If our kids (all of them) are going to compete with young people from China and India in a global marketplace, they need a better education than they are getting in today's budget-starved schools where teachers are paying for basic school supplies out of their own pockets. We need to have all Minnesota children ready for kindergarten and and we need to have all of them graduate. All of our families need access to affordable healthcare, so that our overwhelmed hospital emergency rooms can go back to treating genuine health crises, rather then the desparate visits of the uninsured.

We need to invest in our long-neglected transportation infrastructure to unlock the gridlock on our freeways. We need to once more be able to fish and swim in the 10,000 lakes of which we were once so proud, without worrying about mercury poisoning and skin rashes.

Minnesota has been good to my husband and me. That's why we make generous donations of money and time to the community (I spend 10-20 hours a week as a volunteer teacher). But private philanthropy is not enough.  We are concerned about a larger vision for Minnesota's future - one that will ensure that our state retains its leadership in education and quality of life. It won't happen if we lose our sense of community, our willingness to help one another. If guns multiply, panhandlers and graffiti artists invade downtown, gangs flourish, racial and economic disparities widen, all of us will lose.  We can't wish these problems away - we have to get together and build the Minnesota we want.