Republished with permission from John Pavlovitz
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.
Renee Good.
Alex Pretti.
Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez.
These are merely the murdered whose names we know, the ones they could not conceal or cover over.
They are four, once-in-history, never-to-be-repeated human beings assassinated by empowered sociopaths who feel no accountability to the laws of this land or of any higher laws.
And for each of these, there are thousands upon thousands of human beings whose stories have been invaded, whose bodies have been violated, whose hearts have been stopped.
They are the unseen fathers, favorite aunts, grandmothers, and older brothers brutalized in secret, abducted under the cover of darkness, pulled from their vehicles, viciously assaulted, raped, shackled like animals, and certainly worse.
They are human beings living alongside all of us, who in these very moments are being held without charges, imprisoned without cause, denied due process, representation, healthcare, meals, and human decency—and not to make us safer, not to address illegal immigration, not for anything but to satisfy the bloodlust of racists and bigots.
This should be the final straw for us, America.
Compassionate human beings should not tolerate this.
People who claim to be pro-life should be brought to tears.
Those espousing family values should be fully incensed.
Anyone with children of their own whom they love should be sick to their stomachs.
Men and women of every faith should be unequivocally condemning this.
People of conscience and morality should be unable to sleep.
Good people ought to be fully heartbroken.
This is a sharp line in the sand, and we all have to make our choice in this moment.
There is no neutral middle ground here; no hedging or justifying or entertaining of both sides.
There is no valid human opinion that makes this OK.
You either permit the brutality or you don’t.
You either make peace with the madness or you push back hard against it.
You either assign equal value to people or you don’t.
You either hear the cries of a child pleading for her family and realize we’ve lost the plot, or you declare this is the story you’re comfortable co-writing.
I don’t want to hear about your politics; this is about your heart.
What I.C.E. is doing under the guidance of this Administration is a human rights violation unlike anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes.
It is a direct assault upon the very bedrock of the human experience.
It intentionally traumatizes people by violently severing the absolute most precious tether there is in this life: to safety in one’s own skin.
To willingly and repeatedly violate people under the guise of legitimate government is an act of abuse on the most horrifying of scales; one that illustrates the inhumanity of the perpetrator and the dehumanization of their victims.
There is no difference between this moment and all the others we see in the rearview mirror of history and look back upon in disgust.
Our complacency is the same.
Our apathy is the same.
Our silence is the same.
Our culpability is the same.
This isn’t about the laws of the land (though even those are being ignored), it is about those higher laws: of human dignity, of an elemental regard for life, of a basic level of empathy.
If we cannot come together around such things, we have no business pretending we’re a civilized nation. If we can’t transcend our theology and our politics to defend the most vulnerable among us, we forfeit our morality altogether.
A country that endures this kind of disregard for human life does not deserve people to stand when its anthem is sung.
It merits no allegiance from decent people.
It discards its pretense of welcoming the poor and tired.
It abdicates any moral high ground in the world.
A country that allows this kind of cruelty cannot claim greatness, and worse, it jettisons its goodness.
It cannot imagine that it is a place of liberty or equality or justice.
America, we are in the glaring spotlight of History in these moments. We are crafting our legacy in real time.
If we abide this, if we rationalize it away, if we ignore it, if we turn our heads from it, then we deserve the terrible place we’re creating, the moral cancer our children inherit, and the hell that is waiting for us.
We need to come to our collective senses, to inhale deeply and then clearly speak in one voice, the words that will allow us to heal this shared sickness and be the best of ourselves:
What I.C.E is doing to brown-skinned people is a crime.
It’s a sin.
It’s intentionally cruel.
It is blatantly inhumane.
It’s not pro-life.
It’s not Christian.
It’s not making America great.
It is evil by any measure decent people use.
And the good people here should not tolerate it a single second longer.
SUPPORT THESE ORGANIZATIONS:
Freedom for Immigrants – Advocate for the abolition of immigration detention:
Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) – Legal tools & policy advocacy
Immigrant Justice Network – Coalition pushing for systemic reform:
National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) – Legal services & defense:
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) – Advocacy, rapid response & legal supports:
CASA – National immigrant community power organization:
UndocuBlack Network – Advocates for Black immigrants:
United We Dream – Immigrant youth advocacy network:
Unión del Barrio – Latino-focused immigrant justice activism:
John Pavlovitz
John Pavlovitz is a writer, pastor, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. A 25-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, John is committed to equality, diversity, and justice—both inside and outside faith communities. When not actively working for a more compassionate planet, John enjoys spending time with his family, exercising, cooking, and having time in nature. He is the author of A Bigger Table, Hope and Other Superpowers, Low, and Stuff That Needs to Be Said.
