By Jared Gudnason 

Writer/Reporter 

In 2018, my second year at Metro State University, I had the massive privilege of spending a month driving around France. At risk of shattering expectations, the countryside is very midwestern American. After spending a few nights in Paris, we took a shuttle to a regional airport westbound, to pick up our rented Fiat. We made it all the way south, including a stop in Cannes, where the renowned film festival occurs. We then made our way northeast into Switzerland, a neutral country during World War II. Hiking in the Alps “The Sound of Music” style was awe inspiring.  

However, with the recent events in our state, I can’t focus on the wonderment of French/Swiss sightseeing. The border between the two countries is somewhat of a semblance between Minnesota and Wisconsin. We exited the Swiss border and entered the commune of Mulhouse, where we had an incredible time at a train mechanical museum, until a certain point.  

I turned left, took a few steps, and came across a boxcar. Not one for farm animals. It was video footage from Poland, about an 11-hour drive to the east. This boxcar was used for transporting the marginalized during the Holocaust. Even from 10 feet away, the extreme recognition of horror was overwhelming as I touched the side of it and remembered how many would have been forced at gunpoint to their destination. Its impact was corroborated by my visitation to the French American cemetery near the village of Arromanches-les-Bains, where multi-national soldiers were killed on June 6, 1944, against Nazi authoritarian forces. 

Last month in Minneapolis, obviously, the mode of transportation was a car, but the violence that occurred was carried out by a group with similar, arguable ideals. Under MAGA federalism is distorted by the general public, consequentially being labeled as the impeders of justice. It’s clear that, with the resignation of Minnesota-based federal prosecutors, the ethics of particular members of our federal executive branch are rendered next to non-existent. What’s occurring, now in other states, is full-on labeling by anti-Immigrant forces of those of who oppose violence being used to tear apart families, invade hospitals, and the general repression of everyday public goings-on.  

Take care, please, to decide truths versus untruths, as only our mental inclination will make a difference to both individual and community, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement among others, continue with their legally questionable practices. Some of these government officials will never know the importance of a community like the one Metro State University curates.