Opinion | Minnesota showed the country how to resist. Now let’s show them how to unite.

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I started one of my days recently watching Team USA compete against Switzerland in Olympic curling. My 5-year-old daughter and I cheered for the red, white and blue as I did my best to explain sweeping and strategy in a game she’d never seen before. Watching Americans compete on the world stage, representing something bigger than themselves, I shared the feeling of pride in my country with my daughter.

The spirit of America represented by these athletes does not match what’s still happening across our country. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement surge may be ending in Minnesota soon, but those agents aren’t going home. They’re moving to another city, where they’ll continue detaining children, arresting immigrants with legal status and terrorizing communities. The atrocities against U.S. citizens exercising their First Amendment rights, against families and against immigrants working legally through our immigration process will continue.

It has been surreal to watch our constitutional rights erode in real time, and the frustration we all feel is real. Calls to abolish ICE or flying the flag upside down reflect valid rage. They are expressions of anger at an agency that has strayed so far from its stated mission that it now terrorizes communities rather than protecting them, and at the administration that is authorizing these unconstitutional, inhumane acts. This is a fundamental betrayal of who we say we are.

But the optimist in me sees something else emerging: Americans divided on nearly everything else are reaching a tipping point. The Wine Moms and the Don’t Tread on Me Guys are all fed up. We’re finding common cause in saying enough.

Which brings me to my charge: Take back the flag.

It may seem trivial when families are being torn apart, rights are evaporating and the local economy is cracking under a federal occupation. But symbols matter. Words matter. And we’ve already ceded too much ground tolerating a president who posts blatantly racist memes and smears the names of citizens killed by ICE.

The American flag has become associated almost exclusively with one political tribe, and many responded by stepping back from patriotic symbols entirely. That reflected discomfort with July 4th celebrations, sheepishness about flag displays and resignation to letting Jan. 6 insurrectionists attempt to define, and defile, what it means to be patriotic.

History is happening in real time. With an administration attempting to narrow what it means to be an American, we the people of Minnesota are leading the charge forward. The flag doesn’t belong to any one party or ideology. It belongs to all of us, especially those of us doing the unglamorous work of democracy: feeding our neighbors, protecting our communities and refusing to accept that this is who we are. Operation Metro Surge deeply miscalculated the resolve of everyday Americans.

We’ve had to play a lot of defense during these cold, painful weeks in Minneapolis to protect our neighbors, our way of life and our values. We know too well that democracy is not a guarantee. As ICE leaves Minnesota, this is not the time to take our foot off the gas. This fight is bigger than our state. It’s time to play offense and lead our country boldly forward and bring a message of unity and patriotism our elected leaders have failed to demonstrate.

As the ICE melts, cheer for our Olympians. Get outside and fly the American flag. Together, let’s reclaim it as a symbol not of blind nationalism, but of the hard work of living up to our stated values.