Skip to main content

Weego: DFL should support and encourage youth




My friend Alex Weego gave a short speech at the Todd County DFL County convention. Felt his remarks were profound but drowned out by the noisiness of the end of the convention. Below are the notes for that talk that Alex sent me. I think if we all worked for and followed his three points below we'd be doing well personally and we'd be better off politically. Please take them to heart.

By Alex Weego

I’ve learned over the years that for most folks, the last thing they remember best is what they hear last. I believe this 2018 election cycle is pivotal for our national integrity, our moral and practical values, and that it will be key to reinitiating truth, stability and civility at all political levels.  And just as important, it will give us the opportunity to regain our national respect and position within the international community.  

As you prepare to begin your work on this important election please leave with these three points:

1.  Stay true to our DFL values: Universal healthcare; Women’s right to choose; overturning  “Citizen’s United”; ensuring voting rights (eliminate gerrymandering and needless voting restrictions); close irrational weapon loopholes; install economic equality; insure environmental protections; internet neutrality; and support the Dreamers, among other things.

2. Support our Youth: Truly invite our youth to participate in our electoral process; ensure they have a voice within the DFL and are involved in our discussions; listen to their ideas on local and national issues and encourage their participation in solutions; and most important, understand they are our next generation of leaders at all levels.

3.  When in discussions with adversaries: listen with respect, be nice and polite; respond with our values and why they are important to all; be honest and truthful, know the facts; remember: aggression and fearful rhetoric never win the day.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Let us all walk in the foot steps of John Lewis

By John King In Selma, Alabama, on Sunday, March 7, 1965, John Lewis, standing in the lead of a long line of marchers, looked down from the crest of The Edmund Pettus Bridge at the line of police armed with clubs, whips and truncheons and said, “I am going to die here.” Lewis intended to lead the marchers from Selma to the capital Montgomery, to demand access to voting for Black people in Alabama. Sheriff Jim Clark lowered his gas mask and led the deputies, some on horseback and some on foot, into the line of marchers. Under swinging clubs and hooves trampling, Lewis was the first to go down. Women and children were not spared. Choking and blinded by tear gas, they were struck by clubs and truncheons wrapped with barbed wire. Lewis, with a fractured skull and a severe concussion, almost did die. The nearby Good Samaritan Hospital did not have enough beds to care for the injured marchers. A nation watched in horror as news footage of that bloody day appeared on T
2 comments
Read more

More Republican dirty tricks

  As a Blue Dog Corporate Democrat, 7th District Rep. Collin Peterson’s votes in Congress go against the beliefs and convictions of progressive voters in our district. I’m one of those progressive 7th District voters. Like most average voters I rarely actually encounter my Member of Congress. However, I recall three encounters with Rep. Peterson over the many years I’ve been stuck with him. I met him at Mikey’s Restaurant, on Main Street in Long Prairie, when he was first campaigning for a seat in Congress. We were both young then and he was full of energy and inspired in me a sense of hope for positive change. Besides, I’d met the Republican incumbent. He was an older man who, it seemed, was operating on dead batteries. I was happy to vote for the energetic Peterson. Some years later I was a delegate to the DFL District convention in Bemidji. Peterson opposed a woman’s right to choose abortion. He was being challenged by a woman who supported the right to that choice. I gave my
Post a Comment
Read more

Step aside Republicans; Minnesotans want electric vehicles

Late last month Senator Paul Gazelka, the Republican leader of the Senate, told the Minnesota Reformer that the Republican controlled Senate would likely fire the acting Commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Laura Bishop, if the Agency, at the behest of the Governor, went ahead with the Clean Car Rule. The rule would require automakers to increase the number of electric vehicles they deliver to Minnesota auto dealers. Gazelka told The Reformer that he’d had “a conversation” with Bishop about the rule. Bishop has not been confirmed by the Senate. Gazelka, and his Republican colleagues, claim that electric vehicles are too expensive and that the rule would be a burden to Minnesotans. Gazelka, and the rest of his Party are wrong. They aren’t paying attention to the economics of EV ownership and they are not paying attention to consumer preferences. Way back in September 2019, Consumer Reports reported on a study of Minnesotans they had done in collaboration with the
2 comments
Read more