We are following developments now from Charlotte, North Carolina, where hundreds of people gathered tonight at a local church, in the middle of a Monday, to prepare for the federal immigration raids that have been hitting cities across the country. What’s happening here is remarkable. This is not a demonstration. This is not a protest in the traditional sense. This is community members, neighbors, coming together to train, to prepare, to protect each other. The organization behind it, SMRA North Carolina, has been working on this since 2017, since the first Trump administration. They’ve been preparing for a moment like this. And now, with ICE and Border Patrol operating locally, all of that planning is coming to fruition. People are learning real, practical things. How to conduct neighborhood patrols. How to respond if federal agents show up. How to protect each other safely. And it’s working. Volunteers like Jenny, a teacher who attended the training, described seeing someone being detained. But the presence of these community members, distributing information, supporting neighbors, actually prevented the detention from going forward. They let him go. That is real impact. That is real resistance. And the training isn’t just about logistics. They are teaching songs, like This Little Light of Mine, to maintain morale, to stay peaceful, to remain positive in the face of intimidation. Whistles in hand, people are learning to document activity, to make sure that those federal agents understand that their actions are being watched, recorded, and challenged. What’s striking here is the cumulative knowledge being built. Charlotte didn’t have much notice that these raids would happen this weekend, but organizers are applying lessons learned from Los Angeles, from Chicago, from other cities that were targeted first. Each city informs the next. Each city gets smarter. Each community becomes more resilient. The turnout tonight — no empty seats, over 300 people — shows the depth of preparation and commitment. And the organizers are expecting more. More trainings, more community support, more coordinated responses in the days ahead. This is a model of grassroots resilience in real time, and it’s a direct, visible pushback against what federal authorities have been attempting to do. The people in Charlotte, like communities in other cities, are showing how ordinary citizens can organize, learn, and protect one another in the face of federal overreach. And that is the story tonight. Real communities standing up, learning from each other, and refusing to be intimidated.