Category Archives: Politics

Great Work, Politics

A Promising Alliance

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Summer                     Waxing Summer Moon

A strange sensation today as I walked up the long flight of stairs at 2828 University Ave. SE.  Not deja vu exactly, I knew was this not a relived moment of my past, but a definite sense of having been here before, walking in to a strange room, meeting people, shaking hands, thinking further down the road.

It was the celebration of the Blue/Green Alliance’s opening its new offices.  The mayor’s of Minneapolis and St. Paul, RJ Rybak and Chris Coleman gave speeches, Ellen Anderson and Melissa Hortman were there along with others including Mark Andrews, former Hennepin County Commissioner.  There were labor leaders, leadership of the Sierra Club and a number of other folks whose personal and political lives pull them somehow into the orbit of labor and/or environmental politics.

I met Michael Porter, a guy from Macalester who runs their intern program.  I shook hands with Mark and saw Margaret Levin, executive director of the Sierra Club and Joshua Low who has done great work as the Green part of the Blue/Green Alliance.

Crowded rooms make hearing a difficult task for me, so I look to get away when I can, but it felt familiar to be there, getting ready for something months away, the second session of the 2009-2010 legislature.

This particular group and what they represent give me real hope in a couple of different directions.  Labor unions have had a tough go of it over the last twenty years or so and this represents a new and promising direction.  David Foster, the executive director of the Blue/Green Alliance, put it this way in a speech in Germany recently:  I want every job to be a green job and I want every green job to be a union job.  Sounds right to me.  Second, the environmental movement has often looked away from the difficult politics of economic justice, yet no lasting change in environmental policy will take place if those in the lower income sectors of our economy have to bear the brunt of it.

Art and Culture, Politics

Al Franken wins election to the US Senate.

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Summer                          Waxing Summer Moon

Al Franken wins election to the US Senate.  Boy, these election returns took a really, really long time to come in.  The election was in November of last year and today is the last day of June.  We have gone through Samhain, Winter, Imbolc, Spring, Beltane and into Summer while waiting on this decision.  Finally.

He was not my favorite, his politics and his manner jarring to me.  Norm Coleman was certainly not my favorite.  Still, Franken is a Democrat and he will caucus with the Democrats.  He may have provided the necessary vote to pass cap and trade.

I went into the museum today for a confab with other docents touring the pre-Raph show.  So much there, so much.  Only scratched the surface have I.  Not yet ready me.  But soon.

Art and Culture, Family, Garden, Politics, Writing

What Do You Do Well?

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Summer                      Waxing Summer Moon

“We never do anything well till we cease to think about the manner of doing it.” – William Hazlitt

What do you do well?  No false modesty, please, just a clear honest look at yourself with an assessment of your skills and abilities.  Each of us has something that we have forgotten the how of in the midst of performing the act.

Typing is one such skill for me.  I long ago broke with the eyes to the keyboard, careful typing of the uncertain.  I’ve used a keyboard since turning 17 and it is now a tool about which I think little.  Perennial flower gardening is the same.  Vegetables not so much, since I still have to think about growing season, water and food preferences, sun and varities.

Politics comes naturally to me now, but only because my dad and I started watching political conventions when I was 5.  Weighing the political possibilities in a given situation is like typing.  I no longer look at the keys.

Writing, too, has begun to come into that category, too, though the longer pieces, like novels, still require a good deal of careful planning and thought.

Parenting and child-rearing, also, seem to have become second nature to me.  I can think about it, but I don’t much.  I just do.  In the same vein caring for dogs now has experience and attentiveness to guide me, not conscious thought so much.

Cooking, too.  I’m not confident in my cooking skills when it comes to cooking for others, but for Kate and me, I work in the kitchen with interest and experience.

Touring at the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts has gone through peaks and valleys, with my comfort level and confidence now beginning to rise again.  This one will take a while to pass into something I do well consistently.

OK, that’s my list.  What about yours?

Great Work, Politics

Accepting a New Position

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Summer                      Waxing Summer Moon

The escape artists of our local pen had to remain outside when I drove into the Sierra Club meeting.  They did not break out again.  In this case they need an incentive to escape.  That usually consists of a human in a place not immediately accessible to them.  I was gone; Kate was gone; ergo, no incentive.

This was the baton passing moment for the legislative committee.  Josh introduced me as the person taking over from Dan Endreson, who had filled the job for the last four years.  I enjoy politics, enjoy talking politics and enjoy the strategy and execution.  This position will be a lot of work, but a type of work that energizes me.

The heat which sat on us for a couple of days has modulated a bit downwards and the night is pleasant.

The waxing summer moon is the slimmest of slivers, a nursery rhyme moon in need of a cow.

Politics

Conceptual Theatre

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Beltane                  Waxing Dyan Moon

“The inner fire is the most important thing mankind possesses.” – Edith Sodergran

Waiting for Al

Act VI

Curtain rises on Al and Norm, their heads peak out from two ballot counting machines.  Al is stage left; Norm is stage right.  Debate on the floor of the US Senate floods the audience.  First Norm, then Al, turn their heads as if trying to listen.

The stage has no props other than the two voting machines and a small bench.

As a debate over the appointment of Supreme Court nominee  Sotomayor turns harsh, three persons dressed only in black robes come out, stand in front of the bench, then sit down.

Al and Norm cannot see the bench.

Al spreads his face in a patented Saturday Night Show smile, wide and goofy, then turns serious as a voice in the senate debate suggests Sotomayor is a racist.

Norm starts to smile, changes his mind, a look of concentration.

A voice from the Senate debate:  “We cannot allow racial or gender politics to have a place in the decision to place a candidate on the Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court is for all the people, not just special interest groups.”

Another voice, this time a woman’s:  “… pregnancy and a woman’s right to choose what happens to her body.”

Nods from the three in black.

Norm and Al furl their brows, show evident interest.

An Al Franken campaign appears on a rear projection screen behind the justices.  No sound.

Al breaks into another wide smile as the ad plays though he cannot see it.

A Coleman ad.  Norm smiles.

The three persons in black robes rise off the bench and say together:  “Things are Normal.”

Al and Norm’s heads disappear inside the ballot boxes.

Politics, Travel

Last Stop of the Capitol Limited

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May 16, 2009 Beltane Waning Flower Moon

The Capitol Limited Somewhere outside Cumberland, Maryland

9:30 a.m. EST

Slept last night very well. Early to bed around 10p.m. Tired from early rising and a full day of travel. The train rocked me to sleep as lightning flashed across the northern sky. I went to bed in Elkhart, Indiana and woke up in Pittsburgh.

In a tunnel right now. I’m not sure if this is the one but somewhere along here the ends of the tunnel are in W. Va. and the tunnel itself in Maryland. I have no idea.

Took a shower on the train. It was an ordinary enough shower except it moved like an LA bathroom in a mild tremor. There’s a small area with a seat, two hooks for clothing and a mirror, then a shower stall with non-skid plastic. I took my sandals with me, but habit took over and I was in the shower in my bare feet before I remembered them.

I ate breakfast this morning with a couple from Idaho who have a small hotel near Jhallus, Idaho, the Holiday Lodge. They were nice folks. May go visit since I’ve never been to Idaho.

I’m writing this in my roomette as we travel slowly through the Appalachian range. \I believe we passed through the Cumberland Gap about 15 minutes ago. A lot of history on this route. After a stop in Cumberland, Maryland we head for Harper’s Ferry. Two stops after that and we’re in D.C.

The layover in Washington will be 4+ hours. I plan to have a walk around with the camera, then back to Union Station. No museum on the way down. On the way back I’ll have 6 hours and I’ll hit the Freer and the Phillips.

5:30 p.m.   First Class Lounge, Union Station, Washington,DC

We got in a little late, but no worries since my train, #97, the Silver Meteor, does not leave until 7:30 p.m.  I’m not sure, but since this is a southbound train starting in Boston, it might be an agist pun.  If not, it oughta be.

Louisiana Avenue runs at a diagonal away from Union Station toward the National Mall.  I walked in the heat, keeping to the shade of trees and buildings, taking the occasional shot of the Capitol building and angling toward the National Gallery of Art.  Along the way I began noticing what is very old news to inside the beltway folks, but struck me with force.  Every Federal building has barriers to car and truck bombers.  I took some photos and when I get home I’ll add them back into this post.

They struck me because their defensiveness could not be more apparent.  They seem look like Lilliputian threads tieing down the outsized force of Uncle Sam.

On the way into Washington we stopped at Harper’s Ferry; John Brown’s body is still a’moltin’ in the grave. (what is molting anyway?)  I got to thinking about approaching D.C.  It would be the same as approaching, in different eras:  London, Rome, Istanbul, Baghdad, Xian, Beijing, Mexico City in the time of the Aztecs. No matter how the US goes down in the annals of future centuries it will still be a colossus that strode, for awhile, as the world’s hegemon.  Its capitol, where I write this, may provide future history channel specials:  Washington in the Time of the  Presidents!

Those of us who live in the Midwest come to the Capitol as country folks, far away from the deal making and policy wonking that creates buzz here in D.C.  We might have a few clods of earth stuck to our shoes, perhaps a straw struck in our mouths.  At least I hope we do, not because we lack intellectual or cultural sophistication, but because agriculture and care of the land is our heritage and if we do not come to power as our true selves who can replace us?

I’m gonna stow my bags again and wander around in the Station for a bit.  Talk to you later.

Our Land and Home, Politics

Life Beyond the MUSA Line (and a bit of left wing political thought)

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Beltane                       Waning Flower Moon

We live beyond the MUSA line.  Not very far beyond, it cuts Andover almost in half.  The Metropolitan Urban Services Area line establishes the land which must have city water and sewer. It snakes around the outline of the seven county metropolitan area, attempting to adjust the size and density of suburban development.  Planning officials created the MUSA line in the long ago as a tool to prevent urban sprawl.  It hasn’t worked.

The house we purchased 15 years ago sits on a 2.5 acre lot and has its own sewer (septic) and water, a well.  This has happened all around the seven county metro area.  Larger size residential lots leapfrogged the MUSA line and went in with their own utilities.

From the standpoint of personal independence I prefer our situation.

At any rate this all means we have to manage our own septic system and our own well and water deliver system.  Today we had the septic system pumped out–every 2 years.  The guy who did it took off the manhole cover and checked the baffles. Who knew we had baffles?

Anyhow this 15 year old system was made of concrete and the baffles had cracked and one had fallen off, so we had to replace them.  In order to do this the guys from Kothrade Sewer, Water and Excavation had to get down inside the tank.  Turns out this can kill you.  The fumes.  As I thought about it, I thought, gee, that makes sense.

How would you like to make your living crawling around somebody’s septic system?  Me neither.  It cost $175 for protective gear to work in  a confined space, an OSHA requirement.  This is real danger, two guys in Minnesota in the last year after crawling down a thirty-foot deep manhole into a new system.  Curing concrete sucks up 02.  The first guy in passed out and died.  His buddy went down to see what was wrong.  He died, too.

There aren’t many things worth dying for and our septic system is sure not one of them.

Family, Health, Politics

Baby Plants, Nuclear Energy, and Influenza A(H1N1)

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Spring                  Waxing Flower Moon

All my baby plants have moved from the nursery into big plant pots.  Now we have to wait until May 15, the average last frost date here, and all these babies can go outside into the garden.

The Minnesota House refused to repeal the moratorium on the construction of new nuclear plants citing waste storage and transportation as primary issues.

Kate’s off to the frontlines of the Swine flu (or, as it will be called from now on:   influenza A(H1N1) pandemic.  This has put some new energy into her practice as she approaches retirement, a real crisis which requires her medical skills.

If the pandemic moves to level 6, there will be a division between sick clinics and well clinics.  Doctors in the sick clinics will have to wear hazmat like protective gear when treating patients who have risk factors for the disease.

Aging, Faith and Spirituality, Friends, Politics

Why We Need Universal Health Care

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Spring            New Moon (Flower)

A word for the ones in silent despair, hiding behind doors and well-kept lawns, all those in trouble.

A while back I mentioned a neighbor whose life turned upside down over a week-end.  He went from  a productive, active guy to a suicidal victim of a progressive form of multiple sclerosis.  After his diagnosis and subsequent treatment brought little relief he tried to end his life, bringing paramedics and the blue and white Allina ambulance to his door.  He did this  while his wife talked with us about our new orchard.

Now, six months or so later, their bank account is empty.  They are putting necessities on credit cards and the “disabilty insurance” they have is not insurance, but a loan, a loan they have to repay.  Their lawn is neat, the flower beds tended and ready for plants.  The small evergreens they planted when they moved in some years back have grown into mid-size trees.  The American flag flutters from their flag-pole, lit with lights.

He built an observatory a few years back, I may have mentioned this.  It now sits there, a white dome with a go-to Celestron telescope, abandoned by its maker.  His MS is advanced stage 2, of which, when I asked Kate about it, she said, “It’s not good.”

Vulnerable people have had their vulnerability magnified by the economic crisis.  That’s what this has driven home to me.  Imagine being in a situation where a medical condition threatens not only your retirement, but your house, your family.  Now imagine all that in a situation where the economic eats up what little cash you already have.

Their situation is an argument, the argument, for universal health care and a safety net for persons with debilitating illness, a safety adequate to maintain gains they have made over ther course of a working career.  I’m not talking here about pleasure boats, expensive vacations and country club memberships; I’m talking about a house, food, health care and family security.

This cries out for justice.

Great Work, Politics

Humans or Nature?

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Spring                    Waning Seed Moon

Yesterday I cleared the corn stalks out of their old bed and loosened the soil where I will plant peas, good legumes that will replenish the nitrogen lost due to the corn.  Oh, and we’ll get peas for the table in the bargain.  I’ve always been impressed with legumes, a class of plants that gather nitrogen in little nodules on their roots.  They used rhizobia, a symbiotic bacteria that pull the nitrogen into the root nodules where they live.

In a recent article, likely by a conservative commentator, I read a grumbling about how the United States bifurcates into those who believe nature is salivific and those who see civilization in a similar vein.  Environmentalists and their (our) ilk clothe themselves in leafy greens when they attack the polluters:  fossil fuel consumers, pcb producers, sulphur mining, chemical based industries and nuclear waste generating power plants.

What they forget is the wonder of electricity, plastics, rapid transit, the movement of goods and services that has created the richest economy in the world.  Environmentalists also stand accused, in this perspective, of creating a false tension between bad humans and good nature.  Humans have a right to live, too, just like the damned spotted owl and snail darter, right?

When looking at arguments with apparently polar positions, I find it useful to search the middle ground, see if there might not be a place either camp has missed.  There is a large middle ground here.  Humans, as animals, are part of the natural order, not apart from it, and as animals our home building and self-sustaining activities are as important to us as are those of any species.  I love humanity, the civilizations we have created and want to see us healthy far into the future.

In this sense the dichotomy is false.  This argument becomes problematic, however, when we examine certain aspects of our self-sustaining activities such as the burning of fossil fuels, the pollution of fresh water with sulfuric acid in hard rock mining and the devastation of eco-systems with pollutants like pcbs and ddt.

Now we loop back to the middle ground.  We are part of, not apart from nature.  When we harm whole eco-systems on the one hand or tamper with climatological mechanics on the other, we not only press the snail darter, the spotted owl and the Galapagos tortoise toward extinction, we press ourselves in that direction, too.  If we create a natural order no longer friendly to human beings, our time on this blue marble will end.  If, in other words, we make the planet too hot, the oceans too high, the fresh water and soils poison, we will no longer have a place to live, literally.

So, on the one hand, I embrace Mozart, Lao-Tze, Shiva, Isaac Newton and the techno-computer industial complex, while on the other hand I recognize my need for clean water, renewable energy and food grown in safe conditions.  Humanity and nature are not either/or choices, but embedded and intimate partners, dependent upon each other for wise use of the resources we have.