ICE and ice

ICE and ice

The goal of my writing on this blog post is to focus on the beauty of living in the Northlands, better known as Minnesota, or even the upper mid-west, although I’m not as familiar with the other states in this area. I cannot begin to tell you how much I love and appreciate this state. I have moved around, but Minnesota will always be home, and Minneapolis in particular. My favorite quote from Prince is when Oprah asks him why he lives in Minneapolis, and he states, “It’s so cold, it keeps the bad people out.” You can watch the exchange here.

Unfortunately for us, the bad people have been sent to us. I’m not sure how to explain to folks who do not live here, nor have any interest in living here, just how much we happen to love our state, and in particular, for those of us in the city, Minneapolis. We know there is winter, we know it’s miserable driving around, we know how challenging getting through each winter is, and yet, for many of us, myself included, winter is our favorite season. So, to have a state sponsored execution in our humble streets brought to us by maniacs who do not live here on the cusp of New Year’s and all that is holy, my God, how demoralizing.

To be perfectly honest, like other Minnesotans, and those of us living in the metro area, we are tired. Just plain tired. There was George Floyd, then the murder of Melissa Hortman, then the mass murder of children at Annunciation, and now the murder of Renee Nicole Good, yes, say her name. And we do have our lives to lead as well that all of this turmoil upends and deeply affects. There is no one in this state that these acts do not affect on some level.

Back to the beauty. Every store I enter, every person I see on the street, every neighbor I encounter, we look each other in the eye, knowingly and acknowledge the condition we find ourselves in. Our collective pain in this moment binds us together. We see each other, we support each other, and we find humor, as only Minnesotans can, in our weather conditions.

The first stupid thing we call out immediately is that when the execution took place, Kristi Noem, wearing her enormous cowboy hat, said Minneapolis had “adverse” weather conditions. It was 42 degrees and everything was a soggy slushy mess. No one was stuck in the snow, no one was pushing any car anywhere. Due to those warm conditions, all of that slush and water freezes again into the true ice that is formed by freezing water. And again, we have to have a little fun with this because someone posted a video of ICE agents falling on the sidewalks that were covered in literal ice. So big and burly, loaded down with their vests and weapons, bam, down on the ground flopping like walruses on the beach. Love it.

As I write this, the sun is rising and casts the most beautiful light on the fresh snow that has fallen overnight. The beauty of fresh snow is that it makes the world seem new, fresh, and clean, even hope-filled. Dirt is temporarily covered up leaving one the joy of fresh prints in the snow of the wild critters that have been up before you have.

I do not know how events will unfold, I do not. I can trust my neighbors enough to know that we are in this together and we will continue to support each other. I pray that you join us.