The panel was composed of four experts — one from the university (a teacher of Philosophy of Law at UMD), three from the community. More information about them can be found at the bottom of this post. But the real action, in many ways, had less to do with the panelists (the bulk of whom were civil or at least coldly polite to each other) than with the heat generated by the questions.

So, for example, as a student asked a panelist a question, the panelist interrupted the student, allegedly to correct her facts in the question. The student asked whether she could finish the question, and the panelist said “no.” There was a lot of short-circuiting in this debate — moments when a panelist might be asked a doozy of a question, one that I found provocative or interesting, at least, and the panelist would reply with “I don’t understand the question” or “I reject the premise of the question.” It’s hard to move forward from there.

I’m grateful, then, to be part of a university that sponsors these debates. Maybe more importantly, I’m grateful to be part of a university that typically models what these debates can look like when the struggle to understand each other is paramount. I don’t know that both sides will ever really understand each other in an issue like this, but I feel certain that we won’t if we stop trying. We need to model debate not as a struggle to win, but as a struggle to understand, first.

Our panelists:

1. Senator D. Scott Dibble — MN DFL Senator from District 60. Dibble became involved in politics in the mid-1980′s working on issues concerning the civil rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) communities. In 2000, Dibble ran for a seat in the Minnesota House of Representatives, becoming the third openly gay legislator to serve in the Minnesota Legislature. After serving one term in the House, Dibble ran for State Senate in 2002 where he is now serving in his third term.

2. Jason Adkins — Vice Chairman of the Minnesota for Marriage campaign, the coalition of religious and secular organizations created to pass the marriage protection amendment. He is also executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public policy voice of the Catholic Church in Minnesota. Prior to his advocacy work for the Church, Adkins was an attorney at the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm. He has clerked for both state and federal appellate judges, and received his law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School, where he continues to serve as an adjunct professor.

3. Teresa Collett — Professor of Law at the University of St. Thomas. Professor Collett is a nationally sought-after scholar and speaker on the topics of marriage, religion and bioethics. She has published numerous legal articles and is the co-author of a law casebook on professional responsibility and co-editor of a collection of essays exploring “Catholic” perspectives on American law. Professor Collett is an elected member of the American Law Institute, and has testified before committees of the United States Senate and House of Representatives, as well as before legislative committees in several states. She has served as special Attorney General for the States of Oklahoma and Kansas , as well as assisting other state Attorneys General in defending laws protecting human life and marriage. Prior to joining St. Thomas in 2003, Professor Collett taught at the South Texas College of Law where she established the nation’s first annual symposium on legal ethics.

4. Jason Ford — Associate Professor in the Philosophy department at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. He received his Bachelors degree in Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Doctorate from the University of California, Irvine. He has an abiding interest in Constitutional law, and has taught Philosophy of Law at UMD for six years.

Here it is early February, and spring is in the air. That means snow-melt, which admittedly won’t be a huge issue this year. But we know from past experience that spring melt and heavy rains can lead to sewer overflows. This is a problem worth understanding, and rather than trying to offer details here, I highly recommend WLSSD’s article on the topic (I and I Solutions – Inflow and Infiltration: When Clean Water Causes Problems!).

Read more about why I love the new storage tank in Canal Park, and overlook some of its less redeeming qualities (and see a photo) by visiting today’s Nature of Modern Life post.

I’m no longer in Duluth, but I found out about a campaign going on there right now and I couldn’t be more encouraged by the people and message behind it, including Mayor Ness. If you haven’t heard about it, check out local news coverage here.

I strongly support the message, which is not, “Hey white people. You are all racists.” Rather it is “Hey white people. You have privileges bestowed upon you because you are white.” Being white can make it harder to see that others in society are not equal because they are not white. I for one am happy to see Mayor Ness using his authority and influence to help open people’s eyes to the issue of racism in Duluth and beyond. Unfortunately Mayor Ness says he is getting death threats because of this.

Check out the Un-Fair Campaign website for more info: http://unfaircampaign.org/

I’d love to hear what people in Duluth are thinking.

A 62-year-old friend of mine was walking home from work a few weeks ago and was brutally assaulted with a hammer by St. Mary’s parking ramp and the perpetrator was never found. There was no report of this in the media.

Now this week we have muggings and a bloody dead body found on Michigan St. How come the media is not covering this? Should we start a Duluth Crime Facebook page to keep each other informed?

What do you think?

Unfortunately, there is no website for actually making the lights happen, but we did learn that it was going to be “quiet” going on “extremely quiet” each night she was here. But we learned a ton and had fun in the process.

First of all, we read up on the Aurora Borealis together – the Conservation Volunteer has a great article on the phenomenon, and how to catch it, in this month’s issue. That was night number one. On night number 2, we drove around Duluth’s residential neighborhoods after dark and took in the, er, leftover Christmas lights. Kind of festive, and after all my aunt was in the north (from the south) and they were lights.

As if that weren’t enough, on day number 3 we went to the Lake Superior Writers Open Memoir Group. One of the writers read a beautiful passage about northern lights and their reflection off the snow. On night number four, my husband and I recounted that amazing display of northern lights that were shockingly colorful right here in town. The reds (yes, there were reds!) blues and greens when on for what seemed like hours and we stood on the lawn with our neighbors taking them in. That was at a high point in the auroral cycle – at least six years ago judging by the age my daughter is now. We told her all this to entice her to come back. That is, watch the forecast, drop everything when the lights are gonna be good, and hop the next plane to Duluth.

So my ears naturally perked up when I heard that there was a huge solar flare that hit the earth at 9 this morning. And I was thinking of calling her back up here. The auroral forecast for northern Minnesota is  “extreme.” It was a beautiful clear day, but now that it is dark, the clouds have rolled in. Aurora. Not. Visible. 

I think I’m happy just knowing that in all likelihood the lights are dancing behind the cloudy curtain. See PRI’s coverage on Finland this evening by clicking here.

Carless in Duluth is a short documentary showcasing people in Duluth who walk, bike, or take the bus instead of driving. Notice how easy it is to forget that pedestrians and bicyclists exist when the environment is designed only for cars.

Premiering this March at a local downtown independent cinema near you.

Duluth News Tribune: “Fighting foreclosures, one home at a time: New group helps Duluth woman keep her home.”

Thank you, Newspaper Lady. You helped make Duluth home.

See: “Man held on suspicion of drunken driving in Duluth crash that kills woman, injures grandson” for details.