Goodbye Imprint... from your Current Editor

By Lizzie Schwarze

Written June 1, 2020

It was just four years ago when I was sitting at a table in Whole Foods with some of my fellow drama club members, grabbing a snack as we waited for rehearsal to start, when a girl named Bridget Bright approached us and asked if we would come to the Imprint Meeting that was supposed to start in the next five minutes. The question wasn’t directed at me, as I wasn’t a member of the newspaper club like the other people around me were, yet I knew that I was certainly welcome to come to the meeting too if I liked. Without thinking too much about it, I decided to tag along with my friends, probably only because I was trying to avoid being left alone in Whole Foods. When I walked into the doors of Mr. Stewart’s room that day, I never would have realized that I was about to keep on doing that routinely for the next four years.

So, flashforward to my senior year, where I am now suddenly the Editor-in-Chief of the Imprint, and I am running meetings and attempting to transition the newspaper to more accessible, modern platforms, such as online and as a podcast. One of the biggest challenges of the job is ensuring people actually show up to the weekly after school meeting, but whenever there are only just a few of us, the time is still filled with lots of laughs and warmth. Although we have switched to online issues this year, using our newly created google site, we still always planned to have a paper edition for the senior issue. As it went with many Imprint-related things, the paper senior issue wasn’t able to go as planned due to some big interruptions, like the sudden closing of school for the year because of the pandemic. As much as I was tempted to just let this year’s final issue be “excused,” chalking it up to the difficulties of not being able to hold in-person meetings and stick to our normal schedule, I forced myself to encourage the group to still try to produce as much as an issue possible online. Just because the world felt like it was stopping, that was no reason for writing to stop as well. In fact, I believe now is the time more than ever to use words as power, and to take advantage of the many easily accessible routes of communication that still exist.

Not only am I hoping that this issue can provide a little bit more of the closure and normalcy us seniors are all searching for, I think it is still our duty to speak up about the many issues our country is facing right now. If there is one thing I have taken away from being a part of the school newspaper, it is that there is no reason to be afraid to share your opinions and beliefs. We have a voice for a reason, and the reward of getting those ideas on paper, whether or not many people will be reading those words, is always fulfilling.

Over the past few months, I’ve heard many words of sympathy from family, friends, and neighbors, regarding my lack of a proper ending to high school, which included the loss of senior week events like prom and a traditional yearbook signing day, as well as the loss of my fourth and final school musical and last orchestra concert. I am definitely saddened to know that I lost some of those “once in a lifetime” memories, and instead I officially finished high school literally alone in my bedroom after submitting my AP Stats exam, but I can’t help but feel that these losses are miniscule in comparison to the many other hardships people in my country have been facing for years on end. So many victims of police brutality, people who have lost sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and more, lose “once in a lifetime” memories bigger than many of us can imagine. I still think it is okay to feel sad about our own losses, because we all have had to deal with sadness and tragedy in some way, and we each deserve to feel the emotions that naturally form inside of us. We wouldn’t be fully human if we neglected the sensations and sentiments we feel in response to the events that impact us. But I also believe that it is our duty as humans to respond upon any hurt and anger we may feel in a productive and impactful way, specifically regarding the acts of prejudice and hate occurring in our country today.

I urge my fellow classmates to take any fire and frustration they feel in response to the news headlines, and turn it into motivation for acting on those feelings. We may be inheriting a troubled world, but we are not heading in empty-handed. We have the power to make real change, because as I said earlier, words have power. Conversations about these topics do more than we know, and the first step for change is awareness about the problem. We can communicate with people across the world with the help of social media and the internet. When we turn 18, we can register to vote, but voicing our political ideals doesn’t have to stop there. We can write to and call our representatives and demand them to listen to us. We can donate to organizations that are working to support the minority and to dismantle a complicated system of racism that lays before us. We found a way to stay connected during this pandemic, and have become stronger due to this experience. I have faith my class and the generation of youth that I am surrounded by will continue to connect and fight for what’s right. I am thankful for the empowerment my teachers, peers, and this newspaper club has provided me over the past four years. Now I must take all of that knowledge and support and use it for good.

Here are some places you can donate to for direct support of the people fighting for justice in Minneapolis:

• George Floyd's siblings Philonise and Bridgett are raising funds for funeral and burial expenses, as well as to support his daughter Gianna. Donate to their GoFundMe's here and here.

• The Minnesota Freedom Fund is bailing out protesters arrested in the demonstrations. Donate here.

  • MFF is also encouraging people to call on District Attorney Mike Freeman and Minnesota Mayor Jacob Frey to demand the release of people detained for protesting.

• The Black Visions Collective Movement and Legal Fund, a Black, trans and queer-led organization, is helping lead the protests and advocating to defund the police in Minnesota. Donate here.

• Northstar Health Collective, a mutual aid group of organizers and street medics, is providing healthcare and other resources to activists and organizers on the ground. Donate here.

• Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en La Lucha, a Minneapolis worker's center, is taking donations of food and money to support organizers and helping pressure local government. Donate here.

• Reclaim the Block, a Minnesota org that lobbies for defunding the police and re-routing funds to affordable housing, health, violence prevention, civil right and renter protections. Donate here.

• The Twin Cities Recovery Project has been holding grief and trauma groups which are peer run and connected to licensed therapists. To help fundraise for community support, donate here.

Donation description and information found at Papermag.com, in article titled “How To Support Protesters in Every City,” written by Jael Goldfine and Taylor Champlin on May 29th, 2020.