A 76-year-old Minneapolis woman stood in the cold for hours guarding her neighbors. Yup, armed with a whistle, she was guarding her neighborhood. Without flinching, she stood against armed federal agents. I am proud of my hometown and I share their values.
Another Minneapolitan said, “ICE made the classic mistake of attacking a winter people in the winter.” True. Thirty degrees below zero and still fifty thousand people got out their winter gear – three hats, two pairs of gloves (one thin the other thick), thermal socks in heavy boots and down jackets — and peacefully marched in the streets. 30 below is serious cold and exercising their First Amendment rights was serious business.
America watched the huge deployment and cruel crackdown of federal law enforcement. We watched people kidnapped, injured or killed. Ill-at-ease, we wondered: when are they coming here?
Here’s the thing: it is the first and foremost job of one who wants absolute control over all the levers of government to employ “shock and awe” to generate fear and make us believe their control is inevitable and our resistance is futile. It’s not.
Sure, watching man’s inhumanity to man is scary so are masks and guns. But listen, what is happening now is less scary than what will happen later if we don’t resist. Know this: all autocrats are brought down eventually. In a longer or shorter time, change is inevitable. Resist.
No matter the cold, the fear, the force and arms of the ICE agents, Minneapolitans visited every classroom in every school and told folks what they could do to be safer. They set up neighborhood watches to warn if ICE was seen taking folks away. They recorded wrongdoing. They spread these words: protect each other. They congregated and protested with a single message: “Ice Out.” It culminated with “Blackout Day” – no shopping, no school, no work — everybody into the streets. How did that end? Did the day devolve into violence or a discouraged withdrawal? Nope, as evening closed in, it became a party fueled by exhilaration because resistance works.
So, join the party. Ask: does Stockbridge have an ICE policy? What is it? Were the people’s wishes considered? Decide: are our leaders bosses or representatives of our values? Protest: it may be harder in some places. According to Pew Research Center, Utah has the highest level of social trust in this country. Minnesota is second. That is what makes it easier to resist – to stand in the cold, even at 76, and guard neighbors – in Minneapolis, we like and trust each other.
In 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? Following passage of the civil rights legislation, King foresaw, not one, but two possible futures. A fractured society that slides into chaos, or a society that becomes a “beloved community” built on justice and economic security. We know what happened. Now we fix it or suffer what will inevitably come next.
Next, they will seek to confuse – soften the language but not their actions. Know, without confusion, that shooting a fellow American in our streets is wrong; that blaming the victim to protect the wrongdoer is evil. Lay down confusion, pick up hope. According to some news sources, Alex Pretti’s last words were, “Are you okay?” His last thought was for another. No matter whom we voted for, now we know, so join hands. No matter whom we called names or stopped talking to, now we need each other, come together. Are you okay? If not, reach out, we’re here.
