On Minneapolis
I spent three weeks in Minneapolis once, and it was a city I was surprised to love. This is not about that.
It's been a few days since things went down in Minneapolis and louder more prominent voices than mine will continue to chime in. To me, it's hard to discuss: the path that the current administration has set the United States on leads to an obvious place and we have 90 years of history that tells us why.
I frankly can't believe that anybody, no matter how ill informed, can support what's happened. It's unimaginable.
I've never been a fan of America in a lot of ways. It's always seemed like a divided place which seems odd, since the Civil War was so long ago. Those divisions linger though: North to South; Coastal vs. Inland; gun owners vs. the rest. It's such a physically large country with a correspondingly large populace it's not realistic (or even desirable) to expect a mono-culture, but the level of division in parts of the U.S. is hard to explain. Drive west across Washington State on the Cascades Highway and you could be forgiven for forgetting Seattle even existed.
Minneapolis though, is in the northeast--the oldest part of the U.S., where the republic was founded. As a city it's lovely and quite liberal. It has a nice blend of modern and well maintained older architecture. The Guthrie Theatre sits along the river, as does the Frank Gehry designed Weissman Museum (affectionately referred to as the Tin Can Museum by friends when I was there. The city is bike friendly, full of great vintage shopping, a couple of decent bowling alleys and the astonishing Minneapolis Center for Book Arts. Let's not forget that it's the place that brought us Prince.
So maybe all of that liberalism made it perfect for the current attacks it's seeing. Maybe that's exactly why the Trump admininstration settled in and decided to attack. Who knows.
One thing I know is I'll probably never see it again. When I moved back to Toronto I figured I might find a reason to go down, but it's not safe. That border isn't one I'm going to cross until the current regime's mentality has been displaced, and I don't even think that'll happen soon because I'm betting that there isn't an election in 2028, possibly a civil war again and...I'm scared. We're too close. This isn't going to end well, and I'm entering that phase of life where one is viscerally aware that time is limited.
So a few photos to remember some of what's great about Minneapolis, and what we're all likely to lose.
