Assassination. Annunciation. A year that broke Minnesota’s heart.
The best thing you can say about 2025 is that we got through it together.
Every time the world broke us, Minnesotans came together to pick up the pieces and mend what we could. Like when the federal shutdown left our neighbors hungry. Or when the president of the United States called our neighbors “garbage.”
Here’s what we need to remember from a year most of us would rather forget.
When a killer with too many guns and a manifesto attacked children praying on the first week of school, Minnesotans ran to help. Flowers and flickering candles and cuddly stuffed animals covered the steps of the shattered Annunciation Church and School in Minneapolis as the whole state grieved Harper and Fletcher and all the lives changed forever by a mass shooting at a children’s Mass.
Donations poured in to help the families and the wounded. Ribbons — blue and green for Annunciation — fluttered everywhere as a memorial and a promise not to forget.
That was how the summer of 2025 ended. The summer began with memorial candles flickering on the steps of the State Capitol and thousands of Minnesotans filing past caskets in the rotunda because of someone with too many guns and a list of the home addresses of Democratic state lawmakers.
The assassin attacked and wounded state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, in the middle of the night; then he banged on the door of Minnesota House Speaker emerita Melissa Hortman, killing her, her husband, Mark, and their golden retriever, Gilbert.
