I did not expect this to be the focus of my first blog post of 2026. But here we are. As I write, I am on my way home from a five-day visit to my family in Minneapolis. My hometown. The place where I grew up. The place where I met my husband, got married and had two children. While I moved away many years ago, my siblings, their adult children, and grandchildren all still live there.

Minneapolis is a progressive, diverse city. It is a proud, resilient community. I love going back to visit.

Tuesday night my brother and sister-in-law took my sister and I out to dinner at a restaurant near downtown that is owned and operated by a non-profit, North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems. There were two signs behind the hostess desk that made it clear that federal agents may not stage immigration operations on the property.

On Wednesday, Minneapolis was rocked by the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three children, by an ICE agent. It happened a few miles from my sister’s downtown apartment and several blocks from where my husband and I once lived. I was both heartbroken and outraged as I watched the videos of this tragic event and read the assertions being perpetrated by the administration that this was domestic terrorism.

While I did not attend the vigil Wednesday night with thousands of others, my sister and I participated in the 4pm weekly standout at the intersection outside her downtown apartment building.  Signs re-used each week by the regulars are what you would expect – Resist, Wakeup, Save Democracy, No Kings – and yet the newest ones focused on getting ICE out of Minneapolis. 90% of the cars that passed honked in support of us.

As I waited for my plane on Thursday, I listened to the weekly Indivisible What’s the Plan Call. On the way home from the airport my husband and I listened to the Rapid Response Call: ICE Killing and Lawlessness in Minneapolis organized by a broad coalition including Indivisible. There are thousands of people on these calls from across the country. This coalition is calling for a coordinated ICE Out For Good Weekend of Action on Saturday, January 10th and Sunday, January 11th to demand accountability, honor the life lost, and make visible the human cost of ICE’s actions. A core principle behind all events is a commitment to nonviolent action and no civil disobedience – they will be peaceful gatherings of people like you and me.

On Tuesday, the 5-year anniversary of January 6, the White House website “rebranded” that day in 2021 which we all saw on video repeatedly. It blames the insurrection on the Democrats and the Capitol Police. But we know what we saw.

This George Orwell quote is going around social media – “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command”.

Disinformation is rampant. AI generated images are fueling even more disinformation and confusion. I encourage you to carefully and with great discernment find trusted news sources.

More importantly, dig deep and find your own red line. Staying silent normalizes what is happening. As another sign at the weekly standout said: “You Can Do Something, Don’t Sit This Out – Stand Up.”  My husband’s sign that we continue to re-use says: “We the People Just Keep Showing Up”. That’s right, we do and we will.