Southwest Foundation Supports the Arts with Your Help

Your support helps Southwest students learn The arts are strong at Southwest High School and your support for the Southwest Foundation helps keep them that way. Southwest is filled with artistic students who spend their time out of class dancing, singing, drawing, painting, playing instruments, acting -- or putting on shows where they use all those skills! This year the Foundation's support for the arts includes providing the tech personnel for the auditorium--so the lights and sound for every class, assembly, and performance there are just right. The personnel also train students on running the equipment--adding more tools to their skills toolbox. Don't miss this spring's musical, Ragtime, which will be performed March 12-15 and 19-22 in the Auditorium. Or check out all the other upcoming arts performances on the Southwest calendar. Together, we train the artists that enrich our community, state, and world. Please give today to keep the arts strong at Southwest.       We need your support to give Southwest's great students the life-changing experiences the arts and other extra-curricular activities provide. Please help us meet our goal of $110,000 which will be used to support academics, athletics and the arts for every student at Southwest.    We've raised over $70,000 and still have $40,000 to go! We need every supporter's help--please give now! And, give while you shop by sending a percentage of your purchases to Southwest by using AmazonSmile or the Target RedCard. You can also help if you shop at Kowalski's and put your receipt in the box there labeled Southwest High School.  Please give and forward this email to friends and family!     Help give Southwest's students the educational experiences, equipment, and supplies they need! Thank you for your support!

When Will We Stop The Violence?

I enjoy football.  I played and coached.  Thus, a fair amount of my life has been tied up in what many would classify as a violent sport.  No, it does rate up there with ice hockey.  My point is that I have played sports and continue to watch sporting events and enjoy the talents and skills exhibited.  I encourage student to be involved in sports.  Yes, I want sportsmanship and decent grades and safety as well.

However, I am concerned with us as a society with the continuing growth of UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championships). It has become a multi-billion dollar entertainment business with millions of viewers across the world.  The purpose is to pummel your opponent any way possible.  The fighters cannot use weapons or accessories and be proper but with hands, feet, hand, elbow, knee and any other body part any damage to opponent is okay.  Its popularity increases each year and there does not appear to be any slowly of its viewership.

"I despair at the rise of modern violence. I truly give in to despair at times, that deep, futureless pit of despair.... I watch the American slaughterhouse, the casual attacks on popes, presidents, and uncounted others, and I wonder if there are many more out there with the Ability or if butchery has simply become the modern way of life." Best selling sci-fi author Dan Simmons - of  Carrion Comfort fame.

As a country we have talked about following the "Rule of Law?"  We tend to think of ourselves as civilized.  We discussion justice and injustices.  We claim, sometimes at convenient times, to follow the Golden Rule.  We talk about treasuring peace and seeing it as a goal.

With all of that said it is now confirmed that Americans participated in authorized torture.   On any given day hundreds of women, men and children are killed at the hands of self, family members, guests and complete strangers.  Domestic violence is a common conversation and now receiving some attention because of football players.  Date rape is debated and remains a hidden topic in many organizations and colleges. 

American history - or at least the parts we teach - is not exactly a non-violent tale.  Witch trials, slavery, civil war, KKK, lynching, church burning and numerous other hideous happenings are a part of the story of America and Americans.   That is not to mention wars, police actions, self- defense first strikes and political interventions.

Killing people is a bottom line event.  There may be good intentions.  Some may be justified.   Some are for the protection of others.   For the millions of lost lives I am sure there are hundreds of overriding facts.  A life lost is exactly that - lost.

Are we a violent society?   Do humans need to destroy one another as some instinctive trait?   Is power and passion and greed so dominant that the strong (those in control) continue to kill, maim, hurt, punish and destroy those others?

I believe those are personal questions.  To paraphrase Malcolm X - if everyone was non-violent I would be too.   When, where and how does that movement start?   At what point do we say enough?

Southwest Alumni Evan Karges Passed

Karges, Evan David age 19, of Minneapolis, ended his five-year brain cancer journey on 12/14/14. 

During his brief time with us, Evan touched many lives as a lead acolyte, lector, mentor and TEC participant at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, a violinist with Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies and an actor in several productions at Minneapolis Southwest High School. 

Preceded in death by grandparents, Floyd and Betty Anderson of Brooklyn Park and Dr. L.E. Karges of Grand Rapids. Survived by parents, David and Karen Karges of Minneapolis; grandmother, Phyllis Karges of Grand Rapids; aunts, uncles, cousins and his cats, Uno and Tuxedo. 

Services 11 a.m. Fri., 1/9/15 at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, 519 Oak Grove St., Minneapolis. Please send memorials directly to Our Lady of Peace Home, 2076 St. Anthony Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104.

Published on December 28, 2014

Star Tribune

Your Foundation Supports Southwest Athletics!

Your support helps Southwest students learn      Southwest High School athletes shine as they compete--both on and off the court, field, snow, gym, ice, mat, lake, track, links, or in the pool. Southwest's Varsity girls basketball team is currently 2nd in the Minneapolis City Conference with a 5-2 record. Coach Dan Froehlich '75 says, "This is the hardest working group of girls I've had since I began coaching with Southwest."  The JV team, pictured above playing the Roosevelt Teddies, includes some of the team's young talent. The Southwest Foundation supports athletics at Southwest with grants to benefit all athletes. Proceeds from the Al Crary Golf Event in August as well as gifts to the Foundation allow Athletic Director Ryan Lamberty to upgrade training facilities and replace equipment and supplies. Past large-scale projects include the Turn on the Lights Campaign to light the field for football, soccer, and track. The lessons in teamwork, persistence, practice, courage, and dedication also improve the athletes' performance in the classroom. And the confidence gained in competition sends Southwest students out into the world beyond high school ready to win.     We need your support to give Southwest's great students the life-changing experiences athletics and other extra-curricular activities provide. Please help us meet our goal of $110,000 which will be used to support academics, athletics and the arts for every student at Southwest.     We've raised over $69,000 and still have $41,000 to go! We need every supporter's help--please give now!   And, give while you shop by sending a percentage of your purchases to Southwest by using AmazonSmile or the Target RedCard.   Please give and forward this email to friends and family!         Help give Southwest's students the educational experiences, equipment, and supplies they need!     Thank you for your support!        Give Now!