In a time of desperate politics, it can be easy to get despondent. We little people have no power over anything political, we tell ourselves. Everything is controlled by Big Business, Big Data, Big Tech and the corporate media.
One group in Moorhead, which I’m proud to call myself a part of, is pushing in the opposite direction. The Clay County Climate Action Group, founded by county DFL chairman Paul Harris, took the word “action” to heart, applying for (and receiving) a $2 million grant to build an organic composting facility at the county landfill.
Clay County Solid Waste Director Corey Bang, who is in charge of converting the grant money into an actual facility and program over the next five years, said “(CCCAG) were the ones who originally brought the idea forward. Not sure we would have pursued it if they had not…Clay County works hard to get citizens involved and let their voices guide us. We can only succeed with the help of the public. Any project big or small depends on our citizens’ involvement. Without their buy in, we will fail.”
Harris explained his mindset in a blog post to the county DFL: “You often hear it said that Democrats need to be more than the anti-MAGA party, that we also need to have a positive message about what we’re for. It was that impetus to do something constructive that inspired me to start a Climate Action Group. I called together some people I know who are committed environmentalists to think about what we could do.”
The first project was to help the University of Minnesota Extension Service with the first ever Flutter Fest, promoting pollinator gardens. Then, last summer, a group member returned from the Becker County Fair with a flyer about that county starting an organics composting program. We thought, why not Clay County, too? When later last year we discovered the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency grant program, we pounced, modeling our project after a similar one in central Minnesota, Glacial Ridge Compost Facility — the very place to which Becker County hauls its compost.
Not only will the organic composting facility reduce — by a lot — the amount of methane released in the landfill, with legitimate climate consequences, it also produces a usable compost which is free of pathogens and clearly preferable to some commercial alternatives. The program will start out with institutional partners such as schools and also include a component in which ordinary citizens can drop off their organics. Bang, other staff and the county commissioners have been wonderful to work with, proof that there really are good people working in government, particularly at the local level.
The CCCAG’s success can and should be replicated. And although we’re on a hiatus through election season, our work is not over. What we’ve already achieved is proof that a small group of dedicated people can make a difference.
During an election season dominated by who wins Congress and — in two years — who takes the White House, it’s important to remember former House Speaker Tip O’Neill’s old adage: “All politics is local.” We need to focus not just on these national races, but rather we should care even more about who is elected to the state legislature, governorship and other statewide offices. More importantly, we should place even more significance on who gets elected mayor, council member, county commissioner, township supervisor, sheriff, county attorney, watershed district supervisor and school board member.
Those positions are where the real work often gets done and those people have significantly more of an impact on your everyday lives than who is in Congress or the White House.
While national politics makes you feel inconsequential, allow local politics to make you feel empowered. Just imagine the possibilities if you focus your efforts on your own community.
