Following the January 6 Capitol Insurrection, I wrote a 12-page memo regarding the need to address rightwing extremism in the Minnesota National Guard (MNARNG). I submitted it to my chain of command and the MNNARNG's Joint Force Headquarters. In the interest of publicizing this issue (and after being told that my memo would likely "end … Continue reading January 10, 2021, Memo to the MN National Guard Regarding the Need to Address Rightwing Extremism
Category: News
Read my review of “Miles Lord” (2017) in Minnesota History Magazine
Although I never met Judge Miles Lord, when he passed on December 10, 2016, I attended his memorial service at Mount Calvary Lutheran Church in Excelsior, Minnesota. The public filled the pews, and his children and grandchildren shared anecdotes from Lord's long and accomplished life. Afterward, when everyone filed into the cafeteria for lunch, admirers … Continue reading Read my review of “Miles Lord” (2017) in Minnesota History Magazine
I’m very honored to receive Minnesota History’s 2016 Solon J. Buck Award
As I already wrote about, in Fall 2016 Minnesota History published my article on "Senator Allan Spear and the Minnesota Human Rights Act." When the issue came out, I mailed copies to friends and family (so they could see I actually do what I say I do), and then turned to other projects. For example, I … Continue reading I’m very honored to receive Minnesota History’s 2016 Solon J. Buck Award
As an historian, it’s hard to be hopeless
Like many people, I'm still wrapping my head around the 2016 election results. And while I've done my fair share of asking, "What happened?" I've (fortunately) moved on to the more-useful question of "Now what are we going to do about it?" To that I'm still working on an answer, but here is something I … Continue reading As an historian, it’s hard to be hopeless
Welcome to the Promise Zone: Secretary Julian Castro Visits Minneapolis
On October 30, 2015, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro participated in a Minneapolis forum on affordable housing. With nothing better to do on a Friday morning, I picked up a notebook and decided to play journalist. Enjoy. I first saw Julian Castro as the nation did, the keynote speaker of the … Continue reading Welcome to the Promise Zone: Secretary Julian Castro Visits Minneapolis
The Death of Tomas Tranströmer
I was saddened to read about the death of Tomas Tranströmer, the Swedish Nobel Prize-winning poet. Perhaps like so many others, I'd discovered Tranströmer late, and in fact, when he'd won the prize in 2011, it was my first exposure to him. Unfortunately, as this was around the time I'd decided to to become a Serious Writer, my … Continue reading The Death of Tomas Tranströmer
The racial breakdown of police involved shootings in Dallas, TX
Following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, there was renewed focus on the prevalence of police shootings in the United States. Yet, as was discovered by The Washington Post and scholars everywhere: No federal agency keeps track of this information, and everything the FBI does maintain is limited to raw numbers on "justifiable homicides." … Continue reading The racial breakdown of police involved shootings in Dallas, TX
The importance of writing a court opinion well
This month Texas Monthly published an interview with retiring Texas criminal court judge Cathy Cochran, and in it she discusses the top judiciary reforms of the last twenty years. These include the increased use of DNA evidence, compensation for the wrongfully incarcerated, and policies to curtail false eyewitness identifications. All of these are surprisingly progressive reforms … Continue reading The importance of writing a court opinion well
On Sarah Palin’s Spoken-Word Performance at the Iowa Freedom Summit
Recently speaking at the Iowa Freedom Summit, former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin gave a speech that, as one writer for the conservative National Review wrote, was "meandering and often bizarre." Satirist Jon Stewart had a field day with this, of course, comparing Palin's speech to those Lincoln commercials where Matthew McConaughey drives around making sounds. This criticism, though, is unfair.
I mean, sure, if you're a philistine everything she said was stupid, babbling nonsense (that's because you're a philistine), but just look at how Palin's speech has been excerpted/butchered by the mainstream media (note the formatting) ...
Walking with Paul Gruchow: A Poem
... I'm posting here my submission, which I wrote some time in the fall of 2012 after reading Paul Gruchow's Grass Roots: The Universe of Home (Milkweed Editions, 1995). I was first introduced to his work growing up in Montevideo, MN, which is where he was from, and turned on to his environmental consciousness. If you are interested in Aldo Leopold and "The Land Ethic," you'll enjoy Gruchow's work. Sadly, Gruchow committed suicide in 2004 and so I never had a chance to meet him -- but writers are used to the feeling, I guess.
We walk in prose, talk through poems.
Joshua Panduro Preston 