Minnesota Strong

 

2025 and 2026 have been truly horrifying thus far. I don't even know where to begin. I am aware that people around the country don't actually know what it has been like here in the past year.

Our local school children had another school shooting in which several of my clinic's patients were injured or killed, and those who were not were absolutely traumatized.  Gun violence is the number 1 cause of death in children. Let that sink in for a second. The top reason for a child to die in this country is being shot. How many dead children will it take before we do something about it?  

Operation Metro Surge sent masked government agents in the thousands into our peaceful communities and attacked our neighbors, friends, and colleagues, especially black and brown people. They attacked and detained innocent people. They killed people. They separated families. They put children in concentration camps. They attacked, detained, and even killed bystanders and observers. They terrorized our communities. They said they were coming for the "worst of the worst". They lied. And lied again and again and again. They even lied when we could see with our own eyes that what they were telling us is not true. 

Arresting the "worst of the worst", huh? That's what they keep claiming. That is not what is happening. A very small percentage of detainees have any criminal charges or convictions. They are detaining men, women, and children who have every right to be treated as innocent until proven guilty. They are not giving due process either. They are denying detainees access to the courts to have their cases heard.  ICE picked up people at the courthouse attending their court hearings, going through the legal process to be here.  They were doing exactly what they were supposed to and they were still sent away to concentration camps and deported.  

Agents were picking up parents at the school bus stop in front of their children. Agents went to schools and took teachers and students from school in handcuffs. Minneapolis schools literally had to shut down for a while to protect school children from our own government.  Let that sink in for a second. We had to protect children from their own government attacking them. Black and brown people, whether citizens or not, were terrified to leave their homes.  Several constitutional rights were being violated constantly.  People were being tear gassed, beaten, handcuffed, detained, and even shot and killed for peacefully observing and recording the violence inflicted on our communities, as is their constitutional right. 

These are just a few stories. The onslaught of these horrifying abuses have been constant.

My town literally had drones circling apartment complexes 24/7. American citizens were surrounded by men with guns drawn at a gas station while out running errands. Children lost their parents when they were detained and then disappeared in the system. Peaceful observers were tracked, harassed, intimidated, attacked, detained, and even killed. This is what we have dealt with for months on end.  And we have less than 1% of the nation's immigrants here in Minnesota. This is not about our immigrants, this is a politically motivated attack because Trump doesn't like our governor. 

I have been distressed by the callous disregard for human beings and the constant unrelenting violence and violations of human rights.  I felt and continue to feel very helpless in the face of so much suffering. I understand how things can get so out of hand that the holocaust and the horrors of Nazi Germany happened. Even good people are doing the best we can go stop it, but there is truly more evil in the world than I knew. 

I was literally strategizing how to hide people at risk in my basement. Anne Frank was hiding in an attic because of violence like this. 

I am so proud of my fellow Minnesotans. Hundreds of thousands of people protested, not once, but again and again and again. We stood up for our neighbors. 

I joined a network of moms delivering groceries and household necessities to families sheltering in their homes. (And yes, we had insane security measures like mentioned above to keep our online chats private and keep the people's information safe.)  I also worked with a network of physicians to support health care needs in the community, especially as people were sheltering from the violence and not able to access needed care.  

I am so inspired those in our community making a difference and standing up for others. It felt better to actually be able to do something to help, but I think it has been the most stressful years of my life watching the horror unfold around me. 

Whether you think immigration is a problem or not, none of this is OK. None of it. This is not how human beings should be treated. Ever. 

Meanwhile, in my work life, my patients and their families are affected by all that is going on as well.  To add to all the violence, chaos, disruption, and trauma these children have experienced, we also have had to constantly combat the shit storm of medical and health misinformation being put out by our federal government, under the "leadership" of the #1 source of misinformation during the pandemic, Donald Trump, and the most anti-science, anti-vaccine, anti-public health, under-qualified, misinformation-spouting asshole ever, Robert F Kennedy Jr.  They have completely gutted our public health systems. They have driven out actual scientists and replaced them with political appointees. There is a massive brain drain as our country's scientists go overseas.  The politicians have pulled down systems of information that inform medical care throughout the country.  The CDC and FDA have been gutted. They have slashed health surveillance systems like those that monitor infectious diseases, food borne illness, and health threats. They have fired the qualified and highly vetted scientists on the ACIP (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) and have replaced them with antivax idiots who have no idea what they're doing and have no competence to make recommendations. They have changed the recommended vaccine schedules without a shred of support of data in favor of making those changes, and against decades of solid research from all over the world to support the previous recommendations. They have sowed enormous amounts of unnecessary fear and doubt regarding proven medical interventions, like vaccines and Vitamin K for newborns, that save lives.  They have led the charge on the death of expertise, such that people think anyone with a TikTok account is qualified to give them medical information and the unregulated ~$200 billion supplement industry is more trustworthy than the medical systems that have had to prove every single thing with rigorous research to get approved for use and have to continuously monitor for safety and efficacy. 

So what do we get for all this?  We have declining vaccine rates, giant measles outbreaks, babies bleeding into their brains, food borne illness going unchecked and ravaging our food supply, including contaminated infant formulas and fresh produce. And what is the government doing? Making everything worse. 

Oh, and not to mention that they stumbled on a positive goal of improving our chronic illness rates and our country's nutrition, only to go about it completely the wrong way. They have gone after food dyes, which will do nothing to make the ultraprocessed foods they are in any more healthy and less processed.  They have slashed SNAP (supplemental nutrition programs), kicked people off of medical insurance, and made it harder for people to actually do the things that would improve their health.  They changed the food pyramid to reflect their corporate sponsors (the meat and dairy industries). They decimated all of our preventative health programs to keep people healthy. Oh, and they cut environmental controls on water and food sources, promoted and allowed things proven to be harmful to health, and generally made policies that have done nothing but worsen the health of our nation.  Absolute epic failure!  

And I go to work every day and have to talk a worried family down from the latest bullshit being legitimized by our government.  Fun times!

I am so f'ing exhausted and frustrated and angry.  And sad. Very very sad. 

Ribbon in memory of Alex Pretti, RN

Rebel loon in support of Minnesotans standing up for each other. 

I pray we can repair the remarkable damage that has been done to our country and our people. I pray that our leadership can find a way to see every person as a human deserving dignity and human rights.  Someday, I will be able to look back on these times and know that I did my best to love my neighbor, even when it is tough and downright dangerous to do so. 

 

So I just do the best I can and take the next step in front of me...

Or as Dory says, "Just keep swimming!"

Because sadly, this isn't even all of it. There is also an unjust and unnecessary war killing people, the economy in the toilet while DJT and his family and buddies rake in literally billions of dollars in the most corrupt government I've ever seen, and still no prosecution of the pedophiles and rapists who abused children and got away with it.  We have hungry children in America, but we can spend a billion dollars a day bombing the shit out of Iran and more liningTrump's pockets while we "don't have the money" for food, health care, and things the American people actually care about and need. 

I can't believe this insane time we are living through. Just when you think it so absurdly horrible that it can't get worse, it does.  I'm hanging on for dear life and hoping for better days.

Next, I will get back to what my kids and my family have been up to otherwise, but I felt like this couldn't go unaddressed in the story of our lives.