Tag: iceoutofmnnow

Knitting

Melt the ICE: Knit for Justice

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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

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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 21st 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!