KSTP aired a story covering the trip, which will be unofficial and self-funded by the participants. According to the television news organization, the trip will focus on increasing the lawmakers’ understanding of Cuba and its economic climate.

The Star Tribune also published trip information prior to the departure of participants.

¸é±ð²¹»å:Ìý on the newspaper website.

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By Jenny Pinther ’15 with Wendi Wheeler ’06

The spring 2012 Sabo Center Symposium featured two Minnesota task force members in a discussion about how to spend $100 million on racial integration programs in the metro area public schools. Peter A. Swenson and Scott Thomas were the co-chairs of the task force who spoke at Augsburg’s Sabo Symposium.

Their discussion was moderated by educational leaders Bill Green, Augsburg professor of history who also served on the task force, and Nan Skelton, director emerita of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship.

The panel discussed the trails of serving on a task force with very divided viewpoints. Swanson and Thomas said that while the task force worked together as a team, the sides were not without disagreement. Thomas, a man who identifies as mied race, explained that he is a “product of integration.” His belief was that the $100 million should contribute to transportation in the form of voluntary bussing between school districts to encourage integration.

Swanson, however, had other concerns. “Are we using the money that is making the problem [of segregation] worse?” he said. “If people should want to be involved with people like them, how much should the government be involved with that?”

Martin Sabo ’38 thanked the panelists and commended the co-chairs for their patience with opposing points of view: “The difference is that this task force started with a question, not an answer. Too many people believe they have all the answers,” he said.

The Sabo Symposium is co-sponsored by: the Sabo Center for Citizenship and Learning, Communication Studies, Education, Honors program, Political Science, Bonner Leaders, and the Minnesota Urban Debate League.

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Sonja Blackstone ’12 and professor Frankie Shackelford reflect on the violence in Norway which occurred this summer and its connections to Sept. 11, 2001. Blackstone and Shackelford were in Norway during the attacks for the Nobel Peace Scholars program.

9/11-7/22

By Sonja Blackstone

I was living two miles from downtown Oslo this summer, studying peace and conflict at the University of Oslo. On the afternoon of Friday, July 22 my friends and I were enjoying the beginning of our weekend when we thought we heard thunder. Twenty minutes later everything changed. Word of an explosion began murmuring through campus, students who had been downtown flooded back, scared, with stories of broken glass and people running. The first few hours after the explosion were wrought with confusion. Who could have done this? As an American, it was difficult not to feel reverberations of 9/11. As a Peace Scholar studying in Norway, it was almost impossible to understand how this could happen in “The Peace Nation.”

I was 13 on 9/11. We were in school, and we were watching the TV coverage of the first plane when the second plane hit. I remember thinking, “This is like some sort of action movie, when is Bruce Willis going to come in and save the day.” It was absolutely unreal.

Luckily the bomb in Oslo hurt very few people. It was a Friday afternoon in the middle of July, a time when most Norwegians are on holiday. A few hours later we heard the reports of the shootings on the island. The Norwegian media was reluctant to link the incidents, and we were all confused. By this time we had all been pumping adrenaline for several hours but it was Friday night and most of us had made plans to go to parties or socialize. At a short meeting the director of the summer school told us to continue our normal activities. Most of us unhooked ourselves from our laptops (the BBC had been running live coverage for hours) and went to try and relax.

In the morning we were awakened with the shock of the actual death toll for the shooting on the island. We were horrified again and all thought of relaxing or forgetting was gone. The bombing was no longer central now it was the great loss that we all felt. As bright students from our own countries, we mourned the loss of so many promising young adults.

The Norwegians immediately said they would remain an open democracy, not shutting down or closing off in fear. It is completely common in Norway to have access to public officials’ private information such as home telephone numbers or addresses. It is also likely that you could run into even high-ranking politicians in the grocery store. Immediately after 9/11 everything in American became about being safer, about trading liberties (large or small) for peace of mind.

I will admit that the attacks were very different. The US was victim to an attack from outsiders, who were attacking the very concept of America at its core. They were trying to destroy America as it stands, not a certain political party and not any specific agenda. The attacks were very grand, took a lot of planning, and were carried out by many people. The attacks in Norway were carried out by one man, a Norwegian citizen, unhappy with certain policies in the ruling party. The attacks were direct, targeting not only government property but specifically the youth of that party. Youth Parliament in Norway is not some little-tended-to after school activity. It is an active part of Norwegian government, and many future leaders of the party were present on that island. He didn’t take out the people in power; he took out the party’s future.

Perhaps it’s easier, ideologically, to calm a small country after a singular attack than to calm a large country after a broad base attack. What I know is that I would rather be in Norway after 7/22 than in America post 9/11. The openness of the Norwegian government and the people of Norway and the warmth and acceptance that they professed is absolutely preferable to the anti-Islam that still simmers in American culture.

Reflection on September 11th and July 22nd

Frankie Shackelford

As we mark the tenth anniversary of September 11th, the renewed images of horror and grief mingle in my mind with fresh ones from this summer in Norway. When the car bomb went off outside the main government buildings on the afternoon of July 22nd, I was a few kilometers away  at the University of Oslo watching a documentary on the life of Prime Minister Stoltenberg. The film followed him through strenuous days of policy debates, strategic planning, and brief naps in the office that the bomber had targeted. But the most memorable clip for me was Jens Stoltenberg sitting in a tent at Utøya, the small island that would soon be the focus of the global media, as he explained the formative role of the Labor Party’s annual youth camp, where he has spent time every summer since 1974.

When I emerged from the film with enhanced confidence in Labor’s leadership, the news of the bombing shattered my mental landscape. A few hours later the news of the shootings at Utøya would break my heart. Like the sharp contrast of the clear blue September skies with the smoke from the collapsing Trade Towers, the incongruity of a heinous act of terrorism in “the peace nation” was all the more shocking. Much like Americans in September 2001, Norwegians on July 2011 experienced a sudden end to their sense of invulnerability.

In the days that followed, as the sad stories of the 77 victims and the terrifying tales of over 500 survivors filled the news, Norwegians, like Americans, were incredulous. The most frequent adjective used in interview after interview was ufattelig (incomprehensible). A decisive break has occurred in the national self-perception. Just as all Americans who experienced it are forever marked by September 11th, all Norwegians will carry with them the shared tragedy of July 22nd. But there the comparison ends.

Whereas the terrorists on 9/11 were militant outsiders seeking revenge against greedy infidels, the perpetrator on 7/22 was an ultra-conservative insider, the beneficiary of a secure upbringing in a welfare state with 100% literacy, universal healthcare, and the second-largest sovereign wealth fund in the world to insure his future! More parallel with the Oklahoma City bomber, Anders Breivik directed his hatred at his own government. He blamed the Labor Party for envisioning and implementing a pluralistic society that threatened his narrowly western worldview. He aimed to eradicate their next generation of leaders. Whereas the American response to 9/11 was one of heightened homeland security and aggressive retaliation, the Norwegians have responded with restraint and dignity, calling for more democracy, more openness, more dialogue and compassion.

Norway will no doubt adopt increased security measures, since the Norwegian police have not routinely even been allowed to carry weapons. The single police helicopter, which was grounded on 7/22 with its entire crew on vacation, will surely be expanded into a more effective fleet, and surveillance of extremist viewpoints on the internet will be increased. The nation is in for an extended period of soul searching, but the outcome will not be a culture of fear like ours. Rather all signs point to an atmosphere of increased concern for one another’s well-being and more expressions of welcome for the immigrants who are enriching the formerly monochromatic cultural landscape.

The Labor Party Youth includes many children of immigrants, and several young Muslims were among the victims of the Utøya massacre. The first-ever Norwegian funeral to be officiated jointly by a Lutheran pastor and an Imam has been celebrated, and immigrants were well represented among the hundreds of thousands who turned out for the rose memorials held in every city and town. Far from achieving Anders Breivik’s aim of making Norway a bastion against “Eurabia,” his deed has served to chasten those with xenophobic leanings and to strengthen the collective will to integration and reconciliation. We can only hope that the remembrance of 9/11 this week will spawn a renewed sense of solidarity here.

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Harry C. Boyte is the co-director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at Augsburg College. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on organizing theory and practice at the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, and is in demand as a keynote speaker with faculty, students, and professionals.

Americans this election season are in an angry, anxious mood that defies easy labels. As Joel Klein describes in a Time cover story based on conversations across the country, “People told personal stories and made complicated arguments that didn’t fit neatly into their assigned political categories.” 

While people worried that the country may be moving toward a “European style of Big Government,” they also felt strongly that the unfettered market is no solution. “The disgraceful behavior of the financial community…was the issue that raised the most passion.” The financial crisis has led “more than a few people to question their own values and those of their neighbors.” Frank Rich echoed this insight on October 24 in the New York Times. “So many know that the loftiest perpetrators of this national devastation got get-out-of fail free cards [and] that the too-big-to-fail banks have grown bigger.”

It is worth recalling that in 2008, we elected a president whose message was “Yes we can,” based on the idea that large changes require a process of civic action far beyond what government alone can accomplish. He had learned a philosophy of civic agency—that we all must become agents of change—from his days as a community organizer. “I’m asking you not only to believe in my ability to make change; I’m asking you to believe in yours,” read the campaign website. Civic agency infused the campaign. As Tim Dickinson put it in Rolling Stone, “The goal is not to put supporters to work but to enable them to put themselves to work without having to depend on the campaign for constant guidance.”

This message resembles the Preamble to the Constitution: “We the People” establish government as the instrument of our work, “to form a more perfect Union, establish justice…promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty…” Citizens sensed then—and perhaps we all know even better now—that it will require a Preamble movement if we are to revitalize a strong sense of citizenship and ourselves as citizens, not complainers or customers of government. Only citizens can recall that government is “us,” not an alien “other,” the resource and meeting ground for our common work.

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Last fall Benanav was hired as Augsburg’s Director of Government Relations, a role his illustrious career helped him fill easily. “One thing that helps me is that I have some credibility. I’ve known these people for more than 20 years.”

Since he completed law school in the late 70s, Benanav has been counsel to the Minnesota Senate, was a practicing attorney, was the deputy commissioner in the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, served as president of a private insurance agency, sat on the St. Paul city council, and manages a consulting agency that helps students and families get into college and avoid unmanageable debt.

As for this most recent career change, Benanav says he was ready for a move that combined his experience in government with support of higher education. “I talk to a lot of families,” he said, “and the thing they all want for their children is an education.”

Now that the Minnesota Legislature is in session, Benanav spends his days in St. Paul meeting with legislators. “My role is basically to keep Augsburg in the front of people’s minds,” Benanav said. “It’s important that our elected officials know who Augsburg is and what Augsburg does.”

Benanav said he occasionally brings students and even President Pribbenow along for meetings with legislators. “That human interaction—putting a face to the story—is really important as they make decisions that affect higher education,” he said.

At stake this year is the Minnesota State Grant program. According to the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, this program provided $156.1 million to more than 80,000 Minnesota undergraduates in 2006-2007. More than 500 Augsburg students in both the Day and Weekend programs received $1.8 million of that money.

Benanav is working with Megan Benrud, the Day student body president, to organize an Augsburg Day at the Capitol this semester. Students from all programs are encouraged to attend to meet with legislators from their home districts and to tell their stories. “Our representatives need to see that this is an important project and that changes will impact real students,” Benanav said.

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