Civil Rights and the Minnesota Marriage Amendment

Saturday, July 14

8:00 AM – 9:30 AM
Gardens of Salonica 19 5th St NE, Minneapolis (map)

Richard Carlbom will join the Stone Arch conversation in July for a discussion of civil rights and the constitutional ballot measure on marriage.  He is the Campaign Manager of Minnesotans United for All Families, the official campaign that will defeat the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Before joining the campaign in September, Richard was Communications Director for Chris Coleman, the mayor of St. Paul. He also managed the successful 2010 re-election campaign of Representative Tim Walz. A 2004 graduate of Saint John’s, Carlbom served as the mayor of St. Joseph, Minnesota from 2005-2007.

This is part of our monthly series of informal “Stone Arch” conversations at Gardens of Salonica.  As usual, invite anyone interested–free and open to the public. Come, buy your coffee (the law is you can’t bring food or drinks into a restaurant), learn a lot and have your questions ready.

Podcast: A Grand Consensus with Iric Nathanson and Lori Sturdevant

At our June Stone Arch discussion, Iric Nathanson and Lori Sturdevant hosted a conversation on Iric’s new history project, A Grand Consensus, examining the unique historical features that put Minnesota on the cover of Time Magazine as a “State That Works.”

Listen to the podcast from iDream.tv.

The linked podcast is a segment from the Stone Arch Discussion Group, a project of the DFL Education Foundation. It was recorded on March 10, 2011, at Gardens of Salonica in NE Minneapolis. Production services provided by Minneapolis-based multimedia company iDream.tv.

Book Review: For the Good of the Order, Nick Coleman and the High Tide of Liberal Politics in Minnesota; 1971-1981

From Minnpost, by Iric Nathanson:

The year was 1973.

A new crop of Republicans had just been elected to the Minnesota State Senate, 13 of them in all.

Across the aisle, Majority Leader Nick Coleman was eyeing the Republican newcomers to determine which of them might be potential partners during the upcoming legislative session. Several of the thirteen held some promise for Coleman. They included Otto Bang, an insurance agent from Edina; John Keefe, an attorney from Hopkins; Doug Sillers, a farmer from Moorhead; and Bob Dunn, a lumber dealer from Princeton. At one point or another during their legislative careers, each would collaborate with the majority leader, who added the term “DFL” to his title when party designation took effect in the Senate, later in the 1970s.

“Knowing there were several key issues that needed bipartisan support … Coleman wanted to reach out across the aisle,” recalls John Milton, who served in the Minnesota Legislature during those years. Milton’s recollections from that era are collected in his new book “For the Good of the Order, Nick Coleman and the High Tide of Liberal Politics in Minnesota;  1971-1981.”

Continue reading…

A Grand Consensus with Iric Nathanson and Lori Sturdevant

Saturday, June 9

8:00 AM – 9:30 AM
Gardens of Salonica 19 5th St NE, Minneapolis (map)

Iric Nathanson and Lori Sturdevant host a conversation on Iric’s new history project, A Grand Consensus, examining the unique historical features that put Minnesota on the cover of Time Magazine as a “State That Works.”

This is part of our monthly series of informal “Stone Arch” conversations at Gardens of Salonica.  As usual, invite anyone interested–free and open to the public. Come, buy your coffee (the law is you can’t bring food or drinks into a restaurant), learn a lot and have your questions ready.

The Grand Consensus: Overview

The Grand Consensus: Minnesota’s Progressive Legacy – Overview

By Iric Nathanson

“Minnesota nurtures an extraordinary society,” Time told its readers in 1973.

On August 13 of that year, the weekly news magazine showered this state with accolades in a glowing profile, “Minnesota: The State that Works.” As a lead-in to the profile, Time featured a flannel-clad Governor Wendell Anderson on its cover.

“If the American good life has anywhere survived in some intelligent equilibrium, it may be Minnesota,” the magazine noted. “It is a state where a residual American secret still seems to operate. Some of the nation’s more agreeable qualities are evident there: courtesy and fairness, a capacity for innovation, hard work, intellectual adventure, and responsibility.

“Politics is almost unnaturally clean—no patronage, virtually no corruption. The citizens are well-educated and remarkably civil.”

Time went on to comment about a major legislative action two years earlier. In 1971, Anderson and the Minnesota Legislature had agreed to a package of state tax hikes that would boost revenues by more than a half-billion dollars. Those new revenues would be used to increase state spending for public education. At the same time, the 1971 measure would lessen the burden of local property taxes, then the major source of support for local school districts.

“It was a major piece of social legislation,” Time observed. “… [W]ithin a six-year period it will virtually equalize the per-pupil spending for education throughout the state and thus go along way towards equalizing education in the cities, suburbs, and rural areas.”

Introducing a “Grand Consensus”

Dear Foundation Members,

Another contentious Minnesota legislative session has finally come to end.

While the final days of the session did produce a bonding bill and a controversial Vikings Stadium plan with the Minority Party carrying the legislation, the 2011-12 Legislature will be remembered for the shutdown that crippled much of state government for nearly a month last summer, and inaction on Minnesota’s structural budget deficits.

During this pivotal election year, we need to remember that Minnesota’s political system was not always this dysfunctional – – – that it has done better in meeting our state’s needs – – – and it can do better in the future.

This month, the DFL Education Foundation is launching a history series that examines politics and policy-making in Minnesota during the last century; from the immediate post World War II years up through the 1990s. That era witnessed fierce legislative battles at the State Capitol but it was also a time of shared values that cut across partisan lines. We praise the achievements of former Governor’s Olson and Freeman, but forget that Republican Governor Stassen was also very progressive, and contributed to The State That Works.

Our series is entitled the “Grand Consensus.” It has been developed by Iric Nathanson, a local historian and Education Foundation member. Iric writes a history feature for MinnPost and is the author of Minneapolis in the Twentieth Century: the Growth of an American City.

This first posting provides an overview of the Grand Consensus and traces the ideological currents that influenced Minnesota politics during much of the last half of the last century. Later posts will examine such policy areas as civil rights, taxation, education, health care and transportation.

We hope you will add this timely new series to your reading list.

Sincerely,

Jeremy Wieland

President

Stone Arch Preview: Reflections on the MN Legislature with Rep. Mindy Greiling

Saturday, May 12

8:00 AM – 9:30 AM
Gardens of Salonica 19 5th St NE, Minneapolis (map)

It was only the second Republican-controlled legislature in almost 40 years and the agenda was quite different than in the recent past.  Rep. Mindy Greiling provides some reflections on being in the minority and doing the people’s work.

As usual, invite anyone interested–free and open to the public. Come, buy your coffee (the law is you can’t bring food or drinks into a restaurant), learn a lot and have your questions ready.

Taxes with the MN Budget Project’s Nan Madden

This podcast features Nan Madden, Director, MN Budget Project at the MN Council of Nonprofits. Madden is an active voice for tax fairness, a balanced approach to MN’s budget, adequate funding for government programs and author of numerous publications on fiscal issues and economic self-sufficiency.

Listen to the podcast from iDream.tv.

The linked podcast is a segment from the Stone Arch Discussion Group, a project of the DFL Education Foundation. It was recorded on March 10, 2011, at Gardens of Salonica in NE Minneapolis. Production services provided by Minneapolis-based multimedia company iDream.tv.

Stone Arch Preview: Taxes! With MN Budget Project’s Nan Madden

Saturday, April 14

8:00 AM – 9:30 AM
Gardens of Salonica 19 5th St NE, Minneapolis (map)

What’s more appropriate than taxes in April?  On April 14, the Stone Arch Discussion Group will feature Nan Madden, Director, MN Budget Project at the MN Council of Nonprofits. Madden is an active voice for tax fairness, a balanced approach to MN’s budget, adequate funding for government programs and author of numerous publications on fiscal issues and economic self-sufficiency.

As usual, invite anyone interested–free and open to the public. Come, buy your coffee (the law is you can’t bring food or drinks into a restaurant), learn a lot and have your questions ready.

Protect Your Vote and Use It!

A DFL Education Foundation co-sponsored event

1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Brookdale Library
6125 Shingle Creek Pkwy, Brooklyn Center

Light Refreshments

Please RSVP on Facebook

Are you in danger of losing your right to vote?  An amendment to the MN Constitution currently under discussion by the MN legislature would place restrictions on voting in Minnesota that could disenfranchise many current voters.  Could you or someone you know be one of them? 

“Democracy for All:  The Barriers of Voter ID”
Short Film produced by the League of Women Voters

Debby McNeil
Attorney and Advocate for LWV Issue Positions

Debby McNeil will explain why the LWV opposes requiring voters to have a photo ID, how voting rights would be negatively affected, and the safeguards in Minnesota’s election system.

Stephen Cooper – Former Commissioner, MN Department of Human Rights

Stephen Cooper will place the recent movement to restrict voting across the U.S. within the broader context of voter suppression and the history of our nation’s struggle to expand the franchise.  Which organizations are behind the proposed voter restrictions?  How have votes been manipulated in recent elections?  Why is your vote important?  Join us and find out!

 

Questions, Answers, and Discussion 
Come Out, Join your Neighbors, Hear the Issues, and Voice Your Opinions!

Please RSVP on Facebook so we know for how many people to prepare:
http://www.facebook.com/events/3117 

Sponsored by the DFL Education Foundation and the Affirmative Action Committees of DFL Senate Districts 32, 46, and 47.  For more information, contact Ruthie Dallas at ruthie.dallas@sd46dfl.org or 612-743-8895 or Liesl Roland at leftyspinner@gmail.com or 763-656-8602.