HARRY'S GANG: Odds and Ends

Lacrosse

It’s one fast growing sport in our area: lacrosse. Kids seem to be drawn to the speed, precision, and competition. It’s an exciting game to watch too. Sean Hall, among others, created the Northern Siege team a few years ago to give Carlton County children their own team; prior to that, players played with the Arrowhead Titans based out of Hermantown.

The sport is growing, and the girls’ squads just landed a great coordinator team in Lisa and Bryan LaCore. Lisa excelled in lacrosse at UMD, and they both coached some of the girls’ teams last year. If you know kids who may like a new, exciting spring and summer sport, have them check out the Northern Siege Lacrosse Facebook page. There’s also information about an opportunity to try the sport on Saturday Feb. 22 at the Fond du Lac Tribal Center. They’ll even loan you the equipment at this event.

Snowbanks

Everyone complains about the weather, but only the road crews really do anything about it. And a lot of people seem to be complaining this year about the icy roads, snowbanks and narrow roadways. It is bad: it’s hard to see around corners, parking is difficult, and there’s ice everywhere. But blame Mother Nature; she dumped a ton of wet, deep snow early in the season and I, for one, am impressed with the job road crews have done this year. Feel free to complain about the weather, but compliment the people who have done an amazing job trying to deal with it this season.

What’s good for the goose

I had an e-mail conversation with Chuck Frederick, editorial page editor at the Duluth News Tribune, about the e-mail newsletter I received from U.S. Representative Pete Stauber last week. He even printed my comments in his paper, which went essentially like this: Rep. Stauber expresses disappointment at Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for tearing up her copy of President Trump's address at the end of his speech.

But I am pretty sure Rep. Stauber was in the room when the president shunned the speaker and refused to shake her extended hand at last week's State of the Union address. Why is he only shocked that the speaker responded inappropriately?

If a guest, even one as important as the president, were invited to my house and refused to shake my hand when he arrived I, too, would be upset at the rude snub.

Rep. Stauber told me on “Harry's Gang” before he was elected that he would stand up to the president when he disagreed with him. Two wrongs don’t make a right, of course, but I expected a more balanced approach to political spin from Rep. Stauber when he was elected. I completely agree that ripping up the speech was wrong — so was snubbing your host’s handshake.

Using Stauber's own words, the president's made-for-TV stunt was nothing more than a cynical ploy to pander to his base and is completely out of touch with our way of life here in Northern Minnesota.

Now, I understand that the Republican National Committee probably dictates what freshmen representatives are allowed to send out in their e-mail newsletters. "Pete" has now, appropriately, chastised "Nancy" for her behavior and he should next chastise “Donald” for his bad behavior.

Pete Radosevich is the publisher of the Pine Knot News community newspaper and an attorney in Esko who hosts the cable access talk show Harry’s Gang on CAT-7. His opinions are his own. Contact him at [email protected]