The flag shown is a trendy suggestion for our new Minnesota state flag.
However, putting the controversial subject of a selection for a new flag for our Star of the North aside, certainly, the past month of television has made all the citizens of our great state of Minnesota very proud.
The first three weeks of television coverage carried the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, when we watched many athletes from Minnesota, or with Minnesota connections, compete. This was followed by the Paralympics, and the 2024 National Democratic Convention in Chicago.
As I watched the television coverage of the 2024 Summer Olympics, I was reminded of the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, when all of us guys crowded around a barrel stove on a very unusually chilly August evening in Orville Ellis’s Texaco Station on Walker’s Main Street - where the Village Square is today.
We were anxious to hear how an athlete from the little town of Akeley, just 11 miles down Highway 34, did when he competed in the broad jump.
Lloyd Lavois didn’t win a medal, but he made our area of northern Minnesota proud - just by being there.
Seventy-six years later we were able to watch the Olympics on TV. We watched Sunie Lee from St. Paul win a gold medal and two bronze medals in gymnastics. Regan Smith from Lakeville won two gold and three silver in swimming. Jordan Thompson from Edina won silver in volleyball. Sarah Bacon from the University of Minnesota won silver in diving. Anthony Edwards from our Minnesota Timberwolves and Nepheesa Collier from our Minnesota Lynx both won gold medals.
It truly was a tremendous athletic accomplishment from our Star of the North.
Later we watched the Paralympics when 13 Minnesota athletes competed, including Aaron Pike from Park Rapids, who competed in wheelchair racing. Medal winners from Minnesota included Mallory Weggeman, a swimmer from Eagan; Ian Seidenfeld from Lakeville in table tennis; and Lexi Patterson from Waseca in sitting volleyball.
The next week, we listened to an ex-football coach from Mankato West High School give the best pep talk he has ever made, as he accepted the nomination for vice president of the United States, and strongly and forcibly asked for support in nominating Kamala Harris as president.
His entrance to the tune of John Mellencamp’s, “Small Town” was met with waves of applause and signs reading, “Coach Walz!” Coach seemed to be just as comfortable with the huge crowd in the United Center of Chicago as he was facing his team in the small locker room of Mankato West - comparing a national election to a football game - as they relate to the true meaning of the word, “freedom” - stressing the fact that freedom doesn’t come free - not unlike a football game - you have to work hard for it.
Tim Walz’s son Gus, who had been diagnosed with a non-verbal learning disorder and an anxiety disorder as a teenager, stood up with tears in his eyes, applauded, pointed to his dad, and proudly said, “That’s my dad!”
So too, should all of us in the great state of Minnesota be proud of our athletes in the Olympic Games, the Paralympics and our representation at the Democratic Convention. Although we may have different opinions concerning the design of our flag and our political viewpoints, we can nevertheless be very proud of our “L’toile du Nord,” and proud to be an American!
The views and opinions expressed in the “The old and the new” column belong solely to the author, and not The Pilot-Independent or an organization, committee or individual.
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