Category Archives: Education

Education, HD66B

Juneteenth is a Republican Victory Holiday

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Republican History is All About Freedom

The Republican Party is largely responsible for the Abolition of Slavery in the United States of America. They started their party in 1854 in Racine Wisconsin and upon the 1860 Presidential Race they had endorsed Abraham Lincoln. In Lincoln’s only term in Congress as a Whig Candidate from 1847-49 he was mentored by a former President and son of a former President, John Quincy Adams. Representative John Quincy Adams had a remarkable career as a diplomat, Secretary of State, President, and died in office in 1848. Before he died he took Abraham Lincoln as a protégé and instilled in him why it was important to abolish slavery.

Upon Abraham Lincoln’s Presidential Election win, the south knew what was next as Lincoln had campaigned on abolishing slavery. Shortly after his election in December 1860, South Carolina broke away from the Union and several other southern states joined them. Without going into the battles of the Civil War, President Lincoln was looking for a victory on the battlefield to announce an executive order freeing the slaves and he wrote it after the bloody battle of Antietam in September 1862 and proclaimed it on January 1st 1863. It has thus been called the Emancipation Proclamation. It sent ripples into slave states south of the border states and it encouraged slaves to run away from the farms they were at.

It wasn’t until the 13th Amendment which was ratified by 27 of 36 States in December 1865, 8 months after Lincoln was assassinated, that slavery had been abolished. The Senate passed the Amendment in April 1864, the US House passed it in January 1865.

5 months later is where the story of Juneteenth starts.

June 19, 1865 Galveston Texas

Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston Texas on June 19th 1865 and announced that all slaves were free. He went on to suggest former slave owners and slaves form a new relationship of employer and hired employees. Known as General Orders Number 3

The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them, becomes that between employer and hired labor. The Freedmen are advised to remain at their present homes, and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts; and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere –General Orders number 3 General Gordon Granger June 19, 1865

It wasn’t until the 14th and 15th Amendments that former slaves would gain full citizenship and the right to vote (only men could vote until the 19th amendment in 1920).

The start of the celebration of June 19th in 1866

The celebration of that day started in mostly church gatherings for barbeques, songs, and festivals.  It was a holiday celebrated mostly in Texas.

The State of Texas made it a State Holiday in 1979. Outside of the state there have been celebrations but nothing official.

Republicans Need to Celebrate this Holiday

As I write this I’ve seen Republicans showing their ignorance of history on social media saying we shouldn’t celebrate Juneteenth. I find this ignorance of history as being abhorrent and playing into the 3rd stereotype our party likes to embrace: Indifference (the other 2 are Rich & White). If you look at the history of Black Americans their American roots are deeper than most European Americans.  Most Black Americans can claim ancestors going back to the late 1700s and early 1800s.

Blacks used to be Republicans up until the Progressive Coup in America during the Depression of the 1930s. It’s very interesting when you find out why the Democrats hated Rev Martin Luther King Jr when you find out he was a Conservative Baptist Pastor. Senators JFK & LBJ participated in the filibuster of the Civil Rights act, they were no saints as revisionists like to portray them as.

Though Jim Crow laws started popping up during the Electoral College question when Rutherford Hayes was hoping to be President. He compromised saying he would end Reconstruction in the Southern States if he was elected President. That was a bad move on his part because the 14th & 15th amendments weren’t embraced for nearly 80 yrs later. It had to be a real Republican, Senator Everett Dirksen who broke the Democrat filibuster on the Civil Rights Act and got it passed.

Maybe Schools just don’t teach American History as good and bad decisions. People today think we can erase the bad decisions by making worse decisions by erasing parts of American History by tearing down monuments and renaming public buildings.

Embrace it, Embrace Juneteenth

Juneteenth is one of a handful of Federal Holidays that will be celebrated on the day of the week it falls on, like Veterans Day, July 4th, Christmas and New Years Day. This post was reposted by permission of saintpaulrepublicans.us (it is not the SPRCC website). Some parts that were personal to the author have been edited out. Their post was originally posted on June 19, 2025 “Juneteenth is Just Another Freedom Day that Republicans Should Celebrate” — admin

Education, Law & Order, Opinion, Politics, St Paul

SPRCC Chair Copeland Calls for St Paul DFL to be Held Accountable.

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There have been 2 Ballot Questions added to the St Paul Ballots in the November 4th General Election. One of them was put on the ballot by a petition spearheaded by Peter Butler. In 2024 he successfully got the Ballot question of moving Mayoral and City Council Elections to the Presidential year starting in 2028.

This year he got the City Fine Ballot Question onto the Ballot. I, Publius Jr, remember signing this petition outside of the Local Republican Party Convention of which I caucus with. Voting Yes for the Ballot Question actually makes it harder for residents to appeal decisions by the City. The Vote Yes for a Fairer St Paul are actually lying about how this makes it fairer for St Paul Residents.

The Second Ballot question is about giving the Independent School District 625 (St Paul Public Schools) $37 million more. No amount of your money has improved the school district. From Schooldigger.com that ranks schools across the country through a variety of metrics, shows St Paul Public Schools ISD 625 flatlined it’s performance and educational excellence. They rank in the lower 22% of School Districts in the state. Their enrollment is dropping due to the curriculum, but mostly due to the current board members advocating for removal of School Resource Officers (SROs) and not suspending nor expelling disruptive or violent students. Remember Devin Scott might be alive today if he wasn’t murdered on his first day of class at Harding High School on February 10, 2023 because the school lacked SROs.

St Paul DFL Supports a YES Vote on Both Ballot Qns is Illegal

St Paul DFL earlier in the year became a defunct political organization, when they didn’t hold a caucus to elect delegates & alternates, and leaders of the organization. If they don’t have leaders or delegates & alternates they cease being a party unit.

Then they recently sent out Campaign material that shows “St Paul DFL Supports” Yes votes on the Ballot questions. This is illegal because who voted for this? Fred Melo, the St Paul Beat Reporter for Pioneer Press talks about this in his report on October 27, 2025.

“How did the St Paul DFL, which is on hiatus, back Two Ballot Questions?”

Peter Butler then filed a complaint against Rick Varco who is the St Paul DFL Treasurer, as well as the treasurer for the “Vote Yes for a Fairer St Paul” group. The hearing by the MN Court of Administrative Appeals would be a week after the election. Sounds almost as if those lit pieces were sent knowing any complaint would not be heard before the election. But then something Happened. His complaint against Rick Varco was dismissed without a hearing. Amazing how fast DFL Justice happens when one of their own is being held accountable.

Here’s the dismissal document from Peter Butler click here: Order of Dismissal

Then the new St Paul Republican City Committee (SPRCC) Chair Greg Copeland sent out a letter to the Pioneer Press Letters to the Editor, and others in response to the dismissal of the complaint. We’re posting it because no one else will.

SPRCC Greg Copeland’s Letter Addressing St Paul DFL’s Illegal Action

“The haste applied by the Court to dispatching Peter Butler’s complaint without a hearing, given the absence of any reply filing by DFLer Rick Varco seeking a dismissal, strikes me as a process falling far short of even the appearance of passing for “Justice”.

How can Citizens have any confidence in the conduct of their elections when there is such flagrant disinterest on the part of those Public Officials  paid to Oversee the ways in which questionable campaign spending raises legitimate concerns that voters are being misled about who is financing political advertisements that advocate adoption of 10 years of additional new property taxes, and a law to levy new city fines on citizens in referendum elections.

Especially in this case where Saint Paul citizens will be subject to a host of new financial penalties and fines for violations of City Codes as well as an average $300 per home property tax hike!

It is ironic too that given the fact that Citizens have the power to cast ballots in the matter of new city fines only due to Citizen Volunteers working successfully to collect hundreds of signatures to require this referendum election.

I am thankful that the Pioneer Press put the facts in great detail on their October 28 front page seeking an answer to “Who is sending those DFL mailings?”; and declaring, “The local party unit doesn’t exist, yet it is advocating for votes”. Unfortunately the MN Court of
Administrative Hearings refuses to give these questions a Public Hearing.

Citizens should Vote NO Tuesday on both referendums given the lack of basic accountability. This lack of government transparency requires the People to reject Granting the City any authority to levy new fines and yet more property taxes.

Greg Copeland
Chairman
Saint Paul Republican City Committee”

Greg Copeland, SPRCC Chair, elected in June 2025

This post was not authorized by any candidate, or candidate’s committee, PAC, or the Republican Party of Minnesota. We did get permission to repost the article “SPRCC Chair Calls for St Paul DFL to be held Accountable,” from the Saintpaulrepublicans.us which posted it on November 3rd 2025. — admin

Education

St Paul & Ramsey County Libraries Libby App E-Reader

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Prior to the Covid lockdowns many people used to go to the library in person. Since then people have gotten into the habit of reading their books from a distance on e-readers. It’s not the same as an in-person visit as it used to be. Seeing the librarians, saying hello to regulars at the library and sipping on a cup of mocha at the attached coffee shop like at the Downtown St Paul Library or at the Ramsey County Library in Roseville MN.

It was also a plus when area school children had their artwork displayed in public. There are some great budding artists out there.

Metropolitan Library Service Agency, or MELSA has an E-Reader System called The Libby App by Overdrive or Libby for short.

Here’s a video from another public library in Texas, with an informal tutorial.

 

Libby books can be read on a Kindle device, in fact it will ask you which method of viewing your book selections you’d like to read it on. On my laptop computer it makes use of the full screen. It is crisp and fluid in its functioning.

The best news is being able to borrow magazines. Another favorite activity of many at a Library was to go to the area near the fireplace and read, or leaf through a magazine. Libby has that covered. There is no crinkle of pages or the sometimes hard to turn a page due to the metal spine.  The magazine pages are vivid and you can enlarge them or just leaf through the pages as you would in an actual magazine.  The best thing is it won’t take up too much space on your coffee or end table.

Life has returned to as close as normal as it was before Covid lockdowns. One can still use the e-reader but there are just some things your devices can’t replicate online.  Some of the things are seeing the librarians and saying hello, enjoying a mocha from Dunn Brothers, or hearing Howard’s Countdown Trivia at the Roseville Library in the last hour before closing.