My last Letter from the Editor came in our first edition of fall term, back in September 2025. In it, I wrote about being followed home by drones after covering a protest at the Eugene Federal Building. At the time, it felt like one of the most egregious attempts at intimidation imaginable in a country that has had freedom of the press and freedom of speech enshrined in its spine for nearly 240 years.

Either that feeling was incredibly naive, or our country over the five months has moved toward unimaginable levels of repression. After much reflection, I have concluded the truth is lost somewhere in between.

For on the third day of winter term, Renée Nicole Good — a peaceful protester in Minneapolis — was gunned down in her vehicle by a federal agent. Two and a half weeks later, it happened again. This time it was 37-year-old Alex Pretti — disarmed and gunned down in the street amid a tussle with federal agents.

Three days later, our Emerald team was back at the Eugene Federal Building covering a peaceful candlelight vigil for Pretti when federal agents — unprovoked — began chasing protesters and press alike, firing tear gas canisters and pepper balls.

Three days after that, we were back out being tear gassed during what the Eugene Police Department declared an “active riot.”

The next night brought more of the same — dozens of agents outnumbering protestors and the press, firing across streets and parking lots, aiming at anyone in sight.

I personally, that third night, was chased through the bushes by a Department of Homeland Security agent who was shooting pepper balls while I yelled “press, press, press” — which I ironically rank as the second most naive thought of the year — to think that in our modern day my glowing press jacket, camera or verbal announcements of my role mattered to agents in the slightest. In fact, I would argue it was an even bigger target on my back.

I don’t provide this anecdote in search of sympathy or pity, but rather because I believe it defines not only our campus, city or even our country — but our new world reality. From Eugene, Oregon, to Minneapolis to Tehran, Iran and so many more places, the fundamental value of free speech has proven to be far less free than many of us once believed.

Gallery • 6 Photos

Saj Sundaram

A Department of Homeland Security officer fires a chemical weapon outside the Eugene Federal Building in Eugene, Ore., on Jan. 7, 2026.

None of this is to suggest that America is not a free country. Compared to a place like Iran — where thousands have been killed in recent crackdowns for expressing dissent — it plainly is. But that freedom exists on a morally warped scale, where the benchmark for liberty becomes simply not being the worst place in the world to speak.

As if the past few months could not feature anything more unprecedented than chemical munitions being routinely used on peaceful protesters in a small American city, and speaking of Iran, our term is ending in the midst of war in the Middle East — sparked by yet another unprecedented U.S. attack on Iran.

The last print edition of each term at the Emerald tends to be a photo story of our top images that tell the story of the term. When considering the photos of the term for this final edition of winter term, I initially pulled pictures of tear gas, then the typical roundup of basketball, acrobatics and tumbling, softball and public events.

But it quickly dawned on me that this term was anything but typical — one marred by violence in every sense of the word, from Eugene to Tehran and now across the broader Middle East. Mixing protest photos with sports or campus events would risk diluting something so extraordinary and unacceptable into just another dot on the map of a long, event-filled term.

Therefore, we dedicated this edition to our top protest photos and coverage from the term — because the moment calls for it.

In recent weeks, I’ve continually found myself reflecting on how recent world events have made the events of late January in Eugene, Oregon — and what our community and Emerald team experienced — feel almost minuscule. But then I have to remind myself that I’m slipping back onto that scale that begins with repression and ends with mass casualty, a scale that no truly free society should ever have to measure itself against.

So whether that injustice takes place here in Eugene at the hands of a power-tripping DHS agent with a pepper ball, or through the American military dropping bombs on girls’ schools in Iran, the principle remains the same.

These photographs are not just images from a turbulent term or a chaotic month — they are a record of a moment that deserves to be seen, remembered and questioned, regardless of where it falls on that scale.