this house is my name like an elegy

Alex Pretti, who was an RN, a helper, and a legal observer, was executed by the state yesterday afternoon.

I fully believe this death was in retaliation for the successful Twin Cities wide general strike, the clergy sit-in at the airport, and the of thousands who flooded the streets on Friday. Yes, Alex owned a gun and was carrying it, but that is his right as guarunteed by the second amendment to the Constitution of the United States (usually my least favorite given how often it is perverted by the opposition.) But, he was not threatening anyone as the video evidence clearly shows. Believe your eyes, not the lies. This is actually why they hate us so much. Everyone comes with their phones charged and video on. Our very own Greg Ketter of Dreamhaven Books and Comics was on the scene: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/minnesota-man-curses-out-ice-agents-at-scene-of-fatal-shooting-tktktk-fuck-you-tktkt_n_697506d2e4b0dcc40307a358 and has a few choice words for the ICE agents.

I got the news of Alex's murder on Saturday during a bio-break in my D&D game.  Ironically, we were just starting to try to get back to a kind of normal.  We were able to play a bit, but the second half turned into leveling up characters and planning next sessions. Everyone's ability to play pretend was just sort of unwound. 

The neighborhood that Alex Pretti was murdered in is called Whittier and is named after Quaker poet and abolishonist, John Greenleaf Whittier. The local Friends groups sent out a call to ask people to not gather en masse (there was concern, of course, that this second murder was an attempt to incite a riot so that the Trump Administration could invoke the Sedition Act,) but to instead stand in small neighborhood groups, light a candle and sing. For those who could not get out, they asked that people put candles outside or in a window. 

I had already seen on a Signal group that a bunch of my singers were planning to gather at Snelling & Minnehaha, near Ginko's Coffeeshop. So Mason and I headed over there to sing with people and hold up a light in the darkness. We had a big group. We sang a lot of excellent songs that helped soothe the soul. A couple of assholes (possibly ICE) revved their engines threateningly at us and flipped us off as they drove by, but we just raised our voices to drown them out. 

It was an awful day, but our gathering was peaceful and beautiful. Collin from the Food Communists was there with his wife, and two of my D&D players, Shawn and Carillon, came as well.

I missed telling you all about Friday.  I did tell you what I was planning to do, and that was pretty much how it went. We have a guest (Mason's partner) and my toes were frost-nipped several years ago while waiting for a tow-truck after an accident on one of these horribly cold days. I was in my super butch phase and had cool looking footwear that wasn't actually very climate resistant. I know, I know. I have since learned my lesson! But, because my toes will start feeling like they are on fire after a couple of hours in this kind of weather, so I decided to just focus on protecting the mosque during Friday prayers since that is something that is very drop in/drop out.

I needed to go anyway to the mosque because I have a couple of neighbors who needed introductions into the rebellion, so we drove over together (it was -11 F/-24 C). I found someone who was part of the Rapid Response team and so my neighbors got connected to the right groups. It was cold enough that we had planned on just having Constitutional Observers at the doors. We were introduced to the imam, imam Hussein, who was so incredibly generous. The folks there always thank us, which... as a Minnesotan I want to demur, but I've been learning to just accept. Someone in the community put down $60 at the little deli in the food mall that's attached to the mosque so that folks could have free tea and sambusa.  My friends who had come for introductions were on street detail (in my car) watching for ICE and so I brought them out a couple of sambusa. They couldn't believe the generosity and I jokingly said to them, "I bet you didn't know that the revolution has perks."

There's been a lot of Star Wars imagery going around and I kind now want someone to make some art about how we all used to say "Come to the Dark Side, we have cookies," and we could now say, "Join the Rebellion, we have sambusa!" (This is not localized. There are a lot of Somali folks who have been handing out sambusa to protectors and protesters.)

The usual mosque group were told to stay away or go to downtown because of the cold, but by 2:00 pm a decent-sized crowd joined and so I went home, honking and waving at all the people taking the lightrail to the big rally. 

While we were still quite small someone snapped a picture for us to post on Facebook. (Only people who agreed to be photographed are in this picture!)


Our small group outside of the mosque. I am in the back row second from the left (before the bright yellow hat.)

Not as impressive as the downtown rally, but everyone is doing their part. 

Including the drag queens (see below):



Image: a fabulous laser-eyed loon advertising for a drag show and dance party for the revolution.

I just love the community that is happening around these things, too. I met several neighbors and discovered one of them was a longtime roommate with my college friend, Nick. Several others were part of the Twin Cities Geek group. We talked about the resistance and D&D and crafting while sipping tea and waving at passing cars (only a couple of which flipped us off and one, likely an ICE agent filmed our faces.)  

There was another lovely moment when the imam was reminding us to go eat sambusa when one of his congregation really, really wanted to explain halal to us and the imam gently put out his hand and said, "Brother, these people understand us. They know halal." And.... I could have cried honestly? It's so nice to see the love going in both directions. 


Okay, y'all go be Pretti Good.

 
Your laser-eye loon art for the day is a faux Antifa Regimental Badge for the Northern Defenders, Loon Liberator Brigade.(warning: this may be AI generated. I never saw an artist attribution.) 

It is such a shame that antifa is actually just a bunch of collective action groups because I would sign up for this brigade just for the gear!  (Well, and the paycheck if that were real.)

So, yesterday in the Defendre le Nord regiment, I did a bunch of stuff that felt a little bit like nothing, but which is probably 100% mission critical. I have a friend who is acting as a drop-off point for folks who are donating things from out of state and I went over to their house yesterday to help them open packages, sort, and get stuff ready for delivery. Then, we drove together over to their contact's house and unloaded everything for distribution. 
 
As we unloaded the last box, I asked the contact if there was specific immigrant owned/operated restaurant nearby that they knew was struggling and needed a couple of customers. Having gotten that info, we drove over and had lunch.

I should explain to folks from out of town what it is like to go into a Mexican restaurant right now. You don't just walk in. There's someone standing guard inside over a locked door, they unlock it long enough for you to slip in, and then they lock it up tight again. Somewhere on the door is posted a 4th amendment statement that says something to the effect that this business does not give permission for any search and seizure operations, including but not limited to the seizing of persons. 

The atmosphere was a bit grim, but the food was amazing and I double-tipped the folks working there because holy shit none of this should be happening.  They fucking kidnapped another child, y'all. None of this is right? But, that's fucking cruel beyond measure. (Not that that's news to them. They have no problem roughing up grandfathers either.)

I had hoped to join my singers again last night, but they have a tendency to gather exactly when I am making or eating dinner, so tonight I will have to try again. I just saw on Facebook that my mutual aid group, the Food Communists, are in desperate need for hands, so after I drop Mason off at his haircut (his partner is coming to town tomorrow!) I'm headed over there to help out for a couple of hours. 

K. Also have to clean the house ocassionally, so I am off. Yesterday's dinner was knuefle soup, today's lunch: egg salad on an everything bun with cottage cheese!  Fueling the revolution one meal at time!

Stay strong!

P.S. Vance is visiting us today, apparently. Wish us luck. They'll probably try to plant some aggitators to get violent. 

 
Your daily laser-eyed loon, this one facing forward, determined, shooting its lasers to say "Melt Ice." (by Rin Mix)

Yesterday, as noted it was one of our colder days. It was also Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, so Shawn had the day off work. I decided to limit my activities, though I did sign up to a Discord group which is organizing around doing laundry for people who have now been stuck indoors for so long trying to wait out the gestapo occupation. 

One of the things I decided to do, however, was go singing. Our hyper-local singing group decided that due to the temperature, people would start inside a coffee shop. Our organizer made sure it was okay for us to sing a little bit indoors, but since people in the Twin Cities often gather at coffee shops to do work, we kept our indoor songs to a minimum. We then braved the outdoors for a couple of rounds of various songs, including this incredible re-working of Pete Seeger's "Which Side Are You On?"

The chorous remains the same, but the verses now read:

Come all you good people
Some news to you I'll tell
Of how your loving neighbors 
Have come to give ICE hell

Chorus:
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?

Another neighbor killed today
Oh when will this all cease?
Another mother dead, my friends
Murdered by police.

[chorus]

My mother was a feminst
And she taught me how to see
The road to ruin is paved with gold
by the patriarchy

[chorus]

So let the North Star* guide us
Back towards democracy
Reject the threats of fascists
Or we can not be free

[chorus]

Oh, neighbors, can you feel it?
Oh, tell me that you can.
Will you stay silent?
Or will you take a stand?

[chorus x2]

I found this version to be incredibly powerful and while we were standing outside the coffee shop on Snelling Avenue singing our hearts out, a car at the stoplight opened its doors. I turned, expecting the worst, but it was a beat-up Toyota and probably the window crank didn't work and so the people inside were trying to hear what we were singing/saying. They were a couple of Lantinx guys and hearing what we were singing brought HUGE SMILES to their faces. When they noticed us noticing them they gave us big thumbs up, smiles, and waves.

That reminded me that even small acts are sustaining... to the fighters and those we fight for. 

I also ran into a friend of a friend who also lives in Midway, so it was really nice to actually see a familiar face while out and about. 

I was also happy to see that the New York Times finally had a big article about the mutual aid efforts in today's paper.They focused exculsively on the food donattions, and again, I wish that people could see the whole huge variety of things people are doing--the scope of which is truly staggering. However, it's a good article and if you are local (or are interested in what I'm talking about), naomikritzer did a lovely round-up of ways to get involved on her blog: https://naomikritzer.com/2026/01/19/how-to-help-twin-cities-residents/  She has promised to work on a similar list for folks from out-of-town/national/international who want to help as well. I'll post that here once she writes it.

All right, comrades. Stay warm! Stay strong!


===

For those of you who might not know, the Minnesota state motto is E'toile du Nord (in French) which translates as The Star of the North. If you see protestors shouting that phrase, they are not Canadian (or French) agitators, but folks who have decided that being the star of the north means that we are leading the country in how to defend democracy. 

 
A sled in the shape of a jug of windshield de-icer with ICE out of MN on it with a laser loon! (photo credit, Naomi Kritzer).

...I should probably try to remember to post more often, least you all think that something dire has happened to me. 

I think when I last checked in MONARCA was still up in operation and I was responding as a legal/constitutional observer. Well, as you may have gathered from the news things have gotten more chaotic here and so MONARCA was overwhelmed and is no longer functioning as a coordinated way to send people to active abductions by ICE. 

Thus, since none of the calls I responded to were anything more than ten minutes too late or false alarms, I have switched to mutual aid work. (Activists are being careful not to sully the waters if you will since ICE is also keeping tabs on the watchers. So we don't want anyone who has been actively protesting or observing to be delivering groceries to people sheltering in place/hiding out from the gestapo, lest we lead the bad guys right to their doors.) I've found a local organization that was already in the business of giving out free food, a group that I lovingly called the Food Communists, who have pivoted their efforts towards feeding people who are sheltering in place/hiding from the gestapo.

They basically have open doors for folks to drop by and help when and how they can and that's been really good for me because it means that if I start to feel anxious about the police state at any point during the day I can wander down the street and see if there something I can do to aid the resistance. So far, it's been organizing doubled-up grocery bags and breaking down cardboard, but I think that all of us in this fight (and there are a lot of us) feel like all effort is good effort if it's  helping our comrades and neighbors. 

I have also been showing up to the various protests around the city.

There is a group of Midway neighbors who have organized a daily protection/protest gathering in front of our local Somali mosque so that we can defend people while they are vulnerable and in prayer. I joined them the other day while the temperatures plummeted and the wind whipped around our faces. But, it was so warming to the soul when the imam came out and thanked us all for being there and we waved to everyone heading out from safely prayers. 

I'm in a Signal group for people who are gathering every day on a different street corner to sing songs of love, resistance, and hope. I've only been able to make one of their gatherings, but it was lovely to sing and be in community. 

Mason and I joined the student walk out at the Saint Paul capitol a few days ago and it was nice to see all the youths being just as fierce as their more grown-up counterparts. 

And then yesterday, I met naomikritzer at Powderhorn Park and we watched a bunch of folks crash their art sleds. 


Image: Naomi (left) and me (right) out at the art sled rally. Very bundled up. There was a high of 12 F/-11 C yesterday.

Because Minnesota is like that.

And if there is one thing that I could impart to my out of state and international friends it's that, yes, everything you see on the news is 100% happening, and also? We are sledding.

Mostly, what you see on the news makes it look like the streets are full of tear gas and, yes, it's true, ICE agents are deploying tear gas, rubber bullets, real bullets, flash grenades, and smoke bombs, but people are also still going to work and walking their dogs and singing. A lot of us are doing anything we can. People are carrying whistles and charging our phones every night to get all the film possible of the atrocities we are facing at the hands of masked, domestic terrorists who are abducting people without due process. We are standing guard over daycares and mosques and restaurants and sex shops and toy stores. (Because our sex shops have become food distribution centers and our Toy Shops have been giving away free whistles.) We are showing up and baking cookies for people on patrol. We are sweeping up after the people packing bags for people too afraid to leave their houses. We are taking to the streets with signs, sometimes all alone, but we are showing our neighbors, our immigrant and refugee families, that we want them, we love them, and we will not let them be taken without a fight.

This is what resistance looks like and it is awful, but it also hopeful and kind and loving, and, yes, even sometimes we make time for fun.