Fiddles, friendliness, flags, and the future
On an evening ten degrees colder than it should have been, I stopped by a new-to-me Irish music session. I was in the neighborhood to have dinner with one friend and attend the book launch of another, and the session was just a few blocks over. Walking around a corner and turning from the frigid wind, I saw two flags waving outside the bar, one for Ireland, one for Minnesota.
A welcome sight, especially our new state flag, after all we’ve been through so far this year.
The bar’s cozy warmth embraced me, and I saw not one but three friends playing in the circle of musicians. I hadn’t brought my fiddle – as my longtime teacher always said, “Never leave your violin in the car longer than you’d leave a person in the car.” So mine had stayed home while I was out and about. I was just there to listen.
Wrong – I was almost immediately invited into the circle, asked my name, and offered both a beer and a fiddle to play. I told them my name, said no thanks to the beer, and was unsure about the fiddle. A violin is such a personal and expensive thing, but a young woman handed me hers without a second thought.
I wasn’t used to playing without a shoulder rest, but the instrument had a beautiful sound, and before I knew it I led a couple of tunes, including one from the Irish dancing scene in “Titanic.”
Weeknight sessions don’t go late, and in my short time there, I was offered places to sit, glasses of water, and two more fiddles to play. This is the world I want to live in, where a stranger – even one of middling abilities – can show up and be welcomed. And this world, in bits and pieces and a patchwork, does exist.
On this very same evening, thirty miles to the northwest, the elected officials of an exurb were embracing a different vision of the world, and of our state. They unanimously voted to reject the very same Minnesota flag that was flying outside the pub.
The flag, chosen in a lengthy statewide process and officially adopted in 2024, has become politicized as a symbol of – newness? Cities? Diversity? The future?
You’d think those might be good things, but some communities – a few of them represented in congress by an execrable race-baiter – have decided to fly only our former flag, which shows a white settler plowing a field while an Indian on a horse rides away.
Not new, not urban, not diverse, and not the future.
“WooHooo.....Let's take our state back!!!” cheered one business owner on social media. “Back into the past” and “back from nonwhite immigrants” is the unsubtle subtext being promoted, especially by conspiracy theorists claiming the new flag is based on Somalia’s.
Do I personally love the design of the new flag? No, I think it’s kind of boring and looks like a nautical alphabet flag. My favorite design among the three finalists was similar, but with blue, white, and green stripes where the light blue area is.
But am I going to storm the Capitol because the democratic process didn’t go my way? No. Am I going to refuse to fly the new flag and pretend it’s 1983 or 1893? Also no. Am I grateful to see it wherever it flies? Yes.
The flag debate is a reminder that, as amazing as Minnesotans have been in supporting their neighbors and protesting fascism in 2026, the most recent presidential election here was pretty close. The incompetent authoritarian war-mongering white guy got almost 47 percent of the statewide vote, while the qualified woman of color got not quite 51 percent.
Those numbers would be farther apart today, as the president’s popularity has plunged everywhere. But Minnesota’s leftward lean and welcoming ways can’t be taken for granted, and simmering backlash is likely to always be a part of our green, white, and blue landscape.
May we work toward making it an ever-smaller part, keep offering a seat and a drink to those looking for community, and fly the flag of the future.