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. Continue reading →