State Representative David Bly, District 25B

Earlier this month I drove up to Marine on the St. Croix to cheer Rebecca Otto on as she begins her campaign for the Minnesota State Auditor. The fall colors were beginning to emerge and I enjoyed the rolling hills. The Ottos have a beautiful farm and gave willing participants hayrides between speeches. There were a number of House Members there including Rep. Patti Fritz from Faribault.



Rebecca is a great public servant with a strong vision for what is right about Minnesota and what is wrong about the direction the current Governor has been taking us. As Auditor she will work for all Minnesotans to restore fiscal responsibility to our state government.

Fish Thermometers?

At the event I heard one of the best lines that captures our current predicament with endangered waters. Lizz Winstead, one of the founders of Comedy Central’s the Daily Show, said, “It’s strange when you can take your temperature with the fish you pull out of Minnesota lakes these days.” Mercury content in fish species continues on the rise. One of the biggest culprits in Mercury dispersion is coal-fired powerplants. We need a new energy policy if we want to stop this trend. If you wonder what energy policy has to do with Mercury in the fish you eat (and I know you really can’t use the fish like a thermometer), you could visit the ME3 website. They advocate renewable energy development. But even they encouraged the transmission upgrade that will make it feasible to build more Coal plants. Energy policy is a tricky thing and needs very careful thinking if we are going to build the future we will all want our children and grandchildren to live in.

Seize the Day & Build the Future

Two other recent events gave Northfielders chances to build a better future: The first was
Cropwalk. I joined quite a number of other Northfielders this year, hoping to make other peoples lives a little better by putting down a little shoe leather. We were all walking to raise money and to draw attention to ways that poverty and hunger can be averted.

The second event was the Key’s Katrina relief concert in Bridge Square and the Key poetry reading, which highlighted the work of several young people in the publication of the book that brings together several of their writings. The small audience was treated to the work of five students. Mentor Ted Tuel described the process they use to write, that is allowing students to write what is important to them. I was impressed with the genuine expression of thought and emotion.


I am hoping to interest my students in just such an event. It’s encouraging to see people working together to solve a problem or to express their heart felt reactions to the world around them. It is too easy to turn away and hope that we don’t have to face what we prefer not to look at; but some say we will be judged by how we care for those who live in the shadows of life.