By now, the brainwashed partisans are criticizing and carping—blaming someone for the policies that led to his death, or shirking the responsibility for his death by saying it was a matter for the military in that state. In other words, no responsibility for anything, just carping and criticizing, and point scoring. And the incessant and desperate determination of partisans to make themselves right, and everyone else wrong.
Lost in all the vitriolic swamp is the simple fact that Bishop Evans, when he jumped into the river to save two struggling illegal immigrants from drowning, represented the true America. I don’t know the man. I know nothing of his religion, his personal beliefs, or his opinions about absent borders and lawlessness. I do not even know his race..
Bishop Evans lost his life in that river. The two he was trying to save survived. As it turns out, both are suspected drug smugglers, and are now in Federal custody I believe. So, this young man lost his life trying to rescue two already-criminals who were crossing illegally, and who turned out to potentially be drug smugglers and likely part of the crisis that cost 100,000 Americans their lives last year.
Here is what I do know about Bishop Evans, however. In the moment he chose to dive in, I doubt he was reprimanding them in his mind for being illegals. I doubt he was considering whether or not they were Al Qaeda, or drug traffickers, or human traffickers. I doubt he was concerned about their race, their nationality, or their political opinions. I doubt if he even thought of his own mortality.
In that moment, they were two people who needed help. That is all. They needed help. And he chose to take full responsibility. He died in the process. But, in that single act, he showed us once again our own humanity. He showed us what America truly is, and what it has produced.
Shut out all the “noise” and simply know that he was a human being helping other human beings. That is what America—however flawed you may think it is—has always been, is still, and, if we are willing, will always be.
Bishop Evans represented humanity that day. And, in so doing, represented America.