Natural Awakenings Twin Cities August 2020

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diverse conversations This section is dedicated to educate and celebrate the efforts of those focused on building equity within our community. It is a place to share ideas, encourage conversations and learn how to be an active participant in creating sustainable change. Community Members Seek to Serve With election season upon us, it is important to understand who we are voting into office. With so many key issues coming to the fore, including the COVID-19 health crisis, to be or not to be back in the classroom this fall, and the need for the upgrading of our civil liberties and ameliorating systemic racism in America, we need to be educated on those we choose to serve as our representatives. In this issue, meet three local candidates running in the August 11 primary. Each candidate was interviewed on Green Tea Conversations radio show on AM950. The profiles in this article are extrapolated from the radio interviews and have been edited for print. The full unedited podcast interviews can be found at NATwinCities.com and AM950Radio.com. Cedrick Frazier, Candidate, Minnesota State House of Representatives Frazier is the DFL-endorsed candidate for state representative in District 45A, which includes the cities of Plymouth, New Hope and Crystal. He is a labor attorney for Education Minnesota and a City Council Member for New Hope. The Decision to Run for Office I believe when we elect representatives, we have a representative. You should have someone that has proximity to the issues that they are addressing and can govern with the lens of empathy, which makes you a better representative and a better advocate. I have proximity to many of the disparities facing our state. When I was growing up, I suffered through two evictions, so I understand the housing affordability issue and home insecurity. My parents were on public assistance, and I stood in those food lines, so the food insecurity piece is close to me. I also did not attend the best school system and learned firsthand that educational opportunity gaps exist, especially today in Minnesota. We can close those gaps, so nobody gets left behind. Affordable Health Care One of the biggest things we must do is expand MNSURE—open it up. I think the problem that we have in this country is our health care is often tied to employment. As we have seen with the COVID-19 pandemic, there are layoffs and businesses shutting down, causing large scale unemployment and a lack of healthcare insurance for these employees. In some European countries, they have what I call a people-first perspective where they legislate and look at what’s going to be the best thing for the people of their country. If you look at Medicare for All or a universal system where everybody has access to quality health care that is not tied to employment, I think we’re going to have better outcomes. Systemic Racism One of the most pressing things to figure out is how to hold police officers accountable when something happens like we witnessed with George Floyd. I have a good relationship with our police chief in the city of New Hope and I meet with a few Northwest suburban police chiefs and community members to talk about police and community relations about once a quarter. I don’t think that all police are bad, but I will say we do have a system that has created a mindset in which officers may believe that they can do these things and there is not going to be any harm or accountability brought to them. In Minnesota, we have the Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) Board and we were one of the first in the country to require credentials for our police officers, which is a great thing. But we have not kept up with 21st-century policing in order to hold our officers accountable. One of the conversations right now is how we can prevent officers who do something egregious from moving to another jurisdiction and doing the same thing again. The POST board is a way that we could deal with that. They can investigate immediately, take the license away or suspend it. Since you need a license in this state to be a peace officer, the officer could not be hired in another Minnesota jurisdiction. This is like what the professional education licensing board does with teachers. When a license is suspended or revoked, you cannot teach. To listen to the full unedited interview, visit NATwinCities.com. For more information, visit CedrickFrazier.com or follow on social media @CedFrazierMN. Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive. ~Dalai Lama 12 Twin Cities Edition NAtwincities.com
Daonna Depoister, Candidate, Minnesota State House of Representatives Depoister is also a candidate for State Representative in District 45A. She has 20 years of business experience in financial services and has served on the boards of several nonprofit organizations. The Decision to Run for Office Shortly after our first son was born in 1999, there was legislation being proposed that would require parental medical treatments for infertility to be declared on a child’s birth certificate. I said “no way!” That experience lit my fire to advocate for others like us. Fast forward to early 2003. I was lobbying as a private citizen at the capitol with my friends. I shared with them that the child I was carrying was going to be born with Down syndrome. Through my tears, it hit me—the laws we put in place are there to protect people like my son, who are disabled, those who are marginalized and vulnerable, those who have no voice of their own. It was at that moment I knew I wanted to advocate for others in a much bigger way. When I learned Representative Carlson was retiring, I knew that the time is now. Affordable Health Care The U.S. spends more on health care than any other developed country in the world, but ranks 37th in outcomes. COVID-19 has pointed to a lot of the fractures in our healthcare system. We have to provide equal access to health care for all to reduce the cost of health care; get employers out of the business of providing health care so it is not a condition of employment, because many low-paying and part-time jobs don’t have benefits—it’s a burden especially for small businesses to supply healthcare benefits. We have to make healthcare a right, not a privilege. I believe we have to go a single payer system, similar to Medicare. Another area of concern to me is the high cost of drugs for everyone, but especially those who have low incomes or fixed incomes. What types of natural health care should be covered by health insurance? I believe our health insurance should cover things like naturopaths, chiropractors, acupuncturists, qigong and other natural remedies. We shouldn’t leave out nutritional coaching and healthy exercise. I also think that medical marijuana should be covered for cancer patients and other diseases, for pain management and seizure disorders. Systemic Racism I am encouraged that for the first time in our history systemic racism is being addressed, not just as a black issue, but that finally white people are also getting involved and standing up for our communities of color. I’ve learned that the average black household has only 60 percent of the income of the average white household and only 10 percent of the wealth. Wealth allows people to own a home, send their kids to college and start a small business. Without it, any one negative life event can create a crisis of disastrous proportion: loss of a home, apartment, a car— things that are imperative. Initial ideas of things we can do immediately: outlaw redlining and forbid mortgage providers from discriminatory lending practices and amend FHA and HUD policies; better training for police in de-escalating violent situations and putting laws in place that protect our citizens, especially people of color; and implement more rigorous statewide and national policing standards. This is just a place to start. To listen to the full unedited interview, visit NATwinCities.com. For more information, visit DaonnaDepoister.com. You have power unless you give it away. ~Mustafa Santiago Ali Akashic Record Readings to Empower You on Your Soul’s Journey Barbara Brodsho, LLC BarbaraBrodsho.com 612-444-9751 Schedule a free Discovery Call. Locally owned and independent since 1968! Mastel’s HEALTH FOODS EST. 1968 vitamins, minerals, supplements, herbs, grocery, personal care, homeopathy, tcm 1526 ST. CLAIR AVENUE, ST. PAUL, MN 55105 T. 651-690-1692 • WWW.MASTELS.COM OPEN WEEKDAYS 9-8 • SATURDAY 9-6 • SUNDAY 12-5 August 2020 13
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Natural Awakenings Twin Cities August 2020

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