Reading around the North Star State's media this lovely September day, we're struck by a flurry of stories that suggest perhaps not all people in greater Minnesota are above average.
At the Star Tribune, Jeremy Olson reports in COVID-19 surveys halted in Minnesota amid racism, intimidation:
A door-to-door COVID-19 testing survey has been halted due to multiple incidents in outstate Minnesota of residents intimidating and shouting racial and ethnic slurs at state and federal public health survey teams.
The CDC pulled its federal surveyors out of Minnesota this week following reports of verbal abuse and intimidation, including an incident in the Iowa border town of Eitzen, Minn., in which a survey team walking to a house was blocked by two cars and threatened by three men, including one who had a gun.
Frustration with the state’s pandemic response “is totally understandable,” said Dr. Ruth Lynfield, state epidemiologist, “but that is distinctly different than taking out frustration on another human being who is trying to help and is especially galling when there is a taint of racism. There is no justification for this — the enemy is the virus and not the public health workers who are trying to help.”
The frequency of problems became clear last weekend when surveyors discussed their experiences. A Hispanic surveyor was called one slur “more in the last week than in her entire life,” said Stephanie Yendell, a state senior epidemiology supervisor.
Insults came at doorways, from angry people approaching the surveyors or just people walking their dogs on the other sides of the streets, she said. The surveyors trapped in the Eitzen incident were permitted to leave and did not file a police report about the gun-toting man or the two others who approached them. . . .
Frustration with a lockdown doesn't justify bad behavior, especially toward strangers. At least, that's what my mother stressed--who grew up in Watonwan County--stressed to me.
At City Pages on Thursday, Hannah Jones reported in Minnesota Republican asks if residents are 'prepared' if Black Lives Matter 'comes to our city':
Republican Jeff Dotseth wants to unseat Democrat Mike Sundin to represent District 11A in the Minnesota House of Representatives this November, and he used Facebook to announce a get-out-the-vote event in Cloquet Wednesday evening.
The topics of discussion to be tackled by keynote speakers—Dotseth himself and State Sen. Jason Rarick (R-Brook Park)—started out fairly standard. “Do you know your rights when it comes to voting?” (Important!) “Do you know that you can become an election judge and make sure your polling place is open to the public?” (Sure!)
From there it takes a turn. “Let’s discuss BLM [Black Lives Matter].” (Okay...) “Are you prepared for when they come to our city?” (Wait, what?) “Do you have a network of patriots that you can count on?” (For what, exactly?) “Where is BLM getting all their funding?” (Literally a million people donated after the death of George Floyd, and the average gift was about $33.) . . .
Dotseth has removed the Facebook post that's embedded in the City Pages article, but DFL-endorsed candidate Michelle Lee, who's running for state senate in District 11, tweeted the image on Wednesday:
Meanwhile, this popped up on social media today featuring the Republican House and Senate candidates in SD11 in Greater Minnesota. One more reason to #FlipMNsenate @MinnesotaDFL pic.twitter.com/TaeIwcxiDL
— Michelle Lee for MN (@noozelady) September 23, 2020
Jones continues:
Dotseth, who previously ran against and lost to incumbent Sundin in 2018, didn’t respond to interview requests about his event, so unfortunately, we don’t know what he meant by any of that. . . .
He hasn’t posted much about Black Lives Matter by name—but he seems very preoccupied by unrest and crime outside of his district, which covers some of Carlton and St. Louis County. On July 11, he posted a KARE 11 story about a night of multiple shootings in Minneapolis.
“Coming to a city near you!” he wrote. “Get your friends and family to vote red in 2020, there is too much at stake not to.” . . .
Hop over to City Pages to watch the videos and read the rest of the story.
The Alexandria Echo Press editorial board gives a thumbs down to Qanon conspiracy theory adherents in Fooled by conspiracy theory:
Thumbs Down: The depths of deception seem to have no bounds. There is a growing group out there (way out there) who believe in the QAnon conspiracy theory that claims Satanists and pedophiles run the government and COVID-19 is a plot to steal the election. Such claptrap isn’t even worth the ink of printing except for the fact that some political candidates actually believe it’s real. The Star Tribune reported this week that as many as 77 congressional candidates and at least two dozen candidates for state legislatures across the country have been linked to the QAnon theory, which emerged in late 2017. The Tribune’s story noted that In some cases, Minnesota candidates have used official social media pages for their campaigns to post slogans in support of QAnon. The “movement” calls to round up elected officials, journalists and other members of the so-called “Deep State” for imprisonment or execution. Enough said.
Bring Me The News reported GOP lawmaker [Pat Garofalo] calls on state party to un-endorse candidates with QAnon links. Minority Leader Kurt Daudt claimed ignorance of the conspiracy in an appearance on Minnesota Public Radio News Friday morning (link as it is available.
Last week, Tom Cherveny reported in the West Central Tribune article, Quiet protest is start of anti-hate movement in Murdock:
Carrying lighted candles and a lighted sign, a small group of people strode quietly but surely through residential streets Thursday night in Murdock, an autumn nip in the air.
The group of 16 men and women made their way to the sidewalk in front of the former Calvary Lutheran Church, which is now the Third Hof, or gathering hall, of the Asatru Folk Assembly, a small group of pagan white supremacists.
The men and women gathered Thursday chose to hold a quiet, candlelight vigil to make it clear that their protest of the arrival of the Asatru Folk Assembly to this small Swift County community was a peaceful one. But don’t expect the newly formed Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate to be silent. . . .
Laura Thomas of Benson, who helped organize the Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate, said her research of the Asatru Folk Assembly made her very concerned about the newcomers to town. The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies it as an “extreme hate group,” she told those who gathered on Thursday night. The center calls it a white supremacist organization.
The Assembly members have been busy, arriving on weekends to restore the long-vacant building and spruce up its grounds, according to local Murdock residents and the group’s Facebook page. Most of the vehicles have out-of-state license plates, mainly from the Dakotas, according to the local residents.
The group says it is not racist, but the group's leader, Matthew Flavel, spoke at a 2018 event that also celebrated what would have been the 100th birthday of George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party, according to an earlier report on the group published in the West Central Tribune. Flavel in the speech described Asatru Fellowship Assembly beliefs as a “white man’s religion.”
Pam Skoglund was among those carrying the lighted candles Thursday through the streets of Murdock. Her children were all baptized in the Calvary Lutheran Church, where she and and her family worshipped until its closing several years ago. “I find it very upsetting, sad, very sad,” she said of the church building’s purchase by the Asatru Fellowship Assembly.
“It’s awful to see that someplace that was there to spread love is encouraging hate,” said Karen Falk, also a former member of Calvary Lutheran who joined the candlelight vigil.
Those who joined the vigil said they wanted it known that Murdock is a welcoming community to all people. The Rev. Denise Fossen, pastor of the Kerkhoven Lutheran Church, said she joined the vigil to speak out against those who oppress others.
Guillemard is a law student living with her mother, Annelle, in Murdock, where she grew up. Mother and daughter said they were surprised when they learned about the purchase of the church building. To start the Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate, a group of mothers got together to decide what to do, Victoria said. Their desire, she said, is to keep Murdock as a welcoming and safe community.
Guillemard said the Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate will start its efforts to inform people in the area about the Asatru Folk Assembly by launching its own Facebook page. Her hope is that at some point, the group can host an open — and COVID-safe — meeting to provide information about it.
Video at Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate holds candlelight vigil.
We'll have more about future actions by the group. Bluestem Prairie broke the story of the new group's arrival in a July post. Baldurshof: Third Hof of the Asatru Folk Assembly setting up in Murdock, Minnesota and delved into one leader's past in AFA gothar coordinator's life changed from police shoot-out & prison to serving old Gods.
In the Star Tribune, Maya Rao reported Thursday in Trump rally highlights tensions over race in Beltrami County:
As a movement for racial justice spread across America, residents protested in Paul Bunyan Park. Community leaders pushed for the police department to have a citizen advisory commission, questioning why the majority of jail detainees are Native American.
The small Black community here found a greater voice in a region where American Indians are the largest racial minority group and the Leech Lake, White Earth and Red Lake reservations surround this mostly white city of 15,000.
But some worry that the rhetoric of the presidential campaign is dealing a blow to race relations in Beltrami County. President Donald Trump at his rally here last week denounced refugees and praised his nearly all-white crowd’s “good genes” and the state’s pioneers, with no acknowledgment of the county’s 22% Native population.
Backers of Democratic nominee Joe Biden accuse Trump and his supporters of racist rhetoric while Trump voters say they are supporting him due to concerns about the economy and abortion, and that the media and liberals are the ones sowing discord.
Discussions on race are happening against a backdrop of political divisions in a swing county that voted for Barack Obama twice before 50.6% supported Trump. A January vote by county commissioners against refugee resettlement set off a furor that drew national attention.
“I’ve sat on every race relations committee and board in this city but one in [the past] 30 years and we have not been able to break that cycle of misunderstanding. … We live in very different cultures,” said Audrey Thayer, a member of White Earth and an arts and humanities instructor at Leech Lake Tribal College.. ..
Read the rest in the Strib.
Down in the Worthington Globe, the Forum Communications' Indigenous Impacts series is worth your time: How has COVID-19 affected Native American communities, people? View the entire 'Indigenous Impacts' project here.
Minnesota Reformer's Ricardo Lopez scooped the story of 2nd congressional district race delayed after sudden death of Legal Marijuana Now candidate. Our condolences to Adam Weeks' family.
Finally, the Rochester Post Bulletin examined the question Was candidate's online comment a threat?
Photo: Eitzen doesn't always welcome you, a state and federal public health survey team discovered, the Star Tribune reported. Image via Eitzen Family Funfest.
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