ICE in Minnesota at 7 days.

Seven days ago I was waiting for my flat tire issue to be resolved, and saw the first report of 34th and Portland on the local Fox News channel.  The post is here, as added to with numerous comments since publication.

This post is a few musings about today and the past seven in the metropolitan area at the scene of the crime.  Your comments are solicited.

The suburban city I live in, population 83,000, is about 20 miles from 34th and Portland in Minneapolis, the site of the shooting one week ago, and the ICE assault of Minneapolis and environs of course is also roughly that distance from us.  Yesterday we drove through the general area to visit a friend in the west suburbs.  If I were to judge the action only by local evidence (with no media) I would not know that anything was going on, and I’m not a hermit in this town.  Make no assumptions that someone else knows what you know.

There are rumors that we’ll be in the spotlight soon, but they’re only rumors at this time.  We have a relatively diverse population, and diversity is not a virtue to ICE.

Media is a different story, of course.  It depends on what media you follow.  Media likes ‘war’.

I know that the local school district sent a letter to all parents of students in the local schools (you can read it at the end of the previous post.  I’ve also added the link at the end of this paragraph).  But I’m not a parent or employee of the local schools, so, if I didn’t know somebody in that entity, I would know nothing.  And while I don’t have exact numbers, probably two-thirds of the households in the school district have no school age children or occupants who work in the local schools.  Here is the public school position: SoWashCo833 ICE

In short, if I want to be ignorant, or totally biased, it is an easy task, living in the suburb.  I choose to be informed or to be uninformed solely by my choice of media.  There used to be a local newspaper, but that is long gone.  The alternative, on-line, has not taken root well, and at any rate has chosen not to entertain local debate like letters to the editor on political topics.

As I note often, I am a Catholic and I’ve been an active part of Basilica Parish in Minneapolis for 28 years which gives another point of conversation in this tense time.

Basilica had the funeral Mass for prominent Minnesota legislator Melissa Hortman and her husband.  It was a full house, including President Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris.  Melissa was raised Catholic but apparently was not a practicing Catholic at the time of her death (she was described as a Christian) so there was a delicate dance with this issue, I’m sure.  To this day I don’t know where or even if she went to Church; when she grew up she was part of the Catholic Parish I once was part of.  After the assassination, Basilica had the space, and of course, the publicity was not to be ignored.  The latter would be denied vigorously, but non-practicing Catholics do not normally have Catholic funerals.  It is just not the normal protocol.  Rep. Hortman was not a normal deceased – she was a very prominent and highly respected legislator.

Basilica is about 3 -4 miles from Portland and 34th, and 6 1/2 miles from Annunciation, where children were assassinated inside the church during Mass.  Annunciation is 3 1/2 miles from Portland and 34th.  So these major tragedies were in the same part of Minneapolis.  The victims and perpetrators in all the cases were white.  On and on.

At the moment, Basilica faces another ‘crisis’, which in normal times would be good news:  it is the first Basilica in the United States, and has a gala Centennial anniversary party scheduled February 1.  It has been raising boatloads of money to do a very major renovation somewhat along the lines of Notre Dame in Paris, though certainly no fire.  Probably the major source of the funds are what I call high net worth individuals: the already rich.  I could normally support the project – the renovation is needed.  But this is not a normal time, and the Church leadership faces a major moral quandary: does business as usual take priority over the community crisis we are in.

Today, at my coffee shop, and on my daily walk, both in Woodbury, with plenty of local citizens, I heard not a single word, nor did I see a single piece of evidence that anything out of normal was happening in my metropolitan area.  The Minnesota Star Tribune front page today talked about Native Americans being targeted by ICE, and of course, turn on the TV news and your computer and you know what you get, the perspective from whatever side you’re on.

We are in a crisis in this country, and best we come to grips with this.  But the odds are we won’t until it’s too late.  The TV is reporting as I write on a Supreme Court hearing on Transgender….

On we go.  Don’t sit this out.  We know more than enough.