You are Lucky to Live in Minnesota

  The teacher of the adult Sunday school class started the lesson by asking people to name beautiful places. People were naming parks, mountains, assorted hiking trails and beaches. The teacher included a hole at Pebble Beach Golf Club, which I expected from him as he is an avid golfer. I was sitting in my seat silently fuming. Many of these people had lived here for several years and not one mentioned a place within the state. I raised my hand.
   "The confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers at Mendota," I said. The teacher made a few remarks, but it was clear to me he had no idea what I was talking about. I had chosen that spot for a reason. He wanted to talk about places that were beautiful and spiritual. The confluence was and probably still is important to several of the Native American tribes in the area. There are many burial mounds in this area protected by fencing from the bike path that runs along the river.
   I have met several people who have moved here and am amazed that a few of them act like they are in exile. I want to say to them, "Look, you chose to come here for whatever reason. If it's that bad, go back to where ever you came from."
  You can tell that I'm a bit defense about the state. It's a great state and if you live here then you should count yourself blessed and fortunate. Let me give you a few reasons why.
  We have the world renowned Guthrie Theatre. In fact there is a lot of theatre especially in the Twin Cities. There is also the Minnesota Orchestra,St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and many other kinds of music. There are performances of all sorts at the Ordway ranging from popular plays to opera. We are not an uncultured bunch of hicks.
   When C came to Minnesota in the middle 1970s he walked through downtown Minneapolis and saw opportunity. The chance to make a life for himself that did not involve going to work at the cotton mill. He saw limitless potential. He still does. Minnesota has a diverse enough economic base that the state wasn't hit as hard as other states in the recent economic downturn. We may not have as much money as we used to have, but we are doing all right.
   There are parks, bike paths, walking paths and trails all over the state. St. Paul has a lot of small very pretty parks that dot the downtown area. You can get almost anywhere in the Cities by using all of the bikes trails in Dakota,Ramsey,Hennipin and Washington counties. Many of these trails are on old railroad tracks and wind through some very scenic parts of the state. There are state parks all over. If you enjoy the outdoors there's not a better place no matter what season.
   There are a lot of schools here. There is the University of Minnesota, Carleton, St Thomas, St Catherine's, St John's University, The College of St. Benedict,Macalester College,St Olaf and Concordia in Moorhead. These are just the ones I can name off the top of my head. There's also a good state college system and many two year and technical schools. For the most part the public schools are good. Like every where there some some schools that are better than others. Another reason C stayed in Minnesota was because the schools were good.
   Minnesota is home to some world class medical care. We all know about the Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic doctors also go to clinics and hospitals in nearby cities so that others have access to Mayo medical care closer to home. The Twin Cities area has six major hospitals (that I can think of). There's Abbott Northwestern, Hennipin County, Regions, North Memorial, U of M and United. There are a few smaller ones as well.
   I'm not saying this place is perfect. We have crime. We have bad weather, sometimes really bad weather. We have politicians that don't get along. (But then they never did, the state has two constitutions because the Democrats and Republicans refused to sign a document signed by representatives of the other party.) We once elected Jesse Ventura as governor. We get through these things.
   This is a great place to live.