‘Miscellany’ Archives
REPAIR
“In history, unlike heredity, we choose our ancestors. We choose with monuments, markers and history books. We choose also with bulldozers, by what we remove.” “Certainly history is important, we say. Children should know history, we say. History is not a flea market or what I throw out today, history is the textbook stuff, history is...important.” ”¦Howard Mansfield “In the Memory House.” BY ELIZABETH V. SPELMAN “The Human Being is a repairing animal. Repair is ubiquitous, something we engage in every day and in almost every dimension of our lives. Homo sapiens is also Homo reparans. Perhaps the most obvious kinds of repair are those having to do with the inanimate objects with which we surround ourselves--the clothes calling out for mending, the automobiles for fixing, the buildings for renovating, the works of art for restoring. But our bodies and souls also are by their very nature subject to fracture and fissure, for which we [...]
Analysis: The 2016 United States of America Presidential Election
BY LAURA WATERMAN WITTSTOCK Reporting coming after the 2016 presidential election shows some interesting similarities to the 2012 election. First age: 37% of those 18 to 29 voted for Donald Trump, the same percentage that voted for Republican candidate Mitt Romney in 2012. At the other end of the age spectrum, 53% of those 65 and older voted for Trump, and in 2012 56% voted for Mitt Romney. The largest age group voting for Trump were those ages 45 to 64 (53%). Back in 2012 it was 51%. The white vote for Trump was 58%; the Black vote 8%; the Hispanic vote 29%; the Asian vote 29%; and other (that”'s where American Indians are included) 37%. When identified, the American Indian vote for Trump is likely to be ten percent or less. Hillary Clinton was on the losing side of votes only among white voters. Despite the fact that potential Republican majority changes in Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and potentially the Affordable Care Act will all affect those between 45 to [...]
Troubled in life and at death, Russell Sawyer chose City”'s tallest, grandest place to die
Russel Sawyer said “I have no money and no place to sleep tonight and nothing in sight, so will take a rest.” “There is not use wasting money with a funeral””cremation is rest. No preacher is wanted or needed. They are a curse.” And his “rest” was to end his life at the tallest building in Mpls., the Guaranty Loan Company building (subsequently renamed The Metropolitan Building until it was demolished in 1961. by Sue Hunter Weir Russell Sawyer committed suicide on December 26, 1902. Sawyer was 55 years old and divorced. He was estranged from his ex-wife and daughters and there was no mention in the papers of anyone else who might have been a blood relative.  In his suicide note, he named four people who the coroner might notify of his death but none of them were family. Sawyer had only been in town a short time when he shot himself. He was born in Massachusetts in 1847 but had lived in Indiana most of his [...]
