‘Commentary’ Archives
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, [...]
