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| Split Rock Lighthouse Lake Superior, Minnesota Photo credit: Andrew Krueger | MPR News 2010 |
I have never been more proud to be Minnesotan. Yesterday, Friday, January 23rd, thousands of fellow Minnesotans marched thru downtown Minneapolis to protest the heavy presence and unconstitutional tactics of ICE. Nearby, citizens and clergy members staged a protest at Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport, and approximately 100 clergy members were arrested.
My feelings, of course, are rooted in my belief that each person, each individual has immense worth and value. While I always professed to others that this was my belief, the form it has taken in my thinking and actions has evolved throughout my adult life.
I grew up in a conservative Christian home. Local and international news stories were always filtered through a Christian nationalist lens. As one might imagine, this made me appreciative of other cultures and people different than me, but without any sort of sensitivity, understanding, or empathy. People near me often said things like, “If you’re in the United States, you need to learn English….those people are the laziest people…that’s not a good neighborhood, we don’t drive through that part of town…..” You get the idea.
My first teaching position (2008) was in a large local charter school. The student population looked a lot like me – white, lower to middle class, attended church on Sundays, celebrated Christmas every December. My beliefs and routines worked fine in this setting because there was nothing to challenge them.
Becoming a mother (2014) was the first event that really set me on a journey of personal transformation. The rigid, rule-following, authoritarian parenting style of my youth and many of those around me did not work – not for me, not for my husband, and not for my child! In searching for ideas, philosophies, and help, we began to expose ourselves to different parenting styles, belief systems, and ways of life.
The presidential election of 2016 was another formative time in my personal journey. My husband and I were aghast at the things we heard friends and acquaintances say. The conservative rhetoric and fervor of Christian nationalism grew to a point that made me incredibly uncomfortable – even though that was the tradition I had been raised in.
In late 2019, just before the Covid pandemic, we moved to the Madison, Wisconsin area. Our children were quite young, and we knew almost no one. When the world shut down in March 2020, our only friends were our neighbors, who we could safely talk and spend time with outside. I was hired to teach music and choir part-time at the local middle school, and became friends with people of different political persuasions and experiences. My students came from many different walks of life. They were wrestling with big issues and exploring challenging ideas. Our favorite restaurant in town was openly supportive of the LGBTQIA+ community (a restaurant I was certain my parents would urge me to boycott). For the first time I had friends and coworkers who were gay, liberal, raised differently than me, and living differently than me.
The most surprising part was that these new friends and neighbors were all genuinely kind. They were thoughtful. Incredibly smart. Wise and insightful. Growing up, I absorbed the idea that Christians (specifically, conservative Christians) had the monopoly on kindness. Looking back, I realize that was a silly and ridiculous idea. Offensive, even. But that was part of my upbringing.
In August 2024 we returned to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. I teach elementary music full-time in a wonderful, large suburban school district. It is the most culturally, ethnically, and socio-economically diverse setting I have ever been a part of. Some students are recent immigrants. We have students that understand absolutely no English. Students represent many cultural experiences and religions. I care about all of my students, deeply, and more than ever desire that my actions show my belief that each individual (each student) has immense worth and value.
As a mother, I now actively seek (along with my husband) opportunities to fight the mindset I grew up with with my children. Can we attend the multicultural night at school? Learn words in another language to communicate with a neighbor or classmate? Discuss other holidays outside of the ones we celebrate? What organizations do we donate time and money to? What kind of lens do we interpret local events through? Do we know and spend time with people who look different, sound different, believe differently than us?
My identities include many nouns: white, cisgender female, heterosexual, wife, mother, teacher, learner, creative, musician, singer, neighbor, friend, Disney adult, Minnesotan, American and Christian. Over all these, however, is the belief that each human being I encounter (and all those that I don’t) has incredible value. Their llife is valuable. They are worthy of respect. I want to meet each student, neighbor, and person with curiosity and care. Every student is welcome in my classroom.
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