David, This looks great to me.
The DFL mayoral race in particular has been shallow and mean-spirited so far, characterized by unsupported sound-bite accusations, counterpunches designed to make us panic or become angry, or photo-ops to make voters feel warm and fuzzy.
We need real information, which I think is very difficult to sort out -- moreso during election campaigns.
As you may guess, I am leaning toward voting for Farheen Hakeem ( http://www.hakeemformayor.org/ ) -- because I support the Green Party's Key Values (eg, -- here: http://www.greenparty.org/values.php ). Even so, the DFL dogfight does seem to represent the hollow spin-oriented technique which dominates American politics on the local, state, and national scene. I hope for a mayoral race which is a high-spirited and yet careful colloquy. Instead, I feel that we are so far given accusations based on decontextualised factoids pasted into propaganda based around fear and anger as related to the crime issue.
The crime issue is very real -- but we are not well-served when it becomes a tool for political propaganda. The real matters are often lost and we voters repeat the same abusive ritual. As Jim Wallis (author of "God's Politics: Why the right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It") our nation is full of politicians holding wet fingers to the air to sense which way the political wind is blowing. The politicians try to hook into strong emotions: fears, prejudices, hatred, or even intimate aspirations in order to manipulate blocks of voters to vote for them. Voters return to the voting booths to vote for one of the politicians who have their wet fingers in the air to see how they need to "package" themselves and mischaracterize opponents for each day. It matters little who is elected, because the politicians are there to attend to the agendas of wealthy donors and powerful "interests." According to Wallis, we need not so much to change politicians as we need to change the wind.
As long as voters are fickle and reckless and easily swayed by emotional rhetoric and PR, we will not solve the problems we face. We need careful, comprehensive, and meticulous consideration of the facts and we need careful deliberation as well.
The response you've written to Mr. Johnson's Weekly Standard article moves the political discussion back to the realm of reality. Such writing is a part of "changing the wind" for the better in our country --and specifically in Minneapolis!
List members: Wallis ends his book with an interesting little chapter entitled "We are the ones we have been waiting for." Hmmmmm.....
Still pedaling for peace and ecojustice from Lynnhurst -- Gary Hoover
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