Mesabi Daily News - Commentary/Opinion - 08/14/2011
Mr. President, jobs are waiting for a go-ahead on the Range; come and tout nonferrous mining.
DFL legislators, IRRRB commissioner, governor, Democratic U.S. senators, Republican U.S. representative: Unify, be vocal.
Here’s what the White House has to say about President Barack
Obama’s three-day Midwest tour that includes a stop in Minnesota.
“While in the Midwest, the president will discuss ways to grow the economy, strengthen the middle class and accelerate hiring in communities and towns across the nation and hear directly
from Americans, including small business owners, local families, private sector leaders, rural organizations and government officials. The president knows we must do everything we can to
promote economic growth, restore confidence in our nation’s future and enhance the sense of optimism for future generations.”
Gee, maybe it would make sense for him to travel to the Iron Range and advocate for the copper/nickel/precious metals mining projects that would create thousands and thousands of jobs that
would “accelerate hiring.”
And maybe he should travel here to tout projects such as PolyMet and Twin Metals that would “promote economic growth.”
If so, he would be helping to “restore confidence” and “enhance the sense of optimism for future generations. Also, in so doing, he would be sending the right message for his “green economy” initiative — after all, these are the metals to be extracted from the ground to make a “green economy” go.
A visit from the president would show his support for real jobs,
American jobs, that are ready, willing and able to go. And if he brought some of the EPA bureaucrats with him, perhaps they
would hear from their boss that the agency needs to move aside and let American jobs on the Iron Range of Minnesota happen.
We strongly encourage DFL Iron Range legislators, DFL Iron Range
Resources & Rehabilitation Board Commissioner Tony Sertich, DFL Gov. Mark Dayton, Democratic U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken and Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack to join together in a letter to the president inviting him up here to celebrate the
great history of mining in Minnesota and to promote what should be a great future of nonferrous ventures.
It’s way past time for all our elected officials to actively and aggressively be visible and vocal advocates for a new era of
mining on the Iron Range. For far too long the voices of anti-mining zealots have not been consistenly countered by our
elected and appointed representatives. Legislators, IRRRB commissioner, governor, U.S. senators, U.S. representative — all of you talk eloquently about the need for more jobs on the Iron Range, in Minnesota, in the country.
Well, here’s your chance to make some noise in unison nationally.
Send such a letter with urgency to the president and we stronly believe you would get air time on network and cable shows and print in major publications.
Be bold. And Mr. President, Minnesota has been strong Democratic country; the Iron Range overwhelmingly Democratic for decades and decades. So why not a little political payback. Come and push
for so many jobs that are oh so close to being realized. You want some favorable attention? Then don a hard hat and let the cameras roll as you champion future mining jobs in Minnesota. Be visionary.
If all of these powerful and influential people are silent or can’t come together in such an effort, then why should an Iron Range public growing weary of the lack of job creation in the area continue to listen to their political rhetoric? Why
indeed.
We anxiously await a response, some kind of response, to what we believe would be a sincere effort to stimulate more jobs on the Iron Range and therefore in Minnesota and the nation.
