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| Author Aaron Brown. |
By Jeff Warner
Hibbing Daily Tribune
Published:
Sunday, October 12, 2008 6:10 AM CDT
“Overburden: Modern life on the Iron Range” is a “rally call” for
Range generations — both present and future — to forge ahead with due
diligence during a time of unique opportunity.
The 239-page book is part memoir — as author Aaron Brown weaves his
life history into the multifaceted socioeconomic fabric of the Iron
Range — and part history book, as he poignantly puts times past into
perspective with the present and an unforged future.
With a heavy dose of humor, Brown says he points out “the serious
things, but never loses sight of the lighter side of living on the
Range.”
“I make sure people eat their broccoli, but I put lots of cheese on it
to make it fun,” he added, with a laugh.
He said “Overburden” is merely a metaphor for how important it is to
dig beneath the surface of modern Range life, and recover the elements
of a richness that permeates every element of it. This, Brown says, is
key to attaining a vision of the endless possibilities that lie ahead
on the Range.
The central message:
“This is an area that has endured a lot; changed a lot; and if it is to
exist further, will continue to do these things,” said Brown. “It will
continue to be difficult, and exciting, and change will happen.
“If we are wise, and continue to use what we have learned (throughout
Range history), we have a chance to go through this change with open
eyes, and create something we want.”
Brown seeks to inspire Rangers to carve through the challenges of
today, utilizing tools attained from the rigors and blessings of a
dynamically tumultuous history.
“We (Range residents) are a people with a proud past, and a future of
our own making,” said Brown. “The central idea of getting one
generation up and out of diapers, up and out into the world to do
something, is the central idea of who we are.”
Brown added that “we are a great area facing the challenges of aging
out of our adolescence,” and now, during prospective hopes for new
developments, is the time to get back to the basics of what makes this
area unique.
He said reinstating the “let’s get this done” mentality that once
bubbled from the labor victories that were “forged by blood” in this
area, is key to reinvigorating the social and economic vitality of an
area that has left a significant impact on the world.
“If we’re going to be this area where things start happening again,
unless we have the fire (to be socially involved), we are setting
ourselves up to be exploited in the same way our great-grandfathers and
grandmothers were when they came to this country,” said Brown.
He delves into how the Range thrived for decades amid great economic
vitality — how the mines provided good-paying jobs that were sought by
thousands — as well as how this blissful existence ceased with the
1980s collapse of the steel market.
Peering through a sociological lens, Brown talks about how this
affected people — and created a “this is a place with no future”
culture that believed that in order to succeed, one must leave the
Range.
Brown grew up in the 1980s, and said “all you knew was decline, and all
you saw was the ugliness that occurs when decline happens.”
“It wasn’t cool to stay on the Range,” he said. “You stayed on the
Range if you were a failure, and you went if you were successful” was
the general mentality that permeated “everybody and everything.”
Brown challenges folks to envision life past this era in Range history,
and deems the Range as “a ladder to the sky kind of place.”
“We don’t ever want to let up on the idea that the Range is a place
that elevates people, first,” he said,
Brown says the unique nature of this area — from its social functioning
to its weather patterns — has created a bubble that each culture that
has lived here has viewed “with a sense of awe; this ‘it’s special and
we don’t know why (mentality).’”
“It’s a blessing in that it has protected us from homogenization; it’s
kept our culture alive; it has protected our own in many cases,” he
said. “And the negatives are that you are unaware that there is this
whole other world out there, and you don’t address your faults and what
could be fixed.”
He said a new cycle has begun, and is evident with an anticipated
influx of people to this area, including people from other countries.
The “true people of this land,” he says, are not just the people who
are native-born, but the ones who choose to post their flags here, and
work diligently to make the area survive as well.
He added that “the hard part for us Rangers (in regard to this new
season in Range history) is going to be that we are going to have to
make open our minds and hearts, that some of the people who take this
pledge may not be born here.”
Brown talked about the benefits of a lifestyle on the Range, where the
value of people — both in terms of talent and work ethic — is
cultivated and brought forth in full force, once again.
“The whole point of living here is that it’s not guaranteed to be
easy,” he said. “Every society that has ever lived in this area has
learned that there are great challenges, and has figured out a way to
meet those challenges in a truly innovative and interesting way.
“If you can make it here and enjoy your life, you can make it anywhere.”
•••
There will be an opening event for “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron
Range” from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 16, at Howard Street
Booksellers in Hibbing.
Jeff Warner can be reached at jeff.warner@mx3.com.
To read this story and comment on it online, go to www.hibbingmn.com.