An ATV adventure

I was just reading the June/July issue of Minnesota Off-road Magazine and found a feature article including some local highlights.

The story is written by Jerry Bassett (not sure if there is any relation to the local Bassetts or not) and is about an extended ATV trip along the Soo Line Trail.

Isle's Les Pinz is one of the riders featured in the article along with three other riders. The group traveled from Isle to Cass Lake.

The group is a bunch of "avid snowmobilers" who set out for their first ever long distance ATV ride. "As it would turn out, the trip wouldn't be as easy as a snowmobile tour and would offer an adventure or two," Bassett wrote.

The group encounters some challenges as they make their way along the 360 or 380-mile journey. The smooth path of the Soo Line "disintegrated into a seemingly little used and minimally maintained path.... we went from the irregular chatter of the corridor trail to picking our way over ruts, through mud holes ad around downed trees."

Now that sounds like my kind of ATV fun.

All-in-all, the article made me want to try the adventure myself. Having never been on an extended snowmobile trip, I have no idea what it would be like. But I am willing to pack up my Yamaha and give it a try. But it sounds like I may need a mechanic along for the ride.

I made the mistake of mentioning it to my Editor, Brett. Now I have a new assignment.

I am not sure when I will make the journey, but I am willing. After all, the article closes that long distance ATV rides can be quite nice, "if you have the right companions, prepare for the unexpected and enjoy the journey."

So who wants to go for a ride?

Why is this news?

June 6, or 7, 2009 Herb Weyaus was hospitalized.

On May 24, 2009 a veteran New Jersey state lawmaker was hospitalized in Massachusetts after suffering a mild heart attack while watching a college lacrosse game. The 71-year-old Sen. Anthony R. Bucco was resting comfortably and was expected to be released from an area hospital days later.

Sen. Tim Johnson, D-South Dakota, was hospitalized in December 2006 after he suffered stroke-like symptoms in his Washington office, his staff said.

On Monday, June 1, 2009 Sen. Robert C. Byrd, developed a serious infection and was treated in the hospital with antibiotics.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger broke his leg skiing in Dec. 2006.

Singer Beyounce fell down the stairs during a concert in July 2007.

These were all top sotries in various national news publications at different times.

Why is it that these people's illnesses and injuries have became headlines?

Because these people are important to the communities they serve. They may not like that their feet failed them and they fell down the stairs, or that their heart attack was discussed on national TV. But that is the way it is when people are public figures whether political or performers. Sometimes the two are interchangeable.

Yet here in our front porch, Herb Weyaus, Mille Lacs Band secretary/treasurer and one of the areas most influential people (depending on which side of the border you happen to live on) was hospitalized over the last week with what appears to be a serious heart condition. No information is being released by the Mille Lacs Band Government or their public relations firm.

Weyaus holds the purse strings to millions of dollars. It would be nice to know what is going on. Who is in charge while he is recovering?

This would have been an opportunity for the Band to make a public statement and reach out to the community. But instead, they chose to keep his illness a "private family affair."

The Band cries out to be treated as an equal state and then spins on the heals of sovereignty and divine independence and power.

The St. Cloud hospital as of Friday, June 12 has Weyaus listed in fair condition. He was upgraded to good condition as of Monday, June 15. No other information is releasable by the hospital according to HIPPA regulations.Whatever the case may be, Weyaus is a stubborn old goat. It will take more than a triple or quadruple or whatever kind of bypass to keep him down long I am sure.

While I certainly understand privacy issues and HIPPA regulations, the fact remains that he is a public figure. He is a government official. People have the right to know what is happening with their government leaders and who is watching the store in his absence.

My dad was hospitalized this week as well. While my dad had a knee replacement surgery and is now recovering at home, I worried about him. As I am sure Mr. Weyaus' family is worried about him.

My thoughts and prayers truly are with Mr. Weyaus and his family and I wish him a speedy recovery.

Perhaps the Mille Lacs Band government could issue a press release to extinguish all of the rumors that are floating around and help to get the truth out to the people they serve.

We are waiting for the news. Why? Because it is news.

Balancing in quicksand

As a writer, I hope for my work to be meaningful. There are not a lot of Pulitzer Prizes given away to journalists of community newspapers. (Although I would be extremely honored.) So sometimes, I feel like I am treading water in a sea of quicksand. No matter what I do, I just get sucked into a vortex moving from one story to another.

I honestly try to give every story 100% of my attention and sometimes, it seems to my editor, they get more. When I am truly inspired, I dive right in to the story and begin to feel what my subject may be feeling. Because to me, that is how I try to make you, the reader, feel something, too. I take something away from every interview and every story. I learn something new all the time. I try to put in parts of the story or certain insights that other people would skip. And if what I write ends up meaning something to someone, or someone learns something or is inspired, I feel I have done a good job for the day.

I have felt a sort of quiet honor a couple of times when I have walked into a business or an establishment and saw something I had written framed and hanging on the wall.

I have felt a stronger, yet still quiet honor when I have gone to some one's house and they have saved an article I previously wrote, or a photo I had taken, and hung it on the wall in the garage or stuck it to their refrigerator.

I am always humbled when someone thanks me by a note, or card or personally, for something I have written when it is accompanied by heartfelt words of "Thank you." Hugs are even better.

Those things make me feel like something I did actually meant something, to at least one person.

I wrote a profile article about Denny Johnson, a local Garrison man, a few months ago. During the interview, he told me his life's story, like only Denny could. While his voice spoke of interesting tales, his face and his eyes held his emotion, escaping for brief moments scattered throughout our interview.

Denny passed a way a couple of weeks ago. His funeral was last Monday. Denny was a presence in Garrison that will be greatly missed. I was surprised to tears, honored and humbled when during the service Pastor Chris said, "The family asked me to read this. . . ." and he began reading from the article I had written, several months prior.

My words sounded different when read allowed from the pulpit of a church. I wiped away tears that I tried hard to keep inside. Some tears were for Denny. Admittedly, some tears were for me. I was proud that what I had written meant something to one man and his family.

I don't want to sound like I feel like everything I write is worthy of such honor. I know that to not be true. But every once in a while, something comes along to remind me of why I chose to write.

"The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say." ~Anaïs Nin

My friend Mark, called me a day or two after the funeral, just to remind me of that very thought. He made me cry again. But this time, I had found some sort of equilibrium.

And I haven't worked out all of the bugs yet but I am learning to balance in the quicksand.

Rest in peace, Denny Johnson. And thank you.

Peace.

Welcome spring!

I wore my sandals for the first time in Minnesota yesterday — actually outside without socks. I even went bare-foot for a little while. It was nice to feel grass between my toes. Of course, we were a little south of the Brainerd Lakes area. We were spending quality time with my family at my brother's house in Jordan. They have said good-bye to the snow and all of the lakes south of Princeton, it seems, are free from ice.

It is only a matter of time before we can say that up here.

I love holidays. I love holidays for the meaning of the day whether it is Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, birthdays or the 4th of July. But also, those are times when families gather. At least my family. We try to make a point of getting together as much as we can. It seems lately, we need a holiday to do so.

We were missing a few members of our family this year due to work and other family events, but the majority of us were together. And we had a wonderful time. We have not been together since Christmas. That is just wrong. But understandable.

Thanks to Louie and Jeanne for hosting our Easter celebration. I hope those last two eggs are found before too long. :-)

It was so nice to be able to spend so much time outside without snow. It is so nice to have warmer weather returning. It might even make it up north here. When it does, I will welcome spring!

Peace.

Presumption of innocence. Something to ponder?

There are many issues historical and current in American government with which I simply do not agree. On the other hand, there are many that I do believe are fundamental to our survival. Our law makers turn issues into laws, which are made a part of our statutes. These laws are created, and then often times amended, bended, molded, modified, interpreted, reconstructed and often times distorted to no resemblance of the the original. It is all part of the system.

There are "good laws" and there are "stupid" laws — laws that make sense to the average person and laws that do not seem to make any sense to anyone and the principals of the judicial system are even more confusing.

But there is one issue that makes sense to me. One that is fundamental to all human rights. That is the presumption of innocence.

According to our United States legal system, those who are accused of a crime are innocent until proven guilty. The burden of proof lies on the prosecution, which must collect and present enough evidence to convince a judge and jury (who are ordered by law to consider only the facts, testimony and evidence) that the accused is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If there is any doubt, the accused must be acquitted.

The presumption of innocence has been quite popular in the 20th century. The United Nations incorporated the principal in 1948 into the Declaration of Human Rights. In 1953 the principal was added to the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

On April 3, 2009 the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Band Assembly group consisting of chief executive Marge Anderson, secretary treasurer Herb Weyaus, district 1 rep. Sandra Blake, district 2 rep. Marvin Bruneau and district 3 rep., Harry Davis each signed their names to a letter to all Band members stating the complete opposite of this very basic fundamental human right.

The letter states: "The former Chief Executive has still not proven her innocence in tribal court..."

In other words, the government of the Mille Lacs Band believes that people are guilty until they prove they are innocent.

When I asked the solicitor general Rjay Brunkow about that, I said it sounded backwards to me. He did not agree with the word backwards. So I changed it to opposite. The result was the same. He told me in no uncertain terms, he believed that is the law. That when the Band created their statutes, it was originally innocent until proven guilty. But that changed sometime in the 80s or 90s he said, to be more in lines with tradition.

His explanation sounded more backwards to me than the original thought, so I did some research.

My sources tell me that at one point it was tradition for the accused to be guilty until they proved they were innocent. The accused had to basically run a gauntlet and if they survived, they were found innocent.

That tradition was changed and deleted completely in the 90s because it was such an extraordinary violation of the Indian Civil Rights Act.

Current Mille Lacs Band Statutes annotated Title I, Civil Rights Code, Section 12, states in no uncertain terms:

"In any criminal legal proceeding each person shall be presumed innocent until proven guilty."

Read it for yourself at: http://www.millelacsojibwe.org/statutes.asp

So, here it is in everyday language: everyone should be considered innocent until it can be proved that you are guilty. If you are accused of a crime, you should always have the right to defend yourself. Nobody has the right to condemn you and punish you for something you have not done.

I just wonder which interpretation is opposite? The April 3 letter to the Band, or the Mille Lacs Band statutes?

Now that is something to ponder.

Peace.

I am back

Well, I am back from New Orleans. It is apparent that I again, thought I would have all kinds of time to write while down south, obviously I was mistaken. There are only so many hours in the day. We worked hard towards our goal of saving the world, one house at a time. And evenings were busy experiencing down home Cajun everything.

While I have so much to tell you all, for right now I will be brief. The most important lesson I learned on this trip is summed up in a quote. Author unknown to me: "Life isn't about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain."

The people of New Orleans are survivors, but they certainly know how to dance in the rain. The last half of the week we worked in the upper 9th ward -- an area hit hard by flooding and most people are not back in their homes. Those who are living in their homes, are doing so because it is their home. It is their neighborhood. It is their life.

As far as neighborhoods go, this is one that we were warned not to keep valuables in the vehicle, lock the doors and don't go wandering off by ourselves. While we did lock the doors, I never felt threatened by anyone. I didn't wander too far away from our job sight, because we were busy working, but did take every opportunity I could to talk to the neighbors and other local workers.

I just love the people of New Orleans. They are so alive! They are happy. Which brings to mind what my mom has told me since I was a little girl. The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything; but they make the best of what they have.

Life goes on in New Orleans and the people continue to dance in the rain.

More to follow with a recap. For now I say...

Peace, baby.

New Orleans - Day two

Well, we have certainly been busy. We are working on a home for Mr. and Mrs. Elliot in the Gentilly neighborhood. The entire neighborhood was under water -- along with 80 percent of the city of New Orleans.

While there has been much improvement to the city housing issues as a whole, an outrageous number of people are still without homes to live in.

The Elliot's are some of them. They are a family with grown children and they have adopted a couple of young children from what we know so far. Their home is quite large, actually. There are four bedrooms and two baths. There are 18 doors in the house. And today, put on nine door knobs.

Up until today, I had never installed a door knob. So, quite frankly, I am rather proud of myself. We have been painting and installing shelving. We are putting on the finishing touches. All that is left on the punch list is a little clean up and then the electricians, plumbers and appliance guys will come in and finish their deals. Most important, soon the Elliot's will be able to come home. They have been waiting nearly four years.

After work tonight we drove down to the lower 9th ward -- ground zero, as some refer to it.

I have been to the 9th ward three times now. Each time, I get an overwhelming feeling of sadness. Loneliness. Emptiness.

Not for me, but I feel for the people who used to call the neighborhood home.

I walk the streets that used to have children playing soccer, double-dutch, laughing and riding bikes. There is none of that. I can imagine clothes hanging on the line blowing in the breeze. Folks sitting on their front porch in the afternoon talking to neighbors as the stop by. There is none of that.

A few homes still sit in shambles. A few fema trailers remain. Many front door steps lead up to nowhere as the homes have been demolished. A few piles of rubble remain scattered here and there. Grass grows on some lawns to waist high. It is very lonely.

Yet there is also a deep sense of hope.

There are many brand new homes being built. And they are pretty cool.

They are built higher than the older homes that were there before. They are about 12 to 15 feet on cement pillars. Cars park under the homes and elaborate staircases lead the families to their front doors. Many have solar panels on the rooftops. These new homes are being built, or contracted by a company called Make It right. I will find out more about them, and let you know.

That is the hope. People do want to return to their neighborhoods. They want to come home.

I stood for the first time on the Levy by the canal where a barge hit the wall. I was speechless. I stared for a while in silence. And then started shooting. I will post some photos to my blog within a few days (hopefully).

We drove through Musicians Village on the way home. The original theory behind the neighborhood. A man from a radio station decided that in order to get people to come back to the city, they needed the music. In order to get the musicians to come back, they needed homes. He organized a deal with Habitat for Humanity and they began building homes the musicians could afford in order to come back.

And the music played on. The people came back.

The homes are brightly colored and all about the same style and size. But each one is unique.

We met "David" who is a very friendly old guy living in Musicians Village. He told us the story and showed us his home.

He said, "You know, I could never understand how people could live in California where they continually have earthquakes. Those people keep going back and rebuilding after each earthquake. I never understood. Until Katrina. Until I had to move away from New Orleans and live in Texas. I never wanted to come home before so much as I did after living in Texas. This is my home. And I am back to stay."

Peace.

Good morning from Louisiana!

We just crossed the boarder into Louisiana after a wonderful breakfast at the Waffle House in Brookhaven, Mississippi. Everything is so green here. It was fun to wake up to green after driving through a bad snow and ice storm in Iowa and cold rain and hard winds all through Missouri. It is warming up to 50 degrees now. I understand it is already warmer than that back home in Minnesota.

There are 6 of us packed into a Suburban. Five girls and Gary. Anne Shields, Abby Leach, Gary Keifenheim, Carrie Bang, Jenny Orsborn and me, of course.

It is really not too bad, sleeping in a Suburban. Except for the fact that I feel like a cripple and my hair looks like something one might find on First Avenue in Minneapolis at 3 a.m. But that is why I brought a hat.

We should be arriving at Hope Haven in a couple of hours. Then I am thinking that a shower would be a great idea before we go or a long walk to stretch all muscles and joints. We will be on the jobsite at 8 a.m. tomorrow and we are all very excited about it. We will know more about what our assignment is when we arrive.

Until then, I am taking in the lush sceanary. Abby is texting, Gary is doing a crossword. Carrie is napping. Jenny working on her computer. Anne is driving.

TTFN!

Peace.

Calling all angels

"In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us." - Flora Edwards

In less than 24 hours the Traveling Angels will be somewhere between Zimmerman and New Orleans as we continue our mission. We are trying to change the world, one house at a time.

The Traveling Angels are a small group of individuals from mid-Minnesota who believe in extending a helping hand. Some of the group have gone to New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina left her devastating autograph in August of 2005. This will be my third trip to New Orleans since the hurricane and my second trip with the Traveling Angels.

Part of me feels like I should be in Fargo, Moorehead or anywhere along the Red River. I should be sandbagging or rescuing pets. But like a friend of mine said today, "You are only one person, Viv. You can't go everywhere."

The Traveling Angels does disaster relief work wherever we are needed. The group has helped in New Orleans, Cedar Rapids, Hugo, and a few other areas in flood or tornado recovery. Most of us have become rather attached to the city and the people of New Orleans. So far, we have planned an annual trip to continue recovery efforts there. Since it is so far away, we have to plan weeks ahead of time.

The Red River expected to crest sometime tomorrow at 43 feet, we feel we may be headed up north when we return from down south. The flood waters in the valley are expected to last at least a week. Once the waters recede, the real nasty work comes in. That is usually when the Traveling Angels step up, too.

There are a lot of things to consider after the water recedes. There are mold hazards, disinfecting wells, food safety, fuel oil contamination, personal safety issues and other things to think about. The Traveling Angels have been through it all. While it is at times rather unpleasant work during the moment with the smell of mold, stagnant water and memories that have been lost forever stick in your eyes, nose and throat, the reward comes at the end of the day knowing that we have helped.

New Orleans has come a long way, but they still expect years for full recovery. The Traveling Angels are a faith based non-denominational group and we connect with Catholic Charities who provide boarding and the volunteer organizational issues. In other words, they give us a roof over our heads, a place to sleep and dinner, and give us our volunteer assignments.

This year, as it stands right now, we will be once again staying at Hope Haven, which is an old Catholic Mission center. And our assignment (so far) will be painting 425 houses. OK, there are 425 houses to be painted and we hope to at least get one of them done. Like our motto says, we can change the world, one house at a time.

I posted a slide show of New Orleans previous two years. I don't know what happened to the music. It has music to it when I made it, but apparently I did something wrong uploading it to the blog. Anyway, the photos are there. Click on the center of the slide show and then click again for full screen. The pictures tell the story.

You can also check the archives of this blog from July 2008 to read about Cedar Rapids trip last year. There are photos from that trip as well.

So, I will be heading home to pack soon and then ready myself for a long drive. It took us 24 hours and 17 minutes last year I believe. I could be off by a few minutes.

Follow me through my blog and I might post to Twitter from my phone while out and about. It would be great to have you tag along.

"We are, each of us angels with only one wing; and we can only fly by embracing one another." -- Luciano de Crescenzo

Peace.

Transparency in government

Yesterday, Gov. Tim Pawlenty unveiled a new website, titled TAP Minnesota -- www.mmb.state.mn.us/tap -- Now anyone with a computer can access this website to find out how much money the state is spending and where. Essentially, the state has put the big checkbook registry online.

The new site is called TAP, which is short for the Transparency and Accountability Project.

The site is to be updated daily. With just a few clicks of your mouse you can find how the state is spending your money — all of it — including special funds as well as the general fund. You can find information for 2007-09 listed by state agency, funding source or the vendor receiving the payment. Private data are omitted.

Pawlenty said at a news conference where he demonstrated the new website that he anticipates the TAP site to be a powerful new tool. "Taxpayers are paying the bills for government in Minnesota, and we think they should have a chance to look at the checkbook register and see where all this money is going."

Wouldn't it be nice if all governments were so open and transparent?

Just something to think about.

Peace.