Hope is a journey, not a destination

“Building a school for orphans. Laying the foundation grades and putting up the greenhouses.” Ray VinZant, 12/29/2015

In February I celebrate my 4^th year as the Executive Director of Spare Key. It has been a remarkable and profound journey for me.

An organization that was founded 18 years ago by Robb and Patsy Keech as a way to pay it forward and serve families with critically ill and seriously injured children in the hospital has had its own remarkable and profound journey.

From 1997 to 2011 Spare Key served 1,376 families. From 2012 to today we’ve served 1,540 families.

None of this happened because of the efforts of one person. It happened because of the efforts of thousands.

From a passionate and committed staff of four – to an outstanding Board of Directors – to donors and partners and others – Spare Key is the sum total of the good people who are committed to helping people they will never know, but whose gratitude is immeasurable.

It began with Robb and Patsy who, in the midst of the sorrow of the loss of their son, Derian, gathered together their hearts, friends and family and began Spare Key. Today, it remains the living legacy to their son who passed away at 2 ½ years of age and continues to support other parents who are seeking light in the darkness and hope when it appears there is none.

Spare Key’s story is not unique in Minnesota. And, that is one of the remarkable things about this great state I live in. I am fond of saying that Minnesota has as many non-profits helping people as it has lakes.

It’s a slight exaggeration in quantity, but certainly not in quality.

Today, in making another silly Facebook comment about the joy of my new snow blower, a friend of mine, Ray, commented about the weather in Rwanda.

When I asked him what he was doing in Rwanda he responded with this, “Building a school for orphans. Laying the foundation grades and putting up the greenhouses.”

This is the same Ray who decided to make his 60^th birthday celebration a fundraiser for Spare Key. The same Ray who volunteers in so many different ways simply because it is the right thing to do.

There’s a Ray everywhere in my life. Men and women who inspire me. Move me. Challenge me. Empower me.

Some of them are Executive Directors for other non-profits. Many serve as Board Members for non-profits. There are those leading companies seeking a way to conquer cancer, or heart disease or Alzheimer’s. Others are volunteers for a variety of causes and beliefs ranging from homelessness to racial equity to criminal justice reform.

Each of them gives back to the community they live in. The vast majority of them for no other reason than because they believe it is the right thing to do.

There are those who work in the non-profit world because they believe it is not just a job, but a vocation. A mission, if you will.

Tens of thousands of our friends, family and neighbors who work to ensure others will have food to eat, a warm place to sleep, someone to represent their interests before the law, stand up for their rights to be equal under the law and a host and multitude of reasons and causes we can appreciate, understand and so many others that we may not, cannot or never will.

It’s easy to forget all of this if one views the world around them through the prism of social media – cable television – talk radio – or for that matter, the 24/7/365 non-stop chatter that can make one believe the world is going to Hell in a hand basket.

It’s not. It is changing, that much is true. It is always changing.

What one generation thought was inviolate or sacred is not viewed in the same way as the next generation.

There are things that remain constant, however.

Human compassion for those we know – and those we don’t – has never gone out of style. How we give back, how we help and how we stand for what we believe may change – but at our core, humans want to be – human.

We want the world to be a better place – for ourselves – and for others.

The world we live in is not a bad place. There are bad people. And, there are bad people who can make the world we live in seem like it is a dark and threatening existence.

I am a believer in good versus evil. I believe in Heroes. I believe that good vanquishes evil and that Heroes defeat Villains.

Every single day in Minnesota, and throughout the world, there are heroes like Ray performing acts of goodness.

They do it because they believe that evil comes in many forms – a hungry stomach, a cold sidewalk, aching poverty, a racist remark, an inequitable society, a tyrannical government, an ideological terrorist and the list goes on.

I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions. Yet, for 2016 I am committed to recommitting myself to living up to the standards of those heroes I know – and those I don’t — who are engaged in powerful acts of goodness.

I dedicate my 2016 to them.

Norm Coleman used to walk past my office when I worked at the Minnesota State Capitol for Senate Majority Research.

That was the first time I met him.

Well, that’s not true.

He would walk by me all the time with this kind of saunter.  To be honest, the only real impression he made on me at the time was that he was skinny.

The first time I really met him was over lunch after a co-worker suggested we meet to talk about Norm’s campaign for St. Paul Mayor.

Sitting down I remember what struck me the most was he was awfully skinny — and had on a pinstripe suit, a striped shirt and his tie had stripes on it.

Anymore stripes and he and that skinny frame simply would have disappeared.

He talked.  Oh Lord he talked.

And, talked and talked and talked.

He told me all about how he was going to turn the City around and run a campaign that was going to win.

There was no shortage of confidence.  It wasn’t arrogance.  Okay, well maybe a little bit.

But he was confident in himself – his vision – and most of all – confident he was going to win and do all the things he told me he was going to do.

Not long after that I agreed to run his campaign for Mayor.  To be honest, I didn’t have a whole lot else going on at the moment so I thought it would be an adventure.

It was, indeed.  The first adventure began in the living room of his house at the first campaign meeting I attended.

The same campaign meeting where he “forgot” to tell the campaign manager he already had that I was coming on board to manage the campaign.

Awkward!

In 1993 we soundly defeated the DFL endorsed candidate and Norm became Mayor.  Over the next four years he set out to do many of the things he told me he was going to do.  He brought people together.

He put aside his personal differences with people and tried to figure out the best way to make the City safer, cleaner and more affordable.

After the 1993 campaign I walked away from Norm for a couple of years but was pulled back into his orbit and my first day of work at City Hall was the same day that two St. Paul police officers were gunned down while protecting their City.

Politics got more divided in St. Paul during those 4 years.  The DFL Party rather than embracing a popular young Mayor pushed him further away from the party.  It became clear that Norm wasn’t part of their vision for the future and it was obvious that Norm’s common sense philosophy about the proper role of government wasn’t a good fit for the DFL Party.

So he became a Republican.  And, because I wasn’t anymore welcome than he was, I became one, too.

Then we set out to get him re-elected as a Republican.  That happened, too.

The campaigns Norm had didn’t end with his re-election as Mayor.

There was a Governor’s race, an election to the United States Senate, a campaign for re-election to the United States Senate and a protracted recount.

In one way, shape, form or another I was honored to play a role in each of them.

In between every single leg of this journey there’s a million stories and memories.  Good, bad and ugly.

But, all of them never possible if I hadn’t sat down for lunch 22 years ago with a skinny guy who talked a lot who was convinced he could change the world.

Norm has changed the world.  I think for the better.  He made the lives of untold thousands of people better.  Empowered others to have successful careers in their own lives.

From politics to government to corporations to social change, Norm Coleman’s inspired hundreds, if not thousands, to get involved and make the world a better place for others.

Norm has been one of the most consequential public servants in Minnesota history.

I understand that others don’t share my opinion of his service.

That’s the beauty of this country.  I don’t have to agree with your wrong point of view.  Or you agree with my correct point of view.

Besides, it’s my blog, I get to write what I believe not what someone else might think.

I’ve heard all of the Norm-isms through the years.

About roaring like a Lion, stuff going into God’s ears from our lips, that somebody sewed “Mayor” into his underwear (frankly, I thought that was simply creepy) and how he was a “Possibilitarian”  (totally made up word), people who were just walking around if they didn’t have followers and the need to have guys with faces that said “Yes.”

Norm was never a guy willing to accept “No” or “We can’t do that” or “This is the way we have always done it” as a final answer to anything.

He put forward a vision, brought smart people around him to explain it and expected it would get done.

Present company excluded, Norm found people that were smarter than him and let them do the work that needed to be done to turn his vision into reality.

Norm has never held grudges.  Sure, he’s human.  There’s some folks he likes a lot more than others – but I’ve seen him reach out to those who he had bitter fights with over the years and offer them his hand at their most desperate hours.

Where others would turn away from pariahs Norm has reached out to them.  Offered them his hand, kind words and a gentle heart.  In a world in which we see politicians through a one-dimensional lens Norm is a reminder to me of a time when politicians didn’t view their opponents as enemies and evil – but as people who used to be kids, grew up and are just trying to do the best they can.

Sometimes succeeding.  Sometimes failing.  But never, in their essence, bad people.

I’ve seen Norm happy, angry, sad, frustrated and bored.

But, I’ve never seen him hopeless.

I was out for a run when I got the call from Norm telling me he had been diagnosed with cancer.  The image of me literally stopping in my tracks should be in your mind.

As I struggled to hold it together on my end of the phone I could tell he was struggling even harder on his end of the call.

A few days later, equipped with a plan and knowledge about the fight ahead of him, you would have thought Norm had a plan for how to achieve world peace.

Classic Norm.  With a plan, and the heart of an optimist, anything is possible.

A few days later at his home talking about his treatment plan I could see and hear in him the attitude of a guy who is in it to win it.

There was no hand wringing.  No woe is me.  No sack cloth and ashes (yup, other Norm thing – I don’t know I have ever seen a sack cloth and ashes, but he’s older than me, so maybe they had that kind of stuff laying around at his house.)

This Thanksgiving as Norm has shared with the public he will be at the rear end of his treatment plan to defeat the cancer that has taken a temporary residence in his body.  From what he’s explained to me and to others the final phase of his treatment is brutal.  I pray that the discomfort that goes with it passes quickly.

Norm’s a hard guy not to like.  You actually have to work at it because he’s not going to make it easy for you not to like him. It’s part of his charm.  There are certainly those whose Norm’s charm has not worked.  For those who don’t like him they will at least offer him their grudging respect.

Norm will beat cancer and live a long life.  He has years of getting things done, making a difference, improving the lives of those he knows and those he doesn’t know.

To paraphrase one of the oldest Norm quotes from my first days in getting to know him, “Norm’s best days are yet to come.”

Of this I have no doubt.

He has a plan, he has the attitude and he’s been in tough and difficult fights his entire life.

Throughout my life and career I have been blessed with adventures I never imagined – met people I could have only dreamed about – and done and accomplished things that as a kid in Fairmount, North Dakota I wouldn’t have believed to be possible.

It’s been a journey of profound gratitude every single day.  I wake up knowing that my good fortune is not an accident.  I’ve been blessed beyond measure.

I don’t need to express my gratitude for 30 days – I do it every single day.

On the very top of that list of gratitude is for my relationship with Norm these past 22 years.

He has given me the great privilege of serving with him and for him for much of the past 22 years.  It has been my great honor to have been with him in the thrill of his victory, and even more so in the humbling cavern of defeat.

Through the years he’s been my boss, my irritation, my mentor, my Mayor, my United States Senator, my leader and my friend.

The book of my journey of life has many chapters but some of the most compelling, impactful and memorable have been spent in public service.  Each of the chapters over the past 22 years revolve around something involving Norm Coleman.  It’s not been half of my life but it’s been enough of my life to be thankful for the man whose own personal courage is being tested by his battle with cancer.

Courage and bravery that has been at the core of his commitment to public service on behalf of the people of Minnesota – and core to who he is as a human being.

The response from friends and foe to Norm’s battle with cancer has been astonishing.  It says something about the life he has lived that even his fiercest opponents reached out to him to wish him well, offer their prayers and their thoughts.

Norm was fond of saying that the people he served had the heart of a lion and that he was honored to give their roar.

Today, in this battle in which he will win the war against his cancer, it is Norm who has the heart of the lion.

From my lips to Gods ear I can never give thanks enough for the good fortune I’ve had to have met Norm Coleman.

That moment gave me the opportunity to learn how to be a Possibilitarian – to not just take a walk – to try to be the face that said “Yes.”

(Sorry, I’m not sewing “Mayor” into my underwear!)

This Thanksgiving, it is for all those things and so many others that it is my honor to roar my thanks for Norm Coleman.

Donald Trump isn’t an idiot.

He just plays one on t.v.

My guess is that he’s a pretty smart, intelligent guy with a massive ego and penchant for telling us what he thinks we all want to hear and then praising himself for telling it like it is.

Which concerns me a great deal if what he is telling us is what many of us are all actually thinking.

Especially in light of recent terror attacks in Paris, Beirut, Mali and the downing of a Russian passenger plane over Egypt.

The world is fearful, anxious and uncertain about what happens next when it comes to the violence that radical Islamic terror organizations like ISIS and al Qaeda are prepared to commit.

Where’s the next target?  Who are the next targets?  What can be done to prevent it from happening and what, if anything, can be done to defeat them so they cannot destroy our world?

So when Donald Trump steps up after each of these attacks and tells America that his solution is to “bomb the *** out of them” and create a database to track Muslims in America it ought to offer us all a pause.

Yet, if the pollsters are to be believed (and, why shouldn’t we trust pollsters?) every time Trump opens his mouth his numbers go up – not down.

Insult a war hero?  Trump’s numbers go up.

Insult Iowans?  Trump’s numbers go up.

Insult women, Hispanics, Muslims and (fill-in-the-blank)?  Trumps numbers go up.

How can this be?  Why can this be?

I spent most of my adult life in and around politics and government.  From a young kid who was the President of the Campus DFL at St. Cloud State University to a young man on the White Bear Lake City Council to a middle-age man as a United States Senate Chief of Staff I figured I have seen and done it all.

And then along comes Donald Trump.

A man who is willing, and capable, of saying just about anything on the campaign trail if he think it’s going to advance his candidacy in some way, shape or form.

In a day not so long ago some of the things he said would force him to end his campaign in days if not weeks.

Or, apologizing.

Not anymore.

In fact, the more outrageous, insulting, rude, misinformed, divisive and hatred the more money he seems to be able to haul in – and the more his polling numbers go up.

We live in dangerous and difficult times.  But our current campaigns for President don’t reflect this reality.

I don’t know that we have yet come to grasp the full ramifications of the break-out of ISIS.

This is not a business as usual world anymore.

This is no war against a hostile country with a national capitol and belligerent but reasonable and rationale leaders weighing the risk and reward of further aggression.

This is a war against a hostile ideology whose aspirations for a global capitol cannot come to be without the kind of apocalyptic battle we usually imagine in the movies.

I understand that the American people are demanding “change.”  But, once again, if polls are to be believed, it is Republican Primary voters who demanding most of this “change.”

On the Democratic side, despite his impressive collection of money and his affinity with disaffected Democratic primary voters, Bernie Sanders campaign for President may be the most lucratively funded quixotic campaign in recent memory.

Hillary Clinton is still decidedly in the lead and barring her dropping out of the Democratic campaign is likely to be the party’s nominee.

Democratic voters apparently aren’t all that keen with change.  They want a 3^rd Obama term and Clinton’s a known quantity for them.

For Republican voters however the story is apparently different.  Ben Carson and Donald Trump are in a see-saw game of who can say the most outrageous things and raise the most money off saying them and then see how far up they will go in the polls.

Ted Cruz is no slacker when it comes to this strategy, either.  Unfortunately for him he is “of” government because of his position in the United States Senate.  That he has done nothing in government while being of government except for making it more divided and dysfunctional than ever is his principle claim to fame.

I can’t imagine taking the fight to ISIS with Ben Carson, Donald Trump or Ted Cruz serving as America’s Commander-in-Chief.

There are any number of other Republicans who I think would do a fine job as President of the United States.  They may not be the best candidates in the current environment of “shock and awe” political commentary, but I am betting on the long view that they will ultimately prevail over Trump, Cruz and Carson.

Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Lindsey Graham, Carly Fiorina and John Kasich are the adults in a room currently being held hostage by unruly kids who know how to get attention – not how to lead.

For the time being Donald Trump will continue to say – not what’s on his mind – but what’s in his mouth and what he thinks Americans want to hear.

There’s a difference.

Real leadership would tell you what’s on one’s mind.  Real leadership would tell us that ISIS is a threat to the entire world and America must stand up and defend itself and how we can and will prevail against this unprecedented threat to global stability.

Donald Trump’s solution?

Track Muslims.  Insult Muslims.  Mock Muslims.

There are many frightening things about Donald Trump’s campaign for President.  Not one of them has to do with him actually winning.

When all’s said and done that will not happen.

He may, through his words, rhetoric and actions doom a legitimately qualified Republican from winning next November but I do not believe America will elect this huckster as our next President.

Yet for as long as Donald Trump is running for President – either as a Republican or an Independent or as a Donald – he endangers America.

His vile anti-immigrant rhetoric directed towards at least 11 million people living in America without documentation increases animosity and hatred towards people who are here simply to live – make a living – and live the American Dream.

But it also increases fear and anxiety among those 11 million people and their children.  Who, in time, will grow up under the glaring spotlight of Donald Trump’s rhetoric saying that they and their families should have been rounded up and sent back to where they came from.

Now, sensing that America’s fear about an expanded battle of theater with terrorist groups is increasing every day, Trump is seizing on that fear to spread his pathological attacks on anyone and everyone.

Syrian refugees.  Muslims outside of America.  Muslins inside of America. None are safe from a man who cares nothing about anyone’s safety and security other than his own.

By attacking Muslims Trump wishes to lump the overwhelming majority of peaceful adherents with the overwhelming minority of radical Islamic terrorists to further frighten the American public.

America is at war.  We are at war with a collection of sophisticated true-believers who are convinced that our destruction is the word of their God, rooted in their radical Islamic view of the world.

It’s time we focus our energy, our resources and our united stand as Americans to fighting those battles and winning that war – with that enemy.

For if we continue to listen to Donald Trump he will turn our energy, our resources and our united stand as Americans against ourselves – making each of us the enemy.

If that happens the terrorists win.

America loses.

An Open Letter to a Syrian Refugee,

Please know that this is not America.  These words you are hearing from our politicians and on social media are the comments of people who are living in fear.  It is the rhetoric of people who are scared about the world they see around them.

I know you know fear.  While we fear what we don’t know or what may happen, you have lived fear.  It is your heart.  In your mind.

You’ve seen your own government kill you.  Your family.  Friends.  Neighbors.

Your house destroyed.  Your job taken away from you.

Your future and that of your children stolen from you.

That’s fear.  It is real.  It isn’t something imaginary or a concern about something that might happen.

Fear has happened to you.  It still is.

America once had a President who used these words to still the frightened hearts of his countrymen, “This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

I am fearful for my country and for my children’s future.  My son was a baby on 9/11 and I remember tortured nights with him for days on end every time I heard a siren pass by my home.  My family wasn’t in an office building, or a plane or the Pentagon on 9/11.

We were safe in St. Paul, Minnesota.

But, we were scared.  Scared of what might happen.  Fearful of whether the attacks against our fellow Americans in New York and Washington, D.C. might be replicated in our towns and communities.

Since that day America has lived far too much in fear.  We have done some things that needed to be done.  Brave American men and women have fought for our freedom, and the freedom of others, in faraway lands and left their lives in them.

For a short while our politicians worked with one another to pass laws that were intended to make our country safer, and give confidence to our nation that we could rise to the challenge that was thrown down by men flying airplanes into buildings and killing innocents.

Since then things have unraveled.  Our elected officials have forgotten that fear can either bring us together or drive us apart.

We are being driven apart.  It would be easy to blame the politicians but they are a reflection of who we are as a nation today.

Too often divided.  Too often bitter.  Too often fearful.

So, I know that you are hearing or reading a lot about our elected officials and people of America who are demanding you stay out of our country because of the tragedy inflicted upon the people of Paris.

For the Muslims among you it is likely you’ve heard that some politicians are saying that the Christians among you are welcome, but you are not.

That those who kill in your name and your religion want our fear to rule our actions is lost on far too many Americans.

That fear increases fear and results in more intolerance, more hate and more hatred.

I won’t apologize for America.  I love this nation far too much to apologize for the all too human reaction of my fellow Americans.

I would be lying, as well, if I didn’t have concerns that there could be men and women hidden in your midst who may come to America to harm us – our communities – our families – my family.

So here’s what I can do to try to let you know that I want my heart and compassion to win out over the fear in my life.  I can invite you to live with my family.  To be a member of my family.

We don’t have much to offer but someplace warm from the upcoming Minnesota Winter.  A place to lay down your head.  Food to eat.  And, for your kids, a school to go to with other kids who care more about kid things than they do about fearful things.

Maybe you can teach us the difference between “…nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror…” and terror as a way of life.

Perhaps if we learn about terror as a way of life we can stop the nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror we feel in our hearts and once again come together as nation to make our country safer, more secure and more compassionate.

I love my country.  I love it with all of its flaws, faults and failures.  There’s no place else in the world I want to live or my children to grow up and become good people and leaders in their community.

I hope to meet you and your family when you are in America.  I hope to share with you what I love about this nation.

How proud I am of what we have done to accept the tired, poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, the homeless and the tempest-tost.

America, the land that I love, is better than what you are seeing right now.  In time, I believe, it will rise back to the place where you can see “America is a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere.”

 

 

The decision by the University of Minnesota Student Association to reject a resolution to commemorate 9/11 because some students didn’t want to “…spread Islamophobia..” raises the question of the value of the education that is being delivered on the campus of the University of Minnesota.

The At-Large representation to the Student Association, in expressing his opposition to a moment to commemorate 9/11 had this to say:

“The passing of this resolution might make a space that is unsafe for students on campus even more unsafe…Islamophobia and racism fueled through that are alive and well.”

According to the Minnesota Republic, the University of Minnesota newspaper, the same person “…added that holding a moment of recognition over a tragedy committed by non-white perpetrators could increase racist attitudes on campus, asking, “When will we start having moments of silence for all of the times white folks have done something terrible?”

Dear God in Heaven – every version of God in Heaven – are you serious?

Want to make America – and college campuses – unsafe?  Let the people promoting these nonsense ideas be in charge of the University of Minnesota Student Association – or actually, in charge of anything.

I have an idea for those students who voted against this resolution – go talk to the victims of the families of 9/11.

Go talk to the men and women who ran up the steps of the World Trade Center and gave their lives to others.

Talk to the soldiers who have fought and died to protect America since 9/11.

Ask them what they think about your concerns about being “unsafe” because you were asked to do a simple commemoration for 9/11.

If you truly think that it is too much to ask to honor them – to remember all of that – I have an idea that might get your attention.

How about the Minnesota State Legislature defund the University of Minnesota until you reverse this indefensible affront to the dignity, memory and honor of the victims, the heroes and heroines and the people of the United States of America?

If you agree with me sign my petition at http://chn.ge/1NXXEMp

Maybe it’s time that you understand that you are accountable for your actions.  That your words actually mean something.  That your decision has consequences.

Take away the funding for the University where you feel safe to act without courage or conviction — but for some empty rhetoric about your rights.

There’s no reason for the taxpayers of Minnesota – or any state – to fund your platform built upon a pile of baloney.

I protested as a college student at St. Cloud State University.  I opposed American policies in Central America – I stood against America’s support for the apartheid government of South Africa – I rallied against war in places in the world fought in our name.

I wasn’t alone.  I stood with and behind thousands of other young men and women who rejected policies that discriminated against people of color, women and the poor.

We did so because we loved America.  Because we believed it could and should be better.  I loved America then and all it could become.

I love America today and all it still can and should become.  We’re not perfect.  Far from it.  We have a long way to go for equality and justice for all people – here at home and across the world.

But the actions of the University of Minnesota Student Association to reject an opportunity to commemorate 9/11 serves no purpose to change or better the world we live in.

It’s the actions of sheltered children who believe they are entitled to distance themselves from the destructive hurt and violence of their words.

They have made me feel unsafe about my love for America.

It’s time for us to send a message to them.  Defund the University of Minnesota until the Minnesota Student Association reverses its violent rhetorical attack against the victims of 9/11 and the brave men and women who served that day and those who have served every single day since then to protect and preserve America.

It’s done!  After 24 hours the much ballyhooed Minnesota “Give to the Max Day” is done and thanks to 62,740 donors $18,063,598 was raised benefitting 5,694 Minnesota nonprofits and schools.

Whew!  

Spare Key, http://www.sparekey.org, was one of those 5,964 Minnesota nonprofits and schools that is the beneficiary of the generosity of tens of thousands of Minnesotans who donated their time and treasure to support others.

Its days like Give to the Max Day that reminds me what good is in people.  It’s not like people aren’t good the other 364 days of the year to charity and causes to benefit humanity.  Because they are.  I can attest to that as the Executive Director of a small non-profit that — each year — each day — every week and every month — is supported by people who send us their dollars or donate their time to help people they will never meet.  Do not know.  

But whose generosity changes their lives in seen and unseen ways.

Our own effort for Give to the Max Day was called “Sweat to the Max” and thanks to the incredible kindness of Mike Jones and his entire ownership team, trainers and staff at Union Fitness, http://www.dorealwork.com, we far exceeded our financial goals for the day.  

Hundreds of CrossFitters gathering for classes at CrossFit St. Paul, CrossFit St. Louis Park and CrossFit Minneapolis did tens of thousands of Burpees as a way to generate funds and awareness for Spare Key.  

We are delighted at the many new donors that donated their Burpees to Spare Key — and their dollars.

Yet, it’s not the money that moves me every time I am involved with these types of events.

It’s the pure sense of generosity of so many people.  Not just to Spare Key — but to 5,694 Minnesota nonprofits and schools.

On Give to the Max Day — and the other 364 days of the year.

I did some Burpees.  I am paying for it today.  Yet, the aches and pains pale in comparison to the aches and pains of the tens of thousands of Minnesotans every year who depend upon the services of programs like Spare Key and 5,693 other Minnesota nonprofits and schools.

If not for the efforts of organizations like GiveMN — their dedicated staff–and the companies and foundations that support their efforts for days like “Give to the Max Day” there would be far more aches and pains in Minnesota.

I know that my staff views their work at Spare Key as a vocation.  I suspect the team at GiveMN does, too.  It is a job.  But it is public service.  And, both are important to our community as a whole.

Today is the day after Give to the Max Day.  Our needs for donors to support our efforts continues today.  There will be more direct mail — more phone calls — more events — more pleas for dollars to help more Minnesotans.

It’s what we do to do what we have to do. 

And, every day — every week — month and year — what Minnesotans do is Give to the Max.

It’s what they do to help us do what we have to do. 

One day.  Every day.

Today is Spare Key’s Thanks to the Max Day.

Thank you!

100,00 Burpees for Sweat to the Max Day for Give to the Max Day!  Are you crazy?

The moment that Jacob Wetterling was stolen from his life nearly every Minnesota’s life would never be the same.

On Thursday, October 29^th 2015 – 26 years and 7 days to the day Jacob was removed from the arms of his family and his community – I, along with what I imagine were tens of thousands of other Minnesotans tuned in to hear the breaking news surrounding developments related to his disappearance.

Instead of a television, my small staff and I gathered around my computer screen, to watch law enforcement announce a “person of interest” during a livestream press conference.  We watched and listened in rapt silence – waiting for the moment we would be told they had determined what and where Jacob had been for the past 26 years.

The moment never came.

Instead, the 52 year old man who was 26 when Jacob vanished – the 39 year old who was 13 – the 27 year old who was 1 and the 24 year old who had yet to be born – continue to hope for closure for Jacob and his Family.

Which, I can only imagine, will never really come.

Nor will it, I imagine in the lives of any of us who lived through the past 26 years wondering and waiting for Jacob to come home.

And, that is why; I think experienced journalists and television anchors like WCCO’s Frank Vascellaro found their heart in their throat yesterday when reading the statement from Jacob’s family.

Yesterday, I was Frank Vascellaro on the way home from work.  The impact and the dramatic reminder that Jacob Wetterling is still gone from his life came back and walloped me right in the stomach, the heart and the tear ducts in my eyes.

It’s why the impact of yesterday’s news hit me differently at 52 than at 26.

For those of us who are now parents or those of us who have seen our friends and family’s children born and grow up through the years, Jacob Wetterling’s journey in this life has been with us from the moment he left us.

From the frantic hours, days, weeks and months where entire communities scoured the land, near and far, to find Jacob – to the years that have passed with increasingly less visible and public news about his disappearance – Jacob’s really never left our lives.

Certainly he never left the lives of his family and friends.  I cannot imagine what yesterday’s news meant to them – nor what their lives have been like when time must have seemed to stand still 26 years ago for them.

It says something about us, as people, I hope, that Jacob Wetterling never left our lives.

I know that there were so many  of us, for so long, who consciously and subconsciously, looked at the car passing by us, wondering if we might see Jacob peering back at us.

Or, the quick glimpse of a little boy down the street, quickly thinking, “Could it be Jacob?” and then realizing it was not.

From time to time there was some hopeful evidence that someone knew something.  And, then the urgency of the news faded back into the other news of the day.

Then yesterday came.  And, the news seems to bring Jacob closer to coming home.

I have never doubted there are people who know what happened to Jacob, and who was involved with his disappearance.

The Wetterling Family has never doubted this, either.  Their statement reminds those who know what happened to Jacob Wetterling that their human and moral debt to the life of Jacob Wetterling has not been absolved.

In the hours, the days and the weeks ahead I hope, like I believe thousands of Minnesotans hope that a turning point has come in Jacob Wetterling’s journey.

He has been gone for too long.  His family without him for too long.

Pray for Jacob.  Pray for his family.  Pray for those who took him.

Pray for those that know what happened to Jacob Wetterling to put him back in their hearts.

And, pray for Jacob to come home.

His announcement today that he is stepping down, immediately, as Coach of the University of Minnesota Golden Gopher’s Football Team is another profile in courage for this man.

I remember the first times that Kill had seizures along the sidelines of football games and imagining just how scary that had to be for him and his family. I remember seeing some of the images of this grown man lying on the ground while frantic coaches, players and medical personnel rushed to his aid.

From that moment on there were stories and commentary from all quarters about the wisdom of having him continue to serve as the Coach of the University of Minnesota Gopher’s football team.

To me there should have never been a question. This man belonged on the sidelines – Coaching.

He is, as he exhibited and stated today, a football coach. That is who he is. That is what he does. That is what his calling has been for decades.

It would have been easy for the University of Minnesota to join the chorus of those who were calling for sidelining him permanently. I have no doubt there were powerful voices demanding that the Coach be replaced, that his illness was standing in the way of football glory and victory.

That the University of Minnesota rejected those voices and those thoughts and stood by and behind their Coach and his family is something that should not be lost upon Minnesotans. It is the best of that institution. It reflects well on all of us that we support an academic institution that put its values ahead of its standings in the college football rankings.

Jerry Kill reminded me of someone else, though, when his very public struggle with epilepsy interrupted his life and career.

It brought me back almost 40 years ago to a small town in North Dakota and a young man, barely a man, named Alan.

Alan was my best friend. We were full of life. He was funny, quirky, kind and a farm boy through and through. Alan loved music. He was quiet but could be as rowdy and loud as any boy his age. I spent the best parts of my teen years with Alan.

Then, without warning, Alan had a seizure. And more seizures. It became obvious that it was Epilepsy and Alan suddenly became more quiet, subdued and withdrawn.

As kids we didn’t know much about Epilepsy. We knew that it resulted in seizures and when they happened they were terrifying.

For Alan they were draining. Emotionally, physically and spiritually.

In the late 1970’s there wasn’t a lot of support and understanding and knowledge of epilepsy for young people like Alan. In the small town of Fairmount most of us had no idea what we were supposed to do, or not do.

Alan used to love to come to school dances, but the prospect of a seizure in the middle of his classmates while they were dancing, with a strobe light flashing, had him stop coming to those things that he loved to do.

Then, one day, disaster struck for Alan and soon for everyone who knew and loved him.

At a school function Alan had a seizure. And there, in front of hundreds of his classmates, teachers and others, Alan writhed on the floor while people desperately tried to help prevent injury to himself during his seizure.

I can still remember the scene as though it was yesterday. This 16 year old boy, on the cold floor of a gym, his body frozen in a seizure and caring hands trying to help him.

He looked so small and lonely.

Yet that wasn’t what troubles me the most almost 40 years later.

It was when the seizure was done and Alan gained his senses and sat up. In front of him were hundreds of eyes staring back at him. Every single pair of them relieved that he seemed okay.

But the pair of eyes that stared back at them were devastated. A 16 year old boy knew that people had seen him in a way that he never wanted them to see. They saw him vulnerable. Exposed. Helpless if not for the kindness of others.

There was judgement in that room that day, and none of it came from the hundreds – but from the one. Alan himself.

On November 25^th, 1979 Alan took his life in his bedroom at his home just outside of Fairmount.

He was 16.

I know that had Alan had the support that Jerry Kill and his family had today back then Alan would have grown to be a man whose contribution to our world would have been amazing.

I wish I knew more of what to do then to help Alan more. I know that all of us who knew and loved Alan wished we did, as well.

Which is why I have such a deep and abiding respect for the University of Minnesota and those who stood with and behind Jerry Kill at what I can only imagine were some of his darkest and most desperate hours.

I remember thinking of Alan when I saw Jerry Kill on the ground. Imagining him looking at the thousands of eyes staring back at him, relieved he seemed okay – and the one pair of eyes looking back at them and knowing what they had seen.

It’s why I look at Jerry Kill and I think of Alan. Jerry Kill is only two years older than Alan would have been today had his illness not contributed to his decision to take his own life.

It’s why I think Jerry Kill reminded me again, today, of how much I and the world lost when Alan left the Earth nearly 40 years ago.

It’s why I am so grateful that Jerry Kill and his Family have made the right decision to focus on his health and proud of the University of Minnesota for having had the courage to stand with and behind this profoundly important man in our lives.