Letters to the Editor

letter to the editor

Stadium
Whenever someone talks about the new stadiums I say I don’t believe in TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION (BASEBALL/FOOTBALL U of M makes students PAY). I fought it for years, begged my DFL caucus to demand that we get to vote as mandated by our city charter. Ziggy Wilf made out like a bandit and he is a bandit.

Mary Weitz

Military massacres not new to Mexico
Three months ago today, the atrocity at Iguala, Mexico, was committed by police and soldiers who were not acting in a wayward fashion. Growing evidence, presented by investigative reporter Steve Fisher of UC-Berkeley, working with Anabel Hernandez of Proceso Magazine (Proceso, Dec. 14 and 21, 2014), indicates federal police and military involvement from the beginning. THERE WILL BE MARCHES AND OTHER PROTESTS THROUGHOUT MEXICO TODAY, in spite of this being XMas time in a heavily Catholic country. Almost no one in Mexico sees this as a drug problem any more: This massacre fits the pattern of those committed in 1952, 1968, 1971 and 1994 by police and military. A more plausible theory is Mexican government subservience to U.S. military aid (as part of general U.S. foreign policy). Carlos Montemayor documents a massacre of communists in a May Day parade in 1952 that coincided with the Red Scares in the U.S. Months later, hundreds of liberal supporters of a presidential candidate were killed in similar fashion. WHAT THE POLICE DO IN URBAN COMMUNITIES IN THE U.S. is what U.S. MILITARY POLICY—DIRECTLY, WITH SOLDIERS, OR INDIRECTLY, WITH FINANCIAL AND MATERIAL AID—DOES IN MANY OTHER COUNTRIES.

Johnny Hazard
Dec. 26, 2014, Mexico City

Suggesting new MO for MOA management
Thanks for Mary Turck’s report about the Mall of America “Black Lives Matter” protest, which my family and I attended. I was especially struck by Kevin Whalen’s comments about another recent MOA gathering. Imagine for a moment an alternative world in which MOA management said, “We agree that Black Lives Matter. We, too, are concerned about irresponsible police actions. We would like to support your nonviolent protest.” Instead, MOA management stoked an atmosphere of potential violence and disruption, stationed security personnel at entrances, called in riot police, and even went so far as to force stores to close on a day that—by its own admission—was one of the busiest shopping days of the season. I would like to ask MOA tenants: Did your landlord’s actions help or hurt your bottom line? Was it done in your best interests, or was it just another example of white paranoia? If you’re not sure, imagine 2,000 visitors grateful to MOA for its support, spending the rest of the day shopping, dining, perhaps taking their families to a movie. Just a thought …

Jeff Moses

 

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