Sten

I got a call from Sten Sunday afternoon. Sten moved to the US from Sweden in 1953 and in his own words: “spent sixty-three years on my knees.” Sten was a tile setter. He told me that “goin on 92” his knees won’t allow him to work anymore. He can’t believe Central High School is worn out. He took night classes there in subjects like welding and added that to get by, “I worked nights.”

In contrast with Dr. Dixon’s easy and charismatic tears which endear him to people who are convinced he loves children, Sten is stoic. But Sten has a sense of right and wrong: “When you’re down to one meal a day or every other day….then something has to be done to stop this.”

When Brenda Anderson appeared on KDAL Radio’s Common Sense show today with Carinda Horton one sympathetic caller told her she sounded tired. She is. She’s been fighting this stain on Duluth for two and a half years but she won’t quit. I too would love nothing more than to throw in the towel. I can’t. The notes I get like the one in the preceding post and calls from folks like Sten keep me slogging along.

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