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Ten healthcare activists created a Free Health Care Clinic outside Governor Tim Pawlenty’s office Tuesday, June 15, to do blood pressure and diabetes screening and to dramatize how the rest of the world does health care. They said they were out there “to convey the radical notion that health care is a human right.” They noted that the DFL candidates for governor would all at least fold GAMC into Medical Assistance (MA) rather than cutting it, “But we are saying let’s consolidate all Minnesota healthcare programs (including MNCare, Medicare, state employees), add to that all the people whose private employer-based insurance is rapidly unraveling into one big pool, fund it by the government, and we would have single-payer health care. ‘Everyone In, No One Left Out,’ as the banner says, the legislation called the MN Health Plan.”
The action was led by the Universal Health Care Action Network of MN:
www.uhcan-mn.org |
Rest in Peace Bill Hinkley
BY ED FELIEN
 When the music magic started to happen on the West Bank in the 1960s, if you thought of folk music you thought of Maury Bernstein. He was an
encyclopedia of musical styles and exotic cultures. He had a folk music program on the U of M radio station. When I went to a Jewish wedding
almost 40 years ago, Maury played the Hora and Klezmer music on his accordion. Bill Hinkley and Judy Larson accompanied him. I’d heard Bill and Judy play folk music before, but I was amazed at his versatility in playing Balkan dance music.
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Longfellow Station is moving
forward
BY ED FELIEN
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From Purina Mills |
The demolition of the Purina Mills site at 38th Street and Hiawatha Avenue should be complete by the end of June, and the Longfellow Station
development should begin construction almost immediately after the site is cleared.
Southside Pride reported two years ago that the Longfellow Community Council and Capital Growth Real Estate had signed a Community Benefits Agreement that insured that the development company would be eligible for some part of
the Metropolitan Council’s $8.8 million Liveable Communities Grants. Dennis Geisinger reported:
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Israelis attack aid flotilla
BY ED FELIEN
 On Tuesday, June 1, more than 200 peace and justice activists met in front of Senator Klobuchar’s office at 1200 Washington Ave. S. to protest the
Israeli attack on the flotilla of ships that was making its way to Gaza. They marched and bannered traffic from 4 to 6 p.m. About 20 people went inside to talk with Klobuchar’s state director, John Kavanagh. He took more than three pages of notes and was very attentive.
At about that time Congressman Keith Ellison released a statement regarding the Flotilla Incident: “I am deeply shocked and saddened by reports that at least nine civilians have been killed, with dozens more injured, in a raid as Israeli armed forces intercepted a convoy carrying humanitarian supplies and construction materials to the people of Gaza.
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The DFL Primary: an embarrassment of riches
BY ED FELIEN
They’re all good. They’re all very good. So, who do you vote for in the DFL Primary for Governor on August 10?
They all have their good points. They all have experience. They’re all smart, and the Ship of State would probably be guided well by any pair of the three sets of hands.
What’s the alternative?
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Dr. Green says goodbye and welcomes new superintendent
BY DR. BILL GREEN
 June can be a bittersweet time for many of us at the Minneapolis Public Schools. Our students wrap up the school year, and a mixture of sadness and excitement is in the air. Our principals, teachers and all staff are proud of the accomplishments our students have made. Our schools are all hosting annual celebrations, carnivals, performances, recognition activities and commencement ceremonies. A special congratulations to our graduating seniors who are ready to tackle the “real world.”
June 30 will be my last day as Superintendent of Schools and I feel mixed emotions myself. Serving the Minneapolis Public Schools’ tudents, staff and
community has been one of the greatest honors of my life.
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What is Harry Brown trying to tell us
BY ED FELIEN
 It was 95 degrees and I thought I’d take the afternoon off and slip into an air-conditioned theater and watch Michael Caine romp through “Harry Brown.” It was a ghastly mistake.
It’s a horror, a pastiche. It has all the sophistication of “Reefer Madness” in its treatment of drugs. The heroes and villains have the character depth of Batman and Robin. And the “Death Wish” plot is a recycled revenge tragedy that went out of date with the death of Queen Elizabeth I.
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The calming of Franklin Avenue
BY ED FELIEN
 Franklin Avenue has come a long way in a hundred years. Before World War I, Franklin Avenue was the way station between Snoose Boulevard on Cedar Avenue and the Hub of Hell on 26th and 26th. Hard working and hard drinking Scandinavians would begin on Snoose Boulevard after work at one of the many industrial sites along the railroad tracks and hoist a few, then walk through the neighborhood to Franklin Avenue where a number of bars offered serious and cheap drinks, and then go on to the end of the Liquor Patrol Limits (as far as a police officer could travel on a horse) to 26th Street and 26th Avenue where a night’s entertainment could mean music and illicit love.
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The origins of Islam: Ramadan
BY BARNABY DEVITT
Long before Mohammed and Islam, Ramadan was the name of the ninth month in the Arabic calendar. The name meant intense heat, scorched earth and little food. It is tempting to believe that, like the Christians with Lent, the ancient Middle Eastern tribes made a virtue out of necessity. Just as the Christian faith proscribes fasting for 40 days at the end of winter—when rations were low and there was no possibility of growing new crops—it seems reasonable to assume that in the Middle East fasting was proscribed during the intense heat of summer when crops could not grow. Further, it made sense to eat only before dawn and after sunset, and it is possible that the conventions of Islamic Ramadan came out of this practice.
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Art, is that you?
BY TONY BOUZA
The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA to devotees) is arguably (and I’d argue for it) America’s Cultural Avant Garde.
There is where we expect art’s boundaries and artistic freedom to be expanded. Cutting edge, controversial and the bete noire of censors everywhere, it is a precious oasis for intellectual refreshment.
Now an exhibit has ended after 100 seven-hour performances (opening to closing the doors) called “The Artist is Present.” The thing is simplicity personified—or, is it? It invites dismissiveness and derision.
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Anti-war protest at Senator Klobuchar’s office June 17
BY ED FELIEN
 On Thursday, June 17, at 4:30 pm about 25 anti-war activists gathered outside Senator Klobuchar’s office on Washington Avenue in South Minneapolis to protest her support for the escalation of war in Afghanistan.
The Anti-War Committee in its press statement said: “Since the deployment of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan last December, civilian casualties there have increased dramatically. Rhetoric from the Obama administration expresses concern for civilian deaths, but the violence continues.
Last month, Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry reported that civilian casualties jumped by 33 percent in a recent month-long period.
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June 2010 
