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Where’s Our Train?
Steve Martin and John Candy made us all laugh in their 1987 comedy classic “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles,” an epic tale of transportation frustration, some heroic and hilarious improvising between modes, and eventually succeeding. What is not funny and remains a classic and growing problem for thousands of Minnesotans every day is getting back-and-forth from Points A in St. Cloud and Central Minnesota to Points B in the Twin Citi... Read More
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An Oliver Twist Story in Minnesota: In Rural & Urban Food Deserts Malnourished Children Can’t Learn
Imagine a nine-year-old boy we’ll call Oliver Anderson – the same age and first name as the plucky urchin immortalized in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist -- growing up desperately poor in a small farm town in rural northwestern Minnesota. Oliver’s single mom scrapes by on low-wage part-time jobs in town, and sometimes finds seasonal work, but she subsists on an annual income near the official poverty level. Sur... Read More
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Hidden Punishments
To Improve Workforce and Serve Equity, Minnesota Must Reform "Collateral Consequences of Conviction" You have served your time. You paid your debt. You think you are free. You want to get a job, a student loan, a license, a place to live, but you cannot. You are not free; you are trapped by your past, just as the heroic Jean Valjean was in Les Misérables. Your past conviction for a felony, and sometimes for a g... Read More
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Growth, Justice, Kindness, and the Minnesota Way
“Be kind absouloutly to everyone!” was the message greeting me in the mudroom at my sister-in-law’s home in Missouri over the holiday break, on a hand-made sign created by my five-year-old grand-niece. The words gave me pause to consider my guiding tenets as I begin my new job as president of Growth & Justice. As the Minnesota policy world knows and as our website declares, we are a 15-year-old research a... Read More
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Despite our divisions, we help each other
A dominant narrative in mainstream and social media suggests our nation and state has lost its sense of community, that partisan and ideological rancor hopelessly divides us, from Congress to our holiday dinner tables, and that we have little interest in helping each other. A notion that a spirit of meanness pervades our rural regions is particularly prevalent, and indeed there are enough examples of bigotry and xenophobia and disregard for... Read More
