Wow. Finding the link to Max’s site inspired me to look for the names of other people I’d had friendships with in Junior High and High School.
I did a search on Lee Helgen, because I knew I would find him. He’s a politician in St. Paul now. Ward Five City council member in St. Paul, MN
Lee and I had a falling out over something really stupid when I was in 11th grade. I behaved foolishly and thoughtlessly and ended up not only embarrassing myself, but also doing damage to his car (no, I wasn’t driving it). Lee was understandably upset. I was ham-handed in my attempts to reconcile the friendship. Lee and I never talked again, but I have no ill-will toward him as the whole mess was all my fault. I think I’ve mentioned being kind of screwed up when I was a kid, right? Some people, at some points in their life, are more trouble than they are worth, and if they don’t show signs of even thinking about changing, it is perfectly moral and ethical to simply say “No more. You will bring no more chaos to my life”. He could have done a lot of damage to me, if he’d wanted revenge, or to exercise some kind of righteous power… but he didn’t. He just let me know that he was done, that I should do something to rescue myself from chaos, and walked away.
Anyway, I’ve always thought of Lee as kind of a stand-up guy, but this publication is obsessed with him.
The picture that they paint would have you believe that Lee is some sort of shadowy and rutheless figure somehow under the thrall of local religious leaders and the “liberal” big Pull Tabs lobby, and the Catholic Church.
I especially liked this paragraph:
Helgen objected to a specialty drink advertised at the bar which was called “Diva’s naughty fruit”. This drink consisted of cherries, olives, and pineapple soaking in vodka. But to Helgen it might have been like the forbidden fruit that Eve offered to Adam - something that was sexually provocative. Council Member Helgen also did not like that fact that Diva’s featured a singer named “Rowdy Cowboy” on Thursday evenings. “Rowdy Cowboy”, also known as “Bo Billy”, was a Nashville recording star who sang Country and Western songs. Maybe Helgen thought that his presence at the bar incited rowdy or violent behavior. There was also an elevated platform at one end of the bar room which looked like - but was not - a place for nude dancing.
It paints Lee as some sort of anti-alcohol puritan, which is just funny to me. Lee would have to have changed a LOT since I knew him to get to that point. He was kind of a goofy, irreverent, sarcastic kid. You all most likly reacall how, in school, the smart, serious, thinking people often put up an armor of wise-cracking bravado. The picture of him as an anti-alcohol puritanical crusader abusing power to wipe out booze and sexual implications just cracks me up.
I DO believe that Lee might have become more religious, as people sometimes do when they get older, but going after a bar owner because she’s Ojibwe and he doesn’t like that some of her specialties have sexy names? I don’t buy it. I could be wrong, because I haven’t talked to him in years, but it just doesn’t track for me. Maybe someone else who kept in touch with him can shed more light.
Oh, and if you don’t follow any of the other links, go to this one. There is a photo of a protest depicting Lee and Father Mike as racists and serving money, ridiculing them for their religion and politics…THEN, lower on the page, it triumphantly trumpets the victory of Michelle Bachman; Minnesota’s favorite crazy Jesus lady, who wants creationism taught as science in schools, and thinks that the US has entered into a secret deal to split Iraq with Iran.
Good grief. The creepy weird people are everywhere. It’s really disappointing.