Alex

The majority of my yesterday was occupied writing an article that just wasn’t coming together. I’d been keeping up with the protests in Minneapolis, in response to ICE. I didn’t have much to say about it, except that it’s awful.

I was trying to speak to the people who might be anywhere near the fence, the rusted piece of metal we used to call ‘moderate’. I was trying to show that it was conceptually possible to be against ICE, without being against Trump. There might be those out there who have been feeling uncomfortable with their supposed ‘team’ lately. I wanted to give them the space to make a small step without feeling like they were betraying their entire ideology. I still think this is true. It is conceptually possible to be against ICE and still keep most MAGA values intact. But after the public execution of Alex Pretti, after watching a federal officer pull out his gun and shoot Alex while no less than four of his buddies held him down, after watching our federal government try to frame Alex as someone who had it coming, and after seeing people believe it, the thought of finishing that article puts a bad taste in my mouth.

I’ve seen a lot of words to describe Alex Pretti; ‘man’, ‘nurse’, ‘white’, ‘with a gun’ if you ask Washington. But there’s one word that I, honest to god, haven’t seen, and it’s the only one that applies to all of us: Person. Alex was a person. He had a universe coming out of his shoulders. He had things he was worried about and excited for. He had likes and dislikes. He had hopes. He’d seen some shit. There were things he was REALLY good at, and things that only he knew he was terrible at. He’d made mistakes and failed to learn from them. Just like all of us, if you’re reading this, he woke up every day and faced a world that was ugly, and scary, and indifferent to him, and he tried. And because Trump is pumping cities he doesn’t like with freshly hired, untrained, loyalist thugs with a bully complex, Alex doesn’t get to try again tomorrow.

Meanwhile, more people are being taken off the street, from homes, from courthouses every day. How afraid you should be correlates with your skin tone, and ICE has doubled its workforce in the last year. There are currently more ICE agents than there are cops in each city they go to. There’s also credible evidence that ICE is open to entering people’s homes without a warrant. I don’t know what is going to happen.

I deliberately wrote this without an end goal, but I suppose it’s a plea to everyone in Minnesota. Set the example. Show that the American people can be saved, even if the government can’t. The whole world is watching, and Americans are taking notes.

And to the countless Latinos who may be going through the worst times of their lives as a result of the U.S.’s actions. Stay safe. Hold on. We’re trying.