the mellow tigger's musings

I don't know if Minnesota is entering your news feed stories recently, but news and social here are filled with incidents involving either ICE or the financial thefts from charities. There are claims and counter-claims from different government entities, there are videos of incidents, and there are claims of government lies and AI-manufactured content. It's hard to know what to believe as fact. Reddit threads for Minneapolis and the Twin Cities have become a home for ICE reports instead of traditional community topics. A few days ago, there was this ICE raid about 2 blocks from my house. I can offer only my good thoughts to the thousands of people who showed up at a recent protest.

I don't have the mental stamina to sort through it all.

I will say, though, that a week or two ago, during my Christmas walk (too much walking) through the snow, I finally visited the offices of the Nonviolent Peaceforce, where I donated during GiveToTheMax day. I chatted with a nice young man there at their front desk. A significant part of their funding was federal money that ended with the defunding of USAID fiasco (a terrible thing, even according to Harvard). Their office in Minneapolis will shut down. I'm not sure how much longer they'll still keep their spot a few blocks northwest of me, but they may be keeping an office in California as their only USA location.

The cruelty is the point. The banned word list from this Republican-controlled government is meant to erase compassion, community, and true justice from our thoughts, our actions, and especially our standards for holding leaders accountable.

It's that time of year again. Today is Minnesota's annual virtue signaling spectacle. We call it "Give To The Max" day. For recurring visitors like me, their website offers a convenient "Add previously supported causes to your cart" option with a "Give Again" button. Very convenient! Even without it, their search engine makes it easy to find organizations and causes of interest to you.

I know other places offer similar mass donation drives. At my employer in Pennsylvania, they're doing it right now for the holiday season too. I very much appreciate this very Minnesota way of making it easy to do good things, which is what every society should strive to achieve with its infrastructure and politics.