Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes a mix of commentary online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.
•••
Cheers to the extraordinary staff at Valley View Elementary in Columbia Heights for launching a food relief program for 120 families too scared to leave their homes during Operation Metro Surge, which is now coming to an end. At least four students from the school were detained and sent to a Texas detention, including Liam Ramos. (A staff member took the searing photo of Liam in his blue bunny hat as he was being detained.) “We have 25 families right now that have either a mom or a dad that has been taken,” principal Jason Kuhlman told the New York Times. The school’s devotion to the students and their families should leave little doubt that the value of public school educators in a community extends far beyond the classroom.
Jeers to the fake claims regarding anti-ICE protesters in Minnesota, which spread like wildfire before the recently announced end to the ICE surge. The falsehood purveyors despicably included U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who posted a virtual perp walk of “Minnesota rioters” that was presumably seen by more than 3 million of her followers. Her local supplicant, Minnesota’s U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen, parroted her, saying the federal government will “not tolerate assaults on federal officers.” But what we’ve learned during this entire ordeal is that the Department of Justice is sorely lacking in credibility. Do you disbelieve your eyes — or their claims? Their game plan in Minnesota seems to have always been to fuel falsehoods and instill fear. You know: 70 days of presidential “reckoning and retribution.”
Cheers to Anchor Builders, a St. Louis Park-based, sibling-owned design-build firm, for a moving social media statement about the feds’ immigration harassment operation, its impact on their business and community. Delivered with “great sadness and great pride,” the message said “silence is not neutral. It can unintentionally signal acceptance of things we do not support.” The post signed by brothers John and Barak Steenlage continued that “human dignity applies to everyone” and “due process matters.” The benefits of immigrant expertise and labor extend from work on our homes to farming and medical care, the statement read. It’s a moving statement of care and compassion that makes a person wonder how it is that the larger hometown corporations — and their armies of gatekeeping communications professionals — can’t find their voices in this moment we’re all enduring. Anchor included a call to action in the statement, urging support for our neighbors. Anchor’s not alone, but its boldness merits recognition and makes the powerful case for shopping local.
Jeers to the cliché of being “a fighter,” the current rallying cry in the DFL nomination for the U.S. Senate seat held by the departing Sen. Tina Smith. It’s the word of the day for Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, both of whom are seeking to succeed Smith. Being a fighter is fine, but fighting for what? It reminds me of politicians who say they’re running to “get stuff done.” Be more specific. While I’m at it, a jeer for Smith, who said a year ago that she didn’t intend to endorse anyone in the race. “It’s not my job to pick my successor. That’s up to the voters of Minnesota,” Smith said back then. Now she’s backing Flanagan in highly produced social media posts, including one with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. What do Warren and Smith say about Flanagan? She’s a fighter.
Cheers to U.S. Olympic Curling team alternate Rich Ruohonen, a prominent Twin Cities personal injury attorney, for using his time in the global spotlight to speak out against the recent immigration enforcement in Minnesota. “We have a Constitution. It allows us freedom of the press, freedom of speech, protects us from unreasonable searches and seizures, and makes it so we have to have probable cause to be pulled over. And what’s happening in Minnesota is wrong. There’s no shades of gray,“ he said. Ruohonen seamlessly merged the two worlds, law and sports, to seize the moment in a meaningful way. See, sports and politics do mix, especially when speaking truth to power. And as further refreshing evidence that good things often happen to good people, Ruohonen subbed in at the end of the U.S. men’s match against Switzerland on Feb. 12 and helped sweep and guide the final stone down the ice. At the age of 54, Ruohonen became the oldest American ever to compete in the Winter Olympic Games. Well played, sir!
Jeers to former NFL sideline reporter turned U.S. Senate candidate Michele Tafoya, who couldn’t handle Spanish lyrics during the Super Bowl. Before Sunday’s game, she shared an unintentionally comical revelation that “During halftime tonight, I’m going to do something I’ve never done before: fold laundry.” She tossed a Super Bowl hashtag on there to drive home her point. Respondents mocked her poor sentence structure, asking how it is that she’d made it through 61 years of life without ever folding laundry. Tafoya eventually recast the sentence, but the sentiment remained: She wasn’t interested in Bad Bunny’s halftime show. (He’s a Puerto Rico-born U.S. citizen who sings in Spanish.) Better not get caught speaking a foreign language around Tafoya or she’ll tune you out and run for a pile of clothes.
