From a friend in Philadelphia. I was given permission to quote it in full.
The bit about taking down the signage near the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, although a local issue, is also indicative of what's happening to the historical narrative elsewhere.
He also said that he is fine with people taking portions or the entire piece and sharing it.
"Unless you're following local Minneapolis press, and following local Minneapolis journalists, it's hard to understand how bad things are. This morning, a man observing ICE was tackled to the ground by a group of five masked ICE agents - one of which was pistol-whipping the man when his gun went off accidentally. He takes a moment, stands back and fires multiple times into the man's prone body on the ground.
Secret Police are executing citizens on the street. Secret police are kidnapping citizens and immigrants - who are in the country legally - in the Twin Cities and leaving their cars abandoned, doors open, in gas stations and the middle of the street. Using toddlers as bait to draw people out of their homes, often people who fled countries where this behavior from government was standard practice, who thought America was a beacon of freedom.
About 100 clergy members and dozens of other protesters were arrested outside Minneapolis airport while protesting flights carrying immigrants detained by federal immigration enforcement.
I'm mad they took the educational storytelling signage about slavery away from the President's House next to the Liberty Bell, but I'm going to be even more upset if our American neighbors continue to let these Secret Police Thugs - now with a budget dwarfing the Marines - dissolve communities and disassemble the republic.
I don't think there are many people on this platform (Facebook) that still have contact with me and are Republican, and maybe the stragglers will unfriend me as they side with the Reality Show President's Secret Police, deliberately ignoring the exact behavior their treasured second amendment was supposedly enshrined to dissuade. With one or two egregious exceptions, I've never made the move to "unfriend" or block those former acquaintances. So in a way, I'm yelling into the ocean, mouth full of pebbles, I suppose.
But it's important not to let up. Maybe you saw the news that ICE was told it doesn't need warrants to break into homes and businesses to kidnap people - a judge immediately ruled in contradiction to that. A judge ruled that Virginia unlawfully denied voting rights to hundreds of thousands. Judges ruled that the Trump administration must continue funding child care subsidies. Judges ruled in favor of Democrats in a case abour redrawing a district in NYC. You might have seen that the FBI raided a Washington Post journalist's home and seized material trying to uncover sources - a judge ruled that the FBI cannot examine the devices it took from that reporter.
Keep up the pressure. Keep showing up. Keep reaching out to your representatives - local, state, Federal. And yeah, keep working your day job too, if you have the good fortune to be employed during this bonkers economy. It's important to stay functional."
Matt Dunphy - Philadelphia
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