The Minneapolis-style heart of Democratic Underground
Last Saturday night I walked over to our village’s community meeting house for a neighborhood pot luck supper. It was freezing cold, icy underfoot, but in the distance I could see two antique lights shining like a welcome sign beckoning one and all to stop in. “Comfort food” was the theme. With this group and on this night it was perfectly fine to eat macaroni and cheese….and cheesecake. Nobody was worried about organic this or calories that. Topic #1 for everyone was…Are you doing okay and do you need anything?
I’m grateful that DU is much like that. If a member’s loved one passes away, many folks rally with words of comfort. Same if someone is ill or injured. If you’re feeling down and out, someone always shows up to extend a hand.
DUers invite one another into their kitchens, garages, memories. We have movie critics, photographers, even a group that offers help for oldsters like me who know next to nothing about cell phones or iPads.
Veterans stand together here and help each other. I’m so proud of the way they courageously take a stand. They make me feel safer after I read their postings because they’re like guards at our DU door and I appreciate that.
A lot of effort has been expended here to create this caring community, this all-kinds chain. I’m so grateful to be part of it.
The folks in Minneapolis have shown the way in these extraordinarily troubling times. All for one and one for all. Convictions. Courage. Perseverance. We’ll stick together, combine all our similarities and differences and find a way out of this mess.