Realizing My Selfishness

An ICE alert and a realization

I was sitting at my dinner table, reading the latest atrocity advanced by the Trump administration. Meanwhile Newsmax or Benny Johnson (see article from 7/13/25) has convinced their gullible MAGA base that it was okay to jail people in a swamp in the middle of the Florida Everglades.

As I finished the article, I got a text alert on my phone from a website called stop ice. (Click the underlined words to go to the website) I have seen several alerts and I was able to put them out of my mind. Not that I wasn’t appalled by the things ICE was doing. But it didn’t really hit home until this most recent alert came through.

Now I don't live anywhere near where the majority of these raids are happening. I also have heard very little mention of raids in my neck of the woods. Most of the raids have happened a safe distance away from me. So I think I had a sense of “out of site out of mind”

So the message said that ICE was within about five miles of my home. As a matter of fact, they chased down a man that lived within minutes of where I once lived.

The flood of chemicals that cause anxiety washed over my brain like a tsunami. I felt an indescribable fear that I could only assume is what people felt when the Gestapo were coming after people during Hitler's reign.

Empathizing with people that are being hunted because of an immigration status is kind hard to relate to. I have never been pursued by something so evil.

As I have mentioned in previous articles, I am just a middle aged, mediocre, white guy. But I do have a family and three wonderful children and an amazing wife. To lose my family to these monsters that make up ICE, must be one of the most horrible things I could imagine.

The man in my text alert probably has a family and people that will miss him. His family most likely won't have a clue where he is being taken. He may not go to the Florida Everglades, but instead be sent to a 3rd country thanks to our corrupt Supreme Court.Things like this are happening all across our country.

At this point people are being targeted if you happen to be brown, and they suspect you of being bad because you have tattoos.

This targeting however, shows no sign of stopping and this type of activity will continue to spread as Trump and Stephen Miller move on to the next group that they hate.

When it doesn’t hit you personally, you truly can't fully understand what it is to feel what is happening. To me, I feel kind of selfish because I simply got a whiff of these kidnappers and I practically had a panic attack. Meanwhile I don't really have any idea what these poor brother and sisters are going through.

I find myself with an unavoidable sense of guilt. I feel like I should do more to stop this. I am protesting, writing, calling my congress people and informing coworkers. However all I feel from most of my coworkers and congress people is just this sense of apathy. As if the urgency of this matter can wait until the 2026 midterms and everything will be all better.

Trump has been in office just a bit over six months and look at the damage he has done. We cannot wait another 18 months to put a stop to this. This behavior will only accelerate if something dramatic doesn't happen. What that is, I don't know. The only thing that our country seems to have the stomach for is protesting. Unfortunately, the Trump administration seems able to brush this aside. Even when eleven million people came out to show their displeasure.

We need to up the pressure on a massive scale. I think civil disobedience is the next thing. We are going to have to make some sacrifices with a general strike and do what we can to push business to a standstill. This is not some impossible task. Countries around the world have done this when their needs haven’t been met. And our needs and rights are being taken away everyday. It is time to put an end to this corruption. We the people have the power. We only need to use it.

Love you guys,

Erik

(Liberaldad)