Hello from “The Ice Chalet,” a hockey rink just west of downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, along Kingston Pike. It’s Thursday evening and I find myself one of only three spectators in the bleachers watching some of the finest amateur skaters in this city go at it mere hours after clocking out of their day job. 

To the Editor:

Adam Smith, GOP primary candidate for Congress in the 11th district, had this to say about actual legitimate rallies or protests: “Let’s define it — ‘terror’ is the use of violence or the threat of violence and/or intimidation in order to advance a religious, political or societal ideology, and that’s what we’re seeing firsthand right now in Minneapolis,” he said.

To the Editor:

Out with the old, in with the new: time for reflection, perhaps resolve; certainly time to separate fact from fiction, truth from lies. As Lord Chesterfield believed, “that refuse of fools and cowards.” 

To the Editor:

The Immigration Act of 1990 was the last time significant changes were made to legal immigration and is considered outdated for today’s challenges. In 2013 a bipartisanship bill passed the Senate with a strong majority, including provisions for border security, E-Verify and a pathway to citizenship, but failed to get a House vote due to lack of support from House Republicans. 

To the Editor:

I recently sent this letter to North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein.

I fear that the current deployment of ICE, CBP, a federalized National Guard, the FBI and the DEA is actually practice for the Trump administration’s seizure of voting machines in historically Democrat voting areas in the 2026 General Election.

To the Editor:

I wrote this letter to Congressman Chuck Edwards and thought it might be of interest to some others.

First of all, let me say that I am writing you because I am appalled at the killing of another American citizen on American streets by members of federal ICE and/or Border Patrol forces in Minnesota. This does not represent any sort of “immigration enforcement” I voted for. 

To the Editor:

The attitude of “I get up in the morning and go to work, come home tired and hope for the best” just isn’t going to work anymore. Especially if you are a three-time Trump voter.

This country is being ripped apart by a man who has intentionally divided the American people for his own gain and that of his wealthy friends. Take a close look at the Big Beautiful Bill and who it favors.

The first thing is to tame the rage so that you do not live in it all the time. Or worse, repressing it so often and so much that it calcifies into all-consuming despair. That won’t do. 

The next thing is to cultivate joy stubbornly and aggressively. You know, that “pursuit of happiness” business. It is not easy to do it in our madhouse of a country. You know it and I know it. 

Editor’s Note: This is the transcript of a recent voice memo Garret left for a friend of his on Thursday, Jan. 8, in the aftermath of the incident in Minneapolis, Minnesota, between a protester and an ICE agent. To note, both Garret’s father (U.S. Immigration) and grandfather (U.S. Customs) were career officers for the federal government (now retired). In 2003, Immigration and Customs combined to form ICE due to the Homeland Security Act of 2002.

Good afternoon. You’re probably slaving away at your [office] desk doing your favorite thing, which is working inside under fluorescent lighting, I would assume. [Laughs]. Oh, man, I don’t know where this message is going to go, but I just was wanting to vent about…[well], it’s almost hard to vent anymore, because it’s like every day is just this chaotic frustration of things outside of my [front] door and things across the country and things around the world. 

While President Donald Trump ran on slimming government bureaucracy — ostensibly the stated aim of the Department of Government Efficiency — given the state of post-Hurricane Helene aid, the Department of Homeland Security could perhaps fill an entire office with paperwork in need of Kristi Noem’s signature.