Say it Enough

Ramblings of a Retired Mind

Say it Enough 

Yesterday, we witnessed yet another American tragedy of our own making.

A mother.
A daughter.
A friend.

Renee Good lost her life during a confrontation with federal ICE agents. Almost immediately, the federal administration moved to define the event on its own terms—casting the victim as the villain and shaping a narrative that aligned neatly with its worldview. We have seen this before.

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History Has a Way of Repeating Itself

On May 4, 1970, at Kent State University, four student protesters—Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Lee Scheuer, and William Schroeder—were shot and killed when twenty-eight Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on students protesting the war in Southeast Asia.

Sixty-seven rounds were fired in thirteen seconds.

Nine others were wounded but survived—an often-forgotten fact. Though eight guardsmen were charged with violating civil rights, all were acquitted. The Nixon administration quickly blamed the students, and many Americans followed suit, even assigning fault to those who were killed.

Nixon’s press secretary, Ron Ziegler, offered this justification:

“When dissent turns to violence, it invites tragedy.”

Say something often enough, and it becomes truth—or at least a version of it that many are willing to accept.

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The Echo of Yesterday

Yesterday, we watched history echo itself.

Renee Good was swiftly labeled a “domestic terrorist.” Yet this mother, daughter, and friend was no more a terrorist than you or I. Was she fleeing ICE agents? Yes, there is no dispute about that.

But does fleeing justify being shot three times in the head?

Any reasonable person who watches the available videos can see that the ICE agent was not in imminent danger of losing his life. The use of force was excessive, unreasonable, and unacceptable.

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The Power of Narrative

What compounded the tragedy was the immediate response from the highest levels of government. The President, the Vice President, and the Secretary of Homeland Security all publicly declared that the use of force was justified—and that it saved the life of the officer who fired the shots that ended Ms. Good’s life.

Once again, a narrative was constructed and aggressively promoted.
Once again, we have seen this before.

Narrative-making is not unique to government. Businesses, colleges, churches, and professional institutions all craft stories that serve their interests. The responsibility falls on us, as rational and thinking people, to question whether those narratives are grounded in truth.

I have always been a skeptic. The deeper question now is whether we can still trust what we see with our own eyes.

Is a rush to judgment warranted?
How many times must a lie be repeated before it becomes accepted as fact?

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When Empathy Disappears

There is no doubt that yesterday’s horror could have been prevented. Creating a false certainty about what happened only deepens the wound.

What is most disturbing is the complete absence of sympathy or empathy from those who accept the administration’s version without question. Many MAGA supporters insist the ICE agent was fully justified—not because they haven’t seen the videos, but because they believe the narrative they have been given.

Again, we have seen this act before.

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A Lesson We Refuse to Learn

Those who believe this behavior is new, or unique to the current administration, are not students of history. When faced with crisis, every administration—Democratic or Republican—has attempted to frame events in a way that serves its perspective. That, in itself, is nothing new.

What is different—and deeply troubling—is the relentless insistence on a narrative that is directly contradicted by visual evidence.

Some admire what they see as the “strength” or “resolve” of this administration. But we must ask ourselves a harder question:

Have we gone too far?

Have we become so rigidly committed to one side or the other that we can no longer confront reality—whether it aligns with our beliefs or not?

A society that refuses to reconsider, that prides itself on never backing down and never accepting another viewpoint, risks something far greater than political loss.

It risks losing its moral compass altogether.

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Final Thought

That, perhaps, is the greatest danger we face.