In the morning Strib, the lead story was Archbishop Flynn (Mpls-St.P See) delivered a pastoral letter to all Catholics in the diocese (221 pulpits in 12 county metro diocese) on racism in the diocese. A pastoral letter requires practicing Catholics to initiate dialog to change the bad habit of racism. I think there may be as many as a couple hundred thousand or more practicing Catholics in the diocese, half of whom are adults. There is a lot of mileage to be had here in countering racism in Minneapolis. I was especially pleased to note that he characterized the racism of the diocese as "subtle and insidious." Way to go Harry!
Yippee! And about time.
Seems like this is a better thing for the Catholic Church in Minneapolis to be doing rather than doing health education about AIDS - since the Church has been criticised by the World Health Organization for spreading bad information about condoms - that is, since they have holes in them, the AIDS virus gets through the holes. Condoms aren't 100% effective against the spread of AIDS and other STDs - but they are effective in reducing the spread of the disease.
It would be nice to have an honest dialog about race in Minneapolis. I'm skeptical about whether things like "UnLearning Racism" workshops really end up accomplishing much.
Carol Becker writes:
For people who don't know who Thomas Sowell, he is a right-wing appologist writing from California where he holds the Milton Friedman chair at Stanford. You can read about some of his positions at:
<http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/archive.shtml>http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/archive.shtml
In addition to his opposition to government regulation of the property, you can read about things like his opposition to paying living wage; that
property rights should be on the same level as constitutional rights;
promotion of vouchers so governmental money can be used to send kids to
religious schools; his support of Rush Limbaugh's comments on a black
quarterback; and many other right wing positions.
Caveat emptor.
EY: Sowell is a prominent Black Conservative - and frequently gets published in TownHall which is a conservative website. I'd rather see specific rebuttal of the article Vicky Heller posted, rather than the argument that Sowell takes some right wing positions, so ergo, this position must be wrong - and maybe part of that Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.
I'd like to challenge Vicky Heller to cite some specific examples of how what Sowell is describing is happening in San Francisco is happening in Minneapolis. Minneapolis does not have rent control - which is one of the policies Sowell criticizes.
Log Cabin Republicans endlessly get criticized for being Bush and Republican apologists - even when LCR has publically dissented from Bush Administration or Republican party pushed policies or judges. Democratic Congressman Barney Frank refers to Log Cabin Republicans as "Uncle Tom's Cabin". Anti-gay Free Republic (right wing web forum) posters refer to Log Cabin Republicans as "Log Samplin' Republicans."
Eva Young Near North Minneapolis [EMAIL PROTECTED] Blog is up: http://lloydletta.blogspot.com
Index File Question: Where is Darrell "Lumpy" McKigney's Favorite Place to Shop?
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