There’s a moment in “Smallville” Season 10, Episode 13, “Beacon,” where Martha Kent delivers a speech that feels ripped from our current headlines. Standing before a crowd in a Metropolis under siege by its own government’s Vigilante Registration Act (VRA), she says: “These are difficult times. With heroes being painted as criminals, it’s easy to lose hope. But if we don’t speak up now, then when?”
I’ve been rewatching Season 10 to decompress from what’s happening outside my window in Minneapolis. However, the parallels are impossible to ignore. In Metropolis, the VRA gave the government sweeping powers to hunt down vigilantes, people who had been protecting their community, treating them as threats simply for existing outside official sanction. Here in Minneapolis, Operation Metro Surge has deployed thousands of armed federal agents to conduct what Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s lawsuit describes as “militarized raids” and “dangerous, illegal, and unconstitutional stops and arrests.”
Martha Kent’s speech wasn’t just about superheroes. It was about what happens when authority becomes oppression, when those sworn to protect and serve instead instill fear.
“My father always said, Life only asks of you what you can handle. Sometimes we can’t do it on our own. That’s why we need to join together in this crusade like a family, so that our united strength calls through the darkness like a beacon inspiring others to find their voices.”
Minneapolis has found its voice. After ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed 37-year-old American citizen Renée Good on Jan. 7, and Border Patrol agents killed Alex Pretti on Jan. 24, tens of thousands took to the streets. They joined together not as vigilantes, but as families, neighbors, business owners, paramedics and ordinary citizens who refused to accept that this is what safety looks like.
The economic blackout on Jan. 23 wasn’t just a strike, nor was the second one that occurred earlier today. It was Minneapolis saying what Martha Kent said: “If we don’t speak up now, then when?”
The VRA storyline showed us a Metropolis where government overreach was justified by claims of public safety, where masked agents could arrest people without due process, and where even heroes were presumed guilty.
Here in Minneapolis, U.S. citizens have been deported or detained for hours or days because, in the words of so many ICE agents, “I can hear you don’t have the same accent as me.” Businesses report revenue drops of 50% to 80% because their customers are afraid to leave home. Police have logged thousands of overtime hours responding to chaos created by federal agents. All of this is because of hate.
Martha Kent’s final words hit hardest:
“None of us is born to hate. We’re taught to. That’s why we need heroes, to remind us that we are all meant to fight for truth and justice, to take a stand against fear and hate.”
We don’t need caped crusaders. We need what Minneapolis has shown us: Daye Octavia and her friend Aleigha, who were simply headed to Tom’s Watch Bar for cocktails, driving January 6 Insurrectionist, Jake Lang, to safety. Tippy Amundson and Heather Zemien, first responders who were detained by ICE but still saved the life of a federal agent having a seizure in the vehicle transporting them. The owner of (Post) Modern Times Cafe, now offering free food to everyone except federal agents. A Bar of Their Own, offering a place for protest prep and community involvement. The thousands who shut down their businesses for a day to say enough is enough. The thousands who are collecting goods for those too terrified to leave their homes. Community is showing up. The list is literally endless.
In “Beacon,” Martha Kent’s speech inspired Metropolis to stand up to the VRA. In Minneapolis, we’re writing our own script. We’re showing up for our neighbors. We’re dishing out hope with some Minnesota nice. Minneapolis is the biggest small town in America, where everyone is connected. You mess with some, you mess with all. We’re the beacon now.
