Our great country is slipping into a fog of confusion…and anger. Innocent US citizens are being killed in the streets by men who call themselves United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, ICE agents for short. These ICE agents are told they are enforcers of the law. These ICE agents are told they can enter a home without a search warrant signed by a judge. These ICE agents wear masks to hide their identities.
These cowardly agents slam US Citizens to the ground and beat them up. Agents of chaos and violence, they drag Americans off to a van, throw them in, and drive away subscribing to the motto, “Inflict cruelty, ask questions later.”
Neither Alex Pretti nor Renee Good can ask questions later, as they are dead! Helpless! US Citizens! Murdered on camera, by ICE agents we, the people, pay for. Pretti was an ICU nurse at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Minneapolis. His parents begged the reporters to tell the truth about Pretti’s character, his nature, after lies were circulated by ICE and government officials, Kristi Noem, calling Pretti an assassin. Mr. and Mrs. Pretti explained that their son, Alex, was a kind and gentle man. Tell everyone this. He was kind and good—not an assassin. Renee Good had three children and was a legal observer. She was unarmed, saying, “We mean no harm.” She received three shots to the head in front of her wife.
A Hmong man was dragged away from his home in his underwear in frigid temperatures: a US Citizen, Chongly Scott Thao. A young child, Liam Conejo Ramos, just four years old, was used as bait to lure his father into ICE custody, and then young Ramos was held in captivity in Texas [Minnesota was his home.] Children are being detained in churches and schools and arrested by ICE! Just children!
Meanwhile, the January 6 rioters who fought police, threatening Pence and Pelosi with death, crashing the doors of Congress were all pardoned—even the Trump rioter that killed a policeman that day. Court ordered files on the child predator, Jeffrey Epstein, are suppressed; powerful people’s names censored. DOGE workers escorted career staff out the door, firing the staff en masse. Three routine vaccines for children are being stopped nationwide based on false information. All health organizations are under siege from inept and incompetent management appointed by Donald Trump. Grant requests for medical and scientific research sit in limbo. America stages a coup in Venezuela. Our President will run the country. We need their oil. Greenland is threatened with US military intervention. America needs their precious metals and minerals. Perceived political threats are met with indictments, grand juries, and concocted nonsense, including Jerome Powell, President Biden, Jack Smith, and many more.
My heart is breaking.
I’ve stopped writing my US Senators and Representatives, not because I am afraid (I’m not). I participated in the “No Kings” rally which was sadly, ineffective. Congress is stymied too as the fog thickens. I’m searching for answers as to what I can do, what citizens can do, what politicians can do, and more.
Writers are invited to submit work for Grey Sparrow Journal’s summer 2026 issue, which will be published prior to the 2026 US November elections. Please focus writing on solutions to affect constructive and legal change.
Please stand strong in the midst of this random, violent country I still call home, yet barely recognize.
Grey Sparrow Journal 