The Alley Newspaper

These articles originally appeared in “The Alley,” the newspaper for the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis.

Smiling Helps

Smiling helps. That’s it. I have nothing more profound than that. I have been reminded lately how important it is to give and receive smiles, so I thought I would remind everyone else. We have one community member at Peace House Community who I mentally associate with smiling. He and I rarely speak to each […]

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Journalist, Heal Thyself

I know several people who are trying to avoid the news these days for various reasons. I myself pay less attention to current events than I should, partly from laziness, but also because so much of the “news” coverage focuses on the wrong things. Despite how easy it is to get information, one has to

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Efficiency Be Damned

Like many people, I have watched Elon Musk’s dismantling of the federal government with everything from bemusement to unspeakable foreboding. The bemusement comes from Musk’s own claims that he is making the government more efficient. If that was the real intent of the Department of Government Efficiency, Musk would be equivalent of the kid whose

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Your Place in the World

I’ve recently been reading various autobiographies. I started with Clint Malarchuk’s The Crazy Game, and am now working my way through What Does This Button Do? by Bruce Dickenson and My Effin’ Life by Geddy Lee. Malarchuk was a goalie in the National Hockey League who almost died on ice during a game after a

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Timing is Everything

I’ve had a hard time settling on a topic for this month’s column. I’m writing this about a week after the election, which is obviously a significant event, and the implications of the election results are big enough that I should probably say something. But you won’t read this until at least a couple of

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Meaning What You Say

I recently attended a meeting put on by the Minnesota Interagency Council on Homelessness (MICH). As is common these days, the meeting began with a land acknowledgement, which is a statement recognizing that what is now Minnesota was and is the homeland for various Native American tribes. The wording of a land acknowledgement is up

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