So now what, beloveds?
Memorial to Renee Good
Are things really changing and what does that mean if they are?
Honoring all of those killed by ICE in 2026 - Keith Porter, Luis Gustavo Núñez Cáceres, Geraldo Lunas Campos, Víctor Manuel Díaz, Parody La, Renee Nicole Good, Luis Beltrán Yáñez–Cruz, Heber Sánchez Domínguez, Lorth Sim, Alex Pretti, and Dr. Linda Davis as well as those murdered in past years.
Honoring all of those killed by state violence, from the original peoples of this land from first contact to present, to those whose ancestor’s bodies were stolen and continue to be policed and targeted, to those whose gender and ability and immigrant status means that they are under threat.
The ground is changing in Minnesota. Ice is melting and it isn’t gone, but it is not the same as it was a few months ago. And yes, I am talking about the frozen water that touches the soil but I am also talking about the mercenaries hired by the Trump administration. They are not gone, and if anything, as of this writing, they have ramped up their targeting of the suburbs and smaller towns. Some reports tell us that there are still 2000 agents in Minnesota and others say 500. We know they are still here, loves, but for some of us, the violent theater of Operation Metro Surge is also shifting.
Maybe those living in other places, those in other states and other towns, will see the same kind of surge that happened here on Dakota land, the surge that ended in so many shapes of violence, including murder. And maybe the highly aggressive strategy of the last few months won’t be repeated. There is so much we don’t know.
And there is so much we DO know: this authoritarian rise has not ended. This administration’s racialized commitment to get rid of as many immigrants as possible, all under the story of getting rid of “criminals” has not ended. And this commitment is connected to many other strategies that target a range of beloveds, both human and land, as well as a profound lack of accountability for the system of predation embedded in the current administration.
Some of us are not seeing a decrease in intensity right now. You and the ones near you are under attack. Family members are in detention or deported. For some of us beloveds, there is no change. For others, this IS a moment of shift. Your Signal threads are not blowing up in the same way. You have energy and are not sure where to put it. You haven’t heard whistles in days.
Beloveds, if you are noticing that the chaos around you has quietened, there is privilege in this. This is just true and even if you are panic-scrolling through social media to find where the threat is today, knowing what is happening in Fridley does not shift that it might be quieter where you live or within your networks. This is just true and rather than feeling guilty or uncertain, it asks that you, that we continue to ask how we can love and support, care for and protect, and be in solidarity with our neighbors and kin. Even if things are shifting for some of us, this is still a moment to deepen our collective commitment to work towards a life where all of our neighbors are safe and cared for and where we remember that we are each connected to the other. That our safety and care is bound up, each with the other.
So, with all that has changed and all that has not, what do we do with the energy that is rushing through our collective body? How do we connect this moment, this specific present moment, to work that continues forward and also remembers further back? I talked with 12 different people to put this piece together. These twelve people represent a range of involvements, neighborhoods, identities and shape of organizing. I asked them: if we are indeed in a place of transition - and every single person I spoke with, including folks right at the heart of some of the most intense organizing of these last months and today, said yes, we are in a place of shift - then what would you say to our kin to help them move through this? To help them continue in this work towards love of neighbor while also remembering that this is long term work? That this is the work of today and the work of generations?
There is a lot of brilliance on this page and it is only a small part of what is possible. I know that you have so much brilliance yourself. Some of you have been in this work for 10, 30, 50 years. Others are new arrivals. These words are an offering, a moment when some of us turn to the rest of us, link arms and say, ok dear ones, here. Here are some thoughts. Here are some promises. Here are some possibilities.
As you read this, notice what your body and spirit feel will nourish and ground you. Look for things that provide care and sustainability as well as things that help carry our resistance and ferocity forward. We can only move one step at a time, even as we might see a whole horizon filled with tasks and possibilities.
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ENDING VIOLENCE
This is what we have been doing for the last two months, as well as before then. This has been the core, doing everything we can to stop the abduction of our neighbors. Doing everything we can to stop our own families from being taken. Doing everything we can to stop the violence that started over 500 years ago with the colonization of these indigenous lands.
Notice what still needs to be held. There is no dialing down of support right now. Notice who you are supporting who is still in hiding. It is going to take some time for some of our neighbors to feel safe enough to step out of their homes and this is because so many are still in danger. Some beloveds are also dealing with the devastating loss of family members. Some have legal needs that still need support. Folks organizing food are reporting a significant reduction in donations since the drawn down was announced, but no reduction in the number of families who need food. Economic struggles are only going to increase. There might be emotions or intensities that rise now in the bodies of those we are working with and supporting as - potentially - there is a bit more space to breathe. This might be you who is reading this. It might be someone nearby. If we are not careful, those of us who can step to the back and rest might unintentionally leave those who can’t rest behind.
Keep attuning to what the conditions are actually like today and how we can’t stop meeting the needs of this moment. If in a week there are 2000 less ICE agents here, we might not need to be sprinting but we also can’t just say, phew! Well, that’s done. Now I can go back to the way things were. Our fascism problem is not done. Notice if you have the desire to go off and hide for a few weeks. Notice if you want a return to “normal” and, most importantly, be honest with yourself by noticing that you might actually have the means to do that. Feel care and compassion for how tired you are. That tiredness is real. Be gentle with yourself, feel your desire to stop already and hold that, without contradiction, next to the fact that this is definitely not done. That we can’t get to a world where the violence of ICE - and all kinds of other forms of violence - is not possible without continuing to be willing to transform.
Continue figuring out what it means to use our resources to care for each other. People are going to continue to be in economic struggle. Many struggled before 2026 and this economic intensity will only continue. SNAP benefits are disappearing. Health insurance is disappearing. None of what has been created or deepened has to be temporary. Have you lived on less over these last months because you have been giving any extra away? Does that have to change? How much do you really need to be ok? How can the dollars of your life be shifted into something that supports our interconnected lives as well as your family? Continue following StandwithMinnesota.com. Consider joining on to their “adopt a rent” vision where families “adopt” families to cover their rent. This is the safety net that was part of the US very briefly, for about three generations, before eroding. Let’s hold that safety net in our own hands.
Take care of the children. Call your people with littles and ask to take them for some play time. Engage with them. Help them to process what they have been through, to feel connected to their lives without ignoring what they have witnessed. Notice that they are in this differently than us adults and they are so very in this. They will teach you far more than you likely know about how to honestly move through something that has been overwhelming. Ensure that they feel safe and loved by more than just their parents.
Reach out to those who have been housebound for reasons other than ICE. One of the hard things about high intensity moments like what Minnesota has been going through is that those who are home-bound for reasons of disability, having small children, and a hundred other reasons often struggle with both isolation and feeling like they have nothing to contribute in this moment. At the best of times, too many of our kin are isolated from the rest of us. Check in with those you know who have not been able to participate in the intensity of resistance that also nourished so many of us with the feeling of community. See how they are doing. Share stories. Listen. Love.
COMING IN TO THE PRESENT MOMENT
High intensity moments mean that our energy, our life force, is focused on what might happen next. This is how we keep ourselves and each other safe. At the same time, if that continues without pause, we burn out. So many of us are burning out. And, our capacity to see possibility in the present moment weakens as we begin to weave together past violence we have experienced with present violence. That is how the cycle of violence continues forward, where those who have been shat upon take on the mantle of the ones who shit and then carry it forward. Coming into the present moment is one of the ways we stop this, by remembering who we are, who our people are, why we are here, and what is actually happening in front of us.
Keep attuning to what the conditions are actually like today and notice if they are not the same as last week or the week before. It does matter to have 2000 less ICE agents on the street if that happens and if it does happen, we have to pause and take that in and claim it as a victory. And it is a victory that is painful because of everything that it took to do this and still, we have to take a minute to take in this change. This is not just messaging. This is not overriding the truth that 500 plus years of violence have not ended. But this is letting your body, your spirit, your mind orient to the fact that all of the resistance of these past months did a thing. ICE and Border Patrol directed their agents that, on the southside of the city, if they could not get in and out with an abduction in two minutes to not even try it because rapid response and patrol would interrupt them within those two minutes. In other parts of the city, it was slightly longer but everywhere our people got there to observe and obstruct quickly. We did that. You did that. Early data shows that between 7 and 15% of the total population of our neighborhoods showed up for rapid response and patrol. Far more than that were involved in grocery delivery, giving rides to our kin, and providing a range of kinds of care and support. Once you weave this all together, the percentages go up to 25 to 70% of the total population of our neighborhoods were involved. Beloveds! Beloveds!!! My God! During the pandemic, it’s guesstimated that 51% of all people in some way showed up for their neighbors. There is so much pain here and at the same time, we, you did this. Are doing this.
Letting yourself feel and acknowledge this truth helps your body, your spirit, your mind feel more ready for the next time we have to step up this intensely. We are not done but oh, what has already been created. Notice it. Feel it. The old meaning of the word “proud” is to look back at something that has happened and to feel a connection to it. Let yourself feel that connection.
Rest. Can you give yourself one full day or maybe longer where you are not on a Signal thread or email? If you are providing care for someone, can you sort out how to take a moment for you to remember yourself? This is not about leaving. This is about ensuring your sustainability for the next part of things. Rest. Attune to what the conditions are actually like today and remember this: we take turns. We have to take turns. We are part of a pack. If you need to, make a schedule with others in your pack, your pod, your neighborhood. Tuesday and Wednesday are your day to not be on patrol or to hold anything. Thursday and Friday are yours, And on and on. Rest. Sustain. Take turns. This is not done. This is a different moment. This can feel like the scariest fucking thing in the world right now, like you are betraying this moment but you are not. We need you for the long term. Rest. Sustain. Take turns.
Grieve. Loves, this can look like so many things. Sometimes grief can look like letting the rage show up. It looks like song or weeping or dancing or going for long walks or praying or hiding in your den. Grief is physical, it is how the body goes from being up in the high-high of activation and then starts to come back down to earth. The words grief and gravity share the same root: they mean the land. Grief will come when it is ready. Don’t force it but don’t ignore it or try to cover it up when it rises.
Repair. Are there any relationships that were fractured or hurt during these last few months? Trust your gut. Are there any ouches in there, something you said or didn’t say, did or didn’t do that has been weighing on you? Take the time to continue the neighborhood love of these past months by engaging with what there was no time for in the fierceness of occupation. In other words, have uncomfortable conversations. Commit to finding a way to stay in connection, to tell the truth and to learn how to do it even when it is hard. Deeply notice that the values of loving our neighbors that has been core to these last two months extends to the ones who annoy the shit out of you. Commit to doing the hard work of relationship repair just as you committed to doing the hard work of protecting those being attacked. Also, take a moment of self-assessment. In showing up during times of hard fast crisis, we show up as exactly as we are, warts and glory. Those of us with various kinds of privilege can sometimes show up from a place of saviorism, of attempting to control things, to do things our own way. We can show up acting as though we know more than we do about a situation. Sit down with people you trust and take a moment to notice, honestly notice, and to see what repair is possible. In most of these cases, repair is not going back and apologizing but instead, committed to continue to grow and learn and be different. And finally, sometimes what is needed for repair is bigger than what you can hold on your own. Watch this space (meaning this blog). I will be posting more soon about how to find conflict tenders. What we all know is that when there has been high intensity and that intensity begins to shift, sometimes it has no where else to go and so it starts turning on those who are closest to us. By focusing on repair from your dignity, going towards people where there is tension and moving with humility, you might take some of the edge off of this. And, at the same time, things can just get hard.
Honor and witness. Is there someone who did or said a thing over these last months that helped you to grow? That brought some threads together for you, that touched your heart when it was hurting, that modeled a kind of courage or strength that you are practicing yourself? Reach out and tell them, if you haven’t already. Their actions, whether small or large, are part of the weave that has made this moment possible. Notice them, show your gratitude if that is what you feel. Witness. Not to puff them up, but for you to honor their impact on you. So many of us have felt all kinds of things in this work, uncertainty about our role, uncertainty about how we have shown up. This is as true for those in visible leadership as it is for the quiet ones whose work is not always as visible. The lines of gratitude between us are part of what nourishes the web we are part of.
CREATING THE CONDITIONS TO SHIFT HISTORIES
What has happened in Minnesota these last months did not just spring forward out of nothing. It emerged as it did because of what so many people have been doing these last five years, twenty years, and over generations. In the same way, the violence of the present moment did not come out of nowhere. Many people in our communities can tell story after story of targeted violence and then the violence that their parents and grandparents and the generations before experienced. It matters deeply that the Whipple Building is at Fort Snelling which was where Dakota people were forced into camps before being expelled from their homeland. It matters deeply that the Proud Boys and other white supremacist and Christian nationalist groups have found home in ICE patrol, just as they did with the Red Shirts, the KKK, the Christian Identity Church and more. There is a cycle of violence that this is part of. Creating the conditions is different from building specific strategy. This is about doing the work to support strategy to emerge when strategy is clear and necessary.
IF YOU CAN: take a moment to remember and record what these last months have been like. Don’t worry about making sense or speaking in complete sentences. Just unload. Imagine what you have learned that might be useful to someone in another city going through this. Imagine what you would like your children or grandchildren to know about this time. Name the horrors and exhaustion that time is likely to soften. Name as much of them as you can while you are still in them. Connect with others who have been through this with you and/or who are really good listeners. Storytelling is one of the oldest healing modalities that exists. Storytelling is about being witnessed without judgement and only with love. Listen and learn from what you hear as well as what you share. Make time for this: organize a neighborhood storytelling or storylistening circle. Let the stories come through without editing them, without trying to build a case for something. BE the life you have lived, a life that is reflecting on the last few months or longer of its aliveness. Do not judge what you hear. Listen with full and open heart. Notice places for later conversations, if there are any. Notice tactics and strategies that rise without needing to immediately act on them. Be a collective body of stories and practices and strategies that are to be known and to be shared.
Schedule a time to check back in with your pod/n’hood/groups. If there is a change in intensity, even if right now you could never imagine it, many folks will start to peel off. For a whole chunk of people, “normal” life will reassert itself, not because they want it to but because the details of life will rise and suddenly three months have passed and you are not sure how they did. This will vary neighborhood by neighborhood. Some of you reading this can’t imagine not remembering because this is about the people living right next door to you. Others live in neighborhoods where it might be a bit further off. Schedule time - monthly or weekly or something - that is regular with the people you have been building with over these last months. Come together to continue to tell stories, to continue to deepen relationship, and to sit with these questions:
What are the pieces from the last few months that we can carry forward?
How would we do them differently if we had time to reflect and repair?
Who supports us to be in this work of caring for our neighbors for the long term and not just as a response to crisis? What pieces do we have to set down and what pieces can carry forward?
Extend. What happened in Minnesota is not new, even though for some of us it was a first time. Are you someone who didn’t show up in 2020 after George Floyd was murdered in the same way you showed up in 2026? Do you understand the connections between these times, the reason why so many of us connect abolish ICE with defund the police? Most of those who were teaching and leading over these last months in this very emergent moment are people who were deeply involved in 2020, knowing that a militarized state takes many forms and has been here with us for over 500 years. Is this a truth you hold or do these moments feel like two different things? If it is the latter, please take a moment just to listen to others talk about why they are connected. Think about what you have witnessed these last few months on our streets. And then also, without letting go of the hyperlocal truth of this moment, extend your awareness and solidarity, noticing what is happening in other places and to other people and with other communities. As well as expanding your learning, how do we keep expanding the love and neighborliness we feel so that it can grow and grow and grow again. Palestine. Iran. Sudan. Los Angeles. Memphis. Shootings in Canada and Rhode Island. Extend in the present moment and then, if this feels good to you, extend into history. If you are not already grounded in how histories of state action and inaction have created this moment, expand just a bit more. Be curious, a word that shares the same root as cure and care.
Continue expanding your risk to move from a protected individual life to one that is collectively and community-connected. Build on what has already been done and then extend. What other conditions of your life can become interconnected rather than separate? Create a childcare collective if you have small ones. Create a supper club where you form a pod of neighborhood folks and take turns cooking for each other. Create a community service pod where once a month you go out and just do good things for your neighborhood: pick up trash, do house projects on those who don’t have the capacity to do it themselves, organize a neighborhood concert or dance party. Organize a group of friends to go and visit and love up those living in institutions. Organize a group of kin to support and be a part of honoring our unhoused neighbors. In Minnesota, there is strong often indigenous-led work that honors and supports those whose livelihoods continue to be targeted by the cities. If you are someone who has things like retirement accounts and investments, find out if part of your investments are paying for the very systems you have been fighting against these last months and then make changes.
Vision forward. If you are visioning from a place that means you can feel the brain in your head straining to understand what should happen next, then pull back. If that is happening, then the next steps are not ready. Go back to storytelling and listening and supporting your neighbors. If possibilities are bubbling up but you are exhausted, then write down what needs to be remembered but then slow down. Rest. Repair. Sustain. If possibilities are bubbling up and they fill you with life and energy and a sense of possibility, then dance.
The work that happened in Minnesota these last months, whether you call it that or not, is part of the framework of abolition. Meaning, it is a moment where people turned towards each other to provide care and protection rather than an impersonal system such as the state. This is what, as neighbors, we did automatically. Notice that. We did this. We protected each other, we cared for each other, and we just did it. We rose as a single body with many roots and we moved. How does this knowing, this experience carry forward?
Here are some examples of what this might look like:
Take this energy and transform it into general eviction defense: how do we work to keep our neighbors in their homes for the many reasons why people are evicted unfairly? There are organizations and projects emerging that support the rights of renters to have safe and sustainable housing.
If you have been working with the patrol and safety teams that have developed then ask, how does this work translate into life when ICE is not in our neighborhood? How do we protect our neighbors from the systems that have always been here and have always targeted Black and Brown and immigrant and refugee and trans folks, with folks dealing with or perceived to be dealing with mental health struggles or substance use or the many other times when strangers from outside seek to control what happens to our neighbors. How could a group of loving connected neighbors intervene on domestic violence that might be happening on your block, a fight between two people that is not violent but loud? How do we deepen our capacity to turn towards each other rather than the police? Once the police are called in to a situation, there is a greater likelihood that things are going to escalate. If you need the studies that prove that, just google it. How do we prevent the escalation of conflict and pain in a way that is relational and caring, just as we have done these past months?
As SNAP benefits disappear and as food becomes more expensive due to tariffs and struggling farmers and overall impact on the food industry, how are you continuing to feed each other? Ask your neighbors what food they want and create a food shelf block by block or just buy your neighbors the food they need but can’t afford. Have weekly neighborhood meals. When I first moved to Minneapolis, Powderhorn still had an annual community picnic. Tables were erected all around the park building and people brought food to share. So many people. We can do this again.
If you have a group of nonparents who have been supporting your school through patrol, can you sit down with them and talk about how they can continue to be supporting the school and the families attending those schools? Schools have become the places that hold all of the programs and care strategies that have been cut from other places and they are overwhelmed, even as they are powerful. What does it look like for local folks to be committed to the children in their neighborhoods, to support the school for the long term? Have this be a conversation with school folks, parents and nonparents - the exact grouping that have been doing patrol - and listen together for what might be possible.
If you are someone who has been doing work in and outside of healthcare, extending beyond the bounds of your licensing to ensure that those who have been forced to stay in their houses receive care, rather than going back to how things were structured before, sit together and notice what can be maintained and what it means to be sustainable for the long term. I know that so many are already doing this and were doing this before December, this is just a thumbs up and validation.
Make a commitment as a neighborhood block to continue learning skills: deescalation, mental health first aid, legal observation outside of ICE activities, basic first aid, and so on. There are so many organizations in the Twin Cities who teach this kind of skill building. One of the organizations I am part of - REP - is one of them. There are many others.
Are you someone who has access to structural power such as at a foundation or a large scale nonprofit who maybe didn’t show up fully over these last few months? Have you watched these workspaces get muddy about issues of diversity, inclusion and justice? Can you use the truth of these last few months to organize key stakeholders to push forward a commitment to supporting our neighbors, all of our neighbors, in ways that are deep and committed for the long term? As Ricardo Levins Morales teaches, the soil has changed. Can you plant some different seeds in the spaces you have access to and/or some amount of power within? This is already happening but what does it mean to extend it?
Practice every single day what it is to be in community with real people who might or might not be fully aligned with you. Be honest with each other. Where are the places where it’s hard to stay connected because of what someone believes? How do you practice holding the truth of what you believe and know while also recognizing the truth that someone else holds, not in a passive way but in a way that is about committing to long term relationship. In the week right after Alex Pretti was murdered, I was talking to someone deep in the organizing of rapid response on the South side. I said something like this to him: well, we have to be careful of those who are infiltrating Signal threads. He stopped me and asked, what do you mean by that? He said, if they are our neighbors, it doesn’t matter what they believe. We are still here to learn how to care for and with them. If they are not our neighbors, even if they are politically aligned with us, then it is their responsibility to support us and to follow the direction of those who live in the neighborhood. He said again, if they are our neighbor and they are getting on the Signal thread and posting things that make it difficult for us to plan, then we deal with that. But we deal with them as a neighbor. In the oldest meaning of the word, “neighbor” means something similar to “all our relations.” It means those who are alive together.
Remember that the energy of protecting our neighbors is the same energy as protecting this land that is our life. We are in a moment where the federal government is trying to force mining in the boundary waters, threatening the land’s balance including potentially devastating manoomin, wild rice fields. How does our care and protection of those close to us extend to feeling a sense of connection and then protection to the greater web that makes our lives possible at all?
Refuse to stop caring and protecting our neighbors, our kin, this land that is our home. Commit to spend the rest of your life supporting those closest to you and yourself to continue deepening our capacity to do that. Make that concrete. Sit down with your neighbors, the ones you have been in this with, and be concrete: for the next 1, 3, 5 years, the next ten years, I will stay in this with you, even when it is hard. I will stay. We will stay. We will keep practicing. Take one step at a time. Struggle. Love. Rest. Take one step at a time. Despair. Grieve. Rage. Celebrate. Be real people in real time.
***
I talked to twelve different people and heard from so many more. We have all been listening to each other, being impacted by what is around us. Every person I spoke with was clear that this moment can become something even more than it already is; something that grows quietly and loudly, displacing the tired old empire that is using every violent manipulative trick in its book to try and remain. I keep thinking of the mycelial network, this complex matrix of communication and love that connects each growing being one to the other. When the network is injured, it pauses. Compartmentalizes the one who is wounded and then repairs, regrows, remembers. When the wounded one feels ready, it is woven back into the web, every other element making space for it again.
This is what we are doing. We are repairing, regrowing and remembering. Some of us are vibrating connection, one to the other, while others are pausing to build again. What I love the most about this image is that as long as we are each committed to being alive and connected, we are never completely aware of how much is here. We are both action and potential, resting and reaching, remembering and becoming new all over again. Rest. Stay. Real people in real time.
May this be the way that we honor the lives of all of those who have died protecting that which was vulnerable and under attack. May this be the way that we honor the lives of those who have cared in impossible times, loved when it felt dangerous to do so, and never forgotten that we are all connected, to each other and the land that is our life.
Thank you to those who were part of putting this together. This is the product of a collective group of minds, hearts, spirits and experiences. With the deepest of gratitude for the years of practice that led to this moment, the way you have showed up and the ferocity and passion you bring to what comes next.
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