1/26/26 – Minneapolis, our friends and our neighbors, we love you from the bottom of our hearts. We made this city, and it is glorious. Whose streets? Our streets.
1/25/26 – Our hearts are heavy, Lord. We are a community in pain. We are grieving, but we will continue our righteous fight. We will fight for Renee and Alex, our martyrs in our fight for freedom and democracy. The darkness will not overcome us. The Lord is our strength and our light. John 1:5 says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
1/21/26 – Dear Europe, Get some f—king self-respect and fight. Love, Minneapolis
1/19/26 – The Holy Spirit was at work here. Keep it peaceful, friends. Even though they might not recognize our humanity, we recognize theirs. The two people who gave Lang a ride should have had a drink with him. He might have learned something…and had some fun.
The Black man and women who rescued right-wing influencer Jake Lang from protesters in Minneapolis
1/19/26 – A few articles that help frame the assault on our democracy and on the city of Minneapolis.
An Old Theory Helps Explain What Happened to Renee Good
There’s a reason Trump Is Targeting Minneapolis
This Is the Only Card Trump Can Play
1/19/26 – On this Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday, we would like to say in his honor, “Don’t tread on me.” As our civil liberties are under siege, as federal agents treat us as the British soldiers treated Americans before our Revolutionary War, we invoke our Founders’ memory. We would also like to invoke Lincoln’s memory by referring to his use of Jesus’s words, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” We will either resolve our divisions and remain intact as a nation, or we will fall as a country. Martin Luther King, Jr. asked the nation to live up to the words on our founding documents. Those words include our Constitutional rights, which are being trampled upon by a fascist. The fascist and his servile subordinates have betrayed our country and our Founders’ conception of it. They are traitors. Americans: In your own way, within the bounds of the law and with respect for all life – fight. Fight with Minneapolis. Fight for our country. This is the best way to honor the legacy of our greatest Americans.
1/12/26 – Minneapolis: Community is everything. We don’t want to be at war with any of our fellow Americans, including law enforcement. We want the federal government to follow the law and respect the rights of our citizens and the dignity of all human beings, no matter their legal status. We want to be able to work with all law enforcement, not against them or to be in fear of them. To do that, they need to build trust and a partnership with us. This is the way to have the most peaceful and productive country.
We are blessed to live in a city with residents who know how to love their neighbors, people with a strong sense of morality and kindness. We have casual conversations with strangers all the time. It is fun. We help each other. We laugh. We smile. We care about each other. This is community, and community is everything.
1/11/26 – A lame-duck president, who cannot even maintain support within his limited base, which is clinging to their last best hope, their messiah who will deliver them from their perceived diminished standing in a country and a world that keeps changing, is not in any place to make any more significant changes either to the people’s house, the White House, or to our foreign policy.
The country and the world will keep changing. Nothing anyone or any country does can stop this law of nature. Erecting cheap replicas of previous eras, such as the Arc de Triomphe, will not keep them from changing and will not bring back any past glory, to whatever degree it ever really existed.
Pining for the days when pink, cool skin and under-melanized eyes and hair, in part, the result of the genetic drift of a limited genetic pool, held some magic aesthetic spell, will not change the reality that most of the world does not share these genetic fundamentals and, therefore, the traits were never going to last.
Europeans are not shrinking because of hordes of non-European invaders. Northern Europeans’ distinguishing physical characteristics were never particularly genetically viable. Recessive genes recede because they are less viable. The laws of nature do not care for random aesthetic preferences, which are often based on immoral dominance inter or intra-race, a dominance which is almost always temporally and geographically limited. The laws of nature care simply for long-term survival.
When you cannot even assess the world and its people correctly, asserting aggression and dominance to preserve something that you do not even fully understand is foolish and will eventually fail. The reason the Catholic Church has preserved or rebuilt Western civilization several times is because it is founded on everlasting tenets, the ones Jesus the Nazarene handed down to us. The one we call the Christ is the true and only Messiah.
Trump’s Amoral World Meets Its Match in Pope Leo
1/10/26 – Regarding stephen miller: It is unfortunate that a Jew has decided to become a servile subordinate to a fascist. No amount of pandering to the pagan Gentiles that is this administration will ever change how the neonazi American right view miller and his family. No amount of self-loathing masquerading as self-confidence will convince objective observers that he is not in denial of his own identity. No amount of might-makes-right bluster will change the historical realities that this worldview has generally not benefitted the Jewish people. If the lesson learned from the Holocaust is to be on the side of the aggressors, one has learned the wrong lesson. To whatever degree miller is capable of being the “brains” of this administration, his machinations are not only morally wrong, but they are also stupid.
When Jesus interrupted this world, he came to serve, but he did not come to serve a puppet of the Roman empire or its emperors. He came to serve God and us. The Romans mocked him by hanging a sign above his crucified body that read “the King of the Jews.” He is not the King of the Jews. He is simply the King, 2,000 years later and forever. That is real power. Shabbat Shalom.
1/10/26 – We understand that the National Review, founded by a racist with recessive blue jeans, might have difficulty reporting in an objective fashion. Without knowing the facts on the ground, likely because it does not have a (meaningful) presence on the ground, it made false claims about why Minneapolis Public Schools cancelled classes on Thursday and Friday when it had legitimate safety concerns for its staff and students. It is now claiming that…wait for it…“ICE Watch chapters and similar organizations are doing this sort of thing all across the country. Good’s death is the inevitable, and to some extent intended, outcome of this style of direct action, which is designed to create headline-grabbing conflict and drama.” Let’s put this directly. ICE Watch is not just the reason for Good’s death, but her death is the intended result of their strategy so that ICE Watch can get the media’s attention. At a certain point, the National Review might actually try to get outside of its conservative white bubble and interact with people who do not, well, think like them.
Previous administrations did not behave like this. This is an obvious fact. This is not a conservative administration. It is unAmerican and an abomination to any respectable civilization, leave alone one of the greatest countries in human history. Everything from the garish makeover of the Oval Office, converting it, in the words of George Will, who is not exactly a liberal, to a “high-end Gilded Age brothel,” to the malignant narcissist’s use of our country’s excellent military as his private militia and his insatiable lust for power that shreds our Constitution and disregards any level of accountability is an assault on American principles and ideals. It is a betrayal of our Founding Fathers’ vision for the country and our countless patriots’ defense of it. The problem is this administration, and the National Review needs to come to terms with this truth. Instead, it supports this despicable administration because it values power and money above our Constitution and our democracy. When they show us that they care more about our Constitution, our country and human lives than about power and money and that they can consider multiple viewpoints and not make outrageous claims such as these, we’ll take them more seriously, but not until then.
The Problem Isn’t ICE. It’s ICE Watch
1/10/26 – Every child regardless of their legal status has a right to a free (and appropriate) public education. They deserve to learn in a safe, nondiscriminatory environment that nurtures their whole person. We would like to thank Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which gave us Darnella Frazier, one of its previous students who had the presence of mind and the courage to record the cruel murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police Officer. It was the site of ICE activity recently, and its students again showed their character. Jesse “the Body” Ventura, a former Teddie and Minnesota governor, has some choice words for this administration. Even though his governance was not necessarily the best, his character puts this administration to shame. No amount of power, money, titles, prestige, etc. can compensate for a rotten character. A certain person might presently be the president, but we are the character of this great country.
Former Gov. Jesse Ventura speaks out against ICE in Minnesota, hints may run again
1/9/26 – We feel profoundly sad, for the unnecessary loss of life, our neighbors who are fearful, our country, and our world. This administration is a moral and governance failure. It is callous and cruel, and its reckless actions and policies lead to unnecessary pain and suffering for our nation and others.
While so many Americans are unfortunately embroiled in a debate on the legality of the ICE agent’s actions in Minneapolis, Minnesota, playing armchair lawyers, we would like to present a different approach. It is much harder, but also much healthier for everyone’s soul and for the soul of our nation. Renee Good was a Christian, so let’s consider what the faith asks of us. Let us preface with: Christianity is not an easy religion to practice well.
Christianity asks us to keep our hearts open to reconciliation with each other and with God. It asks us to feel compassion for those we view as our friends – and our enemies. Even if you are convinced that Jonathan Ross is guilty, which he might be, it is simply a legal consequence. The real healing is not in the legal outcome, which is a matter of legal justice, but in the transformation of his own heart. It is in his ability to deeply consider the consequences of his actions and, separate from a court of law or of public opinion, to arrive at repentance for them and for the unnecessary pain and suffering that they caused. It also requires us to forgive him. Would you be able to do that? Without knowing her, we think Renee Good would be.
We have to give each other the space to grow, and we cannot do that if we are more interested in winning a moral or social media battle than in the health of our society and its members. Renee Good is gone. Her children are still here. Her little boy has lost both of his biological parents. And we are still here in this country together. We have to keep it from falling apart. We can only do that by responding to hate with love. Love is not easy to practice with someone you have chosen to demonize. The ICE agent is not a monster. He a fellow American, a fellow human being, flawed as we all are. Show him grace so that he can grow into a better man, with better judgment. That is one of the best ways to honor Renee Good’s legacy. Jesus will be the final judge, and we pray that Jonathan Ross reconciles himself with her family and with our Lord.
1/8/26 – Perhaps there could have been no other first post for 2026 since the powers-that-be seem intent on bringing unwise events to a head. We would like to say first and foremost that three children lost their mother; one of them, a six-year-old boy, had already lost his father and is now an orphan. We weep for them. Secondly, we value all human life: civilians, military, law enforcement, etc. We pay our respects to all of them, not based on their titles but on their character and their actions.
It is unwise for the federal government to impose an aggressive presence in any city, especially one whose values are so different from the current administration’s. Minneapolis (and St. Paul), a midsized midwestern city that is not normally in the national headlines, has been so several times in the recent past. There have been several tragedies, in some cases within a fairly tight radius in South Minneapolis. South Minneapolis has its own culture within the city. It is diverse, liberal and protective. Some parts are progressive, but most are just liberal. Minneapolis reelected Mayor Jacob Frey, a liberal, and rejected the democratic socialist.
Previous administrations have done deportations. They did not do them like this. There is no trust between law enforcement and the residents who live in these communities. The administration is not acting wisely or in good faith. Its deportation campaign is not targeted and well-executed, and ICE and other agencies’ agents are bearing the brunt of this politically self-serving approach that is intended to appeal to the MAGA hard right.
Agents should not be dragged by cars, and community members should not be shot and killed for protecting their neighbors. Immigrants’ and migrants’ due process rights should be respected. They should be treated humanely and should not be deported to dangerous countries or foreign prisons. The reason why the community is not working with law enforcement and why they are encountering this much resistance, which is dangerous to all parties, is because these rights have not been respected, and this administration seems cruel and callous. Therefore, community members view these actions not as legitimate deportations but as abductions.
We value all human life and dignity. We know that our fellow Americans do too. We have laws because they keep our society civilized. Follow the law. Everybody needs to calm down. Otherwise, more people will get hurt. Remember: We rise and fall together as one country.