“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” – Jesus
Friends,
Yesterday, Alex Pretti was a 37-year-old ICU nurse at a Minneapolis VA hospital, a US citizen, and an ICE observer, who put his body between two women and the ICE agents who were brutalizing them. He was, because he is dead today. As Pretti, a US citizen, was exercising his First Amendment right to protest ICE raids, he was also exercising his Second Amendment right to carry a firearm, which he was licensed to do. As he was pepper-sprayed in the face, at least six ICE agents pulled him to the ground and began to kick and beat him. Within 30 seconds of placing his body between those women and the ICE agents, Alex Pretti had been shot 10 times in the back. Dead.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem accused Alex of committing an “act of domestic terrorism” – as the Administration did after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good on January 7 – while President Donald Trump blamed Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for Pretti’s death, saying they “are inciting Insurrection.” Meanwhile, eyewitness video shows an ICE agent disarm Pretti and walk away with Pretti’s handgun moments before the other officers fire 10 rounds into his back. A neighbor, who is a physician, found ICE agents with the body propped on its side, counting bullet holes, rather than administering first aid.
An American citizen shot dead by his own government. For exercising his constitutional rights. And for demonstrating the love that Jesus would have us all show one another.
Of course, our country’s Indigenous communities might tell us that their experiences in this country over the last 400 years are finally coming to the rest of us. And it is long past time for those of us who claim to follow in the footsteps of a 1st Century Indigenous teacher and healer named Jesus to do as he did. To lay down our lives for one another. No matter if the person we put our body next to shares the same skin color as we do, or citizenship status, or political views, or religious affiliation.
To be a follower of Jesus is to give your life for the life of others. To that end, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, Rob Hirshfield, told his clergy that the time has come “to get their affairs in order, to make sure they have their wills written, because it may be that now is no longer the time for statements, but for us with our bodies, to stand between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable.”
After 2,000 years of listening to Jesus’ call, are we ready to follow him?
On Friday, clergy in Minneapolis-St. Paul called for a General Strike, in which hundreds of businesses closed, thousands stayed home from work and school, and at least 50,000 people took to the streets and 20,000 filled a sports arena in protest of the ICE occupation of Minneapolis. At the MSP airport, dozens of clergy were arrested, as they gathered to call on Delta and MSP to stand with the people of Minneapolis against ICE. Over 100 clergy staged a seven-hour sit-in at the Target headquarters, as they demanded to speak with the CEO about Target’s cooperation with ICE. Across, MSP, clergy and activists are organizing public song as resistance at ICE staging areas.
Many of us may have wondered what we would have done if we had lived during the Civil Rights Era. Well, friends, wonder no more. We are in the midst of a struggle for the basic rights and dignity of our neighbors. We are alive today, and we are alive together.
“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
Join us in the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery in this movement towards life and liberation for all. Support organizers on the ground in MSP, here (with Minneapolis noted on your contribution). Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or our blog.
