Todd and I never played music together

I really enjoyed your feature in the October 21st issue that served as a tribute and memorial to my dear friend Todd Eckart who passed away one year ago last week. 

I have often told friends and acquaintances that I don’t really know how to describe our friendship other than to say that “we were brothers.” Over the course of almost 30 years Todd and I did a thousand things together. We worked together in many contexts. Including during my short-lived but feverish and wildly creative run as the manager of the Historic Norshor Theater in 2004 and 2005. We laughed and cried together, occasionally we quarreled. But one thing that never happened is that I never played music in a band with Todd. The closest I would say that we got was maybe when Todd called me up to sing a song with him or perform backing vocals in a pinch. 

When your writer called me up I was a little surprised but happy that the Reader would be doing an article and frankly what turned into a very nice tribute to Todd. And well deserved, too. 

At no point during our nearly hour long conversation did your reporter ever ask me if I had been in Todd’s band before. It is understandable that perhaps she made an assumption that we had played together before.  And since we did so many things in the music business together over the course of nearly three decades  - many of them with the Duluth Reader squarely in the background - I think it is understandable that someone would make that mistake. But the truth matters especially in matters as serious as love and friendship and I know my friend would want me to let you know that that one line in your story was incorrect. 

So I wanted to set the record straight on that point. Especially since I believe that many of Todd’s loved ones and fans will be clipping and preserving that otherwise wonderful article in your publication to keep in their scrapbooks and hope chests for years and decades to come. As I will be. I know they would want to have the facts and I also don’t want there to be any impression that I was claiming to have done something with Todd that I have not. I think this was an honest mistake on the part of your writer but it is a serious enough factual error that I am asking you to consider printing a retraction or maybe you would want to print this letter from me. 

As always, my condolences and the very best wishes go out to Todd’s family, to all of his many loyal fans, and to all of the fine musicians that he did perform with over the decades. I still miss him nearly every day myself. 

With respect and best regards,
JP Rennquist 
Duluth, Minnesota

And as the sun sets on MAGA...

After years of Donald Trump’s domination of the national conversation, the MAGA movement faces an important test: whether its brand of grievance, division, cultish personal loyalty and political confrontation still commands the support of a majority of American voters.

Americans have watched a political movement built around one disturbed man’s personality transform the Republican Party and reshape the country’s political landscape. Political disagreement has increasingly been replaced by personal attacks. Public debate has too often devolved into name-calling, conspiracy theories and accusations. Loyalty to a political leader has, in some quarters, appeared to take precedence over loyalty to the Constitution and the institutions that hold our democracy together.

But no president, regardless of party, should be above scrutiny, especially one with the undeniable stench of corruption emanating from it. No administration should be exempt from accountability. And no political movement should be permitted to confuse criticism with disloyalty or treat the government as the personal property of its leader.

The midterm elections offer Americans an opportunity to show their disdain for Donald Trump’s failed presidency.

This was not simply a contest between Democrats and Republicans. This was a test of whether voters believe the country’s political institutions should operate independently, whether Congress should exercise its constitutional responsibilities, and whether public officials should be accountable for their words and actions.

There are serious issues demanding attention: the cost of living, health care, immigration, economic opportunity, education, environmental protection and America’s standing in the world. These challenges deserve thoughtful debate and practical solutions, not an endless political circus revolving around one individual.

It was patently obvious to anyone with a modicum of intelligence way back in the summer of 2016 that Donald Trump was not a serious person, that he had no understanding of America, no interest in facing issues of importance to Americans and no agenda but his own.

The presidency is temporary. Political movements rise and fall. But the damage caused by political polarization, declining public trust and attacks on democratic institutions can last much longer than any administration.

Trump’s foolish reign and his choice to pack his administration with a confederacy of dunces, racists and pathetic losers will go down in history as one of this nation’s most embarrassing moments.

His legacy is that he weakened America in every way imaginable. And then tried to paint all his failures in gold.

Elections are not supposed to be victories for one man’s ego or defeats for another man’s ambitions. They are the means by which citizens hold their representatives accountable.

Perhaps the most important lesson of this election should be that America is bigger than Donald Trump, bigger than MAGA and bigger than either political party.

No politician owns this country. No political movement has a permanent claim on its future. The presidency is an office, not a throne, and the Constitution is not a suggestion.

All Americans should remember that democracy depends on more than winning elections. It depends on accepting results, respecting institutions, defending individual freedoms and recognizing that political opponents are fellow citizens, not enemies.

If this election marks the beginning of a new chapter in American politics, let it be one in which governing replaces grandstanding, accountability replaces blind loyalty, and the interests of the country once again take precedence over the ambitions of a sick individual.

America deserves nothing less.
M. Arnold Bowen
Duluth, Minnesota