[ Falcon Heights - Lauderdale - Little Canada - Maplewood - Roseville ]

If you were not able to attend this excellent presentation, Ramsey County Library has provided a link to the recording: https://my.nicheacademy.com/rcladult/course/45833

In this session, Dr. Yohuru Williams, will explore the history of the use of violence to suppress voting in communities of color from the Reconstruction era to Present. Dr. Williams is Distinguished University Chair and Professor of History at the University of St. Thomas. He is the Founding Director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the university, and has often served as a political commentator on regional and national radio and television programs. The League of Women Voters Roseville Area and Ramsey County Library are excited to sponsor Dr. Williams in this important presentation. Reviewing the material in the following links will enhance the program experience:

It sounds so easy, so straightforward. Give someone who could not otherwise afford college a
scholarship and you give them access to a better life. But that transition is not always so easy or
straightforward. Listen to the stories of first-generation college students stumbling through school
unaware of the unstated “rules” and expectations of college. What are office hours? Where do my
parents belong in my life now? How do I socialize with classmates who have so much money?

“How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look wrong, and wrong look right.”

—Black Hawk, An Autobiography (quote seen on plaque embedded in the sidewalk in Iowa City)

Many LWVMN and LWV of Roseville Area events now incorporate an acknowledgement that our
communities are located on the ancestral lands of Native Americans, the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples here in
Minnesota. I did not initiate this custom, coming to it after hearing it at several events. We are all aware at
some level that the entire North American continent was totally reallocated, reorganized, and just outright
taken from indigenous peoples by European colonists due to orthogonal understandings of the concept of
property and a massive power differential. The land grants from European kings to early colonies had no
ethical foundation and treaties under which millions of acres of land were ceded in the 1800s were grossly
unfair.

All LWV members and the public are invited to attend a Zoom presentation on the multi-million Livable Communities Act grant program, run by the Met Council pursuant to state law. We at CMAL hope that you will join us on Saturday March 19 at 10:00 am for a program about this metro area grant program that deals with affordable housing and brownfield clean-up. You can learn where the grant money comes from, where it goes, and whether it does any good.

In this latest issue of the Council of Metropolitan Area Leagues (CMAL) newsletter, you will find information about the CMAL County Government Study and an article about LWV Edina's racial justice initiative. You can view the newsletter here.

Perhaps you saw it—an editorial page cartoon by Steve Sack in the Star Tribune in the summer of 2020—two houses, two neighbors chatting over the fence, and two signs in one yard. The signs say “Black Lives Matter” and “We Support Our Local Police.” One man is saying to the other man “If you think they conflict maybe it’s you with the problem.” It struck a chord.

I can see why they are so often thought to be orthogonal today. It needn’t be the case.

Perhaps the crux of the conflict comes in the intent behind “support.” For me, support means willingly paying taxes; endorsing a respectful, living wage for all public employees; backing good training for all public safety employees, both before and throughout employment; treating those public safety employees with whom I come into contact with respect, courtesy, and thanks as the situation warrants; and acknowledging the value of the job and the risks it entails.

All LWV members are invited to Council of Metropolitan Area Leagues of Women Voters (CMAL) January 15 Quarterly Meeting where Mindy Greiling will present the report from the hard working study committee on county government. Proposed consensus questions will be reviewed at this meeting, adjusting them where appropriate. (Don’t be dissuaded by the length. The gist of the study is less than ten pages.) The report includes the proposed consensus questions and can be view here.