WordSisters

Category: Community

  • 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.

  • From Minneapolis

    Renee Nicole Good

    January 7, 2026

    Vietnam Veteran Ron Eastman in answer to why he joined protests at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Fort Snelling, MN, home of the regional immigration court and serving as the regional ICE headquarters: 

    “Number one, my oath compels me. I took an oath in 1969 to defend my country from all enemies, both foreign and domestic. I had to be seen so no one else was killed the way Nicole Renee Good (sic) was killed. Minneapolis is a peaceful place, but ICE has descended… like a storm. They’ve wrecked businesses that have been here for decades, and they have cost children the life of their mother (sic). I could not sit at home…I just had to face the enemy eye-to-eye and say what I had to say.”    (MS NOW Daily, January 10, 2026)

  • Holiday Presents

    In response to queries about what I might like as a holiday or upcoming birthday present, I am wondering if I have hit “that age” or developed a stronger sense of being part of the universe?

    With the evil spreading in our country that has stripped families apart or made the simple costs of food, shelter and other necessities too expensive for others, how can I want anything? If I need to think about creating a list for days, I think I know the answer

    First, my deepest wishes: food, safe shelter, healthcare and education to be accessible in our country. People with compassion, wisdom, morals, the ability to use real language when talking, willingness to listen, commitment to collaborative decisions to lead government at all levels, in all nations. Narcissistic strong men be removed from positions of influence or power.

    On the personal level: A giant gift would be securing my family’s futures so that those of us aging don’t burden the younger, the middle generation continue to live the modestly comfortable lives they have achieved, the children reach maturity in a country that has found its way back to peace and prosperity while honoring the Statue of Liberty‘s invitation. It would be grand to find a small house for our last decades and free our family home for a family.

    But if my stumbling over the gift question is about approaching “that age” and actual physical items must be named, my gift list is simple: warm socks, two books, a box of English Toffee, framed photos, individual time with each family member in the coming year, donations made to food shelves.  

    Add new pajamas and a couple of white long sleeve polo shirts, this might have been my father’s list twenty years ago when he was the age I am now. And he is a good reminder of what holiday presents should include. He was someone who gave to others at holidays: food boxes we packed, a canned ham, cookies we baked, wrapped toys, sweaters and pajamas for others’ children, cash in a card, and because it was Wisconsin sometimes a bottle of brandy. 

    Time to get busy.