Updated February 28, 2026
Reaction to: The Long Road to Crisis: How Minnesota’s Bipartisan Retreat from Oversight Created Today’s Fraud Problems
David Schultz’s article regarding the long road to fraud correctly identified the lack of resources given to DHS to monitor services. However, I disagree with the notion that privatization also led to this problem. State provided services were always limited in nature – typically just the state institutions – which were riddled with problems and lawsuits due to the poor quality being provided at the time. They were closed for a reason. As I wrote in a commentary published in the Minnesota Reformer, nonprofits were always at the cutting edge developing services and responding to needs far faster and more efficiently than state government. Services provided by the state were not handed over to private (typically nonprofit) organizations. These were NEW services developed to meet the needs of people with disabilities and mental illnesses. There is also an inherent conflict of interest for the state to run, fund, and license programs all in one agency. Most of these services are actually funded through Medicaid – in the 80’s for people with disabilities and in 2007 for people with mental illnesses. This means counties had little oversight of the funding except for their case managers referring people to services. I don’t believe the state treasurer or auditor reviewed Medicaid funding. A majority of Medicaid funding is run through managed care insurers not counties. I agree that more oversight of grants and Medicaid are needed, but do not place the blame on privatization.
Sue Abderholden
Retired! Former executive director of NAMI Minnesota and Arc of Minnesota
UPDATED FEBRUARY 14, 2026
Reaction to: Minneapolis is Unifying. America is Dividing.
The author’s formalism “For many in Minneapolis… For many outside Minnesota…” is a textbook example of how to “tell the truth” while spinning a misleading-to-false narrative. Consider the opposite: “For many in Minneapolis, what appears to be the reaction of the majority is not shared; while for many outside Minnesota, there is much sympathy being shown to Minneapolitans”. Also true. I would submit that we are, in fact, no different than any other American community as regards the distributions of our thoughts and feelings on this – at least not if you define the community by drawing a large enough circle. How large does it need to be? I’m not sure, but since there is a whole lot of Minnesota that is not IN Minneapolis, and since the author himself chose, by the way he framed his argument, to exclude all of them, I’m willing to bet that there exists a circle, extending only some distance into the suburbs/exurbs, within which one would capture a population similar in mix of attitudes to the nation at large. And I’ll bet one could draw a circle small enough in any major “blue” city to “capture” a population that feels the same way about all this as the apparently prevailing opinion in Minneapolis. In other words: No, we are not unique. And I don’t think it serves any useful purpose to pretend we are.
There IS a reason that it FEELS as though Minneapolis stands unanimously on one side of the attitudinal divide that the author describes. It is that anybody on the other side, at the end of the day, has to LIVE here. So they hold their tongues. “Live to fight another day.” “Pick your fights wisely.” All that stuff.
If one compares estimates of how many people have been out in the streets for protests, how many have participated as “Observers”, how many have a whistle in their possession – and compares to the actual population of the Twin Cities Metro, or even of just Minneapolis – one finds that the number, while seemingly large, is still comparatively small. Are some who are not “involved” silently “in sympathy”? Undoubtedly. Are many who are not involved, also NOT in sympathy? Again, undoubtedly.
This entire article is an example of one of the great errors of social and political analysis: Regarding those who are most visible, or most organized, or most on-line, etc., etc., etc., as a majority bordering on unanimity. It just doesn’t EVER happen that way in the real world. Political actors end up making “mistakes” – sometimes tragic ones – when they succeed in talking themselves into believing that it does.
Jim Klein, Minneapolis
Reaction to: Minneapolis Council’s Flight from Reality Commences on Tuesday, February 17
This group on the City Council, the seven, is NOT going to care about how their actions impact the city and our state, and other states as well, with particular concern on our mid term elections.
Locally, they should be rolling up their sleeves now, with the first order of business being giving Mayor Frey, our staff, AND the MPD their due, by acknowledging the depth of reform efforts these last six years, as clearly observed during these very challenging last two months. But, we are not likely see any of that from them.
Strib piece out today..
After ‘bad tactics’ of federal agents, local law enforcement regarded in a new light
Excerpt..
Community Safety Commissioner Toddrick Barnette said fewer federal agents in town means there’s “less potential for something bad to happen.”
Their presence forced the city — and local officers — to navigate a complex, unprecedented situation. MPD approached highly emotional situations with compassion, Barnette said, evidence that years of training and de-escalation efforts have paid off.
“They’ve treated people with dignity,” he said. “I think what you’ve seen from the federal law enforcement agents is the opposite of that.
Zubby1992, Minneapolis
UPDATED FEBRUARY 8, 2026
Reaction to Editorial: Why We Must Choose Peace to Find Justice
Blocking I94 is NOT non-violent civil disobedience. It is obstruction and prevention of others’ rights. I am finding it difficult to think of a method of non-violent civil disobedience in this situation. We are objecting to the methods that ICE uses, which have been horrific (killing people, terrorizing children and people of color). But what is the law that we object to, that we can disobey? As in the south, during segregation, it took Black people disobeying the law and white people supporting them to get the laws changed. (sitting at a “whites only” counter, boycotting the buses that made blacks go to the back of the bus). With ICE’s methods, it would be really risky for documented asylum seekers and those whose cases are pending to take the kind of risks that Black people did. Perhaps, people who provide food for the ICE agents could refuse to serve them, the hotels refuse to house them, but blocking highways is not the way-it alienates more people than it gains as supporters.
Marsha Zuckerman, Minneapolis
UPDATED FEBRUARY 2, 2026
Reaction to Editorial: Why We Must Choose Peace to Find Justice
Maybe this is the time and place to finally weigh in publicly with something I’ve believed down to the root of my being, for decades. I was born 1955, so the Vietnam War / Civil Rights protest era (at least the northern cities’ part of the latter) coincided precisely with the years one learns the most from the adults around you by just eavesdropping… Until ’66, I lived in Chicago proper; after that, in a Chicago suburb. Both areas were working-class. What I distinctly recall is that, yes, any specific protest that turned to riot hardened hearts and was itself counter-productive (if the objective was some form of social or legal change). On the other hand, entirely peaceful protests, even the largest, were largely shrugged off and/or ignored by adult “real people” (i.e. – not what the press wrote or politicians said, but what regular folks would say to each other when they got together…) What CHANGED MINDS about policy was protests that were large and non-violent BUT SEEMED like they might turn to riot. Those, as well as completely peaceful ones that occurred proximate (in any or all of time, location, or topic) to ones that had gone violent.
*** I do not think there is any such thing as an entirely peaceful protest (one that does not at least invoke fear of great violence) that sparks change. *** I don’t LIKE that… but I believe deeply that it is true.
I want to emphasize that I am NOT advocating for violence in protest – precisely the opposite. Please note that I am not even saying that SOME violence has to occur. The FEAR of violence is both necessary and sufficient to drive change in attitudes, and, as you stated, ACTUAL violence CAN be totally counter-productive. I am not advocating for any specific protest tactics – I’m just making an observation of how persuadable human minds, in times of great conflict, actually work. I don’t think PLANNING for “some violence” or “occasional violence” would actually work to produce a productive state of mind of ‘fear of violence’ – I think that for the existence of some recent ACTUAL violence to provide a productive level of fear of violence, that violence must have occurred “organically”. I think that’s why defenders of a status quo always want to invoke “agitators” – they know (even if only subconsciously) that intended violence has a different psychological effect, in the uninvolved onlooker, than “organic” violence. I also think even “organic” violence, to be “useful” in this context, probably has to have been quite limited in scope and severity. Otherwise, it too hardens hearts and invites crackdown rather than generating a (productive) fear of “worse”.
Jim Klein, Minneapolis
***
UPDATED JANUARY 30, 2026
Amy Klobuchar jumping into the race is the biggest political shake-up we’ve seen in years. She’s easily the most popular politician in the state, and with her track record, she should walk away with this election. But winning is the easy part—fixing the absolute disaster in St. Paul is another story.
Our state government is a mess right now, specifically the Department of Human Services (DHS). Between the $250 million “Feeding Our Future” scandal and the recent audit showing DHS staff were literally backdating documents to hide a lack of oversight on $425 million in grants, it’s clear the department is broken from top to bottom. Taxpayers are tired of seeing their money disappear into “cultures of corruption.”
She’s got my attention, but she better have a plan for the DHS mess on day one.
Cynda Morlaski, Bloomington, MN
UPDATED JANUARY 29, 2026
For the brave people of Minneapolis
God, the snowstorm
O sacred snowstorm, wide across the sky
Six-pointed is Your Name
Your diamond dust come, flakes flawlessly done,
In drifts, as in heav’nly flurries
Show us this day, your snowfall’s love
And forgive us our muttering
As we forgive those who mutter against us
Let not our hearts be frozen
But deliver us from evil’s ice
Amen
Donna Romer, New York, NY
***
The murder of Renee Good broke me. This song for you: it is called “The Last Straw ~ Dedicated to RENEE GOOD”
I am a long-time singer-songwriter, retired early childhood elementary school teacher, mental healthcare tech and radio announcer from Flagstaff, AZ. I’ve lived here for nearly 53 years (I’m 75). My mantra is “Old Hippies Die Hard.” Stay strong. We are all pulling for you, TWIN CITIES! Power To The People.
Grant Brad Gerver, Flagstaff, AZ
***
True America
One could rightly wonder what’s become of America. I now see it’s been here all along. True America is clear eyed and vibrantly alive, and under attack in Minneapolis.
True America sees what’s happening and knows who is behind it. No, it’s not some yarn about rounding up criminals. It’s about skin color.
True America goes out in 20-degree weather, among frequently brutal, armed and lawless forces, to witness and record, risking bodily harm, arrest, and even death.
True America chooses to help, protect, house, feed and clothe the people and children in their communities, irrespective of citizenship, accent, color, race, gender or religion.
Minneapolis – True America lives here.
Vincent P Barkley, Frederick MD
