Minnesota

Minnesota House of Reps aims to tackle homelessness

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The House Preventing Homelessness Division held its first meeting Wednesday with DFL and GOP members from throughout the state, chaired by Rep. Aisha Gomez, DFL-Minneapolis. The committee aims to center voices of people experiencing homelessness as policies are crafted. Future meetings will revolve around encampment strategy response and the emergency shelter system.

Minnesota

Mental Health in 2021

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By: Amy Marschall, PsyD

We are less than three weeks into 2021, and WOW. Although the new year did not automatically re-set or end anything that was happening in 2020, December seemed filled with hope that January would be better. On January 6, I finished a session and checked Twitter to see that “Civil War” was trending. My first thought was that it had something to do with Captain America, but instead this was in reference to Trump supporters rioting and attacking the Capitol, causing lockdown protocol that has not been necessary since September 11, 2001. In the days since, social media posts have alleged that more violent riots are to come, causing Twitter to permanently ban Donald Trump from their platform.

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The Farewell Party

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By Marjaan Sirdar, Freelance Writer & Columnist

Today, we can make a case that Donald Trump and the Republicans are inciting revolution. After armed right-wing demonstrators took to the capitol grounds in states across the country to protest stay at home orders, Trump tweeted on April 17, “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!”, “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!”, “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!!” With Trump at the helm, I would argue that the Republican Party today is a much bigger risk to our national security than the Communist Party of the past, who was outlawed for years after Congress passed the Communist Control Act of 1954, declaring the party revolutionary. Since President Ronald Reagan’s Revolution, the Republican Party has been less of a political organization in the traditional sense that builds popular support via democratic processes to advance their agenda, and more of a criminal enterprise with paramilitary cells across the country that cheat, swindle and use violence to hold onto power and privilege. Now it’s Trump’s party, they no longer hide their criminal intent or their ties to far-right terrorist groups.

Minnesota

Career Counseling: The Impact of Ethnicity, Gender, and Class on Career Options, Career Choices, and Career Opportunities – An Interview with Millennial and Spoken Work Artist, Pastor Malachi

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By Paula Celeste Neeley

What would it mean if a Society could reimagine itself as 1) open, just, equitable for ALL of its residents and 2) economically viable with a richness that was not chained to extraction, oppression, and exploitation? And for the residents of this “reimagined” society, would they show up to their lives differently if they knew their value was not in question? Would they produce differently if they knew their efforts would result in being able to afford to feed their families? Would those residents move differently through the world if they were not consumed with decisions between buying medicine or paying utilities? 

The economics of ethnicity, gender, and class. We live in an America that is not open, just, or equitable for ALL its citizens, especially those in Black and Brown bodies.

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Helping The Helpers

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Support for healthcare workers is needed now more than ever. As the recent Pandemic is highlighting the need for ‘wrap around’ services such as food support, mental health services, and long-term child care one organization is leading the field in how to best serve this community and bring about structural changes to our system of hospitals, clinics and other leaders across the state, coming together to proactively support the mental and emotional health of our healthcare workforce during the COVID-19 crisis. As healthcare and mental health leaders share practices and learnings in real time, ICSI collects and curates them to build a shared knowledge network.

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Career Counseling: The Impact of Ethnicity, Gender, and Class on Career Options, Career Choices, and Career Opportunities – An Interview with Emerging Artist Chavonn Williams Shen

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The Spotlight Series explores how our ethnicity, gender, and class impact a career path. Individual interviews allow us to hear personal experiences of how these three areas are intertwined and the strategies used to navigate around them. This specific article highlights the work of emerging artist Chavonn Williams Shen.

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Opinion Submission: Minneapolis Ballot Measure to Dismantle the Police Will Test the Strength of Our Movement

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In November, Minneapolis voters may get to decide whether to dismantle the city’s police department, setting up a dramatic battle for public opinion in the epicenter of the national uprising. This presents a huge opportunity for the movement to substantially weaken the repressive powers of the police, and to win new investments addressing the deep structural inequalities in our communities. But if the movement simply echoes the vague radical rhetoric of our city council, rather than uniting around clear policy demands, right-wing and establishment forces could win the popular vote. Despite invoking Angela Davis, city council is not proposing major defunding much less abolishing the police. Like Angela Davis, our movement should link calls to defund the police with broader demands aimed at ending the deep structural inequalities embedded into capitalism. At the same time, to win the popular vote for the referendum in November, we need to distinguish between immediate campaigning demands and building support over time for our broader vision of fundamental social change and a police-free-future.

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Column: Why I am an abolitionist

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Marjaan’s personal experiences has led him to the conclusion that the police are not reformable. However, he says, “if we’re not challenging the economic arrangement that requires police in the first place, they become an easy scapegoat. If we’re serious about abolishing the police we must also be serious about abolishing racial capitalism.”