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Today’s column (gift link) tells the tale of an unlikely return to a topic I mistakenly thought was resolved years ago. 

Back in 1999, a local community-minded woman secured a small grant to start a community newspaper in Cherry, Minn., where I grew up. She didn’t know anything about newspapers, so she hired me, a 19-year-old with two semesters of journalism school and a surplus of irrational confidence. That summer I designed and built an old-fashioned country newspaper. 

The paper didn’t last long, but we had a good run. Our top story was about “the junk patrols.” A proposed county ordinance would limit the number of junk cars allowed on a person’s property. Local landowners feared that St. Louis County sheriff’s deputies would cruise the back roads looking for people with too much junk. This was pre-social media, so word spread person-to-person. Junk talk permeated of all the townships we covered.

In the end, the county softened the ordinance by allowing more cars if they were screened from view. But what really happened was a tacit understanding that no one would talk about this anymore. What happens out in the sticks was to be left alone.

Flash forward to April 14, 2026. I drive over to Palo to attend a St. Louis County Board meeting. I went to learn about a labor issue. But the parking lot at the Loon Lake Community Center was completely full. Hundreds of people streamed into the building. Labor issues used to draw crowds like this, but that’s not why they were there. It turns out that the county had proposed a tweak to the junk ordinance, and 500 people showed up to show their disapproval.

Now, the tweak really wasn’t as huge as some made out. But the vibes were just like 1999. The fear of what MIGHT happen produced a wide range of emotions. It got me thinking about the relationship we have with our stuff. In this case, stuff is culture. Understanding different cultural perspectives would go a long way to patch some of the seemingly impossible divisions in our society.

Read “In northern Minn., junk speaks to an emotional divide in politics” in the Sunday, April 26, 2026 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.