*** “If you have an opportunity to make things better and you don’t, then you are wasting your time on this earth.”
[ Roberto Clemente ]
This post is the 19th in a series from the Minnesota war zone; describing to. YOU. what ordinary people did to resist the Trump DICTATORSHIP’ unAmerican cruelty. This is a WARNING to what could happen in YOUR. state
Most of this post is from McGrath’s “In the Resistance, We Drive Minivans.” But you can also read “Neighbors Band Together”. [Nick Woltman; St. Paul Pioneer Press; 2/22/26]: “The strangers who came to the aid of S.M. and his family are part of a sprawling, decentralized network comprising thousands of Minnesotans…”
“In the Resistance, We Drive Minivans” [Will McGrath; Minnesota Star Tribune; 2/22/26], excerpts:
13]. “Here’s what you need to remember: There is no reward that comes later. No righteous justice will be dispensed…This story does not have a happy ending, and I can assure you the villains do not get punished at the end.”
14]. “.. you also need to understand…we’ve already won. The reward is right now…The reward is watching your city…organize in hyperlocal networks of compassion…”
15] “So in the resistance you drive the car pool. It’s fun..mostly not scary. Your invisible shield of whiteness has developed a small fissure. You understand that being a white mom dropping a kid at elementary school may no longer save you from being killed in the middle of the street…”
10] “Everyone is doing his part here, each to his ability. This is easier to accomplish, it seems, when joy and love are the engines….I know of an off-grid network of doctors offering care to immigrants, a sub rosa collective of restauranteurs organizing miniature food banks in their basements…Another friend is an immigration lawyer who spends his days endlessly filing habeas petitions.”
***. “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” [ Benjamin Franklin ]
1] “In the resistance we drive minivans…..”
2]. “In the resistance we play Idles loud, we prefer British punk, turn the volume up..”
3]. “In the resistance…we”re in our pajamas…”
4] “We’ve been doing this since December, eight weeks going on nine going on who knows.”
5]. “A network of neighborhood moms and dads bloomed organically…”
6]. “Today I’m driving a girl with red lipstick and a gentle, cautious smile.”
*** “Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.” [ Goethe ]
7] “what they don’t tell you is how beautiful the resistance can be.”
8] “What they don’t tell you is how fun the resistance can be.”
9] “As we tramped through the arctic streets, a bearded dude pulled a wagon bearing a generator and a vat of bubbling soup, dishing up bowls for anyone who cared to slurp.”
11] “Every day and night, in the neighborhoods most effected by ICE raids, volunteers stand on street corners and patrol the blocks, phones and whistles ready.”
12]. “Our loose parent network keeps growing, more than 80 of us now. The demand is greater each week..”
16] “This afternoon I’m driving a brother and sister. We’ve been listening to the radio, which reports that most all of the 3,000 ICE agents involved in the surge are leaving our state. No one believes it, not really, this declaration from the agency that asked us again and again to disbelieve our eyes, to accept that nurses were domestic terrorists, that children were violent criminals.”
12] “…we cruise the city in our minivans. You can’t shoot us all.”
*** “You shall love your neighbor as yourself…The stranger that dwells with you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself.” [ Leviticus 19: 18, 34 ]
B] “What really surprised us was the outpouring of support from people who didn’t have any direct experience with ICE. People in France would write and say, ‘I can make a comic for someone if they have a story they want to tell,”” said Woodman-Maynard, who was thrilled to see people making those arrangements in comments on the #iceoutcomics. Instagram posts.” [Chris Hewitt: “Uniting against ICE”; Minnesota Star Tribune; 2/23/26]
{NOTE: this article discuss how authors and cartoonists are raising money with book signings and art on Instagram. As McGrath said: “Everyone is doing his part here, each to his ability.” 50,000 people in. a freezing march; “thousands” in volunteer networks; people giving time and money…]
{NOTE: Ask. YOURSELF. – do YOU think this, and much more, would be occurring if people in Minnesota believed that ICE had arrested. 4,000. “worst of the worst”; if ICE was even really trying to find the “worst of the worst”? If 4,000. “worst of the worst”. were. REALLY. running around free in Minnesota streets??????????????????????]
With Justice For All 