The same question keeps surfacing, no matter where I turn. It appears in texts from friends, during Zoom calls, and over dinner conversations: What can I do?
Since the killing of Alex Pretti on Jan. 24 in Minnesota, the question hasn’t been abstract. Friends and acquaintances are watching reports about ICE tactics, feeling that familiar mix of anger and helplessness.
But they’re also seeing something else: ordinary people refusing to be bystanders. People are showing up anyway, using whatever resources they have — a phone to document brutality, a car to mobilize neighbors, or a pen to make a sign. I’m on a WhatsApp chat with a group of knitters in Paris who have started making red “Melt the ICE” hats, re-popularized by Minnesotans as a sign of resistance and solidarity. These hats were once used to protest Nazi occupation in Norway…