The Minnesotan Scholar
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Gwen Walz, & The Governor of Minnesota
Depending upon where you live, you may have heard of my high school teacher. At sixteen, I only knew him as my AP Geography teacher. On Tuesday, November 6th, 2018, Minnesota will be voting for governor, and I suggest you vote for Tim Walz, a true Minnesotan Scholar.
To explain this moniker further, I need to begin with Len Small, a former governor of Illinois, where I have lived since 2007. Joseph F. Fifer, in court, defended Small — who served from 1921–1929 and was famous for his connections to the Ku Klux Klan — from a corruption charge using the argument that the governorship had “the divine right of kings.” The Federal Government, not surprisingly, disagreed. This still seems an active disagreement in Illinois, as four of our last seven governors have spent time in jail.
But Minnesota? As I hear from my parents' dispatches, politics in Minnesota are still about Minnesota. And maybe that’s why so few Minnesotans leave. Minnesota is a great place to raise a family, and I would not trade my experience growing up there for any other state. I am beyond indebted to the public education I received in Minnesota because Mrs. and Mr. Walz were my teachers, among many others, including my parents.
