Fuck Ice

**Not even a week has gone by since I finished my first draft of this post, and there has been another murder by ICE. An outright execution of an ICU nurse, Alex Pretti, who spent his last moments helping someone in need and fighting for a future that he will never see. When will it end?

I know, that’s not quite the polite opening to have after being silent on my blog for so long. To be honest, I have just gotten so caught up in the chaos of the everyday, and, sadly, my blogging task in my long list of to-dos often falls off that ever-growing list. 

Thankfully, for this blog and for the few readers I do still have, I also get these, I don’t know exactly what to call them, these cycles of extreme ants-in-my-pants. I feel like I have so many things to do, and one of those things is to get back to my blogging. And the first thing that I’m going to do is to say exactly where I stand with the masked thuggery that is currently overtaking our country.

Her tragic murder was inescapable this week. I felt visceral anger, fear, and disgust at her execution. The agent who murdered her was so clearly just venting his anger as shown by the very phone video footage he released that he thought would exonerate him.

I get so angry and then fearful thinking about how quickly our country has enabled a secret police state to set up with zero pushback from the Democrats. They need to shout loudly and constantly that we need to defund ICE. It’s not a matter of better training. They are an armed secret police force targeted directly at Democratic cities. ICE now equals secret police for the current administration. It is not about customs enforcement. It is about terrorizing the opposition.

I know this terror well, because I have recently read about increased ICE presence in the area next to me: Burlington. I am scared, and I have nightmares of ICE kidnapping my immigrant mother. I can’t believe that I am writing about being scared in the US. What is this country? I don’t recognize it anymore.

Every day that I open up my news sites (and that is, of course, part of the terror problem), I see increasing violence being perpetrated upon the people of Minneapolis by the Trump administration. And the violence is being perpetrated on the people of Minnesota, not the state. It is deliberate. It is terrorism.

I need to make my voice heard. This is where I stand. I stand for immigrants; they make our country vibrant, dynamic, everything that makes the American dream something to strive for. My voice stands behind the brave individuals like Renee Nicole Good and her partner, Becca Good, who stood behind their values armed only with phones and whistles as they faced guns and bullets. My voice stands behind Alex Pretti, who served our nation’s veterans and made himself a helper in the most dire of situations. 

My voice stands behind all of the immigrants who bring their vibrant lives to the US and make our country better, stronger.

I was afraid to write this blog, but I still, for now, live in a free country. We purport to be a country that allows, even worships, free speech. Because that is still the case, join me in shouting against fascism, racism, and police states. 

Say it all together now: Fuck ICE!