Jodi’s Journal: ‘History has its eyes on you’

June 15, 2025

I realized a few hours after I finished what was supposed to be this week’s column that I needed to shelve it for now.

While it’s a worthy topic, exploring comparatively minor elements of local government and business rang hollow against the backdrop that unfolded Saturday morning.

As I learned of the seemingly politically motivated shootings of two Minnesota state lawmakers and their spouses — with two fatalities — it felt like the latest, horrifying reminder of the instability that surrounds us, both collectively and in individuals.

As I write this, it’s unclear what motivations drove the attack in Minnesota.

But, more broadly, it has become increasingly clear that the principles on which our country was built are being threatened in a way that demands our attention.

It’s too easy to tune out.

It’s too easy to bite your tongue or to hide behind a keyboard.

The moment calls for the silent majority I believe still exists to speak and to act in support of the kind of country — and by extension the kind of community — you want to call home in the years ahead.

As I hoped, the Sioux Falls iteration of the nationwide “No Kings” protest went off peacefully, as a working democracy should — though I hate the fact that at some point the worst of expletives became acceptable to display at these kinds of public events. If you’re going for credibility, look more to someone like this.

I don’t know who she is, but her message resonated immediately.

“History has its eyes on you.”

It’s hard to argue that, no matter what party is on your voter registration or which issue especially drives your passions.

But history is watching. How much are we, collectively, willing to tolerate? To excuse? To accept? Because that will determine the future.

We can disagree about policy without degenerating to violence. I’ve not talked to a single person, for instance, who thinks our immigration system doesn’t need reform. But I think most people want it done humanely.

I think almost any business would support more equitable trade relationships, and all of us want our tax dollars used responsibly.

It’s the culture that needs to change before any of it can be addressed meaningfully — and that starts, as it does in most workplaces, at the top.

The silent majority must get behind leaders who can model good behavior. Part of me can’t even believe I wrote it, it should be so obvious. But it begins there. When leaders at any level or in either party attack those they disagree with, is it really any surprise that the masses follow?

We’ve fostered an environment that chastises people who attempt to find compromise and that rewards rhetoric over results.

I tend to think most anger and fear, though, has much less to do with what’s happening in the White House or a statehouse and much more to do with what’s happening in your house and the houses around you.

I think we are paying the price for years of not setting up enough children for success and not helping enough adults adapt to change and cope.

It has left too many people frustrated, struggling financially and emotionally, feeling threatened and taking it out on whomever they feel is to blame for it. Add in leaders willing to take advantage of that without delivering solutions for it and you get the upheaval we’re experiencing.

But we have to navigate through it with the fundamental democracy remaining intact. We cannot allow an environment where threat of violence keeps people we need to lead from seeking public office, choosing public service or even working in the media.

I think it starts with the small things. It starts with stepping out of our small bubbles and showing up, whether it’s connecting one-on-one with an at-risk child, getting to know someone whose life experience is different from yours, getting involved at a school, volunteering to serve on a board, running for office and certainly voting.

The stakes are far too high not to.

As the sign said, history is watching us.

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