Category Archives: America

The Epiphany of Treason

Posted on by
5

the manifestation of light and darkness

January 6 is the Day of the Epiphany on the Christian calendar. It strikes me again this year, as it did January 6, 2021, as a two-fold manifestation. It celebrates the manifestation of Light and opens our eyes to the darkness. We cannot celebrate light without facing the darkness in Herod, who invites the foreign sages (Magi) to report back to him when they have found the new-born king, “so that I too might worship him.” Herod’s stated intent is a fraud. He worships nothing higher than himself. He says nothing to the Magi about the slaughter of innocents.

Epiphany opens our eyes to the Light of truth and goodness, on the one hand, and the darkness of deceit and malice, on the other: the contrasts of light and darkness, hope and despair, fear and love, goodness and evil.

Jimmy Carter as a manifestation of goodness

Photograph of President Jimmy Carter
President Jimmy Carter (1924-2024), RIP

As President Jimmy Carter lies in state in the nation’s capitol, and President-elect Donald Trump chooses a group of billionaires to join his cabinet, is it too much to ask for a pause to ponder what has happened to us, who we are, and what we aspire to become?

Whatever our differences, I have heard no one question Jimmy Carter’s character or motives. I have yet to hear criticism of Jimmy Carter as ruthless or vindictive, or the charges that his efforts for peace arose from self-serving motives, or that his policies on climate change responsibility were rooted in vested interest or ill intent.

The solar panels on the White House are long gone, but the prophetic light of the good man who put them there will not be forgotten. What happened in the nation’s Capitol on Epiphany 2021 and in the years that followed expose a darkness no eye can see, no court indict, no jury acquit or convict.

Of Treason and Traitors:the Supreme Judge of the People

Nothing in history is sealed in a vacuum. What seems unrepeatable gets repeated. The names are different, the places are different, but they are essentially the same. The past is never dead. Those who ignore it are doomed to repeat it.

“The Night of the Long Knives” is one such moment. In June, 1934, six months after Hitler took the oath of office required to become Chancellor, an irreconcilable conflict arose between the two paramilitary forces that had brought Hitler to power. On “the Night of the Long Knives” Hitler settled the dispute. The SS carried out Hitler’s covert plan to seek and execute members of the of the SA (the “Brownshirts”). As news of the covert operation began to leak, Reich “Minister Without Portfolio” Joseph Göring ordered police stations to burn “all documents concerning the action of the past two days.”

Newspapers were told not to publish the names of the dead. In a radio address to the German people, Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Hermann Goebbels went to the airwaves to inform the nation that Hitler had prevented traitors from creating social chaos and overthrowing the government. Eleven days later (July 13, 1934) Hitler’s address to the Reichstag (the German equivalent of Congress) filled the airwaves of an anxious nation by conflating the nation with himself. The Strong Man who made Germany great again proclaimed himself “the Supreme Judge of the German people” and called those who opposed him “traitors”.

Gordon C. Stewart, public theologian, social commentator, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017, Wipf and Stock), Brooklyn Park, MN. January 6, 2024.

Two Roosters in a Cockfight

Posted on by
4

A WORD OF INTRODUCTION: The death of President Jimmy Carter prompts me to share this previously unpublished social commentary. Jimmy Carter was different. He wasn’t into cockfights. He was a rooster who ruled the roost for four years without drawing attention to himself. He didn’t strut. He didn’t crow. He returned home to his small town in rural Georgia to resume his long-standing practice of teaching Sunday School. He picked up a hammer and saw to built houses with Habitat for Humanity.

Cockfighting in 2024

Cockfighting is illegal in most places, but whether a cockfight is legitimate or illegitimate makes no difference to the roosters or their handlers. A rooster rules the roost. He struts and crows – all roosters do — to mark his turf, secure his harem, and brag about the size of his hen house. A cockfight is a battle of the pecking order. One wins; the other loses. God help the smaller rooster who walks into the wrong hen house!

Illustration of roosters
Two roosters before the cockfight

Anticipating a Cockfight

Watching Donald Trump and Elon Musk, I see a cockfight waiting to happen. Roosters in a cockfight strut and crow, surrounded by rooster handlers and on-lookers who’ve come to see the feathers. Soon Donald will again take his place as the most powerful man in the world, and Elon will still be the richest man in the world. Donald is proud that Elon has come into his yard; Elon is proud to have been appointed to a powerful position in the most powerful man’s barnyard. Elon ionly boundary is Donald’s will and ego.

True Story

Years ago an acquaintance stole all his father’s roosters. When his father, exhausted by the roosters waking him at sunrise, and decided to exercise his right to capitol punishment, his 30-something year-old son rescued all the roosters in the middle of the night. For the next few weeks, the son took pride in having saved the roosters. The roosters freely roamed the son’s barnyard and hen house, and. But after six weeks of waking at sunrise to the crowing of the cocks, he shot them all to stop the crowing.

America in 2024

In America two roosters crow every morning. They strut all day in front of the crowd. One rooster crows that he’s legitimate; the other doesn’t seem to care. The smaller roosters are running around Congress like chickens with their heads cut off. They’re scared. They have a lethal stake in the game. They’re clucking up a storm, laying their bets on who to trust to save their heads from the chopping block.

two roosters beginning a cockfight with audience watching.

Gordon C. Stewart, host of Views from the Edge, pastor and former MPR guest commentator on All Things Considered, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017 Wipf and Stock), writing from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, December 21, 2024.

How to Win an Election: Fear and Faith

Posted on by
6

”There’s a gullible side to the American people. They can be easily misled. Religion is the best device used to mislead them.” — Michael Moore

Like the “Make America Great Again Bible,” the Trump campaign’s “Fear Not” marketing pitch preys on religious gullibility. For Christians, “fear not” brings to mind Jesus’s assurance: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s pleasure to give you the kingdom.” It also reminds us of the angels’ message to shepherds, abiding in their fields by night” in Matthew’s birth narrative.

How and why anyone would send the chain e-mail message asking me to “Forward this message to 10 friends… I want to spread the LOVE,” is puzzling.

The message came with a photo advertisement for a “FEAR NOT” coffee mug, featuring former president Trump in a MAGA hat. His fist is raised in defiant resolve with “Old Glory” waving in the background.

photo of Trump campaign "Fear Not" coffee mug.

So, there you have it. FEAR NOT and LOVE together on a coffee mug featuring a mug shot of the “Chosen One” who uses the word G-d on occasions when it’s useful. What could be better?

The Relationship between Fear and Love

Fear and love lie next to each other at the heart of Christian faith. The First Letter of John describes the relationship this way. “There is no fear in love. But perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”—1 John 4:18

The Christian story of Jesus as the Christ (the Messiah) begins and ends with fear.

And the angel said unto [the shepherds] ‘’Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.’” – Gospel According to Luke 2:10, KJV.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus of Nazareth prays to be spared the horror awaiting him the next day. His plea is not granted. Yet Christians profess him Lord and Savior. He suffers torture and death on a cross outside the city walls on the Hill of Skulls. Before the wrenching cry of abandonment, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabchtani?” (My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”), Jesus cries out from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

A surprising way to end a Gospel

The original ending of the Gospel Mark, the earliest of the four New Testament Gospels, ends with fear. Young’s Literary Translation reads as follows:

And, having come forth quickly, they fled from the sepulchre, and trembling and amazement had seized them, and to no one said they anything, for they were afraid.

The Monday following the second attempt on his life, the Trump campaign announced that “Democrats’ rhetoric inspired another attempt on former President Trump’s life.” Recalling the earlier attack in Butler, PA, the former president spoke in religious terms.

“There’s something going on,” he said. “I mean, perhaps it’s God wanting me to be President to save this country. Nobody knows.” — Antonio Hitchens, The New Yorker, September 18, 2024.

An image on the Trump coffee mug also features graphic image that intertwines two American twisted into angel’s wings. The words at the top read:

“GOD SAID: NOT TODAY”

Alexis de Tocqueville’s Reflection on America

“Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” — Alexis de Tocqueville

Whether Tocqueville said it, or the presidents, senators, and other Americans in high places mistakenly attributed it to Tocqueville, makes little difference to its wisdom and warning. Without goodness, there can be no greatness.

Gordon C. Stewart, public theologian, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017, Wipf & Stock), Brooklyn Park, MN, Dec. 15, 2024 (revised from unpublished draft written Sept. 20, 2024).

A Cautionary Tale: I Used to Wonder. Now I Know

Video

4

I have often wondered how the home of Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart became the country of Adolf Hitler, the SS, SA, Brown Shirts and the Holocaust. I no longer wonder.

Third Reich Minister of Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels’ diary details the elements of propaganda that led German people to succumb to the spell of Hitler.

Propaganda: Basic Principles

  • Constantly repeat just a few ideas. Use stereotyped phrases.
  • Continuously criticize your opponents.
  • Avoid abstract ideas – appeal to the emotions.
  • Give only one side of the argument.
  • Pick out one special “enemy” for special vilification.
Extracted from Goebbels’ diary

A documentary on why Germans followed Hitler

The Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda was the central institution of Nazi propaganda. It controlled all German mass media, including the press, literature, film, theater, music, and radio. Those who don’t know history are bound to repeat it; those who know it have a duty to learn and act accordingly.

Gordon C. Stewart, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017, Wipf & Stock), 49 brief, stand-alone meditations on faith and public life. Writing from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, Nov. 5, 2024.

In the Strife of Truth with Falsehood

Posted on by
6

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945

The morning of April 9, 1945, German Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer and other leaders of the Confessing Church and resistance to Hitler and the Third Reich were hastily tried and hanged on the scaffold of Flossenburg Military Prison. Bonhoeffer was killed years a go, but his execution did not extinguish his light.

Bonhoeffer’s metaphor of stopping a madman from driving a car into a crowd of innocent bystanders shines a light on 2024. The American electorate in this moment will decide whether to put the steering wheel in the hands of a man who promises revenge.

Bonhoeffer and James Russell Lowell

Although the light of Bonhoeffer didn’t reach me until my early 20s, an oft-sung hymn from youth and childhood had prepared me to welcome Bonhoeffer. The lyrics of the hymn were from James Russell Lowell’s poem, “The Present Crisis.” The tune and lyrics make clear the intrinsic bond of faith and action. “Once to Every Man and Nation”was a call to abolish slavery.

Hymn Lyrics from “The Present Crisis”

Once to every man and nation Comes the moment to decide, In the strife of truth with falsehood, For the good or evil side; Some great cause, some new decision, Offering each the bloom or blight, And that choice goes by forever ‘Twixt that darkness and that light.
Though the cause of evil prosper, Yet ’tis truth alone is strong; Though her portion be the scaffold, And upon the throne be wrong, Yet that scaffold sways the future, And, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, Keeping watch above His own.

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, “THE PRESENT CRISIS,” 1845.

The Moment to Decide

Temptation of Christ

In this American moment the decision is between democracy and social pathology; between safeguarding the integrity of law under the U.S. Constitution and putting the steering wheel in the hands of a madman and his party. November 5 is the choice between truth and falsehood, principle and propaganda, bloom and blight. This moment will not wait for a later time.

The moment is now.

Gordon C. Stewart, Presbyterian Minister, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017, Wipf & Stock), Brooklyn Park, MN, Nov. 4, 2024.

Ghosts on the Ballot

Posted on by
3

Age has its advantages. Racing home from school to watch the House Army-McCarthy hearings, chaired by Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI), is still fresh in my generation’s memory. Some indecencies never die. They’re like ghosts. The people we thought were dead reappear when the time is ripe. The 2024 election is such a moment. Take a look.

Some dragons are not slain

Some dragons cannot be slain. They become ghosts. In this season of the 2024 national election, I can’t believe my eyes. I see the ghosts of Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn. I hear their voices and see their scorn for decency.

Roy Cohn became infamous for representing the mob, a ‘fixer’ for hire. He sullied the reputations of innocent people, represented Donald Trump, and became his mentor. You might says tha tDonald became Roy’s apprentice before he became a popular entertainer on The Apprentice.

Winning was everything, and the way to win was to attack, threaten, lie, and bully. “Always attack! Never defend!” was his First Commandment. Winning was the only thing that mattered.

Roy Cohn Quotes: Wisdom From The Legend Himself

  • “I don’t believe in the concept of regret. I have no time for it.”
  • “I have a simple motto: Always attack, never defend.”
  • “In the end, winning is the only thing that matters.”
  • “Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.”
  • “Hate is just a tool we use to control and manipulate others.”
  • “I don’t play by the rules, I make them.”
  • “The only thing worse than losing is being forgotten.”

Vote like your life depends on it. Because it does.

Gordon C. Stewart, Presbyterian Minister, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017 Wipf & Stock), 49 brief (2-4 page) social commentaries/ meditations on faith and public life; Brooklyn Park, MN, Oct. 25, 2024.

The Present Crisis and the Sum of Our Choices

Posted on by
4

Out of the devastation of hurricanes Helene and Milton, two roads diverge in a sodden wood. One road sees only what is urgent, the immediate needs for rescue and recovery. The other road, less traveled by, also looks farther for what is important. The road we choose in the Nov. 5 election will make all the difference. Listen to weatherman John Morales speak of his decision to do more than report the weather. Have a look.

Nothing is more important than a healthy planet. Nothing. When a candidate for high office calls climate change a hoax, move on. Do the same with “down-ballot” candidates and political parties that tap dance around the question. This election is about reality.

Presidents, senators, justices, and generals have spoken lines they attribute to Alexis de Tocqueville during his visit to America in 1831. “America is great because she is good, and if America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” Facing the sin of slavery, James Russell Lowell wrote the poem that became the lyric of a hymn on which I was a raised. “Once to every man and nation, in the strife of truth with falsehood, comes the moment to decide….” This is a moment like that.

Looking for a Foothold

In time, God help us, the divisions among the American electorate will be healed. Yet, before there is healing, is a common weariness that crosses all lines of difference. Nobel Laureate Albert Camus described our situation when he wrote under the dark cloud that swept over the world in the 1930 and ’40s. Camus’s insight into the experience provides insight into how the absence of any foothold produced suffering in a period similar to ours

“The modern mind is in complete disarray,” wrote Camus. “Knowledge has stretched itself to the point where neither the world nor our intelligence can find a foothold. It is a fact that we are suffering from nihilism.”

The Sum of Your Choices

“Life is the sum of your choices.”

Albert Camus

The sum of our choices in this election will be who we are, and will determine what America will become. Votes for candidates and parties that substitute greatness for goodness, while avoiding or denying climate change, are votes against the future.

Vote like life your life, your children’s and grandchildren’s depend on it, because it does.

Gordon C. Stewart, public theologian, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017, Wipf and Stock), Brooklyn Park, MN, October 10, 2024.

Stochastic Terrorism: Springfield’s Hidden Crisis

Posted on by
6

While 67 million Americans watched the presidential candidates debate in Philadelphia’s Convention Hall, something else was happening in Springfield, Ohio. Nathan Clark, a grieving father, whose 11-year-old son, Aiden, died when a minivan driven by a Haitian immigrant veered into his school bus, was speaking at a city commission meeting.

What has to stop?

Those of us watching the debate might suppose Mr. Clark was speaking of the Haitians pouring into Springfield, but this “this” was not that. Aiden’s father spoke clearly.

This has to stop now. They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal immigrants, the border crisis and even untrue claims about fluffy pets being ravaged and eaten by community members, however, they are not allowed, nor have they ever been allowed to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio. I will listen to them one more time to hear their apology.

No apology in Philadelphia

In Philadelphia, there was no apology. “In Springfield,” said GOP candidate Donald Trump, “they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating – they’re eating the pets of people who live there.”

Fact check

Original movie poster for "Being There" with Peter Sellers as Chauncey Gardener.

ABC moderator David Muir set the record straight with a fact check: The city’s elected officials say there is no evidence that dogs and cats had been killed and eaten in Springfield. Mr. Trump replied that he thought he had seen it on television.

In that moment, film-goers as old as I might have thought of Chauncey Gardiner in “Being There” — the estate gardener who confuses television with reality, whom the power-brokers and politicians mistake for a genius.

But Chauncey was not the only one that deserved a fact check. The “they” of whom Mr. Clark spoke was much larger. “They” are the party that eats lies for breakfast and claims they’re eating Wheaties.

Venus Flytrap or Bird-of-Paradise

Who are “they”? A Venus Flytrap and a Bird-in-Paradise “They” are a Venus flytrap, capturing the fearful, the gullible, the anxious, the confused, and the floundering, who mistake the leaf of a flytrap for a solid foothold, or who mistake a Venus flytrap as a Bird-of-Paradise.

In the spin room after the debate, a reporter interviews Trump advisor Stephen Miller. The journalist is asking Mr. Miller for evidence to support the claim that criminals, rapists, murderers, gangs, and people released from prisons and insane asylums are invading our country. Here’s the spin room exchange where Chilean journalist Jose María del Pino asks for specific numbers and the source.


In the aftermath of the debate, a citizen of Springfield has identified herself as the source of the story about pets being eaten in Springfield and has apologized for making up the story and for the hateful disturbance it has caused.

“If I have to create stories…”

  • Republican candidates Donald Trump and JD Vance continue to repeat the story they know is not true. Last Sunday’s “State of the Nation,” JD Vance replied to Dana Bash: “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do….”
  • Since the presidential debate put the spotlight on Springfield, 38 bomb threats have resulted in the evacuation and closures of City Hall, public schools, medical centers, and the office of the Department of Motor Vehicles, among others
  • Stochastic terrorism is turning the city of Springfield into a minefield. Although there is no direct relation between the former president’s finger-pointing at Haitian immigrants, random individuals hear it as a call to action.
  • As happened on January 6, 2021, the former occupant of the Oval Office, stays silent. The leader of the MAGA movement stays glued to his television set, tees, and fairways without distancing himself from threats of violence in Springfield. He has yet to say, “This has to stop now!”

When a nation mistakes a Venus flytrap for a Bird-of-Paradise, only an election can get it out.

Gordon C. Stewart, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017, Wipf and Stock), September 17, 2024.

Gordon C. Stewart, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017 Wipf and Stock), Brooklyn Park, MN. Sept. 16, 202

Even a Parrot Can Quote Scripture

Featured

Posted on by
5

Pull down thy vanity, it is not man
Made courage, or made order, or made grace
Pull down thy vanity, I say pull down.
Learn of the green world that can be thy place .

Ezra Pound, Canto LXXLI

They’re not after me. They’re after you. I’m just standing in the way.

There’s been a mistake

There’s been a mistake. I don’t know you; you don’t know me. No one is coming after me. I’m not that important. Neither are you. No one with their wits about them could believe you are the only one who keeps “them” from getting to me. But the pitch has a familiar ring.

The old, old story?

It sounds like “the old, old story of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love,” but this story is a far cry from the one in the New Testament. The Biblical story includes a warning, attributed to Jesus: “Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and they will lead many astray.”

It’s a biblical way of saying, “Don’t mistake a wolf disguised as Little Red Riding Hood’s Grandma for the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.

Photograph of Gustave Dore's Little Red Riding Hood in bed with the big bad wolf disguised as Grandma.

Life with Buddy

Even a parrot can quote scripture. But there’s a difference: the parrot has no idea what it’s saying. Human beings do. Take Buddy, for example. Shortly after arriving for a visit with old friends, the phone rang. Harry stayed put. Knowing that any call to Harry could be an emergency, we encouraged Harry or Anna to feel free to take the call.

Harry raised his finger to his lips. Anna smiled and whispered, “Shhhh!

The phone continued to ring. When it stopped, a voice from an adjacent room yelled, “Harry! It’s for you! Harry. . . it’s for you!”

If imitation is the highest form of flattery, an African Grey Parrot doesn’t know it. After Buddy had fooled us with his imitation of the phone ringing, with precise intervals between the rings, and calling Harry to the phone, Buddy went on to recite the 23rd Psalm. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want…” before imitating the sounds of Anna he’d heard every morning: brushing her teeth, gargling, and other sounds not fit to print.

Shakespeare: “O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!”

“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose,” wrote Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice. “An evil soul producing holy witness Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, a goodly apple rotten at the heart. O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!”

Gordon C. Stewart, public theologian, host of Views from the Edge: To See More Clearly, and author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017 Wipf & Stock), Brooklyn Park, MN.

“If it’s fair”

Featured

Posted on by
5

Thanks to Carl Krieg for permission to republish “The Rule of Law, No More” from Progressive Christianity. Information about Carl follows the commentary.

The Rule of Law, No More

As the American public reels in the face of the many trials of Donald Trump, delayed again and again by rules only a lawyer could ever know, we are consoled again and again by the analysts who assure us that this only proves that we are a nation wherein the rule of law is supreme and applied equally to all. Baffled though we may be, we Americans want to believe that in drafting the Constitution, the “Founding Fathers” exhibited unparalleled wisdom in creating the bedrock of our society, our law and our democracy. The problem they could not anticipate, and therefore could not adequately prevent, was the possibility that a definitive proportion of that society would ever reject the freedom they were offered and instead choose a dictator. The bedrock of our society, however, is not the Constitution itself, but the public consensus that grants validity to it. Without the mutual agreement that we all accept the rule of law with the Constitution as the foundation, – without that consensus, democracy becomes untenable. And we have lost that consensus.

The Supreme Court interprets the Constitution as it chooses, searching for ways to make the Constitution say what the Court wants it to say. The Republican Party refuses to guarantee that it will accept and support results of future elections. And the Leader of this Party mocks courts every chance he gets, encouraging his disciples to chaos, disruption, and violence. Meanwhile, dictators around the world, fearful that successful democracy elsewhere might loosen their own grip on power, also work to destroy our consensus, covertly undermining the helpful discussion and dissent that characterizes democracy and replacing it with diatribe and demonization. Achieving consensus in a nation of immigrants, such as the US, was never an easy proposition. But maintaining consensus when one of the two major parties refuses to abide by majority decision, is impossible.

That is the situation we now face. Trump and the Republicans will of course accept the results of an election “if it is fair”. But if they lose, by definition the election was not fair. And they will not accept it. As we gather steam toward November, Republicans, please think long and hard about your party’s refusal to abide by election results. We went that route once before and wound up shooting each other as the nation was thrown into civil war. And to all you evangelical Christians, without whom the Republican party could not exist, is this really what you believe God wants of you?

About the Author

Carl Krieg, Ph.D. received his BA from Dartmouth College, MDiv from Union Theological Seminary in NYC, and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is the author of What to Believe? the Questions of Christian Faith,   The Void and the Vision and  The New Matrix: How the World We Live In Impacts Our Thinking About Self and God. As professor and pastor, Dr. Krieg has taught innumerable classes and led many discussion groups. He lives with his wife Margaret in Norwich, VT.

Thanks for coming by, Gordon C. Stewart, public theologian, host of Views from the Edge; author of Be Still! Departures from Collective Madness (2017 Wipf and Stock), Brooklyn Park, MN, May 20, 2024.