Category Archives: Post type
Beyoncé meets Breitbart
By: Arianna Genis
My parents emigrated from Mexico to Minnesota more than 25 years ago. I have a big familia. I have 10 tios and tias and 23 first cousins on my mom’s side. I grew up listening to their stories. Whether I was playing with my primos, spending time with my abuelita, getting the frijoles ready for dinner, or hanging out in my tia’s living room with my warm canela in the winter or agua de Jamaica in the summer. I was surrounded by my family’s tradition of telling stories – an art form they had mastered.
Like any immigrant family, there were plenty of stories of hardship and triumph, but that’s a small part of it. There’s funny stuff too – the family myths, big fish stories that used to be true but have long since left the realm of feasibility. How my family members were forced to cross the border could be either horror or comedy, depending on who was telling the story. All my primos recall the strange look on our parents’ faces as we tried to explain to them the concept of a sleepover – why do these strangers want to take care our kids for the whole night?… Continue reading »
Minnesota secretary of state won’t supply voter information to Trump’s panel
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said Friday that he won’t fulfill a request from a presidential panel to ship voter registration information for some 4 million Minnesota voters to Washington.
Simon questioned both whether Minnesota law would allow him to provide the information to President Trump’s Election Integrity Commission and to what end it would be used.
“When Minnesotans registered to vote, they didn’t ever think their personal information would end up in some federal database in Washington, D.C.,” said Simon, a DFLer elected to his statewide post in 2014.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and Vice President Mike Pence are overseeing the commission, which Trump established in May to explore his unfounded claim that millions of people voted illegally in the last election. In a letter Thursday, Kobach asked election chiefs in every state to provide, if public, the names of registered voters, party affiliation, last four digits of Social Security numbers, voting history back to 2006, felony convictions, military history and voter registration in another state.
Several Minnesota Republicans criticized Simon for declining to turn it over. State Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake, a former secretary of state, said Simon should “stop obstructing the president in his quest to strengthen voter integrity.… Continue reading »
Minneapolis and St. Paul DFLers ponder future of endorsement process
Hundreds of St. Paul residents recently packed into a warm middle school auditorium and spent 10 tedious hours trying to agree on which DFL mayoral candidate to rally around.
The outcome was predictable: They picked no one.
As Minneapolis DFLers prepare for their convention Saturday, many anticipate the same result — and are contemplating whether the process needs to change.
Mayoral hopefuls in the DFL-dominated cities still want that stamp of approval. Many Minneapolis candidates plan to step down if someone else gets the endorsement, which typically results in the endorsee getting more money, volunteers and votes. But candidates and campaign staff said conventions should be more inclusive and efficient. Some residents are even asking: With ranked-choice voting, should caucuses and conventions continue?
“We need to have a conversation about whether it makes sense to continue to have an endorsing process in Minneapolis. I think there’s an intense criticism of it, and I think it’s a fair question to ask,” Minneapolis DFL Party Chair Dan McConnell said.
Nonetheless, the convention remains an important first test for campaigns, he said. It shows whether candidates can organize support and whose message resonates with voters.
On Saturday, Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges will be vying for the DFL endorsement against seven other candidates, including state Rep.… Continue reading »
Activists and organizers reimagine modern day policing in Minneapolis
For 18 days in 2015 the community occupied the Minneapolis Police Department’s Fourth Precinct in North Minneapolis. For 18 days the community came together to demand justice for Jamar Clark, and an end to police brutality in general. During those 18 days, the community defied commonly held beliefs about the necessity for police.
Hundreds of people packed Plymouth Avenue in front of the precinct. There was no shortage of raw emotion. Yet, the only violence of note was the occupation being attacked by white supremacists. Through an organized network, the community pooled resources to provide food, shelter, warmth and some medical care among many other needs for those who were there. The atmosphere and overwhelming sense at the occupation was one of support and community. Community organizer, activist and artist Keno Evol, who was at the occupation for a majority of the time, talked about this dynamic: “folks respected each other… not only that… folks cared for each other. Folks gave away their gloves. Things like that.” Read more. … Continue reading »
Minnesota secretary of state won’t supply voter information to Trump’s panel
Steve Simon questioned whether Minnesota law would allow him to do it and what end the information would be used.
AARON LAVINSKY, DML – STAR TRIBUNE STAR TRIBUNE Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, shown in 2015, said Friday that he won’t fulfill a request from a presidential panel to ship voter registration information for some 4 million state voters to Washington.
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said Friday that he won’t fulfill a request from a presidential panel to ship voter registration information for some 4 million Minnesota voters to Washington.
Simon questioned both whether Minnesota law would allow him to provide the information to President Trump’s Election Integrity Commission and to what end it would be used.
“When Minnesotans registered to vote, they didn’t ever think their personal information would end up in some federal database in Washington, D.C.,” said Simon, a DFLer elected to his statewide post in 2014.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and Vice President Mike Pence are overseeing the commission, which Trump established in May to explore his unfounded claim that millions of people voted illegally in the last election. In a letter Thursday, Kobach asked election chiefs in every state to provide, if public, the names of registered voters, party affiliation, last four digits of Social Security numbers, voting history back to 2006, felony convictions, military history and voter registration in another state.… Continue reading »
Get involved. Make a difference.
Cities, States Deliver Paid Leave so Survivors Can ‘Get Safe’
A growing movement is making it possible for survivors of domestic violence to take time off—without sacrificing their income or jeopardizing their jobs.
The lack of paid time off from work can spell economic disaster, or worse, for people escaping abuse.
Shawnu Ksicinski, a worker rights’ advocate, told Rewire about domestic violence survivors “fired for showing up with bruises on their face.”
“They lost their jobs because instead of staying home, or being able to seek medical assistance, they were going to work,” said Ksicinski, Duluth program manager with TakeAction Minnesota. The organization is pushing for paid sick time and “safe time” in cities around the state.
A growing movement is making it possible for survivors of domestic violence to take time off, with pay, to care for themselves and their families—without sacrificing their income or jeopardizing their jobs. Read the full story. … Continue reading »
Mark Dayton meets with African-American leaders after ‘horrific’ video of Castile’s death released
With stone-faced African-American leaders standing behind him, Gov. Mark Dayton said Wednesday that watching the newly released video of St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez killing motorist Philando Castile was horrifying, painful and shocking.
Dayton, a Democrat, said it was one of the “horrific reminders that everyone … is not treated equally in the state of Minnesota.”
The governor made his comments after meeting with the leaders for more than an hour. The meeting was filled with “raw emotion” as the community grappled with the visions of Yanez shooting Castile just seconds after pulling him over during a traffic stop last July in Falcon Heights.
Millionaires in skyscrapers smoking cigars (Or, session wrap up)
Well, that was weird. We ended our state legislative session. Sort of. The legislature missed two deadlines. The Governor signed all the budget bills. And we’re still not done. The predictable stand-off was… uh, unpredictable.
The good news is: the Governor vetoed workplace preemption.
The bad news is: the GOP-led legislature snuck the budget for the state’s Department of Revenue into the tax bill—then they stuffed the bill with massive tax breaks for the wealthy and big business. And dared Governor Dayton to veto it.
But the Governor didn’t veto the tax bill. Instead, he line-item vetoed the funding for the legislature itself and invited lawmakers back to the table to fix the tax bill and bad policy jammed in two other bills.
The legislature lawyered up. And the next stand-off started.
But how did we get here? And why can’t we seem to pass a state budget, like, ever, on time, even when we have a budget surplus? If it seems like legislative special sessions have become routine, they have. Since 2001, we’ve had to use a special session during six of the last nine budget sessions to finish the work.
But it didn’t start with Governors Dayton or Pawlenty or Ventura or Carlson… We have to look back to the 1940s to find a decade free of budget-related special sessions.… Continue reading »
Cities, States Deliver Paid Leave so Survivors Can ‘Get Safe’
The lack of paid time off from work can spell economic disaster, or worse, for people escaping abuse.
Shawnu Ksicinski, a worker rights’ advocate, told Rewire about domestic violence survivors “fired for showing up with bruises on their face.”
“They lost their jobs because instead of staying home, or being able to seek medical assistance, they were going to work,” said Ksicinski, Duluth program manager with TakeAction Minnesota. The organization is pushing for paid sick time and “safe time” in cities around the state.
A growing movement is making it possible for survivors of domestic violence to take time off, with pay, to care for themselves and their families—without sacrificing their income or jeopardizing their jobs.
“To get a protective order, to get housing, to take time off for anything you might have to deal with,” said Sherry Leiwant, co-founder and co-president of A Better Balance, which advocates for workers and families. “To get safe, essentially.”
Legislators in at least seven states, 14 cities, and the District of Columbia have passed laws to make safe time available to survivors of domestic violence, according to A Better Balance. The measures also apply to survivors of sexual assault and stalking.
A dozen safe time provisions were passed in 2016. Safe time provisions are being written into paid leave laws, even appearing in ballot measures in states with GOP-held legislatures, like Arizona.… Continue reading »
St. Paul mayoral candidates square off on social justice issues
St. Paul mayoral candidates assured residents Tuesday that they would raise the minimum wage, fight poverty and address climate change.
Many social justice advocates attended the final forum before Saturday’s DFL nominating convention. The event was hosted by local organizations the St. Paul Federation of Teachers, TakeAction, the Service Employees International Union and ISAIAH.
The attendees quizzed candidates on social issues, such as how they would protect immigrants.
“We can’t be the type of place that targets our own neighbors and our own residents. And we also have to be a place that’s about creating opportunity,” said Melvin Carter, a former council member who directs Gov. Mark Dayton’s Minnesota Children’s Cabinet.
Carter secured the most delegates during ward conventions in April. But he has far less than the 60 percent of delegates needed to win the endorsement.
Council Member Dai Thao came away with the second-most delegates, slightly more than former Council Member Pat Harris.
About a quarter of the delegates did not commit to a candidate at the seven ward conventions.
Thao’s campaign was disrupted in the middle of the ward conventions by allegations he attempted to solicit a bribe from a lobbyist and her clients. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is still investigating the allegations, and Thao continues to run.… Continue reading »
GOP Medicaid Cuts Hit Rural America Hardest, Report Finds
By Phil Galewitz June 7, 2017
Rural America carried President Donald Trump to his election night upset last November.
Trump Country it may be, but rural counties and small towns also make up Medicaid Country — those parts of the nation whose low-income children and families are most dependent on the federal-state health insurance program, according to a report released Wednesday.
Medicaid’s enrollment has swollen to more than 72 million in recent years, and the ranks of uninsured Americans has fallen to 9 percent in 2015 from 13 percent in 2013. That’s largely due to the Affordable Care Act, which allowed states to expand Medicaid eligibility with federal funds. Thirty-one states plus the District of Columbia did so.
Those gains may be in jeopardy under a GOP- and White House-backed health care measure called the American Health Care Act that would replace major parts of the ACA — known as Obamacare — and dramatically cut federal funding for Medicaid. The House passed the bill in May.
“There is no doubt that children and families in small towns would be disproportionately harmed by cuts to Medicaid,” said Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.
According to the center’s new report, Medicaid covered 45 percent of children and 16 percent of adults in small towns and rural areas in 2015.… Continue reading »
Minnesota Governor Rejects GOP-Backed Wage Suppression
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D) this week vetoed a bill written to deny workers paid sick-time and quash a local campaign to lift the minimum wage to $15 per hour.
The state’s base wage is $9.50 per hour, or $19,760 annually, Dayton noted in his veto message. It’s an amount that places a family of four below the poverty line.
“People need to be making a livable wage, which is $15 per hour,” Kyanna Roland, an activist with TakeAction Minnesota, which supports the $15 minimum wage, told Rewire.
The GOP legislation, SF 3, is an example of a preemption bill, an increasingly popular big-business strategy to suppress local labor laws. In 2016, 36 states introduced bills to preempt city ordinances, up from 29 states just a year earlier.
Minnesota Republicans advanced the preemption legislation in response to an anticipated $15 minimum wage hike in Minneapolis and paid sick-time measures passed in that city and St. Paul.
Without paid sick leave, employees “didn’t got to the doctor, they went to work sick,” Roland told Rewire. “That was a huge issue, especially in the food industry, where people would go to work sick.”
In recent years, roughly 40 U.S. cities have increased their minimum wage, and more than 30 have guaranteed paid sick days, according to the National Employment Law Project (NELP).… Continue reading »
Governor Dayton, vetoes are in order.
May 26, 2017
Honorable Governor Mark Dayton
130 State Capitol
75 Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
St. Paul, MN 55155
Governor Dayton:
On behalf of the 67,000 supporters and 28 member organizations of TakeAction Minnesota from across the state, we ask you to veto the following bills: H.F. 470 Public Safety, S.F. 3 Labor Standards, S.F. 1456 Jobs & Energy, H.F. 2 E-12 Education, and H.F. 1 Taxes. We also ask for a meeting with you at your earliest convenience to discuss both our opposition to these bills and hour our statewide network of activists can support progressive legislative alternatives.
The purpose of our state government is to serve Minnesotans through a robust democratic process that is inclusive, fair, and focused on the future. Provisions in each of these five bills fall far short of this vision; they contain policies or approaches that violate these basic principles, and the values we hold as Minnesotans. The Legislature’s bills harm ordinary citizens, while blatantly prioritizing the financial interest of corporations and wealthy individuals.
The anti-immigrant driver’s license language in H.F. 470, the Public Safety Finance bill, is pointless and mean-spirited. It is an effort to slam the door shut on new Minnesotans, rather than welcome and include them. … Continue reading »
Emmer, Lewis, and Paulsen could have saved the ACA — instead, they voted to destroy Medicaid to pay for tax cuts
St. Paul, Minn. (May 7, 2017) — The U.S. House of Representative voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act today. Health care has been a top concern for Minnesotans since Trump took office. In February, 1,000 constituents showed up at a town hall meeting in Sartell, Minn. to question Rep. Emmer on repealing the ACA. Last month, constituents protested outside of the Bloomington Chamber of Commerce to ask Rep. Paulsen, who was speaking at a paid business breakfast, where he stood on the matter.
“Emmer, Lewis, and Paulsen could have defeated this horrific bill. Instead of listening to their districts, they voted to make a nightmare into reality,” said Dan McGrath, executive director of TakeAction Minnesota. “They voted to kick millions of people off health care to finance tax cuts for the rich. This goes against every value we have. Minnesotans won’t forget.”
Twenty GOP members of Congress voted against the American Health Care Act. If just two more Republicans voted against it, the bill would have been defeated today. All three Minnesota GOP members of Congress voted for it.
TakeAction Minnesota is a statewide, multi-racial people’s organization. We advance democracy and equity through organizing, political action, and policy campaigns. www.takeactionminnesota.org… Continue reading »
#PayThePCA Campaign Update
For over a year, personal care attendants, clients and family members have been coming together to share their stories of what care means to them and how our caregiving system effects us all. These conversations have happened at doorsteps , community dinners, and on Facebook. Last week, workers and caregivers met in Willmar, MN to connect and share their hopes for a stronger long-term care system that respects worker, as well as seniors and people with disabilities. It’s time to take our voices to the Capitol.
Right now, lawmakers are making decisions at the Capitol in St. Paul about the PCA program as well many other issues that effect us and our families. But they will not be making these decision about us without us.
So what is going on?
- Last year, our coalition won earned sick and safe time for workers in Minneapolis and St. Paul that they can use to continue getting paid when they have to miss work for their own or their family’s health. Lawmakers are a debating a proposal that would take these paid sick days away.
What’s your plan for the next 100 days?
100 days ago, when the reality set in that Donald Trump is our president, I was shaken, as were all of us at TakeAction Minnesota. We knew then that we will face years of uncertainty and fear. While it was obvious that we needed to resist, we also wanted to remember what we believe – to hang onto our values, hopes and dreams.
This weekend marked the 100th day of the BelieveResist campaign—a grand experiment in creative resistance. We launched BelieveResist to help all of us act, think, and do politics differently. We reflected on what you—and all of us—need to keep up the fight, and keep believing. I hope we delivered for you, because you blew me away.
Since January, Minnesotans in 85 out of 87 counties joined us! You’ve made it clear: the fight for justice and equity will continue, no matter who is President. Together, with tens of thousands across the country, we saved Affordable Care Act and defeated TrumpCare. We rallied against the #MuslimBan. At our State Capitol, we’re holding the line against preemption, bills that will only further pollute our planet, and we’re protecting MinnesotaCare. Thank you.
Here’s what we launched during the 100 days of BelieveResist and how you can keep it going.… Continue reading »
BelieveResist: Action Alert
We’re almost there – 100 days of BelieveResist. And, I can tell you, I’m ready to keep going. Who’s with me?
In the coming month, you’ll be hearing a lot more from our team working hard in the final sprint of the legislative session, and a little less from me. But don’t worry, the next iteration of this email is coming your way soon.
Right now, we’re in our Week of Action with our partners at Minnesotans for a Fair Economy. Join us from Saturday through Tuesday to #BelieveResist and re-energize ourselves for the work ahead. We’ll be standing in solidarity with CTUL, Neighborhoods Organizing for Change (NOC), SEIU, Saint Paul Federation of Teachers, MN350, Mesa Latina, and many others. Here are the top five actions you should be at to mark 100 days of #BelieveResist:
People’s Climate Marches
Join us and thousands of others across the country this Saturday at the People’s Climate March. Want to go to DC? Get tickets here. In Duluth or the Twin Cities? Check out these links for more information on where and when to meet up with the march.
Solidarity with Striking Workers
Monday we’ve got opportunities to stand in solidarity with striking workers and CTUL!… Continue reading »
TakeAction Digest: This Week in Action
Today marks the 100th day of the BelieveResist campaign. 100 days of resistance against Trump’s first 100 days in office. 100 days of believing in a more just and equitable world, no matter what. The fight isn’t over. For the next month you won’t be getting our weekly digest, but don’t worry! We’ll be back shortley with a new iteration of it. Stay tuned.
In the meantime, here’s what we’ve been reading this week.
1. Media Jui-JitsuWhen newscasters talk Russia, Trump takes to Twitter. In real time. And is instantly debunked. This reverse trolling social media / media jui-jitsu is brought to you by National Public Radio.
2. WINNING in the red state of ArizonaCheck-out the Huffington post video featuring co-founder and Director of Mijente, Marisa Franco, where she shares advice on organizing and winning on the right’s terrain. She helped unseat the infamous Sheriff Jeff Arpaio of Maricopa County in Arizona by organizing, “The people, the very people that he was attacking and persecuting, were the very people who stood up, and took him on, and took him out.” Arpaio was a vocal supporter of Trump since day one of his campaign.
Don’t know about the racial profiling and corruption of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio?… Continue reading »
A stateless people
Ann Coulter recently wrote that it’s not just “illegal” immigrants that are the problem, it’s legal immigrants too. She went on to single out Hmong Americans as murderers and rapists. As we witness a new, highly visible white nationalism in America, it’s important to understand that these movements desperately need a villain. These movements are not born, so much as made. They create a story with villains and a toxic atmosphere. New laws establish a clear line, determining who is and isn’t white and who is and isn’t American.
When immigrants and well-meaning communities create a value scale among the documented and undocumented – the good immigrant versus the bad immigrant – we play directly into the hands of such a movement. We miss the point, the opportunity to say, “It’s all of us or none of us.” We internalize the worst of American impulses – a deep history of trying to determine who is and who isn’t a part of this country, who is and isn’t human.
My name is Cindy Yang. I am a Hmong American and we are a stateless people.
I told my dad that Ann Coulter called Hmong people rapists in one of her books. He said, “They can’t do that.… Continue reading »
April is Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention month, according to President Trump…
How are you doing on a physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual level? As TakeAction Minnesota’s Women of Color Organizer, asking this question to leaders at the end of our meetings has become a ritual. Does it break established norms? Absolutely. As each woman answers, her public and private selves merge. Her whole self comes forward.
In writing this, I’m trying to do something similar, wrestling with the intersection of sexism and racism and their impacts on our bodies and our politics.
I have a brief message to everyone who reads on: your compassion and courage is needed in this struggle too. Remember, people in your life benefit from you learning about systems of oppression, and their impact. I urge you to let go of your need to fix it. For the next five minutes I simply ask you to read this and to reflect.
Here we go.
When I bring body, mind, heart, and spirit into a public, political meeting, I am counteracting the expectation that these parts of me are to be left in private—I’m going against the grain of society that organizes public life around male, white-dominant culture. And this is not just true for me.… Continue reading »
What’s in the state Health Care budget bills?
I’ve been thinking about health care at the Capitol this year as a three-act play.
Act I: The Legislature passed a $300 million bill in January to assist Minnesotans buying health insurance on the individual market. (The same law allows health insurance companies like Blue Cross to convert from nonprofit to for-profit companies.)
Act II: The second act ended with the recent passage of the “reinsurance” law, giving away $540 million dollars in public funds to health insurance companies of — with no guarantee that premiums will go down.
Act III: The final act is in progress, as the Minnesota House debates the HHS budget for the next two years. Different bills passed the House and Senate floors last week.
The long and the short of it?
After giving $540 million away to the health insurance industry, with no strings attached, the GOP proposes to cut that much from our public health care programs. The House has proposed a $599 million cut to current spending adjusted for inflation.
How do they think the state can save that much money?
1. Punishing people enrolled in Medicaid (Medical Assistance) and MinnesotaCare. The House budget bill raises MinnesotaCare premiums to the maximum allowed under federal law — as much as a 70% increase.… Continue reading »
Donald Trump’s budget proposal is visionary. (And Steve Bannon is a romantic.)
“There’s no question this is a hard-power budget. It is not a soft-power budget. This is a hard-power budget. And that was done intentionally.” – Mick Mulvaney, Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, 3/15/17
The Trump Administration released their 2018 budget for the federal government last Thursday. Blustery, almost bellicose, they 
clearly wanted it to make a point. It’s the budget equivalent of President Trump’s recent photo op wearing a Navy flight jacket and standing on aircraft carrier. All that’s missing is a Rambo-style bandolier.
Okay, we get it. It’s a ‘hard-power’ budget. The problem is ‘hard-power’ (or for that matter diplomatic soft-power, or economic power, or moral suasion) are all tools. They are not a strategy or objective. ‘Hard-power’ tells us something about how they envision themselves but disturbingly little about what they hope to do.
Here is where the budget as whole starts to paint a vision.
“There is only one class in the state, the Volk, (not the rabble), and the king belongs to this class as well as the peasant.” – Johann Gottfried Herder, German Philosopher (1744-1803)
In June of 2015, Matthew Cooper wrote a Newsweek article entitled ‘Donald Trump: The Billionaire For Blue-Collars’.… Continue reading »
Thanks to you, hope is on the move across Minnesota
6 cities. 1 day. Nearly 1,000 Minnesotans.
On Saturday, nearly a thousand Minnesotans gathered at six locations across the state for our Annual Meeting – St. Paul, Duluth, St. Cloud, Northfield, Grand Rapids and Willmar. Together, we launched a set of work geared toward realizing our vision of a Minnesota where all can thrive and live in joy.
It was a statewide explosion of action. We had marches, rallies, banner-drops, and conversations with elected officials about our vision and mutual accountability. There were new faces in the room across the state. And hundreds of people committed to taking continuous action with us. These may be challenging times, but the movement to resist and create a better future, thanks to you, is growing.
TakeAction Minnesota members raised over $12,000 on Saturday – if you already contributed, THANK YOU! If you aren’t already a member of TakeAction, we want you to join us. Contribute $20 TODAY to join– your membership contribution means that we can powerfully fight for quality, affordable health care, progressive elected officials, statewide paid sick and safe time, climate justice, and more.
Our goal is to raise $15,000 by Friday.
As a member of TakeAction Minnesota, you help fund the resistance against Trump and the people-powered movement and organizing our state needs now.… Continue reading »
What I’m thinking about this St. Patrick’s Day
Against the famine and the crown, I rebelled, they cut me down…
These words are from an Irish folk song I often sing to my kids before they go to sleep. Yeah, I know it sounds morose, many Irish songs are, but my kids love it and it’s a way to connect them to their heritage. This Friday is St. Patrick’s Day, a big day for the McGrath family, celebrated by Irish dance, multiple corned beef dinners, traditional music and calls home to my extended family. It’s also a chance to reflect on my family’s immigrant history and on the actions of the Trump administration against immigrants and refugees.
My ancestors immigrated in the late 1800s, part of a second wave of Irish immigrants, that followed the famine earlier that century. My great-great-grandfather settled in rural southern Wisconsin and sought stability, security and prosperity that was beyond his reach back home.
The Irish immigrant experience of the mid-1800s mirrors, in several ways, that of many immigrants today. The Irish were outcasts, an agrarian people, with little formal education, little to no money, and stereotyped as irresponsible drunkards. In major cities on the east coast, the Irish were a cheap labor pool who kept wages down and did work that others were unwilling.… Continue reading »
We will never solve health care…
… if we don’t understand the roots of how we got to here. It’s very easy to use the words “Medicaid,” “Medicare,” “MinnesotaCare Buy-in” and “Obamacare” in a sentence, but how many of us know really know how and why these elements of our health care system were established?
Hi, my name is Kenza Hadj-Moussa, and I’m the new Communications Director at TakeAction. Everyone has a story about health care. And health care, as a social issue, has a story too. Here’s my take on the historical roots of our health care system, and why it’s so hard to fix it today [hint: it’s the biggest taboo subject in American politics]. Take a look and let me know, after reading this, what are you left with? Send us an email at info@takeactionminnesota.org.
In 1964, just 47 days after President Kennedy was assassinated, President Johnson gave his first State of the Union speech to a still-mourning nation. The nation was at war in Vietnam, though not at the level it would come to dominate in American culture. The U.S. never formally declared war on Vietnam, in fact, but LBJ did use his speech to declare war… an “unconditional war on poverty.”
And a dark national secret was becoming exposed: America was poor.… Continue reading »
Is Trump a fascist?
I don’t think so, here’s why.
In answering this question, we’re better off taking the advice of Corey Lewandowski, the President’s one-time campaign manager, who directed his staff to ‘Let Trump Be Trump’.
Our histories are filled with parallels and echoes of Trump-ism. He is not the first reactionary politician to promise to put ‘America First’ or ‘Make America Great Again’. He is not first to threaten our democratic institutions. He is not first to scapegoat immigrants, people of color, Native Americans, or women.
And this moment is not the same as the Weimar Republic, 1930’s Spain or Stalinist Russia. So, what is going on?
Since 2006, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has prepared an annual worldwide survey of nations called the Democracy Index. I know this sounds wonky, but hear me out. I promise the connections will make sense. This survey compares 5 measures of democracy and for the first time, in 2016, it downgraded the United States from a Full democracy to a Flawed democracy.
And, according the EIU, Donald Trump didn’t lower the bar. We set the bar low enough that he could get over.
“Trust in political institutions is an essential component of well-functioning democracies.… Continue reading »
Believe Resist! TakeAction’s 2017 Statewide Annual Meeting
We know that now is a moment when we’re facing unprecedented challenges and deeply dangerous and damaging policies and language. But it’s also a moment when we’re seeing incredible resistance, love, and hope. Now more than ever is a time to come together to stand up for the state we believe in – a Minnesota where each and every person is able to live in joy – lives that are fulfilling, stable, creative, and happy.
It is in this moment that TakeAction Minnesota is inviting you to join a Believe Resist 2017 Annual Meeting. Join TakeAction and many partners at a meeting on March 18th from 10am to 1pm in Duluth, Grand Rapids, St. Cloud, Willmar, Northfield, or St. Paul. These meetings are a way to be with others who are trying to make meaning of this moment, who are resisting, who are hopeful, and who are ready to fight for a Minnesota and a country where love, joy, and justice prevail.
Meetings are free, food will be provided, and all are kid-friendly. They will include:
- Meeting and connecting with neighbors and folks from other organizations who want to work for a more just and equitable Minnesota.
- Trainings to learn more about the work of TakeAction and our partners — learn more about the current and urgent work on healthcare, criminal justice reform, economic justice, climate justice, and the future of caregiving, and skills for resisting and building the world we want to see.
Duluth Earned Sick & Safe Time Task Force Opens Conversation
An ongoing debate over whether the city of Duluth should mandate paid sick leave is moving forward with the city council-appointed task force hearing from groups that would be impacted by earned sick and safe time.
The task force is three months into a year-long process studying the issue, and after gathering background, they’re opening up the conversation to the community.
Dozens from the Northland Human Resource Association filled a meeting room Tuesday afternoon. Task Force member Arik Forsman said that’s evidence the debate matters.
“It’s a topic that inspires a lot of passion on both sides, there’s good arguments to be made on both sides,” Forsman said. “We are just so happy to see all these people here.”
An earned sick and safe time benefit would cover being absent from work due to either illness or critical safety issues, including domestic violence. Local human resources professions are uniquely invested in what a citywide policy would look like.
“These are the people that are administering these plans, it’s a great opportunity to learn more,” Patricia Stolee with the Northland Human Resources Association said. “We really wanted to educate the community about some of the implications — what are the benefits but what are the implications for the employers.” … Continue reading »
