WordSisters

Category: Activism

  • Whistles Still Blowing

    As we file federal taxes, think about how our leaders chose to spend our money. Not on highways or better schools or improved health, but on 3,000 armed and masked government agents sent into multi-cultural communities with near complete freedom to hunt for people who might be in the U.S. illegally. Wearing expensive military equipment. No warrants needed. No explanation of how their lists are assembled. Federal domestic abuse perpetrated on men, women and children, particularly if they do not have white skin. And extended to anyone blowing the whistle on the ICE action or filming the action or merely annoying the masked strangers.

    Comfort is needed for people hiding in the occupied cities of Minnesota, for people brave enough to care for their neighbors’ needs, for all both here and abroad who have watched the loss of life and the trampling of basic human rights. For those who sing along with Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Minneapolis” and fear their own communities’ futures.  Trauma exists far beyond the I-494-694 freeways.

    Family and friends have fled the cities looking for safety and security and the ability to work. Some people just disappeared. They may have returned to other countries. They might be in a DHS facility. Or they could be living in your state. Thousands of individuals continue to feed, provide transportation, pay the rent of those in hiding.  ICE may stalk caregivers’ homes as well. And our schools, teachers, staff, parents who patrol each morning and afternoon.

    For those willing to walk in subzero weather and throw their bodies in the way of harm to protect a stranger or neighbor, how will we keep fighting for the United States we love? There isn’t any end date for what is happening. Did anyone think we would be facing these questions a year ago? 

    The answers are large, unknown. 

    One day at a time. One struggle at a time. 

    Whistles are still blowing on the streets of Minneapolis.

  • Alex Jeffrey Pretti – January 24, 2026

    The air is heavy in Minneapolis. With anger. Grief. Shock (although we are growing harder to shock). Uncertainty. What will any of us see on the street, at the store, at schools, at clinics? Who will be harmed next, whisked away to undisclosed locations only to be released without explanation or apology? Who else will be beaten or murdered? All to prove that ICE is in charge. 

    Our outrage has grown. So has our resolve. This vicious invasion and desecration of our constitutional rights must not stand. Our resistance takes many forms. We all do what we are able. Perhaps the surge will moderate, but fear will linger for weeks, maybe months, so the need remains. And if ICE leaves Minneapolis, they will go terrorize some other community.

    Please take action:

    Call your representatives. 

    • Insist they restrain ICE, cut their funding.
    • Insist they call out the lies and speak the truth relentlessly. 
    • Insist they demand investigations and accountability for the murders and many instances of excessive illegal force.
    • Insist they address the horrendous conditions inside the detention centers.
    • If your representatives don’t act, vote them out.

    If you’re in Minnesota, join a mutual aid group to get food and supplies to families who are unable to work and pay rent, grocery shop, pick up kids from school, or go about normal life, because whether citizen or not, they could be snatched away. 

    Keep showing up in whatever way is right for you—at protests and vigils. Community support efforts. Bridge sign brigades and school parent groups. Speaking up to friends and family.

    Donate

    A clearinghouse of Minnesota mutual aid groups

    Stand with Minnesota

    ACLU-MN

    I never envisioned the situation people of the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota are in or the way many informal networks have sprung up to support neighbors and fiercely advocate for constitutional rights. Like thousands of others in Minnesota I have been catalyzed to act. These are exceptional times.

  • Wishing and Hoping

    We know better. Outdoor party plans don’t guarantee sunshine and soft breezes. We can hope for the best, but best be prepared for rain and thunder. We can wish that just this one time, the weather gods will spin the right number so our guests can enjoy walking and talking in the gardens.

Feels like wishing and hoping might be what’s left as what regular people can do about more and more truly large decisions or actions that impact their lives. With masks and vaccinations, many hope to escape sneaky Covid variations.  Powerful men chose to scrape other people from the face of the earth although everyone hoped the threat was just that. Partisan hatred locks decision making amidst the people we elected hoping they might work together. They tie up the executive branch where folks are wishing things would start improving. Then what was once the most solemn of our nation’s institutions spits out a hateful decision on all those who hoped the laws of the land would be upheld or wished for a miracle from the stacked bench.

Sure seems like miracles have followed the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus to fantasy land. Appeals for contributions to protect the environment, protect freedom of speech, protect women’s health, or many other threatened values mostly keep people employed in the gigantic rat race called the great democratic experiment with no guarantee of positive results. 

So many groups stand outside, disenchanted and disenfranchised, hoping for a sunny day in Washington, D.C. when the politicians and policy makers might come out of their buildings, shake off whatever protects them from the stuff normal folks deal with and breathe in some real air. 

I’m wishing they would come live with regular people for a couple of months, sit in a public school classroom for a full day, plan two weeks of meals before grocery shopping on a budget, deal with the endless impersonal bureaucracy everywhere from making a doctor appointment to asking about a bill. That’s just a start. And hope they could walk city streets safely among those tired of disappointment in government and feel the strength and anger of their action. 

Not hoping for daily sunshine and soft breezes or wishing for more than our fair share. Just reminding those who govern that it is at the will of the people who expect some respect for what we hold as truth.