While America Slept

The Mental Cost of Never Knowing What Comes Next

What has happened to us?

I have tried, for a long time, to steer this site away from politics. Not because politics doesn’t matter — but because I know exactly what they do to my mental health. I know how it is off-limits at most dinner tables and family functions. No politics, no religion, right? The problem is, there is no longer a clean separation. 

I am referring to the fatal shooting in Minneapolis this past week — an incident that has shaken me to the core. So much so that I am writing this at 3 a.m., lying in bed, unable to sleep, with a pen and paper. That alone should tell you something.

What happened on January 7, 2026 — one day after the five-year anniversary of the Capitol riots — cannot be dismissed as merely “an event.” A 37-year-old woman, Renée Nicole Good, a mother of three, was shot and killed by a federal ICE agent during an immigration enforcement operation. She had just dropped off her youngest child at school. Shortly thereafter, her life was over. 

Just like that. And why? And why are we not more outraged? Why is Donald Trump sitting in the White House yucking it up with oil tycoons on how they are going to divvy up Venezuela?

According to her wife, Renée was armed with a whistle. A whistle – that's it. It is something that is becoming trendy in neighborhoods to alert others when ICE agents are present. Sad, right?

Renée parked her SUV perpendicular to the road, blocking a single lane of traffic in what was clearly a symbolic gesture. She waved cars around her. Multiple vehicles passed without issue, including that of the ICE officer who would later kill her.

Another ICE vehicle then approached from her driver’s side. People can be heard saying “go around.” Renée can be seen motioning for the vehicle to do exactly that. Instead, the agent stopped, jumped out of his vehicle with his partner, and rushed toward her car screaming at her to “get the f*** out of the car.” He reached into her vehicle with one hand while attempting to open the door with the other.

From here, there are two versions of events: the government’s story, and what really happened..

Renée, panicking — as anyone would — reversed her car slightly and then put it into drive, turning her wheel to avoid the officer who, inexplicably, was standing directly in front of her vehicle. As she attempted to steer away from the screaming, armed man leaning into her driver’s side window, her car brushed against the guy in front. He easily moved aside, slid along the side of her vehicle, and then fired his first shot into the car.

Once he regained his balance and planted his feet, he fired two more shots into the driver’s side window at point-blank range — at her head.

On the recording captured on the officer’s own phone, you can hear someone — presumably him — say, “F***ing bitch,” as her car rolls forward and she dies.

You can watch the video yourself and draw your own conclusions. Speaking not as a Democrat or Republican, but as a human being with functioning eyes and ears, I do not understand how anyone can watch that footage and conclude this woman posed a lethal threat to a trained, armed federal officer.

The Response

Within minutes of the shooting, the President of the United States publicly praised the shooter and framed the victim as “very disorderly,” claiming she had “violently, willfully, and viciously run over the ICE officer,” adding that it was “hard to believe he is alive.” This narrative was pushed before any independent investigation could occur, before all evidence was reviewed, before the public could process what it had just witnessed.

They didn't count on multiple videos showing otherwise.

It didn't matter in their alternate universe. The following day, the administration doubled down.

Vice President J.D. Vance entered the White House press room not to calm tensions, not to express grief, not to show compassion — but to attack the dead. You know – the same thing Republicans accused the left wing of doing a couple of months ago when Charlie Kirk was murdered. 

Jimmy Kimmel almost lost his late night talk show gig because of making an innocuous reference to Kirk and his followers. Kimmel was crucified for days on end and had to deliver a tearful mea culpa before being allowed to return to the air.

But the Vice President of the United States had no problem calling a news conference at the White House and referring to Renée Good as “that woman,” calling her death “a tragedy of her own making,” and accusing her of being part of a “broader left-wing network” seeking to attack and dox law enforcement.

Dox?

There was no compassion in his voice. No humility. No sense that a life had been taken. Just venom – towards the victim, towards the media, towards anyone who saw things any other way.

An innocent woman died exercising a peaceful, symbolic act of protest, and the Vice President of the United States stood before the press and told the country she deserved it.

Do we have no shame left?

Have we lost all sense of compassion?

Do we really not see what is happening here? Are we just going to carry on like this is normal?

In a year when our democracy should be preparing to celebrate its 250th anniversary, we are watching it get dismantled piece by piece — not by foreign enemies, but by our own leaders. Democracy is being destroyed brick by brick just like the East Wing of the White House.

And not a peep. Let's just wait for the next domino to fall.

This is not a Democratic or Republican problem. This is a human problem.This is a human failure.

The Trump Effect

One person pulled the trigger — the shots — that killed Renée Good. But he is not the only one responsible.

There are more than 77 million accomplices to this death. Every person who voted to put Donald Trump back in charge of this country has blood on their hands today. They gave this drunk driver the keys to the car and are allowing him to drive it.

If Donald Trump had not been elected President on November 5, 2024, Renée Good would be alive today. She would be sitting on her couch, watching TV, playing with her children, planning birthdays and vacations and futures. Instead, she became collateral damage in a war our president is waging with the American people.

Little did she know that as networks projected Trump’s victory that night, a verdict of death — not just for her, but for countless others — was being handed down.

Following Renee Good's murder, tensions between Minnesota’s leadership and the federal government quickly escalated into an unprecedented standoff. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey forcefully condemned Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s presence in his city, telling federal authorities to “get the f*** out of Minneapolis." He went on conservative news shows and had to answer questions about his words inciting violence. 

“I dropped an F-bomb; they killed somebody. Which one of those is more inflammatory?”

It is just absurd that he would need to defend himself.

Governor Tim Walz pushed back fiercely, as well. You remember Tim Walz? He was Kamala Harris' vice presidential nominee who had the nerve to run against Trump-Vance. 

Trump has repeatedly attacked Walz personally — calling him “seriously retarded,” saying he had “something wrong with him,” and dismissing him as “whacked out” and “a mess."

After two Minnesota lawmakers were shot in June 2025, Trump refused to call Governor Tim Walz, calling him “whacked out” and saying it would be a “waste of time” — a stunning abandonment of basic presidential decency after violence.

You're going to tell me Trump sending agents to Walz's state is not politically motivated or personal? Trump is using ICE as his personal Gestapo.

In a move not seen since probably the George Wallace days of desegregation in the 1960's, Walz has activated the Minnesota National Guard to protect its citizens… from the federal government. 

Just think about that for a second. It is almost like an act of civil war.

How Many More Need to Die?

How many people – in addition to Renée Good – are dead today who otherwise would not have been had Trump not been elected president in either 2016 or 2024?

Five people died during the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021. Four responding officers later took their own lives, their families specifically blaming their suicides to the trauma of that day. Would those nine people still be alive if Trump hadn't spent the months following the 2020 elections telling lies and encouraging his followers to march down to the Capitol and "fight" to "take back" their country?

How many more people died during COVID-19 because of complacent leadership that downplayed the threat, mocked "science," and seriously wondered aloud about the effectiveness of injecting disinfectant? I know deaths were inevitable, but how many deaths could have been avoided? Thousands? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? I lost people. Many of us did.

How many more Ukrainians died when Trump cut off all U.S. aid to the country for over a week following a confrontation in March 2025 when Trump's vice president – no doubt at the president's bidding, as usual – scolded the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for not showing the proper reverence to Trump while sitting in the Oval Office?

And then there is Venezuela.

Trump — the candidate who ran on “America First” and mocked Democrats for regime-change wars — authorized kidnapping the President and First Lady of Venezuela. Venezuelan sources claimed upwards of 75 civilian deaths. 

But who cares, right? They weren't Americans. But American troops were placed in danger for a mission that had nothing to do with democracy and everything to do with oil.

There are more than fifty authoritarian regimes in the world – almost one-third of the world's nations. I'll sit here and wait until Trump steps in to help those other fifty countries. 

Oh wait – might he be fixated on Venezuela because it sits atop the largest proven oil reserves on Earth — more than Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, or Iran?

He has openly stated the United States will run Venezuela until the Venezuelans are "ready" to run it themselves. He has also stated the United States has a right to get back “our oil,” which he thinks rightfully belongs to the United States. 

And none of this should be a surprise.

Remember when we all thought he was joking about adding Canada as the 51st state. Just this week, he has been emboldened to rehash his claims to annex Greenland “whether they like it or not.” He also joked with his Middle Eastern friends, last year, that the Gaza Strip could be developed and made into the "Riviera of the Middle East" – presumably once they clear all the rubble and dead bodies.

Colombia and Iran have been put on notice, as well.

Final Thoughts

We are approaching the 250th anniversary of the United States, and I am telling you now, it will not be a happy moment for me. Just a couple of years ago, I was looking forward to it. But a lot has changed. And it doesn't have to do entirely with Donald Trump.

Trump has a lot to do with it, but the problem is bigger than just one person. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of feeding his already immense ego by claiming he has that much power. One person does not rise to his position without support (i.e. votes, donations)… and continue to hold that position without being given permission to do so.

No, the bigger problem is that when we look at Trump on the TV screen, we are looking at ourselves, as a society, in the mirror. We are looking at the de-evolution of humankind. 

So I repeat the opening question of this article – What have we become?

I no longer feel safe in my own country — even doing something as simple as walking out to my car in my own driveway. I don't feel safe driving to the supermarket. It almost feels like the horror movie, The Purge, where lawlessness prevails.

We should all be alarmed by what happened to Renée Good. Tomorrow, it could be our name in the news as a victim of something or other – soon to be forgotten when the next news cycle comes around and the next "victim" arises. Just another blip on the radar of history. 

My ego is not so big as to believe that I could be viewed as a target because I wrote an article like this one, but it is absurd that I even have to be concerned one iota about it.

Hey – who knows what Donald Trump might find, by accident, when he is doing a Google search of his name at 3 in the morning.

My fear has nothing to do with political affiliation. It has to do with the direction we are heading as a people. It is the number one reason I chose to never have children. When my time on this earth is done, it is done. I don't have to worry about my kid's futures or my grandkid's.

But, shit, I didn't think I'd have to worry about the world coming to an end in my lifetime.

That is why I keep coming back to Renée. Because she was not a threat, just like you and me. She was not an enemy. She was a mother. A human being. And she is dead.

Our forefathers – people who were a hell of a lot smarter, compassionate, and courageous than our leaders today – began the Declaration of Independence, "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands" which binds them to someone else, "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes" of the separation.

It states we are all created equal and we are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. This applies to everyone – you, me, Renee Good… every one.

Essentially, leave me alone and I will leave you alone.

The Declaration of Independence  goes on to state that "whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government." It is a shame that on the 250th anniversary of the start of our Great Social Experiment, we need to be reminded of these things. And maybe come to the conclusion that the experiment has run its course.

We are, at this very moment, positioned in an era that will be dissected by history. If this country survives, children a hundred years from now will study this era the way we study the American Revolution we will be celebrating this year. They will be taking a microscope to see how democracy responded when democracy was tested by an individual who tried to usurp power for himself. They will debate if we were right to turn a blind eye and trust our government to do right for its citizens. Or if we were right to stand up and make our voices heard that our social experiment will not fail, 

"Not on my watch!"