Marshall: Petty bickering and finger-pointing may work elsewhere, but not in southwest Minnesota

Minnesota, particularly southwest Minnesota, is a place that I am proud to call home and to be raising my children in. We are a people of hard work and self-respect. We face our challenges head on, and over the last few months, we’ve had a few of those. We have, and are going through, a difficult time here in southwest Minnesota.
We, as Minnesotans, are not a people who turn away from hard questions or difficult answers. This is why I was so disappointed in how our State Senate failed to address police reform during the special session.
A recent opinion piece by State Sen. Bill Weber made its way through many of the local papers in this district. In it he attempted to explain from his perspective why the State Senate voted to adjourn and go home without accomplishing anything of significance during the last special session.
Frankly, all I saw was excuses and tired, old talking points. This does not represent the values of southwest Minnesota. We do not make excuses for our mistakes. We face them, and we fix them.
While Sen. Weber explained his reasoning in regard to the Senate’s failure to agree on the appropriation of funds provided by the CARES Act, he failed to mention a single word as to why they would not even discuss the Police Reform measures that were passed by the State House of Representatives. The people of Minnesota, whether they are Republican, Democrat or Independent, want action. What that action looks like is up for debate, but to go home at such a critical point and not even discuss the issues facing the state is unacceptable.
What I saw in his article was excuses. What I saw was finger-pointing.  What I saw was meaningless talking points like you would hear in Washington, D.C.  Whatever Sen. Weber’s excuses may have entailed, at the end of the day the people’s interests were not represented.
This could have been a turning point in the history of our state, a moment where our strength, unity and resolve were shown for our hurting communities to see. Instead, it was just a footnote of inaction.
We cannot afford to become Washington, D.C. We cannot allow the political games and vitriol of federal politicians to take root in our state. 
Publicly smearing Gov. Walz as Sen. Weber did, implying that he is corrupt, without anything to substantiate that claim in our newspapers, was shameful, whether we agree with Gov. Walz or not. 
Sen. Weber is supposed to be a civic leader, and that kind of petty bickering and finger-pointing may work elsewhere, but we Minnesotans hold ourselves to a higher standard. We need representation that holds itself to that same high standard.
Our state senator could have done better, and frankly, we the people deserve better.
Shawna Marshall
Candidate for State Senate for District 22