“The most important political office is that of the private citizen.”
Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941) 

Supreme Court Justice (1916-1939)

I love this statement, made by a Supreme Court Justice, but not in an opinion.

It is empowering. When seeking more information about its context, which so far has only been “early in his career,” I also found the National Civic League, founded in 1894 as the National Municipal League, with notable members like Theodore Roosevelt, Louis Brandeis, and Frederick Law Olmsted, among other community leaders of the day. It is still around and working to advance inclusive democracy.* 

From today’s perspective, many of these notable men are notably flawed by sexism, racism, and/or classism. But let us not throw a good idea out with the bad ones. These words can inspire us to reframe and re-energize our view of each person’s role in our complex society. We should not cede our power but seek out ways to use it wisely. 

You have doubtless read or listened to Indigenous Land Acknowledgments in a variety of venues, too diverse to adequately enumerate, from LWV events, to the theater, even in some churches. Like many well-intentioned actions, they have come to be recognized in need of clarification and updating. A powerful op-ed piece in the New York Times in January “Enough with the Land Acknowledgments” by Kathleen DuVal of the University of North Carolina, urges us all to think carefully about how we approach these statements.  

Professor DuVal argues that in some contexts these statements have outlived their usefulness. Their purpose is to “make us more aware of the dispossession and violence that occurred in the establishment and expansion of the United States.” This is needed in part because, for many people in the United States, the contemporary Indigenous population is not visible. But these statements can easily become an endpoint, rather than a jumping off point for greater change. To help repair past wrongs, the promotion of remembrance and understanding of the past must then lead to action.

I began writing Windows and Mirrors for All articles for the LWV Roseville Area Voter in March of 2004. The name of this LWV unit has morphed over the years, but its constituency is essentially the same. I began this writing at a time when the national LWV was encouraging local branches to try to change our image, action, and membership. The public often has too often seen us as just little old white ladies. LWVUS’s goal was to better reflect the communities which we serve and love while expanding participation. This was proving to be challenging and continues to be challenging today. And so, I began writing on diversity related topics, widely defined, in the hopes of contributing to thoughtful change, and haven’t stopped.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Preamble to the United States Constitution, 1787

The United States Constitution consists of VII Articles which structure the three branches of the government and enumerate their powers and duties. It is a document shaped

There was a spell of a few weeks last spring when I felt a theme in random sightings—Kindness. First, I viewed the animated film based on the charming book by Charlie Mackesy which I loved, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. That book gently presents profound ideas, beginning with the mole asking the boy, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” After thinking a moment, the boy replies, not firefighter or doctor, but “Kind.” Ahhh 

The children at a preschool/daycare near my home are protected by a chain link fence. They have used those largish, red plastic cups pushed through the holes in the fence to spell out words, like Create Kindness…Each time I drive by I appreciate their message to the neighborhood and hope that they are treated that way each day and develop empathy and kindness that will last a lifetime.

This program can now be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h56hwOr-j0U&t=49s

Meet and greet - 12:30 p.m. Community news is disappearing at an alarming rate. Join us Sunday, November 17, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. at Ramsey County Library Roseville, 2180 Hamline Avenue N., for a panel discussion to hear about concerns, work being done to make news available, and options for news in the future. The panel will include Ben Toff, UMN Hubbard School of Journalism, Nora Hertel, from Project Optimist, and Max Nester from the Minnesota Reformer. Co-sponsored with Ramsey County Library Roseville and Do Good Roseville.

“…as painful as foodflation is, it may just be an early ripple of the kind of disruption to the food system that’s coming.”

Eliza Barclay, Introducing the New York Times series, “What to Eat on a Burning Planet”

This summer, while I was thinking about hunger from other directions, I read an op-ed by David Wallace-Wells in the New York Times, “Food as You Know It Is About to Change.” (July 28, 2024) This bombshell of

“If you have not shown young people how to vote by taking them with you to the polls, do not ask them to show you how to do something on your phone.”

Angie Maxwell, “Carry a Big Stick,”

Gravy, No. 90 Winter 2024.

Artwork: "Hunger" by Kateryna Bortsova

Food. It is fundamental to life. And yet, adequate food can still be controversial. Food production and distribution are political on many fronts, but they need not be partisan. 

“I love mankind, it’s people I can’t stand!” Linus, in a Peanuts comic strip by Charles Schultz

We hear and see the word famine a lot these days, and when its use for one country or region fades from the news, it is often not because those people are now well fed, but merely because another country or region has supplanted it in the public eye. Risk of famine in Afghanistan after the US pullout and Taliban takeover. Famine in Sudan during civil war. Famine in Gaza. How many people in how many other places do I just never hear about? No one likes being hungry, but starvation is orders of magnitude
worse, and famine means that whole populations are suffering.

But what prompts me to write is not the simple horrifying fact that millions of people around the globe are in dire straits.

Supporting “The Decline of Local News and Its Impact on Democracy,” a two-part program will begin with showing the award-winning film, Stripped for Parts:  American Journalism on the Brink on Thursday, September 12 at Ramsey County Library – Roseville.

Film will begin at 5:45 p.m. with a meet and greet beginning at 5:00 p.m. Co-sponsors: Do Good Roseville and Ramsey County Library - Roseville.