Reflections of New Minnesotans: Reactions to Central American refugees reflect attitudes towards people in crisis

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Beyond thinking about immigration reform, what conversations are we having as a nation about advocating for Central American child refugees or turning them away? Navigate Minnesota’s Emilia Gonzalez Avalos joins the show this week to discuss the ongoing humanitarian crisis pushing thousands of children to make the dangerous trek into the United States, and the implications of national reactions to the situation. [Audio below]

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Whose country is this?

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There were many disadvantages to being brought up in a restrictive part of the country in the 40’s and 50’s, even if you were white and middle class. In my mother’s New England, in the broken land and stunning autumn months and soft spring times of my childhood, I was told, in words and gestures from both teachers and parents that I had only a limited role to fill in this world. In my privileged home, oldest of five children, it was assumed that marriage would define me and that it was indeed unseemly of me to want more. I was not denied the chance to explore the world around me, to go on those long hikes I have written about or swim in dangerous water. At the same time I was expected to settle down, and to content myself raising a large family. My mother did not work. I would not work. Continue Reading

COMMUNITY VOICES | Minnesota Kurds Want Independent Kurdistan, Worry for Relatives In Iraq

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Since the early 1990’s, a thriving community of Minnesota Kurds has grown  around the Moorhead area, and today numbers more than 1100.  Most of the Minnesota Kurds are from Iraqi KurdistanOn July 3, a group of Minnesota Kurds gathered at the offices of the Kurdish Community of America in Moorhead to talk about their lives in America, their worries for their relatives in Iraq, and their hope for an independent homeland as Iraqi Kurdistan faces attacks from ISIS extremists and deals with the challenges of harboring over a half million war refugees from Iraq and SyriaFor these Minnesota Kurds, their most immediate concerns are for the safety of their relatives back in Iraqi Kurdistan.  When ISIS extremists swept across northern Iraq less than a month ago, the Iraqi army crumpled and melted away, leaving the Kurdish Peshmerga army alone to face the ISIS fighters.So far the Peshmerga have held firm against ISIS, but relatives of the Moorhead Kurds talk of ISIS attacks along a 600 mile front every day.  All the Moorhead Kurds in the KCA office  have relatives serving on the Peshmerga front lines.  One relative was wounded in action near Kirkuk, hit in the abdomen by an ISIS sniper’s bullet.  Another Minnesota Kurd has a father who is  a Peshmerga general, serving near Shingal.  She shared her relative’s story about a Sunni sheikh who fled ISIS controlled territory and took refuge behind Peshmerga front lines.  ISIS demanded that the Peshmerga turn over the sheikh.  When her father and other Kurdish commanders refused, ISIS shelled Peshmerga positions, killing several Kurdish soldiers.Billions of American dollars were spent arming the Iraqi army.  Piles of those weapons were abandoned by Iraqi soldiers as they melted away, and relatives are telling the  Moorhead Kurds that  ISIS is now using this state-of-the-art heavy American weaponry against the often older and lighter arms of the Peshmerga.The Minnesota Kurds also reported that  Iraqi Kurdistan has taken in over 500,000 war refugees from both Syria and Iraq.  Often the refugees come from religiously and ethnically oppressed communities threatened by extremists with destruction:  Christians, Yazidis, Turkmen, Mandeans,  and even some of the few Jews left in Iraq have found shelter in Iraqi Kurdistan.  Relatives have told the Moorhead Kurds  that  the refugees are crowded into camps, schools, administrative buildings and shopping centers.  Combined with the war raging a short distance away, relatives are telling the Minnesota Kurds that  the Iraqi Kurdistan infrastructure is cracking under the stress: often there is no electricity and no running water, gas and other basic needs have tripled in price,  gas lines now can be over a mile long, and some basic foods have disappeared.The Moorhead Kurds said that while Iraqi Kurdistan has made great economic progress since the American interventions, the  continuous upheavals of rebellions, massacres, suicide bombings, ethnic cleansings and demolitions of mosques and churches in the rest of Iraq threaten to also drag down Iraqi Kurdistan.  For many Americans the Iraqi intervention has been a mistake and a disappointment.  But The Moorhead Kurds quickly pointed out that in one part of Iraq  the  American dream of a prosperous, tolerant, peaceful middle eastern democracy has largely been achieved:  Iraqi Kurdistan.The Moorhead Kurds said that Iraqi Kurdistan is the one part of Iraq to have used the opportunities provided by the American protection and intervention to build modern  institutions and infrastructures:  a functioning legislature, free elections, relative peace, and a booming economy with skyscrapers dotting the skyline of  Erbil and oil pipelines running from Iraqi Kurdistan through Turkey.  The Moorhead Kurds said this was in spite of the antagonism of the Iraqi Maliki government, who earlier this year cut off revenues for Iraqi Kurdistan.The Moorhead Kurds also stressed that The Iraqi Kurds  have a secular society:  that most are Sunni Moslems, but there are also Kurdish Christians, Yazidis, Shiites, and Jews.  They said that what bonds them together is their language and culture, not their religion. The Minnesota Kurds view  Iraqi Kurdistan as a Middle East island of toleration, moderation and democracy.Given the unending upheavels engulfing  the southern 2/3 of Iraq,  the Minnesota Kurds said that the only way  to protect this Kurdish success is for  Iraqi Kurdistan to break away from the rest of Iraq and become an independent nation.They said that many Minnesota Kurds want to go to Iraqi Kurdistan and help their families in this hour of need and hope.  But they also emphasized that they thought the best way for the Minnesota Kurds to help was not to pick up a gun, but to pick up a pen and tell others the story of the Iraqi Kurds, and urge elected officials to support an independent Kurdistan.The Minnesota Kurds in the KCA office also  told their own stories of how they ended up in Minnesota. Continue Reading

New EPA guidelines: Minnesota on track

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In my last blog, I discussed the disappointing yet legally sound court decision to strike down part of Minnesota’s Next Generation Energy Act. Most known for setting renewable energy and conservation mandates, this lesser-known piece sought to curb state emissions by restricting the import of electricity from new power plants that would raise Minnesota’s overall emissions. The decision highlighted the barriers states face as individual actors when addressing problems – like pollution – that aren’t confined to political boundaries. Continue Reading

Internet fast-lane bypassing rural Minnesota?

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The issue of net neutrality has dominated headlines recently, and the outcome of this ongoing debate could have profound implications for the expansion of high speed internet into rural areas of Minnesota. Monopoly power among internet providers has allowed them to raise prices and offer faster content delivery to select customers, creating an internet “fast lane”. Continue Reading