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Civil Rights Advocates Arrested
Last Wednesday, Aug. 11, five civil rights advocates were arrested during their attempt to deliver over 110,000 petitions to Major League Baseball (MLB) Commissioner Bud Selig, asking him to move the 2011 All-Star Game out of Arizona. The arrests occurred during this month’s quarterly MLB team owners’ meeting in Minneapolis as advocates approached the meeting to hand over the petitions.
“We are at the MLB team owners’ meeting on behalf of more than 110,000 civil rights advocates and baseball fans who are calling on Bud Selig to keep America’s top pastime as a social institution,” stated Carlos Roa from Presente.org. “Instead of acknowledging our massive demand to protect civil rights, Commissioner Selig has refused for the second time to receive our petitions and has allowed civil rights advocates to get arrested during this peaceful action.”
In a clear recognition of the threat posed by Arizona’s anti-immigrant and racial profiling law, SB 1070, MLB teams are providing trainings and identification cards to players in the event they are racially profiled or harassed in Arizona. Nonetheless, Commissioner Selig fails to state whether or not he would move the game out of Arizona. Numerous players, managers and coaches have already spoken out against the law, and several have said they will refuse to participate in the 2011 All-Star Game scheduled in Arizona.
The rally and protest is part of the national MoveTheGame.org campaign—a coalition of organizations led by Presente.org and MoveOn.org, which has coordinated several rallies, protests and other events across the country in reaction to Arizona’s passage of SB 1070. |
Is the MPD out of control?
BY ED FELIEN
Is the Minneapolis Police Department out of control?
In May of this year we published an article by former Minneapolis Police Chief Tony Bouza, “Unintended Consequences,” in which he said, “cops’ unions have gathered such enormous political power that they’ve made it virtually impossible to fire the 1 or 2 percent of malefactors in the ranks. And these thumpers in the police ranks, although, for certain, a fraction of the forces, set the tone and define the limits of action that guide their tolerant overseers, most of whom are members of the same union … and a parade of judgments and settlements served as mute proof of the cost of having out of control cops all over the state.”
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Life’s little Kumbaya moments
BY TONY BOUZA
Like all real amateur writers I love doing pieces on topics I only imperfectly and superficially understand—art, foreign policy, literature, etc. This despite the fact that I’ve been practicing/studying police
actions continuously since 1/1/53.
Lawyers even pay me $200 an hour for my views, take notes and don’t nod off, as is so often the case when I wander from this reservation.
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Protecting the credibility of the MPD
BY COUNCIL MEMBER CAM GORDON
In general, we are served well by the large majority of police officers who work in our neighborhoods every day. The more that the police can build trusting and effective partnerships with the people
they serve the better they will be able to help make this a safer, better city for everyone.
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Bedlam and West Bank not what you think
I read your front-page editorial concerning the recent developments in the West Bank neighborhood with great disappointment. Sure, Bedlam is being evicted and they will re-emerge someplace else. Bedlam, as a theater community, was never dependent on the West Bank for its peculiar genius. They will do just fine wherever they end up.
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Resident remembers the old West Bank
I loved the front-page Bedlam Theatre photo and the remembrance of West Bank
past in the July Southside Pride issue. Cedar-Riv old-timers like myself can identify with your words describing those times and places. I often wish they would return. Your last paragraph is a reality wake-up call from
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Yes, you can get a mortgage loan
The requirements are stricter, but if you qualify, the rates are very low
BY STEPHANIE FOX
For the first half of the first decade of the 21st century, getting a home loan was no big deal. Banks were eager—almost desperate—to give money to people who wanted to buy homes. A big reason was that the housing market was
propping up an out of control economy. Debt was good, was the common wisdom. It was good for the economy, it was good for homebuyers and it was particularly good for the banks.
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Working on the immigration problem
BY RICHARD TAYLOR
In the wake of Arizona’s oppressive new law monitoring immigrants, it’s useful to reflect on the causes of accelerated immigration from Mexico in recent years. Along the way, we might conclude that a more suitable term for “illegal aliens” is “people who need to make a living.”
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Mississippi wildlife is community treasure
Toward the end of my jog this afternoon I was on the south side of the Franklin Avenue Bridge heading back into the neighborhood. Looking out over the water I was startled to see a bald eagle in mid air over the river about 15 yards out from the bridge and about at my eye level. I stopped and watched as the eagle hovered in one spot, fluttering its wings to hold herself in the air while she peered down at the river.
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Policing not the only option
The three front-page articles on police accountability in your August issue are important. But I couldn’t help noticing the assumption unstated in each: that there is no alternative to policing.
Stories of police misconduct, brutality and murder are never ending. Yet we act as if the institution itself is as natural as the sun and earth.
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The Cycle of Violence in Afghanistan
BY REPRESENTATIVE RON PAUL,
a 2008 Republican candidate for President
Last week the National Bureau of Economic Research published a report on the effect of civilian casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq that confirmed what critics of our foreign policy have been saying for years: The killing of civilians, although unintentional, angers other civilians and prompts them
to seek revenge. This should be self-evident.
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Muslims ask Pawlenty to retract Statement Against NY Islamic Center
Leaders of over 12 Minnesota Muslim organizations and mosques on Monday, Aug. 9, called on Governor Tim Pawlenty to retract a statement he made in opposition to a New York Muslim cultural center. His comments appeared to link all Muslims and the Islamic faith to the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
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Now kids, don’t make pigs of yourselves
How we form our values
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN
There was a famous church leader who was going to be in Hillsboro, Kansas, the Mennonite town where I grew up, and friends of my parents had invited him to dinner. They invited our family, too.
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Jihad and the holy war
BY BARNABY DEVITT
How can war be holy?
What righteous god would welcome the massacre of innocents?
And, yet, the origins and history of Judaism, Christianity and Islam have their roots in war. The Old Testament and Talmud are catalogs of epic battles. Jesus, who brought the new commandment: Love thy neighbor, also told his followers, "Let him who has no sword sell his mantle and buy one. For I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me, 'And he was reckoned with transgressors.' " (Luke: 22, 36-37) Muhammad, not just a prophet and the founder of Islam, was a remarkable general. His continued battles with rival tribes eventually led to a consolidation of most of the Arabian Peninsula into an Islamic confederation during his lifetime.
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No senior co-op housing at Howe School site!
BY ED FELIEN
According to an article by Burt Gilyard in Finance and Commerce, July 16, United Properties has terminated its purchase agreement with the Minneapolis School Board to redevelop the Howe School site at 3733 43rd Ave. S. They
had agreed to retain the building, renovate it and add new construction for cooperative housing for seniors.
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BP'S ethical curveball
BY JIM HIGHTOWER
Not to worry, insists BP in its ongoing PR push to buff up its polluted image, we're going to make this right—the cleanup, the economic loss, all of it will be paid for by us.
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August 2010 
