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We’ve seen another Minnesotan’s life end in footage shared widely online: that of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis resident, shot dead by federal agents on Saturday, Jan. 24 in the middle of our streets.
For us — for our community — this isn’t an unfamiliar story or abstract headline. The senseless and tragic images of his final moments will stay with us, sit heavy in our chests, and replay in conversations around kitchen tables, in classrooms and at offices across the state.
The killing of Pretti may neither be shocking nor surprising for some. But for many of us, moments like this one can feel sudden and surreal. We watch the recordings and feel fear in our bodies while our brains instinctively transition to survival mode.
The vigilance and anxiety we are feeling right now are normal and human, and they are exactly why we need to tend to our mental health as deliberately as we tend to how we are responding in the milieu of ongoing ICE aggression, harassment and intimidation.
The nervous system activates and the brain prioritizes threat upon witnessing or anticipating harm. It does so by shrinking its capacity for connection, empathy and long-term thinking. In the face of repeated trauma, the body and mind often shut down, not out of indifference but from exhaustion. This is the nervous system doing what it was built to do: protect us from overload.
To remain present in this moment — mentally, emotionally, socially, morally — we need tools to help us regulate rather than retreat. Practices as simple as grounding our attention in our bodies, slowing our breath or reaching out to a trusted friend are not mere self-care but rather skills for survival.
