Headwaters

Their tactic is to push an aggressive narrative, and when challenged with facts, to escalate their claims and demands and threats. On the one hand, maintaining a balanced state of mind, and not letting go of the facts is a rational response to deliberate gaslighting. Reminding each other of the facts is also a necessary response to escalations of abusive politic and policies. The killing of Renee Nicole Good by federal agents and the immediate hijacking of the narrative by the current administration are one more such incident in less than a year; by “incident”, I mean ICE agents shooting people in situations where use of lethal force was entirely unnecessary, yet used as a first resort.

I will spare you having to read the vile things said by vile people after they had killed a good person, you have likely already heard them, and you were likely mortified and disturbed by the words being used by people who have such great power. Specific words, one word in particular—the T-word—which is being used more and more often to describe actions, or, increasingly, ideas, and couldn’t be further more misrepresent and distort the situation and reality at hand. Don’t believe your lying eyes, as is being put about. As confusion on a mass scale is the modus operandi of the current administration, the repeated and deliberate use of that particular word after having just shot an unarmed woman in the face became one more Orwellian allusion, one more step in the direction of authoritarianism, in what is not yet one full year of the new regime.

Jacob Frey, the Mayor of Minneapolis, saying at a press conference, “ICE, get the fuck out of Minneapolis”, was an appropriate and warranted response (something Democrats ought to consider, alongside the recent win of another young, bold mayor), to what is beyond doubt authoritarian overreach. It is an appropriate response to the militarized and economic attacks on Minnesota, which are nothing to do with fraud and violent criminals roaming the streets, and everything to do with a white-supremacist agenda, and a desire to destroy all vestiges of the social safety net, at every level. Minnesota has long been a stubborn example of a more just distribution of resources and maintenance of social safety nets, and thereby a source of shame for the free market fundamentalists setting our economic policies and direction. Now that they are weaponizing funding so boldly, they can join both facets of their agenda in Minnesota—attacking the vibrant immigrant populations while also attacking the “socialist” largesse of the state.

Poor, Minnesota. They have made the grievous decision to think about their neighbors, to vote their consciences in support of the policies that seem wisest to them, and in using their vote to speak for their values and not using it to put a decrepit menace back in power, they have put themselves and their neighbors in the cross hairs of that very decrepit menace. For not voting for the sitting president, the sitting president is setting out to inflict as much harm and damage as possible on the populace of an entire state (whose name is said synonymously with the word “nice”), because their electoral votes went blue and they do not fear their neighbors. Petty and barbaric vengeances are yet another hallmark of the emotionally stunted and narcissistic disasters that go on to become tyrants, dictators and CEO’s.

I was in Minneapolis for a couple of days in December, and as with every visit, I loved it. It is a charming city, one that openly celebrates its diversity and welcoming nature. Its shared values. How else do you get through such treacherous winters if not with strong community bonds? The friends I was visiting are part of a community watch group, carrying little red cards with one’s legal rights in dealing with federal agents in white letters in English on one side, and on the reverse in Spanish. It is one of many such community based groups of legal observers in the Twin Cities, each responding to the community, to the needs of their community. They identified a need and from the need, some actions that they might take as individuals, as groups, to confront the violence and fear, the lies and hubris.

Many in our society call places like Minnesota “flyover states”, but in this critical moment, it is this flyover state, Minnesota—headwaters of the Mississippi River—that is demonstrating how democratic ideals can be put into practice. People forget about the bold, leftie politics that proliferated in this region at the end of the 19th century. The roots of the communities under attack—the people whose homes surround the headwaters of the Mississippi River—run deep, and the example they provide is strong and necessary. It is echoed in communities small and large, all across the country. On-the-ground resistance, which is built in coming together. A bedrock of any free society.