News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Monday December 22nd 2025
Raise Your Voice ”“ Mother Earth knows
BY PETER MOLENAAR
Editor”'s note: This article was written before the August 14th primary election.
Our Franklin Avenue follows an old Dakota path to what were bountiful waters to the near west of us. Today we take this path to 2104 Stevens Avenue to find the headquarters of MN350, an organization which resists the forces of climate change. MN350 has worked to establish relations with the tribal bands further north. Unity with the peoples whose bond with water runs deep, is earnestly sought.
Minnesota”'s water is under the threat of Polymet.
Are there politicians who would endorse a 500-year threat to our well-being: the threat of arsenic and mercury contamination of the watershed which feeds Lake Superior? Under the banner of “national security” and a handful of “good jobs” lasting a mere 20 years, indeed there are.
Editor”'s note: Subsequent to this writing, Tim Walz and Peggy Flanagan have won the primary election.
Note: I suggest we redeploy a major portion of our military monster to the infrastructure required for a post-fossil-fuel society.
Reminder: Polymet (actually, a foreign company) intends to pulverize “sulfide rock” in order to extract copper and nickel. Add water to the tailings and the resultant sulfuric acid will further erode a material meant to contain the poisons for eternity (Google miningtruth.org/polymetmining,… Read the rest “Raise Your Voice ”“ Mother Earth knows”
Movie Corner
BY HOWARD McQUITTER II
oldschoolmovies.wordpress.com
howardmcquitter68@gmail.com
“BlacKkKlansman”
(2018) Biography/Comedy/Crime
Monkeypaw/Blumhouse
5/5 Stars
Ron Stallworth writes a memoir, “Black Klansman,” the basis for Spike’s provocative new film “BlacKkKlansman,” a true story, though it seems fictional in almost all aspects. Interestingly enough, one of the producers is Jordan Peele, director of the terrific horror/ dark comedy “Get Out” (nominated for Best Picture and Peele becomes the first African American to win Original Screenplay).
Unlike Lee’s bumbling, disappointing film “Chi-Raq” (2015), this new film, “BlacKkKlansman,” merges break-out funny and profound seriousness very well; one of Lee’s better movies. His opening scene is a clip from “Gone with the Wind” (the first color film to win Best Picture) as Scarlett (Vivien Leigh) is walking through the Confederate wounded and dead swings into Alec Baldwin, playing a white supremacist, citing why Blacks are an inferior race and integration a dangerous move to destroy the republic instigated by the Communists.
John David Washington, son of veteran actor Denzil Washington, plays Ron Stallworth , the real man (he’s still living) who becomes the first African American to join the Colorado Springs police department in the early 1970s. At first, Ron is placed in the record room simply drumming up files for other officers.… Read the rest “Movie Corner”
Keep citizen journalism alive!
Spirit of Phillips – September 2018
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