VOICES | As a Somali-American My Vote Also Counts

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The stakes are too high for me not to vote. As a new American whose native land is in flames because of my adopted country’s ill-conceived policies, by the both the current and preceding administrations, I need to vote. More than that, I am mobilizing my community to take part in their civic rights. We need to elect the candidate who cares about our issues as Somali Americans: a practical balance between security and our civil liberty, the economy, refugee family re-unification, and the stabilization of Somalia as part of foreign policy. Like many Americans, I am fascinated with Sen. Obama’s professorial articulation on the issues particularly his plan for the welfare of the middle class and poor. Continue Reading

VOICES: Obama talks about Real Americans

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The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank is employed by a newspaper that publishes in the heart of a city—Washington D.C.—that has been identified by the McCain campaign’s chief geographer, Sarah Palin, as a place where real America does not exist. The trouble with Washington, she has been advising real Americans, is that it attracts too many fake Americans who coddle terrorists–such as Democrats, independents who act like Democrats and Republicans who sometimes vote with Democrats, which obviously explains why Washington has been so corrupt the eight years of the Bush administration. Impressed by these discoveries yesterday, Milbank went in search of real Americans in this political season. He chose the nearby state of Virginia. You would suppose that newspaper sleuth could have flown to Utah or southern Alaska. Continue Reading

VOICES | Bailout

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It’s a good thing my 7-year-old daughter likes to raise money, because as a public school student, she’s expected to. Right now it’s time for her school fundraiser, a catalog famous for the wrapping paper. The fundraiser pays for things not included in the school budget. We’re not talking overnight field trips or posh “extras,” but things like maps, globes, a part-time Spanish teacher, a science fair. Each night at dinner Vivian asks, “Mom, can we go fundraising tonight?” Continue Reading

VOICES | Why women of color must vote

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It was a hot August day at the Minnesota State Fair in 1992. Surrounded by fried cheese curds, walleye on a stick and beautiful buttery busts of beauty pageant contestants, I and hundreds of other immigrants were sworn in as new citizens of the United States of America. With tears streaming down my cheeks, I raised my right hand and swore allegiance. I was 18 years old and I felt like a dragon breathing fire for the first time. Why? Continue Reading

VOICES | Judge her

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When was the last time you were in a courtroom? Jury duty aside, I think Karen Cole, a lawyer and long-time volunteer for the Minnesota Women Lawyers summed it up pretty well when she said, “Most people have never been in a courtroom and hope never to be in one.” If you haven’t been in a courtroom recently and especially if you’re a fan of television courtroom dramas, you might think that women are pretty well represented among the judiciary. Unfortunately, that’s where entertainment and reality part company. According to statistics from the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ), in 2007, just under 25 percent of judicial seats were held by women. Continue Reading

Bachmann vs. Obama: What’s “pro-America” or “anti-America”?

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Minnesota’s own Michelle Bachmann called for an investigation of “the people in Congress” to find out whether they are “pro-America or anti-America”—as well as voicing her suspicion that Barack Obama has “anti-American views.”Click on the comment button and tell the world (or at least the readers of the TC Daily Planet) what YOU think is pro-American and anti-American. Continue Reading

VOICES | A Titanic survivor can tell you if we’re in a recession

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A 96-year-old woman in southwestern England has confirmed a joyless truth about the spreading economic swamp that has evaded regiments of financial analysts and Wall Street apologists for months. The truth is that the swamp is deeper than you may think. Milvina Dean is the last survivor of the sinking of the Titanic. She was two months old when the great ship went down in the North Atlantic in 1912. This week the Agence France Presse revealed that Milvina Dean is auctioning off all of her mementoes of that grievous day. Continue Reading

VOICES | The apologists for chiselers give us a lecture on bailout economics

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When Wall Street laid an egg in the 1920s to precipitate the Great Depression, the shorn millionaires and double dealers whose uncontrolled greed spread misery and poverty across the land leaped out of tall buildings and slit their wrists. The good and privileged life was over. Living in disgrace without maids and footmen was not an option. Today it’s easier. They contact the Secretary of the Treasury and by-pass those messier options. Continue Reading

VOICES | Hennepin County District Court Judge Philip Bush faces phantom challenger

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Judge Philip Bush was appointed to the Hennepin County District Court Bench by Governor Rudy Perpich in 1989 through a merit selection process. He was re-elected in three subsequent elections, so he was surprised to find that he was being challenged for re-election in 2008. Judge Bush was even more surprised to find that his opponent appears to be targeting him randomly, without any specific rationale. In his 19 years on the bench, Judge Bush has presided over thousands of criminal, civil and juvenile court matters. He served as Presiding Judge for the Hennepin County Juvenile court, the largest juvenile court in the state. Continue Reading

Voices | Attending to teen pregnancy: strengthening the Liberian family system

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This week I received a phone call from a reader. She read my paper on weak family systems in Liberia and urged me to address the subject of teen pregnancy in a follow up article. She told me: “My teenage son is now a father. I am not working and many of his friends are also becoming fathers. The burden for caring for these children, then falls on the girls or their parents. Continue Reading