On September 11th, 1973, the democratically elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende and his Popular Unity Socialist party were violently overthrown in an illegal coup d’état. The primary perpetrator was a man named Augusto Pinochet and his entourage of far-right, American-backed militias. With the help of Nixon’s CIA, Pinochet was quickly successful in destroying Chile’s hard earned progressive government, replacing it with a hardline conservative military dictatorship.

The following days, weeks and months were a tumultuous and violent time for the South American Country, as the population was forced to grapple with the fact that they were no longer in control of their own lives; Pinochet, and in tandem, the United States were. After the day of insurrection itself, thousands of citizens were summarily arrested, or kidnapped, without due process simply for disagreement with the new order. Many disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again, but some had a much more conclusive fate.

As the bloody regime sunk its teeth further into the once free and proud nation, the bodies of civil dissenters began to turn up dead, largely at the hands of Caravana De La Muerte, Pinochet’s personal death squad. Tortured, interrogated and murdered for their perceived threat to this capitalist takeover, the victims numbered in the 5 digits. These people were public speakers, teachers, journalists, politicians, labor leaders, farmers, artists, musicians, and other ordinary people. One of which was a man by the name of Victor Jara.

Victor was born in the rural countryside of central Chile in 1932, the son of peasant farmers with both European and indigenous ancestry. As a young man searching for stability and income in a family of very little means, he would explore options as far ranging as accountant work, catholic priesthood, and even military service. However, Victor soon learned that it was in fact the arts that brought out his latent inspirations the most, namely music and theatre, which he studied intently once attending the University of Chile in Santiago.

Over the course of his 20s and into his 30s, Victor would begin his official, albeit slow building career in the world of folk music, inspired first and foremost by the native sounds of Chile and neighboring Andean nations, musical traditions with centuries of oral history that was, at the time, still largely unknown to the outside world. It was through this work that Victor found himself as a central figure in a new, budding left-wing musical movement gaining traction throughout Latin America; Nueva Canción, or New Song.

Music wasn’t the only expression Victor developed a knack for around this time. Or rather, it wasn’t music alone. It was also politics. Through a combination of his upbringing, witnessing the troubled political progressions of his countrymen and women throughout the 40s, 50s and 60s, as well as his own experiences and studies in adulthood, Victor’s musical endeavors would quickly become inseparable from his political passions. Naturally coming from an already left-wing and working class perspective, his stances would solidify in the early 1960s once Victor officially joined the Chilean Communist Party.

After years of making ends meet as a University teacher and theatre director, The late 1960s saw Victor put out his first official records, and through these releases is how Victor became the spokesman of his era by the end of the decade, and even gained some international recognition. These albums featured his distinctive baritone voice, finger plucked guitar work and indigenous inspired songwriting that centered heavily around his political activism and the everyday experiences of average Chileans. It was music by the people, for the people, in every sense of the phrase.

Having a young, personable and intelligent folk singer of immense popularity was invaluable to the broader labor movement in the country, which included communists like Victor, but also more moderate leftists, such as socialist politician Salvador Allende. Through this strong unity between populist politics and a multi-generational coalition of workers and artists alike, Chile was on the fast track to a monumental progressive victory in the lead up to the 1970 general election, in which Salvador Allende was the Socialist nominee. And a victory it was, as the results of the election were an undeniable success for the Socialist party.

After years of fighting the good fight, the people of Chile had finally won, and following some well earned celebration, it was time to get to work on improving the country for every ordinary citizen. Victor did his part by maintaining the active role as a cultural leader and public speaker for the left-wing populace that had fallen in love with his music. This would all come to a climax when in 1971, he would write, record and release his magnum opus, an album almost universally hailed as his greatest work; El Derecho De Vivir En Paz, or The Right To Live In Peace. This 12 track album, for all intents and purposes, was his life’s work both in music and in message, and became the unofficial anthem for Chilean and other Latin American progressives for years to come. After a decisive political victory for the nation and a masterpiece on tape from Victor, things seemed to be finally well.

As The United States and The Soviet Union were in the midst of their decades long Cold War, both empires struggled for whatever global influence or foreign stronghold they could acquire. As the Soviets focused on building up their own collection of crimes against humanity, The United States developed an obsessive habit of brutally overthrowing democratically elected left-wing governments, only to implement capitalist puppets in their place to work for America’s interests, all in a vain attempt to keep communism and socialism at bay. As it turns out though, socialism is quite attractive to the global south, especially when the world’s superpower is hell bent on destroying it. This, coupled with the United States humiliating public failures in unpopular, high profile wars such as Korea and Vietnam, meant that the Nixon administration of the late 60s and early 70s simply could no longer sell yet another illegal, invasive war to the American people, and certainly not to the United Nations.

As a result, the United States war on socialism had to go dark, off the grid so-to-speak. At the crux of this new era of covert operations, was the secretive Operation Condor, a confidential project by the CIA and US military to snuff out any and all left-wing movements in Central And South America. And in the Fall of 1973, Chile, with its progressive leader Salvador Allende and Popular Unity Party, was on the chopping block.

Once the dust of the Invasion had settled, once Allende was dead and with Pinochet in power, that’s when the mass murders began to take place. On September 12th, Victor, along with thousands of others, were kidnapped and imprisoned at the national Chilean Stadium in Santiago, which had been converted into a makeshift death camp. After bouts of torture, he was executed by a hail of over three dozen bullets for his crimes of left-wing activism, his mangled corpse to be displayed at the stadium entrance as a warning.

The United States had got what it wanted. For the next 17 years, Chile would remain a brutal Capitalist dictatorship that worked for the US, before finally coming to an end in 1990 when Liberal democracy eventually returned once the Soviet Union had fallen and America’s anxiety issues over socialism had somewhat dissipated. But it wouldn’t be until well into the new millennium for arrests to begin happening for many of the crimes committed against people like Victor, with convictions in his case in particular being passed in 2008, 2015 and 2023.

The Story of Victor Jara is one of sadness and injustice, but also of inspiration and empowerment. While his life may have ended horrifically, with his body quietly removed from its display at the stadium by his wife for a secret, one-on-one burial by her and her alone, before being forced to flee the country, that’s thankfully not how his legacy now rests. The very stadium he was murdered in is now called Victor Jara Stadium, and he is rightfully commemorated as a national Chilean hero and martyr for political activism worldwide. His widow, Joan, carried on his political memory through her own activism until her death at the age of 96, being buried beside him.

His songs live on in fans playlists and record collections all around the globe, and his messaging still resonates with thousands who dream and fight for a more equal and egalitarian world, not to mention the countless folk musicians and artists who regularly pay homage to his sonic expertise and unique approach. So while his life may have been unfairly cut short, the marks that he left behind are thankfully permanent, and not just in Chile. Because among the many things he sang, wrote, taught, fought and spoke for, I think that Victor would want the world to remember, more than anything, that even against seemingly insurmountable odds, every being on Earth has the right to live in peace.

Daniel Gomez is a contributing writer to Social Justice For All. He is a Mexican-American GenZ-er with a sharp wit and an even sharper pen. In his spare time, you can find him playing bass, listening to some kick-ass music or hanging out with his beloved partner.

Bad Bunny is a legend. An icon. He catapulted himself - and Puerto Rico – into the stratosphere last night at the Super Bowl.

The expectations on him were high – and he delivered. Bad Bunny understood the assignment – to put Puerto Rico where it belongs on the cultural map and to send a message of love and unity to the “American” people. All of us. The people of the Americas.

America is not just the United States of America. It’s Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Brazil, Venezuela, Chile and much more. He had all our flags on the biggest stage in the world. He told us that ‘the only thing stronger than hate is love,’ mirroring messages by great activists such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. himself.

Bad Bunny wanted to remind us all that we are united. As one. As Americans in the Americas. This idea of “American excellence” touted by the Trump Administration is certainly not inclusive – and not real.

We are not better off under Trump. In fact, we are worse for having him in office. Our economy is in the tank, grocery prices have skyrocketed, censorship is a common thing (yes, they did ‘boo’ Vance in Milan and Green Day absolutely called out this administration during its opening set of the Super Bowl) and the oligarchs reign supreme. We are a kakistocracy – a government run by idiots and unqualified fools.

Don’t believe me? Do the names Hegseth, Noem and Gabbard, among others, ring a bell?

Bad Bunny is first and foremost a proud Borinquen. He loves Puerto Rico. Not only his music but the decorations of the Super Bowl stage reflected that. I felt transported to Puerto Rico. The performance was a deeply personal one offered in love and respect. Bad Bunny showed us that Latin culture is beautiful and deserves to be celebrated – but I already knew that.

He wanted those who may have forgotten or may never had truly understood that Latinos are here to stay. You can try to obliterate them with crappy policies and ICE raids, but they are here. Many of them are already citizens. Think of the Mexican families in Texas who the border crossed over. For those of you who are unaware, Texas was part of Mexico. Many Mexican-Americans who live there have been in this country longer than my family has.

They are not illegal. We absorbed them into the “American” war machine that we have always been. Don’t believe me? I don’t care. Open a history book – not the whitewashed ones they have in schools across this country – but real history books that tell the truth. This nation has caused more harm than good across the globe.

But I digress.

Puerto Ricans are also citizens of the United States and have been longer than Hawaii and Alaska have been. They don’t have voting rights, however. Is that due to our endemic racism? Perhaps. Puerto Rico, in my mind, deserves to be its own sovereign nation as do Guam and the US Virgin Islands. The days of Manifest Destiny are gone – and Trump doesn’t realize that. The idiot wants Greenland and Canada. He’s playing a game of Risk with Putin and Ping, but he will not win.

Not as long as people like Bad Bunny exist. Not as long as Minnesotans who are fighting this regime exist. Not as long as US athletes who have the courage to speak out against this administration at the Milan Olympics exist. They are using their platform not to disparage but celebrate our country, a country we all want to live in.

Bad Bunny showed us that we can get there. Music needs no translation and neither did his message. Too bad, Donald Trump, our ‘illustrious’ leader, didn’t get the message. Rather, he posted some bullshit drivel denouncing Benito’s magnificent performance. He called it “Un-American.”

Fool. Benito’s performance was completamente Americano. El Conejo Malo celebra todas las americas. Todos somos juntos!

Gracias, Benito!

You didn’t disappoint us. Rather, you represented the best of us and showed us that we can and should be better to each other. I hope now that you’ve thrown down the gauntlet, we’ll begin to work for a true United America.

Puedo esperar, no?

Serena DaSilva is a daughter of immigrants and a mother of two adult children. She is concerned for their future. She loves them, her husband, her doggies and her people. She is a writer/memoirist who is tired of being silent. She wields her keyboard like a sword.

John Lennon’s “Imagine” is one of my all-time favorite songs. It is idealism personified. “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.” I truly want to believe this. I have faith in humanity and in our better angels. I know there are people out there who want things to improve, for society to be equal and the rich to share with the poor. We could be better than our ancestors. We have the means and the opportunity, but we are squandering it.

Some days, especially in the past 13 months, I’ve often felt like I am the only one. I know I’m not, but it’s hard to have kindness and compassion in your heart under this administration. Trump and his cronies make it difficult to keep your head above water. This has been a shock and awe onslaught since Day One. He didn’t lie about that.

So much of what America thought it stood for has been dismantled. The government is shooting people dead in the streets. They are disappearing people. The economy is in the tank. Our relationships with our allies have never been worse. Our president is a whiny man baby who will threaten a lawsuit when you puncture his thin skin. It’s been a lot to just keep your head above water. Often, I feel like I’m going to drown. I know I am not alone.

The lies that come out of Washington have always been hard to take, but now they are literally asking you to distrust your own eyes and trust their interpretation of events instead. They have not proven themselves worthy of our trust. In fact, they’ve done quite the opposite. They have not shown themselves to be on the side of the average American. They care about a small subset of our society but most of all they only care about themselves.

Kristi Noem. Pete Hegseth. Marco Rubio. Pam Bondi. Kash Patel. Stephen Miller. RFK Jr. These are names that stick in my throat. I hate every last one of them. They have not been making America great again. I do not truly understand their agenda, but I know they are completely in step with Trump. His cabinet meetings are full of sycophantic babble. They are so far up his ass that even South Park makes fun of it. (I do say that the only thing I’ll miss about Trump is the good satire he and his junk draw cabinet inspire.)

I’m tired of the ass-kissing. I’m tired of the bull shit. I’m tired of this American nightmare. However, I can not imagine that we could’ve come to a different place in history at this time, with how we’ve been up until now. We have created a system that is corrupt. We have believed in an ideal that America has said she wanted to be but never really was. Many of us held onto this delusion thinking we were the greatest nation on Earth. How cocky we have been – and some of us still are. America is not the land of the free, the home of the brave. It’s the land of the oligarch and the white man. It’s the land of privilege and entitlement where some get rich off of the rest. We have never been a true democracy. In fact, we’re actually a republic – and we’re not even much of that right now.

We are a two-party system that looks roughly the same on either side of the aisle. Special interest groups have more power than we do because they have more money and, thanks to the Supreme Court, money talks a lot more than it used to. Citizens United might have been the worst Supreme Court decision ever made. It has caused the American experiment to explode within two decades of this ruling.

Despite all this, I’d like to ‘imagine’ that America has been and can some day be something better than it currently is. “Maybe someday you’ll join us and the world could live as one.” I would love that, wouldn’t you? But living as one requires true equality – it requires people to give up some of what they have so others can also partake in our abundance of riches. We are still a wealthy country, but less people control more of the wealth than ever before. They want to keep their wealth and power and are desperate to do so.

While we feel like we have never been further away from equality we may be closer than we realize. We need the left and the right to join the middle. We have a common enemy – the ‘power class’. We need to clean house top to bottom and fix our system from the ground up. We need to dismantle old ideas and old institutions and face our own ugliness. We have to really love our neighbor and practice Christian principles not Christian Sharia Law.

We have to be good people, not religious people. We have to be tolerant of others. Our differences make us special, make us unique and make us America. We have to love our enemies as much as we do our friends. We have to be the people we know we can be but don’t always have the courage to be because it’s hard and it requires us to live at a higher vibration. We have to be better because we need to be. Things are dark right now, but they don’t have to stay that way.

What do you imagine for America – and how do you think we can get there? I know we can because I believe we can.

Maybe I am a dreamer after all, but I’d rather dream big than not at all.

Serena DaSilva is a daughter of immigrants and a mother of two adult children. She is concerned for their future. She loves them, her husband, her doggies and her people. She is a writer/memoirist who is tired of being silent. She wields her keyboard like a sword.

Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny, is the biggest name in music right now on a global scale. He is an awards-show darling and the most widely streamed artist worldwide on Spotify. Bad Bunny is first and foremost a proud Borinquen. He loves his home island - he loves the people and he pays tribute to it and them in everything he does.

He won the first-ever Album of the Year award at the 2026 Grammys for a Spanish-language album, Debe Tirar Mas Fotos. He will also be headlining the LX Super Bowl half-time show on February 8^th. This move by the NFL was rather controversial, but Benito has shown that he does not shy away from controversy.

When receiving his award Sunday night, El Conejo Malo, took the microphone and created a mic drop moment. He spoke truth to power and reminded the United States of America that immigrants make this nation great. The people who come here are not criminals. They are not taking away jobs. They are kind, compassionate and hard-working. They want better lives for themselves and their children.

They are human.

We were all immigrants once unless we come from the indigenous peoples of this land. Christopher Columbus did not ‘discover’ America. People were already living here and doing well. They didn’t desire or seek ‘colonization’ from Spain, Portugal, France and so on. They wanted their freedom then and they deserve it now.

This administration that is currently in power wants to dehumanize and criminalize races of people. It’s not Make America Great Again. It’s Make America White (Again). The same people that cheer the actions of ICE want to have a separate half-time show to go against an ‘un-American’ Bad Bunny.

This is laughable. Puerto Rico has been part of the United States since 1898, longer than some states. It was ‘given’ to us by the Spanish, who colonized it in the 1500s. However, the Spaniards built Puerto Rico off of the backs of the Borinquen and Taino peoples. US citizens can go to Puerto Rico without a passport. Their people have fought for our freedom while we have kept them from theirs.

The racist idiots who think Bad Bunny is a foreign act because he sings in Spanish, which he prefers to do, do not seem to care about history. They do not honor the ancestors of those who they built this nation upon, crippling indigenous societies and virtually wiping them out. America has literally whitewashed history and courageous artists like Bad Bunny remind us that the indigenous are not going down without a fight.

Latinos matter. This nation would not be great without them. Stomping on their backs and keeping them down is not doing us any favors. Hispanics were expected to be the majority in the mid-21^st century. Perhaps, what Trump and his racist cronies are doing is trying to keep that from occurring, but the Latino people are strong. They have suffered much and they will rise again.

Bad Bunny knows this. He defiantly told this nation to learn Spanish for his Super Bowl halftime show. I, for one, have been practicing. I will be planted in my seat until my feet force me to jump and dance to the music of Bad Bunny this Sunday. I cannot wait for the Benito Bowl. We are all one. United. What you do the least of my people, you do to me, as Jesus would say.

So, let’s love and respect each other and forge a pathway together. We must silence ICE and those racist cockroaches who are in power that want to dehumanize and criminalize human beings. It’s disgusting and so many of us have decided – enough is enough.

Go away, ICE. Let people like Bad Bunny thaw your stupidity. Bailamos, America! Let us awake from this national nightmare and be the best versions of ourselves that I know we can be – and we should be.

Bad Bunny matters because he is speaking out and showing up for marginalized people. We need artists like him now more than ever because he has a platform. He chooses to use it for the common good. Bad Bunny is a superstar in every sense of the word. I could not be a bigger fan. (Maybe I could – ask me after the Benito Bowl!)

Vamos a bailar domingo! No puedo esperar!

Serena DaSilva is a daughter of immigrants and a mother of two adult children. She is concerned for their future. She loves them, her husband, her doggies and her people. She is a writer/memoirist who is tired of being silent. She wields her keyboard like a sword.

On Saturday, I had trouble focusing on anything else but Alex Pretti’s execution. I have been a vocal opponent of this administration and its policies, but I’ve been afraid to speak up more. I have shied away directly from causes and people I’ve believed in because I worry about what harm will come to me or my family.

I can’t do that anymore. Too many of us are remaining silent in this horror. I never want to be desensitized to things like the execution of Alex Pretti or the kidnapping of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, who is now in an ICE detention center in my home state of Texas with his dad. I will not stay silent. I will not acquiesce, nor should you.

What’s happening in this country is not only inhumane but also extremely dangerous. As an undergrad at Tufts University, I did a minor in Latin American studies. I learned a lot about dictatorships, especially ones we helped put in place such as those in Chile, Argentina and Panama (among others). There’s a reason why America is not revered world-wide. We have lots of blood on our hands.

What always frightened me is that the US seemed to support democracy at home but encourage autocracy outside of its borders. That is a dangerous line to tread. I often wondered what it would be like if dictatorship came knocking on our door. I knew it was coming with Trump. He said at a campaign rally that he’d be dictator on ‘Day One’ and no one seemed to think he was being completely serious. We have allowed ourselves to be duped and bamboozled by the ultimate snake-oil salesman.

We are paying the price because we either believed in his rhetoric or thought he was an idiot not worth listening to. I’ve been paying attention to the man who puts the “dick” in dictator for years and I’ve been very concerned. Sometimes, I’ve had panic attacks about the dictatorial drivel he spouted. It sounded eerily like the words Pinochet and other strongmen would say. Trump is more Putin than Kennedy.

I am legit scared of not only him but the people he has around him. Anyone who thinks that Russ Vought and the Heritage Foundation are not pulling the puppet strings isn’t paying attention. They are. Project 2025 is and always has been real. It’s being enacted and Trump knew all about it all along. Prove me wrong.

People talk about how the dictatorship will die with Trump – and hopefully it does. No one else seems to have his charisma (yes, it hurt me to type that). He has an appeal that I do not understand. People who hate the same people and things he professes to hate seem to gravitate towards him like he’s a planet of wisdom. They orbit him and fuel his delusions about himself. Heck – even the Nobel Prize recipient gave him her award. She deserves to be stripped of it. Disgusting.

I do not know if the dictatorship will die with him. If we want it to, we need to make some very vital systematic changes to our society. We need to deal with the oligarchs. Oligarchs thrive on having an uneducated, starving rabble. They are parasites, feeding off us so they get richer and richer. No one needs as much money as Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have (to name a few). Together, they could feed the hungry in this country and ensure that we all had healthcare. They choose not to because they are greedy and no one is greedier than Mein Fuhrer.

Trump was forged in greed. He lives in greed. How anyone thought he cared about the little guy or anyone else but himself was smoking something I wish I had access to. He is a product of an American system that weighs value by how much you own. The richer you are, the ‘better’ you are. The two do not go hand in hand. Jesus said that it would be easier for a rich man to get into heaven than a camel to go through an eye of a needle. Over 2,000 years later, I pray that’s true. Even Trump himself has expressed concerns about whether he will get into heaven or not. Hmmm? Wonder why, Donny Boy? Are you self-aware enough to know that you’re doing far more harm than good and will go down in history as one of the most despicable excuses for a human being to ever live?

I’m done with the status quo and hope you are too. I don’t want to see the military weaponized against us – although a pseudo-military-secret police of sorts is terrorizing our streets. They’re not just in Minnesota or Portland. I live in Texas and they’re, as I write this, going door to door checking people’s papers. My governor calls for ICE to leave Minnesota while he allows it free reign in his own state.

The hypocrisy is blinding. The powers that be should be out of power. We, the people, still have power. Keep fighting. Don’t give up. Don’t let them distract or mollify you. Bovino being forced to retire is good news, but it’s really the least they could do. Where’s Noem’s impeachment? Trump’s?

Minnesota loses Bovino but gains Homan. Not sure that’s much better. If anything, it could get a hell of a lot worse. My husband tells me I worry too much, but I have not been wrong yet. I wish it weren’t so, but the dictatorship train is not ready to leave the station unless we help it along.

Rise up! Speak up! Stay informed! Stay angry! Stay focused. We are in this together. What divides us is not as important as what unites us. We are still the United States of America. They fear us, deep down, because we are more powerful than we know. We’re in the eleventh hour. Let’s not wait for Congress to save us. Our elected officials, as a general rule, care more about holding on to power than serving us.

They can and should be doing more. Let’s hold them accountable. Now!

Serena DaSilva is a daughter of immigrants and a mother of two adult children. She is concerned for their future. She loves them, her husband, her doggies and her people. She is a writer/memoirist who is tired of being silent. She wields her keyboard like a sword.

I would imagine that Minneapolis gets very cold this time of year. And much like the administration, I too believe that much could be done to make the city a warmer place right now. Warmth amidst the snow is always within reach. Choosing between firewood and the corpses of constituents as a means of keeping the fire burning, however, should not be a very difficult decision to make. And truthfully, it’s not. The Trump regime took very little time or consideration in choosing their kindle.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement began their siege on Minneapolis in December of last year, naming the takeover “Operation Metro Surge”. Since the beginning of the offensive, American taxpayers are faced with a weekly bill of 18 million dollars in order to fund the operation. That’s over 75 million dollars per month that every American, citizen or not, is collectively pumping into the veins of this machine, whether we like it or not. The stated purpose? To protect the Midwestern metropolis from a supposed mob of scheming, violent, invading foreigners who have crossed into this nation illegally. The particular target often shifts between various shades of black and brown from month to month, but in this particular case, the immigrant Somalian community within the Twin Cities metropolitan happens to be the object of Donald Trump’s scorn.

Of course, that’s just what they claim. If Trump’s entire life up until this point is to be taken into account, then practically every word out of his mouth should be immediately met with complete disbelief until proven otherwise. Liars don’t just stop lying, especially when their lies have always gotten them what they wanted. The mob I mentioned, a supposed bloodthirsty cabal of East African immigrants sneaking onto American soil to rape, pillage and murder, as the Republicans claim, is really just a scapegoat. The administration doesn’t care about probable cause, they don’t care about the well-documented fact that immigrants commit far less crimes than

native-born citizens do, overall. They certainly don’t care about the fact that most of those Somalian immigrants came to this country through legal means, and that they, for the most part, obey the laws. None of that matters. The only thing that does is the fact that dark-skinned migrants from a poor country are here. And that, to the Republicans, is unacceptable.

That’s not the only reason Trump has a bone to pick with Minneapolis in particular though. The state voted against him three times in a row. The governor, Tim Waltz, ran against him in the last election. MAGA also probably blames the city of Minneapolis, at least in part, for kicking off the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, one of the key events that brought on his humiliating election defeat later that year. Clearly, Donald hates the city, and he hates its people, because they hate him. Many cities do, this just so happens to be the example victim he chose to ignite.

So to bring things back to how we started, we all want Minnesotans to live in a safe, prosperous state. Well, whether or not Trump actually wants that or just wants to watch the whole thing burn to the ground is another debate altogether. But assuming on the off chance that he does want to save the city, then he has a very funny, bloody way of showing it. He wants the immigrants out, dead or alive, preferably dead it seems. He wants all who oppose him in reaching that goal, even citizens, to be disposed of. Again, dead or alive. In the case of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, he got them dead, and I think he’s happy about that. If ICE really wants to make Minneapolis a better place, then they’re more than happy to do so by using the scorched bodies of its own residents as fuel for the metaphorical fire that I mentioned earlier. That seems, to me, to be a price too high. Even higher than the weekly 18 millions dollars they already leech from us to pay for their crimes.

I don’t believe that immigrants are the problem in Minnesota at all. Or anywhere in the US, for that matter. If we really want to bring the city, and our nation, some warmth this winter, then there’s a much simpler, cheaper, and most of all, more ethical means of doing so. That 18 million dollars a week that ICE steals from us? It could easily go towards safer roads, better schools, stronger poverty relief, public healthcare, and more regulated environmental standards. I guarantee you, the results will be better, every time. The administration clearly has the money to do so, but seems so unwilling to even consider it. We’re the richest country in the history of the world, with the most power in the world and I think that it’s time for our government to start treating us, the citizens, as such. Because in all honesty, this attack on American values, lives, and communities, is not the sign of strength he seems to think it is. It looks weak, because he is weak. And he will lose, in the long run. America has fought and survived far more capable foes.

Daniel Gomez is a contributing writer to Social Justice For All. He is a Mexican-American GenZ-er with a sharp wit and an even sharper pen. In his spare time, you can find him playing bass, listening to some kick-ass music or hanging out with his beloved partner.