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In 1934 I attended the State School for the Blind, at Faribault. That was in the Great Depression and the blind kids had almost no hopes of getting a job when they finished school. Going to a street corner with a tin cup and a musical instrument or selling pencils or newspapers was about their only hope.

In 1936 the State Legislature decided to do something for us. When we went back to school after Labor Day we had Ervin Rowe, who was heavyweight wrestling champ of the Big Ten, and Axel Neilson from Denmark, who came to this country with the Olympics. It was their job to motivate us physically.

The first day I went to school in 1936 Axel Neilson was walking on his hands between buildings. I think all the boys were anxious to walk on their hands after seeing him do it. Also, we had roller skates, ice skates and much more to activate us. And it did.

We were not allowed to take part in state tournaments because we were a state school. But we did wrestle neighboring schools. One year we wrestled Austin and beat them. It was their first meet and their only loss all year. Their coach wanted a repeat match so they could say they defeated everyone they went against that year. He said probably his boys didn't try very hard because we were blind. They suffered the second defeat.

The highlight of the tumbling team was when we were invited to tumble at half time at Williams Arena at the State Championship Basketball Tournament between Bemidji and Breckenridge. We did our tumbling tricks and then a four-tier pyramid; six boys on hands and knees; six boys standing on their hands on the first six boys' shoulders, then two boys standing on the feet of those six, then a girl standing on the two boys' shoulders. That was the loudest cheering I have ever heard. When we did the pyramid it didn't seem so hard to do, but when I think of it now it seems impossible. I guess we were motivated.

Every one of those kids really wanted to pay income taxes when they grew up. They wanted to have their own home, family and job. That was their American dream. Most of them did it.

My concern now is trickle down economics. Less than 2 percent of the people have more than 50 percent of the income, and they do not want to pay income taxes. Instead they would rather the government borrow money from them, so the 98 percent can pay interest on it.

It seems the American dream of the 2 percent richest people is to not pay income taxes.



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