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Today begins with a question. Will the Minnesota Star Tribune let their newest columnist write a goofball satire in the form of old time workers’ shanties? The answer, to my own surprise, is yes.

Please enjoy, “Why have regulations when you can have safety shanties?“

About nine years ago I became more serious about historical research. An oversized history manuscript later, I’d call myself a historian. I had no idea that this would prepare me for the future. History doesn’t predict the future, but it projects patterns that sharpen our vision of what’s happening right now.

We seem to be stuck in an era of false nostalgia. A growing number of people, dissatisfied with the world, are drawn to the past for inspiration. But the past they remember is largely imagined. The real past is an interesting place to visit, but you’d never want to live there. And yet we reach back anyway.

Amid myriad haphazard political cuts to the federal budget, the institute that researches workplace safety was gutted earlier this month. Of course, some cheer this sort of thing, imagining money clinking to their pockets somehow. But when we return to an era of limited workplace regulations, we are returning to conditions in which more companies got away with unsafe conditions and more people died. People like us.

Times change, but we find ways to repeat old mistakes.

This is a funny column with a serious message. Read it in the Wednesday, April 17, 2025 Minnesota Star Tribune.

Aaron J. Brown is a columnist and member of the editorial board for the Minnesota Star Tribune. His new book about Hibbing Mayor Victor Power and his momentous fight against the world’s largest corporation will be out soon.