Imagine you are driving down a familiar route – maybe it’s your usual way to work, to drop kids off at school, or to shop at the grocery store. Traffic suddenly stops in front of you. Before you can really process what’s happening, four masked men in tactical gear jump out of a vehicle ahead of you.
This gang of masked men closes in on the car in front of you, shouting at the driver to get out of the car. Maybe the driver exits the car willingly, or maybe these masked men break the windows of the car first. Maybe there are others on the sidewalk, with phones out, yelling: “What’s your name? What’s your name? Who can we call?” This all happens in a matter of minutes. The car is left, running and abandoned, in front of you, as the men leave with the driver.
Friends, what would YOU do?
It might seem unimaginable, but this kind of scenario has become commonplace in Minneapolis, and in smaller towns and cities across Minnesota. Ordinary people are witnessing people being abducted in the midst of living out their lives. Those being taken include U.S. citizens.
While some media frame Renee Good and Alex Pretti as “protestors” who would still be alive if they hadn’t interfered with ICE operations, the reality on the ground is far different. Ordinary people are bearing witness to awful things, and are confronted, in real time, with a choice of how they will act.
Most of what is being framed as “protest” on the ground of Minneapolis is actually the work of organized community protection. Ordinary people are recording the interactions they bear witness to, so that there is evidence of any violations of constitutional rights, evidence of ICE agents’ misconduct, evidence of the detainment of young children.
We are caught in a narrative battle, where the lies spun by the administration directly contradict the evidence collected by people on the ground – people who are standing up to protect the vulnerable. The #EyesNotLies campaign, which calls people of faith to watch the video of Alex Pretti’s murder and retell what they saw with their own eyes, is just one way in which we are being called to hold fast to Truth in the midst of lies.
Scripture calls us to a deeper Truth too, that which is being lived out by everyday people in Minnesota:
“Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked”. Psalm 82:3-4
How can we follow the example of our relatives in Minnesota, in caring for and protecting the vulnerable? We must join the hands and feet already at work:
- Local to MN: Contact Gov Walz and demand he put in place an eviction moratorium
- National: Call your Senators TODAY to demand they block any DHS appropriations bill or Continuing Resolution that maintains funding for ICE. (The 5 Calls app can help)
- National: Join the National Shut Down: No work. No school. No shopping on Friday Jan 30th
