After the killing of Renee Nicole Good and increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Minnesota, a few texts trickled into my phone. One from a close friend who lives outside the United States, and another from my aunt. They read, “Hey bud! Are you anywhere close to what happened in Minneapolis today?” and, “I’ve heard things were getting heated in Minneapolis the last couple of days, are you good?”
I was quick to respond that I wasn’t near what happened and that there was no need to worry. It almost felt like I was saying, “No, I’m in a completely different state.” In reality, I am just 15 miles away from the killing of both Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti. How could I be so close but yet so sure that I am not affected by these events?
The idea of a societal bubble has become popular in the past two decades. We’ve seen movies like “The Giver” and “The Truman Show,“ and non-movie examples like the 2020 NBA Bubble and the Olympic Village. In many ways, I consider Bethel’s campus to be a similar environment. We just call it the Bethel Bubble.
If you have lived on campus for any amount of time, I am positive that you have heard the phrase. The Bubble can be both a good and a bad thing.
Bethel makes it feel like I’m not even living in reality sometimes. Everyone holds the door open for me on the way to class, and when I walk past people in the halls, they actually look at me and smile back (WOAH, crazy concept, right?). I can strike up a conversation with anyone, even if I’ve never interacted with them before, and they usually want to get to know me.
But even though students are willing to chat, they are afraid to talk about current events for fear of offending someone with a different perspective.
Which is my biggest problem with the Bethel Bubble: it’s isolating. So isolating that sometimes I don’t even want to be here. It’s reality for us, but at the same time, it’s not what the world around us looks like.
After responding to my friend’s and aunt’s texts, I concluded that I need to start paying more attention to current events and not live like I am unaffected. There were a few events that put it into perspective for me.
One of them was on the way to my first-ever Wild game. I was on I-94 West headed toward St. Paul, and nearly every bridge I went under had a group of protesters, signs and all. Traffic was quite slow (classic Twin Cities rush hour), so I was surrounded by people honking their horns in support. This was the first time I had seen anything related to the ICE protests in person.
Since this experience, I have noticed protestors pop up more and more on my way to and from home, specifically in the Brooklyn Park area. There’s normally just one or two people, but they still help me place myself closer to the issue. It is hard to say whether they have always been there or if I am just noticing them now.
The issue hit closer to home when the increased ICE activity started to directly impact my mom. She teaches at an elementary school in a very culturally diverse community. As a result, 20% of the student population has resorted to online learning out of fear of leaving their homes.
Everything escalated when ICE agents started to lurk around her school during dismissal. In fact, one of her former students witnessed his dad being taken into custody by ICE during school dismissal, even though their whole family is in the United States legally.
I recognize this is just my experience, and other Bethel students may have been impacted in a more severe or personal way by ICE activity, whether it’s affecting them, a family member or a friend.
Maybe you’ve experienced something similar to what I have described, maybe you haven’t. Either way, I hope this helps you realize the seriousness of current events in our city and that they are closer than you think. Go out, see what is happening and open up your perspective. It’s good to get off campus every once in a while. There is no way we can display the love of Jesus to those affected if we stay in isolation.
