Sometimes you read something in the news or see something on tv that strikes a deep nerve. That happened to me yesterday.
The news that Minnesota State Senator Linda Scheid had ceased treatment for ovarian cancer and was entering hospice care at home brought back a wave of raw emotions.
It seems like only yesterday that I went through this myself as a family member. My mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer around Christmas 2003. She fought it valiantly but in the fall of 2008 the doctors advised her that there were no further treatments that would be of help. She entered hospice care at home around Christmas time 2008 and died New Year’s Day 2009.
Sen. Scheid and her family are going through the same things my family went through. It is an experience I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy.
I walked away from the political world with an apathetic finger in 2010 when I was told by a staffer of one of our federally elected officials that the senator would not sign on and support a bill in the Senate that would provide funding for ovarian cancer research because you can’t support every cancer research bill that comes along.
According to the American Cancer Society, in women age 35-74, ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths. An estimated one woman in 58 will develop ovarian cancer during her lifetime. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2009, there will be 21,550 new cases of ovarian cancer and 14,600 women will die from ovarian cancer.
When one is diagnosed and treated in the earliest stages, the 5-year survival rate is over 90%. Due to ovarian cancer's non-specific symptoms and lack of early detection tests, only 19% of all cases are found at this early stage. If caught in stage III or higher, the survival rate can be as low as 30.6%.
There is still no early detection test available for ovarian cancer nor has Congress approved funding to develop an early detection test.
In honor of Sen. Scheid and her family, my mom and family and the 21,550 women who will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year maybe we can get our politicians to listen to our pleas and pass legislation setting aside funding to develop an early detection test for ovarian cancer.
One woman in 58 will develop ovarian cancer during her lifetime.
Are you going to be one of those 58? Will your mother, sister, daughter, girlfiend, wife?
Chad Larimer lives and works in Rochester.
Bluestem Prairie hopes readers will keep Senator Scheid in their prayers, and work for congressional action for funding for an ovarian cancer early detection test.
On this Memorial Day, I'm remembering those who defended my country, and those who died for it.
One story that's moved me this spring strikes at the core of what it means to be an American, to love this country, to honor its values: the death of Cpl. Andrew Wilfahrt and his family's standing up for equality for all people. Andrew Wilfahrt was a gay man; this was the least interesting thing about him. What those who served with him remember is a soldier who was there for his fellow soldiers. He's buried now in the national cemetery at Fort Snelling, along with one of my own uncles who died in the Malmedy Massacre and with hundreds of others who served their country.
Wilfahrt's life and death became an emblem of equality in in recent debates over a bill to amend the Minnesota constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Those opposing the bill--and now the amendment--have risen to rare eloquence, none more than that of a Republican freshman legislator who lost the lower part of his legs in Iraq when an IED exploded.
In this video, John Kriesel points toward protesters chanting during this statement, saying that that America was the one he had fought for. I'd like to believe that this is where Andrew's heart is, in the America that includes everyone, and values everyone, but there are others, equally American, who believe otherwise. This is their right; some may even object to the posting of this video on Memorial Day. That, too, is their right.
My beloved state now faces a debate and a fight over fundamentals: who we are, what we love, how a society will recognize that love, and what love will matter. This Memorial Day, I'm siding with the Wilfahrt family and Representative John Kriesel, a straight, married, conservative man, in saying Yes to a society which respects love, and on Election Day in November 2012, saying "Hell No!" to those who would deny equality for Andrew and everyone. I'd prefer that no one's fundamental rights and dignity be put up for a vote, but since vote I must, it's "Hell No."
Thank you, John Kriesel. Thank you, Jeff and Lori Wilfahrt. And thank you, Andrew Wilfahrt.
A probable answer comes from behind the paid subscribers firewall at the Austin version of the Post Bulletin in the article County receives GOP payment, lesson:
As of three weeks ago, 31 counties still hadn't been reimbursed by the GOP, said Sharon Anderson, auditor/treasurer of Cass County. The total owed is about $31,000.[emphasis added]
The GOP still owes Cass County nearly $1,800.
"We have not received it," Anderson said Tuesday. "I've dropped that ball for the last couple of weeks; the reason I put that ball away is because our leadership spoke with the state party chair and the accountant and at least had a verbal assurance that as funds were raised, counties would get paid."
It's been frustrating, she admitted, but said she's been in regular contact with the Cass County attorney.
"I've lost patience," Anderson said. "I don't feel politically at liberty to go any further than the county administrators want."
Her position is an appointed one, unlike many of the state's auditor-treasurer roles.
Anderson hasn't spoken with Tony Sutton, the Republican Party chairman.
"Our leadership and association did the homework," she said, "and their advice to us is to keep sending the bill every month. I'm going to suggest to our county board that we should be invoking an interest charge on those late accounts."
Now, that figure is three weeks old, and presumably Sutton has paid a few more bills. Has he made a specific ask to contributors--or maybe to statewide Republican candidates who had money left in their kitties at the end of 2010? Say Pat Anderson's $3283 or Dan Severson's $8781?
A bitter divide in the state Republican Party over expanded gambling has activists saying they want a closer look at the party chairman's ties to the anti-gambling group he helps lead and the tribal money that funds it.
Republican leaders want Party Chairman Tony Sutton to explain how GOP activists on a closely held party database began receiving e-mails from Citizens Against Gambling Expansion, a group funded in part by American Indian casino operators opposed to gambling expansion.
"If Sutton wants to be part of CAGE, then he's going to have to answer questions," said John Gilmore, a St. Paul Republican who supports Sutton.
Sutton said Wednesday there's no proof CAGE even has the list. The group's chairman, Republican operative Jack Meeks, said the group built its own database over the past several years.
"We don't give anybody the list," said Sutton, a CAGE board member. He said the latest accusations are part of a "smear campaign" by those who want to expand gambling.
Sutton and the GOP are between a couple of rocks; I will not speculate about the hard places, as we simply aren't that close.
Image:Tild's take from last summer still has currency.
I'd been following the tragic story of the double suicide of Haylee Fentress and Paige Moravetz, two 14-year-old friends via the Marshall Independent, and thus was interested in Andy Birkey's fine story, Double suicide in western Minnesota puts bullying back in spotlight.
A couple of people leaving comments on the April 22 Minnesota Independent story suggest that the local paper isn't covering the story. "Dyna" posts that "The local press here in Marshall is not reporting this story at all" while "Bopper" writes "Nothing in SW Minnesota papers beyond a brief report that the suicides occured. This was the first real information I’ve seen." Both comments were left on April 22.
Bluestem readers know that I won't be shy in criticizing the Marshall paper if it were indeed ignoring this story. However, neither comment accurately reflects coverage of the story by the Marshall Independent, which first began reporting about the story on April 17 with Teens die in incident this weekend.
Willert and Cindy Manthey of the Southwest/West Central Service Cooperative's Critical Incident Stress Management team spoke to members of the media Monday, and answered questions about the incident. Willert said school administrators and staff have been in communication with the deceased students' families in order to respect their wishes and privacy.
"Based on information provided by the Lyon County Sheriff's Department, we have had two unexpected deaths of Marshall Middle School students," Willert said. Willert said Haylee Fentress and Paige Moravetz, both 14, died by suicide. . . .
"We need to model and talk with our children about how do we solve problems, how do we deal with things that are hard," she said. It is also helpful to teach monitor children and teen's use of cell phones and social media, and to teach them to be cautious about information they receive electronically. "Just because it's something was texted or someone put on Facebook, that doesn't mean it's fact." . . .
The article noted that there'd be a public meeting about the suicides and places for people to find more information.
On April 20, the Marshall Independent published an article about that gathering, Middle School meeting offers support for parents. The meeting mostly addressed how to deal with students' response to the deaths, but social media was brought up:
Cindy Manthey of CISM said parents should not overlook the role social media can play after the death of a student. Texting, Facebook and Twitter all make it easier for misinformation and rumors to get spread around. In working with Marshall students, she said, "We've been handling the rumors, we've been talking about the rumors."
Rumors are a concern because young people tend to be impressionable, Manthey said.
"They also don't have much of a filter as to what gets posted," she said. Supervising children, and shutting off cell phones or Facebook at night is good for everyone's well-being.
Marshall school officials, along with a crisis team from SW/WC Service Cooperative are doing a good thing by stepping up and reaching out to students and their parents and to the community as everyone copes with last weekend's incident outside of Marshall where two middle school students took their own lives.
As school officials and, in some cases, leaders within the community, this group expedited grief counseling Sunday and have continued it this week, held a news conference for members of local and statewide media to dispel rumors and organized an unprecedented event at the middle school Tuesday evening to give parents some kind of guidance as to how best to handle the situation within the walls of their own homes. . . .
All parents should be reminded to keep the lines of communication with their kids wide open, to listen to everything they have to say, and to encourage their kids to express their thoughts, feelings and emotions - not only about what happened last weekend, but about anything that's on their minds. Tuesday's meeting was designed to be a teaching tool for all parents that they can use now and in the future as their children grow up in a society full of pressures today's parents never experienced when they were 10, 11 or 12 years old.
If a child is looking for answers, we want them to turn to their immediate, personal networks - their parents or their school leaders - not to the social, online networks where the answers they're looking for cannot be found.
. . .On Monday, the first day of school after the incident, every advisory classroom at the middle school came with its own counselor, including fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms. Thomas said between 12 and 20 fifth- and sixth-graders have been seen by counselors throughout the week. Most of the counseling that has occurred with those kids, she said, has had a lot to do with previous life experiences they have had.
"This really resurrects so many emotions that kids and adults have stuffed away," Thomas said. "When something else tragic or critical occurs in our lives then all of it comes to the surface. Our team has really addressed a great deal of that as well as the tragedy that occurred last week.
Is the coverage muted? Yes, but it appears that much of the tone was set by the surviving immediate family members of the girls. What does emerge is a picture of a community and a paper that are not ignoring the deaths, but trying to address the immediate needs of middle school children.
Five news articles and op-ed pieces are not "nothing" or "ignoring" the story. Birkey's article keys on bullying related issues raised in an interview on the TODAY show with cousins and an uncle. It's worthy watching, as the grief-stricken relatives cautiously speculate about the deaths.
The deaths follow on the heels of the suicides of two teens in the New London Spicer area earlier in April. The community gathered for a discussion about suicide prevention. Groups like Minnesota Bully Busters are also organizing in West Central Minnesota communities and online.
Times Newsfeed shared a statement from Haylee's mother and older sister:
And in a written statement, Haylee's mother, Tracy Morrison, and her older sister, Ashley George, made it clear that they believe bullying played a critical role in the girls' deaths. “We need to stop pretending this isn't happening or that is just a cry for attention because obviously it is not,” they wrote. “This needs to be talked about and we need to try to prevent this by teaching kids in school, community and at home. They need to know they are not alone. It shouldn't take more tragedies to realize this.”
A monthly pension benefit that’s less than $200 for Michael Struck’s widow is generating concerns at the Capitol.
Struck, who was a Minnesota Department of Transportation employee, died in a March 22 accident while operating a backhoe. He was swept into a stream while doing flood-mitigation work at Seven Mile Creek County Park between St. Peter and Mankato.
The actuarial calculation in state law means that Struck’s widow will get $191 a month, according to Minnesota State Retirement System Executive Director Dave Bergstrom.
Struck, 39, of Cleveland, had worked for the state for about eight-and-a-half years. In addition to years of service, the actuarial process is based on the deceased age from age 65.
Policy issues in response to the tragedy could include considering a minimum death benefit for workers similar to Struck. By contrast, the widow of a state patrol officer who is killed in the line of duty receives 50 percent of final salary.
Right now it seems tasteless to this hick blogger--given my uncouth country manners--to delve into the political ironies of this situation.
Instead of just lamenting the pittance, Bluestem's readers who can afford it should send a donation to a fund set up by Struck's co-workers to help educate his small children, Kaylee, 6 and Gavin, 4:
Mike Struck Memorial Fund c/o Nicollet County Bank 220 South Third Street St. Peter, MN 56082
Consider also contacting your state legislators and ask them to put the survivors of other state workers killed responding to emergencies on an equal footing with those of Highway Patrol officers.
As has been widely reported, Struck was one of those guys who gave a lot back to the community--as a volunteer firefighter--as well as being the sort of co-worker who always pitched in. Help his kids out.
Like Seventh CD representative Collin Peterson, Gabby Giffords is a member of the conservative Blue Dogs Caucus. Peterson's statement about the shootings hasn't been as widely circulated as those of his colleagues, but it did find its way into the Fergus Falls Journal:
“I was shocked and saddened to hear of the shooting of my colleague and friend Gabrielle Giffords, and other staff and constituents in Tucson today.
“Gabby is a terrific Congresswoman, and someone who works very well with members on both sides of the aisle. She is really an up-and-coming leader in Congress. My prayers are with her and her family as she fights to survive, and my thoughts go out to the families of those who died or were injured in this senseless act of violence.”
That Representative Gabrielle Giffords and many others were shot at a meet-the-congresswoman event at a grocery store made today's tragedy in Arizona a little closer to home.
I'd been to a couple of Congressman Walz's famous stops at Hyvees and other grocery stores to observe and report on the Mankato Democrat and his staff listen to constituents' concerns. Over the years, I've got on a friendly footing with the staff, and knowing that those shot in Arizona are probably much like my friends here--kind, caring people who work hard for the people the boss serves--was a bit of a gut punch.
And I know other staffers for representatives and our two senators--so the notion that one of them might be murdered at work is chilling indeed. My sympathies go out to the victims and their families; it must be particularly brutal for the family of the dead child to go through such heartbreak.
We should be able to meet with elected officials without fear. And when people are angry--as Americans sometimes are--a soft answer should be able to turn away wrath, as Minnesota witnessed in the confrontation between Governor Dayton and a group of Tea Party protesters earlier this week.
Reactions to today's shooting are coming in from around the state and nation. Congressman Walz sent out the following statement:
Gwen and I are devastated. This is an unthinkable tragedy for our nation. Attacks on public servants and their staff have no place in America. Our thoughts and prayers are with Gabrielle, her husband Mark, Gabrielle’s staff and their families, and the families of everyone who was hurt or killed today.
Photo: Congressman Walz talking to Southern Minnesotans in a local grocery store, 2008.
Today marked the 148th anniversary of the largest mass execution in American history, in Mankato following the U.S. - Dakota War of 1862. I've written before about the conflict; today the Mankato Free Press and columnist Nick Coleman each touched on the execution.
Today, as on many a Dec. 26 of decades past, the Dakota Indians will commemorate the hanging of 38 of their ancestors in the largest mass execution in U.S. history.
They will hold a ceremony at Mankato’s Reconciliation Park to remember this dark time in our history. 2012 will mark the 150th anniversary of the hangings.
Already there are preparations at the Minnesota Historical Society for a large exhibit and report on this significant historical event. Ancestors from both white and Dakota sides will be interviewed. Memories will come forth in a narrative that will be a somber reminder on the price paid by what seems like it could have been an avoidable conflict.
Many Mankato area residents know the story, although more and more it seems, some young people have not paid as much attention to it as their elders. . . .
. . . We should give pause to any reaction to declare a winner in a conflict that extracted so much violence on both sides. As we’ve watched the Dakota commemoration over the years, we see that spirit running through the ceremony. Many non-Indians have been invited and welcomed to the ceremony.
So it’s difficult sometimes to face an annual reliving of sorts of this dark chapter of U.S. and Dakota history, but it’s also a living reminder the reconciliation is just as important to history as the conflict itself.
Dec. 26, 1862: The execution of the 38 Dakota warriors at Mankato: Revenge and rage drove the flawed legal proceedings behind the kangaroo-court convictions of 303 Indians who surrendered after the U.S.- Dakota war of that autumn. Only President Lincoln’s aversion to mass punishment limited the hangman’s toll to 38. But the stain of those official killings, followed by the official banishment of the Dakota Sioux from their home (banishment or extermination was the state’s policy) left a mark of shame on Minnesota that has colored all the years since, and which has made it almost impossible to even talk about the events of 1862. Now, proposals have been made to extend a posthumous “pardon” to one of the hanged. Pardoning one man doesn’t even come close to an official recognition of the wrongs done to the Dakota, or to comprehending the scale of an avoidable tragedy that claimed hundreds of lives on all sides of the racial divide that was the cradle of Minnesota’s birth. . . .
After reviewing his extensive history of learning and writing about the war and its aftermath, Coleman includes his column from December 19, while observing that through the comments on columns about the conflict published at the Strib, he'sdiscovered:
through the kind of readers’ comments those efforts have received that the well of ignorance and outright racism remains deep and largely unplumbed in this state.
There's a great deal of truth in that observation. What will the 150th anniversary of the war draw from most: the spirit of the commenorations in the park today--or from that poisoned well at which so many readers of Coleman's columns drink?
— The largest mass execution in U.S. history occurred 148 years ago, when 38 Dakota warriors were hanged from a single scaffold in Mankato.
The shock waves of that mass execution still reverberate today among the Dakota people. A new documentary film remembers the 38, and also a group of Dakota who ride on horseback each year at this time to Mankato to commemorate the executions of Dec. 26, 1862.. . .
At the end of Dakota 38, the filmmakers reveal that one of the young men featured in the film recently committed suicide.
Dakota 38 co-director Sarah Weston, a member of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, said the suicide is part of what she calls the 'historical grief' left over from the traumatic collision in the 1800's between Native Americans and white settlers.
One of the film's messages, Weston said, is that the Dakota and other Indians should take a simple but difficult step: forgive the misdeeds of the past.
"The past is really, really traumatic," Weston said. "But we're going to reach our hand out and say that we forgive. Because when you're not in a forgiveness place, you're linked to that person or that trauma for the rest of your life, all day long. And so by forgiving we're no longer linked to that."
A point worth reflecting on in a dark and snowy December.
= I knew that Gwen Walz and Elizabeth Edwards had formed a friendship on the campaign trail. Today, Gwen and her spouse, Congressman Tim Walz, issued this statement, released by the Walz campaign office:
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Elizabeth. She was an inspiration to us and we were honored to call her a friend. Our thoughts and prayers are with her children.”
Below you will find a tribute Gwen penned after Elizabeth’s passing yesterday.
Elizabeth walked into our home and our hearts on a rainy day in September, 2004. Tim and I were hosting a discussion about military issues during the Presidential election. Elizabeth engaged in this discussion with a deep sense of awareness. She knew the issues and cared about the people. We were amazed at her genuineness. Elizabeth immediately felt like a dear friend.
Hope and I gave Elizabeth The Humanity bracelet. Elizabeth loved the words on each link: Hope, Courage, Truth, Family, Kindness, Passion, Loyalty. She wore the bracelet on campaign stops throughout the election in 2004 and after. I wear my bracelet regularly and am reminded of her. She loved words and knew their power.
Her influence on my view of the role of a political spouse has been profound. She was fearless in her advocacy of the issues and people about whom she cared. Elizabeth was never afraid to share her stories, lessons, and insights – it was a way she stayed true to herself, she said.
When Tim was elected to Congress in 2006, one of the first calls came from Elizabeth. She ended that call and many of those after with a comment about how proud she was to know and be associated with me. I was always humbled by her words. At the most unexpected times she would call. She knew the perfect thing to say – always. She was complete in her generosity of time and encouragement.
She is grace and dignity. I will profoundly miss her in the campaign of every day. Elizabeth was an inspiration and a friend. She signed notes, books, etc. to me “with love and affection. Elizabeth”
Good bye friend. With love and affection. Gwen
Photo: Elizabeth Edwards and the Walz family, 2004. Photo supplied.
Demmer’s campaign announced today that former Minnesota Rep. Vin
Weber has signed on as campaign chairman. Weber served in Congress for
Minnesota’s sixth and second districts from 1981-1993 and was an adviser
to Mitt Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Currently, Weber is co-chairman for Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s Freedom First
political action committee and works for D.C. lobbyist group Clark
& Weinstock.
“Nobody understands southern Minnesota better than Vin Weber,” Demmer
said in a statement announcing Weber as chairman.
We beg to differ, being of the opinion that thousands of people who have lived there in the current century may have acquired a some understanding along the way--perhaps even more than a lobbyist in the District of Columbia.
As for Demmer, this move will certain help with FEC compliance. As I reported early Wednesday, Randy Demmer had spent nearly a grand of contributor cash on FEC compliance, but his report was riddled with incomplete but mandated information. I was able to locate most of the information for Demmer, but he has yet to find it in himself to make a Paypal donation for all that work! Maybe some of Weber's clients could fork over the money
My friends at the Southeast Minnesota Area Labor Council sent Bluestem this invitation:
Decades of struggle by workers and their unions have resulted in significant improvements in working conditions. But the toll of workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths remains enormous. Each year, thousands of workers are killed and millions more are injured or diseased because of their jobs. The unions of the AFL-CIO remember these workers on April 28, Workers Memorial Day.
The first Workers Memorial Day was observed in 1989. April 28 was chosen because it is the anniversary of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the day of a similar remembrance in Canada. Every year, people in hundreds of communities and at worksites recognize workers who have been killed or injured on the job. Trade unionists around the world now mark April 28 as an International Day of Mourning.
Please join us for our annual commemoration of Workers Memorial in Rochester, MN.
Speakers include MNDOT Commissioner Tom Sorel, Congressman Walz's Office, and Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede among others.
Date: Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
Time: Refreshments begin at 8:30 am; Program at 9:00 am
Place: MN DOT District 6 Offices, 2900 48th Street NW, Rochester, MN 55901
Please drive around the back of the offices to the Cold Storage Area
Read more about Workers Memorial Day at Workday Minnesota. Other events around the state from the article:
Superior, Wis., Federation of Labor tree planting and observance 9 a.m. – Bear Creek Park, Highways 2 and 53 and Moccasin Mike Road, Superior
Minneapolis and St. Paul Building & Construction Trades Councils observance Noon - United Hospital Project Site, downtown St. Paul
AFSCME and MnDOT observance 2 p.m. - Cedar Truck Station, 1900 E. 66th St., Richfield
West Area Labor Council observance, featuring singer Ron Franz and speakers 5 p.m. - Bringewatt Park, 2205 - 24th Ave. So., Grand Forks, N.D.
Southern Dakota County Labor Assembly and St. Paul Regional Labor Federation observance 7 p.m. - Lebanon Cemetery, 6442 - 140th St. W., Apple Valley
Panel discussion on current safety and health issues 7 p.m. - St. Paul Labor Centre, 411 Main St., St. Paul Featuring
Francisco Altamirano, Painters District Council 82; Lisa Brosseau,
University of Minnesota School of Public Health; and Belinda Thielen,
United Food & Commercial Workers. Sponsored by the University of
Minnesota Labor Education Service and co-sponsored by the Midwest
Center for Occupational Health and Safety and the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences
Image: Poster from a collection of international images at Hazards.
Once again. Bluestem will be putting together a digest of news from First Congressional District newspapers.
The congressional work break is ending, with the House convening in the afternoon. Papers throughout the district reported on Congressman Walz's visits throughout the district. One of the last stops was Austin. The Herald reports in Walz visits Austin for roundtable with businesses owners:
First District Congressman Tim Walz commended the City of Austin
Thursday for its collaborative efforts such as the Hormel Institute.
Calling the research facility a worldwide leader that combines
resources of the city, Mayo Clinic, the Hormel Foods Corporation and
the University of Minnesota, Walz told a roundtable of area business
people that he has enjoyed watching a community long anchored by a meat
packing plant reinvent itself. . . .
Just as they did with Social Security in the 1930’s and Medicare in the 1960’s, Republicans are saying ‘No’ to reform of our health insurance system once again!
Just last week 68 Minnesota Republican legislators urged state Attorney General Swanson to repeal the new health insurance law. They want to return to the bad old days of medical bankruptcies. They want to let insurance companies deny people’s legitimate medical claims and to deny care to those of us with pre-existing conditions.
Alliance for a Better Minnesota reported that in just one day, thousands of average Minnesotans had showered these legislators with over 140,000 letters. Their message? That working people don’t appreciate the Republicans putting insurance companies ahead of them yet again.
I just wish the Republicans would stop being against any and all reform efforts, and cooperate for once with the Democrats for some positive change.
The $347 million in proposed cuts to the state's health and human
services budget may look good on paper, but could actually increase
costs to the state in the long run.
"The cuts to human services
acts as a tax on the most vulnerable people in Minnesota," said Steve
Larson, public policy director for ARC Minnesota. "It will be more
expense on these people and their families."
Members of ARC
Minnesota and ARC Southwest, along with Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont,
and directors of programs such as REM and STEP Inc., gathered Saturday
to speak out about how some of the proposed cuts will affect people
with disabilities and the organizations that serve them. . . .
The Jackson County News notes Another Senate candidate, the entry of Rep. Doug Magnus into the open seat created by the retirement of Senator Jim Vickerman. Here's the lineup so far:
Magnus joins two Jackson County residents, Mike Garbers and Kim Hummel,
in the race for the GOP nomination. Murray County Commissioner Kevin
Vickerman recently announced his intention to seek the Senate seat
currently held by his uncle, Jim Vickerman, DFL-Tracy. Kevin Vickerman
is also running as a Democrat.
Thumbs down: To a large portion of society and a stunning number of
Republicans who accept loopy falsehoods as facts while party leaders
fail to disavow such nonsense.
A new Harris Poll found those
polled who identified themselves as Republicans believe as fact: That
President Obama was not born in the U.S. and so is not eligible to be
president (45 percent); that Obama is Muslim (57 percent); that Obama
wants to take away Americans’ right to own guns (61 percent); that
Obama is doing many things Hitler did (38 percent); that Obama is the
“domestic enemy that the U.S. Constitution speaks of” (45 percent); and
that the president “may be the Anti-Christ” (24 percent).
It’s one thing to vehemently disagree on political issues, it’s another to disregard well-vetted facts in order to demonize.
. . .Speaking, though, will be restricted to a pre-ordained list of local
residents and political candidates asked to talk about three issues:
fiscal responsibility, constitutional limits on government and the
importance of free markets.
So far, one Independence Party
candidate for Congress is planning to speak, as are Republicans seeking
congressional and legislative seats. Democrats were invited but are not
expected to attend.
Johnson Jr. is on the board of the Minnesota State University College
Republicans, but he characterizes his views as
independent/conservative. His father was active in the Ross Perot
presidential campaign and was a supporter of Jesse Ventura’s campaign
for governor.
“We don’t want the Republican Party to think they’re going to absorb
us,” Johnson Sr. said. “We’re not an organization that endorses
candidates.” . . .
. . .Maves said several candidates are expected to be at the rally
representing the Constitution Party, Independence Party and the
Republican Party. Several speakers are expected to address the crowd at
6 p.m. They include KROC conservative radio host Tom Ostrom, Republican
Secretary of State candidate Dan Severson and former Republican 1st
District Rep. Gil Gutknecht.
Gutknetcht's [sic] speech is aimed at
firing up the crowd to get conservative candidates elected. He said
that while he has not been involved in the Tea Party movement, he said
he has been impressed by how passionate members are about politics. . . .
The paper looks forward to this weekend's GOP endorsing convention in Republicans set to endorse challenger of Walz and profiles each Republican contender. As these are rich fodder, I'll discuss them in a separate post in the morning.
The forum will be upstairs [Tuesday] at the Four Seasons Centre in Owatonna. A
fundraiser — an ice cream social — begins at 6:30 p.m. Admission to
that is $5 per person. The forum itself will start at 7:30 p.m. There
is no charge to get into the forum.
The room can accommodate
more than 100, Schiell said. The forum will be a warm-up for the
endorsing convention in Mankato, when delegates will select one of the
five to vie against Walz in the upcoming election.
Bonnie Austin of Wykoff sent a Letter about immigrant workers to the editor of the Fillmore County Journal: she supports CIR. A university student writes Letter about many helped by Walz Vote in appreciation of a provision in the health care bill which allows her to retain coverage on her parents' health insurance plan should she need it.
. . . Republican members of Congress have called it the ruination of “the
best health care system in the world”. Don’t believe it. Indeed, the
USA has the best-trained providers, the best hospitals, the best and
newest technology....and yet ranks in the lowest quartile among
industrialized nations in many health quality indicators, including
infant mortality. . . .
. . .Technically,
we can’t call the Republican Congressmen liars on this issue. With
their privileged position and Cadillac health insurance, they do indeed have the “best health care system in the world”! They just don’t want
to share it.
On this day in 1862, 38 Dakota men were hanged in Mankato, after being found guilty of war crimes in charges stemming from the Treaty Conflict earlier in the year. The trials are thought by most modern historians to be a miscarriage of justice, since each trial last an average of 15 minutes.
For many years, the mass execution was celebrated on commemorative plates and commercial giveaways, but work by Amos Owen and other leaders helped begin the hard work of reconciliation.
The incident will forever remain a blot on the city's name, however.
The execution wasn't the only cruelty that befell the Dakota bands. Dakota people were marched to concentration camps, then exiled to reservations far from their homes. Children were forced to attend schools where native language and religion were banned. Dancing and other important expressions of Dakota culture were forbidden until the 1930s, and Native American religions were not secured full protection until the early 1970s.
Ho-Chunk bands who lived on the "Winnebago" Reservation south of Mankato were also deported. Although none of the Ho Chunk participated in the war, they were still deported to the Dakota Territory and their lands stolen. Some returned to Minnesota and Wisconsin (their original home), while others went to live on the Winnebago reservation in Nebraska.
Photo: the concentration camp at Fort Snelling. Minnesota State Historical Society
Seven years ago today, a plane fell into the forest near Eveleth, Minnesota. All on board, including U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, his wife Sheila and daughter Marcia, University of Minnesota prof and DFL associate chair Mary McEvoy, staffers Tom Lapin and William McLaughlin, and pilots Richard Conry and Michael Guess, died in the crash.
The greatest legacy of their lives and passing is the growth of robust grassroots leadership in Minnesota. I know dozens of people who changed their lives to work for change, from the young adjunct college instructor who is now a labor organizer to factory workers who started to engage in their local communities.
I like this video of Paul talking about grassroots leadership in October 2002, mostly for the fact that he speaks about ordinary people finding their voice in their communities.
It's not pie-in-the-sky talk. Seven years ago today, I was working on a state senate campaign in the Northfield. On the day the plane crashed, I attended two memorials quickly thrown together by friends in Paul and Sheila's hometown. One was a Carleton, where Paul taught before getting elected to the Senate, and the other was at the local UCC church. What struck me most at both places was not the well-known people who praised the fallen leader, but the common people who rose to tell their stories of how their dead mentor helped them improve their workplaces and their local communities.
Here's to a man who understood that grassroots leadership isn't about someone else being a "voice for the voiceless," but sharing the tools that allow anyone to have a voice in working to make a better future.
If you like what he's saying, and you have some extra coin, the next best way for honoring the Wellstones (after your own civic engagement) is to donate to Wellstone Action.
Bluestem will publish a story in the early evening tomorrow morning about not-so-progressive local leadership in Austin, Minnesota.
Cold wind shreds the upper branches of a
thick-waisted oak. The woods, the more dark with wet black bark, whispers
loudly, “No secrets here.”
Underbrush up and evaporated weeks ago.
Leaves rain brown. Cinch up my hood, hunch a shoulder into the blow and head
dead north on a trail of stooped-over grass where once, as heedless dogs
approached, a possum woke up with a warning hiss and bared a currycomb of teeth
filed down to puncturous steel points. Should have recognized then the
harbinger, but hate to admit to naturalistic superstitions.
Then, at the bifurcation of purpose near
the river where the first settlers must have peeled back redheaded reeds and
peered down narrow native Indian trails, one doglegging you back to where you
come from, the other a point vanishing forever far into their future, I heard
the foreboding crack of an overhead limb.
Wind’s ablowin’ thorns about like ice.
Frozen there at the exact center of What Happens Next thinking, “October,” in a
protracted, breathless instant falls faster than light an oak limb still
swelling with weather heavy in its million green sails. Boom. Far enough into
the future by just this much, it missed me and the dogs with unintentionally
beautiful claws that could rip the hide off a deer.
Well, heh heh heh, should have seen the
sign. When I was little, in the early fall when the first cold winds rattled
the windows, my Dad liked to drink a cup-or-two of green tea and then read the
leaves for me. But augury didn’t save him when the roar of the last big wave
sat him up straight in the middle of the night, then fell him like an elm.
Whistled-here the dogs and sent them
ahead around the fallen limb to reconnoiter least resistance. Thinking back,
the dialogue between wind and leaves, the possum trail, and pausing where past
and future part ways just long enough to let the oak talk to me, the oracle had
clearly spoken. The dogs, as if in response to a forecast for more thunder,
high-tailed it up the hill toward Nothing Happens while I squirmed through
knotty fingers and a snaggle of raspberry fiddle bound for Safely Home.
A few minutes later, somewhere between
here-and-there, a whimpering one-handed clap shivered through the forest as the
great oak sprawled across possum trail, sparing nothing where once its opaque
early morning shadow fell.
There aren't many degrees of separation in these parts of rural
Minnesota. Unlike some Americans, most of us in greater Minnesota
count friends and family among those most intimately mourning the 63 military deaths of Minnesotans in the Iraq War.
I didn't know Spc. Carlos Wilcox, Spc. Daniel Drevnick, or Spc.
James Wertish, the three Minnesota National Guard members who died in
Iraq, but the mourning isn't far removed.
A friend and former student
served with Drevnick. She said he was great guy.
A dear friend in the Minnesota Farmers Union is
first cousin to James' father and lives on the adjoining place in
Renville County; the Wertish clan are respected family farmers. My friends Gary and Jeanne are gentle people, though passionate in their work for farm families across Minnesota. The cousin's son seems cut from the same cloth. One paper notes:
Wertish enjoyed working on the family farm, the National Guard reported.
He was born in Redwood Falls and graduated from the Olivia high school. He enlisted in the National Guard in 2006.
The Guard said his fellow soldiers reported that Wertish "would literally give you the shirt off his back."
Read more about the fallen soldiers here, here and here. The Pioneer Press reports that there will be a vigil for the three men at 6:00 p.m. at Veterans Memorial, Third and Pine Streets in downtown Stillwater.
I thank the three men and their families for their service to our country and sacrifice.
Photo: Spc. James Wertish, 20, of Olivia, Minnesota. Photo courtesy of the Minnesota National Guard. Note: Comments that politicize this time of sorrow for family and friends will not be approved.
All of the statements, opinions, and views expressed on this site by Sally Jo Sorensen are solely her own, save when she attributes them to other sources.
The opinions, statements, and views of contributing writers are their own.
Sorensen, editor and proprietor of Bluestem Prairie, served as a New Media training and strategy consultant for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party from October 2009 through mid-April 2010. She now serves clients in the business and nonprofit sectors.
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