We never shared a shift report in the early hours of the morning. If we passed each other in a hallway or stood in line for coffee in wrinkled, mismatched scrubs, I wouldn’t have known who you were.

But I knew you.

I knew you by the ache in your feet after twelve hours on the floor. I knew you by the weight you carried in your pocket and your heart. I grieve for you because you knew the cost of caring.

You knew the “nursing bladder” and the missed lunches. You knew the feeling of driving home in silence because the radio was too much noise after twelve hours of alarms and never having a break.

You knew the unique isolation of being surrounded by people all day but feeling entirely alone with the burden of their lives at the end of the day. Holding hands, holding breaths, holding the line between hope and loss, then being expected to clock out and return to the world as if nothing followed you home.

Our Greep Zoom #254 opens with a first-person report from MYLA RESON on the beating of Mr. James, who’s since disappeared, to which she emphasizes the need to shut the Palo Verde atomic reactors.

Our esteemed US Representative ADELITA GRIJALVA updates us on the latest developments in the US Congress.

From DR. MELISSA BIRD we get an on-the-scene report from the streets of Oregon.

The great former Charlotte Mayor JENNIFER ROBERTS gives us a mind-bending view of the ICE attacks in North Carolina, and thanks the country as “it’s the people who’re going to safe us."

From HEDY TRIPP in St. Cloud tells us that the resistance in MN is holding strong and that she is facing personal danger of the first magnitude.

.From MICKIE LEADER we get an exhortation to study our history’s Underground Railroad for saving oppressed citizens.

Media mogul DAVID SALTMAN wonders why the government would shut in the middle of this crisis & why our Amendments—2, 4, 9 and others—are being ignored.

Solar owner PAUL NEWMAN demands the Democrats obstruct the Republican coup.

The Trump administration is escalating its attack on immigrant communities in Ohio, reinvigorating Operation Buckeye and preparing an all-out assault on Springfield’s Haitian communities. Ohioans are standing up to racist terror by disrupting business as usual and demanding no work, school, or shopping on January 30.

At 2:00pm January 29, faith leaders, community organizations, and students will hold a press conference at the Columbus Liberation Center, located at 1004 Parsons Ave, publicly announcing their endorsement of the January 30 shutdown and highlighting the urgency of responding to ICE’s escalations in Minneapolis. 

Then, the Columbus Liberation Center will host a volunteer meeting and art build at 6:00pm, where working-class Ohioans will convene to discuss the need for a shutdown, preparing signs, banners, and outreach materials for January 30.

And here I am, an American, staring at the border again . . . and slowly coming to realize the paradox of it. Borders don’t actually exist. They’re invisible lies. They’re also virtually everywhere.

Consider the border Alex Pretti crossed on Jan. 24, on a street in Minneapolis, as he stepped between some U.S. Border Patrol agents and the woman they had just pushed down. He crossed the border that separates ordinary people from the federal Proud Boys (or whoever they are), the masked invaders who were occupying the city to enforce The Law. Pretti interfered with them! He dared to try to protect the fallen woman, who herself had just crossed the same border. In so doing, they both went from being ordinary citizens to “domestic terrorists.”

“Yet our greatest threat isn’t the outsiders among us, but those among us who never look within.”

Wednesday, January 28, 7-8:30pm EST
Register for Zoom here

Join this 90-minute training from States at the Core and Protect RP on effectively protecting your neighborhoods from federal enforcement incursions.

ICE Watch and other rapid response tactics are key strategies being used by people across the country to protect their communities against aggressive activity from federal law enforcement agencies like ICE and Border Patrol. Whether or not you are part of an established community response network, this training will share important skills for building neighborhood resilience, documenting ICE activity, and supporting neighbors. In addition to covering the basics of ICE Watch, we will discuss new analysis on ICE operations, rapid response tactics, and safety guidance.

Please Note: Due to security and safety concerns, we do not record these trainings. To keep up to date on upcoming sessions, sign up for our Substack: https://statesatthecore.substack.com/