Let's Help Each Other!
Serious and silly suggestions for this week
First, thank you for hanging in there with me. It’s been a minute. At the end of 2025 I had a little burnout and with the start of 2026 news (Venezuela, Maduro kidnapping, ICE public murders of Keith Porter Jr, Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and more, Iran, Greenland, and general awfulness), I didn’t know what to write about.
On January 8, I celebrated my birthday and I will eventually share highlights/suggestions for celebrating your birthday in New York in the winter. But first, if you are as upset about ICE murdering people and detaining young children (and adults!) as I am, I want to encourage you to channel your outrage in a way that helps people/communities who are being targeted by ICE. I’m a fan of protests but there’s more to do/other ways to engage. Listing some suggestions here that are some of the best recommendations I have seen on the internet. In full transparency these are suggestions I saw on Instagram from two accounts I follow and like—The Financial Diet and Brittany Packnett Cunningham—you can go directly to their pages to see what they said or read the summary below of their suggestions:
Donate money to organizations that help provide lawyers and or contribute to local immigrant bond funds:
https://raicestexas.org
https://nipnlg.org
https://www.justice4all.org
AMICA CENTER FOR IMMIGRANT RIGHTS
https://amicacenter.org
https://maketheroadny.org
The above suggestions are from The Financial Diet and you can see their post here.
The following is from Brittany Packnett Cunningham, activist and strategist active at Ferguson: You can see her post here.
Listen to/follow local MN voices such as @indigenousfoodlab @racialjusticemn @sahanjournal @mplsmutualaid on Instagram. A personal favorite of mine is @bobbyrogers_ on IG.
Use your platform for information/activation
Amplify the most marginalized people
Improve your own (or help someone else improve their) media literacy so they/you/we don’t fall for lies or propaganda
Consider getting trained as a legal observer (from Angela Bushman on Threads—linked to Brittany’s post)
Contribute to mutual aid funds including immigrant legal aid funds (from Angela Bushman on Threads)
If you drop your children off at school, set up a watch so that immigrant parents can safely drop off their children at school and ask school administrators what safety measures are in place (from Angela Bushman on Threads)
Support immigrant owned businesses
Call your representatives and tell them not to fund ICE. Use the 5 calls app. You can use this script I saw on Instagram:
”Hi, my name is __ and I’m a constituent from city and zip code. I’m calling you to urge NAME OF YOUR REP to oppose any appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security that maintains any funding for ICE. Thank you for your time and consideration.” There’s also an Abolish ICE Act introduced by Michigan Congressman Shri Thanedar that you should call your congressperson about and and ask them to support the bill.
ME—and a lot of people on the internet: Get to know your neighbors, maybe create a phone tree, actually start talking regularly to your neighbors. Keep each other informed about what’s happening in your neighborhood. Everything we’re seeing in MN is probably going to happen in other states and we’re all going to need each other’s help.
SOMETHING FUN AND FOOD RELATED!
In fun and non-political news: I bought a galette des rois, also known as a king’s cake or an epiphany cake. In France, where they’re from, they’re sold after Christmas at the start of Epiphany on January 6 and (sometimes) for the rest of January. The galettes are made of puff pastry with a tender midsection stuffed with almond frangipane. It’s honestly one of my favorite French pastries and generally one of my favorite things to eat in the winter. Since my birthday is January 8, I like to treat myself to a galette des rois on or just after my special day. This year I bought one ($40) at Heritage Bakery next to Bryant Park. I also saw one at Dominique Ansel’s bakery but it costs $60 and I’m on a budget like everyone else and wanted to find my treat for less. 10/10 recommend Heritage’s galette des rois! Share it with friends.
