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The upcoming Time Magazine issue will be all about Minneapolis, and I just received an article from that issues in the mailing list. It started like this:

The memorial for Alex Pretti, who was shot and killed by federal agents on Jan. 24, has grown to span several parking spots on Nicollet Avenue in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis. It’s now a mountain of carnations, prayer candles, poems, and notes. One message pleads: “America, do not let their deaths be in vain – We the People.”

When I read the last sentence, I was so close to crying that I couldn’t read any further. That’s how my thoughts are circling non-stop. The moment I am so proud of people rising up against the injustice, I immediately think: why did it have to be people losing their lives to make half of the country finally rise in protest? And the next thought is always the one from that article that made me cry: do not let their deaths be in vain!!!

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And once again, I heard from one of my European friends that “they do not know what’s happening in the US.” The same story again: my French friend L. messaged me that her daughter saw a TV show about the ICE raids and asked whether I was safe and could I be arrested. I replied: no chance, there are too many of us! When we talked a couple of days later, and I described to her our situation, she said: Thank you! Here, we do not know anything, and do not see anything!

And once again, I am wondering why this silence. 🤷🏻‍♀️

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Published by Hettie D.

My name is Henrietta (Hettie) Dombrovskaya. I was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russian (actually, back then – Leningrad, USSR) in 1963, and immigrated to the United States in 1996. I love Saint Petersburg, the city I was born and raised in, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Similarly (but differently) I love Chicago, and can’t imagine myself moving somewhere else in the observable future. I have three children, Igor, Vlad and Anna, all adults living on their own, and one (so far) granddaughter Nadia. I also believe that my children are the best thing that happened in my life. As for my professional life, I am working in the field of Information Technologies. When I was twenty, I’ve declared that the databases are the coolest thing invented and that I want to do them for the rest of my life. Thirty plus years later, I still believe it’s true, and still, believe that the databases are the best. These two statements together imply that I think a person can have it all, and indeed, I think so! Keep reading my journals to find out how I did it.

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  1. You wrote, “I immediately think: why did it have to be people losing their lives to make half of the country finally rise in protest?”

    I’ve never doubted for a moment that it would take executions to move people. I’ve realized that it would take people to lose healthcare, to have to choose between food, rent and medications, that people would have to be moved one by one by one.

    I started protesting in January of last year and have been organizaing protests since June. For months we were just a gathering of people on Social Security. I guess the good news is that it isn’t just a collection of retirees anymore. I’m finally seeing families and members of the younger generations.

    I have hope.

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