In support of the national United Methodist Church Immigrant Justice Day Wednesday, five of us from Bonners Ferry UMC stood in the icy winds on the Kootenai River Bridge waving our signs to all who passed by in the morning. Over a thousand clergy and lay members of UMC around the country earlier had marched on the U.S. Capitol.
Here on the bridge, I noted a lot more friendly waves, horn tooting and thumbs up from cars than middle-finger and thumbs down gestures. Three individuals even parked and walked up to find out what all of our signs meant. Two of the three angrily disagreed, but it’s a start toward dialogue.
Craig Kelson, my close buddy and member of our sister church, Trinity Lutheran, stopped by to see who we were and whose side we were on. “When I saw Clarice I knew you were good guys,” he said, blessing us all with those words.
Craig’s presence at that moment was perfect timing because we all had just been disturbed by a 65-year-old man who had verbally assaulted me. All of us were reeling from that encounter, which ended up directly involving three of us.
The man had come to my end of the bridge sidewalk and said he wanted to read my sign. After reading it, he yelled, “F— you.” Terry VanderWoude and I immediately yelled back, “God loves you” as he was retreating up the side street.
He turned back and came right up to me, yelling, “You have no right to bless me. God has blessed me all my life.”
I corrected him: “I said God loves you. I didn’t say ‘I bless you.'”
Then he yelled that he’s been in Bonners Ferry his entire life, and we don’t know what we’re saying about immigrants.
So I asked him if he has ancestors who were Native American and over him screaming that was irrelevant because he was born here, I said my ancestor moved to America in 1633 so “I’m an immigrant.”
About then Rob came to my side and told the man we’re exercising our 1st Amendment right to speak. When the man again denied our right to speak in this town, he moved aggressively toward me, and Rob told him not to touch me.
The man then looked at Rob’s sign:
They have ICE
In their veins
He yelled, “Trump’s the best president we’ve ever had!” and “ICE are the best people there are!”
I put my sign between the two of them and said to Rob, this man said, “F— you,” and you know how I feel about that word. But I feel sorry for you,” I said, turning to the man. “I want to know what has made you so angry and filled with hate.”
Then, after more of his comments that we haven’t been here long enough to speak about, he finally left.
All five of us had been freezing in the 41 degree weather with 13 mph winds hitting us full force. So after Craig’s visit, I asked him to photograph us, then we packed up and all went to our homes to prepare for the night’s joint Lenten worship service and meal of soup and bread.