The Rutgers University Republican student club has invited Gregory Bovino, the face of ICE in Minneapolis where two U.S. citizens were murdered by his agents to speak. and some students want to boycott this event. He should be allowed to speak, to defend his brutal policies which he will, of course, try to soften. Oh yes, as the face of repression and violence, he should be allowed to speak.
He will try, of course, to argue that his policies were a reflection of getting the “worst of the worst” while ICE agents released a Rohingya refugee into the freezing streets of Buffalo, miles from his home and allowed him to freeze to death.
The problem with only convicting Lt. Calley of the My Lai massacre is that the higher ups, the officers in charge of the policy, like Bovino, were not convicted of murder. And the ICE agents who shot Alex Pretti have yet to face charges themselves. Yes, Bovino should speak so we can see what he and the policies he represented truly are.
Prayer for the Day
Sheltered in our self-deceptions, we search for you, O God,
As we struggle against your call to embrace the world outside;
Cloistered by our doubts and uncertainty, we build fences,
Keeping the world out of our minds and feelings.
Free us, O Lord, from our fears that engulf us,
And bring us into closer community with others.
In the name of the One who shows us how to live,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen
Thoughts for the Day
The deaths are tragic, but at the same time though, they were interrupting with whawt the border enforcement were doing. If you do that, don’t expect that there isn’t going to be any consequences.
Andrew Joseph, student leader of Republican cub at Rutgers
The people ICE grabbed up, the people they shot, are not threats to you and me. They are not violent criminals that Trump promised to go after. They are not, as Trump said, “the worst of the worst.” No. These are our neighbors, they are our friends, they are our colleagues, they are people who treat us when we are sick.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass)
I say to God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?”
As with a deadly wound in my body, my adversaries taunt me,
While they sy to me continually, “Where is your God?”
Psalm 43: 9-10