Some of the 183 Million pounds of beef recalled were sold in Minnesota

The Aitkin Independent Age, Brainerd Daily Dispatch, and Lakeland Public TV have all shown us the story by now of the ugly and dangerous practices that have put California ground beef in our school lunches.

Federal inspectors, too few and too late, are currently investigating the underground video from that Westland/Hallmark plant which showed "downer cows" - non-ambulatory and disabled - being shoved and prodded into slaughtering pens.

Patrons and citizens of this school district ought to be told just why Minnesota is buying and distributing this product to hundreds of its schools - including schools in this region at Brainerd, Little Falls, McGregor, Pierz and Aitkin.

Whatever happened to "Minnesota Grown?" Cattlemen across our state can deliver a good beef product.

As one landlord in a Stevens County operation named "Boss Ridge Ranch," I'm proud of the thousands of pounds of safe and nutritious Grass-fed Beef raised on our land, in cooperation with the U of Minn. experiment and outreach station at Morris.

As teachers like to tell us parents and grandparents, this can be a "Teaching Moment."

I am confident that this Westland Beef, hauled in bulk from California was cheap. And now how can Aitkin Schools find meat for our students that is locally grown, healthful, and nutritious?

I await your answers. I want to learn from you.

Sincerely,

Gordon Prickett

The Golden Gopher, Gord Prickett, Rallies for Obama: his journal notes

O MY! no, O-BAMA!

First a word about the correspondent:

I'm a Minnesota DFLer, since 1996. And a Democrat since 1968, working the precincts from homes in Illinois, Arizona, and Missouri, before retiring to my home state. I grew up an "Elmer Anderson-Stassen Liberal Republican" in Morris, and in St Anthony Park - a St Paul neighborhood beside the "Farm School" and Luther Seminary. Elmer was my Scoutmaster, and our State Senator for the 42nd District in the late 1940s and 50s.

After watching the debates on film in the American Embassy of Karachi, Pakistan, this young Lieutenant (jg) sent his absentee ballot back to Minnesota marked for Richard M. Nixon, President, and Elmer L. Andersen, Governor.

Now to the present - and the Obama Rally on Ground Hog Day in Minneapolis

As the sun prepares to rise on the Sunday after.. I prepare to sort through some notes and impressions after being present at a Main Event of this election year. A Barack Obama Presidential Rally.

We arrived downtown early, 122 miles from our shoreline home in Southern Aitkin County.

Doors would open at 1:30 p.m. for a Saturday crowd, just three days before the statewide Caucus on Super Tuesday. We left the parking ramp - and ten dollars - next to the professional basketball arena - called a "center," by the hometown Target Corporation. (See Dayton's.)

Minneapolis crowd-control police directed us away from the Target Center onto a highway bridge where we joined a long line of hundreds, gazing down at the foundation construction work for the new public-private stadium of the Minnesota Twins.

We started our outside wait at 12:45, in calm twenty-something degree weather. The neighbors in line were upbeat and friendly. They came from Hayward, Wisconsin, the nearby suburbs, and The Cities. We fielded questions about our North Country, the resurgence of mining - in iron, nickel-copper, and precious metals. It was "chilly," but not real cold. The companionship, warm parkas and mittens, and no wind certainly helped.

We became aware of a large parade of walkers passing by us - going to the end of the line. Soon it was far out of sight, along the bridge and freeway ramp, where we stood at mid span. This was going to be a huge rally!

What we didn't know then, and would learn an hour and a half later, was that every one of us ticketed Obama fans would need to pass through a careful security checkpoint. Before the rally could get fully underway, some 16 to 20 thousand of us would snake around the outside of the Target Center to the front doors. Finally entering the warm lobby, we would surge into several security stations where our signed tickets were collected, and all purses and diaper bags were opened.

Good seating was now available. Doors had been open for an hour. We had stood in line outside for an hour and then slowly walked towards and around the arena for another hour. But now we were warm and comfortable in a half-full arena with loud rock music, while those thousands that had gotten in line behind us now filtered into their seats for over another hour. My partner had plugged her ears. Earlier she had asked rhetorically. "Why am I doing this?"

But this political husband, being not very attentive, was happily scanning the crowd, looking for colleagues and noting all the ages, ethnicities, and styles of dress. A very diverse crowd - not unlike past DFL conventions in St. Paul, Rochester, St. Cloud, and Duluth. Only more babies in strollers, kids in arms, toddlers toddling, school-age kids, college-age, no military, fewer elders.

Enter Mayor R T Rybak !

It's now around 4 o'clock, and we've heard from the "Golden Smog," pretty-good rockers.

Five white guys with songs, guitars, and drums, with a Beatles sound.

The Mayor is beaming onto the stage with arms raised and a big WELCOME to all. After all, he called this meeting - as State Chair for the campaign, and as one who early on, urged the Senator to make the race. Now the arena is nearly packed, the Candidate is backstage, and all is ready. Rybak is radiant.

Three supporting congress people are named and two are introduced on stage, with the new "Third City" mayor. Jane Freeman comes on as we are told that her late husband Orville nominated JFK in 1960. Mrs. Freeman, former First Lady of Minnesota, introduces "The Next President of the United States !"

The Messenger of HOPE

There is no need for the binoculars I had forgotten at home, as there are four huge screens above the stage where Barack Obama bounds up the steps, greeting and embracing mayors and Congress, then back down the stairs to find and hug the elderly and radiant Jane Freeman.

We are greeted and thanked as "MINNESOTA!" The turnout is huge, and the crowd noisy and appreciative. Mayor Rybak had brought us all to our feet, and now the Senator acknowledges the warm welcome and urges those who have seats to become more comfortable. Obama's style on the platform/stage is interesting. The stage is large enough for a full delegation of greeters. Now it becomes devoted to the one roaming speaker with a hand mike, who turns regularly and gracefully to address everyone in the hall, face to face.

We are led through the stages of this campaign that started in Springfield, Illinois, a year ago. "Why run for president?" We hear a litany of all the troubles we face and finally the words of Martin Luther King, Junior. It is all about "the urgency of now." Waiting til later just will not do for this young legislator from Illinois.

We hear the voices of his critics and opponents. There are many reasons given why he is not the one for the presidency this year. The speech turns next to the advocate's case for this race, why now, and why change must happen here. One memorable argument: "If you work, you should not be poor!"

Are You Ready?

Obama began his conversation with the audience with one insistent question: "ARE YOU READY FOR CHANGE?!" He spoke frequently of children and their needs today. "Every child is our child," he insisted. "All children are our children."

We must make it easier for students to enter college. He would grant each student $4,000 for a year's tuition, then require the student to return this investment with their own investment in America at the completion of their schooling. By a variety of months of service at places where the need is greatest.

The war in Iraq was "unwise." Because of this war, today we are not more safe and the campaign against the terrorists in Afghanistan is not adequate. He will end this war in Iraq as President and bring the combat troops out in 2009.

Are you ready for change?

Obama will end the prevailing "mindset of fear" of the Bush Administration. It has developed a "policy of fear." Used to scare the people into accepting whatever it wants to do. He was criticized for saying he would meet personally with heads of adversary governments. But he quotes JFK again, "Do not negotiate from fear, but never fear to negotiate."

It is time to "Turn the Page and Write the Next Chapter in our History."

His message to the World - "America is Back!" Ready to lead on a host of issues that he ticked off - including Global Climate Change and Nuclear Proliferation. World health and poverty, Energy and sustainable development.

Are you ready for change? It won't be easy!

The Status Quo resists. The arguments against these changes come fast and hard. He has been called a "hope-monger," naive, unprepared, foolish. You must believe in earned change. In hard work. One's judgement can be clouded by fear. This contest is not just about experience and years in government. It is about judgement and common sense. It is the future versus the past.

Finally, a Sermon of Hope

Nothing of lasting importance has ever been accomplished without first imagining and hoping for it. Obama recalled a host of accomplishments to bolster this key concept - this "audacity of hope" that is his trademark.

For example, the American Revolution, the freeing of the slaves, the victory over fascism, the gaining of women's suffrage, federal laws banning discrimination in voting, housing, education, employment, and the full civil rights of all U.S. citizens.

If we can hope, if we can believe in it, this change that we seek will come from the bottom up. It is up to us. This is a defining moment for America. So go out and caucus, campaign, vote, and believe!

We gave him a pretty big ovation. I'd call it a movement.

- 30 - I'm Gord & I better approve this

Changing Climate Change

KAXE member, Gordon Prickett, is a member of the Aitkin County Water Planning Task Force. This essay first appeared in a recent edition of the Aitkin Independent Age.

Something happened last year. Even before the "UN Bali Climate Conference" showed up in the December news. The year 2007 featured severe ice storms and floods. Wildfires, drought, and mudslides increased on the North American continent.

We saw strange weather patterns, and migrating birds changed their destinations. Even a federal administration that won't end a war could end a campaign of climate-change denial that Exxon had already stopped funding. Maybe the globe was warming and just maybe human activity was a factor.

With a daughter and a son working at jobs in storm water management and biodiversity conservation, respectively, I paid attention to the news from Indonesia about the two-week conference on global climate change. More than 10,000 participants from 187 nations were meeting to frame the response that much of the world now knows is urgently needed.

Healthy climate, dead planet?

Our son was quoted recently (NY Times, Dec. 23) from Indonesia about biodiversity and species extinction. Just as the world outside of the American White House is realizing the urgency of global climate change, here is something more to think about:The world is rightly focused on climate change. But if we don't have a strategy for reducing global carbon emissions and preserving biodiversity, we could end up in a very bad place, like the crazy rush into corn ethanol and palm oil for biodiesel, without enough regard for their impact on the natural world."If we don't plan well, we could find ourselves with a healthy climate on a dead planet," said Glenn Prickett, senior vice president of Conservation International.We the peopleWe the people can still speak and act and bring change.

On Feb. 5, some of our Minnesota neighbors will travel to the 7 p.m. political party caucuses at locations announced in newspapers and available from county auditors, locally, 218-927-7354.In this grassroots action a few hundred of us in Aitkin County will help choose the delegates who will nominate the next U.S. President. If you are not there Feb. 5th, don't bother to complain about the choice in November.This still is a democratic country with a republican form of government. So ask the candidates who will be your delegates how they will protect our waters, our climate and our life forms.

Take a Cup of Kindness

KAXE member Gord Prickett is a member of the Aitkin County Water Planning Task Force. Gord recently wrote this article for the Aitkin Independent Age:

The turbulent year comes to its final month - a few weeks to go. The globe is warmer. A busy metro bridge is rubble in the river. Local schools beg for money. One searches for something to agree about. One child, one youth, one person matters. 'Tis a season to give thanks, sing, pray and promise. Never again - in Darfur or the Gulf Coast. Conserve, preserve, protect, think into the future. What size footprints, and where are we going to leave them?


In a short time we will clock another lap for our spinning earth - the end of 2007. I prefer to think about what good and kind things have happened recently and not dwell on the year's tragedies and disappointments, without forgetting them. The best we can do should be our goal - the kindest gift to new generations hurrying toward us. And to me, this focuses the Aitkin Lakes Area on its waters. Our "Waterworks."


Protecting our waters

For a year some of us have tried to get the attention of the county officials responsible for shoreland protection and water quality. We have asked the Commissioners to examine and adopt new standards most suitable for Aitkin County from those prepared for our five-county area, which three of our own leaders helped to write.


The good news is that some of the officials showed up at a shoreland conference in June where the standards were examined. In September we got new shoreland standards on the board agenda, but many who showed up for the meeting had no chance to enter the boardroom or be heard. The issue of shoreland protection has been put off into the winter and next spring.

Whenever I bring up the subject of ordinances, rules and regulations, the current leadership of our government tells me that they (and those they listen to) think there are already enough or too many rules about shoreline development. Their rights to do as they please with "their property" adjoining the public waters is "their business." I will continue to make the case for better protection of those shallow, fragile lakes with little or no development as yet.


Recent subdivisions put in at Birch Lake and Spectacle Lake in Hazelton Township are examples where "Natural Environment" rules are not sufficient to preserve lake quality, in my opinion. A new classification and safeguards for such vulnerable lakes is one of the Alternative Standards that I consider the most valuable legacy we can create for Aitkin County. Perhaps the name of this classification can be shortened to "PROTECTED LAKES." If this matters to you, tell your Commissioner.