Attended a packed Westminster Town Hall Forum to listen to 18-year-old David Hogg, a survivor of the 2018 Parkland mass shooting. He talked about gun violence: root causes, the law that prevents the government collecting statistics, and ways we can participate.
Category: In This Together
We All Win
Walked through “Little Mogadishu” (the Cedar Riverside neighborhood) on my way to buy groceries. As with earlier immigrant groups, the Minneapolis economy benefits from Somalis working hard for better lives for themselves and their families. We all win.
Self-Sufficiency
We decided we only need one car: generally, I prefer walking or transit. Donated our 1996 Honda Civic, with 83,000 miles on the clock, to the Newgate School. The school promotes self-sufficiency: students learn car maintenance, tuition-free; single moms are given cars at no cost.
All My Relations Gallery
Visited All My Relations Gallery to see an exhibition honoring missing and murdered Native American women. While a missing white woman can get saturation coverage, these women usually go unreported in our media.
Living in a Time of Shortages
Posted Living in a Time of Shortages.
Living in a Time of Shortages
It was the summer of 1975. I was standing in a GUM department store in Moscow, Russia, wondering why these people were standing patiently in a long line. I walked to the front of the line to see what was going on. A supply of disposable ballpoint pens had recently arrived. The people were lining…… Continue reading Living in a Time of Shortages
Franklin Learning Center
100 years ago, Scandinavian immigrants studied next to this fireplace in the basement of a Carnegie library. Today, Somali refugees study English, math, citizenship, and GED next to this same fireplace in a library basement. My Wednesday gig.
A Crosswalk in Nagano
Posted A Crosswalk in Nagano.
A Crosswalk in Nagano
One Monday afternoon in April 2016 I got to see something which, once seen, has been impossible to un-see. I’m standing at a crosswalk in Nagano, Japan, reading a ditty on the back of a man’s shirt: Indian Boys,Indian Boys,Oh how I love those Indian Boys The image of an American Indian dreamcatcher tells me…… Continue reading A Crosswalk in Nagano
A Treasured Possession
Unpacked our last boxes. Reunited with my favorite radio, ever. It originally belonged to my paternal grandmother. When she died in 1959, it became my bedside radio. I would lie in the dark listening to comedies and dramas from the BBC Home Service.