Candy is not dandy

It appears that our city council is about to take time off from the little problems they usually face such as the budget squeeze, service reductions, crime, and restless youth, to attack something really serious – candy cigarettes.

 

Real cigarettes, those scraps of chemically-altered tobacco lined by a similarly-treated paper wrapper, often with a filter made of who-knows-what, are thought to be [and likely are] a health hazard and purchase and sale of such is limited to people over age 18.

 

Candy cigarettes are sold in packages which might be thought to resemble the packages for real cigarettes, but they are much smaller and the individual items inside are clearly smaller in all dimensions than the tobacco containing items they apparently parrot.  As almost anybody with “D.D.S.” behind his/her name will tell you, candy can well be a health hazard.

 

But it seems that our city’s leaders think that consuming candy cigarettes encourages them to wish to illegally acquire tobacco cigarettes, so they should me made unavailable to people of all ages.

 

We have other things in our society that we think should only be done when people reach designated ages.  Two of these are consuming alcoholic beverages [even those designated by law as “non-intoxicating”] and voting.

 

Maybe we need to consider outlawing root beer and iced tea for people of all ages, since they are similarly named and resemble alcoholic beverages and we must protect our children.

 

And let’s forget about “kids voting” programs.

Looking at counties again

In a post last June, I wondered whether we should not begin examining whether we really need counties.

 

http://ccmusings.blogspot.com/2008/06/counties-do-we-need-them.html

 

Now legislators are proposing merging Stearns, Benton, and part of Sherburne Counties.  The bill, which would put all of St. Cloud in one county caught media attention by the bill’s proposed temporary name for the new county, “Lake Wobegon.”  The merger may have merit, even if the name doesn’t, but there will be several politicians and bureaucrats fearing for job security to pacify.  [And what would we do with the rest of Sherburne?  Append it to Anoka?]

Maybe we could just look at what I asked in June.  There would be more hoops to jump, but we might have one, uniform statewide arragement.

Goings on for and about the County Attorney's office

I know neither Dave Pinto nor Cory Tennison, but they seem to be the first two people in the race for Ramsey County Attorney to replace Susan Gaertner who is seeking her newly-adopted party’s endorsement/nomination for governor.  There will be more.

 

In the meantime, Ms.Gaertner who probably cannot afford to alienate any of the trendy left, has told former Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer that Kathleen Soliah cannot be prosecuted for voting under her alias of Sara Jane Olson.

 

There can be little doubt that Ms. Kiffmeyer resents her removal from her constitutional office and is merely posturing here and one suspects that there is little point in prosecuting Ms. Soliah for these relatively minor offenses at this late date, but Gaertner’s rationale is disturbing.  It may be good law.  I don’t know about that, but it doesn’t make sense.

 

I understand that marriage allows for name changes.  Changing name at marriage is an old tradition in many communities.  But to call Ms. Soliah’s use of an alias on her wedding license, made necessary by her status as a fugitive, to a name neither hers nor her husband’s a legal name change seems strange.

Observations on forgiveness and parole

Doug Grow of MinnPost has written about the release of Kathleen Soliah to parole in Saint Paul.  In the course of this, he has talked with Harry Flynn, the retired Catholic Archbishop of Saint Paul about the release of Kathleen Soliah and the idea of forgiveness.  [link] [link]

 

I have not been entirely comfortable with some who agree with me that Ms. Soliah, a California person, should serve California time in California.  I have suspected that the police organizations in both states would not have taken this position if police had not been the target of one of her crimes.  And I imagine that Pawlenty’s tepid request to Schwarzenegger was pure grandstanding.  [Yes, politicians do that.]

 

But as much as I think that Soliah’s parole should be served in California, I have never said that what she did was beyond forgiveness, either divine or personal.  I do not know Rep. Laura Brod and while at least one legislator/clergyperson has labeled her statement a call for “retribution,” I cannot guess the motive for her statement, but she noted,

"Forgiveness is a separate issue from where she serves her time.  …This case is different because it involves domestic terrorism and threats to law enforcement. Minnesota is not her home.  Minnesota is where she hid from justice."

 

Grow’s coverage of the matter shows a distinctive bend in favor of the parolee.  Eric Ostermeier, posting in Smart Politics, takes a distinctively different position.  He notes that Soliah’s crimes do not make her the “ordinary” parolee and suggests that her “exemplary” live while here seem less distinctive when one remembers that she was a fugitive the whole time.

Archbishop Flynn notes [per Grow]

Repentence is to look in a new direction. It is to hear with new ears, see with new eyes. … Has she repented? She certainly had taken on a different life [when she began a new life in St. Paul]. Has she made public statements [of remorse]?  I don't think so. But I don't think she'd do today what she did then

But, as the archbishop notes, forgiveness is a part of most traditions, that it does not require remorse, and forgiveness frees us.

St. Joseph's Day note

Today is St. Joseph’s Day. In some places it has been an occasion to wear red and parade and it is the traditional day the swallows return to Capistrano.

It was also the day when Mama D served her free dinner for the poor, although she only made it to St. Patrick’s Day this time.

But for the last six years it has also been the anniversary [U.S. time] of the American aggression in Iraq which is becoming the Twenty-first Century Viet Nam.

So rest well, Mama D and rest well, all of our unnecessary war victims [Iraqi, American, and others].

The birds will still fly.

Administration's Veterans U-turn

The Obama administration is backing off the suggestion to charge veterans for their health care.  It only seems fair that when we ask people to surrender their personal civil liberties for a period of time and take extraordinary risk limb and life that we honor whatever we promised them before we got them to do so. 

Two observations come immediately: 

1.  We never factor in this cost when we decide to go to war.  We really need to do better accounting before we become so internationally adventurous. 

2.  From 1945 until 1993 only one president did not have military experience.  Since then we have had two draft dodgers and one who was not old enough to be subject to a draft.  It seems likely that with our volunteer military that it may be a long time before another veteran becomes president.  This is neither good nor bad per se, but it will not be hard to understand when veterans become uneasy in the next decade or two.

AIG: a new way to spell ripoff?

AIG says that it was contractually bound to give large “bonuses” to a few select salaried employees out of government bailout money. While these are apparently not bonuses as most people think of them, i.e., rewards for doing things exceptionally well, it still seems unconscionable for AIG to make these payments with tax money, especially considering that they likely could have never made the payments any other way.

But contracts for basic pay [never mind bonuses] with many wage employees are overlooked all the time. Wilson Foods started this modern era of using bankruptcy and Hormel used those ensuing pay reductions to start its 1980s war with their employees even though they were not losing money. Recently Northwest Airlines has used similar tactics to abrogate some of its contracts.

Go figure!

Serve California time in California

Our local police federation does not want Kathleen Soliah [aka Sara Jane Olson] to serve her parole time in our state.  The Los Angeles police agree.  I wonder whether their opposition might not happen or be made known if one of the crimes for which Ms. Soliah was sentenced after her guilty pleas was not the attempted bombing of a police car and I question the federation’s fear that Ms. Soliah’s neighbors might not report any violations or irregularities since they had said nothing before her arrest.  After all, that would presume that they knew who she was while she lived among them with a phony identity, but the suggestion that she finish her sentence in California seems to make sense.

 

Ms. Soliah apparently wants to serve her sentence here because she has family here.  I do not want to be anti-family, but we should note that Ms. Soliah is a product of the West Coast who had no connection to our state or city until she happened here while on the lam and who had no family here until she married and started one here while a fugitive.

 

In other words, why should a California person who commits crimes in California not serve her sentence in California?

 

Any adult United States citizen who wishes [and there are a lot who do although I wonder why] can live in California.  If Ms. Soliah and her family cannot tolerate any longer a separation, he husband and daughters are all free to relocate there.  It would not be California or Minnesota which has forced the separation.  It would be the Soliah-Peterson family which is forcing the situation on themselves.

 

We have enough of our own crooks among us.  We do not need California'a also.  Governor Pawlenty says that he cannot keep her out.  Governor Schwarzenegger can keep her there.  I doubt whether he reads this, but it would not be bad if he is able to read things similar to this.

 

RIP 2008

This should have gone up in January, but I have been missing in taking care of details a lot lately.  For most of these people, I

 have more personal observations which I do not feel comfortable placing on a page whose distribution [how ever small it is] I neither know nor control, but I do not feel that their passings in 2008 should go unnoticed and not receive some comment.  [I note that I never met most of them until they were fairly old, so do not have a lot of interesting anecdotes to pass on.]

 

Jurgensen, George S

In an earlier life, George had been president of the Firefighters union.  I first met him probably 20+ years ago when some matter of city policy [I think it was liquor license distribution] was being considered.  He seemed to always show up when matters of importance to the Lexington-Hamline area were involved.  I suspect that sometimes our city’s officialdom considered his persistence a bit of a nuisance but respected his history and his dedication.

Hedman, Roy V.

He was well into his eighties when he lost the lease on his Payne Avenue barber shop, but he did not retire.  He just opened on Arcade instead.  He did haircuts, not stylings, our of barber shops hearkening back to an earlier era, decorated with fishing and hunting posters and nothing frilly.  He also enjoyed ballroom dancing and he adored his grandchildren and got so excited then his first great-grandchild was born that he had to tell it to everybody who came into his shop.

Weddington, Martin O.

When I first met Mr. Weddington he was a community elder in the African American community in Summit University and was involved with Pilgrim Baptist Church.  I never knew him well, but I remember working with him on a couple of city committees of a major political party and never felt the condescending attitude that a younger person often senses in intergenerational situations.  He also served once as a presidential elector.

Neid Sr., Karl G.  He was a legend before I ever met him which was not until the late 1980s when he used to come with his late wife Mary to the Friday bingo games at Wilder Recreation Center at which his son was a caller.  He was probably overshadowed in his later life by his namesake son, but people who were in Hayden Heights and organized labor over the years asserted me, even thirty years ago, that he and his wife were well involved and active in their own right and in fact probably provided the influence to get Karl, jr. his interest in public service and some connections to help him get started.

Salland, Judge Joseph E

He found me guilty.  Stop sign at Chatsworth and Thomas, 1983.  No judge has done that since.  Of course, if I had not had some dumb guy named Sammons as my attorney I might have done better.

Copeland, Elizabeth Ann "Betty

Founder of Minnesota Hugs, she managed to assist the survivors of many natural disasters.  Although largely housebound the last few years she still managed by telephone, email, and other means to cajole the support she needed from other people and from some of our leading corporations.

Donald H Boxmeyer.  I only met him once, but it was clear that we knew many of the same people.  I don’t know how six degrees of separation is supposed to work, but it was more like there was only one degree between me and him.  I have posted about him previously.

Elna Avey

She lived to 103.  I first met her forty years ago when I was in college and her son was my roommate.  She had just returned from her last stint as a missionary nurse in Assam.  Mrs. Avey was the widow of a British Baptist pastor/educator and had also lived in the United Kingdom and British Columbia, but she had spent almost all of her US time in the Como Park neighborhood.  She had worked at Lyngblomsten after returning from Assam and was appointed by several mayors to serve on the Hubert Humphrey Job Corps Neighborhood Advisory Council.  The Job Corps facility in her neighborhood was located on the former site of Bethel Academy of which she was a loyal alumna.  At her funeral, which was held at Central Baptist Church, a rabbi singing the Catholic funeral song, “Eagle’s Wings.”

Schell, Lowell S

I never met Lowell until he was of an age where he could have been called a senior citizen for quite a while.  I gather that he used to be a milkman.  [Younger readers may have to ask their grandparents what one of these was.  It is pretty much an extinct concept now.]  Lowell spent most of his life in the now-defunct congregation last known as Peace United Church of Christ.  I don’t know all that he did there, but I know that he sang tenor in the choir and time as a congregation officer.  He always had a smile and his memorial service filled the Hazel Park Church.

Reagan, Mary Jane

She was previously known as Mary Jane Rachner and is best known for running for offices.  She had a doctorate in education and her first attempts for office were for school board.  She finally won an election late in life and died during her second term as Soil and Water Conservation Commissioner.  For many years she spoke frequently to the City Council about any of several things and may be remembered best for her opposition to David Thune’s ordinance to include gays and lesbians in the city’s Human Rights ordinance.  I really do not know whether she really hated gays and lesbians and actually doubted that she did, but she did not agree with Mr. Thune on this.

In 1988 she ran for the Republican nomination for President of the United States.  By the time of the North Dakota primary, the other candidates had all dropped out in favor of George H.W. Bush and she was the only other candidate left.  She finished second.  In the spring of 1989 she rented a table at a fundraiser at Wilder Recreation Center.  I was working the adjacent table for somebody else.  We both had lousy turnout and I had an opportunity to converse with her for a few hours.  It was interesting.  She seemed pleased that I had referred to her as “Dr. Rachner.”  Apparently not many people did.  But I left thinking that she actually did think that she had almost become president.

 

The similar post for 2007 is here.

Obediently spring forward

This weekend we will be doing our semiannual clock change.  If most of us do it as we usually do, we will do it without really asking ourselves any questions about why we do so.  We will do so because Congress and our state have told us to.  We will not ask ourselves whether we are damaging our own internal clocks.  One of the reasons we are given for the change is to save energy which we are told will help us stave off a national crisis.  We do not even ask if there might not be possible savings in petroleum if some of us made the switch and others not, although it would seem that staggered travel hours would hint at that.  [Since we have already given up so much of our individual prerogatives to accommodate national crises – real or suggested -- is it no surprise that our congresspeople cave in leading us in walking in an orderly line on this?]

 

We Americans have always prided ourselves on our individual independence, on the each person for his/herself attitude which led our ancestors to cross the oceans, level the forests, settle the woods and prairies, and develop what was the world’s most free and prosperous society.

 

But on something so basic as where we set our watches [if we still have watches] we exercise no individuality and demonstrate no resistance at all.

 

This is true for individuals and organizations also.  My employer will change my work schedule to match the government changes.  I do not know whether my boss has just never thought about the matter or [more likely] dismissed the idea quickly figuring that exercising independence would probably be more confusing than the resulting sensation of independence and defiance would warrant.

 

When I was a lot younger I worked for a summer in a creamery where our day was somewhat dictated by when the milk trucks could get the milk to us and the trucks were at least somewhat influenced by the milking schedules of cows.  It would have seemed like a natural place to leave clocks unchanged in the spring, but even it did not do so and we often had to work late for the last truck to arrive and the milk to be processed.

 

But each year I still hope to see a story somewhere about some person or company deciding to exercise a little individualism.  Something about it would send a secret, quasi-patriotic thrill along my back and put a little warmth in my heart.

Neumeister receives Finnegan Award

It has been 25 years since I first met Rich Neumeister.  We are not bosom buddies, barely acquaintances actually, but over the last quarter century I have read about him and watched him constantly reminding various public officials, elected and otherwise of data privacy regulations, where they apply and where they ought to apply.

 

I am sure that there are a lot of politicians and quite a few more bureaucrats who shudder whenever the see the profile of a tall skinny man [especially if they can glimpse part of a handlebar mustache] approaching in corridors of government for fear that the profile will be revealed to be that of Mr. Neumeister.

 

Thanks to the DPP’s City Hall Scoop,  we learn that all of his work has earned him the John R. Finnegan Freedom of Information  Award which will be awarded on March 16^th.

 

I don’t know much about the history of the award or who other winners may have been, but it seems to be a well deserved honor for Rich Neumeister.  The City Hall Scoop article notes that he had to beat out all of the reporters for Minnesota radio, television, and newspapers to receive the honor.

 

Capitol City Musings wishes to note its congratulations also.  They seem especially apt when one notes the story yesterday in which it is noted that Mayor Coleman the Second in his capacity as a vice-president of the Minnesota League of Cities has been supporting a bill introduced by Senator Mee Moua which would allow cities to keep preliminary budget proposals and drafts private until a mayor actually submits them to a city council.

 

And yesterday’s article notes ironically concerns raised by Rich Neumeister as well as comments from Don Gemberling who served for a long time as the state’s director of information policy.

Fire at Yarusso's

There was the fire at Bill Godwin’s hardware store about ten years back and the fire at Payne Avenue Liquors about fourteen months ago and now Yarusso’s has been the victim of a fire.  It probably should not be extremely shocking that older buildings sometimes have fires, but we still take it as a bit of a surprise, especially when it happens some place we have been before.

[It might be some kind of psychological thing, I suppose, we at least subconsciously think, “I could have been there.”]

Bill Godwin rebuilt and reopened his store and Payne Avenue Liquors has begun its reconstruction plans.  Early reports and the business's web site say that the restaurant will oen again.  It will take several weeks or months, but CCM wishes them well and hopes that they don’t get caught up in the red tape and snafus which often happen when an older building has to be brought up to newer codes.

 

Earlier post http://ccmusings.blogspot.com/2007/12/fire-started-late-last-night-at-980.html  [12/29/2007]