News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Wednesday December 24th 2025
Frank Reflections: Racist stereotyping and profiling detract apprehension of real perpetrators
By Frank Erickson
Imagine if the FBI was spying on, or as our media calls it “monitoring,” young white college and high school age students as potential future terrorists. Think of the outrage white parents would have if the FBI was viewing their children or potential violent terrorists”¦and this was being done based only on ethnicity. Yet this is exactly what is being done to local young people in the Somali community.
The January 20th Star Tribune has two articles about our Somali community in it. A front page article about “Visa backlog keeps Somali families separated” and a Los Angeles Times article reprinted, titled “Al-Qaida is again active in the U.S. Somalis from Minnesota are among potential recruits the FBI monitors.
As I run around South Minneapolis, I see young people of many different ethnic backgrounds, yet I see one common bond, they are all the same! They all have their phone things, they all like hanging out with friends, they all like junk food, Cheetos seems to be a staple”¦ and all of them do not dress properly for the winter weather. Yet the Somali young people are viewed as possible terrorists; even though most of the terrorist acts of mass-murder on American soil over the past 10 years have been done by white males.… Read the rest “Frank Reflections: Racist stereotyping and profiling detract apprehension of real perpetrators”
BYI Community Health Survey
WHY is the BYI Doing Research?
In 2009, the Backyard Initiative completed a Community Health Needs Assessment. An assessment team was formed to create a picture of the current state of health and well-being of residents in the Backyard, engage a broad network of resident in the process, and inform and plan the next steps for the BYI. The assessment team included community residents, staff from Allina Health, the Cultural Wellness Center and Wilder Research.
Based on the BYI Definition of Health and the Community Assessment, the following Priority Areas were identified:
- Perceived stress: the degree to which situations in one”'s life are appraised as stressful.
- Social support: the emotional, instrumental, and financial aid that is obtained from one’s social network. Support is generally considered as an exchange or transaction between people
- Social cohesion: a feeling that members of a group have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members”' needs will be met through their commitment to be together
- Healthy literacy: people”'s knowledge, motivation, and competencies to access, understand, appraise and apply health information in order to make judgments and make decisions concerning healthcare
- Patient activation: the concept that patients have important roles to play in self-managing care, collaborating with providers, and maintaining their health
The BYI RESEARCH PLAN is designed to collect, analyze, and interpret health-related data identified as being important to the Backyard Community, and to disseminate the findings back to the Community, to stakeholders, and to those in other communities who could learn and benefit from our work. … Read the rest “BYI Community Health Survey”
Keep citizen journalism alive!
Turn, Turn, Turn
It was a pleasant surprise to find not one, but two of my comrades on the front page of last month”'s Alley Newspaper. Pete Seeger and Meridel Le Sueur were both amazing human beings. Truth to tell, however, Pete”'s Party status has been somewhat hazy. He was “close”, they said. As for Meridel, thirty some years ago I gave her rides to and from meetings ”“ so I”'ve known all along that she was a Communist.
Pete Seeger passed away January 27, 2014, at the age of 94.
In point of fact, in the period of rising fascism, at age 17, Pete did join the Young Communist League in opposition to the pacifism and left-isolationism he encountered at Harvard University. He believed the whole world should unite to defeat Hitler.
THIS MACHINE SURROUNDS HATE AND FORCES IT TO SURRENDER rang the words of his banjo. In the prime years of his life, so it followed, the “authorities” did their best to hound and to blacklist him.
But there was no way they could stop Pete. No. His rendering of “We Shall Overcome” was to become the anthem of the Freedom Movement. Then later, in the period of the Vietnam War, his “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” would break through on national television.… Read the rest “Turn, Turn, Turn”