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This what I would like to say to our legislators:

We elected you because you have a specific point of view that we agree with. We expect you to get up and vehemently espouse this point of view.

Then we expect you to sit down and carefully listen to your opponent espouse their point of view.

After that we insist that the two of you get together and come up with a solution that you both hate, but that you can live with, we will too.

You are not there to build walls, draw lines in the sand, spew vitriol and divisiveness, line your pockets or set up future income with lobbyists.

You are there to make this a better country for those who elected you and for future generations.

If you do not totally and completely agree with this statement then please just go away, or at a minimum let us know who you are and we will take it from there.

If the Minnesota Legislature fails to return in special session, our leaders will miss the boat in securing billions in federal funds for clean and safe water in communities across Minnesota. The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) signed into law last November is the largest federal investment in our nation’s water infrastructure in U.S. history, and Minnesota stands to benefit tremendously from the influx of resources coming from the bill.

The federal infrastructure bill includes $1.2 trillion in funding over the next five years for 18 categories of infrastructure, which includes the largest federal investment since the 1970s for water treatment systems (community drinking water, lead water-service lines and community wastewater). The 2022 Minnesota Legislature, if they fail to act, will leave these federal funds afloat to be claimed by other states.

In April, experts from the Minnesota Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the largest and oldest civil engineering society in the U.S., issued a report card on the state of Minnesota’s infrastructure systems, grading 10 different categories. Minnesota on the whole received a “C” grade, with drinking water treatment receiving a “C-“ and wastewater treatment also receiving a “C.”

While these grades are either on par or slightly above the national average, Minnesota should not miss this opportunity for improvement. The federal infrastructure bill and state legislative action over the next several years could result in higher grades and, more importantly, safer drinking water for generations of Minnesotans.

Local investments and innovations are key for maintaining vital water infrastructure systems, some of which date to the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the federal IIJA program is a significant boost in resources. Still, federal and local funds simply cannot cover Minnesota’s lengthy list of water infrastructure funding needs. That list of projects will cost more than $11 billion over the next 30 years to complete and keeps growing as severe weather events increase due to climate change.

The Legislature adjourned last month without action. Further inaction puts Minnesotans at risk – the Legislature needs to act to provide safe drinking water, remove lead service lines to homes and businesses and protect clean water in lakes and rivers across Minnesota.  Safe drinking water and clean and accessible lakes and rivers for all cannot be an afterthought. The time for the Legislature to step up with funding is now so Minnesota communities can make best use of the IIJA funds.

John Linc Stine The writer, former commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, is executive director of the Freshwater Society, St. Paul

May 31, the day after Memorial Day.

I just got home from dropping off my wife, Olivia, at Brimhall Elementary School, where she is a volunteer reading tutor, this year working with a group of first-, second- and third-grade children. Each day she returns with stories about the inquisitiveness, joy and life energy of each of the children she has come to know and care for during their visits.

A week earlier, at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, an 18-year-old boy slaughtered 19 children and two teachers, coming into the school with two “AR15 style” rifles and 375 rounds of ammunition that he had purchased, legally, just days following his 18th birthday.  This followed by just days the slaughter of 10 Black people in a Buffalo, N.Y., Tops grocery store by another 18-year-old boy, who was motivated by the overtly racist and hateful replacement theory ideology being promoted by many prominent Republican elected officials and “conservative news outlets.”

Since the slaughters at Robb Elementary and the Tops grocery store, I have heard few if any people asking the question, what do we tell our children, as I believe we have largely run out of answers. I am a 65-year-old man who has spent my life and career working for and promoting nonviolence and peace, and sadly, here is all I can think of to say at this time, to our children and one another:

I support people who choose to responsibly own and use hunting weapons, as well as, if people choose, weapons they think may protect themselves and their families. I do not and never will support the notion that our “forefathers” envisioned a country where children and adults would be hunted with weapons of war and slaughter, over and over again in schools, stores, theatres, and on our streets, in the name of “freedom.”

So, to quote Dr. King, “Where do we go from here: Chaos or Community?” I fear we are already well into a time of chaos. Each of us needs to decide today whether we wish to live in a community where all of us are armed and ready to kill anyone, anywhere, at a moment’s notice, or whether we might work to limit the availability of weapons of war and slaughter in our schools and on our streets, to at least try to reduce the likelihood of the next slaughter.

As I watched Olivia walk into Brimhall, and saw and heard so many beautiful children, filled with life and joy in the school and on the playground, I thought of the destroyed children’s bodies and families at Robb Elementary and at the Tops grocery store. I decided then that if I were to hear gunfire erupt that I would hope to have the courage to run in, unarmed, to do whatever I could, however futile I know it would be, to try to save Olivia, a child, someone, anyone.

However equally futile it may appear to be, I will run toward engaging my neighbors, friends, community and family to work toward reducing the number of weapons of war and slaughter in our homes and communities, in the hope that one day in our future we can drop off our children and loved ones at school, the store, our faith community, or anywhere else, without first thinking of and fearing their being killed by someone with a weapon of war and slaughter.

Again, the words of Dr. King: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

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