Back in August of 2017, shortly after the Unite The Right march, a neo-Nazi white nationalist event in Charlottesville, Virginia that resulted in multiple injuries and one death, I attended a march and protest in Boston. That protest was in response to the Charlottesville event, but also to oppose a white nationalist rally that was to take place on Boston Common that day. We had no idea what would happen, whether there would be violence in response to our march. In the end, the white nationalists, numbering only around 30, left early, we assumed, in response to the 40,000 of us who showed up in peaceful opposition.
Over the years, I have attended lots of protests, but I’ve been lucky that none ended in violence. Nothing like what we’ve seen happening now in the Minneapolis area and in Chicago, Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles earlier this year.
Last Wednesday I drove to Burlington with friends to participate in a vigil at the ICE Field Office and Detention center there. A group named Bearing Witness has held vigils in front of the building for more than 40 weeks. We were part of a Western Massachusetts contingent that brought about 75 additional people to join the vigil. It was reported that there were 1,000 of us peacefully demonstrating on that very cold and windy day.
I tried to think of myself, though I knew I was not, as one of those thousands of brave, courageous, and ethical Minnesotans who have been leaving their warm homes daily to protest in the single-digit cold weather in support and protection of their neighbors for months now. They have been under assault by our recurrent guy’s version of Nazi Germany’s gestapo, a military police force whose job it was to put down any resistance to Hitler’s regime. Our version is called ICE and Border Patrol, but they function in the same manner as the gestapo did then.
Thousand of these agents have been sent to the Minneapolis and St. Paul areas supposedly to arrest immigrants with criminal records. But that’s not what’s been happening. These masked, unidentified and heavily armed men are simply targeting anyone with brown or black skin, as well as those who are bravely observing and recording the illegal, brutish behavior.
These agents are stopping cars, smashing windows, dragging people out to the ground, breaking bones and shooting some, even to their death — Renee Good and Alex Pretti, to name two. There are no warrants, no due process of law, just cruelty. And many of those who are taken simply disappear into the detention system, lost to their families.
I know I’m not telling you something you haven’t already read about, but it bears writing about again and again — that the resistance of the people of Minneapolis who have turned out day after day, night after night, knowing that their own lives are at risk, in order to defend and protect those who are targeted, is an inspiring role model for us all.
I went to the Burlington standout knowing that there had been no violence there in the past, that I would be cold, but not in danger. I know that ICE has already been to our community, taking some people away and I’m sorry to say that I have not participated in many actions to push back on this.
So, I wonder what I would do if the recurrent guy sent a thousand lawless agents here to our liberal blue bastion? Would I put myself in harm’s way to protect my neighbors and be visibly part of the resistance? Yes, is the answer to that. I plan to be out there with my phone held high, documenting the fascist behavior on display. Will you?
It’s so clear now that saving this democracy of ours rests solely in our hands. There was very little resistance to Hitler’s fascist regime when he took over, and the gestapo made sure of that. So, it’s up to us to stand up for those under threat among us, whether they look like us, or talk like us, or come from somewhere unknown to us, or not.
Perhaps you’ve seen the following quote by Martin Niemoller, written in response to Hitler and his gestapo. I’m going to keep it in my heart and mind as I work to find the courage and strength to resist as our brothers and sisters have been doing in Minnesota. I hope you will too.
“First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me”
Karen Gardner of Haydenville can be reached at opinion@gazettenet.com.