What an honor! This week the people of the Twin Cities, Minnesota were honored with a John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award® “for risking their lives to protect their neighbors and immigrant community members from an unprecedented federal law enforcement operation, peacefully defending the human rights and values that serve as the foundation of our Constitutional democracy.”
January and February were difficult months in the Twin Cities… below is some of what I wrote at that time… other parts of the country took notice. It is why the people of the Twin Cities were awarded a John F Kennedy Profile in Courage award… not individually, but as a group.
“It is hard to believe that last week we were at Children’s Theater on Wednesday, before they shut down for the weekend after the big ICE Out rally on Friday with subzero temperatures and the shooting of Alex Pretti on Saturday morning. Then, husband John had knee replacement surgery on Monday while my cousin was struggling in the hospital with sudden severe kidney disease. It has been a week to remember… Bruce Springsteen even memorialized it by releasing a new song, “Streets of Minneapolis”!”
“The federal administration can’t understand what is happening here, why try as they might to incite riots the people instead respond by standing with their neighbors in peaceful resistance. Adam Serwer in The Atlantic called it “neighborism”… a quiet, radical belief in caring for the people around us, no matter where they come from. I have never been prouder to be a Minnesotan.”
The ‘neighborism’ demonstrated in the Twin Cities during the ICE surge has been an inspiration throughout the country, as demonstrated by the chant from BOSTON… “We’re not cold. We’re not afraid. Minnesota taught us to be brave.”
Sharlene Hensrud, RE/MAX Results – shensrud@homesmsp.com
