This is the way the Bemidji Pioneer reported the the Republican gubernatorial forum in Bemidji, Minnesota, held on the campus of Bemidji State University which has become a pillar of support for perpetuating institutionalized racism in northern Minnesota by providing the intellectual justification for the continued rape of Native American Indian lands of resources from peat to iron ore as air, water and land is contaminated and polluted in the process. Feeling right at home and comfortable, these racist Minnesota Republicans were arrogant, smug and confident their "South Carolina" appeal to racism would go unchallenged in Bemidji.... but, as reported in the Bemidji Pioneer, these Republican supporters and defenders of institutionalized racism who openly stated their unanimous opposition to affirmative action, were vigorously challenged...
What I find very interesting and equally informative is that these Republicans never attempt to explain how it is that there are such vast discrepancies in unemployment and poverty in communities of people of color in this country.
Nationally, unemployment stands at around ten percent and rising... on Indian Reservations and in the City of Bemidji, Minnesota, unemployment among Native American Indians is over 65% and climbing and for over eight years affirmative action in Minnesota has not been enforced; non-enforcement has been the de facto policy.
What are these Republicans saying, if affirmative action had been enforced unemployment and poverty would be even worse? What kind of utter fools, except a bunch of racist bigots, would advance such "logic?"
All of the candidates urged attendees to turn out to precinct caucuses next Tuesday.
All of the candidates in public and private conversation stated their opposition to affirmative action.
Of the some twenty candidates from various political parties presently in the race to become Minnesota's next governor, former liberal United States Senator Mark Dayton who occasionally expresses some progressive and even left views, is alone among the candidates in defending affirmative action by going so far as to call attention to the fact affirmative action is not being enforced as the law requires by state agencies; however, Dayton has yet to take these state agencies to task nor as he used his campaign for governor to coerce these state agencies to come into compliance with federal, state and local affirmative action guidelines and policies by insisting on the enforcement as constitutionally mandated.
Dayton has promised, as a result of discussions with this writer and others, that he would use his influence and his campaign for governor to force the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development into full compliance with affirmative action requirements.
The most cited violation of affirmative action in Minnesota centers on the Bemidji Regional Event Center where the most glaring and disgusting institutionalized racism was brought to light by Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party candidate for state Senate District 4, Gregory W. Paquin running against the present DFL Senator Mary Olson whose campaign is financed almost solely by the Minnesota Indian gaming Association and those profiting from this lucrative business that thrives off the poverty it inflicts on the majority of the Native American Indian people now experiencing over 65% unemployment and up to 80% living in poverty.
Paquin is a union pipe-fitter by trade who has struggled for years against the institutionalized racism of the building trades unions citing example after example of jobs employing 600 to 700 workers like at the power generating facilities where it was a good day for affirmative action if two or three of the hundreds of workers are people of color even though many of the jobs are on projects sitting right in the middle of thousands of people of color languishing in poverty.
Paquin decided to run for the state Senate after he made repeated attempts to convince Minnesota State Senator Mary Olson to meet with Bemidji City officials and Dan McElroy the head of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) to insist on the enforcement of affirmative action.
Paquin initially approached Senator Olson at the ground-breaking ceremonies for the Bemidji Regional Event Center where Rita Albrecht brought in Native American dancers and drummers for the event. Previously, prior to even establishing a committee to begin planning for the Bemidji Regional Event Center (BREC), City Planner Rita Albrecht was quoted in the Bemidji Pioneer that full involvement of the Native American Indian Community would be included in everything surrounding the BREC.
Except for the Native American Indian dancers and drummers entertaining the dignitaries at the ground-breaking ceremony--- and a commitment to install some Native American art work and sculptures, there has been no Native American Indian involvement in anything surrounding the BREC; especially, and most notably, when it comes to employment opportunities. Albrecht made a commitment to the Native American Indian communities in the area that they would be able to rent the BREC facilities for Pow-Wows.
At the present time, VenuWorks, the private firm the City of Bemidji has brought in to manage and profit from this public works project is working on deals with the six local casinos to transport people from BREC events and the casinos back and forth. VenuWorks' on-site manager, Mr. LeBarron, for the BREC explains this as a "win-win deal" for the BREC and the casino managements.
VenuWorks has promised these casino managements that wages paid to hourly employees will not be in competition with the wages paid to casino workers so as to prevent an increase in the pathetically low wages in the Bemidji area hospitality industry where the poverty wages paid to thousands of casino workers has set the standard.. in other words, the pathetic poverty wage minimum wage is the standard although many casino managements refuse to even honor the minimum wage which neither the state nor federal departments of labor will enforce at the casinos. Pay stubs obtained from casino workers show pay two and three dollars an hour below the minimum wage.
That Mark Dayton has now acknowledged that DEED and MNDOT are not enforcing affirmative action policies as required by law has caused many people in Senate District 4 to realize that MN DFL Senator Mary Olson, MN DFL Representative John Percell, Congressmen Collin Peterson and James Oberstar, along with United States Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken have failed in their jobs by refusing to insist on the state and federally mandated enforcement of affirmative action.
At the center of this controversy swirling around this blatant failure to enforce affirmative action is the role of Bemidji City Planner Rita Albrecht, City Manager John Chattin and Bemidji City Attorney Al Felix all of whom admit they intentionally refused to implement affirmative action in hiring for the planning, construction, management, staffing and maintenance of the Bemidji Regional Event Center (BREC), the largest public works project in northern Minnesota in decades.
Bemidji City Manager John Chattin, in the most outrageous example of the extreme institutionalized racism which permeates the City of Bemidji, had the unmitigated gall and the audacity to acknowledge under oath that he told Gregory W. Paquin that he was not going to enforce affirmative action and that if Paquin didn't like his answer he should go talk to the manager of the general contractor, Kraus-Anderson, himself.
Everyday that Rita Albrecht, John Chattin and Al Felix go to work, they view the long lines of impoverished, hungry people--- with Native American Indians far in excess of their 25% population of the City of Bemidji--- people waiting to get food at the Beltrami County Food Shelf which is right across the street from the Bemidji City Hall.
The only place where Native American Indians are found in greater numbers than their population than at the Beltrami County Food Shelf is at the Beltrami County Jail a couple blocks down the street from the Bemidji City Hall where over 50% of the jail population is Native American Indian and even the Republican Beltrami County Sheriff acknowledges the primary reason for the high rate of incarceration of Native American Indians is the poverty resulting from joblessness.
As anyone in this country understands, working people without jobs are going to be poor. And the employers understand that large numbers of unemployed people living in poverty are nothing but pools of cheap labor driving down wages; an observation not lost on the Indian Gaming Industry and the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association whose profits thrive because of the low wages assured to them by this web of injustice spun by institutionalized racism.
Recently, racist Bemidji Police murdered a Native American youth after police were called to help him. The full details of this police shooting have yet to be made public after many months. Many people want to know how it is that police responding to a call to help someone end up shooting and killing him.
No Native American Indians sit on the Bemidji City Council, one Native American Indian is on the Beltrami County Board, Quentin Fairbanks a retired Minnesota Highway Patrol officer who says he prefers not to become involved in questioning racist hiring practices but is quick to defend the casino industry--- Fairbanks complains of heart problems every time he is asked to assist victims of racism, but recovers in time to run for re-election; not one single Native American Indian is sitting among the more than two-hundred state legislators and there are no Native American Indians among Minnesota's Congressional delegation in the U.S. House or U.S. Senate in spite of the fact that the casino managements and the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association have spent tens of millions of dollars contributing to the campaigns of candidates like Senator Mary Olson who comes looking for campaign contributions and votes from Native American Indians at election time but refuses to intervene to make sure affirmative action is being enforced; and, then, even after having the facts pushed right under her nose that affirmative action is not being enforced, she refuses to act.
Olson and the other Democrats have been very smug in thinking that the game they are playing in ignoring the plight of injustices of Native American Indians while continuing to get the campaign contributions from the casino managements would go unchallenged forever.
Now people are demanding to know how it is that an industry creating billions of dollars in profits is also responsible for tens of thousands of Native American Indians living in the most deplorable conditions of the most shameful poverty?
John McCarthy and the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association have refused to answer this question.
What DFL State Senator Mary Olson does not want to talk about now is that John McCarthy, the flamboyant racist and flaunter of wealth who is the Executive Director of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, is her campaign manager and political confidant; and the racist Bemidji City Planner Brita Albrecht is deeply involved in Olson's campaign in every way from fund-raising to logistics, and Rita Albrecht's daughter serves on the staff of State Senator Tom Bakk who is known as one of the most notorious racist politicians in Minnesota history to whom affirmative action is akin to the plague... Bakk gets oodles and oodles of money from the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association. Bakk is now one of the DFL candidates running for governor. When questioned about affirmative action at a recent Governor's Forum on Native American issues, Bakk's red face twisted in dis-configuration as his anger grew after being asked his position... all that he would say is that he supported the Indian Gaming Industry... and after this remark, John McCarthy wildly applauded.
Check out the article below... the Republicans spout the racist, reactionary and anti-labor views; the Democrats, with a very few exceptions like former United States Senator Mark Dayton now a Minnesota gubernatorial candidate and Gregory W. Paquin running to unseat Senator Mary Olson, are implementing the Republican agenda...
Encouraging is the fact that State Representative Tom Rukavina has stated that, if elected governor, his door will be open to discussing the enforcement of affirmative action.
The question remains, why aren't any of these candidates (Dayton might, but I'm not going to hold my breath) using their campaigns as a bully-pulpit calling for enforcement of affirmative action.
When Mark Dayton and R.T. Rybak asked me what I suggested they do, I told each of them, "Whether or not you are nominated for governor, we know you will be supporting whoever the DFL chooses to run. Therefore, why don't you talk to your colleagues and all go down to the Bemidji City Hall and insist that this bunch of racist bigots fully implement affirmative action in all facets surrounding the BREC--- it is still not too late to get Native American Indians jobs on construction, for sure it is still not too late to hire Native American Indians for management, staff and maintenance positions. You need to insist that all of these jobs pay real living wages because as you know when you pay someone a poverty wage poverty is the result. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak asked me, "How many jobs would you say would be 'fair' for Native Americans to get at the BREC?" I told R.T. Rybak he should "ask Native American Indians sitting in this room that question."
However, I did tell R.T. Rybak that since he asked me and I posed this problem to him, that I would provide him with my personal opinion.
And this is what I told R.T. Rybak and Mark Dayton:
The City of Bemidji has a 25% Native American Indian population and three huge Indian Reservations nearby with people living in poverty.
Therefore, since 25% of the construction jobs should have gone to Native American Indians initially because affirmative action was intentionally not enforced;
Therefore, when it comes to managing, staffing and maintaining the BREC;
Native American Indians should receive not only the first quarter of all jobs, but the second quarter of all jobs plus 10% of all of the jobs as a penalty imposed for intentionally failing to enforce affirmative action.
Therefore, using this formula, Native American Indians are entitled to 60% of all future jobs at the BREC and this should be enforced for the longevity of the Bemidji Regional Event Center.
One candidate for governor, Paul Thissen told me I was being a "little unrealistic."
I told Mr. Thissen, "No, what is not acceptable in the year 2010 is the fact that not one single member of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party--- including you--- is sitting in that state legislature without one single Native American Indian sitting at your side and not one of you has the moral or political courage to insist that the affirmative action laws in the state of Minnesota be enforced even though you are fully aware of the disgraceful levels of unemployment and poverty permeating Native American communities. This is a moral outrage and a disgrace."
I'm very confident that if Tom Rukavina is elected and people start coming through his open door that he will see to it that affirmative action is enforced in Minnesota... the thing is, when it comes to the BREC, all the jobs will have been filled by then... and so goes institutionalized racism in the City of Bemidji for another 75 years until the next major public works program comes down the pike.
Mr. Thissen walked away from our discussion without comment; we know what to expect from him when it comes to affirmative action if he were to be elected the next governor--- more of what Republican Tim
Pawlenty has dished out--- racism and poverty.
The time is now, not after the election, for Tom Rukavina to open his door to people like Greg Paquin fighting and struggling for justice.
The time is now for these Democratic candidates to gather behind former United States Senator Mark Dayton and do just what former Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party United States Senator and then Governor Elmer Benson did; he personally went to the City of Bemidji and looked these racist bigots in the eye and told them that he demanded to see Native American Indians being employed on the public works jobs being financed with their tax-dollars, too. And the very next day Native American Indians were hired.
Minnesota Governor Elmer Benson--- the most popular Governor in this State's history, bar none--- made it crystal clear that his socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party Administration was not going to tolerate racism in any of its ugly forms--- including in hiring--- and so should all of these Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party candidates seeking the DFL nomination today.
And what is with the silence of Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutsen? She should bring those big-mouth supporters of Barack Obama like Richard Trumka and Leo Gerard into Minnesota to have a talk with these racist bigots perpetuating institutionalized racism out of the Bemidji City Hall.
Where is this group SharedVisions when it comes to advocating for enforcement of affirmative action at the BREC.
Where is Sally Fineday and her Native Vote Alliance of Minnesota?
Where is Audrey Thayer and her ACLU-MN Racial Justice Task Force?
Where is Penny Flanagan and her Wellstone Action?
Where is TakeAction Minnesota/reNEW Minnesota?
Study after study after foundation funded study has demonstrated time and time again that Bemidji is the most racist city in North America; and, at the very core and center of this institutionalized racism lies racist hiring practices by public and private employers--- yet, here is the BREC going up before our very eyes, the largest public works project in Bemidji since the Great Depression, and none of these organizations or their leaders are willing to join the struggle to coerce the City of Bemidji to enforce the law by implementing affirmative action.
I will say this... I am certain that 98% of the Native American Indians sitting in the Beltrami County jail today have not violated any laws to the extent of these high-paid elected and appointed Bemidji public officials who have knowingly, intentionally and with malice refused to implement affirmative action in hiring which is denying at least 150 Native American Indians the jobs to which state and federal laws say declare they are entitled to.
Are we fed up yet?
If not, you should be after reading this story from the Bemidji Pioneer below; because, once again, we see how Elmer Benson was correct in pointing out how racism always is present with other forms of corruption and reaction.
Has anyone noticed that out of some twenty candidates running for governor, they are all white? South Carolina... here comes Minnesota.
Yours in the struggle,
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
It was Herwig who answered Greg Paquin and two others questions about affirmative action. Paquin is seeking the DFL endorsement in the Senate 4 race, a seat held by DFL Sen. Mary Olson of Bemidji.
“It [affirmative action] doesn’t work,” Herwig said, adding he worked for a time at an American Indian casino [Grand Casino] in Mille Lacs. “You need to have people in jobs because of the ability and talents that they have that they can offer their employer what is required in the job.”
“I couldn’t help but notice that your answer was more based on competence of the worker and not really the legal hiring practices,” said Nicole Beaulieu. Using Herwig’s example, she said why would he question an American Indian’s ability to assume a white person’s supervisory position on the reservation, where preferential hiring is the law.
“Affirmative action, preferential hiring practices, preferential promotion practices, never work,” Herwig said. “It’s going to work to the detriment of the one getting the preferential treatment, because what happens in society is it polarizes. Rather than having advantage, you become the object, the target, of ridicule because you have an advantage over someone else for something not characteristic.”
What I find very interesting and equally informative is that these Republicans never attempt to explain how it is that there are such vast discrepancies in unemployment and poverty in communities of people of color in this country.
Nationally, unemployment stands at around ten percent and rising... on Indian Reservations and in the City of Bemidji, Minnesota, unemployment among Native American Indians is over 65% and climbing and for over eight years affirmative action in Minnesota has not been enforced; non-enforcement has been the de facto policy.
What are these Republicans saying, if affirmative action had been enforced unemployment and poverty would be even worse? What kind of utter fools, except a bunch of racist bigots, would advance such "logic?"
All of the candidates urged attendees to turn out to precinct caucuses next Tuesday.
All of the candidates in public and private conversation stated their opposition to affirmative action.
Of the some twenty candidates from various political parties presently in the race to become Minnesota's next governor, former liberal United States Senator Mark Dayton who occasionally expresses some progressive and even left views, is alone among the candidates in defending affirmative action by going so far as to call attention to the fact affirmative action is not being enforced as the law requires by state agencies; however, Dayton has yet to take these state agencies to task nor as he used his campaign for governor to coerce these state agencies to come into compliance with federal, state and local affirmative action guidelines and policies by insisting on the enforcement as constitutionally mandated.
Dayton has promised, as a result of discussions with this writer and others, that he would use his influence and his campaign for governor to force the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development into full compliance with affirmative action requirements.
The most cited violation of affirmative action in Minnesota centers on the Bemidji Regional Event Center where the most glaring and disgusting institutionalized racism was brought to light by Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party candidate for state Senate District 4, Gregory W. Paquin running against the present DFL Senator Mary Olson whose campaign is financed almost solely by the Minnesota Indian gaming Association and those profiting from this lucrative business that thrives off the poverty it inflicts on the majority of the Native American Indian people now experiencing over 65% unemployment and up to 80% living in poverty.
Paquin is a union pipe-fitter by trade who has struggled for years against the institutionalized racism of the building trades unions citing example after example of jobs employing 600 to 700 workers like at the power generating facilities where it was a good day for affirmative action if two or three of the hundreds of workers are people of color even though many of the jobs are on projects sitting right in the middle of thousands of people of color languishing in poverty.
Paquin decided to run for the state Senate after he made repeated attempts to convince Minnesota State Senator Mary Olson to meet with Bemidji City officials and Dan McElroy the head of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) to insist on the enforcement of affirmative action.
Paquin initially approached Senator Olson at the ground-breaking ceremonies for the Bemidji Regional Event Center where Rita Albrecht brought in Native American dancers and drummers for the event. Previously, prior to even establishing a committee to begin planning for the Bemidji Regional Event Center (BREC), City Planner Rita Albrecht was quoted in the Bemidji Pioneer that full involvement of the Native American Indian Community would be included in everything surrounding the BREC.
Except for the Native American Indian dancers and drummers entertaining the dignitaries at the ground-breaking ceremony--- and a commitment to install some Native American art work and sculptures, there has been no Native American Indian involvement in anything surrounding the BREC; especially, and most notably, when it comes to employment opportunities. Albrecht made a commitment to the Native American Indian communities in the area that they would be able to rent the BREC facilities for Pow-Wows.
At the present time, VenuWorks, the private firm the City of Bemidji has brought in to manage and profit from this public works project is working on deals with the six local casinos to transport people from BREC events and the casinos back and forth. VenuWorks' on-site manager, Mr. LeBarron, for the BREC explains this as a "win-win deal" for the BREC and the casino managements.
VenuWorks has promised these casino managements that wages paid to hourly employees will not be in competition with the wages paid to casino workers so as to prevent an increase in the pathetically low wages in the Bemidji area hospitality industry where the poverty wages paid to thousands of casino workers has set the standard.. in other words, the pathetic poverty wage minimum wage is the standard although many casino managements refuse to even honor the minimum wage which neither the state nor federal departments of labor will enforce at the casinos. Pay stubs obtained from casino workers show pay two and three dollars an hour below the minimum wage.
That Mark Dayton has now acknowledged that DEED and MNDOT are not enforcing affirmative action policies as required by law has caused many people in Senate District 4 to realize that MN DFL Senator Mary Olson, MN DFL Representative John Percell, Congressmen Collin Peterson and James Oberstar, along with United States Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken have failed in their jobs by refusing to insist on the state and federally mandated enforcement of affirmative action.
At the center of this controversy swirling around this blatant failure to enforce affirmative action is the role of Bemidji City Planner Rita Albrecht, City Manager John Chattin and Bemidji City Attorney Al Felix all of whom admit they intentionally refused to implement affirmative action in hiring for the planning, construction, management, staffing and maintenance of the Bemidji Regional Event Center (BREC), the largest public works project in northern Minnesota in decades.
Bemidji City Manager John Chattin, in the most outrageous example of the extreme institutionalized racism which permeates the City of Bemidji, had the unmitigated gall and the audacity to acknowledge under oath that he told Gregory W. Paquin that he was not going to enforce affirmative action and that if Paquin didn't like his answer he should go talk to the manager of the general contractor, Kraus-Anderson, himself.
Everyday that Rita Albrecht, John Chattin and Al Felix go to work, they view the long lines of impoverished, hungry people--- with Native American Indians far in excess of their 25% population of the City of Bemidji--- people waiting to get food at the Beltrami County Food Shelf which is right across the street from the Bemidji City Hall.
The only place where Native American Indians are found in greater numbers than their population than at the Beltrami County Food Shelf is at the Beltrami County Jail a couple blocks down the street from the Bemidji City Hall where over 50% of the jail population is Native American Indian and even the Republican Beltrami County Sheriff acknowledges the primary reason for the high rate of incarceration of Native American Indians is the poverty resulting from joblessness.
As anyone in this country understands, working people without jobs are going to be poor. And the employers understand that large numbers of unemployed people living in poverty are nothing but pools of cheap labor driving down wages; an observation not lost on the Indian Gaming Industry and the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association whose profits thrive because of the low wages assured to them by this web of injustice spun by institutionalized racism.
Recently, racist Bemidji Police murdered a Native American youth after police were called to help him. The full details of this police shooting have yet to be made public after many months. Many people want to know how it is that police responding to a call to help someone end up shooting and killing him.
No Native American Indians sit on the Bemidji City Council, one Native American Indian is on the Beltrami County Board, Quentin Fairbanks a retired Minnesota Highway Patrol officer who says he prefers not to become involved in questioning racist hiring practices but is quick to defend the casino industry--- Fairbanks complains of heart problems every time he is asked to assist victims of racism, but recovers in time to run for re-election; not one single Native American Indian is sitting among the more than two-hundred state legislators and there are no Native American Indians among Minnesota's Congressional delegation in the U.S. House or U.S. Senate in spite of the fact that the casino managements and the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association have spent tens of millions of dollars contributing to the campaigns of candidates like Senator Mary Olson who comes looking for campaign contributions and votes from Native American Indians at election time but refuses to intervene to make sure affirmative action is being enforced; and, then, even after having the facts pushed right under her nose that affirmative action is not being enforced, she refuses to act.
Olson and the other Democrats have been very smug in thinking that the game they are playing in ignoring the plight of injustices of Native American Indians while continuing to get the campaign contributions from the casino managements would go unchallenged forever.
Now people are demanding to know how it is that an industry creating billions of dollars in profits is also responsible for tens of thousands of Native American Indians living in the most deplorable conditions of the most shameful poverty?
John McCarthy and the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association have refused to answer this question.
What DFL State Senator Mary Olson does not want to talk about now is that John McCarthy, the flamboyant racist and flaunter of wealth who is the Executive Director of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, is her campaign manager and political confidant; and the racist Bemidji City Planner Brita Albrecht is deeply involved in Olson's campaign in every way from fund-raising to logistics, and Rita Albrecht's daughter serves on the staff of State Senator Tom Bakk who is known as one of the most notorious racist politicians in Minnesota history to whom affirmative action is akin to the plague... Bakk gets oodles and oodles of money from the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association. Bakk is now one of the DFL candidates running for governor. When questioned about affirmative action at a recent Governor's Forum on Native American issues, Bakk's red face twisted in dis-configuration as his anger grew after being asked his position... all that he would say is that he supported the Indian Gaming Industry... and after this remark, John McCarthy wildly applauded.
Check out the article below... the Republicans spout the racist, reactionary and anti-labor views; the Democrats, with a very few exceptions like former United States Senator Mark Dayton now a Minnesota gubernatorial candidate and Gregory W. Paquin running to unseat Senator Mary Olson, are implementing the Republican agenda...
Encouraging is the fact that State Representative Tom Rukavina has stated that, if elected governor, his door will be open to discussing the enforcement of affirmative action.
The question remains, why aren't any of these candidates (Dayton might, but I'm not going to hold my breath) using their campaigns as a bully-pulpit calling for enforcement of affirmative action.
When Mark Dayton and R.T. Rybak asked me what I suggested they do, I told each of them, "Whether or not you are nominated for governor, we know you will be supporting whoever the DFL chooses to run. Therefore, why don't you talk to your colleagues and all go down to the Bemidji City Hall and insist that this bunch of racist bigots fully implement affirmative action in all facets surrounding the BREC--- it is still not too late to get Native American Indians jobs on construction, for sure it is still not too late to hire Native American Indians for management, staff and maintenance positions. You need to insist that all of these jobs pay real living wages because as you know when you pay someone a poverty wage poverty is the result. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak asked me, "How many jobs would you say would be 'fair' for Native Americans to get at the BREC?" I told R.T. Rybak he should "ask Native American Indians sitting in this room that question."
However, I did tell R.T. Rybak that since he asked me and I posed this problem to him, that I would provide him with my personal opinion.
And this is what I told R.T. Rybak and Mark Dayton:
The City of Bemidji has a 25% Native American Indian population and three huge Indian Reservations nearby with people living in poverty.
Therefore, since 25% of the construction jobs should have gone to Native American Indians initially because affirmative action was intentionally not enforced;
Therefore, when it comes to managing, staffing and maintaining the BREC;
Native American Indians should receive not only the first quarter of all jobs, but the second quarter of all jobs plus 10% of all of the jobs as a penalty imposed for intentionally failing to enforce affirmative action.
Therefore, using this formula, Native American Indians are entitled to 60% of all future jobs at the BREC and this should be enforced for the longevity of the Bemidji Regional Event Center.
One candidate for governor, Paul Thissen told me I was being a "little unrealistic."
I told Mr. Thissen, "No, what is not acceptable in the year 2010 is the fact that not one single member of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party--- including you--- is sitting in that state legislature without one single Native American Indian sitting at your side and not one of you has the moral or political courage to insist that the affirmative action laws in the state of Minnesota be enforced even though you are fully aware of the disgraceful levels of unemployment and poverty permeating Native American communities. This is a moral outrage and a disgrace."
I'm very confident that if Tom Rukavina is elected and people start coming through his open door that he will see to it that affirmative action is enforced in Minnesota... the thing is, when it comes to the BREC, all the jobs will have been filled by then... and so goes institutionalized racism in the City of Bemidji for another 75 years until the next major public works program comes down the pike.
Mr. Thissen walked away from our discussion without comment; we know what to expect from him when it comes to affirmative action if he were to be elected the next governor--- more of what Republican Tim
Pawlenty has dished out--- racism and poverty.
The time is now, not after the election, for Tom Rukavina to open his door to people like Greg Paquin fighting and struggling for justice.
The time is now for these Democratic candidates to gather behind former United States Senator Mark Dayton and do just what former Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party United States Senator and then Governor Elmer Benson did; he personally went to the City of Bemidji and looked these racist bigots in the eye and told them that he demanded to see Native American Indians being employed on the public works jobs being financed with their tax-dollars, too. And the very next day Native American Indians were hired.
Minnesota Governor Elmer Benson--- the most popular Governor in this State's history, bar none--- made it crystal clear that his socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party Administration was not going to tolerate racism in any of its ugly forms--- including in hiring--- and so should all of these Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party candidates seeking the DFL nomination today.
And what is with the silence of Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutsen? She should bring those big-mouth supporters of Barack Obama like Richard Trumka and Leo Gerard into Minnesota to have a talk with these racist bigots perpetuating institutionalized racism out of the Bemidji City Hall.
Where is this group SharedVisions when it comes to advocating for enforcement of affirmative action at the BREC.
Where is Sally Fineday and her Native Vote Alliance of Minnesota?
Where is Audrey Thayer and her ACLU-MN Racial Justice Task Force?
Where is Penny Flanagan and her Wellstone Action?
Where is TakeAction Minnesota/reNEW Minnesota?
Study after study after foundation funded study has demonstrated time and time again that Bemidji is the most racist city in North America; and, at the very core and center of this institutionalized racism lies racist hiring practices by public and private employers--- yet, here is the BREC going up before our very eyes, the largest public works project in Bemidji since the Great Depression, and none of these organizations or their leaders are willing to join the struggle to coerce the City of Bemidji to enforce the law by implementing affirmative action.
I will say this... I am certain that 98% of the Native American Indians sitting in the Beltrami County jail today have not violated any laws to the extent of these high-paid elected and appointed Bemidji public officials who have knowingly, intentionally and with malice refused to implement affirmative action in hiring which is denying at least 150 Native American Indians the jobs to which state and federal laws say declare they are entitled to.
Are we fed up yet?
If not, you should be after reading this story from the Bemidji Pioneer below; because, once again, we see how Elmer Benson was correct in pointing out how racism always is present with other forms of corruption and reaction.
Has anyone noticed that out of some twenty candidates running for governor, they are all white? South Carolina... here comes Minnesota.
Yours in the struggle,
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
Published January 27 2010
Candidate forum: Republican gubernatorial candidates want smaller government
Six Republican candidates for governor differ little on the issues, but provided their own tweaks on issues ranging from the state budget to climate change.
Rep. Tom Emmer didn’t waste time Tuesday night in putting on a Bemidji State hockey jersey during a Republican gubernatorial candidate forum at BSU. Sen. David Hann, left, and former Rep. Bill Haas are all GOP candidates for governor, as well as Phil Herwig, Leslie Davis and Rep. Marty Seiftert, all at the Bemidji forum. Pioneer Photo/Monte Draper
Six Republican candidates for governor differ little on the issues, but provided their own tweaks on issues ranging from the state budget to climate change.
A few candidates also sparred with some American Indian audience members over affirmative action policies, with Republican candidates saying affirmative action has been detrimental to equalizing opportunities in the workforce for minorities.
The six major GOP candidates appeared Wednesday night at a forum hosted by the Beltrami County Republicans and the Bemidji State University College Republicans at BSU before about 200 people.
They answered prepared questions posed by two moderators befor3 spending 20 minutes on audience questions directed at only one or two candidates.
“I believe the people who use governor services ought to be paying more of their fair share,” former House Minority Leader Marty Seifert said to a question posed by former Bemidji schools Superintendent Rollie Morud about what blend of taxes he could support.
As examples, Seifert of Marshall said the indigent should pay something toward a public defender, and not leave it to taxpayers. And poor people on Medical Assistance should pay something toward their health care.
“We need to make sure there’s skin in the game from the people using the service,” he said. “When it comes to income and sales tax, I’m more of a consumption –based person because if you tax job providers, you will have fewer jobs.”
Morud also directed his question to Sen. David Hann of Eden Prairie, who said he favored a flat tax where everyone pays the same income tax rate.
“A very complicated tax structure needs to be simplified,” Hann said. “I would suggest moving to a flat-rate tax structure. That would make sure everyone has skin in the game … everyone is paying something.”
Estate taxes and capital gains taxes need to be reduced if not eliminated, Hann said.
State government needs to be redesigned and restructured, Rep. Tom Emmer of Delano said to a moderator question on government reform priorities. “We must eliminate the excesses, the redundancies in government.”
Taxes must be lowered, Emmer said. “We must eliminate excessive and unnecessary licensing requirements and overly burdensome regulation. We must have tort reform and we must have workers compensation reform.”
“Under my administration, we’re going to take the budget apart,” said former Rep. Bill Haas of Champlin, advocating for zero-based budgeting where the new year starts with zero. Jobs and businesses are leaving Minnesota, he said, because of taxes, the cost of doing business and regulation.
“We’re going to redo the tax system in this state,” Haas said. The only way to grow jobs is to put more money into investors’ hands, he said.
Tax cuts are needed, said Phil Herwig of Milaca, a former 8th District U.S. House candidate and real estate buyer. “I would get government out of it (to create jobs). We don’t need a governor going to South America to massage the South Americans to bring their money here. Money goes where it gets the greatest rate of return.”
Leslie Davis of Minneapolis, founder of Earth Protector, would print money. His “Davis Money Plan” would have state-regulated banks “create ‘debt-free’ money to pay all approved Minnesota public transportation projects.” He’d rescind laws that require taxes to pay for transportation projects, and use those funds to balance the budget and to repay a “Minnesota Budget Bond” issued from state investment funds.
“Money is missing, and we can’t go out and borrow the money, because you can’t pay debt with debt to get rid of debt,” he said. “You need to bring money into circulation in a new way, a paradigm shift. The Davis Money Plan will bring all the money into circulation that we need, to require the state-chartered banks to pay for our entire transportation system — no debt and no taxes.”
Davis was the loner when a moderator asked the candidates about climate change, saying he wasn’t going to debate the merits of global warming but that conservation and energy efficiency is needed.
And he would veto legislation calling for new “central power stations” using nuclear or coal fuels. “:That’s old-fashioned stuff. From people in the Legislature, that’s the same old stuff. … What about efficiency and conservation, and alternatives that are innovative with new ideas and new energies?”
All the other candidates debunked the concept of global warming and agreed that nuclear energy plants should be in Minnesota’s future.
“This is a farce,” Seifert said of the concept. “The reality is to deal with our energy needs. We should build another nuclear plant. It will create over 1,000 new construction jobs. It is safe and most of the wastes can be reprocessed, and the rest can go to Yucca Mountain after Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) loses in November.”
Seifert said he wouldn’t sign any bill that promotes “cap and trade” carbon reductions and would seek to repeal any law that “jacks up” energy bills and makes Minnesota uncompetitive.
Climate change “is nonsense and I think there is an ulterior motive here,” Hann said. “We do not need to focus all our energies on programs that put power into the hands of few people. They say it’s carbon dioxide, and we all breathe it out. That doesn’t mean we need to managed by some bureaucrat in Washington.”
The United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal, Hann said, “and we’re saying we can’t burn coal anymore? We can figure out how to make it very, very clean.”
Emmer said the climate change argument “has been proven to be nothing more than manufactured fear-mongering in creating financial gain for certain people who are involved in the business.”
Haas said common sense is the answer, providing cost-effective energy with clean coal and nuclear. “We need to lead by example; we need some more power plants. Other nations are building them, why can’t we?”
Herwig, a former farmer, said that “the world has been in climate change since time began. Man’s ego is telling us that he really has a significant impact.”
It was Herwig who was Greg Paquin and two others questions about affirmative action. Paquin is seeking the DFL endorsement in the Senate 4 race, a seat held by DFL Sen. Mary Olson of Bemidji.
“It doesn’t work,” Herwig said, adding he worked for a time at an American Indian casino in Mille Lacs. “You need to have people in jobs because of the ability and talents that they have that they can offer their employer what I required in the job.”
“I couldn’t help but notice that you answer was more based on competence of the worker and not really the legal hiring practices,” said Nicole Beaulieu. Using Herwig’s example, she said why would he question an American Indian’s ability to assume a white person’s supervisory position on the reservation, where preferential hiring is the law.
“Affirmative action, preferential hiring practices, preferential promotion practices, never work,” Herwig said. “It’s going to work to the detriment of the one getting the preferential treatment, because what happens in society is it polarizes. Rather than having advantage, you become the object, the target, of ridicule because you have an advantage over someone else for something not characteristic.”
All of the candidates urged attendees to turn out to precinct caucuses next Tuesday.
A few candidates also sparred with some American Indian audience members over affirmative action policies, with Republican candidates saying affirmative action has been detrimental to equalizing opportunities in the workforce for minorities.
The six major GOP candidates appeared Wednesday night at a forum hosted by the Beltrami County Republicans and the Bemidji State University College Republicans at BSU before about 200 people.
They answered prepared questions posed by two moderators befor3 spending 20 minutes on audience questions directed at only one or two candidates.
“I believe the people who use governor services ought to be paying more of their fair share,” former House Minority Leader Marty Seifert said to a question posed by former Bemidji schools Superintendent Rollie Morud about what blend of taxes he could support.
As examples, Seifert of Marshall said the indigent should pay something toward a public defender, and not leave it to taxpayers. And poor people on Medical Assistance should pay something toward their health care.
“We need to make sure there’s skin in the game from the people using the service,” he said. “When it comes to income and sales tax, I’m more of a consumption –based person because if you tax job providers, you will have fewer jobs.”
Morud also directed his question to Sen. David Hann of Eden Prairie, who said he favored a flat tax where everyone pays the same income tax rate.
“A very complicated tax structure needs to be simplified,” Hann said. “I would suggest moving to a flat-rate tax structure. That would make sure everyone has skin in the game … everyone is paying something.”
Estate taxes and capital gains taxes need to be reduced if not eliminated, Hann said.
State government needs to be redesigned and restructured, Rep. Tom Emmer of Delano said to a moderator question on government reform priorities. “We must eliminate the excesses, the redundancies in government.”
Taxes must be lowered, Emmer said. “We must eliminate excessive and unnecessary licensing requirements and overly burdensome regulation. We must have tort reform and we must have workers compensation reform.”
“Under my administration, we’re going to take the budget apart,” said former Rep. Bill Haas of Champlin, advocating for zero-based budgeting where the new year starts with zero. Jobs and businesses are leaving Minnesota, he said, because of taxes, the cost of doing business and regulation.
“We’re going to redo the tax system in this state,” Haas said. The only way to grow jobs is to put more money into investors’ hands, he said.
Tax cuts are needed, said Phil Herwig of Milaca, a former 8th District U.S. House candidate and real estate buyer. “I would get government out of it (to create jobs). We don’t need a governor going to South America to massage the South Americans to bring their money here. Money goes where it gets the greatest rate of return.”
Leslie Davis of Minneapolis, founder of Earth Protector, would print money. His “Davis Money Plan” would have state-regulated banks “create ‘debt-free’ money to pay all approved Minnesota public transportation projects.” He’d rescind laws that require taxes to pay for transportation projects, and use those funds to balance the budget and to repay a “Minnesota Budget Bond” issued from state investment funds.
“Money is missing, and we can’t go out and borrow the money, because you can’t pay debt with debt to get rid of debt,” he said. “You need to bring money into circulation in a new way, a paradigm shift. The Davis Money Plan will bring all the money into circulation that we need, to require the state-chartered banks to pay for our entire transportation system — no debt and no taxes.”
Davis was the loner when a moderator asked the candidates about climate change, saying he wasn’t going to debate the merits of global warming but that conservation and energy efficiency is needed.
And he would veto legislation calling for new “central power stations” using nuclear or coal fuels. “:That’s old-fashioned stuff. From people in the Legislature, that’s the same old stuff. … What about efficiency and conservation, and alternatives that are innovative with new ideas and new energies?”
All the other candidates debunked the concept of global warming and agreed that nuclear energy plants should be in Minnesota’s future.
“This is a farce,” Seifert said of the concept. “The reality is to deal with our energy needs. We should build another nuclear plant. It will create over 1,000 new construction jobs. It is safe and most of the wastes can be reprocessed, and the rest can go to Yucca Mountain after Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) loses in November.”
Seifert said he wouldn’t sign any bill that promotes “cap and trade” carbon reductions and would seek to repeal any law that “jacks up” energy bills and makes Minnesota uncompetitive.
Climate change “is nonsense and I think there is an ulterior motive here,” Hann said. “We do not need to focus all our energies on programs that put power into the hands of few people. They say it’s carbon dioxide, and we all breathe it out. That doesn’t mean we need to managed by some bureaucrat in Washington.”
The United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal, Hann said, “and we’re saying we can’t burn coal anymore? We can figure out how to make it very, very clean.”
Emmer said the climate change argument “has been proven to be nothing more than manufactured fear-mongering in creating financial gain for certain people who are involved in the business.”
Haas said common sense is the answer, providing cost-effective energy with clean coal and nuclear. “We need to lead by example; we need some more power plants. Other nations are building them, why can’t we?”
Herwig, a former farmer, said that “the world has been in climate change since time began. Man’s ego is telling us that he really has a significant impact.”
It was Herwig who was Greg Paquin and two others questions about affirmative action. Paquin is seeking the DFL endorsement in the Senate 4 race, a seat held by DFL Sen. Mary Olson of Bemidji.
“It doesn’t work,” Herwig said, adding he worked for a time at an American Indian casino in Mille Lacs. “You need to have people in jobs because of the ability and talents that they have that they can offer their employer what I required in the job.”
“I couldn’t help but notice that you answer was more based on competence of the worker and not really the legal hiring practices,” said Nicole Beaulieu. Using Herwig’s example, she said why would he question an American Indian’s ability to assume a white person’s supervisory position on the reservation, where preferential hiring is the law.
“Affirmative action, preferential hiring practices, preferential promotion practices, never work,” Herwig said. “It’s going to work to the detriment of the one getting the preferential treatment, because what happens in society is it polarizes. Rather than having advantage, you become the object, the target, of ridicule because you have an advantage over someone else for something not characteristic.”
All of the candidates urged attendees to turn out to precinct caucuses next Tuesday.
