Nearly two weeks ago, a sports columnist lamented, “I dunno how to write about the Knicks when the government is killing people.” I substituted “cycling or midlife” for “the Knicks.”
Now, barely two weeks after Renee Good’s murder, ICE thugs killed another person who was protesting peacefully: Alex Pretti.
Ms. Good was a mother of three. Mr. Pretti cared for other vulnerable people: He was an ICU nurse in a Veterans’ Administration hospital. Moreover, he was protecting a woman from harm when he was murdered.
Of course, the Fake Tan Fūhrer’s paid liars have found isolated facts—Renee’s sexual orientation and pronouns, Alex’s gun—and used them to portray the victims as existential threats to the nation who “had it coming to them.” (Ironic, isn’t it, that MAGA folk and Trump himself—supposed guardians of the Second Amendment—point to Pretti’s legally-acquired firearm, which he didn’t touch, as evidence that he meant harm?)
The smear campaigns against Good and Pretti disturb and anger me almost as much as their actual deaths. It’s as if the Administration is determined to destroy them completely by assassinating their characters. But even the National Rifle Association and prominent conservatives have denounced Pretti’s murder. Perhaps people won’t become inured to their government—funded by their taxes—committing wanton violence the way too many seemed to go numb to school shootings a few years ago.
Oh, I should mention an aspect of Alex Pretti’s life that Trump and his minions would hate—and makes him a kindred spirit: He was an avid cyclist. Angry Catfish, the shop he regularly patronized, is organizing a memorial ride for him. I understand other memorial rides will be held this Saturday. I intend to ride, snow and ice be damned. If there isn’t an organized ride near me, I intend to memorialize him in some way on a ride of my own—perhaps to a VA hospital.
He was 37 years old: cut down in midlife, like too many heroes.
