[ Falcon Heights - Lauderdale - Little Canada - Maplewood - Roseville ]

Greetings, Fellow Leaguers!

Did you know that social interactions are good for your health! Join us in person for the LWV of Roseville Area Annual Meeting on Tuesday, May 23, at the Autumn Grove Park Building, 1365 Lydia Ave. W., Roseville. There will be a social hour at 6:00 pm with the official business meeting at 7:00 pm. Desserts and beverages will be provided. We will review the past year, elect new board officers, and approve a new budget. We look forward to seeing you in person! No registration necessary.

The Annual Report can be viewed here. The action items for this year's meeting consist of: 

Every time I try to cull the piles and files of clippings and quotes saved as possible starters for articles, I am only reminded of why I saved each one. They are funny, or ouchily true, or concisely stated outrage, or… well, you get it. My culling stalls. I offer here a selection of thoughts of others for you to ponder for your own Aha! Hmmm. Ouch! Yes! No way! Well, duh moments. And when you’ve found your favorite one, call another Leaguer for coffee and conversation.

John Brandl - In a 1997 op-ed piece John Brandl wrote about the overemphasis on individual preferences over community which made governing difficult. “Individual choice itself becomes the only moral absolute…No wonder government, which has largely to do with accommodating differences of opinion, is so difficult. We live in a time when the working out of differences is unrecognized as legitimate, much less noble. We reject the existence of a public realm where the good of the whole requires more than each of us doing our own thing.” 1997! [Underlining added.]

The League of Women Voters St. Paul (LWVSP), co-sponsored with LWVRA announces its April "Learn with the League" program: Childcare = Society Care: How We Take Care of Growing Families. Guest speakers at the program include Dr. Megan Gunnar, Regents Professor of Child Development at the University of Minnesota and Ami Wazlawik, Principal Assistant to Ramsey County Commissioner Nicole Frethem and a former District 38B State Representative. For more information and to register: Childcare = Society Care.

Join us April 18 at 6:30 pm for a discussion on our urban treescape with Peter McDonagh, horticulturist, arborist, and renowned urban tree specialist, and Ben Shardlow, a “Tree Activist,” with the 100 Trees Project. McDonagh will discuss the many societal benefits of trees while Shardlow will share his experiences expanding and sustaining our tree canopy in all areas of our urban landscape. Co-sponsored by the Ramsey County Library and the League of Women Voters, Roseville Area. 

LWVUS Position: The League believes that energy-efficient and environmentally sound transportation systems should afford better access to housing and jobs and the League will continue to examine transportation policies in light of these goals. [Basic Human Needs: Access to Transportation]

LWVRA Position: Support transportation options that serve the needs of the area. [1983 Social Policy #3]

LWVUS Position: LWVUS believes that it is in the national interest to promote the well-being of America’s cities…The League is committed to an urban environment beneficial to life and to resource management in the public interest. [Urban Policy]

Do you ride the bus? I live only a block from a bus line, but I only occasionally ride the bus. A fascinating episode of Freakonomics Radio [August 24, 2022 Free Transit?] discusses our title question and the online introduction observes, “It boosts economic opportunity and social mobility. It’s good for the environment. So why do we charge people to use it? The short answer: it’s complicated.”

In this latest issue of the Council of Metropolitan Area Leagues (CMAL) newsletter you will find a recap of the January quarterly meeting and information on Elect not Appoint the Met Council.

View the newsletter here

The League of Women Voters of Roseville Area Student Recognition Scholarship is given this year in memory of Barbara L. Anderson who died unexpectedly in December 2022. Ms. Anderson was passionate about education and enthusiastic in her support of high school scholarships. She was an avid reader and loved to travel near and far. She graduated from the Roseville Area Schools and earned her BS in Education and an MBA from the University of Minnesota. Ms. Anderson retired in 2013 after a 30-year career with the Roseville Area Schools, including as Manager of Finance. At the time of her death, she was President of LWV of Roseville Area and an LWV Minnesota Board member, among other volunteer efforts. She was beloved by her many friends and family.

The League honors her devotion to education and access for all by presenting this scholarship in her memory.

Much of the wealth of this nation is founded upon the unpaid labor of kidnapped and enslaved people, unwillingly transported to North America from Africa. It is an ugly fact. Uglier still, though, is the fact that more than 150 years after slavery was abolished, the descendants of those enslaved people are not equitably included in the wealth of this society.

For too long we have stumbled over the immense challenge of determining how, and to whom, reparatory payments or benefits should be distributed, but in recent years communities have begun to step beyond the search for the perfect solution to doing something good, rather than nothing.