Author: Nancy LeTourneau

I am in touch with an young woman who just graduated from high school and is involved with a student exchange progam in Brazil for a year. Her email today brought me a lot of hope for the future and I thought it might do the same for all of you. She spent a week traveling with other exchange students from all over the world. Here’s what she said about an event in the middle of the trip:

As we reluctantly returned from our amazing adventure we had probably the best
lunch of the trip. The food was amazing but the conversation was
unforgettable. Although we had had serious conversations before, this was
the one that topped them all. We discussed everything from politics and
voting, abortion and teenage pregnancy, economics, the differences in public
education around the world, racism, gender, cultural differences among
states in the US, gay marriage, poverty and crime, the influence religions
have on government bodies, and probably more that I´m forgetting. I have
never been in a such deep, passionate discussion in all my life. And the
amazing part about it was despite the many different views and beliefs,
everyone listen to each other….no yelling, no “you don´t know what you´re
talking about,” no interrupting, no belittling. Just conversation to voice
your opinion and more importantly to hear what others have to say. I think
that it is so very true….. being an exchange student makes you so much
more open to the ideas and beliefs of others. It is so fascinating to hear
what people have to say who have been brought up so much differently than
you. You get to see a whole different perspective that you never would have
though of before. There is this saying “If former exchange students were
given political power around the world, there would be no wars.” Now of
course when I first herd this I rolled my eyes thinking…yeah right, as if
a year on exchange could do that. But now after being a part of a discussion
with kids from all over the world, I truly believe that this statement holds
at least some truth to it. There was no arrogance, jealousy or resentment
like we see in many debates and meetings between world leaders. It was
listening and voicing opinions for what we believe to be the better good for
the world…not just the country we are from.

Here’s a picture of the group

If these are the people to whom we are entrusting our future – there is indeed a reason for hope.

My hometown is making news these days due to the Mayoral election that will happen on Tuesday. Perhaps you have all heard about what’s happening here, but just in case you haven’t, I’d like to share the good news.

A bit of history might put it all into context. Senator Norm Coleman got his political start as the Mayor of St. Paul. He ran initially as a Democrat and may well be the original DINO. Problem is, with its blue-collar history, you can’t really win an election in this town as a Republican. He did not win the Democratic endorsement, but beat a pretty weak endorsed candidate. The sad thing is that he was re-elected mayor even after changing parties during his first term. Then, with some nudging from Cheney, Coleman decided to challenge Paul Wellstone in his re-election campaign for the Senate. We all know how that one turned out and no one can possibly measure the amount of sadness and grief we all feel at the outcome.

In an attempt to find a replacement for Norm, up came Randy Kelly, who had been a State Senator for years. Kelly has always been a bit of a mixed bag as a Democrat. He is a tough blue-collar type politician who fought well on labor, law and order kinds of issues, but is anti-choice. As a Mayoral candidate, he took on Coleman’s mantel with the backing of the money crowd (Chamber of Commerce) and Republicans, but continued to identify as a Democrat. Things were a little dicey when it came to an endorsement in the Coleman/Wellstone Senate race. Kelly decided to stay quiet, but we all knew his connection was with Coleman.
So, Kelly was elected Mayor of St. Paul. While initially things were managed fairly well in the city, along comes a HUGE budget shortfall in the state with a Republican Governor (Pawlenty) who had pledged not to raise taxes. St. Paul is going to get screwed with state budget cuts. Does Kelly stand up to the governor and fight for the city? NO! He panders to the Republicans and decimates the city budget.

Before any of this has even settled, he really jumps into the mud big time and goes public with an endorsement of George W. Bush for president. By this time we all knew he was DINO, but to endorse this war criminal – that was a shock! When Kelly tried to claim he was still a Democrat, the President of the City Council Kathy Lantry (who has a GREAT sense of humor) said, “Yeah and I can claim that I’m 5′ 4″ and blond, but the minute I walk out the door everyone knows the truth.”

Well, I’m proud to say that the City of St. Paul does not forget this kind of betrayal. Next week Kelly will loose his job to a real Democrat, Chris Coleman. Polls are showing Coleman with a lead of 61% to 26%. That kind of a lead in an election like this is absolutely unheard of. And most people who have been polled credit it to the endorsement. Kelly has out-raised Coleman in terms of contributions by over 2 to 1 and the media have been reporting that almost 70% of his money is coming from out of the city. But the residents of St. Paul are standing firm!

I’m seeing signs that the national media is picking up on this race as a demonstration of the fall of Bushco. So I’m hoping that on Tuesday night I can say that I’m proud to be a resident of the City that started the downfall.

While we’re waiting for word from Mr. Fitzgerald, I thought it would be fun to play a little game.

If you could be a fly on the wall, where would you rather be today and why? Remember, you have to choose. Even flies can only be one place at a time. Take the poll below and tell us about your day in the comments.

A bill in the U.S. House of Representatives provides for $600 million in new affordable housing funds.

But there is a catch!

Non-profit organizations that provide voter registration or are affiliated with any organization that provides voter registration are barred from receiving and distributing the new money.

The anti-voter registration language was inserted at the request of the Republican Study Committee which has expressed the belief that low income housing groups are too liberal and are partisan in their voter registration activities. Here’s a link to the story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune from Friday.

The Bill HR 1461 is scheduled to come up for a vote Thursday or Friday of next week.  Under normal House rules the anti-voter registration language could be taken out.  It is not clear if House leadership will prevent that and force an up or down vote on the entire package.

What an outrage! So now the Repugs don’t want poor people voting – because that’s too partisan!! Shall we look into the voter registration efforts of Halliburton? Just what kind of democracy to these repugs envision?

By the time Shonda* was 10 her life was already a mess. She was failing in school, constantly in fights, and had run into trouble with the police a couple of times. Being an African American girl in an urban area, it wasn’t difficult to guess where she was heading. Her home life was one trauma after another. Dad regularly beat up Mom and more than once it had been serious enough to send her to the hospital. Shonda was angry, scared and out of control.
With some outside help, things began to turn around. Mom kicked Dad out of the house and stuck to it. A chronic illness kept Mom from being able to get a job, but the two of them managed to establish a minimal level of survival with Social Security benefits, welfare, and other “safety net” serivces. Shonda even got diagnosed with AD/HD, was put on medication and started catching up in school.  

Then came 2003 with a huge state budget shortfall. The Governor had promised to protect the tax cuts recently passed for his wealthy friends and so he balanced the budget on the backs of those who could least afford it. One way to save money… eliminate welfare payments for those who get Social Security benefits.

All of the sudden Mom’s income (that was almost nothing to begin with) was cut in half. How is the family going to survive? It didn’t take long before Dad was back in the house – helping pay the bills. Except this time, he wasn’t beating up Mom. Instead he began taking it all out on Shonda. Due to her age (by now she’s 14) and the fact that he doesn’t leave bruises or draw blood, child protection will not intervene.

When Shonda gets to the point where she can’t take anymore, she swallows all the pills she can find in the house and goes to sleep. Both Shonda and those who treated her were surprised that she woke up at all, given what she had taken. But she’s in the hospital now recovering… and then what?

This is a true story about a young woman I know. But how many Shonda’s are there all over the country? I know that her mother and father are partly to blame for not taking care of her. But I will also hold our Governor and the Republicans in the legislature accountable as well. We almost lost Shonda this week so that they could protect tax cuts for their greedy friends.

There are real people behind all of those numbers we see everyday. And we need to keep up the fight – for Shonda.

*Name changed to protect privacy

Today on the way home from work, I passed by the College of St. Catherine, which is a couple of blocks from my house. There is a beautiful rolling lawn in front of the school and I noticed lots of activity there. Turns out its the local exhibit of “Eyes Wide Open: Beyond Fear-Towards Hope.” Its “an exhibition on the human cost of the Iraq War” put together by the American Friends Service Committee. Since the literature says the exhibit has been in over 60 cities so far, maybe many of you have seen it. Boots for all Ameridan service members killed in the military were everywhere. More pictures below.

There was also an exhibit in memory of some of the Iraqi’s who have died.

Some of the soldier’s family members added special memories of their loved ones.

No words are needed for this one.

As I was leaving I noticed this soldier had just arrived. I wanted to take a picture of him without intruding on his privacy. I just aimed the camera and shot. When I looked up, he had been wiping away tears. I probably don’t have much in common with this man, but today we shared a broken heart.

I have a rant to get off my chest. Hope some of you will indulge me for a while.

First, a little background. I am the director of a small non-profit organization here in St. Paul where our mission is to work with kids who are starting to get in trouble and try to keep them out of the system. One of the services we provide is to work with kids who have been arrested for the first time as an alternative to going to court. And we are pretty successful, if I do say so myself. Only about 6% of the 400-500 kids we serve every year wind up re-offending.

We get a very small amount of federal money to do this work – about $36,000. Today a woman came in to do an audit of that funding. Since one of the purposes of the money is to serve low income families, we have gotten used to the fact that we have to ask parents to fill out a form identifying household size and income. Its a little invasive, but we have been able to manage.
Well today, this woman tells me that we not only need to ask parents to provide this information – we need to have procedures in place to verify the accuracy of the information parents provide!!! This means that we would need to get copies of their pay stubs.

And to make matters worse, she is worrying about the fact that some of the forms asking for this information are obviously not filled out accurately. We start talking about the difficulty of doing this for some of the parents we serve. For example:

What does household size mean – how many people were living here today or yesterday? Do I include my sister and her kids who just moved in with us today because her husband/boyfriend was beating her up?

What does household size mean for my son who lives with me half the week and the other half with his father?

What if I am illiterate? Since I’ve never met these people before, do I dare tell them that I can’t read the form – or do I just fake it?

As I described all of these challenges to this woman, she responded by asking me if it would help us to get training on how to implement use of the funding!!! I just wanted to scream at her – NO, YOU FUCKERS NEED TRAINING ON WHAT IT REALLY MEANS TO SERVE LOW-INCOME PEOPLE AND STOP HARRASING THOSE OF US WHO ACTUALLY DO IT!!!

Well, the result of all of this is that we will probably loose that $36,000 of federal funding because I WILL NOT ask people to produce pay stubs to prove that they are low income in order to be served.

And while Halliburton and the pentagon continue to be unable to account for billions of our tax dollars, the small fries like us will be punished and we’ll have to figure out if we can continue providing this program to the kids and families in our community. DAMN THEM!!!

Don’t know if many saw this letter from Elizabeth Edwards. Regardless of what you think of her husband, this woman GETS IT. Another mother speaks her mind!

Dear Friend,

Casey Sheehan was born May 29, 1979, the first born child of Cindy and Pat Sheehan. It was a long labor. Fifty-one days after Casey was born, our first child, Wade was born, also after a long labor. They started school the same year, played the same games, watched the same television shows, loved the same country. On April 4, 1996, three weeks after going to Washington as a winner in a national contest about what America meant to him, Wade died in an automobile accident. On April 4, 2004, eight years later to the day, Casey, who loved his country enough to wear its uniform, died in Iraq. Cindy and Pat’s hearts broke, as had ours.

We teach our children right from wrong. We teach them compassion and honor. We teach them the dignity of each life. And then, sometimes, the lessons we taught are turned on their heads. Cindy Sheehan is asking a very simple thing of her government, and she and her family, and most particularly Casey, have paid a very dear price for the right to ask this.

Cindy wants Casey’s death to have meant as much as his life – lived fully – might have meant. I know this, as does every mother who has ever stood where we stand. And the President says he knows enough, doesn’t need to hear from Casey’s mother, doesn’t need to assure her that Casey’s is not one small death in a long and seemingly never-ending drip of deaths, that there is a plan here that will bring our sons and daughters home. He doesn’t need to hear from her, he says. He claims he understands how some people feel about the deaths in Iraq.

The President is wrong.

Whether you agree or disagree with every part, or any part, of what Cindy wants to say, you know it is better that the President hear different opinions, particularly from those with such a deep and personal interest in the decisions of our government. Today, another voice would be helpful.

Cindy Sheehan can be that voice. She has earned the right to be that voice.

Please join me in supporting Cindy’s right to be heard. <http://ga3.org/campaign/speakout/ww3wnbgzp55k73t?>

Last night on c-span I watched some of a presentation by Jeff Golden about his book “As If We Were Grownups: A Collection of Suicidal Political Speeches That Aren’t.” Has anyone read that book? I don’t know anything about Golden – sounds like he does a radio show, has been elected to local office and is pretty progressive in his politics.

I was really intrigued by what he said and would love to hear what other people think. As I understand what the book is about, he is saying that its time that politicians talk to us like we’re grownups and can understand the hard choices we face. While I REALLY agree with this – I also know that its pretty idealistic.  

Golden also said something in response to a question that really has me thinking today. He said that if we want politicians to treat us like grownups – then we have to act like grownups. And this means that we need to support people we agree with 90% of the time – even when they vote against our wishes that 10%. In other words, we can’t be single issue voters and have to be willing to look at the big picture. It reminded me when, as a Minnesotan who thought that Paul Wellstone was my ideal of a politician, I had to wrestle with the fact that he voted FOR the Defense of Marriage Act. There is no way I would have abandoned by support of him over that – but it was difficult. But how far do we go with that?

Any thoughts out there about whether or not those running for office can dare to treat us like grownups? And how do we act more like grownups to encourage that?

I have traveled a long journey from my upbringing in a southern christian fundamentalist rightwing family and wonder sometimes if what I learned along the way would be helpful to those of you who are trying to understand “the other side.” So I thought I’d try to write this to give you at least a little of the insight I have gained in the process.

First of all, let me say that I was never a real rebel from my upbringing as many others were who traveled the same path. I bought everything I was taught until I was in my 20’s and was a very “good girl.” Things started to unravel as I was finishing college and I took the next 5-10 years working things through and finally rejecting pretty much everything to start over.

I had a real turning point while I was in graduate school (you might be able to tell as you read this that I was trained as a therapist) just before I turned 30. There was a moment in time for me that I hope might be instructive for others. You see, the biggest thing I had to overcome from my background was that I was taught that I was born “originally sinful.” To me this meant that at the core of my being was something that was evil and to be overcome.
How this plays itself out in those from a fundamentalist mindset (I think this is similar for fundamentalists from all religious traditions) is that you cannot trust yourself, but are looking to God to provide the direction from outside yourself. And how does God speak to you? Since you can’t trust your inner voice/self, it comes in the form of rules and dogma that are interpreted from a concrete source. For fundamentalist protestants, that’s the Bible (or their interpretation of the Bible), for Catholics – its the Pope. So at your core, you are evil and you are constantly trying to conform to the rules. And of course, if you don’t get it right – there’s always that hell thing, so its all based on fear.

My healing began to happen when my mentor in graduate school offered to me the gift of trust. He trusted me completely and invited me to begin to trust myself. I was truly “born again” in a way that contradicts everything that I was taught.

But in the middle of all of this, I had a day (literally a day) of a severe panic attack. I didn’t know what was happening at the time, but I know now in retrospect that David Whyte described it perfectly in his poem titled, “Revelation Must Be Terrible.”

Revelation must be terrible with no time left
to say goodbye.

Imagine that moment staring at the still waters
with only the brief tremor

of your body to say you are leaving everything
and everyone you know behind.

Being far from home is hard, but you know,
at least we are all exiled together.
When you open you eyes to the world

you are on you own for the first time.
No one is even interested in saving you now

and the world steps in to test the calm fluidity of your body
from moment to moment

as if it believed you could join its vibrant dance
of fire and calmness and final stillness.

As if you were meant to be exactly where you are, as if
like the dark branch of a desert river

you could flow on without a speck of guilt and everything
everywhere would still be just as it should be.

As if your place in the world mattered and the world could
neither speak nor hear the fullness of

its own bitter and beautiful cry without the deep well
of your body resonating in the echo.

Knowing that it takes only that one, terrible
word to make the circle complete

revelation must be terrible knowing you can
never hide your voice again.