There are a lot of people doing good out there right now, but not who you’d expect. Look in the mirror and you might see one.
The writing I’ve always most identified with has been writing that originates in and is guided by the heart, writing that feels like the someone who wrote it was feeling something when they wrote it. From the heart, tempered by the intellect. I think the person I most admire now who is doing this is Maria Popova at the marginalian. Her writing is often so beautiful that it physically hurts me to read it.
Once or twice a year if I’m lucky (out of 100+ times), I’ll be writing something and this kind of “flow” happens that a lot of people experience when playing sports but that I usually only experience when playing Medieval Madness, a pinball machine.
I wrote a commentary in the Star Tribune (posted in full below) before work on Jan. 27 and it was published later that afternoon. I sat down to write, blinked, and it was done. I was at such a loss to read a letter from 60+ Minnesota CEOs—people who we need now more than ever, people for whom, like so many of the wealthy in America, the rising tide has lifted all yachts. I was so mad at them—their words the opposite of having been guided by their hearts. They see all this as primarily an issue of an interrupted business climate.
Now that we are drowning, they are unmooring their ships and floating away, seemingly undisturbed by the blood in the water. We need more from our leaders right now—not just the political ones who we might feel whose job this is, but leaders at all levels, and all levels of leaders.
There are a lot of people doing good things out there. You don’t have to look far. I attended a vigil Jan. 26 for Alex Pretti, where Brass Solidarity, a street brass band of volunteers with tubas, trombones, even a flugelhorn played uplifting songs and for the first time that day I felt my heart beat, felt human again. People sang and danced, and we said thank you to Alex, and Renee, and many others killed by ICE in detention centers.
The people doing good are on every street corner these days, blowing tiny plastic whistles, opening their business doors to people being tear-gassed, comic bookstore guys emerging from the fury like a heroes from the page, or just people making phone calls, donating money, making free burritos and sandwiches. You don’t have to look far to find them. Look in the mirror and you might see one.
A message for 60+ CEOs: Stand up, or sit down and take off the nametag, because Minnesotans don’t recognize you
I imagine the statement issued by the more than 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies must have gone through dozens of drafts before finally arriving as the powerful piece of writing that it was on Jan. 25. While Minnesota’s Hubert Humphrey said inspirational things like “The test we must set for ourselves is not to march alone but to march in such a way that others will wish to join us,” more than 60 business leaders came up with, if I might paraphrase, “maybe we can talk about this some more.”
These 60 leaders mentioned how they support a “strong and vibrant state,” so much so that they repeated it twice. They want to “advance real solutions” as well, with “real solutions” being something they must know about, having also mentioned these solutions without naming them three times. These are powerful words, so it makes sense they were repeated, with things like “foster progress” and “deescalation” thrown in for good measure.
Meanwhile, on Friday, Jan. 23, tens of thousands of Minnesotans gathered in downtown Minneapolis, supported by hundreds of small business leaders who closed their doors in support of workers—employees, human beings, Minnesotans—because they recognized that words aren’t enough right now. To my knowledge, no major corporations did so, as their nametag-at-best leaders continue to sit idle with milquetoast PR messages of nothingness. The next day, whatever goodwill was rendered bled into the frozen street on Nicollet Avenue.
Many of these leaders, especially of public companies, neatly dodge their moral responsibilities by deferring to a “fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of shareholders.” How convenient for you.
Leadership should be recognizable by more than a nametag. I’d exhort everyone reading this and paying attention to support local and small businesses that are standing up in meaningful ways to ICE and a federal administration that keeps attacking, testing boundaries, only to come at us again and again with the next heinous attack. Their goal is to make us feel small, to make us exhausted, to pick on those with fewer rights until there are none with rights left, with any humanity left—but what they will continue to find is what ICE has found: Minnesotans are a purpose-driven people. ICE came here expecting to find fear and passivity, and instead they found relentless bravery. They found we are not small. Minnesota is a land of giants. Every one of us can be one if we are brave enough. Alex Pretti was one.
And so yes, Minnesota CEOs, let’s de-escalate this situation, this situation where people are shot in the face repeatedly, who have nearly a dozen bullets fired into their dead bodies, their blood draining into the already dirtied snow of our streets overrun with ICE. Let’s de-escalate that, shall we, and do so vibrantly, perhaps? Here is my message for these 60 CEOs: Stand up, or sit down and take off the nametag, because the Minnesotans who are standing up? We don’t recognize you.
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