By the time this letter is published, we will be two weeks into 2026. Here are some highlights.

On Jan. 3, the U.S. military captured the president of Venezuela and his wife in a profit-motivated maneuver intended to distract us from the crises at home, such as housing affordability, millions losing their healthcare and the Epstein files, to name a few.

On Jan. 7, Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen and 37-year-old mother from Colorado, was shot and killed as she tried to drive away from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her dog was in the back seat.

Hours later, less than three miles from the site of Good’s murder, Border Patrol agents accosted students and teachers on Roosevelt Highschool property during dismissal, allegedly in pursuit of a suspect after a five-mile car chase according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Schools in the Minneapolis public school district were closed through Friday, Jan. 9 to protect teenagers and children from federal agents.

On Jan. 8, during a targeted traffic stop, federal agents shot two more people in Portland who the department alleges were members of the Tren de Aragua gang of Venezuela “let loose on American streets” by Joe Biden. The victims received treatment for their injuries at a local hospital and the incident is being investigated by the FBI as an “assault on a federal officer.”

As we enter this new year and a new semester, it’s evident that Technician is going to have a lot to cover. Of course, Technician traditionally covers happenings in our immediate Triangle-area, and we will continue to prioritize these stories. However, while the events in Minneapolis and Portland weren’t stories for Technician to cover, they are stories for Technician to respond to. And it is naive, at best, to assume events like these can’t transpire in Raleigh, too.

We are ready for when it does.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: Journalists have the immense responsibility of adhering to the fairness, accuracy and holistic representation championed by ethical reporters everywhere for the purpose of serving their respective communities. Everyone in the Technician’s newsroom carries this responsibility, and I can honestly say we carry it with pride.

But we can’t talk about fair and accurate reporting without talking about the blatant lies and misinformation being spread by President Donald Trump, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and others who value pride, power and division over humanity in the wake of Good’s passing.

We live in a country where Charlie Kirk was killed and people mourned him like a saint, saying that celebrating anyone’s death is vile and despicable. We also live in a country where Renee Good was killed and called a domestic terrorist by our president for trying to flee a threatening situation in which an apparently “trained” federal agent tried to remove her from her vehicle — and, a day later, people start prompting the AI Chatbot created by Elon Musk, called Grok, to generate an image with bullet holes to her face.

We live in a country where this woman’s last words to Jonathan Ross, the man who murdered her, were “I’m not mad at you” and his last words to her, after firing a bullet through the driver’s side window, were “Fucking bitch.”

When reporting on her death, Fox News anchor Jesse Watters used every play in the book to vilify, dehumanize and other Good.

After mentioning how Good had been disrupting ICE agents’ operations all day with a clip of Kristi Noem skewing and misrepresenting information through her teeth for almost 30 seconds straight, and after lying about how Good “gunned” her car straight at a federal agent despite playing video footage that legitimately shows otherwise, Watters used the segment to attempt to exempt Good from any sympathy whatsoever. He went on to describe her as a “self-proclaimed poet” (she was the Academy of American Poets Prize winner at Old Dominion University, by the way) with pronouns in her bio and a child from a previous marriage. Watters used language that would deliberately distance his audience from the victim in order to advance a hate-fueled, false narrative that is impressively out of touch with reality.

So, to be as clear as day: Fact-based and fair reporting is up against vitriol, fabrication and sorry excuses for democratic leadership. It’s literally up against a government that is shapeshifting into a fascist dictatorship as I write this.

Frankly, it often feels like no matter how many stories we publish, how many sources we talk with or how many public records we request, fact-based journalism doesn’t matter when the people in power are telling you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears as their final, most essential command.

Many of you need to read “1984” by George Orwell, by the way.

Anyways, this is where we can flip the script. Fact-based reporting is up against a lot, but we have its back. The ones spewing misinformation aren’t the ones in power — we are. You and me. Journalist or not.

I’ve often thought that editors-in-chief are supposed to be beacons of neutrality for their staff, and audiences, to look up to. That we are supposed to set an example for our organization’s emerging journalists to reference when going out there and getting the facts straight. I thought there wasn’t much room to demand a call for action and use my voice in my position because it would impede my credibility.

The truth is that a call to action and credibility can and should co-exist, especially now.

I don’t plan to be quiet about injustices and violations of human rights, nor should anyone else feeling disillusioned by the state of the world and the political climate being fostered by the president and the people who would blindly follow him into a bear’s den. I won’t let my position get in the way of standing up for human decency. I hope to use my position to advocate for it more.

Use your voice, your words, because it’s our most effective defensive tool against a country spinning out of control. Against a country that’s hitting every single mark on the “characteristics of fascism” checklist.

What we have to say matters. What I have to say matters.

So write to us. We will put your voice on blast.

Go to organized events. We will cover them.

Share resources. We will too.

You can say that everything I’ve said so far isn’t factual, that I’m pushing a one-sided agenda. But I’ll be the one on the right side of history. Technician will be on the right side of history.