Thomas L. Friedman

My dad thought for a second.

I was just five.

He said, son, he was shopping in a store before it was opened.

That's Minnesota for breaking and entering.

It's that kind of place.

And whenever people ask me where I'm from, I say, well, I live in Beirut or Jerusalem or Washington, but I am from Minnesota.

And you will never understand my column if you don't understand that, because my column is called Foreign Affairs.

It used to be, but it really should be called Always Looking for Minnesota, because I grew up in a time and place where politics worked.

I grew up in this amazing community with my contemporaries were Michael Sandel and

norm ornstein al franken the cone brothers peggy ornstein we all grew up in this amazing time and place that instilled an incredibly powerful sense of community in us and that's what minnesota is about and that is to me the tragedy of what is going on now

but also the beauty of watching people really dedicated to creating out of many one, to getting back to our national project, taking the streets to convey that message.

Well, I go back to that scene at Wilmer High School of those students.

I do believe a generation is coming where this kind of deep diversity will be the norm.

So my default setting is optimistic.

And by the way, that's without drugs, okay?

It comes naturally to me.

And it does come from growing up in Minnesota and seeing this change.

But there are two things that really worry me, Steve.

One is if we lose our institutions, coming back will be next to impossible.

Institutions really matter.