No Decision, Big Decision

Posted on 31 January 2011 by Erik Hare | 14 Comments

When is no decision actually a policy? In government it’s often the default position, a deliberate plan to stay the course and keep things the way they are. Bureaucracy has a tendency to be conservative, punting whenever it can and allowing things to stay as they are. But in a time of great change or even crisis, is this acceptable? Increasingly there are signs that Minnesota has become a state mired by diffuse responsibility and an inability for the government to respond to the situation at hand in a way that is effective.

No action can be very dangerous. But there is increasing evidence that it is become a serious problem – and I doubt that Minnesota is alone.

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The Pop Bowl

Posted on 28 January 2011 by Erik Hare | 10 Comments

Y’ins gon’ rut fer Stillers? I ask the room for its opinion in my best Pittsburghese, a language I’m woefully out of practice with. Nevermind. Out here in Saint Paul no one can tell if I’m getting it right or not. The language, with deep Polish and Appalachian roots never made it outside of the hills of Western Pennsylvania a land with its own rugged rhythm tempered by a gentle decency. It’s an easy culture to define by language but a hard one to get to know.

The upcoming Superbowl features two teams from “The Midwest”, the industrial heart of the nation that quietly defines much of what we consider solid and good about the USofA. We can find this stretch on a map as one people, but we can also hear it in the way they talk and the values they cherish. It’s where football itself was founded and continues to thrive in basic principles of fair competition. It’s America both unassumingly small and big hearted at the same time.

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Tweetup

Posted on 26 January 2011 by Erik Hare | 8 Comments

The room was constantly abuzz with curiosity. In the back room of the dimly lit restaurant newcomers would shyly approach the long table carefully, hoping to find a face they knew, a connection to the crowd. This is how a “tweetup” usually goes because as well as many of us know each other, it’s through our keyboards. The faces, the laughs, the eyes and the smiles are still apart. That’s why any of us tromp out into the cold of January in the first place.

But really getting to know people isn’t just about face time. It’s a learning process. That’s the message I took away from one of the many conversations I had.

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Public Investment

Posted on 24 January 2011 by Erik Hare | 18 Comments

In the warm-up before the State of the Union address, the sides are digging in. A strong focus on debt appears to be the main point of contention, with Obama proposing investments that will pull the US out of its funk and the opposition apparently finding a religious fervor in the size of our debt.

About to get lost, once again, in the big story out of Washington are hundreds of smaller stories across the US of debt running out of control at the State and Local level. Smaller investments made one highway at a time, one transit line, one park, one new factory or housing development paid with tax increment financing are starting to dominate our crisis. And they get very little attention.

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Heavenly Conflict

Posted on 21 January 2011 by Erik Hare | 10 Comments

Anyone who follows their horoscope has probably heard about the “new” set of astrological signs. The controversy continues as people’s ability to relate to their world has been thrown into chaos. But shouldn’t everyone involved have seen this coming if it’s so predictive? Actually, since there’s nothing new here at all, a bit of history tells us that this was a long time in coming. Horoscopes may seem like fiction to most people, but they had their roots in the foundations of science and civilization itself.

The main difference here is that fiction, as a product of the human mind, has to make sense. History doesn’t have such limitations.

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