News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Monday December 22nd 2025
CCC: Applause, Applause
Raise Your Voice
By PETER MOLINAR
Yes, yes, yes”¦!
In response to decades of popular mass action and the concerted effort of such stalwarts as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, President Biden has signed an executive order to create a Civilian Climate Corps. This CCC, reminiscent of the Civilian Conservation Corps of the Great Depression, will train and employ (hopefully) millions of people in environmental careers. The restoration of public lands, parks, and waters”¦ storm water management systems, solar panel installations, toxic waste clean up, and urban garden development is foreseen.
Hey, with this new impetus, will the East Phillips Urban Farm proposal advance to transform the Roof Depot building? Better believe it! Cautionary note: “Small government”™ voices and associated militias will denounce this New Deal as “socialist tyranny.”
Again from the local front: Our Powderhorn headquartered Land Stewardship Project deserves huge scoops of praise. LSP has developed and introduced a bill to our state legislature which dovetails perfectly with Biden”™s CCC. HF 701 will provide “motivating resources” to ensure that agricultural soil health practices are profitable from day one. “We can reach
100% soil health farming in Minnesota by 2040””clean our water, prevent erosion and run-off””sequester carbon [organic matter] as well as foster healthy pollinators, wildlife, people and more.”… Read the rest “CCC: Applause, Applause”
Remembering Laura Waterman Wittstock:
Sept. 11, 1937 ”“ January 16, 2021
Woman of Wisdom Via Words and Voice: The Cosmos has Grown by One More StarÂ
By HARVEY WINJE
“The birthright of every Indian born is that her or his ancestors paid a price beyond imagining that their descendants would live as Indians.”Â
LAURA WATERMAN WITTSTOCKÂ
 Laura”™s compassionate eyes closed, her judicious intellect chronicled, her indigenous wisdom relayed, her corrections of errant history revealed, her gracious smile remembered, and her dedication to family of five children, four grandchildren, two great grandchildren, one great-great grandchild, and three honorary children fulfilled; Laura Waterman Wittstock”™s indelible impact lives on after passing to the Spirit world January 16th 2021. Laura was an enrolled member of the Seneca Nation of Indians, Heron Clan, and was born at the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in New York; moved to Honolulu in 1945, to San Francisco in 1954, to Washington, D.C. in 1971, and to the Twin Cities in 1973 where she contined to:
Ӣ Nurture her family,
Ӣ Speak and write truth to power,
Ӣ Build trusting relationships between people, cultures, and organizations,
”¢ Give unpretentious counsel to hundreds of people, organizations personally and on many boards of directors.Â
For many of us words don”™t come as easily as they did to Laura when expressing the deepest of thoughts from heart, head, and soul.… Read the rest “Remembering Laura Waterman Wittstock:”
“Laura Waterman Wittstock, Still the Superb Journalist: First Person Radio Signs Off the Air”
BY ELAINE SALINAS, THE ALLEY, MARCH 2018
Excerpt from a longer history of First Person Radio and the beginning of Migizi Communications.
“The final segment of First Person Radio (FPR) aired on KFAI Radio in Minneapolis on February 14th, 2018, forty years after it originated as The Native American Program on KUOM-AM, the University of Minnesota”™s radio station. First Person Radio can best be described as a labor of love coupled with a commitment to produce timely and accurate news and information about the American Indian community to counter the many misrepresentations and inaccuracies perpetuated about Native people in the major media.
“When First Person Radio was forced to sunset in 1992 due to rising production and distribution costs and declining support for public radio across the country, its legacy continued. Laura Waterman Wittstock, founder of MIGIZI Communications, took advantage of the large reservoir of knowledge and experience gained through First Person Radio to place the tools of communications in the hands of the younger Indian youth. MIGIZI”™s Achievement Through Communications, and Native Academy programs became the first community-based programs in the city to give access to state-of-the-art technology to American Indian youth, thus closing the digital divide for hundreds of youth who lacked access to computers in their homes and other community settings.… Read the rest ““Laura Waterman Wittstock, Still the Superb Journalist: First Person Radio Signs Off the Air””
Keep citizen journalism alive!
