Consequences
POSTNOTE Aug 29, 2024: Front page of Minnesota Star Tribune Aug 29, 2024: Nicole Mitchell 8 29 24
Monday of this week I was about to leave for a conversation group I’m part of. I caught the first part of the 6:00 local news on WCCO-TV, and one of the first stories was about the arrest of my State Senator in a town 220 miles from here. By Tuesday, the opposition party was “shocked”. By Wednesday, it was front-page news. Thursday, one of my fellow citizens, in a letter to the editor, demanded that the Senator resign, probably based on no more information than I had. This morning, another long article in the STrib again was based only on currently available information.
At this writing, Friday morning, I know nothing more than anybody else about my Senator and the incident. So goes life in the local world.
I am keeping whatever I see in writing (from the Minneapolis Star Tribune paper edition), and at some point in the future, whenever there is some finality, I will write more. I will also pdf the articles for use at this space.
But you will see no pre-judgement from me. Except to say that in my opinion, she has been an excellent Senator. I didn’t know her when she announced her candidacy two years ago. She met with me on my request back then, and to my knowledge I’ve been to all of her several back-home citizen update meetings, simply as a constituent. Those are my only contacts with her, and they have all been positive.
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Meanwhile: As it happens, much of this week has been engaged in following assorted court hearings in New York City, Washington DC and Phoenix, regarding someone else we all know, about events which happened between 2015 and 2021. Yesterday was oral argument at the Supreme Court about Presidential immunity; today, as I write, David Pecker, formerly head honcho of the National Enquirer, is testifying. I tend to follow these kinds of things.
I have no more to say about this either.
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I’ll return to all of this sometime later.
POSTNOTE April 30, 2024: The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports this morning that Sen. Nicole Mitchell was back at the Capitol yesterday. In the same issue, on page B1, is a long column by Laura Yuen, very well worth your time. There was also a short letter to the editor, basically anti-DFL. It was the last letter today.
I was thinking of an old saying, probably shared with me by my Dad, about being careful about judging if you haven’t “walked in the other persons moccasins”. I did a search, and found a 2017 blog reprinting an 1895 poem by Mary Lathrap titled “Judge Softly”. You can read the poem here.
POSTNOTE June 1, 2024: May 30 the Manhattan Jury reported out 34 “Guilty” verdicts on all counts. Within a half hour, on local TV news, it was also reported that my local Senator (above) was being asked to resign by the state Democratic (DFL) Chair and the Democrat Governor of Minnesota; and the next days Minneapolis Star Tribune gave nearly a half page (A7) to the State Senator and, of course, nearly three pages to the news from Manhattan.
What I find interesting is that, according to the news article, the Senator has yet to have a first legal hearing in court. The hearing, originally scheduled for June 10, has been postponed until July 1. The former President, on the other hand, after extensive court hearings, now has been convicted, but will not be sentenced until July 11, at earliest, and after that can appeal the sentence, whatever it turns out to be.
The irony is thick. At this point, the Senator has been accused, and that is all; the President, with a complaint going back years, has still not been sentenced, and even that is not certain at this point. It highlights at minimum a quandary in the justice system itself, where innocent until proven guilty seems to have many meanings, depending on who is making decisions, and why.
Thank you, Dick for this calm and reasoned response to a very difficult and unfortunate situation. We don’t have much information, but whatever the situation, the rush to judgement by some will only harm our efforts for a reasoned democracy. It is also a source of outrage by her colleagues and predecessors. Whatever the circumstances and final judgement, this has harmed everyone who seeks to serve the people of MN, emotionally and perhaps politically. It is a very sad situation.