"If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader."
"The Holy Ghost is that part of God that lives in everybody, and the way you sin against it is by not loving everybody with all your heart, for exactly who they are."
"If I hadn't been a girl, I'd have been a drag queen"
— Dolly Parton
Recorded earlier this year: "Light of a Clear Blue Morning” by Dolly Parton featuring Lainey Wilson, Miley Cyrus, Queen Latifah and Reba McEntire. Also featuring David Foster on piano and Christ Church Choir on background vocals.
Storytime
Your Humble Servants or, Notes on Becoming An Election Judge
In late July, i began my training to become an election judge and got humbled in a hurry. Voting looks easy, indeed it is in our State. You walk into your polling place, stop at the registration table, receive a ticket to take to someone who hands you a ballot, go to a booth to fill out your ballot, and when you're done you fold it twice and put your ballot in the box. You are then handed an 'I Voted' sticker and you leave. Smooth and simple...easy peasy. In Beatty Township it takes about seven minutes and you're done. What few people realize is all the preliminary things that go into ensuring your vote counts...that your voice matters.
i tend to think of myself as a fairly bright person and when i went to sit down at my computer to begin the training program , i figured i'd breeze through it in no time. Not so fast!
Within fifteen minutes, it became abundantly clear that there was more to attend to than i imagined. The first rules were anonymity, no physical contact with a voter, no wearing of political gear by either voters or judges, no answering voter questions about what's on the ballot, no talking about political views in the polling place (this one almost tripped me up when another election judge asked me what i'd been up to; i had to stop myself from answering, simply saying, 'No good', which drew a laugh), and any number of other 'Thou shalt nots'. One needs to assume the position of complete neutrality as well as the notion of being firm, fair, and friendly with everyone. These are just the ground rules.
We then enter the heart of the matter. This involves registration and what is required for that; we were run through various scenarios designed to define the process of determining who can vote, where they can vote, who cannot vote, how to register new voters properly and what is needed to do so. Accountability for all ballots and votes cast is essential throughout the process to ensure voters are registered, don't vote twice, that the number of voters is the same as the number of ballots cast, how to spoil a ballot if someone makes a mistake or comes in with a ballot already filled out that never made it to the post box, incident reporting if unusual circumstances arise, and how to de-escalate situations that may arise with a disgruntled voter.
Then there is the matter of distances allowed between the polling place and any individual or group of individuals who gather outside during an election, the distance between a group of voters and the voting machines, and the ballot box. Who may challenge a voter is also covered, as is who may observe, who is allowed to be present in a polling place and who is not. All of this is to ensure that everyone is safe, that all votes are anonymous, and that every ballot cast is counted correctly. Emergency situations like unforeseen natural disasters, medical issues that may arise, accessibility for those voters with a disability, what to do in case of intrusion in the polling place are also covered in depth. Each judge is trained in the same way on the same material and all are expected to have thorough knowledge of the processes required through each step. The training lasts about two hours and is intense, all to ensure you, as a voter, have a smooth, seamless experience at the polls and that all voters know they matter.
i entered the training not knowing what i did not know about elections; now i know better and feel humbled, i am grateful for the experience and for all the things i learned.
GOTV
Mi'iw
— jester
Upcoming Events ^
Indivisible General Election Kickoff Call
Nationwide!
- When:
- September 2, 7:00pm CT
- Where:
- Online
It’s almost time for Indivisible’s General Election kickoff call! If you’re wondering how you can help flip Congress and hold the regime accountable, join us on Wednesday — and bring your friends, family, and fellow activists with you!
New Neighbor Connect: Iron Ranger 101
by Minnesota Discovery Center & Hello Range
- When:
- September 4, 5:00pm
- Where:
- Minnesota Discovery Center
Join us for Iron Ranger 101, an entertaining session on Iron Range culture and custom with author and "histro-tainer" (history entertainer) Aaron Brown.
Democracy Navigator Training
hosted by Duluth Indivisible
- When:
- Sept 10, 6:00–8:00pm
- Where:
- Our Savior's Evangelical Lutheran Church
4831 Grand Ave
Duluth, MN
Duluth Indivisible's September monthly meeting will be the Democracy Navigator training by the Election Protection Network and Groundwork Institute. This is a follow-up training to the one we had on July 25th with Wintana Melekin, but you do not have to have attended on the 25th to attend the Democracy Navigator training! The purpose of this training is to reinforce knowledge about how Minnesota elections are run, and what role we ourselves can play before, during, and after the general election in November to make sure that every eligible voter votes, that all the votes are counted, and that the winners are seated. Bol Benjamin, Groundwork's Election Protection Network Manager, will facilitate the training.
Waking the Giant — Northwoods Solidarity Revival
Save the Date!
- When:
- October 4, All day
- Where:
- More soon
Mark your calendars! Something special is coming to the
Mesaba Range.... a 'state-fair-like' experience for growing
grassroots power in our quest to build a brighter future for all
who call this land home through non-violent peaceful activism.
This will be a gathering you don’t want to miss....
Stay tuned for the details!
Strategy & Action ^
More Questions than Answers
What to do about Appleton detention center
Reference: Taxes, jobs and housing
This detention center is unconscionable and unwelcome in a state where 'Minnesota Nice' is the norm if not the rule. Placed in a 'red' part of the state, far from anywhere easy for any of us to reach, it is hard to know what action/response we can mount to counter this atrocity. The people who live in Appleton are also between a rock and a hard place. They are in an 'employment desert' and their elected representatives who are clearly sold on what the Federal government is promising in terms of jobs, since CoreCivic sold out. Many of the people there are not questioning whether it is right to just snap people off the street; they are concerned about kitchen table issues...about their own survival and the town they call home. And, within the community of Appleton, a town of 1400 people in the middle of Swift County, a core group of 50 residents are mounting a protest movement to stop the efforts to revive the old former prison slated for renovation by the Feds.
Meanwhile, Appleton's elected officials are calling the 'Prairie Scary' protest group 'antifa' (like that's a bad thing) and launching verbal attacks and threats to members of the group. CoreCivic, the group that bought the abandoned former prison, sold the property to the Feds at a profit to themselves. Since the Feds do not pay state or local taxes on the land, this represents a significant loss or revenue to the community.
It also seems clear the Feds. are challenging the State of Minnesota as a whole...will we rise up here as we have in more urban areas around the state? and, will we take a stand with our remote, rural neighbours by offering services and revenue to support their efforts to remain on the map instead of being 'sold out'?. Will we pay attention to the needs of all the people, residents and detainees alike? or, will we simply ignore the problem they all face?
While i am not a fan of telling others how they should do their business and intervening in matters i do not fully understand, supporting the protesters on social media and advocating for all our neighbours-at-large seems a reasonable, necessary thing to do. Some suggested actions? Write to Governor Walz and Attorney General Ellison, call your local state representatives and encourage them to pressure their colleagues to get right in their thinking and hearts and to think beyond short-sighted, quick fixes for long term issues...an all too common theme these days, in my humble opinion.
Mi'iw
— jester
Democracy Observer Trainings
from MN Voice
- When:
- Every Tuesday & Sunday, 6:00–8:00pm
- Where:
- Online
Why take a Democracy Observer training? You will gain:
- Key knowledge about MN elections law and voter protections
- Skills to identify, assess, and report unconstitutional activity related to elections (ex. Voter Intimidation)
- A framework for practicing community care in support of safe elections in your precinct
Hands Off Our Vote Trainings
from Indivisible
Calling all Indivisibles who are ready to demand Hands Off Our Vote! This is the first of two trainings on 2026 election protection: the actions you and those around you can take to ensure every eligible voter can vote, every vote is counted, and the results are honored and the winners seated. This training includes a step-by-step of basic election protection steps that you can scale to how much time and energy you have, as well as a messaging special with Anat Shenker-Osorio and assorted FAQ.
Share Your Voice — the Talon Mine
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is accepting public comments on the proposed Tamarack Mine. This is your opportunity to tell decision-makers what matters to you before decisions are made
Your comments are really important at this stage. Show elected officials that we are watching & we care about this.
- Deadline:
- September 14
- Where:
- Submit your written comments online or by mail
"Talon Metals/Rio Tinto plans to mine a 'massive sulphide mineralization' with high levels of sulfide and toxic metals. Drilling in the huge 31,000 acre area where Talon controls private land and state leases (about 85% of the size of Minneapolis) controlled by Talon Metals in central Minnesota’s Aitkin County, Talon has already found sulfide ore both in the Sandy River and Tamarack River watershed, which flow through the Big Sandy Lake Flowage to the Mississippi River and along the West Branch Kettle River, which flows downstream to the St. Croix River."
Minnesota Truth Council
The Governor's Council to Record the Truth of Operation Metro Surge and Operation PARRIS was established by Executive Order 26-05 on March 25, 2026, to create a comprehensive public record of the impacts of these operations on Minnesota.
The first public meeting, held on August 26, focused on the violations of the Constitution and the Rule of Law.
Inspiration ^
Hooch
North Star Lane — Episode #3
with host Michael Goldberg
This week on North Star Lane we have two stories about one of the world's oldest folk crafts: home brewing. Jesse Bearheart lives in Cook MN. She learned from the very different cultures and perspectives of grandparents on both mother's and father's sides of the family. On today's show, Jesse shares a family story from her Norwegian grandparents during the Prohibition era. Then we'll hear from world traveler Rich McClear, who started his broadcast and storytelling career when he founded KAXE FM in Grand Rapids MN. His family story is one he thought he knew, growing up, but learned the story behind the story just a few years ago.
Operation Metro Surge resistance takes center stage
In State Fair art exhibit
"Humans look to art to process experience, both collective and personal, the full spectrum from joy to trauma,” said fine arts superintendent Jim Taylor. He was speaking to a crowd at the Fine Arts preview Aug. 25. “We celebrate that here. There is a broad survey of what's on the hearts and minds of Minnesota artists today. I'm very proud to be a part of this and to support human expression."
In Praise of Dolly Parton
1946-2026, Our Goddess of Kindness
from Meditations on an Emergency (Rebecca Solnit)
"We will always love her, and there will never be another like her, this artist who came out of deep rural poverty in the 1960s to become not just a staggeringly great performer and songwriter but philanthropist, humanist, humorist, and – well there's a way she demonstrated that lots of things often thought to be opposites could be the same thing, especially if you were her. Down home and brilliant, feminist and feminine, glitter-bedecked and generous, country and cosmopolitan, funny and soulful."
The Minnesota AFL-CIO Endorses Trina Swanson
"That's a federation of more than 1,000 Local Unions and more than 300,000 working Minnesotans. I am honored.
"Beth McCuskey of the Northeast Minnesota Area Labor Council said working people up here "deserve to have a congressional representative who is accessible, an outspoken advocate for labor unions across our region and the willingness to have some tough conversations." That is the job. That is what I intend to do.
"I grew up in a union household in Hermantown. My dad was a union carpenter. My mom a union nurse for over 42 years, and I carried an AFGE card for a decade.
"Opportunity at Home. Healthcare. Jobs. Affordability."
The Right Word is Wrongness
from Meditations on an Emergency (Rebecca Solnit)
"I've been in northern New Mexico for more than two weeks, in what is normally the monsoon season, but there has been no rain beyond a brief, quickly evaporated spatter of drops three times so far. The plants are parched, and the usual green regeneration of monsoon season I was looking forward to has not happened. The animals seem thirsty too, and we think the deer that come down among the houses are hungry and thirsty. I saw one try some juniper, which does not seem like its usual food, and because of this desperation, I've seen deer closer than almost ever before, and seen that they are missing patches of fur and look beat up in contrast to the elegance I admire from afar.
"We do have a damaged sky; we put billions of tons of greenhouse gases in it, thickening the planet's insulating layer and heating it all up. I think we all live with this sense of wrongness and have for the past decade, sometimes about something happening in our immediate vicinity, something we can see the way I saw the hills a few miles away looking like faded photographs of themselves through the smoky air and the hungry deer coming down from the hills. And sometimes in the news with the stories of how greed and corruption are shredding the systems that preserved order in our society, made it run smoothly in ways that matter when it came to accountable institutions and law-abiding elected officials, food safety, public health, human rights, the health of higher education and government-backed science.
"One of the misnomers about emotions is that they are personal, that all our feelings are about ourselves and other people close to us. What has been reassuringly clear the past ten years is that a lot of people care about a lot more: about democracy, justice, the rights and safety of the immigrants and refugees among us, the rights of nature and the protection of the land that precedes the existence of this country and for that matter this species we belong to."
Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson
Building strategies and infrastructure for thriving communities and utopian visions
I just had the pleasure of attending a national convening of grassroots organizers in Minneapolis.
The keynote was given by the incredible Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson.
If you want to be inspired, look up any opportunity to hear her speak.
Her work is "strongly rooted in the long tradition of Black liberation and Southern freedom movements, among many others."
Bernice Johnson Reagon on 'This Little Light of Mine'
The power of singing together
Listen to this interview from 1991 & then listen to her sing.
"We've Come a Long Way to Be Together."
Give Your Hands to Struggle
Bringing Down a Dictator
The power of creative, non-violent, de-centralized resistance
"In the year 2000, in a war barely noticed outside Yugoslavia, the indicted war criminal Slobodan Milosevic fought to hold power. He controlled a battle-hardened army, a tough police force, and most of the news media. But he underestimated his opponents, led by a student movement called Otpor! (‘resistance’), who attacked the regime with ridicule, rock music, and a willingness to be arrested. Their courage and audacity inspired others to overcome their fear and join the fight.
"Otpor! students were the shock troops in what became an army of human rights and pro-democracy activists who systematically undermined police and army loyalty to Milosevic and forced him to call early elections. When Milosevic refused to accept his defeat at the polls, the people responded with a general strike. As normal life ground to a halt, Serbs by the hundreds of thousands descended on the capital on October 5 to seize the parliament in a dramatic triumph for democracy. Milosevic was arrested and extradited to the Hague to stand trial for crimes against humanity in June 2001."
Opportunities ^
Calls for work
Panatrope Call for Writing
Activate your voice — storytellers, poets & independent journalists wanted
Deadline: August 31, 2026
Wildwood River Press* is announcing a new annual anthology of literary
and political writing, Panatrope. We invite you to submit writing
about what sustains you, about what has marked you, about where you
are from and what has made you. The deadline is August 31.
The term panatrope means "all octaves in music" and it was the name of
the first electric record player in the 1920s. Trope is a word used
in literary circles, and it refers to a pattern in a piece of writing:
a narrative structure, theme, image, or metaphor used by an author
across their body of work.
Call for Storytellers
"Humans evolved opposable thumbs to be able to hold on. We evolved Story to know what to hold on to."
What’s your story? We’re celebrating the art of oral storytelling —
the every day way we all communicate with each other.
For our new podcast, 'North Star Lane', we’re collecting personal stories about connections —
to place, to the past, to each other.
Stories should be 3–10 minutes in length, and can range in tone from funny incident to elegy and everything in between.
Michael Goldberg is collecting the stories.
Send audio to him — or a note to arrange a phone call or zoom —
at goldberg.actionmedia@gmail.com.
Michael also produces live storytelling shows in Grand Rapids and elsewhere in the region. Let him know if you’d like more information about those.
North Star Lane is produced by Michael Goldberg, who lives in the woods of northern Minnesota and collects stories from his friends and neighbors. They tell stories about their connections – to place, to the past, to each other – and about things that are important to them. We think a lot of the same things are important to us all.
Letters from Minnesota
An invitation from Writers for Democratic Action Minnesota
Last month WDA MN launched a new feature, Letters From Minnesota.
We invite you to contribute your Minnesota Letter to be featured in the Writers for Democratic Action Minnesota newsletter. We are seeking writers from all over the state of Minnesota. We are looking for flash essays or stories or poems. Here are some suggestions or writing prompts:
- What are the concerns in your area?
- What are the ways the community is dealing with that concern?
- What is happening in your community to strengthen democracy?
- Tell a story that is connected to your particular landscape
Letters From Minnesota is an opportunity to connect with and learn about Minnesota writers and their locale. WDA-MN is a non-partisan organization. Writers of all kinds have a unique ability to harness the written and spoken word for good, for truth, for justice and equality, and for the rights of all. WDA–MN aims to advocate for writers and for the written word as well as to empower writers to join the fight to protect our democracy.
We support independent journalism, libraries, and indie bookstores.
We believe in participatory democracy. Voting is important, but we can have more impact if we take action in our communities in word and deed.
Writers for Democratic Action Minnesota has arranged public poetry & writers' events, hosted a table at the Rain Taxi Minnesota Book Festival, published monthly newsletters that offer resources, opportunities, and curated news reports. The national WDA organization also has a Substack and invites writers anywhere in the US to send in essays for publication.
Send us your contributions at hello@writersfordemocraticaction.org.
