Red Hat Resilience

February 8, 2026 annbh356Leave a comment

blue house with snow, Minnesota flag and wintery morning sun

In August 2024, I bought a Minnesota state flag to hang on our Kutzky Park front porch. It was a point of pride that my Governor was a vice-presidential candidate. I unfurled the flag again on that frigid Saturday last month, the day of the first of reoccurring ICE out of Minnesota NOW! marches. This time the flag on our front porch is a subtle sign of protest on a quiet street in a new neighborhood but also a sign of resilience; proud that Minnesota residents will not be bullied.

Like you, I am experiencing the challenge of how to watch the news and yet stay sane. How to be aware of the life and death actions happening in our community and just a few miles up the road, and around the country, as well as celebrate how good people are coming together. Since it is easy to get caught up in the onslaught of news, I am trying to avoid the trap of doomscrolling. As you know, that is tough when the most basic of American tenants are dismantled before our eyes. When those principles – literally written in stone – “Give me your tired and your poor…” are discarded.

I limit my morning routine to checking several reliable news sources but then shift to the arts – knitting sometime during each day and a daily dose of poetry, a gentle salve for a bruised soul. Simple words on paper (or a screen) that capture the complexity of modern emotions. There are times when the Poetry Foundation’s Poem for the Day is a good fit while other days, I dig a little deeper often returning to the words of former poet laureates Joy Harjo, Ted Kooser, or Amanda Gorman.

Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet, an award-winning author, a banned book author, is an accomplished writer who captured our angst within hours of the murder of Renee Nicole Good and again after the fatal shooting of Alex Jeffrey Pretti. Her words honoring Renee Good reminded us:

Change is only possible,
& all the greater,
When the labour
& bitter anger of our neighbors 
Is moved by the love
& better angels of our nature.

Some mornings, I listen as her lyrical voice recites poignant words that go with the quiet flow of fiber through my fingers; a meditative quality of one stitch after another, moving from skein to project to finished item which, at the moment, are red Melt the ICE hats.

I am an early participant in today’s red hat phenomenon. You may have heard how the owner of a small yarn store in St. Louis Park wanted to re-create the visual impact of the sea of pink hats seen worldwide at rallies in 2016. The design draws on Minnesota’s Norwegian heritage and that country’s resistance to Nazi occupation during World War II

The Norwegian Resistance Museum in Lillehammer has on display red beanies from that era and copies of the Nazi alert forbidding anyone, under threat of punishment, from possessing a red hat, regardless of age. Red hats have become a worldwide statement. Over 100,000 copies of the pattern have been sold to crafters in 43-countries and over $650,000 has been distributed to metro area non-profits supporting immigrants.

Today, whether we march, or sing, or knit, let’s follow Bruce Springsteen’s call to “take a stand for this land and the stranger in our midst.” Words that universally resonate and are making this new anthem a number one song in countries around the world. May love unfurl and lead us wherever we go: into the streets, into caucuses or voting booths, at public meetings or any place where love creates community, justice, art – and into a practice that makes the fibers of our hope into something strong enough to give us warmth, shelter, and resilience – much like red Melt the ICE beanies.

Knitting

Melt the ICE: Knit for Justice

January 26, 2026 annbh3561 Comment

red, handknitted beanie with straight sides, pointed top and a braided tassle

With a nod to Minnesota’s Norwegian heritage and honoring that country’s historic resistance to Nazi occupation during World War II, needle & skein, in St. Louis Park, is promoting a Melt the ICE Hat. Designed with versatility in mind, the beanie can be knit using fingering, DK, or worsted weight yarn. A crochet pattern is also available. A quick check of Ravelry projects reveals that since the pattern was released on January 16 thousands of fiber artists have already cast on this unique design.

The yarn store website describes the reason behind the flat, pointy, tasseled design this way: “In the 1940’s, Norwegians made and wore red pointed hats with a tassel as a form of visual protest against Nazi occupation of their country. Within two years, the Nazis made these protest hats illegal and punishable by law to wear, make, or distribute.”

For those a little less familiar with Minnesota geography, St. Louis Park is a close-in Twin Cities suburb just west of Minneapolis. Some of the news footage you have seen recently may be from those very streets. The yarn store has promised that “the proceeds from the sale of the pattern will go to the LynLake community of businesses who will distribute the funds to those impacted by the actions of ICE.”

Using a stashed skein of Kelbourne Woolens Germantown in a Persian Red, I finished the first of five (or maybe more) Melt the ICE Hats. As friends seek something rational to grasp onto after a nightmare week that revealed the best of Minnesotans who rallied in peaceful protest by the tens of thousands in sub-zero temperatures and the worst of America with the executions of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, I will use my knitting needles to proclaim:

Do justice. 
Love kindness. 
Abolish ICE.

Writing

A Day of Prayer and Fasting

January 23, 2026 annbh356Leave a comment

raised fist painted in the two-tone blues and white north star of the Minnesota state flag

Unlike that classic line from Star Trek, proclaimed in synthesized Borg speech, that “resistance is futile” I still believe that resistance can effect change. It may be a Pollyanna-like personality flaw but, even in these uncertain days when thousands of armed, masked men terrorize Minnesota streets more reminiscent of a gun toting, wild west movie than 21^st century modern life, I need to believe hope is not pointless.

Today, on this day of prayer and fasting, I will join thousands around my state in non-violent moral action. We will gather by ones and twos and thousands with the message: Ice Out of Minnesota NOW! Prayer vigils will be held from Bemidji to Blue Earth, in Mankato, Minneapolis, and Moorhead, as well as my town of Rochester. With rallies and marches, despite dangerous frigid temperatures; with fasting and prayers offered heavenward we send the message that the terrorization of quiet residential neighborhoods must stop. We send the message that trolling school yards is unacceptable. We send the message that using kindergarteners as bait to then ship father and five-year old Liam to Texas is wrong.

In the past, I always felt comfortable and proud expressing my constitutional rights. I believed that our most revered public text – the Constitution and the Bill of Rights – would keep me safe. I believed my First Amendment rights of free speech, assembly, and petitioning the government would protect me. I believed, as a gray-haired, white female, I would never be perceived as a threat. The shocking violent murder of Renee Good in Minneapolis disproved my hypothesis that my age and the color of my skin will see me home safely.

A natural reaction would be to stay home, tucked in like a child after a bedtime story. But no matter how snug the blanket may be, there are still wild things under the bed, and those monsters are shredding our representative democracy. And so, I join other Minnesotans and supporters from around the country to say: Ice Out of Minnesota NOW!