Opinions

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher, Swift County Monitor-News

Too often, we define our efforts to attract people to the community by what we want when we should be defining it by what those we are trying to bring here are seeking.  In looking to fill our needs, we pass by the needs of those we want to keep or have return, to our rural town.

Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Kentucky and many other states with large rural areas are all trying to figure out a way to keep their young people around, as well as for ideas in bringing them home.

A recent study completed in New Hampshire spent 10 years following a group of nearly 900 young people from a small rural county, questioning them through the years about their attitudes toward their hometown. They watched how their answers evolved and at the common threads that ran through their replies.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher, Swift County Monitor-News

America is becoming ever more polarized. We see it in the dysfunction in Washington and St. Paul. Moderate elected leaders are rare as the fringes of their parties control elections by dominating candidate selection in primaries while the majority of the electorate sits on the sidelines.

The internet, with is ability to learn what we like and don’t like in the news, feeds us with information that reinforces our prejudices. Rather than a source of trusted news, it is known for spreading rumors and intentionally false and misleading information.

Social media that consumes our online time end up not being very social at all. In fact, they have us in bitter disputes, raging at one another with diminished tolerance for those with differing opinions. Rather than unite us, it divides us.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher, Swift County Monitor-News

“Nature  is in more trouble now than at any other time in human history, with extinction looming over 1 million species of plants and animals.”

That was the lede paragraph of a story this past week by Associated Press Environment reporter Seth Borenstein on the depressing and ominous news from a more than 1,000-page report issued by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. It is a group of 450-plus conservation scientists, and the report was approved by representatives of the 109 participating nations.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher, Swift County Monitor-News

You can’t escape the stories of the impacts of climate change these days. It weaves its way, undeniably, into the extreme weather the world is now experiencing.

Wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense, such as the ones that ripped through California last year. Droughts are becoming more expansive and last longer, heightening fire dangers.

As the atmosphere warms, it holds more moisture, creating more downpours and flooding of “biblical” proportions. Minnesota has seen a 42 percent increase in the number of heavy precipitation events it records – rainfalls of 8, 10 and even 17 inches over just two days have been recorded.

High-temperature records are falling at twice the rate of low-temperature records.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher, Swift County Monitor-News

Swift County, District 777 Public Schools, and City of Benson residents are getting practiced at giving their input to elected officials. It is a refreshing change. Too often citizens sit on the sidelines and complain.

But over the past year, citizens have given their input in shaping a $26.3 million school levy for construction of a new performing arts center, the addition of classrooms onto the Northside Elementary School for early childhood classes and day care, for new gymnasium space, for new classrooms at the senior high dedicated to 21st Century learning approaches, a new cafeteria and kitchen at the Northside, and for a new band room.

Now, through the new Swift County Community Perspectives Committee, citizens will be giving their thoughts to county commissioners on a potential new justice center or coming up with another approach to meeting county building needs.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher, Swift County Monitor-News

As America and Minnesota look to increase the use of renewable fuels, particularly wind and solar, there are significant economic development opportunities for the communities that can capitalize on the building and serving the needs of these industries. Other industries will also evolve to serve the needs of renewable technology, such as battery storage.

Minnesota companies now employ more than 61,000 workers in clean energy jobs. The industry showed a growth rate approaching 5 percent between 2017 and 2018, with 2019 expected to see a more than 7 percent growth.

Another political season is building momentum, though in some ways it hardly seems it ever stopped. As we move toward the 2020 presidential election, Democrats are fielding an increasingly large number of candidates. We will see candidates for the U.S. Senate, U.S. House, state House and Senate, and local offices file for office and hit the campaign trail in the coming months.

The atmosphere in which they seek election is going to be supercharged with division in a nation more polarized on political and social issues than ever before. This division can be attributed to the internet, which was once praised for its potential to unite the nation with a common and enlightening knowledge. It has turned out to be the opposite.

In a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, it was found that internet and the social media that dominate it are putting us at each other’s throats with less tolerance and more anger with each passing day.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher, Swift County Monitor-News

If you want to kill your community, ensure that people don’t find it attractive: Have cars parked in yards for everyone to see as they drive through town. Have dilapidated buildings to show them. Have run-down storefronts on main street. Allow litter to blow around in your streets.

These ways are all a variation on author, economic development specialist and community “therapist” Doug Griffith’s theme of “Don’t Paint” from his and Kelly Clemmer’s’ book “13 Ways to Kill Your Community.”

 “If you want to ensure that your community fails then you have to make sure you don’t paint. Of course, painting isn’t the only factor included in this concept – it encompasses anything that may beautify your community such as sweeping, cleaning, planting flowers, mowing grass, pick up garbage...” they write.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher, Swift County Monitor-News

It’s a painful process for the District 777 Board of Education and the school administrative staff as they are forced to go through as they sit down to consider where they are going to cut hundreds of thousands of dollars in spending. What programs will be eliminated? Who are the teachers that will be put on unrequested leave? Should we have the kids in gym classes and sports bring their own towels to school? Should fees be raised or added to cover the costs of participating in activities?

This time around the school board is looking at making cuts to its general fund to address a projected deficit of $631,900 in the 2019-2020 school year. The deficit is due to declining enrollment in Benson schools, a lack of state funding, federal mandates without the financial help to pay for them, and inflation.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher, Swift County Monitor-News

Whether it is the Swift County Board of Commissioners discussing building a new justice center, the Benson High School gymnastics team seeking a new place to practice and perform, the City of Benson discussing future economic development plans and how it will spend the $20 million coming to it from Xcel Energy over four years, there is one primary source that keeps the public informed – the Swift County Monitor-News.

Imagine if we weren’t here.

How would you be informed? How much information would the gatekeepers of government discussion and debate let you hear about? How easy would it be to get the documents that underlie the decisions elected leaders make?