Nick Coleman is happy to pay spend your money for a meaningless party:

Minnesota’s celebration of its 150th birthday in 2008 is shaping up to be nothing special. I’ll bring the cheese. You bring crackers.

That may be all we get to observe the admission of Minnesota as the 32nd state of the Union on May 11, 1858. We can hold it in my garage, if I can get it cleaned up.

Coleman bemoans the fact that our “happy to pay…” legislature hasn’t ponied up enough money for…I don’t know, a party suitable to soothe the collective egoes of people who tie their personal worth to that of their state?  I have no idea.

The sesquicentennial isn’t underfunded. It is unfunded.

That needs to change, in a big way. And in a big hurry.

Um – why?

The commission was authorized by the Legislature in 2005, and the plan was to appropriate $2 million in state funds for the sesquicentennial and to seek $2 million more in private contributions. But legislation allowing the commission to accept contributions just passed a couple of weeks ago, and Gov. Tim Pawlenty — who didn’t include funding for the sesquicentennial in his budget priorities — vetoed a bill that included a belated appropriation.

Yet another reason we need to be thankful Tim Pawlenty won.

That 1958 celebration of Minnesota’s 100th birthday cost $1.1 million, which is $8 million in today’s dollars and amounted to almost $3 per capita. Today, with a larger population, $750,000 amounts to just 15 cents per Minnesotan. Whoopee. Knock yourself out.

The centennial included a historic train that visited 86 of the 87 counties in the state (Cook County had no rail connection), a big parade and a giant statehood celebration at the old Memorial Stadium, plus celebrity appearances at the State Fair, including a visit from Marilyn Monroe.

This time around, we should ask Prince and Bob Dylan to put on a free show on the riverfront, but we’ll be lucky to get Britney to get out of a cab.

Question:  is there any reason a state government that is constantly piddling and moaning about being broke needs to throw a big vanity-fest at taxpayer expense? 

Look. We need a celebration. Not just to celebrate, but to contemplate, too. To think about who we are as a people, how we got here, where we came from (including a candid look at the way that the wresting of the state from the “wilderness” meant disaster and suffering for the Indian tribes already here), and where we are headed.

Ain’t no party like a Nick C party.

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007 at 4:53 am and is filed under Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.