‘Commentary’ Archives
Raise Your Voice: Trending Hot
By PETER MOLENAAR Peter Molenaar It was a bearing on car 32 which was “trending hot” beneath its load of ethanol (boom?!) Nonetheless, the crew of the two mile long train was ordered to proceed, even as they approached a heavily populated area. Why? Moreover, for some folks, our entire economy had become “too hot to handle.” As it happened, a delegation of ruling-class types was deployed to tinker with the Federal Reserve (Oops!). In the process they managed to kill a few lesser banks, although their intent was merely to trigger a degree of recession (i.e., stymie wage growth) by raising interest rates. Remember the “Volker Schock” of 1979? I sure do. At the time, I was living in East Phillips and had just begun my employment at Smith Foundry. However, a period of mass layoffs would soon ensue, along with plant closings and anti-union campaigns all across the land. “The standard of living has to decline.” So said the chairman of the Federal [...]
PCH: The Simple Life
Rose Tillemans and the Peace House Community in an undated photo found in the Peace House Community photo albums. By MARTI MALTBY Marti Maltby Rose Tillemans, the founder of Peace House Community, would have celebrated her 100th birthday on February 11. In honor of the event, I went through some of PHC’s old photo albums to put together a small memorial for our website.Although the photos were taken before I joined PHC and showed many people I never met, I felt a connection to the faces in the photos. That connection was not just based on having PHC in common. The photos showed simple, everyday activities that we all participate in, like sharing a cup of coffee, or singing together, or playing a board game. I’m not sure how to explain the connection I felt, but I think it could be best summed up with the phrase, “That looks like fun. I wish I could do that.”Of course, I can do that. It doesn’t take much to call a friend, go for a walk, chat with a neighbor, or say [...]
Something I Said: Terry Bellamy – A Singular Presence
By DWIGHT HOBBESTerry Bellamy, who passed in January, was, to say the least, a singular presence. I met him in 1993 at the Playwrights Center for some sort of town hall meeting. He got up and raised three different kinds of hell, calling the organization out for being whites only. We chatted afterward but for the life of me I can’t remember a word either of us said. I do recall within weeks the Center had a black playwrights workshop led by the regrettably late actor Byrd Wilkins (Doctor Who, Running Scared). I joined. Next time I saw Bellamy was in August Wilson’s Two Trains Running at Penumbra Theatre Company. It wasn’t the last as that presence fueled several powerhouse performances at the Twin Cities answer to NYC’s fabled Negro Ensemble Company. The man was, hands down, an amazing actor who appeared all over America in productions at prestigious venues. He was not, however, like many actors, in the profession for the sake of ego, and helped local performance [...]
