Angels Unawares

Briefly

If you happen to be around Minneapolis MN on Sunday afternoon, August 1, 3 p.m., join the group at the opening of the Angels Unawares sculpture being displayed during August at the Basilica of St. Mary, downtown Minneapolis.  All of the details can be accessed here. This is an event honoring and respecting immigrants everywhere, and from every era.  We are a nation of immigrants.

August 1:  I was at the opening.  Beautiful day, impressive.  Three photos:  The sculpture will be at Basilica the month of August.  Link in previous paragraph has more details, including Green Card Voices exhibit in the the church, all day through August 26.  Janice Andersen of Basilica wrote a very relevant column in the Sunday newsletter.  You can read it here: Janice Anderson Aug 1 2021

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And, congratulations to Suni Lee, St. Paul, child of immigrants from Laos, winner of the Gold Medal in the gymnastics competition in the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games.  Before she won, I had never heard of Suni, though she graduated from high school this year perhaps five miles from where I type; and grew up on the east side of St. Paul.  Like most Minnesotans, I have known of the large Hmong community in Minnesota for the last 45 years.  My elected state representative is Hmong.  The Hmong are a valued part of our community.

Gold nuggets,  like Suni, and Simone Biles, world class gymnast and a true profile in courage for her own actions the last few days, are great examples for all of us.

POSTNOTE August 2: Suni now has three medals.

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Thanks to Joyce for sending on a thought-provoking article in Rolling Stone about Policing in the United States: “Race and White Supremacy in American Policing”.  This article provides much food for thought.

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Check back at this space once in awhile.  There will be at least one subsequent post in the next few days.  you can easily request notification of new posts – see end of this post for the check box.

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UPDATE ON JANUARY 6, THE 2020 ELECTION: Just Above Sunset July 30, 2021 Requesting Simple Lies.

COMMENTS re Rolling Stone  article:

from Dick: myself and one other initiallly received the Rolling Stone link from Joyce.  All three of us had similar observations, and all had family members who were or are part of law enforcement.  It becomes a ‘sticky wicket’ translating generalizations about police down to specific family relationships, as you can imagine.  But the general topic explored in Rolling Stone, pretty specifically about Minneapolis PD, is important and relevant.  Minneapolis, regardless of current progressive reputation, does not have a positive history.  There is a lot of change that is needed.  There is a lot of good, too, that police do.

from Fred: The Rolling Stone piece was damning with the Mpls police, along with others, coming out as the bad guys. Attempts at changing the culture have not worked. Even the tens of millions paid out to victims of brutality have not yet made a difference.

from Carol: When the Minneapolis police come up, I always have to throw in my cousin’s son, who was a police officer there for years (Inc. their horse patrol).  He died in his sleep in his 40s.  And I know he would have been appalled by the George Floyd murder, and all the rest.  He was a sweetheart.

Before his death, he was patrolling my son’s district in So. Minneapolis.  John’s kids called him ‘Officer Scott” and loved him.  John said he attended a neighborhood meeting right after Scott died, where the people didn’t yet know he was gone.  They read a letter there from a woman praising Scott for how he de-escalated a “domestic” situation he’d been called to.

We need way more like that, and clearly no more like Chauvin…

from Joyce: I knew a lot of police when I lived in NYC; I had cousins who were cops, and many of my coworkers there were married to cops. They were extremely racist and homophobic.

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from Fr. Harry, about Campaign Nonviolence, details here. “Please register. They are our partner.”