Dealing with COVID was bad enough, but I’ve held today’s prepared blog to write about Minneapolis instead, the city where I joined family in 1998 and still spend half of each year. I worked at Abbott Northwestern Hospital for five years, near where George Floyd was killed. I know the neighborhood well. I walked its sidewalks at lunch time and chose on-street parking instead of paying expensive parking garage fees and sent that money instead to support an orphan in Guatemala until she graduated and then to twin girls in the Philippines for housing, school, and food. I didn’t always feel safe but learned street smarts.
Farseeing developers created the Midtown Global Market attached to that hospital in 2006. Like a mini-United Nations, its 45 businesses represent 16 cultures or countries. I visited its shops and took grandchildren and friends there \ to dine and buy ethnic crafts. We loved the hardworking Mexican baker who didn’t charge enough for his delicious cookies the size of saucers that he wrapped with a flourish. I bought vibrant garments from India, ordered foods from Hmong, Palestinian, Ethiopian, Swedish, Chinese, Mexican, Italian, and Indian menus—and probably overlooked some.
That market is now closed. After George Floyd’s arrest and death, the neighborhood erupted. Protests, riots, and destruction spread like wildfire far beyond that scene and purpose. I grieve for all senseless loss of life, but violence does not make anything better. Out-of-state agitators arrived and looted and burned the businesses of many diligent people in the neighborhood—plus public housing scheduled to open next spring, a post office, and a library.
When I once visited Washington, D.C., I read “Peaceful Assembly” inscribed on the walls of the Supreme Court Building. If an assembly is not “peaceful” it is not lawful. One local Minneapolis small business owner said, “The looters who broke into my store weren’t protesting Floyd’s death.”
I’m grateful for people of all colors coming from many everywhere to help. Rose McGee, a 69-year-old black baker, felt the Lord told her to make her sweet potato comfort pies and to give to people in the neighborhood along with a poem about the spirit of love. Actually, I’ve eaten her fabulous pie in the Global Market, too.
Every kindness helps—even if it is only a baby step forward.
We know the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” It’s sometimes paraphrased, “Good deeds are rewarded, and no bad deed goes unpunished”. Most of us believe that, even if sometimes the results seem delayed.
It’s unclear when the Midtown Global Market can reopen, or when and how neighborhood businesses can rebuild. Few insurance policies cover riots and looting.
In 1624, English poet John Donne wrote “No Man Is an Island”. It’s relevant now:
No man is an island, entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the continent,
a part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less,
as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friend’s
or of thine own were.
Any man’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind;
and therefore never send to know
for whom the bell tolls;
it tolls for thee.
The bell is tolling. May we let God make us sensitive, understanding, loving, generous, and take us far beyond our here and now to rebuild our lives and world in ways that truly honor all.
I so agree with your statements! God bless you.
I appreciate your blog, and more so because you lived there on ground zero. I also remember that you taught in Ohio at Pent state during that terrible crisis. What book would you suggest as an antidote read to easy the pain of such crazy tragedy, and perhaps shed light on the human suffering. (other then the bible)
Thank you. You’re close, and I appreciate that you listened and remembered. I was finishing a PhD at U. of MO-Columbia when 4 students were killed by Natl. Guard at Kent State Univ., Akron, OH. It is a 12-hr. drive from there to Columbia, MO. Exactly 12 hrs. later, protesters from Kent State arrived on our U. of MO campus prepared with thousands of fliers, printed arm bands to give our 20,000 students, and a very iconoclastic Cath. priest who flew in in a private plane to give speeches. I remember his name. I believe this is the man. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Kavanaugh No one will ever convince me that the riot these protesters stirred up, after their 12-hr. drive with so many prepared materials was not pre-planned and intentional. It did result in arrests, some of our students losing their political franchise, etc. Within a day our campus was also under martial law with 3,000 Natl. Guard troops on site and students terrified. We could hold class but it was against the law for more than any two people to congregate anywhere else, including teachers praying in hallways. Molotov cocktails were thrown at the Armory where the Natl. Guard troops were based. Thankfully, they did ignite. That was an education I did not wish to receive. As per books/sources, I’m also honored that you’d ask. This is not current but it is timeless. With more time, I may think of more and contact you, but am hard put to do better than recommending Francis Schaeffer’s book/film series, How Should We Then Live. I always value your thoughts and feedback. I’m very happy to have met and taught you and appreciate our and our families ongoing friendship.
Beautifully expressed. Thank you for posting. I will share. Lord help us all remember we are us & we’re all we’ve got. We are together on this beautiful blue marble.