Shouts of “This is what democracy looks like!” were head along East Green Bay Street and South Main Street on Jan. 31, as marchers made their way to the Shawano County Courthouse to protest the tactics used by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis and other communities.
Folk singer Skip Jones told the crowd of more than 100 the protest would bring the community together and let officials know Americans are not going to take any more.
Jones, an activist for more than 50 years, told of his time supporting causes from the Wolf River to affordable housing to anti-immigration measures.
Last year, near the United States-Mexican border, he worked with a church group to help immigrants being chased into the desert by ICE and other federal agents.
“In the process of walking the trail I was assigned, I came around a woman laying face down in the desert with two children dead beside her,” he said. “That image is almost impossible to get out of my head.”
Most recently, protesters have been active in Minneapolis, before and after federal agents shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in two separate incidents.
The Rev. Jill Meyer compared today’s society to the TV show “The Good Place” in which demons create a new hell but make it look like suburbia.
“The demons take great pride in keeping the people scared and confused. Does that sound like the place we’re living in now?” she said. “I think that we are living in hell right now, and the demons take great joy in pitting us against each other.
“I will not be fearful. I will not be confused. I will not be swayed by propaganda. What we are required to do is walk humbly but boldly for justice.”
She read Matthew 25:31-46 from the Bible where Jesus is establishing everyone’s final destiny on the basis of whether they gave food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, welcomed the stranger, cared for the sick, and visited those who were in prison.
Doing these things means you are serving Christ. Not doing them works in reverse, against Christ, Meyer said.
“When ICE terrorizes people in their homes, at work, they are doing in to Christ,” she said. “When they shatter windows in cars and drag people from their vehicles, they are doing it to Christ. When they lob tear gas and pepper spray at protesters, they are doing it to Christ.”
Gracie Waukechon, who organized the protest under the banner of the Shawano Menominee Counties Democratic Party, said she understands how frightening it is to be a protester and activist in today’s society.
“This peaceful demonstration is in solidarity for all the immigrants who have been detained without due process,” she said. “It is for the families who are left traumatized. It is for the folks in Minneapolis standing up for their neighbors. It is for the journalists whose right of press is being infringed upon. And this is for everyone who is watching the news with a broken heart.”
kpasson@newmedia-wi.com
