In the South, we say that if snow stays for five days, it’s waiting for more. The maxim proved true over the weekend. While my neighborhood received less snow than other parts of the Tar Heel State, my kids had enough to go sledding and make a snow fairy — a miniature snow woman with pine needles as a skirt and a crown of red berries. My wife, fierce and lovely, wrote “Abolish ICE” in the snow to make our fairy part of the resistance. As the scriptures teach, “Do not abandon your boldness” (Hebrews 10:35).
Such boldness is necessary because the FIFA Peace Prize winner continues to wage armed conflict on his citizens in Minneapolis, apparently because of the notorious criminal activity of… (wait for it) Somali daycare centers. But ICE’s brutal tactics have proven so unpopular that our social-media-loving president is hoping we will be distracted by his false litigations of the two previous election cycles. Apparently, his strategy is to dredge up the past to save his party from a thumping in the upcoming election. He is also finding time to sue the IRS for 10 billion dollars. Is it legal for the president to smash the country’s piggy bank?
Meanwhile on Main Street, inflation is still high while housing, healthcare and college costs are soaring and increasingly unaffordable to more and more Americans. Remember how this most recent election was supposed to be about the high price of eggs? At least our president has been unable to wreck Greenland like he has the East Wing of the White House.
Bruce Springsteen wrote a song about the protests in the streets of Minneapolis, specifically memorializing Renee Good and Alex Pretti — “There are bloody footprints where mercy should have stood.” I listen to the Boss and read in Micah 6:8 that the Lord requires us “to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly.” I am inspired by the bravery of folks in Minneapolis who stand up for civil rights and sing hymns in four-part harmony in sub-zero temperatures. I keep them in my prayers and donate to help those who are sheltering in place due to fear of deportation. One neighbor makes anti-ICE whistles on her 3D printer, which is boss. Still others volunteer at a white flag shelter to bring people out of the cold and Dawn Landes performs to raise funds for local food pantries.
We say that if snow stays for five days, it’s waiting for more. Those of us who are hoping to Make American Kind Again are waiting for other bold volunteers to join us and all of the fierce and lovely snow fairies.
Andrew Taylor-Troutman is the author of the book with Wipf and Stock Publishers titled This Is the Day: A Year of Observing Unofficial Holidays about Ampersands, Bobbleheads, Buttons, Cousins, Hairball Awareness, Humbugs, Serendipity, Star Wars, Teenagers, Tenderness, Walking to School, Yo-Yos, and More. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where he is a student of joy.
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