As I sit here today, I wonder if I should continue to write about what is going on in our neighborhood. Last night was slightly different circumstances, but same tragic misery. I don’t have answers. And I wonder if my readers get bored with the same stupidity, same misery, same dysfunction. I’m going to write [...]
Over the last few months I’ve had many discussions with Nico about Native American history. Nico is Lakota, part of the greater Sioux nation. Many people in Minnesota are Chippewa. Nico calls them Chips. When he’s annoyed with them he calls them Rabbit Chokers because they used to hunt using snares. The Chips call the [...]
This is the next post I made to the forum.
I’ve thought this exchange has been respectful and thoughtful too. Every posts has highlighted an important dimension of the problem of crime in our neighborhood. And I don’t think anyone is advocating an extreme position. Crime is a very complicated issue with no quick fix or [...]
I’ve been sporadic in posting and didn’t post for a few months so I thought I had lost all my readers. But I discovered I have comments. That’s cool. Now I’ve got to figure out how to approve them.
I am a part of an e-democracy forum. I hadn’t posted on it until today. We’ve had [...]
In the last 24 hours what has happened? Deshawn came over at 8:00 in the morning and said he was never staying at Ron’s house again because they were all drunk and there is no food in the house. That family is messed up. There are six kids in that house. The teenage daughter had [...]
January 23, 2010 – 4:25 pm
This is not good. Last year I went to the pro-life march at the state capital. I protested in front of the abortion clinic in St. Paul. I attended the service at the Cathedral before the march. I helped Ken with his abortion installation at Solomon’s Porch. Abortion really is an abomination.
Yesterday I found out [...]
January 20, 2010 – 1:37 pm
A few years ago Ben Johnson, a talented musician from Solomon’s Porch, wrote a song that begins “Love those that don’t know love, and protect those that cannot fight. Stand beside those, and guide those, that need to fly close to an angel’s wing.”
We have two guys living with us — one who has only [...]
January 15, 2010 – 12:53 pm
As I get older, I marvel at the ignorance and arrogance of youth. Maybe it’s more than just the youth. If I was given the task of improving public education, I would start by teaching formal logic and rhetoric beginning in middle school. And I would add thoughtful studies of the major religions and philosophers.
I [...]
January 5, 2010 – 6:16 pm
It started as a joke. It is a joke, but still, I want to achieve it. Here it is: I want to go seven days, seven glorious days, without having to go to the jail, court, hospital, doctor, detox, or have the police come to my door.
The last ten days have been an utter disaster. [...]
January 5, 2010 – 4:54 pm
On my prior post I wrote about praying that Jesse would have a rotten time when he went out. A friend suggested that praying that someone has a rotten time is not a Christian thing to do. He suggested “we should pray that God and people will extend grace and favor and good to others [...]
December 22, 2009 – 3:53 pm
I am not “working”. I’ve tried to work this fall but it’s been difficult. Not only are subbing jobs hard to get but I’ve had to cancel out of two jobs because I had to bring people to the hospital. Last Friday, fairly desperate for money, I took a rare subbing job. But it ended [...]
December 22, 2009 – 2:27 pm
The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray. Is that the correct quote? Andy’s birthday was not the celebration we planned. His day started with me asking him what he wanted for breakfast. He wanted one of my famous omelets. I made the omelet and then called all the guys [...]
December 22, 2009 – 2:19 pm
I’ve made a commitment to blog daily. My guess is there may be readers that are appalled by what I write. Living in the ghetto often means ugliness. Whether or not I write about it, this stuff is happening.
What is social justice? People feel good about being all for social justice [...]
December 22, 2009 – 1:05 pm
Ken came over today. A couple weeks ago he bought six Cornish game hens and stuffing for all of us for Christmas dinner. Today I told him Carl got a three-day pass from treatment and is coming to spend Christmas with us. The first thing Ken says is “But we only have [...]
December 19, 2009 – 12:35 pm
Over the last few months our life has been as crazy as it’s ever been. Every day craziness. Every day I’d think, I’m not going to blog today because it’s not a “normal” day. I’ll start tomorrow. But I’ve come to realize that the craziness of our life may be instructive [...]
September 16, 2009 – 7:24 pm
Today a neighbor brought over two little kittens she rescued from the garbage. The were crying yesterday and today she went to find out what was making the noise. She found the kittens stuffed in a drawer of a dresser that was out in the garbage. Who can throw an animal away? If she hadn’t [...]
September 14, 2009 – 8:36 pm
It all started dear readers with our outstanding pizza gathering on Friday night. I made the best pizzas to date: a fire-roasted tomato and cabrales pizza, and a blistered corn, asparagus and pesto pizza. We invited some friends, one of whom, like me, is an amateur naturalist. One amateur naturalist to another can really appreciate [...]
Why is it ok for teenagers to get pregant and then become economic wards of the state? This is NORMAL around here! And NORMAL is the irritating part. It’s like a rite-of-passage. I’m irresponsible. I get pregant. Now the taxpayers of Minnesota get to support me and my kids. I don’t think the word irresponsible [...]
Today I took two neighbor kids to the YWCA to go swimming. We had a good time. I swam 40/80 laps. The boys played with the rings and rockets and the mask and snorkel. We dove together in the deep end chasing the submarine rocket.
When I was getting dressed in the locker room I overheard [...]
January 19, 2009 – 10:31 pm
A girls night out and what fun it was. First we ate sambousas and drank mango and guava juice. I didn’t know you can get sambousas made from fish. Then we found the best henna person in the city to make designs for us. One of the aspects of Egyptian culture I enjoyed the most [...]
