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Blog #117. August 31, 2003: Doug Grow: We hardly know ye. We thought we saw a breakthrough with your column “Whebbe, Jr., Short on Money, Long on Dreams.”
Then we looked again and realize that you did not write “The Minneapolis Story: Short on Money, Long on Dreams” (http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/4049064.html) about my book, as I point out how the city has shorted itself the money for dream building for people who still have dreams in order to fulfill the city’s dreams to make Minneapolis the “last outpost” for showing other cities how to keep Blacks in their place. But I should have known, as you already told my publisher that the Strib wouldn’t be covering my book, that it was “shelved,” because there were more important topics to cover. So, how is this story or others you have written since my book came out more important than an objective, fact filled book about the problems of Minneapolis with real world recommendations for how to resolve them? You were given a copy of the book, as six other editors and columnists for the Strib. Can you really look me in the eye after reading Chapter 17, Interlude 4, and the conclusion, and tell me with a straight face that this is not an important story: 40 year community activist writes book on history of city’s response to minorities, particularly in light of the Strib series on racism in 1990? How can this not be news? How can this not at least be community news? Shame on you. Shame on the Star Tribune. Maybe you should be called “The Downtown Business, Cultural Arts, Education, Sports and Suburban Tribune.” How about “Any Place But The Inner City Tribune?” What communities do you cover now? What could be more important that “The Minneapolis Story” in any of its guises? Have you no pride? No shame?
Sunday, August 31, 2003, 2:40 a.m.
Blog #116. August 30, 2003: Braun Intertec: The Fox guarding the hen house, the wolf dressed in grandma’s clothes welcoming little red riding hood
Remember that Braun Intertec was contracted to do the cleaning of the ground soils and water at Hollman/Heritage Park. Then they are brought in to evaluate their work and have the analysis done in-house, in their own laboratory. Yet the state of Minnesota itself has questioned the integrity of the testing, as Braun Intertec has a very serious conflict of interest. So the independent analysis we were promised was not done. They claimed it was OK before they cleaned it up so now they couldn’t see it. They had already concluded what they would see in advance, and thus gave us an incorrect report. We can only surmise that they purposefully covered it up as they knew they didn’t clean it before and they hoped by continuing to deny anything was wrong that the story would die down and people’s attention would be attracted to something else, and they could get back to business as unusual. Now, if you, dear reader, like them, had been given millions of dollars to do the cleanup, what would you do if you found toxins? Would you risk big fines and/or jail and/or going out of business, or would you cover it up and hope it blows over, as one way is a sure loss and the other way is a maybe escape? As in the cartoon of the fox and the hen house, the most oft used strategy is used: deny, deny, deny. No sir, Mister Farmer, those white things are not chicken bones, nosirreebob. They are small bleached corn cobs. And no no, those are not empty stalls; those are the hen house shadows playing tricks on your eyes. Chicken bones. Oh my goodness, no, no, no, not chicken bones. And then the fox walks away, smacking his lips.
The City is bereft of professional integrity (as Braun Intertec has already shown itself to be) by not insisting on an outside, independent test. Isn’t the normal protocol to have independent tests? Of course. But to date neither the city nor the developers and their hired hands have followed this. Fortunately, Minneapolis also resides in Minnesota which in turn resides in the United States. If necessary, we’ll have to bring in the state environmental people, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and, quite possibly, the U.S. Attorney. We will not become the next set of bones in the fox’s hen house nor will be allow ourselves to wind up in the belly of the wolf.
Saturday, August 30, 2003, 6:37 a.m.
Blog #115. August 29, 2003: Playing the race card. Don’t forget, Whites created the deck and Whites have been dealing the race cards to us for over 300 years. Now we are playing them.
Some have asked me if my use of the term “racist” is playing the race card? That question always means there is no racism involved, meaning whatever is wrong is somehow innately the fault of Blacks. I repeat: I play with the race cards but I didn’t deal them. There is a difference. The whole history of the Hollman/Heritage Park site, along with “crime containment” neighborhoods, lousy education, prevention of jobs and ghettoes of indecent housing are all among the playing cards in the deck dealt by Whites? Indeed, my whole book “The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes” is all about how Whites have long been dealing the race card (slavery, Jim Crow, 1968 Blacks can’t make it on their own Kerner Commission Report, local laws and regulations, etc.). They dealt us the cards. We’re just playing the hand we have been given. I guess they don’t think that when we play we can count cards. Newsflash: we can count. Are there Blacks who play cards not in the deck? Of course. But those few playing nonexistent cards doesn’t make the real cards go away. To make the real deck go away so there are no more race cards, real or imaginary, implement my solution process in Chapter 17 of my book, “The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes.”
Friday, August 29, 2003, 5:46 a.m.
Blog #114. August 29, 2003: Report hidden until given the light of day in Wednesday’s column. How many more?
In my Wednesday, August 27, 2003 column in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, I wrote that the August 7, 2003 report I discussed had been kept quiet. No coverage by the Star Tribune. Can you imagine a report dismissing arsenic as “common” and nothing being said? Then after “common” they say the amount in the water to be a health risk is not established. Are you doing the math with me here? Do you “commonly” have arsenic in your water? And if is was present would you take the word of someone who said it was not a risk when they themselves have no idea what is healthy and what is not? In this age of almost environmental obsession, no one knows the dangerous levels of arsenic? And yet we all know that any level of consumption of something like Arsenic will, over time, be fatal, especially for babies and children? Still to come: the results of tests taken by other experts among whom there is a consensus that if children put their fingers in this stuff at Hollman/Heritage Park, and then put their fingers in their mouths, it will be toxic for them.
Remember my web log entry #44, #62, and #102, where I reported how they cemented up the black ooze coming up through the sidewalk cement? They left that out of their report too. At the August 14 meeting where they gave their report they were asked about that ooze. They said it was not petroleum based. But they knew it was petroleum. They cemented over it so there was “nothing” there. Before they did the ooze had eaten through the concrete and was powerful enough to leave it stained even after scrubbing to try to get rid of it. The report does not indicate that they ever took any samples of this black goo before they cemented it up. But I did take a sample first. So I know, proof positive, that it is petroleum based, which fits with the description in the July 31-August 6, 2003 cover story of the Spokesman-Recorder showing the map of all the contamination sites in North Minneapolis. In counting the dots on Hollman (inside or at the boundary of the site) I counted 43 dots representing contamination sites. The area between Hollman and the Mississippi and going North and South a dozen blocks each way has, on the map, over 300 dots representing contamination sites. And in the small section of the map representing the East side of the Mississippi there are dots representing 24 contamination sites. This is a far bigger story than just Hollman/Heritage Park. And yet McCormack Baron Salazar and the City of Minneapolis continue to play their games with us. And the Star Tribune remains silent. As I said in the title of Wednesday’s column, A LITTLE BIT OF POISON IS OK; AFTERALL, THESE ARE ONLY BLACK CHILDREN. Some have objected to that line as “playing the race card.” But who dealt the Hollman/Heritage Park card? I’m playing with the deck Whites have dealt from. I guess they dont’ think we can count cards. But we can. And so can the feds. I wonder how long the city, and McCormack Baron Salazar, and Braun Intertec think they can cover this up before the feds come down on them?
Friday, August 29, 2003, 5:45 a.m.
Blog #113. August 28, 2003: This is the day, August 28, the 40th Anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” Speech
Read excerpts from the “I Have a Dream” speech or my longer paper “The Unfinished Dream” in honor of this day in the “Solution Papers” section of this web site.
What is important is not what we do today but what we do tomorrow. What will you do? I’ll keep working on the “solutions” of Chapter 17 of the book “The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes.”
As Bob Dylan was wont to say, “the times they are a-changin.” Hispanics now outnumber Blacks. In California Whites are a minority, outnumbered by Blacks and Hispanics and Asians. More than ever, we need the message of Martin Luther King: judge others by the content of their character not the color of their skin. Too many young firebrands on that balcony in 1968 did not pick up his torch to shed light but to light their way to riches. Too many became racketeering extortionists of Whites and snake oil salesmen to fellow Blacks. Too many Hispanics and Asians and other immigrants have picked up our separatist cry of specialness, and now a whole chorus drowns out “not color of skin but content of character.” In our drive to use our color to glorify rainbows, multiculturalism, and diversity, we have changed E pluribus unum, out of many one, to many out of many, a veritable Tower of Babel that has forsaken principles and conscience and unity for false honor codes and separateness, for paranoia and fear, and the impoverishment and disempowerment of Blacks in inner city ghettos.
And so these old leaders (Black and White democrats) with their old solutions double cross our children by forcing them to stay in the Democrat’s union schools when most Black parents favor choice, defined as vouchers so they can choose good schools. But choice is what Whites want for themselves, not for us. Too many Black democrats have joined too many White Democrats and White unions to thumb their noses at the wisdom of Nellie Stone Johnson: “No education, no jobs, no housing” in the inner cities. These “leaders” keep their jobs but deny generation after generation of our kids a chance to learn so they can get jobs too.
They club our cubs (see Chapter 7 of my book, “The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes). And so we hear the Black lips of Black preachers and legislators and the Black lips of elected Black officials and their bureaucrats cry out “wait, for it will take generations.” Martin Luther King denied that argument to Whites. He would be appalled at how many Blacks have learned that song and sing its chorus of “wait.” Thus the racism we decried 40 years ago remains, but now its the racism of Black leaders against Blacks, as they are unable and unwillingn to let us go as they benefit economically by running the Democrats inner city plantations. And then they wonder why so few showed up for the 40th anniversary gathering in Washington, D.C.
I’ve been at this for 40 years, inspired by Dr. King 40 years ago. And what do I see: a movement that has descended into the pitiful celebration of malice at the Lincoln monument. It was no better than this year’s annual meeting of the NAACP (see “NAACP Takes Eye Off Prize” in the “Solution Papers” section of this web site). The Civil Rights Movement was and is supposed to be a movement of Democrats and Republicans and Independents and Greens sharing a similar goal. Instead we saw a cheer leading squad for partisan Democrats, and instead of trashing racism and false leaders it trashed the country and all non-Democrats (except Congressman John Lewis). That is not civil rights. That is uncivil free speech. Constitutionally protected, to be sure, but to a Nellie Stone Johnson democrat, political suicide.
Racial harmony, integration, equal access and equal opportunity are not the platforms of a single party but the ideal of all fair minded Americans, of any color or party or “persuasion,” seeking fairness and justice. Lincoln and King shared “with malice toward none.” This is why, in Chapter 5, I focus on the Golden Rule. To many national and local civil rights leaders seek gold to rule instead of working with other golden relationships. The movement has lost its way. Many Independents, Conservatives and Greens share our goal of freedom’s prize of racial equality, i.e., equal access, equal opportunity. And polls show that most Blacks feel the most important Black leader in America is Colin Powell, a Republican, with 25% of Blacks under 30 calling themselves independent, not Democrat or Republican.
So, do we wait? No. Will we trash America? No. Will we keep clubbing our cubs? No. Will we ridicule Whites and Blacks and Asians? No. Will we criticize all who stand against equal access, equal opportunity, whether Democrat or Republican, Independent or Green, male or female, straight or gay, ethnic or religious? Yes. The rainbow was a sign to end destruction. Today’s “rainbow coalitions” use it to create destruction. Read my paper “The Unfinished Dream” in the “Solution Papers” section of his web site, a paper that honors Dr. King. Read the truth as spoken by Martin Luther King, Jr., truth that still stands today. We can solve it now if we want to. I want to. Don’t you? Let that be our continuing dream.
Thursday, August 28, 2003, 1:10 a.m.
Blog #112. August 26, 2003: Is Lois Everheart in danger of being voted off the island?
At the Thursday meeting last week, she said Ken Havey was a liar when Ken said that a couple of years ago they had spent $4 million in clean up. Lois, who heads infrastructure care for MPHA, said that had not been done. The following Monday she claimed to have no recollection of saying that. I would vote all the liars off the island.
Wednesday, August 26, 2003, 1:26 a.m.
Blog #111. August 26, 2003: The “I Have a Dream Speech” 40th Anniversary is Thursday. What does Minneapolis Dream Thursday?
The question will not go away, Do we do it now or wait generations? See #106 and #109 below. In “The Unfinished Dream” in the “Solution Papers” section of this Minneapolis Story web site, Martin Luther King, Jr. says do it now, and explains why we can’t wait. This web log is also about why we cannot wait. “The Unfinished Dream” has excerpts from his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, The Playboy Interview, and his I Have a Dream speech. It also has Dream verses and quotations for dreaming the dream of freedom from my book “The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes.”
Wednesday, August 26, 2003, 1:25 a.m.
Blog #110. August 26, 2003: Secret vote revealed: Ken Havey voted off the island.
We have reported Ken Havey’s part in the reality show of Hollman/Heritage Park Island. He has denied the reality we reported. He tried to fool the other casts (or was he just unable to achieve the coverup assigned him by the second cast?). He got voted off the island August 11th. He was relieved.
Tuesday, August 26, 2003, 12:22 a.m.
Blog #109. August 26, 2003: The “I Have a Dream Speech” 40th Anniversary. What does Minneapolis Dream?
The question remains, ”Do it” now or wait generations? See #106 below. In “The Unfinished Dream” in the “Solution Papers” section of this Minneapolis Story web site, Martin Luther King, Jr. says do it now, and explains why we can’t wait. See also excerpts from his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, The Playboy Interview, and I Have a Dream. See also Dream verses and quotations for dreaming the dream of freedom from my “The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes.”
Tuesday, August 26, 2003, 12:22 a.m.
Blog #108. August 25, 2003: The NAACP: There they go again: Missing Money, Audit refusal.
At Saturday’s meeting of the NAACP, the new treasurer gave her report: $250,000 balance, including assets worth $164,000. $20,000 to send 11 people t the national conference. So, as in the old “where’s the beef” commercial, I asked “where’s the money?” I noted that in the May 31, 2003 previous treasurer’s report the balance was $341,000. When I asked, people immediately started to leave the room. So what’s missing? $86,000 that is claimed to have gotten lost in the US Bank and Piper Jaffray merger. Say what? The merger didn’t go through. So why are they blaming Piper Jaffray? Now add the $86,000 to the difference with the May 31 report, $174,000, and that’s a cool quarter of a million unaccounted for. A motion was made during the meeting to get an independent audit of the books. It was blocked by the Chair, President Al Gallmon, who said the motion was out of order. Say what? With Roberts Rules of Order our procedures, this motion was perfectly in order. What, I ask for the zillioneth time, are they trying to hide? Where is the money? Why do they refuse to get an audit?
Monday, August 25, 2003, 1:39 p.m.
Blog #107. August 25, 2003: The NAACP: There they go again: Free Speech for them, not for us.
At Saturday’s meeting of the NAACP, Al Gallmon, Chair of the meeting and President of the local branch was asked to explain his comments in the Star Tribune that it would take generations to solve our problems (Martin Luther King, Jr., would disagree with Al; see my “Solution Paper” “The Unfinished Dream” on this web site). He refused to answer, stating he spoke as a pastor and as an ex-school board member. Say what? As the NAACP local branch President, when he speaks on NAACP matters, no matter what past or current role he has, he is still speaking for the NAACP. He invoked his right of free speech. And yet when I exercised my right, the NAACP slapped me with an “Article 10” and tried to shut me up, ban me, and kick me out. In two weeks the National NAACP board member who oversees the branches will be in town to hear the Article 10 charge of the local branch against me. This is said to be the most important Article 10 hearing in 56 years. I welcome the hearing. Let free speech and freedom ring for everyone, not just NAACP officers.
Monday, August 25, 2003, 1:38 p.m.
Blog #106. August 25, 2003: The 40th Anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech, August 28, 1963
All this week we will honor Martin Luther King, Jr. and the 40th anniversary of his “I have a dream” speech. To commemorate the mortal man and his immortal speech, we have posted a paper, “The Unfinished Dream” on this our web site under “Solution Papers.” After an introduction we let Dr. King speak for himself with excerpts from his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” from his 1964 Playboy Magazine interview, and his “I have a dream speech.” The paper concludes with excerpts about Dr. King and others dreaming the dream from my book, “The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes.”
Monday, August 25, 2003, 2:39 a.m.
Blog #105. August 25, 2003: Complications in the “new” “Reality Show” of “Voting Off the Island” called Hollman/Heritage Park: Real Experts
Oops: a fourth cast (See blog entry #105 below): experts in biology and the environment. Last Thursday at the meeting when the McCormack Baron people presented the Braun Intertec report, the State’s lead environmentalist and confirmed the danger of the arsenic and caught them in a lie. They had tried to say the contamination was not petroleum based. The state expert said “oh no, it most certainly is.” He said the arsenic is a problem that really (there is that “R” word again). has to be addressed (see my column of July 2003 regarding more back up information reporting on this).
Monday, August 25, 2003, 2:38 a.m.
Blog #104. August 24, 2003: Minneapolis is home to a new “Reality Show” that “Votes them off the Island” of Hollman/Heritage Park, out Olson Highway way
There are three casts. The first cast of reality players consists of those who live there. The second cast of reality players consists of the institutions responsible for this island called Hollman/Heritage Park from which the residents can be “voted” off, and include McCormack Baron, Braun Intertec, the Mayor and City Council, and City Agencies. The third cast consists of the voters who vote in the Mayor and City Council who in turn hire the rest of the second cast. But who gets voted off the island is much different from TV reality shows. It’s not a group vote. The third cast votes once every four years for the second cast. Then Mother Nature does the actual voting based on the actions of the second cast or her use of gravity and/or underground pressure from peat bogs that render homes unlivable. How Mother Nature votes is determined by the actions of the second cast, with the City, McCormack Baron and Braun Intertec in the starring roles. They help Mother Nature cast her votes faster and more frequent by not cleaning up the toxins, by ignoring the lead and arsenic, by ignoring the buried asbestos, by paving over areas where black gunk was seeping through, as in sidewalks, and essentially denying there is a problem, leaving the treasure hunt for poisons up to the first cast on which Mother Nature votes. So, with lead and arsenic declared safe and asbestos ignored (actually: lied about), Mother Nature will be voting first cast members “off the island” sooner that we thought.
Sunday, August 24, 2003, 6:25 a.m.
Blog #103. August 23, 2003:Intimidation attempt on Community Activists by McCormack Baron by using their testing company, Braun Intertec to do so
What is in THERE water? How is it that Tuesday Deanna Lara, a manager of Braun Intertec calls Mn State Representative Keith Ellison to tell him that my associates, Zach Montoya and Flowers and myself, were coming onto the site Wednesday packing with guns? Now the state may pass carry and conceal laws for the cities (and I know my rural friends carry without concealing), but I don’t pack, and thus have nothing to conceal. In checking, she confirmed making that statement. This is more than intimidation. This is more than character assassination. In a post 9/11 world, weapons can also mean terrorism, treason, going against the government, undermining homeland security. Maybe their drinking the Hollman/Heritage Park water. Is she trying to set it up so we can be shot on the property because of the rumor she plants that we pack? Hmmmmmm. At some point, I just hope that some grownups show up at McCormack Baron and at Braun Intertec. It seems like we are fighting for the children at Hollman/Heritage Park with the children at McCormack Baron and Braun Intertec. Such intimidation doesn’t work as well with people who have daily truth fests on their Blogs. Their attempt to paint concerned citizens concerned about their poisoning or, perhaps more accurately, concerned about their lack of concern and thus lack of action in dealing with the toxins and poisons, as denizens of Dodge City waiting on main street at High Noon so they can back shoot us rather than properly addressing their internal problem. Sounds like a set up to me. What’s it sound like to you? Collusion? Aiding and abetting?
Saturday, August 23, 2003, 1:12 a.m.
Blog #102. August 22, 2003: More re the criminal activity at the Winter Park offices of the Vikings (see also #93, #94, #96, #100, #101)
The officer has been put on administrative leave, with pay. They are still trying to spin the story, as the Strib says in its headline, “Vikings may be victims of ID theft.” “May?” Nonetheless, the Strib also reports that he has been place on paid leave, which clearly reflects there is not a lot of confidence in this officer at the moment. Different stations had different levels of reflection. A couple reported credit cards, IDs, social security numbers, as reported here last week, in his locker. The Strib makes it sound like a locker not at Winter park by calling it a “police locker.” Maybe they did in Eden Prairie. But make no mistake, they are trying to lead us away from the reality that he had a locker at Winter Park. Channel 5 had the best coverage, with Channel 11 less so, but interviewing the Eden Prairie Chief of Police who talked of the importance of reestablishing the trust of the community. But if he hasn’t done anything, what trust is to be reestablished? Obviously they are holding back. We’ll find out. Stay tuned.
Friday, August 22, 2003
Blog #101. August 21, 2003: Indentity theft at the VikingsThe Star Tribune finally gets on board this morning and carries the story. The other TV channels covered it last night. And now callers to the radio stations have gotten them to discuss the Vikings situation.
Breaking news. More later today and through the weekend. We will update this story both in terms of details and in terms of significance as we go through the weekend and show how this is yet another demonstration of “The Minneapolis Story” in action. Stay tuned.
Friday, August 21, 2003, 12:40 p.m.
Blog #100. August 20, 2003: KSTP “scoops” all Minneapolis media, reports the identity theft perpetrated against key Vikings players [Daunte Culpepper, Randy Moss, and Michael Bennett]. But where is the Star Tribune and Clear Channel?
On the six o’clock news tonight, KSTP, Channel 5, a NON-Clear Channel station, broke the news of the identity theft at Winter Park of the Vikings, involving a former security guard. KSTP said “The Vikings had no comment.” Hmmmm. Neither confirm nor deny. Then its true. But we knew that as we “scooped” the Star Tribune, Clear Channel radio and TV stations, etc., when we reported four days agothat a Federal Task Force had descended on Winter Park, search warrants in hand, and found evidence of identity theft by White perps or perpetrators. What KSTOP report is ALL that is that the Minneapolis daily media organs have reported in a week. More has appeared on this Web Log, starting four days ago (see # 93 and #94 below) than all the major media, print and broadcast, in the Twin Cities. So what can we learn from story about crimes being committed against three of the greatest players in Viking history, Daunte Culpepper, Randy Moss, and Michael Bennett, by their White masters and the cover up of the White perpetrators? Thinking people want to know.
Five questions suggest themselves:
First: How is it that a lowly guy with a web log is able to “scoop” the Star Tribune, the Clear Channel radio and TV stations, and the rest of the daily media of Minneapolis media except the independent KSTP? Answer: They have purposefully suppressed the story. There can be no other answers. The Federal Task Force descended on Winter Park last week and found evidence of the identity theft committed against Daunte Culpepper, Randy Moss, and Michael Bennett. Every one knows. Not even the coaches are speaking up. Is this part of the “conspiracy of silence” written about in the Spokesman-Recorder.
Second: What does this say about Red’s vaunted commitment to his players when he lets them hang in the wind while he covers some White boy close to him? How can he hold White staffers closer than his players? Answer: It is obvious that his reputation and fortune are more important than the reputation and fortunes of his players. It makes me think that his autobiography, called “The Red Zone: Cars, Cows, and Coaches,” is what he is about: a man whose attitude is simply this: players are cars to ride, cows to milk.
Third: Am I playing the race card by suggesting that if this was Blacks it would be all over the papers? Of course. Think how little attention was given, in comparison, to the White executive and players at last winter’s blizzard event. The race card is real: not because I am manipulating emotions but because that is how this Winter Park crowd has operated, especially over the past 20 months, when it comes to how they have treated Black players and how they got rid of most of the Black coaches. And who is Red protecting that is close to him, and who is obviously a crook, that could turn that nice, honest cop from Eden Prairie to do such dastardly deeds? Who corrupted him with the offer of ripping off wealth players like Daunte, Randy, and Michael? When it is White management folks, Red is not to be seen or heard nor are all of the Strib reporters and radio talk shows hosts. Are they too in his back pocket? They are part of the group to whom we will all say “Et tu brute” when they stab us in the back along with Red when the team moves (see my question five below), unless someone stops this pre-ordained plan (see my web log entry 31 below).
Fourth: what does this say about giant corporations conflict of interest owning media outlets? Answer: may nothing, maybe something. But you can bet when Clear Channel stations discuss it the reason is because they can’t suppress it any more and because they want to either put a good spin to protect the boss (without having to be asked) or they have been told to put on a good spin to protect the boss. So much for Clear Channel journalistic integrity, openness, and honesty. With something kept quiet so obviously for a week, one has to ask, what else are they suppressing and not reporting because such news is not complimentary to them? And why is the Strib remaining quiet other than they are in on the plan to boot the Viking out of town (their own reporter wrote a book saying so). See my web log entry #32 regarding how the Star Tribune star chamber kills news (see also #37).
Fifth: how does this fit into my theory, in Chapter 15 of my book, “The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes,” that the former owners sold to an outside guy so he could either move the team or sell it to someone who would move the team? Answer: it fits perfectly. Red’s silence condemns him. He is obviously trying to keep a once shiny diamond that he has just kept tarnishing for the past 20 months hoping the buyer he seeks won’t see all the flaws he has caused by chipping away at it. Let’s face it Red, you’ve been tackled, 4th and goal, at the one yard line. The only red zone left for you now is embarrassment.
Wednesday, August 20, 2003, 9:00 p.m.
Blog #99. August 20, 2003: The attitude of the NAACP seeps into Jordan: “It’s not a local problem, it’s a state problem,” because they don’t believe there is anything they can do. Dear readers: this cripples our present and denies our future.
We sympathize with those making every effort to combat all forms of violence, particularly gun-related violence. The city must and can provide us with order and protection. But we caution those who, sincere in intention, are sincerely wrong by saying “This is not just a Northside problem or a city problem, but a state problem,” as stated by Jonathan Palmer, Director of the Jordan Area Community Council. I appreciate his frustration but I can’t accept people uttering words of hopelessness or helplessness.
Those who buy into hopelessness or helplessness are buying into the nonsense
of the 1968 Kerner Commission Report that said we can’t make it on our own.
The NAACP should be leading the charge for the Black community against the status
quo. Inst
Wednesday, August 20, 2003, 2:37 a.m.
Blog #98. August 19, 2003: Why can’t the NAACP find common ground with the ideas of JFK and FDR or that admirer of FDR, Reagan? Why can’t the NAACP and the DFL stop sounding like Herbert Hoover?
Al Gallman, President of the local branch of the NAACP said essentially that nothing can be done to f ix things for generations (see entry #89 below). Hmmmmm. Why do he and he DFL sound like Herbert Hoover? Gallman said that it will take generations. Hoover, riding with FDR on the way to FDR’s inauguration, said “nothing can be done” about the depression. So even though Hoover brought help, hope and restoration to Europe after World War I, he lost it regarding the United States. So he provided leadership of no hope. And was not re-elected. George H.W. Bush said he wasn’t into the vision thing. He too wasn’t re-elected. Yet the federal government had developed programs while Hoover was President which FDR then used. Why? Because FDR was a man of hope. He said “the only fear we have is fear itself.” Bill Clinton said he was a man of hope form a place called hope. Ronald Reagan said he was a man like FDR. Here is what Reagan said: ”We are the showcase of the future. And it is within our power to mold that future-this year and for decades to come. It can be as grand and as great as we make it. No crisis is beyond the c capacity of our people to solve; no challenge is too great.”
That is the message in my book, “The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes.” I outline a path, a process, if you will, in Chapter 17. Yet when the book was sent to the City Council some sent it back. The NAACP and the Black Leadership Forum have condemned the book. The NAACP, leadership forum, DFL and the City Council prefer the status quo of them in power over their city plantation, whether the hands be Blacks, GLBT, feminists, disabled, or other “challenged” or “victim” groups that they persuaded to vote for them. I say we should quote JFK who quoted George Bernard Shaw: “Ask not what your country can do for you but for what you can do for your country.” There is no hope in the status quo except those milking it for personal, political and economic gain. When they say things, suggest things, do things, always ask this on question: “who benefits?” If it’s them and not the people, beware. Their answers tell you whose side they are real on.
Tuesday, August 19, 2003, 2:36 p.m.
Blog #97. August 19, 2003: Education is key. Minnesota denies educational achievement to Blacks, another form of identity theft
The White education managers steals their students’ identify cards. White DFL steals the future identify of young Blacks. The Star Tribune, 8-14-03 online, carries the article “Minnesota’s achievement gap among the biggest in nation” in terms of “passing rates of White students and Black students among states that require high school exist exams.” This is the subject of chapter 7 of my book, “The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes.” Nellie Stone Johnson said “No education, no jobs, no housing.” Keeping Blacks under educated keeps them in their place. There are only two answers as to why: either Blacks are too dumb or the educational system is too racist to accord Blacks equality of teaching and education. Science refutes the former leaving only the latter. Its time to face that, Minneapolis, and act accordingly to ensure equal access and equal opportunity of education for all, and that means reforming the educations system from top to bottom, side to side.
Tuesday, August 19, 2003, 5:40 a.m.
Blog #96. August 18, 2003
See also #93. and #94. below. As of this hour, it has now been five days that The Strib has remained mum about the Federal Task Force Search Warrants at Winter Park regarding the White Management’s Involvement in significant credit card and name/identify theft of their own Viking players.
Monday, August 18, 2003, 1:58 a.m.
Blog #95. August 18, 2003: Are the DFL and Inner City African American Men like Batman and the Joker, in the sense that both Batman and the Joker claimed that the other had made them?
Everyone who has seen the Tim Burton Batman movie knows the scene at the end where the Joker tells Batman, who once had been unable to keep him from falling into a vat of toxic wastes which froze his face into a smile, told the Batman his evil was not his fault, that he, Batman, made him: “you made me.” Batman, in finding out that it was the Joker who had killed his parents as a boy and left him without parents, said to the Joker, “And you made me.” How many Blacks, young and old, have been dropped in the toxic vat called Hollman/Heritage Park? How has this affected their IQs and their subsequent social behavior? And how many young Black men have been abandoned of hope by the policies of the DFL and the NAACP? In this sense, many of those men caught up on the emergency regarding young men (see Blog entry #90 below), and thus they, in many ways, can say to the Whites, “you made us.” This analogy breaks down because there is nothing that the Blacks have done to the Whites to cause them to be dropped into toxic vats and even though the Whites have concentrated Blacks in poverty and crime zones, there is no way that Whites can blame Blacks for locking them into non-toxic, affluent suburbs, and say to them, “you made us” (unless, of course, you speak of the taking of Black land and wealth, as discussed in Interlude 8 of my book, “The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes,” those who took it “got made” financially).
Monday, August 18, 2003, 1:40 a.m.
Blog #94. August 16, 2003:Still no word from the Strib re the Federal Task Force Executing Search Warrants at Winter Park regarding the White Management of the Vikings’ Involvement in significant credit card and name/identify theft of their own players.
Has anyone gotten this yet: management personnel are ripping off the players and the management is keeping it quiet. And although it has been four days since the Federal Task Force descended on Winter Park, the Strib still stays mum. This sounds like total contempt for the players to me. What does it sound like to you?
Sunday, August 16, 2003, 8:00 a.m.
Blog #93. August 16, 2003: A Federal Task Force Investigating the NFL Descended on Winter Park three days ago. Is it because it is about White boys that the Strib doesn’t report the Search Warrants executed at Winter Park?
The task force found evidence of significant credit card and name theft committed by Whites close to the Viking administration and Whites of the internal security detail. But NO players. Several questions and points become clear. First, is it because this is about White boys that the Strib has kept it quiet three days? Or is this just the usual Strib tradition: cover up for the Whites and tear down the Blacks? The Feds wire tapped a number of NFL facilities. And the winner this week was the Vikings. A locker full of identify theft evidence was found: lists of player credit card numbers, lists of player Social Security numbers. Red is trying to keep it suppressed to protect his friends. Which friends? Certainly not his players. We have to include that he would rather protect his smarmy friends than his players on his team, which should have been his first reaction. It is said the silence is because they don’t want to distract the players from winning. Say what? Are these babies? We know this is not true. If these men can take NFL games they certainly can take NFL news. Before, if there were athletes of color involved, the Strib provided coverage, and if it was a Black Head Coach they provided a cold shoulder. How soon before ESPN and Sports Illustrated come in, or does Red’s Clear Channel hidden hand extend that far as well? Why, with its penchant for blanket coverage on personal peccadilloes, is not the Strib covering this story, a story of one of the worst cases of fraud in the history of the NFL? Why isn’t the Strib giving us a heads up? How often in the life of the NFL do the federal task forces execute search warrants on the property of an NFL team? Normally the Strib would be all over this and have Sports Illustrated out to cover it, as it did with its hatchet job on Kirby Puckett, a Black guy. This is only Red McCombs, a White guy, who is working with the Strib and the rest to run the Vikings out of town. What they have done and are planning to do to Minneapolis and Minnesota shows the Strib Star Chamber for what it is (see my web log entries #31 and #32). Kirby and Randy seem like choir boys compared to these thieves. But of course readers of my book (The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes,especially my Chapter 15 on the Vikings), can understand that I immediately begin to wonder how this will eventually be used to help complete the local Planation folk’s plan to run the Vikings out of town? Rather than stand up for our team (remember, no team members are involved), we’ll get a “spin” on how this tarnishes the Vikes and thus makes it easier to run them out. And when they do that they will have completed the ultimate in identity theft for this community, taking the people’s team.
Saturday, August 16, 2003, 7:14 p.m.
Blog #92. August 16, 2003: Minneapolis Police Discrimination Catches Another Black Woman for Indiscriminate Police Harassment: Council Member Natalie Johnson Lee.
The Star Tribune notes that a dust up between Council Member Natalie Johnson-Lee and a new police woman on the beat. The Strib slyly insinuates that the incident is job threatening by saying it isn’t while tying it to other council members behavior that was. My congratulations again to the Strib. It continues its selective harassment and lets its White readers know it is there for them to help keep Blacks in their place. I am not writing about whether the CM was wrong or the cop was wrong but rather about how wrong the Strib is in the way it reported the incident. Don’t forget my entry #32 below and my “Solution Paper” on this web site on “Why we need Black Newspapers.” This also demonstrates why the police-community mediation process is so important.
Saturday, August 16, 2003, 7:13 p.m.
Blog #91. August 16, 2003:McCormack Barron digs itself deeper into its toxic hole
This week McCormack Barron released its report. They gave their typical “don’t worry be happy” report: all is well. Nothing about lead. But it did reveal a new toxin, arsenic, but said there was not enough for it to be a problem. OK., so what are they saying, that we Blacks have greater immune powers? Would Whites in Wayzata and Wood Hills and Eden Prairie be comfortable with that level of arsenic in their water? Would the McCormack Barron people in St. Louis County be happy with this level of arsenic in their’s? So, another white wash. And there was nothing about asbestos in their support. When we confronted them about asbestos, after their report was done, they had nothing to say and could not address it (could not or would not?). A word of commendation: the meeting held Thursday at the Urban League, a tense meeting indeed, was, well moderated by Representative Ellison. Please note: when asked about the buried asbestos McCormack Barron had two different stories, neither satisfying. I’ll have more for you on this later as the information develops. Stay tuned.
Saturday, August 16, 2003, 7:12 p.m.
Blog #90. August 16, 2003: How would the DFL and Republican parties respond if the state of emergency with inner city Black youth existed with White youth? See new August 2003 “Solution Paper “State of Emergency for Black Youth.”
Local NAACP President Al Gallman says our problems would take generations. Really? Is that because that is how long he wants to collect from programs for the livelihood of he and his friends? In this country, when there is a state of emergency declared, all kinds of help is triggered. As I have pointed out in my book, The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes, that Jawanza Kunjufu hit the nail on the head with his book entitled State of Emergency: We MUST Save African American Males. Under the “Solution Papers” section of this web site, I have just listed 16 areas that he declares are states of emergency: “State of Emergency For Black Youth.” I concur. And if these 16 parts of the state of emergency for young Black males were true of Whites, they would declare a state of emergency and fix it right away.
What does the Minneapolis branch of the NAACP do? Nothing. They don’t declare an emergency. They don’t propose any solutions. They say its our fault, that we’ve lost our sense of responsibility, and thus it will take generations to fix (see web log entry #below 89). And now you know why I referred to them in my book (Chapter 14) as the National Association for the Advancement of Cowed People” or the “National Association for the Advancement of Corrupt Plantations,” the latter being a reference to the DFL and the Democratic control of most cities in this country.
Saturday, August 16, 2003, 7:11 p.m.
Blog #89. August 16, 2003: NAACP again puts down Blacks, asks us to wait generations. With “friends” like that, who needs enemies?
Let’s compare the comments of Condoliza Rice, a Republican, and President Bush’s National Security Adviser, and Albert Gallman, pastor, local NAACP head, and a Democrat. You know me: I’m a Nellie Stone Johnson Democrat. Look how close to that Condi is and how far from that Al has gone.
Condi addressed the National Association of Black Journalists last week, and addressed the universal struggle for freedom in America as well as elsewhere in the world. She said (my emphasis with the bold):
We must never, ever indulge in the condescending voices who allege that some people in Africa or in the Middle East are just not interested in freedom, they’re culturally just not ready for freedom, or they just aren’t ready for freedom’s responsibilities. We’ve heard that argument before, and we, more than any, as a people should be ready to reject it. The view was wrong in 1963 in Birmingham, and it is wrong in 2003 in Baghdad and in the rest of the Middle East.
And, I might add, it is also wrong in 2003 Minneapolis. The 8-14-03 Star Tribune on line (“Minnesota’s achievement gap among biggest in nation”) reports that “The state has the largest gap between the passing rates of white students and black students among states that require high school exit exams.” And how does the NAACP react to this? Gallman gets it right when he says “The sound way, the best way, to get up and out is to have a good education.” That is the heart of Chapter 7 of my book, “The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes.” But he gets it wrong twice when he says, first, “That piece is no longer the bedrock for the African American community…we have gotten away from the African-American community having a culture, an environment that says education is important.” This is an indictment of the local branch of the NAACP, which does nothing but foster the kind of negligence he outlines. He also gets it wrong when he is reported as saying it “will take generations” to fix. He is echoing the condescending view Condi decries: “not interested…not ready for freedom’s responsibilities.” This is another example of how Black organizations continue any action that keeps their jobs and thwart any that could make their jobs unnecessary. This is why I ran for President of the NAACP local branch and why the NAACP nullified those Black voters who voted for me and used White voters to elect Gallman, to continue their White Minneapolis Plantation.
Saturday, August 16, 2003, 7:10 p.m.
Blog #88. August 16, 2003: Storming the root causes of our problems following the path laid out in my book regarding education, jobs and housing
I have been asked why I put down Don’s fasting and corner camping. I did not put them down. My problem is not that they don’t address the problems, as they do, but that they aren’t followed by proposals to address the real structural issues behind them. And while he is out there it hasn’t stopped additional shootings, some within a few blocks of his corner.
Fasting and camping on the corner are fine as far as they go. But we don’t need another politician who feels our pain. We need politicians willing to take action on the structural problems causing the difficulties in the inner city. The only proposals I’ve seen so far have those in my book, which, when given to the city council, half returned my book. This is the time to do something specific for our community, as I outline fully in my book, “The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes.” Don needs to address what I raise regarding education, housing and jobs. These are issues worthy to be stormed by all of us. As Nellie Stone Johnson repeatedly said, and as I repeatedly repeat: “No education, no jobs, no housing.” Now those are issues we should be storming. I do so in my book. I will continue to do so. I invite Don and the rest of the council to develop laws and regulations that will demonstrate education, jobs, and housings for all as a priority.
Saturday, August 16, 2003, 1:55 a.m.
Blog #87. August 15, 2003: “Samuels Storm Troopers” should storm the root causes of our problems, not storm our people
I have again been asked how I could use the term “Samuels Storm Troopers” about a brother (see #82 Below). Actually, I didn’t coin the term, I merely repeated what I heard others say who didn’t want to be quoted. Surely no one watching the activity in Africa could question the use. Being Black doesn’t always make us right. That was our whole argument about Whites and Jim Crow. Being White didn’t always make them right. This is a political issue, albeit with racial overtones. Certainly the “irony” is not lost on us that our mediation with the police is being undermined by calling in state troopers to harass Black citizens. Justice and bringing in culprits? Yes, we are all for that. Shooters? Apprehend them. No argument there. Gangbangers? Arrest them and don’t revolving door them back to the street, of course. But intimidation, breaking bones and teeth, and generally “having their way” with innocent young Black men whose only “offense” is being Black and male? No.
We don’t need colonial mentalities or colonial tones or colonial methods. Putting colored masters over other coloreds doing the bidding for higher White masters is old school. We reject that and ask the bothe the Black and the White communities not to get caught up in the brilliance of the public relations actions and get confused and think that the rest of the Black community accepts and approves. We don’t. I can’t speak for all but I know I reflect the view of many who are indigenous descendents of slaves as opposed to immigrant Blacks. Don should be working on the root cause of our problems: lousy education leading to lousy opportunities combined with a lack of equal access and equal opportunity for affordable housing, as well as lack of Black men in the lives of young Black men. As Nellie Stone Johnson repeatedly said, “No education, no jobs, no housing.” Now those are issues we should be storming. I do so in my book. I will continue to do so on this web page.
Friday, August 15, 2003, 5:00 a.m.
Blog #86. August 14, 2003:The October bombshell of 2001
The meeting of October 19, 2001, as reported in my August 13 column, is nothing less than a bombshell. The documentation I cite exposes the TOTAL misrepresentation by the city and the shifting of money away from the places of obligations and responsibilities they were intened for under, oops, 1996 assignment from the federal government. The city hasn’t been able to produce one single report of any of their samples or examinations or monitoring on that site. Not one document. That is why the October 19, 2001 meeting was where everything started to unravel in respect to the big lie, and where Ken Havey began to talk in terms of the kind of money that was going to be spent and money allegedly in place already for cleanup. So far, to date, the city has been unable (refuses?) to produce any materials or documents as they pertain to monitoring. This meeting is extremely damaging to them and underscores again the importance of the disappearance of documents undertaken by Jackie Cherryhomes regarding which neither the Mayor nor the White Council Members, nor the Star Tribune, raised an eyebrow or made a complaint. The only ones to do so? Yours truly, Natalie Johnson-Lee, the Spokesman Recorder and City Pages. We remain the “big four” watchmen and women of Minneapolis. And we are looking for Whites as well as for Blacks. We will continue to do so. Stay tuned.
Thursday, August 14, 2003, 1:00 a.m.
Blog #85. August 13, 2003: “And what will the City do about the illegal buried asbestos-wrapped pipes” in Hollman/Heritage Park?
This is a the question I raise in today’s column about the asbestos wrapped pipes dumped on the Hollman/Heritage Park site. The city claimed October 19, 2001 that this was cleaned up. Yet I have asked to see a copy of the work order and the completion and toxicity reports. So if it wasn’t done were there fines levied? Can the city prove its answer? No. The we have to ask: Is there a correlation between the city not able to produce such documents and the files taken by Jackie? We think so.
Wednesday, August 13, 2003, 2:18 a.m.
Blog #84. August 13, 2003: Deja vu all over again in today’s column: the trail of lies and broken promises continues
In today’s column, serious questions are raised about the collusion of the city and its developers to lie to the citizens/tax payers and to the federal government, as the city continues to break its promise to the people of North Minneapolis regarding Hollman/Heritage Park. In the middle of all of this is Ken Havey and the City Council and their developer buddies and would be developer buddies. As my book “The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes” has documented, this is a continuation of an old story (see especially Chapter 8). The record is clear: public officials claiming one thing, appropriating money for cleanup that doesn’t take place, and lying to the federal government about what it has done. Why federal marshalls haven’t descended yet I dont’ know, but surely it is only a matter of time. McCormack Barron has admitted it has made no surveys, no tests regarding water and soil. So who is looking after the tax payers money of Minneapolis? The city? No. The developers? No. The Black organizations? No. Only the Black Focus group, including this web site, and this web log. So what is going on? Think Enron. Think shredding. Think covering up. Think hiding. They claimed to put in ground water monitoring equipment, although they couldn’t quite get the figure right, as in 2000 they said $2.9 million and in 2001 Ken Havey said it was $3.8 million. Now you know me, I’m a loyal citizen so I’ve got to believe what my city officials tell me, isn’t that right? Not any more. If they tell it to me then it has to be gospel, right? Not any more. Do you believe them? And if you do, why?
Wednesday, August 13, 2003, 2:16 a.m.
Blog #83. August 13, 2003: Choice: Modern America or Old Colonial? The latter seems to be the choice being offered by RT Rybak and Don Samuels. I choose Modern America. How about you?
Some people have asked me why I took what they thought was a cheap shot at Don Samuels yesterday in #82 below. My response: I didn’t take a cheap shot. I like Don. I’m working with him. We work well together. But that doesn’t mean that I accept all of his ideas or methods any more than he accepts all of mikne. But in this case, we don’t agree. Facts are facts, and not liking the facts doesn’t make them cheap. So let us face the facts. We understand Don’s call to bring in the state police keep order. We agree with keeping order. We just don’t agree with calling in the state troopers. The problem is that we are trying to mediate with the police. This undermines mediation. Especially when the group called in is lily White (only one Black state trooper, and he is from Duluth). Calling in the police first is the colonial way. A persistent theme in my book, “The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes,” is that Minneapolis, for African Americans, is run like a plantation, a colonial plantation. But the colonial way is not our way. We live in a new America. We can achieve more by first mediating with police about what is going on and how to resolve local crime issues rather than call in the state police to beat us up.
Wednesday, August 13, 2003, 2:15 a.m.
Blog #82. August 12, 2003: Calling in the State Police undermines police – community mediation
We appreciate how much City Council Member Don Samuels is trying to do to stand up for the community and to draw attention to its problems. But we fail to see the benefit to the community to call in special response teams of snipers into the Black community. Why was the Highway Patrol called? Why not the City Police? Answer: to intimidate Blacks. On the surface, White voters like this. But not all in the community do. Worse, this also looks like another attempt to kill the mediation process. The police Don called for are doing the same thing we saw a decade ago: kicking the Black peoples’ backsides. Don has mastered great public relations gestures that has the Whites cooing. The problem is that it has Blacks running for cover. Why unleash the police on the community? We already know they can kick us, shoot us, shove us around, harass us, intimidate us at will. That is what the mediation is supposed to be about: to work to prevent it from being done to innocent Blacks. Again: why call the state police? Is it because they haven’t had an opportunity to kick our butts around for a decade and its their turn again, that they want to join in on the fun? Isn’t this the old same ‘ol same ‘ol: if you are Black and male you are a target, as the city has demonstrated once again?
I have heard them referred to as the Samuels storm troopers, as what did they do but break bones and teeth as they cut their swath through our community. Although saying that is a bit much, I understand why it was said. This is not supportive of mediation; it is intimidation. Are they trying to say to us that the three young African Americans arrested for the wounding of the 18 month old baby makes it OK? Why not the same state response for the 6 month old baby who obtained lead poisoning at Hollman/Heritage Park? Because that baby was done in by Whites, not Blacks. But they are not embarrassed to beat up on Blacks in the ‘hood. Makes them look good. Nonetheless, we are still watching. Beating us up and breaking our bones and teeth, especially those of young Blacks, just because they are young and Black, does not pursue justice and fairness. But in my book, my columns, and in this web log, I shall continue to pursue justice and fairness.
Tuesday, August 12, 2003, 12:30 a.m.
Blog #81. August 11, 2003: Employee of Developer threatens fellow Hollman/Heritage Park resident. What’s that all about?
An Urban Strategies employee living in Hollman offered to be a liaison for the mother whose baby contracted lead poisoning, claiming that Urban Strategies had nothing to do with McCormack Baron. Readers of my column, my web log, and viewers of Black Focus know that Urban Strategies is the non-profit parent group owned by McCormack Barron for its non-profit projects. He lives in her apartment. When he thought he had gained her confidence, he confronted her and threatened her, telling her not to listen to me and to “be careful.” What kind of people are these McCormack Barron people? This employee was obviously not acting on his own. We look forward to the time when McCormack Barron and its entities view Holllman/Heritage Park as a community of people and not simply a revenue source comprised of piles or bricks and mortars, two by fours and roofing.
Monday, August 11, 2003, 5:37 a.m.
Blog #80. August 10, 2003: McCormack Barron intimidates residents with unique policy of rental payment by appointment at closed office.
If this wasn’t so egregious and cruel, it would be funny. McCormack Barron has instituted a policy whereby rent is to be paid, by appointment, and if the appointments are not schedule or kept, a fee of $25 is charged, even if the office isn’t open regular hours to collect payments. Who ever heard of that? I haven’t. Here is the Catch-22: they close the office early as well as claim they are booked so they can’t take appointments, meaning the tenants get fined $25 no matter how hard they try to pay. Is that sorry, or what? How’s that for intimidation, threatening, and, oh yes, extortion? Why does the city allow itself to be represented by folks like this? As the buck stops with the city, we can only conclude that the city either wants tenants intimidated or just doesn’t care.
Sunday, August 10, 2003, 2:44 a.m.
Blog #79. August 9, 2003: Dust continues to be watered; suggestive of air borne pollutants, including lead
The baby with lead poisoning lived in an apartment in which the central air didn’t work. So the windows were opened. The toxic dust thus was air borne into the apartment window. They now water the area six to seven times a day to keep the dust down. And, as reported earlier, they changed the water purifiers and pipes in the area surrounding the baby’s apartment.
Saturday, August 9, 2003, 1:20 a.m.
Blog #78. August 9, 2003: “Not Without Laughter:” Langston Hughes would have approved of Blog humor, laughter and sarcasm
Langston Hughes, one of our great Black writers, wrote his novel, “Not Without Laughter” in 1930. He believed that lives should be lived with humor. Maya Angelou reminds us that Langston Hughes understood that laughter was even more important for those clinging “precariously on the rocky ledge of poverty and rejection.” He knew that “people on discrimination’s rutted roads needed belly laughs to get by.” Thus it is that he understood the need for grit and persistence in a time of ignorance and racism. For him, “Laughter [is] employed to put disadvantage into a manageable place [as it remains] a shelter which gives a needful people succor and shelter in a time of storm.” So too with this Blog (web log). Some people think I am being unnecessarily sarcastic. Well, I’m just trying to infuse humor in some grim situations. We need to be serious. But we also need to laugh. It has been said that the best bloggers “all have a contrarian outlook and irreverent humor.” We are dealing with serious subjects, but no need to be sanctimonious about it. Life must still go on in the day to day activities of the every day. So if you find my statements fun, with humor, and are able to laugh with your tears, then my occasional sarcasm and droll humor is helping make my points. I’m satisfied if I’ve both informed you and entertained you and maybe even moved you to commit to beginning a wider discussion of the solutions needed to resolve the problems of Minneapolis, solutions that exist in every chapter of “The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes.” Have you read it yet? No? I’m shocked, shocked. Ok, then, your turn: why not?
Saturday, August 9, 2003, 1:19 a.m.
Blog #77. August 9, 2003: Hollman/Heritage Park: the “joke” is on the White tax payers and the increase of their property taxes
At the end of the day, the tax payers are on the hook for Hollman/Heritage Park. White tax payers. And now that people are not wanting to take units due to the pollution, and as the clean up will cost even more money, creating more delays costing yet more, the burden is on the taxpayer. You appreciate if we Black folks smile, nay even laugh out loud, as the scam to benefit a few Whites turns back upon the large number of Whites. We’ve watched this over and over. It’s a high price to pay for keeping the Black people in their place. But what does that say about the place a few Whites are keeping the majority of Whites? Well, at least I see the humor here. So, the scam no one cared about because only “the darkies” were getting screwed is now alarming Whites as they slowly come to realize that the “laugh” is on them, as their taxes will not only have to foot the bill, their taxes may well be raised in order for the city to be able to pay for this and other problems of idts causing. Some say property taxes could even double in the next five years. Langston Hughes would have appreciated the humor and the irony. And now maybe White folks will be able to cultivate a laugh as they travel on their tax paying rutted road.
Saturday, August 9, 2003, 1:18 a.m.
Blog #76. August 8, 2003: Wednesday’s Strib Photo Op: Police Chiefs addresses the mirror, not the citizens
30 of the 41 attending the Chief’s press conference Tuesday were either police, media, staffers, or hangers on. No community folks were there. Few Blacks. The deep background gathering was to mostly Whites. But why not? He is the Chief for Whites. We are in mediation to make our point that the Chief and his police should also be for non-Whites. He continues to trivialize the community of color and the process of mediation. Its a start. We appreciate that he addresses the choir. How about the congregation?
Friday, August 8, 2003, 7:59 a.m.
Blog #75. August 8, 2003: Deja vu all over again: Hollman/Heritage Park new buildings coming apart like the old ones they replaced. The scam and sham of the construction fraud of the past is repeated in the present.
The buildings have been occupied for less than eight months, yet they are already showing the results of incredibly shoddy construction. I documented the decay of the old buildings (see Chapter 8 of my book). Many of the same problems that took years to develop have now developed in less than a year. As a result, the state is coming in to inspect.
Friday, August 8, 2003
Blog #74. August 7, 2003: Deja vu all over again: White state troopers remain segregated, continue pounding our Black youth
The White state troopers are back in a repeat performance, much like the census: every ten years. Its been ten years since they came into our neighborhoods to harass, intimidate and beat us up. Now they are back. Must be their turn again. A nearly all White state police force carrying guns and night sticks that excludes minorities from its force is a new form of an old concept: White supremacy, which we saw as literal as they came through our neighborhoods last week, breaking bones and teeth and harassing young Black men. We raised the integration question in 1993. We raise it again. Probably nothing more signifies the state’s lack of desire to integrate the state police that the fact that they remain lily White regardless of whether the Governor is DFL, Independent, or Republican. What an example for our young people. “Law and order” is used to detract from real solutions, such as those in my book, and “law and order” is used to detract from the fact that the state continues to purposefully keep its White state police segregated: Blacks need not apply. Again: what an example of hope for our young people.
Thursday, August 7, 2003, 9:35 a.m.
Blog #73. Confusing the Rainbow: Is the color Green Now To Be Equated with Black? Are Greens now to be treated as Blacks? What is the DFL color?
Why wont’ Braun Intertec turn its environmental information about Hollman/Heritage Park over to the clear air and clean water people? In fact, why do they join McCormack Barron and the City to refuse to release information the city paid them to gather? Isn’t it interesting that Braun Intertec won’t respond to these nice White environmentalists when asked for this information. I must admit that I am shocked, just shocked, that it appears that Braun Intertec is confusing Green White boys with Black boys. The White Greens thought they could wave their magic wand and good things would happen and they’d get the information to clear up the confusion regarding what is going on environmentally at Hollman/Heritage Park. But Braun Intertec won’t get back to them. These nice clear air, clean water people expected Braun Intertec, the City, McCormack Barron, etc., to be honest and up front. Why? Because they are White? Yeah, right. As the Black man might say, "welcome to our world." My, my. None have, as yet, released the results of the tests. But we know from my July 30 column that their claims re why they can’t are not truthful. Maybe clean air and clean water and clean soil is only for DFLers. Hmmmm. I wonder what color the DFL is. The DFL has stuck it to Blacks; they are trying to stick it to Greens (many of whom are White). So the colors that come to mind for the DFL are yellow and lavender. But certainly not Green or Black. So tell me, dear readers, what color do you think the DFL is?
Thursday, August 7, 2003, 9:34 a.m.
Blog #72. Another document showing city non-compliance.
MPHA ensures compliance with Section A requirements regarding lead based paint and other hazardous materials through its provisions of educational materials provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency together with disclosure of information forms completed by the MPHA program participant lessees and their landlord lessons. In completing the disclosures, both leassors and leasees acknowledge knowing LBP and other hazardous materials at the property. If the leasee certifies that a problem has been tested and it is determined that the child has excessive levels of lead, the landlord is required to remove or abate chipped paint or other hazardous conditions and to certify in compliance with HUD regulations prior to leasees moving in and annually thereafter MPHA conducts housing quality standard HQS inspections. Every section 8 participant completes lead questionnaires and certification and annual recertification time.
NONE of this was done. And why don’t people know? Jackie Cherryhomes cleaned the files about them out of her office, and either has them hidden or had them shredded. Now the federal government has copies of these documents, but that requires knowledge of them, request of them, and their going to their archives to get them. These are steps usually skipped by those not seeking extra work for themselves or their agency. Hence the title of my July 30 column: Violation of a Trust, Betrayal of a People.
Thursday, August 7, 2003, 9:32 a.m.
Blog #71. The smoking gun for Hollman/Heritage Park showing the gift that keeps on giving: Hollman/Heritage Park, delivered on the beasts of burden known as Minneapolis tax payers, Black AND White.
Minneapolis’ Green (money) Cotton Pickers: middle class city planners taking most of the green cotton that was supposed to be for the poor and minorities. How much of this went into the retirement programs of the planners and how much to the retirement program for the poor and minorities?
Authorization of 10-11-01 action: Thursday, October 18, 2001, 1:30 p.m., Conference Room 333, City Hall, City of Minneapolis, Empowerment Zone Governance Board. Agenda item B.1., "Construction Loan for near north project, loan to assist McCormack Barron with a construction firm to build eight foundations of multi-family housing constructing 60 units total, $980,000.
Why would they need to give them $980,000 when their friends on the city council floated a $10 million bond six months earlier, and after they had already picked up $7 million from Sun America, a year before? See my column of
Here is a list of part of the pieces of the gift that keeps on giving, a list that shows $21,017,000. And counting? How much more are we not aware of?
But only the loan for $980,000 was paid back (and then four months late). Probably $17 million of the $21 million didn’t go to McCormack Baron but to their subsidiary Basset Creek Associates LP, which are the real Basset Creek Associates and Basset Creek Limited Partners are running this project. Yet all the official information (read Jackie Cherryhomes files) has disappeared. But I have my copies. How many others have copies. I stand by my earlier offer: I’ll be glad to report them on this web site, as together we document the city’s Violation of a Trust, Betrayal of a People.
And isn’t it interesting that Jackie Cherryhomes voted for a project for which she is now wants to be a sub-developer? As I said, it is a gift that just keeps on giving.
Wednesday, August 6, 2003, 12:07 a.m.
Blog #70. The Gift that Seems to Keep on Giving: the gift from Minneapolis tax payers (local and federal) to the developers of Hollman/Heritage Park.
The April 6, 2001 resolution of the City Council, expressed in a letter to Kevin McCormack of McCormack Barron (the coordinating company of all that goes on at the Hollman/Heritage Park project on behalf of his role as head of the development company Bassett Creek Partners LP, the on-site McCormack-Barron subsidiary):
"Your committee, having under consideration proposed near North side Phase IA development, consisting of new construction of 120 units of mixed income rental housing located at Olson Memorial Highway and Lyndale Avenue North in the Near Northside Redevelopment area, which will be developed, owned and operated by Bassett Associates, LP, which MBA [McCormick Barron Associates Development Corporation] is the managing general partner, and having conducted a public hearing thereof [which is false] now recommends passage of the accompanying resolution giving preliminary approval of the issuance of up to $10 million in multi-family rental development bonds for the near northside IA project as set forth in Appendix 266790."
In other words:
Resolution 2001R-211, giving preliminary approval of tax exempt revenue bonds, under Minnesota statue Chapter 4, 62C for the purpose of financing a housing program consisting of the acquisition and construction of a multi-family rental housing development in the vicinity of Olson Memorial Highway and Lyndale Avenue North near Northside IA, for the benefit of Bassett Associates LP, was passed April 6, 2001 by the City Council and approved April 11, 2001 by the Mayor. A complete copy of this resolution is available for public inspection in the office of the City Clerk.
Wednesday, August 6, 2003, 12:08 a.m.
Blog #69. City Council Members return book. In others words, citizens solutions need not apply.
After reading my columns, web log entries, and watching my weekly TV show, people express sympathy for the situation of Minneapolis, are shocked by what they have read, and ask what can be done, what can the city do, what can they can do. I remind them that a good process and list of places to start is outlined in my book, "The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes," in Chapters 5 and 17. They address a process and tools for resolving our problems. Therefore, to help do my part, I requested of my publisher to send a copy of my book to each City Council Member and a second one to the Mayor (he was given a copy last November). Several sent the book back saying they could not accept gifts. And yet it was not sent as a gift, as you can see from the letter sent to them with the book (see the July letter to them in the "Occasional Papers" section of this web site). It was sent so that the city could "benefit from the insights and suggested proposals." The letter goes on to say that "He proposes solutions you can use to resolve the difficulties, which, again, could be used in any city and would make a great platform for change if used by the Minneapolis City Council." The letter also summarizes the book’s list of issues to be addressed and notes that "Ron summarizes all of his recommendations in Chapter 17" with details throughout, especially Chapter 5. So what do we learn from this: that for the Minneapolis City Council: citizen recommendations and suggestions need not apply. And then they want to know why I refer to them with the phrase Violation of a Trust, Betrayal of a People.
The City Council wants to be our watchdogs but they don’t want any watchdogs looking over them. Sorry. That reciprocity is what democracy and freedom and liberty and their oath of office is all about. Our job as citizens is to be the watchmen and women. Therefore, I will begin to suggest specific solutions to answer the "what needs to be done" question that they refuse to address. I invite others to do the same. Let’s all do so. Our suggestions count too. Our suggestions apply. Stay tuned.
Tuesday, August 5, 2003, 1:40 a.m./2:05 & 2:24 p.m.
Blog #68. The "Open Sesame" Treasure Formula for thieves known as City Agencies and their Developer buddies.
All the thieves in the story "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves" had to say "Open Sesame" to get the cave door to the treasure to open. In Minneapolis, all they have to utter is "affordable housing" and other happy talk "Open Sesame" phrases. The government, unlike a bank that would only loan you 90% to develop an apartment building, will issue bonds for you at 120% or 130%, so all the Ali Babas of the city can add their different fees and the "costs" for their special purpose entities that absorb the "profits" of the developer and the budgets of the agencies, so there are no taxes to pay. So the taxpayer pays twice. This is why there are few if any privately funded and owned apartment buildings. The developers have been funded by the taxpayer (with ownership going to the private developer). Thieves indeed, milking the cash cows of collected taxes and issued bonds, as do their part in the Violation of a Trust, Betrayal of a People, increasing the city’s debt and decreasing its ability to keep the city clean and safe and our kids educated.
Tuesday, August 5, 2003, 1:38a.m.
Blog #67. Mobilizing Citizen People Power through Knowledge/information and Communications: Avoiding the Spin and Disinformation of the Strib and the Major Media Outlets.
What is our most important weapon? Knowledge/Information. What is the ammunition we fire with that weapon: Communications. If knowledge/information is power, getting the information out, communications, is how to turn that power to victory for the people.
Neither the city nor the developers nor the political parties are coated with Teflon. We will make our charges stick. We will make our power realized. We will turn them back into agents of the people. We will make our demand for equal access and equal opportunity for all stick. The communication vehicle I chose was my book. But when the mainstream press would not acknowledge it (see #32 below), I started this web page and when they still wouldn’t (see #37 below), I engaged this daily web log. Where will you get accurate knowledge/information on a daily basis in Minneapolis? From the Strib? You’re kidding. From the local TV and radio stations? Really? Are they covering what I cover? The mainstream media doesn’t cover, they cover up. They censor. They spin. They distort. They disinform.
To avoid censorship, spin, and disinformation, read these daily web logs. When you read here and then read/listen to them, you will agree with many others that have told me that they find this web site, column, and daily web log one of the few truly independent voices today in Minneapolis. I lay it on the line. I tell it like it is. I’m not here to work for the Plantation Masters nor their hired hands, nor for the left wing nor the right wing. I’m here to work for the people. It is what I have done for 40 years. It is what I will keep doing. Read about my work in detail in my book "The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes," and read my weekly column and daily web log for the continuation of that story. Democracies need watchdogs, not monopolistic bureaucracies or ideological political parties. May we all take back the power of citizenship and be good watchdogs so our governments and their agencies will serve the people, not themselves.
Tuesday, August 5, 2003
Blog #66. Holman/Heritage Park is only a small portion of a much greater environmental minefield: North Minneapolis West of the Mississippi
The July 31-August 6, 2003 issue of the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder newspaper has a headline that shows why this is BOTH a Black and White issue, in its cover story: "Industrial Contamination surrounds Hollman/Heritage Park Site," with the sub-head "Concerns about the development’s environment extend far beyond the water in a pond." Besides the sites identified on the property, many more sites in greater concentration are in the areas between Hollman and the Mississippi. Let’s make sure that when the city and state get serious about cleanup, Hollman/Heritage Park gets equal attention and equal clean up. After Love Canal 25 years ago, ignorance is no longer an option. The original polluters may be long gone but their legacy remains. How we deal with it today will determine the legacy we leave for our children when they look back 25 years from now on how we dealt with this. As a community, private and public, we can deal with and solve it together. If we engage in blaming and scape goating and triaging certain groups or areas, we won’t solve it. But if we work together, it can and will be solved. Which way, Minneapolis, which way?
Monday, August 4, 2003, 5:24 a.m.
Blog #65. Is Minneapolis following the Love Canal Model? What happens when you can’t trust your government?
The current issue of Newsweek magazine, August 4, 2003, has this story, pp. 50-51, "Love Canal’s Long Shadow: Twenty-five years later, another New York town turns toxic." Love Canal is in a Niagra Falls, NY neighborhood, and has long been the "poster-child" for the lack of attention to environmental contamination reality. For those who don’t remember, this is what Newsweek reminds of about Love Canal:
The major difference with Minneapolis is that McCormack Barron and its Basset Creek companies and its Urban Strategies group knew about the toxic underlay, and made the bet that it would stay put. They bet with peoples lives and taxpayers money. They must have also bet that if their hand got "called," the taxpayers would bankroll their bad bet. The Newsweek magazine article says "taxpayers not polluters, are now shouldering most of the costs," either directly or through "the Superfund program." Does Hollman/Heritage Park change the equation of EPA’s certitude "that there aren’t any more Love Canals out there," which is why, the article says, "it’s much more difficult to convince the American people that a problem exists"? And proof is hard. Direct probability linkage is often difficult (the case was never made at Love Canal) but there is a statistical category called "statistical correlation" and "correlation coefficients" (I’m not a statistician; you now know all I know, but the city and state and federal planners are supposed to be able to use these techniques and the data they generate correctly on our behalf).
And don’t you just love it when officials say there is "no immediate health risk," which ignores longer term exposure? Try telling there is now "milder contamination" than Love Canal to those already suffering physical symptoms, the babies with the lead poisoning, and the grass and flowers that won’t grow. Finally, what about the animals and birds that avoid Hollman/Heritage Park? What are they telling us that we should be listening to? Near the end of the Newsweek magazine article is this statement of an affected resident of Love Canal: "I don’t trust my government." The article then ends with this sentence: "And that could be the most lasting Love Canal legacy of all." We have a great city in Minneapolis. Tough times require great leadership to stand up for all the people, such as we have seen in Council Members Don Samuels and Natalie Johnson-Lee and State Representative Keith Ellison. Will the Mayor? Will the other Council members? Will their agency bureaucrats? Will the Governor and the state legislators? Will the Star Tribune provide journalism or jingoism; will it put special interests first or citizens first? Which way, Minneapolis, which way?
Monday, August 4, 2003, 5:23 a.m.
Blog #64. Sleight of hand shell game on Hollman/Heritage Park water testing continues.
Isn’t it wonderful that McCormack Barron can take samples and report that there is no problem with the water? And isn’t wonderful that the Star Tribune reports their report? And isn’t wonderful that the city says they either don’t have the report or only McCormack Barron can release it? How wonderful for them. But not for us. It is not wonderful that they try to fool us. Why do they treat the truth as a three card monte game? That report was from the tap water, not the two children’s playgrounds, as best we can tell. And if they took any samples from that portion of the sidewalks as shown on my TV show and which will be continued to be shown, where the bubbly, black, gooish liquid, very foul smelling stuff, was seeping up through the sidewalk, they haven’t admitted it. But they did cement over it to prevent others from taking samples (but not before I got mine). Do they have samples from this area, four and a half feet from the children’s playground, near 700 Bryant Avenue North? If not, why not? That toxic ooze left reddish stains the entire length of the driveway (about 30 feet). They then whitewashed the stain, scrubbed it (but couldn’t get it all out). And they cemented over the corrosion of the sidewalk there and again twenty feet away, where the metal grid was needed due to the extent of corrosion in that area. All of this is in the video we show on our TV show on Sundays at 5 pm, on Channel 17, MNT-TV. But that isn’t the real problem. The real problem is that they plugged that portion where the goo, etc., was seeping through by cementing over it. If that is not a cover up then it is up to them to proove it isn’t. And so far they are remaining silent. We have the video. We have the sample of what oozed through, as reported in my July 30 column. All of this raises the simple question: how close to a criminal investigation have we gotten? It certainly seems to me everything is in place to shout out the need for one to investigate their Violation of a Trust and Betrayal of a People.
Sunday, August 3, 2003, 12:14 a.m.
Blog #63. More about the Hollman/Heritage Park NOT Being "Private" Piggy Bank.
I have been asked for more detail on Blog entry #48 on Monday, about the City of Minneapolis saying that as Hollman/Heritage Park is a private development, only the developer, McCormack Barron, can take samples and only McCormack Barron can release the results of the samples. Who said that? Ken Havey, the city’s person in charge of the project. The Federal government has established clear precedent that in cases where it is established that there are health problems, the developer no longer has the right to control the information. This is a shell game on the city’s part. They just don’t want to have to report their incompetence (best case) or malfeasance (worst case). KSTP-TV did an excellent job reporting on this Friday night. And KSTP has taken samples. The city is purposely ignoring established case law. It is case law that makes up the background to the Clinton Administration’s Executive order that I cite in my column Wednesday and which refutes what both Havey and McCormack Barron are saying. I will be reporting more about it. Stay tuned for more regarding the stereo (City and Developer) Violation of a Trust, Betrayal of a People.
Saturday, August 2, 2003, 2:05 a.m.
Blog #62. Mobilizing Citizen People Power Over Bureaucratic/Politician Power: A Watchdog for Minneapolis to Fight the Violation of Trust and the Betrayal of the People, so that No Child, No Adult, is Left Behind.
People ask me why I keep this daily web log. Good question. Remember the two phrases from the 60s and 70s, "Black Power" (which was too narrow as it was incorrectly perceived as for Blacks only) and "Power to the People" (which was so broad it was incorrectly perceived as just a slogan). Let’s unite them and take them a step further: People Power. In other words, action. That is what this web site is about. We, the citizens, can fight back. What do we fight for? Equal access and equal opportunity in education so we can all qualify for good jobs and earn a good living so we can afford good homes. But we have to fight for it. When the French undermined our national security we stopped buying French products: people power. When Gray Davis lied about the size of the deficit and inspired a recall: people power. That is the power of the people. We don’t like to be lied to. And right now, the biggest liars are the mainstream media who cover up for their cronies (be they in government, corporations, political parties, unions, education, development, etc.). Both political parties are buying votes. Bureaucrats seek wage increases and job security even as those their agencies were founded to serve are served less or not at all. We must return elective officials and their bureaucratic staffs to true public service, not self service, so they make sure every child has a chance to become a contributing adult in society.
Saturday, August 2, 2003, 2:03 a.m.
Blog #61. A good Education is still the key to good jobs, good housing, and avoiding jail.
Last Tuesday, One Nation News reported what the new president of the National Urban League said last Sunday that although the number of African Americans with bachelor’s degrees is at an all-time high, it is a success story with a dark side: the rate of Blacks admitted to college is still less than the rate of incarceration of black men. He noted that, according to data for the year 2000, there are states in this country where "there are more African Americans in prisons than in college."
Friday, August 1, 2003, 12:15 a.m.
Blog #60. How can a Democrat seem to be writing against Democrats and especially against the DFL?
This is a question I get a lot. I don’t write against democrats. Remember, I am not an ideologue. I write against any and all policies, Democratic or Republican, that don’t support equal access and equal opportunity for all, Black and White, in education, jobs, and housing. So if the shoe fits, wear it. And if it is too tight and uncomfortable, that should be a sign of the need for change. I am a Nellie Stone Johnson democrat (read about her in my book in Interlude 3). Nellie started the Farm Labor party for the people. When Hubert Humphrey came a courting, he acceded to her will that the merger of her DL party (2nd largest in the state) and HHH’s Democratic Party (3rd in the state) keep all three names. The DFL has strayed from and betrayed Nellie’s concentration on justice for all the people. Thus, as I look at the DFL and Minneapolis as a whole, what I see, through my eyes, is a violation of a trust and a betrayal of a people. Let us be frank: I wish the Democrats would do as much for the people of Minneapolis as the Republicans do for the suburbs, which they would if they saw Blacks as equal. And I am a Martin Luther King, Jr. Democrat (see Interludes 4 and 15 in my book). I follow his dream of working non-violently for jobs and freedom for all. As seemingly no one else will speak up about how the DFL has betrayed us, I will. I do not live in nor think in an intellectual box where every one and every idea in my box is right and those outside it are wrong. We live in a modern age. The chief characteristic of our time is that we have the ability to grasp the need for evidence, find the evidence, and evaluate the evidence. Those who demonize President Bush are no better than those who demonized President Clinton. Those who demonize the Republican Party are no better than those who demonized the Democrats. Why must each become what they hate? Demonization leads away from the common good. We are all fellow citizens living in the same world and sharing what used to be called "the commons." My goal is to work for the common good of all our people. And what is the common good? In my eyes, we need to fight for the common YESes (things I believe we need for the common good) and fight the common NOs (things I believe that go against the common good). This is what I stand for (these YESes and NOs are listed in my book in Chapters 5 and 17). Beyond that, I share Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream of jobs and freedom for all. Look for my upcoming papers on affirmative action and on the 40th anniversary of MLK, soon to appear in the "Occasional Papers" section of this web site. It should be clear by now that I don’t blindly follow the Democrats or the NAACP or any other group. I follow the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I am saddened that the DFL has deviated from democratic principles. I stand with John F. Kennedy as a watchman for justice. In the speech he had intended to deliver in Dallas in November of 1963, he was going to say We in this country ... the watchmen on the walls of world freedom." I invite you to stand on that wall with me. For more on what I stand for, see Chapter 5 of my book, "Justice and Fairness."
Friday, August 1, 2003, 12:16 a.m.
Ron hosts “Black Focus” on Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays, 5-6 pm. Formerly head of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and the Urban League, he continues his “watchdog” role for Minneapolis. Order his book, hear his voice, read his solution papers, and read his between columns “web log” at www.TheMinneapolisStory.com.
Permission is granted to reproduce The Minneapolis Story columns, blog entires and solution papers. Please cite the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder and www.TheMinneapolisStory.com for the columns. Please cite www.TheMinneapolisStory.com for blog entries and solution papers.
