BY SAFIYO MOHAMED This is a true story about how Amazon dehumanizes and abuses its workers for the sake of excessive profit. When Amazon (msp1) hired me and more than 50 other people in 2016, we joined over a thousand workers already working there. My first day was very exciting…
BY TONY BOUZA I have a tiny coterie of friends who, whenever we meet, immediately plunge me into esoteric, vehement exchanges on arcane subjects. Two such are the publisher of this tract (and I mean that in the sense of propaganda leaflet) and the sadly dead and missed Ivan Musicant.…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Throughout this pandemic, we have been noting businesses in various categories that have closed for good (and a few brave souls who opened businesses!).We’ve noted the impact on restaurants, breweries, retail and services, both vital (like groceries and pharmacies) and not so vital but still pretty…
The battleground that is Lake Street Lake Street,” Kay says in the beginning “ …surrounding the riots in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by the MPD… ” I take exception to her statement. The Minneapolis Police Department did not kill Mr. Floyd, a fired Minneapolis police officer…
Holidays are holy I love Debra Keefer Ramage’s essay “Holidays are Holy” in the December 2020 paper. I agree with the core ideas and values, and I hope that our society resets into something more equitable for everyone. However, I question two points: 1) The Israelites probably were not enslaved…
BY ELINA KOLSTAD My husband and I bought a car. When we sold our only car five years ago, we knew that there was a good chance we’d need to own a car again someday. Most of our transit pre-2020 was by public transportation. When Covid hit, our habits changed.…
BY MARIE BRAUN Two days after Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, nations around the world will celebrate the ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Wea-pons. This international treaty makes it illegal to “develop, test, produce, manufacture … use or…
BY KATHY KELLY Recently, an ad from Vote Vets featured the father of a U.S. Navy Seal, Ryan Owen, who was killed in Yemen. Three million people watched it. They heard Ryan Owen’s father urge them not to trust Donald Trump with the lives of their kids. “Look what happened…
BY MERIDEL LESEUR Editor’s note: The following remarks were delivered in 1988 by video to the Alliance for Cultural Democracy conference in San Francisco. I bring greetings from the Middle West and also from Time. On Feb. 22, I’ll be 88 years old. I’ve been a writer, an artist in…
BY ELINA KOLSTAD “Defund the Police” has sparked a nationwide debate, the likes of which we have not seen before, about what a safe community looks like and how we achieve that for ALL of our residents. The vast majority of people in Minneapolis support redirecting funds from the MPD…
BY ELINA KOLSTAD In the month of November, Gov. Walz made two missteps that should cost him any chance at reelection. His administration deployed excessive force to a protest on I-94 and approved the 401 water crossings permit for the Enbridge Energy Line 3 pipeline replacement project. On Nov. 4,…
BY ED FELIEN Last month in this space we published a notice we found on the Nokomis East Neighborhood Association (NENA) website about a new program they were planning: Nokomis East Neighbor-to-Neighbor Communication Project. We felt this could be a very useful community resource. Who could disagree with their organizing…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Oh, great. Not only is it winter, but it’s in the peak of a terrible pandemic. And you want to talk about wellness? Is that some kind of sick joke? When the conditions are most stacked against your goal, that’s not when you give up, it’s…
Mexican children incarcerated at the U.S. border Some Central American children coming into the United States are being stopped at the border and are being returned by the U.S. Border Patrol to Mexico or placed in custody. The transfer is contrary to both U.S. policy and an outstanding diplomatic agreement…
BY ED FELIEN In ancient China, the state apparatus was 3,000 years old when the student revolts on May 4, 1919, began the Nationalist revolution that eventually overthrew the emperor. The bureaucracy was so far removed from the people that they spoke a different language. They had contempt for the…
