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International Women’s Day: Give to gain

March 8 marked the 115-year anniversary of International Women’s Day, launched in 1911 to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. At that time, only eight countries allowed women to vote. Women faced low wages, workplace dangers and exploitation, and freedom to speak out was limited around the globe. Fast forward 64 years, and, through sustained education and organizing, the United Nations declared 1975 as International Women’s Year, and adopted International Women’s Day officially on March 8th. While major progress in voting rights, ...

Remembering Dave

My wife and I recently received the sad news that our friend Dave Vincent has passed away. Dave was one of the most interesting people we’ve ever met. I became acquainted with Dave when he was working for a major advertising firm. Most of his job involved doing PR work for a major agricultural chemical company. Dave was born north of the Mason-Dixon line but was raised in Memphis. “Born Northen but Southern by the grace of God,” he often said. Dave took up scuba diving as a teenager and eventually became a professional diver. “I was hired by a boat repair company to ...

‘A climate superfund’ only hurts Minnesota families

Affordability is not an abstract policy debate in Minnesota; it is a daily reality. Consumer prices have risen nearly 2 percent over the past year, and while inflation has cooled from its peak, that offers little comfort to families still paying far more for groceries, utilities, insurance, and housing than they were just a few years ago. The cumulative impact of inflation has permanently raised the baseline cost of living, and many households have not seen wage growth that fully offsets it. Yet at this exact moment, when Minnesotans are tightening their budgets, Democrats in St. ...

Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down

Thumbs down Daylight Savings springs forward again At 1 a.m. Sunday, March 8 clocks are set to spring forward an hour to 2 a.m. as part of Daylight Savings. We effectively lose an hour that we won’t get back until fall. Studies confirmed that taking away this hour has a negative impact on sleep health and yet, it continues. The justification for Daylight Savings is to shift schedules to get better use of the time when the sun is out, but who is really asking fof this? Polling consistently shows that Americans do not want to change the clocks twice a year. How long will it take before ...

The remarkable power of healing and forgiveness

I recently got to watch something up close that is remarkable. Healing. If you saw me a few weeks ago and noticed my heavily bandaged left thumb, I joked, “Oh that? I was trying cut my thumb off.” It wasn’t intentional, but I did slice it pretty good. It occurred while I was performing that most treacherous of tasks: washing dishes. I’ve washed a million knives in my life. But for some reason, I was wiping the blade of one this time and cut into my thumb, near the top, opposite the nail. It’s a new knife, so it was sharp and effective for gouging flesh. Before the dishwater ...

A film on the greatest president by one of the greatest directors

NEW ULM – The New Ulm Film Society’s next screening will take the audience back to a time when America was more divided than ever and how the right man at the right time reunited it. The film is 2012’s “Lincoln” and is the fifth movie in the film society’s Steven Spielberg director series. The screening is at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March. 10 at the New Ulm Public Library. “Lincoln” is one of the handful of Spielberg-directed films that is based on actual events. In this case, the movie tackles the final months of President Abraham Lincoln’s life as he works to pass the ...