‘Commentary’ Archives
Water is life: Drink and live
Step Up interns by Abigail Abby Samuel, Kristian Nordland, Elhan Abdullahi Jama, Asha Ali Hussein, Kristian Herrera Amigon, Angela Yareli Collazo, Ismael Castro, Abdinasir Jama: Cultural Wellness Center Backyard Community Health Hub STEP-UP interns The human body is made up of 60% water. The longest a human can go without water is only 3 days! That”™s how important water is. Not only does it help you survive, but it also offers a lot of benefits for your body. Water helps our physical shape, helps us exercise, and helps our brain function. Water is one of the most important substances on earth. All plants and animals must have water to survive. If there was no water, there would be no life on earth. This is daunting to think about and why we say water is life, so drink up and live. Apart from drinking it to survive, people have many other uses for water. Water delivers important nutrients to all our cells, especially our muscle cells, postponing muscle [...]
Letter to the community: Pesticide pollution is perplexing: Arsenic 1938 to 2019
The StarTribune article entitled “Superfund Site Mostly Clean,” Aug. 1, 2019, B1, page 1, is incomplete and leaves questions unanswered. For example, reporting that there are only nine property owners who refused soil testing does not tell the whole story.Though the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is tracking this, the number of properties refusing testing puts the onus or blame on the property owners as if they are the only problem remaining. When the EPA tested a total of 472 yards, it refused to test outside a three-quarter mile radius of the original site of contamination at 28th and Hiawatha. This three-quarter mile parameter limits our knowledge of how far out arsenic soil contamination extends. So, we do not have a true measure of how far out and how many properties are still contaminated with arsenic. In addition, the StarTribune article refers to East Phillips alone, as if the wind only blew [...]
Frank reflection: Renters being exploited
By FRANK ERICKSON Let”™s be clear on one thing: the Minneapolis City Council is pro-landlord. The unjust draining of renter”™s bank accounts is the foundation of all these sleek new high-rise apartment buildings being built downtown and the city council has no problem with it. The city has no problem “throwing renters under the bus,” to get the job done. Investors and developers see the very well coordinated job local landlords have done in banding together and driving rents up and they want in on the action. The Liberals downtown will give you a sympathetic ear when you talk to them about your rising rents, but they are fully embracing a corrupt “supply and demand” model. They know it is corrupt, but it is getting the job done. Everyone gets richer except renters. Renters are quickly falling on harder and harder times. “Supply and demand” is an immoral approach when the purchaser has no choice. [...]
