I’ve heard a few people say “he should have stayed home.” Here’s the thing: real injustice has never ended because people stayed quiet. It ends because ordinary people refuse to look away.
Imagine if we said the same thing about Martin Luther King Jr? He should have stayed home and not broken the law. Rosa Parks should have just sat at the back of the bus. The Selma March for voting rights should have just turned away at the bridge when they saw the police, billy clubs and tear gas.
In the 1963 Birmingham children’s march, those kids should have stayed home and not get sprayed with fire hoses and chased by dogs and locked up in jail. Martin should have kept quiet about his dream. There should have been no march on Washington. No sit-ins. No bus boycott. No Black Lives Matter. Why are there always those who cause so much trouble? Good trouble…necessary trouble? Shhhhh… go home.
If all would have stayed home there would be no civil rights act, no voting rights act, no Letter from a Birmingham Jail, no witness to the Japanese internment camps, no change to unjust laws, and one could go on and on. In fact, in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan, the one who was righteous didn’t head home but rather took care of the wounded.
What’s happening right now is not just ICE executing warrants on violent criminals. There is well-documented evidence of people being detained without criminal convictions, sometimes without warrants presented, including law-abiding residents, asylum seekers, and people with legal status. In fact, many U.S. citizens have been held for days without beibg allowed to see a lawyer or make a phone call. That’s why civil rights organizations, faith leaders, medical professionals, and even some state officials are speaking out.
“Just stay home and trust the system” has always protected the powerful, not the vulnerable.
Standing up against injustice doesn’t mean supporting violence. It means saying:
• Due process matters
• Human dignity matters
• Government power must have limits
People protest not because they hate law enforcement, but because unchecked authority is dangerous, especially when it targets marginalized communities. Silence has never been neutral — it has always chosen a side. And to protest is the 1st Amendment right of every citizen.
Also, fun fact, Pretti didn’t show up to a protest. He was in his community, saw a woman being attacked by “law enforcement” and came to her aide. He embodied the greatest sacrifice – loving others greater than oneself. He embodied what Jesus spoke of.
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Awakenings 