01/30/2026
While I can't really take part physically in today's show of strength and resistance, we stand proud with our community, our state, and our country as we seek to find our way back to the Constitution.
And since I don't have a store to close today, I'll take my stand verbally.
As always, if you don't understand my sentiment or find you disagree, I will be happy to sit with you and share what I have learned (and come to believe) in a respectful, positive manner. And please know that I will listen to you and your beliefs and I will hear what you see and value with respect and kindness. And we will both learn. 🩷
We all come to the table with different experience and baggage. But we are best when we can learn from each other. Respectful discourse will be the change we need.
I believe politics should be about finding middle ground that would benefit "the people" as best we can. I abhor that politics seems to swing toward polar opposites with one side losing if the other wins. This is where we all lose.
So for today...
I support the rule of law but also expect due process.
I believe that in a best case scenario, immigration should be done legally. BUT life doesn't always work that way and, as a descendant of family all but wiped out by the Holocaust. My great grandfathers were already here, but lost their entire families.
So I believe that we need better processes to realistic immigration, especially for those needing asylum.
I am MORTIFIED that we are now a country that other countries view as needing asylum (from!).
I want violent criminals off the streets. Immigrant or otherwise.
But I do NOT condone "all immigrants" being treated as criminals (for the record, most immigration offenses are NOT "criminal offenses", but rather, civil offenses). There are rules, procedures, and processes that have worked for years. I cannot fathom the cruel and inhumane treatment OF ANYONE, not immigrants who overstayed their visas, not protesters who seek due process and decorum of their government officials, not American citizens who look "brown". Not bystanders. Not children.
And for the record..."violent criminals" are rarely on the streets or hanging out in their homes. Our police, our FBI, our agencies of law...this is their work. They get the criminals off the streets. There is little ICE can do to find "criminals" that the local police haven't already done. The Minnesota Department of Corrections felt the need to make a statement clarifying that the "violent criminals" that ICE claims to have arrested were ALREADY in jail and were simply quietly handed over to ICE. There is absolutely no need for a state to be terrorized and rights stripped and due process to be ignored.
We expect better. We deserve better.
And frankly, we are almost ALL of us technically illegal immigrants. This country was founded on brutality to the natives who inhabited this land and lived peacefully. And we were made prosperous on the backs of black slaves (we don't get to rewrite history....they were stolen, kidnapped, and treated worse than animals) and immigrants. Even today our country eats economically and lives well on the work of poorly paid migrant workers, whose wages wouldn't touch minimum wage.
So today, I believe we're at a turning point.
I don't know that a one day protest/boycott will make a big difference long term.
But I see others taking their stand and becoming vocal. We aren't hiding anymore.
We want change.
Jen
