This cartoon is obviously adapted from Benjamin Franklin’s famous cartoon before the Revolutionary War. It fits the situation many Range towns, school districts, counties and other institutions face today. Amid LGA cuts and uncertain education financing, only Iron Rangers working together to pool resources and present a united front to state and federal government will weather the storm. There is but one Iron Range, even if three generations have continued to believe that the problems facing Bovey are all that much different than the problems facing Hoyt Lakes.
The only progress ever seen on the Iron Range has occurred when all the ranges go out at the same time for a common cause. That cause today is school district consolidation that improves student curriculum and allows teachers to do the jobs they were trained for. That cause today is cities working together on large scale projects to improve the lives of their citizens and the health of their budgets. That cause today is the unified front of dozens of Range cities and schools demonstrating their seriousness to the skeptical tyrants in St. Paul. Parochialism must die so that the Iron Range can live.
This is a time to think big and withstand the bellowing of old forces nearing their graves. This is a time to ensure prosperity for those people who are not yet born and those ideas which are not yet imagined.
Very well written. This needs to get in a newspaper so all can read and hopefully ponder, join forces and move ahead.