The Power to Make It So!
One of the many things oppressors want to take from those they oppress is their hope. When oppressed people refuse to give up the belief that the future will be better than the present, because they have the power to make it so, it angers and terrifies the people oppressing them.
It is when people lose hope that they stop organizing, they stop speaking up and they stop showing up. They stop fighting and submit. For those of us living in Minnesota, giving up hope is not an option right now.
To hope is neither good nor bad, but what we hope for is definitely one or the other. The current administration has a lot of hope of terrorizing and harming people that simply want to make a better life for themselves and their families. They have proven that they will brutalize and even murder anyone who gets in their way of making that hope a reality, and they have ample resources at their disposal.
But I and so many others remain hopeful because during this dark and awful time we are living through, people continue to organize, show up and speak up. They are showing up to support businesses hit hard by the overwhelming presence of ICE in our state. They are grocery shopping for neighbors who are rightfully afraid to go out and shop for their families. They are at schools armed with whistles to blow in case ICE shows up to threaten the safety of students and staff. They are turning out to protest and show strength in numbers. They are sharing important information on social media platforms to help inform their networks of what is happening and how to get involved. They are putting their own lives at risk to protect their communities. Among them are people who, by their own admission, have not shown up before. But as one guy explained, he could no longer stay in the comfort of his own home while so many innocent people are being harmed.
We won’t give this administration what they want so badly - our hope! It may take time, but things will get better, because we have the power to make it so!
