What are they thinking?

BY CHARLEY UNDERWOOD

There are some who continue to insist that public money should be spent for a new Viking stadium. But let’s get realistic here for a minute.

The shelters are full. The food shelves are empty. The foreclosures continue apace. The streets look like Gadaffi has been bombing them. The bridges are falling. Already one fire station has been closed. Property taxes are reaching a level that can only be called obscene. Schools are closing. The public health system is broke. Over 100 people die homeless in the Twin Cities each year. The city is broke. The state is broke. The country is broke. Some of us are trying to survive here, looking for ways to help ourselves and help each other in spite of the horribly misplaced priorities of our elected officials.

Is there truly any sane person out there that still maintains that building a billion dollar stadium (which, with interest paid on bonds, would amount to about three times that) should be our highest priority? Are there still some “trickle down” Reaganites who believe that Mr Wilf and his well paid gladiators will eventually save our jobs and help us pay our mortgages somehow? Would anyone claim that watching a professional football game at a luxury sports palace is actually a “sport” that should be prioritized over MPRB recreation programs?

I am mad, frankly. I think it is cynical and selfish for the Star Tribune to continue hyping a downtown Minneapolis stadium. With a few exceptions, they have fired their best reporters, and seem to be basically dismantling the journalistic side of the business and concentrating on their downtown properties for their raw real estate value. Shame on them.

I am furious with our elected city leaders. It is clear that there is a complete distain for any area of the city except the downtown area. They are gutting the neighborhood programs and are concentrating every bit of wealth available for the exclusive use of the office buildings and pleasure palaces in the downtown area.

I spent my entire life as a teacher, 41 years. In that time, I grossed about the same amount of money as one of those gladiators makes in a single game. I’m not complaining about the money. I never have. I get paid in other ways, like when former students or their parents get in touch with me to thank me for touching lives that I also valued.

But it ought to be possible for the rest of us to survive. Medicare is likely to get cut. Medicaid is likely to get cut. They are going after social security next. And the #*!*&^% Star Tribune doesn’t even mention that the same proposal to cut those programs also lowers taxes on the richest and on corporations by about 30 percent.
Enough is enough. We have had it. Take your gladiators and go away, but stop taking my money. I need it more than you. We all do.