Cab security Went to a Longfellow community meeting. Met a person who lurks here and discussed this topic of cab security. Told her I thought cab service needs to be rethunk to deal with its obvious dangers. Only later did it occur to me to think that the air travel business is being CONVULSED after a lot of people died in a crime. So now I'm asking myself why it is so obvious that society has to do that with air travel but not with cab travel. To me they are equivalent except on the scale of the homicide. No one would think a bandaid like cameras are sufficient for air travel, so why for cab travel. And one of the changes in air travel is the removal of anonymity of passengers. You can't be quite as impulsive with air travel. It is an inconvenience, but the loss of life makes the need obvious. I think the same type of reasoning applies to cab travel, and society should not settle for bandaids or we will probably spend money uselessly.
Potty Politics
Is this a solution looking for a problem? There are laws forbidding killing someone else. But people get killed all the time. Yet, WHERE is the great wave of restroom invasions that some of our paranoids seem to think are going on? Has anyone named a time and place? I think Scott Benson is not so much saying it is OK for humans with the wrong plumbing to go in women's bathrooms. I think he's trying to be that rarest of political animals, the guy who doesnt want to legislate THEORETICAL threats. Do we need a law prohibiting Venusians from buying up local businesses, too, just because, who knows, it MIGHT happen? Again, if women were contending with what we're told is a great threat, why don't we HEAR about it? Have American women fallen numb and silent again?
Race in Education
To suggest somehow that Carol Johnson was racist against her fellow African Americans causes shock and awe of disbelief. Nor do I believe for a minute there was a coverup. She probably didn't want to give the appearance of aiming her reforms at black students. But the idea of knowing where that segment is seems sound. Why can't someone studying education simply apply for a private foundation grant to start a longitudinal study. You don't have to have EVERY score reported to get valid results. There'd be no science at all if that were necessary. You just need to get an indicative slice and follow it. That is the way most longitudinal studies are done. And it would provide an independent check on government reports.
By the way, I know lots of Minneapolis residents who have liberalism that is more than skin deep. I think some of those who recently joined us here need to get out more. And listen more. They seem to cook up opinions in their isolation that have absolutely nothing to do with the REALITY of Minneapolis. And they SLANDER the people of the city because of their faulty information (hint: the U campus does not substitute for the city)
________________________________________ Jim Mork Cooper Neighborhood Longfellow Community Minneapolis, MN We think. You'll like it here. And we're more fun than a barrel of Norwegians
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