One can only assume the Milwaukee Avenue Messenger is a top choice for reading material amongst the ICE agents, Texas National Guard, and other federal provocateurs sent by this president to bully Chicago. They seem like a real literate bunch. Probably somewhere after Mein Kampf and The Art of the Deal, but before Hillbilly Elegy (and certainly before the Epstein files) they’re reaching for the latest Milwaukee Avenue Messenger to soak up some of that sweet-sweet poetry and to bask in the communal glow of our modest but mighty journal. 

That being the case, I’d like to take this opportunity to speak directly to them, here, now. I want to make sure they know—it’s not us, it’s you. You’re the problem, jagoffs. 

There was no crisis in Chicago before you got to town. Now, you’re the crisis. Your malevolent presence in our city. Your disregard for people’s rights. Your obvious lack of training. Your relentless entitlement. Your cruelty. Your blind obedience to a dazzlingly corrupt and openly fascist wannabe dictator.

Since Operation Midway Blitz began on September 8th, Chicagoans have lived with these gangs of armed, masked men swarming through our city in SUVs, snatching brown and black people off the street, making hundreds of people disappear. It’s some real secret police shit. Blackhawk helicopter buzzing overhead. Tear gas in the streets. Children restrained in zip ties. Members of the press and elected city officials manhandled. Peaceful protesters met with violence. Our mayor and governor threatened with jail.  

I haven’t seen average people this rattled since those first days of Covid, or right after 9/11. Everyone’s looking over their shoulder. Every time an SUV turns on to the block everyone holds their breath. Daily life is being disrupted and it only seems to be getting worse. Each new day brings another escalation, another violation, another provocation. We can’t believe what we’re witnessing. 

It’s heartbreaking for our communities and its horrifying for our republic. 

The Milwaukee Avenue Messenger is not, essentially, a political publication. Poetry, storytelling, and art are for everyone, and that’s what we do here. Our goal as a quarterly literary journal is to encourage empathy, compassion, and community engagement through the arts. It’s meant to bring people together, not drive wedges between them because of political ideology. 

But this publication is also rooted in a specific community. It’s right there in our name. We’re proud to celebrate and serve the vibrant communities of Chicago’s Milwaukee Avenue corridor. And right now, we see those communities under attack in cruel and unprecedented ways. As the publisher of this journal, and a resident of one of those neighborhoods, I feel a moral obligation to speak out against this. 

The Milwaukee Avenue Messenger stands with our neighbors and our community. We stand with immigrants. We stand with our local leaders against this blatant overreach of federal power. We call “bullshit” on the lies and the tactics. 

We call on the rest of you to look at what’s happening—in Chicago, in DC, in LA, in Portland—and to reject fascism in this country. The militarization of our Democratic strongholds, the slide toward authoritarianism, the retribution, the silencing of critics. These things should be setting off alarm bells for all Americans. 

And to ICE, Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi, Donald Trump, et al. (I’m sure all avid readers of these pages), I want you to know that this will not stand. Chicago will survive. The pendulum will swing. You will lose. 

Broad shoulders, bishes.