No one is safe in a police state. The past two weeks in Minneapolis have shown us what it looks like when the weight of the federal government comes down upon you.
Two citizens shot and killed by masked federal agents in broad daylight.
Children left behind at schools and daycare. Empty vehicles abandoned in the middle of the street. Masked individuals showing up to your school, work, and home to drag away your friends and coworkers. Armed guards walking up and down the street that folks once thought were safe enough to send their children out to play have become mirrors of unfettered state power.
No one is safe in a police state.
No one is safe once the media decides to amplify the lies of a dictator thirsty to consolidate power. No one is safe in a police state when medical providers create lists of patients to turn over to the federal government. No one is safe in a police state when course offerings must be reviewed and approved by government officials who want to engineer memory and loyalty.
No one can be safe in a police state that guns down medical personnel in the middle of the street. No one can be safe in a police state where the model is “peace through power.” None of us are safe in a police state.
But we already knew this.
We come from a community whose government ignored our medical needs. We come from a community whose government works to reject our bodily autonomy. We come from a community whose ability to live and love was limited by law and whose pleasure was criminalized. We come from a community that had to take on the state in order to grow together. We come from a community the government tried to erase.
But we also come from a community that never gave up. A community that chose instead to act up in order to ensure we had safety, life, and liberty. A community that engaged in mutual aid, created resistance through art, and a chosen family to carry us through the attacks of the state.
Because in the end, we are safe with each other. All we have is each other.
We are safe when we show up to look out for one another in times of sorrow and joy. When we put our bodies on the front lines for one another. When we demand a better world as possible for all of us. We are safe when we go out to feed each other. We are safe when we sit down to learn and engage one another.
When we blow our whistles to let folks know the agents of the state are swooping down, we are safe in knowing we are not alone.
Our fear is besieged by our courage and desire to be the good neighbor Mr. Rogers told us about.
We are safe knowing that each thread that ties and binds our humanity together will not be severed, because we must continue to choose each other and be safe in showing up for one another.
One of my favorite Islamic passages states that there is no compulsion in Islam. It means that everything you do is a choice, and there is no greater choice than showing up for another person. So we must continue to choose each other.
We are safe with each other. We are only safe with each other.