Letter to the Editor: Tell History in full context; A Single Story is dishonest, disrespectful, and sometimes a monstrous mistake

BY LAURA WATERMAN WITTSTOCK

It is the artist”'s responsibility to understand the society in which he/she lives and to create art that moves society forward. Apparently this artist thought building a scaffold to reveal the horror of mass hangings would shock and wake people up about the scaffolds of the future unless society comes to its senses. What the artist achieved was a grotesque placeholder of a time in history when white settlers brought along fried chicken and other snacks to watch 38 human beings being hanged en masse. We have had many such events in England, for example. The tower and square where beheadings took place are merely tourist attractions today. The blood has long dried.

But 1862 is a year that is unsettled yet today. Dakota land was invaded, impinged upon, and even treaty land got no payment. The Dakota were at the point of starvation.

Building a scaffold in a courtyard that holds other art rips open the wounds made to the Dakota people. A quiet burning is the only remedy to this monstrous mistake.

We have yet to learn the lessons of 1862. We have yet to become Minnesotans. No time better than now to begin.

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Letter to the Editor: Profile Police Stops that fear non-whites of any age

By Laura Waterman Wittstock

I don”'t know how many studies I have read that non-whites are stopped far more than whites. In MN American Indians are arrested far more than their population should suggest when compared to other populations. A great majority of these arrests do not result in convictions.

We can”'t have an intelligent conversation without understanding what the relationship is between nonwhites driving cars and the stopping rates. In a non-scientific way, I have also noticed a lot of stops of older cars, whatever color the driver happens to be so. So poverty is likely another factor.

The police represent the expectations of the presumed law-abiding public.

Ten years ago I was stopped in a sweep around Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis for presumably not stopping long enough at a stop sign for the officer who was in a car perpendicular to me on another street. As I stopped and looked left, I saw him. After stopping I started out and he came after me. I told him I stopped and I saw him but he said I did not stop. I had to be somewhere in a few minutes so I took the ticket, but as I argued with him he told me to put my hands on the dash.… Read the rest “Letter to the Editor: Profile Police Stops that fear non-whites of any age”