Liz Robbins Writes the Marathon

Immediately after running 26.2 miles through five boroughs, egged on by roughly two million spectators, runners in the New York City marathon often experience a real low. Their legs are so wobbly they can barely walk, their brains are fried from the mental exertion of finishing the race, they have cramps, and they can’t find their loved ones who are waiting for them at the finish line.

So, why do people do it? That’s what fascinates New York Times reporter Liz Robbins, author of “A Race Like No Other: 26.2 Miles Through the Streets of New York.” In the book Robbins paints a portrait of the people who run the race, and the New York neighborhoods where they run.

At a slide lecture last night at the Mid-Manhattan Library, Robbins invited the handful of marathon runners in the crowd to describe exactly why they run the marathon.

Tucker Andersen, 67, has run 33 marathons and got into it for health reasons. In 1973 he was working a desk job, gaining weight, and his blood pressure was skyrocketing. He finally decided he had to do something, so he began running.

Andersen, who appears in “A Race Like No Other,” initially ran marathons to improve his health, but his reasons for staying the course in the New York City Marathon are varied.

“This is a great way—actually the best way—to see New York,” he said. “Plus, this isn’t just about New York coming together, this is about the whole world coming together.”

Others run the marathon to prove they can beat physical disabilities. Six years ago Michelle Edery, 32, was diagnosed with a rare neuromuscular disease and was left in a wheelchair. She rejected the drugs her doctors recommended and overcame her chronic pain with exercise.

“I became a gym rat,” she said. She eventually taught herself to walk and finally began running a couple years ago.

Edery won’t be running this year’s marathon due to an injury, but she plans on volunteering at the race. “My absolute dream is to run the marathon and to do it for a charity for people with my disease,” she said.

Robbins is no stranger to stories like Edery’s and Andersen’s. She encountered plenty of stories like theirs when researching and writing the book, which proved to take marathon effort of its own. Robbins took only one day off when completing the first draft in the four months immediately following the 2007 New York City Marathon. She turned in her final draft another month later, the day before the Boston marathon.

“Other people run the marathon,” she said. “I didn’t run the marathon. I wrote it.”

As a sports reporter Robbins has also covered the NBA, the U.S. Open and the Olympics. So why did she choose to write the marathon?

“There is absolutely no other event like the Marathon for tapping into the humanity and the human psyche,” Robbins said.

Welcome

I am a freelance journalist and graduate student in journalism at NYU.

Losing faith on Father’s Day: Clashes with police shake confidence

By Lisa Peterson-de la Cueva
TC Daily Planet
June 18, 2008

Kemen Taylor was heading home from Kentucky last Sunday, eager to spend Father’s Day with his family. He was in a car with three teens from Youth Enterprise, a Christian youth organization where he works. Around Hudson, Wisconsin, he got an alarming phone call from his wife, Ruth, who was in tears.

She told him that the family had returned to their North Minneapolis home around 8:00 p.m., after shopping for a Father’s Day gift. Before they could get out of their car, the police surrounded them, with guns drawn. The police officers asked them to get out of the car, and forced Ruth Taylor and her 21-year-old son to the ground. The police had mistaken the Taylors’ car for another vehicle involved in a shooting in the area. About ten minutes later, a witness arrived and stated that the Taylors were not the offenders.

Taylor got home from his trip 8:30 p.m. and immediately set off in search of the police who had been at his house. He located them a few blocks away. Sergeant Bantle of the Fourth Precinct also had arrived at the scene by that time. Although he had not been present at the Taylor residence, he apologized.

“[Bantle] explained everything and apologized. He was very nice about it and seemed upset about what had happened,” Taylor said.

According to the police report, three African American males, ages 27, 30, and 31 were arrested in connection with the shootings.

At about 10:30 p.m., Taylor returned home from an errand and found the police in his front yard. They had come to his house to investigate a complaint about fireworks. Taylor’s children and other neighborhood children had apparently set off ‘roman candle’ fireworks. The police officers asked Taylor for his ID, but Taylor told them he wanted to check on his children before talking any more.

At that point, the police grabbed him, handcuffed him and put him in a squad car for about fifteen minutes. According to the police report, the officers left without giving a citation for fireworks, instead citing Taylor for “obstruction.”

Telling the story the next day, Taylor choked back his tears and breathed deeply as he said, “Do you know what kind of example it sets to have that happen to you in front of your kids? On Father’s Day, no less!”

Jill Clark, an attorney who has represented many clients in police misconduct cases, says these incidents are indicative of what she sees as a general attitude in the Minneapolis Police Department. “That policy is ‘Force first. Words later,’” Clark said. “Rather than investigate first and use force as a last result. What ever happened to asking first?”

Lieutenant Rugel of the Fourth Precinct said he could not comment on the case. Jesse Garcia of the Minneapolis Police Department was not available for comment.

A community man

Taylor was surprised the police didn’t do more to find out about the situation or about his own record before resorting to force.

“Once I told them who I was—that I worked with youth and that I’m a pastor—you could just tell their voices changed and they said ‘oh we didn’t know!’” Taylor said. “Of course you didn’t know: you didn’t ask.”

Kemen Taylor spends his days silk-screening t-shirts and supervising teenagers on the second floor of a North Minneapolis church. The day after the police incidents, Taylor went back to work at the silk-screening workshop. T-shirts with the phrases “hope” and “keeper” lined up between heavy machines dripping with colorful paint. Ten teenage boys shuffled from one end of the room to another; stacking t-shirts, turning machines, thinning paint, and chatting.

Making t-shirts with Christian logos is the boys’ after-school job. While they work, Taylor delivers a healthy does of life and business skills. He makes sure the boys shake hands and introduce themselves. He jokes with them, while gingerly reminding them to clean up or get busy.

The group also occasionally travels. On Sunday Taylor was returning from Kentucky, where he had taken three of the youth to a festival to sell their t-shirts.

Besides his full-time job with Youth Enterprise, Taylor is the pastor of a Pentecostal church. He spends ten to twelve hours a week preparing his sermon and preaching to a congregation of 30 people.

Delwin Derksen, operations manager at Youth Enterprise, has worked with Taylor for five years. He was shocked to learn of the police conduct, particularly in the context of the message of support for the police that Taylor gives to the teens with whom he works.

“Kemen gives his whole life to kids, and he even houses kids from time to time if they are displaced.” Derksen said. “So here’s a guy who’s doing the right thing and who’s actually on the police side. He was always preaching this to our kids, you gotta respect the police. I’m glad at least it happened to Kemen and not one of our teens. Here we have young teens that we’re trying to teach, and imagine if that happens to you when you’re young. There’s going to be resentment against cops for life.”

Derksen said the incident had been a learning experience for him. “I’m white and I’ve lived in North Minneapolis for five years and I’m just starting to understand some things about living here.” Derksen said. “If you lived in another neighborhood would you expect them to start throwing your wife and kids down on the ground, with guns drawn, and cussing and cursing, not handling it in a professional manner and not doing any background checks? It just wouldn’t fly.”

What next?

The police officers’ attitude towards Taylor left him angry and frustrated, but unsure of what to do next. Sergeant Bantle had given Taylor a Police Conduct Incident Report after the incident with his wife and children. Taylor stored it in his car and left it blank all of Monday. He then found out about a community hearing about the Internal Affairs Unit of the police department on Monday—coincidentally taking place the day after his family’s encounters with the police.

The meeting was hosted by the Washington D.C.-based non-profit, Police Executive Research Forum (PERF). The firm was hired by the Minneapolis Police Department to do an external audit of the police internal investigations process. The audit was approved by the City Council last year.

Approximately forty community members and non-profit leaders showed up Monday evening to vent about experiences with the internal affairs unit. Taylor listened to other community members’ complaints against the internal affairs unit for an hour and a half.

Community members cited incidents of retaliation against people who report police misconduct to internal affairs through techniques like “spotlighting,” (when the police shine lights on a residence), increased traffic violations, and charges on separate crimes. Meeting attendees also said they had little confidence in the internal affairs process because frequently police officers are not seriously reprimanded.

Jill Clark said that her experience with internal affairs unit, as a lawyer, led her to believe that the problems voiced at the meeting were indicators of a broken system. She said that many officers do not fully investigate other officers’ crimes for fear of retaliation from within. “Unless you make internal affairs a career track within the police,” she explained, “there will always be that fear of investigating with or for someone you will later be working with.”

Deputy Chief Scott Gerlicher of the Minneapolis Police Department said the police department would present the findings from PERF to the City Council, most likely some time in August, depending on the Council’s schedule.

City Council Member Betsy Hodges, who pushed for the audit, said, “Given the nature of problem, and that this is meant to help solve it, community access is important.”

For his part, Kemen Taylor felt even less eager to fill out his police misconduct report after the audit hearing.

“I came here today expecting change,” he said, his voice wavering. “All I’ve heard is story after story about how nothing happens. If I report to internal affairs is nothing going to happen? I don’t see hope!

“I’ve been optimistic with the police department for twenty years. I’m done being optimistic.”

Lisa Peterson-de la Cueva (peterson.delacueva@gmail.com) does community outreach for the Twin Cities Daily Planet and contributes reporting.

Chi-Town Daily News ditches “just journalists” model

By Lisa Peterson-de la Cueva
TC Daily Planet
June 02, 2008

“Community Organizer” is a staff title you won’t see at the New York Times or the Chicago Tribune. A community organizer is just one of the things, though, that make Chi-Town Daily News different than other newspapers. The online newspaper also focuses solely on Chicago’s neighborhoods, and uses both professional and “citizen” journalists.

Chi-Town citizen journalists—Chicago residents who volunteer their time to write for the Chi-Town Daily News—are generally not trained in journalism. According to Geoff Dougherty, editor of Chi-Town Daily News, the goal of citizen journalism is to promote civic engagement through writing. Dougherty, who previously worked for the Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, and St. Petersburg Times, says the newspaper has its hands full finding enough volunteers to cover each of Chicago’s seventy-seven neighborhoods. While the Chi-Town Daily News relies on citizen journalists, they also use trained journalists in their reporting and depend on both to cover Chicago neighborhoods.

Then there’s a matter of training the volunteers. Chi-Town Daily News requires citizen journalists go through an intensive training process. While this process doesn’t amount to professional training, Chi-Town Daily News tries to give citizen journalists a springboard for reporting. “We have found that this gives people the basic skills and you can give people enough grounding so that all the building blocks of the story are there,” Dougherty said.

This brings up a major question about citizen journalism: can citizen journalists write stories that are properly written and vetted? Dougherty thinks about this frequently and links the answer to training and preparation. Making sure that citizen journalists are credible weighs heavily on Dougherty, and he sees some sort of fall out as inevitable. But Dougherty points out that this can happen even in the mainstream media. ‘If the New York Times can hire Jayson Blair, it means something, sometime can go awry anywhere.”

Dougherty has faith in the editing process Chi-Town Daily News has put in place. He brought up the example of Kimberly Michaelson, a citizen journalist who had written for the Chi-Town Daily News. Michaelson called Dougherty one day to alert him about an incident of police brutality she had heard about in her neighborhood. Michaelson expected Dougherty to send a professional reporter to the scene, but she ended up reporting the story herself because Chi-Town was light on reporters that day. Dougherty and other Chi-Town Daily News staff prepped Michaelson to cover the story before she went out in the field.

“What we got back was one of the most thorough reporting jobs I’ve seen in my career,” Dougherty said. “[Michaelson] had developed a spreadsheet with lists of various witnesses, their full names, whether they were on or off the record, and whether each witness’s statement corroborated each other.” The story provoked heated reader comments on a touchy subject, one that Dougherty and Michaelson saw as important.

[Read Kimberly Michaelson's story here. http://www.chitowndailynews.org/Chicago_news/Exclusive_Cops_pounded_boys_head_into_pole

Citizen journalism isn’t always as thorough as it was in Michaelson’s case and Dougherty thinks constantly about the future of the Chi-Town Daily News, which is funded largely through grants. For the moment, though, the Chi-Town staff is fine-tuning a new model of journalism.

Prayer and a haircut for Tibetan mourners

49th day haircuts, remembering those who died in demonstrations in Lhasa.

By Lisa Peterson-de la Cueva
TC Daily Planet
April 30, 2008

Pema Dechen sat on a folding chair outside the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota waiting patiently for the razor to reach for scalp. She looked straight ahead, seeming not to acknowledge the crowd of shivering onlookers. After twenty minutes of nicking and shaving, Dechen stood up and walked away, her feet weaving through the remnants of her locks. Another member of the crowd stood up to take her place and the head shaving began anew.

Dechen was one of hundreds of Tibetans, and handful of supporters, who gathered for a prayer vigil and head shaving ceremony in St. Paul, on Monday April 28th. Fifty people also shaved their heads in mourning and solidarity with the monks, nuns, and victims of violence in Tibet that began last month.

Rinpo Lama’s prayer in motion Rinpo Lama began a prayer and prostration pilgrimage at the Minnesota State Capitol on April 25, the 19th birthday of the Panchen Lama. Making his way down University Avenue through days of rain and snow, he planned to arrive at Minneapolis City Hall in sunshine Thursday afternoon. A press release explained that, “Through the prostration, Rinpo hopes to raise awareness about Tibet and hope for international pressure to China to release Panchen Lama who was arrested and put under house arrest at the age of six in 1995 along with his family and teachers. The young Panchen Lama turned nineteenth on April 25 and his where about is still unknown as documented by Amnesty International.” In 2006, Rinpo Lama, who lives in Minneapolis, rode a bike to New York, arriving on April 25 at the United Nations.

The communal head shaving is one of many Tibetan solidarity events that took place across the globe. The event occurred 49 days after Buddhist monks and nuns led protests in the capital of Tibet. The protests, which marked the 49th year of Chinese occupation in Tibet, have left 162 people dead as of April 25th, according to the Tibetan government-in-exile.

The reoccurrence of the number 49 is no coincidence. According to Buddhism, after a person dies the soul remains on the earth and among its loved ones for 49 days. On the 49th day the soul reincarnates, wherever that may be on its karmic path. In some Buddhist traditions a man shaves his head in mourning on this day.

Although most of the participants in the head shaving in St. Paul were men, Pema Dechen and her sister also shaved their heads. Dechen, a Clinical Support Associate at Children’s Hospital, thinks her colleagues and others will be curious about her new haircut. “They will put the question, ‘what happened, why did you do this?’ and I will have to explain,” she said.

First generation Tibetans, like Dechen, were not the only ones mourning. Second and third generation Tibetans, like Tenzin Waleag, showed up as well. Waleag is a junior at the University of Minnesota and lived in India for many years before coming to Minnesota. He has never been to Tibet and says this can raise eyebrows. “A lot of Chinese students ask you if you’ve ever been to Tibet, and say, if you’ve never been, how do you know?” Waleag said. He stays connected through his family, by attending Tibetan sponsored events, and participating in Students for a Free Tibet.

Like Dechen, Waleag also sees the head shaving as a way to raise awareness. “I’ve never been shaved and if I do it maybe people will ask you why,” He said. “It’s a better way to explain to people what happened. You’ve got to get people’s attention. That’s the whole point.”

The showing of youth support in the Tibetan community impresses Thinly Woser, president of the Tibetan American Foundation. “We don’t need to tell them anything or persuade them, the young people are coming out by themselves.” He added, “This is the third generation, but still they have that dynamism.”

Jigme Ugen, Vice President of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, is active in the Tibetan community and also recognizes the strength of youth participation. “This is a younger generation that is coming up and they are frustrated and angry, even though they haven’t been to Tibet they show support. It’s amazing.” He added that the frustration stems from “China’s band-aid approach to a solution,” and the Chinese government’s “attacks and insults” on the Dalai Lama. The Chinese government has long banned images of the DaLai Lama in Tibet, and has accused the Dalai Lama of inciting violence in the March protests.

That being said, Ugen also sees some problems with the government-in-exile and their approach to regaining independence. “It has been years and their approach is not working. I know some of the government in-exile, and it can be frustrating,” Ugen said.

Many organizers said there has been a heightened awareness on Tibet in the media and the public because of the March protests, but the attention has had an unwelcome tilt. Ugen explained, “The media asks us, is this linked to the Olympic games in China? That’s all they want to know.”

The Olypmic games may be shifting global attention to the issue, but the head shaving and prayer vigil in St. Paul centered on the lives in the recent protests. Although Pema Dechen is a middle-aged woman who has never had short hair, let alone a bald head, she took it in stride and kept the focus on Tibetan lives. “I am sacrificing only my hair,” she said, “they are sacrificing their lives.”

Lisa Peterson-de la Cueva (peterson.delacueva@gmail.com) does community outreach for the Twin Cities Daily Planet and contributes reporting.

War, pollution, boys v. girls: You name it, teen videos address it

Young film-makers get a new perspective on Minneapolis from their vantage point at the Weisman Museum.

By Lisa Peterson-de la Cueva
TC Daily Planet
April 07, 2008

Kenny Bankhead had always wanted to be on or behind the camera, and Bankhead is suited for both, with his crooked smile and charismatic presence. Last summer Bankhead’s probation officer told him about a summer program that teaches youth how to make documentaries and public service announcements. Bankhead, who was entering his senior year at Highland Senior High School in St. Paul, was intrigued. Nine months later on March 29, he sat on a panel and joked with the audience at the Weisman Art Museum’s screening of videos made by teens.

Represent! Civic Videos by Area Youth Weisman Art Museum Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN) Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the U of M Hope Community, Minneapolis Neighborhood Learning Communities, St. Paul, West Side • St. Mathews School • Guadalupe Alternative Programs • West Side Youth Guides Video Titles and Participants: Stereotypes Anders Lee, Teonna Marshall Malikah Bonner Guadalupe Alternative Programs Enchante Bolden Latasha Simpson Melvina McKinley Prince Butler Rick Doten Isiah Bailey, Marquell Crenshaw Drevon Crenshaw Donta Simpson Bernard Poston The West Side’s Stand on Iraq Tyler James Michienzi Josue Grassi Cueto Pollution Nora Martin Rachel Graf Corinn Burchill-Riley Youth Space James Updyke My Mom’s Story Andrew Lonnes In Community Hanna Graf Alice Martin Sophie Seaberg-Wood Josue Grassi-Cueto Absent Fathers PSA Kenny Bankhead Dedrian Davis Ntsuab Yang Carlos Fargosa-Garcia Teen Depression PSA Jairo Muñoz Bao Yang Daryll Berg Boys vs. Girls Ben Plante Nathun Wenner Jessica Morales Monique Roquemore Leticia Roquemore Alexis Kramer Cierra Mendez Shelby Rosario Julian Espinosa Silvia Owens Video Politics Alyshia Jackson Marquell Ford-Billups Omer Farooq Christopher Johnson Christian Pitts Za’Asia Hunter Youth Staff: Dhop Danielle Peterson Kong Her Peter Kirschmann Andrea Lehmann Joyce Strand Sherine Crooms

To view a sampling of videos, click here.

Sitting on the panel, Bankhead was keenly aware of the cameras and posed to make sure photographers got a good shot while he comfortably discussed filmmaking. His friend, Anders Lee, a sixteen-year-old at St. Paul Conservatory for the Performing Arts, was just as aware of the cameras as he posed with Bankhead. Together, Lee and Bankhead learned to shoot and edit documentaries at Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN) last summer. They liked making videos so much that they continued to participate in the program throughout the school year.

They got a chance to show their videos at the Weisman film screening, Represent! Civic Videos of Area Youth, where more than two hundred people gathered to watch twelve short videos. The videos were made by more than forty pre-teens and teens from youth programs in St. Paul and Minneapolis.

When the Weisman chose “citizenship” as its theme, its Youth Programs Coordinator, Judi Petkau, reached out to community groups. Petkau said she wanted to create youth programming that related to the museum’s annual theme, but she also hoped to tie the project to the work of local photographer Paul Shambroom, whose current exhibit, “Picturing Power,” explores themes of military and industrial power.

To view a sampling of videos, click here.

Joyce Strand, who worked with the youth groups on St. Paul’s West Side, said the real exploration of power occurred in the field. The most interesting thing about the process, Strand said, “was the shift in power when kids have the opportunity to ask adults questions, instead of adults asking kids to do something.” This is not something the youth generally get to do. Strand added, “We were doing a lot of interviews in the field and it seems like that was the point the kids got really engaged.”

Before the youth groups got really into the videos, though, they had to pick a topic. This proved difficult for many youth, who discussed the process on the panel following the screening. When asked about their reactions to seeing all the videos together, a junior high student from the West Side Youth Guides, whose video highlighted pollution on the West Side, responded, “it was interesting to see what everyone’s issues are. They’re all really different.”

To view a sampling of videos, click here.

Indeed they are. Watching the videos was like taking a slice of life from disparate teen worlds in the Twin Cities. Some tackled frequently discussed themes in media, like depictions of women in music videos, pollution, and the war in Iraq. Then there were the videos about topics pundits usually don’t mull over in the press: what’s it like to clown around at band practice? And what’s the difference between boys and girls from a junior high student’s perspective?

One clip, Video Politics, examined women’s roles in popular music videos. Alyshia Jackson said it took the group from Hope Community in Minneapolis a while to pick the topic. “We thought about a lot of things, like prostitution, pollution, uniforms, and the driving age,” Jackson said. After picking the theme she thought about what she wanted the audience to get from her video. “I wanted to get people thinking and I want them to know that not all black women have to be half naked in videos.”

To view a sampling of videos, click here.

Across the river, Anders Lee and other youth at SPNN created a short clip about racial stereotypes of African American women. “The two women I was working with said racial stereotypes was something they dealt with all the time,” said Lee, who is white. “It’s not really something I can relate to, but it seemed really important to them, so we chose that topic.”

As Lee discussed his video, Bankhead, who is African American, interjected to explain something about Lee, “Even if he’s white, he understands where our race is coming from.”

To view a sampling of videos, click here.

Bankhead and his group created a public service announcement, Absent Fathers, that echoed a deeply personal experience. “I wanted everyone to know,” Bankhead said, “that every kid needs a father.”

Danielle Peterson, who works at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Democracy and Citizenship, worked closely with the Hope Community Group. She said that video is a powerful medium for youth to tell their stories. “I’ve been working with youth programs for five years now, and it’s taken me a long time to realize that the youth always want to do videos,” Peterson said. “So we should support that and uplift it.”

Bankhead agrees. The best part of the film screening and process leading up to it, he said, is “being in an environment where I’m a filmmaker. It’s something like a dream come true.”

Will Kenny and Anders continue to make videos? “Definitely.”

To view a sampling of videos, click here.

Rain Gardens: The silver BB

Photo courtesy of Justin Eibenholz

By Lisa Peterson-de la Cueva
TC Daily Planet
April 06, 2008

“Rain Gardens aren’t the silver bullet,” Rusty Schmidt said while playing with his daughter at the park. “But they’re the silver BB.” Schmidt, who planted fifty-six rain gardens last year, is a Natural Resource Specialist for Washington Conservation District. Bullet or BB, he was talking about long term solutions to storm water quality.

The old way of thinking about rain on our property went like this: Rain falls off your roof and onto your pavement or lawn, which we fertilize with chemicals. Some of the rain seeps into our garden while the rest of it flows into the street and down our storm sewers, which in turn dump the polluted water into rivers and lakes. It’s out of sight, out of mind.

Rain gardens negate the “out of sight, out of mind” rainwater mentality. A rain garden is basically a collection of Minnesota native plants with a depression, called a swale, in the middle of the garden. Instead of excess rainwater running into the street and picking up pollutants, the water seeps into the ground under the garden.

The thinking goes, if you use fertilizer or forget to fix that pesky oil leak from your car, that’s your choice. But then it stays in your yard and it’s your problem—or the next tenant’s.

Backyard rain garden captures run-off from roof and from impermeable surfaces. Photo courtesy of Justin Eibenholzl.

This brings up a knee-jerk reaction. Won’t all these contaminants just pollute your own property? Fair question. Native plants have particularly long roots, which help cleanse the rainwater as soaks into the soil. The gunk, like heavy metals and oils, stays on the top few inches of the garden. So yes, there will still be some long-term residue, but by the time the water gets through the roots it’s much cleaner than it would be with some other natural cleansing methods, like the use of pond algae.

This means that at some point down the line we’ll have to clean our own rain gardens. Rusty Schmidt said, “The theory is that in 50 years we’ll have to scrape off the top four inches of soil, put the plants back, and then let them do their thing again.”

Hence the BB, not the bullet.

Rain garden plants Meg Arnosti and Rusty Schmidt listed their favorite rain garden plants. This list of their picks can help get you started with your own rain garden. Flowering Perennials Astilbe Coneflower Cranesbill Geranium Daylily Siberian Iris Black-eyed Susan Sunflower Clay soil only Blue Flag Iris Blazing Stars Sky Blue Aster Spider Worts Sandy soil only Butterfly weed Aromatic Aster Rose or white turtlehead Grasses For the outer edges Feather Reed Grass Heavy Metal Switch Grass Ice Dance Sedge Hakonechloa Soft Rush Grass For the middle of garden Carl Forester’s Grass Fox, tussock, hop, or caterpillar sedge Tall Feather Reed Grass Clay soil only Indian grass Sandy soil only Little Blue Stem Prairie Dropseed Blue or Side Oats Grama

Rain gardens work best in groups.

“You really need a whole bunch of them in a given location to do a lot of good,” Schmidt said. “If you had a city block with about half the houses with rain gardens, that would have an impact.”

A 2006 study of rain gardens in Burnsville showed promising results when rain gardens are planted en mass. The study by Barr Engineering Company compared the watershed runoff from residential homes in a concentrated area, one control group and the other with 17 rain gardens. On one day alone, with less than an inch of rainfall, the control group produced 35,107 gallons of runoff water. The homes with rain gardens, by contrast, produced only 994 gallons. The results show that if installed properly rain gardens “reduced the runoff volumes by approximately 90 percent.”

Schmidt says that Minneapolis is ahead of most cities in the nation, but it’s unclear just how the Twin Cities is doing. Metro Blooms, a non-profit that provides rain garden workshops, has documented over 450 rain gardens installed by its participants since 2005. The city of Maplewood, generally considered to be ahead of the curve on rain gardens, has planted at least 450. However, there is no centralized data to measure how many rain gardens have been planted in the metro area.

What’s in it for me?

Most people who install rain gardens are doing it because they have a stake in environmental issues. Joyce Vincent, Board Chair of Metro Blooms, said, “It’s about participants’ awareness and caring about the environment, not necessarily about their income level.” Vincent did admit, however, that it takes a certain amount of financial stability to install a rain garden.

Getting people think green about their lawns, and getting them to actually implement rain gardens is a different story. There are currently few monetary incentives for individuals to install rain gardens.

The city of Minneapolis has been promoting the Metro Blooms program, which has had over 2,500 participants in their rain garden workshops since their program began in 2005. The city also offers a stormwater credit to residents and businesses that install rain gardens. The credit helps residents a few dollars a month on their water bill. The pay off can be higher for businesses that install large-scale rain gardens and water management infrastructure.

Karl Westermeyer, a Stormwater Utility Administrator at the City of Minneapolis said, “The program is as an educational and motivational tool, but in reality it’s not a big financial incentive.” Getting people interested in rain gardens is the first step, Westermeyer said, and a small financial incentive is the hook. It’s turns out it’s not hooking too many people, though; the city has processed under 200 commercial and residential applications since the program began in August of 2005.

The plan—install a rain garden and pay less on your water bill—fell through with Justin Eibenholzl, who installed four rain gardens in his Southwest Minneapolis home. Eibenholz got into squabble with the city when his bill actually went up by 60 dollars a year. The city had never actually measured his plot, so after Eibenholz sent in his application for the stormwater credit the city found out he should have been paying more in the first place.

Eibenholz’s case is atypical and most people do save a little money. But Eibenholz also has a professional interest in rain gardens; he works for the Southeast Como Improvement Association in Minneapolis and is trying to promote their use in Como. “We have to reevaluate what we’re doing here in Como,” Eibenholz said. “We were going to go out and promote the financial incentive, but if there’s not really one then we have to think of something else.”

Besides keeping our scum out of rivers and lakes, that is.

History Theatre revisits the ‘Peace Crimes’ of the Minnesota Eight

Ron Peluso has an open door policy when it comes to ideas for plays. Peluso, artistic director of the History Theatre, tells people to pop into his office if they have an idea. Together they discuss whether the idea has stage potential. That’s how Frank Kroncke ended up pitching a memoir he had written about the Minnesota Eight.

Peace Crimes: The Minnesota Eight vs. the War, presented by the History Theatre and University of Minnesota Theatre. Playing through March 9 at the Rarig Center, 330 21st Ave. S., Minneapolis. For tickets ($25), see historytheatre.com.

Peluso ran with the story and turned it into Peace Crimes: The Minnesota Eight vs. the War. The play tells the story of eight Vietnam War resisters who raided Minnesota draft offices during the Vietnam War. The group stole draft cards from the offices in an effort to prevent Minnesotans from going to war. The FBI caught eight members of the group; most served two years of five-year prison sentences.

The Minnesota Eight were somewhat of a ragtag team. “We all resisted illegitimate authority,” says Kroncke, a member of the group, “but we came from many different backgrounds. We had a journalist, a theologian from the Roman Catholic tradition, one guy with a history of science background…and we were influenced by different people.” This is depicted in Peace Crimes when members of the Minnesota Eight grapple with strategic decisions on how and when to resist the draft.

After Peluso found Doris Baizley to write the play he partnered up with the University of Minnesota. It seemed like a natural fit, since many of the Minnesota Eight were graduates of the University and some of the story’s events take place on campus. Peluso also brought in theater MFA candidates from the University; they make up 13 of the 18 cast members.

The Daily Planet on the History Theatre: Read Pam Taylor on Hormel Girls and Jay Gabler on Kirby.

The involvement of the Minnesota Eight has been crucial. Kathleen Hansen, managing director of the History Theatre, says, “The [original Minnesota Eight] have been at the rehearsals and have watched the students actually play them. They can answer questions if the students have them and say, ‘Well, that was actually tied to something that wasn’t in the script.’ That really adds an extra layer of context.” The group also weighed on details—telling the playwright when an event as depicted differed from the actual events.

Members of the Minnesota Eight report that they enjoyed and appreciated the process of creating Peace Crimes. Don Olson, who now hosts a radio show at KFAI, said, “We actually found out more about the details of the trial, and about how people reacted to
the prison experience—something I didn’t know everything about.”

The staging of Peace Crimes prompted Frank Kroncke to organize educational events on college campuses in Minnesota. Kroncke helped secure speakers like Jim Wallis and Daniel Ellsberg, and coordinated events with groups like In the Heart of the Beast Theater. These events are separate from the play, but Kroncke hopes the events will generate interest in Peace Crimes.

The play itself is rich with historical information presented in a variety of ways. Historical documents place the audience in the midst of the Vietnam era. Pictures of Kent State, draft cards, American and Vietnamese soldiers, and the U of M campus flash across the stage and add nuance to the plot. The play evokes a tension between the “flower power” and “radical action” perspectives among protesters. Take, for example, a moment when the jarring song “Break on Through,” by the Doors, interrupts the Mamas and the Papas’ wistful tune “California Dreamin’.”
By Lisa Peterson-de la Cueva
TC Daily Planet
February 27, 2008

These devices help develop some of the play’s central questions, still relevant today. What does it mean to protest? Is non-violent resistance treason, or can it be patriotic? What is the most effective vehicle for change? The play doesn’t slow down to deal with these issues through character development; there are so many characters and time periods that the play sometimes feels like a string of moral aphorisms tied together only loosely. The plot is engaging, though, as it takes the audience through tumultuous events that are still relevant today.

Lisa Peterson-de la Cueva (peterson.delacueva@gmail.com) is an educator and has taught in various contexts, including junior high social studies and adult basic education. She is transitioning from a career in teaching to freelance writing and is interning at TC Daily Planet.

Young adults lobby for change: The Ogaden Youth Network

By Lisa Peterson-de la Cueva
TC Daily Planet
February 26, 2008

Hodan Dualeh has never set foot in the Ogaden, but her passion for the land and people could not be stronger. Dualeh is president of the Ogaden Youth Network (OYN), a youth group from the Ogaden region of Ethiopia.

“Our aim is to change U.S. foreign policy specifically as concerns the Ogaden,” Dualeh said, using the gestures of a politician to help get her point across. “That is really the main objective, whether it’s though lobbying or through education,”

The Ogaden is a large desert in eastern Ethiopia. Most of its residents are ethnically Somali and speak Somali. The Ethiopian government has a record of perpetrating human rights abuses in the region, mainly through the military. This treatment has caused local groups to develop their own rebel militia. The conflict between militia groups and the military continues to ravage the region.

According to the Minnesota state demographer’s office, it is difficult to tell exactly how large Minnesota’s Ogaden community is, because it is not identified as a separate category. Most Ogadanians count themselves as Somali instead of Ethiopian, which further complicates the figures. Members of the OYN estimate the number to be more than 15,000.

For more information on the current situation in the Ogaden
see this article and video in the New York Times.

Dualeh never actually lived in the Ogaden. Her mother was born there but fled to Somalia, where Dualeh was born in 1981. They moved to Kenya in 1991 and then came to Minnesota in 1996, where Dualeh attended the School for Environmental Studies in Eagan. She went on to major in biology at the University of Minnesota and is pursuing coursework in epidemiology. There are about 30 core members of OYN like Dualeh. Most were educated in American high schools and are now in college, have graduated, or are working to save money for postsecondary education.

These young adults founded the OYN in June 2005. In 2006, they raised funds for drought relief in the Ogaden region, and organized a national Ogaden youth conference at St. Thomas University, where 600 people gathered. The second annual conference will be held this August in San Diego.

Besides preparing the upcoming conference, the OYN is lobbying in Minnesota and in Washington. The OYN educates elected officials about the Ogaden and lobbies for a change in American foreign policy, which has been backing the Ethiopian military.

Last October the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2003, the Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007. The bill, sponsored by Representative Donald Paine (D-NJ), emphasizes human rights and humanitarian efforts in the Ogaden region.

The U.S. Senate has not voted on the bill, which is why the OYN is eager to influence Senator Norm Coleman, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.

“We have gone to Senator Coleman’s office and met with his representatives, but never with him,” Dualeh says. “And he has yet to take any aggressive action regarding Ogadania.” Otherwise the OYN says that many elected officials have been very supportive, including Senator Amy Klobuchar and Representative Keith Ellison.

The OYN also invites guest speakers to educate its own members on the Ogaden. Last Saturday, members gathered in a dimly lit room in the Sabathani Community Center in South Minneapolis. Kadra Abdi, Secretary of the OYN, started off the monthly meeting by introducing Hassan Mohamed Ciise to speak about his recent trip to the Ogaden. Twenty-five young adults listened to his account, told in Somali but sprinkled with an occasional phrase in English, such as “without justice, there cannot be peace.” Speakers like Ciise help OYN members stay current on a region that many have not visited in years, if ever.

Not all of the OYN’s activities focus on the Ogaden. OYN members are preparing voter education and participation activities for the upcoming election. They will determine which candidate to endorse, something they have done before. In 2006 Representative Mark Kennedy supported the Ogaden, who in turn endorsed his candidacy and encouraged members of the Ogaden community to vote and volunteer for him.

Dualeh and the other members of the Ogaden Youth Network have their work cut out for them. It seems, though, that Dualeh at least has strong support within her family. Her mother, Hawey Mahad, is also active in the recently formed Ogaden women’s group, an adult version of the OYN. Mahad attends most of the OYN meetings, more as an observer and silent participant than an active member. Kadra Abdi says of Dualeh’s mother, “She helps us a lot; if we need finances, she goes and raises money from the community, and she gives us a lot of advice.”

As Dualeh and Abdi recount their goals and activities in the OYN, Dualeh’s mother sits in the background with her arms crossed. Occasionally she reminds her daughter in Somali “to talk about the human rights abuses.” It is not likely something Dualeh or other members of the OYN will overlook.

Lisa Peterson-de la Cueva (peterson.delacueva@gmail.com) is an educator and has taught in various contexts, including junior high social studies and adult basic education. She is transitioning from a career in teaching to freelance writing and is interning at TC Daily Planet.

Book note: Catherine Watson is ‘Home on the Road’

By Lisa Peterson-de la Cueva,
TC Daily Planet
February 23, 2008

Apparently we have the Shakers to thank for the clothespin. Also, sheep have the annoying habit of gnawing away at Scotland’s highlands. These are a couple of the tidbits you’ll pick up in Minnesota Book Award nominee Home on the Road, Catherine Watson’s second collection of travel essays.

Don’t worry, Watson—formerly a travel writer for the Star Tribune—doesn’t bore us to death with historical trivia from far-off places. There is a fair amount of that, but Watson seasons her facts with a healthy dose of personal perspective. She seems to be a globetrotter who has to travel because, well, it is in her blood.

Home on the Road by Catherine Watson, published by Itasca Books (2007). $14.95.

If you have traveled as widely as Watson has, you too have witnessed and reflected on pressing geopolitical issues of our time. Watson laments the environmental impact of overfishing off the coast of Tunisia, comments on the “ugly American” stereotype, and explains her indifference to the perpetual orange alert of post-9/11 travel. Through her anecdotes, whether they are about Easter Island or Minneapolis, she reflects thoughtfully on history and current political trends.

Minnesota Book Award nominees in the Daily Planet: • Jennifer Holder on Catherine Friend’s The Perfect Nest • Cyrus Wolff on Patrick Jones’s Chasing Tail Lights and Will Weaver’s Defect

Not every essay tackles such weighty issues—some pieces tend more towards the jocular than the preachy. Watson’s description of various shower styles across the globe, among them the “bait and switch shower,” is sure to elicit a chuckle.

Home on the Road includes more than a touch of personal memoir. Watson takes us to Death Valley, where her parents dragged her just to see if it was as hot as its reputation suggests. (“It was,” Watson assures us.) She remembers disastrous family camping trips, which prompt her to ask the eternal travel question: “To plan, or not to plan?” In one essay she takes us to her unlikely hometown, Fort Snelling, and then to Germany, where she spent a year as a high school exchange student. Here Watson explores the intersection of time and space in an unapologetic bout of nostalgia.

A few of the essays could have been left out. For example, an anecdote about a scorpion in a Costa Rican hotel is amusing, but detracts from the overall collection. The real charm of the book lies in the essays that bring us to a closer understanding of what makes Watson “more at home on the road than anywhere else.”

Ultimately, Home on the Road reflects a thoughtful travel career that makes you think, “I wish I had that life!” If you don’t, at least you can read about it.

Lisa Peterson-de la Cueva (peterson.delacueva@gmail.com) is an educator and has taught in various contexts, including junior high social studies and adult basic education. She is transitioning from a career in teaching to freelance writing and is interning at the TC Daily Planet.