‘Commentary’ Archives
Pondering the Breath of Life
from the series Raise Your Voice.... By PETER MOLENAAR Peter Molenaar It can be said with certainty that the neighborhoods served by this paper constitute a community of shared memories, one of which is indelibly etched within. Presumably, then, the young poets among us will grant an old man some license: Most of us bold enough to leave our mother’s womb will inhale the scent of lilacs when in bloom. Yet every blossom withers before evoking again and again: the breath of life. While pondering the breath of life, we might acknowledge our Ward 10 councilperson. Aisha has returned with reports from her recent tour of Cuba, an island nation long tormented by a blockade which now threatens to pull the electrical plug from incubated babies. Naturally, some voices have emerged on the local scene which appear to mimic the vocal shrugs: “stuff happens” and “that is the cost.” Others believe Aisha deserves commendation for her compassionate example. In [...]
Here Comes the Hanging Judge
from the series Something I Said... By DWIGHT HOBBES Dwight Hobbes South Minneapolis activists raised pure hell confronting ICE’s jackbooted, might-makes-right assault on civil liberty. Ensuing national attention on Renee Good’s and Alex Pretti’s murders along with the brutalizing of Alberto Mondragon forced the withdrawal of Operation Metro Surge. In April, U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review got slick, doing an end run, appointing Nathan M. Hansen immigration judge at Fort Snelling Immigration Court. President Donald Trump’s ham-handed administration couldn’t defeat resistance one way, so it went another, in accord with the DOJ’s fast tracking deportations across the country. As an attorney, Hansen endorsed the harebrained notion of a Democratic higher-ups pedophilia ring operating out of a Washington, D.C. pizza parlor. There were no victims, any evidence, or an actual investigation. He declared property taxes are illegal [...]
