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| Affiliation | Democratic-Farmer-Labor |
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2007-01-06 |
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| Name | David H. Bly |
| Address | 211 N. Lincoln St
Northfield, Minnesota , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | http://www.davidbly.com |
| Born |
January 08, 1952
(73 years)
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| Contributor | The Oncoming Storm |
| Last Modifed | David
Jun 27, 2022 08:48am |
| Tags |
Congregationalist -
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| Info | Teacher; B.A., St. Olaf, 1974; EdMN, negotiator, building rep; teacher trainer, Minnesota SEED Project; past board president, Minnesota Association of Alternative Programs; board of deacons, UCC Northfield; adult board, Northfield Union of Youth; cochairman, Rice County Family Services Collaborative Advisory Board; Rice County DFL chairman.
I grew up and still live in Northfield, MN, and attended local public schools. I graduated from St. Olaf College. We were the third generation to live in our home-- my parents moved in after my grandmother passed away.
My mother was a neighborhood ‘Welcomer.’ When new families moved into the neighborhood, which was fairly frequently in this college town, she would bring them warm apricot bread and fill them in on what she felt they would need to know to become part of the community. She was a nurturer and a helper. My father, a newspaperman by day, was a scout leader and an organizer of neighborhood softball games. He took a particular interest in the kids we played and grew up with, taking time to get to know his children's friends.
Financially, my family always struggled and there were always hospital and medical bills to pay. My father suffered all his life with severe diabetes. We somehow got by. We were fortunate in that my father always had a job, and after he died, my mom worked as a waitress. We lived modestly, which is an example that serves me well today. We never went hungry and I felt we always had what we needed. I even had a chance to go to college-- in fact, all three of the children in our family went on to college. Both my father's parents were educators and education was highly valued in my home.
Sadly, my father succumbed to diabetes in 1968 at the age of 43. That same year Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were killed. Those years were formative in my political thinking.
My story is not remarkably different from yours. A fundamental theme that stretches back several generations is invest in community — my family has been intensely committed to service and community. That commitment is more than just words, it is decades of missionary work, volunteering in community, arts, and church venues, and careers that focus on the obligation we have to contribute to and improve the world we live in.
This commitment was reinforced and supported for me by the traditions developed and fostered in my own years at St. Olaf College. Since then I have been a teacher (30 years now!) and over the years I have been drawn to those students in my classes who struggled because of learning difficulties or because of the detrimental effects of a troubled home life.
Wherever possible I have shown students a more likely path to success. I have always wanted them to have and reach goals. This has lead me to my current position as Lead Teacher at the Northfield Alternative Learning Center where we work with students who need a different approach to succeed in school. I have learned from my students, too-- I have learned a great deal about overcoming obstacles and the courage it takes to move forward in life.
I am running for the District 25B Minnesota House of Representatives seat because I am disturbed by the dangerous shift away from commitment to community and investment in our future. We are moving away from the things I value about Minnesota and what has made it such a great state to grow up in.
These are the values and priorities I believe we must preserve:
1. A belief in a mixed economy that pools the resources of private, public and nonprofit enterprise which creates a positive climate for growth and investment.
2. A commitment to a progressive tax system that puts the burden of taxes on those who are the most able to pay.
3. A belief in strong support for and investment in public education at the k12 and higher education levels. This will in turn create a work force and work environment we need to maintain our high quality labor resource.
4. A belief in support for labor and the notion that 'we all prosper when we all prosper'.
5. The realization that sometimes people need a hand up in order to realize their dreams and participate in community, and commitment to provide that needed assistance.
6. A welcoming of immigrants and a shared belief in working together for a common good with the benefits of integrating perspectives from other cultures.
7. The belief that when we pool our resources we make a better world than when we all build separately. In other words 'the whole is greater than the sum of its parts'.
8. A strong sense of the importance of our stewardship of wilderness and the environment in general. Minnesotans have benefited from our natural environment as a source for recreation, contemplation, renewal and a ready food source. Early settlers were attracted to clear streams and fertile soil and used them to make Minnesota the state it is today.
9. A Commitment to(1) providing essential services as a public good (2) providing economic access and (3) using sustainable means.
10. A commitment to creating an energy future that sustains rather than destroys the world we live in.
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