Urgent: Tell MN Senate Best Voter Id. Path

Minnesota's Senate is about to take up a bill proposing a constitutional amendment to require a photo id. card of all voters -- a textbook case of a wolf in sheep's clothing.  Read on and let every adult Minnesotan know your views as soon as possible:  every hour counts until the Senate votes, possibly as soon as Thursday, March 22. 

A photo id. would prevent many voters from voting:  elders, youth, and other non-drivers without driver's licenses or state-issued photo identification cards.  Why is this proposal before the Legislature?  To reduce the number of voters.  This is difficult to say -- we do not reach this conclusion lightly -- yet it's the bald truth.  Ostensibly, proponents reason that photo identification would prevent voter fraud. 

Yet the incidence of such fraud is so very rare -- 1 instance in millions of votes cast -- that the harm done by rejecting thousands of would-be voters far outweighs any good from it.  Physicians' Hippocratic oath applies here:  in reforming our democracy, let us "Do No Harm." 

What's more, Minnesota's Secretary of State, Mark Ritchie, has proposed a much better and cheaper solution:  voters who have lost an ID or no longer carry one could have an election official call up their identification from state records, if necessary, at the polling place, via an electronic "poll book."  Did we mention that 84,000 Minnesota voters do not carry a photo ID?  Those without an ID could have a photo scanned into the database or have their photo taken at the polling place.

“We would not be disenfranchising anybody and we would not be breaking the bank,” Secretary Ritchie has said.

Heartland Democracy proposed another systemic reform in early 2009 -- the implementation of a universal and automatic voter registration system.  Such a system would further reduce the already extremely slim chances for voter fraud, willful or inadvertent.  To see our report, which was hailed at the time by the Star Tribune's editorial page, former longtime Secretary of State Joan Growe, and New York University's Brennan Center, among others, click here:  21st Century Voter Registration Report.

Our democracy requires a number of significant reforms; voter photo id. at the polls is not one of them.  It would dampen, rather than renew, voter participation -- and for no good cause.  Let us call it what it is:  a cynical, indecent attempt to disenfranchise voters, similar to the old poll tax used to bar voters of fewer means.  Let's not erect barriers to participation in democracy; let's dismantle them. 

Remember:  the Minnesota Senate will vote soon.  Inform yourself, tell your kith and kin, and -- most of all -- tell your state senator what you think!  Thank you for your consideration. 

Brief TEDx Video - Empowering U

Click on the headline above to reach our full News Blog and a short TEDx talk video on Empowering U --  TEDx Video  --  in which Tom Vellenga makes the case for robust civic empowerment programs such as ours.  The Blandin Foundation sponsored a conference -- Expanding Opportunity:  Economy, Education, and Inclusion -- using the TEDx format.  Listen to Tom describe critical challenges to our democracy, our response, and the crucial benefits to our people, our communities, and our economy.  Spread the word to others!  Make a tax-deductible donation now to help scale up Empowering U to serve more people through our host and partner organizations. 

Saturday 11/12 Join the Discussion

November 12 from 8:00 to 9:30 am please join the Stone Arch discussion series for remarks and a discussion on these great questions:  1) How can we get more neighbors involved in community and politics and 2) How can we win over more hearts and minds to progressive goals?  Why are these twin challenges so absolutely critical to our fate?  What does "progressive" mean in 2011?  Heartland Democracy's Tom Vellenga will present our innovative responses to these timely questions, followed by an hour of discussion. 

Breakfast foods, coffee, and other savories will greet you at the Gardens of Salonica (specializing in Greek delicacies), at 19 Fifth Street Northeast in Minneapolis.  The event is free and open to all.  Tell your friends!

Tune in at 9:00 am Memorial Day to 90.3 and 106.7 FM

Tune in at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, Memorial Day on 90.3 and 106.7 FM in the Twin Cities area to hear a one-hour broadcast of our recent Forum on Values in Governing.   Held on Wednesday, May 18, the forum featured panelists Dane Smith of Growth & Justice, Wesley Walker of the Northway Community Trust, Alison Norman of the Minnesota State College Student Association, Steve Rogness of TakeAction Minnesota, and Tom Vellenga of Heartland Democracy.  Phyllis Stenerson, who leads and writes for ProgressiveValues.Org and is a Fellow of Heartland Democracy, moderated the Forum, which took place at the First Universalist Church in South Minnesota.  Radio KFAI's Truth to Tell team was there to tape the forum.  Led by Truth to Tell's host, Andy Driscoll, KFAI is providing an edited broadcast of the original two-hour forum to provide a one-hour broadcast.

With the help of the audience's tough questions and insightful comments, our panel offered diverse perspectives on the values we all bring to the challenge of self-governance, using our collaboration's practical and progressive Framework for Governing as a touchstone for conversation.  We joined with Growth & Justice, Ready 4 K, a collaboration led by 1,000 Friends of Minnesota, the Minnesota Environmental Partnership, and TakeAction Minnesota to create the Framework.  Our collaborators contributed policy proposals for Minnesota across a wide range of issues.  Heartland Democracy worked with its collaborators to fashion a Values Framework that identified the values and themes common to all initiatives.  In this way, we are making the progressive approach to governing more coherent.  The Framework is a tool with which progressives can make decisions as well as communicate them.  We presented the Framework to the Governor, his aides, and agency commissioners.  Soon we will provide it to legislators, other groups, the media, and the public. 

May 18 Forum: Developing Coherent Public Values

On Wednesday, May 18, the First Universalist Church in South Minneapolis will host a public forum on the values in our Framework for Governing, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.  The Framework for Governing is a collaboration of half a dozen progressive groups and collaborations, initiated and coordinated by Heartland Democracy to serve the state of Minnesota.  It includes policy proposals spanning a wide range of public issues as well as a set of values common to all the initiatives.  A "Values Framework" within the larger Framework for Governing identifies the values running throughout the Framework and makes the case for a coherent progressive approach to governing based upon those shared values.  By identifying the relationship of the principles and concepts that drive progressive ideas across a range of issues, we hope to serve progressives in every sphere as they solve public problems and communicate their approach.  At the Forum,  panelists representing a range of progressive groups and constituencies will speak briefly to the sources of their public values, particularly as they relate to spirituality and the Framework for Governing.  Following their very brief remarks, Phyllis Stenerson, a Fellow of Heartland Democracy and the founder and writer for ProgressiveValues.Org, will moderate a discussion with the audience.   Watch this space for information on the panelists.  First Universalist Church is located at 34th Street and Dupont Avenue in South Minneapolis.

Saturday, 12/11, 8:00am: So, You Want to Win Elections?

Saturday, December 11, from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m., Tom Vellenga of Heartland Democracy will talk with the Stone Arch Discussion Group about non-partisan strategies to win over hearts and minds to progressive goals.  The Stone Arch Group meets at the Gardens of Salonica in Northeast Minneapolis, at 19 Fifth Street NE.  This event is FREE.   

Larry Hansen the Great

The movement to renew American democracy lost perhaps one of its most influential champions this week when Larry Hansen passed away in Chicago.  The post from which he most recently amazed and delighted reformers and progressives across the nation was his vice presidency at The Joyce Foundation.  But his five decades of brilliant, dedicated, humane, and ever-witty public leadership took him from the streets of the civil rights movement to the halls of power in Congress to Walter F. Mondale's presidential bid as well.  Larry was an early and regular  adviser to Heartland Democracy and to me.  He cared enough about our common causes to tell me, candidly, when he thought we were going off in the wrong direction -- a mark of a friend with integrity.  He was a mensch's mensch, sparking, aiding, and supporting would-be reformers across the nation with a sensibility that warmed and an intellect that sizzled.  Heartland Democracy, the democracy reform movement, and the larger progressive cause have lost one of our lions.  We celebrate his life and example, and we mourn his death.  Whether you knew him or not, read his world-class obituary and other tributes here on the website of the Midwest Democracy Network, which is just one of his many legacies:  MDN on Larry Hansen.  Reading it, you will find yourself taking a walk with Larry through the history of justice and democracy these past five decades.  He will remain an inspiring example to all of us.  -- Tom Vellenga

Join Our Discussions Every Sunday in October

Please join us every Sunday in October as we lead discussions designed to help participants become savvy, thoughtful, active citizens. Presbyterian Church of the Way in Shoreview, Minnesota is hosting Tom Vellenga and our new Fellow, Phyllis Stenerson, in its adult education program. The sessions run from 10:00 to 10:50 a.m. We will investigate the joy and fulfillment of active citizenship, the workings of our political system, and why perfectly sane and reasonable people can hold widely divergent views. These and related topics will aid participants' understanding of the elections this fall. In these discussions, we provide participants with the tools and incentives to examine their values and levels of participation in community, politics, and government. Presbyterian Church of the Way is at 3382 North Lexington Avenue in Shoreview, Minnesota (north of Highway 36). The sessions are part of our core program, Empowering U. Heartland Democracy is a non-partisan, secular, public charity. We work with many types of host organizations, from schools to community forums to houses of worship, throughout our region. Let us know if you would like to explore hosting us at your organization by clicking on the Get Involved button on our website.

Stories from Empowering U

Folks, this is a story with many tales within.  It is not yet completed, but we cannot wait to sing it, early and often, from every mountaintop:  The urban students in our Empowering U program have a great deal of work to do to experience the High Joy of progressive citizenship, but they are engaged as never before in that great democratic endeavor.  The beauty and the accompanying challenge of working with high schoolers is their sizzling combination of energy -- when properly catalyzed -- and passion and devotion to The Truth.  We will not digress into teenagers' ability to tell their own truth here, but what is indisputable is their native talent for spotting authenticity and, conversely, shape-shifting in adults. 

Heartland Democracy's educators have witnessed these skills on display in rising measure from the start of our Empowering U program this fall and winter, a program funded by the Minneapolis Foundation and our generous donors.  It is time for a report on our lessons to date, made plain by our truth-divining participants -- juniors and seniors at Skills for Tomorrow High School. 

Skills for Tomorrow is one of the oldest charter schools in the nation, hailed by President Clinton in 1996 for its emphasis on community service, workplace skills, a year-round program, and a holistic way of helping students and their families. Its  population is seventy percent African-American.  Many students are from Minneapolis and its first-ring suburbs.  Most of its students did not flourish in large high schools.  Many are from economically disadvantaged families.  Not one student in our class came from a family with two parents.  However, all of the students were ambitious enough to enter Skills.  All of its students signed up for a program that demanded more work than a traditional high school, over  twelve months a year, and more than 200 hours of community service before graduation.  Our class of juniors and seniors included some talented, smart, and articulate future leaders with tremendous skills.     

Heartland Democracy chose to work with Skills for Tomorrow for all those reasons and also to reach students and families of color who are relatively uninvolved in politics, government, and their communities.  

The fact is, however, that most high schools today do not offer a curriculum that provides students with the knowledge and skills they will need if they are to become active citizens. In our view, most high schools in the nation ought to be doing much more to prepare their youth for thoughtful, active, progressive citizenship.  

If you know of a school that might be interested in Empowering U, please let us know.  We are seeking to replicate and expand the program in 2010, as we will explain elsewhere on this News Blog.

Empowering U program at Skills has shown what we hypothesized about high school students.   In some respects, our class functioned as a “focus group.”  When the class began, most students were wary at best and disinterested at worst, and their body language showed it.  They needed to see that we could offer them something useful in their lives.  When we asked what their top community or political concern or issue was, some students struggled to name one.  Later, we realized that the question should have been, "What issue is not a concern to you?"  In fact, most of our students live with socio-economic disadvantages that run like water throughout their lives.  Every single thing is an issue.  Large communal and societal issues overhang their lives. 

To unearth their values and concerns, we asked the students to name their issues and values on successive occasions.  Each time, they bought out more and more concerns, frustrations, and animated declarations.  We knew that we were on the road to productive discussion when a debate broke out. 

As we worked, focus group style, through discussions of values and issues, one remarkable student came to the fore.  To protect the students' privacy, we are changing their names in reporting on the program.  "Janice" is a prepossessing young woman whom a pop psychologist would call "grounded."  She is seemingly imperturbable and matter of fact, yet she is moved to speak up when she has an idea or viewpoint.  When it became clear that her colleagues had difficulty coalescing around their top issues, Janice took the initiative to walk to a whiteboard, took up a marker and started calling out issues and demanding open votes.  Soon her schoolmates were obediently voting for issues they cared about, lobbying for one cause or another, and taking care to respect each other's right to free expression, at Janice's behest.  Truly, Janice revealed to herself and to everyone in the room that she has a gift as a calm, natural leader and facilitator. 

While their values and issues changed a bit from week to week, several ranked high each time.  Among their chief values were Family, Job (money with which to afford their goals), Friends, and Truth.

Tops among their issues of concern were health insurance, sexual crime, abortion, bias against hiring youth for jobs, and, yes, infrastructure.  This last issue was often at the top of their list -- a surprise to us, but it popped up every week.  "Clarence" spoke for many when he complained about potholes in the street on his block.  Many students had formed the impression that their city ignored their neighborhoods' streets. 

In our anonymous initial “baseline” survey of one subset of the students, we learned that not one of them identified himself or herself as a progressive or liberal.  (We used an online Survey Monkey questionnaire.)  Half of the respondents were not sure what we meant by “conservative,” “moderate,” “progressive,” or “liberal.”  These results reveal some of the work that we all need to do to help prepare our youth for the demands of active citizenship, no matter what their philosophical stripe.  And progressives have got some work to do to reach urban youth of color before they tune out from community and politics completely.  

The survey also showed that the students’ levels of civic engagement was low, with some exceptions.  Again, this result reinforces the need for Heartland Democracy to do the work we have begun with this initial cohort of urban high schoolers. 

Here's a talking point for our students that seems equally compelling for you, dear reader:  We join with sociologists, political scientists, and psychologists who believe deeply in this truth:  high school students'  involvement -- or lack thereof -- in their community or politics has profound implications for their own careers and personal lives.  Such active engagement with the wider world opens up doors to new networks, to different experiences, and to a sophisticated awareness of the actors in a community or region. That is, we believe that we have a duty to help our students understand that there are bright, bold lines from active community participation to rewards in the realm of their top values:  family, friends, and the money to provide adequately -- at least -- for their families. 

Now we have sad news about Skills for Tomorrow.  Combined with a decline in enrollment, Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s decision last June to “unallot” the state budget has forced the school to close this month.   Heartland Democracy’s educator,  Gayle Smaller, is an educational consultant and former principal who has worked with nearly every alternative or charter high school for students of color in the Minneapolis area.  It is his opinion that Skills for Tomorrow’s program is the best alternative or charter school in the area for urban students of color.  But "Skills" was very demanding – so much so that more and more students and families chose not to enroll at Skills when less demanding programs beckoned elsewhere.   The Governor’s unallotment order pushed back a portion of the state funding for charter schools until the fall of 2010.  The fall in enrollment and the postponement of state funding created a projected cash flow gap for Skills for Tomorrow in the spring of 2010.  The school’s leaders did the responsible thing in setting in motion the school’s closure after the December term ended.  The students, however, must now disperse to other high schools.  This is a sad time for that school community, most importantly for its young people and their families. 

Nevertheless, Heartland Democracy’s educators are exploring ways to continue to work with the students.  We are offering to continue to bring the students in our Empowering U program together.  We have talked about bringing them to the University of Minnesota campus and to the offices of elected officials with whom they would find common ground and similar backgrounds.   We have created a Facebook group (closed to others) for the students to remain in touch with each other, and we may offer to work with one or more of the new schools the students will attend. 

We will have more to report on this pilot program in 2010.  For now, please know that our educators plan to prepare a full report on the program and to write a curriculum that could be replicated at other schools.  Looking to the future, we believe that Heartland Democracy's role should be to train new teachers and trainers, to continue to improve resources for such programs (curricula, discussion guides, readings, e.g.), and to encourage more and more schools to implement similar programs in or outside the curriculum.  

If this program seems as critical and refreshing to you as it does to us, please click on that handy DONATE button nearby and make your fully tax-deductible donation.  As we seek additional foundation funding for the program, every donation will make a difference -- every day -- in our ability to sustain and expand the promise of this program.  Thank you for your attention and consideration. 

-- Tom Vellenga, on behalf of our educational consultant, Gayle Smaller

Sunday, Nov. 8, Tune in AM950, Noon - 1:00

Has the Vikings' week off left you searching for meaning this Sunday afternoon?  Sports fans, in Minnesota and western Wisconsin you can fill that void by tuning in to AM950 from noon to 1:00 p.m., Sunday, November 8.  Bob Hill is host of The Rising Tide Radio, a great new show.  Bob has been interviewing gubernatorial candidates and elected officials in Minnesota every week and takes a break from that action on November 8 to examine Heartland Democracy with his guest, Tom Vellenga.  Bob and Tom talk about Heartland Democracy's purpose, its work, and its plans.  Along the way, they discuss the case for a progressive approach to self-governance.  While you're at it, check out Bob's past interviews in podcasts and videos at www.TheRisingTideRadio.com. Turn off your TV, tuck into lunch, tune in to this rare conversation, and tell your friends!