Can You Hear Me Now

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

Mahatma Gandhi

Renee Good was killed because she took the wrong way home after dropping her child off at school. Shortly before she was shot in the face, she spoke these words to her murderer.

“That’s fine, dude, I’m not mad at you.”

Less than two seconds after her killer, Jonathan Ross, fired his final shot into Renee, he muttered these words.

“Fucking Bitch.”

And yet the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and the FBI want us to believe that Renee was a domestic terrorist funded by George Soros and Antifa. They want us to disbelieve the words of peace we heard her speak. They want us to ignore the videos that show her turning the wheels of her car in an effort to get away from the ICE thugs. They want us to believe that Jonathan Ross was run over and rushed to the hospital when he clearly walked away after shooting Renee in the face.

Instead of speaking the truth and taking responsibility for Ms. Good’s death, they tell us that the punishment for not being afraid of ICE is death. They want us to believe that anyone who stands up to their Gestapo-like tactics is the same as Renee — a crazed terrorist. In short, they want us to cower in fear and blindly obey.

Evil smolders
behind fear and ignorance
ugly words and hateful actions
behind eyes that turn from bias and injustice
pretending there is nothing there to see

Evil smolders
behind lies and shiny teeth smiles
behind the knife and the gun
the pen and paper

In campaign speeches and ballot boxes
in flickering images
and crackling voices beamed into our brains
evil smolders until it’s faced
head-on and direct
until it’s doused with truth
and the ferocity of love

We Are All Renee Good

Meanwhile in the east metro suburb of Woodbury, Ryan Ecklund was forcibly dragged from his car and placed in an ICE detention center for nine hours. His so-called offense was that he followed and videoed ICE agents as they drove around his neighborhood. Never mind that at no time did he impede their way or step out of his car. Never mind the fact that following and recording law enforcement are both protected by the First Amendment. This right has been upheld in federal court, but clearly DHS feels they don’t need no stinkin’ laws to carry out their reign of terror.

What they want is to call the people of the United States anarchists and terrorists if they dare to push back on the horrors ICE is inflicting upon cities across the country.

Actually, you don’t even need to physically challenge ICE in order to become a target of their hateful tactics.

Just ask the daycare worker who was pulled from her place of work and taken away. Or the teacher who was arrested outside her Inver Grove Heights middle school. Or the governor of Minnesota and mayor of Minneapolis who are being investigated by the Department of Justice for speaking out about ICE terror — and just happen to be Democrats. Or the woman on her way to a medical appointment who looked foreign enough (i.e. not white) to be violently taken into custody for 10 hours. Spoiler alert, she is a United States citizen born and raised here. She also happens to be a good friend of my oldest son so this hits very close to home — as if it wasn’t already too close.

Just ask the millions of people that:

• care for the sick and elderly
• provide the world with food
• teach our children
• clean our houses
• didn’t vote for Trump and his hateful, racist ideology
• want to live their lives in peace
• practice a non-evangelical Christian faith
• believe that all human beings have worth

These are “criminals” that Trump rages about. These are the people he calls “the worst of the worst.”

Old-fashioned anti-immigrant prejudice always brings out some old-fashioned racists. Molly Ivins

We Know Better

According to Trump advisor, Stephen Miller (whom I am loathe to quote let alone type his name):

“To all ICE officers, you have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties and anybody who lays a hand on you or tries to stop you or tries to obstruct you is committing a felony. You have immunity to perform your duties and no one, no city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties. And the Department of Justice has made clear that if officials cross that line into obstruction, into criminal conspiracy against the United States or against ICE officers, then they will face justice.”

Sadly, we know what justice means to him and his fellow Republicans. It’s arresting and detaining innocent people. It’s harassing churches, schools, hospitals, neighborhoods, and restaurants. It’s smashing in car windows and dragging people to the street and into ICE vans. It’s dehumanizing human beings. It’s believing that ICE is entitled to shoot and kill anyone who doesn’t cower in fear or blindly obey their illegal and unconstitutional policies. It’s throwing canisters of teargas at peaceful protesters. It’s using language to distort the truth and hide their destructive agenda. It’s pretending to create a federal police force to protect Americans when in fact they are building a MAGA army funded by cuts to government services and healthcare.

It’s following the playbook of the Nazi brownshirts and it has no place in America. At least not the America I love and am willing to protect.

Not on my Watch

I started this blog as a way to document my post-retirement journey. I wanted to write about my struggles, spiritual path, joys, and random pondering — all the non-technical aspects of my life that my previous blog avoided. It was never intended to be a vehicle to document the rise of authoritarianism and the occupation of American cities. But sadly, here we are and I can’t sit back and ignore what is happening all around me. They brought this fight to me. To us.

I also cannot ignore that by caring about my community and the world at large, I am now being labeled a terrorist. I am called a crazed, left-wing lunatic because I believe in love, truth, dignity, respect, and peace.

Their words are yet another way to dehumanize anyone who stands up to their tactics. It’s all part of their campaign of othering and distraction. Look at what these “communist whackos” are doing and stop asking questions about Jeffrey Epstein and all those abused children.

Faith makes all things possible. Love makes all things easy. Dwight L. Moody

When your house is ablaze you yell “fire!” When you come across a drowning man or woman, you throw them a rope. When your neighborhood is being terrorized by masked thugs, you don’t just sit back and observe. You shout “Not on my watch!”

Did you hear me? Not on my watch! Repeat those words over and over until they become part of your DNA.

Not on my watch!

Not on my watch!

Not on my watch!

If this makes us domestic terrorists in the eyes of a would-be dictator and his enablers, then so be it. They can call us anything they want. We don’t scare that easily. We know who the real terrorists are and they don’t look or act like you or me. They look like those masked storm troopers who have invaded cities and states across America. They look like the Republicans in Congress that allow this madness to continue. They look like the mob that stormed the capital on January 6th.

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. Confucius

Please join with me to help stop this assault on our democracy. Know this. We are only helpless if we allow ourselves to be. Let’s turn “Not on my watch!” into “Not on our Watch!”

Our friends, neighbors, families, and community need us to step up to this very big job. The world needs us to stop the madness. Yesterday it was Washington D. C. and Chicago. Today it’s Minnesota. Tomorrow it’s another state with a Democrat Governor. Who knows what comes after that? This destruction is only bound by our willingness to do nothing about it. Take action now before it’s too late.

Thank you for Reading.

I fight for her
the girl who knows she is different
taunted and hated for being who she is
for the boy living in the shadow of fear
afraid for the knock that carries him away
for the timid and the voiceless
for the lost and the forgotten
the Christian
the atheist
the Muslim
the Hindu
the Jew

I fight with words and I fight with actions
with feet on the street
coins and dollar bills

And yes, I fight for myself
fiercely and forcibly
lest no one fights for me