I Will Ride For Him

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. No doubt many of his patients were suffering from PTSD and related conditions. 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.

How Do I Write About Cycling Or Midlife After Renee Good’s Murder?

 In some of my earlier posts, I invoked my “Howard Cosell Rule.” It gives me the latitude to, if not the right, to write about something not related to bicycles, bicycling or even being in midlife. 

The rule’s namesake, along with Don Meredith and Frank Gifford, was calling a game when New England Patriots kicker took to the field to boot a potential game-winning field goal against the Miami Dolphins. 

Instead of helping to build suspense, he announced “an unspeakable tragedy” that came to him from ABC News: the murder of John Lennon.  “Remember, this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses,” he intoned.

While some praised him, many more criticized him. A similar scenario ensued a dozen years earlier when he used his “Speaking of Sports” radio program to talk about another “unspeakable tragedy” from the previous night:  the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, just two months after Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down.

Now, I have never received similar backlash for discussing, for example, bell hooks, mainly because I am not the public figure Cosell was.  Also, I suspect, most of my readers are at least sympathetic to my interests and proclivities even if we do not share them. On the other hand, many sports fans do not share Cosell’s views about society or culture or simply don’t want to hear about them when they tuned in for a football game.

All of this makes me wonder how readers responded to Matthew Miranda’s article. I suspect more than a few didn’t get past the byline: “I dunno how to write about the Knicks when the government is killing people.”

My guess is that Howard would have approved.  Certainly, I do.  

Jonathan Ross murdered Renee Good. Full stop.  In spite of what Trump administration officials are saying, she did nothing to endanger him or anyone else. Moreover, said officials have given no plausible reason for sending Ross and fellow ICE agents to Minnesota, where Good met her demise.  Oh, wait a minute, the Land of 10000 Lakes has welcomed more—wait for it—Somalis—than any place else.  Dark-skinned people in a land of Vikings. Oh, the horror! (sarcasm)

That folks like Ross can kill innocent people with impunity is hardly unique in history. What makes it, and the killing of alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, especially chilling—and why comparing ICE to the Gestapo is only partly accurate—is that Ross and his colleagues voluntarily signed up for their jobs. Hitler’s agents were recruited, sometimes forcibly, from police and military units, the latter of which were conscripted.

Oh, and agents of the Gestapo (and the SS, its umbrella organization) didn’t wear masks.