Community and crisis
What can we do?
Today, you may be expecting the weekly YLE Dose on all the health issues filling the world and what it means to you. The flu, the U.S. pulling out of the WHO, or any of the other things that are important, but they feel minuscule after this weekend.
I will get back on track soon, but I just needed to take a minute. Because I don’t know about you, but my weekend was full of really hard juxtapositions:
“Mom, can you make me pancakes?” Breaking news: a second person, a 37-year-old man, killed by ICE.
Pile into the car for the girls’ dentist appointment. I checked my phone again—an ICU nurse, a friend of a friend, killed while helping another woman on the street.
Back in the dentist chair, my daughter whispered, “I don’t want a cavity filled. Can you hold my hand?” Another alert came through: videos appear to contradict federal accounts.
We left the dentist and headed out to sell Girl Scout cookies. “Mom, can we listen to Taylor Swift?” Another check of my phone: a photo of Liam’s school cubby. Five-year-old Liam was taken by ICE days earlier. His principal shared the image. Twenty other students from his school were missing, too.
“Mom,” my daughter asked, watching my face, “why are you crying?”
Then we are supposed to just go back to work on Monday? Moving straight into the usual rhythm feels strange and almost inappropriate, like talking about the weather while the ground is shaking. The news and social media are overwhelming, but what feels hard for me to name is the dissonance: how life keeps moving forward even when it feels like it should stop. And for others, it’s the opposite: being stuck at home because of the winter storms, scrolling, absorbing every emotion with nowhere to put it down, unable to move at all.
At its core, our country’s values are being tested in real time—safety, integrity, justice, empathy, resilience, civic duty—and the strain is visible everywhere. The divide feels so wide it can seem unfixable. This rhythm, this mental load, is heavy and exhausting, filled with extraordinary grief, fear, anger, frustration, and helplessness.
So I want to say something plainly, because it doesn’t seem to be said out loud often enough: This is not how a healthy society is supposed to feel. And I’m feeling really sad about it.
What can we do?
If we have to keep this society running (and we do), then we must decide what kind of society we are running. That happens through choices and actions.
I keep looking to Minneapolis for inspiration, because beams of hope continue to break through the cracks:
Even amid a humanitarian crisis, my girlfriend (ten blocks from where Alex was killed) helped start an underground medical support unit for families in need.
Even as churches asking for supplies are being targeted, and friends delivering groceries are harassed, people are still finding ways to move resources. A local sex shop quietly became a donation center.
Even with trust between enforcement and communities nearly nonexistent, Minnesota National Guard members began sharing donuts and coffee as a demonstration of safety and security.
50,000 neighbors showed up peacefully for families by marching and using their voices. Other neighborhoods are gathering in the streets to sing. Vigils are planned so grief doesn’t have to be carried alone.
Although many of us aren’t physically in Minneapolis, we can show up in the same vein: purposefully, filled with social support, and importantly, with agency to protect our humanity, wellbeing, values, and society:
Take care of your mental health. Do not keep watching the videos of the victims. As my friend and gun violence expert, Megan Ranney, said, we have so much literature in gun violence research showing that media exposure results in numbness, nightmares, anxiety, and all the symptoms of PTSD.
Surround yourself with community. Tonight, there’s a national, online virtual, nonpartisan mom event. If you’re a mom, I hope to see you there. I’m hosting a few girlfriends at my house so we can watch together.
Donate where it matters:
Stand with Minnesota: a resource hub connecting you with mutual aid funds, legal support, food assistance, rent help, and volunteer opportunities
MPLS Mutual Aid LinkTree: Central hub for Minneapolis-based mutual aid efforts, like food distribution, support groups, and local collaboration links
MN NOICE: Statewide directory of organizations that support immigrants and refugees
Community Aid Network (CANMN), which organizes weekly free food distributions across the Twin Cities and supports volunteer participation
Call your representatives. Here are some tips.
The fact that so many are still choosing care means this doesn’t have to be permanent.
Sending love, solidarity, and steadiness to all of you.
Love, YLE
Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE) is founded and operated by Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, MPH PhD—an epidemiologist, wife, and mom of two little girls. YLE reaches more than 425,000 people in over 132 countries with one goal: “Translate” the ever-evolving public health science so that people will be well-equipped to make evidence-based decisions. This newsletter is free to everyone, thanks to the generous support of fellow YLE community members. To support the effort, subscribe or upgrade below:
As a Minnesotan, what was helpful to hear was a quote by Dan Savage in the middle of the AIDS pandemic: "We buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night." I am trying to live by these words. Mourn in the morning, get out there and do the work in the day, and don't forget your joy at night. That's how we keep pushing. Mourning, activating, and dancing.
And we WILL move forward. We will cry for Liam and his family, praying he gets to come home soon. We will mourn the world's loss of Alex, and honor his memory. And we will come together as a community and help each other, while resisting the regime.
OMG tears came to my eyes as I read this part from you:
"We left the dentist and headed out to sell Girl Scout cookies. “Mom, can we listen to Taylor Swift?” Another check of my phone: a photo of Liam’s school cubby. Five-year-old Liam was taken by ICE days earlier. His principal shared the image. Twenty other students from his school were missing, too.
“Mom,” my daughter asked, watching my face, “why are you crying?”"
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And yes, the best thing we can do is take care of our mental health, and take care of the people within our circles of family, friends, neighbors, coworkers.
Thank you for the information about the Wine Mom event.
PS for those who want to take a small action and contact their legislators, here is a spreadsheet with contact information, thanks to another mom, Megan Rothery:
Let Congress hear you! Be extremely loud!
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) as a resource to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.