I was going to post a video today. Earlier, the road construction outside my porch was in full swing. The porch was rattling and the house shaking. So the video will have to wait…
Then I see the news.
Sometimes I get overwhelmed with the darkness.
The lies, the false witness, the suffering, the destruction of our monuments, the soaring prices, the struggling farmers, asylum seekers living in fear, the white supremacy in the highest places of our country…
Abuse, greed, theft, lying as an executive pastime, assault…it gets me.
I don’t think this is a “politics as usual” campaign. I think that this fall we are fighting for the soul of our nation, including right here in Minnesota.
Why do communities have to “assimilate” or go “back to where they came from”? Humans aren’t borg. Maybe a better answer is for Tom Emmer to assimilate. America has never been mono-culture. We have always, from the beginning, had a wonderful mix of humans from around the world. Assimilate into America, Tom Emmer!
How boring the world would be if everyone were like me! That is the promise of this country. It is actually printed on the plaque on the Statue of Liberty – you remember, the poor, the tired, the huddled masses?
Moving on in the news, the fate of those seeking asylum is crushing my soul. They came here because of a promise made, and the SCOTUS just declared that promise null and void on the whim of an abusive reality TV show host. Haitians betrayed again and again. Human beings bearing the divine image, called “filth” from the highest levels of government. Elections have consequences. This is not politics as usual. This is life and death.
There will be a massive amount of work to do to rebuild trust, the economy, and everything else this country had promised. How a madman destroyed so much in 18 short months will be studied for decades to come.
But WE, we have work to do. We have a country to rebuild, we have safeguards to put in place so that this will never happen again. We, together, can do this. We can make America the land of the free again…
It will take all of us, and sometimes the sheer amount of work ahead is so daunting…
So tonight, I will pray for my neighbors, my community, my district, my country…
And tomorrow, I will dust myself off again, and head back into the battle.
When things are dark, that is the time when even a dim light makes all the difference.
Won’t you join me?
Sam Powell for Senate 