News & Articles

No more Cozy fires, please!

Here we go again. Yet another Cozy fire. Yet another opportunity for city employees to put their lives on the line because of possible arson in an abandoned hulk of a building. Yet another opportunity for local residents, like me, to spend a couple of hours breathing toxic smoke because the abandoned hulk very probably has asbestos in it. Yet another opportunity for vehicle traffic downtown to be disrupted.

I notice that the people who are so frantic to save the abandoned hulk don’t seem to consider living in it, themselves. But, soon, they will surely be using their deep, deep physician (dad) and attorney (son) pockets to provide Duluth’s taxpayers with yet another opportunity to go to court and pay yet another round of our money to beg, please to have this dangerous eyesore torn down. How deep are their pockets? How much did the city pay them to purchase the Norshor Theater? A million dollars? Two?

Georgianna Henry
Duluth

Abortion neither political nor religious

Abortion shouldn’t be linked to political power. NOBODY thinks of it as a good option, but according to early Christian writings it is not murder. The gospels tell us that the soul “comes into being by means of a breath.” To make a law that tells a woman what to do with her own body is against the Constitution and the gospels.

We should have better adoption policies, instead of taking basic rights away from women.
Before we jail and murder women and doctors, we should be making every child feel wanted and have hope.
Before we listen to what people that raped and pillaged four continents tell us, we shouldn’t take away someone’s basic rights.

Jim Hall
Duluth

Old-time politics

I have been a fan of Duluth Reader for many years, guess we have very similar politics.
When I was 18 in 1971 I went to Lutsen, Minn., to meet Elmer Benson.
We became lifelong friends until he died in the mid-1980s. As recall it was 1985.
Elmer was always fun to talk with. His cabin on Lake Superior was built by Finnish lumber workers.
He had supported their strike in 1937 and the cabin was a gift to their Governor.
Through Elmer met many other people who had been involved in FLA (Farmer Labor Association), John T Bernard, the one-term Congressman from Iron Range, cast lone vote against the Spanish Embargo Act.
FDR later said that Act was greatest mistake of his presidency.
Later that day in 1971 with older friend from Iron Range driving, we went to visit Tony & Rudy Perpich building a house.
I grew up in the world of politics so was normal for me. I came to know the Perpich brothers, too, but that’s another story.
You ran a picture of Elmer & John a year or more ago at Mesa Park in 1977 at a tribute to John Bernard for that lone vote.
Veterans of Abraham Lincoln Brigade formally inducted John as an honorary member of the Brigade.
That tribute gave us idea to organize a lunch tribute to Elmer at historic Prom Ballroom in St. Paul in 1978.
On my suggestion we invited Pete Seeger, who came for the airfare. The occasion was kind of a reunion of many people involved in Henry Wallace campaign for President in 1948.
I’ve been proposing we organize a conference on the founding of Farmer Labor Party. But that’s a debatable date. Thank goodness we didn’t hold it this year.
Maybe could be an occasion to mark the Centennial of independent progressive politics in the midwest, tie in legacy of Robert LaFolette and North Dakota Non Partisan League.
The other thought on my mind is the demise of the weekly Twin Cities City Pages.
Eddie Felien, who publishes Minneapolis South Side Pride, told me the South West Journal is ceasing publication too at the end of the month. I served as Associate Publisher of weekly Pulse for its last year and a half, 2005-07.
Eddie also published that paper.
I’m a seasonal resident of Gordon, Wis., near environs of the Twin Ports.

Phil Willkie
Gordon, Wisc.