Letter to Ann [It's ICEy Out]

Ann, an old, old friend I haven't heard from in years emailed me yesterday, checking in on me and asking what I'm seeing here in Minneapolis, occupied by thousands of federal ICE agents.

I've already blogged about most of what I wrote to her in response, posted here, below, but I'm adding it to the record.  
And it was good to try to present a quick overview, and to start to put it in some order for myself. 

My Letter to Ann:

Hi, Ann!

Thanks so much for reaching out,
it's nice to hear from you!
I am well, thanks, but rattled, naturally, living in a city occupied by federal agents. 
It's Crazy town!

And so, it's really heartening and grounding to receive love and concern from friends around the country (and world!).

We're all in this together, no one is immune...
A friend wrote that they lives "outside the zone"

--and I wrote back, "Don't you believe it!" 
But of course Minneapolis is physically in the spotlight--the cross hairs!-- of these forces of ill-will right now.

And it is Very Weird:
It feels like being in a slow-motion civil war in a science-fiction movie.

I. ICE in person

Yesterday I had my first close-up (luckily physically harmless) experience of ICE---
I'm in my 8th year at the thrift store, in a neighborhood with lots of immigrant businesses and residents. 
The store is one mile from George Floyd Sq., which is mere blocks from where ice murdered Renee Good.
ICE is circling like sharks around sea turtles.

When I got off the city bus on my way to work yesterday morning, 
I heard people blowing whistles (they're effective!) and honking car horns at the big intersection a block away.
I walked in that direction, across a big parking lot, filming the melée on my phone––(we learned from Darnella Frazier filming George Floyd's death the power of that)––
and saw other people doing that too. 

Some young folks were running toward the corner, blowing whistles as they ran, (young lungs, ya know)
(one girl sprinting at top speed  looked like Athena 😍 to me)

 and many were already there.

I am so proud of them! 
(Even if some of their political rhetoric is as rigid as the other side's. 🙄  So was mine, when I was twenty. Or thirty...)

It was NOT like a movie, though, because it was entirely unclear to me what was actually happening!
"This movie is badly directed." 
LOL

By the time I got up close, the traffic had dispersed--
only later on my little video (less than a minute) did I see white vans pulling away. Was that it?

On my way there, I had passed a van of agents sitting with windows down, and they were SCARY!
Staring straight ahead, faces covered up to their eyes in black masks, bulky with armour.
They looked like terrorists and hijackers... Fittingly.

I turned to the person who had been walking, filming in front of me--a trans woman (I mention for the full social flavor of the scene)--and we hugged each other.

So, it's like that:
danger and intimidation met with bravery and a sense of togetherness that arises when you face a common, outside enemy.

II. Creative Actions

It's different than after the police killed George Floyd, because then it was a city tearing at itself.
In contrast, it's pretty easy to see ICE as "foreign", even though it's fellow Americans...

And they are making it easy to demonize them--just shot another person yesterday, you'll have seen---and killed others around the country, and they say vile and hateful things too. 
They are not following the Peace, Love, & Understanding route. Hardly!

Poor Minneapolis!
And Portland, Chicago, and others.

I would say I/we all have some intense karma to work out here––some awe-ful big lessons we are invited to learn. Obviously the US has built up a history with a huge karmic debt---"unlearned lessons in love".

I am not an optimist, exactly, but I do SEE opportunities--possibilities!-- for us to get it together--for the future...

And I do see people acting in creative, smart, and practical ways to help.

A favorite example: 
a feminist sex shop (near where I transfer buses!) has turned its entire operations over to coordinating the collecting, storing, and dispersal by car of groceries and other goods to people who cannot go outside because of ICE. 
Volunteers are showing up to help sort and pack, and standing guard outside too. 

(We also have ice, as in, frozen water, and sidewalks are really dangerous right now.
This sort of service should continue every winter for people trapped by that kind of ice too!)

Hey, today is MLK's birthday! 
I don't literally believe there's a moral arc in the universe, as he says. I'm with astrophysicists like Neil deGrasse Tyson and Brian Cox:
the universe doesn't care, it's not a caring consciousness---
But WE care, and we have a moral arc... 
And we create stories that reflect that and teach that, and that all matters.

Along the lines of Good stories:
I think of your husband's clowning theater. 
There's an en-couraging action, designed to boost resilience~to keep our hearts up!

And speaking of clowning, my favorite political action of this era is the inflatable Portland Frog!!!
"Strategic Silliness" I think the Economist called it.
Also, I LOVE to see the people crocheting and knitting outside the Portland ICE facility.
People are protesting at the federal building here too, 
but it is waaay too cold to crochet!!!

I do have a frog hat though, which I wear to keep my spirits up.
A friend  kindly expressed concern that it makes me a mark for ICE.
Weird that this is likely right.

III. God's Eyes

My main thing is,
 I've been making God's eyes since the summer.
You know those yarn-wrapped crossed sticks, like from summer camp (but originally--and still---as you may well know, living in the southwest--they are protective icons made by the indigenous Huichol people of Mexico).

It came to me that they were something I would enjoy  this repetitive task, woven with good intentions-- offered with grace--
a kind of prayer, like the rosary, etc.

I started hanging them on the fence next to the thrift store in September-- a sad little corner, ugly with trash, along a sidewalk where people take drugs or sell stuff (sex, drugs, whatever).
And yet it can be people just hanging out and socializing too.
Beauty in the breakdown...

Anyway, over time I made a couple hundred, plus--with some help from friends:
my little art heart project.

People take them (my intention) almost but not quite as fast as I can replace them. Enough eyes always remain so that the fence is always bright with a line of them all the way around--also my intention.

They say, "I see you. I care. Beauty is possible."

 I'd slowed making them over the holidays, 
but just this week a friend asked me if I could make a sunny one, to help keep their spirit of hope up.

Of course I could. 

I've been working on making ones in sunrise colors---haven't got it quite right yet---
will keep messing with the balance and colors---
but these first two are nice anyway. I'll add them to the fence.

The one on the left I was making at a nearby deli that hosts neighborhood meetings to respond to ICE raids--they've targeted a Cuban cafe and the Catholic church within two blocks of my apartment.
Photo below that, sunrise outside my apartment.

So I'm back in production, and have invited a couple friends to help me make more this Saturday.

Q: "What did you do in the war?"

A: "I wrapped yarn around sticks."

And I stand by that as a good thing to do, actually.
I'm not strictly a pacifist,  but I do wish we had some more visible creative nonviolent response here, like the frogs. 
Hard to do in the extreme cold. 
For instance, in 2020 after George Floyd's murder, artists immediately started painting murals--
but you simply cannot do that when it's below freezing.

But people do find creative ways!
There was a Singing Action, where a group walked and sang songs through the streets (near the thrift store, though I didn't see them)--and I think they will continue.
There is plenty of that, and I love it.

And of course I am not faulting people for things like throwing snowballs (!) at ICE, even if it escalates the tension---ICE agents are shooting people!  
I know you know. 

I'm just saying... I get it!
 If I were there, I'd probably hit them with a snow shovel too! 
I heard this happened?
 LOL---I had to laugh, even though the poor Venezuelan guy got shot in the leg---it's just so Minnesotan! Something out of Prairie Home Companion, back when it was good.

Along those lines, you've likely seen this photo in the news today--people have taken to carrying umbrellas against chemical weapons.
(I carry a lightweight rain poncho in my bag.)

Oh, my---
thanks, Ann, for giving me a reason to write this out. 
It's all very stress-hormone inducing.
Yesterday after just seeing the ICE agents sitting in their van I was shaking.

Ok, all for now---write if you'd like--would be happy to hear your news!
My best to you and yours! 💕
XO Fresca