The killings of protesters (Renee Good and Alex Pretti) and arrests of journalists (Don Lemon and Georgia Fort) in Minnesota is alarming. Having been born and raised in Minnesota, it’s affected me personally. I’m proud of my people standing up for the Constitution and trying to return Freedom to my country. Lately I’ve been reading books by Scandinavian writers, and I wanted to mention the Norwegian writer Tarjei Vesaas. He wrote the novel The House in the Dark during the Nazi occupation of Norway. He was engaged in the underground resistance and was prepared to give his life fighting against the Germans. In his free time, he wrote this novel and had to hide the manuscript in a tin pail, buried in his yard. The novel speaks directly to what it was like living in paranoia under a fascist regime with no freedom of the press, and what it was like trying to build a resistance network and secretly pass messages while under constant threat from the fascists. The novel is remarkably written almost as if in code, as if he were writing it in a way that the occupiers wouldn’t be able to understand. Form following function. Everything is metaphor and analogy, and in this way puts the reader in the perspective of one who must be vigilant and paranoid. For me this novel is a stark warning of how bad things could get, and a reminder that we need to stand up and prevent this from happen again… Also, on a related note, I was thrilled to see this NPR article about how the red knit Norwegian hat that was a symbol of resistance during the Nazi occupation of Norway is again being used as symbol of resistance to tyranny in the United States. https://www.npr.org/2026/01/31/nx-s1-5693767/red-hat-protest-minnesota