BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Too many pioneers! The history of summer camps goes back further than you would think. Maybe that’s why I came across many camps for “pioneers” while researching the topic. Created by Canadian Anglicans, the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc, Jewish Community Centers, Mormons, Lutherans, Southern Baptists,…
BY ED FELIEN In her Dec. 9 article in The New Yorker, “In the Shadow of the Holocaust,” Masha Gessen makes the case that Gaza is like the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Israelis are acting like Nazis: “For the last seventeen years, Gaza has been a hyperdensely populated, impoverished, walled-in…
BY MIKE MADDEN A hearing in London to determine whether Julian Assange can appeal his extradition order concluded on Wednesday, Feb. 21. Assange, whose health is deteriorating, was not well enough to attend the proceedings in person or by video link. He will continue to languish in Belmarsh Prison, also…
BY DANIEL COLTEN SCHMIDT Far too often, development means gentrification, displacement and exploitation. The East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI), the group which made state and national headlines through the environmental justice campaign to save the warehouse building formerly called the Roof Depot, is now engaged in developing a community ownership…
BY LUKE GANNON On Feb. 7, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) convened its second public community meeting on Smith Foundry following the damning findings by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in May of 2023, which revealed multiple egregious violations of the federal Clean Air Act. During this public forum,…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Two openings and a bankruptcy Falastin is known in Duluth as a Palestinian pop-up, but they’ve been searching for a permanent home, and it looks like they found one. They are moving into the former New London Cafe on Superior Street and will open some time…
Hi Ed, I was just at the Washburn library and grabbed a copy of the Southside Pride. I remember reading it when I lived on Chicago Avenue many years ago. Your front-page article (“Please, go to your DFL precinct caucus”) led me to suppose there would be a second article urging…
BY KATHRYN KELLY The winter, the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District (MCWD) planned to dredge the Nokomis ponds. These ponds are called constructed wetlands and sequester sand and debris. The vegetation growth also takes up phosphorus before the water travels into Lake Nokomis. These constructed wetlands need periodic maintenance which includes…
BY ED FELIEN Hey, Jason, can we talk? I’ve been trying to reach you for weeks. But you won’t answer my emails or return my phone calls. On Jan. 4, I sent you the eight-point proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza we had just published in the January edition of…
BY ED FELIEN Please go to your DFL Precinct Caucus on Feb. 27. It’s a matter of life or death for Palestinian children. More than 10,000 Palestinian children have been murdered by U.S. bombs dropped from Israeli planes or from U.S. missiles shot from Israeli bases. A caucus is a…
BY CAM GORDON Part 2 (continued from “Mr. Smith goes to City Hall,” Southside Pride, January 2024) On July 7, 2023, just a few weeks after Brian K. Smith retired from his position working in City Hall, I met and talked with him about his experiences. Last month in this…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE When I look at the Animal Humane Society website, I am amazed by the many previous societal ills addressed by their programs. Obviously, animal welfare is not perfect, or there would be no need for humane societies, but 20 to 40 years ago most of these…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The past – another country When the pandemic struck a few years ago, planning for summer camp experiences became a huge challenge for both summer program providers and for families wanting their kids to attend them. It was especially so in 2021, when we still didn’t…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Romantic dining Having a candlelit dinner at a romantic restaurant is a tried-and-true method of celebrating Valentine’s Day, and if that’s your thing, you can choose from a plethora of dining establishments in the Twin Cities. But cooking and dining in on something special is also…
BY ED FELIEN “You gotta fight like hell, or you won’t have a country anymore!” “Immigrants are poisoning the blood of America.” Trump’s racist and nativist appeal is not new. It was the crusading ideology of the Know Nothing Party prior to the Civil War. From “Mitch and John” by…
