Page 8 - voices-09-2021

COVER STORY

Alternates didn’t get to go. My mother raised Farming Union. My oldest brother was 21

Cain. when I was born. He worked for the highway
I think my love for contribution to society department. So he and later his daughter, my
really came from my parents because I saw niece, were involved in the Highway Union
that a lot. One of my earliest memories was in Minneapolis. We come from a long-time

my mother packing a box full of food for a union family. And they were also active
neighbor who was unemployed. I was under against racism. It wasn’t easy. We were one
the age of three. I remember that. of the few families in the whole county who
had friends of color. And sometimes that

Do you think your parents activism shaped really caused friction in school.
your mindset and the causes that you My parents were open minded and
eventually got involved in? Did they stem inclusive. I saw this willingness to put
from what you learned from your parents? themselves out for people. My father was

Yes, a lot of it did. I remember my mother involved in a Native American issue that
carried me door to door because the milk happened on the farm, and he actually put
that came into Minneapolis made Geiger up the bond money for a young woman and
counters click. And she was protesting the ensured that she got to continue seeing her

nuclear tests. child, even though she later was imprisoned.
My father was active in the unions, They were that kind of people, you know,
both for the Carpenters Union and the the ones who would actually go out and step

8 ONE COMMUNITY