Dress up and make believe are fun during playtime, unfortunately, I expect a little
more from journalists in quality publications like City Pages, but maybe Britt Robson
has spoiled me.
Much like "President" Bush's aircraft landing, G.R. Anderson's latest articles seem to
lack the substance and at very least factual basis that I've come to expect from City
Pages.
In his next in series of attacks on RT Rybak, Anderson "supports" his unfounded
accusation that RT did not campaign in the Black community by having former Mayor
Sharon Sayles-Belton respond to me via the article to refute "my" claim that RT did
reach out because I saw him doorknocking in and around neighborhoods.
"So what if you did?" Sayles Belton counters. "That doesn't mean he reached out to the
black community."
She's right, that doesn't mean he reached out. The problem is, that's not what I
said.
In response to Anderson's assertion the RT "never went after the black vote." I stated
that I knew that Rybak door-knocked the neighborhoods in north Minneapolis as well as
some south side ones, and that he was also in the Juneteenth parade and on KMOJ radio
[several times]. And he talked repeatedly about the need for more diversity on the
MPD. As a candidate for office myself, I saw Rybak in many of the same campaign areas
and meeting places such as Lucille's and the Urban League and at the candidate forums
across the City, not just the one's in the White areas. What Anderson and
Sayles-Belton are not honest about is that there were a lot of people in the Black
Community (not all obviously), even some leadership and forum hosts, who were openly
hostile to RT. Not because of his policies or his campaigning but because he was a
White man running against a Black woman incumbent. It was an uphill and in some cases
hopeless endeavor, but he did not quit.
In addition, because I had the audacity to disagree with his "recount" of the
Hawthorne meeting, Anderson accuses me of not seeing the "news and information value
of addressing the race problem", In actuality, what I don't see is any value at all in
writing sensationalistic "articles" in order to appear cutting edge. When Anderson is
actually looking to work on the race problem, he can join me at the African American
Men Project Commission, the NAACP, the DFL Affirmative Action Commission, Morehouse
College's National Alumni Association, UNCF or any of the multitude of organizations
and programs that I work with daily or am a part of that do more with actual substance
than merely write fiction.
Perhaps my standards are a little too high, but I expect a public persona, especially
a journalist--the person we count on for facts and information, to at least be
truthful and honest in their reporting. I don't care that Anderson disagrees with me,
or that he critique's RT. We need people to question our leaders and public officials
and hold them accountable. I have some big issues with some of the lack of follow
through and shortcomings RT's had myself or even where his efforts have failed to go,
but I believe in being honest in my approach and asking the hard questions truthfully
instead of resorting to misleading and misinformation. Make believe is fun, but this
is a time for serious people and serious journalists who are going to be voices of
integrity that the public can trust and rely upon.
Jonathan Palmer
4100 Sheridan Avenue N
Minneapolis MN 55412
612-529-2502
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