They are killing the best of us
A real goddam American
Alex Pretti was executed
The United States of America contains over 350 million people, representing the entire range of humanity. Every day we are witness to the most selfless, the most peaceful, the most idealistic as well as the most paranoid, the most hateful, the most insecure. Now, a vocal contingent of the worst of us have been given the legal authority to execute anyone, including and especially the best of us, without trial or due process.
I did not know Alex Pretti. But you would be hard pressed to convince me that a man who is an ICU nurse at the VA, a position which must require a deep sense of service to others, and a strong faith that the moral arc of the universe indeed bend towards justice, is not among the very best of us. The authorities claim that this man was a “domestic terriorist”, that he was there expressly to kill, and that he purposefully brandished his weapon. These are claims with no evidence, and in fact all videos and sworn testimonies show the exact opposite to be true. That there was no raised weapon, no aggression on Alex’s part. In the process of helping another protestor who was shoved to the ground, he put himself in between them and the real aggressor, an indignant ICE agent, and was proceeded to be gangtackled, disarmed of his legal weapon from its holster, and only then executed in the street with multiple gunshots. It has been clear for a long time that the administration’s prerogative is not truth, but preserving their control and power. But this attempt to drag this good man’s name through the mud and tell you that your own eyes and ears are deceiving you just makes me want to vomit.
There is a video circulating of him honoring a veteran who had died in the ICU. Alex Pretti lived and breathed comforting and caring for those who return home with grievous physical injuries. I am not a veteran. I have never served, but I have tried, and I can remember what it was like for me when I tried to enlist. I can only think of how many young men Alex helped, men who signed when they were boys, who probably believed in the promises of this country. Men who now carry the trauma of injury, of loss, and maybe disillusionment and fury. You can’t help but think, how many dying veterans did Alex see? How many veterans did he comfort, when there was no one else they could turn to? How many times did Alex deliver that brief eulogy when there were no cameras rolling? Surely there were veterans who didn’t agree with Alex on everything, but the best of us care for those at their lowest, unconditionally. That is true love of country.
I’ll admit that it took me until now to become really terrified of this administration. Renee Good was only two weeks ago. I read the winning poem she wrote and got published in a collection from students all over the United States. But I’m ashamed to say there was a resignation to her murder, an acceptance that ICE was going to kill someone eventually and it was just unlucky that it was her. That maybe after this killing, they would change tactics, change something.
But now I see that was just naive. Their mission was always to kill the best of us. I used to take that figuratively, killing the ideals of American, the ideals from a childhood where people of different colors and faiths raised and protected me and loved me more often that not. It is no longer figurative. If they will kill an ICU nurse who raised nothing but his hands, if they will kill a mother of three whose last words were “I’m not mad at you”, they will kill anyone.
It was MLK day last week. “Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” I can’t help but think that Alex and Renee believed that. First, I think they understood that it’s exhausting to hate somebody. And not only is hatred a waste of energy, it’s a poor strategy for meaningful change. MLK, a student of Gandhi, that rioting and armed revolution would do more harm to the movement than good because whites who were on the fence about segregation would be pushed in the opposite direction if the protests were violent. The strategy of the Southern Christian Leadership Headline was to gain sympathy from these indepedents, and that only once general public opinion was at their back could they get enough leverage to force the federal government, headed by JFK, to call for a civil rights legislation and an end to Jim Crow. The boldness of the strategy depended on putting yourself in harm’s way without any means or willingness to defend yourself. The first person to win would be the first to put down their gun.
Alex and Renee weren’t just protesting, they were looking out for their community, helping out a woman who got pushed by agents, waving cars through safely. More than they hate ICE, they loved their people. And probably more than they hated ICE, they pitied them. These men who have been brainwashed into thinking they are saving Minneapolis from roving gangs of drug dealing killer Somalians, blind to their lived reality that the only people wreaking chaos and death are themselves. These men who believe the solution to hate is more hate, like firefighters outfitted with flamethrowers. I believe in MLK and that is why I also believe these men will fail, that their movement will die out, and that public opinion will turn against them. The pendulum has already begun its backswing, at the steep price of Alex and Renee.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.” I have never been a light, content to hide out in my apartment, while reading headlines on my phone. But Alex and Renee were shining lights, and before leaving us they scattered their embers. They do not know it, but they have given a spark to at least one more person.
RIP guys.