After reading the Dave Ray obituary, I am moved to say to people who want us to be another Eden Prairie or another Chicago or another whatever: Why mess with success? Minneapolis' music scene produced these guys. It produced Bob Dylan. It produced Prince. And that's just the folk and pop side. Why make Minneapolis ANYTHING but what it is? I have a feeling it was politicians who somehow felt inferior to some other town who have given us a lot of trouble we didn't have when I first moved in here. If you maintain Minneapolis in its primitive state, without all these "outside influences", I think we can still be a seedbed for things that people worldwide can admire. But all these attempts to emulate suburbs or even other core cities will only lead to a crime-filled and troubled scene. Stop trying these futile endeavors to make us somehow "grow up". Or a lot of these creative people will no longer have a reason to "come home". ___________________________________________ A list participant says that it is best "not to know" certain things. Why? Will the flying bullet check the level of knowledge in one's brain and swerve if the brain has been careful not to know? This head in the sand philosophy has never worked to preserve peace or safety.
By the way, I'm not suggesting the city print its raid plans in the newspaper beforehand. I'm saying that the media could tell us when there are signs of outside gangs moving into town. They could tell us when there are signs of an ongoing war occurring. They could define the territory in which it is occurring. Don't you find it a LITTLE odd that we know more about Sharon and Arafat and their latest moves than you know about the gangs moving stealthily through your neighborhood? Better reporters over in Israel? Maybe we could have colored alerts for levels of threat in Central and Philips (no, no, its just a joke). As for the feds, I don't care if the city has a policy of keeping mum about them. The gangs know they are here and in what force, so how come it is so important that ONLY the law-abiding citizens be in the dark? Why is our intelligence feed the only one that blows? Is it to protect politicians? All my life I've heard this mantra "The police can't do it alone, we need the eyes of the citizenry". Well, OK, but how's that supposed to work if the citizenry is totally clueless till one of them ends up dead? I think the government owes us sufficient knowledge so we don't have to end up dead. They are free enough with info about garage burglaries. My thought is "Hey, take the junk in the garage, but don't take the life of any family member of mine." In any case, if anyone's insane here, I don't think it is me. I've seen these "family secret" things for longer than I care to remember, and they never end up with the guilty party getting hurt. And Tyesha's death just shows it happening again. It makes me suspicious when list participants jump to the defense of this system of public ignorance. One thought that occurs to me is that if law enforcement refuses to share vital information till after innocent blood is spilled, perhaps citizens will have to start sharing the info themselves over the Internet, such as people familiar the the distinctive marks of a local gang might answer questions for people in other cities where that gang is trying to grab turf. And I could see people here posting anonymously what they know of local war situations (but not on e-democracy which does not allow anonymity). _____________________________________________ Oh honesty, you can EXPECT whatever you please, but don't go crying when it doesn't happen. Remember, it is society who hires and rehires people for their political jobs. And society is NOT going to hire those whose standards exceed their own. Not on any consistent basis. It was a wonder they ever hired Paul Wellstone. But when it came time to replace him and he wasn't there to fool society into renewing his contract, look who got the job as a replacement. So, the least common denominator is the rule to which there are rare exceptions. "Leadership" is not a reliable formula. Jesus was a leader. Where did that get HIM? ===== Jim Mork -- Cooper Neighborhood ________________________________ Help stop spam -- Join SpamCon Foundation, http://www.spamcon.org __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
