our list manager stated in a posting that the strib editorial board was fair game on mpls. issues. so... we were treated to a double dose of political speak on the editorial pages of the strib this morning. i'm an old wrestling fan myself, pre ventura and wwf, and there was nothing i liked better than watching the girls/ladies/women mix it up in the ring and today was a real bonus with the girls/ladies/women dfl tag teams of cherryhomes/campbell and saylesbelton/johnson. saylesbelton/johnson were the headliners providing counterpoint to whom i'm not sure unless it was the group that gathered outside city hall last thursday protesting the death of alfred sanders. i suppose they must feel vulnerable. why? certainly a police department and city that has studied the issue of the use of deadly force used against mentally ill citizens since 1986 cannot be held accountable for the murder of alfred sanders not to mention barbara schneider, rocco d'andrea, and others lost in the mists of time. certainly a police department that has seen its budget rise to $90 million dollars and become 40% of the city's operating budget cannot be held responsible for failing to shake loose a few dollars for training when faced with the need to purchase a robot to combat the hordes of terrorists planting pipe bombs throughout our war torn metropolis. can we say tahini? can we say dippity-doo? the public safety and regulatory services committee is forever accepting federal grants to send mpd police officers to quantico for fbi field training for one thing and another but never it seems for training in how to deal with mentally ill people. do they even have that training at the fbi, dea, etc.? if waco is any indication i suspect not. speaking of waco, does anyone else see signifigance in w. having a ranch outside waco? back-off tim, you're starting to sound like a conspiracist! now that i've brought in w. i have to briefly give equal time to al. the best part of al, dovetailing with a discussion on mental illness, was tipper's ideas on mental illness. i was glad to see that. i had been a little afraid of tipper given her apparent desire to impose censorship on record lyrics earlier in her public life. but if she was good enough for frank zappa she's good enough for me. too bad we couldn't have just had the wives run for office but then what would we have done about ralph? enough. the second team on our monday morning card was the titanic duo of jackie cherryhomes and joan campbell. now there's a pair to draw to. i'm still not sure what they said though it's apparent they hope to crush the puny mr.lane. since we have not heard from councilman lane yet this morning i suspect he is likewise trying to figure out what they said as well. i, for one, am and will be everlastingly grateful to the strib for publishing the scintillating opinions of these leaders who appear to have a collective IQ. of 100. kudos to the startribune editorial board. on the other side of the coin, as it were, the PIPress features a thoughtful editorial entitled "new tools needed to prevent violence" under the heading "Mentally Ill People" and a viewpoint by state representative mindy greiling who actually appears to be doing something about alleviating problems faced by families of the mentally ill and the police who often end up, sadly, providing the final solution. thie issue of how to deal with the mentally ill in our culture, bearing always in mind the rights of the individual versus the needs of society, is a complex issue that has been avoided by many of our leaders with disastrous results. these are exactly the issues we expect our leaders to confront and their performance to date must be a determining factor in how people vote. tim connolly ward 7 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Calendar - Get organized for the holidays! http://calendar.yahoo.com/
