In January of this year, in temperatures that were well below freezing, a gang of us stood in the snowy grass on Garfield Square. Literally being mocked by Trump Supporters, we were participating in a rally and a candlelight vigil for a young woman who was just shot to death by an ICE agent. A reporter approached and asked us why we were there. I found myself at a loss for words and couldn't give her a clear answer. I had so many reasons for being there that I just didn't know where to begin.
Unhappy with my lack of clarity, I put these paragraphs together to send to the newspaper. I almost forgot about them until there was another shooting this week. At that point I pulled them out again, made some revisions and was just about to post them on Facebook when I stopped. I asked myself if it was wrong to post something so "political" on a platform like this. Would I offend those friends of mine who had different points of view, and make them feel like I was imposing my views on them? Then there was a fourth shooting by an ICE agent without a body camera, and I realized that concern about people dying is a human one that should supersede whatever our politics are. Regardless of who we like or what we believe, we should all be on the lookout for whether the people who enforce our laws are being abusive and using excessive force. We have a responsibility to demand that a system be set up in which their behavior is properly monitored and regulated. We have a responsibility to demand that investigations of these types of incidents are thorough and unbiased, and that the appropriate actions are taken on the basis of them. Most important, people in the highest positions of authority need to be held to the highest of standards. As difficult as it may be, we have to be willing to talk about their behavior and its far reaching effects. This is what I wrote in January:
"We are now living in a country where power and control have become more important than human life. It didn't begin with the shootings in Minneapolis. It's a situation that has been developing over time. It began with a single message - that we do not have to respect each other. The first time Trump gave us that message was during the presidential debates, when he mocked and humiliated his political opponents, cutting them off and refusing to stop speaking when his turn was over. Then he tried to convince us that certain groups of people were inferior and did not deserve to have any rights. He has repeatedly violated the constitution and retaliated against people who spoke out against him. He sent people to torturous foreign prisons without due process and kept thousands housed in deplorable conditions. He murdered 126 people through boat strikes off the coast of Venezuela. He has even been ignoring the cries of his own people who keep begging him to make their lives more affordable. What message did we get from all of this? That our power lies in our ability to push other people around? That winning is more important than playing fairly? That we do not even need to be humane? It is that message that influenced the ICE agents to behave the way they did.
So what can we do about it? We must resist the normal human impulse to give the violent and aggressive a taste of their own medicine. Addressing violence with more violence will do nothing to change the message that created the problem in the first place. We must create a new message - that our power lies not in our ability to control others but in our ability to control ourselves. We must each commit to living by the principles of fairness, compassion and respect. Our Christian faith requires us to always treat others with human decency regardless of what they have done or how we feel about them. We must respect all people, not just the ones who share our views. We must respect all people, regardless of whether they return that respect to us, because we set an example and send a message to others with every little thing that we do.
Why did I attend the protest? Because too many people are being hurt by this administration. We all have a responsibility to stand up for the more vulnerable members of society. As Martin Niemoller once said, "First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the communists and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me."
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