‘Cover Stories’ Archives
Houses and churches demolished! But loss of trust is the larger tragedy!
BY HARVEY WINJE A personal note of transparency: 1953: At age 13, I was taught to trust leaders by Reverend Dr. Leonard Kendall, Messiah Church Pastor, in the Catechism class in the basement of that same church. He strictly taught that when in class or in the Sanctuary facing the leader at the front, we were never to glance back or worry about any noise or activity behind us because our trust must be in the leader at the front who will always have our backs! It is uncertain whether that advice came from his U.S. Marine Corp training or Biblical study. In either case, he was wrong. Subsequent leadership betrayed trust. The leader cannot always be trusted! 1973: Twenty years later, Messiah Church Pastor Rev. Peter Erickson stood in the Sanctuary strictly advocating that the Messiah Congregation, Minnesota Lutheran Church in America (MNLCA) and the national LCA deny a funding request from the American Indian Movement (AIM) because of how they would use the money. AIM, founded in [...]
Confluence of people, stories, organizations, and betrayal
History”'s woven web: “Newspapers are the first rough DRAFT of history.” BY HARVEY WINJE Cathy”'s Grade ”˜A”' Café, mentioned in Donna Neste”'s tribute to Wizard Marks, was a storefront in a corner building at 25th and Chicago Avenue designed by Alexander, Fraser, Rose””Architect and built by Simonson Construction Company for Dr. Olaf A. Olson who lived on the same block in a beautiful house on a double lot with a small orchard and garden at 2516 Chicago Avenue. Project for Pride in Living bought the house for an office, tool library, and headquarters in the late 1970s during which time an Alley Newspaper Office was there while Luke Longstreet Sullivan, a Vista Volunteer, was Editor of 7 issues from May to December 1977. PPL sold the double lot and house with three garages and at least two other lots and houses to a developer amassing all of the properties on the block to sell surreptitiously to Children”'s Hospital because it [...]
