-
Talking resource politics
Last week I spoke via Zoom to the Tamarack Water Alliance, an environmental group that formed recently in Aitkin County. As I explain in the introduction, I don’t take aggressive positions in these mining proposal debates because I’m trying to learn more and generate productive conversation. But this group asked me to speak and I…
-
I am lord of beans
Now that recreational marijuana is legal in Minnesota, will grow lights become less expensive or more expensive? My query has nothing to do with pot. Age 43 seems like a bad time to start doing pot. But it’s a great time to get really excited about growing beans, which is where I’m at these days.…
-
Sheet cake and handshakes; it’s grad party season
Is there anything quite like an American graduation party? A funeral, I suppose, but that hardly seems appropriate. After all, in one the subject ascends to bigger and better things. In the other, people ask, “What are your college plans?” over and over again. Like funerals, grad parties include elaborate photo displays, awkward mingling and…
-
To be someone, do something
Everybody wants to be somebody. That’s the premise behind shows like “American Idol” and most campaigns for the state legislature. This quest for “being” is a tough road, though. Once you are something, you realize you want to be something else. Then you get older and you used to be something. Eventually, you “were.” And…
-
Rural housing prices rise with changing times
Memorial Day weekend approaches, a time when residents of northern Minnesota welcome the residents of southern Minnesota for the long weekend. Perhaps before you log off to enjoy the next few days you might read my latest for the Minnesota Reformer, “The northland has its own housing crisis.” Summer custom dictates that visitors from the…
-
Eighteen years
Young parents know the phrases. “Don’t blink.” “It’ll be gone before you know it.” “Cherish these times.” Old people talk like this when they see your child screaming after two hours of sleep on a work night as you wash excrement off a teddy bear. Typically, the words fall flat. It’s baffling to imagine time…
-
The hard lessons behind those leases
The only proper response to a mistake is to learn from it. Last week, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources recommended that Cleveland Cliffs receive state mineral leases once held by Mesabi Metallics, a group loosely connected to the investors behind Essar Steel. The iron ore in question lies outside Nashwauk near the former site…
-
Curtain opens on new era of Iron Range performances
You may have seen my column from last weekend, “Final Goodman show marks new era on Iron Range.” I marked the end of an era with the closure of the Goodman Auditorium and the dedication of the new Rock Ridge school. On Tuesday, I appeared on Minnesota Public Radio’s “Minnesota Now” with Cathy Wurzer to…
-
Final Goodman show marks new era on the Iron Range
This year, the Goodman Auditorium in Virginia, Minnesota, will become a memory. A new era arises. The merger of the Virginia and Eveleth-Gilbert districts produced Rock Ridge High School and its modern state-of-the-art auditorium. The new school replaces a lot of storied architecture in these towns, including one of the classic high school theaters built…
-
Love birds, hate deer, fear bears
When I take on new interests, I dive in headfirst with minimal forethought. That’s how giant sunflowers took over my garden last year and why I found myself howling like a wolf out my living room window this spring, appearances be damned. To explain, when I began to feel affection for wild birds a few…
-
All we have
I don’t know how many times I’ve heard some big wheel from the Iron Range tell a reporter that “mining is all we have in northeastern Minnesota.” It’s like when I hit my head on the corner of the freezer door while digging in the fridge: a sharp and familiar pain that occurs often enough…
-
Minnesota can lead and prosper in e-recycling
The sprawling pits on the edge of Iron Range towns inspire many emotions. Some feel pride in the miners and steel that built a growing nation. Others see environmental damage or the pain of loss. But the facts are inarguable: these are holes where ore was removed forever. Our economy centers on consumption. We find…
-
Greed and privilege fuel anti-democracy trend
My latest piece for the Minnesota Reformer is out today, “Democracy checks power; that’s why it’s in danger.” I realize it’s fashionable to comment on declining democratic norms in modern American politics, but I’m not sure everyone realizes how widespread this phenomenon actually is. Every large democracy in the world now wrestles with a proxy…
-
Well-crafted boats keep souls afloat
We are what we make. That’s been true of every culture that ever walked the earth. Think of the Sphinx of Giza, the heads on Easter Island or the arrowheads we sometimes find while sifting through the dirt of northern Minnesota. Each object grew from a ritual that brought people together to create something that…
-
Rethinking small town goals on the Iron Range
Time to time, someone tells me that their Iron Range town is boring. Nothing much happens here. Everything is old. But, historically speaking, the towns of northern Minnesota’s Mesabi, Vermilion and Cuyuna ranges are young. Only about a century has passed since their creation. They were borne of cultural chaos and political intrigue that still…