No one should ever leave Applebee’s in anything but a good mood — how can you with half-price apps? But while my stomach was full of good food when I left there Saturday, my heart was not full of joy.
As Tara and I were finishing up our meals with a couple close friends Saturday evening, I noticed a Somali couple waiting at the bar. Normally, I wouldn’t think twice. But, as we know, we’re not living in normal times.
The second I caught a glance of the young couple, I felt empathy for them because they looked different than I do. My thoughts immediately took me down a dark path, one that many of us are walking right now. You might think it ridiculous to believe ICE agents were waiting to pounce once they left the restaurant, but as we have learned, they’re closer than you think.
I think President Trump, who some would say is looking more and more like a Bond villain every day, might be narrowminded and a tad racist, but I don’t think he’s evil at his core. You can argue what he is doing to immigrants smacks of evil, but does that mean his motives are? Misguided and morally wrong, yes, but evil?
Now we’re seeing more and more videos of people right here in Minnesota being shot in the street or ripped out of their vehicles. We sit in front of our computers and watch as everything unfolds. We’ve been doing that for years and end up shaking our heads, wondering what the hell is going on in our country? The difference is, this past few weeks, it’s been happening a few hours away.
That takes scary to another level. This stuff isn’t supposed to happen in Minnesota — in the U.S. (aka the melting pot) — where ICE agents are prowling the streets with impunity. To be fair, it has been reported that a number of illegals who have been seized do, indeed, have long rap sheets, but it’s the seemingly randomness of the fed’s targets that worries me.
We’re supposed to be living independent from this, but as we’ve learned just this year, we’re not immune from anything anymore. And in case you don’t pay attention to the small world around us here in southwest Minnesota, we do have a few neighbors who don’t exactly blend in. We’ve have Hispanics. We have Hmong. We have Somalians who eat at Applebee’s just like we do. Are these people on Trump’s hit list? Think about it.
And isn’t it just the saddest of ironies that the Native community in south Minneapolis is worried enough about what is happening that they’re working to protect each other from fears of being detained?
These people were literally here first! Trump has been compared to Hitler, ICE to the Gestapo. I won’t do that, because it’s insulting to those who suffered during the Holocaust. But what Hitler did to the Jews didn’t just happen overnight. The Holocaust was a culmination of a systematic attempted takeover of Jews by this one-time scum of the earth. What he did, I assume, wasn’t about politics — left and right, blue and red — as much as it was about race and hate. But isn’t that what’s going on across our country right now? Racism. Racial profiling. Potato, potato. I’ll be honest. I’m glad I’m white. I’m glad I speak fluent English and that my go-to game when I was a kid was Hūsker Dū. I’m glad I don’t have to prove to anyone that I’m a red-blooded American.
I don’t hate Trump. I don’t have time to, and carrying hate around is a weight I’d rather not bear. I do think he wants America to be better than ever. But at what cost?
Here’s an even scarier thought: We, as humans, are running the risk of becoming desensitized to this. It’s happened before. The news cycle spins so fast, we hardly have time to feel bad when a school shooting takes place before another one occurs.
Just last Tuesday, I saw a video of ICE agents taking a woman out of her car in Minneapolis, this just days after the headline-grabbing ICE shooting that took place there — a shooting that has seemingly fallen victim to that news cycle.
You can blame Trump all you want, but why is that always our knee-jerk reaction when bad things take place? Instead of feeding into this finger-pointing, wouldn’t it be nice if we just stopped blaming?
We can be angry, but rather than blame, perhaps we should just focus on being better people. You can’t call yourself a good Christian then not act like one — that makes you a hypocrite and part of the problem.
And we don’t need any more problems — not in Minneapolis, not in Willmar. Not in a restaurant 25 minutes from us.
