Commentary
Giving thanks to America’s medical community for life-saving vaccines
If we were not still in the grip of a deadly pandemic, with the seven-day average U.S. death toll from the coronavirus hovering just over 1,100 a day, I probably would not have thought of giving thanks this year for the medical researchers who have given this country protection against many life-threatening illnesses. Back in […]
Project Veritas and the mainstream media: Strange allies in fight for press freedom | Commentary
An FBI raid on Project Veritas leader James O’Keefe’s home in early November 2021 has sparked an unusual demonstration of support from the very establishment media that O’Keefe has spent his career targeting and trashing. The raid was conducted on the suspicion that O’Keefe and former Project Veritas staffers were implicated in the theft of […]
Eating more plants could prevent the next pandemic | Opinion
Get vaccinated. Wear a mask. Eat plants? Yes, eating more plants may be one of the most important actions we can take to protect ourselves from future pandemics. The source of Covid-19 remains uncertain, but evidence suggests that the virus transferred to humans from a non-human animal. The CDC states that Covid “possibly came from […]
Time is votes, and Democrats don’t have a lot of time | Opinion
Five years before introducing its Cayenne SUV to the world, the German sportscar company Porsche hired me to help make their brand more family-friendly. Among the ads I worked on was one starring a young Kristen Stewart as a schoolgirl who kept missing the bus so she could catch a ride in her dad’s 911. […]
Minnesota’s tradition of one-stop voting must be protected | Opinion
Let’s talk about one-stop voting — the idea that anyone meeting the fundamental eligibility criteria for voting can do so with only a single interaction with the government. Minnesota’s tradition of one-stop voting predates the state’s founding: The 1851 territorial legislature provided that all who swore to their eligibility and were not proven ineligible could […]
Things are bad, but defunding the police isn’t the answer | Opinion
Being Black, when a cop so much as looks my way, that’s reason to be uneasy. An automatic suspect for whatever. I got stopped one afternoon, walking on Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis, minding my business, and was stuck in a squad car. Turns out, somebody Black in a white T-shirt and black jeans — […]
Counterpoint: Prove It First law is not enough to protect the Boundary Waters | Opinion
A recent commentary in the Reformer (“Biden’s move to protect the Boundary Waters is great, but we need stronger laws“) proposes an approach that is inadequate to attain permanent protection for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Voyageurs National Park. The “Prove It First” legislation espoused therein will not ensure that these magnificent wild […]
Congress must raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for Build Back Better | Opinion
Over the last 18 months of pandemic and economic disruption, we’ve seen the hardships people face when they don’t have what they need to get by when illness or job loss strikes. And we’ve also seen how bold, smart policies can ensure everyday people and their families can put food on their tables and keep […]
Biden’s move to protect the Boundary Waters is great, but we need stronger laws | Opinion
Minnesotans and Americans across the country celebrated last month when the Biden administration announced that it applied for a 20-year moratorium on copper-sulfide mining on 225,000 acres of federal land surrounding the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. For almost a decade, proposed copper-sulfide mining near the Boundary Waters has been one of the biggest environmental […]
The value of junk in these new times
I got my first BB gun when I was about 9 or 10. Aptly, I looked almost exactly like Ralphie from the BB gun-centric storyline of the holiday classic, “A Christmas Story.” So now you have the picture. Unlike Ralphie, I grew up in the 1980s on a family-owned salvage yard along the Mesabi Iron […]
We’re treating essential workers like they’re expendable, again — Column
They slaughtered animals for us — practically shoulder to shoulder during a pandemic — so we could be carnivores. They cared for the elderly and then watched one after another of their patients succumb to the virus. They stocked the shelves of grocery stores and brought the food to our cars. They kept Amazon warehouses […]
We are rural Dems and tried to connect with neighbors; here’s how it went | Opinion
In a July 2021 Reformer article, I wrote of the Lyon County DFL’s plan to follow Jane Kleeb’s advice. Kleeb, the author of “Harvest the Vote: How Democrats Can Win Again in Rural America,” proposed several strategies for Democrats living in rural America. These strategies include finding common ground, being authentic by telling your story, […]