The current popular sentiment, expressed uniformly as the result of profound sadness, suggests that we live in the Minnesota that we no longer recognize. A hateful young fellow with guns took care of that when he fired wildly through the stained glass windows of Annunciation Catholic Church and in South Minneapolis on a beautiful morning when the Annunciation schoolkids were assembled for their first school Mass of the year.
Bullets flew and glass shattered. Two children were killed, Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10, and many others injured. The shooter killed himself.
It was such an egregious act of evil that it transcended speechlessness and almost instantly compelled a new and useful response, “pray with your feet.” I took it to mean hand-wringing is over. Hoping for the best