By Bev Pecan
In the recent months I have spent back in Minnesota, it has dawned on me that the Twin Cities and its people are truly of a different mindset. I never thought about it much before, but I have decided that living here full time will drive you bonkers if you let it.
Previously, I mentioned the latest progressions in the state, which included the sappy “roundabouts” in the strangest of places. You drive into these things where you least expect them. They remind me of children’s toy pinwheels where you drive around in a circle and then “spin off” to other traffic areas as you go around. But it’s not uncommon to wind up in the inside lane (did I mention Minnesota has the worst traffic signage I have ever seen?) and have to go around maybe once or twice more until the person who has now flanked you on the outside has picked his exit. I think the original idea was to speed up the flow of traffic at stop signs, though the old method of pulling up to a stop sign and then making your turn has worked well in the past.
Then there is the spot on Interstate 494 where, in order to get to the exit lane you need to take, you must first cross the gauntlet of speeding traffic and successfully dart between equally fast cars coming from the off ramp to your right as you cross in front of them to reach the right exit you need to take. The roads have always been terrible. Minnesota started a temporary sales tax in the 1960s to make extensive “one-time” major highway updates. It's no surprise the roads are still bad and the tax is still there.
Along Highway 52, which runs south to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, where I have become a nearly permanent resident, poles are going up for a zip line to the Twin Cities. Rural homes and farms display signs saying “no zip line,” but it is apparently to no avail. These proposed lines would affect farmlands in the way the railroads threatened ranchers in the Southern Hills. It is predicted that in 20 years the Rochester medical community will have expanded many times over its present capacity and the population and commuter needs will grow with it.
In a place where the image of the average Minnesotan is of hardy men with buffalo plaid woolen shirts and fur-lined caps with large ear flaps, it is culture shock to enter Mayo Clinic with its marble walls and floors and world-class art collections. Even the elevators have marble floors. Huge, sunny areas are everywhere to soak up winter warmth in between appointments. There are underground connections to nearly every facility and subway access to stores, restaurants and lodging within a several-block radius. Last week, we checked out the Mayo museum and got to pull the cord for the steamboat whistle in the make-believe pilothouse. Dr. William Mayo began his clinic after his brief service of examining young men who were going to serve the Army during the Civil War. He spent much time on nearby Mississippi River steamboats attending to his duties.
But the last Minnesota item to grab my attention is the move by the superintendent of a St. Paul school to totally ban observance of any traditional American holidays in his grade school classroom so no one might be “offended” by these unequal and perhaps unfair practices committed by a society that enjoyed these freedoms as permitted by our founding laws.
We have gone so crazy with this political correctness that noting is correct anymore. I cannot think of any person who was going to spend time in another country who would actually dare to think that by stating his or her objections, governmental policies would change to accommodate or prioritize their beliefs over those of an established nation that others before them wanted to come to and be part of.
St. Paul Pioneer Press columnist Joe Soucheray on Feb. 3 penned a piece titled “Why stop at dropping school holidays?” His opening paragraph read: “A move is underway at Bruce Vento Elementary School to possibly eliminate the celebration of conventional holidays at least until, in the template language of the progressives, the school can come to a better understanding of how the dominant view will suppress someone else’s view.”
Starting with Valentine’s Day this year, principal Scot Masini, according to Soucheray, “seems to have undertaken this postmodern mission on his own, expanding on the district’s official policy of discouraging programs and festivities arranged to celebrate holidays and other special days and shall strive to eliminate them, except where such observances are required by law.”
Soucheray rolls his eyes when he suggests that the so-called “dominant” holidays, as Masini sees it, may be “encroaching on the educational opportunities of others and threatening a culture of tolerance and respect for all.” What about those “others” threatening our own culture — that which has always embraced new citizens from other nations and are a part of who we have always been. Soucheray figures that will end the looked-forward-to part of our history like Thanksgiving, Halloween, Easter and Christmas, not to forget Valentine’s Day. Many years ago, it became unacceptable for a parent to send treats to school to celebrate a birthday or holiday lest the contents be considered suspect. From there, we have regressed further.
He wonders about this condescension and why we should now think that accepted American traditions have not been “useful” or “useful enough” to the majority who has always enjoyed them. Soucheray muses, “By eliminating those traditions, the thinking goes, we can better accept secularism as the mechanism by which all kids can be thought of as the same.”
But we have never been all the same. If educational goals are out there for each student to become an individual who attends college to be the best that he can be (at a very high cost), what then is the point if no one should be expected to outdo the other according to his own talents. No more achievers. No more individual honors. No more childhood dreams of being something special. It’s hooey to me.
In the recent months I have spent back in Minnesota, it has dawned on me that the Twin Cities and its people are truly of a different mindset. I never thought about it much before, but I have decided that living here full time will drive you bonkers if you let it.
Previously, I mentioned the latest progressions in the state, which included the sappy “roundabouts” in the strangest of places. You drive into these things where you least expect them. They remind me of children’s toy pinwheels where you drive around in a circle and then “spin off” to other traffic areas as you go around. But it’s not uncommon to wind up in the inside lane (did I mention Minnesota has the worst traffic signage I have ever seen?) and have to go around maybe once or twice more until the person who has now flanked you on the outside has picked his exit. I think the original idea was to speed up the flow of traffic at stop signs, though the old method of pulling up to a stop sign and then making your turn has worked well in the past.
Then there is the spot on Interstate 494 where, in order to get to the exit lane you need to take, you must first cross the gauntlet of speeding traffic and successfully dart between equally fast cars coming from the off ramp to your right as you cross in front of them to reach the right exit you need to take. The roads have always been terrible. Minnesota started a temporary sales tax in the 1960s to make extensive “one-time” major highway updates. It's no surprise the roads are still bad and the tax is still there.
Along Highway 52, which runs south to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, where I have become a nearly permanent resident, poles are going up for a zip line to the Twin Cities. Rural homes and farms display signs saying “no zip line,” but it is apparently to no avail. These proposed lines would affect farmlands in the way the railroads threatened ranchers in the Southern Hills. It is predicted that in 20 years the Rochester medical community will have expanded many times over its present capacity and the population and commuter needs will grow with it.
In a place where the image of the average Minnesotan is of hardy men with buffalo plaid woolen shirts and fur-lined caps with large ear flaps, it is culture shock to enter Mayo Clinic with its marble walls and floors and world-class art collections. Even the elevators have marble floors. Huge, sunny areas are everywhere to soak up winter warmth in between appointments. There are underground connections to nearly every facility and subway access to stores, restaurants and lodging within a several-block radius. Last week, we checked out the Mayo museum and got to pull the cord for the steamboat whistle in the make-believe pilothouse. Dr. William Mayo began his clinic after his brief service of examining young men who were going to serve the Army during the Civil War. He spent much time on nearby Mississippi River steamboats attending to his duties.
But the last Minnesota item to grab my attention is the move by the superintendent of a St. Paul school to totally ban observance of any traditional American holidays in his grade school classroom so no one might be “offended” by these unequal and perhaps unfair practices committed by a society that enjoyed these freedoms as permitted by our founding laws.
We have gone so crazy with this political correctness that noting is correct anymore. I cannot think of any person who was going to spend time in another country who would actually dare to think that by stating his or her objections, governmental policies would change to accommodate or prioritize their beliefs over those of an established nation that others before them wanted to come to and be part of.
St. Paul Pioneer Press columnist Joe Soucheray on Feb. 3 penned a piece titled “Why stop at dropping school holidays?” His opening paragraph read: “A move is underway at Bruce Vento Elementary School to possibly eliminate the celebration of conventional holidays at least until, in the template language of the progressives, the school can come to a better understanding of how the dominant view will suppress someone else’s view.”
Starting with Valentine’s Day this year, principal Scot Masini, according to Soucheray, “seems to have undertaken this postmodern mission on his own, expanding on the district’s official policy of discouraging programs and festivities arranged to celebrate holidays and other special days and shall strive to eliminate them, except where such observances are required by law.”
Soucheray rolls his eyes when he suggests that the so-called “dominant” holidays, as Masini sees it, may be “encroaching on the educational opportunities of others and threatening a culture of tolerance and respect for all.” What about those “others” threatening our own culture — that which has always embraced new citizens from other nations and are a part of who we have always been. Soucheray figures that will end the looked-forward-to part of our history like Thanksgiving, Halloween, Easter and Christmas, not to forget Valentine’s Day. Many years ago, it became unacceptable for a parent to send treats to school to celebrate a birthday or holiday lest the contents be considered suspect. From there, we have regressed further.
He wonders about this condescension and why we should now think that accepted American traditions have not been “useful” or “useful enough” to the majority who has always enjoyed them. Soucheray muses, “By eliminating those traditions, the thinking goes, we can better accept secularism as the mechanism by which all kids can be thought of as the same.”
But we have never been all the same. If educational goals are out there for each student to become an individual who attends college to be the best that he can be (at a very high cost), what then is the point if no one should be expected to outdo the other according to his own talents. No more achievers. No more individual honors. No more childhood dreams of being something special. It’s hooey to me.