Back in the day, Thief River Falls native son and casino magnate Ralph Engelstad earned quite a name for himself as a bully, so it might be appropriate that the Minnesota Child Protection League is taking part in a "Mega Event" with the CD7 Republicans in a venue named for the local dude who made good in Vegas.
Deadspin notes in Deadspin Classic: North Dakota's Nazi-Loving Alumni Donor:
Lawsuits that have just now become public accuse Englestad of religious discrimination, sexual harassment, wrongful termination and, of course, anti-Semitism. This is actually the second Hitler birthday bash that Englestad has thrown in the hotel. But hey, at least there was cake!
Another guest says that during this year's party Engelstad "forced some Jewish employees to come against their wishes. He wanted one Jew to cut the cake, but the person ducked out. Ralph ran around trying to find him."
Englestad ended up being fined $1.5 million "for actions that damaged the reputation and image of Nevada's gaming industry," which certainly puts the Hitler parties in prespective.
People Magazine had more about the lawsuits in 1988:
While Ronald Reagan was dedicating the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., two weeks ago, Ralph Engelstad was in Las Vegas applying the finishing touches to his own multimillion-dollar tribute to the era. The 58-year-old owner of the Imperial Palace hotel and casino was busy with his War Room, a 3,000-square-foot private suite filled with Nazi memorabilia—heroic murals of Adolph Hitler and staff, swastikas and Nazi daggers, and military cars used by Mussolini and by Hitler and his Third Reich henchmen Himmler and Göring. . . .
His peculiar fascination with Hitler was revealed by half a dozen present and former Imperial Palace employees who have filed lawsuits or grievances accusing him of anti-Semitic remarks, religious discrimination and sexual harassment and, in some cases, wrongfully firing them. Mick Shindel 44, who was the hotel's director of corporate security until last month, charges Engelstad with "name-calling and reviling of my Jewish religion."
But there's more. Engelstad's casino discriminated against cocktail waitresses who became pregnant because he didn't find them attractive. Sport Illustrated covered Engelstad's role in North Dakota's Fighting Sioux controversy in Face-off: A bullying North Dakota alumnus built the school a $100 million rink but tore its campus asunder, one of many articles that detail a fight about Native American mascots that lingered beyond his death.
Rarely do we see the values of the name behind a place and those of conveners match so closely.
The bullies behind the Minnesota Child Protection League
In Meet the team behind the Minnesota Child Protection League, Andy Birkey writes:
MCPL’s lead spokesperson is Barb Anderson, a ubiquitous figure in the school bullying debate. Anderson has long volunteered as a researcher for the Minnesota Family Council, which led two failed battles against marriage equality. She was also a vocal opponent of LGBT safety in the Anoka-Hennepin School District where she helped launch the Parents Action League. PAL is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center because of its adamant demands to have the ex-gay movement in the Anoka-Hennepin School District.
Anderson has made some extreme statements about LGBT people, so much so that GLAAD has added her to its Commentator Accountability Project.
For example, she once said, “The greatest threat to our freedom and the health and well-being of our children is from this radical homosexual agenda that is just so pervasive.”
Anderson is joined by several other veterans of anti-LGBT campaigns, particularly Education Liberty Watch formerly known as EdWatch. . .
In Bullying gay and lesbian kids: How a school district became a suicide contagion area, MinnPost's Beth Hawkins details just how Anderson's agenda played out. For her part, Anderon blamed the suicides on human rights advocates.
Issues with the anti-bullying bill
Aside from the anti-LGBT agenda that the Minnesota Child Protection League continues to push, there are legitimate concerns about the bill, which was pulled in the middle of the night on the last day of the last session by Minnesota Senate leadership.
Jaci Smith at the Faribault Daily News points out an important issue in Anti-bullying legislation needs money for enforcement:
Let us be clear from the outset: We have little, if any, tolerance for bullies — those who use their power to control or harm others. Some of us have seen, sometimes first-hand, what it looks and feels like to be pushed around and bullied, and we know that it can be hurtful, sometimes devastatingly so.
For that reason, we understand the need for the Minnesota Legislature to strengthen bullying laws — something that lawmakers tried but failed to do this past session, and something that lawmakers are expected to consider, perhaps early in the session, when they convene again in February. We understand the need to protect students who are most likely to be targeted.
The problem is that the bill that is before the Legislature mandates school districts to do many things — including establishing new anti-bullying programs in the districts, investigating alleged instances of bullying and training all district staff on how to handle bullying — but the bill provides no funds to pay for the new programs and the training, let alone money to pay the salaries and benefits of the extra staff that will be needed to handle the bullying investigations.
Unlike folks like Anderson--who sought to introduce reparation "therapy" into the public schools to "cure" the queer in young folks--Smith's point isn't based on the notion that LGBT children need to be forced to change. It's about the Benjamins.
Nor are all Republicans pleased with the inclusion of Anderson and crew to raise opposition to the bill. MinnPost's conservative beat reporter Cyndy Brucato reported in Opposition tactics to bullying bill gets mixed reaction from GOP seniors group:
“Terrible politics” was the opinion of Alan Shilepsky, a 2006 Republican candidate for Congress in the 5th District. Shilepsky, as a board member for the Log Cabin Republicans, had lobbied Republicans to not support the constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage.
After listening to Anderson’s remarks, Shilepsky said he, too, believes the bill is a bureaucratic nightmare but that preaching the fears of a gay agenda to defeat it would create a Republican backlash.
“The marriage amendment was the biggest organizing effort to help the Democrats in 10 years. It mobilized them to do many things,” he said. “We’ve built a monster because of our own foolishness.”
The CD7 Republicans might also consider the legacy of Ralph Englestad as well. While a hockey arena in North Dakota and a meeting center in Thief River Falls bear his name, little remains causes for which bullied employees and others--ust as policies Anderson pushed have vanished from public schools.
North Dakota voters overwhelming voted to dump the "Fighting Sioux" nickname, the Star Tribune reported in University of North Dakota again dumps Fighting Sioux name; officials hope move is permanent. Overwhleming would be 67 percent of voters.
Some of the old logos will remain on Ralph's old ice palace for a while at least, and state law prohibits UND from adopting a new name until 2015.
In the court of public opinion, Barbara Anderson's animosity toward LGBT youth may go the way of Englestad's celebrations and bullying about an offensive nickname. In the meantime, you can catch her new organization at the Imperial Room just before this MNCD7 event:
4 pm Meet and Greet the Republican Candidates! All declared US Senate, Gubernatorial and Congressional District Candidates have been invited. They’re clearing their schedules and want to meet you! Cash bar and appetizers. Free to attend, donations accepted
So much for the Republican Party steering away from social issues. Instead, we're seeing this "Mega Event" in an appropriate venue. The Ralph Englestad Arena's page, Who Was Ralph Englestad, includes only laudatory articles from the local paper, including one in which Ralph laments the existance of child labor laws. It's so awful that "You can't give kids a job. Why not? You're making it worse for those kids by not letting them work. It isn't fair and it just doesn't make sense."
Photo: The late Ralph Englestad, Grand Forks Herald file photo by Chuck Kimmerle.
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