Minnesota Prairie Roots

IF NOT FOR THE DATE, June 14, Sunday would have been like most Sundays for me. Off to early church, then bible study and back home for brunch.

But June 14, 2026, was not just another Sunday. This date marked the one-year anniversary of the politically-motivated assassinations of Minnesota Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and the shootings of State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette.

June 14 also marked Flag Day.

And June 14 marked another No Kings Day event, nationally a concert and locally several protests.

I began my Sunday in church, where the pastor’s sermon focused on love. That seemed a fitting topic given the day. I jotted notes, taking away the key point that true love is “the willingness to do good.” The pastor applied that to both the love between and among people and the love God has for us as sinners unworthy of his love. Of course, the sermon got much more in-depth. I left church and bible study feeling loved and more determined than ever to show love in my actions. And words.

A quick change into jeans, a tee, denim jacket and tennis shoes and hair pulled into a pony tail and baseball cap placed atop my head, I was ready to join the weekly protest along Minnesota State Highway 60 in Faribault. The organizer changed the usual 11 a.m.-noon Saturday protest to Sunday because of the national No Kings Day event.

Randy and I were ready with new signs, mine themed to the national event wording: Rise up. Sing out. I added “Resist.” I’ve been publicly resisting the actions of the current administration for more than a year now. I cannot imagine remaining silent and therefore complicit.

Forty of us stood strong outside the Rice County government services building on Sunday, holding our protest signs, conversing, listening to Vietnam era protest music strummed on a guitar and sung by several protesters. It felt empowering to be there among like-minded individuals, raising our voices, trying to make a difference, creating awareness and, yes, showing love.

Love came in a heartbreaking sign carried by a little girl whose friend was deported to Mexico with her family. “Protect our friends,” her message read. She’d drawn, with the help of her mom, two girls holding hands. One brown, the other white. Two pink hearts filled out the poster.

This is love, when a little girl creates a love-filled message that calls upon adults to “Protect our friends.” Urging us “to do good.”

I carried a similar two-sided sign, NO ICE PRISON IN APPLETON stenciled on one side, RISE UP, SING OUT, RESIST on the other. Plans are underway to open an ICE detention center in an abandoned private prison owned by CoreCivic in Appleton in far western Minnesota. The little girl who carried the sign asking us to “Protect our friends” is likely unaware of this planned prison. She knows only that someone took her friend, whom she misses.

This little girl is among the reasons we protest. We care about our children, about the country they will inherit, about our democracy.

Five hours after the Faribault protest ended, Randy and I stood with 10 others on a bridge over Interstate 35 by Medford, each of us holding a single letter to spell out two messages: NO WAR and NO KINGS. As 25-30 southbound vehicles per minute zoomed by below, we stood strong with our letters plastered against the fence, small American flags in between, large American flag flying in the brisk wind at the beginning of our line. Down the road in Owatonna, a similar group faced northbound traffic on the Bridge Street overpass with the same messages.

It felt good to be here, to make new friends, to commiserate, to uplift, to wave, to show travelers on the interstate below that we love this country enough to protest threats to democracy, injustices, war,…the abundance of words and actions that are anything but loving.

© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling