January 2007 archive

Pawlenty -- wily politician, master of the gilded press conference

BROWN HQ (Jan. 31, 2007) -- Way back when I started the quasi-daily blog here at MinnesotaBrown.com (Shortly after last November's election) I said there were three things the governor and legislature should do this session. 1) Health care coverage for all kids; 2) property tax relief in the form of LGA revival; and 3) something to provide real help to college students.

I'll say this for our Gov. Tim Pawlenty (thought I am confident he does not read the flop I write here), he is responding to that agenda in a consistent way -- the Pawlenty way -- with public declarations followed by actions that have no teeth whatsoever.

Shortly after the DFL whooped the R's in the House and Senate, Pawlenty announced he's for expanding Minneosta Care to cover uninsured Minnesota kids. Bipartisanship! He got a lot of great headlines, including one here, for doing this. Then he proposes a Minnesota Care budget that leaves many of those uninsured kids uninsured.

Property tax relief. He's for that, of course, but not in any meaningful way. He wants to restrict the taxing ability of tiny townships and counties first, even though it was his state funding cuts that CAUSED those local units to raise taxes. Try plowing roads with nothing but a "can-do" spirit.

Now, yesterday, Pawlenty signed a bill that would make up to $4,000 in college tuition costs tax deductable for lower and middle income families. The bill had widespread support and Pawlenty quickly signed it. Great. I've got no problem with this, but I have a feeling that this is the kind of thing Pawlenty will use later to say, "Look, we've done something," when this barely scratches the surface of the problem. What it's hard for people outside the outer ring suburbs to get sometimes is that poor people don't pay a lot of taxes, because they don't make as much. That's why we call them poor people. A $4,000 tax credit, for some, is like saying you're refend 10 percent of all the money you spent on yachts last year. Now, plenty of people who pay plenty of taxes would say, hey, tax credits are good -- and they're right. BUT, that's not the demographic served by this bill. If Pawlenty REALLY wanted to get cracking, he'd fund a statewide tuition freeze. But his budget doesn't allow for that ... after all, that might actually accomplish something and accomplishments are EXPENSIVE!

Pawlenty is a master at doing this. I saw him at the Iron Range college where I work in 2004 and he made broad declarations about wind energy and statewide light rail -- two public policy goals I covet -- but did jack to accomplish anything. A lot of people figured out this pattern of his years ago, but about 47 percent of the state didn't -- or derive some kind of pleasure in watching him repeat this performance. I still get the impression that he's a decent, smart guy, but in a way that only makes this more aggrevating. He's like that smooth talking SOB in the marketing department who runs the fantasy football league and does just enough to keep from getting fired. When's he up for retirement? 25 years? Oh, crap.

Here's a secret. If John McCain wins the GOP nomination and picks Pawlenty as VP, I might just vote for them to get T-Paw into a job where empty promises are almost literally part of the job description. You can bet he wouldn't be creeping around in the shadows like Cheney. After all, creating a secret Council of Doom, outfitting its leaders with red light sabers and building an invincible underground fortress would cost WAY too much for T-Paw.

I'll be waiting. When Pawlenty delivers, I'll say so. He has the chance to be a legacy governor if he plays his cards right this session. Haven't seen it yet, but as it says in Proverbs, or was it Grover on "Seasame Street," "Where there is life, there is hope."

Audit shows state/county service delivery suffers in rural areas

BROWN HQ (Jan. 30, 2007) -- With a headline like that, I'm lucky if anyone stayed awake long enough to read this far. Hello? Snap awake! You're at work! Trust me, folks, I'm not trying to adapt cable access TV into print format. But there was a story today that got my attention, even if I was one of a dorky few.

Today, a legislative auditor noted that 15 Minnesota counties were consistently at the bottom in efficiently delivering state services to residents. AP has the story. Minnesota is one of only 11 states in which counties are responsible for delivering most state funded human services. Two of the counties -- Koochiching and Lake of the Woods -- are in the large rural legislative district where I live and operate.

My initial reaction to this story is that this kind of thing is a consequence of the erosion of state and local government relations over the past 10 years, mostly due to the gradual abandonment of the "Minnesota Miracle" policies of Wendell Anderson and Rudy Perpich. They believed that we should provide equal services and educational opportunities to all citizens, even if some residents cost more to serve and educate than others. If everyone could be ensured the same opportunities, then the entire state would benefit in the long run. And they were right; so right that the economy grew. The only problem with a good economy is that it produces Republicans. Slightly lower taxes for people who live in above average houses, drive above average vehicles and disproportionately live in the suburbs became a more important issue over the last decade. So here we are; rural and urban counties falling short of expectations due to funding cuts. Haves and have-nots.

Focusing your whole system on making sure the upper middle and upper classes pay a few hundred fewer tax dollars is a little like focusing all of your car maintenance on keeping the paint job looking sharp. Is it important? Yes, but it doesn't necessarily mean your car will run smoothly. You've got to pay attention to the guts to keep a car running well (And though I come from five generations of mechanically minded Iron Range men, that's as far as my car knowledge goes). Minnesota used to have a pretty good system of service delivery (and, for that matter, education). Our reputation is still good because of all the dividends we reaped through the 1970s, '80s and early '90s. But the guts of our system have not been maintained properly.

I used to drive a rusty old Buick. It didn't look like much, but it ran real nice. One time I brought it in for a new muffler and the muffler guy told me he couldn't believe how good that car looked underneath. Some people bring in nice cars and they're all rusted out on the bottom, he said. Mine was rusty as hell on the outside, but the stuff that mattered was in great shape. I've never been more proud as a car owner.

Hey, Minnesota. Less worrying about paint, more worrying about horsepower. I suppose that's just my Iron Range roots showing.

Real winter leaves fashion in the cold

(This is my Sunday, Jan. 28 column for the Hibbing Daily Tribune and also aired on the Saturday, Jan. 27 edition of KAXE's "Between You and Me.")

Even in abnormal winters amid global climate change, one thing remains certain where we live. It is cold now, colder than it is most places and much colder than it was six months ago. We Northern Minnesotans are a winter people. You can talk global warming, and I believe you, but I’m wearing a coat today and will tomorrow, too.

We are enamored with the parts of our country that do not experience traditional winters: southern California, Hawaii, Florida, Arizona and the like. But I am always intrigued by the places where winter is a passing fad, like Christmas decorations or an ill-advised Fu Manchu mustache. Some places get one good snow, a couple cold blasts and that’s it. They’re talking about spring time long before we’re done shoveling or shivering. One such place, New York, is the center of much of our news media and the domestic fashion industry. The result is winter fashion trends that would never hold up in places where winter is more of a six-month interloper than an overnight guest.

I refer in particular to the national morning network shows like “Today,” “Good Morning America,” and “The Early Show.” If pop culture and fashion were a digestive tract, these shows would be the sphincter. No, not that sphincter, the one off your stomach (not that it matters, I’m only trying to maintain the integrity of my metaphor). All three of these shows are based in New York and all have featured winter fashion tips that would last all of thirty seconds on an average January day in northern Minnesota.

For instance, take the trend of fluffy collars and cuffs on women’s (and some men’s) coats. My wife calls them porn bunny coats, which is funny but for reasons that are unclear. If you actually wore these things snowmobiling or ice fishing, you would be a very attractive, well dressed corpse. That is, if search and rescue found you before the coyotes. Otherwise you’d be a giant, ornate tube steak.

Periodically, big puffy coats, caps and scarves will drift in and out of style, but only at the whim of paper-thin East Coast designers who subsist on a sick pleasure in what they can convince people to wear. I bet they don’t look at the forecast for Northern Minnesota, or as the smug national weather people call us, the Upper Mississippi Valley.

I’ve noticed that as people get older they become less interested in looking good in the winter and more interested in surviving the winter. Drive by any local high school in the morning and you will see many cold teens attempting high fashion. Meantime, across town at the senior center you’ll hear old men in big parkas talking about getting just one more good summer.

In this regard, I like to think I was ahead of the curve. Since high school I’ve worn a flapped winter hat, something some would call an Elmer Fudd hat, and have always been drawn to long winter coats that keep the wind off my legs. When temperatures dip, the flaps go down, the coat buttons tight and I am reasonably confident I won’t have to start a fire to survive.

Am I cool? Do I look good? Perhaps, if I sent my picture to a mail-order bride in Russia she would have fond memories of the Soviet Union and I would become desirable, but to most women my fashion status would put me somewhere in the fixer upper category. It’s a good thing I’m not single anymore. My only hope is to make it to May.

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AB on the air Saturday, Jan. 27

BROWN HQ (Jan. 26, 2007) -- I'll be on KAXE's "Between You and Me" Saturday with another essay, this one about "winter fashion." Anyone who's seen my flapped winter hat and long coat knows that my sense of fasion is based largely on things you can find in an eastern European military surplus catalog (which is literally where I acquired the coat I'm wearing today). You can tune into the show from 10 a.m. to noon on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota or online at www.kaxe.org. The essay also serves as my Sunday column in the Hibbing paper and I'll post that tomorrow.

Dylan Days update

BROWN HQ (Jan. 25, 2007) -- Win some, lose some. We won the election, lost the fight for HCC football, and now we move on to Dylan Days 2007. At right is our new logo for this year's event. Check out the website for more information. Our feature singer Maria Muldaur was on "A Prairie Home Companion" a couple weeks ago and did a fabulous job. This should be a good year for Dylan Days, though it will be harder to get the word out without the built-in excitement over last year's reunion of the "Blood on the Tracks" studio band. We'll do our best and put on a great show.

HCC football program is suspended

BROWN HQ (Jan. 24, 2007) -- The news came down today that the college where I work is suspending its football program. Our football team has demonstrated poor academic outcomes. Our football team is comprised of almost all of the college's students of color. I tend to be outspoken, so I had gone on the record where I work asking administration to keep the program for a year on probation with clear and unbreakable academic expectations. They have opted to suspend anyway, but will create a committee to consider reinstating the program after one year. The statement released today indicates that the college will work on reaching underrepresented students populations in other ways.

I am disappointed with this decision. We will lose diversity on campus and I fear we may be walking away from the larger problem of serving students who, until arriving at HCC, have never given the tools to succeed. I hope to continue working on this issue in a positive way, perhaps in seeking reinstatement of the team or in other ways of serving the many different students who need our help.

State of the Union

BROWN HQ (Jan. 24, 2007) -- President Bush delivered his seventh State of the Union address last night. There's plenty of analysis out there, so I'll spare you. I expected him to avoid the disagreements on Iraq more than he did, so in that regard he exceeded expectations. The speech was solid, not great, and didn't do anything to mend the divide between those for and against a troop surge in Iraq. The best rhetoric of the night came from Sen. James Webb (D-Va.), who delivered the Democratic response. I mentioned Webb casually as a possible VP candidate a couple days ago. Now Jonathan Alter of Newsweek is doing the same. Webb's speech Tuesday will gain him a spot on most short lists. All due respect to my native Minnesota's Amy Klobuchar and "Flat Top" Tester from Montana, Jim Webb is the most intriguing new senator in this year's freshman class. In beating George "Macaca" Allen and delivering this unique speech, he has already done more for the country than most national Democratic office holders. He's more conservative than most Democrats -- in fact, he used to be a Republican -- but he's the kind of person that the Democrats used to have on their side and need to get back to reclaim a working majority of the country. He's also a writer/politician (or, as I prefer to call myself, "author statesman) and his awareness of symbolism and narrative is something missing from most modern political speeches.

UPDATE: A story on MSNBC today describes how Michael Gerson, a Bush speechwriter, panned Webb's speech as being too full of cliches and dismissed the efforts of politicians who write their own speeches. He's just mad that a Democrat punched Bush right in his "down home populism" face. Just think of the troubles Republicans will have when using folksy sayings won't be enough to get working class people to vote for them.

Mind games

BROWN HQ (Jan. 23, 2007) -- I saw this headline on Yahoo a couple minutes ago: "Judge allows Tank Johnson to travel for Super Bowl." Johnson is a defensive tackle for the NFC champion Chicago Bears. He is awaiting trial for gun possession charges. In a separate incident, Johnson's bodyguard was killed by gunfire when he and others were at a club in Chicago late last year.

It sounds kind of like a screenwriting device. "Oh, man. The judge is letting Tank play." "No way. No way they let him out of the state." "Way, dude. They're making an exception for the Super Bowl." "Whoa, dude." OK, maybe not a great screenplay. But I would strongly recommend that the Bears have Johnson unloaded out the back of a prison bus at the stadium just for effect. One of those Hannibal Lector masks might help, too.

Of course, they're going to Florida for the Super Bowl. Failure to possess the proper permits for guns is a little like tearing off the mattress tag in that state. He could probably get elected county commissioner if only he were involved in an elaborate coke for sex scandal.

Tank Johnson aside, this Super Bowl should be pretty good. We're not sure if we'll get to host our typical Super Bowl party, but one way or another I'll get to enjoy this one.

Presidential politics -- because two years of idle speculation is not enough

BROWN HQ (Jan. 22, 2007) -- With my cell phone still warm and moist from Election 2006, I am already being asked by my political friends which candidates I prefer for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. They don't ask me because my opinion is all that important. They ask me because they're asking everyone, because no one knows yet but everyone feels like they should be supporting someone. (Right?) As I said last month my current preference is John Edwards. (He's vetted and is college educated poor folk like me. And, by the way, I am not one of the "official" John Edwards bloggers who signed up to fawn over him; this is just where I am today). I still perceive the top three candidates to be, in no particular order, Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Second tier candidates include Bill Richardson and Joe Biden. The not-gonna-happen candidates are Tom Vilsack, John Kerry and Chris Dodd. (Dodd is there out of mercy because he's a current senator). The never-gonna-happens includes Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich.

A poll out Sunday puts Hillary Clinton WAY out front, 41-17 over Obama and Edwards, with the others farther behind. I don't buy those numbers and Clinton is behind in Iowa and New Hampshire anyway. The great thing about blogs is that I will now talk about "theories" I've heard from people or blogs, or perhaps thought I heard in a dream once.

The Richardson Theory (from Wonkette.com)
On paper, the best candidate is Bill Richardson. He's got experience at almost every level of government. He's a multi-term governor of New Mexico who has served as a Congressman, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and Energy Secretary, among other things. He's Hispanic with a strong base in the fast-growing Southwest. He has personal ties to every region of the country except the South, which could be addressed with John Edwards or Jim Webb on the ticket. He could claim outsider status, enjoy insider knowledge, would make Obama seem too young and McCain seem too old. He puts Florida, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada in play and if he wins any of those and the Democratic base he is president.

The Clinton-Richardson Theory
I got a call on this one last weekend. Richardson was in the Bill Clinton cabinet and is an ally of Hillary Clinton's. Since Clinton's cash and political support base will dwarf Richardson's, his being a good candidate might not matter. BUT with Clinton and Richardson, you have a smart, groundbreaking ticket that can plausibly say, "Things were better before Bush; things will be better after Bush."

The Edwards-Obama Theory
I think I'm the only one saying this. This is a shoot-the-moon, all-optimism-all-the-time ticket that says 2008 is a bad year for the entrenched. The problem with the entrenched is that they're entrenched. Damn trenches. This would also require a major Clinton meltdown, and just about every meltable component of Hillary Clinton has already been melted. This shows Edwards major problem. Any major candidate as a VP propsect, other than Obama, would discredit Edwards at the top of the ticket. (Also, it's unlikely that any of the others would consider it). But Edwards could catch fire if he maintains the public service tone and optimism he's striking right now. Also, he's hot in Iowa. If he wins Iowa he is a major contender. If Obama can maintain his current popularity and prove himself under the lights, this ticket could work in reverse. However, I doubt Edwards would seriously consider another run at VP, especially under Obama who has even less foreign policy experience than he does.

The Biden Theory
Clinton, Edwards and Obama flop for various reasons. Then things shift to "someone else." In this event, I think Richardson gets a shot, but so does Joe Biden. When he keeps it short, Biden comes across as very reasonable and would play better than Kerry did in Red State America. Biden's only real shot is for a major shakeup, though, and this field is locking in way too early for that to be likely.

My theories about the Republican side are much less educated or thoughtful, other than John McCain and Rudy Guiliani appear to be ahead. When Republicans learn Rudy is pro-choice he probably loses steam. Mitt Romney is going to be a solid candidate, but will struggle on the electoral map. (For some reason, blue state Republicans seem to have a harder time translating their support than red state Democrats; though Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty probably puts our state in serious play). Sam Brownback would be an articulate conservative candidate and a gift to the Democrats. I would say a shake-up of the front runners is much more likely on this side since the Republican base is much less content with their options.

A Ranger in a strange land

(This is my Sunday, Jan. 21, 2007 column for the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Portions appeared earlier in the week in a blog post)

As part of my job, I spent a day at the State Capitol last week during the ongoing legislative session. Mark Twain famously said that there are two things you shouldn’t see being made, laws and sausage. To that, I can only reply that at least sausage is tasty.

I kid. Noble public servants are busy doing many good things right now and it’s a good thing they are. If this were the Roman Republic our democratic process would be regulated by a process similar to jury duty. That means that several of us would randomly be dispatched to St. Paul to determine property taxation formulas for cabins held in foreign trusts. While that might interest nerds like me, I can only imagine the complaints when so many people already can’t stand sorting out the innocent and guilty after a bar brawl.

When I was a kid growing up on the Range I always thought I'd end up in a city. I like people, action and the progressive look of a city skyline. I also love river towns. So I like St. Paul. But life in the woods and on the Iron Range has changed me more than I thought. I like to visit cities, but as the old kids story goes: I am a country mouse. Driving in a large city I turn into a confused old man, piloting a massive metaphorical Oldsmobile through a Wal-Mart parking lot that never ends.

Case in point: while driving around downtown St. Paul, looking for a very tall building, a red light trapped me in a lane where I wasn’t supposed to be. As a result, people had to veer around my car when they turned left. To a person, every driver that had to navigate around my car and make a hard left stared at me with hate. HATE! They hated me. They hated my family. They hated my stupid face. I tried to do that “oops” shrug to show that I was sorry for slowing down their commute by half a second, but I couldn’t repeat the oops shrug 60 times. So I just stared at my steering wheel, feeling the hate. Long lights in St. Paul … loooong lights.

Regardless, I had a fine time touring the Capitol and legislative office complex and will take away some very strong memories of my trip, such as:

1) Watching "American Idol" in a bar with half a dozen rural legislators.

2) Hearing the testimony of current state college and university students talking about the cost of tuition. I am a 27 and already college is twice as expensive as when I attended. The results are frightening and won't be fully apparent until college students try to pay mortgages and raise children in 5-10 years.

3) There is a dude living in the first floor restroom of the Wells-Fargo building. If he is reading, I am so sorry for not knocking before I walked in.

4) State lawmakers work very hard, but the days there are nothing like the days lived out by average Minnesotans. I can see how easy it would be to lose touch if you became a creature of the capitol. Most lawmakers make great effort to keep their perspective, but that can’t be easy.

The trip was supposed to be informative and educational, and it was. The biggest thing I learned though is that despite my past pining for the city life, I am an Iron Ranger at heart. My work may take me places, but home is here.

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AB on the air Saturday morning, Jan. 20

BROWN HQ (Jan. 20, 2007) -- My winter/spring schedule is insane. My "temporary" office at the college has now been declared my "permenant" office, so I am completely rearranging it. I've hesitated to redecorate until I felt some ownership. Now, it's time to add a more personal touch. As a result, the room currently looks like an Office Depot barfed into it after a hard night of collating. Between that and a six class teaching load I have been a bad blogger. So here's the weekend news, about a day late.

I'm on 91.7 KAXE's "Between You and Me" this morning with an essay about games. I am posting the text is below because I doubt my six or seven readers will have a chance to get to the radio before it's too late.

HOST INTRO: In the comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes,” Calvin and his stuffed tiger Hobbes play a game called “CalvinBall” in which the rules shift to fit the mood and fortunes of the game’s creator. KAXE contributor Aaron Brown explains how he’s found that making up a game and changing the rules as you go is as close to reality as games get.

AB: In some ancient American Indian societies, clans would resolve land and resource conflicts by sending their young men to play a dangerous but usually not deadly game. The logic was that these men would be needed to gather food and sustain the tribe. Why kill each other when a game would show a similar outcome. It might be a hard sell to get the Pentagon to back this method of warfare, but games still play an important role in human culture.

Last summer, we were visiting some friends who live behind a Hibbing city park. Days before, someone had spray painted graffiti on the side of the park’s storage shed. Standards of decency prevent me from relaying the specific nature of the graffiti, but sufficed to say “your mother” was involved (in the plural sense) and what the graffiti artists accused her of doing is still illegal in much of the Deep South and Mountain West.

These kinds of things happen in any town. Our attitude was, when life hands you inappropriate lemons, make inappropriate lemonade. We called together a group of friends, all of us legally considered to be adults, and decided to make a new game based on this irreverent shed art. Again, since I can’t tell you what was on the shed, I’ll just say that we called it Inappropriate-Message-On-the-Shed-Ball.

The rules shifted like the wind. On the surface, it was like a combination of kickball and cricket. You kicked a ball, and tried to run to the shed before one of the fielders picked up the ball and threw you out. The only way to get someone out was to bean them with the ball. No force outs. No fly balls. Only the sweet embrace of pain would set you free.

Suddenly, we were 12 again. Who am I kidding? We were 10 at best. The next day we would go to work, in fields ranging from education to computer science, crunching numbers and making deadlines. But on that day we only sought to touch the shed. Comfortable salaries and postgraduate degrees were but cold comfort for those who had them.

Then the rain came. The field was soaked and the game took on even more meaning. Suddenly reaching the shed wasn’t good enough; you had to reach the shed dry. As large pools appeared throughout the park that became far more difficult and by the end of the afternoon we were soaked, shivering, as a May evening rolled over our heads.

It was never a game that would have worked on ESPN, not even the lesser ESPN channels where you see monster trucks and big ladies lifting weights. Even to utter the name of our new game on broadcast television or radio would require two long shrill beeps. But it was a game I enjoyed and will remember playing, which is all that is required of a good game.

Games can be important, but sometimes it’s not about the rules, or who wins, or why we even bother to play. Sometimes games are just fun. Play on.

HOST OUTRO: Aaron Brown is an instructor at Hibbing Community College, a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune and frequent contributor to KAXE.

HCC Football on the line

BROWN HQ (Jan. 20, 2007) -- I've been involved in an ongoing discussion about the future of the Hibbing Community College football team. As you might know, I teach at the college. Here are some links to media coverage for those interested.

HCC football program fate will be decided by provost next week (Hibbing Daily Tribune)

Hibbing Community College football team faces disbandment (Duluth News-Tribune and AP)

Hibbing college may suspend its football program (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

I'm not posting the television coverage because they either provide identical information or sensationalized the story. KSTP out of the Twin Cities in particular was off mark in an investigative piece they aired. Though he raises valid points, this snarling reporter is clearly looking for ratings, not actual facts, and his conclusion was disjointed. That's TV news for you.

I am a country mouse

BROWN HQ (Jan. 18, 2007) -- I'm back in the comfortable surroundings of my rustic home office, reflecting on my last three days in St. Paul. When I was a kid I always thought I'd end up in a city. I like people, action and the progressive look of a city skyline. I also love river towns. So I like St. Paul. But life in the woods and on the Iron Range has changed me more than I thought. I like to visit cities, but as the story goes: I am a country mouse. I realize this ever time I go to big cities. If I'm driving in a large city, I turn into a confused old man, piloting a massive Oldsmobile through a Wal-Mart parking lot that never ends.

I did have a fine time touring the Capitol and legislative office complex, however and will take away some very strong memories, such as:

Watching "American Idol" in a bar with half a dozen rural legislators.

Hearing the testimony of current state college and university students talking about the cost of tuition. I am a 27 and already college is twice as expensive as when I attended. The results are frightening and won't be fully apparent until college students are trying to pay mortgages and raise children in 10 years.

There is a dude living in the first floor restroom of the Wells-Fargo building.

State lawmakers work very hard, but the days there are nothing like the days lived out by average Minnesotans. I can see how easy it would be to lose touch if you became a creature of the capitol.

It was a fine time. The world here in the north has continued without me, though, and now I have to catch up. I'll check in tomorrow with an update on my upcoming radio schedule and Sunday column.

Suburbs be damned: AB Road Show heads south to St. Paul

ST. PAUL, Minn. (Jan. 15, 2007) -- I'm "off Range" for the next few days, logging in from a St. Paul hotel as I conduct college business at the Capitol. I'll be recording my observations Tuesday and Wednesday. We have a busy schedule at the Capitol Tuesday. Wednesday will be my first ever trip to a MNSCU Board of Trustees meeting. I plan to save my ticket stub for my scrapbook. I hope to get there early to catch the tailgating.

My first observation in St. Paul from tonight: Mancini's cooks a nice steak. My second: Jesse Ventura was right; St. Paul HAS THE APPEARANCE of being laid out by drunken Irishmen. They don't have to be Irish for the joke to work, but in this case they probably were.

'Every mountainside' means ore dumps too

(This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Jan. 14, 2007 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. It will also air Saturday and Monday mornings on 91.7 KAXE, Northern Community Radio.)

Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Not one student, not one citizen can go long without hearing at least an excerpt from Dr. King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, nor should they.

Excerpts are good, but it’d be better if you saw the whole thing at least once in your life. In watching the whole speech you get a better idea of the context on that warm Washington, D.C., day in 1963 when King broadcast into the crowd of thousands and the television sets of millions, setting a moral standard for human decency that no one was able to argue against.

So now we have a holiday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, observed on Monday. Some of us have the day off. There won’t be any mail. The news will talk about it a little, replaying part of the speech no doubt. But beyond that, what does it really mean?

Dr. King’s speech happened long before I was born, in a place far from where I grew up on the Mesabi Iron Range. If you ask most Iron Rangers what they think about the King holiday, you’d get a wide range of answers. Some would be flowery, a few would be racist, most would be fairly ambivalent. I’ve had some years to think about it now, and in the shadow of our mighty ore dumps on the outskirts of our Iron Range towns, I am left thinking of this quote from Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech:

"I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”

Dr. King is talking about the plight of African Americans in the 1960s, but he is also talking about the plight of all humankind when justice is ignored. His dream is not reserved for any one race. And while total world peace might always remain out of the reach of mortals, it is still the goal good people strive to achieve. No one is ever harmed by just a little bit more understanding or just a little bit more tolerance for those different from us.

I was not around when immigrants built the Iron Range, but I imagine that many of them probably dreamed of a day when their children were not judged for their ancestry, but for their accomplishments. A scan of Hibbing newspapers from the early 1900s shows that European immigrant groups were almost as divided as blacks and whites in the American South during segregation, with plenty of prejudice and violence to spare.

We Iron Rangers know that our immigrant forbearers also believed in a better future, because their biggest priorities were our public schools. Thanks to those schools, three generations have since received knowledge and power that was denied their ancestors in their homelands and again when those ancestors first arrived in the

United States

. Today, you still see some of the ethnic Iron Range names on the rosters of our local high school sports teams but, thanks to 50 years of birds and bees, most kids don’t belong to any one ethnic group. People are more apt to pay attention to the game than the surname nowadays. That’s something that northern Minnesotans, and all Americans, should think about when we consider the issues of race and culture in today’s world.

I contend that the dream of my immigrant grandmothers and grandfathers on the Iron Range was not a bit different than the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. That dream is closer to reality than ever before, but it remains incomplete.

May that dream live and grow in all of us. We aren’t done yet and we shouldn’t stop trying.

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HCC Community Outreach Movement

BROWN HQ (Jan. 11, 2007) -- A group of Hibbing Community College staffers, myself included, and students has formed to do community outreach and service. Below is a press release for our activities tomorrow. In addition to what's listed here, I've written an essay about Martin Luther King Jr.s dream and its relation to the dreams of early Iron Range immigrants which will be on Saturday morning's "Between You and Me" radio show and appear as my Sunday column.

PRESS RELEASE - Jan. 10, 2007

HIBBING – A new group of Hibbing Community College staff, faculty and students called the HCC Community Outreach Movement will conduct programs in Hibbing schools on Friday in early honor of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

HCC staff and students will visit Hibbing elementary and high school classrooms Friday to discuss the legacy and teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The program will focus on the status of King’s dream for human rights in America.

The Friday, Jan. 12, classroom visits will feature discussions and games led by HCC students and staff. On Saturday, Jan. 13, the group is urging people to participate in a call-in radio program on 91.7 FM KAXE regarding the status of King’s dream in northern Minnesota. The program, “Between You and Me with Heidi Holtan” airs on the nonprofit community station from 10 a.m. to noon.

The HCC Community Outreach Movement was formed to strengthen the bond between Hibbing-area communities and HCC by celebrating the cultural diversity of the campus and region. The group will continue to work year-round on community service projects that connect HCC students with the surrounding community. The committee is comprised of HCC staff and faculty, including Shelly Flaten, Sidra Boutto, David Wilson, Sheri Biondi, Courtney Edwards and Aaron Brown, along with more than a dozen HCC student volunteers.

Finally: the straight story on Excelsior

BROWN HQ (Jan. 9, 2007) -- A story in today's Star Tribune hearkens some of the points I and other sane, non-extremist citizens of Itasca County have long been making about Excelsior Energy's proposed coal gasification plant. (And I acknowledge that not all opponents have come across as sane or non-extremist). A letter from Ed Garvey, deputy commissioner of energy and telecommunications at the Minnesota Department of Commerce, to the state PUC raises concerns about the project. It raises three main points.

1) Garvey's letter details that there is not sufficient demand, real or mandated, for the power Excelsior wants to produce.
2) There are no requirements that the plant actually use the environmentally-friendly features of coal gasification technology (carbon sequestration).
3) There are no consumer or taxpayer safeguards in the event of cost overruns, technology failure, or company mismanagement.

Garvey confirmed his statements in an interview with the Star Tribune on Monday. He contends that unless Excelsior provides those three things (proof of demand, sequestration and consumer safeguards) the PUC should not approve the power purchase agreement. Excelsior officials say those stipulations would dramatically raise the project's cost, which is already hovering above $2 billion (yes, billion). But, really, what's a few hundred million between pals?

Boondoggle! Garvey is right; Excelsior is wrong. Let's pop a cap in this thing and start over. I love power plants, but not this power plant.

Busy week ahead

BROWN HQ (Jan. 8, 2007) -- I've got a busy week ahead, so my musings will be short but sweet this week. Today I'm grocery shopping and renewing license tabs with the H-man. This will be my first trip to the DMV with a toddler. I expect fireworks. Tuesday I'm making copies and prepping for my spring classes at HCC. We start the semester on Wednesday and I'll be hopping after that. Friday, a volunteer group I work with at HCC will be doing Martin Luther King Jr. programming in Hibbing-area elementary classrooms. An essay I wrote about MLK and the Iron Range will air Saturday on KAXE and run as my Sunday column. Also this week is a major organizational meeting for Dylan Days. Expect to see our new 2007 logo soon at www.dylandays.com.

As usual I fell short of my holiday break writing goals, but not by much. The book work continues, and what I finished over the break did show me that it is possible to actually complete this project. It's highly theoretical, kind of like humans landing on Mars, but within the realm of human capability.

Lots of big happy ideas coming from St. Paul, but we're weeks away from real bid-ness at the Capitol. I'll be watching. Washington, however, is just a big mess. We have three year election cycles for elections held ever two years. This is only going to get worse. I envision a future where the major parties start vetting embryos 35 years and nine months in advance of presidential races. And won't THAT toss a wrench into the stem cell debate.

Is that inappropriate? I suppose only if I add the Fozzy Bear, "wocka wocka."

D'oh!

'Truthiness' defines our new era of spin

(This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Jan. 7, 2007 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune).

As we learned in literature class, you can determine much about a character by the way he or she uses words. You can discern education, origin and general disposition by whether or not the character says “going to” or “gonna,” “yes” or “yup,” “person of girth” or “fatty.” I like to do the same thing with real life characters, and one way to do that is follow words that enter the vernacular, change or grow in meaning each year. I could do this by scouring books, web traffic logs and consulting with linguists. Instead, I do a Google search in December and find a dictionary publisher that does all that for me.

What do you think of that, English teachers? Heh-heh-heh.

Merriam-Webster recently released its top words for 2006. Its editors selected the words based on responses to an online survey. Overwhelmingly, they say, voters chose “truthiness” as the word that best represented 2006.

The word “Truthiness” was first coined by comedian Stephen Colbert in his show “The Colbert Report.” It means, according to the American Dialect Society, “preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true.” Anyone who watches cable news networks or watches political debates knows what this word is about. When a newsworthy event takes place, two people will be on television with completely different interpretations that were developed long before the event even took place. I wonder sometimes if cable news pundits have a cabinet somewhere with files labeled “Congressman hits on page” and cross referenced for party affiliation, gender and whether the page is underage. Anyway, that’s truthiness for you and I reluctantly agree that it sums up the year.

The number 2 word for 2006 is “google.” Internet-savvy folks recognize “Google,” the noun, as the web site that has become the dominant search engine for web surfers. This year’s #2 word is in reference to “google,” the verb, which means to use said search engine to look for something. You often hear this in terms of looking up people. “I googled my mom and found out that she’s been blogging.” Or, “I googled myself and found out that I have the same name as a prominent cannibal.”

The third most influential word of 2006 is “decider.” I’ll say this for President Bush; he makes new words happen. “Decider” comes from a quote in which the president indicated resolve in his foreign policy, declaring “I’m the decider.” Though much more resolute than saying “person who decides,” “decider” wasn’t exactly a word. Well, it is now. Maybe next year’s word will be “messer upper.” I suppose that would be two words. I have so much to learn.

The 2005 top word, “refugee,” did not make this year’s list. I remember making the comment that any year that features “refugee” as a top word is a pretty bad year. Well, I had no idea. This year’s list, while free of refugees, does include “insurgent,” “terrorism,” “vendetta,” “sectarian,” and “quagmire.” I think the last year featuring those words also included the Watergate break-in and the break-up of Credence Clearwater Revival. (And THAT is a bad year).

Speaking of Watergate, I now see that word #10 on the 2006 Merriam-Webster list is “corruption.” I guess history really does repeat itself. Sometimes I wonder if we aren’t all living in a video game where some neoconservative kid is trying to beat level five by destroying the separation of powers during wartime. Maybe he’ll get it this time. Keep trying, kid. Watch out for the disgruntled insiders in the FBI; that’s what got you last time.

If you want more information, you better google truthiness. But don’t ask me; I’m not the decider.

More columns

Brown on the air: Saturday, Jan. 6

BROWN HQ (Jan. 6. 2007) -- Though it's too late to listen, another essay of mine was featured on KAXE's "Between You and Me" with Heidi Holtan this morning. This week's show was about beer, so I collected my thoughts on the matter and turned in what you see below. Tune in to 91.7 KAXE (or listen online at www.kaxe.org) next week for a piece I wrote about Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream and how it relates to the Iron Range.

TITLE: "Barley Pop and Beer Snobs"

HOST INTRO: Today we’re talking about beer. Many in northern Minnesota enjoy a good beer, but what does the beer you drink say about you? One dyed-in-the-wool Iron Ranger, our contributor Aaron Brown, says beer is for the people and snobbery belongs in wine country.

Most of what I know about beer is gleaned off the side of cans. And as soon as those words leave my mouth, I realize that I can’t really recall much of it other than A) It takes me 20 minutes on the exercise bike to work off a Busch Light, and B) I don’t really care.

As an Iron Ranger, I hear the word “beer” more often than I hear the word “oxygen.” Growing up there were two coolers on the front porch at family gatherings. One had pop for the kids, the other had “barley pop” for the adults. This rather ambiguous amber liquid played a role in many family conflicts, but now, in adulthood, I’ve come to enjoy the comfortable taste of beer (s).

Beer is, as they say, an acquired taste. Even though I like beer, I probably wouldn’t have started drinking if it weren’t alcoholic. No one seeks out wheat juice. But just like liverwurst and black olives, I came to realize there was true pleasure in things that originally seemed unappealing. My first sip of beer came just moments before shaking the hand of former Minnesota Attorney General Hubert H. “Skip” Humphrey III at a political event. At 18, I was underage and beer took on a rebel quality. Now, overage, I find it to be the safe choice when people order bright red drinks with names like “fire monkeys.”

One thing I’ve noticed is that my beer taste standards are just a touch lower than many of my friends. Perhaps this is because of genetic conditioning and perhaps it’s because of a socioeconomic background that includes mobile homes. All I know is that the fancy beers – laden with extra E’s on the end of words like “old” and “brew” – just don’t appeal to me the way more proletarian beers do. I like to calculate the unit price when buying beer and I’ve found that when you pay more than a dollar per unit, you’re just paying to look cool. If you start talking about the hops, then you need to leave my house. Truth is, you don’t need to drink beer from another continent any more than you need to eat corn from another continent. But I know many who dismiss my working class beer for the cold embrace of Heineken, and its many hard to open, tastes-bad-with-nachos cousins.

Salon.com did a taste test study of beer once that balanced cost and performance in blind taste tests. They found that the cheapest of the cheap beers were indeed terrible and that one expensive brand, Sam Adams, was indeed tastiest of all. But some of the worst tasting beers were the most expensive. Meantime, the second best tasting beer in the blind taste test was Busch Light, which cruises in at svelte 50 cents a can if you get it on sale. Plus Busch Light sponsors the Twins games. That’s all this Iron Ranger needs to hear.

You can call it what you want. Lager. Ale. Barley Pop. Wheat juice. Beer. For me, it’s the drink of the people. You go take your fancy beers back to the suburbs.

HOST OUTRO: Aaron Brown is an instructor at Hibbing Community College, a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune and a contributor to KAXE.

But, do we still have to call them 'freedom fries?'

BROWN HQ (Jan. 5, 2007) -- The Democrats control both houses of the U.S. Congress now. I caught part of the ceremony on cable news yesterday. It seemed to come across as a pretty good show. My understanding is that the Dems plan to pass ethics reform, increase the federal minimum wage and approve some new stem cell research today. Not a bad first day, and if this indicates the kind of direction that Democratic leaders plan to follow then the Dems should have a productive and reasonably popular two year term. The real irony would be if they passed an illegal immigration bill that resembled the president's plan, rejected by the Republican Congress last year.

I know Nancy Pelosi is the first female Speaker of the House. That's old news. But can news anchors and pundits stop with the stereotypes? I normally don't take this position when people whine about stereotypes, but this time I will. Last night on the ABC World News show, Charles Gibson made an offhand, friendly comment after Speaker Pelosi gaveled the session to order with her grandkids behind her. He said something like, isn't it nice how she can balance her family and her career. What's missed there is that almost every member of the House, male or female, had members of their family with them that day for the opening ceremonies. EVERYBODY balances their family and their careers. I don't think that comment would have been made had the Speaker been an gray-haired man from from a square state. Pelosi sure doesn't need my help, but if that's the tone of news coverage over the next two plus years I'm going to flip out.

It was nice to see our Minnesota delegation get some attention. I'm genuinely excited about the new people we sent to Washington from Minnesota. Amy Klobuchar was my favorite person on the statewide ticket this year and Tim Walz (a moderate "D" from Mankato) and Keith Ellison (a liberal "D" from Minneapolis) will do well, too, I think. (Big kudos to Ellison for deflecting the controversy over his Muslim faith by swearing in with a Quran owned by Thomas Jefferson. Well played). I'm even excited about conservative Republican Michelle Bachmann from the Sixth District. One, her election means Dems don't have to try to get Patty Wetterling RE-elected. Two, it's only a matter of time before Bachmann brings the crazy. And when she does, it's going to be glorious, full-bodied, hardcore crazy. We're going to have to send Martin Sheen in a gunboat up the Potomac to find her. At any rate, I think the mix of Ellison, Walz and Bachmann shows why Minnesota is a much more complex state than you'd think and does a lot in explaining how Jesse "The Body" Ventura got elected governor in 1998.

Mr. Dayton: No mas

BROWN HQ (Jan. 5, 2007) -- A news item in the Star Tribune today says that former Sen. Mark Dayton, who left office yesterday, is now considering a run for governor in 2010. Please, no. Please, please, no. Mark Dayton is one of the nicest men in politics, and has done much behind the scenes for his party. But that's just not going to work, Senator. Dayton just isn't very strong in his presentation style and has made a couple key errors in political judgement over his career. If it weren't for his self-financing, he never would have recovered from his first Senate defeat in the 1980s. He was whipped in that crazy five-way DFL gubernatorial primary in 1998. Pawlenty could easily beat him. Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau could easily beat him, both politically and in a real fight (if I take any constitutional officer to a roadhouse for backup, I take her). Any of the Republican Congressional reps could beat him, too. And if Republican businessman Brian Sullivan, a favorite of social conservatives, runs, he could self finance just as easily as Dayton. It's time for some new candidates at the top of the DFL ticket, in both 2008 and 2010. It's not personal, but Dayton has lacked staying power at every public office he's held. Governors need to be steady and stable forces on their ticket.

The average generation

BROWN HQ (Jan. 3, 2007) -- We were watching the Gerald R. Ford memorial on CSPAN last night. I was born during the Carter Administration, so I have no first hand perspective on the man. Historically speaking, I never had a problem with President Ford. Seems like a nice guy. Anyway, we were watching the funeral and Tom Brokaw gets up to speak. Christina says "Oh, great, now we're going to get more of "greatest generation" talk." I say, hey, I like Brokaw. He's just going to talk about when he covered Ford as a reporter at the White House.

Well, I was right ... for a while. The first part of Brokaw's eulogy was a poignant statement on Ford's character as president, how he was a gentleman who respected the press as people. Jolly good. Then, near the end, Brokaw starts his familiar chorus. "But then again, he was from a generation that .... (blah, blah, blah ... saved the world, built a nation, fought off alien invasion, etc.).

I'm all about the greatest generation. They were great. But Brokaw needs to climb off that horse for a few months, maybe even a year. I know he means it. He's not just saying it to sell books, but come on. No one thinks about things in terms of their generation. WWII vets and their spouses would tell you that they were just doing their jobs. Yes, they faced extraordinary challenges and met those challenges, but at no point did any of them say, "I'm doing this for my generation ... maybe if I do well enough, a dude from the future will write a book about us."

Brokaw's speech did get me thinking, though. What would a futuristic Tom Brokaw say about a president from MY generation at that president's funeral? Here is my best guess:

"None of President Joe Mauer's accomplishments should come as a surprise to anyone. He was from a generation that did little, but expected everything. They were lazy, lazy to the point where they didn't know they were lazy and lacked even the effort to come to that realization. Shiftless and devoid of any beliefs not found on television, it was a generation that gladly took spoon fed directives from anyone able to afford nice clothing and smart enough to get on TV. The only thing they did with great success was repeat historical blunders from 1,000 years of human existence. Not only did they entangle themselves in another land war in Asia, they brought back open field combat formations and the wooden navy. And they managed to do so with 60 percent of the population believing that Asia was in Europe. It truly was the Average Generation."

I kid, I kid! If John Mayer gets to release that damn "Waiting for the World to Change" I get to do this. (On that subject, what the hell are we waiting for Mayer? Who's going to change the world? Mommy? Daddy? I digress.)

At any rate, I don't mean to be too tough on Brokaw. The WWII generation was indeed great, certainly historically significant. And President Ford, despite being underestimated and openly mocked by comedians for 30 years, was one of those figures who did exactly what was required at a terrible time in history. Godspeed to the Hereafter, Mr. President.

A new day in St. Paul

BROWN HQ (Jan. 2, 2007) -- Gov. Tim Pawlenty and the other constitutional officers are being sworn in this morning. I must admit, even as a DFLer, the GOP's Pawlenty has been conducting himself well after his win last November. The conventional wisdom is that he dodged a bullet in avoiding the DFL sweep of all the other offices, but often leaders will use a situation like that to be combative. Pawlenty, in focusing on health care for kids, a higher ed tuition freeze and greener energy, is making bold bipartisan moves. As always, the proof will come in which bills he signs during the session and how he conducts budget negotiations, but all indicators are for a much better session for Minnesota than the last several. Is he making a play for higher office? If it brings us a step closer to guaranteed health care access for all and help for our college students, then I don't really care. Keep the happy train going, T-Paw.

Meantime, congratulations to our other constitutional officers. Lori Swanson becomes the first woman attorney general today, succeeding the almost-Gov. Mike Hatch (who starts on the Professional Cursing Circuit tomorrow).

Mark Ritchie becomes Secretary of State after defeating the battiest public official in recent history, Mary Kiffmeyer (I interviewed her when I was editor of a daily paper, and she argued with me over my decision not to follow the Bush Administration's decision to call suicide bombers "homicide bombers." All bombers are homicide bombers, I said. That's what makes them bombers. What's next, "murdery murderers?")

Rebecca Otto becomes State Auditor after beating Pat Anderson. Anderson was the one Republican officer that I thought we DFLers wouldn't get, but the wave got her after all. Otto is a great lady, though, and it will be nice having an auditor who realizes that not all local governments have Starbucks and high tech office buildings on the property tax rolls. I met Rebecca at the DFL convention in Rochester last summer and happened to be standing in front of her when the national anthem was being sung. Holy cow, she can belt out that tune! Even the high notes. Huzzah, Rebecca Otto!