‘Letter to the Editor’ Archives
Letter to the Editor: Tell History in full context; A Single Story is dishonest, disrespectful, and sometimes a monstrous mistake
BY LAURA WATERMAN WITTSTOCK It is the artist”'s responsibility to understand the society in which he/she lives and to create art that moves society forward. Apparently this artist thought building a scaffold to reveal the horror of mass hangings would shock and wake people up about the scaffolds of the future unless society comes to its senses. What the artist achieved was a grotesque placeholder of a time in history when white settlers brought along fried chicken and other snacks to watch 38 human beings being hanged en masse. We have had many such events in England, for example. The tower and square where beheadings took place are merely tourist attractions today. The blood has long dried. But 1862 is a year that is unsettled yet today. Dakota land was invaded, impinged upon, and even treaty land got no payment. The Dakota were at the point of starvation. Building a scaffold in a courtyard that holds other art rips open the wounds made to the Dakota people. A quiet burning [...]
Letter to the Editor: Profile Police Stops that fear non-whites of any age
By Laura Waterman Wittstock I don”'t know how many studies I have read that non-whites are stopped far more than whites. In MN American Indians are arrested far more than their population should suggest when compared to other populations. A great majority of these arrests do not result in convictions. We can”'t have an intelligent conversation without understanding what the relationship is between nonwhites driving cars and the stopping rates. In a non-scientific way, I have also noticed a lot of stops of older cars, whatever color the driver happens to be so. So poverty is likely another factor. The police represent the expectations of the presumed law-abiding public. Ten years ago I was stopped in a sweep around Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis for presumably not stopping long enough at a stop sign for the officer who was in a car perpendicular to me on another street. As I stopped and looked left, I saw him. After stopping I started out and he came after me. I told [...]
FAKE NEWS SENT TO THE EDITOR: Conjecture, opinion, and prejudice
The Alley Newspaper has a firm policy excluding the printing of Letters to the Editor that are not signed. In May an ANONYMOUS packet of papers was sent to the Editor. The Alley Newspaper is choosing to acknowledge receipt of these papers albeit with a label of FAKE NEWS/propaganda/revisionist history. We believe it is important to acknowledge this repudiation of truth so that we realize the task at hand and its complexities in the 21st Century. See Spirit of Phillips cartoons with his quotes from the 19th Century about Freedom, Truth, and History. He lays bare “half of history is loose conjecture and much of the rest is the writer”'s opinion;” and “most men see facts not with their eyes but with their prejudices.” The contents of the papers received bear witness to the words of Wendell Phillips in the mid 800”'s. We assume the sender is aware of the absurdity of the pages sent or they wouldn”'t omit their name. We hope the sender has the [...]
