I’m Not Mad At You (An Elegy for Renee Nicole Good)

A Song Against the Lie · Elegy in Plain Language

Jan 13, 2026

My state is under attack by the federal government.

Lyrics

Minneapolis winter, a neighborhood street
School run is over, the snow at her feet
Renee Nicole Good, with a dog in the back
Watching the line where the ice turns to black
Her window was open with his camera held near
She looked up at the man who didn’t belong there

She didn’t raise her voice or brace to run
Didn’t reach for anything, least of all a gun
She looked him in the eye like people do
And said, “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.”
Nothing rehearsed, nothing meant to last
Just a human moment passing fast

But Jonathan Ross didn’t care for the grace
He held up his phone while circling the space
Like a wolf in the winter, he stalked around
Seeking the angle, hunting the ground
He waited for the moment, he waited for fear
While her words of forgiveness still hung in the air

She turns the wheel, advances slow
He pulls his gun, letting the violence grow
One through the windshield, two to the head
To make damn sure she’d be pronounced dead
“I’m not mad at you”: Her final grace
Before his bullets ripped through her face.

You can’t kill the Good and call it domestic terror
You can’t murder the victim and smear the crossbearer
They forsook the good inside their hearts
Now they’re trying to kill the good in ours
They’ve forsaken the good, traded souls for control
And they’re shooting at the good in the soul of us all

He didn’t check her pulse, he didn’t check for breath
He just cursed the woman he had put to death
“Fucking bitch”—that’s what he said
While her brutalized body bled.
One voice offered mercy, one voice hate
And that’s the measure of the state.