Don's Tuesday Column

THE WAY I SEE IT by Don Polson, Red Bluff Daily News 8/20/2024

    From crab pots to Minnesota’s leader

Our ship came in. That would be the S.S. Crab. Some Oregon families and friends took three camp spaces next to us. We knew they were serious “crabbers” as they unloaded their gear and cooking setups from the all-purpose hauler—their boat filled to the gunwales. Grandparents, parents, young adults and kids, all made for a well-executed foray into the labor intensive recreation of “crabbing.”

Something endeared us to them; maybe when the kids saw our kitties on the motorhome dashboard and brought their moms over to take pics. Whatever it was, we found ourselves bequeathed with voluminous crabs, beyond what they could eat and keep. Our 36-degree fridge was up to the task of keeping the bright-orange/red crustaceans chilled while we apply our fingers and forks to the task of coaxing out the meat.

“John” refused any well-deserved (we thought) compensation. The two propane tanks that fired up huge pots to boil the catch wasn’t free, we said. Crab omelets and sandwiches are on the menu.

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I got nostalgic thinking about our family’s heritage and connection to Minnesota. Swedish immigrant great-grandparents gravitated to the fertile “land of 10,000 lakes” to apply their industrious ways to various trades. They were married in Minneapolis; grandparents married in Appleton, MN.

Our cousin, aunt and uncle (on my Dad’s side) regularly welcomed us into their Minneapolis home after we traveled from our homes in Heyworth, Illinois or Canastota, New York. Back then, the only way to afford family travel was to drive (cheap gas) and be put up in relatives’ homes, not in motels.

I’ll never forget eating popcorn so thick with butter—Minnesota being a dairy state—it left fingers coated and slippery. Winter provided daily ice skating at the park rink; summers were spent swimming in those famous lakes. Once, I was sure I had found the love of my grade-school life; she worked at an amusement park and oh, what could have been.

That got me thinking about the governor of a state that wouldn’t normally draw my attention, having neither a local or state angle, and that state’s Democratic vice-president nominee, Tim Walz. There’s much to examine so let’s dig in.

I’ll not be casting aspersions or impugning Gov. Walz’s character; just some facts, in context, to let readers draw their own conclusions. Of great concern to many are the COVID-19 policies he implemented by executive fiat, not unlike a number of states, including Gov. Newsom’s California.

Among Walz’s impositions were mandatory “stay home” orders that Walz enforced by 1) setting up a “snitch line” for neighbors to report on each other’s violations of the law—except that there were no laws, just executive “orders.”

2) Gov. Walz authorized patrols by National Guard troops to include using paint ball guns to fire at people sitting on their porches, as if the simple act of walking from inside the front door to sitting on the porch for fresh air constituted a threat to neighbors’ health.

Supporters of such draconian measures were, as we all recall, almost fanatically adamant that the threat of contagion was so dire that “health authorities”—and their wise, expert oversight—were only “protecting” us from certain disease, hospitalization, even death to ourselves and those around us. Maybe Walz, “health authorities,” et al were unaware that the only vulnerable segments of the population were the elderly and those with “comorbidities”; not the general population and certainly not children who had a vanishingly small risk.

Well, you can certainly make up your mind with hindsight as to whether Walz’s edicts were prudent, or unlawful overreach. Bear in mind that many, if not most, governors chose not to violate their citizens’ rights as free people under the Constitution. So, was Walz a rabid despot or a cautious guardian of Minnesotans’ health? Interestingly, in that same year, Walz said, of the protests over the death of George Floyd: “We certainly believe that there’s a right that people have to gather.”

Under Walz’s “stewardship” during the 2020 protests—whether “mostly peaceful” or riotous—much of Minneapolis burned to the ground, with damages estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The toll, however, on the lives, fortunes, labor and inspiration that hundreds of property and business owners poured into their entrepreneurial lives—was incalculable.

The established facts are that Gov. Walz held off calling up the National Guard to restore order, in spite of adamant pleadings from law enforcement and prominent citizens to quell the “unrest.” He dismissed the members of the Guard as “19-year-old cooks” in spite of his laudable service in an artillery unit of Minnesota’s National Guard.

So, having expressed sympathy for the cause of racial justice championed by the protesters/rioters, Gov. Walz dithered and delayed while Minneapolis burned. Perhaps there’s a justification for such actions. You, dear reader, will have to weigh that in your decision to put Walz a “heartbeat away from the presidency.”