Lessons from Minneapolis: Do not grow weary in redeeming democracy

By Gen Heywood | FāVS News Columnist

The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News. 

The violence in Minneapolis has not ended. As of Feb. 17, one of my contacts on the ground wrote to say that “arrests and deportations are still happening.” 

Another contact wrote that what has changed is that the money to help people in crisis has dried up. People are still in hiding and in need of food, rental and utility assistance. They cannot begin to recover until the aggression stops. 

Lee Stedman, a community protector in Minneapolis who regularly posts updates of ICE aggression on Facebook, reported on Feb. 16 that three new fleets of vehicles on semis had arrived at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building. This is after the announcement of a drawback. 

There has also been increased ICE activity at the Army Reserves base and the Whipple Building.

Stedman also reports how ICE finds ways to blend in. For example, they have exchanged their military camouflage for Minnesota clothes. They have exchanged some of their SUVs for Subarus and Minivans. 

This can be verified in Ed Hu’s post of two agents exiting a Subaru, which has a federal license plate The agents are in common clothes with their ICE vests — one in a hoodie the other in a t-Shirt.

Repaying evil with blessings

The people of Minneapolis are exhausted and so very faithful to the way of nonviolence. Theologically speaking, they have embodied the teaching, “Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse, but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called — that you might inherit a blessing.” (1 Peter 3:9)

Some of the most important lessons they have for us include: 

1. Nonviolent protests take intention and training, 
2. Protestors must work across differences and 
3. Engaging with the people involved with five pillars that hold up regimes is our best chance to get back our democracy.

Start with intention and training

Firstly, this takes intention and training. One of the saddest moments was when we learned from some of the community protectors that they realized no one was coming to save them. They were alone. Their intention was to protect each other and they were uniquely prepared. 

These are the same neighborhoods that experienced the murder of George Floyd. They had built up communication networks and deeper relationships through that deep trauma. They already had the intention of caring for their neighbors. And they learned from Chicago about the training they needed to prepare for the tactics of ICE and the ways to keep their responses nonviolent.

Their training included how to use a hyper-local community protection model that was prepared, decentralized and nimble. They taught us that we need to work on this now in all our locations and to not wait until we are in crisis. 

To summarize, the response to the violence of ICE must not be improvised, and it must be nimble. 

Work across differences 

Secondly, we must be willing to work with people who do not completely agree with us. This is essential to success and very difficult. We learned about how we must find ways to supersede the harms done and agree to have differences while building wide coalitions for the protection of the community. 

MARCH (Multifaith Anti-Racism, Change and Healing) wrote in their welcome letter for the clergy, “Together, we come as pro-queer, pro-trans, anti-racist, justice-seeking leaders who believe that faith has a vital role to play in building a world where all people can live with dignity, safety, and joy.” 

Later, we learned about how they superseded the harms done to them by a local megachurch. The megachurch put aside their past words. MARCH put aside the hurt the church had caused them. This opened a path for the megachurch to become an essential partner in getting food to the people hiding in their homes.

The folks of Minneapolis understand that everybody has a role to play in the resistance. The organizers talked about how there are tasks for the artist, the in-home broadcaster of information, the people following ICE, the neighbors making noise, the documenters making video, people paying rent, delivering food, and so much more. 

In all of this, everyone must take care of their own mental, spiritual and physical wellbeing. The gentleness they had for each other was holy. If someone were to say they just could not help today, they were told that the work would still be there when they were able to engage again. 

In place of judgement, they shared only support and love for each other. A panel of community protectors who commute through their neighborhood or stand on street corners to watch children get to and from school described this work as a relay race. You go as long as you can and pass the baton to another runner.  

Authoritarianism and fascism function by pitting people against each other and that is harder to do when people have relationships, supporting one another with compassion. 

Working across differences also means that as loyalties shift back to the Constitution and the protection of the local community, we need to create ways, on-ramps, to welcome folks who have betrayed or hurt us. 

One way this is experienced in Minneapolis is in the intentional use of music to invite transformation — without shaming. The Singing Resistance in Minneapolis has many songs.

Some of these songs were composed by Annie Schlaefer, and these have been sung by crowds outside the hotels housing ICE agents. 

Five pillars holding up anti-democratic regimes

Thirdly, we learned about the five pillars that hold up regimes: civil services, police/militaries, unions, businesses and religions. Engaging people to join the resistance who work in these areas is our best chance to return to democracy.

When people in these groups hold to protecting their neighborhoods, requiring allegiance to the Constitution (or a similar democratic document) not a party or individual, and actively pushing back on inhumane treatment of other human beings especially children and their families, regimes crumble. 

All five pillars are essential, however, the most important is the involvement first of unions and second of communities of faith. 

It is time to mobilize

Now is the time to prepare. Minneapolis had a communications network and relationships with their neighbors forged from the pain of George Floyd’s murder. We need the same. We need to
build our networks.

Now is the time to get training in nonviolence, rapid response, constitutional rights, voting protections and engagement with our representatives, senators, city council members and superintendents of our schools. 

Now is the time to ask members of the civil services, police/militaries, unions, businesses and religions, “What will you do when ICE comes? Please, get ready now. This must be planned, not improvised.”

Finally, a story from some of our clergy from Seattle. Their Somali Uber driver told them about his children going to school and how there are community protectors watching on the street corners and commuters driving around the neighborhood looking for ICE. 

“You know, it’s becoming normal for my children,” he said. “I can’t believe you came all this way for us, and this means so much to us, for you to be here and you have no idea. That just gives us such hope and we don’t feel like we’re alone. I want you to know that I love you.” 

He looked them in the eyes and told them several times, “I love you. I really love you. My people are gonna remember this five years from now. My people are going to remember this 100 years from now because that’s who we are.” 

Resist the American short attention span. Minneapolis is still under siege. Resist looking away. What is happening to the civilians of the city continues to be violent, oppressive, unconstitutional and immoral. Resist the temptation to believe that it will not come to our neighborhoods. Prepare now, so we, too, will “not grow weary in doing what is right.” (Galatians 6:9)

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