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Our View Legislators on right track about minimum-wage issue
There is an interesting debate in the Minnesota Legislature about whether to approve an “inflator” for the minimum wage. An inflator means the minimum wage would go up automatically, commensurate with the inflation rate. It would be similar to the cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security checks, although that’s been diminished in the last year or two. Some in the state legislature, mostly House members, want to let voters decide, through a referendum, if there should be an inflator, and then it would become law under the Minnesota Constitution. That way, it would be more difficult for future legislators to repeal. Other legislators oppose that approach, saying the constitution is a means to put in place a structure for how government should work, not to protect rights. Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk (DFL-Virginia), who is one of the main proponents of the inflator concept, disagrees: “The constitution is intended to protect the rights of the minority,” he said. “These low-wage workers are the minority of Minnesotans. This gives them some protection their wages would keep up with inflation. It meets my test that this is important enough it belongs in the constitution.” Both sides make some good arguments, but what’s important is legislators seem to be serious, one way or another, about raising the minimum wage and economic justice for those people who work hard and yet remain beneath the poverty level. That issue – economic justice – has been on the back burner for far too long. Minnesota’s minimum wage is a pathetic $6.15 an hour. It hasn’t been raised since 2005. Meantime, inflation has gobbled up the “real” value of that paltry wage ever since it was passed nine years ago. There is a current proposal in the legislature to raise it to $9.50 by 2016. Of course, inflation will eat into that amount, too, and by 2016 that $9.50 will have diminished in value. Polls indicate consistently as many as 80 percent of Americans, including Minnesotans, favor raising the minimum wage. We keep hearing dire warnings of job loss, but in the past, every time the wage was raised, the effects on jobs were negligible, and people and businesses made adjustments. In fact, quite the contrary, a minimum-wage raise might be just the thing to help stimulate a still sluggish economy. When people earn more money, they spend it locally. People who make low wages, in fact, tend to spend their money on the kinds of local goods and services that can boost local economies – thus job gains. It’s obvious the obstructionists in the U.S. Congress are not going to allow a minimum-wage increase, just the way they’ve prevented through spite and neglect other vital forms of legislation in recent years. That is why states have begun to enact legislation, including minimum-wage bills, on their own. They’re having to do the job the do-nothing national congress doesn’t do. And that is why Minnesota, like other enlightened states, should act immediately to raise the minimum wage one way or another, either through legislation or by popular vote.
Fairness and ethics
Newsleader staff members have the responsibility to report news fairly and accurately and are accountable to the public. Readers who feel we’ve fallen short of these standards are urged to call the Newsleader office at 363-7741. If matters cannot be resolved locally, readers are encouraged to take complaints to the Minnesota News Council, an independent agency designed to improve relationships between the public and the media and resolve conflicts. The council office may be reached at 612-341-9357.
Sartell Newsleader • www.thenewsleaders.com
Opinion
Friday, April 4, 2014
Locavores find droolworthy non-Franken foods Hey, just chillax! OK, so I’m one of the illiterati; just call me a noob. If I were a screenager, I’d be textspeaking twittering, and I’d turn into a blooming infomaniac just like all you young ‘uns do these days. Right now, I’m going to shut down this computer and head off to the farmers’ market. It’s a great place for locavores to hang out. The produce is droolworthy, and they don’t sell any Frankenfoods there. Most readers, especially those over 30, will need a translation of those two paragraphs. Here it is: Hey, just chill out and relax (chillax). OK, so I’m not educated in the ways of the computer (illiterati); just call me a computer novice (noob). If I were young, with an aptitude for the computer (screenager), I’d be texting, twittering and I’d develop a compulsive need to accumulate information (infomaniac) via my mobile phone or computer just like all the young ‘uns do these days. The farmers’ market is a great place to hang out if you’re a person whose diet consists only or mainly of locally grown foods (locavore). The produce is extremely attractive and desirable (droolworthy), and they don’t sell any genetically modified foods there (Frankenfoods). Those are all examples of new words that were just added to the dictionary, along with many others. Most of those words, not surprisingly, were coined by young people – especially young computer-savvy kids. The world of computers, after all, is a Brave New World, so unlike the days of my youth when jetage innovations like a four-slice toaster, a touch-tone button phone and snazzy fins on the butt end of a car were positively amazing – the cat’s meow.
Dennis Dalman Editor It’s hard to adjust to this youth lingo. But, parents, don’t despair. Always remember that for generations, teenagers have been driving their parents nuts with their goofy kid-speak. T’was ever thus. My parents turned gray-andwrinkled almost overnight when we long-haired kids started sprinkling our know-it-all conversations with words like squaresville, dullsville, hip, cool, groovy, far out and bread (for money). My poor parents – they were convinced aliens had landed and taken over. Another bit of advice for parents: Be proud of your children because they are natural-born wordsmiths who are enriching our language, keeping it from calcifying. Some of these new words, even though they’ve been hallowed by inclusion in the dictionary, will likely become obsolete. They’ll teeter and fall over into the ditch of dead words. Some new ones, however, will be around for a long time, and still others will morph into slightly altered forms with newer meanings. And that’s as it should be; that’s exactly how language works. Language – living language – is never set in stone but rather constantly evolving, becoming new and then newer – unlike, say, Latin, a dead language. English, especially, is a vigorously changing language. French, on the other hand, is slow to change, partly because there is a French Language Academy that acts
as a draconian gatekeeper, barring those jarring, rude words – foreign invaders – from polluting the purity and exactitude of French. The gatekeepers, however, sometimes suffer defeat as words like “le drugstore” and “le weekend” manage to barge through the barriers. British English has always been our prim and proper cousin, rather like an old-maid aunt. American English, on the other hand, is a sprawling, raucous, rough-and-tumble language that makes a lot of commotion. It’s like an energetic acrobat that springs and somersaults this way and that, picking up new words wherever it goes. And that’s the glory of American English – that acrobatic suppleness that makes for such rousing, vivid, descriptive speech and writing. American English was, once upon a time, British English before it was reworked among the new realities of a New World, soaking up influences from thousands of sources as the country expanded West: immigrant lingo, oceansailing terms, frontier-farming words, riverboat bluster, stagecoach talk, railroad words, gambling terms, goldmining camp vulgarities, Southwestern Spanish-Mexican words, Creole terms from Louisiana and last but not least Native American expressions (one of which is “Minnesota”). In the latter half of the 20th Century, thousands of words entered the language via industry, technology, transportation, space exploration and – most recently – a vast number have come from computer technology. American English is a boisterous, energetic, colorful language that reflects where this great nation has been, where it is now and where it is heading. We should be very proud of it – our nation and our language.
Letters to editor
Reader says personal experience with Obamacare a disaster Irene Ertl, Sartell I am appalled that you would write an article like you wrote in the Friday March 21, 2014 Newsleader, After March 31, it’ll get better. My daughter just had her 4-year-old daughter (my granddaughter) in the doctors’ office with a case of strep throat. She had to wait for four hours to be seen by a doctor. Her husband was at home with their 2-year-old child wondering where she was all that time. I’m finding the same to be true. I filed a grievance through my insurance company last week because of the care and charges that my clinic is leveling. I went in to the clinic for a follow-up
because of diabetes. I’m on Medicare. I was told there was no co-pay because this is a follow-up. In my statement from the insurance company (Minnesota Blue Cross Blue Shield), I’m being charged a co-pay rate for seeing a specialist. I saw a lady with RN behind her name. She handed me a blood-glucose monitor. She tried to explain how to use this device to me while a nurse stuck her head in the door twice asking her how much longer because she had several other patients waiting. I tried to use it after reading through the instructions in the book several times. I went to my son’s house and he set the time for me and showed me how to use it. She is asking my insurance company for a specialist fee of several
hundred dollars. What I’m seeing going on with my own family is a disaster! I have had several people tell me they have been denied health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care). They don’t know what they are supposed do. I have been told and I’ve heard it stated on TV that people are signing up for health-care coverage but they are not paying the premium because they don’t have the money to do so. More businesses are closing their doors and more people are losing their jobs every day. Wake up America! I think you owe Ron Scarbro an apology.
Reader says Scarbro disrespected presidents – past and present Sharon Fitzgerald, Sartell (Ron) Scarbro has the right to express an opinion on any subject he chooses to (After March 31, what then? published March 21). However calling President Obama “that turkey” is really offensive. He may hate the man, but should have respect for the office – that was an insult
to all presidents past and future. Scarbro, who is just another Rush Limbaugh wannabe, would be the first person to complain about today’s young people, saying they have no respect for their parents, teachers, police or other adult authority figures, but where do they learn that from? Scarbro and his cohorts have done nothing but spew hatred toward President Obama since he
was elected. They especially hate it that the Affordable Care Act was passed. Yes, Mr. Scarbro, this legislation was passed by the Congress and and only then was signed by President Obama. He did not alone proclaim this was a new law so perhaps the right-wing conservatives should stop calling it Obamacare and learn the real name of the law. Affordable Care Act!
Reader says thanks for write-up featuring his dad, a WWII vet Dennis Ayer, Stafford, Va. This note is in reference to the article you wrote about my Dad in the May 31, 2013 Sartell Newsleader. In November 2013, Dad passed away. I just wanted to thank you for your story about my Dad; he was my hero and it
wasn’t until after his passing that I found out he was a member of the YMS-183 crew which was written about in the book, The Wooden Dreadnaught. I purchased the book for him a few years before he passed away but he never spoke to me about it. After cleaning out his room at the nursing home they gave
me the book and I sat down to read it and read about all the actions the ship and crew went through during WWII. It was very humbling to read and try to understand what they must have gone through. Again thank you for the writeup you did so we never forget the sacrifices they gave for us all.