I Was Reading...

An article in "The Nation" by a journalist who covered the West Bank of Palestine and what he said about Minneapolis caught my attention!

Occupied Minnesota

Minneapolis right now reminds me of what I’ve seen during my time in the West Bank.

Ariel Gold

January 28, 2026

As someone who has spent a significant amount of time in the West Bank of Palestine, I know an occupation when I see one—and what is happening in Minnesota right now is an occupation.

I came out to Minneapolis to join the Twin Cities group Multifaith Antiracism, Change & Healing (MARCH) in protesting the atrocities being committed by ICE against the people of their state.

Following a couple of days of nonviolent training, trust building, rallying, marching, and direct action, notice came on Sunday—one day after the horrific murder of Alex Pretti—that our assistance was needed at one of the community’s dual-language (English and Spanish) churches. My responsibility was to make sure that parishioners, who were frequently too afraid to leave their homes, could worship together in relative safety.

[...]

It wasn’t the first time I had done this sort of “protective presence.” Staying for a month or two at a time in the West Bank city of Hebron, I used to spend each weekday morning and afternoon accompanying children to and from schools to protect them from  Israeli soldiers. Just as in Minnesota—wherefive-year-old Luis Ramos was snatched out of his father’s car in the driveway of their home last week—the threat the occupying army posed to Palestinian children was all too real.

But what also is happening is what it is teaching the children! If you look at the children who lived in occupied cities we changes in the lives of them. When they grow up they show a common trait, lack of empathy and caring for others,

In Berlin Germany, London, Beirut, the West Bank, and other sieged cities you see the same thing. The children in Minneapolis will be experiencing psychological effects not only from direct exposure to stressors of the occupied city but also reflect their parents’ chronic stress responses. Emotional contagion, disrupted routines, and modeled coping behaviors create a cascade of influence that shapes children’s development. These have lifelong effects on today's children.

What we see in the children of those cities. for children especially, the long-term effects tend to cluster in a few painful patterns:

• Chronic hypervigilance: kids grow up wired for danger. Loud noises, sudden changes, authority figures—everything can feel threatening decades later.
• Interrupted development: schooling breaks, play disappears, and kids are forced into adult roles too early. That loss doesn’t just “catch up” later.
• Attachment and trust issues: when safety is unreliable, trust becomes conditional. This can show up as emotional distance, intense loyalty to in-groups, or difficulty with intimacy.
• Normalization of violence: not always in obvious ways—sometimes it’s just a muted response to suffering, or a belief that cruelty is inevitable.
• Intergenerational transmission: trauma doesn’t stop with the first generation. Coping mechanisms, fears, and silences get passed down, even when the bombs stop.

The Republicans don't care about the long-term effects on the children, they are are only interested in power and control. They are on a mission to make this a Christian Nation and don't get in their way.

Do you remember "Save Our Children" that the conservatives ran against us? Well I say "What about the children?"

Trump called the rock icon “overrated.”