'None of us can do everything. But all of us can do something'

 

     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 and 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."

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