Time to move forward on the Hiawatha golf course — all 18 holes

When community members surrounding Lake Hiawatha were gathered four years ago to discuss the future of the golf course there, there were a lot of well-meaning people seeking a solution to something they held dear — climate, wetlands and the environment. Those are all laudable things to advocate for. I myself do. What that group did not realize, however, was the depths of the history of African American golfers at that course and how, to them, cutting the course in two was like lighting a match to yet another tenuous piece of history on the verge of being erased.

With the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board voting down the plan those community members came up with for a third time on Wednesday, it is clear that anything short of 18 holes at the Hiawatha Golf Course is unacceptable.

At Wednesday's board meeting I asked my fellow commissioners and anyone left in the room (after hours of testimony) if they have heard of "the invisible knapsack." For those unfamiliar, that is the set of privileges that white people usually have and never have to consider, all based on the color of their skin.

Being appointed to a community committee? Well, for that to happen, you need access to power. Is that in the backpack? Getting to set the rules of what "compromise" is defined as? Is that in the backpack? Marginalized communities are usually relegated to pleading and yelling at the top of their lungs to be heard, while white people get to sit calmly with their posters and their children waiting for their name to be called. Trusting that your name will be called — is that in the backpack?

It is clear to me that the only solution to Hiawatha Golf Course moving forward is rebuilding our public-championship, 18-hole course with the greatest minds around engineering and hydrology that our state and indeed our country can offer to us. The Park Board is not equipped to solve this alone. Gray's Bay Dam out in Lake Minnetonka needs to be communicated about. Will our suburban neighbors help us? The city needs to remove or fix a pipe dumping street waste from as far as Lake Street into the lake. Will our City Council and mayor help us? Downstream berms need to be reconciled in order to assure that flooding doesn't happen to those neighbors. Will the Army Corps of Engineers help us? Fixing this ecological and historical place will take money. Will our state and federal reps help us? Can we push this all in the same direction?

We nearly burned our city to the ground a mere two summers ago because we couldn't and haven't faced ourselves. Al Flowers said it so pointedly at Wednesday's meeting: "Our community is grieving, we've been through so much, don't take this from us, too."

The pain in his voice could not be missed. I do believe that if we destroy the positive aspects of our history, then all we are left with is the negative. I don't think anyone wants that. Let's do what we should have done a long time ago: Unpack our backpacks, see ourselves clearly and move forward in community, together.

Becka Thompson is a member of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.