by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
After reading excerpts from a poem, Sartell City Council member Amy Braig-Lindstrom resigned from the council at its Sept. 26 meeting.
At the very start of the meeting, Braig-Lindstrom said she would resign because of residency requirements for council members. She and her husband, Matt, bought a home in St. Joseph some months ago, and their previous home in Sartell has now been sold. Matt Lindstrom is a political science professor at St. John’s University/College of St. Benedict and director of the Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement at SJU.
Braig-Lindstrom was elected to the Sartell City Council in 2012.
After announcing her resignation, Braig-Lindstrom, who’d signed up for the public-forum portion of the council meeting, stepped up to the speaker’s dais. She then read excerpts from a poem that is dear to her heart, one of the poems that was read at her wedding 23 years ago. The poem is entitled Manifesto: A Mad Farmer’s Liberation Front and was written in 1973 by award-winning teacher/farmer/novelist/essayist/philosopher/poet Wendell Berry, who grew up and lives in north central Kentucky.
The following are some of the lines Braig-Lindstrom read:
“So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant, that you will not live to harvest . . .”
After reading from the poem, Braig-Linstrom offered thanks to the people of Sartell who elected her and supported her work on the council.
“I want to thank those folks in the community who have given me the opportunity to serve,” she said.
After a round of applause, Braig-Lindstrom left the city hall chamber.
This Nov. 8, Election Day, two of four candidates will be chosen by voters as city council members. One will take the place of Braig-Lindstrom, the other will replace Steve Hennes, who chose not to file for re-election.
The new members will take their seats at the Nov. 14 council meeting.
Braig-Lindstrom was influential in initiating a farmers’ market in Sartell many years ago, before she became a council member. During her time on the council, she served on numerous committees and advocated the importance of transparency, the need to connect with constituents and their wants and needs, amenities for senior citizens, communications with the school district, recreational options such as safe biking-hiking trails, promotion of the arts and a strong desire to have a community center built in a central location in Sartell with library services.
The latter issue caused divisions on the council during the past year or so, with Braig-Lindstrom and council member David Peterson often voting as a 2-3 minority on questions regarding the community center and its south-Sartell location. At times the verbal exchanges between Braig-Lindstrom, other council members and the city administrator were contentious because of strong disagreements on certain issues and procedures.
Braig-Lindstrom is a potter who also enjoys swimming, running and biking.
In a note to the Sartell Newsleader, she wrote: “I plan to do as little as possible. I will likely reincorporate into my life things from previous eras of my life, like pottery and swimming. I will continue to support all area farmers’ markets.”
