About the rarest commodity left is human attention. We talk about rare earth minerals, rare beauty and rare courage, but it’s all noise without people paying attention. And people aren’t, or more accurately they can’t. The way we produce and consume media punishes focus.
That might be the biggest failure of Democratic senators who voted to end the shutdown. Setting aside whether the shutdown should have happened to begin with, it’s clear that people are already turning to other issues. This is true even though health insurance cost spikes remain wholly unresolved and a great deal of federal business is absolutely mangled by spiteful, keyword-based layoffs and willful mismanagement.
Long-term federal funding for many programs remains unresolved, and even some immediate funding is in doubt. Case in point, in today’s column (gift link), I point out that cold weather energy assistance will be delayed even though the shutdown is technically over. We’re going to collectively test the dramatically reduced functionality of federal government, with people’s very lives on the line.
Read “Even with shutdown’s end, Minnesota faces cold reality of energy aid delays,” in the Monday, Nov. 17, 2025 edition of the 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.
