Anger, Tears and Shame

My emotions are running especially high today.

The horror of the events of just the first week of January has been overwhelming. Is crawling into bed and staying under the blankets in the fetal position the only sane response?

My anger won’t let me do that. Fury shakes me to the core when I see the invasion of Venezuela and hear the multitude of rationales coming from our so-called leaders. As I understand it, we’ve created a monstrous situation of even more repression in the country. Who gives our regime the right to attack a sovereign nation? Even one led by a demonstrably evil autocrat.

Removing Maduro was not the answer to any concern we might have had. The cocaine Venezuela was producing was going primarily to Europe, not to the US. Besides, our leaders’ war on narco-terrorists is belied by Trump’s pardon of former President of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, convicted of trafficking over 400 tons of cocaine to the US over a twenty-year period. Do we really believe Trump cares about the drug trade?

Oil, oil, oil. Enrichment of the oil companies supporting Trump. Self-enrichment. Self-aggrandizement. This is what it’s about. In the immediate future, we will take 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil, estimated to be worth $2.8 bn, and sell it. Trump says the proceeds will be placed in banks, rather that in the US Treasury as the law requires, and he will personally manage the funds “to benefit the Venezuelan and American people,” not follow the law requiring the Congress to manage and distribute all US funds.

Now he’s threatening to invade Mexico, Columbia, Cuba and Greenland. The US is rapidly becoming a pariah state.

My tears are being shed not only for the loss of my country’s respect in the world and the constant law-breaking of this administration, but even more so for Renee Good who was shot in the face at pointblank range by an ICE agent yesterday. The video provides evidence that she was trying to comply with what the officers were saying when the agent killed her. Now the regime, specifically Kristi the-dog-killer Noem, is accusing the victim of being a domestic terrorist. Nothing could be further from the truth.

More violence and bloodshed. It keeps on coming.

I’m ashamed. Never of my country and the good people in it, but for the actions of those in power. I’m ashamed that they are acting in my name, our names, as if we, the American people at large, elected these madmen to perform these specific acts of terrorism. I can’t imagine that anyone in this country did.

Anger, fear and shame are legitimate emotional responses to what we’ve seen around us in the two Trump “administrations” as well as the depraved actions of the rich and powerful in raping young women provided by Jeffrey Epstein in earlier years. Let’s not forget obtaining justice for the victims.

When will it be enough? Where can we turn for hope?

· On this fifth anniversary, let’s remember the brave police officers who saved our democracy by defending the Capitol against violent insurrectionists on January 6, 2021. We can derive courage and the power of determination from their example.

· Give thanks for the model of protesters gathered in cities and towns across the country to express peacefully their opposition to the actions of the regime not only when mass action is called for, but also every day, every week on street corners in our communities.

· Do more of whatever you’re already doing to save democracy. Get out of bed, stretch your legs and get back in the Resistance in any way you are capable of.

· Save the vote, get out the vote and work diligently to elect candidates fighting against these bloody policies.

Many of the “gurus” I follow promise us that it will get worse before it gets better so we have a lot to do. Be here in body and spirit to bring our country back to sanity. We are not alone!

Renee Nicole Good, mother of three, award-winning poet shot and killed in Minneapolis by an ICE agent on 7 January 2026. Remember her sacrifice. Pray for her family. Work for peace and renewal.