Since the category is North-South Connectors, I will also "weigh in".
Oscar Reed grew up on a sharecropper farm in Mississippi, with his
family escaped the slavery of 1950's Plantation life, lived for a
while in the projects of Memphis, and then became a well known
Minnesota Viking. After leaving the Vikings, Oscar truly became an
example to the young people of both North and South Minneapolis.
He worked in the projects and community using youth to improve
themselves and the community for years before Holman was decreed.
His work in the community and in Restorative Justice also is intended
to bring people together and is an example of the healing that is possible
in a community.
Oscar has not sat and basked in former fame as a "Sports Hero", he has
actually either put it aside or used it to further his work with and on the
behalf of young people on both the North-side and the South-side. His
recruitment of other professional athletes to give back to the community
is an example of this commitment, as well as his choice of living and
raising a family just south of Broadway in North Minneapolis. How
many people with his fame choose to actually stay one of the people.
Political figures do not even wait to leave office before deserting their
people and moving to more "worthwhile" locations as befits their class
and status. Oscar chose the same thing, he bought a house and lived
in a community where it befitted his class and status. Oscar chose to be
the same as our "class" and "status", he chose to live with us.
If it were the River Road that was being re-named I can think of a better
choice, but as it is an inner-city connection, I think a person who chose
to stay connected is the best choice. Oscar Reed IS connected to,
and has always chosen that connection to, his people.
Because of choosing to live with us and quietly helping our community,
as well as being a true role model for our young people I can think of no
living person more deserving of having the street named after. Those old
politicians that the people got rid of are not now or have ever been the
role
model for our children to a degree to deserve to have streets named after
them. Booker T High's own "Golden Shoes Reed" is still golden to many
of us, and deserves the honor as much as any living person. More
importantly, no one would be opposed to this selection because of
bad memories the name might bring.
All of us have nothing but good memories of the "Seed".
Jim Graham,
Ventura Village
"The highest reward for a man's toil is not what he gets for it but what
he
becomes by it." - John Ruskin
_______________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy
Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more:
http://e-democracy.org/mpls
