‘Commentary’ Archives
Too Much To Ask?
by Peter Molenaar March 10”¦ Lord knows that the industrial grinding wheel imposes an arduous task upon a worker. Nonetheless, I am happy to have returned to Smith Foundry in the aftermath of hip replacement surgery. It is, after all, $20 / hour plus benefits. Note: in Minnesota, 137,000 children live with parents who earn the minimum wage. February 25”¦ Hundreds gathered at the capitol rotunda to demand: “Raise the Wage.” Lead by Organized Labor, representatives of constituent nationalities were the featured speakers. The finale featured the song of Ojibwe drums. March 3rd”¦ (more…)
Frank Reflections: Trash, Speeding Traffic: Obvious Solutions
By Frank Erickson What a perfect month in The Alley March Edition; focusing on urban traffic problems and also to have the cartoon on the front page, which shows a trash filled landscape”¦perfect timing to focus on both trash and traffic during the month of March. As the snow and ice melt, two things happen, cars start to speed up and frozen trash hidden in snow banks shows its ugly face. To know that a lot of our litter flows into the great Mississippi, including toxic cigarette butts is heart breaking. I have called both Cam Gordon and Gary Schiff”'s offices (before November”'s election) and asked for more trash cans in their wards---to my amazement, they said, they have no money to do this. I find this humorous, that two guys, who claim to be green, could care less that their wards are covered with trash. The Lake Street / Hiawatha Avenue area is a trash landfill, around the railroad tracks, everywhere, trash everywhere! (more…)
