‘Commentary’ Archives
An Open Letter to Governor Walz and Local Decision-Makers
””from a front-line public health nurse, 5.18.2020 I am reaching out to connect about the resource distribution and conditions for people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in MN, and the resonance to a dire time in state”™s history. Summer 1862: displaced Indigenous people, of the recently established State of MN, were waiting on over-due annuity from the U.S. gov”™t. Exposed to a series of epidemic diseases, hungry, vacated from land and homes, they asked officials for more credit for food and supplies from locally-controlled stores in order to survive the months to come. Dakiota Internment Camp at Fort Snelling, MN 1862. Photo: Between Fences (video still) ©Mona Smith, 2012 One local response was, “Let them eat grass, or their own dung.”2020: displaced Indigenous people, of the still-occupied Dakota land, continue to wait on the overdue annuity from the US gov”™t. 2020: Indigenous descendants are 17 times more [...]
Transit: When Will Normalcy Return?
By JOHN CHARLES WILSON Note: This column was written between the times Governor Walz announced the lifting of the Stay at Home order and the change taking effect. Metro Transit has decided to continue running a Saturday schedule on weekdays and not running buses or light rail late at night, even after the Stay at Home order is lifted, and the restriction to “essential trips only” is still in place. Even though it will be legal to go out for any purpose, you are still not supposed to ride transit unless it is necessary. The only change is that wearing face masks will be required on Metro Transit as of 18 May. However, there will be no enforcement of this rule unless non-compliance becomes a major problem. It remains to be seen whether the schedule change which normally takes place in June will happen this year. With Metro Transit running a limited schedule anyways, they might decide there is no point to it.The transit situation everywhere is dire. It is [...]
Peace House Community”“A Place to Belong: Canadian Humor (which I spell “Humour”)
By MARTI MALTBY I decided that this month I wouldn”™t mention Coronavirus (it didn”™t take long for me to fail on that count, did it?) because it has dominated so much of the news that I wanted to give you a break from thinking about it. I hadn”™t fully grasped how pervasive Covid has become until I tried to come up with a topic for this column that didn”™t involve Coronavirus, and I failed. Every topic I thought of somehow came back to the pandemic. As I said, I wanted to give people a break from Coronavirus because of the negative effects the virus is having on our society. I was about to list some of them, but you are probably as aware of them as I am, and if I did list them I would fail even more spectacularly in my effort to give you a break from thinking about Coronavirus. The best I can do at this point is to offer an alternative to the bleak news, so below you will find links to videos of Canadian humor. I”™m [...]
