9. January 2026 – THE FLENSBURG FILES

January 7, 2026 will be the day that America is officially in a Civil War. And it started with a gunshot into the window of a woman’s car by an ICE agent on the streets of Minneapolis, in my home state of Minnesota. It followed with her death which could have been avoided had ICE allowed people to run to her assistance. What proceeded afterwards was mayhem with more bullying by ICE, and protests in the tens of thousands.

Renee Good was an ordinary citizen who wanted to avoid being in the line of fire. She was shot dead by an ICE agent as she wanted to back away from the scene. She leaves behind a six-year old who will never see both his parents ever again (his father died a few years earlier). Renee was just a typical, caring person and the name Good characterizes her like that, in the eyes of those who knew her and those who learned of her tragic, but unnecessary death.

And this is where John Pavlovitz comes in with his column which fits perfectly with my theme in this post. In his post, he looks at the war that we are now in, where there is no middle ground. Nor is there Republicans vs Democrats, liberals vs conservatives or any political line like this. We’re in a Civil War where there is Good vs Evil. And Pavlovitz points out the characteristics of both sides of the aisle. Please read it from start to finish, for it is probably the best pieces he has written to date. For sure it is one of the best I have written by any author.

But before you do, allow me to finish with this comment: If you are Good, you would find a way to end this madness and remove Trump, Vance and those glorifying this and suppressing the Americans from all posts in Washington. And I must say, Mid-Term Elections will not be enough. We need to learn from countries that have ended fascism and reestablish democratic governments, including those during the window frame of 1989 to 1992, and go outside our comfort zone to make it happen. Because we are now in our second Civil War in American history. And it’s a question of being Good or Evil. And for Renee’s sake, please be Good.

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Here’s John’s powerful piece:

It’s easy to oversimplify this life; to abandon nuance in favor of a simple, binary choice that leaves no room for complexity.

At times, we’re all guilty of such reductionism to escape the rigors of research and understanding.

But sometimes the occasion demands a simple decision.

Some moments are a sharp moral line, inviting us to declare a side.

Some moments are all-or-nothing, pass-fail tests of our very humanity.

This is where we are.

This moment is about whether we will stand with good or with evil.

Her name was Renee Nicole Good.

Good.

And she was good.

Goodness is easy to see.

Good pours itself out for its child.

Good does the same for others’ children.

Good writes and creates art and brings beauty into the world.

Good radiates warmth, generates laughter, and embodies kindness.

Good fiercely embraces both friend and stranger.

Good cherishes the disparate humanity around it.

Good loves its neighbors enough to move into harm’s way on their behalf.

Good bears witness to inhumanity and refuses to look away.

Good nurtures and protects life regardless of the cost.

And on a January morning in her Minneapolis neighborhood, Renee Nicole Good encountered Evil.

Evil declares a hollow, vicious, violent war on human beings for the color of their skin, all to curry the favor of a racist multitude.

Evil drives pregnant women’s faces into the pavement, it randomly kidnaps fathers, it zip-ties children, it abducts teenagers.

Evil terrorizes communities from behind the cover of armor and masks and unchecked power.

Evil brutalizes strangers without any rhyme or reason, emboldened by the belief that accountability will never come.

Evil brutally invades the life of a human being without cause or conscience.

Evil moves toward a terrified, fleeing mother, fires point-blank into her face, and casually walks away without a hint of remorse as she bleeds out.

Evil denies a dying woman medical care or any kind of tenderness in her final seconds.

Evil orphans a 6-year-old child and acts as if it has done something righteous.

And evil stands in front of the nation, and from the highest seats of power, lies through its teeth, adding insult to mortal injury, assassinating the character of an innocent human being, slaughtered for caring for a stranger.

Evil labels a murdered woman a domestic terrorist because it has so been consumed by a craven lust for power that it is allergic to truth and immune to empathy.

Evil floods its social media profiles with slander and falsehoods. It expresses no sorrow, no compassion, no grief at a young mother’s execution for nothing but the whims of a masked monster who should never have been in her neighborhood to begin with.

And make no mistake, evil remains silent right now.

I don’t know what kind of person you imagine you are, but I’m willing to bet you’d say that you were a good one. Most of us believe that.

But good is not expressed in our heads, but in the sum of our choices, about the people we decide to be in the tangible and concrete.

Good is about the discomfort we carry, the turbulence we step into, and the courage we display.

Good does not cower in the presence of evil.

Good does not wait for someone else to do something.

Good does not avert its eyes or cover its ears or scroll away from the nightmares of others, simply because the horrors have not yet reached them.

Good doesn’t allow itself to be so numbed by the legion of horrors around it that it is no longer able to respond.

Good does not abide evil in the places it calls home.

Renee Nicole Good died at the hands of evil, but we can make sure that she has the last word, that she did not die in vain, that Good will live on.

We cannot allow evil to prevail.

We cannot calm down or shut up.

We cannot let fear render us invisible or quiet.

We must be the people who take a side, who meet this moment, who declare that we have had it with hatred having the run of the house.

The choice could not be clearer, America.

Will we stand with Good or with Evil?

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Source: https://johnpavlovitz.substack.com/p/america-will-we-stand-with-renee

You can also subscribe to his page for more of his work. Highly recommended!

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And if you want to be Good, you can join the quest to boycott products and services by companies and agencies that support Evil (consisting of Trump, Project 2025 and everything with ICE and fascism in there. A bigger Big Beautiful Boycott list is in the making with some additions added in the comment section of the present-day list. Support companies that are for the Good (like DEI) and against Evil as mentioned. Get the word out there and be involved. Get to the source of the funding for these evil creatures and support those who want to end this nightmare that has captured Washington and cast a shadow on America and the rest of the world. Do this for your children. Do this for Renee and her next of kin. Do this for our future. Together we can achieve more than we think! ❤