JANUARY 25, 2026 – I remember a disturbing moral question produced by a scene in the 1997 movie Titanic. A key factor in the actual disaster and depicted graphically in the film was the inadequate lifeboat capacity, which could accommodate only 50% of the passengers. This tragic reality led to the order that women and children would have lifeboat boarding priority over men. In the movie, Cal, the antagonist (and heir to a great fortune), attempted to bribe his way on. When First Officer Murdoch later threw the bribe money in Cal’s face and blocked him from boarding, the theater crowd cheered Cal’s comeuppance. We were granted additional self-righteous moral satisfaction when at the end of the screenplay, Rose—in her old age—revealed Cal’s ultimate fate: suicide after the 1929 market crash had wiped out his fortune.
But as we shuffled our way out of the theater, I wondered how I—or for that matter, any other man who’d watched the movie and cheered the scene—would have acted as the ship’s bow plunged into the black Atlantic and the stern reached for the stars. Would my survival instincts have swamped my moral code? Would I have conjured up rationalizations (e.g. “I have family waiting for me in New York!” or “My law firm needs me!” (just kidding)) to gain a seat in a lifeboat? I wanted to think that I’d make what I knew was the correct moral choice, but unless I found myself faced with a real-time test, I couldn’t be sure.
The uncertainty bothered me, and I resolved the dilemma by self-assurance that I’d probably never have to face such a horrible test.
Little did I anticipate the state of our country over a quarter century later. With the ICE raids, I have to consider the probability of finding myself in circumstances where I’d have to make what in the cool light of day—currently, the extremely cold light of day—is the correct moral decision.
There are multiple strata to this question. At one level is the recent example in St. Paul where a Door Dash customer had to choose between giving refuge to a delivery person ambushed by ICE or . . . to avoid trouble with ICE, keeping the door closed to the desperate screams of a stranger—a hunted human being.
At another stratum of possibility, is the case two miles south of our neighborhood, where ordinary people minding their own business were pumping gas at a C-store. A swarm of ICE vehicles roared in and surround the pump islands. Three goon squads pounced on the poor guy at the next pump, wrestling him to the pavement. Other customers immediately started videoing. If I’d been present, would I have whipped out my phone as well and start recording? Or would I have jumped into my car, laid a patch of rubber as I backed up and gotten the hell out of there?
Or, upon hearing whistles and car horns honking in close proximity to my neighborhood, do I grab a warm jacket, hat and gloves and walk toward the noise, then pull out my phone to record ICE goons roughing up other residents of the neighborhood who are also videoing—knowing, as I now do, that there’s a heightened risk of being shot not once, not twice, but four to six to nine times—while multiple goons are pinning me down so hard I can’t breathe even before I’m dead?
Given the cruelty that reigns supreme inside the White House, at the top of DHS and at the hands of 3,000 ICE Greenshirts here in Minnesota, the question, “How will I react?” is no longer remote or philosophical. Moreover, it’s far past politics. The question is now first and foremost a moral question.
Based on my close-up participation in Friday’s massive demonstration in downtown Minneapolis (some estimates put the number as high as 100,000 people) and other smaller protests, and further based on my conversations with friends, neighbors and acquaintances, I know that many people have been asking . . . and answering . . . the same question, “How will I react?” This gives me great confidence, because if enough people are thinking this way, it means our moral conditioning is strong, and given the amazing participation in Friday’s demonstration—in 10 below weather and before the cold-blooded murder of Alex Pretti—Minnesota is fielding a mighty force of morally strong resistance. I firmly believe that this example is infectious, and that the rest of America will stand just as tall, just as strong.
The fascists have blundered mightily. Regardless of how The Regime attempts to “control the narrative,” “spin the facts,” and otherwise engage in pathological denial of reality; and more critically, as much as they threaten us and try to instill fear, they have encountered hard, thick hull-battering ice in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Their ship is going down. What remains to be seen is whether in desperation and fear of accountability, Trump, Vance, Miller, Patel, Noem, Bondi and Bovino will resort to explosives and blow the sinking ship out of the water.
In any event, the names “Renée Nicole Good” and “Alex Pretti” will be well known in history as the two ICEbergs that sank a titanic vessel of political thuggery and moral bankruptcy.
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© 2026 by Eric Nilsson
