Let freedom ring in Springsteen's`Streets of Minneapolis'
It's still not too late to donate to Community Action in Lynn Ackershoek's memory
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I and Will Doolittle, my partner in this little journalistic endeavor we call The Front Page, really don’t talk a whole lot, but after working together for more than 30 years, we know each other pretty well.
Almost instinctually, we never write about the same thing at the same time.
It’s as if we can read each other’s minds.
So at 1:54 p.m. Wednesday, Will shot me a text with a link to Bruce Springsteen’s protest song “Streets of Minneapolis.”
“Thought you’d appreciate this,” he wrote.
He was right.
As a young man, Bruce Springsteen spoke to me about never giving up on your dreams and the struggles of working-class men like my father.
Now he was speaking to me again.
About Minneapolis.
About the crisis facing our nation.
About a leaderless vacuum “We the People” face with a cowardly Congress.
And within minutes, I was in tears.
From a song.
Over the years, Springsteen has inspired me, he has made me smile, dance in the dark, and see the promised land in my own life, but he had never once made me cry.
This was my heart breaking over what is happening in our country.
It was an acknowledgement we all need to stand up for democracy and freedom and sometimes innocent people pay the price for that.
People Donald Trump calls “suckers.”
In just under five minutes, Springsteen expressed the anger, the pain, the fears I had been wrestling with these recent days while trying to understand the deaths of Rene Good and Alex Pretti and the motivations of the cowardly politicians who sanctioned their demise.
These were two regular Americans: A mother and an intensive care nurse at the VA hospital.
Goddamnit! I’m sure I screamed, this is what patriotism looks like.
The power of the words and the intensity with which Springsteen sings them overwhelmed me.
And there were bloody footprints
where mercy should have stood.
And two dead left to die on snow-filled streets,
Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
And now I was shouting angrily and I was sure there had never been a protest song written that made me more proud to be an American and more willing to stand up for what is right and just.
Not about the Civil Rights movement.
Not about Vietnam.
Not about “Four dead in Oh-hi-O.”
Springstead said he wrote the song on the day Alex Pretti was murdered.
He recorded it Tuesday and released it Wednesday. Being an American can be powerful motivation for the creative mind.
Springsteen’s words are surgical and cut to the heart of what so many of us are feeling.
“Their claim was self-defense, sir,
just don’t believe your eyes.
It’s our blood and bones and these whistles and phones
against Miller and Noem’s dirty lies.
If you haven’t heard it sung, take a moment, then listen to it again and again until the emotion has been all sucked out of you.
Now they say they’re here to uphold the law,
but they trample on our rights.
If your skin is black or brown, my friend,
you can be questioned or deported on sight.
By Thursday afternoon, I had discovered the video version of the song complete with real news video and photos that make it more powerful.
It’s another American story Donald Trump will try to erase.
And as Springsteen sings, “Minneapolis I hear your voice singing through the bloody mist. We’ll take our stand for this land and the stranger in our midst.”
That’s us.
The best of us.
People like Alex Pretti and Rene Good.
Pardon me a second, I’m going to listen to it one more time.
Community Action
Earlier this month I wrote about the unexpected passing of Lynn Ackershoek. She was the executive director at Warren-Hamilton Community Action in Glens Falls and one of those unsung community heroes who helped people in need.
Kathy French, who told me she and Lynn were supposed to retire together, has taken over at Community Action in the interim.
She said more than $2,000 had been raised in Lynn’s memory since the story appeared, but more is still coming in.
I urge all our readers to donate if you can. This money goes to feeding people in need. Donate what you can. If everyone who reads The Front Page donated $5, we could raise $20,000 or more.
You can donate through PayPal or send a check.
Child poverty
When I see Amy Feiereisel’s byline on the North Country Public Radio website I pay attention.
Her latest contribution is a look at the child poverty rate in New York state. She reports that New York ranks 41st in the United States with nearly one in five children living in poverty.
She also reports that upstate cities like Syracuse, Binghamton and Rochester have more than 40 percent of children living in poverty.
You might find this story shocking.
More bad news
New York state’s population decline stopped last year, but it still ranked 45th in population growth in 2025, according to Dan Clark of the Albany Times Union.
New York’s population growth was less than 1 percent and it was the third straight year that New York increased population.
But its population of 20,002,427 is actually still lower than what it was in 2020, which means it still could lose as many as two congressional seats after the next census in 2030.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book “The Last American Newspaper” into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
Hoping this video gets widest dissemination possible. It has left TV commentaters in tears. The power of his lyrics, coupled with the horrific scenes, can hopefully stir the souls of other entertainers, athletes and elected officials to use their voices for Truth vs. protecting their center stage celebrity status.
The ICE Budget at $10B annually and now an additional $75B injected into the budget so $85B to use at will over the next 4 years...imagine, we could eliminate childhood poverty and do so much to improve the lives of all of us.