Three Wins Today: Sept 12, 2025

Sometimes, your physical body all that is needed to Resist

I want to apologize. I handled 9/11 poorly yesterday. I was only six and history wants us to remember it as unifying event, so, at least when I think of those first few weeks, I do.

That wasn’t the right approach. While there was some great heroism and some coming together that was beautiful and positive, a lot more of it was hateful Islamophobia and arguably this ushered in the horrific and hateful divisiveness we are experiencing now.

And here’s the thing, this wasn’t a huge deal, in fact, multiple people have told me it’s not even necessary to apologize for, but I want to, both because I was wrong and it was hurtful to people who trust me, and because it’s a great learning moment.

It’s okay if you say the wrong thing. It is impossible to get it right all the time. And keep in mind this is coming from me who won’t post anything unless I see the source material with my own eyes.

My mom always says she’s “perfectly imperfect.”

I could have gotten defensive, and, if I’m being honest, I did at first. I was so sure I knew what I was talking about, but the reality is, I didn’t. And after I got enough comments saying the same thing I realized maybe I really didn’t have the right take.

My point is, don’t push back against call ins. Don’t shut out people who are trying to share their experience. No one is perfect, we are all perfectly imperfect and we all make mistakes.

It’s what we do after that matters.

Now, our wins!

The crowd that gathered to stop ICE in Rochester NY (Gino Fanelli/ WXXI News)

Minnesota

Tues, Sept 2 - Nine mayors came together for a press conference demanding a special legislative session to ban assault weapons.

These mayor include:

Jacob Frey - Minneapolis

Melvin Carter - St Paul

Tim Busse - Bloomington

Ted Kozlowski - Stillwater

Mike Krachner - Vadnais Heights

Brad Weirsum - Minnetonka

Patrick Hanlon - Hopkins

Mary Supple - Richfield

Amáda Márquez Simula - Columbia Heights

I feel, at this point, like most people know Mayor Jacob Frey’s name, at least, those who read my page probably do. But I wanna highlight Mayor Melvin Carter, who you probably don’t know. He represents St. Paul and he spoke about how this is an emergency, but it didn’t start with this specific shooting:

The emergency did not start when that cowardly individual chose to point an assault rifle at children and pull the trigger. the emergency did not start when those beautiful children Minnesotan children took their last breath. The emergency started when we found out that we live in a country in which the number one cause of death for children is gunfire. All of that work that we do in St Paul, all of that work that those first responders do all of that work that our police officers and firefighters and paramedics do is limited by a national and statewide policy environment that enables people to have the type of firearms that reaked that damage in Minneapolis that last week.

We see this time and time again in blue-controlled states and districts. You can only do so much if the only place with gun reform is your area, and the only way it can be anything other than limited is if this happens nationally. Cause there will never be secure boarders between states, nor should there be.

And the saddest thing is, even with this powerful call, the Minnesota legislature is so divided, it’s very likely the resulting bill will be “better than nothing” rather than “good enough.”

That said, these mayors are taking a powerful stand, and I hope hearing from each of them shows that you should know more local names in MN than just Mayor Frey.

Connecticut and Rhode Island

Thurs, Sept 4 - By now you’ve heard about Revolution Wind, a massive project to bring wind powered renewable energy to CT and RI off the cost. It would also create thousands of jobs, which is very needed. Trump shut the project down late last month, saying, basically, they had “security concerns.” Which is just utter bullshit. The project was 80% complete and it has gone through rigorous security testing before they began building, which is when those kind of tests typically happen.

On Sept 4, two separate lawsuits were filed to allow work to begin again. The first was by Revolution Wind itself, funded by Ørsted and a consortium led by Skyborn Renewables. And the second was from CT AG, William Tong and RI AG, Peter Neronha.

AG Neronha said:

With Revolution Wind, we have an opportunity to create good-paying jobs for Rhode Islanders, enhance energy reliability, and ensure energy cost savings while protecting our environment. And yet, this stop work order is not even the latest development in this Administration’s all-out assault on wind energy. Just yesterday, we learned of reports that the Administration is pulling in staff from several different unrelated federal agencies, including Health and Human Services, to do its bidding. Does this sound like a federal government that is prioritizing the American people? This is bizarre, this is unlawful, this is potentially devastating, and we won’t stand by and watch it happen.

I will bring you updates on both lawsuits as I have them. I can’t image the work stays stopped for long.

Rochester, New York

Tue, Sept 9 - Construction workers were working on a rooftop when ICE arrived to kidnap them, but so did about 20 activists. Slowly it grew to around 50. They kidnapped one guy name Chino, but the crowd was just too big, so they retreated.

Before I get to the win I do want to acknowledge the loss. I can’t find any information about where Chino is being held, and I suspect that means his lawyers probably don’t know either. When asked about him, Clayton Baker, the roofing contractor said:

They took my best worker that's been working with me for 5 years, and just basically, ‘See you later,’ you know? He's a family guy, and he's got a baby on the way. He's never even had a speeding ticket that I know of. He goes to church every Sunday, and he pays his taxes. But you want to come get him off of a hard-working job? It's bulls--t, and it's inhumane and it's sad.

It’s frustrating that most wins come with losses like this too. But, as I always say, the win is still worth celebrating, especially when that win only happened because resisters showed up. Just their mere presence was intimidating enough for ICE to need to regroup.

If you don’t know how to help, and you are able, just physically show up, do it, be another body. Sometimes, that’s all it takes.

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I hope these wins give you a sense of hope and power.

Our voices are our superpower, but only when we use them!