I write blogs each day of the week unless some appointments or special events crowd the hours of my day. My essays are somewhat spontaneous, reflecting how I am feeling in the moment. The words generally flow from my mind into my hands that tap tap on the keys of my laptop. I marvel at how many ideas pop into my head and seem to demand to be recorded on paper. Sometimes though my emotions are in such an upheaval that that I cannot calm them enough to make my thoughts clear. The chaos in my mind is too disjointed and heavy to make sense of how I am feeling or what I truly want to say. 

January 8, 2026, the day after Renee Good was shot by an ICE officer in Minnesota was one of the days when I struggled to keep the depth of my emotions in check. I managed to spend four hours tutoring students in mathematics but that kind of task is second nature to this old teacher. I learned long ago how to curb my feelings when my duty is to care for my students. 

It was only after my sessions with earnest young people that I internally fell apart. I felt anger and grief for the loved ones of Renee Good and for the citizens of Minnesota and all of the United States for that matter. What happened to Renee on a cold Wednesday was horrific and triggering. It was something that was bound to happen sooner or later in the super charged atmosphere that Trump has so unnecessarily created. Sending hoards of ICE agents dressed like storm troopers to American cities that he does not like simply because he is angry with the leaders and the people in those places is a show rather than a solution.  

It is a true fact that my state of Texas has more immigrants than almost any other state in our union. I have no doubt that many of those immigrants are here illegally and yet there has been hardly a stir here compared to places like Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis where the voters generally lean toward Democrats and the leaders often criticize Trump’s actions. It is obvious that he is punishing particular places while somewhat looking the other way in locales where his support is higher. It is as though he is purposely causing mischief and riling up populations to create a false impression that insures his grip on citizens who blindly believe his lies without checking the facts. 

The stage was set for tragedy and sadly it came to pass. Renee Good was protesting the door to door invasion of the homes of Minnesota immigrants, with a particular emphasis on those from Somalia. I thing that she believed that she was doing good work in observing what was happening and attempting to protect her community from what she saw as unfairness. She seemed to be not a radical but someone with a good heart and so on a cold day she tried to block the progress of the ICE agents in what she probably hoped would be a peaceful manner. She must have thought that she was doing her part to protest what she believed to be wrong just as I have participated in three marches in my city and written countless blogs criticizing what I see happening with the present administration. I doubt that she had any idea that she was going to be killed on that day.

I don’t know what I would have done in her situation. I suppose that having camo clad men bearing arms surrounding her car must have been terrifying. My guess is that her brain went into fright and flight mode just as it was designed to do. She might have stepped out of the car but maybe she was terrified about what would happen if she did so. I doubt that her thinking was clear at all in the fateful moment when she chose to drive away, not to attack one of the agents. 

The videos are quite clear that she had no intention of harming anyone. Her only mistake was attempting to get away from the situation. At that point it would have been quite easy for one of the agents to record her license plate information and track her down later if they wanted to press some kind of charges against her. In the heat of the moment drawing a weapon and shooting not once but three times into her car was a move even more egregious than her decision to flee. Lying that she was aiming her car at the ICE officer does not help any of us feel a sense of justification for her death. Shooting at someone should be an act of last resort as should invading a city with armed officers putting on a show of force. The unnecessary creation of tension made it almost inevitable that someone would be hurt. 

I do not believe that Renee Good was a domestic terrorist anymore than I am when I voice my opposition and concerns to what I see happening in my beloved country. She was simply asserting the freedoms granted to all of us by the bravery of the individuals who fought for a new kind of government of the people and by the people two hundred fifty years ago. I grieve for Renee Good and those who loved her just as I grieve for America. This is not who we should be.