I recently attended an event sponsored by Governor Dayton. It was on environmental issues, had Ellen Anderson there and they were “seeking our thoughts” on how to move forward. The forum I attended was in Bloomington but the forums are going on all over the state. In each event they got almost twice as many people as expected. In Bloomington they prepared for 180 but 300 showed up. It ended up being exposed as a farce and theater.
After the elected officials and commissioners spoke, we broke up into groups of 20 to talk. At my group the conversation started.
I spoke to these people, none of which I had ever met before in my life. I spoke of the absolute betrayal of elected officials. I spoke specifically on how president Obama had betrayed us with the XL Pipeline. I then spoke of how Governor Dayton himself ran on the issue of “taxing the 2%” but then when elected (selected?) then gave the 1% a massive give-a-way with the Stadium deal. Which violates the law and which we will have to pay for.
As I spoke about half of the heads in our group nodded in agreement. I spoke about the critical issue of global climate change was real and that we could not trust the government of elected (again elected?) could not be trusted and that acts of massive organized civil disobedience was needed. Again- heads nodded in agreement.
Then the conveners gave a report on the thoughts of each group. Guess what was never mentioned?
I found out later that this was the experience of many of the groups. That this kind of conversation was going on but never seemed to make it back to reports.
Of course, the convener tried to paint me as a Tea Bagger. I responded that the question was not having no government. It was about the betrayal and lack of trust of government.
It makes that old tee shirt all the more relevant.
Trust Your Government?
Ask An Indian.
They are lying to you. Wake Up.
I have since talked to others who attended these forums in other parts of Minnesota. They say that they experienced the exact same thing.
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Other articles of interest:
• Minnesota Environmental Congress Citizen Forums will give Minnesotans chance to weigh in on state policy
• Environmental Citizens Forum provides a ray of hope
• FREE SPEECH ZONE | Minnesota Environmental Congress – the citizen forum in Bloomington
Next week’s meetings:
December 10 – Worthington,Worthington High School, 3:30pm – 6:00pm
December 12 – St. Cloud, Stearns County Service Center 5:30pm – 8:00pm
December 14 – Moorhead, Minnesota State University, 3:00pm – 5:30pm
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