Rest in Power, Melissa and Mark
As we enter the funeral weekend of Minnsesota Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, we at MnEEP extend our deepest, heartfelt condolences to their children Sophie and Colin, to the entire Hortman family and to all who loved and honored them.
At MnEEP, we believe in, and strive to live by the Beloved Community that our American prophet, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of and called us to embody. Having served with Speaker Hortman for many years in the Minnesota House of Representatives, I know she embraced that call and strove to lead and govern for its vision of a society where each and all are recognized for their dignity and treated with respect.
MnEEP envisions such a society as we strive for racial justice in our education systems and for the application of equity in making that happen.
The Beloved Community is a condition where individuals and groups are free of discrimination and injustice. I know this was central to Speaker Hortman’s goals as an elected lawmaker for the people of Minnesota.
When she tapped me to Chair the Minnesota House Committee on Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform, she excitedly shared her vision: she wanted me to lead a transformational effort to end racism in our criminal justice systems. Her goal was to create a policy framework that kept all Minnesotans safe through just and fair laws—laws that would empower people to build problem-solving communities where we could all learn, and where we could also extend grace to one another to atone and seek redemption when we caused harm.
Melissa had a vision for a better Minnesota, a better society.
She saw in me the goodness to be able to help build such a world. She had this remarkable quality that resides in servant leaders to not only see that but to draw it out by letting others range creatively where the work required us to be.
That didn’t mean she didn’t keep a close eye on those efforts. She clearly saw her role as moderating how far and how fast I—and others—could go. Not because she opposed change, but because she understood that in a diverse and inclusive state like Minnesota, compromise was often necessary to maintain a functional society. She knew that the law is only as powerful as the people’s ability to see themselves in it and to truly own it.
And so, as a reform-minded committee chair, I pushed—hard. I pushed her, and she expected it. She used the new space I was able to create with bold proposals—things like police accountability, citizen-led intervention and prevention, more humane and fair standards for use of force, prison reform, survivor empowerment, and more—to forge new agreements with those in power. I pushed. She negotiated.
At MnEEP, we push for systemic change so that our education systems can be places where students of color and American Indian students can thrive while their White peers also thrive. We see this as crucial to enriching our public education system by centering racial justice and moving it towards transformation.
Like Speaker Hortman, we engage with with our public education system to negotiate for that change, and steadily move it towards authentically owning the solutions to racial injustice that impedes education excellence for each and all students.
I will miss my friend and colleague. I will miss scheming with her for just public policy. I will miss celebrating with her when together we win a battle.
MnEEP calls for all Minnesotans, urban and rural, Democrats and Republicans, people of all faiths and races and cultures to be like Melissa Hortman and Mark Hortman, to embrace the Beloved Community that sees us all as interconnected. Let’s continue to do her work and create the public policy frame guided by that embrace.
Rest in power, Melissa and Mark.
—Hon. Carlos Mariani Rosa; Executive Director, MnEEP
