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Powderhorn Reaffirmation: There was a somber and exuberant celebration in Powderhorn Park Wednesday night, Dec 1. It was somber in its remembrance of the heroic resistance of one woman in the face of a loaded gun defending her children and remembering her forgiveness and love for the young boys who terrorized her, and it was exuberant as more than 200 people braved a cold night to sing “We Shall Not Be Moved!” A pick-up brass band of Powderhorn musicians played and Barb Tilsen sang.
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Women in Powderhorn assaulted
On Nov. 24, the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, a 45-year-old woman was sexually assaulted by four boys in Powderhorn Park while she was cross-country skiing with her two children. One of the alleged perpetrators is 16, one is 15 and two are 14. One was wearing a Jason-style hockey goalie mask and another held a gun. They demanded money and cell phones from the woman.
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Family observes feathered friends in the neighborhood
I’ve enjoyed your column on the birds of Powderhorn so much, and wanted to share two things that were wonderful avian blessings to me this year. One was during the summer, when my wife and 10-year-old daughter and I were walking in the park, and we decided to walk through the community garden on 15th Avenue near 35th Street, on our way to the May Day café. When we came close to the alley, there was this huge red-tailed hawk sitting on the driveway of one of the buildings—eating what I don’t know, but took off with his marvelous wings. We had never seen one that close!
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Pope’s support for universal health care is welcome voice
Literally “Good News.” Pope Benedict XVI made this formal declaration on November 18: Every country in the world [including the USA] has a moral responsibility to guarantee access to health care for all of their citizens, “regardless of social and economic status or their ability to pay.”
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Neighborhood friendship warms the harsh season
BY JOHN KARRIGAN
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English Sparrow |
I was thinking about what to write in my December piece when I learned the extremely troubling news about the sexual assaults in and near the park on Nov. 24. Of course, earlier in the month on Chicago Avenue, there was the shooting of a 12-year-old girl that left her very seriously injured.
But
I really don’t know what to say about either event. The online neighborhood forum and the Star Tribune (and other news outlets) have had all kinds of information and comments about the crimes. Meetings will soon be held to
gather ideas and more information, and I hope some good will come from them. In the meantime, I am shocked and hurt by the violence and still believe strongly that this is a great neighborhood and a good place to walk and learn, to observe and enjoy nature, neighbors and community.
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FBI issues new subpoenas
BY ED FELIEN
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| Sarah Martin was one of about a dozen supporters who stood in a driving rainstorm to tell people attending the Minnesota Justice Foundation’s Annual Awards Celebration on Wednesday, Nov. 10, at International Market Square about the FBI raids on peace activists in the anti-war movement. (Photo by Ed Felien) |
Three local antiwar activists who were subpoenaed by the FBI to appear before a grand jury in Chicago investigating “material support to terrorist
organizations”have been told by their lawyers that their subpoenas have been reactivated. They will be faced with the choice between talking about who they meet with and what their political views are and going to jail for the life of the grand jury, which is up to 18 months.
The Supreme Court has recently broadened the definition of “material support” to mean that participating in an international solidarity delegation can now serve as probable cause for an investigation by the federal government.
Meredith Aby has written: “You would think it’s not a crime to be against war. But in a harrowing development, the FBI and a federal grand jury are harassing and threatening antiwar activists here in Minnesota and around the country. On Sept. 24, the FBI raided seven homes and the Anti-War Committee office. The FBI also handed subpoenas to testify before a federal grand jury to 14 activists in Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan. You can see profiles of the people affected at http://www.stopfbi.net/about/profiles.
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Postscript to the election and a prelude to the disaster just around the corner
BY ED FELIEN
There was a meeting Sunday afternoon, Nov. 14, at Mayday Books to discuss options for progressive movements in the age of Obama.
One of the dozen or so people to attend was Ken Pentel, recent candidate for governor for the Ecology Democracy Party, which he started in 2008 as part
of his Ecology Democracy Network. The Network seems to be a bare bones website without an e-mail address. The issues at the website seem quite similar to the program of the Green Party, which shouldn’t be surprising since Pentel was an organizer for the Green Party and its candidate for
governor in 1998, 2002 and 2006. There don’t seem to be significant
ideological differences between Pentel’s party and the Green Party, so one must assume the differences were personal.
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A young life shattered: the shooting of Guadalupe
BY ED FELIEN
 Guadalupe Galeno-Hernanez, a 12-year-old South Minneapolis girl, was struck in the neck by a drive-by shooter’s stray bullet on Friday night, Nov 12. She was walking with friends. It seems likely that she was the victim of an unlucky accident in gang rivalry and retaliation that has come to dominate that block in South Minneapolis.
The most notorious incident on the block happened with the 2002 murder of 11-year-old Tyesha Edwards as she sat at her dining room table doing her homework. Myon Burrell, 16, and a Rolling 30s Bloods member at the time, was convicted of the crime. Unfortunately, that incident was not unique. Sara Bergen, who lives on the 3400 block of Elliot, one block east of Chicago, in an e-mail to the Powderhorn neighborhood forum recalled a string of incidents in and around that block: In 2005 there was a murder at 3500 Columbus. In 2006 a man who lived on the 3500 block of Elliot was shot to death in front of Tony’s market on 35th and Chicago. In 2007 there was a robbery that led to a murder in the 3500 alley between Chicago and Columbus. In 2008 a man died from gunshot wounds in the 3400 alley behind the Atlantic Press (between Chicago and Elliot), and in January 2010 Walter Dolley was shot to death while walking on the 3400 block of Chicago.
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Minnesotans
BY TONY BOUZA
I proposed writing an essay on the best writer in the state but was put off by the thunderous indifference of the publisher. And there the matter rested, except it wouldn’t. Gradually there evolved the notion of doing a brief piece on Minnesotans who’ve inspired me, after all I’d been watching them for over 30 years.
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Stop the Bleeding in Afghanistan
BY JIM HIGHTOWER
 Our soldiers have been fighting, bleeding and dying in two hellacious, multitrillion-dollar conflagrations since 2001—their blood continues to flow, with no end in sight.
Are you aware that America has now been at war for nearly a decade? We've been fighting, bleeding and dying in two hellacious, multitrillion-dollar conflagrations since 2001—and our blood continues to flow, with no end in sight.
Well, not our blood. Not yours and mine. We continue to go about our daily routines—go to work, go to the mall, go out to eat, go golfing, go to church, go on vacation, go dancing and drinking. War? Americans will pay far more attention to the World Series than they will to the ongoing carnage in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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Connecting with our families
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Superintendent of Minneapolis Schools,
Bernadeia H. Johnson |
We value the dedication that our families have to our schools and students and we are always looking for ways to strengthen that connection. Three times a year, we hold conferences with our families and their children to check in on each student's academic progress. The most recent parent-teacher conferences were Nov. 4 and 5. Conferences serve as a great opportunity for us to come together to recognize each student's strengths and needs. By connecting, our teachers and our schools can work with families to assess how we can build on student strengths and best support student needs in the classroom and at home.
With the rigorous academic goals we have in place, it is more important than ever that we work together. Student success depends on connecting the lessons learned in school at home. Each year, a student gets a new teacher at school—but the adults at home are the child's teachers for life.
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December 2010 
