What happens is that you get two copies of the same letter, and they spell your name wrong.
During the ICE crisis in Minnesota in January, I was looking for ways to help from my chair. I’ve given up on protesting–it doesn’t do anything, and if it does, the effects take too long to achieve. People were dying and getting kidnapped now. Plus it was a very cold Winter, and driving all the way down to Minneapolis is no longer something I wanted to do (fun fact: I went to a Twins game yesterday and with all the road construction, it took ninety minutes to get from eastern Lake Minnetonka to our seats. You can drive across the state in that amount of time.) I thought I had written a post about this, but I guess not.
But I kept looking for something I could do. This post came across my Instagram feed and caught my attention. There’s no better way to help than in using some skill you have that others don’t. You have a power others don’t and you can use it for good. Sounds like the definition of a superhero to me. I wasn’t sure how my crocheted dragons could help ICE-vulnerable families, but ours is not to question why.
With it, I found an article about “what you can do to help if you’re an introvert”. I got excited, but its material wasn’t as innovative as I was hoping, not like the event above. They’re all the typical fare–contribute money, write to your congressman, etc. I didn’t see how any of this would help. It’s the same thing everyone does/can do, and because it’s so non-novel, it gets little attention. But I did it anyway, because that’s what it recommended.
My letter went out on March 31st. I got a reply back on June 1, 2026. Sixty-two days later. And on that day, I got two envelopes from the Senate office, both addressed to “Erik” Juneau. Both letters were the same content. “Thank you for sharing your views on ICE, etc. etc. … I continue to oppose legislation that would fund ICE, etc. etc…”
I mean, this is the issue: my politicians already are doing what I want them to do. This is happening at the federal level by an unchecked executive. Like a king sending troops onto the land of one of his lords. That’s the issue here–it’s one state that’s unlike the authority overseeing all fifty. It’s a strange power balance.
Oh, and by the way, ICE has not left–it’s still happening. People are being kidnapped from their homes; it’s just not being covered by the media–news or social. I don’t know why. There should still be videos of those Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six LARPers with the body of Paul Blart: Mall Cop talking big game, not knowing how to work a radio, and slipping on ice. Maybe they’re being shadowbanned. A big conspiracy by the billionaires behind these companies to hide the footage of ICE officers acting like The Punisher as played by Fatty Arbuckle.
But the fact that my senator took two months to write back, sent two of the same letter, and misspelled my name… I don’t have a problem with Amy Klobuchar as a senator. I have no complaints about the job she’s doing. There are already negative campaign ads out for her, making it sound like if Amy Klobuchar is re-elected, Minnesota will collapse into anarchy. Like one dinky senator is the tipping point between normalcy and The Purge.
But you only get one chance to make a first impression, and this result does not fill me with confidence about the future of my state’s representation in this country.
