The Two Standards Resurface

Many years ago, I argued with Jesuit friends over St. Ignatius’ idea of the two standards, banners representing good and evil. “It’s never that clear cut!” I’d protest. “Most of my decisions are among goods: drop off the library books, or get the groceries? Enroll a child in this or that school? Stick with the same dentist, or switch?”

Then I watched, as we probably all did, over and over, the videos of Renee Good’s murder. Suddenly, good and evil became painfully clear. Her round, innocent face appears at the window of her van, looking like she’s 12 years old. (Her glove compartment was full of her six-year old’s stuffies.) She tries to reassure the masked ICE agent trying to open the car door, “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.” She’s calmly de-escalating, reconciling, seeing the humanity behind the uniform

The response? Her effort is met with the F— word, paranoia, excessive force. Could ICE agent Jonathan Ross simply have stepped aside, let her leave? Not, I guess, when the Glorious Leader has convinced these untrained paramilitaries that some U.S. citizens, people of color, anyone slightly different is the Enemy. The New York Times’ slow-motion analysis demonstrated conclusively that the vehicle was turning away from the officer when he opened fire. Even after he’s killed her with three shots to the face, Ross wants the last word: “F*cking bitch!” OK, St. Ignatius, I’ll concede. That’s a strong contrast. 

The administration’s response? Not condolences to Good’s family but crazy accusations of her participation in “a sinister left-wing movement.” Perhaps that refers to brave Minnesotans in freezing temperatures, trying to protect their neighbors from ICE with whistles. Over 20,000 people have volunteered to be observers of enforcement activities which the Supreme Court has already ruled illegal in Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland. The FBI has shut Minnesota out of the official investigation into Good’s death—Hmmm. What have they got to hide?

Trump explained that Minnesota was corrupt and crooked, but “I won Minnesota three times.” He repeated that sentence a maddening three times, but thanks to Heather Cox Richardson’s fact check, we know that Trump lost Minnesota in 2016, 2020, and 2024. (“Letters from an American,” 1/10/26.)Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noemis sending “hundreds more” agents on top of the 2,000 already there. No one has mentioned the price tag for this operation, but the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of July tripled ICE’s budget for enforcement and deportation to about $30 billion.

And the government shut down USAID because we can’t afford the $1/day which would save the life of a child starving in Sudan? (One estimate: that 600,000 people, 2/3 children, have died because of that budget cut.—Atul Gawande,  The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands, New Yorker, 11/5/25) No grey areas here. If we’d had any doubt before, Good’s killing shows vividly where we want to take our stand.

It’s risky to simply judge Mr. Ross, who may regret his impulsive violence. Perhaps it’s more helpful to consider where we act from fear, constrained to be right and win. And when do we act from conviction that we are God’s beloved, we who have experienced grace and trust the promise that we’ll see it again?