An Update On Living Under A State-Sanctioned Reign of Terror
Hello,
You likely don't know this about me but I live in Minnesota, a state in the United States in roughly the middle-north part of the country, sharing a border with Canada. I have lived here for twenty-five years, since I was a young girl. I grew up here, I went to college here, and I plan to call Minnesota home for all of my days.
Unfortunately, Minnesota is currently being invaded by a federal agency, ICE, that's been murdering people in the streets and disappearing people without even checking IDs, pointing their guns at literally anyone including children, tear-gassing and deploying chemical weapons against peacefully assembled people and residents trying to get home, weapons which have put infants and toddlers in the hospital, all under false pretenses - and I gotta say, it's putting a pretty big damper on this whole smut writing escapism routine of mine. Worse, American leaders have promised ICE officers total immunity to terrorize my home, a promise that no matter what criminal indiscretion they commit while here, they will never be held accountable for it.
The past few days when I've sat down to write in the evening, I find I just close my laptop ten minutes later as I wonder what the point even is anymore. A heavy dread weighs down my skeleton and whatever buoyancy I once had has left me.
I wish it wasn't so. I wish I could keep on keeping on even as I live through Unprecedented Times once again.
I'll still try to write. I've been doing it so long to escape the parts of my life that are unbearable that I know I need to keep doing it. It's the only real healthy coping mechanism I have and if anything, I'm grateful I've spent so much of my life cultivating it so that I could have it right now, when I need it the most.
That said, I can't really promise anyone will end up seeing it for a while. A lot of what I've written over the past week or so is so far below my own personal standards, I don't really even recognize myself in it. That's hard, honestly. Even if it's just fanfiction, I take writing very seriously, and I've always used writing as a way to better myself, to try new things and genuinely cultivate my craft. That might sound a little ridiculous and self-important, but it's part of how I cope with being an insufferable perfectionist by nature in a way that isn't so self-destructive.
If you are in the United States and want to show solidarity with the state of Minnesota and other places in the country currently under siege by the federal government, our local community organizers are arranging a strike for January 23rd. We want justice for the crimes ICE has committed; for the people they have murdered and maimed, and the lives they have disrupted and destroyed. This is only the beginning.
If tyranny exists for any reason at all, it exists to be resisted.
Fuck ICE & Fuck 47
Minnesota appears to be in gear for a mass uprising. Unions, community organizations, faith leaders, and small businesses there are calling
A directory of places to give to as Minnesota defends itself from ICE occupation
