1968 was a transformational year – a president is challenged and does not see re-election, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated, cities burn, Robert Kennedy’s campaign ends with a bullet, young voices are repressed in Chicago, Hubert Humphrey tries to be the “happy warrior” and Richard Nixon is elected as the 37th president of the United States.

What are the similarities we notice to 2018? What lessons from ’68 might be relevant for today? Six colleges and universities (Hamline, St. Thomas, Macalester, St. Olaf, St. John’s and St. Ben’s) are convening a forum on Oct. 26 at St. Thomas to explore these questions with key participants from ’68 and students seeking a better world today.

As an organizer of the conference, I asked myself, what are the relevant messages and what did I learn?

Issues motivate participation. Heart-wrenching news reports about the war  and reports on false claims of success in Vietnam from the president led me to speak out on campus, support the resistance of the Milwaukee 14 and get people to the caucuses. I believed a country of two Americas would not survive.

[cms_ad:x100]Candidates can make a difference. Gene McCarthy answered a call to put himself forward and be on the ballot, so we felt our vote and participation mattered. Robert Kennedy’s campaign added a vision that we could end the war and make a difference in the lives of the poor.

Nonviolent action counts. The Benedictine values, the pleas from King, and the McCarthy and Kennedy campaigns provided a path for change through nonviolent action.

One’s life can be a demonstration to a commitment to community. Performing alternative service at McDonough Homes shaped my life and work for years ahead. I was joined by VISTA volunteers and members of the Peace Corps in working with the low-income community for economic opportunities.

The conference, “1968 and the War for America’s Soul” is open to the public to reflect on lessons learned and relevant strategies for today. One can register here. 

Jim Scheibel, a former mayor of St. Paul, is Professor of Practice in the Management, Marketing and Public Administration Department, Hamline University. He is a former director of both AmeriCorps VISTA and the Senior Corps. 

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Societies that do not permit parents or teachers to spank or slap children as punishment for unwanted behavior have less youth violence, according to a study published recently in the journal BMJ Open.

For the study, researchers at McGill University in Canada analyzed global data collected on more than 400,000 adolescents (aged 13 to 17) in 88 countries.  The data included findings from a survey that asked young people of varying ages how often they had gotten into fights during the previous 12 months.

According to the survey, frequent fighting was three times more common in teenage boys (9.9 percent) then in teenage girls (2.8 percent). It also varied widely among countries, from less than 1 percent in Costa Rican teenage girls to almost 35 percent in Somoan teenage boys.

The researchers then compared that data with information regarding the prohibition of corporal punishment in the countries where those children lived. Thirty of the 88 countries banned corporal punishment at school and at home, while 38 had bans only for schools and 20 had no bans at all.

[cms_ad:x100]The analysis found that in countries where corporal punishment was completely banned, rates of physical fighting was 31 percent lower among teenage boys and 58 percent lower among teenage girls than in countries where such punishment is permitted both at home and at school.

In countries where corporal punishment was banned in schools but not in homes (a group that includes the United States), the rate of fighting was also lower, but only among teenage girls (by 56 percent).

These findings held even after accounting for other factors that might potentially affect teen behavior, such as a country’s per capita income and murder rate or whether the country offers parental education and other social programs aimed at preventing the maltreatment of children in the home.

Proof of correlation, not causation

As the McGill researchers make clear, their study shows only a correlation between nationwide bans on corporal punishment and lower rates of youth violence. What the study can’t determine is what came first: Did the bans lead to children acting out less violently, or did the bans reflect existing social environments that were already less prone to spanking and youth violence?

“All we can say, at this point, is that countries that prohibit the use of corporal punishment are less violent for children to grow up in than countries that do not,” said Frank Elgar, a developmental psychologist and the study’s lead author, in a released statement.

The findings do, however, support plenty of other evidence that has linked corporal punishment to negative health and behavioral outcomes.

One major review of 50 years of research (which I reported on here in Second Opinion in 2016) found that children who are spanked by their parents tend to exhibit more anti-social behavior, aggression, mental health problems and cognitive disabilities — effects that continue into adolescence and adulthood.

Research has also shown that parental spanking has the opposite effect to what parents want. Not only is it ineffective at improving children’s behavior, it appears to make them more likely to defy their parents.

A widespread practice

[cms_ad:x101]Discipline involving corporal punishment is common around the world, and most of it occurs in the home. Using data from 62 countries, Unicef estimated in 2014 that about four in five children aged 2 to 14 are subjected to such punishment at the hands of their parents or other caregivers.

Almost one in six of those children (17 percent experience) experience severe physical punishment in their homes — they’re hit on the head, ears or face and/or hit hard and repeatedly.

In the United States, corporal punishment has become less socially acceptable in recent years, particularly among people with higher levels of education. But a 2015 Child Trends survey found that 76 percent of men and 66 percent of women in the U.S. agree with the statement “a child sometimes should be spanked.”

“A growing number of countries have banned corporal punishment as an acceptable means of child discipline and this is an important step that should be encouraged, especially in countries that have seen an effective lobby against such prohibitive approaches,” the McGill researchers write.

“Cultural shifts from punitive to positive discipline happen slowly,” they point out. But, as they also note, “In the past, there were scant data about the detrimental consequences of adults physically punishing children. This has changed as more evidence supports regulatory and educational public health approaches to protecting children and reducing violence.”

“All children have the right to [grow up in a way] that does not endanger their well-being and respects their right to exist,” the researchers stress.

FMI: You can read the study in full on the BMJ Open website.

Started in 1940 by a group of businessmen looking to promote their city nationally, the Minneapolis Aquatennial has been drawing crowds every July since for parades, pageantry, and crowd events, highlighting Minneapolis’s status as the “City of Lakes.”

The idea for the Aquatennial was born in 1939 out of a desire to promote Minneapolis as a vacation and business destination through an annual festival rivalling Mardi Gras, the Rose Parade, and, closer to home, St Paul’s Winter Carnival. After witnessing a large parade in Winnipeg for Great Britain’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, a group of Minneapolis businessmen including W. N. “Win” Stephens and Tom Hastings concluded that a similar spectacle would improve Minneapolis’ reputation nationally. With the help of veteran volunteers from the Winter Carnival, they organized a ten-day festival with almost 200 events in less than a year.

The name “Aquatennial” was chosen by contest to highlight the abundance of lakes, rivers, and parks around Minneapolis. Sail and motor boat races were to take place on Lake Calhoun (Bde Maka Ska), and a 450-mile canoe derby down the Mississippi River from Bemidji would arrive on the first day of the festival. A massive airshow and an interdenominational sermon at Powderhorn Park the next day would both draw more than 100,000. The parades, however, were the main attraction. With support from business sponsors, promotional Aquatennial pin sales, and thousands of volunteers, the inaugural Grande Day parade featured eighty-six elaborate floats, 15,000 marchers, and fifty bands, drawing a crowd of more than 200,000. Even more attended the nighttime Torchlight Parade later in the week. Attendance would grow even higher in coming years: 750,000 would watch 1962’s Torchlight Parade.

Along with the parades, the Queen of the Lakes contest has been an Aquatennial mainstay since 1940, drawing contestants from local pageants across the state. A panel of judges choose the next year’s queen and princesses based on personality, public speaking skills, and professionalism. After winners of the pageant are crowned, they serve as ambassadors for Minneapolis in parades nationwide, travelling more miles than the winner of any pageant in the country except Miss America. The contest has undergone significant changes since its origin; while queens do not have the same high-flying international trips and free cars they enjoyed into the sixties, they receive educational scholarships. In the mid-1960s, newspapers stopped listing the queens’ ages, weights, measurements, and home addresses.

[cms_ad:x100]The Aqua Follies, a highly choreographed aquatic revue show, was introduced to great fanfare in 1941, and provided the festival with crucial revenue for years. A permanent pool, diving platforms, and a stage were built on Lake Wirth to host multiple shows for 6,000 spectators at a time. Twenty-four women known as the Aqua Dears practiced routines for months at the University of Minnesota pool. For many years, they were all required to be exactly five feet and four inches tall and weigh 125 pounds. After the audience was warmed up by stunt divers and comics, professional dancers and the Aqua Dears performed a number with elaborate sets and costumes flown in from Broadway and Hollywood.

Over the next half-century, several programs were added to bring in younger audiences. 1967’s festival featured a live show called “The Happening” featuring Jefferson Airplane, Buffalo Springfield, and the Electric Prunes. In an event promoted by the American Dairy Association, contestants raced boats homemade from milk cartons across Lake Calhoun. The eccentric event was an Aquatennial staple from 1971 until 2015, and was revived by a separate nonprofit in 2017. In the late eighties, an event called Aqua Jam drew hundreds of skateboarders competing for prizes and sponsorships to the festival.

Going into the new millennium, the Minneapolis Aquatennial Association neared bankruptcy as corporate sponsors, individual contributors, and contest fees could not keep up with programming costs. In 2002, the organization was absorbed by the Minneapolis Downtown Council (DTC), a business association which already included many of the companies which sponsored the festival for years. Simultaneously, the Aquatennial Ambassador Organization(AAO) was created to run the Queen of the Lakes program and maintain connections with festivals across the state and nationally. While the length and scope of the festival has been reduced in recent years to reflect busier summer schedules and a greater focus on Downtown Minneapolis, the Aquatennial continues to promote the “City of Lakes” with free shows, parades, contests, pageantry, and fireworks.

For more information on this topic, check out the original entry on MNopedia.

Bidding closes today, Oct. 22, at 4 p.m. CT for our digital auction.

At the time of writing this post, you’ll need to bid at least $151 to be one of the two highest bidders, who will each win (1) vest (which can be exchanged for the size/color of your choosing at Patagonia St. Paul).

Not only will you boost your sartorial game, you’ll also help make MinnPost possible. All proceeds will support the journalism of our nonprofit newsroom.

[cms_ad:x100]Bid now and see all the details here.

And thank you to Patagonia St. Paul for its partnership and commitment to thoughtful Minnesota news.

In times of drought, should we make sure golf courses stay green?

That may be a jarring suggestion for those who view golf courses as a massive drain on water and space. After all, golf courses use nearly 8 billion gallons of water each year in Minnesota and have long been placed in the state’s lowest priority bracket for access to water in times of trouble.

But Jack MacKenzie, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America says they should move up the list for access to water in exchange for environmentally friendly practices. MacKenzie and his organization are rallying support from lawmakers for such a change ahead of the 2019 Legislative session while touting the environmental positives of golf courses, or as their fliers bill them: “your communities’ largest rain garden.”

[cms_ad:x100]MacKenzie said courses have reduced their water use in recent years and increasingly offer positives, such as recycling water for irrigation and undeveloped spaces for wildlife and pollinators. Those efforts can be improved further with the right incentives, MacKenzie said, namely assurances that when times get tough, golf courses can reduce their water without turning taps off altogether.

The golf superintendents’ organization represents about 68 percent of golf courses in Minnesota, including public and private courses, MacKenzie said. “There aren’t a lot of business models that allow for a huge capital injection into a property if that property has a threat of closure due to the lack of irrigation water,” MacKenzie told MinnPost last week. “That’s where the golf courses sit right now.”

Establishing a new category

The state has six categories for prioritizing access to water, starting with drinking water and water used by power producers, followed by agricultural irrigation, food processing and more. Golf courses are currently in the lowest bracket: nonessential users.

That means if a local water system faces a lack of water, permits of certain water users can be suspended — starting with those in the nonessential category. That’s a rare event, Mackenzie admits, but the dust-up over water levels at White Bear Lake has left some in the golf industry worried for what the future holds.

Last year, a judge ordered new regulations on groundwater users within five miles of the lake, including banning residential lawn sprinkling when lake levels fall below a certain threshold. Golf courses were exempt from that watering ban, and lake water levels have been more normal as of late.

And though Lawmakers delayed the ruling from taking effect until July 2019, MacKenzie noted there are eight golf courses near the lake, and at least some could be affected by future restrictions based on the court ruling. (The DNR also released an analysis Wednesday saying groundwater use has contributed to those lower water levels, but that such irrigation bans would have “minimal effect on lake levels.”)

MacKenzie said his organization is suggesting the state establish a seventh category of water users he described as “environmental steward.” He said golf courses wishing to be in that bracket could be required to meet set of tough environmental and water-use rules designated by the state and agree to have their water ratcheted down significantly in times of drought, as long as there’s enough for a bare minimum of upkeep, or, as he put it, “greens and tees.”

Besides incentivizing greener management of golf courses, MacKenzie said it would avoid “recovery” of drought-stricken courses, which can use more water than “just sustaining your current property.”

MacKenzie predicted any bill in the Legislature would face some skepticism, and he is indeed correct. State Rep. Jean Wagenius, DFL-Minneapolis, for one, is opposed to the concept. Wagenius, a member of the House environmental committee, told MinnPost some in agriculture have made similar pitches in the past to get stronger water rights, but she said those who wrote the state’s current laws on water “had a good grasp on what our priorities should be.”

She warned of a scenario in which special-interest groups try to move Minnesota’s water system to more closely resemble California’s. In that state, certain groups with senior water rights have few limitations on access to water, even during drought. Minnesota’s system has not historically operated on such a first-come-first-served basis as Western states.

[cms_ad:x101]Since the White Bear Lake saga, Wagenius said Minnesota has become more conscious of its groundwater and protecting water availability in general.

“The issue is we have priorities, and in a severe drought who gets the water?” she said. “Then you have to say, well is the recreational use of a golf course more important than irrigating a crop? Is it more important than people’s drinking water? That’s the basic issue here.”

State Rep. Paul Torkelson, chairman of the Legislative Water Commission and a member of the House’s environmental committee, was not so quick to dismiss the concept. Torkelson, R-Hanska, told MinnPost smart water and other conservation practices on golf courses and elsewhere is “something we should encourage.” The House is currently controlled by a Republican majority.

MacKenzie is “not asking that golf courses rise to the top — that they be more important than drinking water, for instance,” Torkelson said. “If they’re willing to do other things to conserve water maybe they should be rewarded with not being in the bottom of the barrel, so to speak.”

Not opposed by environmental groups

The golf course group’s proposal was also not immediately opposed by some from environmental groups. Greg McNeely, chairman of the White Bear Lake Restoration Association, said he wouldn’t predict an easy road for such a policy, but said he believes golf courses near the lake weren’t among the heaviest water users, and that operators there have been making “leaps and bounds as far as trying to preserve.”

Don Arnosti, conservation program director at the Izaak Walton League’s Minnesota Division, said the proposal could be good policy — as long as the environmental standards are truly strong. He said they should include water conservation and also practices to reduce fertilizers, pesticides and other nutrients that pollute water.

MacKenzie acknowledged that in times of severe crisis he would expect state officials to prioritize drinking water ahead of golf courses. But he said golf courses that put in the effort to be rigorously environmentally conscious shouldn’t be treated the same as courses that don’t meet those standards.

“Golf is fully cognizant that we use water, we get that,” he said. “But we’re also a group of trained professionals who can reduce our water consumptions and still maintain our business viability.”

And, yes, that bothers him. “My campaign — we really had to work our butts off to come up with the signatures to get on the ballot,” he said. “They need to start looking at all viable candidates. I do care because I believe the voters should have the right to information of all candidates.”

Sandman was not allowed to participate in the League of Women Voters debate in Brainerd October 8 and not invited to the KSTP televised debate on October 21, both featuring DFLer Joe Radinovich and Republican Pete Stauber. “When you’re excluded, it’s unfair to the voters because now it’s a skewed debate,” he said.

It’s also one fewer, free opportunity for Sandman to introduce himself. He is an elder in the Fond du Lac Band of Ojibwe. He worked 16 years as a Minnesota prison corrections officer. He was naval chief petty officer in Vietnam — a major influence in his life he said in an interview in his home in west Duluth. “It showed me the value of life and responsibility,” he said. “How to listen to people and how to lead.”

[cms_ad:x100]That leadership shows, Sandman says, on his priority issue of the environment. “One of my opponents is definitely for opening up the Iron Range. The other is wishy-washy, sitting on the fence,” he said.

“I am definitely opposed to nickel copper sulfide mining because it is unsafe in a water-rich environment and we do not have the science, or they’re not using the best science to protect the environment and everybody downstream of that proposed mine.

“And northern Minnesota has a very huge tourism industry. People come here for the water, for the fishing, for the hunting. And if it is polluted, there goes our tourism industry here in northern Minnesota.”

He is equally unequivocal in his support of single-payer health insurance, which Radinovich supports as well. But Sandman is convinced that neither major party can produce meaningful change.

“The DFL-GOP — those are the wings of the same bird. Right now both parties are sick,” he said. “Both parties are bought and paid for. I can vote Democrat, nothing changes. I can vote Republican, nothing changes. The working class person and the people that actually vote, in my opinion, are getting screwed because they’re not listening to them.”

Learning from previous campaign

His campaign is not a symbolic protest, Sandman says. He plotted his course. He ran for the Eighth District seat in 2014 as a Green Party candidate and got 4.3 percent of the vote. After sitting out the 2016 race because of heart surgery, he researched the parties again, considered them all — even the GOP — and determined the Independence Party was the best fit.

He studied the issues and the nuances. On mining for example, he says, “[Because] it’s boom or bust, we’ve got to start looking now for something that will be sustainable.”

But taconite mining is unique, he contends. “I’m in support of those guys 100 percent because we do need steel in this country. I even hate to say this but the president’s tariff on steel was … great for the miners up here,” he said, while acknowledging the tariffs hurt American farming. “You might have to spend 200 dollars more for an American-made car with American-made steel. Everybody can afford that.”

On raising the national minimum wage, Sandman says he understands the barriers. “A 15 dollar an hour wage is not unreasonable but it will not happen overnight. I know that.”

He also knows the extreme limitations of his campaign operation in a race that has attracted more than $7 million in advertising from outside groups on behalf of his opponents. “Right now, we’re probably sitting at 500 dollars,” he said of his cash on hand. “We raised altogether about 18 to 20 thousand dollars since January and we’ve been using it up just on advertising on social media. But, it’s not really an effective way to get the message out. Joe has 1.2 million, Pete has over 500 thousand. So it’s a struggle.”

[cms_ad:x101]Sandman will have at least one more debate opportunity. He’ll take part in the October 30 debate in Chisholm.

Election day a week later, he admits, could be a “sad” one for him. But it may not be Sandman’s last day in politics. “I’m going to watch who did they elect and ask, is it working.” he said. And if it’s not, Sandman clearly implies, he may try it again.

It was like Farmfest, but without the Carhartt. And the boots. And the questions about E-85. And the audience.

And all the candidates.

It was Sunday Night Live (sort of) for politics in Minnesota at Metro State University in St. Paul with KSTP-TV, giving up an evening of regular programing to show back-to-back-to-back-to-back debates for governor, attorney general and U.S. Senate, with stations throughout the state carrying the feed.

But the tightly controlled setting — there were far more plain-clothed security personnel than candidates — made it something less than spontaneous. Audience members were chosen by the candidates and the sponsors, with the lucky handful getting to sit in Metro State’s Great Hall, where KSTP had set up its studio. Those in the second-tier of importance got to sit in a large campus auditorium to watch on the big screen.

[cms_ad:x100]The media — other than KSTP’s own staff — were somewhere in the third tier. A press room/interview area was set up a distance from the great hall and the auditorium, and media were required to walk outside to get from one to the other. (Both MPR and Twin Cities PBS invite reporters from other media into their studios whenever they conduct on-air debates). Candidates were asked to go into the press room after their segments to respond to questions. But due to the tightly packed schedule, reporters were often busy watching the next debate by the time candidates showed up.

Those lucky enough to get into the Great Hall, the large, high-ceilinged Metro State room that overlooks downtown St. Paul, had to follow strict rules. No clothing or accessories identifiable with any candidate, party or political issue. No “shouting , cheering, clapping or jeering.” And no signs, noisemakers “or any other partisan outerwear” were permitted. Also, no cameras, though audience members were encouraged “to promote KSTP’s LIVE broadcast of the debate on their social media channels,” but were banned from livestreaming the event.

The prohibition against photography even applied to the small number of reporters trying to cover the event, and even applied to taking pictures through the wall of windows on the Great Hall. A very polite security guard made that very clear.

As it turned out, not many attended, making the prohibition on selling tickets unnecessary. There were lots of seats empty in the studio and only a few handfuls of people sat in the large auditorium.

And not all of those had been extended an invitation decided to show up. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, citing a conflict, asked to record her segment earlier in the day, and was accommodated. Still, her GOP rival Jim Newberger dutifully showed up and stayed throughout the evening, twice venturing into the press room in case anyone had questions.

The other U.S. Senate debate offered less of everything. U.S. Sen. Tina Smith choose not to take part, which led to a dispute that caused two labor groups to withdraw their co-sponsorships of the event.

As designed, the event was meant to be a political ceasefire of sorts, with business organizations and labor unions coming together in peace and harmony to put it on. The SEIU state council and the regional council of Carpenters had initially joined with the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce, other regional chambers and the Citizen’s League as sponsors.

But when Klobuchar balked and Smith decided not to attend, KSTP decided to go ahead with the debates anyway, fueling labor’s suspicions about an event put on by a station owned by the Hubbard family, which has long been a donor to conservative causes and candidates. When a demand by SEIU and the Carpenters to remove the second podium from the stage during the question of Karin Housley was rejected, the two groups bolted.

[cms_ad:x101]KSTP did pledge not to show the empty podium during the broadcast. But pictures (despite the ban on photography) were soon published on social media, giving meaning to the phrase “bad optics.”

“Following two candidates making the choice to not take part, we have been dismayed with the actions of KSTP and how this event has turned into yet another divisive tool being used by candidates running for statewide office to slam their opponent,” read a statement issued by the SEIU Minnesota State Council and the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters.

The debates themselves would be familiar to anyone who has seen the candidates before. DFL governor nominee Tim Walz and GOP nominee Jeff Johnson have been together so many times that they almost complete each other’s sentences. Nothing either said should have come as a surprise to their rival, and even the comebacks have become well-worn to each other.

The most-obvious exception was the attorney general faceoff between GOP nominee Doug Wardlow and DFL nominee Keith Ellison. While Walz and Johnson disagree on most issues, they get along personally. No one would ever say such a thing about Ellison and Wardlow.

The KSTP moderators — Tom Hauser and Leah McLean — eventually gave up trying to keep the two from interrupting one another. For those who stuck around for it, the argument offered one of the most-entertaining hours of political theater presented this election.

At the end, one of the moderators asked a question familiar to anyone who has been in marriage counseling: “Would you identify a positive quality of your opponent.”

Wardlow said he thinks Ellison has ,“very passionate beliefs and he does believe the things he says and that’s a good thing.”

Ellison hesitated before saying, “I think Mr. Wardlow dresses well. I like that tie. That’s a pretty good tie.”

He then added, that Wardlow’s father — former state Rep. Lynn Wardlow — is “a very nice man.”

And that was it.

In case you missed it Friday, new Jason Lewis comments about women surfaced. CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski and Jamie Ehrlich report: “Republican Rep. Jason Lewis once mocked women who were traumatized by unwanted sexual advances, including those inappropriately kissed or who had their thighs touched, a CNN KFile review of his former radio show reveals.”

Ugh. WCCO reports: “Administrators at the University of St. Thomas say an investigation is under way after a racist message was left on a student’s door. … University officials say the message was reported to them Friday after it was left on a student’s door in Brady Hall, a men’s dormitory on the school’s St. Paul campus. … The message read: “N—– go back.” ”

The Guardian goes in-depth on the encampment along Hiawatha Ave. Jenni Monet writes: “Inside an encampment near downtown Minneapolis is a handpainted sign made from a square of cardboard: ‘Just tents to you. A community to us!’ …Residents call the camp ‘The Wall of Forgotten Natives’ – what started out last spring as a few campers with sleeping bags has gradually grown to a tent city, three rows deep, on a quarter-mile-long grassy knoll beneath a soundwall in the heart of the city’s Native American community.”

In other news…

Drivers, look up from your smartphones occasionally: “Autumn is most deadly time for pedestrians” [Star Tribune]

Early ed conference: “Minneapolis Fed tackles education this week” [MPR]

A gradual change: “Austin Public Schools’ non-white population tops 50%” [Rochester Post-Bulletin]

A new potential option: “Delta proposes a nonstop flight between MSP and Shanghai” [Star Tribune]

Glensheen murders … of buckthorn: “Glensheen experiments with weed removal by goat” [Duluth News Tribune]

As unlikely as it may seem, Minnesota is a hotbed for organizations and people interested in improving relations between the U.S. and Cuba.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Tom Emmer, for example, sponsored multiple bills to end the decades-long U.S. economic embargo against the socialist island nation. Minnesota’s agricultural sector strongly backs the measures and stands to make an additional $47 million to $190 million per year in corn, soybean and dairy exports through increased trade with Cuba, according to a 2017 study from the U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba.

Rep. Betty McCollum, meanwhile, has authored legislation to end all federal funding to Radio Martî, a state-funded outlet in Miami that transmits anti-Castro propaganda to Cuba and costs taxpayers roughly $15 million a year.

The Minnesota Orchestra toured Cuba in 2015. Even Jesse Ventura, as Minnesota governor, once traveled to Cuba on a trade mission and chatted with Fidel Castro about JFK conspiracy theories.

[cms_ad:x100]Miguel Fraga, the first secretary of the Cuban Embassy in Washington, D.C., came to Minnesota over the weekend to give a series of talks on developing relations between the countries. Over the weekend, Fraga attended a national conference at Augsburg University for U.S. advocacy groups aligned with Cuba’s communist government. He also has public events lined up for Monday and Tuesday at Dorsey & Whitney law firm, the University of Minnesota, the University of St. Thomas and Macalester College.

Fraga sat down with MinnPost to discuss the complicated history and present between both countries. After a 2015 breakthrough that re-established diplomatic relations between both countries for the first time in more than 50 years, things took a turn when President Donald Trump last year announced that he would “cancel” the deal made by former presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro. Things got worse when 19 diplomats from the U.S. embassy in Havana reported experiencing strange illnesses in late 2016 with symptoms of headaches, hearing loss and loss of balance. The illnesses have been investigated but not officially explained, while some have linked them to mysterious “microwave attacks” using sound waves (the Cuban government denies any wrongdoing).

Despite this, Fraga is undeterred about a positive future in which the two countries are friends. “We proved with President Obama that we are not afraid of having relations with the United States,” he said. “We only want goodwill and respect.”

The interview has been edited and condensed.

MinnPost: What will you be doing in Minnesota for the next few days?

Miguel Fraga: In the United States there is a solidarity movement with Cuba that has been working for many years to improve the relations between both countries, and the national conference for that movement [was] here this weekend. So we are here to be a part of that, and to say thanks to the friends that we have here. And recently, the Minneapolis City Council approved a resolution to end the embargo and support relations between both countries. I’m going to have a meeting with the mayor to say thank you. I’m going to have a meeting with the Farm Bureau. I’m going to do presentations at three universities. I really believe that there is a lot of misinformation about my country,

MP: In 2016, you said we were in the best moment between Cuba and U.S. relations in the last 50 years. Does that still apply today after President Trump turned around some of policies Obama was establishing?

MF: No. We cannot say anymore that we are in best moment, that’s true. But at the same time, we can say we see real support for better relations. The resolution I mentioned in Minneapolis — you can see examples of the same resolution in Helena, Montana, in Sacramento, in Hartford. Those are symbolic, but we’re talking about people traveling to Cuba and universities and businesses that want us to have more opportunities. We’re not in the worst moment. We still have diplomatic relations. We still have opportunities and interests from both sides. The door is open on our side. We’re still working for a better future.

MP: What opportunities do you see for agricultural interests in states like Minnesota?

MF: Cuba buys $2 billion worth of food each year from all over the world. We import 70 to 80 percent of the food that we need. Unfortunately, because the embargo is still in place, it’s a major obstacle for diplomatic relations. But the farmers here in Minnesota want to sell products to Cuba and we want to buy those products. We put more money in their pockets if we put more food on our table. It’s a win-win relationship.

[cms_ad:x101]MP: You just met with the Minnesota Twins organization and talked with [fellow Cuban and baseball legend] Tony Oliva. What did you talk about?

MF: I am a huge baseball fan. In Cuba people love baseball; it is our national sport. If you go to Cuba and say you are from Minnesota, people are going to ask about the Twins. They respect people like Joe Mauer. I was able to meet Tony and he was very nice. It was amazing, and he told me something that is real. He supports the relations between both countries. And he said, “You don’t know how much I suffer, because I was not able to return to my country.” And that is a reality right now. I was a student in the Havana University when St. Thomas sent a team there. That was in late ’90s. I never imagined to be here. I never imagined going to the university to talk about relations. Don’t ask me what happened with the ballgame, because we lost. I don’t want to talk about that.

MP: You mentioned misconceptions in U.S. media coverage of Cuba, and the common criticisms we hear or read about is how Cuba is a one-party dictatorship, how it doesn’t allow freedom of the press or freedom of assembly.

MF: I say go to Cuba. How many of those people [making those criticisms] have been in Cuba? But bottom line, why only with Cuba? If it’s about communists, you have relations with communist countries. If it’s about one party, you have relations with countries that don’t allow political parties. You say that this is about human rights, but the United States never put an embargo against Pinochet in Chile, against Somoza in Nicaragua, against Batista in Cuba, who killed 20,000 Cubans in seven years. I always use the example of Vietnam. You lost 58,000 soldiers in Vietnam, and you established diplomatic relations. And they’re communist, by the way. So why not with Cuba?

MP: What do you have to say about the reports of mysterious illnesses from diplomats in the U.S. embassy in Havana?

MF: Since the beginning, this has been very difficult. In more than 50 years, nothing happened to your diplomats in Cuba. We had a Cuban diplomat who was shot and killed here in the United States in 1980, Felix Garcia-Rodriguez, in New York. So why now in November, 2016? We invited the FBI for the first time in 60 years to go to Cuba to investigate, and they have not been able to say, “OK, this is what happened.” We aren’t saying that nothing happened. We have a lot of respect for the US diplomats — they are colleagues for me. There is another diplomat in another country that has suffered something similar, according to the media. So why is the focus only on Cuba? We don’t know what happened. But we really believe that people are using this to put more obstacles in the relations between Cuba and the United States. Cuba is open to work with the United States to find out what really happened to the diplomats in Cuba.

I don’t claim to have any special knowledge about the dark side of U.S. history, usually emphasized by those who are sometimes called revisionists. Everyone knows that our land was taken, by force and much shedding of blood, from those whom we now refer to as Native Americans. Everyone knows that we were among the last bastions of human slavery. Up to the present moment, we look bad, in comparison to other wealthy nations, in the help we provide to the poor among us.

Etc.

These are not secrets, but seem to coexist, widely and permanently, with the oversimplification that the United States is the leader of the world’s good guys, and is, in each period, pitted against some version of the world’s bad guys in the never-ending struggle to defend and expand the blessings of freedom and democracy.

[cms_ad:x100]By calling it a fairy tale, I don’t mean that there’s no truth to it. I know how lucky I am to enjoy life in America, a blessing that befalls me mostly because of decisions and actions taken by my grandparents who emigrated here.

Nonetheless, the good guy/bad guy tale is fraught with oversimplifications, one of which is the headlines right now. It’s our 73-year-old love affair with Saudi Arabia. Of course it’s in the news just now because of the brutal murder and dismemberment of Saudi-born Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, by Saudi agents likely acting on behalf of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (often called MBS).

I have nothing new to add to the latest reporting, much of which is grotesque, and especially painful to some, like Tom Friedman of the New York Times, who had portrayed MBS as a promising new leader with the potential to bring Saudi mores closer to the 21st, or at least the 20th century, in terms of modern rights and freedoms.

But, as a history nerd, I’ve written a few times about the origins and continuing strength of the U.S.-Saudi friendship, which began, rather suddenly, in 1945 and has never wavered since, despite the awkwardness of the close bond between the defender and promoter of democracy, and one of the most repressive, least democratic, most sexist, most theocratic and most controlling governments on earth.

The United States had little do with Saudi Arabia, and not much with the Mideast, until President Franklin D. Roosevelt, on his way home from the famous 1945 Yalta Conference, stopped off in the Mideast’s Great Bitter Lake and, aboard a U.S. naval vessel, met for several days with King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia.

A bond was created — one that has seldom wavered since. U.S. oil companies and U.S. oil consumers have access to the vast oil resources of the desert kingdom, and the U.S. guarantees the security of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi ruling family’s divine grip on power.

As far as I know, the deal has never been broken by either side, and both sides attach considerable importance to its maintenance. The last time I summarized this history, I wrote:

The oil and security elements of the relationship make a certain sense, but the long deep friendship rubs awkwardly against the view that the United States uses its power in the world to promote and spread freedom and democracy, and the fact that Saudi Arabia, during all these decades, is among the most repressive, least democratic, most sexist, most theocratic and most controlling governments on earth.

MBS now rules the kingdom on behalf of his ailing father. The recent Khashoggi unpleasantness certainly complicates things, but I feel sure that the alliance will survive. Both sides are deeply, deeply invested in it, and the current occupant of the Oval Office is perhaps even more slavishly devoted to the alliance than his predecessors.

But the alliance was struck back when the idea of a reformist, democratizing Saudi Arabia wasn’t any part of the discussion.

[cms_ad:x101]In this morning’s Washington Post, my buddy Tom Hamburger gets first byline in a piece that updates the awkwardness of the moment (and really the awkwardness of the whole 73-year tale). It takes us back just to March of this year, as a group of prominent Washington power brokers (prominently including former Minnesota senator, now lobbyist Norm Coleman, whom the piece describes as “a dean of the Saudi lobby in Washington and an influential GOP figure”) prepares for the first state visit of MBS to Washington, just after he had consolidated total power back home.

The Post piece notes that, just at the time of the meeting, “Congress was facing a vote on a bipartisan resolution seeking to end U.S. support for a Saudi bombing campaign in Yemen that has killed tens of thousands of civilians since 2015.”

The Post piece tells the end of that small chapter in the decades-long Saudi-American friendship:

Eight days after their meeting, the congressional resolution aimed at extracting the United States from what the United Nations labeled “the worst humanitarian crisis in the world” would be defeated — hours after Mohammed was warmly welcomed at the White House at the start of his nationwide tour. 

Those twin successes reflected the power of a sophisticated Saudi influence machine that has shaped policy and perceptions in Washington for decades, batting back critiques of the oil-rich kingdom by doling out millions to lobbyists, blue-chip law firms, prominent think tanks and large defense contractors. In 2017, Saudi payments to lobbyists and consultants in Washington more than tripled over the previous year, public filings show.

The meeting was, of course, before the Khashoggi murder. The point of the story seemed to be to illustrate the power of the Saudi lobby, which is surely earning its pay in the current climate.

The Post said that after the meeting, Coleman “said national interests are at stake if the U.S.-Saudi partnership does not endure.”

The direct quote from Coleman reads: “The relationship with Saudi Arabia is critically important, and its partnership in confronting the Iranian threat is critical for U.S. security, for security in the region, including the security of Israel.”

The piece goes on to talk about the enduring power of the Saudi lobby, which has recently ramped up its spending to new highs, and which seems to never have lost an important argument.

Read the whole piece, which is here.

But if you don’t click through, here’s one more quote from it, attributed to Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut:  

One of the foreign policy truisms force-fed in Washington is that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have a special, unbreakable relationship. At least everybody who is smart and knows about foreign policy who walks into your office tells you that. But as it turns out, a lot of those people are getting gulf money.

During my usual night shift at the hospital, an individual around my age came in seeking care for a bad cough. He told me he worked as a drywall installer in dusty environments and had no health insurance, much less the ability to take time off from his job to get better. The cough had persisted for the past year, he said, and was beginning to bring up some blood.

In a separate room, not long before midnight, I clipped his X-ray film to the wall. A grapefruit-sized mass in his upper-right lung glared back at me. My heart sank. When I walked back into the patient’s room and explained as gently as possible the dire situation he faced, he responded: “When can I get back to work?”

The interaction I just described occurred in 2006 – prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Today, I am one of just two physicians currently serving in the Minnesota Legislature. As someone who has worked on the front lines of health care both before and after the ACA, I never want to see us go back to the dark days when private insurers canceled insurance policies, or didn’t provide them at all, for people facing serious medical crises.

If only …

If the ACA had existed when I met that drywall installer back in 2006, he could have visited his doctor for annual preventive exams at no cost. It’s possible a physician or nurse could have identified occupational health hazards, spotted warning signs, and helped that man prevent a personal health catastrophe. Perhaps his first question after I broke that horrible news in 2006 would not have been how will I pay my bills, but rather how soon he could begin treatment.

The ACA significantly reduced the number of Americans without health insurance and established important consumer protections that benefit everybody. With the steep rise in demand for medical care there have been correlated cost increases. Private insurers continue to raise their prices in the form of higher premiums and deductibles for consumers, even as they rake in record profits.

Government can and must now work to control health care costs for consumers. Our hopes that insurance companies would hold costs down has proven misguided.

I favor regulating prescription drug companies, driving doctors toward the best and most efficient practices (such as preventive medicine), and incentivizing hospitals to keep people out of beds, not fill more beds. Controlling costs can be done hand in hand with great medical care. That’s why I favor an expansion of our state’s popular MinnesotaCare program as an option for increasing choice and competition in our state health insurance market.

An opportunity to ‘buy in’

MinnesotaCare is a state program that for 26 years has provided affordable, reliable health care for eligible working families. People pay what they can toward their monthly premiums and the state helps them out based on their income level. The program is proven to control costs and drive providers toward quality health delivery. By creating an option for all consumers to “buy in” to MinnesotaCare, those who earn too much to qualify for subsidies would pay their own way, meaning the cost of their premiums would pay for their coverage just like other commercial insurance plans.

Two powerful industries oppose the MinnesotaCare Buy-In idea – private insurance companies and hospitals. Why? Because an affordable product like MinnesotaCare cuts into their profits. Any disruption to the fee-for-service model is guaranteed to result in industry pushback.

Some politicians have proposed we control the costs of health insurance by offering products that only cover some conditions, or can be revoked if a person has a pre-existing condition. As a doctor, I can attest that every one of us will have a pre-existing condition at some point in our lifetimes. Removing consumer protections for any medical condition is a shortsighted gimmick that will turn us back to days like the one when I discovered the mass in the drywall installer’s lung. When we structure health insurance to only serve the healthy, nobody who needs it will have it.

We are a strong enough and a good enough state to ensure all of us have access to health care. And we can no longer allow a person’s background or income to determine if they can receive treatment – we are better than that. Let’s move forward, not backward, with health coverage for Minnesotans.

Matt Klein is a medical doctor and state senator who represents Inver Grove Heights, West St. Paul, South St. Paul, Mendota Heights, and a portion of Eagan. He is a member of the following committees: Capital Investment; Health and Human Services Finance and Policy; and Human Services Reform Finance and Policy.

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When first we saw the Egyptian god Hapy (pronounced “hoppy”), he was flat on his back in the second-floor rotunda at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. His crown and his hands were sheathed in blankets and plastic. Roughly an hour and a half later, he was upright, majestic, large and in charge, daylight washing down him from the skylight above.

Like others who had come to view the installation of the monumental sculpture – nearly 18 feet tall and weighing 9,700 pounds – we stood transfixed and silent except for the click of camera shutters. Hard-hatted, no-nonsense crews from France; the Minneapolis firm Rocket Crane; and Mia raised it with block and tackle and a steel gantry on wheels, then sited it precisely on a platform meant to distribute its weight on the floor.

There were unnerving times when it hung at an angle, swaying slightly. And moments before it touched the ground when men gathered closely around it and we wanted to shout, “Watch your toes!”

Hapy is one of three colossal statues on display for Mia’s new exhibition, “Egypt’s Sunken Cities,” which opens Nov. 4 for a six-month run. The other two, a pharaoh and a queen, are in the main lobby. All had been submerged in the Mediterranean Sea for more than 1,000 years when French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio found them in 2000 while exploring Aboukir Bay near the city of Alexandria.

[cms_ad:x100]After the installation, we spoke with Michael Lapthorn, Mia’s exhibition designer.

MinnPost: How long have you been working on this exhibition?

Michael Lapthorn: About two years. [For Hapy], we needed to review a lot of things. We needed to see whether it would fit. We needed an engineer review to find out what the floors would take. We needed to calculate the weight that would be borne by this floor, and the minimum base we would need to distribute that weight. Plus we needed to know how the geometry would work out, where the pick point would end up exactly. [The pick point is where the rigging is attached for lifting.] We had to calculate – when he goes up, would he travel too far back and hit the railing [around the opening in the third floor above]?

MP: Did he arrive in several parts?

ML: He’s in two parts. A foot part and the rest, all bolted together. We had to crane them in through the front door. We had to take the doors off to have room to move them in. We moved them into the galleries, and they’ve been there ever since. We rolled them back along the floor. That’s how they’ll go out again, too.

ML: Trusting the math.

MP: Who did the math?

ML: We all did a little bit of math, but our engineers do the real math. They’re the ones who said it was OK and gave us the thumbs-up to do it.

MP: Was there ever a moment of doubt?

[cms_ad:x101]ML: I was worried that his crown was going to nick the inside rim there [pointing up at the ceiling]. When I worked it out on the computer – I made a full-scale model and worked it out – it depended on how high off the ground he needed to be in order to do everything we needed to do. The fact that he’s down as low as he is – he’s much lower than the other statues [in the lobby] – was necessitated by the size of the room. And he would look kind of weird if he were up higher. His head would be stuck in a collar.

MP: Did you put him together here?

ML: Yeah, right here. There’s a cool little trolley system. We laid him horizontally on a railway car. The foot part was fixed and raised up to be equal. They rolled the parts together, bolted them down and torqued the nuts extremely tightly. And now he’s distributed over 100 square feet.

ML: He looks perfect in here. I didn’t think he would look as good, but he seems to be perfectly at home. And I wish we could keep him, but we’ll have to give him back. Our “Doryphorus” is a little jealous. He’s just around the corner, holding court in his own gallery.

Along with the three huge statues, “Egypt’s Sunken Cities” includes more than 250 works of art discovered by Goddio’s team, along with artifacts from museums in Cairo and Alexandria. The exhibition opens Nov. 4. Tickets are on sale now ($20/$16/$14).

The picks

Now through Sunday at the Playwrights’ Center: PlayLabs New Play Festival. This annual series started Monday, but you still have Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday to catch staged readings of new plays in an intimate setting, for free. There’s a PlayLabs Party on Saturday and a Playwriting Fellows Showcase on Sunday. More than 65 percent of PlayLabs plays have gone on to full productions. People come in from around the country to see this festival. Times vary. FMI and registration (because seating is limited).

Tonight (Tuesday, Oct. 23) at the Guthrie: The Twin Cities Moth GrandSLAM: “Growing Pains.” Last week at the renovated Parkway, listening to Adam Gopnik, we were reminded of how great it is to sit in a room with a good storyteller. Tonight you can hear ten, all StorySLAM champions, tell tales about their personal growing pains – something we can all relate to, even if we grew up very differently. This event will decide the Moth’s Twin Cities GrandSLAM Story Champion. Javier Morillo will host. Doors at 6:30 p.m., stories at 7:30. FMI and tickets ($25).

Wednesday at Studio Z: Rimon Artist Salon: “The Trail Forward: Music Making Change.” Dubbed “one of the leading series of Jewish events in the country,” Rimon starts its 12th season with Grammy-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist Lisa Gutkin (The Klezmatics, the Guthrie’s “Indecent”) and Rabbi Arielle Lekach-Rosenberg. Gutkin will present a first hearing of her music-theater work-in-progress “The Trail Forward,” about growing up among multilingual, politically radical garment-worker immigrants. Rabbi Lekach-Rosenberg will join Gutkin in conversation about making change through collective action and the power of music to spark it. 7 p.m. FMI and tickets ($12/6).

For those who have dared to cross an aggressive authoritarian government, seeking refuge in a foreign country no longer guarantees security.

You’re not safe anywhere.

Saudi Arabia’s Jamal Khashoggi, a sometimes-dissident and U.S. resident who died in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month, is just one example. This spring, Russian agents poisoned a former intelligence officer in Britain. China recently summoned the president of Interpol home from France for interrogation, the latest in a long list of score-settling operations (including kidnappings), usually under the guise of fighting corruption. A Turkish official said earlier this year that the country had seized 80 of its own citizens working abroad for a cleric accused by the government of plotting a coup. Early last year, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un had his half-brother killed with a nerve agent in Malaysia.

This isn’t a totally new phenomenon, of course. In 1940, an attacker buried an ice pick in the skull of Stalin’s great rival, Leon Trotsky, in Mexico City. In 1978, Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov died of ricin poisoning in London, probably from a poison-tipped umbrella. The poisoning of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London was a major scandal a decade ago.

[cms_ad:x100]The United States targeted and killed an American citizen, Anwar Alwaki, seven years ago as part of its anti-terror campaign, a strike whose legality was hotly debated. Grabbing foreign citizens is a somewhat different issue, with its own varied history. Think of Israel’s operation to seize Adolf Eichmann in Argentina in 1960, for instance, or the U.S. rendition program after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Still, this feels different, as if score-settling with one’s own citizens abroad is creeping into the mainstream. Most often, it’s because the leader has a thin skin and has concluded that no one’s going to stop him. If there is an international reaction, it’s likely to be fleeting and half-hearted. Dismiss this as  someone else’s problem if you like. But it’s another way the international order is giving way, to be replaced by a free-for-all.

Kim didn’t pay much of a price for using VX nerve agent on his half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, at the Kuala Lumpur airport. A year and a half later, his position seems stronger than ever.  

Khashoggi wasn’t the only dissident the Saudis had their eyes on. This past week the Washington Post, for whom Khashoggi wrote, related the story of Omar Abdulaziz, one of Khashoggi’s collaborators, who has asylum in Canada. Over a series of meetings, Saudis who claimed to be emissaries Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tried to lure Abdulaziz back home. They even brought one of his brothers along.

They tried to entice Abdulaziz to the Saudi consulate for a new passport, something that he’s now particularly glad he didn’t do. When Abdulaziz refused to go back, Saudi officials arrested two of his brothers and eight friends.

The Post also cites the case of Loujain Hathoul, a female Saudi activist who was abducted off the streets of Abu Dhabi, and of a dissident prince who lives in Germany and says he was the target of a similar plot this fall.

It quotes Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch, as saying Saudi Arabia “is sending a very deliberate and clear signal, saying you’re never going to be free.”

Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erdogan are sending much the same message.

Other than score settling, it’s hard to see what Putin got out of the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in England early this year. Skripal was not a threat; by most accounts he wasn’t even an important pawn in the East-West spy game. But Putin, the former KGB agent, holds particular contempt for those who betrayed the country. And a mysterious, gruesome death would serve as a warning to anyone tempted to follow suit. Western countries retaliated by throwing out dozens of Russian diplomats, but relations with the West already were bad.

You can understand – even appreciate – Xi’s drive to root out corruption in China. It wouldn’t be a big surprise if the Interpol official, Meng Hongwei, had some things to answer for. He is also a vice minister of public security in the Chinese government. But Xi, China’s president-for-as-long-as-he-wants-to-be, has used his anti-corruption drive to consolidate power. Here, courtesy of Foreign Policy magazine, is a look at China’s long campaign against government officials, business figures and dissidents – even if they are citizens of foreign countries.

[cms_ad:x101]Erdogan’s focus on followers of Fetullah Gulen, a former ally against military rule, seems deeply personal. Erdogan accuses Gulen of orchestrating a corruption scandal and then a coup attempt two years ago. Even so, the breadth of Turkey’s campaign against Gulen’s followers is remarkable. A deputy prime minister said in April that 80 Turkish citizens had been rounded up from 18 countries, reportedly including Bulgaria, Malaysia, Kosovo, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sudan.

Perhaps nothing will stop Xi, and only sharp intelligence work can keep the assassins away from another hapless Russian. But you can bet that others are paying attention. If Bin Salman and Erdogan get away with it, some of them will want to try, too.

Although most Americans say they would prefer being treated with something other than an opioid medication to relieve pain after surgery, few of them talk to their health care provider about it, according to the results of a survey released Tuesday by the Mayo Clinic.

The survey also found that many Americans have some stunning misconceptions about opioid addiction, including beliefs that the greatest danger is to people living in urban areas and that that they themselves are not personally at risk.

“It’s important that the public understand that there’s a risk with taking these medications, and that it’s not just a risk for everyone else,” said Dr. Helen Gazelka, a pain specialist and chair of Mayo Clinic’s Opioid Stewardship Program, in an interview with MinnPost. “Anyone who takes an opioid can be at risk of an addiction.”

Indeed, health officials estimate that about one in four patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain will go on to misuse the drugs, and about one in 10 will become addicted to them.

[cms_ad:x100]The United States is in the midst of a national opioid crisis, in which prescription opioid medications have played a major role. In 2016, opioid overdoses claimed more than 42,000 deaths — more than any other year on record, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

About 40 percent of those deaths involved a prescription opioid.

A reluctance to ask questions

The new survey is the latest in the Mayo Clinic National Health Checkup series, “a kind of litmus test we do of Americans’ understandings and perhaps even their opinions about matters in health care,” explained Gazelka. The survey on attitudes regarding opioids was conducted in July and involved a nationally representative sample of 1,270 adults living across the U.S.

Of the people surveyed, 94 percent said they would opt for an alternative treatment — such as physical therapy, over-the-counter pain relievers, acupuncture or medical marijuana — to avoid opioid pain medications. Most (34 percent) cited fear of addiction as the main reason for wanting to forgo the opioids.

“In spite of how good of advocates we’ve become for ourselves and how much we Google things to look them up, patients still sometimes have a reluctance to question their provider,” said Gazelka.

Dangerous misconceptions

The survey also found that a significant proportion of Americans harbor several misunderstandings about opioids and the opioid crisis.

A large majority (67 percent) said, for example, that they were confident that they would not become addicted to opioids if prescribed the drugs for the treatment of chronic pain. Yet, although it’s true that not everyone who takes opioid pain medications becomes addicted, experts say there is no way to tell who will get hooked.

[cms_ad:x101]“I think there may be a human tendency to think that it might happen to someone else, but not to me,” said Gazelka. “But that’s certainly not true. “There’s a risk of addiction for everyone who uses opioids. Some people may be at higher risk, but there’s certainly a risk for everyone.”

Another misconception uncovered by the survey has to do with where the opioid crisis is occurring. When asked where the people most at risk for becoming addicted to opioids live, the largest proportion of the survey’s respondents (37 percent) said urban areas.

Yet the reality is that small towns and rural areas have been hit even harder than cities by the crisis. In 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that the rates of deaths from drug overdoses in rural areas had surpassed those in urban areas.

Acute vs. chronic pain

The survey also found that most Americans (79 percent) believe that opioids are primarily intended for the treatment of chronic pain. Thirty-one percent of the survey’s respondents said they had used prescription opioids for that purpose.

Yet, as the Mayo Clinic points out on its website, research has shown that opioids are most effective for acute, or short-term, pain from a traumatic injury, such as a broken bone or surgery. In those cases, the drugs are supposed to be used at the lowest dose possible and for only a few days.

“Many times chronic pain patients will find that opioids simply don’t work as well anymore, and they really do need other options for their pain management,” said Gazelka. “They often feel better when they get off of the opioids.”

Unsafe disposal

In addition, the survey found that Americans are not following safe practices when disposing of their unused opioid medications. Only one in four of the respondents said they had received instructions from their health care provider or pharmacist about what to do with leftover pills, and about the same low percentage said they had participated in a drug-disposal program.

Some of the survey’s respondents said they had flushed unused opioids down the toilet (17 percent) or had tossed them in the garbage (17 percent). Most (30 percent) said, however, they had kept leftover pills in their home medicine cabinet — a dangerous practice because the drugs might then get into the hands of young children or someone who is already addicted to them.

The safest way to dispose of unused opioid medications — or other prescription drugs — is to drop them off at one of the sites approved for such collections by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The DEA also sponsors a “National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day” twice a year. The next one is this Saturday, Oct. 27. You can find a collection site near you by simply plugging your ZIP code into the NEA’s website.

“That’s a great way for people to dispose of unused medications,” said Gazelka.

FMI:  You can read more about this and other Mayo Clinic National Health Checkup surveys on the Mayo Clinic’s website.

Over 400 MinnPost members and friends gathered at the Cowles Center in downtown Minneapolis on Thursday, Oct. 11, to hear MinnPost editor Andrew Putz interview civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson. A reception at the Loews Minneapolis Hotel for sponsors was held prior to the event, and photographer Anna Min was on hand to capture the festivities.

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Over 400 MinnPost members and friends gathered at the Cowles Center in downtown Minneapolis on Thursday, Oct. 11, to hear MinnPost editor Andrew Putz interview civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson. Here are more photos from the pre-program reception at Loews honoring sponsors and their guests.

Over 400 MinnPost members and friends gathered in downtown Minneapolis on Thursday, Oct. 11, to hear MinnPost editor Andrew Putz interview civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson. Here are more photos from before, during and after the program at the Cowles Center.

“Was Gary Hart Set Up?” The Atlantic

Maybe you remember the story. Or maybe you read about it? Or maybe what a leading Democratic presidential hopeful was accused of doing in 1987 seems to trivial when compared to what more recent candidates have been accused of. Still, it was a massive story and ended Hart’s hopes of becoming president and changed the way many political reporters covered the beat. James Fallows writes in The Atlantic that it all might have been a set up by the most clever and perhaps the dirtiest political operative of the 20th century. — Peter Callaghan, state government reporter

“Paul Allen’s death leaves many questions around what’s likely the largest estate in Washington history,” The Seattle Times

Paul Allen’s hometown newspaper, The Seattle Times, explains how the fate of his $20 billion fortune is up in the air after his death last week. The investments — landmarks, for-profit companies, real estate, sports teams and philanthropies — help define the Puget Sound region, and details of what happens next with them are so far not publicly available. Beyond that lack of clarity, the newspaper casts light on the huge task of sifting through Allen’s records and assets. “Both the Internal Revenue Service and the state Department of Revenue will likely dispatch teams of auditors to look over the Allen estate and determine its value — a task one local tax attorney said could ‘overwhelm the state Department of Revenue.’ ” — Jessica Lee, local government reporter

“When your neighborhood goes boom,” High Country News

High Country News goes inside a natural gas explosion in Windsor, Colorado, and the larger questions it raises as the population of the West grows alongside the latest oil and gas boom. Drilling rigs are more often in backyards and residential neighborhoods, fueled by the money and influence of the energy sector. But are safety regulators and the general public doing enough to prevent deadly disasters? — Walker Orenstein, environment and workforce reporter

“This Is the Most Lucrative Moment in History to Catch Bass,” The New York Times

Get ready for a deep dive into the thrilling, extreme sport of  … bass fishing. If your mind immediately went to a middle-aged guy hucking a bobber across his bow with one hand while nursing a Bud in the other, well, you obviously haven’t been keeping up with the Bassmaster Elite Series — or its bitter rival, the the Bass Pro Tour. With thousands of dollars on the line at each competition, these competitors simply can’t afford to enjoy a relaxing day on the water. — Tom Nehil, news editor

When predicting the future of Minnesota, GOP governor candidate Jeff Johnson often evokes a single word to describe what could happen if his opponent, DFLer Tim Walz, is elected: California.

In one TV ad comparing his vision for the state to Walz’s, Johnson says: “One candidate sees a Minnesota where we all lose our health insurance, forced on to one government plan. Where we become a sanctuary state for illegal immigrants and where we pay even higher taxes. He wants us to be California.”

Johnson has even used the theme in a parody of Walz’s “One Minnesota” campaign theme and logo:

But Walz has his own geographic shorthand when forecasting Minnesota’s future if Johnson is elected: Mississippi.

At a forum with Johnson in Wayzata after each won the primary, Walz responded to Johnson’s charge that taxes would rise in a Walz Administration: “We are not a fearful people. We look to the future. We don’t fear the future, we create the future. This is a state that ranks at the top of so many measures. This is a state with a quality of life. And yes, you get what you pay for. I’m not interested in being Mississippi. I’m interested in being Minnesota.”

[cms_ad:x100]Both states are used to being stereotyped, of course. U.S. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi wouldn’t be as tempting a target for GOP advertising if she was from, say North Dakota. And there is even a Wikipedia entry for the phrase “Thank God for Mississippi,” defined as “a common adage in the United States, particularly in the South, that is generally used when discussing rankings of U.S. States.” But are the Golden State and the Magnolia State really such bad places? And is Minnesota really so much better?

MinnPost decided to take a look at how the three states stack up across a range of measures of the good life.

Politics

Since using states as bogeymen is very much a political trope, let’s first take a look at where California, Minnesota and Mississippi fall on the political spectrum: from raging liberal to raging conservative.

This is one area where the states represent three distinct pictures. In California, the governor’s office and both bodies of the state assembly are controlled by Democrats. In Minnesota, it’s mixed — Republicans control the legislature and Democrat Mark Dayton is the governor (though that’s changing in January and we don’t know who’ll replace him). In Mississippi, it’s a Republican trifecta, with both legislative bodies and the governorship held by the GOP.

Death and taxes

Time and again, the issue Republicans most associate with California is taxes.  There are lots of different ways to look at that issue, but if you look strictly at per-capita state tax collections (including property, sales and gross receipts, license, income and other state taxes), Minnesota (#3) actually comes out in front of California (#8), according to the Census Bureau, while Mississippi is well below both states (#33).

Education

Education has emerged as a big issue in the governor’s race, which makes sense since it’s the second-largest part of Minnesota’s state budget. Here, as with life expectancy, things don’t look so great for Mississippi. Mississippi’s fourth grade reading scores, for example, were far below that of California and Minnesota’s. Math scores are low too.

[cms_ad:x101]This seems like a good time to note that in terms of education (and income, and a lot of other areas), Minnesota looks good on average, but has pretty bad racial disparities. Though when it comes to education, Mississippi and California aren’t exactly models of racial equity, either.

Economics

What about the economy?

When it comes to economics, California, in the immortal words of Tupac, keeps it rocking. It’s the sixth biggest economy in the world, though the numbers look slightly less impressive on a per-capita basis.

It ranks seventh among U.S. states in terms of gross state product (the value of all the goods and services an economy produces) per capita, at $66,000, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Minnesota’s per-capita gross state product edges somewhere near that, at about $61,000, earning it 13th place in the U.S. Meanwhile, Mississippi ranks 50th, at $36,029.

Bond rating institutions like Moody’s, S&P and Fitch assign credit ratings to states as a measure of how healthy their economies are — and how likely they are to be able to handle their debt load. Each of these institutions rates states on a different curve, but all of them rank Minnesota ahead of both Mississippi and California. (California’s rating is still recovering from a budget and cash flow crisis in 2008-09, and has enacted policies to make it a safer bet for lenders, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.) Both Moody’s and S&P put Minnesota in the middle of their top-tier bracket, while Fitch put Minnesota at the top rating as of January 2017.

Craft beer

OK, so now we know where California, Minnesota and Mississippi fall along political, economic and social lines. But what about cool factor? California has surfing. Mississippi has the Blues. Minnesota has … cold? And craft beer.

Local Twitterers are picking up on this Minnesotan quoted at the end of a New York Times story about President Trump stoking fear of immigrants. To wit: “But Mr. Trump’s dystopian imagery has clearly left an impression with some. Carol Shields, 75, a Republican in northern Minnesota, said she was afraid that migrant gangs could take over people’s summer lake homes in the state. … ‘What’s to stop them?’ said Ms. Shields, a retired accountant. ‘We have a lot of people who live on lakes in the summer and winter someplace else. When they come back in the spring, their house would be occupied.’”

This should help bigly. The Star Tribune’s Kelly Smith reports: “President Donald Trump tweeted out his endorsement of U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen late Monday night, even though Paulsen, who’s in a tight race for re-election, has tried to distance himself from his fellow Republican. … ‘Congressman Erik Paulsen of the Great State of Minnesota has done a fantastic job in cutting Taxes and Job Killing Regulations. Hard working and very smart,’ Trump tweeted at 11:22 p.m. ”

Very sad story about Dan Markingson’s mother. KMSP’s Jeff Baillon reports: “Mary Weiss lost her son while he was enrolled in a controversial drug study at the University of Minnesota. The case drew worldwide attention. … Weiss is now facing the loss of her home and retirement savings after being taken advantage of by someone she trusted, according to police.”

In other news…

Interesting: “Grandson of pioneering black Minneapolis cop sues police department” [Star Tribune]

Joly good: “How Best Buy survived the retail apocalypse” [The Week]

Leaving a bad taste: “Brooklyn Park residents steamed up over Project Hotdish” [MPR]

Nice fish: “Angler Sets 1st Northern Pike State Catch-And-Release Record” [WCCO]