It's showtime! "Vote No x 2 Minnesota"

Minneapolis, Minnesota

November 6, 2012

Yo, Mitt! Release your tax returns already

Minneapolis, Minnesota


Mitt, Mitt, Mitt. 


Running for office can be hard. I know – did it once. 


Anyone who believes there is not a free market at work has never thrown his or her hat in the ring to stand for election. Messy and tough as it can be, that's democracy. 


The world is run by those who stand up and show up. Yet, while I believe every citizen should stand and file for some office at least once in a lifetime, no one has to do so.


No one held a gun to the roof of your car and said "Make a run for the White House or the dog gets it!"


People who seek responsibility and accountability in public life don't get to make the rules. Hell, there are no rules. 


I ran only for the Minneapolis city council. There were no requirements or expectations that I publish my tax returns. I would have if necessary. 


You want us to trust you with our lives as our commander in chief, but you won't trust us and follow the time-honored conventions pioneered by your own father. 


Don't release your returns for me. I'm going to vote for the guy your campaign surrogate said needs to 'learn how to be an American.' 


It's time for you to learn how to be that. In this democratic republic, the people get to decide based on the merits of the case. If you want to win, you have to ante up the returns and answer Forbe's 35 Questions Mitt Romney Must Answer About Bain Capital Before The Issue Can Go Away. 


If you don't, that sucking sound you hear isn't from all the jobs you allegedly allowed to be outsourced overseas. It's from your candidacy circling the drain.


John McCain said today that the multiple years of tax returns you released to him in 2008 had no bearing on his selection of Palin as his running mate. In so many words, he said she simply was a better candidate than you, Pawlenty, and all the other possibilities. 


You want to be the better candidate? You want to be the most powerful human on the planet? Start acting like it. Power knows how to be humble and vulnerable. Prove it.


Release your tax returns already.

The 1% will spend $1 billion to finish the wrecking job

Minneapolis, Minnesota


Politico is out with a story today that says GOP super PACs and their fellow travelers plan to spend $1 billion between now and November in order to buy control of the House, the Senate, and the White House. The total includes $300 million by groups related to Karl Rove and nearly $400 million of spending by a network bankrolled directly and indirectly by the Koch brothers.


These forces are not content with the national embarrassment and gridlock occasioned by their thuggish tactics of obfuscation and obstruction in the last three and-a-half years. They are beyond embarrassment, and gridlock has merely served their own special and selfish interests at the expense of the country. 


Their aim is not a balanced democracy that serves our people. They will say that they seek to preserve American values and freedom. In reality, they seek to subvert and destroy. They seek for themselves total and amoral power and control over all checks and balances of the government, the economy, the culture, and religion.


UPDATE: Thursday, May 31, 2012: Politico is out with a story this morning that reports some of the GOP's mega-donors are upset that their names have become part of the public dialogue, and that some people have ascribed nefarious motives to their attempts to accomplish the equivalent of anonymous, political hit jobs in the dark of night. Sorry, but bullying of any kind is not an acceptable American value. 

Memo re: Minnesota's 2011-12 legislative session

Minneapolis, Minnesota


We Minnesotans have always been passive aggressive with each other. Beginning with statehood, we had two state constitutions because both parties at the time refused to sign on with each other. No surprise now if it feels like every bill passed by a legislature controlled by one party is vetoed by a governor from the other. My optimist angel says the legislature should carry on until next week's mandated deadline; my pragmatist angel says "shut the session down tomorrow." Present circumstances are better than intra-state civil war with real bullets – but my head screams "make them stop!"

Kurt Zellers, the GOP speaker of the state house, is a particularly interesting study of ineffectiveness. Regardless of his position on any issue, he seems not to understand that when accepting a leadership position, his "positions" are no longer all about him – he needs to anticipate, get out in front, try to work with all constituents; in essence, he needs to lead and take whatever salvos come his way. He had some effect as a low-profile back-bencher but, unfortunately, he is miscast as a legislative leader.

Bringing it on home in Wisconsin, Tue., Aug. 9

Minneapolis, Minnesota


Six Wisconsin senate districts will hold recall elections on Tuesday, Aug. 9. Residents who care about the future of that state and the nation must turn out to vote.

The recalls have been prompted by the legislative agenda rammed through the GOP-controlled Assembly and Senate by GOP Gov. Scott Walker. The extremist and un-American agenda seeks to alter the state's political dynamic under the guise of financial stewardship. Republicans control the senate by a margin of 19-14; Democrats must pick up a net of three seats in the recalls in order to gain majority (17-16) control of that chamber and restore checks and balance to Wisconsin's political process.


The electoral stakes are high for both sides, as reported by Politico and articulated by Judson Phillips, CEO of Tea Party Nation. Speaking at an Aug. 6 rally in Thiensville, Wisconsin – sponsored by the Tea Party Express and promoted by the Republican Party of Milwaukee County – Phillips said "I detest and despise everything the left stands for. How anybody can endorse an ideology that has killed a billion people in the last century is beyond me." A day earlier, according to Politico, Phillips "likened protestors of Gov. Scott Walker to Nazi storm troopers."


Also according to Politico, another speaker at Saturday's rally, Vince Schmuki, said "Tuesday is going to be the beginning of our takeover. And we're going to follow it up the following week, and then we're going to polish off the enemy in November 2012."


In response to voter petitions in each district, recall elections were scheduled for nine incumbents – six Republicans and three Democrats – including the six Republicans up for vote on Aug. 9:

District 2 - incumbent Robert Cowles, R-Green Bay, challenged by Nancy Nusbaum, D-De Pere;
District 8 - incumbent Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, challenged by Rep. Sandy Pasch, D-Whitefish Bay;
District 10 - incumbent Sheila Harsdorf, R-River Falls, challenged by Shelly Moore, D-River Falls;
District 14 - incumbent Luther Olsen, R-Ripon, challenged by Rep. Fred Clark, D-Baraboo;
District 18 - incumbent Randy Hopper, R-Fond du Lac, challenged by Jessica King, D-Oshkosh;
District 32 - incumbent Dan Kapanke, R-LaCrosse, challenged by Rep. Jennifer Shilling, D-LaCrosse.

Two Democratic senators will face recall votes on Aug. 16: District 12 incumbent Jim Holperin, D-Conover, faces challenger Kim Simac, R-Eagle River, and District 22 incumbent Robert Wirch, D-Pleasant Prairie, faces challenger Jonathan Steitz, R-Pleasant Prairie.


District 30 incumbent Dave Hansen, D-Green Bay, defeated his Republican challenger, Dave VanderLeest, with 66% of the vote on July 19.


The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has tagged the recall efforts as "ugly, unnecessary, and expensive," and has declined to endorse any candidates on the principle that recalls should not be used to dispute policy differences.


Most other Wisconsin newspapers are playing it straight-down-the-middle, opting to encourage readers to vote without making endorsements. One exception: The Capital Times in Madison endorsed Democratic challenger Clark over Republican incumbent Olsen in District 14.

Playing to win: Why I support Paul Thissen for governor

Minneapolis, Minnesota


In 11 days, delegates of Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party will begin gathering in Duluth to endorse candidates for statewide office. My schedule and stamina will not permit me to join them on the convention sidelines to help seal the deal that makes Paul Thissen our candidate for governor. Thus, I offer these thoughts to the delegates, particularly to my GLBT friends and colleagues.


I met Paul several years ago through his wife, Karen Wilson Thissen, with whom I served on a nonprofit board of directors. They are good people.


As lifelong Minnesotans, Paul Thissen and I share a deep appreciation and affection for the land, the people, and the traditions that give color and meaning to our lives. Both of us have traveled extensively throughout our state and understand the inherent goodwill, sense of fair play, and yearning for integrity that characterizes our people. Paul embodies these traits with a fresh and enthusiastic optimism matched by a can-do spirit of pragmatism.


As the number of days behind me continues to outpace those ahead, I still want to "win" at life's various adventures and to follow my heart with as little compromise as possible. Paul is a solid candidate on the issues that voters and candidates of all stripes should care about. Nonetheless, our party is given to imposing a 100% purity test on issues and - especially - nuances, and then tries to take the safe route by endorsing the candidates who seem to have the greatest name recognition, money, and insider connections. I am old enough to recall the last time Minnesota elected a DFL governor, and I know how well our past patterns of endorsing behavior have not worked.


Given the temper of our times, the personality and character of the next governor will be prime in determining the outcome of legislation and policy. We need to play this election to win.


As a gay man who never could have imagined the possibility of marrying his high school boy friend, I have experienced personally and vicariously the profound changes of attitude, heart, and behavior within myself and others that have replaced shadows with sunshine, fear with strength, and despair with hope. Like the best of leaders, Paul calls forth the higher angels of our nature. He has done this in speeches to assembled throngs, in one-on-one conversations, and in the introduction and passage of legislation.


As the real deal, he also does it in the raising of his own kids, all of whom accompanied us in last year's Pride Parade through the streets of downtown Minneapolis. Would that our own parents ever would have placed in our hands signs that read "Our friend has two mothers, and we think it's great!"


As a one-time political candidate, I know about the ineffable campaign experience that Paul has undertaken. I am inspired by his work ethic, the competence and confidence of his campaign team, and the equanimity of his person. I will be proud to have him serve as governor of my state, and I ask you to join me and other Minnesotans for Thissen to help make that happen!




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President Obama speaks at the annual Human Rights Campaign Dinner

Washington, D. C., Oct. 10, 2009


Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:


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The BBC's Victor Fehrenbach Story

Minneapolis, Minnesota




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Meet Karen Wilson Thissen

Minneapolis, Minnesota


It's not every day that one of my friends is in a YouTube video! I have known Karen Wilson Thissen for several years through our work in Minnesota's arts world.




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T•SUN 4GOV

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Mists

Pickerel Lake, Barnes, Wisconsin


Among others, the memorable elements of a weekend retreat to northwestern Wisconsin can include rain-drenched woods, the fourth movement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in C# minor, the second act of American Ballet Theatre’s 1977 “Giselle,” four weeks worth of The New York Times Book Review, and an aging Scottish terrier’s inability to sustain long walks in high humidity.


We have visited this extended family hideaway since 1989, each visit reflecting both stability and change. Trees inch upward imperceptibly, their changes in height observable by comparing annual photographs. Declining lake water levels become noticeable only after a few seasons. New construction on neighboring parcels occurs quickly and one later recalls that the new always was there.


The summer season – Memorial Day through Labor Day – has its rhythms of grilling, boating, and fishing, with late July being a quiet interlude with few visitors. Fall brings a relatively early frost and finds a few deer hunters combing the woods. Winter hosts activities by skiers and snowmobilers, organized loosely around the pro football schedule. Spring means transition, a time for preparation.


For years, one particular place across the lake was busy throughout the summer, with constant arrivals and departures by car and boat, and with swimmers daily visiting their anchored raft. Last year, however, the pace of activity over there slackened. This year, the raft remains landlocked and the winter covering continues to protect the pontoon boat. Incrementally, the kids have grown up and life patterns have changed for the extended L---- family. In a few years, perhaps, one might observe a group of college students taking their departure following a New Year’s Eve blowout, similar to that of a few years ago at the cabin next door to us.

• • •

Forever is a long time.


Those words have tugged at me for the nearly three weeks since Robert S. McNamara died at age 93. His passing serves to remind that we write our epitaphs incrementally by what we do and by what we leave undone. McNamara’s summing up is a tortured one:

“Architect of a Futile War,” read the headline for his obituary by Tim Weiner in the New York Times.


“’Terribly Wrong’ Handling of Vietnam Overshadowed Record of Achievement,” said the Washington Post in introducing its obit by Thomas Lippman.


“A fool,” wrote the journalist and author David Halberstam in his book “The Best and the Brightest.”

In Lippman’s words, McNamara served as the “primary architect of U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam.” During his tenure as Secretary of Defense under presidents Kennedy and Johnson, from 1961 to 1968, 16,000 American soldiers died, with another 42,000 succumbing in the succeeding seven years under Nixon.


To these may be added the countless others who were wounded physically, psychically, and spiritually – just among Americans. Millions of Vietnamese also were killed, injured, and displaced.


As McNamara’s thinking in 1967 turned away from waging war and toward negotiation, he could have made a difference by making a public break with Johnson and resigning his post. Instead, he traded his loyalty and silence for an appointment in 1968 to lead the World Bank.


In his 1995 memoir, “In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam,” McNamara said we were “wrong, terribly wrong.” At the time, notes Weiner, the New York Times editorialized:

Mr. McNamara must not escape the lasting moral condemnation of his countrymen. Surely he must in every quiet and prosperous moment hear the ceaseless whispers of those poor boys in the infantry, dying in the tall grass, platoon by platoon, for no purpose. What he took from them cannot be repaid by prime-time apology and stale tears, three decades late.

Indeed. As millions of people found their voices to oppose the war the longer it carried on, McNamara owed them his in their effort to stop the bloodshed carried on in their names.


Still, he and his many colleagues in leadership need not twist in the wind by themselves. As Halberstam noted, McNamara was "a prisoner of his own background...unable, as indeed was the country which sponsored him, to adapt his values and his terms to Vietnamese realities."

• • •

I was 12 years old and attending summer camp on Green Lake near Chisago City, Minnesota, when North Vietnamese torpedo boats reportedly attacked U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 1964. Three days later, The Tonkin Gulf Resolution was approved by both houses of Congress, passing unanimously in the House of Representatives and nearly so in the Senate. The resolution provided presidents Johnson and Nixon with the authorization – and the implied blank check – that they needed to conduct the military operations of the war. The attack on Aug. 4 never happened.


It took three days to mobilize the country for war. It would take years to mobilize the people for peace in sufficient numbers to elect a congress that would shut off the war's funding.


I spent the summer of 1977 campaigning in south Minneapolis as a candidate for the city council. Every citizen should stand for office at least once as the undertaking is among the best educations one can receive. Visiting with voters at their doors provides the opportunity to be embraced, rejected, applauded, dismissed, and challenged in every way. You meet everyone you can imagine.


One hot day, I was invited inside by a resident of one house. It was the home of a family whose son had been killed in Vietnam. At the time, I told myself I would never forget the particulars of their story; unfortunately, I have. What has stayed with me, however, was the utter emptiness and absence of life in that house. For its residents, time had stopped. I was running for municipal office, but for these folks their enduring relationship to government would always focus on the national forces that had taken their child. It was my first personalized insight into the sacred trust that should bind citizens and their elected officials.


Frequently, presidents talk to or meet with the surviving relatives of soldiers killed in the nation's service. In his diary entry for Sept. 6, 1983, President Reagan noted his call to the parents of two U.S. Marines killed in Lebanon: "One father asked if they were in Lebanon for anything that was worth his son's life." Although their policies and directives may not change as a result of such interactions, I think it is important that presidents and others have the experiences.

• • •

My friend, John, graduated from Columbia University last year and since has been working with AmeriCorps. He came here to Pickerel Lake with us during a too-brief visit last fall. We had met 10 years earlier when he moved to Minnesota as a young dancer, fresh from high school. After two years, he returned to California to dance with a company there. He has dropped in to visit us a few times over the years, and we have traveled to both coasts to see his performances.


As a dancer, as a student, and on his own initiative, John has had the opportunity to travel and take the measure of most of the U.S. and much of the world, including Australia, South America, and Europe.


Various sets of past circumstances could have conspired to make of him a soldier, fighting in my name, and yours. I mean no disrespect to any soldier when I acknowledge that I cannot dwell long on that thought – it is too painful to contemplate. In following the dictates of his own conscience, John may become a lifelong warrior of a different sort, but one who also makes it more difficult for nations and people to choose wars.


I am grateful that he added his essence to the mists on these shores. Among others, his presence was a memorable element of a weekend retreat to northwestern Wisconsin.

Paul Thissen for Minnesota's Governor 2010

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Thanks for YES

Minneapolis, Minnesota


Vote Yes Minnesota, the organization that advocated for the Legacy Amendment to the Minnesota constitution that voters approved last November by 56+%, raised $3.97 million for its efforts. Writing for Finance and Commerce, July 13, Steve Perry reported that $1.82 million, or 46% of the total, was received in 15 donations of $25,000 or more. The single largest gift, $1 million, was contributed by Alida Messinger. Names of those donors accompanied Perry's report and are on file with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board.


Thanks to all who provided the money, the muscle, and the votes for a statewide crusade of civic and moral responsibility!

How to spend Minnesota's public arts money

Minneapolis, Minnesota


The directors and staffs of the Minnesota State Arts Board and the eleven Regional Arts Councils have an opportunity without precedent to invest in the future of our state and build an arts legacy second-to-none, provided they think and act globally as well as locally, daringly as well as prudently.


Last Nov. 4, more than 56% of Minnesota's voters said YES to the Clean Water, Land, and Legacy Amendment to the Minnesota Constitution. Starting July 1, Legacy increased the state sales tax by 3/8 of 1% for 25 years to dedicate funds for lakes, rivers, streams, groundwater, wetlands, prairies, forests, fish, game, wildlife habitat, parks, and trails. The amendment also provides 19.75% of the collected funds for arts, arts education and access, and preservation of history and cultural heritage.


With statewide lobbying by Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, the 2009 Minnesota Legislature appropriated the first Legacy funds for fiscal years 2010 and 2011 (as reported by MCA):

Funding to the arts via the Minnesota State Arts Board and Regional Arts Councils will increase by $21,650,000 per year for the next two years, for a total of $43.3 million. Added to the $8.6 million passed in the state’s economic development bill, there will now be just over $30 million in state funding for the arts annually, compared to just over $10 million annually this year.

Here is how it breaks down in each year, 2010 and 2011:

• $16,775,000 for Arts and Arts Access Initiatives, “to support Minnesota’s artists and arts organizations in creating, producing and presenting high-quality arts activities; to overcome barriers to accessing high-quality arts activities, and to instill the arts into the community and public life in this state.”
• $3,245,000 for Arts Education Collaborations, for “high-quality, age-appropriate arts education for Minnesotans of all ages to develop knowledge, skills, and understanding of the arts”
• $1,080,000 for Arts in Cultural Heritage, “for events and activities that represent the diverse ethnic and cultural arts traditions, including folk and traditional artists and art organizations represented in this state, ” and
• $550,000 for Fiscal Oversight and Accountability (to the MSAB). The first three items above will be available 70% from the MSAB and 30% from the Regional Arts Councils.
• In addition to the dedicated funding above, libraries received $4.25 million per year which “may be used to sponsor programs provided by regional libraries, or to provide grants to local arts and heritage programs for programs in partnership with regional libraries,” (i.e., opportunities for artists and arts organizations to work with libraries).
• Also, the Humanities Center received $300,000 per year for “museums and organizations celebrating the ethnic identities of Minnesotans” to re-grant, so there may be further opportunities for artists and arts organizations.

In addition, over the next two years, the Minnesota Historical Society will receive $14.4 million, public television $6.3 million, Minnesota Public Radio $2.65 million, AMPERS (local public radio) $2.65 million, children’s museums $1 million, the Science Museum of Minnesota $900,000, Minnesota Zoos $900,000, libraries $8.5 million, Indian Affairs Council (for projects related to the preservation of native languages) $1.9 million, Perpich Center for Arts Education $1 million, and the Minnesota Humanities Center, $2.1 million.

Pretty amazing? Look up from your screen and say "YES!"


Following the legislature's adjournment, staff of the Minnesota State Arts Board conducted a series of forums throughout the state to solicit feedback about funding principles and suggestions for specific funding areas. Currently, the MSAB's thinking embraces the following principles:

• Statewide approach
• Demographic and geographic fairness
• Inclusiveness
• Sustainability
• Anticipatory and flexible
• Transparency and public involvement
• Accountability and stewardship

I attended the public forum in Minneapolis on June 6 and, with 40 others, ran my mouth for two hours about how the MSAB and the RACs should spend Minnesota's public arts money for the next two years. It was a fascinating and stimulating discussion. In the run-up to last November's balloting, I wrote here on Oct. 12 about the reasons why Minnesotans might want to vote YES, along with suggestions for how funds might be spent, with related posts on Oct. 29, Oct. 30, Nov. 5, and Jan. 22.


Today's Minnesota Mist posting updates and reflects my current thinking on the subject in response to the MSAB's request for input. You also should share your thinking, by the means described below.


I know what I am writing about. Besides knocking around Minnesota's arts milieu as a relatively successful arts administrator working with more than 50 communities during nearly 30 years, over the past 10 years, I served on 18 grant review panels for the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, and the Jerome Foundation. In that service I analyzed and commented about the programs, administrations, and finances of hundreds of small and mid-sized organizations. During the 1990s, I worked with the Bush Foundation and its consortium of funding agencies to raise $100,000 to assist arts organizations, post-flood, in Grand Forks, North Dakota. For many years, I led an organization with access to a $100,000 commercial line of credit based upon my signature. In my consulting activities, I have reviewed and analyzed the tax returns and financial statements of more than 24 organizations. Along the way, I have coached many individual artists and ensembles on a variety of organization, program, administrative, and life issues.


These activities have made me familiar with hundreds of individuals and organizations in all disciplines and corners of the state – from Lanesboro and Rochester in the southeast, to Duluth and Grand Rapids in the north, to Fargo and Fergus Falls in the northwest, and the nine-to-13 counties of the Twin Cities region. At whatever stage of their artistic development, all of these people embody the core values of artistic excellence, accountability and transparency as stewards of public resources, innovation, and respectful partnering in the intellectual and creative development of our people.


Although the legislature previously has been episodically very generous in its appropriations for the arts, its overall investment has not kept pace with inflation and growth of field since 1977. Individual elected representatives and senators who support the arts must acknowledge that fact of life, even as they seek to downplay their complicity in its reality. In this, the legislature differs not at all from the intents, practices, and capacities of our major corporate and foundation grant-making agencies.


With passage of the initiative by Minnesota's former governor, Arne Carlson, the legislature appropriated $13 million for the arts in 1998. This was reduced somewhat to $12.6 million for 2002, and to $8.59 million for each year 2003 to 2007. The appropriation for 2008 was $10.33 million. The average annual inflation rate of 2.71% during the 10 years from 1998 to 2008 made the $13 million appropriation for 1998 equal to $17 million in 2008 and, if extended, $17.9 million in 2010.


My current assumptions, for the points that follow below: $21,650,000 of new annual funding + $8,600,000 of "existing funding" = $30,250,000 of annual funding in 2010 and 2011.


My wish list for 2010 and 2011 begins with the principle of restoring, through the rule-making process, all MSAB and RAC programs to the levels they enjoyed in 1998 when funding was $13 million. This restoration would require an allocation of $17.9 million to fund the same programs for the same number of communities, organizations, and individual artists, adjusted for inflation, but also adjusted for current, statutory mandates and circumstances that recognize how communities, organizations, artists, and programs have changed or gone away over the past seven years. By what rationale would the MSAB and RACs do otherwise?


Then, the following minimum funding increases should be made to existing programs to allow for inflation and growth of field: (a) Individual artist initiatives, $1.25 million; (b) Institutional organization (general operating) support, $1.75 million; (c) Presenting organization support, $750,000; (d) Arts Across Minnesota touring, $750,000; (e) Arts education initiatives, $1 million.


All grants to individual artists by the MSAB or the RACs should equal or exceed $10,000. While current grants of lesser amounts for projects encourage the pursuit of artistic excellence, they rarely allow it to be realized. By what rationale should the grant amounts be less than $10,000?


If we believe that innovation and collaboration are keys to advancement, then funds should be available to any individual artist or arts organization, of any size, to commission new work from Minnesota artists in all disciplines. A $500,000 pool of commissioning funds, administered by the Minnesota State Arts Board on a once-per-year basis, should be available to applicants in amounts up to $50,000, with 20% of the available pool reserved for grants of $15,000 or less.


In the interest of sustainability, and to build infrastructure, the RACs should annually administer and grant from an $850,000 pool of technical assistance and equipment funds for all grantees of the MSAB and the RACs, regardless of budget size. The size of a specific grant should be without limit within the constraints of the total pool of available funds. Prior to 2003, the McKnight Foundation’s capital program made equipment and technical assistance grants to its grantees over and above its general operating grants. Grantees were eligible for one capital grant every five years. Applications were easy and straight-forward, and their approval helped build an organization’s physical infrastructure, including such things as telephones that work, computer networks that can talk to each other, lighting equipment, portable floors, choral risers at park pavilions, etc. For whatever good reasons, McKnight needed to discontinue this program; need for the program continues.


The MSAB should surmount bureaucratic obstacles and make an annual grant of up to $350,000 to the Performing Arts Archives at the University of Minnesota. This grant should be earmarked specifically to accelerate the acquisition, processing, and retention of records – broadly defined – for archival purposes from performing arts organizations throughout Minnesota.


Once annually, members of the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Forum of Regional Arts Councils should convene as the [new] Minnesota Cultural Facilities Commission. The commission should have a $2.5 million pool of funds from which to make annual planning grants of up to $500,000, and capital construction grants of up to $2 million, for projects whose total cost will be $10 million or less. This body also should recommend statewide priorities to the legislature for capital bonding projects costing more than $10 million.


In the interests of inclusiveness and demographic and geographic fairness, new program initiatives should make $1.5 million available statewide on an annual basis for music organizations (rock and roll bands, rhythm and blues bands, GLBT bands, Christian or other sectarian instrumental/vocal groups, VFW and American Legion bands, community theaters, and bands and choirs of specific affinity groups). These initiatives should provide streamlined processes for idiosyncratic grants of as little as $500 to $1,000.


A $1 million pool of funds, administered by the MSAB, should be dedicated to experiments in the provision of administrative infrastructure for organizations with budgets less than $200,000. Current RAC programs provide funds to hire consultants who can tell artists what they need to do. This new funding pool would aim to provide the savvy skill-sets to actually do the work.


All grants should be available to organizations that are not necessarily 501(c)(3) under the Internal Revenue Service code. Provision should be made for those, for instance, that are organized as limited liability corporations (LLC). If one considers that grants made to individual artists are made to "for profit" individuals, then it is not a major stretch to conclude that grants will be appropriate to some organizations that are "for profit."


Finally, although members of the legislature made it clear that a minimum of new arts funding should support increased staffing of the MSAB, the state's collective arts community should push back and insist that a minimum of $150,000 in new funds be devoted to the support of staffing positions at the agency. In other words, get the politicians out of the micromanaging of the personnel resources needed to conduct the agency's operations which have been understaffed for several years.


Now, it is your turn to weigh-in. Sue Gens, executive director, Minnesota State Arts Board, issued the following message on July 10:

Recently, the Minnesota State Arts Board and Minnesota's 11 regional arts councils completed a statewide series of public forums. The purpose was to collect input on how best to invest the new arts and cultural heritage funds that will become available this year. We are grateful to everyone who participated in these sessions.

If you were not able to participate, there is another way for you to provide input. Please take a few minutes to visit the Arts Board's Web site and share your thoughts by completing an online survey at http://www.arts.state.mn.us.

By what rationale would you not want to tell MSAB how to spend Minnesota's public arts money?

Clear answers about Coleman/Franken recount

Minneapolis, Minnesota


Eric Black, a political blogger for MinnPost, has followed the recount and legal contest between Minnesota's senate candidates Al Franken and Norm Coleman since November. Black recently took questions from a nationwide audience about the contest; the questions and his excellent responses were published by the Washington Post, May 6.

Jonathan Haidt, again

Minneapolis, Minnesota


Last September, I posted links to Jonathan Haidt's extensive discourse, What Makes People Vote Republican?, and various extensive responses. Haidt is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia where he conducts research on morality and emotion and how they vary across cultures. Now, writer Tom Jacobs reports in Miller-McCune magazine about Haidt's view of morality as a team sport: "Morality is not just about how we treat each other, as most liberals think....It is also about binding groups together and supporting essential institutions." Read the article here.

Fury!

Minneapolis, Minnesota


Outrageous and unbelievable!


In the last week: I visited with an agent of a for-profit enterprise that just laid off more than five dozen people and is evaluating whether to renew its sponsoring relationship with one of our major sports facilities. I spoke with an arts community leader who is concerned about losing the community's production infrastructure that provides employment to thousands of on-stage and off-stage people. I took coffee with a writer who is trying to piece together rent and grocery money in a fragmenting publishing milieu. I caught up with a publicist who is working seven days a week to fill 75% of available seats in an ongoing business that requires more than that to break even. On Friday, I dropped in on six organizations to cheer their morale as they deal with budgetary turmoil.


Yesterday: The American International Group (aka A.I.G., the insurance giant termed "too big to fail") announced that it is awarding $165 million in performance-related bonuses for 2008 to some of its employees. This is after the collective we, the citizens of the United States (not all of us are taxpayers) bailed out this firm with infusions of public cash, borrowed from China, to the tune of $170 billion. In a letter to A.I.G.'s chairman, the secretary of the treasury, Timothy Geithner, urged that the bonuses be scrapped.


Today: Larry Summers, chair of the White House National Economic Council, said he is outraged by the news, but because of contracts that pre-date the public bailout there is nothing that can be done to stop the bonuses (although, apparently, effective curbs are in process of implementation going forward). Further, the chairman of A.I.G. says that subjecting the compensation policies of his organization to the dictates of the government (aka the public – you and me – the owners – the people who have guaranteed that they still have jobs) will risk a talent drain to the competition.


Wall Street is separated from Main Street not just by a yawning gap. Wall Street is its own surreal, parallel universe.


Note to Summers and others who say "No we can't" stop these bonuses: You owe your own jobs to our belief and desire that "Yes we can!"


We don't care how you do it. Shut down this outrage!

A good start

Minneapolis, Minnesota


With half of Minnesotans on suicide watch owing to the duration and intensity of winter, and with half poised to slit their wrists if the Coleman/Franken recount does not end during recorded history, sunshine coupled with sustained high temperatures cannot arrive too soon.


Even if this morning began with windchills of –15º to –20º, today's deep and piercing sunshine is a good start, a welcome uptick from yesterday's gray overhang and dump of slop. Once we emerge from tonight's thermometer low of –6º, we will have a shot at remaining above freezing during coming days.


There even are glimmers of hope on the recount front. Assuming that the final witnesses can make it to St. Paul from our blizzard-strewn counties to the west, Team Franken might rest its case this afternoon – two or three weeks ahead of predictions. After Team Coleman's rebuttal and any Franken re-rebuttal, plus closing arguments by both sides, Coleman's legal challenge to the State Canvassing Board's final report could go to the special panel of three, state court judges next week.


After that? Stay tuned. While Franken told some Democratic senators yesterday that he saw light at the end of the recount tunnel, Coleman's campaign manager asserted to some reporters that it really was the light of an oncoming train.


For drama queens and others of every stripe, we have enjoyed or endured (take your pick) months of civic distemper on every topic. From those on the left – complaining about the left-right-and-center – to those on the right – carrying on about the right-left-and-center – it seems none of us are happy about anything.


(Notwithstanding a new Gallup poll that says Minnesotans rank themselves fifth highest for health and happiness.)


Well. At least someone is trying to cope.


The front page of this morning's Star Tribune newspaper featured an interesting juxtaposition. At the top center, the president was quoted as saying "The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens." The adjacent story reported about a substitute teacher in St. Paul who was sent home from school yesterday after blowing a 0.18% on a Breathalyzer test.


Probably not the kind of education, or coping, the prez had in mind.


Coping is a state of mind that requires a positive outlook. For example, anyone who still qualifies to pay capital gains taxes in any amount can be added to the endangered species list. (I know that hurts and isn't funny.) Further, at least for now, it appears that close to 90% of the country is still employed at least part-time. (Also not funny).


Our entertainment industries stand ready to help. The owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves basketball team has taken to the airwaves to pitch season tickets for five bucks a game – with the promise that anyone laid off during 2009 will receive a refund.


Only medical tests, however, can remove the darkest cloud on the horizon. Joe Mauer, our hometown star catcher for the Minnesota Twins, had kidney surgery in December. Joe has been able to catch, throw, and swing a bat in spring training, but he still cannot run without back pain and has yet to play a pre-season game. This is not good as we await results of today's magnetic resonance arthrogram in Fort Myers.


Joe's good health would help get the baseball season off to a good start. Could the rest of the world be far behind?

Stories with brains

Minneapolis, Minnesota


Faced with an apparent underwhelming choice of candidates for the U.S. senate in 2008 (incumbent Norm Coleman-R, and challengers Al Franken-DFL and Dean Barkley-I), Minnesota voters contrived to choose none of them for as long as possible.


The proceedings surrounding the re-count of an election too-close-to-call, certification by the State Canvassing Board, and the (so far) month-long trial initiated by Coleman have resulted in not seating one of two senators to which Minnesota is entitled. Today's tally has Franken ahead by fewer than 300 votes, but stay tuned. Eventually, either Coleman or Franken will assume the office, with neither possessing a mandate from a majority of the voters.


I appreciate the collective wisdom of this expression by the electorate, although I know that many do not. Possibly, if we could have forced a do-over with a new slate of candidates, we would have done so. That is not in the legal deck of cards.


Would that it were so, however, for such sterling public servants as Jack Kingston, the representative for Georgia's 1st Congressional District. Before voting against the recent stimulus package, Kingston raised a fuss about including $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts because the money would not be spent on real jobs for real people. That kind of talk riled some of us arts and culture types. Especially since Kingston's own website touts his district as something of "a literary haven" and the background setting for filming of Academy Award-winning movies.


Kingston's wisdom aside, artists and members of their support system believe themselves to be very real people. In fact, I believe one segment of artists – dancers – are among the most intelligent people on the planet.


Coinciding with the conversation in Washington about the reality of the arts was the appearance in Minneapolis of an essay by Melodie Bahan, director of communications at the Guthrie Theater. Bahan, who says she likes well-written reviews, thinks that readers of daily newspapers would be served better by a focus on "actual journalistic coverage of the arts."


Insisting that journalists are storytellers and that thousands of stories are not being written, Bahan says "Stop writing reviews and start writing news."


Oh, honey!


Surely you at least thought twice about such a position after the Star Tribune newspaper reported last month about the $682,300 salary and benefits that were paid to Guthrie Director Joe Dowling in 2007. (That is less than 3% of the Guthrie's budget, by the way.) Even though an editorial noted that Dowling and others had earlier taken 20% cuts, and even though a reader observed the sum is less than 5% that paid to three roster members of the Minnesota Twins, I would bet that you and your colleagues did not welcome the writing of such news. Nor the discussion that has reverberated since.


Nonetheless, let us assume that the arts are somehow as real as the rest of the world, that they are created and sustained by real people, that they impart meaning and value to other real people, and that they should be subject to real journalism. What real, or surreal, stories would then be written, and with what timing?


Relative to Dowling, we would have read in 2003 that he and others took 20% pay cuts to tide over a rough patch in the Guthrie's finances. That would have been as laudable then as was last week's welcome news that Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, opted to forego a 2008 performance bonus of $11.7 million after the company's stock price tanked by 56%. As noted by Forbes, this action by Immelt and GE set an example both of good governance and good public relations. The example stands in contrast to the more than $3 billion in bonuses approved for employees of Merrill Lynch by former CEO John Thain following 4th quarter losses in 2008 of multi-millions of dollars.


We would read, as we did last week, that the New York City Ballet would not renew the contracts of 11 of 101 dancers next year; that senior staff already had taken 10% salary reductions; that junior staff will take 5% reductions next year; that ticket sales and donations are down 6-8%; that this year's deficit of $5.5 million will equal 8.8% of the $62.3 million budget; that next year's deficit is projected at $2-3 million; and that the endowment has dropped from $187 million to $138 million. We would read, as we have not, how the company intends to finance multiple years of deficits totalling multi-millions of dollars. We would read, as we have not, why the company believes it cannot institute balanced budgets for the current and succeeding years.


Such stories would juxtapose nicely with today's congressional testimony by Chesley Sullenberger, the US Airways pilot who landed Flight 1549 safely in the Hudson River, not far from City Ballet's headquarters at Lincoln Center. Sullenberger told the aviation subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that his pay has been cut 40% in recent years and his pension terminated. He has started a consulting business to augment his pilot's pay and works seven days a week to make ends meet.


We would continue to be outraged by news such as that greeting us this morning: (1) After investing $150 billion in American International Group (aka A.I.G., the insurance giant that is "too big to fail") where the collective we now own 80% of the company, they tell us they need tens of billions of dollars more. (2) After investing $45 billion in Citigroup, we need to give them more, raising our ownership stake to 40%. (3) General Motors and Chrysler need $22 billion on top of the $17 billion we already have lent. No doubt, some top staff people at these outfits would continue to complain about the government's salary compensation caps because they have contrived a lifestyle for themselves that does not work with less than seven figures.


(You read it here first: I can and will run any company into the ground for $500,000 a year. I will bring along my own cronies to help me do it. Where do I sign my contract?)


An age of real-arts-news-not-reviews would continue to include hard facts in stories such as appeared in the New York Times nine days ago (Sun., Feb. 15, 2009, AR5). Writer Kate Taylor reported on the viral fund-raising efforts by the Magic Theatre in San Francisco to raise $350,000 to avoid closing for good after 40 years. The theater has enjoyed a national reputation for its creation and production of new plays.


Basically, as reported by Taylor, a former artistic director drove the subscription audience away with crappy work that even the board of directors did not like. Still, the staff and board let the budget (i.e., expense budget) double to $2 million while debts mounted. After a $75,000 shortfall in this season's subscriptions "the board took a closer look at the balance sheets....The theater had maxed out its $300,000 line of credit and had $300,000 in other debts."


I have been looking for a new gig in the arts, am up for a challenge, and saw that the Magic had a leadership position posted. So, I started digging deeper to find out more of the back story on $600,000 of debt – representing 30% of the budget. A Dec. 31 story in the San Francisco Chronicle quoted the artistic director as saying "There was a lot of debt we didn't realize we had....This situation is the result of years and years of mismanagement."


A Jan. 19 Chronicle story related a combination of causes and quoted the board chair thusly: "The reports we were getting at the finance committee level and at the board level were not thorough enough for us to fully understand the mounting accounts payable....That's our fault." The future of the Magic Theatre remains in doubt.


Indeed.


Rep. Kingston down in Georgia should take comfort in the knowledge that mindless risk-taking and financial mismanagement are traits shared by incompetents in for-profit and non-profit enterprises.


Ms. Bahan is right: there are a lot of stories not being written. Some of them could include the tales of mismanagement and poor governance within organizations in Minnesota that pre-date the current economic downturn. To be fair, however, many organizations do have their acts together, and we should read about those also.


Just as I read this morning about many of Minnesota's good "Banks That Had a Brain" in a laudatory essay by Minnesota's solo senator, Amy Klobuchar. Not all banks lost their heads and ran off to the land of Oz, Klobuchar writes. "They did well, both for themselves and for the people they serve."

Vignettes

Minneapolis, Minnesota


The Minnesota Orchestra presented the world premiere of its commission, "Oboe Concerto," by composer Christopher Rouse this week. A thoroughly pleasant work, it was given a fine reading by Basil Reeve and his colleagues under the baton of Osmo Vänskä. Along with other works, the program also included Tchaikovsky's "Pathétique." I have not heard this symphony live since Eiji Oue led the Orchestra. As conducted by Vänskä, the work had more energy and nuance than one hears on many recordings.

• • •

Why do some Republicans insist on speaking about real Virginians, real Americans, and now real people?


Michael Kranish reported in the Boston Globe last week about criticism of the economic stimulus bill moving through Congress. The House version – passed without a single Republican vote – contains $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts. The funds are not in the current draft of the yet-to-be-passed Senate version. Kranish cited Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the third-ranking Republican in the House, "who has urged Obama to 'get the pork barrel spending out,'" and Rep. Jack Kingston, a Georgia Republican, who wants to transfer the proposed NEA funding to highway construction. "We have real people out of work right now and putting $50 million in the NEA and pretending that's going to save jobs as opposed to putting $50 million in a road project is disingenuous," Kingston said [emphasis added].


Michael Steele, the newly-elected GOP chairman, shares that line of thought. Speaking on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos this morning, Steele said "What this administration is talking about is making work. It is creating work.... It's not a job."


It makes one wonder what is real.

• • •

The Minneapolis Convention Center stands four blocks from my house and serves as the portal to the downtown skyway system – enclosed bridges that span streets to connect buildings on the second level. Over the years I have observed and overheard the buzz of many convenings, including those of varied religious organizations. For three days last week, nearly 1,400 pastors swarmed the hallways and skyways leading to the Hilton Hotel for the "Desiring God" conference. According to their literature and website, this is a Baptist-related group that follows the ministry of John Piper, a senior pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis. Piper's congregation has played a positive role in its community, including as an advocate for affordable housing. Nonetheless, it was a bit startling to understand how divergent are some of its perspectives from one's own. To-wit, this answer to a question about the Desiring God conference:

Can Pastor's Wives Attend? We intentionally seek to foster a male fraternity because it is rare and uniquely refreshing for pastors to fellowship with men who carry similar burdens and to counsel one another with the kind of frankness that is awkward to do in mixed company. However, we do not prohibit wives from attending, knowing that there are circumstances where it is the best choice for marriage or ministry

This is startling because I have become used to churches where women serve as full partners in ministry and whatever burdens come with it.