and Tutsis, the favoritism toward Tutsis shown by the Belgian colonial regime, and the previous outbreaks of tribal violence. Mr. Walz awarded high marks.
Then summer arrived and school let out. The students did what teenagers did in Alliance over the summer. They water-skied at the reservoir, swam in the Bridgeport sand pits and mostly “cruised the Butte,” endlessly driving up and down Box Butte Avenue.
THE next April, in 1994, Mr. Walz heard news reports of a plane carrying the Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana, being shot down. He told himself at the time, “This is not going to end up good.”
It did not. Over the next three months, militant Hutus killed 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The reports reached even The Alliance Times-Herald, the local daily newspaper. Mr. Walz’s students, now juniors, saw their prophecy made into flesh and blood.
“It was terribly chilling,” Lanae Merwin, now 31, of Hastings, Neb., recalled in a recent interview. “But, to us, it wasn’t totally surprising. We’d discussed it in class and it was happening. Though you don’t want a prediction like that to come true.”
Mr. Hofmann remembered having a similar reaction. “It was just strange to know that something was discussed not too long before that could actually happen,” he said. “Just a surreal feeling. To everyone else, it’s 8,000 miles away — no one cares. How can you grasp it? But to us, it was, we talked about it. For us, it was something that reached us directly.”
Years have passed. Mr. Walz left Alliance and moved to his wife’s home state, Minnesota; he is the only active teacher now serving in the United States Congress. His former geography students have moved as adults to Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and New York. Ms. Taylor lived in Poland for a while.
Now, in 2008, April has come again. It is, among other things, the month for genocide remembrance — the month when Rwanda was convulsed, when the Khmer Rouge conquered Cambodia, when Armenians commemorate what they call the Great Catastrophe, when Yom HaShoah, Holocaust memorial day, almost always falls. (Though this year, because of the Jewish lunar calendar, it will be observed on May 1.) The lessons of a classroom in Alliance 15 years ago still matter.
“You have to understand what caused genocide to happen,” Mr. Walz said, with those grim anniversaries in mind. “Or it will happen again.”
Loyal readers know that we frequently hold our nose and dive into a Yahoo group where Ruthie Hendrycks posts in her role as President of Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform (MinnSIR), an unincorporated association that's a subchapter of the Minnesota Coalition for Immigration Reduction (also small and unincorporated).
We've learned that MinnSIR is teaming up with Minnesota Majority to make a video and it's top secret, according to this post by Ms. Hendrycks:
MINNESOTA MEMBERSAs you know, a video is being planned and scheduled concerning the negative impacts ofillegal immigration on Minnesotans. MINNSIR in coordination with Minnesota Majoritywill be filming all those and their stories who choose to participate.So many times - we hear the other side of this issue in video's and the media.It is time that our fellow citizens and those elected to serve the residents of Minnesota -HEAR OUR THOUGHTS!!!!!! We do have several individuals already - who have agreed to participate and this emailwill be going out to them again separately to arrange a time for filming.ONLY THOSE WHO CONTACT RUTHIE - will be advised of location and filming date.This is to ensure those moles subscribed to MINNSIR do not deter our mission.Filming will take place shortly and should be completed by early April.I am sending this request out to see if there are more that would like to be involved.Your identity can be shadowed, but we prefer that not all opt for this option.Issues of how illegal immigration has impacted you can range from but not limited to:EconomicsJob and Employment IssuesCrimeHealth IssuesLanguage BarriersSchool and Education IssuesEtc.Exactly what we are looking for is YOUR STORIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you know of others that may consider being involved - please contact themand have them contact Ruthie. Ask only those you trust.Material used will be at the desegregation of MnMajority and MINNSIRRuthie will be the primary interviewer - please contact [email address redacted by editor] to discuss your participation or with questions.AgainHappy EasterRuthie
So MinnSIR and Majority will be making a video about the negative effects of immigration. Let's take a look at the production' sponsors.
First, MinnSIR. Beginning with the email itself, we the self-pity in the message puzzling. For instance, the media frequently give Ms. Hendrycks a platform for her views, as she is trotted out to represent the "anti" position in the debate on comprehensive immigration review. indeed, the group and a rally (which drew fewer than 100 people) was deemed newsworthy by the Strib barely a month after Hendrycks founded it in 2006.
Not once have we seen evidence that the mainstream media has asked the group to provide membership numbers or a balance sheet. Since the group has no paid staff and revenues under $25,000, it's not required to provide any public transparency.
A headline on the front page of the group's website now touts Ruthie's bid for Congress (though the fine print reveals she's in a bid for the open seat in Minnesota House District 21B). Since the group isn't large enough to report to anyone and hasn't voluntarily opened it's books, it's impossible to tell if this in-kind contribution to a candidate is worth over $100, at which point the group would have to register with the state Campaign Finance and Disclosure board.
While the group claims to be only against illegal immigration and to support "sensible" immigration reform, Ruthie approvingly distributes emails decrying the presence of Liberian refugees in Minnesota, opposing a state bill to allow a private service club to honor Mexican-American veterans (it passed this month in the Minnesota House by a 121-5 vote) and other such matters.
Minnesota Majority is another kettle of fish entirely. Launched last summer by social conservative Jeff Davis and friends, the group promotes "traditional values" and more. The group is a non-profit 501(c) 4, an organization that can engage in lobbying or political campaigning. Donations are not tax deductible.
And cultural flashpoints over "traditional values" are indeed a war for these folks:
Our country is in the midst of a fierce civil war between those who cherish our nation’s traditional values and those who want to radically remake America into a secular progressive country.
Minnesota Majority's web page about immigration (or illegal aliens, MM's preferred descriptor) is here. Some fascinating links from the Minn Majority page to interesting people and organizations.
The group generated a fair amount of controversy when a statement attributing longer lifespans to "racial purity" in the populations of Japan and Sweden was on the group's page about health care. As a firestorm of criticism hit, the statement was first defended, then scrubbed from the site. (See several posts at Lloydletta , Democracy at Work, Minnesota 2020 [Mn 2020 fellow John Hecke's column here] and MnPublius for a review of the fracas).
For a glimpse of past Minnesota Majority video projects, check out the group's YouTube page. We eagerly await the release of the organization's joint production with the brain trust at MinnSIR.
One solution for addressing poverty at home and abroad is organizing. On Thursday, two labor organizers from Colombia will speak in Rochester. We received the following notice for the Union Worker Struggles in Colombia event from Russell Hess, President, SE MN Central Labor Council:
WHEN: Thursday, March 20th
Program starts at 6:00 p.m.
WHERE: Christ United Methodist Church
400 5th St. SW Rochester, MN
Gerardo Cajamarca works with the United Steelworkers through their Associate Member Program. He dedicates his time to education on Global Justice, worker and human rights, Plan Colombia, Free Trade, and immigration. He has assisted in organizing workers at Tyson Meatpacking in Garden City, Kansas and the boycott against Western Union. He is part of the International Mission of SINALTRAINAL. In Colombia Gerardo investigated human rights violations for SINALTRAINAL, the union at the forefront of the struggle of Coca-Cola and NESTLE workers. In 2004, he sought asylum in the US after receiving death threats.
Edgar Paez is part of the international mission of SINALTRAINAL (National Food Industry Workers Union) in Colombia. Paez has dedicated his entire life to organizing workers and has worked actively in connecting social struggles both in Colombia and the world over. Paez is a member of the Operating Committee for the Social Observatory of transnational businesses, megaprojects, human rights and the Permanent Tribunal of the Pueblos Sesión, Colombia.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact Alicia Ranney (612) 578 – 8266
Russell Hess, (507) 261-6546
In January, Gerardo Cajamarca wrote about the Colombia he knows at the Huffington Post. More here in the Miami Herald about his work to educate people about Colombia and free trade agreements.
People in Rochester seem interested in the fate of Colombia. In an earlier (and separate) event, two Colombian Army officers drew a diverse crowd to an event at the city's public library, noted Andrea Villarraga, a sophomore at Lourdes High School, in a column published today.
More on the Rochester event from Workday Minnesota: Colombian unionist to speak in Minneapolis, Rochester. For additional background, see the March 12 press release, Change to Win Urges Congress to Reject Colombia Free Trade Agreement:
Change to Win released a print ad today demanding the United States Congress reject the Colombia Free Trade Agreement deal that the Bush administration is threatening to send to Congress in the coming weeks despite strong opposition.
"American workers are sick of job-destroying trade deals that benefit multinational corporations," said Bruce Raynor, General President of UNITE HERE. "A trade deal with Colombia is particularly outrageous because workers seeking to form unions there face brutal oppression and even murder. We are proud to stand with human rights activists, religious groups, unions and workers in Colombia in opposing the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement."
Colombia remains the most dangerous country in the world for union members. More than 2,200 workers have been murdered by Colombian death squads for trying to form unions since the 1980s, and there have been more than 400 murders since President Uribe took office five years ago. Yet the Colombian government has done nothing to effectively stop death squads from murdering workers for trying to form unions.
Trade agreements like NAFTA, CAFTA, and others have primarily benefited multinational corporations and the world's elite, at the expense of jobs and decent wages for working families, not only in America, but throughout the world. The proposed "free" trade deals perpetuate a discredited trade model that hurts U.S. workers, destroys jobs, and lowers living standards for workers here and in many trade partner countries where independent labor unions are restricted or outlawed. . . .
From the department of we missed it: the Congressional-Executive Commission on China held a hearing on February 27 on The Impact of the 2008 Olympic Games on Human Rights and the Rule of Law in China. Statements are online and a transcript will soon be available. The Washington Post reported China's Offer To Resume Rights Talks Is Discounted and USA Today, US lawmakers urge China to fulfill Olympic commitments to protect human right.
Congressman Walz, who taught high school in China, is a member of the Commission.
Over at DailyKos, McJoan provides an overview of the story so far in FISA Fight: The Fear Express rolls on. She quotes the Walz response after pointing out pertinent information from an LATimes report:
It's the same false charges, claiming that the lapse of the Protect America Act has meant that "new surveillance against terrorists is crippled." What it doesn't say is that the PAA lapsed because Republicans refused to extend, and even if they had voted to extend it, Bush would have vetoed it anyway. Then there's the whole part about the fact that it's just a lie, that the administration has been forced to admit that no intelligence has been lost and we are thus no less safe than we were before the law expired.
Update: The Liberal Media Elite weighs in.
Congratulations to Jennifer and David on the birth of Sage Elizabeth, 6 lbs, 10.5 oz. May she grow to be as good-looking, bright, strong, and courageous as both her parents, as kind as her grandmother Darlene, and as dedicated to community and country as her late grandfather Steve.
Iraq and Afghanistan aren't the only place where Americans serve. About 400 Minnesota National Guard members are helping to keep the peace in the newly-independent nation of Kosovo. The Albert Lea Tribune tells the story from the perspective of guard members stationed in Vitina. A very interesting read; the soldiers are highly regarded by local people:
NATO soldiers met with local officials prior to the declaration on the importance of keeping Kosovo peaceful when in the world spotlight.
Overall, he said, the presence of the troops have been well-received in Kosovo. He said the soldiers are “well-respected” by the Serbians and “much more well-respected, even revered” by the ethnic Albanians.
He said when the independence was declared the soldiers made sure Serbs were protected while Albanians celebrated.
The Mankato Free Press reports Local troops calm Kosovo tensions.
Congressman Walz worked hard last March to make sure the Guard in Kosovo kept receiving imminent danger pay.
In Fighting to improve US economy, a column published in today's Winona Daily News, Walz concludes:
In the past seven years, Bush has added an incredible $4 trillion to our national debt. I’m pleased that Congress, under its new leadership, has started to get a handle on spending by passing pay-as-you-go budget rules that require new government spending to be paid for. This is a good start, but more needs to be done.
With the passage of this stimulus package, it seems that Congress and Bush have begun to realize that we’re all in this together. The stimulus package is one example of the good things that can happen when Congress and the president work together, but we can’t stop there.
Next, we need to build on that accomplishment, set aside our differences and take some hard steps to balance the budget and reduce our national debt. It won’t be easy, but the work we do now will have a lasting impact on the economy and the types of economic opportunities our children have available to them.
The Owatonna People's Press looks at the economic and politics of ethanol in two stories: Corn prices tied to the crude oil rollercoaster and Ethanol's environmental impact under debate.
Walz, Betty McCollum, and Colin Peterson are among 52 Members of Congress [who] Press Secretary of State To Challenge Azerbaijan's Threats of Renewed Aggression:
More than 50 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives called upon Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Friday to challenge Azerbaijan's threats of renewed war against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, and to take concrete action to hold leaders in Baku accountable for actions that directly undermine the Administration's policy of fostering peace and stability in the South Caucasus region, reported the Armenian National Committee of America.
The letter, initiated by Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairmen Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ), cited specific recent threats by Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and stressed that, "these fear tactics and threats of war go directly against the United States' goal of peace and stability in the South Caucasus region. Azerbaijan has been threatening war with Armenia for years. However, these recent public comments made by high-ranking government officials prove that their rhetoric has turned into a very real and dangerous threat."
The Winona Human Rights Commission extends A diversity training invitation for Drazkowski, as well as offering a civics lesson:
Drazkowski expressed his concerns in an opinion column Feb. 6 about the budget difficulties in our courts. As our representative in the Legislature, he should have that concern.
He is also concerned about the high cost of administrative services within the court system. This is a legitimate concern. Among these costs is the cost of interpreters for those who don’t speak English or do not speak English well.
Drazkowski seems to be proposing that non-English speakers no longer receive the assistance of an interpreter within the state court system unless they bear the cost of interpretation themselves.
The Winona Human Rights Commission is concerned about such a proposal because it stands in direct contravention of existing law, specifically the United States Civil Rights Act, a law that requires an interpreter be provided in this setting.
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act is the “Prohibition Against National Origin Discrimination Affecting Limited English Proficient Persons.” For guidance, see www.hhs.gov/ocr/lep/revised lep.html.
The Waseca Historical Society presented a program about Waseca's Black History remembered. Interesting snapshots from history; we find the story of the three African-American baseball players on the town's 1900 state championship town to be especially ironic in light of the knuckleheaded racist remarks former Twins owner Calvin Griffith made to the Waseca Lions Club in 1978..
The Owatonna People's Press reports that his late grandfather's need for blood transfusions has inspired Joe Gibson to work to for change in Blooming Prairie teen behind bill to lower state's blood donor age to 16.
He had contacted state Rep. Patty Fritz with a petition and just expected to have his idea turned down. Instead, Fritz met with him to work on the bill's language. Both Fritz and Gibson expect it to pass. More in the Rochester Post Bulletin story, Teen on quest to lower blood-donor age to 16. Kids these days!
In the nearly two months since we posted a photo of California Minuteman and Dick Day pal Ron Branstner, we've heard from people who thought they recognized him as one of three Minutemen who had been disruptive of a community forum moderated by Fifth District Representative Keith Ellison last summer at Washburn High. Branstner's behavior included shouting down a tearful mother who was speaking at a microphone, according to two of our sources.
Here's a basic description of the meeting from the Twin Cities Daily Planet:
U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison is holding a community forum on immigration reform this Saturday, June 23, at 2 p.m.
The Congressman will be joined at Washburn High School, 201 W. 49th St., by Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), author of the STRIVE Act (the Security Through Regularized Immigration and Vibrant Economy Act of 2007) a proposal for comprehensive immigration reform.
The forum will include a panel of people from the labor movement, the faith community and the Hispanic, Somali and Hmong communities.
Gutierrez and Ellison will moderate the panel and take questions from the audience.
Our sources recalled Branstner interrupting people who had the floor.
In reading through the threads posted at Protect Our Border, we discovered that their identification was indeed correct. Ruthie Hendrycks posted an email from Branstner to the yahoo group (yellow highlighting and spelling as per the original):
This is a update on the Ellison Immigration reform debate this past weekendThis is straight from Calif member Ron - who was in attendance and we thankhim and all that were able to attendOf course it will be no surprise to anyone that the pro amnesty slant wasloud and clear - Ellison - must no be re elected EVER!Ruthie,
Yesterdays open forum at the washburn HS Minneapolis was, to say the least interesting.
Out numbered and out voiced the proponent cheered asthe propaganda machine spoke.
Ellison and Gutierrez said repeatedly that immigrationis flawed and sending people home is not the answer.The gym was filled with a third world eliment and little respect for law.Gutierrez was speaking in spanish and I stood up and shouted to speak in english and the mob was ready toput a rope around my neck.The reality is Minnesotans better awaken soon and with some fight. Ellison has plans to legalize as many 3rdworld people through this amnesty bill. Ellison is fighting to reinstate thousands of Liberians whos visas are about to expire next month, and with chain migration the families are awaiting there ticket to America. This should be headline news.
Yup, it's funny how annoyed people get at meetings when someone starts heckling. We've been to a lot of meetings--some where people have been really, really pissed at Congressman Walz for his war funding votes--and yet the custom is to be civil.
And the Liberians Branstner fears are political refugees. And as far as this issue being headline news, the story of their fight to stay in Minnesota wasn't particularly neglected by the media.
To its credit, the Star Tribune ran a series about the group beginning in February that has been regularly updated: A People Torn: Liberians in Minnesota. Doesn't seem as if Branstner or Hendrycks are aware of it--but facts are stubborn things.
And those visas? The Strib reported in September that the White House had extended them for 18 months, with the support of Minnesota's federal legislators:
Minnesota's entire Washington delegation supported the Liberians' bid to stay. A bill granting them one more year passed the House in July, but it was blocked in the Senate. In August, 54 House members sent a letter to Bush, urging him to extend the Liberians' legal stay. Signatures on the letter included Minnesota Republicans Jim Ramstad and John Kline and Democrats Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum and Collin Peterson.
On Wednesday, Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., said in a statement reacting to the decision: "With Liberia still struggling to rebuild and stabilize following years of civil strife, the country is simply not ready to absorb these people yet." The extension, Coleman said, "will also buy time for policymakers to find a more permanent solution for these important members of our community."
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said the 18-month window "allows us to put some distance between this issue and the heated immigration debate."
What distinguishes the Liberians' case from many other immigration issues is the fact that they have been living legally in the country and checking in regularly with government officials. "This isn't someone running into our country," Klobuchar said. "These are people who came over as refugees and have been here in some cases for 15 years. ... Their stories are heartbreaking as to what would happen to them if they return to Liberia."
Hendrycks likes to claim that her group only opposes illegal immigrants, and yet she distributes an email objecting to a "third world eliment [sic]" that is in the United States quite legally.
That's one of the reasons BSP has used the phrase "immigration reduction group" to describe unincorporated groups like Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform, which is a subchapter of the Minnesota Coalition for Immigration Reduction (MCFIR). MCFIR seeks to reduce legal immigration by eighty percent, not simply to end illegal immigration. MinnSIR wants "sensible" immigration reform, but never spells out whether its definition of "sensible" concurs with its parent chapter's agenda item:
We feel that the number of legal immigrants should be cut back from the nearly 1-million we currently let in per year to 200,000. From 1924 – 1965, we let in an average of 178,000 immigrants per year.
MCFIR may foster a subchapter that circulates an email objecting to the Liberians, but the Strib notes that many Minnesotans are quite happy to have the West Africans living here:
Meanwhile, Minnesota employers and communities where the Liberians live had joined their lobbying effort in Washington. Many of the Liberians work in health care jobs, and their employers feared a serious shortage of hospital and nursing home workers come October.
Officials in Brooklyn Park, where many of the Liberians live, also worried that a glut of homes and apartments might depress the city's real estate markets. . . .
So the Liberians have followed the law and worked hard. What were Hendrycks and Branstner objecting to again?
We gave this post a title riffing off William Butler Yeats' great poem, Easter 1916. Reading Ruthie's posts suggests a truncated paraphrase about the candidate for the state legislature:
That woman's days were spent
In ignorant ill-will,
Her nights in argument
Until her voice grew shrill. . . .. . .Transformed utterly:
A terrible bigotry is born.
We are left wondering exactly what MN-01 GOP congressional candidate wannabes Dick Day and Brian Davis find so attractive with MinnSIR leader Hendrycks and the Independent Minnesota Minutemen.
We were involved in a subzero split the kipper contest out on Mud Lake early this morning, and have only now recovered. Our apologies for the late post.
Yesterday, the New Ulm Journal reported that Granite Falls' Fallen soldier has local ties:
A U.S. Army soldier whose father lives in Searles died Jan. 26, from small arms fire injuries suffered in Waygul, Afghanistan
Sgt. 1st Class Matthew R. Kahler, 29, of Granite Falls, was the son of Ron Kahler of Searles and Colleen Kahler of Montevideo.
The Department of Defense said Kahler may have been hit by friendly fire from an Afghan guard who mistook him for an enemy, according to a report from the Associated Press.
Searles is south of New Ulm on Minnesota Highway 15. The Marshall Independent reports Trust fund set up for soldier's family:
A trust fund has been set up by the Yellow Medicine East Class of 1997 for the Matthew Kahler family. Contributions may be sent to: Matthew Kahler Trust Fund, care of Granite Falls Bank, PO BX 8, Granite Falls, MN 56241 or dropped off in person at the bank at 702 Prentice Street, Granite Falls.
Kahler leaves behind a wife and four-year-old daughter.
A friend sent us an article from CQ Today that appears to be lodged behind a firewall, "Freshman Democrats Push for Contempt of Congress Citations for Bolten, Miers"
A determined group of freshman Democrats is pushing for a House vote on a resolution citing White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers for contempt of Congress.
The freshmen, who were elected to the House on a wave of anti-Republican sentiment in 2006, say the House needs to act in order to preserve its authority to oversee the executive branch.
“I think the American people are eager to see Congress taking steps to reassert the proper balance in our constitutional framework,” said Paul W. Hodes of New Hampshire.
The House Judiciary Committee approved the resolution last July. The committee had subpoenaed Miers to appear at a subcommittee hearing on the firings of several U.S. attorneys in 2006. The committee subpoenaed Bolten for White House documents related to the firings. Miers and Bolten did not comply with the subpoenas; the White House asserted executive privilege in preventing Miers from testifying and in refusing to hand over documents.
Tim Walz of Minnesota, the president of the 44-member freshman Democratic class, echoed Hodes, saying “maybe it’s coming from the freshmen because we’re so ground level.” Walz said that his class is pushing Democratic leaders to put the resolution on the floor, and freshman proponents are working to build support in their individual state delegations.
Democratic leaders may have political reasons for putting off a House vote. Republicans are certain to paint it as a partisan exercise. And one House Democratic aide said that not all freshman Democrats are eager for the vote.
But Walz, Hodes and their allies insist that the House needs to act. . . .
The Albert Lea Tribune asks How will you spend a rebate? In Owatonna, the residents simply doubt one is on the way in Economic stimulus package met with cynicism. A taste of the mood in Owatonna:
"I'll believe it when I see it," Muir said dryly. "There's always something to spend it on, I won't have any trouble with that."
Others believed the package is too good to be true.
"I'm a little wary of it because, as I see it, all the rich people will get most of it and we'll all get $20," said Target employee Melissa Haselton as she worked the electronics counter in the store.
The reporter interviewed Walz:
Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., wasn't surprised that the measure was met with disbelief, but was optimistic that the package had enough support from both parties to be out of the congressional chambers and onto the President's desk within a week.
"I would say they have become wise on that, and I wouldn't blame them," Walz said. "But if there's been an issue that has united us, it's the package."
Walz called the package the "first real relief for the middle class" and said he expected to pass the package in the House of Representatives on Tuesday. The Senate will look at the package today.
In the New Ulm Journal, a letter writer suggests buying American-made products with the rebate, or at the very least, shopping local in Stimulating the economy – whose?.
The Owatonna People's Press also reported Walz leads fundraising for 2008 election. Read remarks from the Walz political director and the three GOP contenders at the OPP.
The OPP also reports Walz witnesses arrests on U.S.-Mexico border, though the story isn't on its front page online. Walz's view on immigration reform is contrasted with that of the local GOP contender's support for a "wall" between the two countries:
By contrast, Walz believes that the key to solving the problem is stepped up security and immigration reform, which would make legal immigration more efficient and attractive than a risky journey through the desert.
"There are 5,000 spots, but there are 10 million [people] in the line," Walz said. "We're incentivizing illegal immigration." Walz added that employers are in dire need of workers, and that a better immigration policy would enhance the economy. On this point, activists with Centro Campesino are in agreement.
"The U.S. has its right to protect its borders, just like every country," said Ernesto Clara, who works for Centro Campesino. "What we're against is that they're apprehending hardworking people, rather than real targets."
In Worthington, a speaker talked to school children about the Holocaust in From Holocaust to racism, according to the Globe. The lead:
How do you see the spirit of the Holocaust alive and well in Worthington, Adrian or Ellsworth?
Is it in the school cafeteria, where the popular kids congregate with their kind and the stoners and the loners with theirs?
Is it at home, where parents talk negatively about the community’s influx of Hispanics, Asians and Somalis?
Is that spirit alive within you — a flicker of hatred toward gays, lesbians, blacks, Jews, Jehovah’s Witness? … The list goes on and on.
If you can look at yourself in the mirror and see even the tiniest flame, then Timothy Scott wants you to extinguish it before it gets fanned. . . .
. . .Scott, an attorney with Bakke Norman Law Office in western Wisconsin, has spent the past 17 years traversing the Midwest to tell the story of the Holocaust and relate it to the racial and ethnic tensions that are alive today in countries across the globe — and in our own backyards.
“You don’t have to be white to hate,” he said.
The documentary film "So the Bible Tells Me So" has been shown in Jake Reitan's home town, the Mankato Free Press reports in Acclaimed film reaches Mankato:
The film features Jake Reitan, and his parents Phil and Randi, while telling the stories of religious couples who discovered one of their children was homosexual. Jake Reitan was 15 years old and a sophomore at West High School when he first told his sister he was gay. It was a year later before he told his parents.
An interesting coalition teamed up to show the film:
And it was a group of six local churches — along with the Human Rights Campaign and Minnesota State University’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Center — that has brought “For the Bible Tells Me So” to MSU’s Ostrander Auditorium and downtown’s Maverick 4 Theatre in the Mankato Place Mall.
IAM leader Rich Michalski looks at the impact of trade policy on good jobs in Opportunity for U.S. aerospace in Minnesota in the Albert Lea Tribune.
The Waseca County News reports Economic measures affect Waseca. Former Congressman Tim Penny and other local leaders discuss the economic climate.
The Fairmont Sentinel editorial board writes Mouthing ‘change’ won’t alter underlying realities. As usual with the very conservative paper, they're against Walz. And expanding SCHIP, ending the Iraq War, and affordable health care insurance, and economic policy directed toward helping the middle class.
