Happy Cinco de Maya & We didn’t stiff our lawyers!

I used to joke that I had eight loyal readers. I did it when I wrote Not Eudora columns for the Northland Reader and I’ve done it here. I don’t know who they are but 163 different folks opened up Lincoln Democrat yesterday. The only new post they saw is the thank you of the day demanding an update on our work – in this case fundraising. Updates. That’s what this blog is all about. I’ve got five or six new posts awaiting serious editing and new stuff keeps coming up demanding attention like today’s story about some unhappy attorneys. I left town at 7AM yesterday and got back at 7PM I unloaded two new boxes of paper work and left immediately for a Let Duluth Vote meeting. I broke up the meeting early because I wanted at least an hour of no controversy at home. Before I left however, I was told that the story mentioned was about to make an appearance. Its really a nothing story but like lots of nothing stories it now demands an explanation. When I got home to enjoy my controversy free hour I discovered that the reporter who wrote ithe story had left a message with me asking about it. I called back and left a message on his message machine and joked about it as I gave him some background. Then I stayed up another hour roughing out a long post explaining it. Folks who have been reading my blog early in the morning may have discovered that I have begun posting rough drafts of posts late at night and then fiddle around with them in the morning so that they may get a half dozen changes before I’m satisfied with them. Its sort of as though I’m inviting folks to look over my shoulder as I write. They can watch me wad up unsatisfactory posts and toss them in the circular file then watch me as I catch typos and polish up inelegant phrasing. If they printed up one of these posts before I was finished they could point to the mistakes I make. In this way my blog is sort of my own wikipedia which I can change at will. After more than a day or two I don’t really like to correct mistakes other than misspellings. Too many such changes would undermine the archival value of older posts.

So, today two more xes of paperwork demand my attention. Ah but, the Trib has published a story that is sort of embarassing the headline of which may sent shivvers of worry to the 2,000 people who contributed to Let Duluth Vote for legal work. If they don’t look at it or if they only hear about it at work they may think the money we raised for attorneys has been used elsewhere.

The Trib story didn’t get any factual info wrong. To the extent it miscommunicated that was reinforced by the one person who was interviewed who told the truth but didn’t follow up with the whole truth. The whole truth, or a stab at it. Will be posted shortly. But, my caffein hasn’t kicked in yet and I’ve got a lot of other things to tell my 165 readers than an inartful story which will just fuel more paranoia by my allies.

But first. I’m going to fill in yesterday’s void. What was I doing on this busy day when I only posted one thank you?

I woke up at 4AM yesterday having made up my mind late the night before that I had to get some personal business done in the Twin Cities. So at 4 I began sorting through a backlog of personal paperwork hiding under a ton of Let Duluth Vote paperwork.

For the last four years I have been consumed with duplicity. I’ve mentioned the book I began researching four years ago. I spent a year digging through files at the Minnesota Historical Society and compling a huge clipping file and interviewing eyewitnesses and sorting through and accumulating boxes of information with a view to writing a little history.

That process was made more complicated by my quixotic campaign against Congressman Jim Oberstar who is slowly spinning out of Earth’s orbit. (A milage tax not a fuel consumption tax! Your going to punish me for driving a Prius and reward those humvee owners?) I ended up spending so much time onresearching the book I did little in my “campaign.” I have to put it in quotes because … Well I did manage to irritate Robin Washington by pestering me to give me some attention. I paid a price for it the next year when I filed to run for the School Board and he was able, quite rightly, to call me a “perennial candidate.” That and Ralph Doty’s premeditated character assassination and the early propaganda from the Red Plan enthusiasts

Duplicity.

Biggest political scandal of the last half of the 20th Century. The misappropriation of a significant portion of a loved one’s estate. And a progression of LDV related invents petitioining, campaigning, fund raising, investigation, preparations for trial, related to the multiple duplicities of the Red Plan.

Even in the hey day of newspapers which was arguably a mere quarter century ago when most major cities still had morning and afternoon dailies the Red Plan would have been a challenge t ocover. Now the Trib is lost and more hesitant than ever to challenge the official position. Just look at all the stories they have missed which are listed in yellow on the LDV web page.

Hell, they haven’t even covered the enviornmental case up to now. Their headline inartfully will lead unsuspecting readers to conclude that that the extensive LDV efforts to build a case against the Red Plan have led to unpaid lawyers. Of course, anyone reading the story will soon realize that this is not the case. But there’s no back story. Where did this suit pop up. How does it in to the whole fight against the District. Who are the deadbeats? Are their deadbeats? Why did the unhappy lawyers decline to comment?

I spent an hour roughing this out last night. Waking up to the responsibility to my 165 readers to explain it all when I have all those other boxes of work ahead of me is hard to work up any enthusiasm……I’d rather climb into bed an bury my head in a pillow. I’ve been at this for two and a half years. I’m tired of duplicity and yet every part of my little troika still demand my attention.

I came home last night and found an unfamiliar car in my drive way. It was an LDV guy asking where a meeting was. I cheerily greeted my wife, told him where the meeting was and agreed to go. It was the last word I spoke to my wife. I came home two hours later and began catching up with phone messages and email.

I woke up early and was at email when my wife woke up. She came in to pour herself some coffee I brewed up. We didn’t exchange a word. She didn’t ask me about my trip to the Cities. She’s tired of LDV and so am I. I’m tired of duplicity and having the responsibility that a once decent newspaper had to explain to my eight or 165 or 700 readers what the hell is going on.

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