Commentary
My daughter is enrolled in Pfizer’s vaccine trial because I don’t trust COVID
On a sunny Wednesday a little over a month ago, my 7-year-old daughter bravely held my hand as we walked into Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City to participate in a pediatric vaccine trial. After a numbing agent, a blood draw and a nasal swab, she was finally injected with either a placebo or the […]
To protect kids, Walz needs to mandate a statewide school mask mandate
We need to keep two truths in mind as the summer comes to an end: First, school is incredibly important for our children. Schools provide a space not only for traditional education, but also social development, healthy relationships and a safety net for students who are struggling with access to food and housing. Schools are […]
We’re rural Democrats and we’re gonna try to listen to our Trumpy neighbors — wish us luck | Opinion
Driving west on a family vacation to Colorado earlier this summer, it was very apparent that loyalty to former President Donald Trump remains strong in rural America. On farms, ranches, and small towns in Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Colorado, we saw many indicators: Trump 2024 flags (with the slogans “Make Votes Count Again” or […]
Legislature failed to enact key racial equity measure | Opinion
Public policy is a powerful tool for justice. It drives regional, state and federal investments that impact communities and the economy. When racial equity and economic inclusion are not prioritized and considered with intention in policymaking, the result is often inequitable policies, a loss in economic growth, and harmful impacts to Black, Indigenous, Latino and […]
Delta variant Q&A: Adjust your behavior to deal with the rapidly spreading coronavirus variant
As the delta variant takes hold, the unvaccinated are in for a rude awakening. It’s not just ignorance — they’re begging for a Darwin Award. Unfortunately, thanks to all these unvaccinated knuckleheads, vaccinated Americans are now being put more at risk, too. The delta variant is a mutant strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Early estimates […]
Minnesota’s new film and TV tax credit will create good-paying local jobs | Opinion
In the hierarchy of statewide fiscal priorities, a rebate for movie and television production feels like something that deserves to be pretty low on the list. It’s easy to argue there are better things to spend our tax dollars on than what sounds like a giveaway to rich Hollywood producers and actors. But as someone […]
The history of what is not true | Column
They say the Israelites worshipped a golden calf when Moses was on Mount Sinai, but not all idols are made of gold. Some of them are the stories we tell ourselves. We run late for a good reason, never sloth or inconsideration. Our greed goes by the name “ambition.” We so want to forgive the […]
Born in the Delta, she died the grandmother of St. Paul | Remembrance
I met Thelma Battle Buckner because her church was just a block from my house when I first moved to St. Paul six years ago. I figured if I only had to walk a block to church, I might just go. We walked into the small, bland, brick church with a yellowing sign out front […]
What to the slave is the Fourth of July?
Editor’s note: Below are some excerpts from a speech on the meaning of the Fourth of July delivered by Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852. …Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your […]
The Declaration of Independence
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America. When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and […]
Consider alternatives to fireworks, for animals’ sake, and ours | Opinion
On Dec. 31, 2011, 5,000 red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky in Beebe, Arkansas. The birds landed on roofs, lawns and roads, covering the ground in a blanket of black feathers. “It just looked as if it had rained birds,” City Council Member Tracy Lightfoot said. Scientists believe this unprecedented loss of wildlife was caused […]
We’re near a tipping point on ending fossil fuels; let’s not mess it up | Opinion
In his best-selling book “Tipping Point,” Malcolm Gladwell defined the term as “that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.” For an optimistic climate activist, some highly visible recent events might have been construed as a tipping point in the movement towards clean energy and […]