Global/Local

When J.D. Steele approached me a year or so ago about doing a write-up on a trip he’d made to Kenya, it was the first time we’d interacted. I wasn’t sure what to make of this famous guy from that famous singing family. Was he some slumming missionary, snatching up grant money to perpetrate like he’s so into The Motherland while his only real interest was in souping up his profile? But I watched the homemade DVD he gave me and immediately learned that nothing could be further from the truth. This cat cared about the youngsters he was working with—you could see it just in the way he looks at them. So of course I was delighted to do the write-up. MORE »

Joe Riemann bestowed one simple name, and in return received overflowing blessings and a beautiful name for himself.

The name he received from members of a grateful immigrant community in the Twin Cities is “Jalata,” meaning “One who loves.”

As for the simple and single name that he bestowed, bear with me, this will sound implausible but it is absolutely true. MORE »

As an Asian American, Irwin Tang has been on the receiving end of the epithet “gook.” It’s often hurled, he tells The UpTake’s Chuck Olsen, when someone means him harm. But what if it comes out of the mouth of a presidential candidate — like Sen. John McCain? MORE »

“I was part of a house cleaning operation on Jan. 24, 2004 in Iraq,” First Sergeant Hector Matascastillo told officials gathered in the Hennepin County Board Room, while downtown on June 19 for a conference on veterans’ justice and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). “I was going door to door looking for enemy combatants in residential houses with a pistol in each of my hands,” Matascastillo said. MORE »