Author Archive
Turn, Turn, Turn
By Peter Molenaar It was a pleasant surprise to find not one, but two of my comrades on the front page of last month”'s Alley Newspaper. Pete Seeger and Meridel Le Sueur were both amazing human beings. Truth to tell, however, Pete”'s Party status has been somewhat hazy. He was “close”, they said. As for Meridel, thirty some years ago I gave her rides to and from meetings ”“ so I”'ve known all along that she was a Communist. Pete Seeger passed away January 27, 2014, at the age of 94. In point of fact, in the period of rising fascism, at age 17, Pete did join the Young Communist League in opposition to the pacifism and left-isolationism he encountered at Harvard University. He believed the whole world should unite to defeat Hitler. THIS MACHINE SURROUNDS HATE AND FORCES IT TO SURRENDER rang the words of his banjo. In the prime years of his life, so it followed, the “authorities” did their best to hound and to blacklist [...]
Frank Reflections: Racist stereotyping and profiling detract apprehension of real perpetrators
By Frank Erickson Imagine if the FBI was spying on, or as our media calls it “monitoring,” young white college and high school age students as potential future terrorists. Think of the outrage white parents would have if the FBI was viewing their children or potential violent terrorists”¦and this was being done based only on ethnicity. Yet this is exactly what is being done to local young people in the Somali community. The January 20th Star Tribune has two articles about our Somali community in it. A front page article about “Visa backlog keeps Somali families separated” and a Los Angeles Times article reprinted, titled “Al-Qaida is again active in the U.S. Somalis from Minnesota are among potential recruits the FBI monitors. As I run around South Minneapolis, I see young people of many different ethnic backgrounds, yet I see one common bond, they are all the same! They all have their phone things, they all like hanging out with friends, [...]
BYI Community Health Survey
WHY is the BYI Doing Research? In 2009, the Backyard Initiative completed a Community Health Needs Assessment. An assessment team was formed to create a picture of the current state of health and well-being of residents in the Backyard, engage a broad network of resident in the process, and inform and plan the next steps for the BYI. The assessment team included community residents, staff from Allina Health, the Cultural Wellness Center and Wilder Research. Based on the BYI Definition of Health and the Community Assessment, the following Priority Areas were identified: Perceived stress: the degree to which situations in one”'s life are appraised as stressful. Social support: the emotional, instrumental, and financial aid that is obtained from one's social network. Support is generally considered as an exchange or transaction between people Social cohesion: a feeling that members of a group have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and [...]
