Thank you, O Rake, for daring to treat the current disassembling piece-by-piece of the place where I used to live with just a dash of humor. Why not? I used to live in a state whose schools were considered second only to California’s (but that’s another story), whose voters participated in elections at a higher rate than the national average and chose leaders respected far and wide for their depth, humanity, courage, and intelligence. Bars closed a tad earlier and we paid a bit more in taxes than many other places, but we enjoyed a quality of life others envied. Progressive political and social ideals were realized by an energetic partnership among enlightened business, non-profit groups, and educational entities both public and private. Without moving, I now live in a state where poor children have been newly denied health insurance; the government wedges itself more and more into one of the most private and painful areas of people’s lives, the decision whether to have an abortion; discrimination on some bases is newly protected; class sizes in the schools are forced up while teachers are forced out; programs for youth are defunded, police and social services are cut back; and on and on. My governor smugly crows that my taxes have not been raised. Not only would I gladly pay more for a better state of affairs; his claim isn’t even true. I’ll be paying plenty more in local taxes and fees, as regions, cities, districts, and counties struggle to cope with the mess we have been handed. And the guns… oh, God. So why not add a little levity to this ugly situation? As the governor has said, the sky is not falling — only people, hope, and our standard of living are falling. Thanks for the poster.
Jo Devlin
Minneapolis
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