Something I love: I'm in a few FB groups for towns in my suburban (Chicago) area and every day there are people posting and offering help to anyone in the community for things such as picking kids up from school, going grocery shopping, etc - understanding that many are scared to leave their homes.
Garrett, I felt this in my ribs. From Portland, I am not here to sell you latte pics. I am here to say we are fighting the same epistemic war you named, with love that bites.
They saturate the feeds, enclose our story, capture weak institutions, and then practice selective violence. We answer with receipts. Proof gates at city hall. Court watch and jail support on speed dial. Mutual aid that runs like a kitchen line at dinner rush. Librarians are unplugging the lies at school boards. Editors stamping Proof Gate on lazy copy. Neighbors time-syncing bodycam, street cam, and livestream into one truth tape. Care is logistics. Logistics win.
You are right to center love. In Portland, love shows up as work. Hot meals, warm rides, dry socks, clean data, named sources, chain of custody. No one here is arguing we “deserve” safety. We say that no one deserves state theater. Not in Chicago. Not in Portland. Not anywhere. The opposite of fascism is not brunch. It is neighbors with receipts. Say it with me, friend. Make noise pay rent to proof.
If they bring troops, we get a ledger. Every raid. Every badge. Every affidavit. Every charge dismissed. We keep score because our people matter, and because their propaganda burn rate is a confession of their own. Your piece reminds folks why we stay in the street, then go home and file the paperwork that makes the street stick. From my side of the river, consider this a standing offer of solidarity and source material. Same fight. Same love. Same receipts. Let’s win.
This had me in tears - thank you for your writing, and your humanity. I went to find the list of Chicago organizations to support but the Google Doc linked in the endnotes is restricted access - not sure if that was intentional so wanted to flag!
Spot on. One reason I loved our mayor's initial statement, "Imagine if the federal government sent hundreds of engineers, or teachers, or outreach workers to Portland". So we don't have to prove anything about how easy life is here for the rich and housed and unaddicted.
So much truth here. No one deserves this because we are all human. I'm thinking Minneapolis is at risk too because the regime still promotes the lie that it's in ruins from 2020. (Never mind the fact that a lot of the violence there - and other big cities - committed by local LE.) No one deserves to have their home destroyed, whether by war, poverty, colonialism, human-caused climate change, you name it.
As someone who doesn't watch FOX, OAN, etc., I'm curious: have they actually been showing footage from Portland & Chicago that make it look like those places were dangerous hellholes before the troops came to town? I feel like you'd have to do a lot of fancy camera work to make them appear to be like something out of "Escape from New York." My brother and sister-in-law live in one of the Chicago neighborhoods that was recently in the news for being targeted by ICE. I've visited them numerous times, and have never felt unsafe. I'd honestly feel more threatened if I was in an open carry state where people were, like, walking around Walmart with assault rifles. (Props to my sis-in-law, who has been doing volunteer work with refugees & immigrants for many years now.)
I think what's doing a lot of work here is the multi-year rhetorical project in conservative media about making cities in general, but definitely "Chicago" and "Portland" specifically, into magical realist hell hole boogylands.
I live in Portland, and after a recent series on the current Epistemic War, the one that most people don't understand, and isn't getting any press, I took my SECSV methodology and applied it to the Portland news reporting: https://twvme.substack.com/p/war-report-us-metro-media-warzone
It works. I have been prepping the same report for Chicago; they take a bit of research.
Beautiful, moving, uncomfortable and valuable essay. Thanks for the reminder that clean streets and neighborhood coffee shops are not the things that make our cities and our neighbors worth defending. Damnation! I shouldn’t need the reminder, but I do.
I live in Chicago and spent much of this weekend in the parts of the city that look "nice" (bike ride by the lakefront, street fair in the Loop, etc), astounded by the ridiculous contrast between my experience and the stuff Trump is saying. I also volunteer doing something similar to foster parenting and that takes me to parts of the city that are much less "nice" (concentrated poverty, people who are not mentally stable, etc). More support is needed in those places. AND those places are home to folks doing their best and I love those places because they are filled with other people in my community. When I drive the kids up from their mom's apartment to mine, we go along Lakeshore Drive with a gorgeous view of the skyscrapers downtown and the 6 year old says "that's Chicago?" and I say "yes, but it's all Chicago -- mommy's house is in Chicago too, Chicago's a really big city!" My big expansive beautiful city that I adore where nobody deserves to be terrorized no matter what kind of neighborhood they're in.
Obviously I'm preaching to the choir here, but this essay really resonated with me. Thanks Garrett.
I grew up in Chicago, haven't lived there since '74, but still have family who never left. After reading today about what happened there despite the proactive work of Governor, Mayor, Police Chief and everyday citizens, I've been fighting bone weary sadness/exhaustion. What seems like a lifetime ago, my younger self was on the lines with the protestors of the day because there was so much that needed fixing but...we were working to do that fixing, and that work never stopped--women's issues, civil rights, mental health, support for seniors, corruption in politics--and the fixing continues because there's always something more to do.
For now, though, I need help in figuring out how to help from a distance. It's not just about funding programs; there has to be something both to let Chicagoans know they aren't in this alone as well as to do a better job of standing up to this administration. I'm up for any suggestions, cuz right now I'm falling into the hopeless, no energy space that is the goal of the insanity, and that ain't a good place to be.
One thing I just want to say, Gail-- one of the things that I know inspires activists today (and definitely inspires me) is knowing that we walk in the legacy of activists who stood the line in past decades.
Thank you, Garrett. So much that has happened in Chicago seems to have gotten no attention outside local media. Your words mean a lot! and thanks for alerting people to two organizations working really hard on behalf of immigrants and of us all.
As someone who doesn't live all that far from where I grew up, and has the embarrassing lack of knowledge of geography to prove it, I've been making a habit of looking places up when they're in the news, to make sure I actually know where they even are.
I have been doing this a lot with Gaza over the past two years, and when I'm looking up a city or neighbourhood where all the doctors at its last hospital were just tortured to death, or whatever unimaginable thing has most recently happened, I also end up clicking around the area on google maps just looking at stuff, and seeing old reviews of different bakeries or whatever, and being reminded that every neighbourhood is a neighbourhood that is in most ways just like mine, where people putter around having opinions on local bakeries and whatnot, until it's a war zone, and even when it's a war zone, people are still in many ways living lives like my own and the lives of people I know personally: enjoying looking up at the full moon, telling each other jokes, regular person stuff.
Anyways, all of which to say that I agree with you about the importance of not letting any place become just a war zone to you. Every place is a normal place where people are doing their best to have a nice little life and stop in at the bakery on their way home from seeing a friend, and there is no place or person that doesn't deserve that, and there will be a lot of work done to make you try and forget that, and you have to keep remembering. 💜
Lee, I just read a book called “Against Erasure: A Photographic Memory of Palestine Before the Nakba,” which includes a whole bunch of old pictures of Palestine showing how it really was full of families and neighborhoods just like you describe, until the Zionist movement. I learned a lot even from the various forewords, and then the photographs told their own stories. I recommend it.
Beautiful and wise. I totally take your points about 1) not buying into the notion that any behavior justifies unconstitutional aggression, and 2) understanding that many parts if these cities are indeed beset with problems and injustices- none of which will be addressed by UcE raids. Thank you.
One caveat - I do think it's important to do at least a bit of corrective posting for the MAGA contingent, who are fed such total bullshit constantly. For example I am on a Portland subreddit, and people literally post things like " I am doing a road trip from California to Washington state. Is it safe to drive through Portland?" (And that was in 2023 - no ongoing protests of any kind taking place...)
Something I love: I'm in a few FB groups for towns in my suburban (Chicago) area and every day there are people posting and offering help to anyone in the community for things such as picking kids up from school, going grocery shopping, etc - understanding that many are scared to leave their homes.
I keep hearing stories like this from every corner of Chicagoland and it makes me so, so happy.
Thank you for sharing this comment. That is also a wonderful reminder about the hard work so many people are doing.
Garrett, I felt this in my ribs. From Portland, I am not here to sell you latte pics. I am here to say we are fighting the same epistemic war you named, with love that bites.
They saturate the feeds, enclose our story, capture weak institutions, and then practice selective violence. We answer with receipts. Proof gates at city hall. Court watch and jail support on speed dial. Mutual aid that runs like a kitchen line at dinner rush. Librarians are unplugging the lies at school boards. Editors stamping Proof Gate on lazy copy. Neighbors time-syncing bodycam, street cam, and livestream into one truth tape. Care is logistics. Logistics win.
You are right to center love. In Portland, love shows up as work. Hot meals, warm rides, dry socks, clean data, named sources, chain of custody. No one here is arguing we “deserve” safety. We say that no one deserves state theater. Not in Chicago. Not in Portland. Not anywhere. The opposite of fascism is not brunch. It is neighbors with receipts. Say it with me, friend. Make noise pay rent to proof.
If they bring troops, we get a ledger. Every raid. Every badge. Every affidavit. Every charge dismissed. We keep score because our people matter, and because their propaganda burn rate is a confession of their own. Your piece reminds folks why we stay in the street, then go home and file the paperwork that makes the street stick. From my side of the river, consider this a standing offer of solidarity and source material. Same fight. Same love. Same receipts. Let’s win.
Love all of this, and espeically this line:
"In Portland, love shows up as work. Hot meals, warm rides, dry socks, clean data, named sources, chain of custody."
This is my love letter to MY town: https://twvme.substack.com/p/a-love-report-from-portland-against - it's a city, it's got issues, but instead of criminalizing poverty, they are trying to do something
This had me in tears - thank you for your writing, and your humanity. I went to find the list of Chicago organizations to support but the Google Doc linked in the endnotes is restricted access - not sure if that was intentional so wanted to flag!
Oops, thanks for the catch! Should be open now!
The question for me is why hasn't Trump's government been ousted?
Our leaders are like little yappy dogs.
On a less angry note, I am hosting a neighborhood party for neighbors who have never gathered. Thanks to you.
The largest of boos to the regime and the biggest of cheers to your neighborhood party!
Spot on. One reason I loved our mayor's initial statement, "Imagine if the federal government sent hundreds of engineers, or teachers, or outreach workers to Portland". So we don't have to prove anything about how easy life is here for the rich and housed and unaddicted.
I hadn't heard that statement but really love it!
So much truth here. No one deserves this because we are all human. I'm thinking Minneapolis is at risk too because the regime still promotes the lie that it's in ruins from 2020. (Never mind the fact that a lot of the violence there - and other big cities - committed by local LE.) No one deserves to have their home destroyed, whether by war, poverty, colonialism, human-caused climate change, you name it.
Isn't it so awful to have to play the game of "wait, will my city be next?'
As someone who doesn't watch FOX, OAN, etc., I'm curious: have they actually been showing footage from Portland & Chicago that make it look like those places were dangerous hellholes before the troops came to town? I feel like you'd have to do a lot of fancy camera work to make them appear to be like something out of "Escape from New York." My brother and sister-in-law live in one of the Chicago neighborhoods that was recently in the news for being targeted by ICE. I've visited them numerous times, and have never felt unsafe. I'd honestly feel more threatened if I was in an open carry state where people were, like, walking around Walmart with assault rifles. (Props to my sis-in-law, who has been doing volunteer work with refugees & immigrants for many years now.)
I think what's doing a lot of work here is the multi-year rhetorical project in conservative media about making cities in general, but definitely "Chicago" and "Portland" specifically, into magical realist hell hole boogylands.
I live in Portland, and after a recent series on the current Epistemic War, the one that most people don't understand, and isn't getting any press, I took my SECSV methodology and applied it to the Portland news reporting: https://twvme.substack.com/p/war-report-us-metro-media-warzone
It works. I have been prepping the same report for Chicago; they take a bit of research.
"Asset reuse set: 2020 riot B-roll repeatedly cut into 2025 packages"
See, this is exactly the kind of thing I was wondering about. Thank you for clarifying that for me!
100%
Beautiful, moving, uncomfortable and valuable essay. Thanks for the reminder that clean streets and neighborhood coffee shops are not the things that make our cities and our neighbors worth defending. Damnation! I shouldn’t need the reminder, but I do.
Thanks DB! And also, I love clean streets and neighborhood coffee shops too :)
I live in Chicago and spent much of this weekend in the parts of the city that look "nice" (bike ride by the lakefront, street fair in the Loop, etc), astounded by the ridiculous contrast between my experience and the stuff Trump is saying. I also volunteer doing something similar to foster parenting and that takes me to parts of the city that are much less "nice" (concentrated poverty, people who are not mentally stable, etc). More support is needed in those places. AND those places are home to folks doing their best and I love those places because they are filled with other people in my community. When I drive the kids up from their mom's apartment to mine, we go along Lakeshore Drive with a gorgeous view of the skyscrapers downtown and the 6 year old says "that's Chicago?" and I say "yes, but it's all Chicago -- mommy's house is in Chicago too, Chicago's a really big city!" My big expansive beautiful city that I adore where nobody deserves to be terrorized no matter what kind of neighborhood they're in.
Obviously I'm preaching to the choir here, but this essay really resonated with me. Thanks Garrett.
This is a beautiful tribute to all the Chicago, Ann.
I grew up in Chicago, haven't lived there since '74, but still have family who never left. After reading today about what happened there despite the proactive work of Governor, Mayor, Police Chief and everyday citizens, I've been fighting bone weary sadness/exhaustion. What seems like a lifetime ago, my younger self was on the lines with the protestors of the day because there was so much that needed fixing but...we were working to do that fixing, and that work never stopped--women's issues, civil rights, mental health, support for seniors, corruption in politics--and the fixing continues because there's always something more to do.
For now, though, I need help in figuring out how to help from a distance. It's not just about funding programs; there has to be something both to let Chicagoans know they aren't in this alone as well as to do a better job of standing up to this administration. I'm up for any suggestions, cuz right now I'm falling into the hopeless, no energy space that is the goal of the insanity, and that ain't a good place to be.
One thing I just want to say, Gail-- one of the things that I know inspires activists today (and definitely inspires me) is knowing that we walk in the legacy of activists who stood the line in past decades.
Thank you, Garrett. So much that has happened in Chicago seems to have gotten no attention outside local media. Your words mean a lot! and thanks for alerting people to two organizations working really hard on behalf of immigrants and of us all.
There's such a disconnect between how visceral this is feeling for everybody I know in Chicago and how little national attention it's getting
As someone who doesn't live all that far from where I grew up, and has the embarrassing lack of knowledge of geography to prove it, I've been making a habit of looking places up when they're in the news, to make sure I actually know where they even are.
I have been doing this a lot with Gaza over the past two years, and when I'm looking up a city or neighbourhood where all the doctors at its last hospital were just tortured to death, or whatever unimaginable thing has most recently happened, I also end up clicking around the area on google maps just looking at stuff, and seeing old reviews of different bakeries or whatever, and being reminded that every neighbourhood is a neighbourhood that is in most ways just like mine, where people putter around having opinions on local bakeries and whatnot, until it's a war zone, and even when it's a war zone, people are still in many ways living lives like my own and the lives of people I know personally: enjoying looking up at the full moon, telling each other jokes, regular person stuff.
Anyways, all of which to say that I agree with you about the importance of not letting any place become just a war zone to you. Every place is a normal place where people are doing their best to have a nice little life and stop in at the bakery on their way home from seeing a friend, and there is no place or person that doesn't deserve that, and there will be a lot of work done to make you try and forget that, and you have to keep remembering. 💜
I'm going to start doing that practice too, Lee.
Lee, I just read a book called “Against Erasure: A Photographic Memory of Palestine Before the Nakba,” which includes a whole bunch of old pictures of Palestine showing how it really was full of families and neighborhoods just like you describe, until the Zionist movement. I learned a lot even from the various forewords, and then the photographs told their own stories. I recommend it.
Thank you, that sounds great!
Beautiful and wise. I totally take your points about 1) not buying into the notion that any behavior justifies unconstitutional aggression, and 2) understanding that many parts if these cities are indeed beset with problems and injustices- none of which will be addressed by UcE raids. Thank you.
One caveat - I do think it's important to do at least a bit of corrective posting for the MAGA contingent, who are fed such total bullshit constantly. For example I am on a Portland subreddit, and people literally post things like " I am doing a road trip from California to Washington state. Is it safe to drive through Portland?" (And that was in 2023 - no ongoing protests of any kind taking place...)