Crazy New Year

It has been a crazy start to the year. Minneapolis is under siege from federal ICE agents who were sent to invade our city, starting last month. Masked, heavily armed Gestapo-like troops are rounding up anyone with brown skin, harassing them, sometimes beating them up, and occasionally deporting them. This is supposedly for immigration enforcement. Really, it is the intimidation of a blue state and a sanctuary city. Obviously, this led to protests and resistance, which led to the murder of a citizen of South Minneapolis, less than a mile from my house, by an ICE agent. That incident was then lied about and covered up by the federal government. And then, two days ago in North Minneapolis, a man pursued by ICE was shot in the leg, leading to more protests. Now, Trump is threatening us with the Insurrection Act. Weird times! Trump has to go!

Randy and I attempted to take part in a protest last Saturday at Powderhorn Park. All the streets leading to our house (five blocks from the park) and beyond were lined with parked cars, so we knew it was big. But we had gone to a funeral that morning, and it was slow walking on the way to the park, because the sidewalks were extremely icy. So, by the time we got to Powderhorn Park, it was breaking up. I glommed onto a sign from a protestor who was leaving, and it is now displayed in my front porch window. On one side, facing inward, it says, “The Horrors Persist, But So Do We.” The outward-facing sign says, “The North Doesn’t Fear Ice.” Truthfully, though, we are kind of nervous about ice, both kinds.

When I went to my piano lesson yesterday, I learned that my piano teacher, a petite, middle-aged, white woman, is scared to leave her house at night, thanks to all of this going on. I’m attempting to carry on as usual, though I am spending too much time watching YouTube videos and posting on Facebook. Meanwhile, not much is getting done on the writing front, nor the piano practicing front, for that matter.