A report from a friend about life in Minneapolis

I am going to describe our days right now. Each day L and I, along with so many others in Minneapolis and throughout Minnesota, decide what we can do that day to oppose and resist ICE - letter writing, phone calls, patrolling our neighborhood with other neighbors, joining demonstrations ( today’s was calling on Target to call for an end to the ICE surge here in Minneapolis and demanding that Target protect their employees by not letting ICE on their property if ICE doesn’t have a bench warrant naming a specific person, on other days we confront hotels who are housing ICE agents, etc ), confront ICE agents in our neighborhoods as they try to grab people, connect with friends so none of us end up feeling isolated, alone or powerless, distribute whistles to folks who want them ( 3D printed on computer drive plastic extrusion machines ). Tonight L is at a long WFF meeting ( Worth Fighting For ) planning tactics for the coming week with 75 to 100 other folks, mostly women. And always we are sending letters and emails and calling on our Senators, Reps, etc. Almost every conversation during the day includes some talk of what we have done or what we are planning to do. And all day we get email updates and phone calls directing us to where ICE is currently grabbing people. It is not hyperbole to say our lives are consumed by this. We are in a nonviolent struggle with ICE and the Border Patrol - and ultimately with Trump and his minions. It requires constant focus. Yet we are all encouraged to take time for R & R, sit in the sun, etc. Over and over we say to each other, this isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. We have to survive for the long fight. Today we are all reacting to this morning’s bomb threats to local schools, which ended up closing some of the schools. The messages left were racist, anti-immigrant. It started with bomb threats for the school that the little 5 yr old boy in the bunny hat was about to attend now that a judge forced ICE and the Border Patrol to return him and his dad to Minneapolis from the Texas detention facility. And we are constantly watching for ICE actions and ICE vehicles in the neighborhoods around us. If we see them we call the Emergency Response number and report the details, locations, etc, then stop and begin blowing on our whistles or honking our car horns to warn others that ICE agents are around. Increasingly our activist social media networks are being infiltrated by right wing trouble makers so we have to keep changing those and now some of those networks require a personal interview or someone to vouch for you if you want to join the network. I have found one effective way of enlisting new people into these activities. I tell the story of WW II resistance as reported by William Stringfellow. In essence it goes like this. Despite what we see on TV shows about WWII resistance, bombing and derailing trains, attacking German armed columns, blowing up railroad tracks and depots, etc., despite that very romantic view of resistance to the Nazis, Bill Stringfellow reports that 80% of resistance activities were behind the scenes, small steps, not glorious military victories or ambushes. Instead identity papers were created, clothing was sewn, food was distributed, transportation provided, observers sent out to look innocent but have them report what they see. So I tell folks start as small and as limited as you want. Many of our friends cook food for the most active organizers and protesters. It all adds up to the major resistance movement growing and going on. People don’t need to be on the streets, don’t need to be blowing whistles or honking their horns if that feels threatening. They can do many, many smaller activities to further the resistance. That argument seems to appeal to individuals dipping their toes into the resistance movement for the first time. Tomorrow we have our state wide caucuses. So we will be endorsing anti-ICE resolutions and candidates who fight will ICE and the Border Patrol as well as Trump and his policies. These caucus meetings usually go from 7pm to past midnight, though in truth I usually can’t last that long. 10pm or 11pm is my bewitching hour. I don’t turn into a pumpkin. But I do turn into kind of a sleepy eyed barely humanoid version of life. On Wednesday morning I will be part of a so-called “flash mob” going to different places in Minneapolis to sing our resistance to ICE. On Thursday we have our weekly 1 hour national call from the founders of Indivisible, updating us on what is going on around the country, in Congress, etc. There are usually between 300 and 1000 people on those calls. On Friday we have a major demonstration in downtown Minneapolis. And so it goes, day by day. Today Kristi Noem reported that all ICE agents will wear body cameras. But we have heard nothing about a requirement that they turn the cameras on when out on the street. We have learned the hard way in Minneapolis that police body cameras are worthless without a mandated requirement, with penalties, to have them turned on.