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I literally cried last Thursday when the senate for the second time approved the final proposed Vikings stadium bill. All I could feel was utter relief. My tears, as is my blood were purple and it felt like complete victory to me and the state of Minnesota to finally move forward with our much deserved new stadium. It had been a rough two weeks for me. I’m pretty sure I didn’t miss a minute of any of the live coverage from the house and senate when both were hashing out the amendments and attempting to destroy or accomplish success in moving the bill along. At one point I realized I was watching maybe a little too much when my six year old son slapped my laptop after one nay-sayer finished a speech about his basic hatred of the stadium idea. “Shut up stupid!” my son yelled.....After removing him from the proverbial scene though I have to say he said it just right- took the words out of my mouth per say- after all he IS his mothers son.

A few days has past and the dust of the legislative storm has settled  and given me time to reflect on what I observed during the session. I’m not necessarily surprised that there was so much controversy over what is to be the largest project approved thus far by Minnesota government. I mean wouldn’t it be a little nieve to think the “biggest” wouldn’t also be the most debated, expensive, undertaking? Of course it had to be! I’m proud however that the people that believed in it stuck to it. I remember one representative in the senate, shortly before the final vote, pleading her case and attempting to get her comrades to vote red, vote no. She repeatedly stated “The easy vote is yes.” “The easy vote is yes.” She argued that all of the pressure from fans sending thousands of emails and the NFL commissioners appearance and a heavy backing by the governor himself, make it so that the easy decision would have been to declare-OK I’ll agree. I think she’s wrong. I think the easy vote would have been to vote no. No- was the safe vote. A No would have meant everything stays exactly the same in our quiet little Minnesota and no big decisions would have to rest on anybody. She was very wrong. It was the people that voted yes, and supported this through all the backlash that had the tough job.

One resonant issue really started to get to me, even after just the first few hours of debate. I can’t tell you how many district reps stood up and spewed hate to anyone that wanted to use any revenue made from electronic gaming (gambling) to help fund the state’s portion of the bill. A particular representative stood and gave a very- what I suppose was to be “emotional” speech- about his uncle with a gambling problem, and how he (the rep.) couldn’t in good faith support a bill that essentially was going to take people’s hard earned money to pay for our entertainment and ruin more lives like his uncle. This was- to me- the most ridiculous part of the entire debate. And here’s why I want to run for office some day. At no point did any other legislator stand up and scream out the obvious. That this bill, these funds, are not going contribute to other people’s demise. People are going to gamble and waste their money anyway, no matter what we choose to do with the revenue from gambling. People are going to make stupid decisions everyday, and what really is wrong from profiting from a thing that, a thing that no matter where the money goes, people WILL continue to do?

We all know I desperately wanted this stadium and I really didn’t care in what manner, truth be told “by hook or by crook”(yes, I’m quoting Peter Pan) I wanted this to happen. Yet, I’m not stupid. I could understand it would have been shameful had we said,”lets take the funds from Bethany Crisis Nursery, or starving kids, or out of a church collection plate-or, lets steal it from a bank!” Yes all of that even I could agree- somewhat sketchy. But for christ sake! Gambling? What a joke! It’s a perfect source of  revenue because it’s not money being stolen from anybody’s pocket. Gambling is a choice. As is drinking and smoking and whatever else the hell a free citizen’s vice may be. It’s so basically simple an option, yet so fair and perfect, I’m astonished it almost made this whole thing a deal breaker. It’s not even like a punishment to the gambling community. It’s an advantage to the gambling community. I mean, if you want to spend your paycheck on pull-tabs, that’s your bad, but hey, at least for once that money you chose to blow is actually going to the good of the state and the people.

It’s over now, so I imagine this should be my last column relating to the stadium. However, I just want to say that I truly believe this is a wonderful, amazing effort and I’m so happy I get to keep my Vikings, and maybe now Minnesota gets to keep me.