2003
Columns
“Through My Eyes”
weekly column of Ron Edwards
from the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Continuing The Minneapolis Story,
Ron’s “Black Focus,” airs Sundays, 5-6 p.m.,
on Channel 17, MTN-TV
Quarter 4: December thru October
December 31, 2003 Column #20: Decision Time is Near: Selection of the Chief
December 17, 2003 Column #19: Will Honor Prevail in Search for Chief?
December 3, 2003 Column #18: Police-Community Mediation Goes Public
November 19, 2003 Column #17: Finney: A man for all seasons
November 15, 2003 Column #16: Justice Violated, Justice Raped:
In The Matter Of Alfred Flowers
October 22, 2003 Column #15: Dark days ahead for our fair city
October 8, 2003 Column #14: The Titanic Had A Better Day:
The Minneapolis Star Tribune’s 3 October 1st Stories on Civil Rights: NAACP, Hollman, School Board
Quarter 3: September thru July
September 24, 2003 Column #13: Selection of the Next Police Chief:
Can Minneapolis Make History? I don’t think so.
September 10, 2003 Column #12: Hollman low-income housing lost: A Dream Deferred: Here yesterday, gone today, nothing for tomorrow
August 27, 2003 Column #11: The Hollman/Heritage Park Saga Continues:
A Little Bit of Poison Is OK, Afterall these are only Black children
August 13, 2003 Column #10: The Hollman trail of lies and broken promises
July 30, 2003 Column #9: Violation of a trust, betrayal of a people:
The Hollman/Heritage Park environmental minefield chronology
July 16, 2003 Column #8: An Environmental Mine Field: Heritage Park/Hollman
Quarter 2: April thru June
June 18,
2003 Column #7: A Possible Summer of Discontent
June 4,
2003 Column #6: Targeting a Communit: The Deferring of a Dream, The Breaking of a Promise
May 21,
2003 Column #5: Economic development in Minneapolis—who gains?
May 7,
2003 Column #4: Wake Up, Minneapolis, and Change!
Without Vision, We Perish
April
23,
2003 Column #3: April brings spring showers and the people's
tears
April
9,
2003 Column #2: Springtime in Minneapolis: Whose flowers will
grow?
Quarter 1: January thru March
March 26, 2003
Inaugural Column #1: The Minneapolis Story Continues, Through My Eyes
Ron hosts “Black Focus” on Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays,
5-6 pm. Formerly head of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and the
Urban League, he continues his “watchdog” role for Minneapolis.
Order his book, hear his voice, read his solution papers, and read his
between columns “web log” at www.TheMinneapolisStory.com.
Permission is granted to reproduce The Minneapolis Story columns, blog entires and solution papers. Please
cite the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder and www.TheMinneapolisStory.com for the columns. Please
cite www.TheMinneapolisStory.com for blog entries and solution papers.
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Introduction
March 26, 2003 Inaugural Column: The Minneapolis Story Continues, Through My Eyes
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues..."
A weekly column by Ron Edwards featured in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Freedom’s Prize: Equal Access, Equal Opportunity
For 40 years in Minneapolis I have fought for the Civil Rights prize of
equalitys liberty and freedom for all. It is an honor and a pleasure
to greet you the readers of the Spokesman-Recorder as your newest columnist,
as I share with you the continued struggle to achieve equal access and equal
opportunity for all. I will ask the question, “how, in (fill in the
blank), is Minneapolis promoting or retarding equal access and equal opportunity
in such areas as politics (including elections and redistricting); police-community
relations (including mediation); jobs/wages (including contract compliance),
housing (including Hollman/Heritage Park), education; Black-White leadership
(including the Urban League, the NAACP, and the City Council); and raising
up young Black men. I will record the words spoken and the actions taken
in Minneapolis that answers that question and shows the “state of
the city” in terms of equal access and equal opportunity.
I will write from the perspective of seven themes: (1)
encouraging everyone not to take their eyes off libertys prize: freedom
and equality; (2) working to include everyone at the table
set by Minneapolis, seeking equal access and equal opportunity for everyone;
(3) to tell it like it is, as I see it through my eyes,
based on my past experience in Civil Rights activism in Minneapolis (16
years as Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission,
1968-1973 and 1979-1983; 11 years as President of the Minneapolis Urban
League and 17 years on the Executive Committee 1971-1989; work with the
NAACP as Housing Chairman 1999-2002 and Executive Committee 1999-2002; and
Spokesperson for the Black Police Officers Association, 1996-Present);
(4) recognizing that no one group has a monopoly on truth
although each has part of the truth, and to speak of the truths as well
as the falsehoods of both the political right and the political left, as
we seek that common ground on which we can all stand from which to work
together to solve common problems; (5) expose racial injustice,
best described in James Baldwins phrase, that the system is geared
to keep the ni**er in his place; (6) update these topics
from my new book, “The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes, which is
available now in local book stores and on line at www.amazon.com and www.TheMinneapolisStory.com;
and finally, (7) to join with Spokesman readers in the
common cause to make Minneapolis a better place for everyone. This column,
like my book, will pull the covers back and expose the Minneapolis experiments
in racial injustice, whether carried out by Whites or Blacks or both, just
as I do weekly on my “Black Focus” program on Channel 17, MTN-TV,
Sundays, 5-7 p.m.
The Minneapolis Story is not only good for Minneapolis, it is good for
America. It is a story that needs to be told. There are many upset by events
“out there” as they cry out for peace in the world. I cry out
for peace in Minneapolis. But I tell you that unless there is justice there
and here, along with freedom, there can be no peace there and here. We must
promote liberty over slavery, truth over lies, and freedom over dependency,
in our common search for justice, fairness and freedom as well as dignity
and trust. That refers to state and local budgets as well.
Like you, I want Minneapolis to be a city where the imperatives of the
human spirit can shine through. I want a city where healthy, well educated
children will grow up into healthy well educated adults. We need to prepare
our young people, especially our young Black men, for real work in real
places and end policies resulting in so many young Black men winding up
in jail, abandoning the families they have started, and not contributing
positively to their communities. We must all work together to end the cycle
of abuse, be it by us on each other or by the power structure on our community.
We have to clean up our own doorsteps as we complain about the doorsteps
of others. Do we, as a Black and White community, pay a little more now
to work with those we have left behind or a lot more later in those periods
before they get re-arrested and taken back to jail? Because I keep telling
my publisher to “put this up on the web,” they have created
a Web Log (or Blog) for me to use on www.TheMinneapolisStory.com, where
I will make comments between these weekly columns. And if you have things
you would like me to comment on, send me an Email at Edwards@BeaconOnTheHill.com.
Ron hosts “Black Focus” on Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays,
5-6 pm. Formerly head of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and the
Urban League, he continues his “watchdog” role for Minneapolis.
Order his book, hear his voice, read his solution papers, and read his
between columns “web log” at www.TheMinneapolisStory.com.
Permission is granted to reproduce The Minneapolis Story columns, blog entires and solution papers. Please
cite the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder and www.TheMinneapolisStory.com for the columns. Please
cite www.TheMinneapolisStory.com for blog entries and solution papers.
Home | Column Archives | Blog Archives | Solution Papers | Order the Book | Back to Top |