The shocking killing of 37 year old Renee Nicole Good by a contemptuous ICE agent, is a sad but true testament of our times. The nation is riven by conflict on a host of issues, principally the manner of how immigration is actually practiced in the real world, rather than driven by online rhetorics. Good, a mother of three children had just driven her six year old son to school when she returned to volunteer for her neighbors in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who were demonized for their Somalian and/or Latino backgrounds, her actions driven by caring and community, have too been demonized as leftist, as radical, or as, in the stinging words of the head of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, “a domestic terrorist.”
Family related to Mrs. Good have described her as a Christian, and perhaps her faith moved her to care for her immigrant neighbors. The federal government now openly in the grips of rightist ideology sees U.S. citizens as enemies who may be executed if they don’t obey their orders. Their position is actually crystal clear, obey or die, period. Sound familiar? It should, for this was the message radiating from the Third Reich. This is the message of kings to their subjects. This is the message of power to the powerless. But people, thinking people, feeling people, have more power than they realize, for they have the power to say no. That power mattered to Renee Nicole Good. It should still matter to you. With love, not fear, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are recorded by Noel Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
