Yes we can, not yes we should

Harry C. Boyte

Driving around Minneapolis and St. Paul on Halloween, I mused about

Minnesota’s lessons for the nation. Bulletin boards displayed posters for the upcoming

election. Drivers bringing leaves from their yards created a traffic jam at the St. Paul

compost site. Children outdid each other with fanciful costumes and neighborhoods

glowed with spooky decorations, creating the feel of a public carnival.

All testify to the fact that Minnesota has a civic culture, not just discrete civic

activities. This makes it the most civically engaged state according to America’s Civic

Health Index, an annual survey of civic involvement by the National Conference on

Citizenship. Through productive citizenship Minnesotans continue to create Minnesota.

America’s Civic Health Index measures forms of civic participation including

voting, volunteering, work on neighborhood problems, attending public meetings, and

charitable giving. The report this year showed a pattern of sharp civic decline in the

recession. But Minnesota largely bucked the trend.

While more than seventy percent nationally said they cut back in volunteering, the

figure in Minnesota was 58.6% -- and 41.4% increased voluntary efforts. Minnesota is

one of two states (the other is South Dakota) that ranks in the top 10 on four key

measures: the percentage of residents 16 and older volunteering, attending a public

meeting about community affairs, working with others in their neighborhood to fix a

problem over the past three years and the percentage of eligible voters casting ballots in

the past three federal election cycles.

 Ted Kolderie, former director of the Citizens League, a Twin Cities civic

association which pioneered many of the policy reforms earning Newsweek’s “Minnesota

Miracle” designation, explains that people believe “this place is made.” Similarly, when

Timothy DenHerder Thomas visited Macalester College in 2005 on a college tour, the

sense of agency contrasted with his hometown of Newark. “People here actually treat

things as if they can shape them, rather than react.” Tim became active in the renewable

energy movement in college.

Civic work created a world-class system of education, both formal and informal,

tangible signs of productive citizenship in Minnesota. In the first half of the 20th century,

citizens organized eleven settlement houses in the Twin Cities which aimed at helping

immigrants learn active citizenship through productive contributions. Richard Green,

Minneapolis school superintendent, took the idea of civic learning in communities from

the Phyllis Wheatley settlement to New York City, when he became chancellor.

Minnesotans pioneered in early childhood parent education, community education, and

community service. They created the nation’s first charter school. Today, Minnesota leads

in the percentage with a high school education. Just over 60% have some college.

Despite such public achievements, trends which weaken civic engagement

elsewhere are also evident here. Many neighborhood schools have disappeared.

Consumer identities have partially displaced producer ones. According to historian Mark

Ritson the shift is evident in the annual State Fair (called “The Great Minnesota Get

Together”). Before World War II the accent was on efforts like the New Deal Works

Progress Administration (which built many state fair buildings) and the Civilian

Conservation Corps, responsible for contour farms, soil conservation, and many state
parks. Four-H projects drew crowds. In the fifties, concession stands came to dominate;

4-H exhibits were scaled back; the Blue Ribbon label was licensed to a private company.

The rise of meritocracy also weakened civic life. A 1999 study by the Minnesota

Board of Aging found that most people feel nonprofits as well as schools, businesses, and

politics condescend to their intelligence and talent. Volunteer opportunities often relegate

them to “positions of mediocrity with the assumption that they lack the capacity to work

on big issues that impact the community.”

Though we need to strengthen our civic ethos, Minnesota has nonetheless kept a

culture of civic effort going strong. Rather than simply expecting other people to solve

problems for them, Minnesotans’ productive citizenship remains visible in school reform

and local historical societies, libraries, art fairs and recycling groups. Such efforts go

beyond service to others – the hallmark to date of the Obama administration’s civic

initiatives. Civic work creates public goods and solves public problems. It builds civic

muscle and teaches skills of work across differences. It generates hope that we can shape

our destiny. It develops ownership in the commonwealth.

Barack Obama ran on a kindred idea, “yes we can.” But it is up to everyone to

make it real if we are to retrieve what the philosopher Michael Sandel has called “a

narrative that challenges us to be citizens engaged in a common endeavor, not just

consumers seeking the best deal for ourselves.”

In common endeavor, Minnesota is a school for the nation.

Harry C. Boyte is co-director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at Augsburg College, a Senior
Fellow at the Humphrey Institute, and co-author of the recently released Minnesota Civic Health, in
partnership with the National Conference on Citizenship. He is also author of Everyday Politics
(PennPress, 2004), and The Citizen Solution (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2008), both about civic
life and productive citizenship in Minnesota.