What to do now
"When you can see no future, all you can do is the next right thing."
Many dark and terrible things have happened since I last wrote to you, headlined by the brutal murder of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti, whom seven masked agents subdued and beat after he stood between them and a female observer they had thrown to the ground.
Seeing that he was in possession of a firearm — which he carried legally in a holster and did not reach for — they took his gun, shot him four times in the back, and then unloaded six more shots into his motionless body.
As they did with Renee Good, the President, Kristi Noem, and Stephen Miller immediately called Pretti a domestic terrorist, lied to the public about what he was doing even though videos showed otherwise, and barred state and local law enforcement from the scene — saying they would lead the investigation int themselves.
Ten years and one day after the now-President declared, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters,” it turns out that the only inaccuracy was that it was Nicollet Avenue.
This incident has earned Greg Bovino a long overdue demotion, but Pretti’s killers remain anonymous and unaccountable. This is not the only crime ICE has committed since I last wrote you, just the most public and appalling. You can find a non-exhaustive list of the others at the bottom.
For anyone still unclear on the message: My neighbors and I are against racial profiling > unreasonable search and seizure > violence against dissent > and the extra-judicial killing of people in the street. If you believe the Second Amendment is an enshrined tool against tyranny, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that whistling and video taping is a reasonable step to take before it comes to that.
From the poverty shacks, he looks from the cracks to the tracks
And the hoofbeats pound in his brain
And he’s taught how to walk in a pack
Shoot in the back
With his fist in a clinch
To hang and to lynch
To hide ‘neath the hood
To kill with no pain
Like a dog on a chain
He ain’t got no name
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game
— Bob Dylan on the murder of Medgar Evers (also 37) in 1963
Where to begin
In my last letter, I urged you to get organized, and I promised you some ideas for how to get started.
Everyone activates on a different timeline, and these are 101-level suggestions for those who feel hopeless because they don’t know what concrete action to take as individuals. I know firsthand how powerless and exhausting it feels to swipe through video after video, wallowing in outrage. What can one person do against this machine, anyway?
My friend, I am here to tell you: You will discover that one little step leads to another. Doomscrolling breeds despair. Taking action, however small, kindles hope.
Four steps to take right now:
Pick one or two issues that matter to you personally. (Could be immigration, mutual aid, the environment, responsible AI, combatting surveillance capitalism, whatever.)
Find out where that issue is impacting your community most.
Volunteer in person with the local groups that have formed to take action on your issue. You will meet new people and develop new ideas.
Pay close attention to the voices in the communities that are most impacted, and get behind their leadership.
Building community builds power. Not everyone is ready to take to the streets, and that’s okay. But your personal resistance will require both self sufficiency and creativity.
The best time to plug into your community was when you moved into your home. The second best time is now. We neighbors don’t mind when or how you show up; we care simply that you take that first step.
Speaking of which: There is a nation-wide general strike planned for tomorrow (Friday, January 30). If you can, consider not going to work or school and letting them know why. If you can’t, there are many, many other ways to support the strike — starting with where you spend your dollar.
Let’s get going.
ICE watch since we last spoke
A non-exhaustive list, featuring citizens and legal residents alike:
Tear gassed a family of six as they tried to avoid a conflict between ICE and protesters, causing their infant to stop breathing
Enacted a policy of going door-to-door with military weapons. In this particular case, a judge ordered the detainee’s release, “ruling that the agents violated his Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful search and seizure.”
Detained 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos — who applied with his father for asylum at the border in 2024 and has a pending case pursuing legal status — and sent him from Minnesota to Texas. While the administration has a different story, witnesses on the ground reported that he was originally walked to his own door to lure out his relatives.
Choked a 16-year-old U.S. citizen while detaining his father (and then sold his phone to a vending machine), one of more than 40 such cases
Broke into the house of an elderly U.S. citizen and walked him out in subzero temperatures, nearly naked in a blanket and sandals, despite being offered his ID
Leah Mills / Reuters Dragged a disabled U.S. citizen out of her car as she tried to get to a doctor’s appointment
Admitted to capturing the license plates of people who are legally observing them with the goal of creating a database of “domestic terrorists”
Declined to investigate Renee Good’s shooter, opting instead to investigate her widow
Seth Putnam is an editor and writer in Chicago. He lives with his wife, son, and daughter in a 1920s home that is the epitome of a work in progress.
“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” —Mary Oliver