Here’s downtown St. Paul, less than half mile away, 3:05 p.m. on Wednesday June 14, 2023.

downtown St. Paul MN June 14, 2023, 3:05 p.m.

This afternoon, as predicted, we got a package from the Canadian Wildfires – the same ones which nearly blacked out metro New York City and much of the northeast a few days earlier.

(I searched “Canada wildfires June 2023” and linked is what I found.)

As those who have experienced what we did would likely attest, the unpleasant ‘fog’ was aggravating.  If we’re fortunate,  it will move on, quickly, to someone else’s neighborhood.  My apologies to those who get what we got.

To me, today’s ‘smog storm’ (my descriptor) is simply another indicator that we are a world without borders.  We still harbor the illusion that we can control our borders, which are breached millions of times a day by wind streams, airplanes, ships, human beings on the move, disease….

Covid-19 was a stealth visitor whose ultimate outcome could have been predicted at the outset.

We delude ourselves into thinking that isolation will protect us; that walls can be built to keep others out; that one country can be found to be responsible for a disease, etc., etc., etc.  That being in a gated community gives security.

There will probably always be resistance to world government; indeed world government in and of itself its no guarantee of success.

Perhaps the best we can do is to refine and expand ‘best practices’ where individuals, small and larger groups, towns, cities, states and nations work in coalitions of the willing to make this a better world, the world that we share.

Success is often a succession of small incremental steps, which appear to be hopelessly small, but in aggregate and over time make a real difference.

Let’s keep working.

PRENOTE: Tomorrow night on Twin Cities PBS, Channel 2, 8 p.m CDT., part 3, last segment of “Living With Hitler”.  I have watched the first two segments, and this is really excellent.  Everyone should absorb the hard learnings of the results of the Third Reich.

*

Last Thursday I attended a public meeting reporting on the results of the 2023 Minnesota Legislature.  The host was our local state Senator.  The two page summary handout is here: Minnesota Legislation 2023.

I attend these kinds of gatherings frequently.  This one was particularly interesting, there were many kids there, and Moms reporting, and art from work done by prisoners as rehab therapy.  A group which appeared to be Chinese American featured a spell-binding performance by a lion, given life by two young people.  Note the little girl in foreground of the picture.  She was with the program!

June 8, 2023 Hong De Lion Dance group performs.  

If you’re Minnesotan, you know the general drift.  This year the legislature, house and senate, and governor, were Democrat – an unusual occurrence here.  The elected Democrats – I am an active Democrat – decided to stick together and pass one of the most positive and progressive legislative programs ever.

A message today from MN Gov. Tim Walz says it well:

“Yesterday I was asked whether there would be a Republican backlash to the historic progress we made this legislative session. Here’s why I said I wasn’t worried:

Everything we accomplished this year was grounded in a very Midwestern value: Mind your own dang business. 

While GOP-led states were passing abortion bans, banning books, and bullying the LGBTQ+ community, we took action to protect the freedoms and rights of all Minnesotans. 

We codified abortion rights into state law, banned the harmful practice of conversion “therapy,” made Minnesota a refuge for gender-affirming care, and more.

The bottom line? In Minnesota, we don’t demonize our neighbors. We welcome everyone in, and we celebrate our diversity.”

Minnesota is characterized as a high tax state.  I hear almost no complaining about that.  In 1927, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said memorably “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society”, and that is very true.  Taxes, effectively used, pays dividends for everyone.

This is more truthful than an alternative view I once heard in person from a guy very upset with taxation generally.  He slapped his rear-end, the side with his wallet, and angrily exclaimed in a loud voice: “I want MY money, in MY pocket, RIGHT HERE”.  This was at a meeting, and he was in my small group.  A young ally of his, at the same table, apparently was thinking about this declaration, and said he liked to do off-trail bicycling, and they were spending tax money to build a local trail, of which he approved, for his personal benefit.  The trail didn’t impose on non-users.  It was a winner in all ways.

So much for getting rid of community, which is what society is, after all.  Community is Sharing.

Personally, we are fortunate to pay taxes.  This year our state and federal came to about 19% of income; about one-third of this was to state.  This has been fairly typical over recent history, hardly confiscatory.

A detailed review of all of the legislation passed this year would likely reveal things I personally would wonder about.  No matter.  They were important to other groups of citizens in other communities.  This is what society is. We all know this from personal experience.

The last few years we have been afflicted by destructive political relationships in this country.  There seems no justification for a society where one-half plus one seeks to win, the rest are losers.

There was a day when political differences like this could be complementary, not adversarial.  Most of our history as a society has dealt with issues in competition, rather than enemies in combat.  The ideal goal is resolution, not domination.  Best we relearn the skills we already have.

After the meeting on Thursday, I decided to look up government in Minnesota by ideology.  Here it is: Minnesota governance by ideology, 1901-present.  It is very interesting.  In numbers, Minnesotans have been divided by ideology, but most often we’ve worked things out cooperatively.  It has been 10 years since the Democrats last had the majority in all three branches; to the best of my knowledge, the Republicans had that advantage often in the earlier 1900s.  But there have been many years of divided government, currently often not constructively.

In one sense or another, all of us have elements of “conservative” and “liberal” in our makeup.  The difference, these days, is that one ideology tends to focus on the individual exercise of raw power; the other tends to more orient to the community at large.  Just my opinion.

POSTNOTE: I learned that I had one personal success in this session.  It took 17 years, but an idea I presented in 2006 – a very simple idea – finally was enacted this session.  In the fall of 2006, I noticed that on the application for drivers license, a kid was automatically registered for the Draft regardless of age.  Right below, on the same form, the same kid could register to vote. Both were effective at age 18, but for the Draft was automatically registered.  I asked, why not apply the same rule to both?  The simple idea was killed every year, but this year it passed.  Hooray!

POSTNOTE June 13: This mornings e-mail brought a Heather Cox Richardson “Letters from an American” well worth your time.  It is here.  Heather’s writing is well worth the small cost to subscribe.

As a French-Canadian (my father was 100% F-C) I’ve long been interested in the people of my roots, thus I was intrigued by the namesake of my other (German) grandparents  county, LaMoure County, in North Dakota, whose county seat is LaMoure.

Cleaning out the junk at the farm some years ago, I came across the 1911 North Dakota Blue Book (the legislatures manual), and on page 531 found this brief biography of “my” LaMoure: LaMoure Judson 1911 ND Blue Book.

Having a county named after you is no small feat, even in a lightly populated county in North Dakota.  I mused every now and then about this Quebec native, and have kept a file with his name on it for a number of years, but not pursued the issue.

This brief post will not be expansive, but perhaps will jog someone else to devote more time and attention to this intriguing individual.

Judson LaMoure gets a Wikipedia entry, which is brief and interesting.  It includes a photo of LaMoure, and helpfully indicates that author Louis L’Amour is no relation. You can read it here.  An interesting link within the Wiki has more about LaMoure.

Frelighsburg QC , LaMoure’s home, is perhaps 3 miles north of  Qc/Vermont border; Elkpoint SD is southeast of Sioux Falls SD; Neche ND is in Pembina County ND, at the Pembina River, almost at the border between the U.S. and Canada.  Here is the link co-locating Elk Point and Neche.

LaMoure came to Dakota in interesting times.  In 1862 he settled at Elk Point, and 1870 at Neche.  During 1858-61, what later became eastern North and South Dakota was essentially unorganized U.S. territory.  It then became part of Dakota Territory, and in 1889,  North and South Dakota became states on the same day.

As outlined in the Wiki article, LaMoure was apparently a very astute politician.

He had a very long career as an appointed or elected official beginning with the 10th Session of the Territorial Legislature in 1872-73, and ending with retirement from the North Dakota legislature in 1913.  There were only infrequent intervals when he was not in elective or appointed office. This is verified in the 1911 ND Blue Book (pp 59, 63-65, 166-172, 175, 178, 182, 185, 189.)

Born in 1839, LaMoure died in 1918.

A most interesting fact printed in the 1911 Blue Book, but not mentioned in the Wiki article, is LaMoure’s connection to the Railroad.  Here’s as it is portrayed in the Blue Book.

from 1911 North Dakota Blue Book p. 59

There is no further explanation of this entry, which appears to show that LaMoure was chairman of the Railroad Commission from 1880-1886.

LaMoure’s term as railroad commissioner was a time of rapid expansion of railroads in North Dakota, including the Great Northern which reached Grand Forks in 1879.   (The Northern Pacific reached Fargo in 1872.).

It was in the early to mid-1880s that Theodore Roosevelt made North Dakota home.  It is likely no coincidence that the railroad reached Grafton and LaMoure’s home of Neche in 1882….

Doubtless there are more resources available, perhaps at the Library of Congress, fodder for further research.

For the time  being count this as one shoutout for a single French-Canadian who made a significant difference in this time in the midwest.

POSTNOTE: Some years ago I was visiting the local museum at Nisswa Minnesota, and an exhibit the day I was there was about Judson LaMoure, who owned one of the first cabins on the then remote Nisswa Lake.  The person in charge didn’t know anything about LaMoure; I knew little more at the time. Nowadays, Nisswa is in the middle of a major tourist area north of Brainerd Minnesota.

POSTNOTE 2: Hi-lited, the North Dakota rail network in 1914.

COMMENTS: 

from Jerry: I was well aware of Judson LaMoure when I was in Moorhead.  I considered him a good example of a power politician.

from Emily at Historical Society of ND: You might find the attached photo of interest [below]. It is at Judson LaMoure’s hunting cabin in Backus, Minn. The man on the left is LaMoure’s brother-in-law William Hunter.

courtesy of Historical Society of ND: SHSND 10751-00039

from Remi, in Laval PQ: Interesting, the white population in Dakota Territory was only 2,500 at that time, much less in what is now North Dakota. I’m sure that many Metis were included as whites in the 1860 census. I wouldn’t call LaMoure a French Canadian, although he may have spoken French.  His French ancestor (Lamoureux) was a Huguenot who moved to England, and then two generations lived in New York State. His father lived in Newfoundland before moving to Frelighsburg. His mother and all of the women ancestors were of English origin. There is a courthouse in Frelighsburg named LaMoure.

I have been reading about the French Canadians who were repatriated to Manitoba in the 1870s from New England. Many of them were “kidnapped” by American agents en route, so the Canadian government sent agents to Duluth and St Paul to “escort” them to Manitoba.:

response from Dick: Of greatest interest to me is to shed some light on LaMoure, who most certainly was from Quebec.  This is already a learning experience for me, and my guess it will be for others as well.

additional response: The business of label is intriguing to me, personally.  When I titled the post, it was arbitrary, as you can note.  LaMoure self-identified as being from Quebec.  Wiki expanded this a bit.  On we go.

There have been many generations since the first French settlers came to what later would be called lower Canada in the early 1600s.  They were almost exclusively Catholics from France and French.  There was no ease of migration, then.  Thereafter came endless variations which we experience today in the midwest.  Do French whose ancestors were Acadians count as French-Canadians?  Cajuns? Metis?  On and on.  For now, I’ll pigeon-hole LaMoure as French ancestry from Quebec…but I admit I’m being arbitrary.  Whatever, he’s a fascinating character who deserves more study and ink than this blogger can provide.

from Lois, filed in a later post, but about this topic:  It is amazing to realize that the impact of opinions from anyone on how we live our lives and believe (or don’t) what we hear. As a child I recall “The sky is falling, the sky is falling…! Another is “What goes around comes around”. We cannot “throw caution to the wind” at this time in making decisions at every level of government in elections but rather read a variety of opinions and look at facts that will help us to know the candidates’ positions rather than opinions of the news media. No one should come out feeling like we were “force-fed” as occurred when we were babies and children, and now have a hatred of a nutritious food.

So many towns were named after or by “founders”, first person to arrive at a place where a railroad stop established in many cases. It was interesting to read about Lamoure and reminded me of where I live and knowing that the first family of the near area were descendants of Mary Towne Estey. She was among the last group to be executed during the Salem Witch Trials. After her death, the family move to New Brunswick Canada and one generation made their way into Wisconsin before coming to Minnesota. They also were considered French Canadian – actually of English origin.

It behooves us to read more, read deeper to get to the truth about people.

Friday, list member and long-time friend, Carol, sent me this photo from south Minneapolis…

South Minneapolis May 20, 2023

…which was date/time stamped May 29, 2020, at 7:07 a.m..  The photographer is looking towards nearby Lake Street.

This is not a routine photo to me.  My friend Ruhel’s GandhiMahal Restaurant on 27th and Lake was burned overnight on May 29, 2020.  The odds are that the smoke is the restaurant and other structures on that single block which had just burned in the wake of the George Floyd murder 4 days earlier [see postnote].

Ruhel thought his business had escaped the pandemonium of the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd on Memorial Day, May 25, 2020.  But this was not to be.

Before the smoke carried it away, GandhiMahal was a crucial part of the neighborhood, a busy, hospitable place.  Here is a photo from a community party there Nov. 13, 2016.

Gandhi Mahal Nov. 13, 2016

This kind of scene was not unusual at Gandhi Mahal.  Often, I had been in that same room for an event.  I know of no successor place in that neighborhood.  (This room survived the fire, but it, too, had to be demolished and removed afterwards.)

To my knowledge no perpetrators have been charged in this fire.  Remember, this was in the worst time of Covid-19, and mandated masks and thus disguises.  Plus, Ruhel’s surveillance equipment burned with the building.  Lesson learned.

Gandhi Mahal May 31, 2020

Often since that now long ago day in May, I’ve been back to the GandhiMahal block, including yesterday.  The Post Office, also destroyed then, is nearing completion of reconstruction, but not yet open.  None of the other buildings on the block have been rebuilt and I’m sure what that means, three years later.

Yesterday at the still vacant lot from 2020, I looked for some sign of hope on the formerly vibrant block.  As close as I could come was the below sign of life, on the sidewalk right directly in front of the former restaurant.

Nature is resilient.  I think GandhiMahal can still be as well.

POSTNOTE May 30, 2023:  I asked the person who sent the ‘smoke photo’ above where the home actually was. Turned out that the house is about 1 1/2 mile WNW of Gandhi Mahal, so odds are that the smoke is unrelated to the restaurant, though certainly in the near area.  (If you click on the link below Gandhi Mahal, above, you’ll find all of the damaged properties at the time.  #59 is Gandhi Mahal.)  There was an immense amount of damage during the week of May 25.  There is no absence of pointed fingers: who to blame.  The most credible source I’ve found came down on the side that this was such an unprecedented event that it was impossible to do an effective response.  May, 2020, was also at a time when Covid-19 was raging, masks were mandated, and it was extremely difficult to identify much less respond to or even visually identify chaos actors.  A policeman from the Third precinct, a short walk from Gandhi Mahal, has gone to prison for the murder of George Floyd. as have other officers with him when the killing occurred.  During the ensuing problems, Police and Fire were rendered impotent: too many incidents, too high risk.  None of this will stop rumor mongering, even three years later.  Prospects of additional people being arrested are unlikely.)

I was personally involved with GandhiMahal on several occasions, holding events there each year between 2013 and 2019.  The last was May 1, 2019.  An event planned for April, 2020 had to be cancelled due to Covid-19.

I got to know the owner quite well.  He was truly a class act.

In September, 2020, in one of the last issues of a popular local newspaper, City Pages – it went out of business the next month – carried an expose of alleged problems of sexual harassment at the restaurant by some unnamed employee.  This resulted in a highly publicized Human Rights complaint under Minnesota Law.  I have no idea who the employee was, nor any of the publicized complainants who were pictured in the newspaper.  As of this writing, probable cause has been found, but there is a very long road to adjudication, if any, and to the best of my knowledge the accusation against the owner, my friend, was not his personal behavior, rather behavior of one employees against other employees.  Of course, the newspaper article came out close to the 2020 election, and certainly traveled quickly and negatively in the local progressive community.  I actually read the original article.  Anybody interested in the matter can simply search Gandhi Mahal Minneapolis human rights complaint and will find information.  As always with such: caveat emptor.

I last saw owner and friend Ruhel Islam at a fundraiser for a progressive non-profit about March 19, 2020.  It was literally the last event before Covid-19 closed everything down in Minnesota.

If the restaurant were to reopen, and I hope it will, and it was Ruhel’s, I would not hesitate for a minute to support the venture.

The May 21, Minneapolis Star Tribune had an excellent editorial as we continue in year four after “normal” came to be redefined in March, 2020.

The editorial is here, and worth your time: Covid-19 editorial StarTribune May 21 2023.

My handy counter says that Covid-19 came up 143 times in my blog since March of 2020.  The most recent was two years ago, 3-6-2021.  So for me personally, the first year was the big year.  At least in terms of being “newsworthy” at this space.

The STrib editorial urges us to not become complacent.  Eyes can glaze over with statistics.  The editorial notes that Minnesota deaths from Covid-19 more than equalled the total population of Roseau County in Minnesota (one of our 87 counties).  Among the rest of the United State’s Minnesota’s death rate was lower than 41 of the 50 states.

The last four words of the long editorial, Covid in its variations is  “… a still-dangerous virus”.

Personally, we’ve thus far escaped the virus: vaccinations, prudent behavior and, of course, good fortune have helped.

The virus doesn’t fly around like a mosquito, and manifests differently in different people.

For several days in late February, 2022, my roommate at UofM Hospital was a young man in the grips of long Covid, an awful fate.  My roomie was not contagious, of course.  As a young man he had been an AAU level basketball player; he was probably in his 40s when I met him, and he couldn’t walk more than a few steps, and he was very depressed.  He was about to be transferred to his third medical facility in two months for continued rehab.  I think of him often.

Like everyone else, we know people who’ve been afflicted with Covid.

A useful outcome of this pandemic has been more awareness of personal behaviors, vaccinations, etc.  I don’t hear many scoffers any more.  Decent behaviors, like reasonable social distance in things like waiting lines, have taken root.

Of course, nothing is universal, but there has been progress.

If you’re ‘healthy and well’ today, celebrate your good fortune.

And stay prudent and careful.