Talk about dignity.

There is very little that will get a Black person from the metropolitan East Coast to identify as a Minnesotan. There is even less that will get us here in the first place. I didn't come here for Paul Wellstone; he sort of came with the package. But I wouldn't have had it any other way for four years.

I only realized I had become a Minnesotan when Senator Wellstone died. I had decided to vote in Minnesota first year, largely because I could not sort out the politics of an absentee ballot and I was eager to throw myself into my first election as if I had been loyal to this district for years. So when the news came that I had lost my Senator, I reacted as many of us did: I took stock. What exactly had I lost? What did I have for a short length of time that was worth remembering?

I had all the rights and responsibilities of being a Minnesotan, and all the privileges of having them safeguarded by someone I could respect. I don't put a lot of stock in privileges—they're something I'm not used to having. But the privilege of having someone you can trust working for you in my hometown, in D.C. where national scandals are local news, is something I have never known before. D.C. doesn't even have Senators. I sort of knew that as a Minnesotan, I would have the right to think one of my elected officials was accountable. I thought I would be proud to cast a vote for someone that I believed in and that I was in a place where that person had a chance.

But that chance is gone now.

I hope that things have turned in the right direction by the time this is published, so that I have something to look forward to on election day. But I don't know how that's possible. I haven't had time to get acquainted with the rest of Minnesota politics. I didn't really know I would feel like a Minnesotan when this year came around. But now, I have some responsibilities. I have some privileges that I think I deserve to keep. I'm a little afraid of where that line of reasoning will take me, but I hope I've earned the right to use it wisely. If Minnesota is all Wellstone convinced me it could be, I hope I can leave here knowing that the last vote I cast in this state will mean something more than the name of the person on the ballot. I hope that voting to keep the rights I have enjoyed as a Minnesotan means something about the rights of all people in this state, whether we come from here or not, whether we have the same privileges and responsibilities or not.