January 3, 2005

January 25, 2005. It has been a few days since our great snowfall. We wish to compliment the Public Works Department for getting us through our first Snow Emergency of the season.

We understand that our automated telephone warning system did not get everybody called. But we wonder if there should not be a Thomas Jefferson rule [“We hold these things to be self-evident”] here. To those who got towed, quit moaning. CSP.

January 17, 2005. Press coverage indicates that accused Sackett-killer Reed was arrested in 1970 for plotting to kidnap Governor LeVander. On that day I carried a rifle around the first floor of the Capitol. See my story which has been posted elsewhere on this site for a couple of years.

January 16, 2005. The Pioneer Press has noted in the center of the front page that a speech given by MLK at the U of M Farm Campus in 1967. This placement seems kind of funny since KTCI ran the show on September 26 of last year.

I remember being there at that speech. I was attending college at another school across the Fair Grounds and another student told me that King was going to speak so we walked over and saw it. The recent coverage indicates that this speech was specifically historical. I don’t remember it as being historical then, but that is the way things often work out.

We often hear how valuable the U of M is to the Twin Cities area and to Minnesota. I sometimes feel myself wondering how much this claim gets inflated, especially when the Legislature is in town. But I have to admit that the city of Saint Paul has in recent years renamed two streets after people that I would have never heard speak if it were not for the University. [I also heard Cesar Chavez at Coffman Union in 1969.]

January 15, 2005. Two men have been arrested for the murder of Officer Sackett. I find myself taking more particular note of this than maybe some others do, because it was the first murder of a Saint Paul officer after I came here and because it came just a few weeks after I had started driving cab in the city.

I am not sure that “justice” can ever be done in our criminal justice system and the passage of so great a time does not help things any, but I do hope that the processes and procedures are all taken as they should be and that these men, if guilty, receive whatever sentence the law deems appropriate. I do remember during the trial of Ms. Trimble, seeing people wearing buttons proclaiming her innocence and wondered how they could be so certain when the jury had not even heard the case yet.

January 6, 2005. I just wonder how much government can intervene in sports. A federal judge recently ruled that the NBA could keep Jermaine O’Neal from playing.

This makes me wonder: Is it possible that public funding of any new stadium for the Twins could be made contingent on not allowing Designated Hitters? CSP.

January 3, 2005. (comment below) There has been some note of the recent passing of Mary Peek. I never knew her, but I had heard of her. I remember the Dayton’s bombing in 1970 [the Year of the Bomb]. I saw her name frequently in local media stories or letters to the DPP, usually involving something about Grey Cloud Island or some radical, feminist thing. I even remember hearing her legislative defeat being moaned by some feminist DFL people back then.

However, I had never associated the bombing Peek with the activist Peek. I don’t know if I was not paying enough attention to the news back then or if there is some other reason. [I have always remembered that the alleged bomber was named Hogan. I am not sure if the selective memory signifies anything or not. All of you shrinks out there can chime in.]

I am certain that she is somebody Minnesota will miss. I not know where Unitarian-Universalists go after death, but I hope she does well there. Minnesota may have a surplus of allegedly “pro-choice” activists, but progressive minds are in short supply. RS.

From Midway Barb 1/7/05 –I never knew Ms. Peek, but suspect that she has passed to her reward. But freedom to choose is important. Why are you putting “pro-choice” in quotes as if to indicate sarcasm or cynicism?

I do not know Ms. Peek’s position on seat belt or helmet laws or smoking bans, so I would not wish anything here to be construed as having any sense of cynicism or sarcasm directed toward her. However, I continue to marvel at the number of “pro-choice” people who believe that a 13-year-old girl can make her own decisions on whether to continue her pregnancy but do not believe that her 35-year-old mother is competent to decide whether to buckle her seat belt or her sexagenarian grandmother can make a responsible decision on whether to use tobacco.

I agree. Freedom to choose is important. However, the sad truth is that we are all in favor of choice on different things and we do not agree on which things are exempt from choice. School choice, minimum wage, and prostitution come to mind. RS.