Readers sometimes ask me what they can do.
They don’t need to explain exactly what it is they want to do something about. You either know already or never will.
I take the question seriously. The news is both bad and good. On the bad side, there is not much any individual can do in a nation hurtling in a terrifying direction. We are all on the bus. None of us is driving. The cliff looms.
On the positive side, there is always something, and taking action seems necessary, to some of us. If only to tell ourselves, “I did something. I didn’t just sit by and watch it happen.” Pointing and shouting “The cliff!” might not stop the bus. But it could help.
Those protesting the presence of ICE proved that regular people turning up on ordinary days to witness and record extraordinary abuses have an effect. The bus did seem to veer, maybe even slow. For now, anyway.
I tell people: do what you can. You have skills; use those skills. I write stuff, much of which boils down to “The cliff!” It’s my job. Others are prompted by some detail of the general national catastrophe.
For retired Chicago TV newsman Phil Ponce, it was seeing that the two Border Patrol agents suspected of killing Alex Pretti in Minneapolis are, like himself, Hispanic.
“I expected to see someone directly addressing the Latino ICE agents,” said Ponce, 76, former host of “Chicago Tonight.” He decided to be that someone.
“I started thinking how Latino agents are interacting with their own community,” he said. “What that might be like.”
He saw an opportunity.
“I put in my mind, the figure of somebody who believes in what he or she is doing as an ICE agent, and thought, ‘How could I meet them halfway, so I could have a conversation?’”
Ponce spent days writing a script.
“I agonized over it, trying to walk the line between being overly preachy and too sympathetic,” he said. “I thought, ‘How would I talk to my children if one of them were an ICE agent?’ If I were talking to my own kid, I wouldn’t yell at them. That’ll not get you anywhere. That’s not what a loving parent does. You have go respect someone, attempt to establish common ground.”
This led to “A Father’s Message to Ice,” a 2 minute, 41 second video shot last week. I saw it on Facebook, and encourage you to take a look.
He begins talking about himself:
“My name is Phil Ponce, My parents were born in Mexico — I was born in South Texas, McAllen.”
Ponce tells the ICE agents he’s addressing that he understands they’re just trying to make a living and support their families.
“I get it, and I respect you for it,” he says. “But at what cost?”
He points out that they’re not arresting the worst of the worst, as claimed.
“Most of the people you are targeting are not criminals,” says Ponce. “When you confront an immigrant, I’ve got to think you sometimes see the faces of your parents, your siblings, your grandparents. That’s your conscience.”
He turns the screws a bit — look at your fellow agents. What kind of people are they?
“How do you think they’d treat your family members if they encountered them on the street?”
Ponce ends with the softest veiled threat.
“Official records and unofficial recordings can last a lifetime,” he muses. “You don’t know what that could lead to down the road,”
Translation: you could be sitting in prison someday for a split-second decision made outside a Home Depot.
But the thrust of the appeal is to shared culture and humanity, and the need for each person to live with themselves.
“I want you to be able to look your family and your people in the eye and be able to say you did your best.”
He ends with a line in Spanish:
“Piénsalo con calma y cuídate.”
Translation: Think about this calmly and take care of yourself.
Ponce hasn’t heard from any ICE agents, yet. But then, the video hasn’t been disseminated as widely as I hope it will be. Maybe sharing it could be your way of doing something.
If you watch the video, you may notice how professional it is — so polished, it almost looks like AI. Ponce called his friend Bill Kurtis, who sent a cameraman, lighting technician and a teleprompter from his production company.
“We all reacted to the shooting,” said Kurtis, the retired Chicago news anchor. “You have to ask yourself: ‘What kind of a country do you want? And what are you going to do about it?’”
“My motto is, none of us can do everything,” said Ponce. “But all of us can do something.”
