My interview with Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Steve Kelley had to be rescheduled last Friday. I'll post more this week when I have a new date and time. It shouldn't take long.

This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

The talk of any town
By Aaron J. Brown

The best part about being from somewhere is knowing the story of that place. I still can’t understand the transient nature of my generation, the random iPod shuffle between Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles, apartments changed like underwear, all furnished from a big box store that looks the same everywhere.

We’ve got to find ourselves, you see. We are from the rust belt cities, the mining and farming towns, the long bypassed burgs forgotten by interstates, and the vast countryside visible from space, but we are taught early in life that we must leave to find ourselves. And in this exploration we often find, as Stan Rogers sang, “but the road back home again.” That’s true of many here in northern Minnesota and I suspect that the numbers will only rise, even as our population drops.

You can’t shake where you’re from. Whether you live in your birthplace or far from it you’ve eventually got to reckon with how the place shaped you and shot you out into the world. Maybe, like the city kid who farms organic carrots or the miner’s kid who paints in a Manhattan studio, you change your stripes along the way. Even so, that process probably amounted to the most important struggle of your life. Can’t escape gravity. Not without a fight.

I find it comforting to see a place and know what it was three generations ago, 20 years ago and today. When you know how something like the Hull Rust mine pit came to be you can’t help but drag people, kicking perhaps, up to old North Hibbing for a look.

Around Hibbing, like any Iron Range town, most of the points of interest were forged in by some kind of large, industrial affront to nature. The back-story often involves fatalities described by newspapers of the day with words like “immigrant,” “crushed,” and “the company is not to blame.” Words like these are never going to be in the promotional brochures of places like northern Minnesota, but these stories and our people’s reaction to them continue to shape the region.

Though born in Hibbing, I grew up out in the country around the Iron Range. I tell people I’m from Cherry but only because it’s quicker than saying I’m from the swamplands of Zim, itself part of the larger Cherry metroplex that also includes Forbes, Lavell, Clinton and Iron Junction along with vast tracts of unorganized land traversed only by deer and railroad tracks.

This area doesn’t offer much in the way of tourist attractions. You’ll find some natural beauty, a big owl watching hubbub out in the bog each year, and a few small businesses clinging to a recession proof specialty like sod, beer or gun repair. I remember touring a friend around my childhood stomping grounds as we prepared to embark on a writing project about the Cherry area. I showed him the “Zim Rec” where I used to go sledding, the old Zim Store which was then (as it is now) an aging empty ghost structure and my old elementary school at Forbes. Of course, you might know that the Forbes Elementary is now a bar, so we went in to facilitate the reminiscing.

On this particular day the workers of what was then Eveleth Taconite were packed into the joint, having learned that day that the nearby mine was shutting down indefinitely, possibly forever but that’s what they always say. The crowd was angry and uncertain, still in work clothes. My friend and I were dressed like writers. We ate our burgers while bobbing on the turbulent seas of what it’s like to live on the Iron Range, looking down at the free throw lines from my first gym class still visible on the barroom floor.

Very few can declare a certain future, myself included, but at least I know where I’m from.

Aaron J. Brown is a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Contact him or read more at his blog MinnesotaBrown.com. His book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range” won this year’s Northeastern Minnesota Book Award.

My regular contribution to 91.7 KAXE's Saturday morning call-in/music show "Between You and Me" joins this week's rather unusual topic: dolls. What's the father of three truck-loving young boys got to say about dolls? Well, I have enough to say. Enough to fill, say, an allotted amount of time on the radio. And besides, the best observations are always made by the uninformed.

Seriously, "Between You and Me" is a fun show that highlights the unique culture of northern Minnesota in many unexpected ways. Tune in between 10 a.m. and noon on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota or streaming online all over the world at www.kaxe.org.

And for those interested, MinnPost re-published my "Hunting for Other" column from last week as part of their Community Voices segment.

For the last few weeks of fantastic weather here in northern Minnesota I've been meaning to take my camera to catch a particular shot of an old tractor that I see on my 30 minute commute into the big city of Hibbing. The sun rises right behind the ancient machine as it rusts away in an old hayfield. Actually, I think it might still run, but I'm practicing my flowery verse. Anyway, I brought the camera today but it was foggy this morning which produced an interesting effect.

If I knew what the hell I was doing this would have been an impressive photograph. Below you'll see another portion of my commute. As you can tell, I find this drive a bit more appealing than any that includes sound barriers along an eight-laner. As the locals say, "Life is pretty good on 'da Range, if you have work."

And no, this is not going to become a photo blog. I'm just tiding my remaining readers over until regular blogging resumes at some indefinite point in the future. KeeTac (which is also situated along my commute) came back after an indefinite shutdown, so why can't I?

Stay tuned for the completion of my DFL governor candidates series (Steve Kelley, my ninth subject, is up on Friday with a post to follow next week). Also, some exciting news is coming regarding some future projects for 2010. All of this would be expedited if you bought everyone in your family and social circles a copy of "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range" for Christmas this year. I'm not kidding.

This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Sept. 20, 2009 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. A version of this ran as my essay on a recent episode of "Between You and Me" on KAXE.

Hunting for ‘Other’
By Aaron J. Brown

In my family the word “hunting” means something very specific: hunting deer with rifles in November at a family owned cabin and land collectively known as “the shack.” The very words “the shack” are a northern Minnesota cliché. Many people talk about their “shack.” I don’t need to cough up many adjectives for you to conjure a picture. Smell the inside of an old man’s shoe. That’s what the shack smells like. Look at the furniture strewn about at the end of an estate sale. That’s the décor. Imagine the five worst sounds that the human body can naturally make. Prepare yourself for those noises. Feel the surface of a 50-year-old wooden picnic table that’s been left out in the woods. That’s what you’ll be sleeping on. I’m not speaking metaphorically. That’s where you’ll be sleeping if you go there. Bring your own pillow and gun.

But the rifle season for deer is just one of scores of opportunities for law abiding citizens in the world’s largest and most affluent democracy to shoot, butcher, cook and eat wild animals. Personally, I’ve made it a policy to never shoot an unarmed animal. If Bambi pulls a shiv on me I’ll pop a cap in Bambi, but until then I prefer my meat to come from unknown places by unknown methods. That’s what capitalism intends and in this instance that suits me fine. Still, I can’t help but feel out of place in a world like Northern Minnesota when the only hunting experience I can offer is the kind of hunting that goes into finding just the right accessory for my 1939-themed home office. I live both in and out of my culture, which is just another way of telling you to buy my heartfelt memoir. Again, the season of clichés.

Nevertheless, for many, these early days of fall provide ample opportunity to hunt deer with arrows, to shoot small game like rabbits, squirrels, woodcocks and grouse. You’ve still got time to shoot a bear, a crow or an early Canada goose. That’s why I always show up to places late. When you’re early, someone might shoot you. In a few weeks, the moose, pheasant, waterfowl and turkey hunts begin. All manner of God’s creatures will soon be hanging upside down from a makeshift crucifix in someone’s yard. But don’t worry. This time, no crusades. And sometime next month everyone gets a bag full of jerky.

States like Minnesota have noticed that fewer people are hunting. At the same time, populations of many animals, especially deer, have dramatically increased. That’s why you can take part in early hunting seasons and even “Take-a-Kid-Hunting Weekend” next Saturday. If the adults won’t shoot the excess deer, perhaps the children will. American budgetary policies are based on many of the same principles. Is the downturn in the number of hunters a bad omen for the future of Minnesota outdoorsyism? I’d contend that some element of hunting will always continue, if not for recreational purposes than for the food and population control measures that concern the residents of rural areas. And if there’s any doubt that people will abandon country living then I’d ask you to check the census data. Northern Minnesotans are, by Census Bureau standards anyway, pouring out of towns into the rural townships where gunshots will be heard regularly now until Thanksgiving.

I may not be a hunter of deer, or of partridge, bears or moose, or of squirrels, crows or turkeys, but I still appreciate the feel of a crisp autumn day, the sounds of rustling in the woods and the endless drama of people figuring out how to live alongside animals, and each other. And also guns.

Aaron J. Brown is a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Contact him or read more at his blog MinnesotaBrown.com. His book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range” is out now.

Iron Range unemployment is down by about 1-2 percent.

I'll break radio silence again to share this press release from the St. Louis County School District from last week. It illustrates the plight of many rural Iron Range school districts, in this case one that has already consolidated many times over.

The St. Louis County school system is just one of the many districts that struggles with Minnesota's changing and increasingly suburban-centric school funding system but still can't pass a school referendum for a variety of complicated political reasons. The alarming headline sets up the drama over this fall's election:

ISD 2142 School Board studies consequences of failure if fall referendum does not pass, concludes district could not survive

The ISD 2142 school board met Sept. 9 in a study session to consider the various consequences and options for the district if voters do not pass a bond issue this fall. After in-depth discussions about programming cuts, teacher layoffs, funding options, declining enrollment and school closures, the board concluded the district would need to immediately begin closing schools, with district dissolution shortly following as an inevitable consequence.

The board acknowledged that if this fall’s referendum fails, decisions will immediately need to be made about closing three to four schools starting in the summer of 2010 as an interim step. After that, the district would have to begin discussions with nearby school districts to see how students might be absorbed into them.

“The school board has developed an affordable plan for restructuring the district, which would provide students with expanded curriculum in modern learning environments, so hopefully voters will approve the plan and the options discussed at this study session will never have to be implemented,” said Superintendent Dr. Charles Rick. “Unfortunately, no matter how you look at these options if a ‘no’ vote prevails, the board has little choice other than to close schools and make severe program cuts. It is becoming more apparent that our children would then ultimately have to attend school in other districts.”

The three-hour long study session began with Business Manager Kim Johnson reporting that despite millions of dollars of spending cuts already, the school district will soon be out of reserve funds. She said if the referendum fails, the district would most likely enter into “statutory operating debt” by fiscal year 2011, which means the State of Minnesota recognizes that the school district can no longer balance its expenditures and revenues.

After agreeing that the district cannot expect to see increasing revenues – due to cuts in state funding, declining enrollment, failure to pass three recent operating levies, and other factors – the school board looked at ways it might drastically reduce expenses if the restructuring plan is not approved by voters.

The board discussed further reducing program offerings, cutting additional teachers, closing several schools, and a combination of these approaches. Business Manager Johnson said with labor accounting for 75 percent of the district’s expenses, the surest way to reduce spending would be to close schools.

“Unlike the recommended plan where we are responsibly investing in a restructured district by closing some schools, these other options also close schools but don’t solve any of our financial challenges. These other options are not good for young people and our entire region,” said Board Chair Robert Larson. “We’ve already cut programs and teachers several times to make ends meet, and going any further will only cause parents to open enroll their children elsewhere. If we close schools, which ones do we close?”

Part of the study session included a discussion of potential criteria that could be used to determine which schools to close, including building age, enrollment size, geographic location, academic performance and others.

Board Member Darrell Bjerklie, who represents the Cherry attendance area, said, “It won’t matter which ones because the others will be closed in short order.”

During the study session, consultant John Powers said that during an evaluation this past spring of optional school configurations, principals at the district’s seven schools were asked how they would spend additional dollars for education if a new option saved operating money, and also how they would trim nearly $600,000 from their budgets in order to keep all seven schools open. Three principals couldn’t even begin to suggest how to cut $600,000 from their budgets, Powers said, and the other four would have to eliminate major education and activity programming.

“Bottom line is if we don’t pass this bond referendum we’ll be putting our schools in hospice,” added Board Member Gary Rantala, who represents the Babbitt-Embarrass attendance area.

“There is no perfect solution out there,” said Superintendent Rick. “What we propose is good, but not perfect. But I don’t see any positive consequences coming out of a ‘no’ vote. We’re here to provide excellent education for our young people. That should continue to be our main priority.”

I still give the district long odds to pass a referendum (the retiree and lower income dominated Iron Range is becoming fed up with rising property taxes) but this announcement frames the issue quite starkly.

The Saturday morning radio call-in and music sensation "Between You and Me" takes to 91.7 KAXE this week with the topic of hunting. Not just any hunting, but the vast array of small game and miscellaneous hunting seasons that begin this weekend. Scott Hall guest hosts the show from 10 a.m. to noon. My regular contribution takes a look at the lighter side of the sport/survivalist technique.

You can tune in between 10 a.m. and noon on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota or streaming online and archived all over the world at www.kaxe.org. My piece generally airs in the first half hour or so. A version of this essay will also run as my Sunday column in the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

Though blogging has been slow lately (I have two big writing projects in the works) I have made some comments on recent good news in the Iron Range mining economy and will be sharing more of that analysis on the radio tomorrow. You can hear me on the KAXE Morning Show with Scott Hall at 7:20 a.m. Thursday. You can listen at 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota or streaming online (or archived) at www.kaxe.org.

Some required reading, check out Mesabi Misadventures' latest analysis of why one Iron Range mine remains idled when the rest are returning to normal operation. She uses a John Fogerty reference which makes anything she writes totally awesome in my opinion.

Here's good news from the Iron Range. U.S. Steel's Keewatin Taconite will resume production after nearly a year of an indefinite shutdown. Of northern Minnesota's six taconite mining operations, KeeTac was the one that worried many insiders. Now five of six plants will be operating nearly at capacity within a few weeks. Hibbing Taconite is still idled until April 2010, however, which remains a major drag on the Iron Range economy and jobless numbers.

We on the Iron Range are almost back to where we were before the economic collapse: in a state of disorganized grasping for a modern economy that can weather downturns in the steel industry. Hooray! (Sorry to harsh the buzz).

This is my column for the Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

The toys indicator
By Aaron J. Brown

So some of the mines, not all of the mines (including none of the mines closest to Hibbing) are back to work here on northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. We are supposed to feel good and I guess I do but I wish there weren’t quite so many toys for sale.

The word “toys” means different things to different people. I live in a household where toys, meaning the playthings of children, are a very important part of life. Our three boys fight over these toys, literally, often to the point of bloodshed but only because they haven’t learned that when you work for a living you can easily buy all the Matchbox or Hot Wheel cars you want, but not necessarily health insurance or a college education.

Here on the Range another definition takes hold. “Toys,” the word, also means the enjoyable, probably loud playthings of adults, and these are an entirely different factor. From ATVs to four-wheelers, campers to pontoon boats, these toys often come with five-year financing and a license plate. These toys are the spoils of hard work on the Iron Range, the recreational tools accessible by those who cannot afford country clubs, yachts or summer homes. When you make it, and when you can afford it, you celebrate with toys – or at least that remains true of many in these parts.

The economic downturn of 2008 has lingered into 2009 like a bad houseguest, the worst really. This is the houseguest that demands your food and steals your clothes, the kind who can’t take a hint not even when punched in the face. Twice. Seriously, we’d really like this guy to leave. We’re not even sure how he ended up at the party last weekend, or was it last year when all the mines were running gangbusters. Anyway, he’s still here and while he’s showing signs of packing his bags you know that there’s a good chance that another night, or two, will be marred by this interloper.

On the eastern Range, most mines are operating at 80 percent or better, bringing people back to work who had suffered from the same uncertainty that still troubles workers here on the western side of the Range. U.S. Steel’s Keewatin Taconite remains indefinitely idled while Cleveland Cliffs’ Hibbing Taconite won’t resume production until next year. More people are returning to work, but the operative word is returning. Even the happiest, most optimistic Iron Rangers remember that even when times were great our economy could not stand without the support of the mining industry. And that was when unemployment was below 10 percent. It is now at 17 percent and holding. It’s not the worst in the nation, just among the worst and bad for certain. Some potential new opportunities hover on the horizon, all subject to the same economic factors that hold back our current economy.

This means cheap “toys” on the western Range, rusted trailers brimming with mechanical speed machines parked out along the country highways. Hard times on the Iron Range means you could get all manner of toys for a great price, but that you can’t afford these things at any price. That’s why the economy can in many ways best be described by the availability and sales of recreational machines. Let’s call it the “toys indicator.”

We’re told that unemployment is a “lagging indicator,” or a factor that changes long after the stock market, consumer confidence and the approval of politicians ticks upward. Historically this has been true. Jobs come last. People come last. And, as such, the people must sell their things until times are better.

May those times come soon.

Aaron J. Brown is a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Contact him or read more at his blog MinnesotaBrown.com. His recent book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range” is out now.

This week's topic on "Between You and Me" is chickens. I join the fray and tell a tragic story about a misguided rooster that will leave you yukking because chickens are hilarious even when terrible things happen to them. All that and more on Saturday morning's edition of "Between You and Me," the unique call-in and music show that features the voices and spirit of northern Minnesota.

The show comes as topical chicken references pour in. The Grand Rapids, Minn., city council is going to make a crucial decision on allowing chickens on city lots next week. A car rammed into the Hibbing KFC yesterday. And KFC itself shook the world to its core by introducing a bacon sandwich in which the bread has been replaced by fried chicken. Chickens are the penguins of 2009. And yet, they are so much less fortunate somehow.

Tune in between 10 a.m. and noon on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota or streaming live all over the world (and archived) at www.kaxe.org.

This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Sept. 6 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

Pull the wagon forever
By Aaron J. Brown

When orbiting the moon, I’m told, one must mind the dark side. On the dark side of the moon there is no light, no radio contact with earth and a conceptual progressive rock sound that goes well with lasers, if Pink Floyd is to be believed.

Life is cyclical, isn’t it? Not unlike an orbit around some strange planet called “You,” one must mind the dark side. People enter phases of life that feature little contact with the outside world. We are born into such a phase. As babies, we do not care much for the human drama of the adults in our life, their blathering about work and friends and relatives. I remember President Reagan on TV. Dad said something about him. I don’t know what. “Blah, blah, blah,” we hear. Feed me. Love me. And we are often loved and sometimes fed and that is good enough until junior high. Then, the troubles.

Some time later we find ourselves grown up , cleaned up and mostly functional. Some things have happened. Very important things that might be in our obituaries some day. Maybe. It is then that we pass back into radio silence.

Our boys are now aged 4, 2 and 2. My wife and I are of that modern persuasion acknowledging an equal role in producing and raising these children. That means no paternal distance on my part, no hiding in the den wearing a smoking jacket or riding a snowmobile until the gas runs out just to walk back in silence. That doesn’t fly. Not these days. I am involved and that means being less involved in the outside world. We socialize some, not much. I am involved with some public activities, but less. Christina is pursuing some new professional opportunities, but slowly, what with the resonant roar of a house full of boys who like to burp, fart and scream. Not all the time, just very often.

Nowadays, the boys like to ride around on various contraptions in the driveway. Henry, the oldest, pilots a bike. Doug and George ride big wheels. Excuse me, Big Wheels. They are very big, the wheels and increasingly the boys. These outdoor sessions feel something like a daily mass, a routine that follows set parameters differentiated only along the margins, what goes wrong and what new things have been learned by the participants. In our case, Henry has recently learned negotiation.

Parents already know about negotiation. The line we deliver quite often goes, “five more minutes.” Five minutes isn’t that much. Five minutes gives us flexibility. Maybe we get two of the three boys inside for bath time and bed in that time, and maybe just one. Maybe it takes seven minutes to get all three. No one really knows. But the other day, Henry countered. “Daddy, I want you to pull me in the wagon forever.”

Forever. Imagine the gap between five minutes and forever. The gap far eclipses the differences we hear about health care, taxes and, for that matter, whether or not God exists. “Henry,” I say. “I don’t think I can pull the wagon forever. How about five minutes?”

“Pull the wagon forever,” Henry insists.

So I pulled the wagon. Not forever, but for a good long time. Long enough for that day’s purposes, anyway.

It’s possible that the dark side is not dark, so much. It’s possible that life is lived fully on the dark side, without the incessant blaring of radio waves, wireless signals and space trash. Indeed, it might be said that one must mind the light side of the moon. Both sides present a challenge that speaks to our character.

Aaron J. Brown is a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Contact him or read more at his blog MinnesotaBrown.com. His recent book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range” is out now.

My contribution to this week's edition of 91.7 KAXE's "Between You and Me" program this Saturday morning joins the show's topic of "Memorized Poetry." The theme sounds vague, but you'll get it when you hear it. We all had to memorize things when we were growing up. Some of us might still remember the tidbits of poetry and prose we committed to memory in our youth. Some of us, not so much. I talk about how the internet ruined everything for me, and you. Damn 'putars!

You can hear "Between You and Me" Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota or streaming online all over the world on www.kaxe.org.