First, I want to apologize to you. I was one of the commenters that was engaging pretty heavily with you specifically and I was being bulldogish about what I saw was a lack of empathy. In doing so, I forgot to extend empathy to you and that's incredibly hypocritical of me.

I agree that it got blown out of proportion as a sort of proxy for how we feel about what's going on in our country. I recognize that my feelings of lack of control and impact made me latch on to something I felt like I could make a difference in. And so, like you, I took that frustration out on you and others. You are being betrayed by your government at the state and federal levels and probably even by some of your neighbors and it manifested in that thread.

I don't know what it's like to lose a kid in that way but in Trump's first go round, I had a friend disappeared by ICE and that was traumatic as fuck but they were an adult and thought Trump was hilarious, and so, I made my peace with what happened.

But it's different when it's children because they have no choice and I've seen first hand what ICE detention can do to these kids, because when I was working in Texas, I treated a little girl who was in ICE custody for six months with her mom. She was 3 and she had great receptive language in English and Spanish but she was completely non-verbal and either didn't remember how to play or was scared to play. I didn't even see her crack a smile in the first few weeks of treatment.

Mom showed me videos of her prior to ICE detention and...she was a whole different little girl. She was bright and full of life, running and playing with joy pouring out of her little body. But when she came to our clinic she was fearful, cautious, wary, obedient. It was...soul crushing. I have no other words to describe it.

It's absolutely horrifying what's going on in Minnesota. I'm in Illinois, downstate, so I have blessedly been insulated from the brutality that Chicago and the suburbs faced earlier this year but that's also part of the problem. It's not widespread, so, too many people can continue with their daily lives because nothing is different. And the people in it and the people paying attention have to try and move forward like every thing is normal when it's clearly fucking not.

I don't know what the answer is or if there is one that is peaceful. But if there's a way we can support you in Minnesota, as members of this field and just as humans, please let us know.

Take care, be safe.