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Remembering, and thanking, Rosa Parks 
ROBIN WASHINGTON: Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Rosa Parks. News Tribune editor Robin Washington wrote a tribute at the time of her passing on Oct. 24, 2005, that still resonates today.
RELATED CONTENTWhy the Duluth News Tribune is canceling ‘Blondie’
ROBIN WASHINGTON: Starting Wednesday, “Blondie” will no longer appear in the News Tribune. A new strip, “Pearls Before Swine,” will take its place.
RELATED CONTENTDuluth native's cat soldiers take on terracotta army
ROBIN WASHINGTON: If you haven’t made it down to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts for the China’s Terracotta Warriors exhibit that ends at 5 p.m. today, there’s still one more week to see a complementary installation. Or at least a send-up of it.
RELATED CONTENTObama’s inauguration: What would Malcolm and Martin say?
ROBIN WASHINGTON: Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., are arguing. It’s Jan. 20, 2009, if dates are kept in the spirit world, and the subject is Barack Obama, who is about to take the oath of office as president of the United States.
RELATED CONTENTIce cap melting? Let’s not miss the boat
ROBIN WASHINGTON: A recent New Yorker magazine article chronicled how the Russians last summer launched an ore boat for China on a route that’s normally blocked by ice. Global warming nightmares are bad enough, but this could hit the Northland right in the taconite pile.
RELATED CONTENTWhen Grandma takes a handicapped parking spot
ROBIN WASHINGTON: Before anything else, heed this: Never, ever use someone else’s handicapped parking permit. It’s a matter of respecting those who truly need it, and it’s just not the right thing to do.
RELATED CONTENTRobin Washington: An invitation to get past the hurt of racist video
There’s no point in debating whether or not the video of two blackface-wearing University of Minnesota Duluth students — one currently enrolled, one former — is racist and derogatory. The two women admitted as much to the school’s student newspaper last week, apologizing profusely for having “horribly decided” to clown around obscenely in front of a video camera after putting on facial treatments.
RELATED CONTENTRobin Washington: Tall tales from the AT&T tower
For Duluthians, the tower is part of our skyline; the chiseled profile of a metropolis that separates us from a Fargo or Grand Forks to proclaim, “Yes, dear little humans. You are in a genuine City — a place where, had we superheroes, we would offer them Tall Buildings to be scaled in a single bound.”
RELATED CONTENTRobin Washington: For one veteran, peacetime was an era of change
If you know anything about Twin Ports veterans, you’ve heard the names Richard Bong, Mike Colalillo and Joe Gomer.
RELATED CONTENTAs East Coast reels, it’s our turn to pay it forward
ROBIN WASHINGTON COLUMN: After a hurricane hit the East Coast, it’s our turn to pay it forward, and the packages are in the mail.
RELATED CONTENTColumns
Whatever happened to? Duluth couple hopes tsunami was once-in-a-lifetime
ROBIN WASHINGTON COLUMN: The last time we saw Richard and Perry Vitullo, the couple was sitting casually in their lawn chairs, waving at the St. Louis River airboat from their back dock.
RELATED CONTENTConnecticut town’s loss is shared by all
Robin Washington column: On National Public Radio on Saturday morning, anchor Scott Simon described Newtown, Conn., as a village where “people tend to be one or two degrees of separation from each other.” With Friday’s horror, that closeness extends to the entire country, if not the world.
RELATED CONTENT- Photo
- Memorial
- Connecticut gunman broke into school, shot victims multiple times
- Police, teachers describe Connecticut shooter's path through school
- Vignettes of the victims of the Connecticut school shooting
- School adviser: Connecticut gunman a loner who felt no pain
- Obama will travel Sunday to memorial service in Connecticut
- Counselors gather to help survivors of school shootings, and their families
For every menorah, there’s a story to tell
Robin Washington column: Hanukkah, it’s often explained, is not a major Jewish holiday. Its popularity in the U.S. is due largely to its proximity to Christmas. Still, virtually every Jewish home contains at least one menorah.
RELATED CONTENTShamelessly pursuing the greatest documentary ever
Robin Washington column: Does getting your friends to vote for a film really mean it's the greatest documentary ever?
RELATED CONTENTRobin Washington column: Making a pitch against hunger
We’ll leave it to the experts from CHUM and the Damiano Center and Second Harvest and the other local relief agencies to tell you the exact number of people who go hungry in Duluth. All I can say is, anecdotally, any doubts were erased on an unseasonably cool Grandma’s Marathon Saturday a few years ago when I helped serve the free meal at the Juneteenth celebration.
RELATED CONTENTIn Two Harbors, a pronounced difference between candidates
ROBIN WASHINGTON COLUMN: The candidates’ debate at the Two Harbors Community Center on Thursday night was a model of democracy. But there was an audible difference between the candidates.
RELATED CONTENTUn-Fair Campaign opponent had unusual start in life
ROBIN WASHINGTON COLUMN: When Phil Pierson’s name first emerged as the leader of the effort opposing the Un-Fair Campaign, News Tribune managing editor Georgia Swing did a double-take.
RELATED CONTENTA dollar store by any name still a bargain
Robin Washington column: If a dollar store couldn’t make it in the mall area off Superior’s Tower Avenue, then how about a … dollar store?
RELATED CONTENTBiking for fun — and introspection
You see a different Duluth on a bicycle. A few houses in my neighborhood, unnoticed when driving by, are carbon copies of my own; so much so that I want to time my passing-by to ask the owners what they’ve done with the kitchen.
RELATED CONTENTWhy we ran Gauthier story — and why he deserves empathy
ROBIN WASHINGTON COLUMN: An elected official is a subject in a criminal investigation. There is no shortage of similar stories, some of which result in prosecutions. Others, like Kerry Gauthier’s, do not.
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