My friend was assassinated. In a world of shrinking political ideals, she was a beacon
Like my classmates around the world, I'm heartbroken by the killing of Melissa and her husband Mark. She was widely loved and admired by friends, colleagues and constituents. We're now trying to work out the best ways to honour her legacy.
Melissa's political prowess has been rightly lauded in recent days. She was a leading architect of what has been labelled the ' Minnesota Miracle ', her tenure as Minnesota House speaker ushering in major reforms on everything from free school lunches to action on climate change. Governor Tim Walz has called her 'the most consequential speaker in state history' – a sentiment echoed by some Republican colleagues, too.
The human loss is magnified by the rare kind of person and leader Melissa was. Deeply authentic and humble, she was distinguished by her curiosity about the world and how to improve it. Though politically formidable, she had an insatiable appetite to learn. Somehow, she managed to retain these virtues in the most combative arena of public life.
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The Melissa Miracle, we might say, was her ability to combine deep progressive convictions with a pragmatist's instinct to get things done, including by working constructively with her political opponents. She was a natural collaborator.
Hers was a civility without illusions. Clear-eyed about moral and political differences – with her own robust commitments to the public good – without letting those differences fuel animosity for others or a desire to suppress disagreement.
'We are not here to avoid conflict. We are here precisely to have conflict. It's an important part of the democratic process,' Melissa insisted when she became speaker. 'But if we can have that conflict with good humour and humility, we'll be better off, and Minnesota will be better off.'
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