Minnesota: When Ice is More Than Just Weather

Four Seasons … Sometimes Before Lunch

Minnesota winters can be difficult and a real mixed bag from year to year. This year we’ve experienced unseasonably warm days followed by breath-stealing, bitter cold that has showcased H2O in more than one form on the same day.

Of course, I love the seasons in Minnesota. Despite those legendary days where the air is so cold your face hurts, it’s still a lovely place to live and work. The changing seasons are a large part of why I stay here.

But when it comes to winter I don’t care how cold it gets or how much snow falls, the one meteorological phenomenon I can’t abide is when rain mixes with snow and then tops it all off with an arctic blast that turns everything to ice.

This Is Not the Ice We Signed up For

These past few months, not only did we get to experience this stupid weathery mix around the holidays, we have also been plagued by the presence of ICE (the sadistic goon squad variety) on top of actual ice (the weather-related crap.) Dealing with both has made for a trying and traumatic January indeed.

Yet, despite the fear, rage, and frozen streets, I have never been more proud to call Minnesota home and to be a part of the Minnesota Small Business community.

We Will Not Look Away & We Will Not Be Silent

At A Kopp Music, we see 100 students and their families every week. Many of these students and their families are being traumatically impacted by all that’s been going on in our communities.

As a result, after the shooting of Renee Good on Tuesday, January 7th, we reached out to our current roster with a statement that largely expressed that we stand with our community members and that we are here in this time of need.

Even before that event we had been active alongside the amazing lesson parents and community members that have been dedicating their time, energy, and dollars towards taking care of their family, friends, neighbors, and loved ones.

Then came the weekend that marked a turning point.

On Friday, January 23rd, A Kopp Music proudly participated in a statewide Economic Shutdown in protest of the ICE invasion in our state.

The following day, Alex Pretti was murdered in broad daylight on our city streets by federal agents. Shortly after that, our business received a harassing, threatening phone call.

We want to be clear. While some seemed to think these heinous acts might intimidate or scare us and our community, the result was quite the opposite.

We are more steadfast and committed than ever in our support for our neighbors, our community, our fellow small business owners, and our state.

This Is What Solidarity Looks Like

I felt it was important to take this time and space to acknowledge my fellow Minnesotans as we stand united together.

We have shared space with so many of you as we have written postcards, assembled ICE-Raid Preparedness Kits for local businesses, put together Whistle Kits for neighbors and constitutional observers, and created protest signs.

We have seen you out in public at protests, whether on the streets, on pedestrian walkways, or overpass bridges.

We have attended meetings, town halls, and trainings together to learn more about what is happening in our communities, how to protect and care for one another, and keep ourselves safe.

We have had conversations that have felt both highly unusual and frightening, as well as assuring and comforting while our world changes around us.

We are sad and angry, but also resolved. Fear won’t rule over us as we do what is right to protect ourselves and our community.

I personally feel that on the other side of these trying times we are going to show significantly stronger bonds within our social networks than we ever have before.

We will and must do better.

We are strength and resilience.

We are a force of compassion and love that will not be broken.

We are Minnesota.

l’Étoile du Nord

With those thoughts, I want to leave you with the Minnesota State Song.

It has been playing over and over in my mind in recent days.

It was written by University of Minnesota students. The music and first verse were composed by Truman E Rickard in 1904, and the second verse was penned in 1905 by Arthur E Upson. Initially, it was a song performed in a University of Minnesota play, after which it became the U of M school song.

In 1945 with just a slight change to the lyrics to transition it from a college rouser to a state tribute, it became the official state song of Minnesota.

To all of those who have made their home here, regardless of citizenship or immigration status, and to everyone with whom we share community … we are Minnesota.

We stand up together for one another.

Jeff Tweedy, renowned American songwriter, musician, and author, as well as frontman and guitarist for the Grammy-winning alternative rock band Wilco said it best. As he so eloquently reminds us:

“Creativity eats darkness … it is hard to be scared when you are singing a song.”

We invite you to raise a glass with your neighbors and raise your voices together in song!

Hail! Minnesota
Minnesota, hail to thee!
Hail to thee our state so dear!
Thy light shall ever be
A beacon bright and clear.
Thy sons and daughters true
Will proclaim thee near and far.
They shall guard thy fame
And adore thy name;
Thou shalt be their Northern Star.
Like the stream that bends to sea,
Like the pine that seeks the blue,
Minnesota, still for thee,
Thy sons are strong and true.
From thy woods and waters fair,
From thy prairies waving far,
At thy call they throng,
With their shout and song,
Hailing thee their Northern Star.