Our Own Nazi Moment

I was watching my favorite movie – Casablanca - when the news came in about the murder of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. The mother of three was killed yesterday by an ICE agent during an immigration raid because she dared to challenge the Trump administration. Kristi Noem is obviously trying to use her as an example and a warning to the rest of us to mind our place and keep our heads down.

Casablanca is a classic, and for those who haven’t seen this 1943 Humphrey Bogart film, it’s about a cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggling to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.

It’s an apt reflection of what’s going on in the world today, where each of us must decide

whether to watch out for ourselves or for the greater good. Some are becoming ex-pats, others are just trying to live their lives, and others still are becoming activists.

There’s a line in the movie where the fugitive husband, threatened with being murdered, says “And what if you track down these men and kill them, what if you killed all of us? From every corner of Europe, hundreds, thousands would rise up to take our places. Even Nazis can't kill that fast.”

Judging by the growth of political activists over the past few years, this line applies equally to ICE.

Afraid of the state of the world? You’re not alone. Many really smart and talented people that I know throughout the country are feeling scared these days. We’re apologizing to our children for the future we’re leaving them, and we just want to be allowed to live our own lives unhindered.

When I began writing this blog, I quoted an old friend who used to observe, “Whenever you say ‘Somebody ought to fix this,’ you, invariably, are the somebody.” Truer words were never spoken!

The Big Orange Menace is obviously intent on intimidating us into staying in bed with the covers pulled over our heads. He doesn’t want us to protest or vote or challenge him in any way. And the moment we give in to that inclination to say “Please just leave us alone,” he’s won.

But when I see professionals of every stripe telling me they’re “afraid to go to a protest where they come outside, stare at us, take our pictures and video us,” I get angry. Because this is not the America I grew up with. True, the country was never perfect, but it aspired to be so much more.

And like a friend who is pushing herself to go to protests despite the possibility of more scenes like Minneapolis, I’m reminded that the more they try to prevent our speaking out, the louder we have to scream.

I started my day today by watching the video from Minneapolis, then sending a note to Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the UC Berkeley Law School. My question to him was simple: Why can’t Minneapolis police arrest the agent who murdered Renee Good? Despite his face mask, there’s enough to work with that facial ID software can identify the agent who shot this innocent woman, prevented a physician from checking her pulse, and waited several seconds before instructing others to call 911.

Professor Chemerinsky’s response: “A state can prosecute federal officers or hold them civilly liable for the use of excessive force. Thus, the state can prosecute the ICE officer who killed the woman in Minnesota for excessive force and violation of the state’s laws.“

And while Governor Tim Walz works his way through the FBI preventing the involvement of local police officials, it’s time for the rest of us to compartmentalize! Take a deep breath, shake off the fear and the urge to turn inward, and get out onto the front lines with the rest of us.

Because there’s a LOT of work to do, and each of us must overcome our reservations and show our grit. We owe it to our children.

And while I’m on the subject, consider this exchange between Casablanca’s cynic and the fugitive:

“Don't you sometimes wonder if it's worth all this? I mean what you're fighting for.”

“You might as well question why we breathe. If we stop breathing, we'll die. If we stop fighting our enemies, the world will die.”

Mr. Trump and his minions have made it abundantly clear who the enemies are. And if we stop fighting them, the world WILL die.

Let’s not allow Renee Good to have died in vain. There’s work to be done, and we need to make our voices heard.

See you at the ballot box!

Rob