RE: [Mpls] Who Speaks for People? This debate has turned into a mud-slinging contest, suggesting that local government is akin to some kind of color-safe detergent. I'm white, my ex-wife and the daughter we raised together here in Mpls are both black. Neither of us have never been under the impression that ANY local politicians have fairly represented EITHER of our interests, or that the color of our skin provided the necessary information to validate our opinions or concerns as residents of Mpls. Whether locking horns with the Public School system over their decision to bus our daughter out of our community, because she was black, or being denied the opportunity to return to an OIC program when I was younger, because I was white; for us the color agendas have accomplished nothing so much as to further complicate our lives, and which served no purpose so much as to impede any type of progress we hoped to make as individuals trying to raise a family in Mpls. Communities here are not black and white, and the real crime is those who work so hard to draw those lines, further impeding the progress that might be made by communities working together as a whole. Randy Staten doesn't represent my ex-wife's interests as a resident of North Mpls just because she's black, any more than RT Rybak represents mine, living in the 9th Ward, because I'm white. Both cause just as much embarrassment to both of us, every time they open their mouth in public. It's really a shame there don't seem to be more stringent guidelines in place for what defines "leadership" here these days.
Re: [Mpls] Convenience Stores As a former property manager and caretaker in Whittier, I certainly saw plenty of evidence that drug dealing tied up some pay phones, but I can hardly applaud stooping to vandalism as an appropriate recourse. Many people who do not have cell phones have lamented the removal of pay phones in some of the very locations it sounds like the Whittier block club vandalized, and the reasons they needed to use a public telephone did not relate to drug dealing. Ever been lost in an unfamiliar neighborhood, without a cell phone, only to find that every pay phone at any gas station or convenience store has been rendered useless, or shut off at night, in a misguided attempt to thwart drug dealing? I have, and it's not a comfortable feeling. J. Free Longfellow REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
