Human Rights Stories That Deserve to Be Heard.

Climate anxiety among young people is rampant and well-documented. It was around this time that huge numbers of high school and middle school students around the world were participating in the weekly Fridays For Future school walkouts inspired by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg. We adults worried about their anxiety and applauded their idealism, but most of us nevertheless failed to put meaningful pressure on politicians to take action.

As I sit with everything happening right now – especially the fear and uncertainty many families are living with in light of increased ICE activity – it feels important to share this. These are heavy realities, and they’re landing very differently depending on where you stand. But for many people, this moment isn’t abstract or political. It’s about whether it’s safe to go to work, to take your kids to school, to drive home at the end of the day.

Life in the Twin Cities is heavy right now. Not just in the headlines, but in our bodies. You can feel it in the way conversations start mid-sigh, in how quickly energy moves from alert to exhausted, from activated to withdrawn. This weight isn’t abstract—it’s familiar, frightening and cumulative. For many of us, it feels like we are being asked—again—to carry grief, anger, fear, and responsibility all at the same time.