Furst Draft

'Trans folks are exactly what they say they are'

More on the neo-Nazi rally in Austin last weekend and our coverage of it -- we stand by our account of the event, of course, with details attributed to authorities and witnesses. This is the only reader comment I've received challenging the accuracy of the story (or getting into the gender question regarding one of the people arrested).

I'll just note that this e-mailer's account is based on friends who were at the event...how would that be different from our relying on authorities and other witnesses at the event? (We had a photographer at the scene but not a reporter...wish we had, as it turned out.)

That said, I appreciate the fresh perspective, and his willingness to have this posted.

Hello,

I'm writing about the recent story entitled "Three arrested during protest
of neo-Nazi rally in Austin."

I understand from friends who were at the protest that several details in
this story are simply false; specifically, the notion that one of those
arrested "pushed a pole" into an officer (I realize the word "allegedly"
precedes this in the story, presumably indicating law enforcement provided
this information that you weren't there to witness; this sloppy
journalistic cover-all still strongly implies the event occurred and thus
slants the story in an active way). However, I wasn't there, so I won't
belabor the point.

I am writing instead about this sentence: "Snoozy claimed to be a boy."
Snoozy is a friend of mine, and he *is* exactly what he "claims" to be.
This construction in your story not only betrays a profound
misunderstanding of gender and its discontents (that'd be the "T" in
"LGBT," if that helps), but it conveys an idea that he "misrepresented"
himself or otherwise engaged in an act of "deception" in stating his
identity.

He did not. To repeat, trans folks are exactly what they say they are. It
is not the job of law enforcement, the Post Bulletin, or, for that matter,
neo- Nazis to assign gender specificity to an individual. That's what
individuals do for themselves.

This is elementary stuff -- Nazis aside -- and I'd suggest the
Post-Bulletin would be well-advised to consider it.

Thanks,

Rick Kelley
Minneapolis, MN

'Free pass' to neo-Nazis in Austin?

Did the P-B (and other area media) give a "free pass" to the neo-Nazis who rallied in Austin on Saturday (as they have on previous occasions, and which we've covered aggressively) and encountered a counter-rally, resulting in arrests?

Apparently a reporter, Brian Hokanson, for a group called TC Indymedia does. He circulated an e-mail, a copy of which came to me, promoting their coverage of the rally Saturday, which led to three arrests of counter-protestors.

A few points before the e-mail:

-- We've been covering activities of anti-immigrant and neo-Nazi gatherings in Austin for as long as they've been active -- for years (would need to double-check the precise date).

-- We've clearly described these activists and what their political goals are.

-- We've editorialized on the issue.

-- And we'll continue to report on them and tell the community who these people are and what they believe, long after Mr. Hokanson and TC Indymedia move on. We can always do better, put more time and resources into good stories, and this one's a good, on-going story.

Welcome to the pool, Mr. Hokanson.

Regarding the calendar item, any group can post a community calendar item to our Web site, just as we input items, and unless there was inappropriate language in the listing for this event, what's the problem? If it's a public event in our area, regardless of whether we agree or disagree with its political purpose or whatever, it's our job is to inform people about it.

Here's the e-mail from Hokanson, encouraging people to call the P-B, Austin Daily Herald and of course promoting TC Indymedia's account of the event...I'll post this, then return to the subject after reading Indymedia's report.

Hi folks,

On Saturday, I went to Austin with a friend and colleague to report on the community response to a small rally by the neo-Nazi "National Socialist Movement."  We put together an extensive report and photos for TC Indymedia (http://tc.indymedia.org), which I highly recommend you read.  After checking out the commercial media coverage, however, I wasn't sure if I went to the same rally.

The Austin Daily Herald article on the event is abysmal.  Most shockingly, they don't even identify the National Socialist Movement as a neo-Nazi organization.  A Previous Herald article quoted a member as saying, "Hitler's not dead, he's alive in our hearts," and yet there's no indication in the article that they're even racists, much less nazis.

http://www.austindailyherald.com/news/2009/oct/17/mace-used-illegal-immigration-rally-three-arrests-/

The Rochester Post-Bulletin article was better on that count, giving a fairly accurate summary of events, even though it didn't dig into the issues.

http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z"&aB1662

But, while I was trying to find that article, I stumbled upon this: the neo-nazis posted their event to the PB community events calendar - and the PB allowed it to stay up!  Did they not know the "Rally against illegal immigration and communism" would actually be decked out with swastikas and nazi salutes, like all the group's previous rallies?  Why was this allowed to happen?

http://www.postbulletin.com/entertainment/calendar/eventdetails.asp?recidT516&date/17/2009

Here's what I'm asking:

1) Please write the Rochester Post-Bulletin and ask if they are really OK with allowing white supremacist, neo-Nazi groups (who wish to see much of the PB's readership deported) using their newspaper to promote their hate speech. 
2) Please also write the Austin Daily Herald to tell them that SE Minnesota citizens aren't OK with reporting that gives white supremacist rhetoric a free pass, and that the NSM needs to be called what they are: neo-nazis.
3) Please forward the independent coverage of Saturday's event about the ongoing struggle for dignity amongst people of color and immigrants in southern Minnesota.  For so many people, the commercial coverage of this event is all they will see.  Please change that.

I only get this type of e-mail from Lourdes fans...

Just wanted to point out that when the Lourdes Girls' Tennis team made state they had a front page article with a large color photo and another large photo in the section.  When the Mayo girls' tennis team made state they had an article on page 5 with a small picture of a Century girl.  This blatant preference for schools is consistent and tiring.

'Simplistic and glossed-over take on the situation with Dr. Dallemand'

Not to double-up on Tracy McCray criticism, but here's a note from a reader -- respectfully submitted regarding a Tracy column on cutting the superintendent some slack:

Dear Ms. McCray,

I read your column of 12 October with great interest, as I fully agree that being the best version of oneself is a smart and worthwhile way to conduct one’s life.

However, as I read, I was disappointed at your simplistic and glossed-over take on the situation with Dr. Dallemand, the School Board, and achievement gaps. Surely as a parent you have every right to use any available means to motivate, praise, and encourage your child. Whether it’s tough love, gentle nudges, or the most conventional of rewards…it’s up to you.

When it comes to the children of School District #535, though, it’s a little more difficult and certainly more complex than you’d have the citizens of Rochester believe. It’s not as simple as walking more and eating less chocolate, it’s about setting standards and taking into account the realities of life in schools; it’s about hearing the concerns of your teachers and helping them, listening more and talking less, as you’d mentioned in a previous column. Unfortunately, both you and Dr. Dallemand favor the repetition of placating platitudes over any substantive comment.

The reason that many—if not most people—have formed opinions (whether for or against) about Dr. Dallemand and his platform is that they took the time to research, question, and figure out what it was that he was actually advocating. Your naive, Pollyanna-ish “wait and see, just be glad” approach is all well and good, but it’s also somewhat disingenuous. Are there some people who have tried to frame this as a racial issue? Of course, but being at odds with Dr. Dallemand’s ideas is not a racial issue--rather it is a debate on policy and agenda. And I’m not suggesting he is not a good man, I’m suggesting that his plan—and how he is choosing to implement it—is not the best one for our schools. This isn't about race, it's about competence--the bigger picture of teaching, learning, and preparing for the future--and doing right by Rochester's children. Those of us who have concerns about Dr. Dallemand are upset by the “talk to the hand” treatment he gives teachers and para-professionals who are in the trenches and working with students all day. No one expects perfection, but teachers and students have a right to be heard and that does not happen with this Administration. Gossip and rumors aside, he has not always conducted his business with the teachers, students, or School Board in the most forthright manner. His admissions of missteps and misjudgments are fine, but they do not really address the bigger problems and concerns, let alone the blatant disrespect often shown to district staff.

I hope everyone does their due diligence on this subject, especially those parents with children still in school. I think, however, that your column does a disservice to the very real issues and concerns at stake here. You seem to be saying that none of what any of us have heard, read, or experienced is true or factual—that those of us in opposition to Dr. Dallemand are simply conducting a subversive anti-Romain campaign or that what we've been put through isn't relevant. Unfortunately, there are many of us with more first hand experience with the man and his ideas than you, and your blatant disregard of that, quite frankly, is a little galling.

Thank you for your time,
 
Glenn Amundsen
Rochester, Mn 55904

Tip of the hat to RPU

Here's an appropriate and welcome heads-up that went out to media from Rochester Public Utilities:

NOTICE

On Thursday, October 22, 2009, a quorum of the Rochester Public Utilities board may be in attendance during the Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency's annual meeting, being held at the Sofitel Hotel Minneapolis, 5601 West 78th Street, Bloomington, MN 55439. The board members will not meet as a group nor conduct any RPU business while attending this function.

Of course, we in the media should trust but verify that no official business is conducted, but nonetheless, it's a breath of fresh air when a public body lets you know in advance that an unusual quorum will attend an event that might escape our notice.

'Well! She's done it again!'

I was out of the office for a few days and returned to find an ominous letter on my desk, stamped CONFIDENTIAL on the front and across the seal on the back. Hand-addressed with a fine-quality pen to the Editor-in-Chief.

The elegant handwriting was familiar; I might have been more concerned if it didn't appear to be from the hand of an occasional, and ornery, correspondent.

Here's what he had to say:

Dear Editor --

I had earlier written to you complaining of Tracy McCray's eo-mania. Almost all her Talk of the Twon columns are peppered with "I's" and "me's."

Well! She's done it again! 10-12th she used "I" four times in three lines.

We've had more than enough of her -- both on the radio and now in the P-B -- and SHE MUST GO. NOW.

A concerned reader of 40-plus years (subscriber)

Enclosed was a clipping from Tracy's column last Monday, with yellow highlighter on the personal pronouns.

This anonymous reader, whose initials I'm quite sure are R.W., may not care for Tracy's work (and as his note suggests, this pre-dates her columns in the P-B), but she's a columnist. Columns are works of personal perspective and opinion. Personal pronouns such as "I" and "we" are perfectly acceptable and necessary in columns.

The irony of this reader of 40-plus years believing that HIS personal opinion about one of our columnists is the decisive one and that SHE MUST GO -- NOW is apparently lost on him.

Note to Rapunzel: Let not thy trusses down

Note from a reader about an embarrassing typo today:

In the article about the Stewartville fire station, (reporter) Laura Horihan says that the roof tresses have begun to sag. Unless the roof is actually held up by hair, the term should be trusses, not tresses.

'The Minnesota newspaper that creates two-newspaper towns'

You might want to check out David Brauer's blog at Minnpost.com...he talked with yours truly about the Post-Bulletin's efforts in Austin and Red Wing.

Also note in David's blog that a former P-B reporter, Baird Helgeson, is returning to Minnesota for a state Capitol job at the Star Tribune. Welcome back, wild man!

More on the panhandlers at that bus stop

(Photo from Portland, Ore., TV, by the way...)

Dan Holter, general manager of Rochester City Lines, sent this after my post regarding a panhandler takeover of the bus shelter at Wal-Mart South:

We immediately sent a manager to check out the situation. I have the following items to report.

We found a polite, clean male in the shelter. He said he does not smoke in the shelter but said other bus riders have. He said he has not bothered anyone and uses the shelter as a place to sit while he waits his turn to rotate with another person out with the sign. He did say that if there is a need for his seat, he goes out of the shelter. He does not sleep in the shelter.

Please note that we do not condone this use of the shelter but could not find any improper use by this panhandler.

A day later, the original caller called again with this message:

This is about the panhadlers taking over bus shelter at Wal-Mart South.

I was there yesterday, I took a couple pictures, I wrote some things down, and took it to the police department. I just  gave it to the receptionist, briefly described the problem. She said, "What am I suppose to do about it?"  I suggested she give it to the patrol division or someone who could get something done. She said, "I can’t promise anything will be done but I’ll give it to someone."

So much for reporting something like this to police...she was a very poor receptionist. 

I don’t know if there’s you guys can do as far as followup story. The panhandlers out there, they are working in tandem -- one will work the street while the onter one sits in in bus shelter.

I personally find it intimidating. I’m a little old lady who uses the bus shelter to wait for the bus.  I know other people talk about it all the time.

It’s offensive and you know, if there were black teenagers out there or people speaking a foreign language who wouldn’t leave the bus shelter, the police would be out there. These are a group of white males.

If you find this offensive, OK, but I’m offended because I’m a bus rider. I’m exposed to this first-hand.

This raises some interesting points:

• When does a panhandler become a nuisance in a relatively confined space like a bus shelter -- is it enough that this "little old lady" feels intimidated? Seems like it to me.
• Some bus shelters are owned by the property owners -- wonder if the Wal-Mart South shelter is? If so, I would assume Wal-Mart can shoo the panhandlers along.
• The city's response to the issue, including police response, is curiously passive.
• The caller raises an interesting question about race. I've only seen one panhandler this summer who was a person of color. Most are, as Dan describes the guy at the Wal-Mart bus shelter, "clean," relatively well-dressed white males. What if most of them were non-white males, not well-dressed? Would the mayor, city council and police take the issue more seriously and shoo them along? An excellent question.