"It was after 10 pm when I turned off the lights, locked the door to the Montevideo Community Center and crossed the cold parking lot to my car. The reNEW Minnesota organizing meeting had ended nearly an hour and a half earlier but animated conversations and hope kept people there and talking long after the official business had ended. Always a good sign.

 

Steve Rogness began the meeting with a reading of “Our Future Together”. That vision provided the foundation as we discussed the gubernatorial candidate interviews and forums TakeAction Minnesota has done, and the caucus to state convention strategy of moving a progressive agenda. There were 35 people in attendance, all ages and from a variety of backgrounds but predominantly farmers. 

 

I could feel the energy in the room build as people began to see the potential for progressives standing together across the state holding our politicians in St. Paul accountable. I thought of the words of Heather Booth, director of a program to train organizers and Americans for Financial Reform. When pressed by Bill Moyers to give President Obama a grade for his first year in office her response was “His grade depends on what we do.”

 

Real political leadership does not come from elected officials. It happens when an organized group of people work with those elected officials, helping them to develop and holding them accountable to enact policy to advance our shared values. Progressive values.

 

I was born and raised in a western Minnesota crop and livestock family farm about 25 miles from Montevideo. In my early years the promise of the alliance between the “F” and the “L” in the DFL was still relatively fresh. The populist movement of the early 1900 was strong here. This was no socialist utopian vision. Farmers recognized they had to organize to press their government to rein in the abuses of big business, primarily railroads at that point, if their farms were going to succeed in providing for their families and supporting their communities. Now we have the opportunity to get involved in a new cross sector organizing effort– to step up to bridge all the divides that the powerful have used to prevent us from seeing our common interest and set us against each other with divisive rhetoric. Western Minnesota has a legacy to bring to this effort. We’re ready.

 

“We want to live in a Minnesota where we are all in this together.”   Together we can make this happen."