WordSisters

Category: Feeling Safe

  • Hamburger Soup

    Another two big snowstorms are threatening our travel plans. Winter 2025 – 2026 isn’t willing to give up. Heavy snow, ice, cold temperatures, wind, have attacked almost every part of the country. If weather didn’t make leaving home difficult,  the stew of flu, Covid, colds and respiratory illnesses shut down schools and even the simplest vacation plans for a weekend visiting grandma and grandpa. Living in the communities impacted by ICE surges, emotional heaviness still exists. Rising costs, losing insurance coverage, changing political and values landscape, make temporary escape difficult to find.

    We’ve indulged in homey meals. Not necessarily fancy foods, but smells and tastes that bring back other times. Some of that has been European ethnic cooking with sausages, potatoes, onions and bread. Homemade pizza, order-in pizza, frozen pizza with sides of fruit. Grilled sandwiches with a cup of soup.

    Last week I made hamburger soup, what others might call vegetable soup with browned ground beef. My mother made her vegetable soup with chunks of cooked round steak, but we usually substituted ground beef because of easy freezer availability. The simple recipe made enough for three meals for the two of us with sides of bread slices and a chunk of cheese. 

    I was surprised at yuk faces when I shared our enjoyment of hamburger soup. Usually the frowns turned to memories of childhood when I described it as vegetable soup with burger. “Oh, yeah, that sounds good.” “That is comfort food.” “We ate that a lot when I was a kid.” It is all in the name.

    That is how I’m labeling this winter: The year of ICE and hamburger soup. It would be grand to be able to make vats of the stuff and feed some families still in hiding and people who are food insecure. We could leave out the burger to meet religious or personal preferences. But I’d love to add a crusty chunk of bread with each bowl to really fill everyone’s stomach. And hope that a touch of love gives the soup a dose of comfort.

  • 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.