‘Raise Your Voice’ Archives
Raise Your Voice: Blessed community
Peter Molenaar By PETER MOLENAAR Feb. 11, 2019”¦ I would brave the slippery streets, with the ongoing sixth mass species extinction in mind, in order to participate in the public visioning phase of the HOTB Mayday Parade. This was to be the last opportunity to make a modest appearance. The chairs of the Avalon meeting room were well occupied to receive Sandy Spieler”'s guidance. As it turned out, Sandy had been entitled to choose this year”'s theme, and rightfully so. In keeping with Martin Luther King”'s intent, she chose: “Blessed Community.” To develop this theme, the gathering was tasked to a rotating series of workshops, set in the auditorium. My first stop was captioned: “Barriers to a Blessed community.” The tally of square sticker tag commentary was to reveal an old question of causality: Is the human condition a consequence of “human nature,” or is human nature a reflection of social systems? An [...]
Raise Your Voice: Contradictions within the popular front
By PETER MOLENAAR Peter Molenaar Readers will recall that, owing to internal contradictions, everything exists in motion, both coming and going; changing under the influence of external factors. Our “popular front” form of resistance is no exception to the rule. Yes, indeed: “the lesser of two evils sometimes rises to the level of a necessity.” But, given the opposing camps within the Democratic Party, we must reckon with certain consequences of our actions. Positively speaking, though, we of the fifth district should feel very proud for having elected Ilhan Omar to the U.S. Congress. Already, Ilhan has achieved a degree of planetary fame, for having slapped the face of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (and all Trump supporters) who are hell-bent to destroy our country by dividing us. And now, from within the Progressive Caucus, Ilhan has joined hands with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in support of a Green New Deal. Should we all join hands to preserve [...]
Peace on Earth”¦ 2040
Raise Your Voice By PETER MOLENAAR Commendable activists from this community recently invested hours of engagement with our city”'s planning process. The “2040 Plan” attempts to envision beyond the immediate future, and certainly reflects more than just the question of neighborhood housing density. Importantly, as well, 2040 intends to ameliorate climate change with infrastructure adjustments. Frankly, in this endeavor, “we the people” of Minneapolis are light-years ahead of our nation”'s ruling party. Case in point, Star Tribune, Nov. 15: “The United States has lost its military edge to a dangerous degree and could potentially lose a war against China or Russia ”¦ The panel argued that despite a $716 billion defense budget this year, which is four times that of China and more than 10 times that of Russia”¦ it is recommended that Congress lift budget caps on defense spending .” Feel free to draw your own [...]
