We ((Heart)) Minneapolis
By Alice Bond
Valentine’s Day was once a simple celebration preceded by the excitable, earthy kid craft of homemade valentine cards. You could run your fingers over the rough wood pulp surface of bright construction paper. Your favorite shade of red or pink beckoned, was folded and cut, then carefully fashioned into a parade of pasted hearts on your card. The sweet chalky smell of Elmer’s Glue —in your face, friendly and even edible when no one was looking— remains an odd, instantly nostalgic aroma to this day.
And then —who? Who was receiving the perfect heartfelt works of art? And who was slipping them into your own mailbox at school? It was a time that felt secure, enfolded in fair and reasonable expectations.
But in this teetering, nearly post-democratic world, my heart turns elsewhere. My deepest admiration and devoted Valentine heads far away across frosted lakes and snowy streets. It goes to the souls in Minneapolis, who are redefining a careful existence and at the same time casting a heroic shadow across the face of our country. These are ordinary people banding together to protect each other like a school of silver fish swimming in unison though the water, synchronized and safe.
The very name of their city is water. Minneapolis is a Dakota-Greek hybrid coined by a white settler, meaning “City of Waters.” This is for the Mississippi River that the city sits astride, as well as the abundant waterfalls and lakes surrounding it. To the Dakota it is “Bde Óta Othúŋwe,” ‘Many Lakes Town.’
We can learn something from the resilience, spirit and strategy born of Minneapolis’s push to survive a brutal invasion. Some 2,000 to 3,000 federal agents have occupied their city and neighborhoods since December 2025. The operation, declared the largest of its kind, involves agents from Homeland Security and ICE’s deportation branch in what was originally planned as a 30-day surge. They are busily — even hyperactively — tear-gassing people in their own homes and children with their families inside cars, pepper spraying protesters in the face, shattering drivers’ car windows with crowbars, making warrantless arrests, and shooting four innocent people, killing three of them. The resulting wave of threats and stress has been felt by all of us, even Americans who live thousands of miles away.
It is not lost on those who confront the violence and potential danger up close on their way to work, to school, to pick up groceries or while monitoring the viciousness. Perhaps because of these overreaching acts of domination and repression, there is a light. According to Dahlia Litwick, senior editor and legal columnist at Slate, the situation is galvanizing and the answer is clear: “… it has, overnight, become simpler to name and understand the mission.” Because the cruelty and lawlessness are so abusive and unconstitutional, the mission can only be to resist. And in Minneapolis, that means organizing and protecting each other.
“People here have a civic life,” said a Minneapolis resident in an interview with Robert Worth of the Atlantic. “Guess what we’re gonna use when they try to come after Minnesotans? We’re going to use civil life.” And this resident means it. Neighbors operate with careful attention to protect each other.
A recent precinct caucus serves as an example. People required a space to decide platform issues and delegates for upcoming conventions. There was one entrance door unlocked, a de-escalation group in attendance, and an ICE Watch group in the parking lot. The state party had not made a pivot to contactless caucuses in time, so the citizens did everything in their power to make sure that their neighbors were safe, according to the site leader for the caucuses, a volunteer.
Community volunteers protect each other and document evidence at street protests –often by videotaping with phones. They employ a concerted effort to avoid violence even when being attacked, just as Alex Pretti was when he was shot to death while restrained by federal agents. Their organizational format is leaderless, making it hard to pinpoint individuals. These community networks save lives and send a message at the same time. Some Minneapolis residents hope they will go on to become a model for others in their own towns.
This is the way forward. Because of Minneapolis, we know what we are up against. We also know what can be done.
It is more evident that the behind-the-scenes work of planning for the future of democracy is critical. Project 2029 policies are a profound part of a democratic foundation of principle and policy that can ultimately end the culture of lawlessness and protect the constitution along with the 1st, 2nd and 4th amendments which are being seriously abused in Minneapolis.
So, Minneapolis citizens, a nation’s Valentine goes out to you, your principles and meticulous civic courage. Cohesion, community, discipline and safety in numbers ripple the water as each fish moves to the center, and turns as one shimmering body in a brilliant flash. Sheer beauty.
