What can we learn from Minneapolis?

By PAUL WIEMAN

Generally, this is a column about our neighborhood, specifically the neighborhood of Katonah, and the experiences I have had in my more than 30 years of living here.  

However, there are lots of different neighborhoods, and just as many different ways of expressing what a neighborhood means to those who live there.

I read a lot, and I follow the news very closely, and I was particularly moved by an article in The Atlantic by Adam Serwer, published online Jan. 27. Serwer had traveled to Minneapolis and observed a number of people who were working to figure out how to maintain their neighborhoods in the presence of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. 

Unsurprisingly, what he discovered is that “they are ordinary Americans — people with jobs, moms and dads, friends and neighbors.”

Some attended protests, despite the frigid weather, to bear witness. Others, more active in their concern, found volunteer tasks of bringing food to families, supplementing decreased paychecks, ferrying students to school, and other such helpful tasks that will keep a neighborhood under stress somewhat normal. And a third group followed ICE, whistling their arrival, tracking their whereabouts, announcing to all what was happening. Somehow, behind the scenes, and without fanfare, these groups were organizing and acting in a manner in which a neighborhood supported each other in a time of intense need.

There is a lot of valid discussion concerning who is to blame, who started it, and the like, but that is not the focus of this column. We can leave that to the pundits and the political pages. Instead, I want to zero in on how neighbors help each other when neighbors need help. After several days of riding in cars, attending church services, witnessing protest marches, Serwer concludes: “If the Minnesota resistance has an overarching ideology, you could call it ‘neighborism’ — a commitment to protecting the people around you, no matter who they are or where they came from … Minnesotans are insisting that their neighbors are their neighbors whether they were born in Minneapolis or Mogadishu.”

And that got me thinking about us, here in Katonah, and Bedford, and Bedford Hills and Mount Kisco … how would we react? There are some clues; the Community Center of Northern Westchester is an increasingly vital and well-funded, and now expanding, organization that shows that this community cares and puts some of its dollars and organizational abilities to work for those who need the help the most. People participate on many different levels, reflecting what is happening on a grander scale in Minneapolis.

The No Kings and other rallies have been well attended. People read and support and write their local paper. We shop our shops, understanding that this, too, is part of a neighborhood. These are seeds, and they are all good signs.

Just this weekend, as the snow buried us all, our next-door neighbor contacted us to let us (an aging couple, but still very active) know of some willing teenagers able to shovel snow for some money. We appreciated the gesture and shoveled our own walks. And then we walked across the street and shoveled the walk of someone for whom such assistance is needed. We saw the children of another woman who lives across the street arrive early and clear her walkway and steps.  

So, the heart is there. And even, as best as I can tell, there is action that supports the sentiment. We do look out for each other, we understand the importance of lending and receiving aid.  

But shoveling out of a neutral storm is different from taking a stand in today’s divisive environment. 

What I appreciated so much about Serwer’s article is that somehow, importantly, neighborhoods in Minnesota were able to rise above our own divides, see a crisis afoot, get beyond blame and name calling, and instead respond in a manner that showed humanity, togetherness and support. Some bore whistles, some carpooled, some went shopping, some donated money, some established necessary databases, some organized communication networks … all joined together in a deep understanding that they all needed each other, right now, and they needed to work together to preserve, and, I might hope, even strengthen the neighborhood.

Let us all learn from this and follow their lead … this is not about the politics or blame or name-calling.  This is about people who live in proximity rise to the occasion of supporting each other, figuring out what needs to be done, and doing it.  

I want to believe that I live in a neighborhood that can do this.

Paul Wieman is a retired educator. His Neighborhood Notes column offers occasional observations about the Katonah neighborhood he has lived in for 35 years.