Renee Nicole Good, who was shot dead Wednesday by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, poses in this family photo posted in 2017 on her mother’s Facebook page. (Obtained by CNN)
By Hassen Lorgat
A piece of me died the other day
Far away in Minneapolis
Her name was Renee Good
Renée was a GOOD person.
She heard the whistle’s call for solidarity
and turned up
to stand with humans under fire.
One of us was murdered there.
Her wife, Becca, speaks of sunshine,
and comradely love Renée breathed -every day
“On Wednesday, we stopped to support our neighbors.
We had whistles.
They had guns.”
It took three angry bullets,
fired by an ICE-cold killer
in broad daylight—
like Gaza—live on our screens.
Social media activists exposed him:
Jonathan Ross, a machine gunner from Iraq.
His bosses say he makes America safe.
We say it is daylight murder and robbery of a life
On the corner of 34th and Portland,
a makeshift monument sprouts, defiant.
Others branch out everywhere…
Poets, priests, rabbis, imams
join the militant youth and ordinary folk
in prayers, tears and song
bearing gifts of a lust for life
against hate, want, and fear.
One of us died there on that day
Renée was a GOOD person—
a poet, mother, activist, now a martyr.
She responded to the call to be witness
and died in the line of service.
“Fucking bitch,” the killer screamed,
firing three times.
He did not see the disease he came to cure,
or the three children—15, 12, and 6.
“This is domestic terror,” say the leaders, misnaming.
“Self-defense,” they claim.
“Done according to his training,” his backers bark through megaphones.
In broad daylight. On our screens.
Far away, Netanyahu and his generals smile…
Renee was a GOOD comrade
She was more than the leaders of her country
Instead of prayer and healing
They ramped up the hate
Trumped-up charges
to adVance a programme of Hate thy Neighbour
Becca’s words and their comrades’ work
will one day return
to haunt the small men in that white house
who hurl daily insults,
calling people garbage from shithole countries.
They fear leading a country with compassion
So they fuel the fiery embers of enmity.
They killed a GOOD person that day
It could have been any of us
We must still stand with the movements from below
As I finish this poem,
angry xenophobes at the bottom of Africa
are targeting foreigners at schools.
Yesterday, they were at the public hospitals.
Minneapolis is everywhere.
What would GOOD do?
Listen for the whistle of solidarity.
When the authorities stand-by, condone,
we will organise and turn up and say:
“You are not alone.”
Hassl 15 /01/2026
Photo courtesy NPR
